Tag Archives: Star Wars

Happy Star Wars Day!

Posted on by Standard 5

May the 4th be with you! Nothing like a good pun.  I’m (obviously, I guess) a STAR WARS fan, and I figured other people that have come here to read this blog for whatever reason probably are too.  So, I wanted to share some fun Star Wars related stuff today.

First off, we have Anchorhead.  You’ll especially dig this if you’re a fan of metal…

I’ve collected some audio from the web since I can’t seem to find the stuff anywhere for actual sale.  If you’re interested in some other geeky Star Wars related songs, check out this thread with some links to Bentframe, MC Chris, and more.

Star Wars Rocks

Star Wars Rocks

Then there are some cool STAR WARS related websites that I’ve been checking out regularly lately via Tumblr & Twitter…

And, shameless plugs…

Check ’em out!

And, if you’ve never seen Star Wars… this is an explanation of the movies by someone like yourself…

May the Schwartz be with you, always.

Posted on by Standard 8

Well, I still haven’t gotten around to sending the snail mail version of my Spaceballs Special Edition in 3D idea… but I did pop it off to a few other email addresses.  Of those, they did go to the dudes at Spaceballs: The Prequel.  Sadly, as I write this, that site is no more.  They seem so share my affinity for the odd, as illustrated by this excellent response…

from Aaron Dietz <aarondietz@gmail.com>
to Arik Cearbhall <arikcearbhall@gmail.com>
cc slave2moonlight@yahoo.com
subject Re: Spaceballs 3D – featuring more Yum! Brands characters?

Friends and mighty allies,

It gives me great pain to share that Dark Quino and I (Dark Aaron) will be closing down spaceballstheprequel.com within a month. We thought a lot about the decision and ultimately decided to move on to other projects. This is not because a prequel or other way of furthering the Spaceballs franchise is not merit-worthy! On the contrary, it’s still a fine idea, and it should be done.

However, after many years of fighting the fight, we have agreed to let the project rest.

Sadly, Arik, we were never able to get a personal reply from Mel Brooks, or even anything substantial from his studio. We do take partial credit in promoting Spaceballs enough that they created an animated series for it, but that’s as far as we got.

I wish you the best of luck with your idea, Arik. It is worthy of many exclamation points!!!!!

Love the R2D2 parody-character–yes, let’s put the soul back into the franchise with the most important piece! And Argbar–oh my, there’s no way that wouldn’t be on YouTube, and in people’s heads, and everywhere. Argbar is my new favorite uncreated character. Nice work!

Best to you all. And keep in touch about Spaceballs news at my other e-mail address: aarondietz@gmail.com (darkaaron@spaceballstheprequel.com will soon be going away).

May the Schwartz be with you, always.

Aaron (no longer Dark Aaron)

Heh.  That’s by far the best reply!  Although, the letter from Michael Winslow’s agent saying that Michale would be involved is funny on a whole different level…

Just in case you forgot….

Spacesalls Special Edition in 3D Character Designs

Spacesalls Special Edition in 3D Character Designs

I also wrote back to Rebecca Thornsberry at Chick-fil-A, you may remember that she suggested that I call corporate…

Arik Cearbhall <arikcearbhall@gmail.com>  wrote:

Hello Rebecca,

Thank you for the quick & informative reply, even though this doesn’t have much to do with you!  Have you ever seen Spaceballs?  Are you a Mel Brooks fan?

I really appreciate the corporate phone number, but do you have an email contact there?  I prefer to communicate by email, as I have an intense fear of the telephone.

Good luck with your local Chick-fil-A, you’re consistently the most polite fast food chain, even via email!

Dink Dink, Dink Dink Dink… Dink. Dink. Dink,
Arik

And got another reply…

from Chick-fil-A South Hills  <cfasouthhills@gmail.com>
to Arik Cearbhall <arikcearbhall@gmail.com>
subject Re: Spaceballs 3D – featuring more Yum! Brands characters?

Hello Arik.  I do not have an email address for anyone because I am not sure who to send you to.  Just call that 1-800-CFA-CARE number and ask for someone in the marketing department.  That is what i would start with or they might be able to give you an email address. Since you are calling the corporate office, I was suggest actually calling at first.

Good luck,
Rebecca Thornsberry
Marketing Director

Chick-fil-A at South Hills
1620 Washington Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15241
Store- 412-833-1165
Cell- 412-443-5534
www.chick-fil-a.com/southhills

They’re so polite, even in their replies to obviously insane emails.

IT’S A CRAP!

Posted on by Standard Reply

It’s weird how things interconnect all the time… like thoughts that occur throughout a week or month that are seemingly connected to other random things.

Recently I wrote about Spaceballs 3D.

Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader recently blogged about some crazy toilets.  (You have to see #10.  Seriously.)

I saw something on twitter about an Admiral Ackbar Toilet and was moved to re-tweet.

Certainly this is a toilet worthy of Uncle John’s list, and of moichandizing moichandizing moichandising!

Star Wars Blu-Ray Speculation

Posted on by Standard 7

THE TEN Things That The Forthcoming Star Wars Blu-ray Should Include.Yesterday via Twitter, I saw an article from TheForce.net about another article (or Editorial, I guess) at DVDACTIVE: THE TEN Things That The Forthcoming Star Wars Blu-ray Should Include.  Of course, I felt the need to weigh in.  I for one am salivating at the prospect of all of the movies being released in one package and the prospect of new  (and newly unearthed) material.  After all, Mr. Lucas has stated over the years that they’re all part of one large story.  They ought to be presented that way, right?

Firstly, I agree with Marcus Doidge who wants all versions of the movies (especially IV, V, & VI).  I’m going to guess that all of us do… or at least we want the option to watch the edit that we prefer.  Some of us are quite partial to the Emperor being a lady in a mask with chimp eyes, Han shooting first, and not having either version of the Han/Jabba scene… I guess.  Personally, the most annoying offense to me is the newly recorded Ewok celebration song and the wholly unnecessary new musical number in Jabba’s palace.  “Yub Nub” for the win.  I’d certainly like the option for those parts of the movie to play through seamlessly as I want to see them!

I don’t see this happening though, as George Lucas seems to consistently say or imply through many interviews that each new edit is getting closer to his original vision, and that all previous versions are rendered irrelevant by the new scenes and additions as they were meant to be.  It’s almost like he’s angry or spiteful for people being so attached to their favorite versions.

Toward the end of his THE TEN list though, Doidge cites that he wants to see something new… as in a wholly new feature for Blu-ray in general.  I also agree with this… why not a “Choose Your Own Adventure” type movie?  Fan edits exist out there… why not have the option to do that in your Blu-ray player before the movie begins?  Perhaps with an option to save your favorite personal versions?  I envision a multiple choice check-box type of scene listing before the movie begins where you can pick if you want to see Han shoot first, a glowing translucent Sebastian Shaw or Hayden Christensen, and maybe finally a newly filmed scene where the Wookie gets a medal?  I’d like to see it.  It would be more fun that a straight-up “pick your release”, as it would be all yours.  Making your own movie would be as easy as building your own sub at Quiznos.

Love the pop-up idea too.  Geeks like factoids, right?  This has to be a no-brainer.  There is a wealth of information out there… there could even be multiple pop up factoid tracks.  Info/trivia from within the Star Wars universe could be on one track, and film production or special effects notes, bloopers, release histories, etc. could go on another.

As far as extras… I would expect no less that all the deleted scenes that we’ve seen before plus more, a documentary or two — something cool like the History Channel’s Star Wars Tech or Legacy Revealed.  A gag-reel type montage of Star Wars parody clips would be awesome too… like Bill Murray singing “Star Wars” on SNL — anything in that vein.

I’d really love to see Mr. Lucas finally buckle under pressure and release the atrociously awesome Holiday Special.  Why not?  It’s out there.  Copies exist.  Get a clean copy and put it out there, or digitally clean up one of the bootlegs!  Why not make money off of the camp of the whole thing while you can?  You can’t tell me this is the one morality/vision line that George Lucas can’t cross?  If you’re that embarrassed, put it as an Easter egg somewhere on one of the Blu-rays and never acknowledge it again.

Also… why not include the made for TV Ewok movies, and the new animated Clone Wars movie?   Then we could watch ALL of them in chronological order.

This is how it goes, isn’t it?

  • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
  • Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars (animated microseries)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (3D CGI movie)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (3D CGI series)
  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
  • Star Wars: Droids (animated series)
  • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
  • Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
  • Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (made for TV movie)
  • Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (made for TV movie)
  • Star Wars: Ewoks (animated series)
  • Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Call me crazy, but barring any restrictions from my bank account… I’d buy ’em all in one package.  Maybe it ought to come with a working Dejarik board?

Spaceballs Special Edition in 3D

Posted on by Standard 11

So, if you’ve been following the Yum! Brands saga, you know that I’ve been messing with them for a while on both legitimate and goofy levels, and that I had this idea a while ago.  I finally acted upon it.  I had to set up an alias to do it, as I’m sure most of my contacts just cringe when email from me hits their inbox.  Mel Brooks either doesn’t have an email address, or it’s a closely guarded one… as it’s very difficult to find anything for him.  I may have to print this out & snail mail it.  I’m sure it has the potential to get a funny reply.

I see, your Shwatrz is as big as mine…

from: Arik Cearbhall <arikcearbhall@gmail.com>
to: [All kinds of people]
subject: Spaceballs 3D – featuring more Yum! Brands characters?
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hello my friends,

At last we meet again for the first time for the last time.

I write to you today with a revelation regarding Spaceballs. It is my belief that something needs to be done before George Lucas releases Star Wars in 3D, Spaceballs needs to have a re-vamped special edition (like the Star Wars ones released in 1997), possibly even jumping in to 3D before Star Wars.

The reason that I’m writing to both “Yum! Brands” and MGM employees is because I can’t find a good email address for Mel Brooks. Does Mel have an email address?

MGM still owns the rights to the movie, correct? Also, I address “Yum!” because, as you well know, two characters that are parodies of “Yum! Brands” brands appear quite prominently in the Spaceballs saga. If you don’t know, here’s some help from Wikipedia:

  • Pizza the Hutt, named after the pizza restaurant chain, is a half-man, half-Pizza Mafioso and a parody of Jabba the Hutt. He forces Lone Starr to pay one million credits to him. By the end of the film, however, a “news segment” watched by Lone Starr and Barf reveals that Pizza got locked in his limo and ate himself to death, thus meaning Lone Starr and Barf won’t have to pay anymore. The voice of Pizza the Hutt is performed by Dom DeLuise.
  • Colonel Sandurz[8] is a parody of the leading Imperial Officers from Star Wars, such as Veers and Piett or Grand Moff Tarkin. ‘Colonel’ is his rank; however, ‘Kernel’ is his real name. His name is a pun on KFC‘s founder Colonel Sanders. (At one point, Dark Helmet taunts him into action, saying, “What’s the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?“)

I believe that the Schwartz has aligned because at the time of the filming of Spaceballs, these were parodies of two wholly separate fast food companies. (Or were PepsiCo or TriCon in control at that point?) Now, they are just two of many systems in the “Yum!” galaxy, if you will.

The opportunity exists to film news scenes and digitally insert new characters… and in the spirit of the original; “Moichandizing! Moichandizing! Moichandizing!” I still never did get Spaceballs, the flamethrower. We are at a point in time with advertising and merchandising where a once preposterously offensive idea would now be considered almost normal.

This could be a huge cross-promotional tie-in empire, and may even save MGM from its current financial woes. I propose a set of new characters, new scenes, and new toys/products…

New Characters:

  • AN-UU (pronounced “Ay – en – double – you”), the fearless side-kick to Dot Matrix. After all, this is the most obvious glaring omission from the original Spaceballs movie. Yeah, you can combine Luke & Han, but you can’t drop R2-D2! He is the undeniable (albeit mechanical) heart of the Star Wars franchise. Imagine, he could be like a little root-beer bottle or vending machine shaped droid.
  • Tako Juan Bellobi, Lone Star’s other mentor, who gives him the Schwartz ring saying it was his father’s, then sends him to Yogurt to learn how to use it. Living in a desert, the Mexican tie-in, a colorful Mexican-styled blanket instead of the Jedi robe… a “Stinking Badges” Blazing Saddles reference, a cojones joke or two, this could be a comedic gold mine.
  • Long Jon Argbar, arguably one of the most recognizable internet memes of all time would be Admiral Ackbar’s “It’s a Trap!”. This simply cannot be ignored. Long John Silver and Admiral Ackbar would be a perfect mix given their similar aquatic nature. I see the character almost like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Also, if we want to get super nerdy, I have derived the name Argbar from (obviously) Ackbar and the Latin for silver, argentum. Tie in fictional pirates’ proclivity to exclaim “Argh” or “Arg” or “Arrrr”, and we have a win-win-win situation.
  • The Wing Fleet – Not a character per-say… but a play on Tie-fighters and X-Wings, a rebel alliance and empire (“Yum!”-pire?) ought to be created… legions of the Spaceballs’ fighters could be shaped like chicken wings and fly out of a large bucket on top of the ship.

(Please see my character design concepts in the attached *.jpg)

New Scenes/Bits/Gags:

  • To parody the interrogation scene from Star Wars: A New Hope and to tie into KFC’s new healthier image… Colonel Sandurz could “grill” Princess Vespa much like the “comb the desert” scene. Can you see the giant grill now? The lines on her back? Perhaps a smells/tastes like chicken joke?
  • In the “It’s a Trap” spirit… Long Jon Argbar’s shtick could be to exclaim “It’s a ___!” over & over again, perhaps stopping all the action and looking at the camera after a particularly bad one… and shrugging his shoulders before moving on with it. The blank could be many different things; Tap (in reference to AN-UU’s root beer tap perhaps?), Carp (an aquatic fish reference), frap (Mr. Coffee/Mr. Radar joke), or many, many more things… like Tarp, Part, Wrap, Crap, etc.

New Products & Tie Ins:

  • Yogurt – Perhaps most obviously, yogurt ought to be offered as a dessert item on all “Yum! Brands” restaurants’ menus… perhaps in collectible cups? Everyone’s into this health-food malarkey these days. Perhaps even frozen yogurt, as to not be so disgusting?
  • Toys – Obviously the toys associated with kids meals would be big hits with kids & collectors alike. The toys from all the chains could represent their parodied character and a few of his friends… needing to visit all of the chains to complete your collection… possibly even getting a part of the Spaceballs ship (Mega-Maid) at each chain that are all put together Voltron-style, much like the Transformers reference in the Spaceballs movie?
  • If you guys want to get crazy, we could reach out to Starbucks and infuse them into the Mr. Coffee scene, and replace all references to “spacebucks” as “starbucks”. Perhaps “Yum!” could acquire them before the release of the film?

As you can see, this is a no-brainer, and once you have had the time to review my email, and perhaps forward it to Mel Brooks and/or Brooksfilms Ltd., you will most assuredly be prepared to move along at ludicrous speed. There is no way to not make money with this.  Star Wars fans will rabidly go after anything remotely associated to the movie, and most are geeks who love Mr. Brooks’ style of humor.

If new scenes need to be filmed, I’m sure Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, George Wyner, Daphne Zungia, and the others would appreciate the work. Perhaps Barf could be wholly replaced by new hot funnyman Zach Galifianakis, as John Candy would be currently unavailable due to his deceased nature. You wouldn’t even need to add much fake fur to the costume. Have you seen the guy?

As far as my involvement, I expect nothing other than to be credited with the inception/inspiration of the project. I would just like to see it happen; perhaps a producer credit? From what I understand, those are mostly meaningless anyway.

I’d like to thank you for your time, and I’m sure you’re as excited about this as I am. These are the droids you’re looking for.

May the Schwartz be with you!
Arik

And, this was the attached photo…

Spaceballs 3D Special Edition Character Designs by Arik Cearbhall

I know, I have mad photo-editing skills.  You don’t have to tell me.

As an afterthought, I felt that all of the other fast food chains out there shouldn’t be denied, so… I re-sent the message with this as a forward:

Hello friends,

I write to you to present an opportunity that may titillate your funny bone.  I have recently written to Mel Brooks, MGM, and your competitor, “Yum! Brands” in the interest of putting together a “Special Edition” version of Spaceballs (perhaps in 3D) featuring new Fast Food related characters.  I have not yet received a reply, but after it was sent, I felt that I had been leaving out many other fine establishments.  Would you have any interest in participating in such a project?  I can certainly come up with new character designs as a parody of your brands.  I consider myself an expert on both Star Wars and fast food.

Please find my entire original message below, and see what you think as it pertains to you!

Hail Skroob!
Arik

Heh. This message actually got me the first few replies…

From a local Chick-fil-A:

from: Chick-fil-A South Hills  <cfasouthhills@gmail.com>
to: Arik Cearbhall <arikcearbhall@gmail.com>
subject: Re: Spaceballs 3D – featuring more Yum! Brands characters?
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hello Arik.  My name is Rebecca Thornsberry and I am the Marketing Director for the Chick-fil-A at South Hills.  Each store is individually owned and operated, so this sounds like something that you would have to get permission from our Corporate Office in Atlanta to do.  If you feel like you’d like to pursue this, you could start with the 1-800-CFA-CORP.  Thanks for offering this to us, but I am sorry that I cannot help you with this.

Thanks,
Rebecca Thornsberry
Marketing Director

Chick-fil-A at South Hills
1620 Washington Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15241
Store- 412-833-1165
Cell- 412-443-5534
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/southhills

From an irritable Quiznos employee:

from: Creative Requests <creativerequests@quiznos.com>
to: Arik Cearbhall <arikcearbhall@gmail.com>
subject: RE: Spaceballs 3D – featuring more Yum! Brands characters?
mailed-by: quiznos.com

I’m only writing you back to say that it is very inappropriate to include all recipients in the “TO” field and not the “BCC”.  Not only is this SPAM mail – unwelcome and unsolicited – it allows anyone on this email to know the emails of all recipients.

Please DO NOT email this address again.

The first reply from anyone actually associated with the project:

from: roger paul <rogerpaulmgmt@aol.com>
to: arikcearbhall@gmail.com
subject: Re: Spaceballs 3D – featuring more Yum! Brands characters?
mailed-by: aol.com

My client Michael Winslow would be up for the challenge

Roger Paul
1650 Broadway
Suite 1105
NY NY 10019
212-262-0008 Phone
212-333-5180 Fax
347-993-0939 Cell

Yeah, that’s actually Michael Winslow‘s management.  He’s “that Police Academy guy” relevant here as the radar operator in Spaceballs.  Dude is awesome.

Then we have…  Silence from everyone else, so far.  I can’t wait to get some more replies.  I just may have to send out some snail mail on this one to the actors & studios.  It is still early, hopefully more responses will pour in!

R2-D2 Hat

Posted on by Standard 1

He seems to have found the droid he was looking for

I saw this a while ago thanks to DBSW (who apparently got it here), and I instantly commented on twitter or tumblr that I wanted one of those hats.

Thanks to newageamazon who posted the link to the pattern!

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…

Carissa Knits: R2-D2 Beanie

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.

Stats

Posted on by Standard 5

Heh.  Stats are amusing to me.  I love relatively useless information, and I love that they’re built in to WordPress.  I don’t even have to do anything.  They’re just… there.

First off, thanks to all the readers, posters, and all 3 or 4 people brave enough to comment here on the blog.  I really dig comments.

You can see over the weeks, the views have been up & down each day, generally according to whatever was posted that day… but steadily over the weeks, the number of views has climbed.  (That last drop is because it’s meed-week, I believe…)

W(aL)D,graph,World (and Lunar) Domination,views,readers,clicks,days

W(aL)D,graph,World (and Lunar) Domination,views,readers,clicks,weeks

Apparently, the goofy emails go over better than the other stuff.  I’ll have to try some more of that… but this is really my only outlet for anything, so it may stay a mixed bag for a while.

Not only are the graphs funny to look at, but I can tell what people have been reading…

Sprint,shortcode,short,code,short code,W(aL)D,World (and Lunar) Domination,Yuengling,Yeungling,Sauce,Kmart,Kmart Feedback,Store,manager,Mrs. Santa Claus,Quiznos,West Liberty

Apparently the shortcodes are still a problem with Sprint. Wonder why this isn’t a news story yet?  Others are wondering why they can’t get Yeungling Lager Sauce any more.  Me too.  People are still inquisitive about Quiznos, Kmart, Wendy’s, and apparently a naked Asian Mrs. Claus.  I hope any of you that landed here randomly were amused, apologies for the lack of naked Asian Santa’s wife.

This is what you’ve been reading recently…

C-3PO,Data,Star Wars,Star Trek,Mrs. Clause,Creepy,Quiznos,Toasty Torpedo,Stuffing

So, the Data vs. C-3PO thing was read (or at least clicked on) a lot… No real interest, or just nothing to say about it?  Subway is still apparently amusing.  Still haven’t heard anything further from Quiznos once I let them know that I had a blog, and the allergy amigos must not find alliteration amusing.

Here are the URL’s if you missed any of the stuff the 1st time and want to read it now…

Today

Title Views
Data vs. C-3PO? 6 More stats
Sprint, Shortcodes, SMS, Service, & 4 More stats
Wendy’s in Dormont (Pittsburgh, PA) – W. 2 More stats
Allergies, Alliteration, and Annoyance. 2 More stats
Think of the Kmart employees this holida 1 More stats
So, we have a response from Subway! 1 More stats
Stuffing Recipe – Thanksgiving 2009 1 More stats
The Yuengling Sauce and the LaChoy Teriy 1 More stats
If we’re keeping score, that’s Subway 1 1 More stats
Mellon Arena – Customer Service WIN. 1 More stats

Yesterday

Title Views
Data vs. C-3PO? 40 More stats
The Creepy Mrs. Claus 3 More stats
The Yuengling Sauce and the LaChoy Teriy 2 More stats
If we’re keeping score, that’s Subway 1 2 More stats
Mellon Arena – Customer Service WIN. 1 More stats
The Quiznos Toasty Torpedo™ and the dimi 1 More stats
Stuffing Recipe – Thanksgiving 2009 1 More stats
Impressive. 1 More stats
Think of the Kmart employees this holida 1 More stats
Sprint, Shortcodes, SMS, Service, & 1 More stats

At any rate, thanks for reading!

Data vs. C-3PO?

Posted on by Standard 6

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 not Data 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.

Data | Star Trek: The Next GenerationC-3PO | STAR WARS

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.

Mellon Arena & the Trans-Siberian Orchesrta!

Posted on by Standard 3

Well, you’ve read my Mellon Arena related Ticket Sales FAIL and Customer Service WIN blog posts, right? This is a nice conclusion to that.  Well, maybe not a conclusion, but the next in the series.  Derek was nice enough to comp us two tickets to one of the upcoming Trans-Siberian Orchestra events.  How awesome is that? I feel better getting two seats than four, and to me it’s more of a comprable show that a circus or the Harlem Globetrotters.

Here are the latest exchanges…

From: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 11:16 PM
To: Derek Scalzott
Subject: Re: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Derek,

Wow.  Thank you for the well-thought-out and explanatory reply.  It’s rare to have a cutomer-service oriented reply be so frank and sincere.  I can imagine that the tasks faced when putting on each new event are quite complicated, as the arena can be used for such a varying degree of events.

I also now understand that instead of dealing with the ushers, I should have asked to speak/deal with management.  They seemed to give us a “you can do this, but you can’t tell anyone that I said it was OK to do this” kind of vibe, if that makes any sense.  I wasn’t trying to get anyone in trouble or get more than what I felt we had paid for…  I just wanted to enjoy the show.

I would kindly accept your offer of tickets to an upcoming event.  I don’t feel that four tickets are necessary as we had only purchased two seats to the last event, but at the same time I will not look the proverbial gift-horse in the mouth.

The prospect of a circus or the Globetrotters is very cool, but I was wondering if it would be too late and or at all possible to get tickets for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra?  I noticed it in the upcoming events when looking at the Star Wars: In Concert.  I understand completely if this event doesn’t fall within the previously noted constraints, and would like to know when the next circus is coming to the arena?

Thank you again for your time and generosity.  I will be sure to spread the word that Mellon Arena is a champion of customer service.  My last Pens game was the one vs. the Bruins with the tying goal at .04 seconds to go, and the time before that was Crosby’s last hat trick… so trust me, I have a ton of recent great memories associated with Mellon Arena!

I look forward to our continued dialogue.

-Eric

See?  I can write complimentary emails too!

From: Derek Scalzott DScalzott@mellonarena.com
To: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Wed, December 2, 2009 10:53:45 AM
Subject: RE: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Eric,

I have approval to offer (2) two Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets to our 3:00 p.m. afternoon show on Wednesday, December 16th.  We have no tickets available for the evening show.

Otherwise, we can do (4) four to Harlem Globetrotters on December 26th or (4) four to the Shrine Circus, which will be here in early April.

Please let me know what you prefer and provide your mailing address and a contact phone number in case there are any mailing issues and we’ll take care of it from there.

Thanks,
Derek Scalzott
Event Coordinator
Mellon Arena
66 Mario Lemieux Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
email: dscalzott@mellonarena.com
phone: 412.642.2189
fax: 412.642.1905

Score!

From: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
To: Derek Scalzott DScalzott@mellonarena.com
Sent: Wed, December 2, 2009 9:20:43 PM
Subject: Re: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Hello again Derek,

We’ll take the two tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra!  (Wow!)  We’ll have to take a half-day at work, but it will certainly be worth it!  Thank you once again for your explanation and generosity.

Here is all of my contact info:

____ _______
___ _____________ __
Pittsburgh, PA  _____-____
(___) ___-____

I really appreciate the time and effort that you’ve put into reassuring me that Mellon Arena cares about its patrons!

-Eric

Well, there you have it.  Looks like we get a free afternoon full of entertainment… now we only have to pay for parking (don’t tell me I can take the T)…  and $10 for nachos n’ Coke!

Again, there’s no mention of how or where my media-copied message was obtained, and why it was responded to in lieu of the original.  Ominous!

http://www.trans-siberian.com/

Mellon Arena – Ticket Sales FAIL.

Posted on by Standard 4

From: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
To: Customer Service Mellon Arena info@mellonarena.com
Sent: Mon, November 30, 2009
Subject: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert

Hello Mellon Arena Customer Service & Ticket Sales,

I am taking the time to write to you this evening to express my disappointment in the sale of our seats for yesterday’s Star Wars: In Concert event at the Mellon Arena.

While I understand that we purchased the “cheap” $33 seats (two of which somehow magically totaled $93.40 instead of $66.00 for various dubious Ticket Master fees — including a “printing fee” in which I used my own paper & ink — which are not your fault), I feel that your integrity is to be called into question when considering the vantage-point from exactly where we were expected to sit throughout the show.

I would think that you would be familiar enough with your own venue to know that the seats in section E13, row M are blocked from seeing anything above a certain height at the other end of the house thanks to the lower edge of section F hanging directly above us (and directly in our field of vision). I would also think that you would know what this height is, and that the screen coming in for this particular show was being touted as “a three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen — one of the largest ever put on tour.“

Apparently I am quite wrong, my friends.

Please see the attached image from my cell phone so you can fully appreciate the vantage point from which we were expected to view the “live music and film elements … synchronized in order to create a full multi-media, one-of-kind Star Wars experience.” You’ll note the bluish-white line behind the orchestra that is the very bottom of the giant partially-visible screen where the movie clips played.

I can tell you that the ushers in our area got an ear-full from several other angry concert-goers (including my wife who had purchased the tickets for me as an early Christmas present). Our row had cleared out of all but 4 people by the time the 2nd song had started. I would have left also, but the concert had started, and I wasn’t about to miss any of what I could actually see by running around like a madman trying to find a seat.

I did notice several rows almost empty down to the right of the floor, while seats to the back & sides were full… surely this is a commentary on the outrageous prices charged for the show? It only made it all the more infuriating that a seat with a better vantage point sat empty during the performance.

In lieu of trying to “sneak down” into the “better” seats, at intermission, we made the trek down & back up to section F and asked an usher there for permission to sit in any unoccupied seats. We were pointed to some open seats, and several others filtered in around us with the same idea as the show came closer to starting again.

From this height, the speaker array on the right still blocked a good portion of the screen, but at least it wasn’t cut in half… and from here, we could actually see the “laser show” being projected on to the ceiling.

While I found the concert itself and exhibits throughout the arena to be an exhilarating experience, the full multimedia-experience in the arena was sadly stained by the poor choice of Mellon Arena to sell seats with a substandard view of the main event.

I have been to countless events over the years at the Mellon (& formerly the Civic) Arena — from concerts, to Penguins Games, to circuses, to I think even a truck & tractor pull with Bigfoot & USA-1 when I was a tiny young lad. They have all been great memories… and this is the only time that I have felt wronged by the venue.

I hope that you take these thoughts into consideration when selling seats for the remainder of shows throughout the last standing days of the arena. You’re making memories for people, please try to make sure that they’re positive ones, and that they’re not marred by poor logistics. I’d ask for our money (or half of our money) back if I thought it would get me anywhere, but I am more concerned about the experience than the money.

Thank you for your time, I hope that this is passed on to the appropriate parties, and I do look forward to a response.

Regards,
-Eric Carroll
me@myemailaddre.ss