A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Cover art by Doug Wheatley. © 2014 Del Rey Books, an imprint of Random House, and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) A NEW DAWN For a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights brought peace and order to the Galactic Republic, aided by their connection to the mystical energy field known as the Force. But they were betrayed--and the whole galaxy has paid the price. It is the Age of the Empire. Now Emperor Palpatine, once chancellor of the Republic and secretly a Sith follower of the dark side of the Force, has brought his own peace and order to the galaxy. Peace, through brutal repression--and order, through increasing control of his subjects' lives. But even as the Emperor tightens his iron grip, others have begun to question his means and motives. And still others, whose lives were destroyed by Palpatine's machinations, lay scattered about the galaxy like unexploded bombs, waiting to go off.... - "Title Crawl" from John Jackson Miller's Star Wars; A

Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Photo Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd. via Daily Mail On Quora, "Anonymous" Asks:  Did George Lucas ever feel guilty for messing up Jake Lloyd’s life or is Jake himself to blame for sc r ewing up himself? Or is the general media the main reason that Jake’s childhood was ruined? My Reply This question, by far, wins the prize for Disingenuous Query of the Month. George Lucas is a producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur who used to own one of the most famous production companies in the industry, Lucasfilm Limited. I know people who have met him in person, and by all accounts, he’s a smart, talented, generous, and warm-hearted man. He has several kids that he raised, for the most part, on his own. So the last thing in the world that George Lucas would do is “mess up” any actor’s life, much less a juvenile actor such as Jake Lloyd. The only “sin” Lucas committed was to write and direct the three films of the Prequel Trilogy that fail

On February 15, 2000, Warner Bros. Records and Rhino Entertainment released Superman: The Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, a 35-track, 2-CD album that presents the complete score composed and conducted by John Williams for Richard Donner's 1978 epic comic book film. Produced by Nick Redman and Michael Matessino, the album presents the music as it was heard in the movie, and (as in other Redman-Matessino expansions of classic Williams scores for Raiders of the Lost Ark and the original Star Wars Trilogy) gives film score fans a treasure trove of  previously unreleased material (such as the movie version of the Main Title March,  which was not included in Warner Records' 1978 2-LP album) "source" cues (music that is heard "in-movie" by characters), alternate versions of the Main Title March, The Planet Krypton,  and Can You Read My Mind (which is Maestro Williams' Love Theme From Superman combined with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse). As soun

Cover art by Marvel Comics artist Bob Larkin. © 1980 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In May of 1980, a few weeks before 20th Century Fox released Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in theaters, Marvel's official comics adaptation hit the shelves at bookstores, newsstands and comic book shops in the U.S. and Canada. There were various iterations of writer Archie Goodwin and artists Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon's take on the story written by George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, and Lawrence Kasdan, including five monthly issues ( Star Wars #39-44, labeled as Star Wars but featuring a  cover "blurb" featuring the logo for The Empire Strikes Back ), a large-format "Treasury" edition, and The Marvel Comics Illustrated Edition of The Empire Strikes Back, which was the size of a mass-market paperback (4 1/8" X 7" size) and featured cover art by Bob Larkin. Of all these, The Marvel Comics Illustrated Edition of The Empire Strikes Back was the first to reach cons

Inning 7: The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns The Americans are on the move. Moving to the suburbs. Moving across the country. They are, it seems, restless, Of course, if you're a baseball fan in New York, you don't want to move. You're in baseball heaven.  Year after year, the Yankees are on top of the American League. Year after year, the Giants and the Dodgers fight for the National League crown. Starting in 1949, there is a New York team in the World Series for 10 straight years. And in six of those years, both teams are from New York.  On September 26, 1994, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) broadcast The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960), the seventh episode (or "inning") of Ken Burns'  nine-part documentary that chronicled America's national pastime from its beginnings in the 1840s to the early 1990s. Co-written by Burns with historian (and

Reaper (the drone formerly known as Predator). Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons Someone on Quora asks:  Would drone strikes on their cyber war facilities be an appropriate response to the Russian attacks on our election? No. Sending armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over Russian territory and firing, say, Hellfire missiles at the Internet Research Agency’s headquarters in St. Petersburg (the former Leningrad) would be, don’t you know, an act of war. Seriously, dude. What  are  you thinking? Okay, let’s say that a future President (not Donald Trump or Mike Pence) decides that the proper response to Russia’s interference in our elections is what amounts to a conventional air strike, albeit using drones. First, let’s look at the graphics of this. Imagine, if you will, Russia’s state-controlled media beaming pictures of the burning IRA building wherever it may be in St. Petersburg. Chances are that the drone strike would be a “no warning” strike (because then Russia’s

Is Trump a "modern-day Lincoln"? Some of his fans think so. But trust me, he's not. Photo Credit: NBC Nope. Not in the slightest. The only things in common that Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln are: Party affiliation: Republicans Ethnicity: Caucasian of European origin Last Job Held: President of the United States Gender: Male Other than that, besides the fact that neither Lincoln nor Trump were shoo-ins during their first run to the White House, they are  dissimilar in  most areas. An 1863 portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States. Photo Credit: Moses Parker Rice. Mead Art Museum collection  "I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."  Abraham Lincoln "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot