Look who's back...

[lazypadawan]

Boy was it a zoo getting out of Orlando, but here I am! I got in around 2 p.m. local time and I'm trying to stay up until at least 10:30 to start getting acclimated to PST. I've already unpacked my suitcase but haven't yet reorganized everything or put them away.

I had a great time at Celebration. You'll get the full blow-by-blow over the coming days...even if you've read my Facebook bursts you still didn't get The Whole Story! There's always something that turns out to be not all that or was a disaster (*cough*art show*cough*Official Pix*) but after dreading a convention full of really stupid programming and really awful people, Celebration V had something IV didn't...inspiration. It didn't come from the dopey stuff like the super lame "Commitment Chapel" that turned out to be a cheesy gazebo. There were surprisingly fantastic panels, George Lucas proved you could still get people excited about something new in the saga (that amazing cut scene from ROTJ), Mark Hamill's first U.S. Celebration turned out to be one of the con's highlights, and Clone Wars really gave the con a good shot in the arm in a number of ways.

I've heard more about Carrie Fisher's early departure and the (possible) reasons for it. I'll post about it separately with a friends-lock because it can be a little upsetting and I can't verify for sure it's all true but it does make sense based on bits and pieces I'd heard separately from different people at different times. But while I'm sure it was disappointing for people who wanted to see her on Sunday or still hoped to get an autograph, it didn't affect my experience at the con at all.

Okay, I've got lots to do before bedtime. Stay tuned for con reports all this week!

Comments

[angryscientist.livejournal.com]

Can't wait for the con reports, I know I don't always comment but I do read all you posts :D

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I've been kind of looking forward to your return with convention reports. I've heard a little bit here and there, but it's not quite the same thing... (For example, one weblog had an "off-topic" link about the deleted scene, but right before it there was a link to Gary Kurtz seeming to me to be up to his old game of feeding dissatisfaction with the Star Wars movies he didn't work on...)

[may-child.livejournal.com]

The Gary Kurtz link was his usual self-serving pablum and whingeings about how Lucas "turned SW into a toy factory," sneered about how the ending of ROTJ should have been bittersweet but instead was a "teddy bear luau," and implications that he was what made ESB great and ANH not-bad. The sycophantic bashers, of course, were just lapping it up, treating each word like a ruby dropped in their lap. I'm sure it will provide the losers Kurtz Kultists with material to worship him with for years to come.

Oh, and Kurtz tells a bunch of half-truths and outright lies about being "good friends" with Jim Henson (he was such an inept producer on "Dark Crystal" that Henson wanted to remove his name from the credits), and "bringing" Frank Oz to ESB to voice/work Yoda. In actuality, he was the middleman. Lucas wanted Henson, who he was actually good friends with, for the job but he was unavailable, so Oz volunteered.

The article coyly said that he "moved to England," but neglected to mention that that was most likely because no one in the U.S. wanted to work with him, because of his ineptitude as a producer and track record of letting films go badly off-schedule and over-budget. There was a mention of him working on some project with Weta, and an accompanying mention of them being the FX company that worked on LOTR...was that some kind of pathetic attempt to tenuously link Kurtz with LOTR to make him seem "kewl"? Lame.

[may-child.livejournal.com]

I've heard more about Carrie Fisher's early departure and the (possible) reasons for it. I'll post about it separately with a friends-lock because it can be a little upsetting and I can't verify for sure it's all true but it does make sense based on bits and pieces I'd heard separately from different people at different times.

Do you mean upsetting for Carrie fans?

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Let's just say it doesn't present her in the best light :?.

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I have heard stuff before about her being "difficult."

[darth-pipes.livejournal.com]

I read about that Kurtz article. It was the same stuff they were reporting ten years ago. It was the same exact story. I think I'll post about that later.