Club Jade

We’re now just a week away from the official start of the con. A WEEK. Crazy. As you might expect, it’s been a veritable glut of Celebration VI news lately, and as such I’ve fallen a bit behind. Here are some of the highlights:

History lessons. Dan Madsen remembers the first with The Celebration That Almost Wasn’t.

Expanded Universe. Tim Zahn has posted his Celebration schedule. He has three autograph sessions in addition to his panels, if you were wondering about that – including one on Sunday that he shares with fellow authors James Luceno, Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn and John Jackson Miller.

Guests. Matt Lanter (The Clone Wars) and Sam Witwer (The Force Unleashed) are the latest additions. And for the few, the proud, the VIP badge holders, here’s the Meet & Greet schedule.

Booths. I’m so happy that ThinkGeek is coming to Celebration! They’ve even posted a few hints at what new products we can expect from them. Also on the con floor? Disney Parks. Muppet merchandise, you WILL BE MINE!

El Rancho. Steve Sansweet writes about picking and packing up a fraction of his massive collection for exhibition at the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience.

Events. Kristen Hidalgo runs down the docket for the Star Wars Family Room; Patrick T. Gorman on how Star Wars Saga in 60 Minutes came to be; Stefan Cembolista talks about the props, new and returning, that we’ll see; John Scoleri highlights the art of Ralph McQuarrie and the many tributes to him; Art Andrews on the As You Wish Helmet Project; And our own James Floyd chats up The Bounty Hunt.

StarWars.com continues marching down with Celebration I coverage with the continuation of audio from a panel with creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman. And yes, there was a dance party, err, concert – Ahmed Best hosted the Jar Jar Jam.

Also, the Stooge put an idea in my mind last night… Could this week top out with a Celebration V announcement? The smart money for that would probably be on San Diego Comic Con in June, since it’s not actually summer yet, but I’ve been wrong before.

10 years ago this week, the first official Star Wars convention was held in Denver as a prelude to The Phantom Menace. StarWars.com is devoting the week to coverage, and I found a small set of pictures from Paxton Holley on Flickr.

I believe a grand total of 3 CJers attended: I was not among them. (Hell, I barely remember seeing the actual movie.) I do recall the predominant tone of the internet reports were lines and mud – not really all that different from the later events. (Minus the mud.) And that there was some sort of Jar Jar dance party. (?)

Did you go? Do you remember? Someone has to.