Star Wars Visual Dictionary these books are so phenomenally geeky. They cover all sorts of great minutia about the stuff you see on screen (like Dooku’s boots are made from Rancor leather!)

The New Weezer. Sure, it’s no Pinkerton, but it is a catchy, smart disc from the geek-kings of Emo.

Epson Picturemate. This diminutive photo-print really fills in the whole in digital photography. It can spit out fantastic 4x6 prints with indelible and waterproof ink (I’ve tested) in just a couple of minutes for less that 30 cents each. It has USB, a built-in card reader, and optional Bluetooth modules for all your connectivity needs, and it works great over a network went connected to a print-server.

Can you feel the excitement? The hype-machine is reaching critical mass and I for one am completely caught-up in it. I mean it is friggin STAR WARS!! And the final chapter of a sage begun some 30 years ago. I don't care what you think of Episode I or Episode II this is a whole different beast. Even if the film is sub-par and horribly botched by Lucas it is still a momentous event in pop-cultural and cinematic history. We will soon witness the birth of the greatest villain in the history of cinema.

I've been trying to compose a post about the legacy of Star Wars and what it means to me for weeks now, but it is just too big, it runs too deep into my core to easily distill into a weblog entry. Some of my earliest memories involve AT-ATs and Yoda and C3P0 alarm clocks. I am, at the center, the very image of the geeky Star Wars fan. I may not have a storm-trooper costume or Empire tattoo but I'm still pretty heavily invested in the mythos. (Which isn't to say I think Lucas is infallible but Iâ??ll certainly give him the benefit of the doubt.)

Anyway, the point is the last Star Wars film is happening this week and I feel like a kid on Christmas eve. Even the marketing onslaught (with the exception of the "Yoda wants my diet Pepsi" spot) is exciting to me. Iâ??m such a rube that Iâ??ll buy cheese-its just because Vader is on the box, and they will actually taste better to me. So if you are one of those ppl who are too-cool-for-school and have jumped on the hatin' bandwagon or have anything to say that isn't, "I'm so happy to be alive now because I actually get to see the lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Vader." then fuck-off and don't harsh on my vibe.

Primer
I saw this film over the weekend on DVD after missing its ever-so-brief theatrical run last year. It is a (very) indie sci-fi feature about invention and time-travel, and the film was produced for a mere $7000 (on 16mm film no less!) If that figure means nothing to you then let me assure you it is stupidly small; almost inconceivably so. Not that a miniscule budget is any reason to praise a film, but the spirit and passion that went into its creation IS and the writer/director/producer/DP/star’s passion for his story is clearly evident on the screen. Not to mention the story is engaging and surprisingly tight for a time-travel film of any budget. I highly suggest checking it out, it may not be a film for everyone, but I want somebody I know to see it so I can talk about it with them.

The Bravery
I’ve been spinning this disc (actually that is a lie, I bought the album off iTunes, so there is no disc involved) for about a month now, and I’ve been meaning to write about it for just as long. The album is yet another shot in the volley of new-new wave (nu-wave? Nuevo wave?) bands that have been flooding the scene lately, and it blends the garage-rock-revival and new wave sounds in a way The Killers only wish they could. This would be the quintessential summer album if it had come out 3 months later, but considering how often I play it I’ll burn-out on it long before the dog-days are upon us. Still it is worth checking out, especially if it is still on sale at Best Buy for the absurdly low price of $6.99.

43 Folders
Oh man, I’ve been meaning to praise this site here at the Hat for months now. Mac-centric and geek oriented, 43 Folders is a clearing house for life-hacks, personal productivities systems, organizational tricks, and workflow management techniques. “Hints from Heloise for the Geek Set” as it’s author, Merlin Mann, says. Check out the FAQ then hit the archives.

iPhoto 5’s Slideshow Feature
iPhoto is one of my favorite apps on the Mac, and with the release of version 5 things just keep getting better. My favorite new feature is the improved slide-show interface which allows you to create slick and touching slide-shows, complete with music, transitions, and the always impressive “Ken Burns Effect, quickly and easily. Coupled with the video-out on my powerbook running to the TV it has made viewing the explosion of digital pictures on my hard drive a much more enjoyable event far beyond browsing the library or flipping through a photo-album. (and for thsoe of you on a mac w/ iPhoto 5 here is a handy tutorial on slideshows.)

The point of all this is while film PRODUCTION is really the most exciting thing to me, film THEORY comes in as a close second. If it didn't involve 5+ years of crushing poverty, followed by decades of equally crushing debt I would be very happy to return to the scholarly pursuit of film-as-art because I truly believe that more people need a better understanding of film theory. So I'm counting on all of you, dear readers, to quickly stop me if you are disinterested, or feel that you know all that you need to know in this area because I've been working on some ideas and as it stands I'm going to use you as my guinea pigs.