Here I’ll link you to a great post by 3kalb. I hate cell phones in public places. It’s annoying, it’s rude, it’s ridiculous.
Do you not realize that the others around you are annoyed by hearing half of your conversation? Do you not care that you’re holding up the line? Do you not care that you’re broadcasting intimate details of grandpa’s prostate operation to everyone? Do you not care that you’re talking at 3x your normal volume level?
Of course not.
By the title, I hope that– *ring ring ring* Oh I’m sorry, I forgot I was talking, my phone went off and I just had to take it. Let me finish my opening statement. I hope that it is obvious where I am going with this pet peeve. Simply put, cell phones are a major nuisance and addiction that cannot be stopped! Where do I see cell phones? In schools. In offices. In cars. In malls. In fastfood establishments. In restaurants. On the streets. On the b … Read More
So, I’ve blogged about Allergy Eats many times before. You know I think it’s an awesome resource, but can only be useful if users rate restaurants. Now, it’s easier than ever to do… with new iPhone and Android apps!
AllergyEats Apps!
AllergyEats.com
You can read the word from Allergy Eats about the release here or get the app you need here.
Paul from AllergyEats is good people, he recently donated to FAAN for my Food Allergy Walk in Pittsburgh!
I encourage you to spread the word to anyone that you know with food allergies, so we can all take advantage of the awesome ever-expanding database now available anywhere that you can get cell phone service!
Damn you, George Lucas. I’m pretty sure you could sell the proverbial air conditioner to the Eskimo (is Inuit the correct term now?) without a problem, but I bet you can also amazingly re-sell him the air conditioner that he already has just by cleaning it, maybe adding a new filter, and putting a shiny sticker on it… and repeating that process every few years for the next 30 or 40. You are a genius.
Fanboy rant that you’ve already heard a million times over aside, George Lucas is a creative genius, and no matter how much we love to bicker about changes with new actors/voices, re-releases, re-edits, mis-colored & re-colored lightsabers, flying CGI droids, who shot first, and dancing Yoda… it all comes down to the fact that we love the Star Wars films and feel some kind of connection to them. If we didn’t feel so strongly about them, we (hopefully) wouldn’t waste our time bickering. (Sorry, can’t let it go: I still want “Yub Nub” back, I hatehatehate the new Ewok song in Jedi.)
Of course I’m going to get the Blu-ray version. To have them all in one package? Awesome. Seems like forever-ago that I was pontificating on what I’d like to see on a Blu-ray release. Now that it’s almost here & available for pre-order, I’m getting jittery… like I’ve had too many cups of coffee. Maybe I did that, too.
Bill Hunt is a lucky bastard that got a preview of the discs, and he shares the goods with us. Basically there are a lot of error fixes, clean ups, and a bunch of sound remastering and rebuilding. Some cool bits…
One thing I should confirm for you at this point: The original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy are not included on these discs. Personally, I never expected them to be. I know a lot of fans want them, but it’s clear that Lucas has no intention of making them available at least for the foreseeable future.
Figured as much.
In addition to these sorts of fixes, significant additional dirt removal has been done, more garbage matte lines have been cleaned up and other little “fixes” have been applied as well. Here’s an example of one such fix done to Episode V. For years, fans have complained that in this shot of the Wampa attacking Luke’s Tauntaun, you could see part of the puppeteer’s arm because the costume didn’t extend quite far enough… Now, that’s been fixed.
For Episode IV, however, “getting it exactly right” required a rather extensive forensic effort, as this material just wasn’t cataloged with future surround remixes in mind. In many cases, Matt and his team went back to original analog tape recordings made in 1976 to get the best quality of all the required elements. As a result, it’s fair to say that the surround mix for Episode IV was almost completely rebuilt from scratch, with Matt comparing his work to the original print master to ensure its creative accuracy. And at every step of the way, director George Lucas and original sound supervisor Ben Burtt were consulted to ensure that the mix reproduced as closely as possible their original intent for the film’s sonic experience. In fact, Matt says he played the film’s reels many times for George, in 15-20 second chucks, to get his feedback.
Crazy. I think I’m going to have to break down & buy a surround-sound system just for this Blu-ray release. Maybe a better Blu-ray player too. Any ideas on how to convince my wife why this is necessary?
Now, you’ll recall that a little bit ago, I said these should probably be best considered new 2011 versions of these films, and not the 2004 DVD versions. All the fixes and corrections alone justify this in my opinion, but there’s another reason too… and you can probably guess what it is: Once again, George has apparently added a few new “surprises” into these films. I don’t know what they are and didn’t get to see any of them on Friday, but I was assured that there will be “new things to notice” when we watch the films. I think we can safely assume that one of them will be the new all-digital Yoda in Episode I…
More tweaks? Hopefully more archive/deleted footage put into the films in lieu of additional background lizards, droids, clones, or new musical numbers. (Although, if more aliens popped up in the background… like the ones from Close Encounters, Alien, Predator, Cowboys & Aliens, or even a Klingon, that would be kind of geeky fun.) I’d like to see the Revenge of the Sith ending that Simon Pegg wrote about in his book.
What the other changes to these films may be, I have no idea, but I suspect there will be no lack of blog posts on this very subject within hours of the first discs becoming available to fans.
Now then, let’s move on to the extras. Is it really worth getting the Complete Saga set just to get the three extras discs? For me at least, the answer here is clear: Absolutely. Yes… I’ve now seen many of the Original Trilogy deleted scenes. No… I can’t tell you much about them (believe me, that drives me as crazy as it does you). But I was pretty surprised by them and in a good way. What I can tell you is that they are substantial – at least for the Original Trilogy. This isn’t just dribs and drabs stuff – it includes long sequences. And they’re extremely cool. Frankly, for me this is the real draw of the entire BD release. As you’ve seen in some of the teaser clips Lucasfilm has released, they’re not pristine, but most of them are in HD – at least the Original Trilogy clips. And trust me, they’re well worth seeing. It’s stuff some of you have wanted to see in good quality since 1977, along with a few things fans may not have known even existed.
What’s more, each film has two audio commentary tracks – the ones that were on the previous DVD release as well as an all-new commentary compiled from tons of vintage and archived interviews with the cast and crew. Finally, I’m assured that there are indeed a handful of “very fun” Easter eggs scattered throughout the set.
OOOH. How will I find these? Ha ha. I’m going to have to set up a Google News alert or something. I’m never good at just finding them on my own.
Go read the main article, it’s worth it if you’re a geek… and there are some killer photos!
In with that, they point to yet another article, that says exciting things like…
On the special features, we spent 3 years sifting and digging through 30 years of material that is in the vaults at the Ranch, it’s been quite an undertaking. We uncovered boxes that hadn’t been opened in over 20 years, it was a very dirty experience! We looked through work prints, we found dailies, we went through behind-the scenes videos, we really uncovered a slew of new gems that we’re really excited to share with the fans.
Oh what I wouldn’t give to dig through those archives.
Q: Is the holiday special on there?
A: You’ll have to wait and see! The holiday special is a challenge, but look for some Easter Eggs – what’s a Star Wars release without a couple of Easter Eggs?! J
I’m guessing not the whole Holiday special, but maybe a clip… especially the Boba Fett cartoon. A clean version of that would be excellent! (If it exists, watch it have overdubs fromTemuera Morrison
If the whole special shows up, that would be killer. No one ever asks about the Ewok movies. What about those? When are we going to get more forest creatures, lost footage, and an all-new CGI Gorax? How about Cindel & Mace running around in Jedi somewhere?
Oh yeah, maybe Troops will pop up as an easter egg!
Thanks to HarrisPoll Surveys, PNC/Visa Points, and a jar o’ change, I was able to pre-order from Amazon for only $2.49 out of pocket.
I thought I was going to have to learn to knit, but my wife Bethany has volunteered to step in and take over the knitting. Not that I’d mind learning to knit if I could turn out awesome hats like this…
How freakin’ awesome is that hat? Seriously. It’ll have to go into rotation with the Misfits, Flogging Molly, & Pens ones that I’m always sporting in cold weather.
Nerd alert. We’ve all seen the “vs.” threads on message boards, and I believe there’s even whole sites dedicated to them… be it comic book characters, TV show casts, movie characters, or sci-fi icons. A lot of geeks like to argue about completely hypothetical situations for fictional characters for no apparent reason other than because we can.
I noticed that I’m following both Brent Spiner and Anthony Daniels on twitter… and is struck me that they’re in the same category as a golden-hued “tin man” of sorts in their respective powerhouse franchises.
This is a vs. that I’d love to see. Has this been done? Probably. I didn’t Google it yet… I’m almost afraid to. I don’t want the discussion to be biased from my point of view anyway.
Why notData vs. C-3PO? I started a hashtag just to see what would happen: #datavsc3po. It will be interesting to see if it takes off at all. A few people are on to it. On twitter? Please throw in your 2¢! Or, you can comment on this blog with your thoughts. I’d love to see all out stories… perhaps I may write up a scenario myself.
It was brought to my attention rather quickly that R2-D2 must accompany C-3PO… they are after all, a set. Then, it was suggested that if C-3PO gets a sidekick, then Data must be able to utilize Geordi La Forge. (Oddly enough, I’m also following Levar Burton on twitter, and it was brought to my attention that R2-D2 does indeed tweet – to make this “legit” though, does Kenny Baker tweet?)
I’ll digress here by saying that yes, I do realize that the actors are not the characters that they play, and that they have had other rolls in life… and I realize that they might be mildly annoyed by such discussions.
Oh well, this is what geeks do. So, please join me and the people who have already started discussing this so far.
P.S. – Did an image search for “C-3PO Data” and this came up. So, someone has paired them before, albeit in a completely different manner.
World (and Lunar) Domination 