Star Wars Celebration III: Friday!

Friday, April 22: 6:30am

Hit snooze....several times.

8:15am: Finally fall out of bed in blind stupor.

9:45am: After shower, food, Jedi costume application, and a few wake up slaps to the face, I hit the road. I stopped off at the store to buy bottled water, because I refused to purchase bottled water at the convention for $2.50 each.

10:15am: I am parked and finally in line to enter the Celebration. At this point, the Fan Club line has been filing in for an hour and fifteen minutes, and the general admission line has been filing in for 15 minutes. The end of the fan club line is right on the edge of the roof, so I get a steady stroll right down the stairs and into the front door. Hmm...that wasn't so bad. I overhear someone say, "Yeah, I have been waiting in line since 8am, and just got in 20 minutes ago." It seems I lost 20 minutes of convention time, but gained 2 hours of sleep for it. Fair trade. Especially since the weather Friday morning consisted of pockets of intense rain showers, which made line standing extra fun.

Here I made two mental notes:
1) Before getting in line tomorrow, go to Walmart, get umbrella and poncho.
2) Get into line before 8am!

So now, in the convention, I found a LOT more people attending than on Thursday. Lines were everywhere, and as long as Gandalf's beard (sorry, best I could come up with). Being that it was already after 10:30, I had missed a lot of the early shows, and the later shows had obscene waits to them. Friday was the day of the SW Episode III Spectacular, which along with the Opening Ceremonies, was the other thing to DEFINITELY not miss at the convention. This show consists of Rick McCallum, the producer of the latest trilogy, taking some questions from the audience and then showing an extended 10-15 minute preview of the new movie, with never-before seen footage that would blow everyone away. The footage is basically linked clips with the sound taken out, replaced with intense music from the soundtrack. I had been to the Celebration II Spectacular, and it had shown the extended Yoda lightsaber battle. Imagine seeing that for the first time on a perfectly tweaked digital projector in a room of screaming fans!

Anyway, the first Spectacular was at 11:30, and the second was at 1:00. Then they would just show the footage repeating every half hour or so for the rest of the day. I decided to head straight for that line. Apparently, everyone and their mother had decided that too. This line stretched throughout the entire building, and at the very end of it was a stormtrooper holding a sign that said "This line has been capped." I asked him what the heck he was doing, and he informed me that at this particular point in the line, he couldn't promise that we would get in to see the Spectacular before the end of the day! Disheartened, I wandered around a bit trying to find something I could go to that wouldn't involve me waiting in line for 3+ hours. I finally settled on seeing "Star Wars in 30 Minutes," which was supposed to be another funny rendition of the original trilogy, this time done in 30 minutes with a cast of about 8 actors. Walking down the line I periodically asked people, "Is this still the line for SW in 30?" I got a few yeses, and continued walking. At one point, I asked these two guys in line. They of course said yes, then asked if I was alone. When I said yes, they invited me to join them in line, saving me a load of walking and line waiting! As I got to know them, a couple of chaps from Cleveland and St. Louis (if memory serves me), I slowly came to the realization that they were very gay. They were also very friendly and rather funny, so I just kept that to myself as I was waiting with them.

So we eventually got in to see SW in 30 Mins, and it was extremely funny, as the cast used everyday household items as props. For example, there was one point where a tie fighter went streaking across the stage. This tie fighter consisted of a guy in black holding a couple of square air filters to either side of himself, running around whirring like a banshee. Chewie and Vader were played by the same castmember, which was pretty impressive. And Jabba was played by the largest castmember, in his underwear with a brown blanket over his legs, laying on his side with his tongue lolling out.

After the show, the two guys wanted to go wait in line for the Spectacular. I told them my attempt at that line, but they were determined to try it anyway. So, I followed, still desiring to see the footage if there was any way possible. It seems that the line-capping stormtrooper and his bosses had underestimated the size of the room that the show was playing in, because it was only 1:30, and the line had shortened up considerably. So it looked like we would get to see the Spectacular after all! First, however, we would have to wait in a holding room for about 45 minutes. This was a closed off room, filled with people, with no air conditioning. The temperature was around 80 degrees or so. Very hot for a dude in a Jedi outfit. Luckily, I had my store-bought water with me, and before long, it was time to file in.

The Episode III Spectacular footage did not disappoint! It was, well, spectacular. There was one point in the footage **for those that don't want to know anything about Episode III, even a minor almost non-spoiler, skip down to the next paragraph now** where the Emperor completely surprises Yoda with a huge burst of lightning that hits him square in the face! This energy sends Yoda flying across a huge room, were he smashes full force into a wall and collapses, seemingly unconscious! Lipsmakin' Awesome!

After the show (about 4:30pm), my two new friends and I part ways, as I need to get sustenance. I grab some food and sit down to watch some of the Star Wars Costume pageant, which was most impressive. I got a few blurry shots on the camera, ate my meal, and then spent the next couple hours snapping pictures and checking out the collectibles dealers in the main exhibition hall. I also got to meet Katie Horn from Seattle, who owns an old car she turned into an X-wing. She is part of a group called Road Squadron, who's contributors fix up their cars in some mighty creative Star Wars themes. I also saw the Cingular Wireless Vader Viper, and promptly drooled with envy.

I ended out the evening in the Star Wars in Pop Culture room, a mini theater that has six hours of repeating footage containing Star Wars references and themes from TV through the years, including old toy commercials, excerpts from the Star Wars Holiday Special (with Bea Arthur and Art Carney, seriously), and little snippets of popular shows that reference the trilogy in some way. At about 9pm, I headed for home, because I knew I wanted to be up plenty early for Saturday's festivities.

Stay tuned....Saturday has: George Lucas!

Darbo signing off