Using LED Lucasian swords, the Golden Gate Knights teach lightsaber courses each week in San Francisco. Headed by a former choreographer for George Lucas' Star Wars films, the classes (for kids-at-heart 17 and older) teach saber choreography that will help budding jedis become experts at "spins, flourishes and a whole lot more." The classes are broken up into four parts: more ›

On Friday, November 18, the public and the fine folks at LEGO will help construct a 12-foot tall by 10-foot wide Santa Yoda made out of lego bricks, right next to the ice skating rink in Union Square. It promises to be one of the greatest lego creations of all time. (Ha, kidding! The greatest ones, of course, are made with space legos, the raddest blocks in the history of toys. But still, this Santa Yoda statue will be a sight to behold.) more ›

After the Giants drew that delightful connection between late summer baseball and the struggles of a small group of rebels fighting to defeat the evil, intergalactic empire, our friends at the Tenderloin Geographic Society have taken that metaphor and knocked it out of the park. Because weren't you curious which Giant would play Chewbacca? more ›

Look, nerds! The Giants have pulled off what could be one of the greatest promotional tie-ins in baseball history: a limited edition Brian Wilson-frozen-in-carbonite statue. The tchotchke (which features Han Solo on the back side, naturally) will be handed out to those who buy a Star Wars Day Ticket Package to the Sunday, September 4th game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park. What else comes in that package, you're wondering? Well, access to a pregame costume party, of course. And after the game, everyone gets to camp out on the field for a special screening of The Empire Strikes Back, which everyone knows is the best one. We recommend you bring plenty of blankets, or you'll be frozen yourself by the end of the night. more ›

Laughing Squid draws our attention to a new caffeinated brew set to get last night's meal moving faster than a Landspeeder. Created by the minds at Think Geek, it's called the Star Wars Darth Vader's Dark Side Roast. Here's how they describe the far, far away coffee: "Get a taste of the Dark Side with this rich hand roasted coffee. Three diverse coffees and two different roasts create a full-bodied, sharp, cup with spicy undertones and smoky, dark-roasted complexity. Vader's Dark Roast Coffee is commonly enjoyed by Dark Lords of the Sith while planning new Death Star construction, but give into your anger, sample a steaming cup and you will be rewarded with power beyond your imagination." more ›

Fans of the Star Wars prequels can get their pictures taken with some Clone Troopers tomorrow at Parkmerced from 4 to 7 p.m. The first 500 guests will get free prints of their pictures, and the first 50 people to arrive in costume and sign up for the Costume Contest will win free lightsabers. There will also be a raffle for Star Wars giveaways. more ›

Hey, Star Wars fans! Listen up. Yet another way for you to enjoy that sci-fi story about Princess Leia and those adorable Ewoks is coming. A touring production of George Lucas' famous and much-loved films (all six of them!), featuring a symphony orchestra and choir performing John WIlliams' scores, will kick off in Anaheim, CA on October 1. The concert, according to , will also feature "Anthony Daniels, who played C-3P0 in the films, [narrating] alongside a three-story-tall HD screen that will display footage from the movies." The orchestra and choir will be conducted under the direction of Belgian conductor Dirk Brosse. Fun! "We've taken the key themes from the music and cut together all the images that fit with each theme, so you can really get a sense of how the music played into the images," Lucas said in a statement. The concert, which will run a little over two hours, will makes stops in "cities from Phoenix to Oklahoma City." Performances at HP Pavilion will happen at 2 and 7 p.m. on Oct. 11. Tickets go from $35 to $75. more ›

Here's a great follow-up to last fall's Imperial Fleet Week: Death Star Over San Francisco, by Mike Horn of Current TV. more ›

Please advise. more ›

"Orders bust of himself erected at City Hall," reports SF Citizen. Will advise of impending doom. more ›

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Have you always wanted to appear on Spike TV? We have. We'd even be on Max-X, which is, aside from Intervention, the best show on TV. But there's a safer way to get on the testosterone -heavy network: the 2008 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. This year's SWFMC winners will air on Spike TV, so hop to it. more ›

Rejoice, space believers! For there is finally - yes, finally! - someplace you can go on l'Internet to read about such sci-fi-ness (excuse us, "science fiction-ness" for all of you purists) ranging from Samuel R. Delany to Joss Whedon to Small Wonder. Io9, a Bay Area-based blog care of Gawker, launched yesterday, and we couldn't be more thrilled. That is, until we read about their editor, Annalee Newitz. more ›

Well, it won't be destroyed so much as it will be sent into space. And then vaporized, or zapped, or something. more ›

Star Wars-ish stuff sometimes seems done to death, but we fondly remember this PSA. What we forgot, though, was the pillow talk at the very end of this anti-smoking propaganda. It's very moving. And kind of sad. more ›

--They took away the hazmat license of the company whose truck blew up the Macarthur Maze. We can't really disagree with that. more ›

There's only one thing better than absorbing nerdy cultural texts, and that's becoming a nerdy cultural text of your own. Voting on the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge launched today; over the next month, a ton of fan-made Star Wars films will duel to the death to attract the attention of our local birthday-beardo, George Lucas. Winners are announced May 27 on Spike TV (corporate sibling of Atom Films). We adore Chad Vader, of course, having heartily enjoyed his Rifftrax contributions, but there's lots more to choose from. Check the submissions out on Atom Films, and support indie film! Or at least, what would have been indie films if their owners hadn't surrendered them to Viacom. more ›

A movie about local filmmakers wrangling with local politicians? We are so there! more ›

More mysterious criminal events in Fremont! This time, someone dropped a five-foot tall safe off a truck in the middle of the road. The safe had been pried open, revealing...... a collection of about 70 Star Wars action figures, still in their original packaging. Somewhere, a broken-hearted fan weeps. more ›

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? more ›

When we first heard about the show, "One Man Star Wars", we weren't sure whether it was the dumbest idea ever or the awesomest idea ever. After seeing it, we can say with great confidence that it's the awesomest idea ever. more ›

From the Chron's Peter Hartlaub, we get word that the Castro Theater is going to be showing all three movies of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Yep, that's Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King back-to-back-to-back. And yes, that's a lot of movie watching but if you were going to watch like eight hours of movies, you couldn't do wrong there. Name another movie trilogy that's even as half good as these three, come on we dare you. The Godfather Trilogy? Godfather III. Star Wars IV-VI? Ewoks. American Pie I-III? Not even close-- hell, Tara Reid wasn't even in the last two. See, the way we see it is it'll be cold, the stores will be mayhem, we've already seen "A Christmas Story" over twenty times, and we have no life. What could be better than 559 minutes of Middle Earth-goodness? Show starts at 1:30. Tickets are $10 more ›

And today’s prize is...The Warriors Girls 2007 Swimsuit calendar! It's even sixteen months too! No, just joking. Today's gift is much cooler. It's a one year subscription to Ready Made magazine and a Ready Made t-shirt. For those not in the know, Ready Made magazine is a bi-monthly magazine that helps you make stuff. Cool stuff. Like origami X-Wing fighters (that's a Star Wars thing). Or a doll playhouse. It also gives you info on where to shop for cool crafts. more ›

Because you can never make enough money off geeks, Cinemax is promoting the playing of all six Star Wars movies in Hi Def by turning Union Square into a "Jedi Recruitment & Training Center" tomorrow. more ›

Awww, we like the SFist sports coverage, even in District 6! This week's episode: Everybody Hates Fair And Balanced. more ›

For those of you who don't watch the "Colbert Report", Stephen has been running a green screen challenge where he asked members of the Colbert Nation to add all sorts of computer effects to some dorky moves with a pretend light saber he did while standing behind a green screen (it was the intro of his "Better Know a District" bit with Lynne Woolsely, actually). Wednesday night, he announced the two finalists of the challenge, some woman from Torrance and a "George L" from Marin. The entire bit is the video posted above, but if you just want to watch just the entry, you can see it here. Well George, who flew all the way to New York to accept what he thought would be his prize, lost to the other entrant and left a little disappointed. So disappointed he later challenged Colbert to a light saber duel, which you can see here. more ›

Hi, this is Jon and I'll be your new editor. Some of you might know me as the reactionary one, others of you might know me as the unsophisticated one, but most of you know me as the non-Rita one. I usually write about sports and politics with the occasional rant and review thrown in for good measure. As for where I sit on all the great social and cultural questions of the age, in an effort to show editorial transparency, I will admit that I go Christina over Britney, N'Sync over the Backstreet Boys, young Elvis over fat Elvis, Nirvana over Pearl Jam, the LoTR trilogy over the Star Wars trilogy, like both the English and American " the Office" equally, and think cats and dogs should just get along. Oh, and my favorite Beatle is John. more ›