Little Bites 4
A few weeks ago, we went to a Star Wars event. They had a band playing the score from the movies, props from the sets, and art projects. Some kids came in costume. (Our family phoned it in with Star Wars t-shirts. By which I mean the Wolvog and I wore Star Wars t-shirts, and the ChickieNob and Josh said, “so, you’re going to wear that?”)
The crowning moment of the event was the parade of characters. Unfortunately they skipped over providing ANY FEMALE CHARACTER despite the fact that probably 1/3rd of the crowd were girls. We got a soft-spoken Obi Wan, some storm troopers, and various other minor characters.
Obi Wan mentioned that they were all members of a group who dress up and attend charity events or help out non-profits, or simply dress up and enjoy each other’s Star Wars company. He then mentioned that the regional group has thousands of members, not to mention the fact that they are a drop in the bucket of the overall membership to the organization. Across America, there are people slipping into Princess Leia’s white gown or Darth Vader’s heavy-breather mask AS YOU READ THIS.
This blew my mind for some reason.
I’m not sure I love Star Wars enough to hang out and chat about the Force with others, but I could think of plenty of well-loved movies or books I’d dedicate my time to recreating with costumes and accents and such.
I could see myself as a random Harry Potter character. Or playacting as the member of a band (though I guess that’s a little bit what that Rock Band game is… right?). And if there was ever a group of people dressing up and playing The Phantom Tollbooth, I’d slip myself into a big furry Tock costume.
What group would you join if it existed?
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I watch a lot of YouTube while I’m supposed to be writing. In my defense, I write very quickly and I’m fairly prodigious in the amount of pages I churn out, therefore, I don’t feel badly that I use roughly half my writing time watching YouTube and surfing the Web. I chalk it all up as idea-casting.
My favourite thing to watch beyond music videos and footage from old concerts is television clips — either things I remember or things I missed the first time around. As of late, I’ve been on a comedian kick, my two favourites being Andy Kaufman and Gilda Radner.
I’m not sure how much either of them identified as Jewish in daily life, but it fills me with such nachas that I can list them as Jewish comedians. There are a lot of Jewish comedians; a lot of Jewish writers and performers and actors. And I don’t feel extreme pride over all of them. For instance, it has never stirred me emotionally that Jerry Seinfeld is a member of the tribe. I like his work and I’ve gone to see his stand-up routine, but it makes no difference to me whether he’s Jewish.
There is no rhyme or reason as to whether I feel that pride that we’re in the same group. Gilda Radner, yes. Andy Kaufman, yes. Judd Apatow, no. Eugene Levy, yes. Jerry Seinfeld, no. Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, yes. (Sorry, Jorma Taccone, that we can’t claim you.)
The words are bleeped out, but I’m fairly certain that this isn’t the best thing to watch at work. But when you get home…
This, on the other hand, totally acceptable for the workplace. Even if you don’t work in your living room like me.
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Sometimes I sit and think about all the names I’m never going to get to use. I know most people have more names that they love than they could possibly have children — that isn’t unique. But they also probably don’t give it as much thought as I do — and I chalk that up to the brick wall between myself and procreation.
13 comments
Ill join you at Hogwarts 🙂
You have to tell me about theese Star Wars things. Michael would love to go.
When my sister and I were the age my kids are now we were horse racing geeks. I don’t know anyone else who want to wax poetic about the qualities of Swaps vrs Native Dancer, but there you go.
I do not have name ideas. I had one name, and then I was at a loss. My husband came up with all the other first and middle names for our kids. I would like to hear some of your names, if you’re not afraid that someone would take them.
I’m not much of a joiner…but in your travels around YouTube, have you come across this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eZBevXohCI
Because my friend at work watches it every day to make himself laugh.
I don’t know what I would dress up as, but I would certainly dress up. I think Harry Potter would be the most likely.
Have you seen the movie Yes Man? The movie overall is just okay, but there’s a Harry Potter costume party that really amuses me.
Given how little interest I have in socializing in the groups to which I already belong, I don’t think I should be joining any imaginary new groups.
Unlike you I definitely do not have a trove of names in wait. In fact, one of the reasons I was so pleased during the gender-reveal ultrasound that our twins turned out to be boy/girl was that we had so much trouble agreeing on the original names that we had no idea how we could come up with another first and middle name for a second boy or girl. If you gave me another baby to name, DH and I would have to work reeeeally hard to come up with something.
Ahem, I might be up for obsessive Start Trek.
That sounds like it was fun though 🙂 Neat!
I’ll have to check out those videos later.
I have several names I’m in love with, and I know I probably won’t ever get to use any of them. I try not to think about them, but sometimes they just pop up out of nowhere. Bleh.
I don’t know what group I’d join; infertile schnauzer-ruled geocachers?
And I know what you mean; we only had one boy’s name and one girl’s name but it is sad for them to go unused. I hope Sparky gets one.
My 7-year-old son is SO into Star Wars that it scares me sometimes. I’m afraid of him ending up like these people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zWNJHS9PBE
Just last weekend I finally told my kids about the baby sister we HOPE will be joining us this summer and his first reaction was “YES! I can train her to me my Jedi apprentice!”
I’m a closet ST fan. Yes, I have been to 4 conventions. Yes, I have a costume although I never wore it to a convention (but I did on several Halloweens). Before the internet was the internet there were BBS. I dialed in each day to find out what my orders were, which ships we were fighting and how damaged our ship was in battle. As Chief Medical Officer I was responsible for reporting how many injuries and deaths occured during the battle. So yeah, BTDT.
Before I was born, my parents sat back to back and wrote down 10 first names. The ones that matched went on a smaller list and they whittled it down to their top 5. Then they made a list for middle names and did the same. They repeated the procedure for boys names. In the end, they had 2 girls names and 2 boys names, with potential backups if necessary. I was a girl so I got the first girl name they chose. My brother got the first boy name. They still have that list in my baby book. It’s errie to think I could have a sister named Gwen. Or that I would have been named my brother’s name.
I am a big fan of Gilda Radner!!! Go us Jewish chicks!!! My dad and his parents were more into the Jewish Lifestyle, Temple, and movies. Let’s just say when I went to visit my grandparent’s in Fort Lauderdale, we would go watch my grandparent perform in their communities drama and music performance many Yiddish plays. Now that is some comedy!! I had no idea what they were saying, but I was cracking up!!!
Gilda Radner and Andy Kaufman were classic. I’ve never been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld. If you haven’t seen her look for Sandra Shamas on youtube. There are a couple of clips of her stand up show. And she’s Canadian!! Another Canadian comic who is hysterically funny is Russell Peters. We’ve seen him several times and love him! Look for Gabriel Iglesias on youtube. He was a contestant on Last Comic Standing a few seasons ago. Very funny! And finally if you even get the chance go see Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie. Totally improv and hysterically funny. I saw them a few weeks ago and nearly died laughing . There’s a couple of clips on youtube. They’re from the “Whose Line is it Anyway” show if you remember that.
I’d totally join you at Hogwarts! 😉
Okay. I just started a comment about unused names. It grew into a whole essay. And since I’ve been leaving a lot of those on other people’s blogs lately, hogging comment space, all the while ignoring my own blog, I decided I’d post it there instead…
In short: no, you are definitely not the only one giving unused names so much thought!