Author: jawajames

San Diego-based Jawa.
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Wear Star Wars Every Day: Weeks 41 & 42

Wear Star Wars Every Day - Week 41 & 42 - title card

Wear Star Wars Every Day has been going strong through October and we’ve got a double-dose of an update video to prove it! Week 41 had a batch of toddler and children’s wear, courtesy of my little one’s closet, while Week 42 covered clothing items from head to toe. In this time period, we only had one donation to Collateral Repair Project via #WearStarWarsEveryDay, so thank you anonymous monthly donor! Thanks as well to Kristen for donating some Yoda shoelaces! Also, thanks to everyone who lent me some Star Wars apparel for this week: James, Kristin, Reynalyn, Todd, Dawn, and Baby Jawa.

Every day I wear a new and different Star Wars apparel item, my daily pledge makers will chip in $4.65 to Collateral Repair Project! This time around, we’ve got toddler shirts, two very different Disney licensed products: a Star Wars Ten Year Anniversary tee from Disneyland, and a Disney Cruise Star Wars at Sea kids shirt, my first Rogue One wear, a twenty-year-old hat, a Princess Bride mashup, and one of the worst Star Wars-themed clothing items ever: Course of the Force athletic socks, brought to you by Ford. This review for Week 41 & Week 42 covers October 7 to October 20 of my wearathon, and an update on fundraising for Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit organization that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support to urban refugees.

Get more info on what Wear Star Wars Every Day is all about, or make a donation via GoFundMe or a per-day pledge.

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Wear Star Wars Every Day: Week 40

Wear Star Wars Every Day - Week 40 - title card

Wear Star Wars Every Day kicked off its final quarter of 2016 (Can you believe that I’ve kept this project going for nine months now?) with the #ForceFriday podcast listener challenge and kept on going into October. In Week 40 of #WearStarWarsEveryDay, we raised $590 for Collateral Repair Project just on the GoFundMe. A huge round of gratitude for all our donors in this time period: Anonymous, Amanda, Amanda, Ari, Brian, Bruce, Cheston, Danielle, Jason, Joseph, Juan, Mediocre Jedi, Mike, Nick, Patty, and Swara! Also thanks to everyone who lent me some Star Wars apparel for this week: James, Donna, Mark, Nick, Bryan, Kai, and Paul! I’ve now worn 25 Star Wars garments borrowed from Paul, which means just me wearing his threads has raised more than $115 from our pledge makers.

Every day I wear a new and different Star Wars apparel item, my daily pledge makers will chip in $4.65 to Collateral Repair Project! This week, we’ve got that sweet game-worn R2-D2 baseball jersey as well as a variety of shirts, including a Jawa coffee brand and the crazy Zuvio milk carton tee from Star Wars Celebration Europe! I guess that makes two shirts from the UK this week. This review for Week 40 covers September 30 to October 6 of my wearathon, and an update on fundraising for Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit organization that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support to urban refugees.

Get more info on what Wear Star Wars Every Day is all about, or make a donation via GoFundMe or a per-day pledge.

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Behind the scenes with E.K. Johnston on writing Ahsoka

e-k-johnston-cropAhsoka by E.K. Johnston comes out today from Disney-Lucasfilm Press in hardcover, eBook and audio. It tells a great story that helps fill in some of the critical gaps between her departure from the Jedi Order in The Clone Wars and her appearance as the Rebel agent, Fulcrum, in Rebels.

In early September, author E.K. Johnston was a guest panelist at Salt Lake Comic Con, where she discussed her novel on two panels: “The Life and Times of Ahsoka Tano” (alongside Pablo Hidalgo, Amy Ratcliffe, and moderated by Bryan Young; panel available from Full of Sith) and “Star Wars Books: Writing the Force” (alongside Christie Golden, Cecil Castellucci, Matt Martin, and moderated by yours truly). Here is an abridged transcript of the panel, focusing on Johnston’s responses to the moderator prompts and panelist discussion as relating to writing the newest chapter in the story of Ahsoka Tano.

Here’s what Johnston had to say (trying to stay spoiler free) on the behind-the-scenes of writing Ahsoka: Continue reading “Behind the scenes with E.K. Johnston on writing Ahsoka”

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Wear Star Wars Every Day: $540 raised for charity in Force Friday challenge

Wear Star Wars Every Day - Force Friday BONUS wear

Here are the final results of last Friday’s Wear Star Wars Every Day podcast listener challenge for #ForceFriday. Last Friday, September 30, fourteen Star Wars fans donated a total of $540 to Collateral Repair Project via the Wear Star Wars Every Day GoFundMe. These donations represented a handful of Star Wars podcast listener bases, in our friendly competition to see which show has the most generous listeners. In addition, an additional $80 in donations were made by three more fans in the week prior to Force Friday in the name of one podcast, just to get the ball rolling! So that’s $620 that can be attributed to the podcast listener challenge.

Thanks to Nick Dico of Coffee with Kenobi for helping get this one-day fundraising blitz off the ground, and providing the really really awesome Durham Bulls R2-D2 jersey that I wore as a bonus if we met the basic $75 donation threshold. It was worn in their Star Wars Day 2014 game on May 4th, and is signed by infielder Hak-Ju Lee.

Now for the podcast listener standings – some donations were made in the name of multiple podcasts, so I counted each of those gifts fully for each podcast named:

  • Beltway Banthas: 4 donations, totaling $120. Plus 3 more donations in the week prior, for an additional $80.
  • Coffee with Kenobi: 3 donations, totaling $170.
  • Skywalking Through Neverland: 4 donations, totaling $150. Listener Brian Sims got into the spirit of giving, and offered up a rare Star Wars #1 variant cover up to a random Skywalking Through Neverland fan who donated, and that got some folks to chip in!
  • Far Far Away Radio: 2 donations, totaling $120.
  • Brews and Blasters: 2 donations, totaling $70.
  • Plus we had two more donations, totaling $50, with no podcast disclosed as yet.

The total amount raised is nearly one-fifth of all the money we’ve raised so far for Collateral Repair Project to further develop their mission of providing emergency assistance, education, and community support to urban refugees, so I greatly appreciate everyone’s contributions and generosity. To learn more about this fundraising campaign for CRP, check out the Wear Star Wars Every Day information page and it’s still not too late to contribute to Collateral Repair Project – just visit the donation page at gofundme.com/WearStarWars2016.

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Wear Star Wars Every Day: Week 39

Wear Star Wars Every Day week-39-title-card

#WearStarWarsEveryDay got a resurgence of summer in fall with some more short sleeves (and shorter socks) for Week 39 as we got into the home stretch before the #ForceFriday podcast listener challenge (the results of which will be made in a separate article). Some of the Beltway Banthas supporters got on board with fundraising a bit early, but it will count toward the drive – Some big thanks to our donors in Week 39 on the GoFundMe for Collateral Repair Project: Anonymous, Stephen Kent. Also thanks to the podcast Skywalking Through Neverland, which donated one of the shirts I wore this week, and thanks to everyone else who lent me some Star Wars apparel for this week: Susan, Mark, Dawn, and Kristen!

Every day I wear a new and different Star Wars apparel item, my daily pledge makers will chip in $4.65 to Collateral Repair Project – and Week 39 means I’ve worn a different Star Wars item now for 273 days straight! This week, we’ve got some classics from Club Jade and lightsabre.co.uk, a customized top from LucasArts, a DK book tour shirt, and a pair of toddler socks! Plus I visit Stongehenge. Well, of a sort. This review for Week 39 covers September 23 to September 29 of my wearathon, and an update on fundraising for Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit organization that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support to urban refugees.

Get more info on what Wear Star Wars Every Day is all about, or make a donation via GoFundMe or a per-day pledge.

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Wear Star Wars Every Day: Force Friday Podcast Listener Challenge Update

Wear Star Wars Every Day - Force Friday BONUS wear
Just checking in with the latest news from the #ForceFriday Podcast Listener Update for Wear Star Wars Every Day. Just today, we’ve had 5 donations to Collateral Repair Project so far (5 PM ET / 2PM PT), totaling $170, easily topping our basic goal of $75. That means I’m putting on the Durham Bulls game-worn R2-D2 jersey that Nick Dico of Coffee with Kenobi has graciously lent me! Check it out above.

Looking at the podcasts that have awesome listeners, we’ve gotten three donations today in the name of Beltway Banthas, totaling $95! Coffee with Kenobi listeners have donated $50, and we’ve got a mystery donation that I’m tracking down.

Since Beltway Banthas put out the call for donations last week, a few of their listeners jumped the gun and have donated $80 prior to today! So that’s really $250 raised so far because of this particular challenge. Big thanks to everyone who has donated and turned this Force Friday into a Force for good! Also big thanks to Nick for lending me this sweet jersey, which was worn in the Durham Bulls game on Star Wars Day, May 4th, 2014, and is signed by infielder Hak-Ju Lee.

It’s still not too late to contribute to Collateral Repair Project – just visit the donation page at gofundme.com/WearStarWars2016

EDIT: Minor Update: Brews and Blasters is now on the board with a donation from one of its listeners!

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Wear Star Wars Every Day: Force Friday Podcast Listener Challenge is on today!

forcefriday-cover
Happy #ForceFriday (or #RogueFriday) – Not only is it time to hit the retailers to see what cool Rogue One merchandise is out, but it’s also the big day for the Force Friday Podcast Listener Challenge for Wear Star Wars Every Day! As mentioned earlier, this is a big one-day push for donations to Collateral Repair Project, the nonprofit organization that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support for urban refugees.

Which Star Wars-related podcast will show that its listeners have the biggest hearts? Listeners can show support for their favorite podcast by making a donation to CRP on the Wear Star Wars Every Day GoFundMe and listing their favorite show in the comments.


Nick at Coffee with Kenobi helped kick off this challenge, and he has set a goal for Coffee with Kenobi listeners: $500 in donations! Now Stephen at Beltway Banthas has answered the challenge, in a special episode just for this fundraising blitz: he thinks the listeners of Beltway Banthas can out-do Coffee with Kenobi – and they’ve already started! And we know that Full of Sith, Skywalking through Neverland, Brews and Blasters, Jedi News UK, Tosche Station Radio, and others are raring for their listeners to represent and make a difference!

Remember, if we raise a simple $75 just today, I’ll show off a really cool item of Star Wars wear: a one-of-a-kind game-worn signed Durham Bulls R2-D2 baseball jersey, lent by Nick at Coffee with Kenobi, who obtained it by donating in a charity auction for the Autism Society of North Carolina in 2014. Now it’s back to help another great cause!

Is your favorite podcast alerting its listeners to chip in for the Force Friday challenge? If so, leave a comment here and give them a shout out!

Get more info on what Wear Star Wars Every Day is all about, and about Collateral Repair Project.

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Star Wars Story Talk: Unboxing Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie

Star Wars Story Talk: SW Art: Ralph McQuarrie

Since this couldn’t wait for the next regular episode of Star Wars Story Talk, we have a special bonus Unboxing Video as I open up the really awesome, and really hefty Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie two-volume collection from Abrams Books. This mammoth set is written by the trio of Brandon Alinger, author of Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy; Wade Lageose, graphic designer/artist; and David Mandel, art collector, author of Star Wars Artifact Edition and showrunner of HBO’s Veep. You can get the inside look over at StarWars.com, where the three authors were kind enough to answer some questions for me.
No Baby Jawa fun time this time around – just straight unboxing and page skimming madness! Continue reading “Star Wars Story Talk: Unboxing Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie”

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Wear Star Wars Every Day: Week 38 & getting ready for Force Friday

Wear Star Wars Every Day Week 38

Week 38 of #WearStarWarsEveryDay saw the first day of autumn, and a good week of Star Wars wear as we got the word out about the Star Wars podcast listener challenge for Force Friday (Sept. 30). Huge thanks to our donors in this time period on the GoFundMe for Collateral Repair Project: Anonymous, James Malloy, and Mike Cooper. Also big thanks to Kristen who donated one of the shirts I wore this week, and thanks to everyone else who lent me some Star Wars apparel for this week: Patricia, James, Paul, Caitlin, Shauna, and James! Yup, everything worn this week was from you all, my fellow Star Wars fans!

Tomorrow, September 30, is Force Friday (or Rogue Friday), when many stores will be finally putting out Rogue One merchandise for sale. Don’t forget that we are also doing a special one-day fundraising drive for Collateral Repair Project for listeners of Star Wars podcasts. So if you want to show that listeners of your favorite show are the most generous Star Wars fans, chip in on the GoFundMe and leave a note in the comments box about which podcast you’re representing! Last week, Beltway Banthas, a podcast on Star Wars and politics, gave Wear Star Wars Every Day a shout out, and they’ll have me on their next show, out very, very soon to talk about the Force Friday drive.

Don’t forget, every day I wear a new and different Star Wars apparel item, my daily pledge makers will chip in $4.65 to Collateral Repair Project! This week, we’ve got a baseball jersey, a hooded sweatshirt, cool clothes from two Celebrations, and some longer sleeves for the start of fall. Plus one of the few Ewoks cartoon series clothes out there. This review for Week 38 covers September 16 to September 22 of my wearathon, and an update on fundraising for Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit organization that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support to urban refugees.

Get more info on what Wear Star Wars Every Day is all about, or make a donation via GoFundMe or a per-day pledge. While each day I continue my project, another $4.65 is donated by our pledge makers, but I’d love to get that total up to $5.00 even (or higher!) for the last quarter of 2016.