Existential Star Wars

Presented without comment, because what good are words, flung against the abyss?

The Doctor & Star Wars

This is a very well done little mashup of the Star Wars and Doctor Who universes. There is a growing trend to include The Doctor in every franchise,  which is fine by me. This video was done by Kelvington, who asserts some form of copyright at the end of the video, though it is unclear exactly what unique element is left in the work..

(via The Broad Brush)

Bat Vader is all man

Bat Vader

Bat Vader from Jay Fife, with prints available soon.

Galactic Empire State of Mind

This song combines two great things.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Pegwarmers: Fandom documentary screening

Pegwarmers is a feature length documentary about science fiction and fantasy fandom, which "looks to uncover the veil of mystery and examine the stigma that surrounds this often misunderstood subculture." Filmed in 2005, Jason Hoehn interviewed a varied group of Star Wars, Star Trek, D&D, Comic and SCA fans to find out who we were, and why we do the things we do. After years of production, the film was screened at the Calgary film festival in 2007, and is now available on DVD.

I was lucky enough to be included in this film, espousing my thoughts on Star Wars fandom, so I'm a little biased, but I think the film is a fair look at the community.

Pegwarmers will be screened as part of the Alberta Premiere of 'Fanboys' at Calgary's Plaza Theatre, May 17th, Tickets are just $10.00 for both movies.



Time: Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 8:30pm
Location: The Plaza Theatre
Street: 1133 Kensington Rd NW

Star Wars meets Macguyver

From Think Geek: Tauntaun Sleeping Bag

From the bright minds at ThinkGeek.com comes a fantastic Tauntaun sleeper, perfect for those cold winter nights. It has a glowing lightsaber zipper pull and is machine washable.

[$39.99 from Think Geek]

Star Wars Misters: Really?

From the "slap a Yoda on it" branch of Lucasfilm Licensing, comes these "compact, cool" Star Wars misters.

Does anyone else feel this is an un-needed branded product?

[Wireless Catalog]

Slashboing Election Night coverage

Here is the Slashboing Election Night Coverage. This is the best I can I do with my current operating budget.



ETA:

Obama is the projected winner with 284 electoral votes. That calls for one thing.

Dancing!

John Williams a cappella tribute

Lip syncing to the vocal sylings of Moosebutter, Youtube user ApprenticeA creates a great tribute video to Star Wars and John Williams.

Lets watch!

Family Guy Star Wars continues

It looks like "The Empire Strikes Back"parody from Family guy will be titled "Something, Something, Something, Darkside." I'm really looking forward to this.

Star Wars Ducks

Beware the Duck side of the force! These Star Wars bath toys are just what a youngling needs to make bath time fun.

For some reason, they are packed with LEDs so they change colour, but they are still fairly cool.

Available at Firebox.com

100 Days until Dragoncon

There are 100 Days until Dragoncon begins. Are you ready for the onslaught of awesome? There are about 230 guests and bands confirmed, including Jake Lloyd, some of the cast of Firefly and the usual collection of authors and artists.


Cruxshadows concert 2
Originally uploaded by K. Smithington.
Photo Released under Creative Commons by-nc-sa 2.0

Also, crowd surfing stormtroopers.

Boba Fett Costume in Lego

Simon makes his Star Wars costumes a little differently. He builds his out of Lego.

I saw his Lego Darth Vader at Dragoncon 2007, and this year he will be premiering a full set of Manalorian armour build from Lego. All the hard goods from helmet, to gauntlets to shin tools are faithfully recreated in colourful blocks. It really is impressive to see.


Photo Credit:"fullA"
Originally uploaded by SIMAFOL.

Current Fixations

Here are some of my current fixations:

Steampunk.

This is still a major interest for me. I am a moderator of the Steampunk Gear Flickr pool, and I am planning a "Steampunk Seer" costume for Dragoncon in August.

Psychics / Tarot Card Art

In order to make a great "seer" costume, I have been investigating the symbols and practises of the occult, the workings of H.P. Lovecraft and of psychics in general. Some very interesting stuff. I have been on the hunt for some great Tarot Card images to incorporate into my outfit. I think I'm partial to "The Hanged Man" and "The Magician" but I have yet to find an incarnation of them that will work with the steampunk theme.

Skeptics
Now I'm not a believer in divination or psychics so it is kind of ironic that I would choose to make a costume depicting a psychic to wear at Dragoncon, when James Randi, one of the great debunkers of faith healers and spoon benders will be there. I've been a big fan of "The Amazing Randi" since I was a kid, and putting on really bad magic shows for my friends and family. His demonstration of "Psychic Surgery" on the Johnny Carson show has stuck with me to this day. His quest to instill rational thinking, and displace superstitions is noble and inspiring.

Kit Fisto

I have been slowly completing my Kit Fisto collection, which now includes most of the action figures and toys depicting the great grinning green Jedi from the Star Wars prequels. I even have some original sketches from the Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoon series. I have also recently created a flickr group called Everybody loves Fisto for fans to show their love.

Paris

I've been planning a trip to Paris so I have been familiarizing myself with the language, history, and architecture of the city. When doing some research to prepare for a trip, I often try to see what current fixations of mine can be found in the new city. For example, when I went to LA for Celebration IV, I also found the filming location of Kirby Plaza for the season finale for "Heroes".

When planning for Paris I was seeing what "steampunk" things I could find. Then it hit me. I didn't have to seek out steampunk elements in Paris because Paris IS Steampunk.

The Eiffel Tower is 7,300 tons of steel and rivets that was the rally point for Santos-Dumont's Airship in 1901, and now in 2007 the tower sports a restaurant named after the science fiction author, Jules Vern.

Enough said.

Top 5 Fastrack Training Moments

There comes a time in an adventure story where the young and isolated hero-to-be must learn how to fight with a sword. This usually has to be accomplished in a very short period of time, so later on in the story he can show up the villains who have been using a sword for years. Sometimes this calls for a montage.

Here are my Top Five occurrences of this, presented in no particular order.

Order of the Stick:
Captain Scoundrell trains Elan. Set on the pirate's airship, this is a glowing homage to fast-track training needed by would-be heroes. The hows and whys of training are highlighted best here. [Part I] [Part 2]

Star Wars:A New Hope: Obi-Wan trains Luke. On a different kind of pirate's airship, the novice Luke learns to wield his sword of light. More importantly it is another opportunity to describe the nature of the force to the audience.


Heroes episode "Landslide" : Kaito trains Hiro. No airships this time, but the plucky Hiro must learn the way of the sword, and more importantly the way of the warrior.


Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring: Boromir trains the Hobbits. A tall mountain stands in for the airship here, as Boromir give the little ones a refresher in dodge, turn, parry and thrust.


Stardust: Captain Shakespeare trains Tristan. The pirate's airship again becomes the centre for training, as shopkeep Trisan learns swordwork, dancing and fashion sense.

Dragon*Con 2007 Saturday report

I know it has been a few months, but I feel that I should complete my day-by-day diary and report from Dragoncon 2007.

Part the First: The Parade

Last year I was lucky enough to be in the parade as a Jedi. This year I chose to watch, so I could cheer each group and get some decent pictures. I got some great shots, but was unfortunately on the opposite side of the street from veritate to capture her properly whilst she was performing in the parade. I loved seeing the Monarch's henchmen and the Ghostbusters herding a Louis Tully through the streets. My parade shots can be seen on my flickr set.



Part the Second: Convention Activities

After the parade, I hit a quick panel on Star Wars Lego. The host of the discussion wore a full body Darth Vader costume made from Lego. He gave a review of the Lego Star Wars licence, and some of the terms and challenges that are unique to Lego builders. The custom minifigs were fantastic, with LEDs mounted in the droids and Clone Commandos making them really unique. Note the minifig based on the concept art Luke figure from Celebration IV.



Other convention highlights include finding music by the zombie rock group The Serpenteens, getting some comics signed by Adam Hughes, and finding the Eighth Doctor TV movie on DVD.

Part the Third: Evening sortie

The evening hours were spent in my "formal steampunk" costume at the Wolfpack party. The Wolfpack is a group dedicated to quality costumes and props, supportive members, and kick-ass parties.

This party was indeed kick ass, with rock from the Killer Robots, pole dancing girls and friendly hosts. I was personally thanked several times, with a handshake, for coming to the the event.



My Saturday Flickr photos

Previously on Slashboing

• Friday Report
• Vertigo Lands
• Pre-convention Trip Report from this year

Starship size comparison

Compiled by Dan Carlson, here is a very well researched and informative diagram showing all the relative sizes of various ships and Starbases from multiple Science Fiction and Fantasy series.

I admire this level of detail in any fandom project.

Click to view larger

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #234

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #234
Originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

The dark side of phrenology

The dark side of phrenology
Originally uploaded by robotperson.

As seen at Celebration Europe, the notion of phrenology applied to Darth Vader. Sections include "Lightsaber Skills" and "Intimidating Vocabulary". "Good" was a small area on the back of the helmet.