Heart of the City by Steenz for May 25, 2011

Deano, you’re just bringing it on yourself at this point …

Might as well just put a “Kick Me!” sign on your back while you’re at it!!

So, it was 34 years ago this summer that I was lined up on the Main Street sidewalk near the theatre with my sisters, waiting to have my life changed! Not sure the last part came true, but since movies were an extremely rare treat, it was quite exciting!!

Imagine if that was Lio. You’ve seen how he handle bullies!

Star Wars didn’t change my life…2001: A Space Odyssey did that. My wife and I instantly loved Star Wars; we were SF fans from childhood on, and it’s the apotheosis of space opera — pure fun, and it was a quantum jump better than anything of the sort that had ever been done.

But 2001 was different. It was true science fiction, not space opera; it was mind-bending mythos, awe, and wonder, delivered as an artistic masterpiece. It was, to me, like understanding for the first time, in the tiniest of ways, the gut-level meaning of “infinity” — I almost had to be led out of the theater in a mild state of shock.

Star Wars was great…but 2001 was Great.

It may not have changed my LIFE-Life, but I’ll cop to it changing my Culture-Life. I saw Star Wars on opening day, back in ‘77, but it was pretty much by accident. It wasn’t anything I was eagerly anticipating, it was just something to do. Little did I know…

It’s still one of my favorite movies, even though I haven’t watched it in many years at this point. But it was my FIRST.

34 years ago, my mother took my brother and I to see Star Wars at the Cottage View Drive In in Cottage Grove, MN. We went in our jammies, since we usually fell asleep in the car before the second movie ended and it was easier to just carry us in and plunk us in our beds. My mother was never a fan of the man whose name she thought was “Dark Invader”, but she totally called that he was Luke’s father.

Nice clothesline, bully.