Cool Sound-Sounds Cool

Last night we (Spouse, Sarcasm Girl and the Beau, and I) were at Skywalker Sound for their holiday party. Good food and drink, but the highlight was a presentation by Ben Burtt, who got his start as a sound designer by being plucked up, as a new graduate of USC, to work on some film that George Lucas was doing, a space opera of some sort.

We got to see how he came up with the sounds for Darth Vader, for the light sabers, for R2-D2--back in the days when you had to make these things up from scratch because there was no digital library for such things. It was a wonderful presentation, filled not only with cool trivia, but with Burtt's obvious enthusiasm for film, and for sound. It was also a pocket history of the development of Skywalker Sound from Burtt sitting in George Lucas's basement with a bunch of tape recorders, to the place it is now. It's fascinating to see how many people who started out a couple of decades ago at Skywalker are still there.

The thing that really thrilled and delighted Sarcasm Girl right out of her Tragically Hip façade, was that she got to shake his hand after the presentation. See: when they were about to strike the Millennium Falcon set, after Return of the Jedi was finished, Burtt sneaked in and shot a home movie of himself piloting the ship (there's a discrepant image: clean cut guy in a short sleeved sport-shirt tiptoeing in to seat himself in Han Solo's seat and start working the controls). So she has, at one remove, touched the controls of the Millennium Falcon.

We is a Fambly o' Geeks, us.

Caramel Fudge

For some reason, when the Joy of Cooking was last overhauled, they got rid of a number of good recipes, including the Spouse's favorite homemade candy, caramel cream fudge. So that I don't lose it (and in case anyone wants a good non-chocolate fudge recipe) I'm transcribing it here.

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 cup milk

Put all these ingredients in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat quickly, stirring constantly until they boil.
Cover and cook 2-3 minutes (this is to steam the crystals of sugar on the side of the pan down into the mass).
Remove the lid, reduce the heat, and continue cooking (without stirring) until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage (235°-240°).
Put 2 tbs of butter
in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Pour the hot mixture over the butter and let cool without stirring until cool (110°).
Add 1 tsp vanilla
Beat until creamy. Just as the mixture begins to lose its gloss you may stir in 1 cup broken walnut pieces (or not, if that will make someone die).
Pour into an oiled pan or onto an oiled marble slab. When set, cut into squares.

Store tightly covered. Won't last long.