Club Jade

More Heir. The Star Wars Books Facebook chat will be hosting a live chat with Timothy Zahn next Wednesday, September 28th. And on that note, Suvudu has a brief interview with editor Betsy Mitchell.

Events. Author Jason Fry dresses as a stormtrooper for a baseball game and tells the tale in his Mets blog.

Trailers. There’s one for Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log. Of course.

Theories. Anarchist William Gillis’s vision of what happens to the Star Wars galaxy after Return of the Jedi.

Photo finish. Del Rey’s collection of Star Wars books.

For our final teaser annotation of September’s Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition, Zahn talks about stormtroopers and namechecks the 501st.

After the 501st Imperial Legion fan group began, it was also established that Vader similarly liked to grab the Empire’s best stormtroopers and add them to his personal legion. I got to play with that idea a bit in later books..

We’re just two weeks and change away from the book’s September 6th release.

Emily Lewis, right, and her pal Jason at the Yoda Fountain. (Photo by Emily Lewis.

A dispatch from the mainstream. The Yoda statue at the Presidio is a landmark for Star Wars fans, an Associated Press article says this week. No, really? Other key Star Wars locales, like Tunisia and Lake Como, are also mentioned.

ILM looking north? The Hollywood Reporter says that Industrial Light + Magic is looking into opening a facility in Vancouver.

Your daily dose of stormtroopers. The Illinois 501st get profiled in the Chicago Tribune.

Baseball. The San Francisco Giants are freezing pitcher Brian Wilson (not the Beach Boy) in carbonite for the Star Wars day on September 4th. Wouldn’t it make more sense to freeze the visiting team’s pitcher?

Science! Spoilers are good for you, says a study by UC San Diego. Okay then!

With coverage on Today, little Princess Leah Esquenazi is getting a lot more attention than just from Star Wars fans.

What started as word of mouth with Star Wars fans through a Facebook page and other online presences like the 501st, Artoo-Katee and even Steve Sansweet, has turned into nearly $20,000, a fundraiser raffle and lots of guesses to try and help this little baby with the mysterious illness that is affecting her muscles and breathing.

Her family is keeping everyone updated through a blog and are trying to stay positive.

If you are so inclined to help the family with a donation, there is a donation function on the web page.

Since it’s a holiday weekend – at least here in the U.S! – and we all have other things going on, here’s a quick sweep through the week’s best fannish links.

• Arkansas, of all places, has a Star Wars-themed grilled cheese food truck. Sandwiches include the “Cheebacca” and “Jack to the Future.” (Photo by redditpoweruser.)

• Vulture has a history of the movie prequel. There’s also how to make a sequel, but Star Wars doesn’t get a mention. Perhaps because The Empire Strikes Back ruined everything?
• Go offbeat with home decor that channels the Death Star and a Star Wars wedding down under. (Nice choice for a wedding dress!)
• Utah Vader and co. profiled in The Salt Lake Tribune
• Make a X-Wing soapbox derby car or an “I know” embroidery case.
• Brand Wars: From Sith, Jedi, and Vader to everything in-between.
• io9 takes a look back at “Lapti Nek.“

Head to a local comic book store tomorrow to get free comics – including a Savage Oppress-centric Clone Wars offering from Dark Horse.

You can find a shop that’s celebrating the day using Free Comic Book Day’s store locater. Folks from the 501st Legion will be in costume at select locations, so check the website/Twitter/Facebook of your local garrison. (Or, if you know of one, post it in the comments!)

The rush of fans wanting Blu-Ray details initially crashed the May the 4th site. When it finally got up and running, it began revealing images on the number of social media shares… An act which strikes me as rather sleazy.

Thankfully, I was finally able to procure some decent art, and you’ll see it above. I’m not all that impressed with the art of the individual sets, but I was never a fan of that style to begin with. The art for the saga set, on the other hand, is straight-up awful: It looks less like Star Wars and more like Precious Moments: The Movie.

Hopefully some retailer somewhere will be providing a better-looking exclusive.

LFL will be revealing some additional tidbits on their brand-new Facebook.

The special features list audio commentary for each movie, all involving George Lucas and various notables including Rick McCallum, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher and Ben Burtt, as well as archival audio.

Each trilogy has an entire archive disc… And the ninth includes documentaries including 1977′s The Making of Star Wars and three brand new ones: Star Warriors, on the 501st Legion; A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later with George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams; And Star Wars Spoofs, containing footage from Family Guy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and Weird Al.

I’ve cut and paste the complete list under the cut. Please don’t hate me, LFL. (more…)

Last Thursday, Legoland California opened up their Star Wars area in Miniland with some big fanfare. The official ribbon cutting was done by Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, and Carson Weiner, a young Star Wars fan representing the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Also on hand for the celebration were James Arnold Taylor and Catherine Taber of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and about 60 costumed members of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion. Other VIPs included skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and “Wait, I was in Star Trek not Star Wars” Christian Slater and Dancing with the Stars‘ Brooke Burke.

(more…)

Read Red Harvest… After releasing the first chapter of Joe Shreiber’s Death Troopers prequel a few weeks back, StarWars.com has gone on to post chapters two, three, and four. If they keep going, will there be anything left for folks to read by the time to book actually comes out?

Interview with an internet rockstar. Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo talks to Mexican fan site Datapad de Korpil about his fandom activities before LFL, his books, and the editorial process.

Comics. Dark Horse’s February solicitations include Knight Errant: Aflame #5, Darth Vader and the Lost Command #2, Legacy: War #3, and a pair of trades. Meanwhile, StarWars.com has a Knight Errant atlas extra, and Tom Taylor reveals the cover of Invasion: Rescues #6.

Namesake corner. The 501st’s costume reference for Mara Jade’s jumpsuit. Sure, many of us aren’t fans of the outfit (Doesn’t a sleeve-gun kind of necessitate sleeves? Also, this.) but we can’t blame the legion – they’re only following in Dark Horse’s footsteps.

There’s a new addition to the schedule this morning, the debut of a video
commemorating The Empire Strikes Back featuring George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, and John Williams.

• Rebelscum has the first pictures from the floor.

• A program guide for the “risk-takers, thrill-seekers and match-makers.”
• Two looks at the TK Helmet Project
• Preview Sirius/XM radio with Tom Kane and James Arnold Taylor
• And what’s a Celebration without a Troop-Athlon?

Want swag? Keep an eye on the Twitter: We’ll post the where and when there.