Saturday morning and afternoon were spent in consternation, as I spent the day at work. I was the only Character person in attendance, so people kept piling stuff on me, and Maya and Motionbuilder were especially buggy, and there was angst. At one point, I suggested we get an office watermelon, so whenever we wanted to stab the software we could stab it, and then cut off a piece to eat because watermelon is delicious and full of nutrients. The combination of stabbing + deliciousness + nutrition should soothe any stray frustration in a constructive manner. Silly coworkers didn’t think I was serious!
Anyway, the day’s woes were more than compensated for by my FANTASTIC evening! Em of the NYC Browncoats wrangled a group of us to see the new Vampire Cowboys show, Fight Girl Battle World. They’re a delightfully geeky group that creates original productions with comic book stylings and an emphasis on stage combat. I’d heard great things about two of their previous shows, Men of Steel and Living Dead in Denmark, but this would be the first I’d actually get to attend. I joined up with Kristin, Josie, Gypsy, Em, and the gang, and together we all laughed until we cried. I can’t remember the last occasion I’ve laughed so hard for such a sustained length of time!
The next morning, I went to Kristin’s place, stopping by Whole Foods on the way. I made us omelettes with spinach, feta, sauteed onion, and tomato, which were OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS, then we sat down to watch (and heckle) the Star Wars prequel trilogy. We nerded out, nitpicking all the inconsistencies and hooting over all the painful dialogue.
Episode I was every bit as awful as I remembered. Actually, it was more awful, as my psyche had somehow managed to bury the memory of the “Are you an angel?” conversation. Though Jar Jar is far more tolerable when you imagine he’s being roleplayed by some nerd’s kid sister.
Episode II, on the other hand, was far better. The action to dialogue ratio far surpassed that of its predecessor, and George Lucas knows how to do action! Heck, if you just cut out Anakin’s creepy stalker act and leashed his occasional whiny emo tangents, it would be a pretty neat little movie! Kristin and I were very pleasantly surprised. We also decided Padme’s attraction to him is the result of a Jedi mind trick, as Anakin is four years old.
Between II and III, we went out for a walk, off in search of food. Eventually we settled on (shock) Whole Foods, where Kristin got taco and I got lentil soup and an abundance of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. We feel Episode III was considerably improved by the addition of alcohol, and we regretted not thinking of it during Episode I.
Episode III was somewhat bipolar. There was plenty of awful Lucas dialogue, but it was mixed in with dialogue that was surprisingly solid. We would occasionally look at each other in surprise and marvel, “Hey. That line was actually good.” (This may have been the alcohol talking. Or maybe after seeing the first two, we just had really, really low standards.) Of course, ten seconds later we’d be back to chortling over Anakin’s teflon-slicked fall to the Dark Side, groaning at lines like “Anakin, you’re breaking my heart!”, and debating over whether slashing Obi-Wan and Anakin is more or less creepy than Anakin/Padme. Conclusion: It’s kind of creepy, but NOTHING even comes CLOSE to the creepiness of Anakin/Padme.
So! Awesome, awesome weekend. If only there were actually two days of it. :D
Here, have a Han Solo in Carbonite Desk!
