Three Decades! I can hardly believe it has been that long ago…that far, far away…
This past week I stepped away from the Once Upon a Time Challenge related posts to do my small part to honor a film (a set of films, really) whose universe has woven itself into the fabric of my existence. I didn’t know what the response would be, but I am happy to say that it was out of this world. Those four Star Wars posts generated some of the best participation of anything I have ever posted. I so appreciate the heart felt memories and opinions that each of you shared. Great job, you all deserve prizes.
Unfortunately, like our most beloved Wookie at the end of Star Wars, only two of you are going home with a medal. That’s right, I said two. The participation was so good that I went out last week and bought another set of the magazines and drug a few more Star Wars related items up from the basement to give a small second prize away.
And I am happy to announce that the winners are:
The grand prize winner is: Aichaku!!!
Congrats! Email your address to me at cvincent68@comcast.net
Second prize goes to: Jeff!!! Since his birthday was last Friday, on the 30th Anniversary, I am thinking he used the force to rig my complicated name drawing process to get himself some swag!
Thanks again, everyone, for your participation. You were great and you made our collective trip to that galaxy far, far away a memorable one!
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The Star Wars stamp sheet, with art by one of the Friday Favorite artists’, Drew Struzan, was released last Friday and I made sure to rush out and buy some. Master Yoda was voted the most popular stamp of the bunch (it came down to Yoda and Darth Vader at the end) and the Yoda single-stamp sheet will be released in the fall!
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Celebration IV happened this past weekend, and for those of you, like me, who could not go (doh!) we have to suffice by looking at the pics of those who were fortunate enough to be there. In surfing the web today my jealousy for those who attended increased even more knowing that they had the opporunity to purchase this exclusive action figure set, based on early concept sketches by Ralph McQuarrie:
Those of you in or near London on July 13-15 will have a chance to purchase this at the Celebration Europe Store at the ExCeL exhibition center.
One of the first places to pop up with Celebration IV pictures was Bonniegrrl’s Flickr Site. Not only can you see some early shots of the mass Slave Leia gathering, but she has other fun photos from the show including many from The Vader Project. Go over there and check them out. In additon she has some pictures from some really interesting art shows that are worth looking at.
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Did anyone do anything to celebrate this weekend? I managed to get in Episodes I and II during the week last week, we stayed up late on Friday night and watched Star Wars, and last night we watched The Empire Strikes Back. I think we may try to get Return of the Jedi in today.
For those of you looking for new Star Wars goodness, The History Channel is leading off their evening line-up with an hour long Star Wars Tech to be followed by the premiere showing of a new two-hour special: Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed. These will air beginning at 7 p.m. CST.
I caught several commercials for it while watching True Carribean Pirates on The History Channel last night and it looks excellent. If you get a chance to watch True Carribean Pirates when it is rebroadcast, I highly recommend it. Though the re-enactments are a bit silly at times, the show is fascinating. It made a perfect capstone to the Pirates weekend that shared time with my Star Wars weekend.
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Thank you everyone for celebrating Star Wars with me. It was bittersweet when Revenge of the Sith came out, knowing it well may be the last Star Wars film. Each of these moments that are cause for Star Wars celebration always have a bit of melancholy to them as they are reminders of childhood wonder and magic and reminders that those times don’t come along as often as we wished they would. I am reluctant to let go of Star Wars, though my posts will return to other things beginning tomorrow.
I started re-reading Splinter of the Minds Eye again yesterday just because I want to stay in this universe for awhile longer and I may have to fire up one of my Knights of the Old Republic games again soon.
Have a wonderful Monday (and Memorial Day for those of you celebrating it). Keep a thought and prayer for those men and women who are serving in the Armed Forces and for those who have fought in the past to secure and protect our freedoms. God bless you all, and thank you.
Congrats you two! And a happy birthday for last Friday, Jeff!
I loved KoTOR – great game. I should really pick up the second one sometime soon.
I didn’t watch Star Wars, but will be doing so very soon, as a friend of my boyfriend has never seen Star Wars, despite being 25 years old…Shocking!
It’s funny, my sixteen year old son pulled out all of his Star Wars toys from the closet in his bedroom. We had a fantastic trip down memory land as we ‘played’ with each little action figure, Luke’s plane (I forget it’s name!), and the Millenium Falcon with little X-wings. I miss going to Target and buying him all those pieces…
p.s. We did manage to watch all six Star Wars films. We own the first three, and my son and husband went to Blockbuster for the newest three. I still prefer the ones released in the 70s, even though the graphics aren’t nearly as exciting as now, at the time they took my breath.
oh man Carl.. sigh.. I didn’t know the stamps were by Struzan.. dang.. now I have to go buy some!
My “collections” deal with photos and autographs and books… I try to stay away from the rest since I now live in one small bedroom and have no room for anything!.. but I will get the stamps! grrrrr lol.
At least they aren’t too expensive, Deslily, only $6.15 for the set. I didn’t know they were by Drew either but I read that on the USPS website this morning.
Congratulations to the winners!
Congratulations to all the winners.
Hey, Carl. I haven’t received my cute little poppet yet. I hope it isn’t lost in the vast world out there.
Nope, it should be there soon. It took me a few days to put your envelope of goodies together!
And for those who won t-shirts, etc. from Endicott Studios, Midori Snyder emailed me last week that she will be sending them to me for distribution as soon as she and Terri are finished with this week’s celebration of Endicott’s 20th Anniversary!!!
a touch off the subject.. but I thought I’d give a heads up to some who read your blog… about some upcoming conventions in various areas: DragonCon: (Atlanta Ga) http://www.dragoncon.org.. many authors/ comic artists and celebs
Comic_con/ San Diego
http://www.Comic_con.org
two folks there of interest to some here.. Ray Bradbury and.. (are you sitting?) Neil Gaiman!
I thought I’d mention them since it seems some are interested in autographed books… hope it helps.
Wah! What a great way to start the day! Thank you, Carl!! 😀 (off to email you).
Thanks Deslily!!! San Diego Comicon is one I dream of going to someday…don’t think it will be this year, however.
Aichaku, glad you finally found out. Congrats!
Although it isn’t quite finished, I’d have to say that the Star Wars: Legacy Revealed special on the history channel is amazing! For those of us who are both Star Wars fans and fans of literature, it is a smorgasboard of information about mythology and archetypes and the nature of good and evil.
One of the many things it brought to mind was the fact that I never understood why some people complained about the politics in the prequels. I like the political aspect and it gives the whole created universe a sense of realism. The Emperor’s rise to power through political manipulation as well as mystical power makes it all more believable and gives such a strong sense of history to the series.
It also ties in so much with the extended universe and the politics that go on in many of the books about the Republic post events in Return of the Jedi.
If you didn’t catch it tonight, make sure you catch it when they re-air it. It is great!!!
Congratulations to both of the winners! I have enjoyed reading the Star Wars posts and comments this past week and watching several of the episodes with the fam. I really did enjoy Star Wars Legacy Revealed. I recommend it to all of you.
congratulations to the winners! i’m sure they’re going to enjoy their goodies!!!
i didn’t watch any of the films, but reading through these posts and posting my own was for me the perfect way to commemorate (or can one only commemorate a sad/tragic event…?) STAR WARS.
great idea carl! thanks.
with the politics in episodes I-III, the problem for me wasn’t the politics per se but (and this is perhaps why some others disliked it too) the way it was dealt with. it was extremely confusing and it seemed we were thrust right into it without much explanation at all. i found this rather alienating.
obviously, the politics became clearer as the films went on, but i still feel it was badly handled.
I definitely know the political angle was a bone of contention for some people. I thought they handled it pretty well, showing the manipulation of persons, and nations, by Palpatine as he positioned himself to eventually take ultimate power. Although political things were hinted at in the original trilogy, I think fans just weren’t used to politics mixed in with their space opera. I was glad they pursued it that way rather than just show some all-powerful being rising up and taking everything over. Considering how far reaching the Galactic Empire was, it doesn’t make sense that a person could just show up and take over. The whole Hitler analogy is a good one, you win the populace slowly, take over the military, and then when you show your true colors it is too late for anyone to do anything about it.
Your posts inspired me to let the youngster watch episodes 4, 5 and 6 this weekend. She was pretty happy about it.
Glad to hear it, Suzanne!!!
i agree with you in the sense that the plot of how palpatine takes over is good. as a plot it is, in fact, very good – it makes good sense and lends a level of maturity to the saga, which i appreciate. but with ep 1 i just don’t think it worked that well in practice – they didn’t deliver the plot terribly well, particularly in the beginning of the film. or what do you think?
their handling of the politics plot is clearer as we progress to ep 2 and 3 but by then i think a lot of people had already been irritated by it in ep 1 and were thus prejudiced towards it.
Episode I was just a mess anyway with Jar-Jar and the terrible stereotyped accents of some of the characters. It was hard to get past that irritation. I definitely think they jumped right into the political plot immediately, and that might have thrown everyone off because we weren’t expecting politics in Star Wars. I don’t necessarily have a problem with it being a little nebulous in the first episode because it did get more clear in episodes II and III exactly what was going on. I also probably didn’t think about it much because there were so many things in Ep I that I personally was disappointed with that I looked at the political stuff as a bright spot.
i see your point – in the light of jar-jar and those accents the politics is one of the better aspects of ep 1.
By the time he got to Ep III, which I thought was very, very good, I wished he could have gone back and redone Ep I and tightened up all the storylines, including the political stuff. It would have been much better.
yeah, i agree. you mention tightening up the storylines in ep 1, and thats precisely what made ep 3 so good – the fact that it was so tight. i really enjoyed ep 3 – in spite of myself! i didn’t see it at the cinema and wasn’t in any rush to see it… but i really enjoyed it a lot! at times i couldn’t believe it was the same director…
careful what you wish for, though, he may just go back and then who knows what we’ll get! haha! 🙂
but, yeah, i certainly wouldn’t mind him going back and fixing it a bit.
I definitely wouldn’t be surprised to see ‘Special Editions’ of the prequels in about 10 years! Which could be good or bad.
I’m not one of those purist who was annoyed by the changes to the originals..with a few exceptions. I hated the change to Han Shot First, and I don’t like the new end music or inclusion of Hadyn at the end of Return of the Jedi.
I love all the special effects additions in the original special editions. I like the inclusion of the Jabba scene on Tatooine in A New Hope. I like that they changed Boba Fett’s voice to match the actor who played Jango Fett (although I feel a bit sorry for Jeremy Bulloch, who is great, if in fact it was his voice and not just body that played Boba Fett).
special editions…! yeah, i’m not really a purist either and i mostly like the additions. although, like you pointed out, some of them don’t work or even harm the film. that new end music is awful and the thing with han shooting first isn’t good… i really don’t like the inclusion of haydn at the end of JEDI! thats cheap and just wrong. there was no need. i can see what they’re getting at, with him living on (or reverting back) as the “good” anakin, but that totally contradicts the fact that anakin redeems himself at the end of JEDI! which i hate.
i mostly like the special effects. i love the additions that make the world more “complete”, like the cityscapes, the extra animals on tatooine, the sky that you can see through the window’s in EMPIRE!
Congrats to the winners! Star Wars always holds a special nostalgia for me. It was the last movie that I saw at the drive-in. My brother and I wore our pjs, so when my mom woke us up to walk into the house, we could just climb into bed. I always remember that my mother thought his name was Dark Invader, but despite having no interest in the movie, already figured out that Luke was his son.
Cool for your mom! The last drive-in movie, eh? I know I saw many after that but that one holds the most special memory of all my drive-in adventures.
Congratulations to Aichaku and Jeff. Your posts were great. Enjoy all the goodies.
Yay Aichaku and Jeff! Congrats to you two!
Cool! Thanks Carl! I’m stoked. My son and I really like all the different the clone troppers a lot and I was hoping to win that bookmark. Thanks again and congrats to Aichaku!
Congratulations to the winners!