Calaidescope World

Another Prop to Occupy My Time

• I've stopped smoking for over a month and am getting fat, but am too lazy to work out.
• it's raining and I can't go on my daily walk to Glorietta or walk my dog tonight after work.
• Layla's first birthday is coming and I still don't know what to get her.
• the World Cup is over. No more one-time big-time guapo fest.
• Michael Schumacher only has 3 races left and I can't afford to see the upcoming race in Shanghai (what more the races in Japan and Brasil!).
• I have to watch NASCAR races because my employer will sponsor Juan Pablo Montoya in the next season.
• Rockstar: Supernova is done (I'm not happy with the result).
• Survivor is, for some reason, no longer being aired in the Philippines. I want to know which "race" is ahead.
• the 7th season of CSI (Las Vegas) has not yet made its way to AXN-Asia. Since all CSI romances go belly up, I wonder who they're going to get rid of - Gil or Sara (please kill Sara. Please! And let William Peterson stretch his acting muscles a bit on TV).
• AXN-Asia hasn't gotten the 3rd season of CSI: NY either. Worse: when the new season starts, Claire Forlani and Edward Furlong will be in it, and there will be even more CSI romances. Ewww. I just want to see crimes getting solved! Hello!
• the 2nd season of Grey's Anatomy hasn't started on Star World Asia (but I think it will soon)
• HBO Asia never bothered showing the last season of Six Feet Under. I hope they air the 3rd season of Entourage.
• Power Books and Rustan's are going on sale this weekend, but I need to save up for Christmas.
• evil George Lucas is re-releasing the original theatrical version of the first three Star Wars films. Or are they the last three? Whatever. You know what I mean. But has he ever bothered releasing a DVD copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special? Nooo! Jerk.

I miss seeing Kaka (sigh). I miss Marty Casey (yes, I know, Rockstar: INXS was last year, but he was so much more fun to watch than the Supernova hopefuls). I'm running out of books to read, but I'm thoroughly enjoying Bianca's copy of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

I should have more time. More time for more than this. I get home dead tired and look forward to mindless entertainment, but I almost always miss the Seinfeld re-runs. House, M.D. is on too late. So should I just....work? Dream?

Change topic. But it's a related one. Really. I don't have time to create a separate post right now. I just have to share what Bianca sent me from Entertainment Weekly. It's mindless entertainment that...well, affects me like all other things that shouldn't.

Dalton Ross on why he can't stop rebuying ''Star Wars.''

JEDI TRICKS The latest Lucas plan means many fans must rebuy ''Special Editions'' they already own to get the new discs with Luke and Leia as seen in the original theatrical releases.

There's a sucker born every minute. Like me, for instance. How do you know when you're a sucker? When you find yourself shelling out 90 bucks for three movies that you already own. In about 18 different formats.

I'm speaking, of course, about this week's re-release of the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. I suppose a little history is in order: Back in 2004, George Lucas put out Episodes 4, 5, and 6 - sorry, I'm not going to geek out with the Roman numerals - on DVD. Fans were delighted and outraged at the same time - delighted because the movies looked beautiful, sounded incredible, and featured some really cool bonus features, and outraged because he insisted on releasing only his tweaked ''Special Edition'' versions. Why not release both the unaltered and the updated ones, fans asked, much in the way Lucas pal Steven Spielberg did with E.T.? But Lucas didn't listen. Of course, now we know why: Because he wanted to wait two years to do that so that everyone who purchased his 2004 boxed set would have to go back and buy the films all over again.

But what Lucas is doing is even more egregious, because you can't just go out and buy the new... uh, old... uh, let's just call them ''original'' versions of the films. You have to rebuy all three Special Edition versions, which now come in two-disc packs along with the untampered ones. That sucks. Look, any true goober (like me) already has the 2004 discs, and now if we want to own the films as we saw them back in the day, we have to buy the 2.0 versions all over again. Very interesting that Lucas would decide to package the movies this way, especially considering that said movies are all about the evils of greed. (Irony, anyone?)

I also love (and when I say ''love'' I actually mean hate) how Lucas is now saying that he's doing it because the fans were so passionate in their desire for the original versions of the films. He's right. They are. And they also were two years ago, when they screamed and shouted for the untampered originals, but he conveniently wasn't listening then. Still, none of this is the worst part. The worst part is that this blatant rip-off will not be the last time I buy movies featuring Ewoks and digitally inserted Gungans. You see, it turns out that these new two-packs will only be available through the end of the year. Why, you ask? Well, word is there is some sort of ultimate boxed set coming out next year that will contain all six previously released films, along with a whole bunch of other extras that Lucas has purposefully held off of other versions. IT SIMPLY NEVER ENDS!!!

''You're either with me or you're against me,'' Anakin says to Obi-Wan in a line that speaks to power, corruption, and the dark side. So far, I've been with Mr. Lucas and all his various home video releases. And I hate myself for it.

Now, here's something from the feedback section of Entertainment Weekly regarding the above article:

The thing with the new Star Wars release for me is that the ''new-super-duper-extra-shiny-jumbo-mega-special-supercalifragilisticexpealidocious-last-one-we-really-promise-edition'' that is rumored to be coming out next year is just that: RUMORED! What if I don't buy these ones, and then the Internet turns out to be wrong? And I miss my chance to own these particular discs??? And they are never offered on eBay or anything? And my children get picked on in school because they never owned the 2006 set? And they have low self-esteem and never get into good colleges and end up living at home forever? I think I need to go lie down. Excuse me. — Michelle Fournier

As a parent, I feel your pain, Michelle. What it all comes down to, basically, is one simple question: Can your children live in a world without ''Yub Yub''? I've heard such a place exists. I've even observed from a safe distance. And I don't care to go there ever again (Dalton Ross, writer).

Check this picture out. Jeff emailed it to my sisters and I.

It's not his collection, mind you. When I told my friends that I prefer to date a Star Wars geek, I most certainly did NOT have this type in mind. Whoever the owner of this collection is, he's scary! But, if the guy had a copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special from the late 70s...consider him, we may, hmmm?

posted by Calai @ 12:34 PM