- The Death Star is one of io9’s top five high-tech lairs of evil masterminds.
- SF Site reviews Death Star.
- Lost’s Jorge Garcia entranced by A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy
- Mark Hamill and Natalie Portman in Heckler Spray’s worst cinematic hairdos. Bonus appearance by Christopher Lee!
Geekier than thou?
Thanks to the Stooge for this one – The Onion’s A.V. Club points out twenty pop-cultural obsessions even geekier than Monty Python. While Star Trek is #1, there’s not much about Star Wars, although there are plenty of entries about things that SW fans do and like, including BSG, Joss Whedon, roleplaying games. (namecheck!) Dr. Who… Plus something I had a lot of high school friends obsessing over for reasons I to this day do not understand, Magic: The Gathering. And for the final blow… Fanfic. Sigh. At least they acknowledge it “isn’t always relegated to weird, unnecessarily erotic original stories with awkward dialogue, plot holes, and spelling errors…” Yeah…
But man, game-show tape trading? That’s just crazy.
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
I’m not sure I can take this entirely seriously
Listverse has the top twenty geek movies of all time. The Original Trilogy comes in at #9, and Spaceballs is #3. Uh, yeah. Okay then!
A night for lists
Entertainment Weekly celebrates sexy aliens, with our own Lando Calrissian clocking it at at #4. (Yes ladies, a fair amount of menfolk make the list, which is nice.) Slightly less innocent is New York Magazine’s ten movie vaginas even scarier than the one in Teeth, which ‘graciously’ includes the Sarlacc pit at #1. Whoo. (Our Google referrals are sure to get even weirder now.)
Meanwhile, for the folks not in the mood to oogle or wince, take a gander at Deputydog’s ten stunning ultra-geeky home cinemas. While many of the home theaters profiled are familiar, there’s plenty of brand-new ones to discover (or rediscover.)
The fandom minute
- Projects: Back in September, Finkbuilt tinkered up some two-minute dueling sabers. Then, in October, the real thing. Then came the costume boot tops, a Flashsaber, and why am I only finding all this now? It’s good stuff!
- Lists and such: i09 gives The Phantom Menace a hat-tip in their list of Greatest Car Chases In Science Fiction (Part 2), while THX-1138 gets face time in The Scariest Settings Ever Created in Scifi Movies. They also found an inappropriate t-shirt that brings, if nothing else, a cheap, shameful laugh.
- Expanded Universe: Drew Karpyshyn will join EUCantina.net for the EUCast on February 2nd.
In the news: Monday morning reading list
- Cloverfield smashes January box office records, including the one held by the ANH Special Edition.
- Lightsaber named top movie weapon in 20th Century Fox poll. (Huh.) The Death Star and Indiana Jones’ whip also made the list, and Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones are among the favorite weapon-wielding heroes.
- Skywalker Sound up for BAFTA for There Will Be Blood.
- AICN has a report from the cancer-free Fanboys.
- Ewan McGregor claiming Trainspotting had more influence than Star Wars prequels. On his career, perhaps.
Who do you want to see on the TV show?
Now that Rick has confirmed the presence of Boba Fett, IGN lists ten established characters they’d like to see on the live-action TV show. Several EU characters are on it – including the top two. Who do you want to see make an appearance?
The Jedi Council’s top 100 EU Works
The Jedi Council (aka TFN) Literature Board counts down their hundred favorite bits of the Expanded Universe. Counting not only novels and comics but short stories and video games, the results are rather fascinating. Not that I would take it as anything more than representative of the community that created it… TFNers are strange folk.
You can read the list in context on the boards, but note that the results were posted over several days, and the thread has ballooned, as they tend to do. I’ve the top 20 below the cut.
In the news: Monday morning reading list
LucasArts at the Consumer Electronics Show. They’re showing off two games: The Force Unleashed and Fracture, as well as the new tech that powers them both.
In other news from the show, a Microsoft comedy video featured CEO Steve Ballmer dressed as Luke Skywalker (with Bill Gates as Harry Potter and Austin Powers.)