opallynn:

I desperately wish the boundaries of time and space were mine to bend. Not because I’d like to control the universe or anything so mundane, but because it would be rip-roaring fun to organize some kind of ultra-huge marathon of the original Cowboy Bebop anime for all of these new people I’ve encountered this week who want to learn more about it.  Thanks to the early days of “Adult Swim” - when the programming block was this sort of illicit and unspoken cool thing that no one really understood but watched anyway (remember those bumpers with the geriatrics in the pool?) - I stayed up many late nights with my extremely nerdy father watching the crew of the Bebop doing things American cartoon characters could only dream of getting away with.  The show became such an integral part of my pre-teen pop culture worldview (a bit like Star Wars or Britney Spears) that I can’t imagine not having seen it.  I’d kidnap corgi puppies to be able to see the look on people’s faces the first time they see “Mushroom Samba,” or hear the music of Yoko Kanno, or find out Ed’s real name, or learn why the phrase “see you space cowboy” with forever make fans bleary eyed.

People can harang me about wanting to “cheapen” the series by trying to rally interest for a Hollywood adaptation, but it gives me chills - legitimate up and down my spine chills of utmost emotion - to think of all the exposure the series would suddenly get if such a project were to actually come to fruition.  Can you imagine?  A whole new generation of high schoolers and college kids saying, “whatever, I saw the movie, but let’s be extra hip and check out the original.”  It’s just the way the shiny new Star Trek reboot has reinvigorated interest in the original series, or the way this string of Avengers films has brought a whole new group of people into comic books. Adapting or remaking something doesn’t tarnish the original - hell, it doesn’t even touch it, it just shines a sparkly spotlight on something many people would have never even known about otherwise.  I for one think that’s a pretty nifty prospect.

Annoying soapboxing aside, who wants to get drunk and watch the best show ever?  Party at my place, I’ll make bell peppers and beef.