Volunteering & Volunteer Students

Ok, most of you know I am a huge Star Wars geek! In fact, I personally know only one person who's a bigger fan than me, but Billy shall remain nameless.

I recently watched a great documentary on tOk, most of you know I am a huge Star Wars geek! In fact, I personally know only one person who's a bigger fan than me, but Billy shall remain nameless.

I recently watched a great documentary on the History channel titled

Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed

It summarizes the popularity of the franchise itself and goes on to define the modern myth used throughout many movies and books including my beloved Star Wars.

Basically, it eludes to the fact that although George Lucas was a great storyteller the good vs evil, boy becomes man storyline has been around for hundreds of years. Lucas simply wrapped it up in a compelling tale combining great characters and costumes with the most advanced technology and special effects.

Ironically, I had another blog post saved as a draft which was originally part II of my rant on the lack of originality.

In that post I was all set to rip on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy for taking my sacred "one of a kind" perfect story, Star Wars, and copying Lucas' formula.

Since I was a child of the 70's, to me Lucas himself created this "formula" when in reality he simply borrowed the mythological concept and shaped it into the story we all know today.

So, for those curious here are some excerpts from another article titled

Why Pirates is the `New` Star Wars

Is it just us, or do the 'Pirates' films and the original 'Star Wars' trilogy have a whole lot more in common than their ability to rake in the box office booty? We trolled the depths of our cinematic knowledge to illuminate 12 very eerie similarities between the two blockbuster franchises

For those too lazy to click on the above link, here's a few of the obvious ones.

1. Costumes
Dressing up as various Star Wars characters isn't reserved just children on Halloween. As recently as 2005, grown men flocked to theaters in full Jedi regalia. Same goes for 'Pirates,' with men -- and women -- donning Jack's pirate garb and, of course, plenty of eyeliner.

2. Heroic Rescue
The third film in each trilogy begins with a heroic rescue mission. In 'Jedi,' Luke tries to rip Han from Jabba's disgusting clutches. Likewise, 'At Worlds End,' Will and Elizabeth sail to the ends of the Earth to bring Jack back from Davy Jones' locker.

3. Middle Movie Cliffhanger
Luke's father is Vader!? Han is frozen in carbonite!? What's going to happen next?! Similarly, 'Dead Man's Chest' leaves Jack's fate in doubt (Did the Kraken really eat him?) and drops a bomb (Barbossa is still alive!). It's cruel -- but we love it.

4. Bad Ass Big Weapons
Which would you rather not have tracking you down, the Death Star or the Flying Dutchman?

5. Hot Girls in Bikinis
Ok, Ok, Elizabeth Swann will never be Leia but admit you kept hoping she would don the bikini and choke someone with a chain?

6. Mysterious Powerful Shamans
Like Yoda, Tia Dalma can see the future, spouts pearls of wisdom using strange grammar, boasts a Force-like mastery of magic and has a general distaste for personal hygiene.

7. Davy Jones is a nicer Jabba the Hut
Davy is after Jack to cash in an I.O.U. for a lifetime of servitude, and Jabba has a crew of bounty hunters combing the galaxy for the debt-owing Han Solo.

8. Alcoholic Fathers
Just seeing if anyone is reading this. But think about it, Darth Vader and Bootstrap Bill must have been drunk to raise such obscenely handsome sons. Both are clean-cut lads who always do the right thing, never knew their dads and are pretty proficient with a saber.

9. Threesome anyone?
In both trilogies, the true-hearted hero and the swaggering cad want to bed the fiery female.

10. #2 is #1
Come on, everyone knows that Han Solo and Jack Sparrow are truly one in the same. They are both constantly only looking out for themselves but are also two guys you would always want on your side.