Day #5: Multiple fields of Gravity on the Millennium Falcon

I've written about the fantastic gravity on the Millennium Falcon before. I've also made diagrams, because I am exactly that cool. 

It is a wonderous thing, and every time I watch a new hope my brain twists itself in to knots trying to see it differently, but multiple viewings have left me to conclude that there are multiple fields of gravity in the Millennium Falcon.

 It's not a mistake, cause who says a spaceship can only have one field of gravity? But it makes me grin every time (and I really want to play hide and seek there.)

Day #4: Blue Milk

Alright, so they're in space. This is the first time we've seen anyone in Star Wars at home doing normal things like eating dinner. But they needed a sweet space drink to remind us that this isn't our boring planet, so what did they come up with? Blue Milk.

What's that? Milk? Bor- WAIT! It's blue! This is awesome!

It's simple. It's brilliant. It's easy to make with boring milk and a few drops of food colouring. I highly recommend it as a beverage of choice during your next Star Wars marathon.

Day #3: Phantom Menace Pop Cans

Twenty (24 if you were in the U.S.A) Star Wars character cans were released over the span of the summer of 1999. And what a fantastic summer it was.

For the curious: the ones not available in Canada were the 4 rightmost cans in the middle row. 

I was 10 and suddenly every mundane trip to the grocery store, gas station or food court had been transformed into a magical Star Wars themed treasure hunt. I diligently checked every pop can everywhere I went that entire summer to collect all 20. My parents were perfectly willing to shell out the dollar for a soda whenever I found one I didn't have yet and I was happy to go anywhere that might have a Star Wars pop can. It was a complete win-win. My summer ended triumphantly when I got the last one and twenty unopened pop cans were placed on my shelf with pride.

All was well and good until I woke up in the middle of the night several years after hearing a strange noise. After some investigation I discovered that the Shmi can had sprung a leak and was now gleefully spraying a tiny stream of diet pepsi across my bedroom. I leapt into action, grabbing the can and running to the bathroom where I put it in the tub and watched the pepsi escape. As I watched the pepsi shoot an impressive distance out of the tiny pinhole that had appeared I realized that I had no choice but to empty the rest of the cans. This pained my 14-year-old self, but I saw no other option. I gathered the remained of the cans and began to empty them down the drain.

My dad is the lightest sleeper in the world and evidently the sound of pop cans being opened was more than enough to wake him. He peered through the open bathroom door to see me in my pyjamas frantically opening can after can into the tub. He shook his head slightly and asked what I was doing, his curiosity and confusing far outweighing his annoyance at being woken up. I explained the tragic tale and he went back to bed, leaving me to rinse and dry my collection and return it carefully to the shelf as the sun began to rise.

Day #2: The Metal Bikini

There's absolutely nothing not awesome about a bikini made of metal. I mean, just look at it. It's a METAL BIKINI.

Picture Above: A Metal Bikini

This is not a logical material to build a bikini out of. As such, when I was a kid the idea was so fantastically ridiculous that just thinking about it cracked me up. This has not changed. The metal bikini was so influential to my childhood self that "metal bikini" was the shorthand for "Return of the Jedi". Many conversations about which movie to watch went like this:

"Want to watch Star Wars?"
"Which one?"
"Metal Bikini."

I've come to discover that this reaction to the metal bikini was not universal. University friends just look at me when I mention the endless joy it caused and they responded with a shrug, saying that they never really thought about the metal bikini being silly. To them it was just what one wore when chained to a giant slug I suppose.

Day #1: The Pause between the title cards

A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away....

I love pretty much everything about Star Wars, but there is nothing I love more than the moment of silence and darkness between this:

and when the Star Wars logo goes flying into the screen to that first blast of John William's score.

That moment, that pause of sheer anticipation will always be one of my absolute favourite things in the world. In a crowd of Star Wars fans at a midnight show or Star Wars In Concert or [insert any excuse to watch Star Wars in large groups here] the reaction is always the same:

The crowd will clap, cheer and generally be totally excited as the 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm logos play, and will continue this moderate level of noise until the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." card fades.

Then there is silence. The entire audience leans forward, waiting for the familiar, joyful beginning to the movies we all love. My heart races. The movie has started, but it hasn't really begun until-

STAR WARS.

And the theatre erupts in noise, a single chorus of joy of hundreds of people thrilled to be watching Star Wars as part of an audience. Then the crawl begins and the audience returns to respectful silence, everyone reading the three paragraphs that tell us all we need to know to be introduced to that galaxy far, far away...

cue the 20th Century Fox drum roll...

The Goal: Starting January 1, 2011 I will post once a day about something I find completely awesome about Star Wars. Some of these awesome things will be obvious, some of them will be utterly ridiculous, and some of them will be bizarrely specific. But they will all be awesome.

Why? Star Wars doesn't just own my soul, it IS my soul. Easily 60-70% of my being is composed of Star Wars. I am very okay with this.

I watched the full frame VHS of the Original Trilogy so many times that when I got the widescreen DVDs I kept being startled by things on the edges of the picture that I'd never seen before. When I am scared or upset, it is quotes from Star Wars that rush reassuringly through my head. I am still genuinely surprised when someone I know watches Star Wars without me because while growing up this was unheard of. Everyone watched Star Wars with me. Friends, neighbours, family: if they wanted to watch Star Wars they would watch it with me.

I've been obsessed since childhood and as such have accumulated an alarming amount of Star Wars crap merchandise. At any point over the last 13 years when faced with the need for something and could find a Star Wars version for a similar price, that was the one I ended up with. But unlike most things acquired while growing up, I still think all the Star Wars stuff is awesome (Beanie Babies WISHED they had the staying power of a Darth Maul lunchbag).

Do I know everything about Star Wars? Absolutely not. And I won't pretend I do. My knowledge and love is based mostly in the movies. All of the Expanded Universe stuff is fun, but it always leaves me longing for the original trilogy, so I end up watching it again. And again.

So get excited because 2011 is going to be the year of unending Star Wars appreciation. Just like every other year of my life.