Category: fandom

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Beware the trademarks!

Richard Stevens of Diesel Sweeties, who has been selling Star Wars themed t-shirts for a few years now, recieved a Cease & Desist from Lucasfilm. Comic Journal blog Journalista gives a good analysis of the situation. (via Digg)

I think it’s worth saying that Lucasfilm is well within their rights to do this kind of thing: fandom is not entitled to make money off someone else’s property, something fanfic folks are well aware of, but occasionally let slide when it comes to other areas. Overall, Star Wars fandom has has been very, very lucky in our dealings with the Powers-That-Be, at least for the last decade or so. They’re not exactly mowing down everyone in sight, remember?

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Video Monday

Under the Tusken Sun. You knew someone would eventually make this fan film…

I’m not a huge Family Guy fan, but they have done some amusing Star Wars riffs, some collected here by Stewie’s Playground.

Judge the Cinemax ‘Fix You’ promo for youself.

The Ballad of Han, Luke & Leia. It’s a filk! It’s a video! It’s both!

And to wrap us up, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV – the tail end of I Love The 80’s: 1983 containing their Return of the Jedi riff and Micheal Ian Black’s He-Men monologue, which me VH1’s bitch for longer than I feel comfortable admitting. Contains actual praise for Mark Hamill’s acting! Bonus: 1980, Olympic hockey, That’s Incredible! and ESB.

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And we thought it smelled bad on the outside…

TFN pimps A Great Disturbance.

Several of us watched this ‘mockumentry’ Sunday night at JadeCon. It was… to put it lightly… not very good. It was actually rather painfully unfunny, and not a ‘offensive’ way. (Let’s face it – we love mocking, and certainly the fandom is ripe for it, but A Great Disturbance is not the mockumentry you’re looking for.) You don’t have to take my word for it, but I implore you not to waste your hard-earned $10.

Positive… Um… The opening credits were well-done? And Phil is in it for like two seconds, in the background laughing his head off while Jar-Jar and anti-Gungan factions taunt each other. And we had truffles. They were really good truffles.

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Youtube: Is the party over?

The site took down nearly 30,000 files after complaints from a Japanese entertainment group.

Lucasfilm has taken a stand against the removal of fan videos from Youtube in the recent past, but in the end the choice is really up to Youtube – or Google, who’s now holding the purse strings. Pressure from entertainment organizations could easily ruin the fun for everyone, even when the copyright holder doesn’t object. Or have an official deal in place with Youtube/Google… which may be unlikely for LFL, as they already have an existing deal with Atom Films. (Although… Who knows? I don’t know what LFL’s contracts say.)

I suppose it was only a matter of time, damn my optimism. On the other hand, would Google really buy Youtube just to let it go the way of Napster…?

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Filk Friday

Tomorrow is Carrie Fisher’s birthday! Let’s celebrate by making this week’s featured filk my favorite Leia filk from the archive! Yes, this one is the best, my absolute fav, a classic of our times, one which… :::clickclickclick::: yes, it’s here somewhere, I’m sure, this great homage, this wonderful…::click:: ::click:: ::clickclickclickclick!!!::

Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me we don’t have a single by or about Leia in the entire Club Jade Filk Archive??? No so much as an “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Brassy Gold Slave Girl Bikini” or a “Princess of Power”? How can this be?

Clearly this is an oversight that must be rectified immediately. Thus, I inaugurate the first ever Filk Friday Challenge: Princess Leia!

Write and post your best Leia-based filk in the comments here. It can be sung by or about her, but she must be central figure of the filk. Include your screenname, filk, and the song your filk is based on. All submissions are due by 11:59pm (PST) on Nov. 2, and will be added to the Archive (under the new category Readers, for non-CJers). The winner will receive my undying appreciation for filling this glaring whole in our collection as well as the honor of being the Featured Filk in two weeks (Nov 3). Readers are welcome to post comments and/or lobby for their favorites, but in the end, my opinion will be the sole judge of victory.

Bring forth the challengers!