Rumor Control: Here Are the Facts

The day last week that I had set aside to do my big Star Wars Anniversary post, we got a rather alarming bit of news that we've had to spend the intervening time dealing with that. We are not sharing exactly what this news is yet except with immediate family, select friends, and bosses/co-workers it would directly impact. When we have decided it's okay for the world at large to know, it will go here.

I had hoped to do the post in May when it would be relevant, but expect it in the next week along with some more backlogged articles.

The Geekdom Madness posts will continue as usual - they've been mostly written ahead of time up to this point, though now I REALLY have to wait for the results.

I pick the most inconvenient times to come back to writing.

A New Chapter

So....umm......it's been a while.

I have LOADS to tell.

Lame Claim to Fame

One time I met Weird Al backstage after a concert - and I completely choked!

My shirt was appropriate

The Nilbog Answers

Here's finally that answer post to the "Ask the Nilbog" that I posted last month.

The State of Things

So I missed my deadlines. How surprising.

So, just a quick update on a few things.

1. GEEKDOM MADNESS:
I was late. I screwed up. It will be set later today after this. I deeply apologize.

2. JEDI NEWS:
I submitted an article about a month ago that never went up, and I didn't want to bug my editor without another article, and I just haven't had anything new to say on Star Wars in a while.

3. OTHER OBSERVATIONS:
Hey, remember when I used to do posts looking at interesting points and developments from things other than Star Wars? There's a bunch of that I'd still REALLY like to do, but I can't coalesce my thoughts enough to produce something coherent. I'd like to promise they'll be here soon, but you know what tends to happen when I say things like that (R.I.P. Anniversary Reviews...)

4. ASK THE NILBOG:
I have not forgotten about that, just wanted to give another week or so for last-minute questions. I will answer one of those questions now though as a sneak preview because it pertains a lot to all of the above: Do you have a job yet? Well, no. I have an angle or two that I'm working that have very high chances, but any actual hiring consideration won't be for at least another month, and I'm almost out of unemployment. The stress over our finances and trying to secure these "angles" of possible employment have left me lightly baked to a tender and savory crisp, so that when I do de-stress I just escape into more private and personal forms of leisure (mostly Blizzard games, which I REALLY want to do a series on soon).

5. THE FUTURE:
Like I said, I don't want to make any promises that I'm not sure I can keep, and those of you who still read this have stuck with me through more burnouts and sabbaticals than it's fair to ask. But having this site really does mean a lot to me, and I want to make a better effort at giving you guys more content, and consistent content. I don't know when I'll have the time and energy for this, and I don't know what form it will take, but I hope that when it happens you'll still be there.

Ask the Nilbog!

I thought I'd try out the old chestnut of inviting my readers to ask me questions. Any questions you'd like, about anything (I reserve the right to ignore anything I deem too personal and/or troll-eriffic). Want to know what I thought of X? Want to know what I've been doing with Y? Want to know how Z works and are too afraid to ask someone you actually know? Write them all down in the comments below!

I'll then gather them all up, and post as many answers as I can in a future post.

Sound like fun?

The Force Awakens: First Impressions

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

Well, I saw it. Sooner than I had intended, but with the world ready to spoil everything I’m glad I was still in a relative vacuum.

I had originally wanted to wait until a second viewing to put my thoughts down like this – we all know how first impressions are, and how talking about them with other people can cloud our memory. However, my financial situation won’t allow it and any of you who are regular readers are I’m sure dying to know what I thought.

I’m going to split this into bullet-pointed sections because that’s how my brain is best processing everything that I saw and everything that I feel.

First, I’m going to stress that 99.9999etc% of these are my own personal opinions, and even the rare moments where I speak on an objective technique level are open to interpretation. I have no quarrel with people who feel differently unless they are the type of hypocrite who would put me down for disagreeing, and I reserve the right to change my mind about ANY of this with time, study, and distance.

Part 1: Spoiler-Free Summary of My Feelings

·         * Loved the basic story, hated the presentation.

·         * As a film, it’s well-made and enjoyable, if a bit generic. I ultimately enjoyed myself.

·         * As a Star Wars Saga film, it’s immensely disappointing, and if it still counts it’s my current least favorite.

·         * As a Star Wars Expanded Universe Story, it’s at least above-average and I like this direction a little better than the original after-Jedi EU.

·         * Would still have preferred George’s vision by a country mile.

Warning: Spoilers from this point forward.

The Tao of Binks

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

Much news has come forth since I last decided to type down my thoughts on the Star Wars Saga, and one reason I haven’t done since until now is that many of these stories have made me feel negative emotions towards the new film I haven’t even seen yet, and I already said I wasn’t doing that. “Easier and More Seductive” indeed (for the record, I will still give TFA it’s fair shake and go in with a relatively open mind, but I am purposely not going out of my way to see it the first week or so due to the mishandled marketing throwing George and his fans under the bus. Expect my first impressions sometime in January).

So I’m going to attack the silly “Darth Binks” thing that went around about a month back instead.

Your Turn

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

This is a call out. This is a call to all I-III lovers out there. And this call is:

HELP!

"You almost got us killed, are you brainless?!"

Never Trust a Trailer

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

Boy, I picked the right week to return from my sabbatical, didn’t I?

"I'm awake! I'm up!"

Geekdom Madness 2014 Victor

We are ready to announce the Victor for Geekdom Madness 2014. Unlike the other Victor postings which are right on the front page, I'm going to add a page break because A) There's a lot more information, and B) to drive you all bonkers with suspense.

Geekdom Madness: The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

Only one will survive. I wonder who it will be?

Insect Politics

(Originally Written to Jedi News)

No, this article is not about the deleted Separatist Kangaroo Court scene, though I will say that if George ever does a Special Edition of Attack of the Clones, I’d love to see it put back in, in one form or another.

The Nilbog's Big Move

So, the radio silence aside from answering comments (that can all be done via phone), was because my wife and I got a momentous bit of news:

Search Your Feelings

(Originally written for Jedi News)

I’ve been bullied most of my life.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Foxes

(Originally Written for Jedi News)

I decided I’d use my space this week to talk about the “postponement” of the 3-D conversions, my thoughts and feelings, and try to make sense of the whole thing.

Lucasfilm’s official statement is that the 3-D re-release of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (and therefore ostensibly IV-VI) have been delayed because all hands need to be on deck for Episode VII. The fact that other huge Star Wars projects such as the Clone Wars will apparently continue unhindered makes this press release feel more than a little hollow. Everyone’s asking what the real reason could be.

The knee-jerk reactions of many of my friends, and indeed this was my initial response, was fear. Fear that finally Lucasfilm was doing what we had dreaded and sweeping I-III under the rug to please the haters. This in turn lead to anger at the apparent appeasement and hatred of those who decided we true fans didn’t matter. Predictably, suffering was all around.

Then my head cleared and I decided to take my own advice and not go to that dark side just yet, quick as it is to join a fight.

I trust George Lucas. I trust that he wouldn’t put a system in place that would tear him down in his absence. Even though I still feel Lucasfilm isn’t being as forthcoming as they should, I still refuse to believe they would do this to loyal fans.

Neither do I believe Disney would cut its profits. Let’s not forget, I-III era merchandise sells just as much as IV-VI amongst the target age group, perhaps even moreso because of the aforementioned Clone Wars series. The Phantom Menace’s 3-D run, while giving the haters an opportunity for topical complaining, did remarkably well for a February 3-D re-release of a 13-year-old movie everyone supposedly hates. It became the first Star Wars movie to earn over a billion dollars (adding this run’s sales in with the initial release). I’m not one of the cynics who think Disney is only in it for money, but they certainly know how to make it more than most and they wouldn’t dare be that irresponsible.

So what’s likely the real reason? Only those involved know for sure, but if I were a betting man I’d say it’s a battle of rights. 20^th Century Fox still owns the distribution rights to I-VI for the next seven years or so, even though Disney owns the franchise and the right to make more. Right to Make verses Right to Distribute is a common battle in Hollywood. Why do you think it took so long for The Hobbit to be made? It was, among other things, negotiations and legal red tape because Warner Brothers had the right to make the film, but MGM still had distribution. If you make a movie, all you can do is sit on it without the right to show it around, and thus things like this need to be squared away sooner rather than later. This probably has something to do with that’s going on here.

I want to make it clear that I’m not vilifying either side in this. They’re just trying to look out for their interests, as businesses ought to do. We just happen to be caught in the middle this time. Also, I admit that I could be 100% wrong on this. There just seems far more to this story than is being told, and I refuse to assume the worst.

For that is a path to the dark side.

The Twelve Days of Listmas Day 12: My Top 20 Favorite Movies of All Time

Well, here it is. The big one. The one you've all been waiting for (assuming you even care). You have no idea how hard it was to come up with this list, since there are a lot of things to go through and consider. In fact, we'll have a lot of preliminaries before we get to the list proper, so let's just get that out of the way now...

Well, THAT Escalated Quickly.

If you're the kind of reader who pays attention to links, you may have noticed a new one amongst the ranks. After so many people spread my post "The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth About Star Wars", it caught the attention of one of the editors of Jedi News, a UK website that moniters news coming out of Lucasfilm and once in a while has some flavor articles. They asked me to work as a contributor.

I was so honored that I accepted, and my main Star Wars articles will appear there when inspiration strikes to write them. Now does this mean this blog is going down?

1. No, because I still have other non-Star Wars things I write about on a weekly basis, and those will still be here.

2. No, because my deal with Jedi News is that I can re-post my articles on this very site, provided I wait a day after it comes up on Jedi News and provide links. In fact, I don't know how this deal is going to go so you may very well see a "director's cut" on here from time to time. Plus, for the moment anyway, my Clone Wars episode reviews are exclusively on Nilbog's Storybook Land.

As much as I see this as a great opportunity to get my writing to a broader audience, part of me feels that I don't really deserve it. As much as I put my heart and soul into that piece, I was saying nothing new. Almost everything I said in that post are points that people like Lazypadawan, A New Hope, and Paul F. McDonald have been making for years. In fact, I credit them time and again and wholeheartedly for helping me find my voice as a Star Wars Activist (and what exactly is that? Read Jedi News this Thursday or Nilbog's Storybook Land on Friday! *COUGHSHAMELESSPLUGCOUGH*)

Basically what I'm saying here is that, as I take my first step into a hopefully larger world, I vow never to forget where I came from and who helped me get here. And this blog will remain open until either I die or Blogspot does (whichever comes first).

May the Force Be With You, Always.

P.S. Keep circulating the other article whenever you see hater propaganda!

Star Wars Disneyfication - Take Two!

Well, this news has certainly taken most of my free brain processing time, so throw my previous post schedule right out the window (MOST will still come, just later than intended; Red Dragon I'll wait and talk about with its more famous film predecessor).

However, I have to hand it to the great folks at the SWPAS and "A Certain Point of View" for helping me to calm down and see reason.

The House Of Mouse In A Galaxy Far Far Away?!?!

Holy....wha? Just let me th...WHAAA?!