“Star Wars” soundtrack performed by The London Symphony Orchestra, scored by John Williams, 1977. This blog is not supposed to be a daily eulogy  but damn, 2016, you sure are making it feel that way. Today, December 27th, we lost Carrie Fisher, galaxy royalty, Hollywood badass. The music of Star Wars is considered to be the most memorable movie score of all time. Our vinyl copy is an original double LP gatefold, formatted for an autochanger record player, on 20th Century Records; it was later re-released by Sony.

I’ve been a casual Star Wars geek since ‘77 when I saw the movie at the drive-in theater, sitting in the back of my parents’ Opel hatchback (though they could have had the VW Rabbit by then). It was a double feature with Silver Streak  (I had to lay down in the sleeping bag in the trunk for that film). I loved the movie and I loved Princess Leia and took every opportunity the rest of that year to role-play her part with my friends. I’ve seen every Star Wars movie since at the theater – in much more comfort than the Opel – and now that we have our own kid, we have continued the tradition. Here is a clip of the kid playing the Star Wars theme on his violin earlier this year. While I was at work, he figured out the notes on his own and was waiting to play it for me at the door.