(Shamelessly cross-posted from The Nerduary, another joint I blog at.)
So Lucasfilm and Atomfilms launched the 2007 Star Wars fan film contest today. Ol' George himself will be judging again, which makes me fear for the quality of the winner. Not much to say on that.
But I did find something worth sharing with the wide world of Nerduary, courtesy of the Slashdot discussion on the contest.
It's Ryan vs. Dorkman 2. Click that link for the Google version, see the bottom of this post for Youtubiness. Don't let the name fool you. It's seven minutes of the frickin' best lightsaber fighting I've seen since... well, it actually beats the pants off of just about every Lucasfilm saber fight.
They did it on the cheap, but they did it right. If you like Star Wars (and who the hell don't?), check this one out.
SPECIAL BONUS SABERING!
Here's their first video. It's not quite as polished, and not quite as long, but the ending makes it all worthwhile.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Slavery?
Oh, God... someone brought up the spectre of slavery apologies in the Herald.
Okay, the Associated Press brought it up. After the NAACP did. I can just see the Soundoff lines catching fire. The Herald blogs already have.
I'm just going to go ahead and put myself on the line here. The "South Park" guys had it right this past week.
I'm a white dude. My ancestors no doubt were into some unsavory stuff, and others of my ancestors may have had some unsavory stuff done to 'em.
None of that is a defining part of who I am, though. There aren't still visible reminders in daily life of any badness done to "my people" in the past.
To quote George Carlin, "White people give the blues! They don't sing 'em!"
As such, I can't hope to understand what a rebel flag on a rednecked-out pickup truck may feel like to a black person. I'll never know what it's like to grow up in a place knowing that 160 years ago I would have been owned by someone.
With that in mind, I don't see what's wrong with an apology. Personally, I don't think it would change much. But then, I don't get it, do I? Maybe it would have a good effect.
Here's how to word it to make everybody happy. Imagine Sonny Perdue's voice saying these lines.
"Hey, y'all, slavery was a bad thing. It's a damned shame that Georgia was involved in it. None of us up here in Atlanta could ever properly apologize for it, and that's another shame. The people who should talk to you are dead and gone, and the people they should be on their knees to begging for forgiveness are gone, too. It's taken too long, but I'm here to say that as a state we collectively realize that slavery was a crime against humanity and a sin against God. We can't change the past, but we can say that we're sorry for some of the things that happened in it."
But it'll never happen.
Okay, the Associated Press brought it up. After the NAACP did. I can just see the Soundoff lines catching fire. The Herald blogs already have.
I'm just going to go ahead and put myself on the line here. The "South Park" guys had it right this past week.
I'm a white dude. My ancestors no doubt were into some unsavory stuff, and others of my ancestors may have had some unsavory stuff done to 'em.
None of that is a defining part of who I am, though. There aren't still visible reminders in daily life of any badness done to "my people" in the past.
To quote George Carlin, "White people give the blues! They don't sing 'em!"
As such, I can't hope to understand what a rebel flag on a rednecked-out pickup truck may feel like to a black person. I'll never know what it's like to grow up in a place knowing that 160 years ago I would have been owned by someone.
With that in mind, I don't see what's wrong with an apology. Personally, I don't think it would change much. But then, I don't get it, do I? Maybe it would have a good effect.
Here's how to word it to make everybody happy. Imagine Sonny Perdue's voice saying these lines.
"Hey, y'all, slavery was a bad thing. It's a damned shame that Georgia was involved in it. None of us up here in Atlanta could ever properly apologize for it, and that's another shame. The people who should talk to you are dead and gone, and the people they should be on their knees to begging for forgiveness are gone, too. It's taken too long, but I'm here to say that as a state we collectively realize that slavery was a crime against humanity and a sin against God. We can't change the past, but we can say that we're sorry for some of the things that happened in it."
But it'll never happen.
Connecting with Savannah
I had the chance last week to speak for a little while with Jim Morekis, editor of Connect Savannah. Jim and I have spoken on the phone and via e-mail a little bit, but I think it was our first face-to-face meeting.
He's a heck of a guy. He' s been at Connect Savannah since before it was Connect Savannah, and has a fierce, well-deserved pride for the publication and what it's become during his tenure.
I talked with him about the differences between our two publications, most of which stem from the different places they're published. Jim's a little older than I am, and Connect Savannah focuses a lot on being an honest-to-God newsweekly.
Connect Statesboro, on the other hand, is run by a mostly young crew, and we're in a college town. Not only that, but I share office space with a daily newspaper. As much as I love straight-up news journalism, Connect's mandate is entertainment, not covering school board meetings. In effect, if we tried to run lots of news we'd be competing with ourselves.
Connect Savannah's also been around for five times as long as we have. Though they continually evolve, they've figured out what works. We're still at a stage where we can make dramatic changes on a dime (like the redesign that hit in January).
One of my concerns has been in the vastly different tones of the two publications. We share a logo, the occasional story, and not much else. I told Jim that I pictured one of my college freshman readers going to Savannah, seeing a copy of Connect Savannah, and picking it up.
They flip through it and put it down quickly. "I don't want to know about somebody dumping toxic waste in the river! I wanna see pictures of hot chicks at the club!" they say.
One of Jim's readers comes to Statesboro, sees the logo, and picks up a copy of Connect Statesboro. "Damn, who let the frat boys have a magazine?" they think before tossing it.
Jim laughed, and told me he didn't think that would happen. Diversity is strong for a brand, he said.
I respect Jim's opinion highly. He's bar-none one of the best bloggers out there, and he knows how to run a magazine. If that's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.
He's a heck of a guy. He' s been at Connect Savannah since before it was Connect Savannah, and has a fierce, well-deserved pride for the publication and what it's become during his tenure.
I talked with him about the differences between our two publications, most of which stem from the different places they're published. Jim's a little older than I am, and Connect Savannah focuses a lot on being an honest-to-God newsweekly.
Connect Statesboro, on the other hand, is run by a mostly young crew, and we're in a college town. Not only that, but I share office space with a daily newspaper. As much as I love straight-up news journalism, Connect's mandate is entertainment, not covering school board meetings. In effect, if we tried to run lots of news we'd be competing with ourselves.
Connect Savannah's also been around for five times as long as we have. Though they continually evolve, they've figured out what works. We're still at a stage where we can make dramatic changes on a dime (like the redesign that hit in January).
One of my concerns has been in the vastly different tones of the two publications. We share a logo, the occasional story, and not much else. I told Jim that I pictured one of my college freshman readers going to Savannah, seeing a copy of Connect Savannah, and picking it up.
They flip through it and put it down quickly. "I don't want to know about somebody dumping toxic waste in the river! I wanna see pictures of hot chicks at the club!" they say.
One of Jim's readers comes to Statesboro, sees the logo, and picks up a copy of Connect Statesboro. "Damn, who let the frat boys have a magazine?" they think before tossing it.
Jim laughed, and told me he didn't think that would happen. Diversity is strong for a brand, he said.
I respect Jim's opinion highly. He's bar-none one of the best bloggers out there, and he knows how to run a magazine. If that's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.
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