The Electric Light Jedi Orchestra
Every once in a while I run across something that really makes me believe in synchronicity – that there are simply no coincidences whatsoever. This interview with David Acomba, who was initially slated to direct the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, really keeps me thinking that way too. An excerpt discussing the original intentions for the legendarily lousy show’s musical direction:
FAX: It’s interesting imagining “The Star Wars Holiday Special” as a rock musical.
ACOMBA: It definitely would have had more rock ‘n’ roll in the same way that Robin Phillips is more rock ‘n’ roll, it’s just crazier. It needn’t have been loud, grungy stuff, but it would have been much more contemporary and much simpler. I like really simple music tracks. I think it would have turned out to be much better.
FAX: Who might you have used?
ACOMBA: Let’s see, who was available at the time? The new version of Jefferson Starship had some big hits at the time and that was okay for me. The Electric Light Orchestra, not my favorite group but, on the other hand, it does have some relevance because they were very big at the time.
It just goes to show that I’ve been right all these years: as hairy as he is, Jeff Lynne is a Wookiee. As many sci-fi references and concepts as he managed to sneak into ELO’s lyrics over the years, one can only imagine that old Jeff would’ve jumped at the chance. On the flipside, I’m glad that things didn’t happen that way – it took long enough for me to get my hands on “Beatles Forever.” Considering that Jefferson Starship’s song from the Holiday Special was never an album track (and so far as I know, hasn’t even shown up on any career retrospectives), the last thing I would’ve needed would be another impossible-to-find ELO song.
But given that I’m a huge fan of both ELO and Star Wars, I’m sure I would’ve figured something out. 😉… Read more
So, that big-ass Doctor Who reference book that I keep threatening to write and publish? I’m still working on it. Oh yes, it’s not going away. It will happen. The purpose of this post, however, is to do a wee bit of market research ahead of time; I’d appreciate it if those interested would respond and help me out a bit. While I’ve got some fairly definite ideas on how I’d like it to turn out – basically, my criteria with just about anything I create is that I’m producing a DVD that I’d like to watch, writing a book that I’d like to read, writing a song that I’d like to hear, and it just so happens that no one else has saved me the trouble of doing this stuff first. … 
I have to say, as a long-time admirer of South Park, I’ve been bitterly disappointed with the new season so far. There’s been no bite to it, and worse yet, no point. I don’t require every episode to be issue-oriented, but so far this year we’ve gotten a spoof of Cloverfield with a dash of spoof of Guantanamo Bay, and a bizarre indictment of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull set to the tune of every notable Hollywood rape scene that Matt and Trey could think of. In both cases, what’s being spoofed was months past its sell-by date. But beyond that, what irks me is that were are in the midst of historical events that are positively bursting with moments rife for ridicule. Come on, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden are on the prowl, each seemingly trying to one-up the other for campaign trail howlers that leave their respective party handlers burying their faces in their hands. South Park is losing relevance – fast. But it’s also just possible that Matt and Trey have lost track of what people watch their show for when the abysmal “Imaginationland Trilogy” has won them an Emmy, after so many far worthier installments were passed over.
…because God knows, I never talk about that, right? … 
Argh. For some reason that I can’t figure out and don’t really have the time to screw with much, Scribblings (the original, you might say, at theLogBook.com) is broken. Videos don’t work anymore for no real reason that I’ve been able to fathom, actually getting it to accept new content is hit-or-miss, and it’s just emblematic of the site as a whole – WordPress was supposed to liberate me to some extent, and let me just concentrate on generating content, because I write almost constantly, and don’t want to have to code pages almost constantly. But it’s maintaining the infrastructure that’s killing me. When I upgraded the WordPress that drives the episode guide, it completely wiped out all categories, and I’m still going through those 2,500-odd entries and re-categorizing them (i.e. Star Trek? check. Deep Space Nine? check. Season 4? check.)…I’m up to 1995 now. Which is quite a feat when the thing starts in the ’50s. It really renews my appreciation for just how much ground the site covers, how much written material (and hopefully well-written material) it represents…and makes the back of my brain throb and beg for More Help With The Damn Thing. It’s not WordPress’s fault, but the early days of the toddler era is not a good time for me to be able to find the kind of time it takes to prop up that infrastructure all the time. The news page has also been hit by the same bug, and I just. don’t. have. the. time. I’ve stopped updating the news page. I’ve looked for someone to take it over, but there’s only so much I can offer when the site’s revenue basically covers its own bills (and to be honest, that’d be a misnomer this year – the PDF DVD is what’s paying the site’s bills right now; the site itself – aside from hosting the ordering page for the DVD – hasn’t made a cent this month). Next year is theLogBook’s 20th anniversary, but I’m starting to wonder if it might not be time to start dialing the whole thing down a bit and just doing sporadic updates. When I feel like it. Rather than trying to generate, on a weekly basis, what I would’ve needed to fill the 6-page print fanzine that theLogBook was in the 1990s.
… 
So I happened to spot a Usenet posting from Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski that caught my interest. I’m sure some folks are screaming about this, but in a way, I feel like JMS almost came to the same conclusion I did. Here’s what he had to say. … 