A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Photo Credit: Pixabay Hi, there, Constant Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, my "random thoughts" corner of A Certain Point of View. It's Monday, October 28, 2019, and my morning is about to make the transition into noon here in my little bit of the Sunshine State. Currently, the weather here is still summery. Outside, it's hot; the temperature is 85℉ (29℃), but a limp easterly breeze and humidity levels at 80% makes it feel like it's 96℉ (35℃). With Halloween only three days away, these high temperatures certainly do not feel seasonal at all, not even for Florida. So, last night Donald Trump and his entourage, including his trophy wife Melania, attended Game 5 of the World Series at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. Ordinarily, this would not be newsworthy since most modern Presidents often attend pro sports games if they take place in Washington or adjacent cities. What makes it worth mentioning here, folks, is that Trump rece...

Cover art by Nicolas Delort. (C) 2018 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Zounds! Fans of the William Shakespeare's Star Wars series, rejoice. The eighth book in the series of Shakespearian plays set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" will hit bookstores in our galaxy this summer.  Long-time Shakespeare buff (and life-long Star Wars fan) Ian Doescher has taken writer-director Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi and re-imagined it as a four-act play written in the Elizabethan era by none other than the Bard of Avon himself.  Quirk Books of Philadelphia will release the resulting book, Jedi the Last: Star Wars, Part the Eighth on July 10, 2018 in hardcover, e-book, and audio editions. The Star Wars saga continues, with adventure and surprises galore! In the aftermath of Han Solo's death and the return of Luke Skywalker, what secrets will be revealed, what mysteries will deepen, and who will join the struggle to bring peace and ...

Pros:  Great cast; good (if not perfect) directing; gripping story Cons:  Score is sometimes intrusive; pacing can be slow at times And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by from this day until the ending of the world but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,  for he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks, that fought with us upon St. Crispin's day! Like millions of people in the United States (and, I suspect, the English-speaking world), my exposure to the works of William Shakespeare came about when I was taking the mandatory-for-graduation Language Arts course during my senior year. Not counting  West Side Story  (a thinly-veiled modern version of  Romeo and Juliet ) and several  Star Trek  epi...

(C) 2014 Random House Audio, Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL), and The Walt Disney Company. Illustrations by Nicolas Delort The year 2017 marks the 40th (Ruby) Anniversary of the theatrical debut of writer-director George Lucas's space-fantasy film Star Wars, aka Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. In honor of the occasion, many of the storied franchise's licensees have released enough 40th Anniversary merchandise to fill a Star Destroyer's cargo hold.  As a result, Marvel Comics, Del Rey Books, and even smaller publishers like Quirk Books have published new Star Wars books, including Star Wars: Thrawn, Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View, and the long-awaited William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh, the latter two being published in October.  The Force Awakens gets the Ian Doescher treatment in   William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh (C) 2017 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Random Hou...

(C) 2015 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.(Lucas Books) THREEPIO, THREEPIO, WHEREFORE ART THOU, THREEPIO? Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of Star Wars: Episode I as only Shakespeare could have written it. The entire saga starts here, with a thrilling tale featuring a disguised queen, a young hero, and two fearless knights facing a hidden, vengeful enemy. ’Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies, and doomed romance . . . all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with twenty gorgeous Elizabethan illustrations. Hold on to your midi-chlorians: 
 The play’s the thing, wherein you’ll catch the rise of Anakin! - From the dust jacket blurb, William Shakespeare’s The Phantom of Menace Star Wars. Since its premiere on May 25, 1977, the title of George Lucas’s space-fantasy set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” evokes futuristic images of speedy starships, flashing laser swords, and snappy dialogue written in modern Ame...

(C) 2013 Quirk Books/Lucasfilm Ltd. We three, we happy three, we band of brothers, Shall fly unto the trench with throttles full! - William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Since 1976, writer-producer-director George Lucas’s Star Wars (aka Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope ) has been adapted in various forms. Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of Lucas’s screenplay was published six months before the film opened on May 25, 1977. Marvel Comics’ adaptation also preceded the movie’s premiere by a month. And in 1981, National Public Radio aired a 13-part radio drama scripted by the late science fiction novelist Brian Daley that expanded Lucas’s 124-minute space fantasy into a richer, more detailed six-and-a-half hour audio epic. Of course, Star Wars has inspired a plethora of parodies spanning a wide spectrum of of venues. Lucas’s tale of “a boy, a girl, and a galaxy” has been spoofed countless times on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, lampooned in humor magazines Crack’d and Mad, and by Me...