RIP David Prowse, 1935-2020

 David Prowse is one of those actors whom everyone has seen...sort of...but few people know.

A bodybuilder and weightlifter, the 6'6 actor was most famous for being the physical presence of Darth Vader. In England he was also known as the Green Crossing Man for starring in a series of PSAs designed to teach little kids to wait for the light when crossing the road.

Prowse is often forgotten. His face was hidden by a mask and his voice was replaced (without telling him at the time) by James Earl Jones. But his incredible physicality and control defined the intimidating body language. He was, in fact, given a choice when he auditioned...in an alternate reality he was Chewbacca, but he didn't want to deal with the fursuit. I don't entirely blame him, they didn't have cooling vests back then! Also, "Everyone remembers the villain, George."

(But I'd watch that alternate Star Wars).

Of course, everyone also remembers Chewbacca. And we remember Darth by his voice...although in the end, Prowse apparently agreed with that decision. Despite this there was a feud between him and Lucas that resulted in him being banned from official events. (He turned round and engaged with a fan community often neglected by Lucas and, due to the fact that he was already in disgrace, was involved in a number of fan films).

Oh, and as well as being an actor he played a behind-the-scenes role that is often forgotten: He trained actors who needed to bulk up quickly for a role, including Christopher Reeve.

I'm envisioning the Vader hand twist, which I suspect was all Prowse. He will be missed by a fan community that was in the end more welcoming to him than the official world of Star Wars.

Friday Updates

No actual news just yet, so I'm just going to toss up a reminder.

Books make great holiday gifts. I'm always open to giving recommendations if you give me a solid idea of what the person is looking for! 

Uh oh...

 ...the sun's popped a pimple. There's a huge sunspot on the sun right now.

Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be setting off a solar flare, which might disrupt everyone's Thanksgiving plans...at least those of the sane people who are doing it over the internet.

(Please, please celebrate at home. Please).

So, I Have To Wonder...

 ...why exactly it is that British tabloids are obsessed with Yellowstone exploding and killing us all.

Normally it's the Daily Mail saying we're all going to die, this time it's the Express. Sigh. In fact, the entire first page of Yellowstone supervolcano in a news search except for one article from the Columbus Dispatch (which informs us we are not all going to die) is the Daily Express telling us we're all going to die.

(The second page has an idiot who got arrested after trying to cook a chicken in the hot springs).

So, are we all going to die? In fact, the Yellowstone hotspot is what's dying; it's becoming less powerful and eruptions are becoming less common...and by less common we mean it's gone from about every 500,000 years to about every 1.5 million years.

By that measure the most likely time for the next eruption is, oh, about 900,000 years in the future.

So, tabloids, what is with the supervolcano obsession?

It's Full of Stars!

 So, wildlife officers counting bighorn sheep found something they didn't expect.

A monolith.

Yes.

Uh.

A three meter tall, shiny metal monolith.

It's not actually full of stars, but nobody has any idea how it got there and nobody seems to be willing to admit to having put it there.

There are three likely theories:

1. Aliens. Which we all know it isn't.

2. It's art. Somebody thought it would be neat. If it is art, then it is similar to the work of an artist named John McCracken, who died in 2011. But he didn't live in Utah. A copycat?

3. Somebody was filming a movie without permission and could afford to get this massive prop out there...and then ran out of money and couldn't get it back. Movie makers are notorious for leaving unusual litter.

I like #3, think it's most likely #2, but...

...it could be aliens.

(Note that the park service have asked people not to go hunting for it because they're worried people will, ya know, die).

Philcon Roundup

 So, I'd much rather have been in Cherry Hill, but Philcon still went very well.

The highlight was the Mars colonization panel, where the panelist played a colonization game. I'm now trying to work out whether it would be more effective to run a cable car up Olympus Mons in a tube or whether to pressurize individual cars.

Decisions, decisions.

Every panel I was on or attended went smoothly and unlike Capclave people were finding the con suite.

(Although MaltCon is no fun virtually. Let's hope for next year...)

Friday Updates

 The Philcon discord is open! Go to philcon.org and head over.

There's no overall registration for the con, but you do need to register for specific sections (for attendance tracking).

All sessions will be in Zoom except for the moderated media discussion, which will be on Discord. Like Balticon, Philcon is using Zoom webinar, so everything should be straightforward at this point.

I wish I was in Cherry Hill, but this will do as a substitute! Join me at 7pm tonight in the Discord for a moderated Star Wars discussion.