My mind wandered a lot during the two hours and 23 minutes of the 3D revamp of George Lucas’ “Star Wars Episode One — The Phantom Menace.”For starters, I am not entirely clear as to what “phantom menace” refers to. The menace seemed pretty above-board to me — all these little droid soldier things everywhere, plus the two Trade Federation guys with no noses.And the fellow with the red-and-black face paint job. Not one of these was a phantom.I’d better back up. Liam Neeson is Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi knight, which means he can fight his way out of almost anything, utter gnomic pronouncements that everyone believes and dress like a dork at a comic book convention and not get laughed at. His sidekick, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), is along for the ride and has the added advantage that his made-up name sounds almost normal by comparison.So they have to go get these Trade Federation jerks to stop the boycott of Naboo because the Galactic Senate is too busy racing their super senate pod ship things around the Great Hall to do anything useful. But the Federation guys find that because they don’t have noses, they can’t smell a rat. Anyway, they are in the tank for some shadowy evil guy who appears on secret holograms every so often to give orders and threaten. So there’s this whole complicated thing with the Queen (Natalie Portman) and the Gungans and escaping to another planet and finding some spare engine parts and a little kid named Ani who will turn out to be Darth Vader, but we really don’t know that. And lots of meetings and then a version of a demolition derby and some more meetings and space ships and the Gungan army and zip zap powie wowie zowie — in 3D.I might as well just lay this out: This movie is boring, with or without the special glasses.Here are some of the things that crossed my mind as I fidgeted in my seat:• The accent of the no-noses Trade Federation bigshots was an uneasy cross between a yakuza chief in a Japanese gangster flick and the late Ricardo Montalban extolling the virtues of the Chrysler Cordoba.• The Galactic Senate doesn’t use Robert’s Rules of Order. • The trip through the planet Naboo’s core, a dark, wet place filled with dangerous creatures, reminded me of the colonoscopy I have scheduled for next month.• I wish I got paid to write lines such as “Zsa Zsa bunga the booba!”• When the power goes out of the droid army it reminded me of the first week of November around here.What I really want to know is this: Is there no need for guard rails in space? Everywhere you go there are platforms sticking way the hell up in the air for landing your ship on, and not a guard rail in sight.If this flick were shorter and paced better there would be no time to wonder about these things, and that’s the problem. The other problem is getting up to go to the bathroom and forgetting to take off the 3D glasses.If you’re a Star Wars person, or a comic book collector, or captain of the Quidditch team at Nerd State, then you have to go see this and marvel at Jar Jar’s 3D tongue work. And if you have a little boy your parental duty is clear. Otherwise... “Star Wars Episode One — The Phantom Menace” is at The Moviehouse in Millerton and elsewhere. It is rated PG for sci-fi action/violence.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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