On the last day of Celebration 4, I almost had my fill of Star Wars. Almost. One of the things I thought would be going on at the con was a 24 hour continu.ous showing of the six films. Not so I could sleep because I'm too cheap to find lodging at a hotel, but so I could watch my favourite films with a couple of hundred other people, who also count these films among their favourites.
On the Wednesday before the convention, there was a marathon, which (in my opinion) was a little dumb. By the time they announced it, I already had my room booked, flights paid for and my vacation time in at work. Now they are adding programming in front of of the planned start date? It wasn't going to happen for me, but others from Tosche Station Fanforce managed to make it for part of the showing. It sounded like a blast, but I missed out.
In lieu of actually being able to see the films over the weekend, we got to enjoy the next best thing with Charles Ross: One Man Star Wars. In one hour, Charlie re-enacts the Original Trilogy. No props, no sets, no sync-sound effects. Just one sweaty geek and a love for the films. The room was packed to see him, and people had been lining up for hours. His off-Broadway shows were sold out for months so we were lucky to see him again.
After the show we made our way up to the Vader Helmet Exhibit, where various pop artists had painted and prepared a unique take on the Darth Vader Helmet, kind of like the Cows of Calgary, and so on. It was a great collection, which I failed entirely to capture, as the battery flap of my HP618 camera broke off forcing me to have to press the case closed to take pictures. But I am comforted by the knowledge that Bonnie Burton captured the whole collection in a flickr set.. It's like a better photographer followed me through the convention taking the shots I wanted.
2001-2007
Rounding out the weekend I caught a panel on hardware store prop building. The information wasn't mindblowing, given my history with the plumbing isle at Home Depot, but I did pic up a few tricks and tips.
Big Conventions seem to end, not with a bang, but a whimper. Slowly shutting down rather then a sharp guillotine fall of a closing ceremony and AGM. But after such a great weekend, you feel satisfied enough that when you leave the centre doors for the last time, you don't feel too down about it. The real world starts calling again and you can only let it rattle the receiver for so long before you got to pick it up.
Next Big Con: Dragon Con. "Not Just for Costumers".
"One Man Star Wars Photo credit: Jason Woodruff, copyright 2005"
"The Vader Project: Originally uploaded by Bonnie Burton of the Official Star Wars Blog, ganked from flickr, using the Blog This feature"
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