stuff n' things (can you tell I should be dissertating edition?)
First of all, faris_nallaneen linked me to Ben Franklin's synonyms for drunk. What's your favorite? I'm torn between "It is Star-light with him," and "Seen a Flock of Moons," (how celestial!) and "Been at an Indian Feast" (um, not the ones I've been to...), and... "Sir Richard has taken off his Considering Cap." SO BEEN THERE. Or there is a certain succinct beauty to: "Wamble Crop'd". Also, for the Heyer-fans among you, it's amazing to see how much of her slang appears here: making indentures, casting up accounts, burnt his shoulder, etc...
Second: Yay for the unconstitutionality of Prop 8!
Third: You know, Star Wars will always be D's and my first fandom, and with all the hoopla over the 3D release of TPM, we've been sad pandas, thinking of how much we loathe what's happened to it, and how much it sucks. And how sorrowful we are that there's a Star Wars release that we have NO INTENTION OF SEEING IN THE THEATER or really ever. Over the weekend though, we watched something that made it all better: Star Wars fan-edits of ultimate awesomeness. We'd never seen, for instance, The Phantom Edit, the one that started it all. We gave it a go, but cutting 19 minutes from the movie isn't nearly radical enough! And it's just cuts -- the edit doesn't tell a cohesive self-contained story very well. But there were others to stand on the Phantom Editor's shoulders -- and some of them are FANTASTIC. Especially one Episode I: Return of the Sith which was amazing -- took out ALL the dross from The Phantom Menace and left -- well, if not gold, then a reasonable facsimile of costume jewelry. Truly some amazing character-work through editing that gave Padmé and Anakin agency and, you know, actual characters. It was great. Highly recommended, and I can't wait to see this guy's version of Attack of the Clones.
And then there's the Star Wars Revisited series, where the maker is making Special Editions the way they should have been -- literally perfect. So far he's made A New Hope, and Empire should be coming out soon. These are totally my new canon. It is utterly stunning what can be done with editing -- when it's done by someone who's so perfectionist about the smallest, seemingly insignificant detail. Music, pace, editing -- absolutely brilliant. So much work for a labor of love but the result shows it. Stunning.
Okay, back to work with me.
Second: Yay for the unconstitutionality of Prop 8!
Third: You know, Star Wars will always be D's and my first fandom, and with all the hoopla over the 3D release of TPM, we've been sad pandas, thinking of how much we loathe what's happened to it, and how much it sucks. And how sorrowful we are that there's a Star Wars release that we have NO INTENTION OF SEEING IN THE THEATER or really ever. Over the weekend though, we watched something that made it all better: Star Wars fan-edits of ultimate awesomeness. We'd never seen, for instance, The Phantom Edit, the one that started it all. We gave it a go, but cutting 19 minutes from the movie isn't nearly radical enough! And it's just cuts -- the edit doesn't tell a cohesive self-contained story very well. But there were others to stand on the Phantom Editor's shoulders -- and some of them are FANTASTIC. Especially one Episode I: Return of the Sith which was amazing -- took out ALL the dross from The Phantom Menace and left -- well, if not gold, then a reasonable facsimile of costume jewelry. Truly some amazing character-work through editing that gave Padmé and Anakin agency and, you know, actual characters. It was great. Highly recommended, and I can't wait to see this guy's version of Attack of the Clones.
And then there's the Star Wars Revisited series, where the maker is making Special Editions the way they should have been -- literally perfect. So far he's made A New Hope, and Empire should be coming out soon. These are totally my new canon. It is utterly stunning what can be done with editing -- when it's done by someone who's so perfectionist about the smallest, seemingly insignificant detail. Music, pace, editing -- absolutely brilliant. So much work for a labor of love but the result shows it. Stunning.
Okay, back to work with me.