Marginalia & random synapse misfirings
Simon Pegg suggests an easy out for George Lucas' trilogy-of-trilogies idea:
"I think if he makes one more Ewoks film, then he's done nine."
Star Wars fans everywhere feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if thousands of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced...
I'm going to break from my usual snarky posts
I use the library on a weekly basis, if not more, and yet most of my complaints are niggling ones. I greatly appreciate the TPL's vast catalogue and the ease with which I can access it online. Any topic in which I take an interest can be represented with TPL holdings. Toronto is truly lucky to have a resource like this! I'm always surprised whenever (and it's not often) the library doesn't have a title in stock. That's the mark of a great service.
Toronto's fantastic library service is something that is easily taken for granted. I once did, myself, before a friend made me realise what a gem it is: Visiting from London (largest city in the UK, remember), he was bowled over by the number and range of the TPL's holdings, and he spent a good portion of his two week visit using my account to place holds on dozens of movies, books and CDs. Despite them coming from all points of the GTA compass, the holds were all delivered to my local library branch, which is a 10 minute walk from my apartment and at the time was literally no bigger than a school "portable" classroom - but I use less as "a library" than as "a depot." As has always been the case, I had a number of overdue fines on my card, and when we picked up the first batch of arrivals, I grudgingly (that's the Scot in me) handed over a fin. My friend's eyes popped (I mistakenly thought at the size of the fine, though my University librarians would likely have ROTFL at this paltry $5), but my epiphany was his wowed comment, "is that all those cost?!" Not only does London's library network charges for every item withdrawn, but they charge enough to make $5 look like a deal!
I invite all Torontonians who aren't yet aware of the library's wondrousness to partake as soon as possible. After all, your tax dollars are paying for it, and you'll soon s it's worth every overdue-fine penny!
Wildly inconsistent reviews for this film, but I love the Times' take on it:
"For a first effort, this movie confirms Mr. Jobson as an apt interpreter of Highland maladies, like the misty gloom that dampens the streets and the Scots themselves. His somber images and chords, if not his scripted words, reveal he knows many things worth knowing about spirits, both the kind you drink and the kind you mourn."
Colophon, n.
1. An inscription placed usually at the end of a book, giving facts about its publication.
2. A publisher's emblem or trademark placed usually on the title page of a book.
[Late Latin colophn, from Greek kolophn, summit, finishing touch.]"
An exhaustive list of faults in an exhaustingly exasperating movie. And I agree with ALL of them - there's a reason my friends mock my love for the "Star Wars Duology"...
But aside from what we see onscreen, the Ewoks are miserable little creatures for a completely different reason: they are the single clearest example of Lucas' willingness to compromise the integrity of his Trilogy in favor of merchandising dollars. How intensely were the Ewoks marketed? Consider this: 'Ewok' is a household word, despite the fact that it's never once spoken in the film.
Quite a short piece, but here's a reviewer who gets it. She even nails my thoughts on ESB, and manages to make a point that my hundreds of repeat viewings didn't catch:
Star Wars: A New Hope is actually pretty goofy — the hero, for one thing, doesn't show up for something like a half-hour — but Lucas' genius is that he creates a perfect narrative snowball. The film gathers characters like lint — two fugitive robots run into a dead-end farmboy and are found by an aging general who leads them to a mercenary who takes them to a princess who gets them sucked into an entire resistance movement. And the stakes escalate relentlessly: Luke sets out one morning to find a runaway robot; seemingly by day's end, he's blowing up a space station that destroys entire planets.
Another horsey entry - Seabiscuit inspired me to do some reading!
Wikipedia again:
Secretariat was afflicted with laminitis, a painful and incurable hoof condition. His condition failed to improve, and he was euthanized on October 4. He is buried at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. In death, he received the ultimate honor for a horse—he was buried whole. By tradition, the only parts of a Thoroughbred buried are their head (to symbolize intelligence), heart (to symbolize strength), and legs (to symbolize power).
Courtesy of Wikipedia's "Man O' War" entry:
In those early days of racing there were no starting gates. Jockeys circled around as they still do today, but then gathered their horses in a line and were sent away by the signal of the starter's flag. In Man O' War's only loss, he was still circling with his back to the starting line when the flag was dropped. After the jockey got Man O' War turned around, he was already far behind the pack but despite this, he still came close to winning, losing by a half-length as he charged across the finish line in second place. The horse who won that race was Upset, whose name popularized a new phrase in sports ('upset' meaning an upstart beating the favorite).
