Swedish Wars

Ford Models

Cello Wars

Cello Wars by The Piano Guys.

 

 

The Piano Guys official site.

 

 

Beam Me Naked

Interworld by Isidore Haiblum.

It appears as though a young, naked Montgomery Scott ("Scotty"), intended to call Interflora, has inadvertently dialled Inerworld and is now being transported across the universe to his surprise.  He's going to regret not wearing pants when he lands on Hoth.

 

Lin Carters brief review of the author and his novel in the corner conjures a William Shatner voiceover.

 

 

All You Need

Released in July 1967 All You Need Is Love was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.

 

The song is notable for its asymmetric time signature and complex changes. The prominent cello line draws attention to this departure from pop-single normality, although it was not the first time that the Beatles had experimented with varied meter within a single song. Throughout this song McCartney's bass implies many additional chords over those played by the other instruments.

 

The song starts with the intro to the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, and contains elements from Glenn Miller's 1939 hit In The Mood, as well as elements from Wayne Shanklin's 1958 hit Chanson D'Amour.  During the long fade-out to the end of the song, elements of various other songs can be heard, including Greensleeves, Invention No. 8 in F major (BWV 779) by J.S. Bach, Glenn Miller's In the Mood (yes again), and the Beatles' own 1963 hit, She Loves You.  Friends and studio people made hand claps and sang background vocals, including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Graham Nash and numerous others (although Yoda was not present for the original recording).

Shakespeares Star Wars

And before you ask, yes it's a real script.

Sith Handshake

Wookiee Wisdom

Jawa Cockroach

These South American cockroaches by the name of Lucihormetica luckae glow under a fluorescent light.  The glowing is a result of a bioluminescent bacteria populating pits in the roaches shell, but what's more scientifically important is that they look exactly like Jawas, even right down to the little bandoliers.

 

 

Bioluminescence is thought to be rarer on land than in the sea and land-dwelling luminous creatures emerged on the planet more recently, with in the last 65 million years. But these cockroaches are different, they travelled here a long time ago from a galaxy far, far away.  An analysis of the roaches bioluminescence shows that they, and their cousin species, glow at the same wavelengths as a toxin-producing beetle that lives in their area to avoid getting picked off by predators.  So they have evolved to mimic a deadly neighbour, just like Mr Funny-shoes.

 

 

Unfortunately the only known specimen of the insect was collected in 1939 on the slopes of Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano, and the site was damaged when the peak erupted in December 2010.  Although the fact that no specimens have been found in ages may be because they decided to return to Tattooine.

 

Neil Young and the Jawas

Rust Never Sleeps by Neil young & Crazy Horse.

An unremarkable album cover for one of the most pivotal albums in music.  This month it's not the picture on LP cover that draws my attention but the album title and story behind it.  Rust Never Sleeps earned Neil Young a new generation of fans, it renewed his standing as a musician and the album became the influence of many future grunge bands such as Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Powderfinger to name a few.

 

Upon its release, Rust Never Sleeps was hailed as a commercial and critical revitalisation for Neil Young, and the successful, bizarre tour featuring oversized amps, roadies dressed as Jawas from the then new Star Wars film (called Road-eyes by Neil), sound technicians in lab coats, audio recordings from Woodstock played from disintegrating tapes:

 

As the house lights were extinguished, Jawas from Star Wars swarmed the stage, moving equipment into position as Coneheads took their places at the mixing boards on stage. The feeble house public address system blared out Jimi Hendrix's guitar version of the U.S. national anthem while three Jawas dragged a ten-foot tall cardboard replica of a 1926 Electrovoice microphone to centre stage, struggling to right it “Iwo Jima” style. Hendrix's "Anthem" suddenly swirled into the Beatles' "A Day In The Life." The large blue instrument case up stage left was lifted to reveal a prone human figure in foetal position clutching a Guild 12-string. The figure rose and broke into the song "Sugar Mountain"...

 

Neil also released a film version of the album under the same title. Later on in 1979, Neil Young and Crazy Horse released the album Live Rust, a compilation of older classics interweaving within the Rust Never Sleeps track list.  My Dad actually had, and still has, an original Rust Never Sleeps poster from the album tour. I remember looking at the poster when I was a kid wondering why there were Jawas on the stage with the band.   The thing to keep in mind about the Jawas in Star Wars is that they are scrap dealers, so they were symbols for the tour and LP.  Neil has confirmed that he got the phrase "Rust Never Sleeps" from Mark Mothersbaugh of the band Devo, the title is borrowed from the slogan for Rust-Oleum paint (a rust inhibitor) and is also an aphorism describing Neil Youngs musical self-renewal to avert the threat of irrelevance.  The Jawas are a representation of that idea.

 

Not so surprisingly, George Lucas threatened legal action at the unlicensed use of his characters, however, this was settled amicably out of court with little fuss.  Suspiciously though, a few years later in 1982, a story appeared in The Empire Strikes Back Monthly comic (issue156 by Marvel UK) about scrap yard droids and Jawas which had the title "Rust Never Sleeps", giving a subtle nod towards Neils music album.

Micro-sculpture

Haven't posted anything arty for a while so here's some microscopic artwork, by Willard Wigan, I was looking at not long ago.  They're pretty damn impressive work if you ask me.

 

Willard started making small sculptures a little over 50 years ago when he was 5.  Having dyslexia and other learning disabilities, he was teased in school when he was young and he turned to his art for solace.  These days the majority of Willards sculptures are usually displayed inside the eye of a needle or literally on the head of a pin.

They are so small that Willard has to go into a meditative state to slow his heartbeat, and he works between each pulse when his hand is completely still and steady. His artwork is of such minute proportions that it virtually can not be seen with the naked eye, and can only be seen clearly with a microscope.  Each piece is sculpted with grains of sand, dust fibers, cobwebs or even insect hair. Willards creations are so light eacho one can be lifted with an eyelash.

 

The average price for each of his micro-sculptures is around $80,000.  Prince Charles Elton John and Mike Tyson are some of the people who collect his work.  Once while he was working on an Alice in Wonderland micro-sculpure, his phone rang. When he answered the phone he sighed and he accidentally inhaled Alice.

 

 

 

Presently Willard is collaborating with two of the worlds finest watch makers, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey (www.timeartgallerygf.com), on a project to create the world’s most exclusive timepiece, Art Piece 1 is scheduled to be unveiled soon at the World International Watch Convention in January 2013.

 

 

As it is easier for a rich man to enter a camel than for a poor man to pass a needle, you can see more of Willard and his micro-sculptures at www.willard-wigan.com.

 

 

Carl Sagan Doomsday Quote

Yep, this Friday is Doomsday.  The Deathstar Mimas has been hanging out around Saturn waiting for December 21, 2012 to charge up it's superweapon. 

Stargate DSV Quote

Chewbacca Gets Dissed

I've got mixed feelings about the recent news of Disney buying Lucas Films and planning a seventh Star Wars Film.  The good news is there will be another Star Wars film, the bad news is the risk that it gets disneyfied.  On the other hand Disney already owns Marvel and they are doing an OK job and not dumbing down that too much. I'm just hoping we don't end up being delivered a movie like Jar Jar Prince of the Galaxy with ewoks flying X-wings or something just as tragic.

Anyway I realised something about the medal ceremony at the end of the original A New Hope.  At the ceremony Luke and Han get awarded medals and Chewbacca is standing there getting nothing.

See even in the free republic wookiees are still classed as pets, just a notch above droids.  At least Darth Vaders plan included freeing all people in slavery.

Liam Neeson Can't Win