Self Care – Star Wars Anthology Films That Should Happen (3 YouTube Videos)

I have to be honest… my Star Wars fandom was a late-bloomer. Although I largely agree with people that the prequel trilogy was… well… crap, that’s also when I became aware of Star Wars, and found myself interested in it… which is why I will never hate the prequel trilogy as much as some others do.

And of course I loved The Force Awakens and Rogue One, I can’t wait for The Last Jedi, and I’m actually looking forward to the Han Solo movie, as well.

We’re going to be getting a lot of Star Wars films going into the future, too. One every year. And there are rumors that Disney is looking at Netflix for live-action Star Wars series, which would also be incredible. So, of course, many many people have discussed what anthologies they’d want to see.

Featured here are three videos discussing anthology wish lists. The first two videos are in fact connected, as they’re a collaboration. The third video is a completely separate/independent video on the same topic. Then I’ll follow that up with two subjects I personally want to see explored in live-action form…

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Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Styx and James Young Play Renegade Live in 1996

Admittedly, I don’t like a lot of Styx (just personal preference in this case… nothing against ’em, and they are talented), but there are two Styx songs I love: Come Sail Away and…

Renegade

This one is live in 1996 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. For something that I’m guess is supposed to be an official release, this isn’t the greatest quality (some unofficially released Led Zeppelin pro-shot videos have better quality, and those were recorded in the 70s). However, it’s pretty darn good.

I was trying to find video of Styx playing it live in 1978 or 1979, but that’s okay. This works rather nicely…

The first guitar solo starts at 2:51 and ends at 3:47. The second solo starts at 4:21 and ends at 5:31. The third, and final, solo follows up a rather cheesy lyrical call-and-response section and a shout-out to “I Shot the Sheriff”. It starts at 6:56 and ends at 7:13.

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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Considering how much I love guitar solos, it should be no surprise that I have thoughts, here. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an interesting, and perhaps polarizing, institution in music.

On April 20, 1983, the late Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and president of Atlantic Records, put together a team that included attorney Suzan Evans, Rolling Stone magazine editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner, attorney Allen Grubman, and record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, and Noreen Woods, and founded the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. They started inducting artists in 1986, but they still had no home for the museum. So they put together a search committee, and ultimately chose shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.

The very first performing artist inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 was, of course, Chuck Berry, considered by many who think they know to be the founder of Rock and Roll (I, personally, disagree, but I’ll get to that). Others inducted that same year included Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, James Brown, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Jerry Lee Lewis. They all fit the original criteria of the foundation:

Artists—a group encompassing performers, composers and/or musicians—become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Besides demonstrating unquestionable musical excellence and talent, inductees will have had a significant impact on the development, evolution and preservation of rock & roll.

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Self Care – Dad and I Singing “Oseh Shalom”

My Dad’s a Hazan, I’ve mentioned this many times, so that’s out there.

He also writes music, and likes to take Jewish prayers and arrange them into these rather nice songs. Here’s a clip of Dad and I singing his arrangement of “Oseh Shalom” at his Cantorial concert last year.

(Obligatory self-criticism incoming…)

I really shouldn’t have had my hair pulled back like that, and I really… really… don’t like wearing suits. I also honestly feel awkward singing on a stage without also playing a guitar, which is why I mostly stare at the music stand… while the music is there, I’m not really reading it so much as wishing I had a guitar… heh…

But otherwise… this is pretty nice…

Sorry for the self-promotion, here…

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