American Demigods: "Faith sir, we were carousing 'til the second cock"

The Absolute Big Mac Show has ended, and ended well. A lot was memorable about it, including a visit from the Chicago Police when one of our cast members was running around in costume with his big sticks, and a neighbor apparently reported a crazy Asian teenager running around with a gun. As it turned out, it was a crazy Asian teenager with a stick. This makes the second consecutive play of mine to draw the attention of the constabulary, as someone called the cops on us during Hamlet, because of the noise we made when Laertes was leading his mob to the palace gates (“Yeah, we got a report of someone trying to take over Denmark…”)

I don’t know, the end of a show always makes me feel like there should be more to say, but there isn’t. There probably is, but I don’t know what it is right now. It was really, really good, I'll say that.

When I got home from the final cast party at around 2AM, I shaved off my goatee in a somewhat drunken state. As a result I mutilated my chin worse than I usually do. So as always I look much younger, but battle scarred beyond my years.

The most important thing this weekend of course, was seeing the Revenge of the Sith. Boy did they ever get their revenge. Wow. My God, that was a good movie, like every Star Wars movie. I am one of the few defenders of the first two prequels, they were both quite good, though this one was just…gut wrenching. Anakin’s transformation was just perfect. Supposedly you go in knowing the story, but really, you don’t. I mean the way they pulled it off, showing how it happened, it just adds a completely new dimension to the whole saga and, well I’m very happy. Having acted in Shakespearean tragedy for six months put me in a unique mood to watch his downfall (not that either Shakespeare or Star Wars are ever far from my thoughts) but Anakin’s seduction by the Dark Side was so much like Big Mac’s. Both men convince themselves that they can commit just a little bit of evil, that they can accomplish what they need to accomplish and be done with it but they find out that it doesn’t work like that. Macbeth thinks “this blow might be the be all and the end all here, but here upon this bank and shoal of time” but as the little green man said “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.” Yoda said that twenty five years ago, but now we get to see what he was talking about. Friends have said to me that the original movies were so good that they don’t really see the point of doing the backstory (other than giving Mr. Lucas some more big paydays) and I have to admit that even though I liked the first two, I was hard pressed to answer that question. Not anymore.

I’m complete now. I’ve seen Episode III, which I’ve been waiting to do pretty much all my life. When I got home from the movie, rest assured that I was on the Internet within minutes looking at Star Wars related things. This was very late at night, and I was going to bed. And I saw that some idiot somewhere had posted a story on the Internet Movie Database about how in 1933 a little girl had been murdered (by a “homicidal murderer” no less) and that to appease her angry ghost you had to re-post the message (what advantage a girl murdered in 1933 would derive from getting a lot of bandwith on the IMDB was left unclear) If you failed to do this, she would appear on your ceiling and suffocate you, as she was suffocated. Now, I am not a believer in the supernatural, particularly as it is conveyed in stupid Internet posts, but at 3:30 in the morning, (which to be fair probably qualified as “the middle of the night”) a dead girl appearing on my ceiling and murdering me was a fairly chilling notion. Not so chilling that I actually logged on and reposted the message, but chilling enough that I thought about other ways to escape my impending fate such as reminding myself of how dead sexy I am, and how I would probably be successful in seducing her into not killing me. And if that doesn’t work, I thought, I’ve seen Episode III…

previous entry next entry

Replies: 4 comments

Well, GL has changed his story about what his original plans were a couple of times. He's maintained for a while that there will be no movies of Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Dozens of books have been written about the post-Return of the Jedi adventures of Luke 'n' the gang, a couple of them fairly good, most absolutely terrible. Last I heard they decided they were set when Luke and the rest were in their sixties, and for the sake of Big Dramatic Impact, they killed Chewbacca. Star Wars geeks being what they are they would scream and be very upset if Lucas made new movies that ignored all this nonsense (which would make me happy)

All that said, Lucas says now that he's probably going to make a Star Wars TV series that bridges the twenty year gap between Episodes III and IV. This idea makes me yawn, but Episode III was definitely awesome.

Posted by Rory @ 05/24/2005 12:40 PM CST

This is what happens. I try to sound clever, and end up forgetting what I wanted to ask.

Back in the day, George Lucas talked about doing nine Star Wars movies. The last three were supposed to be set after episodes 4/5/6. Do you know if he's still thinking about it, or what's next on his day planner?

Posted by Kurt @ 05/24/2005 11:39 AM CST

Whew. I thought you meant the girl wouldn't kill you because, well, you already know all about the dark side. (It'd at least be a good ice-breaker. But then she'd keep you up all night, pestering you about when you're gonna see Unca Anakin).

Given the "on fire" quality of your website lately, I feared there might be something diabolical going on. But no -- it's the heat from your sheer presence! Awesome.

I missed seeing the play, but I can tell it was a lot more fun than assembling office furniture. Which is what the dark side had me doing last weekend. I tell ya, it promises you ultimate power and stuff, but then it's work work work.

Posted by Kurt @ 05/24/2005 08:35 AM CST

And if that doesn’t work, I thought, I’ve seen Episode III…

Sometimes I'm ambiguous, what I meant was that I would have been content to accept my fate, having seen the final Star Wars film.

Posted by Rory @ 05/23/2005 01:57 PM CST

All rights reserved by those who feel they have to reserve things and thereby deny those things to others who might want to reserve them. This is currently the recommended method by which to affirm your personhood, if you are in any doubt.