Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Star Wars


33 years ago today, Star Wars was released. I thought I'd take a few minutes and talk about how I became a fan.

My mom wanted to take me out to a movie at the Eastwood theater on the northeast side of Indianapolis. The theater was known for having a huge 70mm screen. Some sci-fi movie was playing there that no one knew a lot about, but the ad in the paper looked interesting. We thought we'd give it a shot.
I was blown away, like millions of other people were around the country. I lost count of how many times I saw it.
Keep in mind, in 1977 I was almost 14 when the movie came out. So my enthusiasm for the movie didn't extend much past just watching the movie.
  • I never dressed up as my favorite character.
  • I didn't collect the comic books
  • I didn't collect the figures
One thing I did do was get the soundtrack from the movie. Remember what the cover looked like?


The album also contained a poster, I was in seventh heaven listening to that album over and over and over.
Remember this was before VHS and DVD, so this was the only way for me to take a piece of the movie home and re-live in in my imagination as often as I wanted.

(I saw the other 2 movies from the original trilogy as well, with equal amounts of excitement, but I want to keep this post on point about the movie that started it all.)

Fast forward to June of 2001.

I was working as a traffic reporter for Metro Networks, when for some reason that I don't recall as I write this, I thought I'd do a search on the internet to see if there were any "Star Wars" enthusiasts/fans in some kind of organized group in Indianapolis.

I found "The Indy Knights". A small group of fans who meet once a month to talk about the movies, as well as all things sci-fi. How can you not love a group whose motto is: "Hoosier Daddy, Luke?" The group was about 10-15 members strong when I attended my first gathering. So small that meetings were held in members homes at first.

So I started attending meetings, enjoying the company of people who enjoyed the movie as much, and in some cases a little more than I do.

One particular meeting included a screening of the Episode 1 DVD. At this particular house there was a "Star Wars Room" complete with figures and other assorted memorabilia. I remember lamenting that I wish I had started my collection 24 years ago. It was then that I heard those fateful words:

"It's never too late to start."

So I decided, what the heck. It was then that I started collecting figures. I started with stuff you could easily buy in stores. It ramped up to older figures, and then comic books past and present.

But that's it!

If I had the funds, my collection could've grown in so many different directions: books, art, arcade games, costuming, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

So that brings you up to date to where I am now. I take a lot of good natured ribbing for being a fan, at times I am called a 'geek'.  But I don't care. I am who I am.

Because my career hasn't been going all that well these last few years, I've had to cut back on my collecting save for the occasional comic book binge.

So that's how it all began for me. Are you a Star Wars fan as well? It's OK, you can tell me. Maybe I'll see you at the next Indy Knights meeting.

You know how this post is going to end don't you.

May The Force Be With You....Always.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Parks and Recreation!




I had an interesting day yesterday.

In addition to radio work, I also freelance as 'talent' for Artistic Enterprises. What that means is that occasionally I audition to be on tv commercials, training videos, and stuff like that.

I received an email a couple of days ago from the agency, asking that I be at the statehouse for a video shoot involving the Indiana Department of Parks and Recreation.


So I get dressed up in an outfit that I haven't worn since my TV traffic reporting days and meet with 15 other people who were also asked to be there. No one knew exactly what was going on. We all thought it was a political commercial, or some kind of public service announcement.

After we all gathered in the lobby, we were ushered to the house chamber. Still no clue as to what was happening. I had never been to the statehouse before, not even on a school tour. I was soaking all this in, taking pics with my phone.
Once we got inside the chamber, all of us had to sign releases. That's when it hit us. On the release, I saw the words, "NBC" and "Parks and Rec". At that moment, we realized that this was no ordinary assignment. We were going to be extras on the hit NBC show!!! Clearly a mistake was made somewhere, at least as far as my involvement here is concerned.

We were told that we are supposed to act like politicians pretending to listen to a speech at the podium, and we are supposed to be bored as we listen. 15 people  were scattered around the chamber sitting in random chairs.

I was lucky enough to have a different assignment. I got to be a photographer pretending to take pictures of Amy Poehler. So while everyone else was sitting around, I actually got to move around a little bit.
WTHR, the NBC affiliate, was there as well doing a story about the whole thing. I got to talk to reporter Kevin Rader and told him about how I got involved in the shoot. I again stressed how some kind of mistake has been made, and what the heck was I doing there?
What an experience! For about 2 hours all I did was take a bunch of fake pictures of an empty podium. I was a little nervous at first, but once we got started, the time flew by. When we finished, everyone looked at each other as if to say, "That's it?"

The footage that was shot is going to be used in the show next season. A part of the chamber is going to be re-created in Hollywood. Then the stuff that was shot here will be combined with the stuff there. All in all I'll probably be an inch tall on your tv when the episode airs.
So..how much did I make? Well I honestly don't know yet. I did get reimbursed $14 for parking!
So I've got THAT going for me...which is nice.