The Wandering Mind of a Rolling Stone

We're beyond Memorial Day and, with it, the unofficial start to summer. For me, summer has a more distinct soundtrack than any other season. Yes, over Christmas carols. A lot of that comes from music blasting from cheap stereos at cookouts, playlists at rooftop bars and parties as the notes shimmer through vintage string lights as much as the DC humidity, and all manner of summer concerts and festivals watching my heroes take the stage and thrill thousands. From a 2015 show where I saw the Foo Fighters rock with Heart, Joan Jett, and more at RFK on Independence Day. My mom wasn't thrill about me going to rock shows; it was that decadent, hedonistic American culture that kept me out well into the night that she grew up wary of in her native Korea which is probably really informative of why I love rock and roll so much because that's exactly the fucking point. My father, as usual, was relatively ambivalent; he didn't really like live music because of how loud it can

This is one of those movies where people either really love it or they completely fucking hate it; hard to find any middle ground among the fanbase on this one.What writer/director Rian Johnson basically did here was create this Star Wars film that would actively try to challenge and subvert a lot of expectations and tropes. Sometimes that works and works well, sometimes it doesn't and it definitely runs the risk of putting people off (Which it had/has). But Johnson is boldly swinging for the fences here. And let's try to figure out if he succeeds; five months later, I'm still trying to figure it out too. You're never going to be able to convince me this scene isn't phenomenal. For starters, this is the only main entry in the ongoing Star Wars saga so far that doesn't have a considerable time jump between installments. Roughly three years separate The Empire Strikes Back from A New Hope . Return of the Jedi takes place months after its predecessor. Ther

Outside of The Clone Wars , we hadn't really seen any Star Wars movies set out outside of the main story and without the episodic numbering; The Clone Wars is not a good comparative precedent to have. And with the first anthology Star Wars film being a prequel showing how the Rebel Alliance secured the Death Star plans immediately before the events of Episode IV was something else to be tentatively cautious about. You'll note that none of the major marketing labeled Rogue One as a "prequel", the word effectively becoming terminology non grata with the franchise. The lack of opening text crawl is always jarring to me as we immediately jump right into the action and something that strikes me right away is that Rogue One very much has its one distinctive cinematographic style visually; existing outside of the main story, it has more freedom to break from the house visual style. Rogue One is the darkest, most cynical we've ever seen the Star Wars Universe

While there had been rumors of a sequel Star Wars trilogy as early as there were rumors about a prequel trilogy, the possibility of Episodes VII, VIII, and IX making it to the big screen always seemed a lot more dubious. By the time the prequels were actually coming out, I didn't mind that we'd probably never see anything beyond Return of the Jedi ; I was getting over Star Wars with all this sub-par content coming out. Funny how things change over time. I had met my future super good buddy Jake at a special screening of Yellow Submarine for my sister's birthday back in 2012. It was brought to my attention by our mutual friend TJ that he wanted to start a pop culture focused podcast. I was about to start my final semester of grad school and was burning out reading and writing the driest material I've ever gone over and wanted to change things up and do something for fun again. So we went and got coffee at the now defunct-Caribou Coffee for a quick meet-up to k

At first I was going to keep this strictly live-action but the completionist in me knew that there was this animated movie that got a wide theatrical release in August 2008 that nobody gave a shit about; the only Star Wars film not to hit even $70 million at the worldwide box office (Though, with a production budget of $8 million, still technically a success). So, with reluctance and trepidation, I decided to include it on the lineup. Why all the dragging my heels on this? Isn't the animated series that spun out of this critically acclaimed? Yeah, the show is fine; some of the best material to come out of the prequel era actually. It's just that this movie completely fucking sucks. The Phantom Menace is the worst live action Star Wars movie. Done deal, no debate. The Clone Wars is the worst Star Wars movie. Not quite the worst Star Wars thing. The holiday special still holds that distinction. The sizzle reel from Star Wars Detours takes second place; the planned a

On some level, we always knew how this story was going to end. Anakin Skywalker would ditch his original identity and become the evil Darth Vader. The Jedi would be hunted to the point of extinction forcing Obi-Wan and Yoda into exile. The Galactic Republic would be subverted from within and become the Galactic Empire. We just didn't know quite how it all got to that point. During recess, we would theorize that it came from a duel between a much younger Vader and Obi-Wan by a volcano. Obi-Wan would leave the defeated Vader for dead leaving him burned by the heat and toxic fumes needing the iconic black armored suit to survive. That was the rumored backstory so seeing those first trailer images of that actually taking place in Revenge of the Sith brought us all right back to those schoolyard fantasies. In a sharp contrast to Attack of the Clones , I was excited for Episode III going as far to skip my last class of the day in high school when it came out on May 15 to catch a sho

There has always been some debate if Attack of the Clones is better or worse than The Phantom Menace ; let me assure you, Attack of the Clones is not as bad as its predecessor but still not a good movie at all. Episode II is the first Star Wars live action film (and, to date, only) that has come out while I've been alive that I haven't seen in its opening weekend. The thrill of it just wasn't there anymore; seeing new Star Wars had become more of an obligation and less of an event. And this movie certainly didn't do itself any favors to change my mind. The fall of Anakin Skywalker should be the most tragic thing in the world. We should just get our hearts broken that the Hero of the Republic and prophesied Jedi savior turns out to be the one that directly causes its undoing. But we never actually like the guy so when we see hints of him going evil here, there is absolutely no pathos. A lot of that is Hayden Christensen's performance which makes the young Sk

The rumors were true. For years on schoolyards, wood-paneled basements, and sleep neighborhood streets, my friends and I had talked about the possibility of Star Wars movies depicting the fall of Anakin Skywalker and the birth of Darth Vader. Obi-Wan and Anakin's epic duel by a volcano. The galaxy-spanning Clone Wars. The demise of the Old Republic. All these things that were alluded to briefly in the movies had become mythologized since the release of Return of the Jedi from little more than back-and-forth what-ifs. After all, A New Hope , The Empire Strikes Back , and Return of the Jedi were labeled Episodes IV, V, and VI. Surely we'd get to see Episodes I, II, and III. After supervising the post-production on Jurassic Park while his friend Steven Spielberg was busy filming Schindler's List , George Lucas was convinced VFX had caught up to his planned vision for a prequel trilogy. The largely positive reaction to the Special Edition versions of the original trilog