star wars – St. Eutychus

Democracy at work: America to consider considering building a death star

Whitehouse.gov has a petition feature where American citizens can voice their concerns, and policy initiatives, and, if they secure enough support – have their ideas considered by the President, who will then issue a response. The threshold is 25,000.

Image Credit: Geekerd.net

Here’s the text from an important petition for the American military machine to invest its research and development efforts into the construction of the Death Star:

Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.

By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

It currently has more than 27,000 votes.

Centives costed the project a while back – it doesn’t look all that feasible. Unfortunately. At 2012 prices the space craft would cost something like $852,000,000,000,000,000.

December 15, 2012

Ninja Jedis

This is sensational.

From these guys called Team 2X. Who you might recognise from such films as Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.

December 27, 2011

Bowsabers: Starwars theme as a cello duel

The Piano Guys strike back…

This one’s been doing the rounds – so shout out to those people who clogged up my Facebook feed with it.

It also has a nice little Darth Vader accordion cameo.

December 10, 2011

Homer Simpson painted by Rembrant

Obviously this would have been much harder to animate.

And, as a bonus, Marge Simpson in the style of Johannes Vermeer.

And as a bonus bonus. Groundskeeper Willie Van Gogh style.

And Darth Vader Monet style…

October 9, 2011

May the force be with your train trip…

I like this marketing campaign. It’s Japanese. It’s for Star Wars, for a new boxed set. What a clever use of everyday items…

Some details here.

October 6, 2011

Star Wars Crayons

If only I’d spent more time playing with crayons as a kid and less time trying to eat them or whatever it was I did.

From Flickr.

May 27, 2011

Imperial Propaganda reveals truth about Star Wars

A few weeks ago the wool was pulled away from our eyes on the question of Super Mario’s innocence. Thanks to the power of propaganda. Now it’s time for us to learn the truth about the empire. Darth Vader was a good guy, painted in a negative light by the victors of the history wars of the future.

Although, there’s a question about who is winning that “culture war” with these rebel alternatives.

From PBH.

May 24, 2011

Tintin’s further adventures

So there’s a Tintin movie coming out. Are you, you, you, so excited? You should be.

What you may not know is that the movie that is coming out is just the tip of the iceberg. The Tin Tin franchise is looking to merge with existing movie franchises to make a much bigger splash in the cinematic world.

Ok, so that’s a lie. But the posters are cool, no? They’re from Mr Hipp.

May 17, 2011

Sci-Kea: Sci-fi meets the Allen Key

I wouldn’t know what an Ikea manual looks like. I never use them. I like the idea that Ikea furniture is what you make it (see Ikea Hackers)… so I have lots of installation art masquerading as furniture. But if I bought a lightsaber kit I’d be sure to follow the manual.

Arthur sent me this link on Facebook but it has been doing the rounds… it’s originally from College Humor.

May 11, 2011

Shirt of the Day: Font Vader

May the font be with you…

Get it as a shirt here.

Fonts used include:

“Scala, Halibut condensed, Bordeaux light, balogna bold, Helvetica neue LT std, Gallante wild regular, Cressida, gressida, gardl, agatha, mahoney, eye rhyme, ranegund, adventurer black sf italic, F&H ronish – style, jessica, kunstler script, myriad pro bold cond, agency, street corner hyper extend, minstrella reg, wizard, context black ssk, bordeaux black slant, excess, organa condensed, chinyen normal”

March 30, 2011

Everything is Remixed

These are good. Watch them. Check out the blog. I had no idea that Star Wars was such a pastiche (see part 2). Brilliant. It’s all very Ecclesiastes.

Remix. Remix. Everything is a remix.

Or perhaps, to quote Ecclesiastes:

⁸ All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

Here’s a line from part 2:

“George Lucas collected materials, he combined them, he transformed them. Without the films that preceded it, there could be no Star Wars. Creation requires influence. Everything we make is a remix of existing creations, our lives, and the lives of others.“

Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Here’s the take on Avatar:

“Of the few box office hits that aren’t remakes, adaptations or sequels, the word “original” wouldn’t spring to mind to describe ‘em. These are genre movies, and they stick to pretty standard templates. Genres then break-up into sub-genres with their own even more specific conventions. So within the category of horror films we have sub-genres like slasher, zombie, creature feature, and of course, torture porn. All have standard elements that are appropriated, transformed and subverted.

Let’s use the biggest film of the decade as an example. Now it’s not a sequel, remix or adaptation, but it is a genre film — sci-fi — and most tellingly, it’s a member of a tiny sub-genre where sympathetic white people feel bad about all the murder, pillaging, and annihilation being done on their behalf.

I call this sub-genre “Sorry about Colonialism!” I’m talking about movies like Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai, The Last of the Mohicans, Dune, Lawrence of Arabia, A Man Called Horse, and even Fern Gully and Pocahontas.”

This extended look at Kill Bill’s hat tips to everything in cinema is a little too violent for me to embed. But check it out.

February 6, 2011

Volks Vader

You’ve probably seen this ad already. It is pretty brilliantly geared towards being a viral hit. Cute Kid. Star Wars. Short.

My favourite bit about the Internet’s love affair with the video was this little idea for Jedi themed Pass the Parcel at kid’s parties from BoingBoing:

“What we did was modify the game, “pass the parcel.” We had saw online that there were Star Wars versions of this, which primarily involved wrapping something up like a ball, and calling it a Death Star. However, we thought that it would be way more fun if we could convince the kids that if they used the “force” they could get the stereo to stop the music (and therefore entitling them to the act of unwrapping). This, of course, is easy to do since pretty much every stereo these days comes with a remote. Note that, obviously, the Star Wars theme was the music being played during the game. I tell you: it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen – here you have a group of 5 year olds “concentrating” so hard, and doing the classic Jedi hand gesture at the stereo trying to make the music stop.”

February 6, 2011