Tag Archives: Star Wars

Pop Conscious in July

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Pop Conscious Topics from July 2015

Pop Conscious topics from July 2015

Spirited Advertising and Pop Culture – with guest co-host Michele Coles

Inspired by Michele’s visit to the creatively playful Duck Tape Festival, we talked about how Summer’s animated features, Minions and Inside Out seem ominpresent in advertising and merchandising. Then we looked at advertising aimed at kids, and the rise of action figures.

Then we made it spiritual too!

Looking at advertising with a critical eye can tell us about our culture today and help us experience nostalgia of days past. But looking at ads with your third eye, or through a lens of spiritual awareness, can help you see what’s important to you and what isn’t, and maybe even understand what’s important to someone else. In this episode, Malayna Dawn and Michele Coles will discuss how to use Unity principles to make the most of what we can’t avoid! We’ll talk about how to be in the world, but not of the world, play with what’s fun, and ignore what isn’t useful.

Unity Youth and Rewriting History

Throughout the past few weeks, Stacy has been busy in her role as the Southwest Unity Region’s Teen Consultant, overseeing Uniteens Camp and then accompanying our older teens to the International Youth of Unity event at Unity Village. Malayna has been reminiscing about her own youth in Unity, and thinking of movies and TV shows where characters get to do it all again. If you could go back, would you do things differently? What might we learn from such forays into our imagination? Can it make life better today? We’ll explore these questions this week on Pop Conscious!

Busting the Lone Hero Myth – with guest co-host Michele Coles and companion piece on Beliefnet.com (coming soon…)

There is a certain individualistic ideal which seems to tell us that it is possible, maybe even preferable, to do it on your own—whatever it may be. But if we look closely at our favorite heroes, most of them have backup—sidekicks, family, love interests, butlers, and the like. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto! He wasn’t alone after all! Join Malayna and team member Michele Coles as they scan pop culture for supposed heroic loners and their sidekicks or support teams. Then we’ll bust the myth and refine the ideal of individual empowerment to include supportive connections, because we know that “oneness” doesn’t mean being alone, but joined in Unity!

Sci-Fi Spirituality of Firefly and Serenity – with returning guest Dr. Tanya Cochran!

When you’re a fan, you have a passionate reverence for the subject of your fandom that is not unlike a spiritual experience. We welcome back our favorite scholar-fan, Dr. Tanya Cochran, to share insights found in the TV series Firefly and it’s follow-up film, Serenity. We’ll look at the resonance we find in the archetypes of the crew members and how belief plays a huge role in this space cowboy adventure by Joss Whedon. And we can’t forget the fans. There’s not a power in the ‘verse that can stop us!

Hear Dr. Tanya’s previous visit from June 2015 when we discussed Channeling the Devotion of Fandom !

Star Wars Day, Disney Way

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Original air date: Monday, May 04, 2015

May the fourth be with you! Things have changed since the originally-released, history-making, Star Wars Trilogy. A prequel trilogy came out, and in 2012 the brainchild of George Lucas was adopted by Disney. Disney is known for magic, fantasy, and imagination. Stacy and Malayna will talk about the impact both have had on pop culture, and how we can use what they’ve taught us so far as tools to improve our lives, as we look forward to when The Force Awakens!

Retro Outlaw interprets Princess Leia as the Coppertone girl

Retro Outlaw interprets Leia as the Coppertone girl. Google it!

We must admit, there was a disturbance in The Force as we attempted to present our podcast on May 4th.  Here’s your guide to navigate around the technical difficulties!

We started off with some poor pronunciations of Organisms named after Star Wars characters, which you can find detailed at the link included here.

We discussed a timeline of Star Wars films releases and our memories.  I mentioned that I remembered seeing the original one at The Egyptian (but it may have been Return of the Jedi, actually….).  Stacy thought that I might have been referring to The El Capitan, across from the Chinese Theater, but nope!  Links included to show that we eventually checked our facts!

Aside from a dog barking about 5 minutes in, all was well until we mentioned the documentary The People vs. George Lucas.

The Force responded by kicking us off the air for 2 full minutes.

So skip to 18:00 minutes into the show, when we pointed out the metaphor — the idea that people being upset with the creator of the Star Wars universe is like us shaking our fists at our Creator (God, or whatever name you choose) for something we don’t like about our world.  George Lucas created this whole universe that we all love, and then we got mad at him for what did with his creation.

Han Shot First!

Han Shot First!

Around 24 minutes into the show, another glitch of about 15 or 20 seconds hit us, but we course-corrected and continued to talk about the  Han Shot First issue!  (Shooting who? Greedo!  I was right!  I second guessed myself into thinking I meant Boba Fett.  But I didn’t.  I totally meant Greedo.)

The rest went without a hitch:

Between the 26 and 27-minute mark, we got into the next installment, The Force Awakens, with JJ Abrams directing.  (Click to see a trailer!)

Stacy, as a one time, Star Wars Fan Club member, examines why it had such an impact on her young self:  1) the excitement of living in the unknown of space * Leia as a strong female role model * Technology as our friends – (Wall-E, Big Hero 6 – Androids are our phone friends) * It’s a story about family and reconnection * Embrace others – like Wookies, Ewoks, etc.

Malayna pointed out the Joseph Campbell / Hero with a Thousand Faces connection – mythical language of all human stories, from King Arthur to Beowulf… The Hero’s Journey inspired us all using the same tools. And the book The Writer’s Journey – written by a story consultant at Disney- impresses the importance of these archetypal characters, on a journey we’re all on. Any of our holy books, can be a description of our spirit’s journey through the human experience. These stories are that too – all stories are.

People vs George Lucas 2 – due out later in 2015 – the Disneyfication of Star Wars franchise.  JJ Abrams did a great job with the Star Trek universe.

We looked at the messages of Disney movies, and what we can learn from them if we look.

We talked about the TV show Heroes, which was on NBC and created by Tim Kring.  (Not Disney, not ABC.)

And finally we summed it up that all these stories about princes or princesses are about us – we are all heirs to the kingdom! As such, we have a responsibility to self, community, and environment – to being our best selves, take on that royal role.

Resonate with stories that call us to be better – step into those roles, and use them as tools to inspire!

The Spirit Behind CG Animation

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Original air date: Monday, August 18, 2014
Erin Fitzgerald
Episode Description:

If you’ve ever played a video game, or watched cartoons or anime, chances are you’ve heard our special guest, Erin Fitzgerald! If you haven’t, but were ever curious about why everyone else has, Pop Conscious can help you. We’ll examine what has allowed the video game industry to surpass the success of film and television for years now. Join us as we explore computer-generated animation!

Show Notes:
We met a handful of her different characters… talked about the connection between spirit, breath and voice…found life lessons and spiritual metaphors in both the creation process and the message of cartoons, anime and video games!
We learned Erin’s technique of getting into character to create the voice, heart and soul of the artist’s vision, and how we can use that same technique in our spiritual practice to “put on” our best, most ideal selves.
We learned to be fountains of spirit, and spread our glistening drops of light wherever we go — we just need to do our best to be clear channels of that love.
We laughed a lot too.  Not surprising really!

Twelve Powers of Entertainment

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Original air date: Monday, July 28, 2014
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Oh the lights that shine!

We at Pop Conscious believe in the power of pop culture and the media to influence people positively, so we‘re going to find ways to illustrate the connection between entertainment and enlightenment using the Twelve Powers: Faith, Strength, Wisdom, Love, Power, Imagination, Understanding, Will, Order, Zeal, Elimination, and Life. Can we do it? Tune in and find out!

Pre-Show Notes:
Each one has a human positive, and a human negative, as well as a spiritual expression.Wizard of Oz – Faith, Wisdom/Understanding, Heart, Will & Strength & Power,As Hero’s Journey –

  • Faith –
    • Music: George Michael “Faith”
    • Movie: Steve Martin – Leap of Faith
      • Count of Monte Cristo – “God believes in you” , Strength, (Revenge)
      • “If you build it, they will come” Field of Dreams
  • Strength – Perseverance
    • Music: “Strong Strong man to ever let you go,” – Rick Astley
    • Movie: Hulk, Avengers, Superheroes, Mutants – within us, but unknown – superherodb.com
    • TV: Wrestling, Bionics, Mutants
  • Wisdom
    • Music: Schoolhouse rock, It’s in Every One of Us – David Pomeranz, Don’t Eat Yellow Snow – Pop Music Wisdom
    • Movie: harry Potter’s Dumbledore, Gandalf in the LOTR
    • TV: Oprah, Daily Show, Perception & Eli Stone – visions,
    • Mentors: Jiminy Cricket, Fairy Godmother, Merlin, Obi Wan
  • Love – Harmonizing Force
    • Music: Higher Love – Steve Winwood, Divine Love Chant – Unity North Choir,
    • Movie: Butcher’s Wife – “Love is the leap that won’t be denied.” Demi Moore, Jeff Daniels, (…& Malayna Dawn!)
    • Broadway: Wicked (For Good), Frozen
  • Power / Mastery of Self
    • Music: M-Pact, acapella
    • Movie: The Color Purple,
    • TV: Downton Abbey, Grey’s Anatomy, talent shows
  • Imagination
    • Music: With Imagination, I’ll Get There – Harry Connick Jr. (When Harry Met Sally – 25th Anniversary!) John Lennon – Imagine
    • Movie: Lego Movie, Life is Beautiful
    • Other: Disney, Broadway, Cirque du Soleil ! Read the rest of this entry