Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Day #5: Multiple fields of Gravity on the Millennium Falcon


I've written about the fantastic gravity on the Millennium Falcon before. I've also made diagrams, because I am exactly that cool. 



It is a wonderous thing, and every time I watch a new hope my brain twists itself in to knots trying to see it differently, but multiple viewings have left me to conclude that there are multiple fields of gravity in the Millennium Falcon.



 It's not a mistake, cause who says a spaceship can only have one field of gravity? But it makes me grin every time (and I really want to play hide and seek there.)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Day #4: Blue Milk

Alright, so they're in space. This is the first time we've seen anyone in Star Wars at home doing normal things like eating dinner. But they needed a sweet space drink to remind us that this isn't our boring planet, so what did they come up with? Blue Milk.

What's that? Milk? Bor- WAIT! It's blue! This is awesome!
It's simple. It's brilliant. It's easy to make with boring milk and a few drops of food colouring. I highly recommend it as a beverage of choice during your next Star Wars marathon.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Day #3: Phantom Menace Pop Cans

Twenty (24 if you were in the U.S.A) Star Wars character cans were released over the span of the summer of 1999. And what a fantastic summer it was.

For the curious: the ones not available in Canada were the 4 rightmost cans in the middle row. 
I was 10 and suddenly every mundane trip to the grocery store, gas station or food court had been transformed into a magical Star Wars themed treasure hunt. I diligently checked every pop can everywhere I went that entire summer to collect all 20. My parents were perfectly willing to shell out the dollar for a soda whenever I found one I didn't have yet and I was happy to go anywhere that might have a Star Wars pop can. It was a complete win-win. My summer ended triumphantly when I got the last one and twenty unopened pop cans were placed on my shelf with pride.

All was well and good until I woke up in the middle of the night several years after hearing a strange noise. After some investigation I discovered that the Shmi can had sprung a leak and was now gleefully spraying a tiny stream of diet pepsi across my bedroom. I leapt into action, grabbing the can and running to the bathroom where I put it in the tub and watched the pepsi escape. As I watched the pepsi shoot an impressive distance out of the tiny pinhole that had appeared I realized that I had no choice but to empty the rest of the cans. This pained my 14-year-old self, but I saw no other option. I gathered the remained of the cans and began to empty them down the drain.

My dad is the lightest sleeper in the world and evidently the sound of pop cans being opened was more than enough to wake him. He peered through the open bathroom door to see me in my pyjamas frantically opening can after can into the tub. He shook his head slightly and asked what I was doing, his curiosity and confusing far outweighing his annoyance at being woken up. I explained the tragic tale and he went back to bed, leaving me to rinse and dry my collection and return it carefully to the shelf as the sun began to rise.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Day #2: The Metal Bikini

There's absolutely nothing not awesome about a bikini made of metal. I mean, just look at it. It's a METAL BIKINI.

Picture Above: A Metal Bikini
This is not a logical material to build a bikini out of. As such, when I was a kid the idea was so fantastically ridiculous that just thinking about it cracked me up. This has not changed. The metal bikini was so influential to my childhood self that "metal bikini" was the shorthand for "Return of the Jedi". Many conversations about which movie to watch went like this:

"Want to watch Star Wars?"
"Which one?"
"Metal Bikini."

I've come to discover that this reaction to the metal bikini was not universal. University friends just look at me when I mention the endless joy it caused and they responded with a shrug, saying that they never really thought about the metal bikini being silly. To them it was just what one wore when chained to a giant slug I suppose.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Day #1: The Pause between the title cards

A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away....

I love pretty much everything about Star Wars, but there is nothing I love more than the moment of silence and darkness between this:


and when the Star Wars logo goes flying into the screen to that first blast of John William's score.


That moment, that pause of sheer anticipation will always be one of my absolute favourite things in the world. In a crowd of Star Wars fans at a midnight show or Star Wars In Concert or [insert any excuse to watch Star Wars in large groups here] the reaction is always the same:

The crowd will clap, cheer and generally be totally excited as the 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm logos play, and will continue this moderate level of noise until the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." card fades.

Then there is silence. The entire audience leans forward, waiting for the familiar, joyful beginning to the movies we all love. My heart races. The movie has started, but it hasn't really begun until-

STAR WARS.

And the theatre erupts in noise, a single chorus of joy of hundreds of people thrilled to be watching Star Wars as part of an audience. Then the crawl begins and the audience returns to respectful silence, everyone reading the three paragraphs that tell us all we need to know to be introduced to that galaxy far, far away...