Tag: Black Spire Outpost

How to Improve Oga’s Cantina at Galaxy’s Edge: Where creativity and a vastly expanding mythology can improve life dramatically

Obviously, my recent trip to Disney World had a positive impact on me, and I thought it would. It had been decades since I was really able to take a trip like that and just enjoy it without a whole lot of tag along projects. I could write a lot about all the positive experiences I had the week I was in Orlando at Disney World visiting all the parks and Disney Springs in general. But specifically I observed in the context of creativity some jaw dropping elements put forth by the new Star Wars land they call Galaxy’s Edge and I had a kind of moment after it all soaked in where I was in the Oga’s Cantina, a kind of recreation of the popular spaceport bar that was seen in the very first Star Wars movie way back in 1977, and I was awe struck. It was 2019, I was 51 years old and remember seeing that place for the first time in the movie and buying the album of the soundtrack and listening to the music over and over again on a record player. That popular cantina song was the gateway for my generation to science fiction and adventure, and here was the real thing, and they were selling drinks to an adult audience with barely standing room only around the bar. I included a few video clips of my point of view from the cantina that night here for reference, but it was really quite ostentatious that I could leave where I was having a couple of drinks with my wife and go outside to see the Millennium Falcon sitting there in a setting that belonged in a movie of the most fantastic type. It was quite an achievement to build, let alone experience and I couldn’t help but feel that something very important was happening to our human species.

Imagination had stepped over a kind of intellectual barrier and a new reality had been created born from a new kind of thinking driven by myth. Before visiting the cantina that night I had purchased from the marketplace just around the corner a much-desired deck of Sabacc cards which I had been waiting for really all of my life. After hundreds of books that I had read on that popular intergalactic poker game, finally Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge had invented a real game with real cards that could only be bought at that location and I was having quite a time with them. It was all a bit overwhelming and I had a lot of thoughts about what should come next to such an experience. Since a new reality has been born there at Galaxy’s Edge, and from the looks of the crowd, that cantina wasn’t big enough, nor would it be in the future I am offering my thoughts to help the story advance based on my observations. Granted, I never thought such a place would have ever been possible. But since it is, we should talk about improvements.

I’m not much of a drinker, so going to the cantina at Galaxy’s Edge was more out of curiosity than anything else. I’m not into the drinking songs and other things that go on in bars. But I do think the cantina should be more of a social destination, a place to meet people, get away from the heat of the day, and to freshen up. Since that cantina has the reservations booked for the whole day before you can even enter the park, its not a relaxing place to go. It’s certainly cool, but not relaxing. If I were program managing Galaxy’s Edge, I would offer some free advice to them–they need to build several more cantinas around the complex. The one they have isn’t enough. They need at least two more, and both of those need to be larger. They can be in the designs of other locations in the movies, but it is very obvious that Star Wars fans going to Galaxy’s Edge want to hang out and talk to other fans without a time limit, so more cantina space is required.

Also, the cantina management need to give happy hour prices to fans who cosplay, so that there are more people in the cantina who look like people from all over the Star Wars galaxy. Many people would willingly dress up in creature costumes if they could get significant costs knocked off their drinks and that would solve the environment problem of having the place full of non-Star Wars looking tourists. I would be surprised to learn that this wasn’t already happening, but I must suggest it because it’s the most logical thing to consider. That was really the only thing missing is the atmosphere full of strange creatures. Everything else looked great.

Additionally, as I had my drinks watching the crowds feeling like the best thing to do would be to have a good Sabacc game at the bar or in one of the booths. The booths around the outside parameter were full of families so such a game wouldn’t be possible. The cantina staff wanted quick turnover inside to make room for the lines of people outside, so playing Sabacc in the cantina just wasn’t an option and it should be. In fact, Disney I think has done such a good job marketing their new Sabacc game, that I think in a year or so there will be so many people playing it that they should host Sabacc tournaments at Galaxy’s Edge the way that poker tournaments are held in Vegas. I would go, I love the game. In a lot of ways I think it is much better than poker or black jack and it is otherworldly enough to allow participants to embroil themselves into the Star Wars mythology. Fantasy Flight Games has had great success with their X-Wing games and other Star Wars games. This Sabacc game would be the perfect meeting game in Galaxy’s Edge for years to come and would really enhance the cantina feel that you should experience when you enter those types of places. That would make the cantina more of a function than just a novelty act.

Going even further, I would think a cantina like Oga’s, except much, much, larger should be build at Disney Springs and it is there that yearly Sabacc championships should be played from players all over the country. The stakes could be simple, a week vacation package for four to the parks and hotels, that way it wouldn’t be gambling where money is exchanged, but still the prize would be in the tens of thousands and worth practicing all year to have a chance to win. And the tournaments could be broadcast on Disney+ the way poker games are broadcast on cable networks currently. I’ve been playing the game since I picked it up that day and it would be very good for television, and for cantina events.

All things come from imagination, even the games of our past like poker. When film and literature create in the imaginations of people the kind of demand I saw at Oga’s Cantina in Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios, we are on the frontier of some new kind of thinking, and that is very exciting. I can see future engineers for space stations on Mars and beyond playing Sabacc to pass the time on those long space voyages that they started learning to play at Galaxy’s Edge in one of these cantinas. Its more appropriate for the future than the games of the past, and that is something that is astonishing to see, how intellect is inspiring creations not born of rigid societies, but of creativity and vastly expanding mythology.

Rich Hoffman

The Black Spire Outpost: Mythology on a whole new level

It was a tough week last week, and as I say often, when I have one of those weeks where I must put my mind up over the turmoil, I commonly turn to a good Star Wars book to ease things contextually. So I took that opportunity to spend a few days reading the new Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, which is a new Star Wars novel by Delilah Dawson which is a direct tie in to the new land which recently opened at Disney World. My wife and I are planning a visit there soon so I’m starting to let myself enjoy the hype a bit, and I wanted to know the back story of the place, mythically. My impressions of Star Wars these days are that it is a lot weaker than it was when I was a kid, it used to be a place where boys could get away from the turmoil of thinking about girls. Girls have always had their things, their Barbies that want to do domestic things, where boys are wired for war and aggression. Star Wars gave young boys a place to go think about other things away from girls. But that’s not the way Disney wants to be, they want to reach everyone, especially girls. Their political activism has washed out Star Wars a lot, its more of a “pew, pew, pew” that girls make when the guns fire than a “boom, breerach, or a twew,” that come out of a boy’s mouth. To that effect the Black Spire book had very little action, and a lot of girly feelings but to be honest, I enjoyed it anyway and think the book, the amusement park and the upcoming movie are amazing in how mythology is taking the mind of mankind to a truly new level.

A lot of people are mad at Star Wars, and especially at Disney for taking away this boy refuge from them and making it much more girl friendly. They are also mad at the gender politics that is so heavy at Disney with everything they do, after all they want the whole audience, not just the boys. Like lots of traditional fans I am still mad that Disney turned their backs on the old fans of the Extended Universe and wrecked the cannon. I still have a hard time accepting as cannon any of the new stories, but I do think that Star Wars is worth working out the details, because it is inspiring in people a love of science that they really don’t get anywhere else. I get to talk to people all over the world each week and I have not found anybody who calls themselves an engineer who doesn’t love Star Wars. Disney may have screwed up the timeline and cannon of the stories, but this opportunity to build a new Star Wars land that people can visit, see and touch that ties into the rest of the greater mythology is just an astonishing opportunity. In a world where everyone seems to be getting dumber, Star Wars fans tend to be the exception and I think that’s wonderful and worth any bumps in the road that it took to get here.

Also, Star Wars and Disney are the last of the traditional ways of getting source entertainment material, whether it’s a book from a bookstore, or a destination vacation, or a movie released at the theater that still have a profit model. The trend is that some people have Amazon Prime accounts and are streaming movies directly. Others have Netflix. But not everyone has the same unified source material. We’ve certainly gained more freedom of entertainment options, but we no longer share the same options. So I found it very fascinating to read this backstory of the Black Spire ahead of our visit there to understand what the heck Disney was thinking in creating a Star Wars land that was never a part of any of the previous movies, but for stories not yet told, then to sell it off as Star Wars. It was a pretty big gamble that I hope pays off for them.

Sure enough, the Black Spire book was a fascinating journey to a new Star Wars world that is literally quite real in both the California and Florida parks. It introduced the main characters that are a part of the Disney Parks lands and explained why anyone would care about the backstory while visiting. Obviously, there is some kind of tie-in to the upcoming movie this December, which has a lot riding on it. It is truly an amazing time that we live in where such a mythology could be enjoyed at these various levels that are all tied together through story. While reading the Black Spire I couldn’t help but think of previous literary efforts well before movies became the dominate entertainment, such as Jules Verne’s work. Disney would later make movies out of them, but their enjoyment only lasted while the film was playing. What we are doing now is enjoying a fine new book then actually visiting the places in that book, eating in the restaurants talked about there, then seeing movies and television shows that then become part of the shared experience. It is exciting to consider how these new mythic tools might build up the mind of the people who enjoy them in a positive way.

Even if Star Wars is more girly now than when I was growing up, the idea of a type 3 civilization that harnesses all the various powers of their galaxy yet still be concerned about human problems is a very fascinating study. The Black Spire being a bit of a wild west town on the outskirts of such a society and the problems of government that come with managing all those people and juggling their natural autonomy is a good thing to think about. We are moving at such a pace these days that the best way to see what’s coming is to put your mind someplace where everything can be viewed together, and in spite of the Disney handling of Star Wars not being equal to fan expectations, what has been gained is more than worth it. I would have loved when I was a kid to have the opportunity to visit any kind of Star Wars land. Now I can, but not only that, but that land is in books and comics to enjoy across multiple platforms of entertainment. And for our entertainment of tomorrow, this is the way that mythology will be told best.

Mythology has always been the platform that mankind has used to think from and is what makes all of us different than every other kind of animal. People need to think about something before they can do it, and what Disney is providing is not only to think about it, but to see and feel it on a scale that just has never been possible before. The stories that the Black Spire Outpost isn’t doing well, and that Star Wars in general is struggling to refind its fanbase are part of that political activism I was talking about, in making it too girl friendly and robbing it as a refuge for boys to get away from the girls and their domestic problems. But what has been gained has truly been worth it. I enjoyed the Black Spire book and can’t wait to visit the park. Even as a hard-core older fan, I can forgive many of the fumbles that Disney has had because of the epic scale of mythology telling that they are now conducting. And I’m looking forward to a lot more.

Rich Hoffman

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The Black Spire Outpost–the roots of genius

Most of my readers are over 50, but I do have quite a few that are under that number and they are likely as excited as I am about the opening of the Black Spire Outpost in Disneyland, which happens next week. That is of course the new Star Wars Land called Galaxy’s Edge which is finally opening after Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 and now six years later is about to be opened. I had a lot to say on the matter back then and just as I hoped, it will prove to be not only a technical marvel, but an important contributor to human mythology. Additionally, it centerpieces an enthusiasm for the imagination which I think is critical to the production of genius in our culture. A free roaming imagination has many safe places in the Star Wars stories, so being able to actually visit such a place with all the authentic detail that fans and just park goers can share with this new Disney contribution to the live action myth building that they are so well known for is a really exciting enterprise. So for the sake of people thinking of visiting it in the weeks to come, or over the course of this upcoming year the video below is a good place to start just to get the basics of a successful visit.

As many also know I have a small obsession with the concept of genius and growing older to me can be a blessing if the elements of childhood have not been lost in the process. However, I view most human beings as being at their peek around the ages of 6 to 10. After that, most of us slowly decline over time. We may gain more responsibilities and wisdom, but usually it’s at the sacrifice of thoughtful imagination and wonder. Being older of course has more fiscal opportunities, but I sort of drew the line at 50 because at that age people become much more reflective and my readers come here to think about the things in their life that they neglected before getting to an age where its too late to change anything quickly. Most of my fans don’t want to leave the world worse off for their children and grand children so they start thinking of politics and what they can do to help.

Unfortunately, everyone under 50 is mostly concerned with social statuses and where they fit on the pecking order of existence where it is generally accepted that elected offices are something that most people don’t want to think about. Rather than talking about politics they reside to the safe topics of sports and grilling hamburgers or steaks in their back yards. It continues to amaze me how much conversation is generated among people in this age group, between 30 and 50 years of age about grilling out in the back yard. And these same people detest any talk of politics, because they fear it will harm their climb up whatever social ladder of influence they are concerned with navigating. Then of course there are the people of the previous twenty years, from the ages of 10 to about 30 that are nearly obsessed with their newly turned on sexual attributes. The race to find a mate to have children with, or to just use sex as a tool of manipulation and control becomes their dominate thinking. Watching all this from my perspective is disgusting and I never accepted any of those social gates. Instead my mind has always been more on books and other mythic entertainments because those were the values of my youth and I never let go of them. And I see quite clearly that the path to genius is through retaining that child-like “Peter Pan” element of perpetual curiosity.

Star Wars is a great vehicle for refining that genius. Some of the smartest people I know are comic book geeks and pimple faced readers of Star Wars books. Most of these people are extremely overweight and don’t get out in the sun much, but they don’t care. They have made decisions to not care about their places in the pecking order of our civilization and they get made fun of for not participating. But most of these people are extremely intelligent and rather childlike. It’s a shame that they are so stigmatized in society because they could bring to the world great things if only, they cared to participate. But the world to them is often a disappointment and nowhere near as exciting as the Star Wars stories they read about and enjoy in the movies. But that trend has been changing and places like this Black Spire Outpost is the latest effort to allow people to revisit their childhood hopes and to actually put their hands on what used to be only a fantasy, and I think that is a very good thing.

Star Wars was and has always been very political. After all, if there is a war, there must be something to fight over and those stories often reflect the politics of our day. As much as people think of George Lucas, the creator as a hippie of his generation concerned over Watergate and the Vietnam War, I see in him a pretty conservative hot rodder who came to age through racing cars and learning to work on them who also had an active, very childlike imagination, which is why Star Wars turned out to be so special. And so the seeds for the Black Spire Outpost were born from the burnout smoke of his race cars and a keen interest in anthropology. Unlike many filmmakers these days who are obsessed with film trivia George Lucas made Star Wars from a perspective of genius by carrying with him into adulthood the hope that most young people have, that they may have the opportunity to change the world as an individual.

Of course, genius doesn’t stay with people. It can be lost in a puff of instant smoke. Once the values of genius are lost, people usually revert back to some biological timeline of age ward progression. But it doesn’t have to be that way and every time a big amusement park land like the Black Spire Outpost comes on the scene it reveals some of the best elements of our culture. And that excites me greatly as I enjoy the enthusiasm that comes with such ambitions. This particular creation at Disenyland is a huge cultural element that when I was a kid wasn’t even thought possible. I remember going to Universal Studios in Hollywood and looking forward for months beforehand to see the full-sized star fighters from the television show Battlestar Galactica—the Colonial Vipers. I think it was one of the most exciting things I had seen as a young person and I never really forgot it, even though the thing was just a prop from the television show’s set. To be able to see the Millennium Falcon sitting in a free state and to be able to actually ride it in an active way is extremely exciting and we can only imagine what impact that will have on future generations . One way or the other, the opening of the Black Spire Outpost is a very significant cultural event that will likely have long standing consequences for the better. So for those planning to visit, enjoy it! It is truly something special!

Rich Hoffman

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