in the middle of a move...be back soon :)

guest post by mikl-em

San Francisco’s Dark Room Theater has delivered stage versions of numerous films over the years, from Clue to The Princess Bride to The Ten Commandments. All these performed on a stage that is, to quote one review, not much bigger than a big screen TV. In full disclosure, I’ve appeared in several shows there myself and one upcoming. I posted about the “Bene-fett” for this play a few months back.

This (long) time (ago) the theater goes far, far away beyond their previous productions when Star Wars: The Play opens this week. Beginning this Friday, December 5th the show will run for just 8 performances: each Friday and Saturday through December 27. Tickets are available online.

This stage production of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope features a thousand and ten performers (give or take a thousand) and a $100 special effects budget! Bringing all the thrills of the world of Star Wars off the movie screen and on to the ingenious but diminutive stage in front of you: Light saber duels! Zero-Gravity dogfights! Jawas! Droids! Darth Vader and his pinchy-chokey special attack! Uncle Owen!

STAR WARS: Live on Stage is a Dark Room Production adapted and directed by Jim Fourniadis, produced by Erin Ohanneson and featuring the considerable talents of Joe Gorman, Nancy Bower, Jim Jeske, Damien Chacona, Julien Sierra, Steffanos X, John Halfacre, Dan Foley, Erik Salmoson, Tim Kay, AJ Margolis, Dave McKew as Darth Vader.

This play is being performed with the permission of Lucasfilm Ltd. Pretty cool, and maybe not too surprising when you think about the fact that the Star Wars fans and fan art have always been a big part of what kept Luke, Leia et al alive for all those bleak years before we entered the prequel zone.

It seems that Lucasfilm has been tolerant of much of the fan fiction, films, art and other amateur tributes since 1981, but not always.

In 2000 they partnered with Atom Films to provide a place for fan films (and even a contest for the best ones each year) on the condition that the creators adhere to some basic guidelines–here are this year’s finalists.

This article from 2001 gives an overview of the universe of fan films at that time. TheForce.Net is the hub of the Star Wars fan universe, they even have a database of fan film casts and crews.

And just to keep you in that Star Wars tribute mood, here’s probably the most famous of all Star Wars tributes, the short film Troops from 2001 (which you can download off of TheForce.Net):

See Previously: Dark Room Theater Bene-Fett: Night of a Thousand Stars…Wars

poster image by Flynn de Marco

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Star Wars: Live on Stage at The Dark Room

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Monty Python just uploaded their infamous “Dead Parrot Sketch” to their recently launched YouTube channel. The sketch is from the 8th episode of the first season of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, originally aired in 1969.

See Previously: The Monty Python Channel on YouTube

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Monty Python: The Dead Parrot Sketch

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After many years on hiatus, the Laughing Squid coffee mugs have finally returned and are now available for $10 through the Laughing Squid online store.

This time around I went with a different style and ordered the 11.5 oz “Java” ceramic coffee mug which is wider at the top and has a nice curve to it.

photo by Scott Beale

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Laughing Squid Coffee Mug

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Our friend Tim Ferriss, who wrote the best-selling book “The 4-Hour Workweek”, has created a pilot for “Trial by Fire”, a new TV show on The History Channel. The concept behind the show is that he has one week to learn something that normally takes 5-20 years to master. The show airs tomorrow night, Thursday, December 4th at 11pm ET/PT and again on Friday, December 5th at 3am ET/PT.

Tim Ferriss, best-selling author and all around expert on everything from mixed martial arts to ballroom dancing and linguistics, will use the knowledge he can glean from experts to rapidly master a skill in one week that most people couldn’t learn in a lifetime: the ancient Japanese art of Yabusame… Japanese horseback archery.

Tim will be doing a live Q&A on his blog during the broadcast tomorrow night.

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Tim Ferriss’ “Trial by Fire” TV Show Pilot on The History Channel

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Ironic Sans has created a great modification of the Ford logo which appropriately represents the current situation in the automotive industry.

image via Ironic Sans

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Auto Fail

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“Surfing For Seniors”, a very dated internet instructional video.

See Previously: Analog To Digital TV Conversion, So Easy Even Grandma Can Do It

via Rocketboom

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Surfing For Seniors, An Internet Instructional Video

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Dan Frommer makes a great point on Silcon Alley Insider, the new Ask.com television commercials are creepy and are not helping.

Here are a couple of questions that these commercials make me ask:

“Am I going to have nightmares after watching these?”

“How do I go about removing this creepy person that is attached to my neck?”

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The New Ask.com TV Commercials Are Super Creepy

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Composer/lyricist Marc Shaiman (Hairspray, SNL) and director/choreographer Adam Shankman (Hairspray, Buffy The Vampire Slayer) have created a perfect three-minute gem of witty, playful musical agitprop in support of same-sex marriage rights. It’s full of familiar faces, including John C. Reilly and Allison Janney (as Prop 8 supporters), Andy Richter and Neil Patrick Harris (as gay marriage proponents) and a surprise appearance by Jack Black.

Short, satirical and sweet, I wouldn’t be surprised if this humble effort actually changes some people’s minds. Well done.

via Criollo

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Proposition 8 - The Musical

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Tack Sharp is a great new photography podcast hosted by James Duncan Davidson and Dan Benjamin. Their latest episode “Crop Factor” talks about the differences between crop-frame and full-frame cameras. You can subscribe directly via iTunes.

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Tack Sharp, A In Depth Podcast About Photography

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guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

This video taken from the cockpit of a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 making a final approach to SFO seems to have been filmed with official sanction, so the production quality is excellent. If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on in the front of the plane as you prepare to land at SFO — or if you’re just a fan of air traffic control communications and NASA-style checklists — this video should more than satisfy your curiosity.

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How to Land a 747 at San Francisco International Airport

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guest post by Doctor Popular

Emily Strange, the black and white character often associated with the Hot Topic brand, has become an international phenomenon with themed stores throughout Asia and Greece. Emily is seen by fans as an icon for individuality and uniqueness, but was her character originally based on a more obscure heroine from a 1970’s children book? CoffeeGhost.net was one of the first sites to point out the similarities to the black haired idol and a character named Rosamond from the “Nate The Great” series:

“Rosamond (who predates Emily by a decade) is a young, slim girl with long, straight, black hair and wears a short dress. She has four cats (named Super Hex, Big Hex, Plain Hex, and Little Hex). Emily’s cats now have distinguishing features, but originally they differed only in their sizes (exactly like Rosamond’s cats).”

The strongest argument suggesting that Emily the Strange was based on Nate The Great , however, was just recently published on the art theft blog You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice. YTWWN user chelseamca not only mentions the similarities between the two characters, but shows an actual scan of Rosamond and her cats taken from “Nate the Great Goes Undercover” that is nearly identical to the original Emily Strange stickers printed in 1991. Although the main character may vary slightly, the reworded copy and reversed cat poses are unmistakably inspired by the pages of this classic book.

The YTWWN article receives a lot of skeptical voices, but nobody defending the originality of the Emily character dares tackle the identical pages. Even Rob Regers, co-creator of Emily and founder of
Cosmic Debris, acknowledges the similarities in a comment recently cross posted on several blogs:

“As you may be aware by what has been noted in many interviews and on Wikipedia, Nathan Carrico first conceived of and used Emily as a character for a skateboard design back in 1991. After seeing a sticker of the design, I thought the quirky “looks strange” design was in line with other tees Cosmic Debris was doing, and that it might resonate well with the crew I was selling to. I asked and received permission to use the design from Nathan. We then began creating Emily’s gothic, nonconformist, dark world by using a variety of original expressions (”I want you to leave me alone”, “Teacher’s Pest”, “Emily doesn’t search to belong…” etc.) and unique Emily designs on our t-shirts and other products. Several years thereafter, the character of Rosamond from the children’s book series Nate the Great was brought to my attention for the first time.

Although the designs and worlds of Rosamond and Emily are different and readily distinguishable, and although we never received any complaints from the author, the artist, or the publisher, we phased out the original skateboard design upon learning of the Rosamond character, and worked with the creative team to further distinguish Emily and her universe. Regarding copyright law, there is legally nothing wrong with sharing or implementing a unique variation on a concept. I have never drawn inspiration from the Nate the Great series or Rosamond.”

So according to Rob Regers, the original Emily design was aquired from another artist without any prior knowledge that the art was not original. Then, after realizing that the content was ripped from another source, Cosmic Debris made small changes to the character and her universe from the original inspiration. Emily the Strange is now a global brand, with a new line of comics and a motion picture on the way, but where does that leave the original creators? There appears to be no credit to Nate the Great writer Marjorie Weinman Sharmat or illustrator Marc Simont anywhere for their part in creating Emily. Nor can I find any public statments regarding the success of the character based on their work. With Emily merchandise being sold publicly for over 17 years, it is becoming increasingly unlikely they will reap the rewards based on their work.

image via You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice

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Was Emily the Strange Based On Rosamond From Nate The Great?

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