Celebration V Notes

As avid Star Wars fans, we each have our own story of being a fanatic. What makes my own story richer is the inclusion of the Clone Wars series and Celebration. It's a bit hard to explain to someone who isn't a fan or even is just a generic fan, what it all means to you. Sure, it isn't everything that I live for, but it is something special. I love it for the lessons in ethics, the philosophy, the complexity in relationships and decisions, the basis in Jungian and classical archetypes, amongst many other things.

To better explain (and frankly remember, as it is quite a busy event) what is so special about Celebration, I tried to remember everything I did to give example of what it is all about.

Star Wars Celebration V Notes & Itinerary
Thursday
715: PGH to CVG; CVG to MCO
1100: Taxi to the hotel, quick lunch at Denny's, and straight to the OCCC (just after going to the wrong side of the wrong OCCC hall). Met with Joe M. first thing. Celebration friends reunion!
1345: Tattoo Pavilion and live tattooing-Josh got a Boba Fett blaster designed off of the original release Boba Fett action figure. Joe & I walked around the floor to scope things out.
1415: Arrived a bit late, but caught Star Wars Crafting with Bonnie Burton. Thought I spotted MandyBu in front of me and I was right. Met Liz Lee and Josh got a photo with her.
1500: Headed over to the official Star Wars Merch area and picked up some postcards and the Boba Fett poster
1530: Attempted to go to the cancellation station with no avail; line over 100 deep and Force Cast show on the horizon.
1615: Force Cast show live! Appeared to be it's busiest showing at SWCV. Sat behind a man with a large behind that wouldn't sit down and had to crane to see Jason. Met Eric and got trading cards too. FC live show=Jamie in a tizzy.
1700: Left a bit early to grab a quick dinner of pizza and get ready for the TFN party.
1900: Raspberry 6 bus to arrive fashionably late to the TFN party. What a blast! Josh, Joe, and I are all losers in the raffles, loud mall punk Star Wars band, a lady with a jug of blue milk, and loads of laughter. Met Jason, Jimmy Mac, Kyle Newman, MandyBu & James Arnold Taylor. Dave Filoni mobbed, so didn't want to add to the crew, but hyperventilated when I was nearby anyway. Me to myself: "Deep breaths Jamie, you're always a spaz but you're really spazzing out now!"
2330: Taxi home with new friends, Joe L. and Amy, walk to Walgreens, and to bed after a little Golden Girls. "Thank you for bein' a friend."

Friday
800: Slept in, knowing that there would be no sleep the next night. Bagels and OJ for brekkie.
1030: Sounds of Star Wars with Ben Burtt. It is so cool to hear what he has to say about sound design and collection. Talked about creating sounds from John Wayne and Kirk Douglas discarded tapes at the production studio. Mr. Burtt was one of my panel favorites last time too.
1200: Force Cast Live show! Stayed for the first 15 minutes but had to run to catch a burrito for lunch with Joe M. Hello day 2 trading cards!
1300: The art of story boarding Clone Wars with Dave Filoni. Dave arrives just in time with Meagan Finnerty and claims that he hasn't really prepared. Still, what he shares is amazing. Talks about his history, education, employments, and what brought him to his directorial and artistic point of view. Proceeds to demonstrate how to draw out storyboards and how to use camera locations to tell the story. "Dave, will you be my life mentor??" Josh and I seriously spellbound.
1400: Celebration V Bounty Hunt with Josh and Joe M. on team Triple J Express. Answered questions then went out to seek the people who stamp our booklet when we get a clue right. Slow start as they characters weren't dressed as their clues (i.e. the clue was Chewie but the person was dressed as a scout trooper). Finished in time and handed it in at 1600. Decided not to go to the award ceremony because we all always lose but had fun in the process.
1600: Walked the exhibit hall with Joe M. to get photos with the scenes set up. Josh is transformed into Starkiller and carbonite Han for his Demille-esque close-up.
1800: Why we love the prequels with Kyle Newman, Eric, Tom Hodges, James Arnold Taylor, Dave Filoni, Jesse Hildreth. Preaching to the choir! Love to hear positive and constructive discussion about the prequels. Josh and I are waaay into it.
1900: To our Indian dinner adventure with Josh, Joe M., and Joe L. Pact made to make it into the live hall to see George Lucas together, no exceptions. If we don't make it into the live hall, we aren't going. It's a deal! :)
2100: Back to the hotel, but feeling suspicious that the GL queue is growing. Josh and I shower and head over to the line at 2200.
2200-1100: Queuing for ages. Outside on the concrete for most of the night with both Joes. Met Alan, Jay, Julian, and Chris in line; more Celebration friends to meet up with next time. Moved inside around 600. Very little sleep but for short naps. That will be me playing the role of zombie-wife to Josh.

Saturday
700: Joe M. gets us all brekkie from McDs. He's the hero for the day!
730: Our little group meeting with Josh and the Joes to dish over GL, favorite jedi, and our pact.
1000: Me: "Hey! Is that jedishua!?" Indeed. Surprise myself and go over to chat regardless of being shy.
1030: Finally to the Chapman hall, sitting on the left in the lower section of the theater. Pact honored!!! Exhausted but so excited. Good DJ to get us pumped. Journey, "Don't stop believing!!"
1100: George interviewed by John Stewart. News flash: Obi from planet of Stewjohn. Special guests Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamil. George says the Clone Wars crew is working on season 5 already.
1230: Lunch at Denny's with Josh and the Joes then run back to hotel for quick refresh; Josh stands in line for the next panel.
1420: Run (literally) the whole way from the hotel to the OCCC and inside the OCCC to get to Josh and Joe L. just in time before queue goes into Valencia room.
1430: Clone Wars Season 3 Revealed with Dave Filoni. The scenes were amazing, the animation looked great. Cad Bane with a lightsaber!? Satine is back! Exploration of Dathomir and the sith witches, Grevious, Asoka visions, Darth Maul's brother. So glad that the premier is just around the corner so there is something SW related to look forward to when SWCV is over. Q&A put Dave in tight spots when multiple children asked difficult questions. A lot of hiding under the hat, red cheeks, and trying to start a sentence with "There...There.......There...." News: there will be some connections to the original trilogy [this season], George wants Asajj to have more of a story, Dave surprised about George's "season 5" comment, Dave says the series will go on as long as the fans support the show an like watching.
Note to Dave: please forgive the girl half way back on your right who kept nodding off. Exhausted from waiting for GL but I was totally listening!
1530-1730: Walked around with Josh and Joe L. to see the Ralph McQuarrie artwork and the TK stormtrooper helmet art project. Then down to the exhibit hall where we all split up. Desperately searching for a place with coffee that wasn't closed. Ran into Kyle Newman and met Jaime King; totally word vomiting because of exhaustion; please forgive me! (Couldn't even tell Jaime that I thought she was cool since the mid 1990's when I knew her as the model, James King. I thought her name was awesome and wanted to change my name because I'm named after my grandpa, James, who I adored. But instead, "Jaime, your work is amazing" is all I could inspire.) Grabbed the cards from the Force Cast show that I missed, saw Dave Filoni again, and met up with the Josh and Joe L. Quick pizza with Joshie while queuing for the next show.
1800: Clone Wars behind the microphone with a crew from the cast- James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Jaime King, Catherine Taber, Ashley Eckstein, Matt Wood, Tom Cane. JAT did a spectacular voice melding presentation to show how voices are related and went from one to the next with 30+ examples. The group answered questions about how to get into voice acting, which was really cool. What a gracious bunch of people.
1900: ESB screening with Josh and Joe M. What a perfect way to end Celebration. Couldn't believe how good it looked on that screen! Awake now for about 40 hours.
2115: Walk back to hotel, pack, and sleep. CV is over for us. :(

Joe M., Josh, Jamie, Joe L.     (Photo by Alan L.)

1000 Saturday morning, waiting to shuffle into the Chapman Theater to see GL interview. 26 hours awake and counting. We already know we've honored our pact to get in to the live show. Celebration is all about making new, great friends.

Sunday
345: Wake up to ready for drive to airport
430: Drive to airport
630: Flight to Atlanta
1000: Flight to Pittsburgh
1300: Delirious and home. How is it over already??
2000: Some unpacking. "What's that?" My sweetheart bought me the Star Wars themed word magnets. I love this man! :)