Friday, January 25, 2013

My Weekend Stars

Let us, for a moment, set aside the nerd blasphemy of comingling the Stars (that’s Wars and Trek, duh) and discuss what it means to have two of the biggest franchises on the planet, let alone galaxy, be run by one single solitary dude. Now, I like J.J. Abrams as much as the next actions/espionage/lens flare lover. So when news of him taking over Disney’s new Star Wars movies I was, OK with it. His movies are pretty fun. Cool. But then, I thought a little harder. And I was like, wait. He’s also in charge of the new Star Trek franchise. So he’s doing Star Trek and Star Wars? At the same time. And we’re not even mentioning that lesser franchise Mission: Impossible.

Look, I think he’s a good director. I think he has created some interesting universes (Lost, Fringe, Alias…Felicity). But I don’t think it’s healthy for so much of the modern-day vision of pop culture to be controlled by one man. Diversity, for lack of a better word, matters. It matters because the more voices that are allowed to mold our zeitgeist, the more people will feel included in it. Simple concept, hard execution.

I feel the same way about this J.J. Rules the Stars news as I do about the continued push toward conglomeration in everything from our news media, banks and other corporations. More and more things being owned by fewer and fewer people. Because, make no mistake, this is creative conglomeration. And while I may like the particular creative in charge, it doesn’t mean I think he should be in charge of everything.

Why not give someone else a chance? A woman a chance? Any sort of non-white heterosexual male a chance? More voices, even imperfect ones, helps to expand our cultural landscape and could lead to, who knows, the next J.J. Abrams whoever he or she may be.

On a more personal note, the Star Wars movies were my absolute, far far and away favorite movies as a kid. So now that they are in J.J.’s hands, I hope he does well. I mean, he can’t really do worse than the three new movies we shall never speak of. Use the Force to prosper. And don’t fuck with Princess Leia. I mean it, buster. Happy weekend, all.

6 comments:

  1. Two days ago my coworker used some line from Star Wars to talk about Star Trek and I wrote her a note saying "Don't confuse the worlds!" (which sound catchier in German) which she pinned on her desk. Today I hear JJ Abrams is taking over Star Wars ... There is something completely weird going on in the universe!

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  2. Anonymous7:12 AM

    Darling I won’t lie; these last few weeks have been difficult. You’d think by now I’d be well used to finding myself at odds with the majority of my LGBT sisters but quite honestly it just doesn’t get any easier. Oh well, finding one’s self consigned to the politically incorrect ghetto will forever be the Truther’s lot I suppose. At least now there are a few fellow LGBT-ers in that ghetto though! ;)

    I almost commented on that awful (shameless!) Hollywood anti-gun propaganda piece you posted before Christmas, but when it came to it I just couldn’t bring myself do it. Besides it is clear you (like so many others) have made up your mind and nothing I could post is going to change it. Opinions on both sides are becoming entrenched and the battle lines for the coming civil war are becoming ever more clearly drawn. In so many ways I feel like a helpless and horrified on-looker to the New World Order’s grand scheme to take down your country (and thus the world) using the tried and tested tactic of divide and rule.

    I can only plead that you (and others of your opinion) look to history and think very carefully about what you are calling for. Is it really so wise to destroy the foundations upon which your country was built? After all, what will be left of your already eviscerated Constitution when the Second Amendment eventually goes? (For it is patently obvious that is the endgame.) And without her Constitution what will America be? Certainly *not* the country of her founding fathers, that’s for sure. No, what is slowly emerging is a new America. An America where ultimately most of the freedoms Americans once enjoyed are a thing of the past and their precious sovereignty lost forever.

    “We will have a world government whether you like it or not. The only question is whether that government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” - Paul Warburg (one of the founders of the Federal Reserve), February 17, 1950, as he testified before the US Senate

    The globalist elite will stop at nothing to achieve their goal of a One World Government. And just like *every tyrant* in history they know it will be impossible to achieve their sought after global tyranny# without first disarming the American people just as they have disarmed the damn near rest of us in the West. (Please do not make the same mistakes we did!)

    #Think about it. The only workable system for a One World Government ruling over 7 billion is that of a dictatorship. Even if the globalists wanted democratic rule it would be completely impracticable.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8qw3tEg9Vw

    Oh dear, looks like I’ve gone done precisely what I swore I wouldn’t...

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  3. Anonymous7:21 AM

    Anyway, Star Wars.

    Damn you Snarks, just when I find myself drifting away from you on a melancholic tide you reel me back in with talk of Star Wars! Yes Snarks, I too hared about my folks’ garden X-Wing in hand in hot pursuit of marauding Tie Fighters!

    “The three new movies we shall never speak of”

    Oh come on, Jar Jar Binks aside, they’re not that terrible surely? For one thing, think of Padme atop that pillar in her white Leia-esque outfit with half her top ripped off! :D

    I am also something of a Trekkie. So thank you for bringing to my attention the fact that only one bloke (and Disney – yikes!) is now in charge of both franchises (and much more besides). And yes I agree that this is a worrying development.

    “I feel the same way about this J.J. Rules the Stars news as I do about the continued push toward conglomeration in everything from our news media, banks and other corporations. More and more things being owned by fewer and fewer people.”

    Have you ever looked into just who sits at the top of these “fewer and fewer” people? The Bilderbergers, Committee of 300, Trilaterals, Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Warburgs and the rest of that unsavoury crew? God we really are a spaceship in trouble aren’t we? Quite honesty it would not be such a stretch to say Satan himself sits in the captain’s chair!

    “Why not give someone else a chance? A woman a chance? Any sort of non-white heterosexual male a chance? More voices, even imperfect ones, helps to expand our cultural landscape and could lead to, who knows, the next J.J. Abrams whoever he or she may be.”

    Here! Here!

    PD’s PA

    PS Please Snarks, have a wee re-think about the guns. As Leia so memorably once said “Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope!” (Btw the way I am no coward and should the shit hit the fan I am more than willing to do my bit. At the very least I could make the tea! ;) )

    PPS Good God I am developing such a crush on Jenny from the BBC’s smash hit “Call the Midwife”! If you haven’t already done so, I strongly suggest you check it out Snarks – you won’t be disappointed! No, sadly there’s no lesbian angle (aside of course from how insanely hot Jenny is!!! :D ) ... Well, at least not yet. ;)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012z3j8

    Ha! Ha! Admit it, only I would take us to 1950's London after having set out from Alderaan! :D

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  4. Camila11:56 AM

    I can see Spock and Han Solo as besties in a pretentious crossover...

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  5. That gun rant is pretty funny...^^ The internet is a weird place.

    Also, this is funny:
    http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/419603_10152429848025142_1995667779_n.jpg

    Amanda

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  6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Kennedy_(film_producer). J.J has to answer to Mrs. Kennedy. :-)

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