My Own Worst Enemy

Yesterday was:

• A trip to the Garden of the Gods, where we found out that cute little bunnies, like the one below, have the plague. (click to enlarge)
• A visit to Manitou Springs for Mallory's first taste of Manitou water and a look in at the local cult scene
• Bacon cheeseburgers and some much needed encouragement from Bob and Virginia at the Corner Cafe
• Searching the newspaper for cars and kittens
• Finding out there there are actually no pets at Petsmart
  
• Nearly taking advantage of the Border's 25% teacher discount
• Nearly adopting a kitten from the Humane Society
• Great food and great wine (homemade chicken alfredo and a German Riesling)
• A walk downtown to find a local brewery
• One beer turning into two beers and a couple games of pool (after finding out there was a $10 minimum on credit cards
• Two beers and pool turning into several beers and singing along to a cover band that played exclusively 90's alternative rock (a-mazing)
• Fighting a rabid weresquirrel on our walk back to my house
  
• Sleeping long and well before church

And your Halloween video of the day:

Grand Theft Autumn

"The Russian offensive on Georgia continues, turns out there was another war nested in that treaty." -The Colbert Report

Give yourself a minute on that one.

The Pirate Menace: How Lucas Stole 98% of Star Wars

-or-
How To Make a Multi-billion Dollar Empire off One Original Idea

I'd like to just start off by pointing out that I love Star Wars. It could turn out to be a gigantic re-working of a teletubbies episode and I'd still love it. But with that being said here are 5 sources to which Lucas is indebted and a tribute to his one original idea.

5. Westerns: Not only is Han Solo basically just a John Wayne-esque cowboy, but the Mos Eisley Canteena scenes are pretty much a staight up rip off of a shoot-out at a saloon. Try this on for size:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Star Wars Episode 4

4. WW2: An evil empire tries to take over the world (galaxy) with an entire race of soldiers designed to be genetically perfect. Am I talked about Hitler's Aryan race or Emporer Palpatine's Clone army? Either way they're called stormtroopers. Whether he's attacking Poland or Endor, it comes down to pretty much the same thing.

Whether it's a B-17 or an X-Wing,

Or a coal-scuttle helmet, or Darth Vader's signature cap,

Or just the way you dress your soldiers,















It's pretty clear that evil minds think alike.

3. The Bible: Virgin conceives a child destined to change the course of history and the fate of the entire universe; turns out that's not an original story either. While Darth Vader was no Messiah, he was that long awaited, much prophesied hero.

2. Wagner: In Wagner's classic opera Der Ring des Nibelungen a good son must fight an evil father, along with his pirate-type friend and his twin sister, in order to ensure that the evil father doesn't destroy the world with his extremely powerful spherical object (Death Star). Read all about it here. And I won't subject you to it now, but if you are ambitious get on YouTube and compare Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" to John William's "Star Wars: Main Theme."

1. Ivanhoe: It's a long boring book, but it's where the story of Robin Hood comes from, and since I'm teaching it this year, I figured I'd throw it in. If you've seen the Disney movie, you'll probably get all the parallels anyway.

Ivanhoe/Luke Skywalker - Estranged son rises to prominence again through prowess in battle.
Robin Hood/Han Solo - Rugged outlaw, despite cool, rebelious exterior is always fighting for the good guys.
Friar Tuck/Chewbacca - Big guy, the muscle of the outlaw group. Robin Hood's sidekick and life-long friend (Note: this doesn't apply to the Disney movie, only to the book).
Maid Marion/Leia - Would be, should be royalty, removed from the throne by a cruel despot.
Sheriff of Notingham/Darth Vader - The muscle on the side of evil, who pretty much does all the dirty work.
Emporer/Prince John - The brains of the evil operation. The mover and shaker behind all the empire's work.

I know all stories are based on earlier works, but it's funny to know what we are actually saying when we say we like Star Wars.

But he did come up with one idea on his own.

The Lightsaber: Pretty much Lucas' only original idea. I know, I know, it's just a sword right? Well, why were you watching Star Wars? For the rigorous exploration of the Sci-Fi genre? It's pretty bland as far as Sci-Fi goes. For the Old West feel and the wacky special effects? Well, most of that stuff was claymation, just like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Really, the only reason anyone loved Star Wars was for the lightsaber battles. "Not as clumsy as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age."

I've often thought about either becoming filthy rich and funding the research to build a lightsaber or just freezing myself in carbonite until somebody makes one for me. Either way, I don't think I'll live to see it... naturally.