Light The Cauldron

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of my favorite characters in all of the Star Wars saga. Let's just ignore the fact that he was played by Ewan McGregor (*swoon*) and Sir Alec Guinness. He fights, offers sage advice, and takes a huge role in the Skywalker family drama. I used to see nothing wrong with Obi-Wan. Back when it was just Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back , and Return of the Jedi , I saw Kenobi as a man who sacrificed himself for his young apprentice and then came back a couple of times to aid the same apprentice in his path. But now that I'm older, thoughts and opinions change things. Oh, and the prequels. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a deeply flawed character in so many ways. It's almost depressing for someone who proclaims Kenobi as her favorite character of the prequels. When he says "I have failed you, Anakin," in Revenge of the Sith , he is almost making an understatement. Let's take a look at the evidence: The Phantom Menace We meet Obi-Wan as a yo

Greetings! It has been far too long since I did a Music Zone, and it's time to bring a few more recommendations for your music playlist! I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers This is my current favorite song. It's just weird, and the video is weirder. But it's a good one to listen to after a rough day and just sing the refrain over and over again to pump you up for the next day. The reason I like it : The verses are crazy, but the refrain is fantastic. It starts off soft and almost distorted, and then the refrain kicks in and the volume goes up a few notches. (There's no interlude in the actual song.) Boom Clap - Charli XCX This was a song I heard in the trailer for The Fault in Our Stars , and it worked perfectly. So much so that someone made a video using the font from the book cover, since the two are forever linked. The reason I like it : It's a good song to get me pumped up. Plus, who doesn't clap? Start a War - The National This song I heard wh

Welcome to my first Star Wars Saturday post! Set aside your Saturdays this fall for football and my newest article about Star Wars! Why am I doing this? Well, it's because I am impatient. I have watched the original Star Wars trilogy three times this year (once special edition, once original, once with Rebel Force Radio commentary) and don't want to wear myself out by watching them too much. I have caught up on all the recent Marvel Star Wars comics, which are helping to explain what happens between Revenge of the Sith and  A New Hope . I listen to quite a few Star Wars podcasts and follow a fair share of Star Wars bloggers, podcasters, cast members, and fanatics on Twitter. My screensaver is all the Star Wars fanart I've found, and I daily check Pinterest to see how many new Star Wars pictures have been posted. In other words, I am obsessed. Two years ago I had this same sort of thing happen when I started watching Doctor Who  leading up to the 50th anniversary.

I am not a mother. To say I understand what a mother's role entails would be incredibly false. Nothing convinced me of that more than my visit last week to see my sister, who recently gave birth to a baby girl. I knew that motherhood involved rotating your entire life to the whills of your child. They're hungry? You need to feed them. They're tired? You need to put them to bed. They're wet? You gotta change them. You can postpone things or push them off - they need to get done, and they need to get done now . I spent a majority of my visit helping out wherever I could - from cleaning up the dinner dishes to taking turns with my niece to just stepping back and letting the master (i.e. my sister) do her work. On Thursday my sister took me with her and my niece to a clinic where they hold something every week called "New Mom's Coffee." Naturally, I was the only one there - besides the leader - who came without a child. All the children present were six

School is just around the corner, and I just felt like a getaway. So I went to the mountains! The reason for this trip was because of a ticket that I purchased for a concert at Red Rocks Ampitheater. If you are unaware, Red Rocks is a highly touted concert venue in the Front Range of Colorado, near Denver. If you are a major artist on tour, a stop there is almost required. My first Red Rocks show couldn't be anything but the best, and when I saw that the Colorado Symphony Orchestra was performing, and that they were going to be performing video game music  (as part of the touring series Video Games Live ), I knew that I had to go. I purchased a general admission ticket for $25, and all that was left was for me to figure out how to get there. Since I love on the eastern side of Denver, getting to the mountains - especially at rush hour - can be long and challenging. This has also prevented me from getting to Red Rocks for a lot of sunrise runs. Getting there before 6:00 a.m. i