the Special Editions of Star Wars: Episodes V and VI: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi
by James AddamsAnother floating platform! Elevator! All those windows! Clouds!
And so begins my review of the Special Editions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. As you may have surmised, I was blown away by the Bespin additions, especially since I was seeing the film on the big screen for the first time ever. Yes, it’s true: I, James Addams, co-publisher of this here SW ‘zine, has never ever had the privilege of seeing ESB in a movie theatre (even though I saw ANH and ROJ several times each in their original runs). So the ESB SpEd was a double treat for me. So here’s what I liked, and what I hated...
The new Wampa looks awesome! Rather than bogging down the scene with unnecessary extra shots (as I feared might happen), the new Wampa footage actually increases the tension of Luke’s escape. It is a marked improvement, with only one flaw. The “old” Wampa’s face is only seen for a few shots as he backhands Luke. The “new” Wampa is seen in at least a half-dozen shots. The problem is, the two versions of the beast look completely different (I guess the Rankine-Bass Abominable Snowman was busy while the SpEds were being created!). Would it have been so hard to replace the two very brief close-ups of “old” Wampa (about 5 seconds of material) with close-ups of “new” Wampa so as to maintain the impression that they are the same monster? Oh well. It is still creepy and cool watching Mr. Wampa chow down on some fresh Tauntaun, blood dribbling down his chin, and the additional gore when he is “disarmed” came as a surprise as well.
Unlike the crappy print of the ANH SpEd that I saw, the ESB print was immaculate. The sound was crisp, the sharp picture was free of dust and scratches, and it was so gosh darned BIG! In the hour’s wait between Wampa land and Bespin, I thoroughly enjoyed being completely engulfed by The Empire Strikes Back in all of it’s glorious hugeness, and spent the time spotting lots and lots of “little” things. Things like the oft-publicized removal of the matte-lines during the asteroid chase (although one matte-lined TIE did manage to squeak by), changes in Yoda’s dialogue (why?, I wonder) and the previously unnoticeable plastic sheeting that makes up the floor of the space slug’s gullet! Although there were no dazzling new FX through the whole middle of the film, I didn’t miss them. ESB as it was is enough for me! ...but more on that later.
Finally we fly into Bespin, and a whole world of CGI. Actual cheers went up at the sight of the repaired “Leia seen through the window from the outside” shot, which was embarrassingly misproportioned in the original. Okay, the new shots do indeed have that “total CGI” look to them, but are they not a severe example of eye candy anyway? Some people claim that the new footage distracts one from the dialogue and plot. This might be true on a first viewing, but I think that after the mandatory multiple viewings that we will all doubtlessly experience when this baby hits home video, we will get used to the new backgrounds, and Lando’s palavering and deception will come back to the fore.
Here’s a fun little glitch to watch for: When Lando is taking Han and co. to face Vader, they walk by a stunning balcony featuring an elevator moving up the outside wall. They turn the corner, Lando apologizes, Han does his bit with shooting at Vader, and then the stormtroopers arrive. Behind them, the wall is once again solid in the place where the new window had been added a few shots earlier! Oops!
It proved impossible for me to go into the film oblivious to what had been added. The Wampa and Bespin shots had been widely publicized, and my best efforts to maintain a sense of surprise were largely foiled by the media long before the film’s premiere. But, the new Vader footage near the film’s climax took me completely off guard. At first I was thrilled, but upon further reflection, I have grown to dislike these shots.The voice is not James Earl Jones, the editing (both sound and picture) is sloppy, the shot of Vader disembarking is an out take from ROJ (that’s Moff Jejerrod waiting for him!), and most importantly, the pacing of the whole sequence is destroyed.
Defenders of the scene claim that it is an important change, clearing up an error in the film. To be honest, in my 1000 viewings of this film on VHS, I had never even noticed the error. Apparently, after Han is popsicled, Vader says “Take the Princess and the Wookiee to my shuttle”. Later, after Luke does his bungee jump with no bungee cord, Vader says “Bring me my shuttle”, implying that it wasn’t even present yet when Vader speaks the first line. Big deal. This little inconsistency warranted the complete thrashing of the film’s climax? I don’t think so!
All in all, Lucasfilm has shown us a great example of a fine way to mangle the last five minutes of an otherwise nearly flawless presentation of an all-time classic film.
In discussing Return of the Jedi, on the other hand, I have to confess right off the bat that I have always found this film to be a bit lacking compared to ANH and ESB. No amount of CGI is going to fatten a relatively thin plot, make Harrison Ford more enthusiastic, or undo the Ewoks entirely. Not that I’m dissing a SW film here, or joining the trendy ranks of the Jedi-bashers, but if I had to line up my favorite films of all time in order of preference, ANH and ESB would be tied for #1, and ROJ would be... fourth or so.
I thought that the new and improved Sarlacc looked great. Previously, it was a big toothy adolescent nightmare lying stationary and unintimidating in the desert. It is now a living, breathing, scary monster, snapping its jaws and grabbing with tentacles. Even if it is even more evocative of one of Dune’s sandworms than ever before, one more Dune reference added to the dozen or so already present isn’t going to hurt! The ending celebrations on Coruscant, Tatooine, and Bespin (re-used footage from the ESB SpEd - or is it the other way around?), looked great. The “crowd surfing” stormtrooper and the falling statue of Palpatine were nice touches too.
I was indifferent about the new musical number in Jabba’s palace - the song ranks no higher or lower than “Lapti Nek” in my book, a song that didn’t actually bother me that much to begin with. The additional band members are a gratifying diversion from something that did bother me: the insipid, annoying and stupid-looking Droopy McCool and Max Rebo. A Rodian, a Bith, three dancers, some drummers, a marginally-improved CGI Sy, and a Fraggle Rock out take round out the new line-up, all but the last of whom are welcome additions. The extra shots of Oola in the Rancor pit add mystery and suspense... if you are one of the three people in the world who haven’t seen this film before.
As was the case with ESB, I was aware of all these changes prior to seeing the film. But if there’s one more thing I want to say it is “Herd of Banthas!!!”. Too cool! This augmentation took me completely by surprise and was even edited into a spot where it didn’t destroy the pacing of the film. Yes!!! A warm up for some Bantha action in the prequels, I wonder?
Disappointment reared its ugly head in that it is still “raining” on the Death Star’s docking bays (a problem that apparently even the digital deity cannot fix), and that the Emperor still has a (smaller?) “black slug” hanging out in his hood.
In leafing back through Blue Harvest back issues, I see that our first ever mention of the Special Editions was in late 1995. Having lived with the idea of the SpEds for over a year, it was inevitable that certain thoughts, wishes, and expectations would build up in one’s mind while waiting for their release. After finally seeing them on the big screen, I am feeling equal amounts of delight and disappointment.
Two steps forward, two steps back.
Had the Special Editions simply been a straight presentation of the three original films, re-released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ANH (“Plan A”), there would be nothing to write about, save for the wonderful experience of seeing the films in the theater again. This simple idea, when it was first revealed, was a most entirely welcome one. Lucasfilm soon divulged that there was more in store, however. “Plan B” involved going into the films and fixing all of the “mistakes” - bad matte lines, color and sound problems, and you know the rest. This, we all thought, was an even greater idea. Caught up in the thrill of it all, the concept escalated, and we eventually found ourselves deep into anticipation for the proposed “Plan C”, a grandiose scheme to completely revitalize the trilogy we all know and love by not only seeing “Plan B” to fruition, but by adding myriad brand new shots and restoring cut scenes to bedazzle the audience.
Let me ask you this, though. Had “Plan C” never come about, would any of us have missed it? Did any of us lay awake at night thinking “I sure wish George would go back into ANH and add some more stormtroopers to that shot of Han running down the hall”? Did you or I ever think, while watching our favorite film, that some silly flying robot getting swatted to the ground by another robot was just what the film was missing to make it perfect? I doubt it. While a lot of the new stuff added to the three films improves them in small ways, an equal number of the new shots only serve to create new glitches, new continuity flaws, and new technical problems.
Meanwhile, in getting all caught up with developing “Plan C”, a lot of “Plan B” was ignored! Far, far too many of the easily spotted technical flaws still exist. All three films have glaring errors that we were happy to ignore all of these years, until we were promised a fix-up, one which we let ourselves get excited about, and one which ultimately didn’t deliver. Now these flaws will stand out in our minds more than ever. Had “Plan B” been executed with 100% (or even 80%) success, any further cinematic appendages would then have been completely welcome. But, if there were no extra shots promised, they wouldn’t have been missed. The fix-up would’ve been enough.
Adding new mistakes (along with the good stuff), without thoroughly delivering on the original promise to clean up the old mistakes, makes the whole project feel sloppy to me. It seems to me that somewhere along the line, someone’s priorities got mixed up. In certain cases (at risk of becoming a pariah of sorts), I have to agree with the most unpopular opinion in all of fandom, that being the opinion that the SpEds, as they finally turned out to be, are little more than a commercial for the Prequel Trilogy, a way to hype Star Wars (as a product, not a film) to the point where the people outside of our beloved little fandom will be stoked up for the new films in two years time.
Having called a spade a spade, let me say that I would rather watch this commercial than any other, and I plan to do so, again and again! For all of my criticisms, keep in mind that like a father scolding his child, I take the time to make these observations and judgments because I care. Just try to keep me out of the theaters for as many showings as I can cram in before the theaters, once again, loose their reason for being when the Star Wars trilogy finishes its current run. After all, flawed or not, these films are the reason movie theaters were built!
the Special Editions of Star Wars: Episodes V and VI: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi
by Mary Jo FoxThree weeks on the heels of ANH’s triumphant return to the big screen, the Empire Struck Back at the local multiplex for the first time in 15 years. It had been 17 years since I had seen it in a theater, though I have seen it many times on video/on t.v.. I won’t go into how I never had a chance to see TESB on either of its reissues in the early 1980s or how my second ever viewing of TESB was in 1987. It’s a sad tragic tale though it’s not as sad or as tragic as James’s.
But February 21, 1997 was my chance to do right by what many fans consider the best of the trilogy. Again I was back at the theater at 9:30 a.m., wearing the lovely Han and Leia t-shirt I bought at Suncoast. Debbie Kittle was already there, wearing the same shirt! We certainly made an impression. After scarfing down my raspberry creme doughnut in line, I was ready for action.
Like its predecessor, TESB got the Special Edition treatment, with digitally remixed sound, new prints, and those lovely little surprises from the gang at ILM. It should come as no surprise that of the three, Lucas was happiest with the way this one turned out, therefore, there’s not as much re-tooling in this film as in the others.
But what they did do was astounding. Cloud City made my jaw drop. It’s a real metropolis now; beforehand it resembled an enclosed shopping mall. There are actually crowds and lots of vehicles all over the place. Windows and outdoor scenes replace dull white walls. We also actually get to see the Falcon fly into the city around three-dimensional structures and land. A new sequence leading up to Leia pacing in front of a window is from the viewpoint of a cloud car dodging around Cloud City’s buildings. These scenes alone were worth the price of admission.
The other well-publicized retouched scene was Luke’s confrontation in the ice cave with Mr. Wampa. As Luke hangs from the ceiling upside down, we hear the Wampa munching away for the first time. Then we see new shots of full-sized Wampa getting up, coming after Luke, and finally howling in agony as his arm is lopped off. The new Wampa looks great; and the addtional scenes makes Luke’s escape from its lair even more exciting and dynamic.
There are a few other tidbits here and there: Boba Fett’s Slave I pursuing the Falcon, Vader walking into his shuttle on Cloud City (notice his line was changed right before that), and the shuttle flying back from Bespin into his Star Destroyer. But notice...isn’t that Jerjerrod in the docking bay?! Yes, kids, that was extra footage from ROTJ taken from a different angle! Waste not, want not as Master Yoda says. The other changes are very subtle, like adding in a few snubfighters or TIEs here and there, or hearing Luke go “aaagh!” as he tumbles down through Cloud City’s core.
The remixed sound makes TESB:SE a sonic delight. My butt shook with every “kaboom,” and the ships seemed as though they were right there in the theater with you.TESB is the movie that made SW operatic, mythic in scale and it still resonates with fans today. People at the three viewings I attended still laughed at the jokes and clapped for the good guys as they always have. One BH reader told me that some in the audience with him actually cried during the carbon freezing scene. It’s a joy to see this great film being appreciated by today’s movie-goers. And it will be loved by audiences for generations to come.
The third and final (for now) installment of the SW series debuted on March 14, 1997. Unfortunately I had to work that day, so no first showings on opening day for me! Instead I went that Saturday night with the family, at my usual THX theater. Over the course of the past two months, it had been like a second home to me, so it seems. I’m surprised I’m not a first-name basis with the staff.
After enduring some truly crappy trailers (Speed 2??!! Ack!) I was a tad bummed out to see that the rumour of a prequel trailer was alas, untrue. They don’t even have a cast yet; I guess a trailer at this point is premature.
On to the movie itself. I’m not going to debate the merits of ROTJ--whether you liked it, loved it, or otherwise, chances are the Special Edition won’t radically change your opinion.
The remixed sound really pays off with the big battle over Endor and with the speeder bike chase. I lucked out seeing a nice crisp print at my theater...I finally got to see the blood on Han’s hands after Leia is shot. I STILL didn’t see that damned flying sneaker though! Grrr!
Most of ROTJ is the same, with most of the Big Changes at the beginning and at the very end. The first “new” scene is the revamped musical interlude at Chez Jabba. The Max Rebo Band has been expanded to twelve members, including a new singer, two drummers, and a trio of alien babe backup singers. The Sy Snootles puppet has been replaced with a fully-mobile Sy Snootles CGI. I thought the original “Lapti Nek” was pretty amusing, but the new “Jedi Rocks” shows you how far creature effects have come since 1983. To me this version feels livelier and more fun without disrupting the flow of the film. And I admit, the song kinda grows on you.
Boba Fett is given extra screen time hanging with the backup singers. I guess if you’re the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy, the chicks are going to be all over you like Mandalorian battle armor. So much for that celibacy thing in the bounty hunters book!
I’d heard that there was going to be some re-tooling of the Rancor scenes, but aside from a few extra seconds of footage, it’s pretty much the same. Oola in the Rancor pit was a nice bonus, but I kind of wish they’d been able to fix up the parts where Luke is fighting the big beastie. Some shots look washed out and faded, making it very obvious it was originally done in front of a bluescreen. Oh well, can’t always get what you want.They did fix the shots of the sail barge and skiffs flying over the Dune Sea, to my relief. I’d always noticed the animated figures on top of Jabba’s barge, which thankfully have been replaced. Whew! Better yet, check out that herd of Bantha crossing the desert. Oh baby! What a BEAUTIFUL scene! Definitely one of the most aesthetically-pleasing moments of the Special Editions. The Sarlacc has also been improved with more tentacles and a pod-like mouth. It’s fun watching it chomp on its hapless victims and the sight of it snapping at Lando’s heels adds to the suspense even though we all know how it turns out.
For the rest of the film, the additions/alterations are barely noticeable, just a few extra ships here and there. The exploding Death Star II gets a spectacular shock wave ring and Death Star chunks. Very nice. Then the really good stuff starts...
My favorite part of the ROTJ:SE--and perhaps the whole SpEd trilogy--was the expanded celebration scene. The urban environments look fantastic and it was a truly heartstopping moment when Coruscant, the fabled capital of the Republic/Empire, made its big screen “debut.” Look carefully for the falling statue of Palpatine and the stormtrooper getting passed over the crowd, mosh pit style! Ooh, I’ll bet Iceheart was pissed. Just remember folks, one of the first scenes we’ll see in Episode One will be very similar to that shot of Coruscant (see cover of BH#11).
There’s some nice new footage back on Endor, including a restored shot of Luke embracing Wedge. Definitely a lovely gesture to the hardcore fans.
To accompany the revamped celebration, John Williams composed new music. Not that I didn’t like the old “Ewok Celebration,” but this new score was a bittersweet and haunting mix of contemporary jazz, folk, and Latin music that seemed more, well, important. The music not only contains the joy of victory and hope for the future, but also mourning for the comrades who died, and the sacrifices everyone suffered over the years. Seeing the jubilant masses on Bespin, Tatooine, and Coruscant gives you the impression for the first time that the Rebellion and the Empire touched a lot more lives than just Lukehanandleia. Now I never cry at movies. I laughed through “E.T.;” I shrugged at “The English Patient.” I’m probably the only female in America who avoids so-called kleenex flicks like drochs. The only time in recent memory feeling a lump in my throat while watching a movie was when I saw “Schindler’s List.” Well, that lump came back at the end of ROTJ. Honest! (okay, I wouldn't ever admit this in my own review, but I actually got all chocked up too! - J.) So I left the theater, happy with how ROTJ turned out, but saddened that for the next two years, it was c’est fini for SW.
The winter of 1997 has been like a dream come true. The Special Editions were worth it not only because it brought a higher profile to SW, but because it gave fans and first-timers alike the rare opportunity to see these classics in a first-rate theater. Even though these films are 14-20 years old, they’ve lost none of their magic. I was in the supermarket one day and in the impulse purchase aisle leading up to the registers there was a rack of children’s books. A small boy no older than 5 or 6 saw an ANH book and read along tape and cried out, “Star Wars!! Mommy, look, STAR WARS!!!” in the same tone of voice one would use upon finding the Holy Grail. Indeed, the trilogy was the best thing going on at the movies; I’d rather watch a 17-year-old lightsaber duel any day over “Booty Call.” The American public seems to have agreed. Despite what the naysayers feared, the world didn’t end with the Special Editions. To be honest, almost everything added to films or changed were improvements over the originals, particularly the urban locales like Mos Eisley and Cloud City. This isn’t to say the originals were “bad.” They were the best that could have been done at the time they were made. But now they’re that much closer to the way George really wanted to do them, and if he’s happy, that’s the cherry on the cake. If you’re one of those people who weren’t entirely thrilled with the SpEds, once they come out on video or if you tape them off HBO, you can take the originals, two VCR’s and an extra tape. Edit together all of the parts you liked from each version, and you will have a version of the trilogy that will make you 100% happy.
In conclusion, my sentiments can be best summarized in this review of ANH from the Washington Post: “As we return to the Mos Eisley bar, we’ll order another round and clink our glasses to the ‘Return of the Jedi,’ and toast these exploits of George Lucas: ‘May the Force be with you. Now get off your butt and finish those (prequels) you promised us.’” Amen!
Did you notice the dreadfully inept example of music editing heard in the newly added Vader scenes near the film’s climax? Fortunately, these cues are heard on the soundtrack album in their original, unedited form. Whoever edited the music for that scene should be shot. I edit music for a living. Someone could’ve asked me to do it, and would’ve done a better job and probably charged less for my time. But that’s neither here nor there, because it’s not on this 2-CD set anyway. This example does, however, serve as another (fortunate) example of why I say that these are Special Editions of the Soundtracks, not Soundtracks to the Special Editions (as if anyone cared).Trivial matters of semantics aside, I give the crystal-clear and immaculately re-mastered (but not remixed) ESB SpEd soundtrack two big thumbs up (one for each laser-etched disc)! If the price scares you off, I got both my ROJ and ESB sets used for $14.99 each, so hold out for a used one!
The Jedi was late in returning to both our movie theaters and our record stores. When the film finally returned on March 14, it was... well, turn to the film reviews. The soundtrack on the other hand (which was several weeks late), followed the example of the ANH and ESB SpEdtracks with its immensely improved sonic clarity and extensive additions of previously unavailable music.
This two-disc set weighs in at a whopping two hours, twenty-seven minutes, and fifty-seven seconds (or 147:57). In fact, that’s about all they can cram onto a 2-CD set these days. The original single-LP soundtrack album from 1983 had a piddly 45 minutes or so, and the boxed set of a few years back had 73:44 on the ROJ disc, and approximately 27:32 on disc 4, for a total of about 101:16, or an hour, forty-one minutes, and sixteen seconds. So, this new version of ROJ is by far the most complete to date with about 46:41 of new material (just the new stuff on this set exceeds the duration of the original!) Of course, we’ve almost tripled the ESB soundtrack for sheer amount of new material. Technically, we might want to subtract 9:09 from ROJ’s total, because there are multiple takes of two tracks, but that still leaves this album chock-full of previously unavailable music, and the best bargain of the three SpEd soundtracks.
The most exciting aspects, for me, are the inclusion of several bits of source music. I always thought that the little “baroque” piece heard in Jabba’s palace was really cool. The little snippet we are treated to in the film is expanded here into a full 3:09 version. Being a fan of African, Balinesian, Tibetan, and Japanese folk music, I have been repeatedly disappointed by the failure to include some of the source music from the Ewok village on the soundtrack albums. Among the several hours of incredible western orchestrations on this recording, we are finally treated to 4:02 of the tribal beats, marimbas and flutes that make up an “Ewok Orchestra”. Very cool. I was also glad to hear a little more of the dark, ominous choral work that underscores the scenes in Palpatine’s throne room.
This version of the ROJ soundtrack, by sheer necessity, comes a lot closer than its twin siblings the ANH and ESB ‘tracks to truly deserving the title of “Special Edition Soundtrack”. Since Lapti Nek and Ewok Celebration (aka “Yub Nub”) have been replaced in the film with Jedi Rocks and Victory Celebration, it is expected and fitting that the former two pieces also be dropped from the soundtrack CDs to be replaced with the latter two. And so it is. I don’t really mind Victory Celebration. Although the chanting children are a little trite, the piece as a whole isn’t half as corny as Yub Nub, which worked better in its Meco-ified Disco Mix.
Lapti Nek, on the other hand never really bothered me too much. It was the visual aspects of the Max Rebo Band that annoyed me all these years, and that has been fixed (see my review of the film). After two viewings of the ROJ SpEd, I have started getting used to Victory Celebration, and I had decided that Jedi Rocks, (generic and fully uninspired title aside) was an acceptable, but unnecessary, alternative to Lapti Nek. Then I heard the soundtrack album.
Simply put, under careful scrutiny, Jedi Rocks ...doesn’t.
The song starts off strongly, with a big intro and some wild Huttese vocals. After about 1:05 (in other words, after the portion you see in the film), the track breaks down into a dull and unchanging blues rock groove for two minutes, then dies an anticlimactic death after a short harmonica solo.
Let’s compare this with tracks like Cantina Band , or even Lapti Nek. In composing Cantina Band, John Williams went for an otherworldly swing sound. He arranged the song with predominantly “normal” western instruments, but he used them in combinations that we are not used to hearing - steel drum, clarinet, and synthesizer combos are not too common in our music! Using this strange arrangement, John composed a fun and satisfying swing number that has a strong intro, a memorable melody, and which moves through several bridges or alternate sections (a steel drum ‘solo’ for example) before coming to a satisfying climax. Even the seldom-heard Cantina Band #2 is a gratifying and well-structured composition, given an other-worldly twist with Williams’ odd orchestration. Like it or hate it, Lapti Nek also has an identifiable theme, which it returns to after a series of complimentary sections, finally ending up in an energetic coda.
Jedi Rocks, as I mentioned, comes in with a bang, horn section wailing away, but then after only a minute it peters out, and then treads water for two more full minutes before dying with a whimper. The arrangement is mind-numbingly boring, consisting of your standard blues/rock/R+B lineup: guitars, drums, organ and horns. The performance is lackluster and lifeless, and there is no real energy to the piece, making the “rocks” half of the title a lie. In short, it sounds like an unfinished outtake from The Blues Brothers. The minute or so of the track that you hear in the film does work very well in the context of the film, but the three minutes plus that you hear on the soundtrack album fail miserably, unlike the aforementioned Cantina Band(s) and even Lapti Nek, which all work well in both contexts.
Let us hope that George Lucas is more selective when choosing music for the upcoming prequels. It might also be noteworthy that Jedi Rocks is the only piece of music heard anywhere in the Star Wars Trilogy that was not composed by John Williams. Rocks in the lack-of-brainchild of some joker called Jerry Hey. Hey, Jerry - take a song writing course!!!
Rocks rants aside, the ROJ and ESB soundtracks are both great values, containing over an hour of previously unavailable music between them. I can strongly recommend both of them to anyone who doesn’t have the boxed set, and I will even go as far to say that having both of these new versions and the boxed set is something that the hardcore fans among you might want to consider. I have found it worthwhile to own both.
The limited editions are starting to run out. The matte black slipcase with the booklet bound into it and the laser-etched discs are being replaced with a standard jewel box and booklet, with the rebel logo printed onto the disc. Track down that beautiful limited edition while you can!
Add the SOTE soundtrack, the radio dramas, and various alternate versions of the soundtracks (such as those issued on Varise Sarabonde) and my SW CD collection now numbers into the 30’s! Yikes!
©1997 Blue Harvest
Blue Harvest Home Page Back Issue List and Sample Articles
Tydirium Multimedia Homepage.
I have maintained this web site since 1995.
I write and create photos because I enjoy it.
People tell me they enjoy reading this site, so I keep it going.
However...
This site has cost me a lot of hours, and a lot of money.
And, unlike my writing for magazines or books, there is no
publisher sending me checks for the work I do on this site.
So...
Left Orbit Temple
Tiki Road Trip
Big Stone Head
Send e-mail to James
Last updated on June 15, 2005If you find my writing to be entertaining, valuable, insightful,
or if you'd rather just attempt to bribe me to go away,
please consider a donation, in any amount.
(perhaps the same amount as a magazine subscription or a book).
Just click the button below, and it'll take you to PayPal.
"Tiki Bar Review Pages", "Tiki Road Trip", "Tydirium Multimedia",
"Left Orbit Temple", "Chester Century", "Big Stone Head", "TiPSY
Factor", "Johnny Clash", "Tiki TV", and "Blue Harvest Magazine"
are trademarks of James A. Teitelbaum
All material on this website is © Copyright 1994-2007 by James A. Teitelbaum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use is a violation of applicable laws.