Whether it’s your first or your fifth time, Star Wars Celebration, an annual Star Wars convention this year held in Orlando, Florida, the enormous amount of things to do and see can be overwhelming. Here are a few highlights that are definite must-sees!

One Man Star Wars
Charles Ross returns to Celebration to perform his one man show, “The One Man Star Wars Trilogy”. Ross uses no props and no instruments, only his voice, to create a fun and unique take on episodes IV, V, and VI.

Troop-athon Races
Troop-athon races returns for an event that is sure to have helmets rolling! The 501st Legion Troop-athon is a friendly competition between armored fans from all over the galaxy. The competition includes Ewok tossing, a Segway race, and a list of other challenges set up to test the soldiers’ skills and ability to perform in armor!

Bounty Hunt
The Bounty Hunt is a chance for you and your friends to prove yourself to the Bounty Hunters Guild! Players are given clues to solve, with the clues increasing in difficulty as they advance. Celebration V is your hunting grounds, and marks are given varying Credit amounts on their heads depending on difficulty.

Props Strikes Back
For the first time in the United States, Stefan Cembolista and the Belgian Star Wars prop crew will be presenting their replica collection for all to see! Some of the replicas on display include a full scale wampa, a 1:6 scale AT-AT, a Speederbike in front of a life-size Endor bunker, a life-size Snowspeeder, which you can get inside, a 1:6 scale X-Wing fighter, and MUCH more! They will also have a full scale TIE Interceptor, the first of this size to be built! And yes, they are even letting fans get in the cockpit!

Echo Base Diorama
As a Celebration regular, Frank D’lorio is back at Celebration to build a giant diorama of Echo Base with the help of fans! Echo Base was chosen to commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. Hasbro has made a generous donation of action figures and vehicles, and D’lorio set up an action figure donation fund for those who may not have their own action figures. Each fan gets to take home a piece of the diorama on the last day of the show!

My Star Wars Story
The Stories Project is asking fans to share their experience of Star Wars through video! They will have cameras set up so that any fan can have their 15 minutes of nostalgia and fandome videotaped for Lucasfilms.

Get Tattooed Live
The Star Wars tattoo program is back with a bold new feature! Instead of simply displaying body art, they will have almost 20 tattoo artists present, ready to give fans the ultimate memento; getting tattooed live! They will also have a display called The Empire Skates Back, a series of Star Wars themed skateboard decks, presented by Shane Turgeon, author of The Force in the Flesh. The decks will be auctioned off for the Celebration Make A Wish charity.

Last Tour of Endor
Star Tours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is powering down temporarily to make way for the new Star Wars 3-D attraction coming in 2011, and they’re sending it off with a Death Star bang! The event promises to be the largest private party held at a Celebration to date. The party takes place “after hours”, from 8 pm to 1 am, and features exclusive merch, Disney characters dressed as Star Wars characters, a stunning fireworks show, a special edition of “Hyperspace Hoopla”, and more!

These events and many, many more make for a fun filled adventure any Star Wars fan can enjoy! For more information visit http://www.starwarscelebration.com/

1. Dantooine: Go camping on one of Dantooine’s luscious valley floors, where the rebel base is definitely not located.
   

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1. ...you frequently get headaches trying to move things with your mind.


2. …you say “Use the Foooorce” in completely serious situations.


3. …you tell people your hunk-of-junk car can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.


4. …you don’t care that a parsec is not a measurement of time.


5. …Jar Jar Binks makes you cry.


6. …Mark Hamil calls you a Star Wars nerd.

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Star Wars is a captivating tale for many, and with any huge fan base comes the united wish that the universe was real place we could all go and live. We may not have the Force, and we may not have made first contact yet, but we’re getting very close to a few other things George Lucas wrote about so long, long ago. The biggest aspect of any sci-fi story is technology. If you look at Star Wars tech, some of it can be found in our world today, if not in the near future.

Holograms are within arm’s length. Virtual reality is close to being perfected, and projectors are already widely available. The LG eXpo is a smartphone with a projector that was released in December of 2009. If these technologies were combined, and there was a way to make virtual reality portable, it would be easy to set up a way to project your own form to a friend or family member in another country. (more…)

In November, I went to see Star Wars in Concert here in Boston at the Garden and it was a treat. It was a live concert, hosted by Anthony Daniels (C3PO), set to video and effects. The concert took us through the entire saga, with Daniels introducing each bit.

The best part was the kids in the audience and the extraordinary time they were having. So many of them were dressed up in costumes. The new Clone Wars TV series has reignited the passion in a new generation.

Here I am with my 10-year old Darth Maul t-shirt. (And here I am with the same t-shirt at the opening of Episode I in India 10 years ago):

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It’s official. Celebration 5 will be in Orlando in August 2010. Not the best combination of time and location—it will be unbearably hot.

Four day adult passes are $120, four day kids are $50, and they have single day admissions as well. I had been to Celebration II (Indianapolis 2002) and it was one of the most fun things I’ve done.

From starwars.com:

Star Wars Celebration V will take place August 12-15, 2010, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. A website, www.starwarscelebration.com, is dedicated exclusively to the event, and tickets to Star Wars Celebration V will be available for purchase online starting Thursday, December 10th. As always, Celebration will bring together the best of the Star Wars universe in one exciting, dynamic event!

Will you be there?

UPDATE: Tickets now on sale.

UPDATE: They did use a little bit of what I said- in the first minute or so of the program. You can listen here

I might be on BBC World Service today on a program called “The World” The World Today . They’re doing a special on 30 years of Star Wars and I just spoke with a producer for the show. They’ve recorded my comments, but I’m not sure if they will use them. I was speaking quite naturally until they said “We’re recording now” at which point I became nervous and incoherent!

• To find out if you can listen where you are in the world.
• If nothing else, it will be online here tomorrow.

Of course, if they don’t use anything I said, they just gained a slightly bigger audience for the price of an international phone call.

UPDATE: My mistake, I called the show “The World” instead of “The World Today”, in case anyone is paying attention.

We’ve rolled our own Star Wars Search Engine with Rollyo and you can try it out below.

Let us know if you would like some of your favorite Star Wars sites that you would like this engine to consider.

The Official Star Wars web site just introduced a fantastic new feature for creating “photo mashes”. That is, to mix classic Star Wars photographs with your own personal photographs to create humorous and interesting mashups. Enjoy! I will post my own creations as and when I make them.

Of course, there is this:

Any original art, envelope art, comics, illustrations, news, stories, meeting information, or any materials voluntarily submitted become the property of Lucasfilm. No compensation will be given for voluntary submissions, and there is no guarantee of publication. Submissions to starwars.com will not be returned. By submitting content, you are stating that the work is original, and created by the person submitting it.

The following is the third in a series of articles originally produced on GalaxyFarAway.com in the fall of 1999, coinciding with the release of Star Wars Episode I in India.

Newspaper clippings

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The following is the first in a series of articles originally produced on GalaxyFarAway.com in the fall of 1999, coinciding with the release of Star Wars Episode I in India.

GalaxyFarAway.com – The Only Indian Star Wars Fan Site


Releasing in India – October 22nd, 1999

Very interesting Picture from Times of India :
Vajpayee and Musharraf in Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace!

Here are a few cool Star Wars-ey things that I’ve found around the internet recently:

• Droidmaker Book Review: TBone over at StarWarz.com has a review of a book that was totally under my radar. He gives it a 10 out of 10:

  DROIDMAKER by Michael Rubin fills the void present in those Lucasfilm biographies by letting us know that Lucas wasn’t the only brain in the company. He was more like the Wizard of Oz himself – the idea man who made films and started a business while hoping others would bring the technology forward enough to meet his vision, which was way ahead of its time.

  A few reviews & positive blurbs also at Amazon.


• The Star Wars Photoshopping Project : Very cool photoshopping. One image from Star Wars has been taken to every photoshopped extreme from Monty Python to Lethal Weapon.


• Dillon Works Star Wars Home Theater : A spectacular custom-designed 10 seat home theater that looks like it is inside a Corellian Corvette or something.


• Yoda Helps Solve Unlock Cathedral Mystery

  Computer animation software used in newer “Star Wars” films to bring the pint-sized Jedi to life has now been modified to investigate the mysteries of cathedral architecture.

George Lucas turns 58 today as all of us wait for his birthday present to himself in a couple of days; in less than 44 hours I will be watching Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Thanks, George!

Crazy fact about his birth year? Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) was born on the 19th of May and Frank Oz (Yoda) on the 24th of May of the SAME YEAR! 1944!

What a year for Star Wars.

Yeah, I know. I need to get out more often.

I just got back from the Celebration in Indianapolis. What a time I had! The organization was immaculate. The features and events were amazing. The fans were just something else. You can expect a full day-by-day report in a few hours.

I should also have the photographs up by the end of the week.

Enjoy!

Finally all the info about the Attack of the Clones Celebration is up. As expected, there are lots of activities; you can even get yourself cloned! The complete schedule is up at the official site. Check it out here.