Mere days after talking about how much I loved the old Star Wars arcade game and mentioning how it would be cool to get an old cabinet rigged up, by coincedence, my attention has been brought to this amazingly geeky but extremely clever sod who has taken an old oscilloscope, a sound card and used MAME to get Star Wars running on it.
Absolutely brilliant.
Via Alice
…and this is so very, very true.
via the Lovely Lisa.
Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars. It is 30 years ago today that the Star Wars was released. 30 years. 30 fucking years. That must make me (*counts on fingers*) 21. Wow - I have a lot of fingers. I also appear to be unable to count.
Love it or loathe it (or feel otherwise indifferent about it) Star Wars has had a hugely influential effect on films, the movie industry, technology, (pop) culture and even politics. The original film and it’s immediate sequels have been diluted by the emotionless and vacuous entities that formed episodes 1-3 but nevertheless, they still remain important pieces of cinematic history. As sad as it is, Star Wars has also featured heavily in my life too ever since I first saw it in 1978 (damn you, year late UK release, damn you to hell!) and even now, as an adult and a father, I still find myself taking an interest in the various comings and goings of that distant universe (albeit a much more critical, cynical and jaded interest).
It’s also my wedding anniversary today but that’s just a coincedence no matter what else you might hear.
This is taken from a blog (which I’m guessing has been inundated with requests as it’s not longer available) and is mostly on a forum else where.
It made me laugh out loud. In fact, I was nearly in tears I was laughing so hard. I don’t know how long it’s going to be up for, so go and have a look now.
A brief intro: I actually watched this a couple of weeks ago and unlike my normal slackness in writing up reviews of films, I haven’t written anything about it yet because it’s taken this long to really get my head around it. And because I’m slack.
I find it hard to think about Revenge of the Sith in terms of being a standalone film. I can’t seem to detach what happens in it from everything that’s gone before which makes it difficult to say “this is better than the first two prequels” because although it generally lacks many of the annoying elements its predecessors boasted, it still had its fair share of apalling dialogue, terrible acting and also suffered from having nothing memorable about it. That’s probably my biggest complaint about Sith - nothing has stuck in my mind about it. Impressive opening space battle? Not quite as good as the space battle in Return of the Jedi. Anakin’s duel with Obi-Wan? Not a patch on the Duel of the Fates in Phantom Menace. So while it has less of the bad bits, it also seems to have less of the good bits.
The worse thing about Revenge of the Sith, however, is how lacklustre Anakin’s fall to the dark side was. For all it’s criticisms and weaknesses, the attempted seduction of Luke Skywalker by Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi is far more effective than Anakin’s descent was in Sith.
And then there’s the inconsistencies between everything we learnt 25 years ago and what we learn in this film. But I might save that for Episode 2!
I only make two deserts. The common feature of both is that they are highly alcoholic. Tiramisu is a definite party favourite and my victims friends are always asking me to make them one. I could give you some guff about how it’s Italian and translates as “pick me up” but you don’t need to know that, you just need to know what goes in it!
Ingredients
1 Bottle Kahlua
1 Bottle Dark Rum
(Optional bottle Brandy)
200ml Strong (and I mean STRONG) black coffee. Kenco Instant is good for this if you can’t be bothered to make some filter coffee.
500g Marscarpone Cheese
75g Caster sugar
3 Medium Eggs
1 packet Boudoir biscuits (sponge fingers to you)
Cocoa/Hot Chocolate powder
Serves up to 6/8 people or 4 extremely greedy ones.
Right, got all that? Good! Let’s crack on.
1. First off, the coffee. Make sure you’ve made the coffee strong and have let it cool down. Add a couple of splashes of rum (with kahlua and brandy as optional extras. Whiskey works too) Make sure you add a splash extra because you won’t have added enough.
2. Next, seperate the eggs. Try not to get too much eggshell into the egg white.
3. Use a whisk to beat the egg yolks and caster sugar together until it’s a pale, thick and gloopy mixture. It should be quite smooth in consistency. Slowly add all the marscapone and mix it together until smooth. When it’s very smooth and pale, add some kahlua. A couple of splashes maybe alright but you can always add a teaspoon or two more. Don’t add too much because it’ll get too runny. If you want to add more, best you add it directly to your throat
4. This is an optional step but does tend to make the mixture a little lighter. Whisk up the egg whites until they are nice and fluffy and then fold the egg whites into the marscapone mix.
5. Get a large glass cooking dish (rectangular ones are far better and easier for this than round ones) that’s about 1.5 - 2 inches deep. Place the boudoir biscuits around the bottom of the dish until it’s completely covered and then build up around the sides.
6. If you don’t think you’ve got enough alcohol in the mixture, drizzle a little of the rum and/or brandy over the biscuits. Otherwise, you can go to the next step.
7. Pour the coffee mixture over the boudoir biscuits until they are soggy. Don’t drown them!
8. Spoon in the marscapone mix over the boudoir biscuits until either the dish is full or you run out of mix. You can spend your time putting poncey patterns in the top or you can just flatten it out and then sprinkle some of the cocoa powder over the top.
9. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge. Leave for at least an hour so that it firms up and chills.
And that’s all there is to it.
(Responsible note: This recipe contains raw eggs so don’t eat it if you are or think you are pregnant.)
In the balmy summer of 1978, my parents took me to see a film called Star Wars. It’s one of only two films I remember seeing in the cinema from that time (the other being Close Encounters of the Third Kind) although to be fair, I remember my dad refusing to buy me a toy lightsaber after the screening more than the film itself. (I also remember the Refreshers ads on T.V. - anyone else recall those?)
Unless you’ve been living on a swamp planet in the remote part of the galaxy, hiding in a suspiciously moist cave on an asteroid or are being slowly digested over a 100 years in the gut of the sarlaac*, you’ll be aware that in a little over a months time, the final** part of the Star Wars saga will be released. Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith - the film that Star Wars junkies like myself have been waiting over 20 years to see and the film that shows the final fall of Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side of the Force and his resurrection as the evil Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, one - if not the - most iconic screen villains in cinema history.
Over the next month I’m going to be talking a lot about Star Wars and the films to date and my anticipation (and doubts) about the final movie. And then, on release day, I’m going to be out of the country and unable to see it for a week. Hey ho, can’t win ‘em all eh?
*Or you might not have an iota of interest in any of this topic in which case, this isn’t the post you’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along, move along.
**Allegedly. According to George “I am the prince of darkness, my promises mean nothing” Lucas. He wasn’t saying the same thing 22 years ago, I can tell you that much.
Almost six years ago I was in New York and happened to conveniently stumble into a film called “The Phantom Menace” which was a prequel to a series of films that were quite popular in the late seventies and early eighties.
Three years ago there was a sequel to the prequel that was called “Attack of the Clones”. The title was very B-Movie and the film was, in parts, blockbuster genius but mostly was C-Movie shlock.
Apparently, in what might turn out to be a vain attempt at redemption for past sins (namely the above two films) a further sequel is to be released this year. This time it has the pant-wettingly promising title of “Revenge of the Sith” and the new trailer is already doing the rounds on the internet.
I’ve reserved a table for one in a restaurant called Judgement for May 18th this year.