Last year, a friend and I attended a small Star Wars-themed gathering at North Park in the city of Riverside, California called The Inland Empire Strikes Back (IESB)and it was another in a series of small-but-sincere fandom gatherings that I’ve made my unofficial mission to support as often as possible. Less than a full-scale convention…
Tag: Star Wars
Revisiting “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ten years later…
******STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I make no secret of the fact that I, my wife, and other Gen Xers we know found writer/director George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005) disappointing. While they offered some interesting ideas, they lacked the heart, passion and grit of the original trilogy; replacing them with clunky scripting, soulless performances, and…
Making dreams tangible: Drew Struzan, 1947-2025…
Drew Struzan I meant to do this column earlier, but October kept me very busy, and I needed a little extra time and a less frazzled mindset to look back on the career of the late Drew Struzan; the pop artist whose work helped define movie posters for the last fifty years. His work has…
2025’s Perris-Con in Riverside County, California offers a free mini-convention for Inland Empire sci-fi/comic book fans…
Return of the Newcomer Last year, the city of Perris, California, in Riverside County, held a small, free, mini-comics convention called Perris Fandom Con, which returned this year under the shortened name of Perris-Con. This free event, with free parking as well, was held on August 16th at the Perris City Hall building at 101…
‘Jetpack Jules’ rules at Comic Con Revolution 2025 in Ontario, California…
Welcome to the Revolution… The Inland Empire’s Comic Con Revolution (CCR) is a sci-fi/fantasy/comic books convention based in the city of Ontario, California. It first sprang into existence in 2017 as a garage sale in a nice venue; with few attractions and scant attendance. But over the past eight years, this ‘little’ convention has dramatically grown in size…
Happy Star Wars… Month?
I’d like to open with the hope (not a new hope) that my fellow Star Wars devotees enjoyed ‘Star Wars Day’ this past Sunday, May the 4th, and that the Force was strong with you in whatever way you chose to observe it. On a personal note I’m facing a leg surgery soon and I’m…
Star Wars’ “Andor” launches the first three episodes of its second (and final) season…
******DEATH STAR-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Originally planned for five seasons leading up to the events of 2016’s “Rogue One,” Disney+ has streamed the first three episodes of Disney+’s “Andor” season 2, which is now being billed as its final season; due in part to the time requirements needed to shoot this feature film-quality series. Personally, I’m okay…
Spotlight on screen-used sci-fi/fantasy movie & TV props, costumes and miniatures…
“Gain Strength from the Sharing…” With a nod to Spock’s half-brother Sybok, the purpose of this particular column is to share; to share in the good fortune I’ve had in my life as a semi-professional geek to see a virtual treasure trove of actual screen-used props, costumes, miniatures and other such cool stuff over the…
A scaled-down WonderCon 2025 in Anaheim still delivers the goods…
A Different Emphasis for 2025 Unlike the WonderCons of recent years, this year’s annual pop culture fest in Anaheim, California (right across the street from Disneyland) had surprisingly fewer A-list actors and big studio representation. Marvel, Disney, Warner Bros and Paramount had nothing earth-shattering to unveil at this year’s con. With the huge, 7,500-seat Arena…
Star Wars comes to Riverside, California with “The Inland Empire Strikes Back”…
“The Inland Empire Strikes Back!” Saturday, March 22nd, 2025, Riverside, California. Riverside, California is where I first saw “Star Wars” (years before it was subtitled “A New Hope”) at a long-defunct mall theater back in August of 1977, at age 10, and it changed my life (not to mention the very art of cinema) forever….
20 years later, “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (2005) remains a deeply flawed, yet uncannily prescient movie…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I want to begin by saying this will not be a conventional review (the kind normally found on this site), but rather a look at how “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” impacted me after a recent anniversary rewatch. I first saw the film on opening weekend in 2005 on an…
Personal Log: My favorite Christmas gift of all time…
Inspired by the talented blogger from FireWatersite, who recently put together a great list of groovy Christmas toys he and others of our generation enjoyed as kids, I remembered my greatest Christmas gift of them all. These days, my wife and I are not all that into gift-giving for each other (to quote Elias Sandoval…