all for a good cause

Doesn't it just warm your heart?

Bing Crosby - Dear Hearts and Gentle People (from The Definitive Collection, 2006) - A song that just screams out for ironic appropriation (see also the recently unveiled Fallout 3 trailer), especially in light of some of the allegations made about Der Bingle's domestic life.

The Breeders - Happiness is a Warm Gun (from Pod, 1990) - Only a Boston-based alt-rock side project could be this precise.

Friday Night Fights: Special Anniversary Edition

Luke uses some one-handed lightsaber action to bring down Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith.
(from Star Wars #96, June 1985; art by Cynthia Martin & Bob Wiacek)

The tail end of Marvel’s Star Wars comic series was fascinatingly odd in its attempts to swim against the current of fading interest in the franchise after the release of Return of the Jedi, and it featured one of the most horrifying adversaries ever to appear in the “Expanded Universe”: the Nagai, a race of elven Robert Smith clones (which I believe hail from the darkest quadrant of the Slashfic Galaxy).

Cynthia Martin’s art was rather nice in a Paul Smith-meets-Steve Leialoha (who inked Martin’s pencils in issue #105) kind of way. Her art was uneven in places, but showed a lot of potential. I wonder what happened to her.

Today marks thirtieth anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars film. I’ve lost my taste for the franchise, having surfeited to the point where my appetite sickened, and so died. I think the exact moment the mental gag reflex kicked in was when we left the theater after watching Attack of the Clones and Maura and I both turned to each other and simultaneously said, “That was fucking horrible.”

Not that I was ever much of a huge fan of the series, at least to the extent that some of my peers were. I loved the toys as a child, but the first time I saw the film (at the long since subdivided and McMansioned Billerica drive-in) I fell asleep during the last half hour. I didn’t really grow to appreciate the films until I was in college, and starting hanging around with a Star Wars obsessed friend, whose enthusiasm rubbed off on me for a short while. Reflected passion and childhood nostalgia can only carry one so far, though, and the well of interest eventually went dry, apart from periodic replays of the Knights of the Old Republic games and the occasional viewing of Episode IV: A New Hope fueled more by my admiration for Peter Cushing than for the franchise itself.

Still, the anniversary of the series is worth acknowledging, as Star Wars did play an integral part in my formative years, right up there with sugar bowl haircuts, plaid chinos, and the Dukes of Hazzard.

Lionsclub – The Throne Room (Star Wars) (from TV and Movie Themes, Ska and Rocksteady Style, 2003)

Fader Gladiator – Battle of the Planets (from Beats by Dope Demand 4, 1997)

…and it wouldn’t be an official celebration without this little gem:

No, you don’t have to thank me. Honest.

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(If you strike Bahlactus down, he will only grow more powerful.)