Ashley Eckstein Reveals New Fashion Plans for Her Universe

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Speaking of geeky clothing…

Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano on The Clone Wars and creator of the Her Universe fashion line, was recently interviewed by Justin Howard. Several questions involved plans for future designs and branching out to fashion staples beyond t-shirts. Of particular note:

Hot Topic has been an amazing partner for us! We developed our first dress with Hot Topic, a TARDIS dress from Doctor Who, and we are currently developing a fashion line together which contains more dresses, leggings and even cute sleep wear!

More dresses – yay! But even better…

JH – Are there any other areas of fashion you want or have plans to get into?

AE – We definitely plan on getting more into fashion items finding inspiration from Andy Defrancesco ; dresses, leggings, skirts, cardigans but we will continue to push the envelope and expand on our staple items like tees, v-necks, tanks and sleep wear. Everyday fashion that girls can wear to school, work, parties, dates, etc.

CARDIGANS!!! *cue hyperventilating*

You don’t understand. I love cardigans. Love love love. I’m always cold, and I have a billion cardigans (okay, not really, more like 10) that I wear to work, because they’re easy on, easy off, and look professional while being comfortable. Alas, my Star Wars manga hoodie doesn’t quite fit the dress code. If I owned a Star Wars cardigan, I would never take it off!

*begs for Star Wars cardigan*

Finally, Ashley says about the fans:

I am influenced by the fans. We do most of our marketing and PR through social media and I am very active with our fans on a daily basis. So they tell me what shows and movies they are watching. They tell me what kind of art they like and what music they are listening to. A lot of companies are scared of getting too close to their fans. I would say the key to our success is listening to our fans. It creates a sense of loyalty. I feel extremely loyal to our fans and, in turn, I hope they feel loyal to us.

Indeed we do, Ashley, and I’ll be even more loyal once I get my Star Wars cardigan! 😉 

Update: 

Baseball Writer Realizes Sports and Geek Fandom are the Same Frakking Thing

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You might know that I’m a baseball fan. An unfortunate one that chose the hapless Seattle Mariners as his team. In my defense, I blame the fact that I grew up here and it was only logical to pick the Mariners as my team. If I seem testy lately, it’s because they inexplicably traded three cost-controlled years of a good player for one expensive year of a bad player. Argh Mike Morse.

A little while back I wrote about how it was kind of weird that sports fandom is considered culturally acceptable while being a part of more traditional geek fandoms will get you a lot of awkward side glances while you’re on the MARTA to the Peachtree center in Atlanta for Dragon*Con. And I was just wearing a generic Star Wars shirt, you should have seen the looks given to the person next to me in a TARDIS dress.

I’m not the only one that came to the realization that sports fandom and geek fandom are one and the same. Noted Seattle Mariners and baseball blogger Jeff Sullivan came to the same conclusion yesterday while trying to make sense of Star Trek fans arguing over whether the “i” in “into” in “Star Trek Into Darkness” should be capitalized or not.

If they’re odd, we’re odd. If we’re normal, they’re normal. For the sake of another comparison, what’s the difference between debating a capital letter and debating a team logo or uniform? The “i” won’t change anything about the entertainment value of the movie. A logo won’t meaningfully change anything about the entertainment value of a sports team. How is Uni-Watch a thing? People like to share and debate. Their chosen interests determine the things they will share and debate about.

Even if you’re not a Mariners or baseball fan, you should give the whole article a read. Sullivan is one of the best writers in all of sports and baseball and his thoughts pretty much mirror what Ashley Eckstein wrote for CNN’s Geek Out blog a while back and what she said when we interviewed her on the podcast.

Sports fandom and geek fandom? Pretty much the same frakking thing.

Tosche Station Radio #43: Heist

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The hosts are joined by Bria and Emily this week  to discuss the latest Episode VII news and have a spoiler-filled discussion of Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels!

Kicking off the show, Nanci highlights what’s new on the blog. Emily talked about why J.J. Abrams will be good for Star Wars. Meanwhile, Bria continued on with the Waru Express with two post-Endor books.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci has kept herself busy by reading through I’ve Got Your Number and starting Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. Brian FINALLY finished reading Scoundrels and found the time to read through the latest issues ofAvengers Assemble, Captain Marvel, and Hawkeye. Bria, meanwhile, has been reading all of the Mageworlds novels and working on costuming for Katsucon. Somehow she’s also found time to do work for her geek fashion blog White Hot Room. Emily has also joined the Mageworlds circle and read through the first three books. She also found the time to read Batgirl #16.

Fandom appeared to explode and this week’s Deak’s Dirt attempts to make sense of it. Her Universe released a new set of quote tees just in time for Valentine’s Day. Book of the Sith by Dan Wallace is getting the trade paperback treatment on May 4th.The surprise Star Wars novel? Darth Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber. Over on the film side, the 3D treatments for the remaining Prequel Trilogy have been indefinitely postponed. The big news, however, is that Episode VII finally has a director. Lucasfilm announced late last week that Star Trek andSuper 8 director J.J. Abrams will be taking the lead for the first installment of the Sequel Trilogy. The hosts, Bria, and Emily break down their thoughts on Abrams and what this means for Star Wars.

Camie’s Concerns this week is a roundtable discussion looking at Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels. Did the somewhat radical departure from typical Expanded Universe conventions and tropes work? Listen in to see what everyone thought of Zahn’s latest addition to the world of Star Wars literature.

Finally, the hosts wrap up the show with their Ask Us Anything segment.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of the Solo Sound network. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store or the Xbox Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook, Google+, 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.

What Would Alderaanians Wear?

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If you didn’t know, our staff writer Bria runs a geek fashion blog with her friend Linh. One of the features they run is a “What Would [X] Wear” set of posts that take your favorite fictional characters, place them on Earth, and figure out just what kind of fashion they would be into. Today’s feature is an especially neat one that asks what would Alderaanians like Princess Leia and Winter wear if they were here.

For more on what Alderaanians would wear and for more in geek-inspired fashion in general, be sure to visit White Hot Room.

Tosche Station Radio Discussing Scoundrels and J.J. Abrams Tonight, Send us your Questions!

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What are you up to tonight at 5PM Pacific? Nothing? Great! You should join us in the Livestream chat for an all-new episode of Tosche Station Radio.

Joining the usual hosting duo today are staff writers Bria and Emily as part of a Scoundrels roundtable discussion. We’ll also be discussing the Prequel Trilogy 3D postponement as wel as the J.J. Abrams news and what it could mean for Episode VII and Star Wars as a whole.

As always, we would love to take your questions! If you have questions specific to the topics we’ll be discussing, send them our way and we’ll work them into our roundtable. Any other questions relating to Star Wars or geek culture you can also submit and we’ll answer them at the end of the show.

New Quote Tees from Her Universe

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As someone who was looking for a neat Valentine’s Day gift, I’m glad to see that Her Universe has a new set of Valentine’s Day themed quote shirts for the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who fandoms.

The Star Wars shirt’s quote can be seen on the left and features a bevy of lovely in-universe references.

The new shirts are available in the store right now so head on over to Her Universe to pick one up for the geek in your life.

THR Profiles Kathleen Kennedy

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The new guard and old guard.

When Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, long-time film industry veteran Kathleen Kennedy was given the reigns of the company and one of the most valuable intellectual properties in Hollywood. Today, The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Kennedy to talk about how she got J.J. Abrams to sign on, how she met her husband, and her relationship with some of the biggest names in the film business.

On getting J.J. Abrams to work on a different Star franchise:

Abrams agreed to meet with Kennedy on Dec. 14 at his Bad Robot offices in Santa Monica. Famously plain-spoken, she summarizes her pitch like this: “Please do Star Wars.” And she had cards to play. Not only was Oscar winnerMichael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) writing the script, but Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back and 1983’s Return of the Jedi, was on board to consult. Abrams “was flipping out when he found out that Michael and Larry were on the movie already,” says Kennedy.

Abrams tells THR, “I learned firsthand how incredible and persuasive she is.” Some — but not all — of his reservations were dispelled. “The thing about any pre-existing franchise — I’d sort of done that,” he says. “But when I met with Kathy, it was suddenly very tantalizing.”

For more, read THR’s full profile of Kathleen Kennedy.

EU Retrospective: After Endor

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The Waru Express is moving once more!  Did you miss my weekly descent into madness?  I return to my journey through the Star Wars universe with the two books that take place right after the Battle of Endor.  The Empire defeated just because the Death Star blew up again and some people tore down some statues?  Hardly!

The Truce at Bakura
It may not make my Top Ten list but I definitely enjoy reading Truce at Bakura every time I pick it up.  It’s a fun read that could work quite well as a starting point for a new reader to the Expanded Universe.  Even though the Rebels and the Empire have a very tentative truce against a common enemy, it still has a very Star Wars feel to it.  It feels like the logical next part of our heroes’ adventures.  The more I think about it, the more I like that Kathy Tyers chose to write an immediate sequel but had them facing a different enemy while simultaneously having to keep an eye on the Empire.

I also really enjoy getting to see Leia handle the startling revelations that she and Luke are twins and that she too is the child of Darth Vader.  Obviously news of that magnitude isn’t going to be accepted calmly and without question.  Can anyone really blame her for having less than warm and fuzzy feelings for the man who tortured her?  On a similar note, I like that Kathy Tyers also shows us that Luke did have some medical issues from being electrocuted with Force Lighting a lot.  Actions and their consequences are the best, folks.

Also, if you don’t love Eppie Belden when you read this book then you’re probably reading this book wrong.  There is undoubtedly some trope pertaining to sassy old ladies who put up with nobody’s crap and kick some butt along the way.  Whatever that trope is, I adore it and also adore Eppie who really is having none of that rotten Imperial Governor’s $#@!.  I also like the character of Gaeriel Captison.  In a way, she’s what Leia might have been like if Alderaan had been a more remote planet with leaders who didn’t stand up to the Empire.  Gaeriel gets to go through a nice character arc in the books and then she and Luke decide to break each others’ hearts and not try out being together because they have too many responsibilities.  It’s kinda sweet in a way.

At the end of the day, this is another book that I’d recommend you check out if you skipped it in the past and it’s also one that I recommend if you’re looking to ease your way into the Expanded Universe.

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