Getting Impatient!

I've been obsessed all week about My Disney Side @Home Disney Celebration kit which is supposed to arrive sometime before the end of the month!   Each kit is supposed to be a little unique, but that hasn't kept me from obsessing over what other people have posted online about their kits!  Check out what these other hosts have posted here, here, and here!  AMAZING, RIGHT?

Now that Tim and I have finally found our new apartment, our Disney Side celebration will be a house warming party.  A few of our friends have kids, but this will be mainly an adult party.  I haven't settled on a theme yet.  At this point I'm just brainstorming.  Here are a few random thoughts from my notebook:

• Decorating with printed out Vintage Disney Attraction Posters? 
• Encouraging our guests to wear fun geeky Disney related costumes or t-shirts. I know our friends have Star Wars,  Muppets, & Marvel shirts!  
• Giving out pins as party favors?  We have a bunch from our last pin trading experience!
• Giving out Disney hotel soaps and shampoos guest gifts.  
• Recreating some park food like Popcorn, churros, mickey bars, Lafew’s Brew, Dole Whip
• Have Disney music playlist running in the bathroom ipod dock
• Have Disney movie playing in living room? 
• Vintage Mickey cartoons from a youtube playlist playing on an iPad in the kitchen? 
• Everyone gets to wear an ear hat from our collection for a fun photo op! 
• Play Disney Apples to Apples

Ohhh the possibilities!  

Well, as soon as my kit arrives I'll make sure to post lots of pictures!  :) 

Star Wars Day!

It's that time of year again.... Star Wars day.  Every year on May 4th, Geeks everywhere happily say "May the fourth the with you" to each other. :)   The saying is plastered all over Twitter and Facebook.  You can even buy a t-shirt with the phrase on it.  Pretty clever, I think.



Not to be outdone, Trekkies came up with the responce with "May LaForge be with you".  I'd never thought about Geordie's name in that way way- but it is pretty funny.



But it's all in good fun.  Certainly Trekkies and Star Wars Fans (is there a word for that?) can coexist.

Museum of the Moving Image (Muppets, Star Trek, & Silence, Oh My!)

Tim and I went to the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY yesterday to see their exhibit on Jim Henson.  They were also showing The Muppets Go To The Movies-- a 1981 TV special which was originally produced to promote the feature film The Great Muppet Caper.  Both the exhibit and the movie were a lot of fun!  I highly recommend going to see the exhibit before it closes on March 4th.  If you grew up on Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, or the Muppet Show you'll get a great insider's look at workings behind the Muppet world.

For fans of my current show, Silence! The Musical, might enjoy a visit to the Museum as well.  They have a rather extensive display on the scenic elements built for The Silence of the Lambs film.  The collection includes research materials, drawings, and even full model of the asylum in Baltimore and Buffalo Bill's basement from the climax of the film.  Speaking of Silence!-- make sure you come see the show soon!  I'm only working on it thru the end of February.  We've added a 10:30pm show THIS SATURDAY.  :)  There's also a CD signing event with the cast of Silence The Musical THIS THURSDAY at Barnes and Noble at 86th & Lex!  Come check it out.


Of course Museum of the Moving Image has a section dedicated entirely to Star Trek!  Well, not really... but there is some cool Trek stuff to see.  There is a section of the museum dedicated to the the moving image's influence on pop culture.  They have toys, lunch boxes, models, magazines, etc-- all sorts merchandising that has been released to promote movies and TV shows.  This list of items includes Star Trek action figures from the original series and the first movie, a model of the USS Enterprise (pictured here), a phaser water pistol, a cereal bowl and cup with Kirk & Spock on them, a Star Trek happy meal box from 1979, examples of Star Trek jewelry, several fan produced magazines, etc.  Outside of the world of Star Trek they fun stuff like a C3P0 scotch tape dispenser, a Batman lunch box and many more cool merchandising tie-in items.

There's also a display on Stop Motion animation where you can make your own little movie with paper cut outs.  They have it all set up so that you can make your own animated movie and then have it e-mailed to yourself.  Check out mine below!

Star Trek vs Star Wars

Hatfields and McCoys.

Capulets and Montagues.

Boxers and Briefs.

Some rivalries are ages old and none is greater than the battle between Star Trek and Star Wars.  Nerds have been arguing over the finer points of these scifi franchises for over 30 years now.  It all started when the hugely successful Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope premiered in 1977.  Lucas's film a reached wider audience than Star Trek had been able to.  Since Trek's 3 year run on television had ended 8 years earlier, the show had found a strong fan base in re-runs and even prompted the production of an Emmy Award winning animated series.  Avid trekkies were organizing conventions, publishing fan written fiction and generally living in their mom's basements (hey-- these are my people I'm talking about here).   Then this new "Star" came onto the scene.  Star Wars was popular with nerds, cool kids, your mom... everyone.  It basically revolutionized the film industry and proved that a scrappy little space opera can make a TON of money.  Soon all the Hollywood studios were clamoring to compete.  Our friends over at Paramount realized that they already owned a scifi franchise with a built in fan base that might be able to match Star Wars spaceship for spaceship (and dollar for dollar).  They were in the process of developing a new Star Trek TV show called "Star Trek: Phase II".  The pilot episode of which was quickly transformed into Star Trek The Motion Picture and thrown into theaters in December of 1979 (5 months before Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Backwas released).   The gauntlet had been thrown.  It was to be all-out war between these two franchises.  They competed for our attention, devotion and for our allowance money all thru the 80's, 90's, & 00's.   Here is a quick breakdown of the dates

1966-1969 - Star Trek (The Original Series)

1973-1974 - Star Trek (The Animated Series)

May-1977 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Nov-1978 - Star Wars Holiday Special

Dec-1979 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture

May-1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Jun-1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

May-1983 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Jun-1984 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Nov-1984 - Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Nov-1985 - Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

Nov-1986 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

1987-1994 - Star Trek The Next Generation

Jun-1989 - Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Dec-1991 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

1993-1999 - Star Trek Deep Space Nine

Nov-1994 - Star Trek Generations

1995-2001 - Star Trek Voyager

Nov-1996 - Star Trek: First Contact

Dec-1998 - Star Trek: Insurrection

May-1999 - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

2001-2005 - Star Trek Enterprise

May-2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Dec-2002 - Star Trek Nemesis

2003-2005 - Star Wars: Clone Wars (animated series)

May-2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Aug-2008 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

May-2009 - Star Trek (JJ Abrams)

May-2013 - Star Trek 2 (JJ Abrams)

I totally understand why the Hollywood types behind these franchises love the competition. It's a friendly rivalry that generates press and sells more tickets.  How can we really have an opinion about which is better if we haven't seen them both?  So let's all go out to the movies so we can compare and contrast them fairly, right?  Who wins in this scenario?  Well, everyone does.  The producers sell their films and merchandising. The actors get paychecks and future contracts. And we get some amazing Science Fiction films and TV shows (not to mention toys, books, comic books, models, games, clothes...).  So yes-- rivalry is good for business.

But why do some fans get all bent out of shape over "which is better"?  Maybe it's because to most of the world they're the same thing!  I don't know how many times I was given Star Wars birthday cards when I was a kid by well meaning relatives who had no idea I was really a Trekkie.  For that matter, they had no idea there was a difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.  "Isn't that the one with Darth Vader and Dr. Spock?"   I've been dealing with this for years.  You see, I got into Star Trek when the Next Generation premiered in 1987.  But I didn't see a Star Wars movie until A New Hope was re-released in theaters (with added scenes new special effects) in 1997!  I grew up thinking of Star Wars as "that other space show"-- far inferior to my beloved Star Trek.  You see, Star Trek was beamed into my living room 5 times a week (well, once a week for TNG and 5 times for reruns of TOS).   To me, Star Wars was just a movie at the video store that I never asked my Mom to rent.  Aside from references to it on The Muppet Babies, I wasn't really aware of it.   But the Star Wars merchandising was (and is) EVERYWHERE!   That's one thing the Lucas people do much better than the folks at Paramount.  They licensee the hell out of their product and make it very easy to find Star Wars candy, comics, underwear, etc etc at any big box store you walk into like Wal-mart or Target.  As a Trekkie I can find this infuriating.

BUT-- do I really hate Star Wars?  Of course not!  Now that I've matured a little I can watch those Star Wars movies (especially A New Hope) and appreciate them as really good films.  There are some rich characters in Star Wars.  George Lucas created a fascinating reality and it's fun to get lost in.  I see Star Wars as different that Star Trek.  Not better or worse-- but just different.

Recently, there's been a lot of Youtube traffic from some of the Stars of these franchises going back and forth about the rivalry.  It all started over on William Shanter's youtube channel. He randomly started talking trash about Star Wars.  Carrie Fisher responded to which Shanter fired back.  Finally George Takei stepped in to talk some sense into the two of them (after all, he can't let Shanter get all the press).  Watch and enjoy George's response...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvTCr5Z-0lA]