So I like many people have seen a new generation of Star Wars movies appear in the Cinema over recent years and I have seen debate after debate as to which is best and why and I myself have made comment in one or two places though typically find that views are misrepresented or folks within some quarters are unwilling to accept that everyone has a point of view based in there own experience that is not necessarily in alignment or concordance with there own views.

Over the years I think Lucasfilm and now Disney have accepted that a Star Wars Universe has huge scope for quite divergent audience appeal and related story’s and they have typically sort to cater to broad ranging demographics accordingly.

Though I do see some rubbish repeated over & over again so I thought it might make more sense to give some clarity to my own position, on my own blog and so-called publishing outlet.

The Force Awakens was the first of this new generation of films – despite a large international fandom having existed and continued to exist through books and cartoons and video games and so on for many years.

The Force Awakens therefore had huge expectancy levels and brought folks to Cinema who may have not made a Cinema trip in many years.  The film I think grossed over $2 Billion and that reflected the widespread appeal of the franchise among peoples old & new.

However huge feedback moans existed from most quarters new & old due to a belief that it was simply a rerun of the Original A New Hope.  Debates might have existed as to the quality of several of the young new cast members, though fans put those aside, and indeed issues such-as the Angry Temper Tantrum of Kylo Ren, or my own moans about the costuming.

We were then presented with Rogue One and that took over $1 Billion at the Box Office, demonstrating a $1 Billion box office drop off from The Force Awakens. Many who had turned out for The Force Awakens stayed away for this one having already become disillusioned with The Force Awakens. Many who went to see the movie claimed to love this particular film, I found it strong or well grounded in terms of story & acting etc. though a little lacking in character or personality, it (for me) was something of a Soul less video game walk through and I think its main proponents were younger generation people who gained entry into the Star Wars Realm through video games.

The next movie was of course The Last Jedi, and again this one like Rogue One was well grounded and strong in terms of story telling and it was absolutely sizzling with strong performances from very much all of the cast, it had tension and friction and passion and comedy.  This again took around the $1 Billion at the Box Office though again many Original Fans stayed away due to disillusionment with The Force Awakens.  Fans that did turn out seemed to complain it was not the soulless video game walk through Rogue One.  Or that it was not Star Wars, in the sense of being Signposted Action or close to anything that had gone before Original Trilogy and Prequals.  So regular cinema going and heavily cynical critics and people who like and want to be surprised (such-as your truly) loved this film and gave it high rating, it also had greater appeal across multiple generations and audience demographics (IMHO).  Even if the feeling or story arc followed an ever increasing seeming sense of desperation or running out of time & Hope.

So Now we have Solo: A Star Wars Story.  I have seen various discussion, and indeed been to see the film and it is somewhat hard to genuinely gauge.  If you asked Original Trilogy fans who they most wanted to be, they would have perhaps chosen Solo.  When asked what they would most like to see in a Solo movie they would probably say, Han winning the Millenium Falcon in a card game, and Han doing the Kessel Run and Han meeting Chewie.  So Solo is out of all the most recent film releases, a kind of wish fulfilment for Original Trilogy Fans. If you go into a Cinema  wanting to simply be entertained in the fun  fashion of the good old days of the 1980’s Trilogy you will thoroughly enjoy this movie, written as it was by some of the best of Original Trilogy Writers.

The film is a fun filled roller coaster ride that leaves you feeling satisfied in having seen Han winning the Falcon in a Card Game, Han meeting Chewie, Han doing the Kessel Run etc. with plenty of comedic touches and moments.

So why then has it received less positive reviews than its predecessors?  I think it simply demonstrates or reflects a differing generation of audience used to differing criteria or what they expect within such films.  We know going in for example that Han, Chewie, Lando and The Falcon, cannot necessarily die or come to any great harm.

This film like all films in fact is a sequence of “set pieces” such-as those I listed above, Han gets his gun, Han meets Chewie, Han wins Card Game, Han Does Kessel Run,  the difference perhaps is that they are really signposted as a sequence of wish fulfilments and comedic sketches and the accompanying plot surrounding those is not really going to stand up to a great deal of scrutiny.  I think the Original Directors were filming it as a series of Sketches and Ron Howard was brought it to create some cohesion between the disparate nature.

This is a fantastic Fun film that can easily be loved as long as you are not someone who has become accustomed to dissecting everything in the minutest of details.  Something Star Wars fans have been known to be doing for a very long time.

I thought the actor playing Han was pretty good, and the surrounding cast of Woody Harrelson and Paul Bettany and Danny Glover and even the new Chewie were really great, as were the production values and special FX.

I think the issue for any Origin Story is this one of the sum of there parts.  Perhaps a psychology exists that the Group that came together within A New Hope (Obi Wan, Luke, Droids, Leia, Han & Chewie) were greater than the sum of there parts, therefore when you go into the Origin realms you are faced with having to reduce or limit how great those characters can be as standalone.  That is troubling because I genuinely would like to believe that new audiences can appreciate the aged nature of the Original Trilogy and Characters and-or that they could have had great adventures apart, prior to coming together.

So it is actually difficult wondering as to what can occur next – yes JJ Abrams co wrote and created The Force Awakens and can claim to have taken $2 Billion at the Box Office, though he also kicked of all the great debates and Original fan drop off, as to where the Franchise or movies should be heading.  It was also demonstrated that he did actually pick a great cast because Rian Johnson seemingly managed to gain some great performances from those same individuals.

Can a balance be found between such diverse and disparate fandoms?

I think that Lawrence Kasdan in commenting on his own writings for the series spoke upon the issue of TONE, and we long time fans know what we like in terms of Star Wars realm Imagery etc. and perhaps the balance between comedic and seriousness moments etc.

I have thoroughly enjoyed and liked all of the recent movies in there own ways, though typically I think some folks want all favourite characters or indeed films to be as they themselves envisioned and any divergence from that gives them cause for complaint or brain incoherence.

Were we entertained?  Do we feel like we had value for money?  Will we be discussing the events with our friends and families or social media circuits for ever and a day?

I think the Star Wars realm doom & gloom mongers and naysayers are a little early in prophesying all is not well within Star Wars Universe, when many fans simply fit into a silent majority of liking much of the produce from the realm though are not necessarily being continuously vocal about such things, especially when you consider that the market place and competition is far greater & broader & wider than at any time within the History of these Legendary Cinematic Empires.

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well!

So for much of the last couple of years and after several years of daily meditation, various courses and staying in a relatively isolationist approach to life the Universe & Everything.  I found myself monitoring typical World wide patterns that I can recall kind of monitoring when I was a child, though it was perhaps not so easy for a child as it is for an adult and indeed beliefs & debates can be formed as to whether such activities are resourceful or not.

So I have typically monitored multiple World Touring Sports and also monitored more local or regional or group based events.  Examples of World Touring Sports might be Golf and Tennis and Formula 1 and Snooker.  Examples of The British & Commonwealth Sports might be Rugby, Cricket, Football, so some can say well particular sports exist within multiple categories and groupings where others are genuinely more regionally based.  Due to having various American followers or people I follow on Twitter, I also found myself taking an interest in Sports such as Major League Baseball and The National Football League (American Football (they call international Football “Soccer”)). They also have the Basketball Leagues and games such as Baseball and Basketball in monitoring terms are more like monitoring Traditional Cricket – the games are played over several days as a series.  Although of course both are very differing from each other and indeed to Cricket.

I also found myself regularly monitoring Film & Cinema Releases and the Cinematic Tour Circuit.  Just as World Touring Sports often have Highlighted Destinations so does the Cinematic Tour Circuit, although each Sport or area of interest has typically grown & grown down the years, and many smaller or lower leagues exist within sports and many smaller events exist within Film and also of course for very many other areas of life, such-as book festivals and music festivals and so on.

So we anyone of us can make certain kinds of predictions with a high level of certainty that makes us perhaps appear more intelligent than we are.  I hung out at Cartoon Corner with the Guardian Newspaper (for example) and I adopted an “Everyman” approach to applying the information contained within such imagery to the World at Large, yes they may have been directly related to Politics, though indirectly again it can be suggested that the rule of predictive ability still exists.  There are 7 Billion + People in the World so you can predict that there will be newborns on any given day and indeed deaths.  You can find it predictively true – that a plane crash, car crash, boat crash or motor cycle crash or any kind of vehicular crash can also occur on a daily basis. So screaming newspaper & mass media or social media headlines informing you of such events are reduced in importance to a certain degree, because they themselves have a  agenda to spread information and in reality you could publish one newspaper with 365 stories and simply rotate through the headline & importance ranking on each day of the year and find them to all be true.  You can then find yourself wondering how to go from the generic daily truth to a deeper more accurate and precise detailing of daily truth.  It was a red car that crashed, or it was a red car from the Ford Motor Vehicle Company that crashed, so the detail that exists the more seemingly less generic the story becomes.  Western Scientists have perhaps in some ways and at some point switched to numbers as a kind of Human Global system that helps go deeper into the depths and precision of prediction, though the truth still exists that some parts of the Globe exist without compatible or detailed accurate systems of translation or meanings.

So in many ways it can be suggested that I utilised Holosync to clear out many a junk – confused & conflicted story that was running through my body, likewise many associated courses were giving a new or improved foundational baseline from which to exist in such experiences.  I still think the most important aspect of Holosync usage was raising Threshold.  In more recent times a regular monthly book recommendation was being made and again I typically purchase such books or have them already within my own pre-existing library.  Most are autobiographical and belonging to the same or associated groups of peoples, some are Science Based such as those of Dr Daniel Amen and his wonderful MRI brain scan technologies, whilst others are more La-Di-Da & Spiritual though often come under the Story of My Own Success in this field of human endeavour, multiple coaches and health and business peoples.  So I can also claim of course to have my own biography to a certain extent in terms of growing up and perhaps wanting or wishing for particular things and some are quite obvious too myself whilst others appear as though a certain amount of -life-jacking has occurred.  These things were my own life choice & aim and I ended up in this different place here through external factors and actions beyond my own control.

So the successful within these Meditation Realms are seemingly those who have made specific goals and ignored/let go all external factors and taken full control and responsibility for what goes on within there own heart & minds and body.  So the question I might be led to ask is it worth continuing in the present vane, given some of the recent events that have occurred,

In some ways it might be suggested that the Movie The Last Jedi was a kind of account of my life story.  Multiple elements shone through in terms of meaning and action and events within my own life.  The Little Stable Boy with his broom stick was akin to Disney’s much earlier film “Fantasia” and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice section.  Fantasia written backwards appears to read AI SATNAV and I myself studied Computer AI Robotics at University – my final incomplete year was in fact writing an AI SATNAV system for robots.  I actually owned a Sorcerers Apprentice Cuddly Toy that I had purchased during a trip to Euro Disney sometime around 1996 1997.  1997 was of course the year that Meghan Daisy Burnett Was born and rushed from Hospital to Hospital prior to arriving at Great Ormond Street and being christened and given last rights.  Then there was the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and of course – Daisy defeating the odds and surviving.  The story stayed secret for many years and my own life & circumstance grew worse & worse for many years, the only positive aspect in my life were the visits and fun times spent with my own daughter Rose as she was growing up.

The story was originally made public in 2013 after it was written upon this Blog, (by which time I had been Meditating & raising my Threshold in Isolation for 3 years (with minimal Facebook usage due to constant work related abuse generated by persons unknown among my alleged “Friends”)), then it was later shared with those Facebook peoples (I always disliked the Facebook Agenda of calling complete strangers or distant associates / work colleagues “Friends”), another few years went by and it was shared again within a Learning Strategies Writing Course Group.  Several years passed and it was shared again on Twitter in relation to the new Star Wars films, I shared it with a couple of Stars/Celebrities who I knew raised money for Great Ormond Street, a year or two went by and suddenly a Prince of the Realm is dating a women by the name of Meghan and so on.  Harry & Meghan married just a day or two ago and of course I can only wish for them a positive & success happiest of lives together.   Although on this occasion it does not feel appropriate to share the Story.

More recently I myself was surprised, shocked and saddened by the death of Bill Harris, creator of Centerpointe Research Institute whom I have on and off seemingly had a kind of mentor / apprentice like relationship with for several years, due to my usage of his Technology and investment in courses and products.  In reality I am perhaps simply another customer, though it always felt more than that, and of course I am not overly happy or satisfied with quite large numbers of other users of the Technology and the Agenda’s that they themselves have chosen to follow or pursue.  We all have our own agenda’s (of course), and there are seemingly no rules regarding agenda’s that people pursue, though mine was (to my mind) more about positive, uplifting, rewarding activities, whilst interaction with others often seemed to have undesirable consequences or suffering for myself, IE.  I have little choice in simply adopting a broad stroke of the brush attitude and letting such interactions fall away because they have not seemingly served myself, so unless dealing directly with Company Staff I am reluctant to become involved in debates, where a been there, done that, worn the T-Shirt, approach is already within the experience vault.

So I also recently due to Bill’s death and the approaching Royal Wedding withdrew from Social Media and interactions within Guardian Online and that perhaps caused myself to focus or pay attention to more immediate inner World issues within my own life once again.  Do I feel better for not being on Twitter, Facebook or Guardian Online, in reality yes, it appears that simply becoming involved or overly active within those realms was bringing or lowering my own so-called vibe, likewise I was still following recommended readings and the sports and cinematic realms mentioned above.

With regard to working life, the most recent years have been the best in my opinion.  I go to work, do a job, get paid at the end of the week.  I am not involved in nonsenses and empire building and horseplay and so on.  I have seen staff, come and go and typically a great team has gradually appeared about myself with similar positive attitudes and behaviours.  Whilst Brexit debates were taking place far & wide external to the factory, those Brits and Foreigners within my own immediate spheres of influence have all simply been happily working along with managers and trainers and engineers and so on, with each other, in a positive spirit of cooperation.  Yes I am aware that some groups are getting a little antsy (so to speak) though recent events suggest that a new level of frictions are appearing within the day to day working life.  I personally would like to see the Company build on the positive all round behaviours and attitudes and success story of recent years with some Major Supermarket Contracts.  However a seeming influx of new workers and so on are seemingly rocking the boat to a certain extent, old longer term brit voices are waiting in the wings to say “I told you so” when or if anything goes wrong (for example).  Several people who are new to my immediate work place & group,among both British and Foreign colleagues, have seemingly been sowing discord among the team that I work within, at least that is how a couple of Foreign colleagues & friends informed myself was happening, and likewise a relatively new brit started bemoaning the Foreigners ignorance toward himself.  I have worked happily and successfully with these people for several years and feel myself closer to them as friend and co-workers than I do with British strangers coming in with agenda’s, not in keeping with the positive working life spirit that has existed for several years.

So I can only be responsible for my own behaviours, thoughts and feelings, some of the new workers are former colleagues who left and returned and are not known for being trouble makers etc.  whilst others are complete unknown quantities.  I think the Company and staff have to ride out any frictions and storms, though of course my own preference would be for some kinds of people and persons to simply be moved on to more appropriate work and so on.  My job title says something like “Night Hygiene Operative”, what’s that others might ask, cleaner might be the response given, and then images of buckets & mops appear in there minds, and that is unfortunate both for the company and people who think it is an easy money job.  I always say industrial Cleaner because there is quite a high level of fitness & constant moving about involved, and high pressure hoses and chemical PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).  Several recently new employee’s do not seem to fit the necessary criteria that any staff member who has done the job, would likely give (& mentioned above by myself).  We had a chap a year or two ago who was struggling with an injury during his probationary 13 week trial period, and one or two of us liked him, though could see he was struggling and suggested he jump ship to another department that he could cope with, he followed the recommendation and is now working happily in another department. So some folks listen to advice and others ignore such experience advice.

I think one of the greatest lessons from regular mediation and indeed various courses is that the World is always going through change and transformational states of flow and flux and so on, and we humans as a species are often in various shapes and forms of resistance to changes, whether at home or work or within our social communities, change is genuinely the only constant and almost everything else is seemingly a consequence of peoples resistance, this is seen in bizarre behaviours and generational behaviours and so on.

Another aspect that I found myself thinking about recently was the issue of us all being a Hologram within the present day lives (according to both Spiritual Teaching and Some Science teachings), whereby we know of historical records & celebrities through what is handed down in the human record.  So the present day (within some life realms) is thought to be a consequence of a future recalled history of historical record.

An example was Stephen Hawking who when 20 was told he had a couple of years to live, his writings and teachings and theories were widely publicised and then hey presto he lives for another 50 years.

So the simplest theory for my own life (for example) would be to suggest that someone is going through the record books at the end of time & space and late 20th Century Earth.  They find a Hereford Hospital record entry that perhaps says Dave Perkins aged 17 Industrial Accident whilst saving the life of a female co-worker, perhaps a fleeting thought or feeling is “poor bastard didn’t stand a chance” then another person studying the record says WAIT there is a person by that name, within a later record studying at University and living here and then another later record of him working for this other Company over here, and carrying out this activity over here and so on and so forth.  We all of us exist in relation to each other and in relation to the records that exist about us, both our own and those of other peoples, and of course we live in resistance to the judgment or thoughts, feelings and behaviours of others that we have limited control over.

I recently found myself watching two films – the first was a musical “The Greatest Showman” a musical about PT Barnum.  Perhaps based in the historical record or a simplified entertainment version of the story of a Circus Creator from America.

The Second film was a wonderful addition to the Disney Pixar Collection called Coco and it kind of demonstrated this Holographic Theory quite well, in the sense that even the already dead disappear when they are forgotten or disappear from the human record (so to speak). So theoretically at least there is little harm in appearing in any record or history book if we follow that everything is a kind of self fulfilling prophecy and we stay on the positive uplifting rewarding life paths that achieve such things.

The potential negative of course is that we have little control over the thoughts feelings and behaviours of others beyond our ability to guide & influence or live by example and recommend admire and aspire styled thoughts feelings and actions over some of the other kinds of thoughts feelings and actions that also concurrently exist within peoples thoughts feelings and actions.

One of the basic Budha Meditative Teachings is that “all life is suffering” so we all have sufferings merely through the state of existence. Though raising threshold and doing foundational awareness and enlightenment courses allows us perhaps to better navigate and have choice about our own sufferings, hence statements from more experienced and advanced peoples (who are said to be enlightened) such-as those that do not serve you fall away.

I massively reduced my interaction with other peoples and continued to meditate and exist in relative isolation from the World at large, and I have personally let go many an issue thought or feeling that did not serve myself, either both historically or within the present day.  So another aspect is perhaps that we all of us unknowingly exist through the actions and behaviours of unseen helpers and we potentially also suffer through such folks actions. We can be both conscious and unconscious of such things, depending on life experience and the cards we have been dealt (so to speak).  I can thank both Bill Harris and Centerpointe and Learning Strategies for there assistance and guidance through many of these issues and topics, though you do always find that everything is invented or originated in some way and that the World and existence will continue irrespective of our own individual personal ego’s or contribution to the affairs of mankind as a whole.

So All I can kind of currently meditate or wonder upon and potentially plan from a personal perspective is “What’s next” for myself, for family, and friends and so on.

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well.