Star Wars Wednesday - Grand Moff Tarkin

It wasn't until decades after seeing Star Wars that I would experience the awesomeness of Peter Cushing as a leading man in Hammer Horror Films, but there was still no denying the man had a certain presence on screen.

And it was that presence that formed a band in his name. Wait, what?!

Greetings from Iowa, 1972

While visiting my parents over the weekend, my step-dad spent awhile showing us a lot of really cool old stuff he acquired recently. Among the stuff were lots of postcards (some used, some not) and photographs from the early 1900s.
People looked a lot creepier back then, it's a wonder any of us are here now.

He also had a letter written by a soldier to his family from WWII along with some other things tied to that person. There will be another post on that next week, it's great stuff!

I figured for Monday I'd toss something a little lighter into the blogosphere. It's not WWII old, but early 70s. Here's a postcard from somewhere along rt. 80 in Iowa.

Click for a better view

This just brings a lot of joy to me. I think it goes hand in hand with my love of 50s car culture. There's just something about the Great American Road Trip and everything that would come with it, pre-80s. And maybe it's a little about the kitsch of it all too.

Added bonus! Here's the back...

Doesn't sound like they were having a particularly exciting time, does it? The real reason I even bothered to scan the back though was for the 1972 Munich Summer Games stamp on it, which also helps capture the time this came out of.

I'm also curious if Audrey is a person or the name of their vehicle/camper?

Blog Collective - Video Game Music

Hey there! If you haven't heard, the Blog Collective is looking for bloggers like you! The Collective is inspired by Cool & Collected's League of Extraordinary Bloggers. They throw out a weekly topic and you make a post related to it. Easy peasy!

And while I say it's easy, I'm making my first post a week late. I meant to get around to it sooner, really I did, because it was one of those topics that popped something into
my brain as soon as I saw it:

Video Game Music

For the most part, if you ask me what I thought about the music in any video game, I'll probably tell you I don't remember it. There are exceptions of course, as anyone that's ever played Super Mario Bros. can tell you if they played it for any length of time.

But what I'm talking about is the original video game inspired music:

Click to order on Amazon

Star Wars Wednesday - Return of the Jedi Poster Magazine #3

Well, here we are at the final Star Wars Poster Magazine in my digital archives. And once again, there's an interesting contrast in the cover images. Because the posters inside were double-sided, you could only have one side showing. I put up the Rancor.
I was a weird kid.

This issue focuses more on the Battle of Endor stuff. In this section, they mention how they filmed the background for the speeder bike chase to make it look like they were going 150 mph. I remember seeing how they did it on one of the behind the scenes TV specials that aired. The sketch design in the bottom corner is one of my favorite pieces of concept art.

It seems like, in the sequels, the Empire always gets the cool new toys. First the AT-ATs and now speeder bikes, AT-STs and a sweet folding-wing shuttle!

The next section is about the contrast between the Empire with their shiny new toys and the Rebellion with their beat-up equipment and primitive allies. Not sure why, but the bottom right image of the Falcon flying through the Death Star has been flipped.
The cockpit is on the wrong side.

And wrapping it up is a neat-o fact sheet. As I've said before, things like this were how you found out useless bits of trivia about the movies way back in the pre-internet days.

Be sure to tune in next Star Wars Wednesday for a time tripping audio treat!

League Post - Bring It Back

I'm very happy to have some free time to jump back into the League of

 Extraordinary Bloggers this week. The topic:

Bring it back! What product or media property would you like to see revived, and how would you imagine it being different today.

Two properties immediately jumped to mind right away, both Saturday morning favorites of mine. The first was Thundarr the Barbarian but I didn't think it would be much of an interesting post. Beyond updating the animation, giving it an overall story arc, and on-going plot threads (much like the latest incarnation of Scooby-Doo), there isn't much I'd change.

So that leaves the other one: Land of the Lost!