Celebration III Wrap Up Coming Mid Week...

Due to a project from LA I've been contracted to work on here in Albany (more details on that shortly as well), I'll begin writing my wrap up of Star Wars Celebration III tomorrow night. Plus I plan to create a mirror site which will highlight a number of photos from the event. There's lots to tell and plenty of images to share so stay tuned!

The Power Of Day 2...

Another great day today...

Just a quick post because I'm very tired and we have to get in line OBSCENELY early to see George Lucas for his one day appearance tomorrow. Rick McCallum had 10 minutes of footage from "Revenge Of The Sith" on Friday which was just amazing! A lot of effects shots and battle scenes plus a making-off short. Too Cool! Finally going to catch the One Man Trilogy Saturday. Plenty of stuff to see and do still. Bill and I finally decide to pick up our own light sabers...boy have these things come along way as far as being a toy is concerned. Late tonight we pulled them out of their boxes and headed for the lobby to play where we found all of these guys doing the same thing! Bill is third from the right...



Time to get in bed...another long but fun day tomorrow so must catch as much sleep as I can. I'll leave you with this...



Met part of the 501st Storm Trooper Brigade roaming the exhibit halls including the red headed gem in the middle with the custom uniform. Yum!

My God It's Only Been One Day...!

Bill's head literally exploded when we entered the place, especially the exhibit hall. He lost his voice because he kept shouting, 'oh my fucking God!!!' every five seconds. Course I was saying the same thing. He's drinking hot tea tonight to help regain the power of speech. Took 85 pictures today...lots of amazing costumes including a "Wars" Han and Slave Girl Leia that knocked everyone's socks off. When they entered the place a giant ring of people with cameras surrounded them. In a short time they were like celebrities, many wanting their picture taken along side. Security had to be called in just to keep people moving. Here's just a taste for now...



The size and scope of this thing is just staggering and the fans are so nice and so cool. You see every size and walk of life here. This is not a convention it's an event, an extremely polished event I might add. I am SOOO glad we made it this year! I'll be posting more pics when I have a little more time. We're in heaven at the moment. It feels like we did so much today...but hey there's three more to go!

We're Here!

C3 is just as amazing as we envisioned and it's only the beginning of the first day! Just saw close to 500 stormtroopers and Imperials march 3 blocks to the expo center. Wow! Plenty of pictures coming soon...

F$&%@#!!*&??%#&%@#!!!K!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a nightmare...

Just by sheer chance I scrolled down on Yahoo! tonight to see what some of the entertainment news was for the day. Then I saw the headline...

"Advance 'Star Wars' tickets selling out at The Arclight"

What...what...WHHHHAAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

I was checking the Arclight site all week to find out when tickets for "Revenge Of The Sith" would be going on sale. When I was there last week to see "Sin City" the manager said they had no idea when that would be and to keep checking the site. Then the end of the week came with the aformentioned new job opportunity. That along with trying to get everything together for the trip to Albany consumed my every thought. Somehow in the back of my mind I had 'imagined' tickets would probably be going on sale at 12:01am on May 1st. Don't ask me how I came to that but it just seemed right.

So I work, pack, fly, and sleep in today until 12:30pm. Now it's fucking 4 days later and guess what? Yeah you know what's coming! An event that I have been living for, seeing the last "Star Wars" movie in LA, has all but sold out of the first day's prime showings. By that I mean all the midnight shows and the majority of the Dome for the 7:45 show...the prime first opening night slot. Now I did manage to get a couple of seats for that coveted Dome 7:45 showing, but only in the balcony section on the right and left hand side. After squaring this away online I call to find out there are only 87 seats left for this show. The digitally projected show at 7pm is completely gone. Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!!

Now I'm running like a chicken without a head online trying to book a 2nd set of tickets for the next available 'prime' showing, preferably in digital, for either friday or saturday night. I know I'll want to see this 2 times in 2 days and want to get those tickets while there's still some to get!

I cannot believe this happened, plus that in some way I didn't find out until now that tickets went on sale Friday. Arclight said they only found out about this Friday morning with no advanced warning. So 'Happy 2 days Before C3' to me!

However the good news is "Revenge Of The Sith" has become the first "Star Wars" film to be given a PG-13 rating...yes it's official! What I am about to say contains NO spoilers what so ever. A few days ago I spotted a link online to a still from later in the film. Let me just say that after taking the plunge and viewing it I can confirm they are definitely going the distance graphically on this one. Plus (again no spoilers) another still I sort of caught a glimpse of accidently at the bookstore gave me a very positive feeling about a certain direction I think Lucas is ultimately taking the story...

And BTW, that Sox fan was only thinking with his hands about trying to catch the ball...Sheffield's face was accidentally grazed and he went off. I can't believe they're thinking of revoking the fan's season tickets! Give me a break! Yeah I know the ball was in infield play and he shouldn't have tried to grab it. The whole thing was just a stupid mistake.

New Opportunity Before Departure

So here I am flying over The Rockies on my way to Albany. Seems as though there are so many things happening right now...some good and some solemnly contemplative. I kind of feel numb at the moment; not really registering the packing of bags, checking out of my room, returning the rental car, boarding the plane.

Yes I'm excited about going to C3. But there are other things that creep in to my brain patterns. What happens next with work, facing the inevitable move which I now grow impatient to be over and done with. Seems like that's the final box that needs checking off on my list of LA 'to do's'. It sits on a page that sometimes feels like it's turning a little yellow with each day. Maybe I'm just turning yellow, the sound of a ticking clock when I look in the mirror. I'm just a stubborn bastard who wants everything to be O.K...more often than not I need an ‘O.K.’ commitment where reality cannot always offer that. I was never good at life's little disruptions and God knows I’ve had a belly full of them. Why all the droning on when I've been waiting for this week for the last year? Maybe I’m just having my period. C3 does start this Thursday...those of us going will have a phenominal time. By Wednesday when we board the plane for Indianapolis I'll be full tilt ready to be amazed!

Cut to Yoda: "You will be...YOU WILL BE!"

Got a call Friday from the former senior editor at ipostini named Robert. I had not seen him for about a year. His voicemail said he hoped I remembered him and had a project for me to work on at a new company he’s with. The Cannery is a post house just 6 minutes from where I'm staying in Burbank. I'll let the website speak for the types of projects they undertake. When I called back Robert said he really liked my work and my ability to mold a piece independently with no supervision. They just booked a project from Activision involving a new “Spider-Man” game being released later this year…contractually that’s about all I can say.

Robert asked if I could come in that same day to be brought up to speed so I could start cutting the next day, Saturday (yesterday) as well as Sunday. Of course I said yes and went in to meet the creative director and producer along with Robert. The one stipulation being that I’d already booked my flight Sunday so could only give then one day. I was trying to have the best of both worlds; get my foot in the door and still get to Albany for my buffer time before the trip to C3.

I had to switch gears quickly but this was an opportunity I did not want to pass on! Robert also mentioned more projects like this one would be coming down the pike within the next couple of weeks. In other words when I get back from C3 I might be jumping in with these guys for more. Robert gave me some more ramp up on the project Saturday morning where I continued to work a 12 hour shift finishing around 10:30pm. After cutting the two spots one of the producers came by to see how I made out and was very impressed. She also echoed the call of future projects. So this could be fruitful and I really appreciated Robert getting in touch. Keeping in mind I don't believe anything these days until I see the 'money on the table' so to speak. Yet it did sound promising...

Opening Day At Fenway, The Line, And At Last A Vacation!

Yesterday of course the Red Sox celebrated opening day at Fenway; the ring ceremony, raising of the championship banner (with NY watching), and the first home game against the Yankees. Although it totally sucked that I was stuck with ESPN only cutting to snippets of what was happening in the park, then throwing back to other games of the day. Hello I'm here for some history, who cares whats going on in the rest of the country!! They finally settled in when the actual game with the Yankees started. The commentators remarked, 'boy that was a great opening ceremony, I'm so glad I was here to see it'...yeah would have been nice if the rest of us losers could have enjoyed it as well!

Great weather, a very historic day, and to top it off an 8-1 win against the Yanks. Couldn't have been more perfect.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country, the line to see "Revenge Of The Sith" at Mann's Chinese begins it's short wind down Hollywood Blvd.




It starts more like a quarter of a block away from the actual theatre however.




Spoke to a couple of folks including a 23 year old girl from Australia and another woman I believe is one of the organizers. I told her I waited in line for "Empire" and "Jedi" back in The Day and we spoke about C3 next week. She and a few others who went last time said my head would truly explode when I got there. I never doubted that. And yes the two guys on the right in the top photo are the ones taking calls at the number listed on LiningUp.net. Debate still rages among fans as to whether Twentieth Century Fox can be swayed into bringing "Episode III" back to Mann's after booking it into The Arclight. Can't see the fans changing a contractual window that now seems to be closed. Although I would absolutely LOVE to see it at Mann's because this is where it all started in 1977...



And so the series should end here. However I'm certainly not crying in my milk that it's scheduled to premiere at The Arclight. With reserved seating (important perk) at the best theater in Hollywood, who can argue that seeing Darth Vader's birth at The Cinerama Dome would be phenomenal! I'll be in front of the computer at midnight on May 1st (the supposed day and time when tickets will go on sale nationwide) to grab my spot for sometime opening day. If it's not the first show than my usual 7pm-ish viewing will be just fine.

After taking the above pics of the line, I went to Hamburger Hamlet across the street for lunch. As I sat in the booth ready to order I saw this incredible painting on the wall over the kitchen depicting Indiana Jones in action and Steve Spielberg plotting the Nazi plane sequence from "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", both taken from famous stills. These photos don't fully grasp the size and beauty of the artwork. If you look closely in the wide shot you can see a waitress right below Indy to give it some scale...










Went to Disneyland a week and a half ago (1st time) for my birthday and had a lot of fun. Star Tours, Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Indiana Jones Ride, Frontierland, and The Magic Castle, which looked a lot smaller in person. Somehow during the opening of "The Wonderful World Of Disney" on TV when I was a kid that thing looked huge. No matter...saw the fireworks display at night with the castle in the foreground (stunning), as well as Fantasmic, the water and light show which was awesome. Never managed to ride the monorail unfortunately because we were heading back to the hotel after midnight and it had shut down already. And yes after the first few minutes the 'It's A Small World' ride gets creepy. Got to see Mickey in person so my life is now complete.

The month long Lifetime project behind me, I now look forward to this week of sleeping late, enjoying a little more of LA, and preparing for the trip to Albany and the turn around to C3 in Indianapolis one week from Thursday. Nothing on the books yet work wise but I'm doing my usual job site scanning for the next big project. Nothing with KO Creative yet. They know I'm available though.

And oh yeah, it's official...

BILL IS GOING TO C3! BILL IS GOING TO C3! DING DONG, BILL IS GOING TO C3!! Prepare for heads to explode in Star Wars splendor!

Resolution And "The Truth" About The Offer

Finally some clarification about the staff position at Autonomy...and let me say I'm very relieved.

Last Friday the senior editor asked me to come down to his edit bay for a talk. When I got there he said, 'so...do you want to work here?'. After 5 months of promises to talk about my fate in the staff arena, this was finally the time to say my true intentions and end all the anxiety filled speculation that went with changing gears. There's a comfort level with the senior editor I might not have felt with the president of the company, so I was glad he did the asking. I told him that I'd recently acquired some new opportunities I wanted to pursue, but absolutely wished to continue freelancing with Autonomy. Adding that I'd heard the open position went to someone internally and just figured things changed financially with the company. I said at that point I just figured the offer was possibly moot and went about my work. This was a detail I previously wanted to omit, but somehow felt it fed my underlying case...no clear decision on their part and the 'future career' bus honking it's horn for me to get on board. He asked if he could know what my other opportunites were. I told him one was KO Creative and he responded, 'the trailer house...wow that's pretty cool'. Yes...Gods have called my name and I must heed there commanding voices!!

The senior editor's reaction was regret that they dropped the ball and lost the opportunity to bring me on, but that I'll still be top on their list when it comes to calling in a freelance editor. 'The love is still here', he added which was nice to know. I made sure to voice concern for their welfare in finding the right person to fill the job by my being upfront now regarding future intentions. He very much appreciated that. Although, because of my decision I still expect some type of attitude shift among the people I come in contact with daily. Just a matter of time. If it doesn't happen I'd be very surprised.

Now to the real meat of our talk...

Interestingly enough it turns out he and the director of production are the brains of this company, and they have alot to do with financial moves made. He commented that the president was more of an entrepreneur and did not always have a finite grasp of what could and couldn't happen budget wise. Apparently late in the fall when the position was initially mentioned to me there wasn't enough money to implement filling the vacated staff position. Which is why the night editor who had been there for a year took it over. They essentially did away with the position which opened up in November and moved the night editor to days. The reason the senior editor asked my intentions at this time was because they now have the resources to bring someone new in.

We also talked money...and a ball park figure was revealed of what I could have expected if I took the spot. Surprisingly I'd only be bringing home half of what I make as a freelancer! Yes there'd be benefits taken out, but he told me they pay less than a number of other houses. Point B: now I absolutely know I made the right decision! Plus quite frankly I'm worth more than what they would have ultimately offered. And it goes without saying...the future calls.

So thank God all's well that ends well! I am so fucking relieved! I was seriously sweating a possible severe attitude shift that might cost me work, just by the mere fact they could've felt their feathers a little ruffled even though I did absolutely nothing wrong. WHEW!

In DVD news, "The Greatest American Hero" Season Two came out yesterday which I'll be picking up tonight. Went to Best Buy last night and saw that they'd really stocked up. Should have no problem finding a copy this time. Bill B. told me a new 2 disc DVD 30th Anniversary edition of "Jaws" will be released on June 14, 6 days before the actual 30th date. Very nice. And from what I'm seeing on DVD Empire this version may in fact hold the original much sought after mono audio tracks from the '75 release. YEAH!! My one complaint about the 2000 release was after remastering in 5.1, Universal decided to dump what we all knew and loved; those stock rifle sounds, the singing whale instead of a series of bloops, the shark blowing up (oh sorry I gave the ending away), etc. Bill also told me about a new special edition DVD of George Pal's "War Of The Worlds" coming out right before the Spielberg/Cruise version this summer. Looking forward to the new film but if nothing else we'll be getting a more complete SE of the classic. Thanks Bill...or should I say HI BILL!!!! (I knew it!!!!)

Next post...a trip to Disneyland and the line begins at Mann's Chinese Theatre for "Revenge Of The Sith".