I say with pride that I am a nerd. I'm also an older nerd who fell in love with the original Star Wars and spent most of my life hoping to see more from the grimy counter universe to Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry's creation may have been more intellectually sound but Star Wars was more emotional. It was bleaker and filled with as much moral ambiguity as it was filled with space junk.
Star Wars was perhaps the first science fiction movie (or, at least, the first I saw ) to introduce a note of grunge which later became commonplace. Star Wars dropped its heroes into a trash compactor in which the technology of an advanced civilization was being reduced to garbage. Where Star Trek want us to feel slavish to our technological future, Star Wars reminded us of the hubris of technology. Hard to believe given the revolution in marketing it spawned but Star Wars even seemed to have an anti-consumerist message. What other film could make us want to indulge in religious asceticism quite like that involved in becoming a Jedi? What other film before or since made young boys lust after a old hunk of junk quite like we lusted after the Millenium Falcon? What other film taught that mastery of skill was more powerful than the material wealth of an empire?
When George Lucas revived the franchise with his prequel trilogy, fans were excited and then confused as he produced three films which rejected the grime for a CGI process that gave everything a slightly unreal sheen. I always remember feeling a great sense of disappointment when I saw the Naboo royal cruiser land half an hour into Episode One. Slick like the Blackbird spy plane and entirely reflective, it just didn't fit into the Star Wars universe I knew and loved. Worst of all, Lucas produced in Jar Jar Binks a character straight from a corporate toy department. In looks, voice, and manner, Jar Jar was annoying but what irritated most of all was the sense that the films were merely a vehicle for marketing.
When Disney bought the franchise (itself a horrible word), they promised a return to the original aesthetic. So far, they seem to have made wise decisions. The films are being made on real sets, with practical special effects replacing the green screens. Whilst hiring J.J. Abrams for the first sequel appears a safe choice, hiring Garath Edwards shows ambition for the future. The opening shot of the first trailer is also promising. It was a ruined Star Destroyer and this certainly feels like the Star Wars world, where ruin and spectacle sit side by side. It remains to be seen if the shining chromium seen elsewhere in the trailer is a minor part of the aesthetic but, in my eyes, if felt too Battlestar Galactica to be truly Tattooine.
It might sound fanboyish to pick out something so meaningless as the shininess of a character's armour but there's something else going on with the relaunch of Star Wars that makes me wary. We are still a couple of months from the premier of The Force Awakens and already the market is saturated with gleaming merchandise. Lucas (and Spielberg) were never above profiting through merchandising but this is something different. This is merchandising done by the kings of the industry. This is merchandising on the Disney scale.
Slowly it begins to dawn that the beloved films of childhood have become something else. They are claws buried so deep in our collective consciousness that we have no way of resisting their pull. They have now be harnessed to the most powerful marketing machine on the planet and we're about to be dragged over some rough terrain. I wonder how we'll all feel about Star Wars after five or ten years and maybe as many sequels because, apparently, there will be a new Star Wars movie appearing in cinemas every summer (or winter). Disney have seen the success of Marvel and found an even more potent mythology to leverage. I know I'm in a minority but I feel jaded before this has all begun. Marvel's universe never particularly excited me but it has certainly diminished with repeat visits. With a few exceptions, such as the Branagh helmed Thor (2011), I've looked on the Marvel films with increasingly indifference. Stan Lee's work reminds me of the excited imagination of an over-stimulated schoolboy, with the world of Valhalla existing side by side with the genetic freakery of Hulk and the mad science of Spiderman. I remain baffled by the excitement of fanboys who claim that the Toxic Nosewrangler never wore spats or that Ostritchman would never have formed an alliance with Shazzam Fiddlesticks. I'm left wanting to scream: NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE!
Insofar as I've never much of a Marvel fan (Netflix's excellent Daredevil being another recent exception), the plundering of that mythos hasn't really troubled me. Star Wars is a different matter. I fear that the sheer joy those films gave me as a child will be used to manipulate me as an adult; turning the latent anti-consumerist message of the originals into a total assault on the wallet. The BB-8 droid toy is already this year's most wanted (and pointless) toy. I doubt if it will be the last.
Showing posts with label star wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star wars. Show all posts
Monday, 21 September 2015
Monday, 20 July 2015
Thinking of a happy place: Tested.com
Tested.com gets even better with each passing week.
I found the site perhaps a year or so ago and I doubt if there's a day I don't visit morning, afternoon, and evening. Psychologically it's such a good place to be that I'm probably living my life on San Francisco time.
To understand my mild obsession, you have to know that I live in a small northern working class town with no culture to speak of. I have to travel miles into either Liverpool or Manchester to find a bookshop. We have none locally and, thanks to government cuts, our local library has already been half-demolished. Not all is bad news, however. As a town we have eight tattoo parlours. I suspect I'm the only guy in town that doesn't have a single tattoo. Not sure if you can understand how that makes me feel except to say that I feel utterly like a freak: hugely overqualified, can't find decent work, and with interests that few people share. And that's why I love Tested. It's a window onto a better world where being a tattoo-free over-educated nerd is the thing to be.
I've never been so proud of being a nerd as I've been since I discovered Tested. It's filled with articulate people talking about things that fascinate them. Amazingly for an American website, it's not shrill. It's not that horrible twisted version of nerddom you find on Battlebots, where the jocks have taken over and the nerds pushed to one side. Tested is pure unadulterated nerd: intelligent, occasionally awkward, but so totally human. I've never bought a scale replica of anything in my life and I don't intend to start now. However, for reasons I can't fully explain, I now find myself fascinated with replicas. Maybe it's the design, the artwork, or simply the craftsmanship. Never before in my life have I wanted to know how to make a foam mould of something yet I've watched more Frank Ippolito videos about learning to mould than is healthy for a man who never intends to make a mould. I even find myself growing interested in technology that has never before really been my thing, such as 3d printing, drones, miniature cameras, and virtual reality.
None of it makes any sense to me yet, somehow, the site makes complete sense.
The site actually makes me want to use a lathe and I have absolutely no reason to use a lathe...
I suppose it makes sense in the way their most casual conversations affect my life. The site is largely hosted by Norman Chan and Will Smith, who carry the weight of the output. Adam Savage, of Mythbuster's fame, is the Big Daddy of the operation and it's his energy which infects everything they do. However, it's Will and Norm that keep me watching because they carry their knowledge lightly, with enough humour to keep it grounded and well away from that Comic Book Guy cliche that makes that entire world so off-putting.
If you'd told me years ago that my favourite website would be about making a replica topiary, I'd have said that you were deluded. Yet that's exactly how I felt watching Savage build a replica of the Overlook Hotel maze a few months ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGu2TPt_78
What's key is that the whole thing is largely unscripted and people talk about the things that interest them without dumbing everything down. The BBC New usually begin every story about Pluto by reminding people that Pluto is far from the sun so it's cold. Tested take that stuff for granted and it's a huge relief that they do. When the talk, I find myself feeling dumb because I don't know half of the stuff they know. It triggers my brain into activity and to hunt out answers. I happily stick one of their podcasts on in the background as I work and I'm in raptures because it constantly helps me generate new ideas. I've not read science fiction in too many years but, thanks to Tested, I've rediscovered my love for hard science fiction. It's so good to listen to people who are as excited by NASA's Pluto flyby as I was.
The week before last was Comic Con in San Diego, an event that largely passes me by because I'm not a huge fan of superheroes hype. I don't read any of the comics (I tend to prefer underground comics), though I've a passing awareness of Frank Miller's Dark Knight. I'm not the full-on fan but enough that I've seen the odd animated film in addition to the live action Batman movies. Avengers leaves me cold like near all of Stan Lee's oeuvre, with the exception being Spiderman. In fact, I'm pretty picky in my tastes. I love the best stuff and I'm very dismissive of the worst. Loved the new Dredd movie, hated Captain America.
Yet Tested just knows how to work its way around my defences. Watching a grown man excited by the cooling system he's created for his cosplay replica suit from Kubrick's 2001 is about as good as the internet gets. The fact that he then introduces a second suit for astronaut Chris Hadfield and they begin to talk about how Kubrick got the sound effects for 2001...
Well, this weekend, realising I wanted to write this blog post explaining my love for the site, I thought I'd do that by putting it into a cartoon. So, here is my latest, in honour of what, for me, is undoubtedly the best site on the web.
If you haven't already and you suspect you have an inner nerd, go check out Tested.com.
I found the site perhaps a year or so ago and I doubt if there's a day I don't visit morning, afternoon, and evening. Psychologically it's such a good place to be that I'm probably living my life on San Francisco time.
To understand my mild obsession, you have to know that I live in a small northern working class town with no culture to speak of. I have to travel miles into either Liverpool or Manchester to find a bookshop. We have none locally and, thanks to government cuts, our local library has already been half-demolished. Not all is bad news, however. As a town we have eight tattoo parlours. I suspect I'm the only guy in town that doesn't have a single tattoo. Not sure if you can understand how that makes me feel except to say that I feel utterly like a freak: hugely overqualified, can't find decent work, and with interests that few people share. And that's why I love Tested. It's a window onto a better world where being a tattoo-free over-educated nerd is the thing to be.
I've never been so proud of being a nerd as I've been since I discovered Tested. It's filled with articulate people talking about things that fascinate them. Amazingly for an American website, it's not shrill. It's not that horrible twisted version of nerddom you find on Battlebots, where the jocks have taken over and the nerds pushed to one side. Tested is pure unadulterated nerd: intelligent, occasionally awkward, but so totally human. I've never bought a scale replica of anything in my life and I don't intend to start now. However, for reasons I can't fully explain, I now find myself fascinated with replicas. Maybe it's the design, the artwork, or simply the craftsmanship. Never before in my life have I wanted to know how to make a foam mould of something yet I've watched more Frank Ippolito videos about learning to mould than is healthy for a man who never intends to make a mould. I even find myself growing interested in technology that has never before really been my thing, such as 3d printing, drones, miniature cameras, and virtual reality.
None of it makes any sense to me yet, somehow, the site makes complete sense.
The site actually makes me want to use a lathe and I have absolutely no reason to use a lathe...
I suppose it makes sense in the way their most casual conversations affect my life. The site is largely hosted by Norman Chan and Will Smith, who carry the weight of the output. Adam Savage, of Mythbuster's fame, is the Big Daddy of the operation and it's his energy which infects everything they do. However, it's Will and Norm that keep me watching because they carry their knowledge lightly, with enough humour to keep it grounded and well away from that Comic Book Guy cliche that makes that entire world so off-putting.
If you'd told me years ago that my favourite website would be about making a replica topiary, I'd have said that you were deluded. Yet that's exactly how I felt watching Savage build a replica of the Overlook Hotel maze a few months ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGu2TPt_78
What's key is that the whole thing is largely unscripted and people talk about the things that interest them without dumbing everything down. The BBC New usually begin every story about Pluto by reminding people that Pluto is far from the sun so it's cold. Tested take that stuff for granted and it's a huge relief that they do. When the talk, I find myself feeling dumb because I don't know half of the stuff they know. It triggers my brain into activity and to hunt out answers. I happily stick one of their podcasts on in the background as I work and I'm in raptures because it constantly helps me generate new ideas. I've not read science fiction in too many years but, thanks to Tested, I've rediscovered my love for hard science fiction. It's so good to listen to people who are as excited by NASA's Pluto flyby as I was.
The week before last was Comic Con in San Diego, an event that largely passes me by because I'm not a huge fan of superheroes hype. I don't read any of the comics (I tend to prefer underground comics), though I've a passing awareness of Frank Miller's Dark Knight. I'm not the full-on fan but enough that I've seen the odd animated film in addition to the live action Batman movies. Avengers leaves me cold like near all of Stan Lee's oeuvre, with the exception being Spiderman. In fact, I'm pretty picky in my tastes. I love the best stuff and I'm very dismissive of the worst. Loved the new Dredd movie, hated Captain America.
Yet Tested just knows how to work its way around my defences. Watching a grown man excited by the cooling system he's created for his cosplay replica suit from Kubrick's 2001 is about as good as the internet gets. The fact that he then introduces a second suit for astronaut Chris Hadfield and they begin to talk about how Kubrick got the sound effects for 2001...
Well, this weekend, realising I wanted to write this blog post explaining my love for the site, I thought I'd do that by putting it into a cartoon. So, here is my latest, in honour of what, for me, is undoubtedly the best site on the web.
If you haven't already and you suspect you have an inner nerd, go check out Tested.com.
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Saturday, 18 April 2015
Friday, 17 April 2015
The Harrison Ford Shaped Hole
There's nothing I can say about the new Star Wars trailer that hasn't already been said by people much nerdier than me and with a much better collection of action figures (and all, no doubt, still in their original packaging). For the record, I don't actually own any Star Wars action figures and I don't think I even owned any of the official merchandise, with perhaps the exception of some old dusty paperbacks and a super deluxe collector's edition box set of the original VHS tapes probably now not worth shelf dust.
Anyway, I sat down today to watch the new Star Wars trailer and my first conscious thought was about the opening shot of the Star Destroyer, lying ruined in a rocky desert on some unknown planet. I should imagine on the big screen it will have the same 'wow' factor that the opening shot from the original movie apparently had on audiences in 1977. That shot established mythology, history, scale, wonder and was just possibly the most evocative way of introducing the series beyond the familiar strains of John William's score.
My second thought was about that strangely mangled Darth Vader helmet. I think it's because it seems to have strange teeth that I found it slightly creepy but also mildly amusing. For no explicable reason, I thought 'melted Chuckle Brother' and I now can't get that image from out of my mind.
What followed, though, really told me nothing about the movie. More X wings flying through water, men whooping, a noticeably young, pretty but (I thought ) bland set of casting choices, vaguely defined bad guys with red light sabres, and the whole thing having a slightly modern vibe, with chromium troopers reminding me of the original series of Battlestar Galatica. And none of that really excited me.
Then I heard the voice I recognised and I felt a shiver.
Sure, he's looking older but he's in no bad shape. I know this is Harrison Ford pre the plane crash Harrison Ford but I'm not sure if it's the post-broken ankle Harrison Ford. I know my Fords but I struggle to identify vintages to that level of specificity.
This leads me to my revealing and slightly sad confession of the week: I've been checking for progress reports on Harrison Ford every morning since he went propeller-first into a golf course. I've probably not missed a day checking Google for news. On quite a few days, it might even be the first thing I do when walking up, sometimes even before checking my email. I know. I know. It's pathetic. I can't explain myself. I didn't even realise that I was this much of a Harrison Ford fan.
Yet there's always been something about Ford which defies logic. There are certainly better actors out there, many with more personable personalities. And though Ford is the star of some great movies, he has also, admittedly, made some stinkers too ('Hollywood Homicide', 2003). He's an actor who seems to have a particularly difficult sense of his best qualities and sometimes seems to go out of his way to infuriate his fans. For a time, he thought of himself as romantic lead, making many of his fans (myself included) pull out our hair in frustration. I mean, what the hell was he thinking when he made 'Sabrina' (I'm not even going to bother looking up its year)? Then there was 'the earring', which, I confess, I've never totally excused or accepted. There was no rhyme nor reason behind it, so I resorted to telling myself firmly postmodern arguments such as 'well, he's ironically commentating on his place in male culture... He's so far over on the manliness spectrum, he's started to come back around the other way...' Or something like that...
Ford has often been his own worst enemy, which is itself an endearing quality. It's only recently that he's been anything other than dismissive about 'Blade Runner', a film celebrated for its production design but a film I only go back to because of the stars: Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, and Daryl Hannah and, well, just about every speaking role in the film, filled with exceptional talents. People talk about the look of the film but I maintain it's the cast, all of them great, but the whole thing is held together by Ford.
Ford is best when he's not the straightforward hero. Sure, I love Indiana Jones and I'll watch the new Star Wars films with eager anticipation. But they're franchises and I rarely get excited by marketing. They're certainly not the films I reach for when I'm having a bad day or week and want to cheer myself up. My favourite Harrison Ford movies were not even blockbusters when they were released and they aren't even all that highly rated now except by myself. My favourites are movies like 'Frantic' (1988) and 'Patriot Games' (1992), films that are generally forgotten but, for me at least, are better because they lack the lights and show.
They have Harrison Ford and Ford fits the shape of my world. He's complicated and truculent, largely hostile to the spin machine that operates everywhere these days. He plays the lead without the swagger you get in most movie leads these days. I'm sure he knows which is his 'best side' but I hope he'd never dare suggest as much to a director of photography. Ford is a man of the short quip, the demoralising put down, the cutting admission that he's been lucky in a bat shit crazy world. As he was recently quoted to have told actor Oscar Isaac about 'flying' in the new movie: 'It’s fake. And it’s in space, so none of that applies, really.'
The defining quality, I guess, is that ability to express our very modern frustrations. He shines when trying to explain his troubles to inept policemen or bureaucratic officials. My favourite Ford moments are those when he's struggling to explain the world. I love the way he manhandles John Mahoney around the office in 'Frantic', sticking his fingers into his ribs imitating a gun. It's an almost bullying physical presence but a presence made bullying by the inability of the world to follow his logic.
So when Harrison Ford crashes an old World War 2 plane on a golf course, the world asks why he's flying such junk around in a residential area. My answer to that is: I don't care and I hope he doesn't care either. The scar on the golf course is like the scar on his chin and (no doubt) the scars now on his head. People do dumb things that are fun and there's no point in trying to apply health and safety to the human spirit. It's a just a fact of the real world that people like doing the sometimes crazy things that define us as people. Screw Justin Beiber and screw his tattoos that mean nothing beyond his vain ego. It's the real scars that mean everything.
So, when I check first thing every morning, it frustrates me to not really know how Harrison Ford is doing. Yet I accept the reasons why nobody really tells us about his progress. I find it frustrating but, at the same time, I find it reassuring that he's not become the victim to the witless TMZ generation. He's not been pursued into his local grocers when he's buying beer or lactose free yogurt. Knowing about the earring was too much for me. I don't want to see him in yoga bottoms. I want to think that Ford is the few ordinary guys in an extraordinary business. He has something that no special effect or clever piece of production design can replicate. What he brings to a film isn't polish. It's something that's harder to define but is more essential. The second Star Wars trilogy films were fun, enjoyable (I'm one of their few defenders) but they were always lacking something. It was the Ford quality. For want of a better phrase, it's knuckle spit. It's that great big 'screw you' attitude that an otherwise bland uniform world would hammer out of all of us.
Currently it feels like there's a Harrison Ford shape hole in the world. I just hope he's doing well and will soon be fit enough to fill it again.
Anyway, I sat down today to watch the new Star Wars trailer and my first conscious thought was about the opening shot of the Star Destroyer, lying ruined in a rocky desert on some unknown planet. I should imagine on the big screen it will have the same 'wow' factor that the opening shot from the original movie apparently had on audiences in 1977. That shot established mythology, history, scale, wonder and was just possibly the most evocative way of introducing the series beyond the familiar strains of John William's score.
My second thought was about that strangely mangled Darth Vader helmet. I think it's because it seems to have strange teeth that I found it slightly creepy but also mildly amusing. For no explicable reason, I thought 'melted Chuckle Brother' and I now can't get that image from out of my mind.
What followed, though, really told me nothing about the movie. More X wings flying through water, men whooping, a noticeably young, pretty but (I thought ) bland set of casting choices, vaguely defined bad guys with red light sabres, and the whole thing having a slightly modern vibe, with chromium troopers reminding me of the original series of Battlestar Galatica. And none of that really excited me.
Then I heard the voice I recognised and I felt a shiver.
Sure, he's looking older but he's in no bad shape. I know this is Harrison Ford pre the plane crash Harrison Ford but I'm not sure if it's the post-broken ankle Harrison Ford. I know my Fords but I struggle to identify vintages to that level of specificity.
This leads me to my revealing and slightly sad confession of the week: I've been checking for progress reports on Harrison Ford every morning since he went propeller-first into a golf course. I've probably not missed a day checking Google for news. On quite a few days, it might even be the first thing I do when walking up, sometimes even before checking my email. I know. I know. It's pathetic. I can't explain myself. I didn't even realise that I was this much of a Harrison Ford fan.
Yet there's always been something about Ford which defies logic. There are certainly better actors out there, many with more personable personalities. And though Ford is the star of some great movies, he has also, admittedly, made some stinkers too ('Hollywood Homicide', 2003). He's an actor who seems to have a particularly difficult sense of his best qualities and sometimes seems to go out of his way to infuriate his fans. For a time, he thought of himself as romantic lead, making many of his fans (myself included) pull out our hair in frustration. I mean, what the hell was he thinking when he made 'Sabrina' (I'm not even going to bother looking up its year)? Then there was 'the earring', which, I confess, I've never totally excused or accepted. There was no rhyme nor reason behind it, so I resorted to telling myself firmly postmodern arguments such as 'well, he's ironically commentating on his place in male culture... He's so far over on the manliness spectrum, he's started to come back around the other way...' Or something like that...
Ford has often been his own worst enemy, which is itself an endearing quality. It's only recently that he's been anything other than dismissive about 'Blade Runner', a film celebrated for its production design but a film I only go back to because of the stars: Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, and Daryl Hannah and, well, just about every speaking role in the film, filled with exceptional talents. People talk about the look of the film but I maintain it's the cast, all of them great, but the whole thing is held together by Ford.
Ford is best when he's not the straightforward hero. Sure, I love Indiana Jones and I'll watch the new Star Wars films with eager anticipation. But they're franchises and I rarely get excited by marketing. They're certainly not the films I reach for when I'm having a bad day or week and want to cheer myself up. My favourite Harrison Ford movies were not even blockbusters when they were released and they aren't even all that highly rated now except by myself. My favourites are movies like 'Frantic' (1988) and 'Patriot Games' (1992), films that are generally forgotten but, for me at least, are better because they lack the lights and show.
They have Harrison Ford and Ford fits the shape of my world. He's complicated and truculent, largely hostile to the spin machine that operates everywhere these days. He plays the lead without the swagger you get in most movie leads these days. I'm sure he knows which is his 'best side' but I hope he'd never dare suggest as much to a director of photography. Ford is a man of the short quip, the demoralising put down, the cutting admission that he's been lucky in a bat shit crazy world. As he was recently quoted to have told actor Oscar Isaac about 'flying' in the new movie: 'It’s fake. And it’s in space, so none of that applies, really.'
The defining quality, I guess, is that ability to express our very modern frustrations. He shines when trying to explain his troubles to inept policemen or bureaucratic officials. My favourite Ford moments are those when he's struggling to explain the world. I love the way he manhandles John Mahoney around the office in 'Frantic', sticking his fingers into his ribs imitating a gun. It's an almost bullying physical presence but a presence made bullying by the inability of the world to follow his logic.
So when Harrison Ford crashes an old World War 2 plane on a golf course, the world asks why he's flying such junk around in a residential area. My answer to that is: I don't care and I hope he doesn't care either. The scar on the golf course is like the scar on his chin and (no doubt) the scars now on his head. People do dumb things that are fun and there's no point in trying to apply health and safety to the human spirit. It's a just a fact of the real world that people like doing the sometimes crazy things that define us as people. Screw Justin Beiber and screw his tattoos that mean nothing beyond his vain ego. It's the real scars that mean everything.
So, when I check first thing every morning, it frustrates me to not really know how Harrison Ford is doing. Yet I accept the reasons why nobody really tells us about his progress. I find it frustrating but, at the same time, I find it reassuring that he's not become the victim to the witless TMZ generation. He's not been pursued into his local grocers when he's buying beer or lactose free yogurt. Knowing about the earring was too much for me. I don't want to see him in yoga bottoms. I want to think that Ford is the few ordinary guys in an extraordinary business. He has something that no special effect or clever piece of production design can replicate. What he brings to a film isn't polish. It's something that's harder to define but is more essential. The second Star Wars trilogy films were fun, enjoyable (I'm one of their few defenders) but they were always lacking something. It was the Ford quality. For want of a better phrase, it's knuckle spit. It's that great big 'screw you' attitude that an otherwise bland uniform world would hammer out of all of us.
Currently it feels like there's a Harrison Ford shape hole in the world. I just hope he's doing well and will soon be fit enough to fill it again.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
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