BOBA FETT ONCE RODE A DRAGON; or THE STRANGE COMBO OF AWESOME AND SUCK

When I was a kid, there was Star Wars. I saw it 21 times at the movie theatres. It changed my life. 

And then there was the Star Wars Christmas special, a bizarre concoction of crap and schmaltz, with characters thrown into the mixer. 

For the most part, it really sucked. 

A lot.

For starters, the first chunk- and by chunk I mean 15 minutes that seemed like an eternity- had nobody speaking anything but Wookie language, and doing nothing but hanging out at their Wookie house doing such exciting things as cooking, walking around, and trying to seem cute but coming off as annoying and kind of brain dead. 

I was used to this sort of thing on TV. Back then, there was all sorts of stupid shit on television. And even if something was good, given time, TV had a way of making it terrible. 

The one cool thing on that baffling special was this short cartoon of Boba Fett, a character we hadn't seen before, as this was before The Empire Strikes Back. Boba was mysterious, cool, not really good or bad or ugly. Just tough as hell.

And he rode a space dragon thing. 

It was awesome, and the only think we spoke of at Rogers Junior High the next day. Junior High is what we had before there were Middle Schools. It was 7th and 8th grade only, and sort of a Lord of the Flies kind of experience we all had to go through before the slightly lesser pain known as High School. 

Boba Fett has always been a mix of awesome and suck, from the first time I saw him. Now, after that special, there came Empire, which was amazing and awesome and is considered by many to be the best Star Wars movie ever made. 

And then came Return of the Jedi.

Good, but not great. It had some amazing stuff, to be sure. But it also had C3P0 kind of break dancing with Ewoks. 

Ewoks are the Cabbage Patch Kids of the Star Wars universe. Evil and wrong.

And Boba had this stupid, ignominious death right at the top that was disappointing, anti-climatic, and as full of suck as anything I've ever seen on screen.

It seems like the current TV show is trying to carry on that tradition of combining awesome with suck. Some of it is fantastic, exciting, new and brilliant. And some of it is hackneyed, dull, and unimpressive.

And they still kill off the wrong characters in really boring, anti-climatic fashion. Yes, there are some fabulous episodes (5 & 6 being my personal faves); but there are also some that just don't do anything for me but wish and hope it's all a bad dream. 

Maybe this is good. 

Maybe that mix of joy and disappointment, of rapture and frustration, has helped prepare me for the ups and downs of this world. 

Maybe.

But it would be nice to have it all be Empire.

Here's a song. It's the Jefferson Starship performing Light Up the Sky, as seen in the Star Wars Christmas Special. I'm sorry.

I NOW LIKE MONDAYS AND SO SHOULD YOU

Monday comes, and is different than it used to be. Long ago and far away, Monday was the Day of Dragging My Ass; the Day of Droop; Ragnorok Here on Earth. But I think that had more to do with my bad habits and wild ways than with the day of the week. Indeed, pretty much every morning was like that. 

 

How sad was that?

We all agree life is too damn short. There is never enough time spent with loved ones, ourselves, nature, or anything really. And yet, most of us manage to gripe about Mondays, Rainy days, Hump Day, Tax Day, Turkey Day- you name it. 

In my opinion, life is too short for complaining about it being Monday. You're tired? Don't want to go back to work? Boo hoo. Grow up. Enjoy the day anyway. Here's a photo of polar bears in an abandoned weather station. Lighten up. 

So yay Monday. Hello, I love you, and let's get this week going.

I probably feel this good because I felt so crappy last week. Had a cold of some sort present itself, then got my second Shingles shot later in the week, which kicked my ass three ways to Wednesday. It was like how people getting off of heroin is presented on most tv shows and movies. Hot sweats, aches, and a bit of delirium. 

And this was a week I opened a pair of one acts, was supposed to start rehearsals for The Wedding Singer up in Conifer, as well as more performances of The Wizard of Oz down at the PACE.

Yowsa.

But enough of me and my woes. 

I want to talk a little about Dopesick, currently streaming on Hulu. It's fantastic, engrossing, tragic, uplifting, and mind blowing. It's based on the book of the same name, and is all about the Oxycontin epidemic and greed and need and human beings and all the crazy things we do. It is well written, never dull, and has some of the best actors out there doing some amazing work. Watch it. Now.

My wife wondered, after we finished the series, if maybe one of the reasons there are folks out there who are vaccine hesitant is a result of the lies that Purdue Pharma shoved down people's throats via the doctors who prescribed their poison. 

Maybe we should separate money and medicine. To paraphrase Jesus, money and the constant want of it by powerful assholes fucks up the world over and over.

Okay. That's my sermon for the day. Now I am off to work on Indie script for possible shoot in Texas this fall. More on that soon. 

Also, my production of Wizard of Oz got some good reviews. You can read them HERE and HERE.

And you can find info about the pair of one acts, which we call Dates with Death, HERE.

Oh, and about the Book of Boba Fett. Last week's episode was all about the Mandolorian, and was exquisite. A must see.

Here is today's song. It's I Don't Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats.