Now you can have Yoda, Darth Vader, or C3PO (and in a few months, Han Solo too!) give you turn by turn directions on your TomTom GPS device.  I can no longer imagine getting directions from anyone but a Star Wars character.

I was debating getting a GPS a while back, but the point became moot when I got the Droid (the cell phone, not an actual droid), which conveniently has an app for that.  The pros of the Droid GPS? It doesn’t cost any extra, I carry it around with me at all times, and it is already preloaded with all of my contacts/addresses.

The con?

No Yoda option.

Clearly, I need me a TomTom.

Check out the videos from the recording sessions with Vader and Yoda:

But hey, maybe I was wrong. Because I just saw this. And this. That’s right… STAR WARS PANCAKES!

I don’t think I’ll ever be able boring old regular or super-lame “silver dollar” pancakes again.

And the cookies would be a bit hit at the next Noah family cookie swap, right? Right?

I think we can all agree that despite whatever other kinds of things they sell, at least these Williams-Sonoma products are not unnecessary, expensive, and really specific. Totally not.

Oh, and if you haven’t already made an Empire Strikes Back movie starring you, go do it now.  There are 2 versions (two!) of the Noah family playing the various roles on my Facebook page – check them out.  I may be biased, but this new cast make Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams look like terrible choices.

Oh man – this is great news for geeks: Star Wars is getting a new TV show, and it’s going to be funny. How do we know? Well, Seth Green and Matt Senreich of Robot Chicken, will be working on the project.

Obviously I love Star Wars, and Robot Chicken, and even the two Star Wars Robot Chicken episodes. Green has said that this new series won’t be sketch driven, and won’t feature things like “Jar-Jar electrocuting his tongue,” but will instead feature on the more mundane aspects of life in the Star Wars universe.  That might get some people worried, as the Robot Chicken crew clearly knows how to do the insane humor, and the mundane doesn’t scream “comedy gold.”  But I have a ton of faith in these guys, and I will be sure to watch the new show.  After all, these are the people who brought us this little gem:

And for anyone not watching The Clone Wars, you’re missing out on a really good show – one that Wired even called one of the best political cartoons ever.

I have to admit, I was a tad disappointed that ole George didn’t use the opportunity to finally answer how the Emperor wasn’t able to feel the presence of Leia on Alderaan or Luke and Obi-Wan on Tatooine. But the look on his face as Jon was asking him about it was priceless.

Warning – MAJOR SPOILER ALERT on the potentially upcoming Ghostbusters movie!

Still here? OK, so Sigourney Weaves has been doing press for Avatar, and the folks from the UK’s Channel 4 asked her about a Ghostbusters sequel. Here’s the video:

Whoa, right? That’s quite a bombshell at the end – Bill Murray will be in the movie AS A GHOST? That implies that sometime in the interim between parts 2 and 3, Peter Venkman will meet an untimely end. How could this happen? Will we get to see a great death scene in a flashback at least? And will Ghost Venkman be a good ghost, a bad ghost, or a silly Slimer-esque ghost? One can imagine Bill Murray having a lot of fun playing an apparition. My only fear is that this news means that Bill would only be in the movie for a small cameo. I’m sure that I am not alone in thinking that just a little bit of Venkman is not enough for a Ghostbusters movie.

In other pop culture “death” news, it is official -according to Bret and Jermaine themselves – that the Flight of the Conchords HBO series is no more. This isn’t that shocking, since the guys had said before that they wouldn’t do a third season, and with the way the season finale ended, it sort of makes sense. Still, I was hoping that Bret and Jermaine would bring the show back. But it sounds like they’ll keep doing other things, which helps soften the blow.

And totally unrelated to anything: check out this amazing Millennium Falcon bed and this adorable little Link outfit.
Thanks to Chris Martin and “B.E.” respectively for passing them my way.

It’s a question every Star Wars nerd has debated, and I still have some time to worry about it, but this is something I really need to start considering:

How should I expose my kid/kids to Star Wars?

The obvious answer is to start with Episode IV (the original film for any non-geeks). It just makes sense to expose the next generation of fans in the same way that we first learned about the goings on of a galaxy far, far away. In other words: Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and then we can go back and watch the prequel trilogy. My feeling has always been that instead of doing it just IV, V, VI, I, II, III, the ideal way to show the movies to a newbie would be IV, V, VI, I, II, III, IV, V, VI; re-watching the original trilogy (let’s call it OT to simplify) after watching the prequel trilogy (PT) helps put the whole saga into a greater context.

The main arguments for starting with the OT and not the PT are that the OT are simply better movies, and that by seeing the PT first, the emotional wallop of “No… *I* am your father” is completely lost. Well, probably not completely lost, but considerably softened.

But in all fairness, let’s just look at some of the other options.

I could show my child(ren) the PT first, and then move on to the OT. The arguments for this method is that then the kids are being exposed to the events in chronological order, which quite frankly is easier to understand. Now, of course my kids will be super geniuses and be able to understand the concept of “These movies all take place BEFORE those other movies we saw,” but if they are very young, going in order may make more sense.

The other main reason I might want to start with the PT is that Episode I was truly made for kids. Now I know what you’re thinking – they were all made for kids! The OT was specifically designed for the kid in everyone! It’s a classic fairy tale! Kids LOVE the Ewoks! Well, that’s all true, but I just can’t shake the feeling that the OT was made for slightly older kids, say around 10 or so. Whereas Episode I, with Jar Jar and the pod race and the droid army, was made for the very young set, say around age 5.

The main issue with getting the kid hooked on Ep. I is that in just two movies, we’re getting to some dark stuff. Ep. III has some moments that could be downright frightening for a very young kid, and I wouldn’t want to terrify my child so much that he or she is afraid to watch the OT, which, despite its share of dark moments, is nowhere near as dark as Ep. III.

Then there’s the whole pacing issue. I love the original movie as much as anyone, and for me it doesn’t feel slow, but in all objectivity, it does move a bit slower than the PT. I’m not saying it as a bad thing, but if my child is also exposed to other, more modern movies, might the slower pacing of Ep. IV be a turn-off? I know that I have tried to watch older movies that my parents have told me were amazing classics, but the incredulously slow pacing bored me out of my skull, and I just couldn’t get past it. (Raging Bull and Deer Hunter spring to mind as examples.) And naturally, I want my child to fall in love with Star Wars right away, which shouldn’t be a problem if we can make it to Luke staring out at the twin setting suns.

The other possibility would be to start off with the animated series The Clone Wars. Now that movie and TV show are, unquestionably, geared to a young audience, and kids really seem to love it. In Queens, we lived right by an elementary school, and I saw a ton of kids with Clone Wars backpacks and lunchboxes and things. So even though it lacks the context of the larger saga, if that’s a good entry-point into the Star Wars universe, surely there’s no harm in that, right?

What do you guys think?

(P.S. Speaking of Star Wars, check out this page of Star Wars status updates on Facebook – funny stuff.

Hilarious! Well, here is the new movie, called Star Wars Gansta Rap: Chronicles. A lot more characters get in on the rhyming this time around, and that’s a good thing.

ALL NEW! Star Wars Gangsta Rap: Chronicles

It’s the Jedi tricks I’m playing on your mind, son!

Bonus: At 1.32, there’s a glimpse of the infamous deleted “C3PO rips off the warning sign on the door to the Wampa room” scene!! (Non-nerds won’t understand.)

I had a chance to see the new Star Trek movie, and I have to say that  J.J. Abrams (the man behind Lost, Fringe, and Cloverfield) did a great job.  The movie was fun, enjoyable, and visually amazing.

If I had one issue with the movie, it would be that it felt very Star Wars-esque to me.   The scene at the bar reminded me of the Mos Eisley Cantina. The scene on the ice planet reminded me of Hoth. Old Spock reminded me of a Yoda/Obi-Wan type figure. And the whole planet-destroying drill was VERY Death Star.

There’s nothing wrong with mining Star Wars for ideas – J.J. has said he was a much bigger fan of Wars over Trek.  It was just something I noticed.  Anyone else feel the same way?