Blah blah blah

After a long (for me) period of blogging silence I break this almost holy stillness to write about.... Star Wars. Pathetic isn't it? To atempt to redeem myself first I'll mention that lancaster is still lovely, we went to Kendal (a mere 20 miles away) which even lovelier. Being an assistant manager is proving difficult and rewarding in equal measures, which seems to be a good balance - I prefer it to boredom, at least I do so far.
I recently read a very good book about illustrating children's books and am feeling inspired and realising that I really need and want to draw more - basically I find drawing hard simply because I don't do it enough.
Writing is in a weird place, I've finished the 3rd draft and need to do another one. A friend read it and offered me a lot of good criticism and advice which I'd be a fool to ignore. On the other hand I really don't want to go through another draft just now so I'm putting it aside for a few weeks whilst I work on other things.
......so Star Wars.
My main gripe would be the advertising saturation. Bill Watterson took his syndicate to court for the right to not have Calvin and Hobbes devalued by having their images stuck on t-shirts, mugs, badges and only old tat to score easy money. Lucas feels that sticking Star Wars images on anything from junk food to lottery cards won't devalue it. Actually his increasingly mediocre film making skills seems to have devalued his creations without the aid of low class tat tie-ins, I guess he can stick Joda's face on any old crap and it won't make a blind bit of difference. Actually, it has made a difference, it's made me tired, it's made me realise that Lucas really does lack a soul - even if I don't believe that Lucas started out making Star Wars for the toys and merchandise, I do believe that it's the only reason he's carried on making them, that and the fact that he's clearly creatively bankrupt.
Sadly I let myself down by buying a tie-in recently, a lego tie-in. In my defence it was the lego aspect that appealed, if that's any defence.
As for the new movie, I'll see it for the sense of closure and with the not so secret hope that it's good. Sadly one line from the New York review seems to sum up my attitude to the recent Star Wars films, "Break me a fucking give."