Sunday, May 3, 2009

Star Wars; Is it a Political Myth for Today

With Lucas on Capital Hill answering what this line from the recent episode; "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause." comes from the fact "Star Wars" series was inspired by ancient Rome, the French Revolution and the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. "In all of those countries, a democracy fell through nefarious manipulations behind the scenes, and the people didn't seem to mind."

With a recent article in the La Times, Star Wars has gone political. George Lucas has attended a Capital Hill meeting for Democrats.

"Star Wars" filmmaker George Lucas joined House Democratic leaders at a town hall meeting on Capitol Hill to roll out an "innovation agenda" that aims to prepare the next generation of technological entrepreneurs.

Star wars has always been in our collective unconsciousness since its inception after Lucas read Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. But has this movie entered the political arena?Students asked Lucas what he meant by the line from "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith": "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause."

Lucas answered that when Rome, Nazi Germany, and after the French Revolution, "In all of those countries, a democracy fell through nefarious manipulations behind the scenes, and the people didn't seem to mind."

Is he pointing the finger at us, the american public with our crossed messages. Support the troops automatically means you are for war, in this mixed up country it is not sure. Also strikes the cord is Anakin’s line to Obi Won, :

”If you are not for the Empire, you are against it!”Further more Anakin is persuaded by the Emperor, vaguely disguised as a rising Senator much like the younger Bush Senior, to bring in a reign of terror and death to bring safety to the Republic. Another one nudge for the French Revolution and our modern Freedom Fry eaters on Capital Hill. For true Patriots like Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, and Thomas jefferson; today would be called terrorists. For indeed if they lost the war, history would of gone to the victors and they would of been called so.

In olden days we might walk away from a Myth like Star Wars or the Matrix, and know that some how it pertained to our real lives. But for too long now, media such as TV and the movies have been art for art sake. No longer do we hear the words of Pinnochio or Plato’s Cave and find our lives informed on a better way of life. Or do the papers offer a voice to the workers and the people. This has been replaced by the tabloids on cable and the check out line. Maybe we should go back to believing in our myths handed down for thousand of years throughout the world, and give incredulous glances to the tv news and newspapers. For Myths worked for us since we crawled out of the oceanArticle Submission, of our minds!So what is this latest episode of the famous trilogy trying to tell us. Or how does Lucas emphasize this by going to Capital Hill. Watch the movie again and see what springs to mind!

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Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin is propietor of Docspond Life Coach Services providing Individual Counseling, Group facilitation, and key note addresses that speak to the heart of the mission while delivering the bottom line finacial growth. Helping millions find their bliss and return meaning to success! Guaranteed 20% improvement in your quality of life after the first meeting!Also is the propietor and designer at Norgeforge Illumination Studios that will SEO illuminated design giving Aesthetics to traffic driven sales.So get out of the cold and get Norgeforged!

Learn Which Toy Star Wars Figures are the Most Popular

Find out the truth about Toy Star Wars Figures and see if they are up your alley. Learn all about Toy Star Wars Figures on the Internet.

Children have always been fascinated with the worlds beyond our own, hence the rise on popularity of the Star Wars Franchise. For the past 30 years, each generation has been reintroduced to the Jedi and Darth Vader. That is why each year parents scramble on birthdays and Christmas to find just the right Toy Star Wars figurines and play sets. With the changes in characters and story lines, this can be a confusing task, unless you are in the know about which Toy Star Wars figurines are the most popular.

Darth Vader

No matter which generation of Star Wars you are from you will instantly recognize this figure. Darth Vader is the ultimate heavy breathing villain resplendent in black. This figurine has been made and remade over the years with the new model more realistic than ever.

Complete with foldable arms that allows for an accurate re-creation of the last scene in The Revenge of the Sith, kids will love this figurine. Vader stands an impressive 12 inches tall and his cool outfit is made of cloth. Perhaps the neatest improvement on this figurine is the recreation of the scarred face beneath the mask, it is an accurate depiction of the actor who played Anakin Skywalker, AKA Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith.

Storm Troopers

No collection of Toy Star Wars action figures is complete without at least one or two storm troopers. These action figures come in all sizes and are the Star Wars answer to little green army men! Kids love to play out their favorite scenes from any episode with storm troopers. You can also get these in the same dimensions as Darth Vader from above. Twelve inches high and they come complete with an Imperial Blaster and stand. A perfect toy for any Star Wars Fan.

Star Wars Collectors Tin

If you are less inclined to invest in the large figurines, you can make the smiles come alive with a collector's tin. This one is perfect for the girls too as Princess Leia is part of the package. Princess Leia comes with an Ewok approved cloth dress and rooted hair, she may only be a few inches tall, but she is still a beautiful figurine. With her in this set are a storm trooper, scout trooper with flip up helmet and of course the dark Darth Vader with light up saber. Hours of fun and imagination are to be had with this cool set.

Conclusion

If your child is a Toy Star Wars Figurine fan and you are unsure of which one to get, stick with the classics. They will always be a recognizable part of the Star Wars Saga and any child will love them. Once you have exhausted the Vader, Trooper, and Princess angle, there are always Ewoks, Jar-Jar Binks, YodaHealth Fitness Articles, and Chewbacca to fill in the gaps. The story may evolve but these characters will always be a part of the Toy Star Wars figurine family.

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Find out about the latest Toys Vehicles and Airplanes from Brian Garvin and Jeff West. Also discover more about Toy Star Wars Figures Online free. Freely distribute this article but please leave author bio and links intact.

Star Wars: The Franchise That May Never Disappear

The initial film, Star Wars, was predicted to be a flop, so no merchandise was created to debut with the film’s release. As you can probably imagine, the Star Wars toy and merchandise franchise has grown considerably since the Christmas of 1977.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was the little sci-fi movie that could – Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. At the time, though, it was just known as Star Wars, and it created a franchise unlike anything seen before.

In 2005, Forbes magazine estimated that the Star Wars franchise, from the time it began in the late seventies, had generated more than twenty billion dollars in revenue, and with six big screen success stories, at least three spin-off films, five licensed television shows, and thousands of books, comic books, and toys, it's no surprise. What might be a surprise, though, is that by the time Star Wars creator George Lucas finished the first film, he was over-budget, out of time, and convinced the film would be a flop. Early screenings of the film did little to improve Lucas' ideas that the film would be any kind of success, but when it was finally released in the summer of 1977, the film earned nearly seven million dollars in its first weekend. It is considered to be the second highest profitable film of all time.

More than Great Films

Ask any Star Wars fan, though, and they'll tell you it's not just about the movies, it's also about the associated merchandise. The initial film was predicted to be a flop, so no merchandise was created to debut with the film's release. The toy company, Kenner, though had purchased the license to sell associate products By Christmas of 1977, demand was so high, Kenner created an "Early Bird Special" kit. The kit held a certificate fans could send in for four 3 ¾ inch figures as soon as they became available. On Christmas morning, thousands of kids got empty cardboard envelopes that held only a display stand, a Star Wars club card, a few stickers, and a certificate they could put their name and address on, mail in, and wait for several months for the first Star Wars toys ever produced to arrive. Months later, lots of kids did get Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, and Chewbacca in the mail, and years later, these four figures are considered to be some of the most valuable action figures on the collectors' market today.

Explosive Industry Growth

As you can probably imagine, the Star Wars toy and merchandise franchise has grown considerably since the Christmas of 1977. Once Kenner geared up the production machine, it slowed for no one. From additional action figures to vehicles, playsets, and lightsabers, the vintage Star Wars toy market had everything. As Episodes V and VI were released, more toys hit the market. T-shirts, bed sheets, toothbrushes, combs, and watches were all part of the marketing campaign as well.

After the release of Return of the Jedi, though, the Star Wars marketing machine slowed considerably. People seemed to thing the Star Wars market was nearing the end. However, in the late 1990s, a new line of Star Wars action figures was released. Dubbed "The Power of the Force" line, these green carded figures created a whole new generation of collectors, and with the release of the special edition of the original trilogy, and the subsequent release of Star Wars Episode I, the marketing machine kicked back into high gear. From bubble bath to sandals, the Star Wars name can be found on almost anything these days, and with talk of additional television series, DVDs, and even other filmsScience Articles, it's hard to tell when the franchise will ever slow down.

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The author, Andrew Wills, is a professional working in Canada and is the Admin of the website content page content-web-site.com Article Directory. This article can also be found at SplitSecondBooks.com, where you will find books on many exciting topics of interest. For more information please go to splitsecondbooks.com today.

Is Star Wars LEGO the most popular LEGO theme?

When it comes to Star Wars collectibles, one of the most coolest stuff to collect is without a doubt LEGO Star Wars. The first set which was based on the original trilogy was released in 1999 to coincide with The Phantom Menace and included a model X-Wing which you could build with the LEGO pieces.

Ask any Star Wars fan and they will probably admit to owning a Star Wars LEGO set or two. The first set, based on the original trilogy, came out around the same time as The Phantom Menance movie in 1999.

Not long after, new LEGO sets started to emerge following each of the newer movies. You could build many scenes from each movie or just play with the models of the ships or LEGO men characters.

Recently LEGO extended it's licence with Lucas film Ltd to continue releasing sets until 2011.

The sets also inspired video games based on the Star Wars LEGO pieces.

The Millennium Falcon and X-Wing spacecraft are still to this day the most popular sets to own. Specific LEGO pieces were created to achieve the accurate look of each spacecraft.

Over time many of the sets, including the Millenium Falcon, have been redesigned to improve the accuracy of each model.

The mini figures have also been redesigned many times, with the most obvious being Obi-Wan Kenobi whose torso and face changed color, and the Storm troopers which have gone through three different helmet shapes, three different heads and two different torso colors.

The vehicles are usually the most popular of the LEGO sets and to capitalise on this the Ultimate Collector's Series was created in which each model was more detailed and accurate. They were more expensive that the original LEGO sets (due to more pieces and a higher skill level to build) but still proved popular with fans and collectors alike.

Expanded Universe sets are in plans for the future based on the fictional background of the Star Wars universe.

Most of the Expanded Universe information comes from Star Wars related books, comics, video games and other media which can take place anywhere from 25,000 years before The Phantom Menace to 137 years after Return of the Jedi, so LEGO designers have a lot of background to choose from.

Whether you collect them for fun or as a serious hobby, the LEGO Star Wars sets have become popular with both adults and children and will probably go on to provide lots of enjoyment for many years to come.

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Living in Abundance: May the Force Be With You

Perhaps, you have heard the phrase “May the force be with you” from your favorite Episode of the Star Wars movies. The Star Wars movies explore the power of our choices, the wonder of destiny, and the power that is in us and all around us. However, what if the force could truly be with in every aspect of your life?

There is a power in us and throughout the Universe that allows us to live abundantly. We can live in wealth, happiness, divine love, optimal health, and peace and order. The beauty is we don’t have to be a Jedi to do it. That force lies within all of us. That force is magnified by our own consciousness. The question is: “how many of us take the time to tap into this force? How many of us actually know how to use it?”

We are bold enough to watch the Star Wars movies and feel that jolt in side of us each time we see an energy sword light-up; we have that same energy. This energy that helps us to live in the divine flow of love and devotion, the divine flow of health and wellness, the divine flow of wealth and success, and the divine flow of peace and order. This energy magnifies more and more as we begin to live as our true self. When we live as our true self, we learn how to manifest our true desires are and we set foot on the path of destiny.

We have the power to transform the immaterial to the material. We have the power to transmute a mental thought into a material manifestation that we can hear, touchBusiness Management Articles, and see. This power give us the ability to create the life we want to live.

Let the force be with you. Live in true abundance. For more information on how to live in abundance please visit Abundance Training 101: The Universal Law of Abundance located at http://universalclass.com/i/crn/9478.htm

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Carmellita M. Brown is a Wellness and Success Coach. She is the Instructor for the online course “Abundance Training 101: The Universal Law of Abundance” located at http://universalclass.com/14056.htm and the online course “Lose Weight While becoming a Wellness Coach” located at http://universalclass.com/i/crn/9478.htm