The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: September 13, 2024
Lord Vader has passed away, nostalgia is toxic, and Star Wars heavy metal is a thing
Hello there
Good morning and welcome to the September 13th edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. We start the newsletter with some sad news, James Earl Jones passed away earlier this week. The man was a giant in the entertainment business and will be missed. In other news, I went to a concert. Normally not something I’d write about, but this was the galaxy’s only (?) Star Wars metal band. Plus all the usual news and nonsense you’ve got to expect here at Death Star HR.
As always, I appreciate you reading this. I say it every week, but I really do mean it. Now, let’s get to it.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
Honestly they should set the music to Skid Row’s “Youth Gone Wild.”
James Earl Jones is One With the Force
As you no doubt have heard by now, James Earl Jones passed away on Monday, September 9th at the age of 93 at his home in New York. If you’re reading a Star Wars newsletter, I don’t have to tell you the man had one of the most famous voices in Hollywood, possibly the most famous.
If you asked 10 different people what their favorite James Earl Jones roll was, excluding maybe readers of Death Star HR, and you’d probably get 10 different answers. I was scrolling through his IMDB page and was struck just how prolific he was. Everyone thinks of the big hits. Darth Vader, Mufasa in The Lion King, Terrance Man in Field of Dreams, the blind man with the dog in The Sandlot, King Jaffe Joffer in Coming to America, and Admiral Greer in the early Jack Ryan movies. There’s just so many great moments.
The true moral of Field of Dreams is you can swindle boomers with nostalgia:
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack.
I realize it’s a little bit of the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy for someone who writes a newsletter about Star Wars to accuse someone else of exploiting nostalgia, but considering Baby Boomer nostalgia is such a driving force in pop culture and a toxic force in political discourse, it’s worth noting that Field of Dreams was almost prophetic.
Before getting back to Star Wars, I want to post one more video. People who know me in real life know this, my biggest pop culture influence isn’t actually Star Wars. It’s The Simpsons. I came of age right as The Simpsons exploded onto pop culture and it absolutely had an outsized impact on my sense of humor and outlook on the world. The last fun thing I did before COVID shutdown the world in 2020 was myself and a friend won a Simpsons trivia contest at a local brewery. Back when I was a Youngling, Mom Mothma didn’t want me to watch the show when it came out, thinking that somehow if I wasn’t exposed to Bart I’d turn into an well-adjusted member of society. Well..jokes on her.
The very first “Treehouse of Horror” episode featured Jones in all three segments. A mover in “Bad Dream House.” Serak the Preparer in “Hungry are the Damned.” And finally the narrator in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven.”
Decent chance that was my first exposure to Poe. And honestly, much like how most of my knowledge of Richard Nixon comes from The Simpsons and Futurama, so does my knowledge of Poe. Between “Treehouse of Horror” and the “Lisa’s Rival” episode1 where they do The Telltale Heart, I probably learned more Poe from The Simpsons than I did in English class.
Anyway, back to Star Wars. While he was uncredited in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Star Wars would be the same without Jones voicing Darth Vader. George Lucas using Jones' as Vader’s voice instead of David Prowse, the man in the suit, certainly angered Prowse and he and Lucas were on the outs for years but it was obviously the right call. I almost feel dumb typing that sentence because it’s so obvious. Of course, Prowse wasn’t so mad that he refused to come back for Empire and Jedi or anything like that…
It’s a no-brainer. I have no idea what kind of English accent Prowse has, because as far as I know your accent changes every 5 blocks in London so I’m not even going to guess. But come on, one only of those two men sound like the most terrifying villain in the galaxy.
Out of all the main actors and actresses from A New Hope, Anthony Daniels, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill are the only ones still alive. Peter Cushing (1994), Alec Guinness (2000), Kenny Baker (2016), Carrie Fisher (2016), Peter Mayhew (2019), and David Prowse (2020) have all passed away. Hamill and Daniels are both in their 70’s and Ford is in his 80’s. We’ll even include Billy Dee Williams for good measure, and he’s 87. Lucas himself is 80. The day is coming, sooner rather than later, that everyone involved Star Wars when it was just the title of the first movie not the intellectual property behemoth that it is today will no longer be with us.
So rest in peace, Mr. Jones. I would say that movies aren’t going to sound the same without you, but Disney will never let your voice go.
An Evening with the Most Metal Band in the Galaxy \m/
Earlier this week I fired up the shuttle and headed to Deep Ellum, the Mos Eisley of Dallas. Why would I head to such a wretched hive of scum and villiany2 on a school night? To see the only (at least as far as I know) Star Wars metal band in our galaxy, Galactic Empire. I first wrote about Galactic Empire back in the February 2nd newsletter. They’re a band of metal musicians and Star Wars fans that do prog-metal versions of your favorite Star Wars tunes.
As a side note, if you look at the band’s early videos, they’re all in actual Star Wars costumes. There’s Vader, a Stormtrooper, an Imperial Royal Guard, a Death Trooper, and Boba Fett. Now with the except of the drummer wearing a Mandalorian helmet, I’d call their costumes more “Star Wars adjacent.” I wonder if they went up against something more terrifying than a Sith Lord riding a rancor…the Disney lawyers.
As I got to the venue, one of the openers was just finishing up. Super Guitar Bros are a duo who play acoustic versions of video game music. Think Simon and Garfunkel covering Legend of Zelda tunes. Second up was Powerglove. They have the same idea as Super Guitar Bros, but the execution is way different. The Guitar Bros were chill, Powerglove play speed metal versions of videogame and cartoon songs. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard a speed metal version of the Super Mario Brothers tune or the Ghostbusters theme song.
Then we got to the main event, Galactic Empire. I had wondered what exactly the crowd was going to be like. If you had a Venn diagram of metal heads and Star Wars nerds, this was the crossover. Lots of people looking like me, just wearing a Star Wars t-shirt. My favorite was the guy wearing the classic metal head cut off denim vest. Only with Star Wars and Final Fantasy patches on it instead of Metallica and Slayer. There were some cosplayers, with varying degrees of detail. A woman standing near me up front had a very good Barriss Offee costume, she even got to go onstage to be part of the show later on. There were several Generic Jedi’s in the crowd along with a Boba Fett. I thought I saw a Darth Malak, someone walked by a black robe and it looked like they were trying to do Malak’s metal lower jaw, but I didn’t get a good look and I didn’t see them the rest of the show.
There were even a couple of Younglings in the crowd. Although the lack of authenticity with their costumes made me question just how dedicated those parents really were. Look, it was sweet for the little girl to dress up as Ahsoka Tano, but Ahsoka did not wear hi-top Chuck Taylors. And I say that as a person who was rockin’ my Chucks that night. But that’s nothing compared to the parents who let their child out of the house dressed as a First Order Stormtrooper, but with a green lightsaber. Mom and Dad, what are we even doing here? Stormtroopers do not carry lightsabers3. And a First Order Stormtrooper CERTAINLY would not carry a green one.
OK, back to the show. If I had one complaint it was a short set, barely over an hour. I’m sure it gets really hot wearing those costumes though so I really can’t blame them. They played all the hits, coming out to the 20th Century Fox fanfare, going into the main theme and then the Imperial March. Also on the set list was the theme from The Mandalorian and the Cantina Band song. The band ends the Star Wars segment of the show with the Throne Room/Celebration song. There was the Jurassic Park theme followed by the Indiana Jones theme.
The encore was of course the only song it could be, Duel of the Fates with a backing track for the chorus. You can see the kid with the Stormtrooper costume and Barriss Offee with the red lightsaber. Of course there’s someone in a Cowboys jersey, because Dallas.
I was a little surprised there wasn’t a little more interaction with the crowd, although I kinda get it given that they’re all wearing helmets/masks of some kind. The crowd-work bits were clearly pre-recorded. There were a couple bits talking about the Emperor, one from the Mandalorian drummer as an intro to The Mandalorian theme song, and a bit towards the end where they get someone from the crowd to come up as a Rebel agent and Lord Sikh, the lead guitarist, Force chokes them. As I mentioned above, the woman in the Barriss Offee cosplay got to go up on stage and wave her lightsaber around. The band was pretty good about acknowledging the crowd though, two or three of the guitarists made sure to fist-bump the little kid in the Stormtrooper costume.
I’m holding out for metal versions of Lapti Nek and Yub Nub on the next album, it was a pretty great way to spend a Sunday evening. All the bands were a lot of fun. The crowd was cool, everyone was just there to enjoy the Star Wars music and have a good time. I don’t go to metal shows these days the way I used to back in college, these days it’s Red Dirt/Americana shows. But now that I’m older I appreciate going to a show where instead of a mosh pit, you get a circle for lightsaber duels.
Things My Wife Has (Not) Said About Star Wars
If you enjoy attending concerts, and you have the means to do so, one of the best ways you can support a band or artists is to buy something at the merch table. Streaming is a losing proposition for bands. Ticket sales can bring in money but there’s a lot more handsi n the pie there. Merch sales, assuming the venue you’re at aren’t a bunch of nerf herders taking a merch cut, are the best way for a band to put money in their pocket. Sure, if you’re say, the Dark Lord of the Swift, it’s a moot point. But for small and medium sized bands, it’s very helpful.
All that to say I definitely hit up the merch table at the Galactic Empire show. I picked up a record I didn’t have yet, a t-shirt for a friend known the Sith Lord who lives beyond the Dune Sea, and a t-shirt for myself.
Now, you may not be surprised to learn that a man who both writes a newsletter about Star Wars and works from home, is not the most fashionable person in the world. But I thought the t-shirt I bought was pretty cool, and I wanted to show it off. I don’t think Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan was a fan, but I’m not actually positive.
Me: Oh, check out the shirt I got at the show last night.
Her: [blank stare, walks away.]
I can only assume she was speechless because of just how impressed she was by this beauty.
I’m only disappointed I don’t have any upcoming weddings to wear this to.
This Day in Star Wars History
Not too much happened in the galaxy far far away on September 13th. Mostly comic book releases.
Voice actor Gregory Baldwin was born in 1960. He appeared in seven epsides of The Clone Wars, mostly voicing Gwarm. A Weequay pirate who was part of Hondo Ohnaka’s crew. He also voiced Furlac in Star Wars LEGO: Freemakers.
Colin Trevorrow was born in 1976. Best known for directing Jurassic World, he was originally slated to direct Episode IX. That job eventually went to J.J. Abrams, although Trevorrow still did get a co-writing credit for the story.
The first two episodes of the second season of Ewoks were released. The Crystal Cloak and The Wish Plant aired on ABC.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
One of my favorite topics for FTDOW this week. I cheated a little bit on this one. Usually I clicked the Wookieepedia randomizer until something interesting comes up. However in last week’s Death Star HR, I was writing about the read-a-long record I bought and Droid World. Clicking through Droid World got me to Sentient 7 and the Clankers. And it’s well established that bands in the Star Wars galaxy are one of my favorite topics.
Sentient 7 and the Clankers was a band that was active in the year 34 ABY. The band performed the song "Droid World," which featured on the album "Listen Up Meatbags." According to rumors heard by the droid DJ R-3X, "Droid World" caused numerous droid rebellions and was subsequently banned in seven systems. Sentient 7 and the Clankers, including keyboard player Pall Gopal, performed at a cantina on the planet Actlyon, and R-3X broadcast the band's music in the town of Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu.
Old school Disney and Star Wars fans, from back when there was a difference between the two companies, might know DJ R-3X as RX-24 AKA Captain Rex from the old Star Tours ride. Also, if you want to rock out to Sentient 7 and the Clankers, Droid World is featured on the Olga’s Cantina album, available on all streaming platforms.
News From the HoloNet
Disney Sued Over Use of Peter Cushing’s Image in ‘Rogue One’
The dead speak! (through their lawyers)
Star Wars Reveals The Power Of A Desk Job In The Empire (Spoilers)
One thing I learned early in my career as a lawyer is always be nice to the clerks. They can make or break you. Same lesson in Star Wars form.
Ewan McGregor Wants Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2
It’s not #1 on my wish list, but I wouldn’t say no.
Three Weeks Later, The Acolyte's Cancelation Triggers A Surprising Civil War In The Star Wars Fandom
[Heavy sigh]
Star Wars Legends Book Review: ‘Darth Plagueis’ by James Luceno
You should read Darth Plagueis. It’s a top tier Legends book.
That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.
"Lisa’s Rival” also has the all-time Ralph Wiggum quote, “I bent my Wookiee.”
I actually like Deep Ellum, but “watch yourself it can get a little rough” isn’t the worst thing to keep in mind if you’re out late on a weekend.
Yes, I know Ralph McQuarrie did some concept art where Stormtroopers had lightsabers.
Great shirt 👍🏻
First of all, that shirt is rad af.
Also: I feel like I'm the only one who remembers James Earl Jones was in Conan the Barbarian. I think of that before Lion King, which probably says something about me.