Many people wrote me to say they enjoyed the history of the 501st installment I did last month. So I thought I’d pick up on it from time to time and get more of the story out. Few people know just how widely the Legion has woven its saga. It messes with my head sometimes how far a good idea can go if nurtured at _just_ the right time.
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Tags: Costumes, The 501st Legion
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Last week the Star Wars community was consumed with headlines of bullying and hurt feelings. The good news is that our community rallied together and condemned the thoughtless act of mockery and turned it into a teachable moment. However, amidst all of the negative headlines, something extremely exciting happened and I’d like to shine the spotlight on something positive in our community. (Of course I’m biased, but bear with me.) At Celebration VI, we had a Her Universe photo shoot for female Star Wars fans. Girls have been asking me for the past two years if they could be a Her Universe model. Her Universe is a brand for the fans and when the fans tell me what they want, I do my best to make it happen. So we were able to arrange a free photo shoot for any girl that showed up to strike a pose and have their photo taken by professional photographer Preston Mack.
11 Comments » | Tags: Fangirls, Her Universe
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Hello Star Wars Friends,
I’m sorry it has been so long since my last blog. When I am away from the office as long as I was for Star Wars Celebration VI, there is always a lot to catch up on when I get back. I can now say that everything is pretty much back up to speed and The Clone Wars is moving forward, bigger and better than ever.
36 Comments » | Tags: Celebration VI, Costumes, Dave Filoni, The Clone Wars
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Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood and I hosted a panel at Celebration CVI over the weekend on Star Wars sound. A part of our presentation involved the breakdown of a scene from The Clone Wars (”Massacre”, season 4). I stripped out the sound effects and dialog from the scene leaving it rather bare bones. We invited volunteers from the audience to come up to the stage and perform the sound effects and dialog for us in order to rebuild the scene. One person performed lasers sounds (pew! pew!), another young man performed lightsaber swishes (WOOOW!), and two others performed explosions (kaBOOM!). The lasers were layered in as background battle and the swishes and explosions served as Ventress’ attack on the Super Battledroids. Three more volunteers perfumed the dialog in the scene (two Battle Droids and General Grievous).
3 Comments » | Tags: Celebration VI, sound
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5 Comments » | Tags: After Hours, Conventions, Costumes, Dragon*Con, Humor, The 501st Legion
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It’s that time of year again: the air turns cool and crisp and it’s fun to grab some snacks and watch some favorite movies. Or football. Or both! Last night I was stuffing envelopes with 501st Legion patches while watching my Gamecocks play (horribly) and it struck me how long I’ve been a fan of both football and Star Wars. So I thought I’d take this chance at the beginning of football season to talk about how the two have intersected in my life over the years.
5 Comments » | Tags: football, The 501st Legion
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Every Labor Day, fandoms from all corners of the entertainment universe converge in Atlanta for Dragon*Con, which touts itself as “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!” One of the highlights of the weekend is the official Dragon*Con parade that happens on Saturday morning. This costumed display has become such a big attraction that even Atlanta residents that don’t attend the con get to the route an hour ahead of the parade’s start time to make sure they have an optimal viewing experience.
4 Comments » | Tags: Costumes, Dragon*Con, The 501st Legion
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If there’s one thing that’s central to the Dragon*Con experience, it’s costumes. You can’t wave a stick in any of the host hotels without whacking a costumed attendee. (Please, don’t wave sticks at cons with the intent of whacking people.) And because the con is so huge, most tracks have their own costume contests, in addition to the con-wide hall costume contest and the Dragon*Con Masquerade. Star Wars is no exception, but this year was unique because Dragon*Con fell right on the heels of Celebration VI. That meant that some people had opted to attend the less frequent Star Wars con instead of the annual con, and some people attended both, but were too wiped out from CVI to compete their costumes again. This resulted in a slightly smaller field for the Dragon*Con contest. Even with a smaller group, there was no shortage of variety and creativity.
2 Comments » | Tags: Costumes, Dragon*Con
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It’s August – funny how that happens every year – and it’s time for school to be in session again. I actually always looked forward to it when I was younger. Yes, I was that kid. I liked getting back into a routine, learning, having homework (unless it was math), and seeing friends. Mostly though, I liked going shopping for school supplies. I loved getting the list of what items were required for the year’s classes, and I loved crossing the items off just as much. I always found that making my tools more interesting made learning more fun. That’s where Star Wars comes in.
Long days at school can be improved with Star Wars pens, notebooks, and folders. It seems like it wouldn’t matter, but I remember being really frustrated with an algebra problem in high school and feeling slightly better about figuring it out when I used my calculator with a giant She-Ra sticker on it. I don’t remember if I answered the problem correctly, but seeing characters who inspire you when you open your backpack can make a difference. (more…)
15 Comments » | Tags: back to school
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The time is here, my young Padawans, to head off to Jedi training. Or as some people call it, “go back to school.” Ah yes, I can hear you cheering now. School is a fantastic place to learn, challenge yourself, and interact with all different types of people. But for some younglings, heading back to school can be a scary time. When I was a kid, going back to school made me as nervous as Ben Quadinaros in a podrace. So when the going got tough, I watched Star Wars. Star Wars gave me hope and many valuable life lessons along the way. In Master Yoda, I had the greatest after-school tutor ever!
12 Comments » | Tags: back to school
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