By pminton

The title of this post is in the last panel of an installment of Questionable Content, but the post is all about the accidental savant that is going to further rape my inner fanboy. I am, of course, speaking of George “Empire is my worst film” Lucas. According to a blog post on /Film George “revealed to Fox News that he will make two more live-action Star Wars films.” Only they’re going to be one-hour-long and made for TV,

“But they won’t have members of the Skywalker family as characters,” he said. “They will be other people of that milieu.”

Um, wait. I’m sorry, but wasn’t the entire point of the films, the comics, the novels and mostly everything else in the Star Wars universe about the Skywalkers? Most fans, when asked what Star Wars is about, will say something about the redemption of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Also, I have to wonder (as does the author of the /Film blog) how are these going to be any different than the planned television series (the episodes are supposedly one hour long)? Did I mention that the series is supposed to air on the CW?

“This week on Star Wars the Series: guest stars The Fray!”

I’m going to make a comparison here that lots of people are going to dislike. Sorry, but it has to be done.
We all remember Elvis Presley at the end of his career: fat, shiny jumpsuits, big glasses and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. What if Elvis had died earlier - like when we could still remember him as young and cutting-edge? Think about Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. I’m not saying I’m glad they died early - far from it. But what if they’d gone on to write jingles for TV commercials or something? What if Jim Morrison had sobered up and started writing poetry? Wait. Um. Right. Would we have fond memories of them then?

No.

I think the same needs to happen here with the Star Wars franchise. It needs to be over. No TV show. No more movies. No. More. Please. Let me remember Star Wars as young Elvis. Let me remember Han, Luke and Leia as the young, brash Heroes of the Rebellion. Let me remember the first time I saw that Star Destroyer come onscreen over my head (albeit I didn’t get to see it on a big screen until 1997). Even though Episodes I - III Have been tough on Star Wars fans the world over, old and young, if we end it right now we can all still have fond memories of the series.

I don’t want this much beloved franchise end up bloated, strung-out and dead on a toilet.

The thing is: if these movies and the TV show get made…I’ll watch. Much like all those fans still paid to see Elvis in the later years…I’ll watch. Then when all is eventually over, I’ll just have to hope that my fond memories of Star Wars are not lost to memories of Party of Five: Bounty Hunters and Tatooine (Lucasfilm’s Smallville).

I would start an online petition if I thought it might work. I would write a post on the starwars.com message board, but I’m sure “the George” never reads them. My best bet might be writing a personal plea on behalf of geeks, nerds and dorks everywhere directly to Mr. Lucas himself. Perhaps the millions of souls crying out in terror would not be suddenly silenced.

Then again, I bet it’s hard to care when you’ve got several tens of millions of dollars to soothe one’s conscience.

So something happened yesterday which managed to point out three painful truths:

• 1) If a butterfly flaps its wings in Zimbabwe, an American stock trader will immediately dump 5,000 shares of Apple.
• 2) Even a bell-weather, blue-chip company like Apple is susceptible to the whims of butterfly wings.
• 3) The internet is a helluva thing.

What exactly happened, you ask? This happened:

at 11:49 AM EST Engadget posted saying that the iPhone and Leopard operating system launches would be seriously delayed. They based the story on an internal Apple email that was forwarded to them. The original post:

This one doesn’t bode well for Mac fans and the iPhone-hopeful: we have it on authority that as of today, the iPhone launch is being pushed back from June to… October (!), and Leopard is again seeing a delay, this time being pushed all the way back to January. Of 2008. The latest WWDC Leopard beta will still be handed out, but it looks like Apple-quality takes time, and we’re sure Jobs would remind everyone that it’s not always about “writing a check”, but just how much time are these two products really going to take?

Apple’s stock promptly tanked on massive selling, going from $107.89 to $103.42 in six minutes (11:56 - 12:02). This wiped just over $4 billion off of Apple’s market capitalization. A lot of people lost a lot of money very quickly.

Well, it turns out that the email was a hoax. In an update, Engadget said that the email was in fact sent from Apple’s internal email system, but that it was not accurate. Apple quickly notified Engadget of the error, saying “This communication is fake and did not come from Apple. Apple is on track to ship iPhone in late June and Mac OS X Leopard in October.”

[via TechCrunch]

Now, mind you, it took less than half an hour for the stock to rebound - and the share closed the day down only $1.40 (that’s still 1.25 billion in market cap). But the point is: one single blogger caused Apple investors to lose a collective four billion dollars in minutes. Sure, he writes for a leading technology blog. And sure, the email itself was responsible for the panic - not the blogger reporting on it. But there is no denying the power the blogging community can have on the world around us. It’s frightening to think of the ramifications internet culture has on our social and economic lives.

Who wants to bet somebody’s lawyers are furiously sharpening their pencils right about now…

I’m a little late in recommending this, but better late than never.

Last.FM is a social music service that lets you customize the music you hear based on what you’re listening to already. The more you listen to music you like, the better playlists Last.FM builds for you.

It works by doing something they call “scrobbling.” Scrobbling, while funny to say, is an ingenious concept. You install a small application from Last.FM that provides a plugin for iTunes, WinAmp and Windows Media Player. Whenever you listen to music on any of these applications, the Last.FM application scrobbles the tracks you play.

It learns what you like based on what you listen to.

Thanks to scrobbling, the website can compile a recommended playlist of similar artists just for you. Once you’ve given Last.FM a taste of your tastes, it generates a sort of you-centric jukebox that you can listen to free online or in the player on your computer.

Whenever you’re listening to a radio station (and not your own playlist) you have the option to love or ban tracks you hear. This helps the software know where it’s gotten your preferences right, and where it’s missing the mark.

As your playlists and recommendations grow, you can share your music with friends. They can share music with you. You can listen to customized radio stations programmed by other users with tastes similar to yours. And, of course, you have the option to buy albums and songs via Amazon or iTunes from your Last.FM dashboard.

It’s very cool and very free. It is also remarkably good at figuring out what you’re going to like. I’ve collected quite a few new favorite artists in the short time I’ve been using it.

There are some hangups, though. The website and player interfaces aren’t always intuitive. In the online service, you can’t usually play a specific full-length track by an artist you like. You have to play a radio station of “similar” artists that will eventually include some songs by the artist you chose. And the Last.FM website seems to suffer from slowdowns and outages quite often. But none of these issues is by any means enough to make the service unusable.

Also, in addition to the core free service, you can purchase a subscription for $3/month. For the fee, you get to listen to your own customized radio station, get premium bandwidth for music streaming, no ads, and enrollment in beta testing and special programs. But that’s only if its worth it to you.

One other service that Last.FM offers is an events calendar based on your location and tastes. At any time, you can see concerts and shows coming up in your area, get the date/time/ticket prices, and find out whether any other users are attending. If you know of an event that isn’t listed, you can even submit it yourself.

If you listen to music, and I know you do, you’ll like Last.FM.

(my Last.FM username is cechols)

This is another out-of-character post for the blog. Normally I wouldn’t put up a photo of myself, or make a point of bragging about meeting a local celebrity. But I’m doing it anyway.

So that’s me on the left and Casey on the right. If you’re not from Knoxville or hereabouts, then you might not recognize the man in the center. He’s Hallerin Hilton Hill, a local radio personality and, as it turns out, inspirational speaker.

I’ve listened to his radio show on NewsTalk 100 for years, but never had the chance to meet him in person. Before I actually did meet him, though, I’d heard that he was arrogant and not the friendliest guy.

I can’t remember now where I heard it, or from whom - it was a long time ago. But I know I’d heard it and internalized it, because every time I listened to his show, I found myself wondering if the guy just sounded friendly on the radio.

And since I’d heard that Hal wasn’t personable, I occasionally mentioned it to others. Not maliciously, or anything. But if it somehow came up in conversation, I know I’ve said, “Hey, I heard he’s kind of an arrogant dude. Not very friendly in person.” It was hearsay, but that’s what I’d heard.

Which brings me to the story.

Casey and I went with Robert and Mom to a banquet hosted by one of the electrical supply houses here in Knoxville. It was free, we got a healthy amount of complimentary swag from electrical vendors, dinner was catered, and Hal was to be the speaker. After touring the vendor booths, we sat down in the banquet hall to sift through our bags of free wirenuts, zip-ties, inkpens and light-fixture catalogs.

Well before the meal started, Hal came in from the hall’s side door. As he walked towards the tables, I noticed him and nudged Casey. I don’t know if he saw me motion to her, or if he was just being a nice guy, but as he came past our table he stopped and offered me a handshake.

“I’m Hal. It’s good to meet you.” He said it with a big smile.

I shook his hand, introduced myself, and grinned with that grin you get when you’re shaking hands with someone even moderately recognizable. Then he walked through the hall full of tables and went to the doorway to meet with the guys who set up the dinner. After that, he stood in the entry way and greeted the people still coming in to sit down.

Not arrogant. Genuinely friendly. And cool about the whole thing.

A guy at our table, who was about my age, had his digital camera with him. Apparently his brother was a big Hallerin fan and he wanted to get a picture. So Casey and I went with him and his wife to get a picture of them with Triple H. The man obliged without hesitation, and even posed for a shot with me and Case.

We headed back to our seats and then enjoyed the catered dinner. Afterwards, Hal got up to speak.

He told a funny and pretty inspirational story that was vaguely autobiographical. He managed to get a bunch of burly electricians to stand up and hug each other - big mama style. It was a lot of fun. When we left that night, I was thinking about how his story applied to my life, and how meeting a local radio talk-show host was way more satisfying than I thought it was going to be. I left wondering why I’d heard that Hallerin was arrogant and unfriendly in person.

Of course, the fact that he was being paid to make an appearance might have made him artificially friendlier. That’s a possibility. But it didn’t feel like it. He didn’t get paid any extra to shake my hand on his way in.

It occurred to me that if one person gets snubbed by a “celebrity,” then that person is probably more likely to tell somebody about it. The same way that someone who has a bad experience at a restaurant will tell people not to go there. “The service is terrible. I ordered my salad with crutons and it came with bacon bits instead. Bacon bits!”

I realized that I might have based my preconceptions about Hallerin on no more than one person’s experience. But I’d probably shared that “insight” with a dozen or so people in the years between hearing it and actually meeting the man. I’d perpetuated someone else’s hard feelings and given who knows how many others a reason - even if a second-hand reason - to think less of a man we’d never even met.

Everybody does this. It’s so innocuous that we do it without thinking: we pass on second- or third-hand stories and rumors and mumblings like they were facts. And we take in those mumblings from others and, without any better reasoning, make them our own opinions. I know I do it all the time - even if I don’t mean to.

So here’s my point: if listening to second-hand stories from somebody else is going to rub off on you, then let me pass along a kind word in this case - Hallerin Hilton Hill sure seemed like a good dude to me.

That’s the end of the story.

*Thanks to David for taking the photo.