Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
In January, Nanci and I started a podcast. In April, we spun that podcast off into a blog. All sorts of crazy things have happened since. Welcome to our gratuitous 2012 in Review Linkdump. As a note, thanks for bearing with us over the holidays as we took time to visit our friends and family. We’ll be back Wednesday with regular coverage and posts. Be sure to also check out Club Jade’s 2012 retrospective.
For our year-in-review, to the jump!
Art by Paul Bateman.
Okay, so I realize that “Smuggler’s Gambit” was written and performed by professionals (I was there!), but I still wanted to present it for Fanwork Friday. Why? Well, the radio drama was written by Star Wars fans—Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto—and it was performed live, in front of an audience of about 2,000 Star Wars fans at Celebration VI, without any rehearsals. It’s not an officially sanctioned work, just fans (with a lot of skill and resources) having fun at a convention. Also, it’s awesome. David Collins does an absolutely fantastic Han Solo, second only to Harrison Ford. He’s joined by many other voice actors from The Clone Wars, including Dee Bradley Baker and Ashley Eckstein.
You can download the full audio and see a video clip in Newman’s blog post at the official site.
Missing Celebration VI a bit? Ashley Eckstein’s got your back. just released is her complete video diaries from CVI. All-around awesome people Bryan Young and Amy Ratcliffe are featured. At the 27-minute mark you can see Ashley and artist Cat Staggs talk about the CVI-exclusive Mara Jade shirt.
We have more Star Wars costumes for today’s edition of Cosplay Week from Celebration VI! Unlike yesterday, we actually don’t know who these costumers are and this particular picture was snagged from Jan Duursema’s Facebook so if you know who they are, shout out!
Edit: You can find Darth Talon’s Facebook page here and Cade’s here. Great costumes, guys!
Take a look at these two perfect Darth Talon and Cade Skywalker costumers who look like they could’ve stepped right off the pages from the Legacy comics. The body pain on Talon is perfectly done and I’m incredibly impressed by the tattoos and the chest armor on Cade.
And frankly, neither are we.
Earlier today, the good folks at the Star Wars Report alerted me to some rather lousy behavior by WPLG Local 10. Suggesting that someone dressed up in Jedi robes has their schedule built around Dungeons and Dragons. Really clever.* Sadly, I think as fans we’re all used to this kind of dismissive treatment. Even though I wrote about how baffling the disconnect between sports fandom (socially acceptable) and geek fandom (shun the weird people), this sort of behavior is something I just come to expect. That’s wrong of me, of course.
*And so what? Dungeons and Dragons is fun.
Edit: This story has gotten long and crazy, so continue under the cut.
If you’ve been paying attention to costuming photos from conventions, you’ve probably noticed that one of the cool new trends in costuming is to gender swap a costume. It’s gone from being something you see every now and then at a convention to a sort of costume that you now expect to see at conventions. Some groups, such as the fantastic Gender Swapped Justice League, have become far more internet famous than others but gender swapping certainly is not limited to just superheroes. (Just ask the Doctor Who fandom.) For everyone person who thinks that these costumes are cool, there’s probably another person tilting their head in confusion and asking “why?” If you’re one of those people, you should absolutely keep reading.
There’s a strange magic that toys possess.
I remember after watching A New Hope for the first time, my dad went to his room to rummage through a dusty old box that had been in the corner of his closet since we moved into the house. From it, he handed me an old die-cast scale model of the Millennium Falcon. Much of the paint had rubbed off, the satellite was missing, and the landing struts were broken, but that didn’t temper my excitement at all. I think in the months following that first viewing, I had concocted hundreds of adventures with that toy Falcon in my mind.
Right on the heels of the throughly amazing Clone Wars Q&A, we’re back on the digital stage to see John Knoll and Dennis Muren talk about what we can expect from Attack of the Clones and Star Wars in 3D. To the jump!
We’re kicking off the third day of Celebration VI with the anticipated Joel Aron and Dave FiloniClone Wars Q&A. Lots of new clips and details about Season Five were revealed, some of which might be considered spoiler-y. Also, there was a surprise guest. To the cut!
Here’s what you need to know.Detours is a show put together by the Robot Chicken people, there’s a ton of great voice talent on the project, it’s very much George Lucas approved, everyone is really excited about it, and it’s hilarious. Both Nanci and I remarked after the panel yesterday that neither of us were particularly excited for this project before walking in and listening to the team talk about it. Now we can’t wait for it to debut.
A few clips below the cut!