Suck ass, 'Star Wars' does.

With all apologies to those of the Star Wars persuasion, but Episode III ranked among the worst movies I've seen. I'll grant you that I have really yet to see the original three (IV through VI), but that does not discredit my account of Episode III being just bad in ways that were really rather avoidable. The dialogue and editing were atrocious, along with the overwrought pausing of the cameras and actors, trying to convey both an emotion and a grandeur that just do not exist. All of which upsets me because it should have been good: the plot and the symbolism are of course the stars of the show, but they should not have to laboriously carry a movie. Aside from the twisted psychological transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Vader and the taut meanings of 'empire' and 'republic', what else did this movie give us? Some will say that that's all it was supposed to provide, that it was meant as a set-up for Episode IV. I used to agree with this line of thought regarding 'placeholder' movies, back when I was an apologist for Matrix Reloaded, but no more. I now subscribe to the 'West Wing' type of plot development: keep your grand arcing storyline, but treat each episode as its own mini-play to deal with tangential stories. The problem with Episodes I through III is that there were no tangents worth exploring.

And that's enough about those things. What else has gone on this week? A lot of yearbooking stuff, specifically meetings with publishing companies. On behalf of the advisors I have taken the lead role in the discussions for next year's book, which we have to bid out to publishers in order to get the best base price and committment of quality before we sign the contract and start getting into details. This week I met here at KU with representatives from three companies (with one of those meetings being just myself and the rep, sans advisors), and also went to KC on Wednesday to tour the facility of one of the publishers. It was a very nice experience: they arranged a personal plant tour and a group of people (the rep, the new head of the customer service dept, the plant manager, and the Midwest sales manager) all took me out to lunch, which was both shrewd and appreciated. Afterwards I went downtown to visit Hammerpress Studios, and let me just say that I could easily spend a lot of money in there. They do letterpress printing, which is so rare anymore, on just about anything you could want: CD cases, thank you notes, invitations, business cards, bookmarks, postcards. The visual strength comes out, though, in the concert and event posters that cover an entire wall of the facility; the posters are also on sale, and I came sooo very close to buying a Decemberists poster from when they played the Granada in April (a concert I couldn't go to because it was right before my second Soc. Theory exam). Anyway, I told the proprietor that I wished he did books, and his response leads me to think that there might be an option here to potentially publish our own yearbook. I'm probably dreaming, but hey it is the summer; I have until August to think up outlandish ideas in my head.

Other than that, I've just been buying more music from iTunes music store: Amy Ray's album Prom (which is a rocking lesbian tour de force...what?), Antony and the Johnson's 'Fistfuls of Love' (which I found through NYU's radio station), and an EP from José González titled Crosses (which is hauntingly beautiful). I'm also making my way through a book about typography, which really shouldn't matter all that much to you all but it's rather enlightening for me about the proper forms of fonts and publishing. But I think this font geekdom is nicely balanced by PongBall, a Church of Beer production, created Monday night by the four founding members of the Church. Consisting of a ping pong ball, three plastic cups, and three floors worth of stairs and landings, it is sure to storm the nation just as soon as we finalize the team version of PongBall. Hell, we made 'cockblocking' into an official position in the game, so that alone should be worth something.


I desperately need to get back to more specific and timely posts.