i remember seeing star wars for the first time when i was 7 years old in a theatre in chicago.  it was a cold and windy spring day and i have no idea how i ended up there... i was only 7 years old after all and thirty-one years after the fact, i can hardly be blamed for lacking crystal-clear recollection of the day.  i remember the whole experience being very very surreal, because i had not really grasped much with regard to entertainment beyond superman and the occasional cartoon that involved superman.  but star wars was an immediate influence and i fell in love with it.  hard. i would sketch x-wings and tie-fighters and darth vader masks all over the place.  as i grew from a child into a teen, star wars grew as well.  it became more complex and more sophisticated.  but one of my favourite moments in all of cinematic history, even as an elderly man, remains the moment when luke skywalker, learning that intended future on the barren planet of tatooine is never to achieve anything or have any adventure at all, walks out to the desert prairie and stares out into the future, into the horizon.  the music, the moment, the expression on his face - all still make every fibre of my body want to burst out of my skin and soar off into the sky... there's never been anything like it in my entire life's experience.  i love that moment more than any other moment in any other film ever.  truly.

- g

song of the day for thinking of being far far away:  binary sunset (luke's theme): john williams and the london symphony orchestra