kaitlyn (Kat) here… a few random things from today’s class that i just remembered!

1)) actual written proof that chewbacca’s voice is actually a mash of random sounds:

Chewie’s voice was a combination of numerous animal sounds from Sound Designer Ben Burtt’s personal library. Walruses, camels, bears and badgers were all blended in different ratios to come up with Chewbacca’s various utterances. One of the key ingredients in the mix was the sound of Tarik, a black bear from the Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose, California. Tarik passed away in 1994 due to congestive heart failure.” (source: nerd star wars bank)

2)) is anyone here into Sun Ra or similar 1960’s Afrofuturist/avant garde jazz artists? Sun Ra is amazing as far as pure visionary genius (some would say manic/craziness) and the visuals of Blade Runner and other related sci fi films always remind me of Sun Ra’s music. If you haven’t already, I’d definitely recommend checking his stuff out– especially anything from ‘Space is the Place.’

Sun Ra and his ever-changing ensemble band was known in 1960’s NYC for certain things: being crazy, making crazy music, wearing awesome egyptian/space themed outfits, and Afrofuturism. “Claiming that he was of the “Angel Race” and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complex persona of “cosmic” philosophies…” and as a result was one of the first Black pioneers to use science fiction as a means of creating a bizarre utopian re-invention of Black History, tracing it from Ancient Egypt to futuristic Black colonies in space.

…here’s a few pictures which i think show what he was all about better than me trying to talk about it: