As our national nightmare of ‘the holiday season’ begins, bid a fond farewell to the last sane holiday of the year with yet more Star Wars pumpkins and the evolution of Chewbacca.
The Catchup: Friday morning reading list
NEWS
- Fractal Matter interviews Rick McCallum about all the usual suspects: Red Tails, TV shows, etc.
- Antifungal drug causes visions of Chewbacca. Well, better Wookiees than, say, Cthulhu.
- Star Wars gets namedropped in Blackwater probe.
- £10,000 worth of figures stolen in UK.
EVENTS
- Cédric Delsaux’s Star Wars on Earth photographs are on exhibit in Washington D.C.
GAMING
- Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron comes out on Tuesday, and TOS has been pulling out all the stops: a two part Q&A; an introduction to Commander Col Serra and a look at his character evolution.
FANDOM
- Perennial blogger Jason Kottke asks the age-old question: What’s the best order to indoctrinate your young with Star Wars?
- University of Alabama offers BUI 301: The Gospel of Star Wars: Mass Entertainment as Postmodern Religion. Does that mean Steve Sansweet is a prophet?
- Bengal Trooper spotted!
PEOPLE
- Sean Connery sexier than Harrison Ford, says poll.
- Natalie Portman campaigns to help end global poverty; will be starring alongside Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brothers.
- Carrie Fisher to take on Mrs. Bennett in Pride And Prejudice spoof.
- Billy Dee Williams in Aretha Franklin biopic?
MERCHANDISE
- Get your Master Replicas’ products now; with their license expiring, they stop selling Star Wars stuff after December 31st.
- Check out some of the 30th Anniversary Sketch Cards.
- Complete your collection of convention exclusives with the Celebration Europe Droid 2-pack.
Hyperspace
- The latest Bantha Tracks.
- Two Newsnets: Ralltiir Blockade Impacting Sector Economy and Kira Run Opening Up to Mainstream Trade.
- One tiny fiction bit: One Step Ahead.
- And a lowdown on Delta Source.
Star Wars in the news
George Lucas, architect
Curbed LA checks in on the construction of USC’s Lucas-funded School of Cinematic Arts. Apparently Lucas did far more than just write a check – campus rumor says he nixed the university’s original architect and hired his own.
Also…
Video du jour: The simple things
My Hoover Sounds Like Chewbacca From Star Wars. And so it does.
Chewbacca hands saber over to NASA
The Wookiee and several of his costumed friends presented NASA officials with the Skywalker lightsaber today at Oakland International Airport. The lightsaber will be met in Houston by the R2-D2, the 501st and a police escort who will accompany it to NASA
Chewbacca’s head up for auction
Profiles in History’s latest auction contains the aforementioned head, Anakin and Obi-Wan lightsabers from AOTC and TPM, and the Grail tablet from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Game fans, watch Entertainment Tonight
Prepare yourselves for a very chipper preview of The Force Unleashed tomorrow.
Also, Chewbacca loves PSP.
Star Wars Roundup: Weekend edition
Millions of gamers suddenly cried out in horror upon discovering that the Star Wars game for Wii is just the Lego Star Wars re-release. Poor, poor gamers.
Alderaan shot first
- Hollywood Chewbacca in the news again. Assaulting Marilyn Monroe? For shame!
- Darth Vader gets (Dis)Honorable Mention on a Five Fictional Geekdads list.
- Seven coolest geeks on television. I think Bonnie’s interviewed at least half of them on starwars.com, so it counts.
- Times Online catches up with some fans heading to Celebration Europe.
- 1100 great movie robots
- Oh, and George is still hanging around Yale.
Nobody puts Chewie in the corner!
A British survey found that the Star Wars trilogy is the most-watched film for men, and the second most-watched for woman. Look, I’ll admit to having seen Dirty Dancing (the woman’s #1) more than once, but… dude.. Another CJ favorite, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, also makes both lists, at #6 on the women’s and #10 on the men’s. And surprisingly, The Matrix makes #9 on the women’s list, with no showing on the men’s, and the woman-kicks-alien-ass appeal of Alien and Aliens makes a high showing on the men’s list, but is absent from the female’s. And hey – no Titanic!
Fan Art: Wookiee Noogie
Wookiee Noogie by Margaret Hogg.