May 28, 2007

Celebration IV Recap

This was the second Celebration I've ever attended, but I think it was the best.

Check out our video and blogging coverage here:
Official Starwars.com CIV Blog

And you can see our 800 plus photos here:
Official Starwars.com Photo Blog

Highlights for me included:

• Meeting fans and bloggers (that means you!)
• The Star Wars Tattoo Show
• The R2-D2 Builders room and their awesome droids
• Watching all the fans dressed in impressive costumes!
• Interviewing Jane Wiedlin as she shopped for Yoda stuff
• Seeing Seth Green geek out with fans
• Video tapping the Slave Leia photo shoot
• Puppeteering the George Lucas puppet for Opening Ceremonies
• Seeing Steve Sansweet dance around in an Ewok costume
• Watching little kids pretend to be Jedi in the Jedi Training Academy
• Meeting Bananakin Skywalker
• The film debut of 5/25/77
• Seeing the clip reel from Fanboys
• Belly dancing Leia lessons!
• Taking a tour of The Vader Project
• The Robot Chicken Panels!
• The Star Wars Art show
• My Make a Felt Yoda doll class and our You Can Draw Star Wars drawing tutorials!

May 21, 2007

Having Fun at Maker Faire!

Attending Maker Faire 2007 is like going to craft and science geek heaven. Where else can you see robot fights, giant racing cupcakes, art cars and of course a ton of science and crafting demos? Nowhere else, my friend and that's why we all owe a great big pat on the back to the kids at MAKE and CRAFT magazines for making this possible.

For my part, I did a "Make Your Own Felt Yoda Doll" demo (on Saturday and Sunday afternoon) so that kids and adults everywhere could have their own soft, squishy Jedi Master to take home. Both days I had a blast teaching little kids to sew (mostly 8 year old boys who's never threaded a needle thankyouverymuch) as well as crafty adults who wanted to show off their sewing skills.

I have to say, I think I had the most-popular craft demo both days, but I could just be biased. Here's some photos of the demos and what everyone made.

My Make Your Own Yoda Doll demo photos.

Bonnie's Yoda Demo photos (photos taken by Nancy Flynn)

More of me in action (photos taken by Natalie from CRAFT Zine)

Also I wanted to say thanks to my pals who came to see my Yoda Doll Demo like Sharon, Ian, Skip (special thanks for trying to offer me water during my manic crafting demo), Olivia and others who said howdy!

In addition to spreading the word about all our cool craft projects on the kids section of starwars.com... I also got a chance to hang out with some truly talented and crafty folks like -- Nancy Flynn (GetCrafty/Jeaneology), Goli Mohammadi (Associate Managing Editor of MAKE magazine), Grant Imahara (MythBusters), Bre Pettis (MAKE Media Maker), Susan Beal (West Coast Crafty), Natalie Zee Drieu (CRAFT magazine), Jenny (SewDarnCute) and her glorious pals, and my old friend Carla Sinclair (CRAFT magazine Editor in Chief) who I haven't seen in person since our days in Boulder, Colorado!

Check out my photo blog here to catch all the action: Maker Faire 2007 Photo Collection

May 18, 2007

Just another day at Lucasfilm....

Luxie and Chewie greet guests in the Lucasfilm lobby.

May 17, 2007

Underground Artists Take on the Sith in The Vader Project

Pop surrealist, graffiti, tattoo, lowbrow, comic and underground artists Shag, Paul Frank, Tim Biskup, Frank Kozik, Marc Ecko, Amanda Visell, Tim Biskup, J. Otto Seibold, Gary Baseman, Joe Ledbetter, Urban Medium and Jeff Soto, among others, show their allegiance to the dark side by customizing Darth Vader helmets in landmark gallery exhibition called The Vader Project, to debut at Star Wars Celebration IV on May 24 to 28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The Vader Project is presented by Master Replicas, and curated by Dov Kelemer of DKE Toys, one of the largest designer vinyl and art-toy distributors in the world, exclusively representing over 50 companies, artists, and designers. Kelemer gathered the hottest underground and pop surrealist painters, artists and designers and gave each artist a Master Replicas 1:1 scale prop replica of the Darth Vader helmet used in the Star Wars films. Each helmet served as a blank canvas for each artist to paint, design, mash up and customize in their own unique style.

Some of the artists scheduled to participate include: Troy Alders, Kii Arens, Attaboy, Anthony Ausgan, Axis, Aye Jay, Gary Baseman, Andrew Bell, Tim Biskup, Andrew Brandou, Buff Monster, Nathan Cabrera, Mister Cartoon, Mr.Clement, Robbie Conal , Steven Daily, Dalek, Cam de Leon, Roman Dirge, Bob Dob, Marc Ecko, Eelus, Ron English , FERG , David Flores , Brian Flynn (Hybrid Design), Paul Frank, Huck Gee, Fawn Gehweiler, Mike Giant, Joe Hahn, Thomas Han , Derek Hess, Jeremyville, Sun-MinKim, David Horvath, Jim Koch, Frank Kozik, David S.Krys (DSK Designs), Peter Kuper , Wade Lageose (Lageose Design), Joe Ledbetter, Simone Legno Tokidoki, MAD, Mars 1, Bill McMullen, Melvins, Brian Morris, Niagara , Mitch O'Connell, olive47, Estevan Oriol, Alex Pardee, The Pizz, Plastic God, Playskewl, Dave Pressler, Seen, J. Otto Seibold, Shag , Sket-One, Shawn Smith, Winston Smith, Jeff Soto, Bwana Spoons, Jophen Stein, Suckadelic, CameronTiede, Touma, UrbanMedium , Michelle Valigura, VanBeater and Amanda Visell. (Artist list may be subject to change).

Read my article here on starwars.com:
Underground Artists Take on the Sith in The Vader Project

May 16, 2007

Read my stuff in Bust, Geek Monthly, and Star Wars Insider!

Go to your local newsstand and pick up these magazines to read my latest articles!

BUST (June/July 2007 issue): "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda: Summer Camps for Women to Write Home About"

Geek Monthly (Issue 4): "Stars on Star Wars," "Riveting: The Force is ironclad in Eric Pulton's Steampunk Star Wars"

Star Wars Insider (Issue #93 May/June 2007): "Best of Starwars.com: Sean Lennon's Favorite Star Wars Memories," "Bantha Tracks: Sith Lords and Furballs: Make Them Yourself!"

May 14, 2007

Andy Gets Hitched!

My pal Andy Lund (aka ) got married to his lovely lady Kellie this weekend, and I was there with Sharon, Ian and Squid to see a whole bunch of fun unfold. It was by far one of the sweetest weddings I'd ever been to, and I've never laughed and cried so much in one place!

Thanks for inviting us all Andy and the best to you crazy kids in love! ;-)

Pretend you were there too by checking out my photos on Flickr: Andy & Kellie Lund Wedding

May 9, 2007

R2-Mr.T2 and Me

I pity the fool who doesn't love droids!

May 7, 2007

Shawn Barber's "Tattooed Portraits: 2" Art Show

While most folks think tattoo art is simply lowbrow, I have to wonder if they've ever seen artist Shawn Barber's work. His painted portraits of some of the most iconic and rock star-esque tattoo artists are hauntingly beautiful, and give plain-Jane Mona Lisa a run for her money.

If I had a gallery, I'd fill it with Shawn's work. But since I don't have the dough to keep Shawn rolling in paints, I'm glad Justin over at The Shooting Gallery does. This was the second installment of Shawn's "Tattooed Portraits" series. His first show was in March 2006, as you can check out here.

This time around he had more breathtaking portraits including one of everyone's favored Mistress of Ink -- Kat Von D. When we first got there a half hour after the show opened, you could easily slip from one painting to the next, lingering, chatting with people looking at the art, or congratulate Shawn on his latest work. But once the celebs started walking through, whether it was well-known tattoo artists (like Grime) and others often seen on Kat's reality show "Miami Ink," or even comedian Robin Williams, the crowd began to get grow. At this was even before Kat Von D made her rumored appearance. It got way too packed, so we headed out.

Show Highlights:

• Saying hi to Shawn who was as always friendly and downright cool.
• Seeing Justin all dressed up like a high roller.
• Watching as usually calm hipsters lost it when they saw Robin Williams asking for photo after photo with the poor guy. He was always smiling and welcoming. A real Ace of a guy.
• Kate spotting the Star Wars knuckles tats on the portrait of Craig Driscoll.

See all the photos I took of the event here:
"Tattooed Portraits 2" Art Show

May 2, 2007

Kaiser Chiefs: Touring With Wookiee Roadies

When the Kaiser Chiefs are on tour, the band has a habit of recasting themselves as their favorite Star Wars characters complete with Wookiees, Ewoks and even Lando's assistant. "Our lead singer Ricky is Luke Skywalker -- obviously he chose that," Kaiser Chiefs guitarist Andrew "Whitey" White laughs. "Simon and Peanut, the keyboard player and the bass player, are really close friends so they're named R2-D2 and C-3PO. Nick, who's the songwriter, he comes up with all the ideas, and is kind of the leader, but he's also a little bit girly, so he's Princess Leia. And I'm the one who always moans and complains and ask why we're doing everything -- so I'm Han Solo. Our stage manager is Chief Chirpa. We have six big tall, hairy guys on the crew who are all like Chewbacca. We have a bald guy who's into electronics, so he's Lobot. Darth Vader is our tour manager. And our band manager is Yoda, obviously."

Read the rest of the interview here:
Kaiser Chiefs: Touring With Wookiee Roadies

May 1, 2007

Q & A with Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien is in San Francisco this week, hosting NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" from the city by the bay. Tonight, his guests include Star Wars creator George Lucas. Earlier, he paid a visit to Lucasfilm's Presidio-based headquarters and scoped out the work of digital artists at Industrial Light & Magic (watch the video here). Starwars.com caught up with O'Brien and tested his Star Wars mettle to see just how big a fan he is.

Excerpt:
Obviously you have the best hair in our galaxy, but which Star Wars character has the best hair and why?
Chewbacca -- George Lucas revealed to me personally that Chewie has one massive comb-over that starts at his lower back.

Which character do you think could fill in for you on your show if you were to swap lives?
Boba Fett -- if a guest cancelled at the last minute, he could go out, capture David Arquette and bring him back to the studio encased in carbonite.

Which character do you identify with the most in the entire Star Wars saga and why?
Princess Leia -- because I almost made out with my brother once, too.

You once interviewed Harrison Ford and showed him his role in the classic "Star Wars Holiday Special." What are your own thoughts about show?
It was just further proof that network television can screw up anything. As for Harrison Ford, during the commercial break, he dug his thumb into my carotid artery and said, "If you ever show that again, it's lights out, Irish."
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Read the full interview here:
Q & A with Conan O'Brien

Watch Conan play around at ILM in this exclusive video here: Conan at ILM