Club Jade

I have a particular fondness for the independently-published Star Wars philosophy book. People are all over the board in how they see the Force and Star Wars and these books reflect that.

Jedi Manual Basics: Introduction to Jedi Knighthood by Matthew Vossler came across to me, from its description, as a book written for kids (another fondness of mine). But it’s actually a workbook for those wishing to study Jediism as a religion or personal philosophy.

Jediism has been gaining ground as a religion in recent years. This book lets you walk through the basic precepts and examine your own understanding of the Force through a series of studies and writing assignments.

I would have liked to see a bit more actual background over assignments. And the use of URL’s as reading assignments could be problematic as sites go down and change.  As a result, its usefulness in the long term is doubtful. But if you’re at all interested in Jediism, this would be an interesting way to explore it further.

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Man, that Jedi religion guy just can’t stay out of trouble, can he? Daniel Jones, co-founder of the Jedi Church in Wales, is suing a supermarket because they told him to remove his hood.

“It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head,” he said.

“You have a choice of wearing headwear in your home or at work but you have to wear a cover for your head when you are in public.”

Uh-huh. Props to Tesco for their response:

Tesco said: “He hasn’t been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.

“If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they’ll miss lots of special offers.”

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Here’s one for the ‘quite probably taking fandom phenomenon way too seriously’ bin:

Suppose tomorrow the Bush administration announces plans to deploy thousands of Homeland Security Troops to American cities, to walk the streets armed in the search for un-American, possibly terrorist activities (such as taking photos where there isn’t anything obviously pretty to be taking a photo of, being overly swarthy, videotaping cops and Homeland Security Troops, etc). These guys would only be answerable to the DHS, and they would be recruited from the likes of Blackwater, Wackenhut, and so forth.

Obviously there would be some outrage, yeah? I mean, not as much as there should be, but a lot of folks wouldn’t care for this at all.

Now imagine that these troops are outfitted exactly like Stormtroopers from Star Wars.

All I have to say is that the 501st bothers me a hell of a lot less than the Jediism crowd. Thoughts, true believers? (via)

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• People: Emmy-winning comedic actor Harvey Korman, who died on Thursday, is probably best known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show… But he also had a role in The Star Wars Holiday Special as the four-armed chef Gormaanda. Over at StarWars.com, Bonnie Burton pays tribute.

• Technology: Yahoo’s Ben Patterson ponders when Star Wars and Indiana Jones will make it to Blu-ray. He’s way more optimistic than I am, not that I even own a Blu-ray player.
• Disney: An article on ILMer Hayden Landis’ work on Indy IV confirms that a Star Tours makeover is underway. (via)
• Jediism: Time interviews Jedi Church co-founder Daniel Jones.
• Music: Nerdcore in The Guardian.

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• Just when you thought the whole Jedi church thing couldn’t get any more embarrassing, the Daily Mail comes through with a picture. Thanks a lot, guys.

• IGN gets hands-on with the Nintendo DS version of The Force Unleashed.
• Family Guy: Blue Harvest mastered national DVD sales this week, beating out the Dane Cook/Jessica Alba comedy Good Luck Chuck.

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Jedi Knights demand Britain’s fourth largest ‘religion’ receives recognition. Didn’t that start as a joke? Somehow I doubt that a fourth of the United Kingdom actually believes in the Force.

Not to mention (fangirl alert!) that they don’t seem to know the word ‘Jedi’ is both singular and plural:

For the protest in Whitehall, the couple will wear full Jedi Knight robes and will be accompanied by a host of supporters including Star Wars favourite Chewbacca with a placard reading ‘Tolerance for Jedis’.

(Of course, neither does George Lucas, but that’s neither here nor there.)

I’m no stranger to fanciful piecemeal religion, but the whole ‘real Jedi’ thing just throws me for a loop. What’s wrong with Buddhism, now?

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