Tosche Station Radio #47: Too Corellian To Function

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On this episode of Tosche Station Radio, the hosts are joined by Bria from the blog to discuss the lessons the new Star Wars films can learn from the Expanded Universe.

In a bit of housekeeping, we’ve got another sponsor for the blog and podcast! Listeners of this podcast can get a free audio book from Audible.com when they sign up for a free trial subscription.

Kicking off the show, Nanci highlights what’s New on the Blog. The Waru Express stopped at The Thrawn Trilogy and Bria got to enjoy some of the EU’s better novels. Cosplay Monday featured an Adorable Airbender family. Finally, Bria reviewed The Last Jedi by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bonhoff. In other words, Bria’s been manning the blog over the last week.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci’s been busy writing and visiting the new Fantasyland at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Both the hosts caught up on The Clone Wars, so stay tuned for our Season 5 retrospective! Brian’s been gearing up for the start of a couple sport seasons, so he neglected to pay attention to his nerdier pursuits. Bria, on the other hand, revisited an old favorite novel and marathoned Season 2 of Game of Thrones.

Deak’s Dirt this week starts with an Oscars recap. Did any genre fiction fare well? Eh. Kinda. Star Trek Into Darkness is bringing back some old enemies. The Leia novel and Kenobi get new release dates – October 29 and August 27, respectively. The Last Jedi is released, should you go pick up a copy? In the Episode VII rumor department: Simon Pegg and Alfonso Cuarón may be involved? Are the writings looking to draw from the Original Trilogy’s tone and themes?

This week in Fixer’s Flash, the hosts and Bria take a look at the Expanded Universe and wonder what kind of lessons the new Star Wars films can take away from the novels. Are there things worth saving? Ignoring? Fixing? While some might want the EU to be ignored completely or preserved entirely, there are elements worth saving and chucking.

Wrapping up the show, the hosts field questions in the Ask Us Anything segment.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.

Her Universe - Flaunt Your World - www.heruniverseshop.com Listen to a bestseller for $7.49 at audible.com!

Rumors: Cuaron, Pegg, and Matching the Original Trilogy Tone

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simon-peggGrain of salt, etc.

MarketSaw’s insider sources claim that Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men) and Simon Pegg are being courted for roles for the sequel trilogy. MarketSaw has had a decent track record reporting details of both Avatar and The Hobbit, so allow that to influence what you think of this rumor if you like.

Cuaron could make some sense as a director for one of the films, but Pegg’s role would be more uncertain. Perhaps he’s being considered for a role of some sort in the Abrams-directed Episode VII, but given that the screenplay isn’t even finished yet, it’ll be some time before we know whether or not he’s actually involved. That said, Pegg is a uniquely talented actor that would offer a lot to any film.

Edit: Pegg responds

So much for that. Also of note from the MarketSaw post:

The focus is on the original trilogy in regards of reverence and tone. Remember I told you before that the tone was important, well I believe they are really taking that seriously. From everything I know, they’re focusing on that directly. Remember everything has the ability to change drastically, as Star Wars right now apart from the twin trilogies is a huge blank canvas. However, the trilogies ongoing narrative will continue to focus on that particular branch, whereas the stand alone movies, will fill and expand the voids in between in multiple timelines, and have potential to then be franchised themselves in regards to the worlds they open up.

That certainly would be in line with what Mark Hamill is hoping for. A return to the more hopeful tones of the Original Trilogy and a step away from the fatalism of the Prequel Trilogy.

And again, grain of salt, exercise caution.

Review: The Last Jedi

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thelastjedicoverThe adventures of Jax Pavan, Jedi Purge survivor, continue in The Last Jedi by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff.  Jax, Den Dhur, I-Five, and Laranth Tarak are on a top priority mission for the Whiplash underground resistance.  They must safely smuggle one of Whiplash’s top leaders off of Coruscant before the Empire can successfully assassinate him.  In route, however, something goes terribly wrong and it’s up to Jax and his crew to set things right while simultaneously staying very far away from Darth Vader.

For the rest of the review, to the jump!

Continue reading →

Housekeeping: Advertising on the Blog and Podcast

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If you’ve taken a look over at the sidebar on the right or listened to the last episode of the podcast, you’re probably aware that we’re running with advertisements now. Specifically, we’re running Her Universe and Audible.com advertisements.

I’ve been hesitant to run with advertising on the blog/podcast for all sorts of philosophical reasons, but the reality is I could use a bit of help financially to cover the costs of webhosting and keeping the lights on here. Thankfully we can be picky with the ads we run, so we decided to chose these two programs because the products offered are pretty cool. Chances are you already know about Her Universe‘s line of geek-inspired wardrobe and jewelry aimed at female fans. Audible is an Amazon.com affiliate that sells digital audiobooks.

In the interest of full disclosure, here’s the breakdown of what we’re getting with these ads:

  • Her Universe: 10% of each sale (before tax/shipping) that originates from an ad on this site.
  • Audible.com: $10 for each free trial subscription, $25 for each paid subscription, 10% per single download.

As for what we’d be using this advertising money for, primarily it’s going to go to paying for our webhosting and domain registration costs. Occasionally we might use some of it to get some material (books, comics, movies) for the staff to review. Honest, we won’t be squandering this on the quarter slot machines in Vegas.

For reference, every 18 free Audible trial subscriptions that originate from the blog/podcast will pay for one year of webhosting for the blog. /ShamelessPlug

If you’ve got any questions or feedback (even if it’s that you don’t want to see us run advertising), feel free to leave a comment here in the post.

Star Wars Books Hosting Facebook Chat with Ashley Eckstein

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Clear your calendars for 3PM EST on Wednesday. Star Wars Books will be having The Clone Wars voice actress Ashley Eckstein on for a Facebook chat.

 

Cosplay Monday: Airbender Family

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It’s time for another Cosplay Monday where we try to brighten the start of your work week with some awesome looking cosplay.  One of the best/worst things about a conventions is that there is so much amazing cosplay that you can’t possibly catch it all so you have to look at everyone’s pictures afterwards.  Today’s costume group is one that I saw across the way at Katsucon but couldn’t get away from what I was doing to take a picture.  Luckily, David Ngo snapped a great picture of this amazing Airbender Family group from Avatar: Legend of Korra.  The entire group is nothing short of perfect.  I don’t even need to say anything else.  Just look at their perfection.

Airbending Family DavidNgo

EU Retrospective: Thrawn Trilogy

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Ahhhh the Thrawn books.  Honestly, is there anything more classic than Zahn’s trilogy when it comes to the Expanded Universe?  If you’re here for the snark, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer because between these three books and another X-Wing novel?  I have nothing but praise this go-round.  (Shocking, I know.)

Heir to the Empire
One of the first things that occurred to me while I was reading this book is how much the Star Wars universe owes to Timothy Zahn.  There is so much about the universe that I just take for granted that I’m now realizing/remembering is all thanks to Zahn.  Coruscant?  Zahn.  Personalities for character who really only cameoed in the films but are integral parts of the EU?  Zahn.  Bringing Wedge Antilles to the forefront?  Zahn.  Introducing the best character ever, aka Winter?  Zahn.  I mean, I’m not saying that Zahn is god but the amount of canon he contributed is amazing.

What I love about this book and the entire trilogy is that the story still clearly feels like Star Wars but still has its own tale to tell.  It’s not a rehashing of the Emperor or Vader because the villains have their own motivations and characterizations.  (I’ll save my ‘Why I love Pellaeon’ ramble for another post.)  Thrawn is most certainly his own character who takes a very different approach to winning the war than any other Imperial we’ve seen before.  It’s pretty cool that he can study art and figure out how someone will react.  And then you have C’boath who is just bonkers.  His original model wasn’t much of a charmer to begin with so this probably shouldn’t be surprising.

And then we have the introduction of the ever fabulous Mara Jade.  If there are people in our universe who dislike her, I don’t want to know about them.  I positively adore everything about her and what she brings to the story.  I’m also a huge fan of Talon Karrde and his smuggling organization that doubles as the best intelligence agency not controlled by a government.  I’d happily read a book all about Karrde and his organization.  Pretty please, Del Ray?  Also, I will admit to also not really getting the Wild Karrde joke either until a few years ago because I pronounced the ‘e’ in my mind.  Nanci isn’t alone here.

Of course, all the familiar characters are always great to read about.  Zahn clearly gets Luke, Han, Leia, and Lando and writes them all quite well.  Plus, I think he did a great job of bringing each of them five years forward from Endor so we see the same characters but we also get to see a logical progression for each one.

The story is good too.  It’s a set up novel for the rest of the trilogy but never feels like it’s only there as exposition because it has its own tale to tell before the final page is turned.  Enjoyable all around.

Continue reading →

Leia Novel, Kenobi get Release Dates

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Star Wars Books just announced that the currently untitled Leia novel in the Rebels series by Martha Wells as well as John Jackson Miller Kenobi novel have been given release dates.

And in case you can’t see the above tweet, it’s October 29, 2013 for the Leia novel and August 27, 2013 for Kenobi.

Tosche Station Radio #46: Port of Doom

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On this episode of Tosche Station Radio, the hosts are joined by Matthew of Majestic Giraffe and the Wrong Opinions About Movies podcast to discuss Star Wars, movies, and creative endeavors!

In a bit of housekeeping, we’re proud to announce that we’re featuring Her Universe as an advertiser on both the blog and podcast! Her Universe: Flaunt your world.

Kicking the show off, Nanci highlights Bria’s trip to Katsucon on the blog.

In Fixer’s Flash, the hosts highlight what geeky pursuits they’ve been up to. Nanci’s been busy writing her new book concept and is already a few chapters in. Meanwhile, both Brian and Nanci waded into Once Upon a Time again and were very thankful the latest episode was significantly better than the one that preceded it.

In Deak’s Dirt, the word is out that John Williams wants to score the Sequels! Over on the television side of things, Joss Whedon talks SHIELD. Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy is no longer producing JP4 to focusing on Star Wars instead. In rumor roundups, Latino Review says that Harrison Ford is in for Episode VII, But Mark Hamill says nothing is confirmed and nothing has been signed.

This week on Camie’s Concerns, the hosts are joined by Matthew Bowers, founder of Majestic Giraffe and one of the hosts of the Wrong Opinion About Movies podcast to discuss a grab bag of geek culture including Star Wars, movies, and literature.

Wrapping up the show, the hosts field questions in our regular Ask Us Anything segment.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook  and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com. 

Her Universe - Flaunt Your World - www.heruniverseshop.com                    Listen to a bestseller for $7.49 at audible.com!

Katsucon Cosplay Round Up

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This past weekend was Katsucon, an anime convention held just outside of Washington DC in National Harbor, MD.  In addition to being a great anime convention in general, Katsucon also has the distinction of making its home in the Gaylord, one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing which makes for some wonderful photos.  It’s also a nice sized convention that feels neither small nor overcrowded.  (Yes, walking is totally possible here!)  From the panels to the maid cafe to the artist alley and dealer room to simply people watching, there was something for everyone last weekend.  If you live in the area or simply want to check out a fun convention at the most gorgeous hotel of all time, I absolutely recommend checking it out next February.

One of the wonderful things about conventions is the variety of costumes that convention goers (and the innocent people who wander into the hotel) get to see.  Despite being an anime convention, Katsucon boasts a wide variety of costumes from every anime and manga imaginable to western television shows and comics.  Obviously, anime and manga costumes ruled here but there are some fandoms that will always have a presence such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Disney, Homestuck, and both Marvel and DC comics.  This year, I also noticed a solidly large gathering of costumes from last fall’s Rise of the Guardians film and Adventure Time along with a ton of Kid Loki and Korra cosplayers.  And, of course, Sailor Moon continued to have a solid presence, something that is likely to only increase with the anime’s return this year.

(Just as a note, please let me know if you recognize yourself or others in any of these pictures.  Unfortunately, my plan of trying to get cosplayer names mostly backfired due to being in costume myself for much of the convention and touchscreen phones do not work with gloves.  Please feel free to comment though and I’ll be more than happy to edit credit into this post!)

Because we are primarily a Star Wars blog, I’m going to start with some of the great Star Wars costumes I spotted this weekend.  (I did my best to sprint down the corridor after most of the ones I saw but undoubtedly missed a few.)  Check out these Star Wars costumers (and many more!) after the jump! Continue reading →