(5/6) — Thank you for the birthday wishes, everybody!
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(Photos courtesy of Lucasfilm)
A long time ago, in a theater far, far away, an impressionable ten-year-old stared up at a movie screen filled with images of flying space machines and swords of light.
She was introduced to places she’d never seen before and not likely to see in real life, but she knew even at that age how awesome special effects of movie-making could lift her from the mundane world she inhabited to a faraway galaxy where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo would protect her from the evil Darth Vader and his minions.
When Star Wars came out in 1977, I saw it so many times, I’ve lost count. I don’t remember which friends were with me, but I know my two sisters were there. My “baby” brother was still in diapers, I think. It doesn’t matter. All I remember is the movie and how much I wished I lived in that exciting universe. I had crushes on Mark Hamill (who is still married to the wife of his youth) and Harrison Ford, and when The Empire Strikes Back came out, my crush on Billy Dee Williams was renewed.
While I don’t think anyone should cite Wikipedia as a primary source (especially newspapers), I have to give them credit where it’s due. They have extensive entries on the whole franchise. Be careful, though. You can lose hours reading this stuff. From there you can link to all six movies, but the first movie, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are the only ones of interest to this “old head.”
I was in high school when “Jedi” came out in 1983. I thought I was too “grown” for that stuff, but I went to see it anyway. I had to find out how my boy Luke was doing and whether Han and Princess Leia ever got together.
I didn’t realize George Lucas had three additional “Star Wars” movies planned. When The Phantom Menace came out in 1999, I knew I wasn’t going to see it. The movies were part of my childhood, and new “episodes” with new actors weren’t appealing (especially actors younger than I am).
By that time I was immersed in a new universe, one in which Starfleet was running things (Did you know Wil “Wesley Crusher” Wheaton was a blogger?). “Star Wars” had long since played out.
Episode III is scheduled for release later this month, and I’m sure it will make Lucas a lot of money. Check out the full coverage.
This will be my only post today. I’m leaving for BlogNashville tomorrow, and I’m making final preparations.
And today is my birthday. 
Addendum: The “Star Trek” reference reminded me of a post I wrote last year on the old blog, Is Man’s Search For Extraterrestrial Life Futile?
Another Addendum: You guys are making me say it out loud. OK. I’m 38, not 37. I was 37 yesterday. Today I’m a day older and a day wiser. 
Update: Several Bloglines users told me that images on my blog don’t show up in the feeds. I disabled hotlinking a few months ago, but I’ve made an exception for Bloglines. Images should be visible now. To copy images on this blog, you have to save them to your hard drive and upload to your site. Linking to an image directly from this site is bandwidth “stealing.”
