GWC Podcast #109

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#1

It’s time for the Star Wars that started it all: Episode IV, A New Hope. Highlights: we discuss the female fascination with the man in black, argue the meaning of “high maintenance,” notice (yet again) that Leia is smokin’ hot, talk droid knowledge and their interaction with Vader in the original trilogy, comment on Ben’s lie of omission, bemoan the Han/Greedo-shoot-at-same-time DVD (but love the sound), pontificate on Tatooine fashion, love on Alec’s trend-setting Jedi appearance, and watch Ani crank on that TIE’s control knob like he’s makin’ butter.

http://www.galacticawatercooler.com/2008/07/20/gwc-podcast-109/

#2

Woo out before I’ll be awayf rom my computer for a week haha

And woo first post

#3

yeah, Leia made Han’s life more difficult. cause smuggling was going so well for him

#4

About time!

Will listen later tonight or tomorrow.

#5

Yee-Haw!!!

This day just can’t get much better!

Still rolling in Dr. Horrible, and now THIS!

What a super way to start this week most awesome!

I LOVE this place!

#6

“Episode IV” did not appear at the top of the 77 theatrical version. just STAR WARS, then straight into “It is a period of civil war…”

#7

Beat me to it.

#8

sweetie, this separated at birth thing seems more and more likely all the time (except that we were born on different coasts and several years apart)

#9

Regarding Chuck’s comments about the destruction of the two Deathstars. The Empire didn’t learn, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

EDIT: Also, regarding Chewie’s expressions. You can thank Stuart Freeborn for that. Did the work for the Ape-men in 2001:A Space Odyssey. He also did the original Yoda.

#10

Perhaps you are soul twins and one of you just went soulless for the first few years?

#11

my older sister would have no problem with that explanation :smiley:

#12

You always hear about the “First time I saw Star Wars on the big screen” stories and the inevitable “It was incredible and I was blown away”.

Well, my first experience with Star Wars was with the merchandising. Similiar to Sean I did not own the Falcon. I knew the guy who did and despised him. We played with HIS X-wing, HIS Tie-fighter HIS Millenium Falcon and HIS Death Star. In the words of someone famous, Lucky Bastard"

On the other hand, I owned the Star Wars Storybook. I read that so much there were food stains on almost every page and the binding wore away. In time, it was nothing but a pile of paper and a rubber band. Fortunately, thanx to the internet, I was able to purchase a used copy and share the experience of reading the storybook with my daughters.

So now to the part when I first saw Star Wars. Same guy that owned the toys had cable. We watched it on his 18 inch color TV. I was used to a 13 inch black and white. I’m beginning to sound envious and jealous. Nevermind. From the second the immortal words splashed on the screen I was transported to a galaxy far far away and I didn’t want to leave. It was incredible and I was blown away.

#13

I might have posted it elsewhere, but my first SW experience was that when I was about 4 or 5 my father told me the story of Episode IV- in the big, grand, “I’m telling you an epic story!” kind of way. I thought it was the best story I’d ever heard and was basically hooked then and there. Honestly, I don’t even remember the first time I saw Star Wars, because I felt like I’d always known it.

I think it was wired into my brain that I’d be a sci-fi geek, but I have a particularly soft spot for Star Wars because of the affiliation with my dad. I don’t have very many happy memories of him, so this stands out as one of the best.

#14

woot! can’t wait to listen to this!

all i remember about my first star wars experieince was the words rolling across the screen and going home and telling my grampa every single detail of this great movie i just saw…especially the trash compactor scene…he took me & my brother a few weeks later for the second time and then we saw it again at the drive in movies when they re~released it (along with some movie about this disease that made your brain enlarge when you slept and pushed your eyes out of your head…i fought sleep for many nights after that(???)…for xmas that year i got the story of star wars on tape which was a recorded version of the movie and i listened to that thing for three years until it started to warp and i didn’t want it to break :frowning:

unfortunately for me, i tried to share my love of star wars with my daughter and she just really never got into it…i wonder sometimes if it’s because i loved her so well and was an active part of her life that she didn’t need that kind of escape the way i did :slight_smile:

i also just saw reign of fire today and thought it was really cool that in this apocolyptic society with no movies, they’ve reverted to telling stories and acting them out and they were acting the “i am your father” scene for these little kids that had no idea what film was :slight_smile: that’s the job i would have after the apocolypse…the HOMER of star wars :slight_smile:

#15

OMG!!

I was just remembering that scene as I was reading this thread!!

shivers

You took the words right outta my braaaain! :eek:

frantically feels scalp

outta my BRAAAAIN!!! :eek:

(see avatar!)

#16

Just in time guys: I fly out to New Zealand tomorrow and this will help pass the time on the flight greatly.

Must…resist…urge…to…listen…earlier…:frowning:

deedub

#17

about the Light Saber fights in IV V VI… it actually wasn’t simplistic. It is a stylistic choice. They modeled the Saber battles after Kendo, which is Asian “Way of the Sword”, though not specifically Japanese, it is more popular in Japan and Korea.

Most Samurai movies have sword fights based on Kendo, which was probably popular back in the day. Though Kendo isn’t the only style of samurai sword fighting.

The reason for the slow movements is because when two really awesome sword masters faces off, they are just spotting each others weak spots. The moment one moves, a weakness opens for the opponent to attack, and that is why through most of the fight, two seems to not be moving at all.

I have always liked IV V VI saber battles a lot better than the Hong Kong Kongfu movie styled battles in I II III.

Also, Darth Vader’s helmet and look is very Samurai armor like, so I think Lucas got a lot of inspiration of what Jedi is like from the Japanese Bushido culture in the first 3 movies.

["]http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=4XRZF7IqakI]](http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=4XRZF7IqakI)

//youtu.be/4XRZF7IqakI

sample of kendo battles. if someone use after effect, they can probably turn this into a light saber battle.

#18

i can ever figure out the youtube video thing here, i thought it works like wordpress, but i guess not.

anyway, besides the video above, here is a sample of 2 sword kendo. Normally using a shorter sword and a longer sword in combination.

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=8AgkfRDU7W0

//youtu.be/8AgkfRDU7W0

#19

just like to share one more… old school awesome kendo battle

//youtu.be/SJLTQe2Huow

#20

My friend’s an engineer of sorts. I sent him that engineering memo about the Death Star. Here’s his response:

“Why do they even need a trash compactor on the death star? I mean, they’re the evil empire, why not just chuck it out into space? I think in one of the later movies, they mention the star destroyer’s jettison their trash before they go to hyperspace. And if they do compact it, what do they do with it after that? Send in the galactic garbage trucks to pick it up? Also, how would a garbage monster get there, and grow that big on their “recently finished” death star? I mean, someone would have had to take it there. It’s not like they’re on Degobah and creepy critters just happen to live there.”

Maybe the monster is part of some Empire green, eco-friendly initiative.