Death Star, Seattle

 

I guess I'll continue with the Star Wars-theme that got rolling last post. This is the underwater dome at the Seatle Aquarium. Barb, bless her heart, pointed it out as being "Very Star Trek." I hadn't noticed when passing through it, but it definitely does seem to be the early work of the architect who went on to design the Death Star.

Beating a Dead Horse

As everyone who cares enough about Star Wars to read a blog entry about it knows, Star Wars is over. Done. George Lucas killed it by making the three prequels, which were so poorly done that they damned and destroyed all that came before (well, maybe not really). There were many things that bothered me, and a lot of other people about the prequels's treatment of the Star Wars universe: Jar-Jar Binks, the fact that Darth Vader built C3PO (?!), the fact that the tech looked more modern even though it was set in the past, the goddamn midichlorians (if you don't know, don't ask!), etc.

The thing that bothered me most I've never heard anyone else complain about: the way the Jedis dressed.

In the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope), Obi-Wan Kenobi dressed in robes and cowl of brown and beige homespun. Why did he dress this way? Because he was in hiding as Old Ben, the desert loon, the crazy hermit of Tatooine.


The next Jedi we meet in the original trilogy is Yoda, also in hiding, also as a hermit, but this time in a swamp on a different planet. He, too, dresses like a peasant in simple, crude garments. Remember, he's hiding out from the Empire, trying to look like anything but what he is: a Jedi Knight.

When Luke in the third movie becomes a full-on Jedi, he adopts a uniform that mixes elements of military and clergy, but it ain't robes or a serape. The man is wearing a shirt and trousers.


Then we come full circle to the first prequel, featuring Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, and future desert hermit, Obi-Wan Kenobi.


Hello! They're both dressed like hermits of Tatooine! So apparently when "Old Ben" Kenobi was hiding out in the desert backwater of Tatooine from Darth Vader (who, according to the prequels, was born and raised on Tatooine -- good place to hide, idiot), he decided to say, Fuck it, and just dress the way he always had, which is to say: like a Jedi.

It's so dumb it literally causes me pain.

Retro Camera

For three months I resisted Retro Camera, despite the fact that it was named on almost every list of must-have applications for my Android phone. It's free, so there was no compelling reason not to get it. It just sounded dumb: an app that would make the pictures from your phone's camera look like an old Polaroid picture, or the product of some other, well, retro camera.

Then, in a moment of boredom I downloaded it, tried it, and understood it. It's pretty much awesome. It essentially offers five filters for your phone cam that can, under the right circumstances, transform a lame, limping image into one that runs, sprints, flies!

It adds a few more tools to allow the mediocre-at-best phone camera to meet the expectations of your imagination (if you are the kind of person that attempts art photography no matter what kind of camera is in hand, as I am.)

The one that I like best and use most is called the Fudge Cam, a Kodak Box Brownie clone, presumably. It helped me take the picture of Elizabeth's trike. The other retro cameras (a pinhole camera, the aforementioned Polaroid, etc.) are more gimmicky, less useful -- at least to me. I'm sure some other photographer has figured out awesome things to do with them. Maybe in time I will, too.

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