Tag: jedi religion

Posted on

Roundup: Episode VII means big bucks at any time of year

Vader at Disneyland. Or Disney World? I can't tell. Disney. The Orlando Business Journal’s Jim Carchidi looks into a few ways that Disney will profit from the Star Wars delay. Because people will go see Star Wars at any time?

Podcasts. There’s a new episode of Full of Sith out today, with Bryan and Bobby talking about the week’s developments.

Auditions. Jedi News talked to one of the ‘Thomas’ hopefuls.

The old boss. George Lucas has lots of big-name San Francisco support for his museum, Mashable reports.

This again. With Star Wars in the news again, I’m surprised it took so long before we got another look at Jedi religion, this time from Details.

Posted on

Czech Republic home to more than 15,000 ‘Jedi’

15,070 Czechs listed their religion as ‘Jedi’ in the latest census. AFP reports:

“Fifteen thousand adherents, which is the size of a small town, is not a negligible social phenomenon,” Stanislav Drapal, deputy head of the statistical office, told reporters.

In Prague, statisticians registered 3,977 Jedi knights, or 0.31 percent of the capital’s population.

I’m sure the Czech atheists are just thrilled. Yeah, it’s funny and gives us dumb stuff to blog about, but I’m not a fan of people treating their census like it’s a silly meme. Save it for Facebook.

Posted on

The catchup: One dad introduces the saga to his kids

Sunday reader. Using the Blu-rays, Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny is showing the Star Wars movies to his two sons for the first time. It’s a great story (they’ve seen Clone Wars but nothing else) and probably one of the best articles (and certainly the most detailed) that I’ve read on kid’s reactions to the saga. In order: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, with the Return of the Jedi entry coming on Thursday. A great read, whether you’ve shown the movies to kids yet or not.

Occupy Coruscant? Twitter’s favorite minions of evil, Death Star PR, takes time out of their busy planet-blasting schedule to debunk Luke Skywalker’s assertion that he is part of the 99%.

Kids. A Yoda backpack helped one flower girl make it down the aisle. (via)

People. Watch Mark Hamill in the opening of Friday’s Chuck premiere.

Spoofs. The Jedi Church. Literally. Well, spoofily.

Posted on

In the news: Colbert dings politician for Portman pregnancy remarks; U.K. atheists blast ‘Jedi’ census

Fake-pundit fun. Stephen Colbert blasted Mike Huckabee for his comments on Natalie Portman’s pregnancy. “Look, I’m no fan of single mothers either. But it’s Natalie Portman we’re talking about. That kid she’s pregnant with is Luke Skywalker,” Colbert said. “So logically, if you’re against her pregnancy that means you’ve aligned yourself politically with Emperor Palpatine. You’re alienating all of Tatooine. It’s a swing planet.” Of course Tatooine is a swing planet.

Serious matters. An atheist group in the U.K. has launched a campaign to convince folks not to write down “Jedi” on their census forms as a joke. No word on how they feel about ‘real’ Jedi. (via)

Legal. Lucasfilm is back in court again – the British Supreme Court this time – over the Shepperton studios stormtrooper replicas.

Random. Harrison Ford is helping to develop a Facebook game. Okay, so it’s an environmentally-concious Facebook game… But it’s still a Facebook game. Which I guess is better than watching him get his chest waxed again.

Posted on

Book review: Introduction to Jedi Knighthood

I have a particular fondness for the independently-published Star Wars philosophy book. People are all over the board in how they see the Force and Star Wars and these books reflect that.

Jedi Manual Basics: Introduction to Jedi Knighthood by Matthew Vossler came across to me, from its description, as a book written for kids (another fondness of mine). But it’s actually a workbook for those wishing to study Jediism as a religion or personal philosophy.

Jediism has been gaining ground as a religion in recent years. This book lets you walk through the basic precepts and examine your own understanding of the Force through a series of studies and writing assignments.

I would have liked to see a bit more actual background over assignments. And the use of URL’s as reading assignments could be problematic as sites go down and change.  As a result, its usefulness in the long term is doubtful. But if you’re at all interested in Jediism, this would be an interesting way to explore it further.

Posted on

The fandom minute: Anakin’s borderline is not a disorder

He has issues. Just not those. Psychology Today disagrees with the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder for the Sithling, saying “While Vader/Anakin seems to fit some of the criteria, a closer look shows the traits don’t add up to provide a cohesive portrait of a person with the disorder.”

Con of Cons. There’s no Spectacular at San Diego Comic Con, but since we weren’t expecting much news until August, I think we’ll manage. There is a Her Universe panel, though.

Ballot-stuffing for the win! Clone Wars fans beat out fans of Futurama, Family Guy and some show on FX I’ve never heard of to nab Best Animated Show in TV.com’s Now Awards. (Note to readers: Turn down your speakers before clicking. Note to TV.com: AUTOPLAY IS NEVER OKAY.)

Stop. Just stop. The leader of the Jedi Church has landed a “reality show,” except by “reality show” they mean he’s going to be filming himself and putting it on Youtube.

Posted on

The fandom minute: Felicia Day, Kristen Bell, space, Jedi and discounted alcoholic beverages

dayFelicia Day gets her saber on. The internet geek superstar (you probably know her from The Guild, and Dr. Horrible) can check another box on her ultimate geek list by appearing in an internet lightsaber fight.

Kristen Bell teams up with hometown 501s. The Fanboys actress helped the the Great Lakes Garrison raise $2,000 for Michigan charities.

Those look familiar. Check out what they’re building on the International Space Station. Go go science fact!

Jedi church looking for a Master. Too easy. Way too easy.

Drink up. Discount code for Skywalker Ranch wine.

Posted on

Jediism founder suing supermarket over hood

Man, that Jedi religion guy just can’t stay out of trouble, can he? Daniel Jones, co-founder of the Jedi Church in Wales, is suing a supermarket because they told him to remove his hood.

“It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head,” he said.

“You have a choice of wearing headwear in your home or at work but you have to wear a cover for your head when you are in public.”

Uh-huh. Props to Tesco for their response:

Tesco said: “He hasn’t been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.

“If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they’ll miss lots of special offers.”

Posted on

The catchup: Links from Twitter

atat-anatomyHere are some of the things I’ve micro-blogged over @clubjade in the last week or so.

Clothing: Behold the Anatomy of the AT-AT t-shirt!

Guardians of peace and justice? Eight Scottish officers with the Strathclyde Police and two of their civilian co-workers have listed their religion as “Jedi.”

Crazy Twilight fan theater. Lady Sybilla’s industrial-sized victim complex trucks on! She’s now claiming that “Characters don’t belong to authors. Authors don’t create characters. They merely channel them.”

Lulz. io9’s Charlie Jane Anders pegs Obi-Wan Kenobi as one of the Great Unsung Slash Fiction Heroes. I know it’s pretty ironic that the most code-abiding Jedi in the saga is the fandom bicycle of Star Wars fanfic, but these things just tend to happen when Ewan MacGregor is involved.

Video fun! We Didn’t Start the Flame War! (NSFW, mostly for language.)