Pursuit of Crappiness podcast Episode 5: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Check out that spread!
Check out that spread!

Roger Ebert some years ago did a series of reviews of movies he had seen before, but decided to revisit given their general stature or importance to him. He called this series “Great Movies.”

On some subconscious level, I think this was the general area I was trying to slap this particular baseball (my podcast) into … find that sweet spot of the films that matter to people and try to get a solid double out of it. There’s no minimum requirement here in terms of Oscar nods or what have you, but I did want to find the films that people care about … and while doing this, I leave open the possibility that this could well morph into something else. My Ichiro-like metaphor is meant to be “doubly” apt in this way … the sweet spot is subject to change, and therefore so am I.

That said, “Star Wars” is in many ways the perfect fit for The Pursuit of Crappiness, a culturally relevant collection of films with wide critical and public acceptance. Moreover, there’s a lot to digest in these movies and several different directions a conversation can go.

To celebrate the blu ray and digital release of “The Force Awakens,” the seventh film in the series (eighth if you include the somewhat maligned “Clone Wars” animated feature), I got together a bigger group than normal to discuss the film (and eat delicious goodies put together by my wife, Cait). For this episode, I was joined by Twitter personality Alfredo Narvaez, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reporter Michelle Hunter, and Dash Rip Rock drummer Kyle Melancon — three big fans of the new film and of “Star Wars” in general.

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Some thoughts on movies

With the change in seasons comes the apparent change in priorities, with my precious, few available minutes (or lol hours) being dedicated to something other than sports.  This isn’t always the case in the winter, mind you, but the Pelicans and Kansas State have been highly accommodating by finding special ways to lose at the game of basketball.  There are few things more pathetic than losing basketball, and since I have become an authority on the subject by surviving the Jim Wooldridge/Tom Asbury era at K-State, I already feel fully qualified and don’t need to spend a whole lot more time dedicated to it.

Also, Mardi Gras is over and done with.  So it’s movie time, especially with the Oscars right around the corner.

I thought I’d share some general thoughts about some of the flicks I’ve seen recently, while also teasing that I might be debuting a podcast on the subject in the coming weeks.  It’s something I’ve toyed around with doing for some time, and since I’d like to keep the blog from going completely nihilist thanks to my hatred of basketball mismanagement, I thought, hey, let me produce some content that might actually make me smile, not want to flush my own head down a toilet.

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A (somewhat) cursory ranking of the Star Wars films

Throughout the course of my life, I have on multiple occasions run into someone who hasn’t seen Star Wars.  After I ask them if they are of this planet, I generally get a somewhat snarky response: “I’m not into geeky stuff.”

In honor of these people, who are wrong by the way (I’ll get into that in a moment), I have categorized this post and future posts like it, you guessed it, “geeky stuff.”

I can appreciate a good joke at the joyless’ expense every time.

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