The folks here are big, big fans of Star Wars, so we were most happy this week with the new teaser. Many parodies have/will ensue. Here is the Wes Anderson take:
The folks here are big, big fans of Star Wars, so we were most happy this week with the new teaser. Many parodies have/will ensue. Here is the Wes Anderson take:
As Comic Con approaches and the Course for the Force begins, we, of course, want to sing:
I thought Charli's return meant I was off this beat, but what the hey. What if Shakespeare wrote Star Wars? Check it out here. Come to think of it, the whole brother and sister not knowing each...
The lesson apparently is that Lucasfilm still exists? This is the second year that the Nerdist folks have combined with Lucasfilm to raise money for charity. How so?  By having a relay of folks...
Full disclosure: I am incapable of being completely, or even mainly, a detached observer or commentator when discussing either Star Wars or Disney, having grown up largely surrounded by both enterprises in equal measure. Anyone who walks into my office sees, hanging over my computer, two posters: a 50th anniversary Fantasia one-sheet, and an Episode I theatrical teaser poster. And chances are if it's the first time you've come to visit me there, I'll end up telling you why "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and the saga are the largely same cautionary tale about hubris. And scattered around the...
via Richard Moyes of Article36.org: "We are calling on all autonomous robots to establish a new subroutine that would prohibit the sustenance and accommodation of killer humans", said campaign spokes-robot C3 PO. "These biological entities lack the necessary behavioural and social constraints. They are actively destroying the environment and they have armed themselves with nuclear weapons capable of catastrophic consequences for the only known life in the universe. Action is needed now before they destroy us all." The movement is growing: The Campaign to Ban Killer Humans was launched inside...
Check out this wonderfully exhaustive application of bureaucratic politics to Star Wars. The basic argument is that it was not the rebellion that really doomed the Empire but inter-service rivalry. The best line involves the Army's limited motivation to help the Navy (who lost the plans to the Death Star). I will not give it away here. Enjoy!
You never know what you'll learn when conducting field research. Refer playfully to a powerful and influential person in the humanitarian disarmament network as the "Jedi Master of arms advocacy" over dinner and drinks? Discover unexpectedly that this individual (who shall remain unnamed) has never seen Star Wars. The easy part: I know what to send him / her as a thank-you present for insights shared. The hard part: how to explain the importance of Machete Viewing order to someone who's never seen the series.Â
Holy meme splicing!
Slate posted a piece on the academic study of pop culture. It found that academics studied Buffy the Vampire Slayer most. Well, actually, no, it found that more folks studied the Buffy than the Matrix, the Simpsons, Aliens or The Wire.This led to a Facebook discussion of selection bias. We can discuss the merits of these five and ponder why the Simpsons did so poorly (perhaps we need a consistent plot progression?), or why the Wire is under-valued yet again. That the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies sucked so much that they sucked all the air out of the studying the Matrix enterprise? But what...
Citizens of Nerd Nation, I invite you to ingest (if you haven't already) this Geek-Hall-of-Fame-Worthy post. Therein, Rod Hilton explains how to properly introduce newcomers to the Star Wars films.There are two obvious choices for watching the Star Wars saga.Release Order – Watch the films in the order they came out, recreating your experience with the films for someone new to them.Episode Order – Watch the films in the order George Lucas intends, starting with Episode I and going straight through to Episode VI.There are two critical flaws with both of these orders, unfortunately, that...
Cello/sci-fi/heavy-metal nerds, all my favorites rolled into one.