Posts

Posted on

Celebration VI: The rancor is coming!

Special guests The 501st is bringing a rancor to Orlando. Built out of foam by Pizzazz Scenic Contractors, Roxy the Rancor will be avaliable for folks to take pictures with. (Not, alas, wrestling.)

Panels. Still waiting on the schedule, but here’s something new and different: Historian Cole Horton and illustrators Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas will present From World War to Star Wars. The panel, held in the University Room (also new!) will “give fans a rare look into the in-universe parallels and real-world connections between the Second World War and the Star Wars Universe.” This is definitely more of the type of panel I was hoping to see, so it bodes well for the rest of the schedule, I think.

Merchandise. Jedi News’ Justin LaSalata shared the CVI Store’s merchandise order form. Of note for us: The 6″ Mara Jade statue will be available on Thursday for $85.

Also, be sure to vote in our latest sidebar poll!

Posted on

Celebration tip: Be nice to the volunteers!

Today’s tip is a short one from Paula: “Remember that the vast majority of people staffing the rooms are volunteering. They don’t always know what’s going on, but will help as best they can if you ask nicely. So be nice.”

As someone who’s volunteered in the past… We do want to help you, but sometimes we can’t – when I was stationed on the dealer room floor at CV, I felt awful every time someone asked me where something was and I didn’t know! Alas, a side effect of volunteering is that sometimes you’re not quite familiar with anything outside of your immediate area, particularly for the first few days – I could direct people to the store, the bathrooms, the autograph hall, the artists, tattoo area and certain booths, but one of that day’s half-dozen Clone Wars panels? Forget it.

More related advice in the comments! Anyone who’s volunteered at a Celebration or any such con, feel free to chime in – on-topic!

Posted on

Convention tip: Clothes and shoes!

Celebration V: ThursdayWithout the armor this ensemble may be too chilly for indoors! Also, probably inappropriate.

Here’s some advice straight from the CJ list… Yes, con veterns, some of this may be familiar, some of it may not.

James: “Dress in layers! Outside in Orlando is hot and humid (and sometimes even wet), while inside the convention center, some of the panel rooms are super air conditioned (especially first thing in the morning!) If you get cold easily, have a second layer to avoid chills in over-AC’d rooms,especially if you were just sweaty outside.”

I’m one of those people who’s cold everywhere and the Orlando convention center is freezing. And given how few people wanted fans when I was passing them out at CV, it’s not just me. At least bring (or plan to buy) a light sweatshirt.

Nancy: “Two pairs of comfy shoes. Your feet will thank you if you switch shoes every day.”

Make sure they’re already broken in! Some advanced tips:

David: “A little Gold Bond powder in your shoes will help, as will a pair of good work or sport insoles. An old hiking trick is to wear nylon socks next to your foot, with cotton athletic socks over those. It creates a wicking effect that will keep your feet dry and cool.”

Yav: “Plus a few little pieces of pre-cut Moleskin. Just in case you get a blister. The stuff is magic.”

Posted on

Celebration VI schedule to be revealed in app first

Actual news in an email update? Refreshing! According to an email sent to CVI attendees about an hour ago, the program schedule will be coming to the Celebration mobile app first. No word on when the reveal will happen – early next week, perhaps? – but consider yourselves warned.

One thing we do know about the schedule: It’s 9 feet long. And it looks like this.

Extra credit if you can figure out what this means:

Posted on

A fifth Indiana Jones? Frank Marshall points to “not happening”

Interviews with producer Frank Marshall seem to indicate that Indiana Jones 5 seemes unlikely to happen. Marshall is likely to be pretty close in the loop on such things, as one of the producers on all four films in the Indiana Jones series and husband to Kathleen Kennedy, fellow Indy producer and recently named to be George Lucas’ successor at Lucasfilm.

Talking with Collider, Marshall responded that there’s no MacGuffin for a fifth film, and that Lucas, who is retiring from the reins at Lucasfilm, isn’t that interested in another flick for the archaeologist:

“Yeah, no he isn’t [hungry to do another Indiana Jones]. And he’s obviously passing the baton to my wife, so.”

Earlier in the week, Marshall told Crave that Lucas wasn’t working on the screenplay to an Indiana Jones film, claiming that a “really good story” is “hard to do”. With Lucas not at the helm of the franchise, does this mean that that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was Indy’s last hurrah? Marshall seems to think so:

“I say, for me, [Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is] the last hurrah.”

Meanwhile, the Blu-ray release of Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures (there’s a fitting title if Marshall’s talk proves correct) comes out September 18.

Posted on

Convention tip: Vacation-ize your Twitter

Some people take vacations where they can ditch all their tech, or at least keep it in the hotel room for after-hours perusal. I am not one of those people, at least at a Celebration. As a news-blogger, it’s my prerogative, nay, my duty, to keep at least an iPhone on me at all times. Because while yes, while there will be plenty of real-life socializing, I must tweet.

I have no idea how many people I was following during Celebration VI, my first Twitter-enabled convention, but right now I am following almost 300 people. That’s a LOT of tweets, so the first thing I want to do is see how I can – not to be heartless, ahh screw it – ditch some folks temporarily. (Temporarily.) Luckily, Twitter has a built-in feature that will serve me well in not only keeping all the unfollowed people together, but allow me to even backread – Lists.

I decided that my first target would be mostly professional entertainment sites and journalists that are unlikely to cover Celebration. For them, I created a list called Entertainment. Next, for the science fiction/fantasy and comics crowd I suspect won’t cover the con, I created the imaginatively named SFF-Comics. All together, that’s 60 accounts that will be safely out of the way while I’m frantically trying to keep up.

I haven’t actually unfollowed anyone yet, but the lists will make that easy. A day or so before the con, all I’ll have to do is go to the list members pages and unfollow. After the con is over, I can follow them all back. And best of all, I can still check up on them, via the list, whenever I have a spare moment. (Hello, airport.)

Granted, most of these accounts are people who don’t follow me back/barely know I exist, so I don’t think there’ll be many hurt feelings when I unfollow – but keep that in mind. A ‘If I unfollow you today, it’s only temporary’ tweet may be in order if your choices are otherwise. Or, you could always create a special list just for Celebration, and avoid the issue entirely! Lists are cool that way. For what it’s worth, here’s mine.

Stay tuned for more tips!

Posted on

Convention tip: Keeping in touch

As nice as it would be to have your convention buddies at your side 24/7, we know it doesn’t always work that way.

→ Get as many phone numbers as you can before the fact. Add them to your phone at leisure and avoid typos.

→ Practice basic phone courtesy in panels. Turn your ringer to silent or vibrate, don’t be afraid to send people directly to voicemail. Make sure your alerts and rings are unobtrusive or set to silent/vibrate. No one is going to be impressed by your ‘awesome’ ringtone if it disturbs the panel.

→ Texting is generally better than actually phoning someone. It’s much less disruptive, and that way your pals have the info when they do check their phone, instead of having to call you back to get it. (And also, some of us may be live-tweeting panels!) Diane: “It’s much much easier to get a good-enough cell signal to text than to do phone calls or email.” (Be warned that if you don’t have unlimited texting, you might go over your limit. It might be worth it to call up your provider and see if they can switch you to unlimited texting for just one month. It’s also a good time to unsubscribe any text alert subscriptions you may get from local news and such.)

→ Group messaging. If you’ll be with a large group, and most of them have smartphones, have everyone sign up for a free app called GroupMe. Eliz: “Instead of calling 10 people, you send out one text to a defined group and have them respond to the text. The app is available for most systems.” Bonus: It uses a lot less memory (at least on iOS) than Facebook Messenger.