Midnight Ramblings

Ahh, happy April Fool's Day! I'm kind of diappointed...none of my movie gossip websites do any kind of April Fool's jokes anymore. I'll never forget back in 2000, when Corona's Coming Attractions had the first ever news about the next Star Wars movie. Billy Dee Williams as new character Landal Calcrissian! A Cloud City figuring into the plot! Star Wars 2: The Empire Strikes Back coming in May 1980!

But, anyway, you could always go wish my best friend a happy birthday. It really is his birthday today.

Don't forget, Episode III action figures go on sale tomorrow. As I said before, I'm kind of holding out for "on the verge of the Dark Side" Anakin. Actually, I'm wondering if I spotted a spoiler in the newest ToyFare. They showed a picture of "on the verge of the Dark Side" Anakin and it was labeled "Darth Vader." So, I'm starting to think that Anakin becomes Darth Vader BEFORE he dons the trademark Vader armor. Cool.

I was explaining this to one of my coworkers yesterday, and I was surprised by her reaction. Back when the special editions came out, I read the statistic that the average man had seen Star Wars 7 times, and the average woman 5 times.

So you can imagine my complete shock when my coworker...HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE PREQUELS!! "What do you mean Luke's not in them? What the heck is a prequel, anyway?" I spent 10 minutes explaining that it's before Star Wars and Luke isn't born yet and it's about how Luke's dad became Darth Vader. She had trouble believing me.

But I won't be part of any midnight madness for action figures. Nope. I've got tomorrow set aside to finally head down to St. Paul and see the UFO landing pad. Naturally, people think I'm nuts. "It's just a slab of concrete! Why the hell do you want to see that?"

Well, I believe the theory behind roadside attractions that Neil Gaiman lays out in his book American Gods. Essentially, Gaiman hatches the idea that, wherever one of these attractions is built, there's something, well, scared about that site, and we just don't quite know how to interpret it. 2 or 3 hundred years ago, we would have built a shrine or a temple on the site. Now, we erect a giant Easter egg...or a UFO landing pad.

I plan to take that idea to the next level in a short story or something someday. Introduce the caretaker of one of these world's largests, and portray him as a holy man.

Next Issue...the Road to St. Paul