photo credit: Official Star Wars Blog

Alas, today I ran across unexpected and unfortunate news: Michael Heilemann’s Star Wars collection on Flickr was shut down due to a takedown notice from Lucasfilm. Sad. Lucasfilm has traditionally been fan friendly with things like this. I can’t imagine the rationale behind this, and Michael makes a good point that the popularity of his collection underscores the demand and need for an organized collection of production photos and related materials on the internet.

Perhaps this signals a move by Lucasfilm to make a similar collection available to the public in the very near future. That’s my theory. In the meantime, this will be missed.

Link

• Star Wars No More: Michael Heilemann’s Flickr Photostream

Now that we are in the election afterglow, or aftermath (it depends greatly on your own point of view) it’s time to look at some election year humor with our Star Wars glasses on. Funny or Die recently posted a funny video featuring viciously competitive campaign ads in a race between Lando Calrissian and Emperor Palpatine as Leader of the Galaxy. I vote Funny.

Links

• Vote for Lando Calrissian (with Billy Dee Williams)

more animals

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away … full of cats that talk in English. Sort of.

What do you get when you mix Star Wars, cats, and a few midichlorians? Maybe something like this. Check out the rest of the Lolcats in the classic battle between the Ceiling Cat and Basement Cat sides of the Force!

Links

• Star Wars on Icanhascheezburger

photo credit: karanj

Going to college is such an eye-opening experience. You get to expand your horizons and learn about other cultures, for one thing. Can it get more awesome? Imagine this: you can pursue your education, have a great college experience, and get your Star Wars fix at the same time! Did I mention the class is at Lake Tahoe, the World Capital of Awesome?

You’re right. I should have told you to sit down first. Sorry about that.

So I got an email from Professor Daryl Frazetti of Lake Tahoe Community College’s Department of Anthropology detailing the new online course. He was known for his Star Trek themed course in the past, but I’m glad he’s forsaken the Dark Side and gone with a Star Wars theme. For the past two years, he’s been presenting workshops and panels at conventions regarding the Anthropology of Star Wars.

Here is some more info on the new course:

Now, we finally will be offering a course online – 1.5 units – The Anthropology of Star Wars. It is basically a cultural anthropology course with a Star Wars theme. It will cover such themes as politics, religion, gender, and more. It will also explore fandom as well as a focus on fan films. Registration begins in November and the class begins early January 2009.

Sounds very exciting, so all you students young and old head on over to LTCC.edu to register! Be a Starwars-ologist!

What’s worse: an out-of-control Apple fan, or an out-of-control Star Wars fan? How about both? As one person? Fighting against himself? You decide: