(1) INCREASED THEATER SECURITY. “’Star Wars’ Theaters Tighten Security Due To Heavy Crowds And Suspicious Activity” reports Deadline.com.
“A majority of the reason why we’re beefing up security is because it’s the biggest movie ever,” said the security expert. He said he might assign one guard in any given weekend at an average 12-plex. Deadline has learned that in a venue, say, in downtown L.A., theaters normally employ about three to four security guards. However, those same locations through the holiday will now get as much as three times that. Disney, Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ distributor, is also said to be providing some security.
Dave Doering asks, “I actually expect to see mock light saber battles, odd costumes and aliens. Anything suspicious about seeing aliens in LA? And for that matter, what is ‘suspicious’ for LA?”
Oh, anybody walking instead of driving. Things like that.
(2) MOST NUTS. LA’s enthusiasm for the movie is apparently only a pale reflection of Dave’s home state of Utah. Or so says the Washington Post, in “This is the state where people are most nuts about Star Wars“
That is according to Google Trends, at least. During the past week, Utahns have done more Star-Wars related Googling than people in any other state. People in Utah are about 25 percent more likely to Google “Star Wars” than their nearest competitors in fandom, Californians. And they are more than twice as likely to Google the topic as people in Oregon and Mississippi, the two least Star Wars-crazy states.
(3) BOX OFFICE. The new Star Wars movie killed on Thursday night. Uh, figuratively speaking.
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens awoke to a record-breaking $57 million in Thursday night previews at the North American box office.
The previous champ was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ Part 2, the final film in the franchise, which earned $43.5 million in Thursday previews in July 2011. The Dark Knight Rises took in $30.6 million in 2012, and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 took in $30.4 million, also in 2012.
(4) RETURN OF THE LINE. And here are some of the customers, in line at Hollywood’s El Capitan theater at 1:30 this morning. Photo by Robert Kerr.
Photo by Robert Kerr.
(5) NO WAITING. At the International Space Station, the line to watch Star Wars was much shorter.
“I am told that ‘Star Wars’ will be waiting for us up there,” British astronaut Tim Peake wrote on Twitter on the eve of his launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday (Dec. 15). “What a place to watch it!”
The space station’s six-person crew, which includes the newly-arrived trio of Peake, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and NASA’s Tim Kopra, as well as commander Scott Kelly of NASA and cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergei Volkov, will be able to watch “The Force Awakens” thanks to Mission Control and a recently-installed theater system on board the orbiting outpost.
(7) FORD RAMPAGE. By now you’ve probably overdosed on Star Wars coverage and are in the mood to see “Harrison Ford continues his ‘Star Wars’ toy path of destruction on ‘Conan’”. The payoff is just after 2:10 in the video.
“Conan” associate producer Jordan Schlansky is a “Star Wars” superfan. Jordan Schlansky is also Jordan Schlansky, so when he got a chance to meet Harrison Ford and J.J. Abrams, he spent most of it boring them to tears asking about the grips on Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. Then he asked Ford to sign his Millennium Falcon. And not just any Millennium Falcon — it’s the Lego Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon, which is worth thousands of dollars, according to a quick glance of eBay.
Ford took the Millennium Falcon in his arms and immediately tossed it over his shoulder “accidentally.” As it is a Lego set, it was promptly destroyed. Ford did end up signing a piece of it, but Jordan Schlansky had already walked off by that point, so Ford threw the piece back in the pile and then threw the pen offstage, presumably at Jordan Schlansky’s sad face.
(8) THE FORTE AWAKENS. The mischievous James Langdell asked on Facebook –
No spoilers please… but could anyone who has actually seen the movie let me know if it was done as a musical?
All the commenters are pulling his leg so hard it’ll be surprising if it doesn’t come off…
(9) IN TUNE WITH THE TIMES. Cultural commentator Martin Morse Wooster does know where you can find some Star Wars music.
If you go to blackcatdc.com, you will find that Ms. Cherry Pitz and the Hotsy Totsy Burlesque review are doing their “Tribute to the Star Wars Holiday Special” tonight at the Black Cat Backstage in Washington,
“If you want to see Wicket the Ewok in pasties, now’s your chance,” Kristen Page-Kirby says in the Washington Post. “(And if you really want to see Wicket the Ewok in pasties, get some help.)”
You know–and you can quote me on this–“Cherry Pitz” is NOT a good burlesque name.
My goodness, I forgot to include the link!
(10) OVER THE AIR. In the UK, Sian Welby’s weather report on 5 News made 10 Star Wars puns in 40 seconds, all delivered with a straight face.
True, the wordplay varies in quality, ranging from the excellent “A Leia of cloud covering the UK” and “If you’re forced to awaken early tomorrow morning it will be on the dark side” to the groansome “If you Luke father west you will be seeing a glimmer of sunshine – if you’re Wookie” but you certainly have to admire the effort.
(11) BOX SCORE. I had to include Mark Lawrence’s new post for obvious reasons: “A Year in Numbers… Five!”
The blog had its millionth hit in 2015 and got almost 70,000 hits in one month!
And finally, Twitter, where at last I broke the 10,000 follower barrier!
(12) ALTERNATE AWARDS. Kary English, who hadn’t posted on her blog for almost six months, has briefly commented on Sasquan and thanked the people responsible for her having “Rockets in my pocket”.
Shahid Mahmud, my wonderful publisher at Galaxy’s Edge, who made sure I didn’t go home rocketless no matter what happened at the awards ceremony. The lovely red rocket he gave me now has a place of honor on my brag shelf.
Her other rocket is one of Ken Burnside’s Crashlander Awards.
(13) FUNDRAISER. SFWA is auctioning a George R.R. Martin-signed Game of Thrones 2016 calendar on Ebay.
This is a twelve month wall calendar with thirteen paintings (one for each month, plus a centerfold) by artist Magali Villeneuve depicting scenes from each of the published volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire as well as a scene from the forthcoming The Winds of Winter. The calendar is signed on the front cover by George R. R. Martin.
Auctioned off by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. All proceeds from this auction will be given to the SFWA Givers’ Fund.
The SFWA Giver’s Fund combines non-restricted charitable donations to SFWA and will use these funds to provide needed grants to genre-related organizations and/or individuals and will also disburse funds to the SFWA Emergency Medical and Legal Funds as needed.
(14) GAIMAN READS. From last year, the New York Public Library recording “Neil Gaiman Reads ‘A Christmas Carol’”. (Via ScienceFiction.com.)
Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman performs a memorable dramatic reading from NYPL’s own rare copy of “A Christmas Carol,” which includes edits and prompts Charles Dickens wrote in his own hand for his unique public readings 150 years ago. Dressed in full costume and joined by writer and BBC researcher Molly Oldfield, Gaiman performs the classic tale as its great author intended.
(15) REACTION. Adam-Troy Castro shared his highly negative response to Daniel Enness’ latest Castalia House blog post in a public Facebook post. Some good lines, but you’ll need to read them there. They only work in context with direct allusions to material I’ve chosen not to excerpt here.
(16) IN HIS STALKING FEET. From the BBC: “Author Richard Britain jailed for ‘bad review’ attack”. [Via Ansible Links.]
A former Countdown champion who travelled 400 miles to attack a teenager who gave his book a bad review has been jailed for 30 months.
Richard Brittain, 28, used Facebook to track victim Paige Rolland, 18, to the Asda store in Glenrothes where she worked.
He then smashed a full wine bottle over her head – knocking her unconscious.
Warning – from here it’s turtles Star Wars all the rest of the way down!
(17) CONSPIRACY THEORY. Camestros Felapton explains it all to you in “The True History of R2D2 – Sith Lord”.
In the films we know of five Sith lords, in addition there is one other character who:
- is directly linked to the dark side in the film
- appears to use force powers including using a ‘force jump’ to move
- appears to us the ‘Jedi mind trick’ to manipulate minds
- shoots lighting
- holds a lightsaber
(18) HOT STOVE LEAGUE. Cut4, a Major League Baseball blog, has the baseball/Star Wars mashup of your dreams.
Yes, MLB has “Star Wars” fever, but did you know that “Star Wars” has MLB fever, too? In a world as big as the Expanded Universe, did you really think there was no baseball? Life in the Empire can’t be all battling with light sabers and zooming around in TIE fighters. Sometimes, you just want to watch the game. So here’s your introduction to ELB (Empire League Baseball)…
(19) PLANET POLL. “See the ‘Star Wars’ Worlds Exoplanet Scientists Can’t Help But Love” at Space.com.
Last week, close to 350 exoplanet scientists gathered in Hawaii for the American Astronomical Society’s Extreme Solar Systems III conference. Space.com took the opportunity to ask 20 of these folks about their favorite “Star Wars” worlds.
The scientists we polled were almost evenly split among three worlds from the “Star Wars” original trilogy: Hoth (from “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back,”), Tatooine (from “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope,”), and the moon of the planet Endor (from “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.”).
(20) DON’T BE ROOKED. Chesshouse doesn’t seem to have updated the Star Wars chess set in time for Christmas – but there is still time to make your own.
(21) BOY TOY. “Sith lord or samurai lord? Darth Vader becomes decorative doll for Boys’ Day in Japan” at Rocket News 24.
A long, long time ago, in a country far, far away (from English-speaking territories, anyway), Yoshitoku Taiko made its first doll. Founded in 1711, the company’s history goes back to a time when Japan was ruled by a shogun, and the country sealed off from the rest of the world.
More than three centuries later, Yoshitoku Taiko is still in business, but Japan is now part of the global community. That’s why the company’s latest offerings are two exquisitely crafted dolls of Darth Vader in samurai armor.
(22) CONTENT WARNING. Boing Boing brings us “Star Wars medical merch from Scarfolk, the horror-town stuck in the 1970s”. A few of the others have a certain “ewww” factor….
[Thanks to JJ, Hampus Eckerman, Steven H Silver, David Doering, John King Tarpinian, and Brian Z. for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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@Hampus:
We use to take british foreigners to a hot dog stand so they can try hot dogs in flatbread rolls together with mashed potatoes and prawn sallad. Some get thoroughly addicted.
Tunbrödsrulle are amazing. I could go for one right now.
re: Related Works
I forgot to pencil this one on my Hugo check-it list when I downloaded the Kindle sample, but thought I’d remind everyone now that I remembered. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my TBR.
Bandersnatch by Diana P. Glyer
@Camestros Felapton: I just checked with Black Gate editor John O’Neill, and he confirmed BG counts as a Fanzine.
@Peace Is My Middle Name: We’ve tried a…low sugar? sugar free? ketchup (no artificial sweetener! just no sweetener, IIRC), and I liked it – more tomato-y, but a bit blander, making me think a little sweetener in ketchup is good. But if you haven’t heard of it/tried it, FYI.
Not artificially sweetened ketchup, for me, though. We found some relish (IIRC) with artificial sweetener and thought “yay, fewer calories,” but it was nasty. I’m not 100% anti-artificial sweetener, but for me it doesn’t work in most things.
/even hungrier from all this food talk
Hmm.The dreaded page of no comments strikes again
ETA: Heh. Fixed
@snowcrash:
It appears one might be able to get out of the no-comment limbo without having to post by going to the site’s main page and then going to comments from the Latest Comments links.
RE: Hot Dogs.
What, no love for relish? I’m having a hot dog with pickle relish right now.
Also recently finished The Watchmaker of Filigree Street which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Because of a funeral and other family things this weekend, we are unable to see The Force Awakens. Maybe for Christmas.
Colman’s is the best mustard. 🙂 I didn’t know you could get it in the USA!
You can find it, and there are other hot sweet mustards that are very good.
(I have a recipe for Colman’s that was on their tin. It’s very good. But hard to make without lumps, because of the base using cornstarch AKA cornflour.)
@beth Don’t you mean for Life Day? 🙂
re: hot dogs
Mostly I like it simple: Very grilled (slightly blackened outer skin) weiner (Nathan’s preferred) with toasted/grilled plain white bun with yellow mustard and sweet pickle relish. That’s a real hot dog, all else is heresy! Except for really fancy you can add fresh chopped tomato.
Ketchup on hot dogs is WRONG. You have yellow mustard and maybe sweet pickle relish. Onions are an edge case, but some people like ’em; I don’t, but they’re not WRONG. Tomatoes in any form are wrong. Kosher dogs or not are equally acceptable. It’s also okay for kids to chop them up into mac and cheese.
I eat ’em grilled, white bun, yellow mustard. Classic minimalist hot dog.
When I have hot dogs I use about twice as much ketchup as mustard. Now brats don’t take ketchup. But they’re brats.
Ketchup on hot dogs? Western civilization really is collapsing.
Currently reading Gene Wolfe’s A Borrowed Man. Sort of feels like I’ve read it more than once before…
I haven’t trusted hot dog condiments since I encountered Heinz Mustard and French’s Ketchup.
More seriously, I ate a lot of hot dogs when I worked at Sonic. In my opinion, the ideal version was a footlong with a stripe of hickory/smoke sauce on top, followed by chili and cheese, and steamed for a few seconds to melt the cheese and make the bun nice and soft. The smoke sauce adds that little extra kick that’s missing from their standard chili.
OTOH, if I want to get really weird about it, I’ll make a batch of mac and cheese (minus butter and milk, if it’s a box mix), add chili, and chop up some hot dogs into it. Nummy.
The briefly available Heinz English Mustard, while not resembling any English mustard I’ve ever encountered in appearance or flavour, made for a really good sausage inna bun topping. Sort of a brownish-yellow sweet and mildly spicy sort of mustard?
@lurkertype: I will always maintain yellow mustard is gross. On anything. But . . . you don’t like tomatoes in any form?! Oh dear.
ETA: @Rev. Bob: (blink, blink) Heinz Mustard and French’s Ketchup? I’m confused. 😉
Kendall: Oh, no, tomatoes are great in their place. It’s just that hot dogs aren’t their place.
For the non-carnivorous, the Field Roast brand frankfurters are the best I’ve tasted so far. My preferred mode is with spicy brown mustard, diced onions, and sauerkraut. No ketchup, and for the love of all that’s holy no sweet pickle relish.
If you want cheese on your dog but don’t eat dairy, the Daiya slices melt uncannily well.
Kendall: Oh, no, tomatoes are great in their place. It’s just that hot dogs aren’t their place.
That’s what catsup is for. Even on hotdogs. (I won’t use it on burgers if tomatoes are available, though.)
We had two kinds of mustard in the house when I was a kid: Inglehoffer’s Stone-Ground German-style, and Grey Poupon. (Being Californians, we used Hunt’s catsup. Heinz wasn’t a thing then.)
@lurkertype: (whew) Okay then. 😉
@ P J Evans
Being Californians, we used Hunt’s catsup. Heinz wasn’t a thing then.)
Same here, never heard of no Heinz, plus Mom worked at Hunt’s in Fullerton for a while.
@lurkertype
May I interest you all in some sweet ketjap (kecap)? It’s not like tomatoes are the crucial part in the whole family of sauces 🙂
I have not particularly enjoyed hot dogs since Best’s Kosher closed up shop.
Nothing I have encountered anywhere was as good.
I never ate them with ketchup, but with a line of good mustard like Colman’s sometimes.
Peace Is My Middle Name: I never ate them with ketchup, but with a line of good mustard like Colman’s sometimes.
Forgive me, but my head canon just had you snorting mustard to get high. 😉
@sanddorn
Holy crap, kejap manis! That used to be my go-to ramen topping back in uni!
Mmmmmmmm. So much monosodium glutamate…..
Someday you sad, sorry people will recall that your response to “perhaps there should be policies about protecting children at cons” was to attack, mock, jeer, and snicker, and bow your heads in shame.
I’m pretty sure that we can both be mindful of child protection and unsympathetic to you and Vox Day attempting to troll people.
@rob_matic:
I think he flunked out of supervillain monologuing class. His “I’ll show you all!” is just pathetic, like a sad puppy.
Brian Z on December 21, 2015 at 4:30 am said:
The problem is that nobody believes that you or VD particularly care about protecting children. Why do we not believe this? In VD’s case, it’s because of 1. general awfulness and amorality, and 2. a demonstrated history of not at all caring about protecting children in other contexts. (For example, when those children are girls who want to go to school in Arab countries.)
In your case, it’s because of your history of trolling and disingenuous statements.
Child safety is important. Too important to be cynically exploited as part of a pathetic trolling attempt. Neither you, nor VD, sincerely believes that the rest of fandom doesn’t care about protecting children at conventions. As a trolling angle this is a new low for you.
Seconding McJulie’s comment.
@Brain Z Someday you sad, sorry people will recall that your response to “perhaps there should be policies about protecting children at cons” was to attack, mock, jeer, and snicker, and bow your heads in shame.
Child safety is important.
Do you ever take a moment to consider you might actually be hurting people with some of your comments? That some of us might have been abused and your treating it like a game is triggering and hurtful? What has been met with mock, jeers, and snickers is the total lack of caring about protecting children both VD and you have shown on the topic. Could you please give more thought before playing the concern troll game. Thank you – fellow filer
Someday you will recall the time you tried to get people to believe that Beale’s concern for child safety was genuine, and you will laugh, because now if, God forbid, a serious child safety issue should arise somewhere, you and he can (vaguely, without linking) point at people supposedly mocking and jeering and snickering at the issue of child safety, and you think this is hilarious and clever and tactical and Aristotelian.
@snowcrash
Umami, the fifth element 🙂 Now I wonder how it tastes on its own without lots of salt or sugar.
Sigh, I don’t know if this is cynical or a determined attempt to make this forum group respond like a puppet to every bit of trolling by CH out of some deep seated need to bring the ‘sides’ together in a discussion. There is never really a discussion no matter the topic if one side is trolling.
@BrianZ – If there is a fervent desire to use some rhetorical branching point in the future as a ‘teaching moment’ why not just state what it is and consider stop being so frustrated that you can not guide this group of individuals the way you desire.
As others have said the topic is too important to be used for those purposes and dismissal of trolling is not dismissal of the topic.
Um, no.
Firstly the direction this is coming from is from the people who OPPOSE codes of conducts at cons. Is a child safer at a con with a code of conduct against harassment etc or at one without one?
Here is an example of aspects of a code of conduct that Mr Day has regarded as being SJW etc etc
Having opposed such protection for people in general at cons he has opposed such protection for CHILDREN at cons.
SO in short I do not remotely feel like I, or many of the people who have replied to you are the people who ‘attack, mock, jeer, and snicker’ when it comes to protecting children at cons.
Hey, Mike, one for the Scroll? Tickets available for a live recording of an adaptation of Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes by BBC4 with the BBC Philharmonic. http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/er9gwh
I’m still for child safety at cons.
Not just for it. Four-square for it.
@Kurt Busiek:
I saw what you did there.
Seconding Camestros’ comment.
@Brian Z
I find your attempt to include the safety of children in your trolling despicable.
Am I scoring? You all qualify for the next round by the virtue signalling, but those pretending they think I’m pretending to care about children are ahead on points. Honorable mentions for Nigel (Best Rape Joke) and Meredith (Miss Opportunism).
@Brian Z
I don’t think trolling about children says anything about whether you care about them or not, but it sure as hell shows you don’t respect them.
@Brian Z but those pretending they think I’m pretending to care about children are ahead on points.
Seriously? You’ve done nothing to show you care. Nothing.
You’ve not
1. taken JJ up on evaluating SFF convention Codes of Conduct to determine whether or not they protect children – 1st step anyone should take if they take something seriously and believe there is a problem
2. suggested wording to be added to Codes of Conduct to better protect children – be part of the solution
3. suggested more conventions have good Codes of Conduct – be part of the solution
4. suggested more congoers insist on good Codes of Conduct – be part of the solution
5. discussed the issue in a manner sensitive to those who might have been abused or might have children who’ve been abused – shows you actually care about the issue
All you’ve done is point to VD’s post and found a couple cons which have been (are being) sued and insult filers.
ETA: total lack of respect you show makes it impossible to believe you care.
@Tasha Turner:
I am truly sorry for the grief you have had to put up with, and deeply impressed at how you have managed to keep your composure through it.
It seems increasingly likely to me that we are dealing with someone playing some sort of convoluted internal mental game, with opaque talk of scores and points and rounds and bald attempts to intimidate others and keep complete control of rules known only to themself.
There has to all appearances been no honest engagement, no response to anyone not following the internal script, and no presumption of good will or awareness of tolerance from that quarter, only provocation, aggression, challenge, taunting, and complaints.
I am sorry that you have had to deal with such distress.
If it is any comfort, I might point out that the posts of that one are blatantly bad faith trolling for all to see.
I confess to being somewhat curious what opportunity I am supposed to be seizing. The opportunity to be disappointed for the twentieth time? I could have done without it, to be honest. I kept my participation low in order to minimise it; I do not have the spoons right now to reach out again only to have that effort wasted. The minimal chance that for a change it was good faith and wasn’t trolling couldn’t justify it at a time when I can’t even post bracket reminders as often as I want to.
Yes, I wonder what that opportunity is supposed to have been, but I doubt I’d get a straight, truthful or relevant answer in return.
@Tasha Turner
Gentle jedi hugs if you need them.
Thanks for the hugs.
I guess what puzzles me is how the occasional good comment Brian Z makes overrides the amount of hurt/damage he does with the concern trolling.
If everyone ignored him when he did the concern trolling I wouldn’t know he was at it again because I very rarely read him. But when many comments are responses I have 2 choices:
1. Leave the thread and miss other good discussions I’m interested in – I’m driven off
2. End up at some point accidentally reading the discussion because skipping didn’t work (stylish doesn’t work on iPad) & then I respond because it’s triggered me & I end up sharing stuff I don’t want to online – it’s rarely the exact situation being discussed – because my old hurt and rage at a society which still doesn’t take appropriate actions on certain issues comes flying out – I use up spoons stupidly
Eventually I end up leaving yet another community I enjoyed because the 1-3 concern trolls who sometimes add something good get to be more than my spoons can deal with. It’s a frustrating cycle.
@Tasha:
Y’know, given the hypothetical choice between keeping BZ and losing you, versus keeping you by banning him, I’d be strongly in favor of the latter. You consistently contribute to this community in a positive manner. He… does not.
@Rev Bob @Tasha
Seconded.
Brian has proven to be on occasion funny and on point. But this whole thread, Brian, this particularly concern trolling of yours? Low and hurtful. I’m not a fan of your previous concern trolling “Oh, you all should totes go to engage on Puppy blogs to bring SF together. Me do it? Enh.”. This is much more toxic and obnoxious.
I’d rather keep almost any regular File 770 poster over Brian Z.
@Tasha
If your comfort here is that much of a factor, I will endeavour to be better about ignoring him entirely from now on. I was already stepping it down for the sake of my own spoons but given the choice between maintaining valuable community members and allowing myself to keep throwing spoons down an endless black hole of never-going-to-change… I’d rather keep you. Or any other regular, for that matter.