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Funny thing t’internet…

…it’s meant to be all about the future, yet how often it takes us back.

This evening I was sitting, quite innocently, eating chicken biryani and drinking Chilean chardonnay, watching Big Bang Theory (I know, I know, don’t judge me, I’m a philistine, all I ask of a white wine is that it’s cold and not French). A folk/sci-fi crossover  genre of music called Filk featured in the show, it sparked a memory.

Brighton, Sussex, 1987. A 17 year-old working class English lad with his two mates, one Sikh one Hindu were at Conspiracy ’87, AKA the 45th World Science Fiction Convention. Of this cornucopia of delights there are now just a few snatches of memory. Watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes with some crazy drunk Belgians in the small hours of the morning. Eating chips on a windy Brighton beach. Having fun with some Americans in the most wonderful costumes. Buying a gold-painted half-face mask from the execution scene in Flash Gordon and sitting in the audience listening to  group of American women who sang folky songs, with Sci-Fi themes. What were they called? Technical Difficulties! AHA! In mere moments, armed with the name and the term Filk I had tracked down the song that really chimed with the 17 year-old me. A Star Wars themed song, Come you Knights and Come you Pilots.

Naturally this song brought me back to 1987, but also right up to today. Day in day out, we’re told we can’t win by the seemingly invincible foe, but we bloody well will win. I lay this rather old, imperfect recording before you all, and especially as a belated birthday gift to Mr Whittle, who has helped so many to understand that culture is even more important than politics.

Enjoy and Remember…

Han shot first!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEa-wcKgHcs&list=PLYY20pf-yHXrmBlpFwADC6IKvMYPp1fr7

4 replies on “Funny thing t’internet…”

Thank you, just a little something I’m working on. Wait ’till you se the whole thing…

Fun!

I, too, have a Star Wars memory from 1987.

I attended the Star Wars 10th Anniversary Convention in Los Angeles. Lucas was there (this was before he raped everyone’s childhood 😉 ), and so was Gene Roddenberry. It was three days of pure, unadulterated fandom.

The highlight of the con, for me, was finding a drunk Peter Mayhew at the hotel bar, and convincing him to come to our hotel room to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special. Tell ya what…the guy can pound back more than a few.

I found drunk Chewbacca hysterically entertaining!

Oh gosh…. The Star Wars Holiday Special…. Not that cringy abomination again….

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