George Lucas - World-of-Newave.info http://answers.world-of-newave.info/george-lucas.htm Latest news and articles about George Lucas en-us Copyright (c)2004-2008.§/Newave SARL. All rights reserved. webmaster@world-of-newave.com (Webmaster) Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:46:03 GMT Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:46:03 GMT Newave Lisa XML Engine v1.0 - http://www.world-of-newave.info/about.htm 60 http://www.world-of-newave.info/images/wi8831.gif World-of-Newave.info - Knowledge and Informational Database http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 88 31 {LITERATURE > CYBERPUNK} - MAD About Star Wars: more than your average MAD anthology http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/mad-about-star-wars-more-than-your-average-mad-anthology-2008093666.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/literature/genres/cyberpunk/mad-about-star-wars-more-than-your-average-mad-anthology-2008093666.htm Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:24:43 GMT MAD About Star Wars is a lot more than your typical MAD magazine anthology. The author, Jonathan Bresman, was a Lucasfilm employee before he became a senior editor at MAD, so there's a really great sense of how Lucasfilm and George Lucas (a legendary MAD Magazine fan) reacted to each of the many spot-on, hold-your-gut parodies MAD ran over the years. The book is liberally sprinkled with sidebar anaecdotes telling stories of MAD and Lucas's relationship to each other (for example, the Lucasfilm legal department sent a threatening letter to MAD about one of their parodies; the same parody generated a personal fan-letter from George Lucas -- MAD simply sent copies of each letter to the other sender and the problem went away), including the many times a MAD parody about tatty Star Wars merch or franchising was outdone by actual licensed products and sequels. Bresman also pokes fun at MAD's own propensity for cheap shots, counting all the limp light-saber jokes and other repeated gags that show up in each new parody. Thirty years of Star Wars generated thirty years of great material for MAD, and this volume collects the very best of it, annotating it with background and inside info. It's just the thing to remind yourself of why MAD rules -- or to turn on a young Star Wars fan to decades worth of loving lampoons. MAD About Star Wars Update: Bonnie Burton sez, "We did a lot of interviews with the authors and the old MAD magazine crew: It's a MAD MAD MAD MAD Galaxy (Interviews with Mort Drucker and Dick DeBartolo); The Usual Gang of Jediots: MAD About Star Wars (Interviews with David Shayne and Jonathan Bresman)"... Boingboing.Net MAD About Star Wars: more than your average MAD anthology {new window}   Www.Boingboing.Net - MAD About Star Wars is a lot more than your typical MAD magazine anthology. The author, Jonathan Bresman, was a Lucasfilm employee before he became a senior editor at MAD, so there's a really great sense of how Lucasfilm and George Lucas (a legendary MAD Magazine fan) reacted to each of the many spot-on, hold-your-gut parodies MAD ran over the years. The book is liberally sprinkled with sidebar anaecdotes telling stories of MAD and Lucas's relationship to each other (for example, the Lucasfilm legal department sent a threatening letter to MAD about one of their parodies; the same parody generated a personal fan-letter from George Lucas -- MAD simply sent copies of each letter to the other sender and the problem went away), including the many times a MAD parody about tatty Star Wars merch or franchising was outdone by actual licensed products and sequels. Bresman also pokes fun at MAD's own propensity for cheap shots, counting all the limp light-saber jokes and other repeated gags that show up in each new parody. Thirty years of Star Wars generated thirty years of great material for MAD, and this volume collects the very best of it, annotating it with background and inside info. It's just the thing to remind yourself of why MAD rules -- or to turn on a young Star Wars fan to decades worth of loving lampoons. MAD About Star Wars Update: Bonnie Burton sez, "We did a lot of interviews with the authors and the old MAD magazine crew: It's a MAD MAD MAD MAD Galaxy (Interviews with Mort Drucker and Dick DeBartolo); The Usual Gang of Jediots: MAD About Star Wars (Interviews with David Shayne and Jonathan Bresman)"...
MAD About Star Wars: more than your average MAD anthology - Boing Boing {...}
Published: September 5, 2008, 8:24 pm - Indexed: September 7, 2008, 8:57 am - Page Size: 38KB
Category: Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk

]]> Arts > Literature > Genres > Cyberpunk {NORTH AMERICA > LODGING} - Pacific Coast Trails up MT TAM+Muir Wood+BoLagoon+Audobon Canyon Ranch (W Bkfst+WiFi+HBO+Stinson Beach 94970 ) $75 1bd http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/pacific-coast-trails-up-mt-tam-muir-wood-bolagoon-2008095167.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/pacific-coast-trails-up-mt-tam-muir-wood-bolagoon-2008095167.htm Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:30:38 GMT Indian Summer, by the Coast, Hot & Sunny, Lots of Elbow Room, Sun.-Fri., Call now, Space Limited, 415 868-1034 or 868-9828.Pet Friendly, Family Friendly, Inexpensive, Transportation Coordinated-awestmarintaxi@gmail.com, office #, 415 868-1330, cell 415 497-6656. Also, West Marin Stagecoach stop, located on the corner of #1 Belvedere and Hwy. #1, at the porch of the Redwoods Haus Inn in Stinson Beach. Where? Tell me, can you forget the fires of No.& Central Ca., fill your lungs w the Pacific Breeze by the Seaside(No smoke or haze from the Napa/Sonoma, Mendocino/Shasta, Santa Barbara-Big Sur, Santa Cruz Fires)& only be, 45 minutes away from San Francisco. In a zero tolerance for smoking/excessive drinking family supportive establishment, in either the White or Redwood Room[see pics, www.stinson-beach.com or www.stinson-beach.de in German], for the unequaled rate of $75. a day[Sun.-Thurs.]add 10% TOT, for a single person, w a queen-size bed, provided Cable/HBO TV w VCR & a 200+ VCR Library, access to free long distance calling/computer usage/WiFi/ Fax Machine, Meals, including Buffet Style Breakfast prepared by the Proprietor & Guest Chefs(Gov Clintons Little Rock Arkansas Chef, from the Governors Favorite Tryst, the Excelsior Hotel & other visiting world class chefs )comprising of Eggs-Coffee-Tea-Milk-Fruit-Juice-Cereal-Honey-Jam/Maramalade-Brot mit Butter-Ham-Potatoes-Wknd. French Toast. Potlucks, where all our guests/friends get involved in, bringing foodstuffs/preparation/bbqing/plate distributing & cleanup, playing harmonious ad libs on guitars w Redwoods Piano & Trumpet Accompaniment. Where you can speak your mind, share in multi cultural points of interest at Breakfast, w fellow Guests/Friends at the Long Tables of the Redwoods, over subject matter, that is seldom encountered in the Establishment Media. If you are overwhelmed by the congestion of the City, experienced the cable cars, Lombard, Nob Hill, Coit Tower, view of the TransAmerica Pyramid, Alcatraz Tour, Cement+Cobblestone and Asphalt Streets of old S.F. & are suffering from a frustrated desire to pitch a tent in Golden Gate Park, then an Escape to the Coast, is what you need to add to your SFBay Area Visitors Agenda. Way out West in West Marin, where you can scale MT TAMALPAIS by way of the Pacific Coastal Trail, hike the Redwoods of Muir, trek the White Sands of Stinson Beach, see the Migratory Aquatic Bird Species of Bolinas Lagoon and their nesting chicks at the Audobon Canyon Ranch, gambol at the Clothing Optional beaches of Muir & Red Rock by way of the Goat Trail off the Coast Redwoods Hwy. #1. Take advantage of the Inexpensive Rates, far from the Maddning Crowd in Stinson Beach, the World at Peace Redwoods Haus Inn. No car? Then you can bus from the City, on the Golden Gate Transit, catch the West Marin StageCoach to the Redwoods or use the local West Marin Taxi Service, AWESTMARINTAXI, 415 868-1330, cell 415 497-6656. Tour the Coast Places of Interest w a up to date local historian/tour specialist and only pay for the ride. Taxi service by request, awestmarintaxi@gmail.com, servicing and offering tours of Greater/West Marin, SFO+Oak pickups, SFBAY AREA & the Wine Country, Conventional and Luxury Cars. Have you ever imagined yourself living in the Great Outdoors, beneath the Redwoods, by the Sea, as one of the denizens of those interdependent environments? Imagine life as a skunk, a raccoon, an elk, a squirrel, a possum, a pelican/egret/blue heron, a fox, a coyote[all the animals of the forest & sea, are not to be fed for pics, that makes them dependent on humans not the wild] a mountain lion, a coho salmon, a whale or elephant seal. That Quest is what brings beach goers, hikers, bikers, bird/whale/elephant seal watchers, to the Biodiverse Paradise of the Coast, seeking/observing & participating in the continued survival of species that depend on the nurturing of an unspoiled environment. Enjoy the Nature of Living in the Redwoods Forest of Mt. Tamalpais, Muir Woods, Marshlands of Bolinas Lagoon & the 3 mile Shoreline of the White Sand Beach of Stinson. Observations of the Denizens of the Pacific, Elephant Seals & Whales, happening now, through Spring, rendezvous at the World at Peace Redwoods Haus Inn. Receive an itinerary, detailing where to find the land animals, sea mammals, birds and fish, in the Redwoods Forests & Coastline that surrounds the Coastal Village of Stinson Beach. Tips on Hiking in the West Marin Coastal Redwoods Area Download Internet Site, "Marin County: A Wild Ramble, Near the Golden Gate", NYTimes Reporters Multiple Days Epic Hike through West Marin Trails to the World at Peace Redwoods Haus then over MT Tamalpais to Muir Woods & Beyond, travel.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/travel/03Explorer.html. See the Multi Media slide show, of Trails & Views of West Marin. Discover, the least priced but most enjoyable lodging in all of Marin County. The Cal-Trans/County of Marin Retrofits of Coast Hwy. #1 & Panoramic Hwy., over Scenic/Sacred MT TAMALPAIS & along the Coast, was a Success, not only for the unimpeded flow of Visitors/Residents on the Roadways, tested by the Ultimate Weather of Jan. 3rd, but also for the preservation/opening of Spectacular Scenic Views & Inviting Scenic Turnouts/Safe Rest Areas along their respective routes, South of Stinson Beach to Mill Valley. Future Plans for the continued improvements of the Redwoods Coast Hwy. #1, No. of Stinson, is guaranteed to continue the trend, of Safe & Scenic as well as Storm Resilient Roadways. Don't be left out, visit the Coast, enjoy our Roadways, marvel Pristine Nature, behind the Wheel. All Alone? You are always welcome, at the World at Peace, Redwoods Haus-Beach, Bed + Breakfast in Stinson Beach. Our doors, are open, 24hrs. daily, call 415 868-9828 or 868-1034 in advance. The Redwoods Haus, offers a model of Life in the Great Outdoors: living harmoniously w the Old Growth Redwoods of Muir; the Panoramic View of the City from MT Tamalpais; witnessing the Winter and Spring Migration of Aquatic Birds to the Bolinas Lagoon, Monarch Butterflies, Whales & Elephant Seals to the Coastline; next to the Waves of the Pacific Ocean breaking on the White Sand Beach of Stinson. More importantly, the Love and Happiness that emanates from surviving in the basics, living w/o artificial environments, malls, sports stadiums as well as movie theaters. Come, Break Bread at our Table, discuss and sing, play the piano, guitar, chess, cards & intelligent games with our friends & National/International Guests. Clear Sunlit Skies are the Norm, Crabs on the Beach, Aquatic Birds[Pelicans, Egrets, Blue Herons] Circling Beach Area & Alighting in the Lagoon, Crisp Redwood Scent by the Forest, Salt Air Freshness of the Beach, Redwood Trails of Muir and MT TAMALPAIS, see Migratory Whales and Elephant Seals, Bugling Tule Elk, Red Rock Hot Springs, all part of the Stinson Beach Experience. Going Fast, 1-7 Day Reservations, for the New Year. Lodging{{accommodations capability of 1 to 15)w Staff, Meals Nightly for the Guests and Friends of the Redwoods. Complimentary WiFi/ DSL/Computer+Phone Onsite w VCR/200 Videos/HBO/Cable T.V., Biergartren w BBQ, Boogie Boards/Wetsuits. Welcome to the World at Peace Redwoods Haus Beach, Bed & Breakfast in the Socially Acknowledged Nature Loving Village of Stinson Beach....brought to you by folks you should get to know, way out West in West Marin. See our sites for pics: www.stinson-beach.com; or in German, www.stinson-beach.de; phone 415 868-1034 or 415 868-9828. If you are coming to the SF Bay Area, for business or pleasure, you will want to take advantage of our unparalleled rates and unequaled benefits of being close to the City & Bay Area, plenty of safe parking for non-polluting vehicles, services, peace, solitude, beach, national parks, hiking trails, pristine coastline w abundance of Bo Lagoon migrating birds, whale, elephant seal, tule elk, white deer[locally called unicorns], mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, turkey vulture, hawk, spring Monarch Butterfly Jamboree, great white and animal species, all here on Natures Coast of West Marin & Stinson Beach. DAILY SINGLE PERSON NIGHT RATES*Sunday-Thursday* -White/Redwood Room-$75. for a single Little Cabin-$110.-for two Wknd-$150. . Pink Room $120.-for two Wknd Rate-$160. Crows Nest $130.-for two Wknd Rates $160. ***Critical Mass Member Discount: Bring your Bikes to this Bike Friendly Area, Mountain Bikes for designated Bike Trails offer ecologically friendly riding, Road Bikes for Panoramic & Redwoods Coast Scenic Hwy. #1 Spectacular Views. The World at Peace Redwoods Haus-Beach, Bed and Breakfast in Stinson Beach: "98 yrs. of Striving for Peace, Equality and Justice for One World at Peace, its 5 rooms, grounds and group facilities are available for Birthdays, Weddings, Christmas/New Years Gatherings of up to 15 extended family/group holiday revelers. Have the use of the entire facility and grounds w breakfast service, optional dinner caterin, proprietor in separate quarters. Euros sind Wilkommen-Inexpensive WINTER RATES/Spring/Summer/Fall, are to good to miss at the Redwoods Haus.. Our INEXPENSIVE RATE, is due to the generosity of our selfless proprietor, who passes on the savings to you, of: performing all the service work, herself, wholesale restaurant food buying of breakfast, optional potluck dinner & happy hour commodities. So you can visit/see/hike/bike/surf the Pacific Coast Beach by MT TAMALPAIS-Redwoods Trails of MUIR WOODS-Pelicans of BoLagoon. Accommodations include American/German/Texan breakfast, WiFi/HBO/VCR, 200+ Video Library/Free Long Distance Calling/Computer on site/B.B.Q./Washer & Dryer/+Itinerary. We have, space available for 1-5-or 7 day reservation package deals, Way Out West in West Marin, Nature Loving Village of Stinson Beach, Politically -- Ecologically -- Motivated. Call now, 415 868-9828. Escape the Maddning Crowd, relax, rest and appreciate Pristine Paradise. Be sure, to leave the Greater Stinson Beach Area, as you found our SW Marin Community, pick up litter, on the beach, in the forest, protect our environment, shop w a environmental safe reusable bag at the marketplace. For updates on issues of the SW Marin Community & the S.F. Oil Spill of November 2007, see the Stinson Beach Chamber of Commerce site, www.stinson-beach.org. Also, the Stinson Beach Community Newsletter at www.stinson-beach.net. Winter Season on the Coast, gives plenty of elbow room, to the aficionado of migratory whale/bird/tule elk watching, salmon fishing, surfing, biking and hiking. Our Rates and Service with a Smile, are individually provided in a less crowded environment. When the Sun is out, a Vacation at the Shore is in. However you choose to celebrate the coming of the Sun, May it be a joyous time for you & yours . May love, joy, wellness, happiness & peace abound in your life. Have your chance to see the Winter Migration of Whales, Seafowl and Landbirds as well as the return of the Elephant Seals to Chimney Rock near the Point Reyes Lighthouse for Spring Breeding. Experience the herd of Tule Elk, bugling and competing to mate, off Pierce Point Road in Tomales State Park in Point Reyes as well as the many species of land and sea mammals/fish that abound in the Point Reyes Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Mt Tamalpais State Park, throughout the winter and spring season. May we live in a World at Peace, with the awareness of Natures Creation in every Sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every drumbeat of Pacific Waves breaking on the Beach, every lover's kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart. Cinematic History, Stinson Beach has been the setting and filming location for several movies: Play It Again Sam The Fog Memoirs of an Invisible Man Basic Instinct On The Edge The Unbearable Lightness of Being The town was mentioned in an episode of M*A*S*H. Theme nights at the Coast Cafe in BoBo[Bolinas] every Monday Night, decorated w antique wooden Kayaks hanging from the ceiling and buoys, fishnets, multi colored cork ballasts everywhere.. Dining inside an outside next to the oyster bar. Nautical, Open Water theme... The Blue Heron, also located on Wharf Road, black tie dining atmosphere w a baby Grand on an upraised dais for dinner guests to play.. ***Open Mic, every tues. of the week during the Parkside Restaurants Open Mic All You Can Eat Night at $7.50 per person , 5:30-9:30, pasta, soup or salad, reservations and info. at 415 868-1272. All Musicians, Poets and Performers Welcome,*** practice beforehand at the Redwoods, which has a Piano, acoustic guitar, Amp and Jazzed Trumpeteer, onsite.*** The Sandollar and Stinson Grill in Stinson, offer not only great land/sea food but musical entertainment on the weekends. Breakfast Topics: Share in the telling of the Stinson Beach Coast history: of its ethnic diversity of explorers, pirates, 49ers and settlers over breakfast; discuss why facts-truth-reason play such a minor role in our democracy; receive Guidance & Individual Itinerary Needs of the Greater SF Bay Area/Wine Country/Coastal Paradise; being part of the Spanish then Mexican Rancho of Baulinas; discovery and claim of the West Marin Coastline of Drakes Bay for the Throne of England by Sir Francis Drake; 1800's Russian exploration and colonization as far south as Nicasio from Fort Ross near Russian River; 49er Gold Rush Pacific Ocean conduit to neighboring Bolinas Lagoon, then to the Goldfields; building of the Laffalot[original name of the Redwoods Haus] by Norwegian Ship Captain Nielson using pier logs that fell into the Bay during the 1906 Earthquake, for footings; route of the Gravity Train over Mt Tam, beachgoers after debarking, hiring drivers of horse and buggy teams to bring them to the Laffalot; smuggling into Bolinas fom the Pacific of-Duty free goods of the 1800's, Al Capones Prohibition Alcohol from British Columbia and 60's Contraband from the Golden Triangle; the colorful history of the Redwoods Haus-being an inn then speakeasy, girlie haus/casino; neighbor to the 60's migration of the Psychedelic Counterculture of the Haight-Ashbury with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to Bolinas; the Artistry/Openness of Opinion and Environmental/Non-developmental Concerns of our Community of SW Marin. No Car or Horse & Buggy? See Public Transportation, below. In the Spirit of the Season we invite you & yours to Promenade on the Beach, scribe Love Letters on the Sand to one another on the the Edge of the Pacific Ocean & the Bolinas Lagoon. Frolic in the Redwood Rain Forests of the National & State Parks of West Marin amidst the environs of many endangered species. Dine in the Shadow of Mt. Tamalpais, retiring at the Redwoods with champagne-wine or port of Your choice from Sergio & Susanas, Stinson Market by the Beach, select from their fully stocked cellar of domestic, exotic liqueurs & appetizers, 415 868-1923, www.stinsonbeachmarket.net. Roses can be ordered, delivered & placed in your room, beforehand by Stinson's own, Meristem Florists, 415 868-0666. Wake up in the Morning to the welcome smell of gourmet food preparation in our kitchen, designed to satisfy your needs in both quality & quantity. We are a casual family oriented establishment, emphasizing discussion & the need to free thought and ideas, over breakfast, promoting Peace on Earth & Goodwill to our fellow men and all the Species of our Planet, as well as interjecting the need for facts, truth & reason to play a major role in our democracy. We also provide full service, unequaled value and much gratitude for your welcomed material & spiritual support as well as many happy memories. About Our Location: 6 mi. N of Muir Woods 6 mi. North of the Green Gulch Zen Center 16 miles South of Vedanta Retreat, in Olema 24 mi. SW of San Geronimo Valleys Spirit Rock Retreat & S.G. Golf Course We are located just a short 40 minutes NW of San Francisco, 6 miles SE of Bolinas and 6 miles N of Muir Beach Bolinas is located at the southern end of the Point Reyes National Seashore, surrounded by ocean and unspoiled parkland, Muir Beach is off Shoreline Hwy. #1, only minutes SW of the Muir Woods Entrance on Muir Woods Road. Because of the unique coastal position of Bolinas & Stinson, the surf is protected from the winds and huge swells that make other beaches in Northern California too dangerous for beginners. Muir Beach offers more advanced surfers a differentiated plethora of wave action. Please be respectful of town/village residents, pack your trash when you leave the beach, be mindful of posted speed limits & don't drink & drive. Choose from our Comfortable suites The Redwood Room: Queen bed ($65.si weekdays, Email/Call for Weekend Reservations) The White Room: Queen bed ($65. si. weekdays, Email/Call for Weekend Reservations) The Pink Room: Queen Bed & Futon Queen{doubles as couch} The Crows Nest: Queen bed & futon Queen(can be used as seating) Private deck & 360 degree picture windows, featuring panoramic views of Mt. Tamalpias, Bolinas Mesa Ridgeline & the Pacific Seascape *($150.per couple weekdays) Big Cabin Room: Queen Size Bed, Complete w Shower Bathroom, Detached, $100. per couple weekdays. Weekends:Add $25. to posted prices for extra person or canine. Children and Pet Friendly.... About our Breakfast Daily: MF - Prepared Ham & Eggs with tomatoes-onion- greens-potatoes, Bread, Butter, Coffee, Tea, Milk, Fruit, Juice, Jam, Honey, Cereal,(French Toast, Pancakes by order}. Our Sunday Special Offering (ham & cheese, seasonal surprises) Eggs In Any Style Grandmere’s French Toast Roasted Provincial Potatoes The Finest Coffees & Teas Fresh Local, Fruit & Fruit Juices Additional Amenities: Wireless/Wifi/Computer & Phone On-site, Cable/HBO, VCR/ 200 Video library, Biergarten w Barbeque Contact & View Pics See our sites www.stinson-beach.com; www.stinson-beach.de in German. Phone #s: Reservations-415 868-1034 or 415 868-9828 E-Mail: Paradise@stinson-beach.com Address: #1 Belvedere and Shoreline Highway #1, Stinson Beach 94970 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 404 , Stinson Beach 94970 The Places to Explore We offer information on all of the local natural viewing locations of interest where you can see Whales, Seal and Elephant Seal colonies, Egrets, Herons, Pelicans, and the Tule Elk. Visit the Sulphur Hot Springs at Red Rock Beach , 4-5 days a month during negative tide periods of the Full Moon, the Ocean rolls back, giving 2 hrs., to enjoy the 110 degree heated Seawater, in a open pool of rock, by the edge of the Ocean. Walk into the tide pools of Duxbury Reef during minus tide, study close up the indigenous sea life of the Reef: Sea Anemones; Clams; Mussels; Starfish; Crabs; Coral; and the reef fishes in small pools of water. On Visitors Days of the Week, walk down the 300 steps leading to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, on the Point Reyes Peninsula, see the interior and the antique beacon light of French Manufacture, dating back over a 100 yrs. Kayak with Point Reyes Outdoors www.pointreyesoutdoors.com, 415 663-8192 Sea Kayaking Tours & Classes Guided Nature Hikes Mesa Road in Bolinas: Visit the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and take part in banding expeditions of migratory birds as well as study statistics of their numbers and sightings; Hike to Bass Lake on the Panoramic Trail head, from the parking lot at the end of Mesa Road ; See Agate Beach, where all the rocks are green agate. Hike the many trails that abound in the Golden Gate Recreation Area, Mt. Tamalpais and Tomales State Parks , as well as the Point Reyes National Seashore: Matt Davis-Steep Ravine-Dipsea-Lake Lagunitas-Kent & Nicasio Lakes. Gather Mussels in Season, for ethnic & old fashioned soups/stews. Dance at Smiley's Schooner Saloon & dance/dine at Rancho Nicasio, Sat. Nights to live music. Eat at your pick of 3 art bedecked and fine food dining establishments here in Stinson & two in Bolinas. Rent/Ride Horseback at Five Brooks Stable, Horse Rental, Open Year Round in Olema. 415 663-1570, Fax 415 663-8766, www.fivebrooks.com Workout Regimen, Beach Accessories, Kayaks, Surfboards: At the Stinson Beach Health Club, open daily, 7a.m.-9p.m.,415 868-8801, 3605 Shoreline Hwy.#1 , full range gym, offers weight sets, stationary bikes, Pilates studio, w views of Easkoot Creek in a Polynesian Village Natural Setting Ambiance. Stinson Beach Surf and Kayak Co., same location, Rent and Sell Beach Accessories, Full Range of Kayaks & Client friendly surfboards, Donny 415 868-8801, cell 415 257-1831. Los Banos Surf & Adventure Camp-: Coach Dave Lich, certified lifeguard, 415 847-2221 or 415 380-8900, www.stinsonbeachsurfcamp.com, Surf School Classes beginning 6/11, all ages welcome. Free shuttle from Mill Valley. "Bringing the beach to the kids of Marin & Fellow Travelers." BoBo Bikes located in Bolinas, 6 Wharf Rd., 415 450-0621Bike & Surfboard Impresario Sports Czar Terrence, Proprietor. Sales, Upload High Tech State of the Art Bikes, Surboards, Skates from the Czar of Sports Gear. Every detail of hardware can be found as well as Terrences Extensive Knowledge of what is right for you, in Sports Gear.. Visit/Shop: Claudia Chaplines Art Gallery, Annies Bookstore for Hiking/Biking Maps/Postcards, SurfGear/Beach Wear, Live Water Surf Shop. Many Villages, 2264 Hwy. #1, where you can select from a vast emporium of indigenous jewelry, buddhist artifacts, sacred totems, folk art of Bali, Handmade Oracles Mystical Talismans from the Island Jungles of Thailand and the floating Villages of Indochina. Astute World Expert/Time Traveler of White Light, Oshen, 415 868-1419. Experience: The Museum of Miwok Native American Artifacts at Slide Ranch; Nicasios Russian Orthodox Church, dating back to the Russian Colonial Period at Fort Ross; Smileys Schooner Saloon, an English Pub imported in 1850, oldest functioning alcohol establishment in California; Bodega Schoolhouse made famous in Alfred Hithcocks, "The Birds"; Muir Woods Trail, the setting for Hitchcocks "VERTIGO", where Jimmy Stewart followed Kim Novak into Muir Woods,on the Matt Davis Trailhead, beginning at Belvedere in Stinson(Right up from the Redwoods, #1 Belvedere]; Skywalker Ranch, East of Nicasio, creative brainchild of George Lucas; Peak of Sacred Mount Tamalpais-from which the viewer can experience 360 degree panorama views, of the Greater S.F. Bay Area & the City, Mt. Diablo, the Farollone Islands of the Pacific Ocean. These and many more view spots as well as Treasures of Wild West Architecture in West Marin Towns, will be addressed, directions will be given & an itinerary for all points of interest in Marin, Sonoma and the S.F. Greater Bay Area. Public Transportation: For all points in the SF Bay Area, Use the Transit Planner site, www.511.org From San Francisco , take #70 or #80 Golden Gate Transit, to Marin City Transfer to West Marin Stage Coach, website for schedule is: www.marintransit.org, call for info., M-F, 8 a.m.-5 a.m., 415 526-3239 AWMT, awestmarintaxi@gmail.com, by email request or phone 415 868-1330. AWMTaxi, offers luxury or conventional taxi, for all occasions, drivers/owners, experienced in the places to visit in the Point Reyes National Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, MT Tamalpais State Park, Muir Woods National Monument, Tomales Bay State Park, Beaches, Surf, Hiking Trails. See Whales, Elephant Seals, Tule Elk, Tour Oyster & Organic Farms. Real Estate Entrepreneurs & Businessmen take a tour of Present and Future Opportunities for Investment/Speculation by knowledgeable founder of the SBChamber of Commmerce, www.stinson-beach.org, founder/GP of the AWMT. Future Homeowners, tour local listings, benefit from years of expertise in the field of Property Management, Remodeling w Plumbing & Electrical Experience, bottomless pit of fixer-upper experience. Tourists enjoy tales of early settlements, 49ers, seafarers, told by our native to West Marin tour hosts. See architectural artifacts of the 1800's, visit museums & replicas of Miwok Native American Sites, Way out West in West Marin, only our tour drivers can show you. Important Phone No.s Stinson Beach Lifeguard Tower-415 868-0942 Stinson Beach Visitor Center- 415 388-2596 Driving Directions to Stinson Beach From Highway 101 Exit Highway 1/Stinson Beach (there will be a sign for Muir Woods/ Mt. Tamalpais at this exit) Drive about .5 miles. At the stoplight, turn left. You now have two options, both about the same distance, both on winding steep roads. Shoreline Hwy. 1 takes you along the Pacific Ocean, through Muir Beach , to Stinson Beach. Panoramic Highway take you up and over Mt. Tamalpais, w breathtaking panorama views of the City, East Bay, Sonoma County, to within one block of the Redwood Haus in Stinson Beach. To get to Panoramic from Hwy. 101, Drive 3 miles on Shoreline Hwy. #1. At the top of the hill, turn right onto the Panoramic Highway. From Panoramic access, Muir Woods/Mount Tamalpais and Stinson Beach. Or Continue straight on Shoreline Highway #1 about 12 miles to Stinson Beach. When traveling South to North on Hwy.#1, upon entering Stinson Beach, Make a right at the Firehouse, onto Belvedere, a u turn and park alongside fence, at #1 Belvedere and Hwy. #1, the Redwoods Haus, On Street Parking. Olema intersection and Sir Francis Drake Blvd.-16 miles South to Stinson Beach. Point Reyes Station. So. to Stinson Beach-18 miles So. to Stinson Beach. Barbeque in the Bier-garten Bring your own fish/chicken/duck/lamb/meat cuts/zucchini/corn/beverages and b.b.q. coals for barbeque, we provide potatoes, rice, onions, bread, condiments & b.b.q. coals or mesquite. Oysters[Redwoods Chef gives instructions on B.B.Q. preparation] must be obtained beforehand at: the Tomales Bay Oyster Farm, located on Shoreline Hwy. #1, 4 miles No. of Point Reyes Station; the Hog Island Oyster Co. in Marshall ; the Johnsons Oyster Farm on the Point Reyes Peninsula. Gesucht: Deutscher Schreiner oder Zimmermann fuer Renovierungs- und Reparaturarbeiten fuer Redwood Haus fuer flexible Zeit. Keine Arbeitserlaubnis noetig. Kommen Sie zu uns an die traumhafte Pazifikkueste. Sagen Sie dies all Ihren Freunden. Siehe unsere Internetseite: www.stinson-beach.de Kontakt: 415 868-1330 info@stinson-beach.com *** Trade and Barter Section Overnight Lodging Service to Trade for Your Various Goods or Services Wanted: Upright Frostless Energy Saving Freezer, New Pillowtop Queen Mattress, Lincoln Town Car, Mini Van, conventional 4 cylinder 4 door station wagon or car.*** Sea Kayaks along the Coast from Stinson/Bolinas Lagoon See harbor seals and water fowl along the shoreline while paddling on beautiful Bolinas Lagoon. You will experience this extraordinary area and its inhabitants at a relaxing enjoyable pace. Gain a wealth of knowledge and skill on every trip making this a perfect refreshing getaway adventure. Include a Wildflower Hike through Bolinas, renowned for it's spectacular array of wildflowers. Hillsides blanketed with vibrant yellow mustard, coastal cliffs decorated with brilliant purple iris, and fields of Daffodils, red Indian Paint Brush, Blue Eyed Grass and Footsteps of Spring. Take a walk and discover this beautiful coast in bloom. We will share with you everything we know about wildflowers while taking in breathtaking views. At dusk paddling on Bolinas Lagoon can be peaceful, still and inviting. Whether it's the Full Moon rising, a stunning Sunset, star filled skies, or glowing bioluminescence Bolinas Lagoon always offers a magical experience. To top the evening off, treat yourselves to a gourmet meal at the Sand Dollar, Parkside, or Grill in Stinson or the Bolinas Coast Cafe, while the sun sets. ***Note*** You never know from one instant to the next what will happen, the best thing you can do is to be kind & pursue your quest for continued happiness. We live in a climate-changing world, live life accordingly. Take advantage of the sunny weather climate, clean air, happiness & friendliness, businesses offering services, here in Stinson Beach. Sfbay.Craigslist.Org Pacific Coast Trails up MT TAM+Muir Wood+BoLagoon+Audobon Canyon Ranch (W Bkfst+WiFi+HBO+Stinson Beach 94970 ) $75 1bd {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - Indian Summer, by the Coast, Hot & Sunny, Lots of Elbow Room, Sun.-Fri., Call now, Space Limited, 415 868-1034 or 868-9828.Pet Friendly, Family Friendly, Inexpensive, Transportation Coordinated-awestmarintaxi@gmail.com, office #, 415 868-1330, cell 415 497-6656. Also, West Marin Stagecoach stop, located on the corner of #1 Belvedere and Hwy. #1, at the porch of the Redwoods Haus Inn in Stinson Beach. Where? Tell me, can you forget the fires of No.& Central Ca., fill your lungs w the Pacific Breeze by the Seaside(No smoke or haze from the Napa/Sonoma, Mendocino/Shasta, Santa Barbara-Big Sur, Santa Cruz Fires)& only be, 45 minutes away from San Francisco. In a zero tolerance for smoking/excessive drinking family supportive establishment, in either the White or Redwood Room[see pics, www.stinson-beach.com or www.stinson-beach.de in German], for the unequaled rate of $75. a day[Sun.-Thurs.]add 10% TOT, for a single person, w a queen-size bed, provided Cable/HBO TV w VCR & a 200+ VCR Library, access to free long distance calling/computer usage/WiFi/ Fax Machine, Meals, including Buffet Style Breakfast prepared by the Proprietor & Guest Chefs(Gov Clintons Little Rock Arkansas Chef, from the Governors Favorite Tryst, the Excelsior Hotel & other visiting world class chefs )comprising of Eggs-Coffee-Tea-Milk-Fruit-Juice-Cereal-Honey-Jam/Maramalade-Brot mit Butter-Ham-Potatoes-Wknd. French Toast. Potlucks, where all our guests/friends get involved in, bringing foodstuffs/preparation/bbqing/plate distributing & cleanup, playing harmonious ad libs on guitars w Redwoods Piano & Trumpet Accompaniment. Where you can speak your mind, share in multi cultural points of interest at Breakfast, w fellow Guests/Friends at the Long Tables of the Redwoods, over subject matter, that is seldom encountered in the Establishment Media. If you are overwhelmed by the congestion of the City, experienced the cable cars, Lombard, Nob Hill, Coit Tower, view of the TransAmerica Pyramid, Alcatraz Tour, Cement+Cobblestone and Asphalt Streets of old S.F. & are suffering from a frustrated desire to pitch a tent in Golden Gate Park, then an Escape to the Coast, is what you need to add to your SFBay Area Visitors Agenda. Way out West in West Marin, where you can scale MT TAMALPAIS by way of the Pacific Coastal Trail, hike the Redwoods of Muir, trek the White Sands of Stinson Beach, see the Migratory Aquatic Bird Species of Bolinas Lagoon and their nesting chicks at the Audobon Canyon Ranch, gambol at the Clothing Optional beaches of Muir & Red Rock by way of the Goat Trail off the Coast Redwoods Hwy. #1. Take advantage of the Inexpensive Rates, far from the Maddning Crowd in Stinson Beach, the World at Peace Redwoods Haus Inn. No car? Then you can bus from the City, on the Golden Gate Transit, catch the West Marin StageCoach to the Redwoods or use the local West Marin Taxi Service, AWESTMARINTAXI, 415 868-1330, cell 415 497-6656. Tour the Coast Places of Interest w a up to date local historian/tour specialist and only pay for the ride. Taxi service by request, awestmarintaxi@gmail.com, servicing and offering tours of Greater/West Marin, SFO+Oak pickups, SFBAY AREA & the Wine Country, Conventional and Luxury Cars. Have you ever imagined yourself living in the Great Outdoors, beneath the Redwoods, by the Sea, as one of the denizens of those interdependent environments? Imagine life as a skunk, a raccoon, an elk, a squirrel, a possum, a pelican/egret/blue heron, a fox, a coyote[all the animals of the forest & sea, are not to be fed for pics, that makes them dependent on humans not the wild] a mountain lion, a coho salmon, a whale or elephant seal. That Quest is what brings beach goers, hikers, bikers, bird/whale/elephant seal watchers, to the Biodiverse Paradise of the Coast, seeking/observing & participating in the continued survival of species that depend on the nurturing of an unspoiled environment. Enjoy the Nature of Living in the Redwoods Forest of Mt. Tamalpais, Muir Woods, Marshlands of Bolinas Lagoon & the 3 mile Shoreline of the White Sand Beach of Stinson. Observations of the Denizens of the Pacific, Elephant Seals & Whales, happening now, through Spring, rendezvous at the World at Peace Redwoods Haus Inn. Receive an itinerary, detailing where to find the land animals, sea mammals, birds and fish, in the Redwoods Forests & Coastline that surrounds the Coastal Village of Stinson Beach. Tips on Hiking in the West Marin Coastal Redwoods Area Download Internet Site, "Marin County: A Wild Ramble, Near the Golden Gate", NYTimes Reporters Multiple Days Epic Hike through West Marin Trails to the World at Peace Redwoods Haus then over MT Tamalpais to Muir Woods & Beyond, travel.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/travel/03Explorer.html. See the Multi Media slide show, of Trails & Views of West Marin. Discover, the least priced but most enjoyable lodging in all of Marin County. The Cal-Trans/County of Marin Retrofits of Coast Hwy. #1 & Panoramic Hwy., over Scenic/Sacred MT TAMALPAIS & along the Coast, was a Success, not only for the unimpeded flow of Visitors/Residents on the Roadways, tested by the Ultimate Weather of Jan. 3rd, but also for the preservation/opening of Spectacular Scenic Views & Inviting Scenic Turnouts/Safe Rest Areas along their respective routes, South of Stinson Beach to Mill Valley. Future Plans for the continued improvements of the Redwoods Coast Hwy. #1, No. of Stinson, is guaranteed to continue the trend, of Safe & Scenic as well as Storm Resilient Roadways. Don't be left out, visit the Coast, enjoy our Roadways, marvel Pristine Nature, behind the Wheel. All Alone? You are always welcome, at the World at Peace, Redwoods Haus-Beach, Bed + Breakfast in Stinson Beach. Our doors, are open, 24hrs. daily, call 415 868-9828 or 868-1034 in advance. The Redwoods Haus, offers a model of Life in the Great Outdoors: living harmoniously w the Old Growth Redwoods of Muir; the Panoramic View of the City from MT Tamalpais; witnessing the Winter and Spring Migration of Aquatic Birds to the Bolinas Lagoon, Monarch Butterflies, Whales & Elephant Seals to the Coastline; next to the Waves of the Pacific Ocean breaking on the White Sand Beach of Stinson. More importantly, the Love and Happiness that emanates from surviving in the basics, living w/o artificial environments, malls, sports stadiums as well as movie theaters. Come, Break Bread at our Table, discuss and sing, play the piano, guitar, chess, cards & intelligent games with our friends & National/International Guests. Clear Sunlit Skies are the Norm, Crabs on the Beach, Aquatic Birds[Pelicans, Egrets, Blue Herons] Circling Beach Area & Alighting in the Lagoon, Crisp Redwood Scent by the Forest, Salt Air Freshness of the Beach, Redwood Trails of Muir and MT TAMALPAIS, see Migratory Whales and Elephant Seals, Bugling Tule Elk, Red Rock Hot Springs, all part of the Stinson Beach Experience. Going Fast, 1-7 Day Reservations, for the New Year. Lodging{{accommodations capability of 1 to 15)w Staff, Meals Nightly for the Guests and Friends of the Redwoods. Complimentary WiFi/ DSL/Computer+Phone Onsite w VCR/200 Videos/HBO/Cable T.V., Biergartren w BBQ, Boogie Boards/Wetsuits. Welcome to the World at Peace Redwoods Haus Beach, Bed & Breakfast in the Socially Acknowledged Nature Loving Village of Stinson Beach....brought to you by folks you should get to know, way out West in West Marin. See our sites for pics: www.stinson-beach.com; or in German, www.stinson-beach.de; phone 415 868-1034 or 415 868-9828. If you are coming to the SF Bay Area, for business or pleasure, you will want to take advantage of our unparalleled rates and unequaled benefits of being close to the City & Bay Area, plenty of safe parking for non-polluting vehicles, services, peace, solitude, beach, national parks, hiking trails, pristine coastline w abundance of Bo Lagoon migrating birds, whale, elephant seal, tule elk, white deer[locally called unicorns], mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, turkey vulture, hawk, spring Monarch Butterfly Jamboree, great white and animal species, all here on Natures Coast of West Marin & Stinson Beach. DAILY SINGLE PERSON NIGHT RATES*Sunday-Thursday* -White/Redwood Room-$75. for a single Little Cabin-$110.-for two Wknd-$150. . Pink Room $120.-for two Wknd Rate-$160. Crows Nest $130.-for two Wknd Rates $160. ***Critical Mass Member Discount: Bring your Bikes to this Bike Friendly Area, Mountain Bikes for designated Bike Trails offer ecologically friendly riding, Road Bikes for Panoramic & Redwoods Coast Scenic Hwy. #1 Spectacular Views. The World at Peace Redwoods Haus-Beach, Bed and Breakfast in Stinson Beach: "98 yrs. of Striving for Peace, Equality and Justice for One World at Peace, its 5 rooms, grounds and group facilities are available for Birthdays, Weddings, Christmas/New Years Gatherings of up to 15 extended family/group holiday revelers. Have the use of the entire facility and grounds w breakfast service, optional dinner caterin, proprietor in separate quarters. Euros sind Wilkommen-Inexpensive WINTER RATES/Spring/Summer/Fall, are to good to miss at the Redwoods Haus.. Our INEXPENSIVE RATE, is due to the generosity of our selfless proprietor, who passes on the savings to you, of: performing all the service work, herself, wholesale restaurant food buying of breakfast, optional potluck dinner & happy hour commodities. So you can visit/see/hike/bike/surf the Pacific Coast Beach by MT TAMALPAIS-Redwoods Trails of MUIR WOODS-Pelicans of BoLagoon. Accommodations include American/German/Texan breakfast, WiFi/HBO/VCR, 200+ Video Library/Free Long Distance Calling/Computer on site/B.B.Q./Washer & Dryer/+Itinerary. We have, space available for 1-5-or 7 day reservation package deals, Way Out West in West Marin, Nature Loving Village of Stinson Beach, Politically -- Ecologically -- Motivated. Call now, 415 868-9828. Escape the Maddning Crowd, relax, rest and appreciate Pristine Paradise. Be sure, to leave the Greater Stinson Beach Area, as you found our SW Marin Community, pick up litter, on the beach, in the forest, protect our environment, shop w a environmental safe reusable bag at the marketplace. For updates on issues of the SW Marin Community & the S.F. Oil Spill of November 2007, see the Stinson Beach Chamber of Commerce site, www.stinson-beach.org. Also, the Stinson Beach Community Newsletter at www.stinson-beach.net. Winter Season on the Coast, gives plenty of elbow room, to the aficionado of migratory whale/bird/tule elk watching, salmon fishing, surfing, biking and hiking. Our Rates and Service with a Smile, are individually provided in a less crowded environment. When the Sun is out, a Vacation at the Shore is in. However you choose to celebrate the coming of the Sun, May it be a joyous time for you & yours . May love, joy, wellness, happiness & peace abound in your life. Have your chance to see the Winter Migration of Whales, Seafowl and Landbirds as well as the return of the Elephant Seals to Chimney Rock near the Point Reyes Lighthouse for Spring Breeding. Experience the herd of Tule Elk, bugling and competing to mate, off Pierce Point Road in Tomales State Park in Point Reyes as well as the many species of land and sea mammals/fish that abound in the Point Reyes Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Mt Tamalpais State Park, throughout the winter and spring season. May we live in a World at Peace, with the awareness of Natures Creation in every Sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every drumbeat of Pacific Waves breaking on the Beach, every lover's kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart. Cinematic History, Stinson Beach has been the setting and filming location for several movies: Play It Again Sam The Fog Memoirs of an Invisible Man Basic Instinct On The Edge The Unbearable Lightness of Being The town was mentioned in an episode of M*A*S*H. Theme nights at the Coast Cafe in BoBo[Bolinas] every Monday Night, decorated w antique wooden Kayaks hanging from the ceiling and buoys, fishnets, multi colored cork ballasts everywhere.. Dining inside an outside next to the oyster bar. Nautical, Open Water theme... The Blue Heron, also located on Wharf Road, black tie dining atmosphere w a baby Grand on an upraised dais for dinner guests to play.. ***Open Mic, every tues. of the week during the Parkside Restaurants Open Mic All You Can Eat Night at $7.50 per person , 5:30-9:30, pasta, soup or salad, reservations and info. at 415 868-1272. All Musicians, Poets and Performers Welcome,*** practice beforehand at the Redwoods, which has a Piano, acoustic guitar, Amp and Jazzed Trumpeteer, onsite.*** The Sandollar and Stinson Grill in Stinson, offer not only great land/sea food but musical entertainment on the weekends. Breakfast Topics: Share in the telling of the Stinson Beach Coast history: of its ethnic diversity of explorers, pirates, 49ers and settlers over breakfast; discuss why facts-truth-reason play such a minor role in our democracy; receive Guidance & Individual Itinerary Needs of the Greater SF Bay Area/Wine Country/Coastal Paradise; being part of the Spanish then Mexican Rancho of Baulinas; discovery and claim of the West Marin Coastline of Drakes Bay for the Throne of England by Sir Francis Drake; 1800's Russian exploration and colonization as far south as Nicasio from Fort Ross near Russian River; 49er Gold Rush Pacific Ocean conduit to neighboring Bolinas Lagoon, then to the Goldfields; building of the Laffalot[original name of the Redwoods Haus] by Norwegian Ship Captain Nielson using pier logs that fell into the Bay during the 1906 Earthquake, for footings; route of the Gravity Train over Mt Tam, beachgoers after debarking, hiring drivers of horse and buggy teams to bring them to the Laffalot; smuggling into Bolinas fom the Pacific of-Duty free goods of the 1800's, Al Capones Prohibition Alcohol from British Columbia and 60's Contraband from the Golden Triangle; the colorful history of the Redwoods Haus-being an inn then speakeasy, girlie haus/casino; neighbor to the 60's migration of the Psychedelic Counterculture of the Haight-Ashbury with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to Bolinas; the Artistry/Openness of Opinion and Environmental/Non-developmental Concerns of our Community of SW Marin. No Car or Horse & Buggy? See Public Transportation, below. In the Spirit of the Season we invite you & yours to Promenade on the Beach, scribe Love Letters on the Sand to one another on the the Edge of the Pacific Ocean & the Bolinas Lagoon. Frolic in the Redwood Rain Forests of the National & State Parks of West Marin amidst the environs of many endangered species. Dine in the Shadow of Mt. Tamalpais, retiring at the Redwoods with champagne-wine or port of Your choice from Sergio & Susanas, Stinson Market by the Beach, select from their fully stocked cellar of domestic, exotic liqueurs & appetizers, 415 868-1923, www.stinsonbeachmarket.net. Roses can be ordered, delivered & placed in your room, beforehand by Stinson's own, Meristem Florists, 415 868-0666. Wake up in the Morning to the welcome smell of gourmet food preparation in our kitchen, designed to satisfy your needs in both quality & quantity. We are a casual family oriented establishment, emphasizing discussion & the need to free thought and ideas, over breakfast, promoting Peace on Earth & Goodwill to our fellow men and all the Species of our Planet, as well as interjecting the need for facts, truth & reason to play a major role in our democracy. We also provide full service, unequaled value and much gratitude for your welcomed material & spiritual support as well as many happy memories. About Our Location: 6 mi. N of Muir Woods 6 mi. North of the Green Gulch Zen Center 16 miles South of Vedanta Retreat, in Olema 24 mi. SW of San Geronimo Valleys Spirit Rock Retreat & S.G. Golf Course We are located just a short 40 minutes NW of San Francisco, 6 miles SE of Bolinas and 6 miles N of Muir Beach Bolinas is located at the southern end of the Point Reyes National Seashore, surrounded by ocean and unspoiled parkland, Muir Beach is off Shoreline Hwy. #1, only minutes SW of the Muir Woods Entrance on Muir Woods Road. Because of the unique coastal position of Bolinas & Stinson, the surf is protected from the winds and huge swells that make other beaches in Northern California too dangerous for beginners. Muir Beach offers more advanced surfers a differentiated plethora of wave action. Please be respectful of town/village residents, pack your trash when you leave the beach, be mindful of posted speed limits & don't drink & drive. Choose from our Comfortable suites The Redwood Room: Queen bed ($65.si weekdays, Email/Call for Weekend Reservations) The White Room: Queen bed ($65. si. weekdays, Email/Call for Weekend Reservations) The Pink Room: Queen Bed & Futon Queen{doubles as couch} The Crows Nest: Queen bed & futon Queen(can be used as seating) Private deck & 360 degree picture windows, featuring panoramic views of Mt. Tamalpias, Bolinas Mesa Ridgeline & the Pacific Seascape *($150.per couple weekdays) Big Cabin Room: Queen Size Bed, Complete w Shower Bathroom, Detached, $100. per couple weekdays. Weekends:Add $25. to posted prices for extra person or canine. Children and Pet Friendly.... About our Breakfast Daily: MF - Prepared Ham & Eggs with tomatoes-onion- greens-potatoes, Bread, Butter, Coffee, Tea, Milk, Fruit, Juice, Jam, Honey, Cereal,(French Toast, Pancakes by order}. Our Sunday Special Offering (ham & cheese, seasonal surprises) Eggs In Any Style Grandmere’s French Toast Roasted Provincial Potatoes The Finest Coffees & Teas Fresh Local, Fruit & Fruit Juices Additional Amenities: Wireless/Wifi/Computer & Phone On-site, Cable/HBO, VCR/ 200 Video library, Biergarten w Barbeque Contact & View Pics See our sites www.stinson-beach.com; www.stinson-beach.de in German. Phone #s: Reservations-415 868-1034 or 415 868-9828 E-Mail: Paradise@stinson-beach.com Address: #1 Belvedere and Shoreline Highway #1, Stinson Beach 94970 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 404 , Stinson Beach 94970 The Places to Explore We offer information on all of the local natural viewing locations of interest where you can see Whales, Seal and Elephant Seal colonies, Egrets, Herons, Pelicans, and the Tule Elk. Visit the Sulphur Hot Springs at Red Rock Beach , 4-5 days a month during negative tide periods of the Full Moon, the Ocean rolls back, giving 2 hrs., to enjoy the 110 degree heated Seawater, in a open pool of rock, by the edge of the Ocean. Walk into the tide pools of Duxbury Reef during minus tide, study close up the indigenous sea life of the Reef: Sea Anemones; Clams; Mussels; Starfish; Crabs; Coral; and the reef fishes in small pools of water. On Visitors Days of the Week, walk down the 300 steps leading to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, on the Point Reyes Peninsula, see the interior and the antique beacon light of French Manufacture, dating back over a 100 yrs. Kayak with Point Reyes Outdoors www.pointreyesoutdoors.com, 415 663-8192 Sea Kayaking Tours & Classes Guided Nature Hikes Mesa Road in Bolinas: Visit the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and take part in banding expeditions of migratory birds as well as study statistics of their numbers and sightings; Hike to Bass Lake on the Panoramic Trail head, from the parking lot at the end of Mesa Road ; See Agate Beach, where all the rocks are green agate. Hike the many trails that abound in the Golden Gate Recreation Area, Mt. Tamalpais and Tomales State Parks , as well as the Point Reyes National Seashore: Matt Davis-Steep Ravine-Dipsea-Lake Lagunitas-Kent & Nicasio Lakes. Gather Mussels in Season, for ethnic & old fashioned soups/stews. Dance at Smiley's Schooner Saloon & dance/dine at Rancho Nicasio, Sat. Nights to live music. Eat at your pick of 3 art bedecked and fine food dining establishments here in Stinson & two in Bolinas. Rent/Ride Horseback at Five Brooks Stable, Horse Rental, Open Year Round in Olema. 415 663-1570, Fax 415 663-8766, www.fivebrooks.com Workout Regimen, Beach Accessories, Kayaks, Surfboards: At the Stinson Beach Health Club, open daily, 7a.m.-9p.m.,415 868-8801, 3605 Shoreline Hwy.#1 , full range gym, offers weight sets, stationary bikes, Pilates studio, w views of Easkoot Creek in a Polynesian Village Natural Setting Ambiance. Stinson Beach Surf and Kayak Co., same location, Rent and Sell Beach Accessories, Full Range of Kayaks & Client friendly surfboards, Donny 415 868-8801, cell 415 257-1831. Los Banos Surf & Adventure Camp-: Coach Dave Lich, certified lifeguard, 415 847-2221 or 415 380-8900, www.stinsonbeachsurfcamp.com, Surf School Classes beginning 6/11, all ages welcome. Free shuttle from Mill Valley. "Bringing the beach to the kids of Marin & Fellow Travelers." BoBo Bikes located in Bolinas, 6 Wharf Rd., 415 450-0621Bike & Surfboard Impresario Sports Czar Terrence, Proprietor. Sales, Upload High Tech State of the Art Bikes, Surboards, Skates from the Czar of Sports Gear. Every detail of hardware can be found as well as Terrences Extensive Knowledge of what is right for you, in Sports Gear.. Visit/Shop: Claudia Chaplines Art Gallery, Annies Bookstore for Hiking/Biking Maps/Postcards, SurfGear/Beach Wear, Live Water Surf Shop. Many Villages, 2264 Hwy. #1, where you can select from a vast emporium of indigenous jewelry, buddhist artifacts, sacred totems, folk art of Bali, Handmade Oracles Mystical Talismans from the Island Jungles of Thailand and the floating Villages of Indochina. Astute World Expert/Time Traveler of White Light, Oshen, 415 868-1419. Experience: The Museum of Miwok Native American Artifacts at Slide Ranch; Nicasios Russian Orthodox Church, dating back to the Russian Colonial Period at Fort Ross; Smileys Schooner Saloon, an English Pub imported in 1850, oldest functioning alcohol establishment in California; Bodega Schoolhouse made famous in Alfred Hithcocks, "The Birds"; Muir Woods Trail, the setting for Hitchcocks "VERTIGO", where Jimmy Stewart followed Kim Novak into Muir Woods,on the Matt Davis Trailhead, beginning at Belvedere in Stinson(Right up from the Redwoods, #1 Belvedere]; Skywalker Ranch, East of Nicasio, creative brainchild of George Lucas; Peak of Sacred Mount Tamalpais-from which the viewer can experience 360 degree panorama views, of the Greater S.F. Bay Area & the City, Mt. Diablo, the Farollone Islands of the Pacific Ocean. These and many more view spots as well as Treasures of Wild West Architecture in West Marin Towns, will be addressed, directions will be given & an itinerary for all points of interest in Marin, Sonoma and the S.F. Greater Bay Area. Public Transportation: For all points in the SF Bay Area, Use the Transit Planner site, www.511.org From San Francisco , take #70 or #80 Golden Gate Transit, to Marin City Transfer to West Marin Stage Coach, website for schedule is: www.marintransit.org, call for info., M-F, 8 a.m.-5 a.m., 415 526-3239 AWMT, awestmarintaxi@gmail.com, by email request or phone 415 868-1330. AWMTaxi, offers luxury or conventional taxi, for all occasions, drivers/owners, experienced in the places to visit in the Point Reyes National Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, MT Tamalpais State Park, Muir Woods National Monument, Tomales Bay State Park, Beaches, Surf, Hiking Trails. See Whales, Elephant Seals, Tule Elk, Tour Oyster & Organic Farms. Real Estate Entrepreneurs & Businessmen take a tour of Present and Future Opportunities for Investment/Speculation by knowledgeable founder of the SBChamber of Commmerce, www.stinson-beach.org, founder/GP of the AWMT. Future Homeowners, tour local listings, benefit from years of expertise in the field of Property Management, Remodeling w Plumbing & Electrical Experience, bottomless pit of fixer-upper experience. Tourists enjoy tales of early settlements, 49ers, seafarers, told by our native to West Marin tour hosts. See architectural artifacts of the 1800's, visit museums & replicas of Miwok Native American Sites, Way out West in West Marin, only our tour drivers can show you. Important Phone No.s Stinson Beach Lifeguard Tower-415 868-0942 Stinson Beach Visitor Center- 415 388-2596 Driving Directions to Stinson Beach From Highway 101 Exit Highway 1/Stinson Beach (there will be a sign for Muir Woods/ Mt. Tamalpais at this exit) Drive about .5 miles. At the stoplight, turn left. You now have two options, both about the same distance, both on winding steep roads. Shoreline Hwy. 1 takes you along the Pacific Ocean, through Muir Beach , to Stinson Beach. Panoramic Highway take you up and over Mt. Tamalpais, w breathtaking panorama views of the City, East Bay, Sonoma County, to within one block of the Redwood Haus in Stinson Beach. To get to Panoramic from Hwy. 101, Drive 3 miles on Shoreline Hwy. #1. At the top of the hill, turn right onto the Panoramic Highway. From Panoramic access, Muir Woods/Mount Tamalpais and Stinson Beach. Or Continue straight on Shoreline Highway #1 about 12 miles to Stinson Beach. When traveling South to North on Hwy.#1, upon entering Stinson Beach, Make a right at the Firehouse, onto Belvedere, a u turn and park alongside fence, at #1 Belvedere and Hwy. #1, the Redwoods Haus, On Street Parking. Olema intersection and Sir Francis Drake Blvd.-16 miles South to Stinson Beach. Point Reyes Station. So. to Stinson Beach-18 miles So. to Stinson Beach. Barbeque in the Bier-garten Bring your own fish/chicken/duck/lamb/meat cuts/zucchini/corn/beverages and b.b.q. coals for barbeque, we provide potatoes, rice, onions, bread, condiments & b.b.q. coals or mesquite. Oysters[Redwoods Chef gives instructions on B.B.Q. preparation] must be obtained beforehand at: the Tomales Bay Oyster Farm, located on Shoreline Hwy. #1, 4 miles No. of Point Reyes Station; the Hog Island Oyster Co. in Marshall ; the Johnsons Oyster Farm on the Point Reyes Peninsula. Gesucht: Deutscher Schreiner oder Zimmermann fuer Renovierungs- und Reparaturarbeiten fuer Redwood Haus fuer flexible Zeit. Keine Arbeitserlaubnis noetig. Kommen Sie zu uns an die traumhafte Pazifikkueste. Sagen Sie dies all Ihren Freunden. Siehe unsere Internetseite: www.stinson-beach.de Kontakt: 415 868-1330 info@stinson-beach.com *** Trade and Barter Section Overnight Lodging Service to Trade for Your Various Goods or Services Wanted: Upright Frostless Energy Saving Freezer, New Pillowtop Queen Mattress, Lincoln Town Car, Mini Van, conventional 4 cylinder 4 door station wagon or car.*** Sea Kayaks along the Coast from Stinson/Bolinas Lagoon See harbor seals and water fowl along the shoreline while paddling on beautiful Bolinas Lagoon. You will experience this extraordinary area and its inhabitants at a relaxing enjoyable pace. Gain a wealth of knowledge and skill on every trip making this a perfect refreshing getaway adventure. Include a Wildflower Hike through Bolinas, renowned for it's spectacular array of wildflowers. Hillsides blanketed with vibrant yellow mustard, coastal cliffs decorated with brilliant purple iris, and fields of Daffodils, red Indian Paint Brush, Blue Eyed Grass and Footsteps of Spring. Take a walk and discover this beautiful coast in bloom. We will share with you everything we know about wildflowers while taking in breathtaking views. At dusk paddling on Bolinas Lagoon can be peaceful, still and inviting. Whether it's the Full Moon rising, a stunning Sunset, star filled skies, or glowing bioluminescence Bolinas Lagoon always offers a magical experience. To top the evening off, treat yourselves to a gourmet meal at the Sand Dollar, Parkside, or Grill in Stinson or the Bolinas Coast Cafe, while the sun sets. ***Note*** You never know from one instant to the next what will happen, the best thing you can do is to be kind & pursue your quest for continued happiness. We live in a climate-changing world, live life accordingly. Take advantage of the sunny weather climate, clean air, happiness & friendliness, businesses offering services, here in Stinson Beach.
Pacific Coast Trails up MT TAM+Muir Wood+BoLagoon+Audobon Canyon Ranch {...}
Published: September 4, 2008, 7:30 am - Indexed: September 4, 2008, 9:13 am - Page Size: 33KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - New Star Wars Videogame Unleashes the Force in You http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/new-star-wars-videogame-unleashes-the-force-in-you-20080820614.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/new-star-wars-videogame-unleashes-the-force-in-you-20080820614.htm Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT image: Courtesy of LucasArts On September 16, LucasArts will release Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the latest addition to George Lucas' science fiction universe. Set between the events of episodes III and IV, the videogame promises to fill the gaps between the two film trilogies, a time period that saw the Empire cement its hold over the galaxy. image: Courtesy of LucasArts In The Force Unleashed, players take on the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller. Found as a child by Vader on the Wookiee home world Kashyyyk, Starkiller is trained to aid Vader in his quest to destroy the Jedi Order, and together with Vader supplant Emperor Palpatine. The game is set in the nether region between the trilogies and features many entirely new characters, so the game designers had some freedom to establish new events in the Star Wars timeline. But the major events had to be cleared with Star Wars creator George Lucas, and every detail had to be vetted by the Lucas Licensing department of Lucasfilm to ensure that it fits into the continuity. image: Courtesy of LucasArts The Secret Apprentice's appearance is crucial to the character's ethos. He wields the signature red lightsaber of the dark side, and his gaunt, sinister look—complete with tattered clothing, scars—shows that Darth Vader wasn't a particularly nurturing father figure. The character is voiced by the actor Sam Witwer, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his in-game alter ego. image: Courtesy of LucasArts As a Jedi, you'll be equipped with a lightsaber and a growing knowledge of Jedi powers. To put it bluntly, Unleashed is all about the ancient, primal art of kicking ass with the Force. Restrained feelings and a code of honor are fine and dandy for Jedi following the light side of the Force, but Dark Jedi get to have a bit more fun. As the title suggests, Starkiller's strength comes from reveling in bad vibes and unleashing energy with very little restraint. The end result? The glorious obliteration of your enemies. image: Courtesy of LucasArts Rather than relying on prescripted sequences and events, The Force Unleashed utilizes technologies that create on-the-fly reactions from characters and materials. Something called Euphoria grants characters biomechanical AI, allowing them to react to changes in their surroundings: Force Push a pack of Stormtroopers, and they'll stumble, or attempt to grab a railing or each other for support. Another technology, Digital Molecular Matter, applies that idea to inanimate objects: Force Throw a Wookiee against an object and it will deform or break in a lifelike manner, whether it's a tree, a hunk of metal, or a pane of glass. image: Courtesy of LucasArts You are Darth Vader's secret apprentice: And that means leaving no witnesses. Whether that's a sign of Vader's paranoia or a handy way to introduce a previously unknown character, this means that you'll be eliminating Imperial troops in addition to Jedi. Not a bad way to maintain continuity?and amp up the body count to God of War levels, giving players a chance to try out a range of increasingly powerful Force attacks. Killing everyone guarantees that the secret apprentice Starkiller maintains a low profile. It also explains why he wasn't invited to the Life Day celebration in the Star Wars Holiday Special. image: Courtesy of LucasArts New characters abound: Serving as a sidekick and a bit of comic relief is the droid Proxy, designed to accompany and train the Secret Apprentice. Proxy is equipped with advanced hologram technology and a body that can change shape—taking on the form of enemies, other Jedi, and even Vader himself. photo: Jeff Minton The kid's room at the Lucas Licensing department is jam-packed with merchandise offered by Lucasfilm. ?It's every parent's worst nightmare,? jokes Leland Chee, continuity database administrator in the licensing department, who is also known as the Keeper of the Holocron. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there existed a Jedi device called the Holocron: a Force-powered hard drive capable of storing vast quantities of information. In our own time, that Holocron exists as a FileMaker database with more than 30,000 entries, and Leland Chee of Lucas Licensing is its Keeper. His job is to ensure that additions to the Star Wars canon adhere strictly to the continuity established by works that have come before it. Unleashed will be joining a book, a graphic novel, and several lines of toys when it arrives, and the licensing department is tasked with adding all of the new lore to the growing compendium of Star Wars knowledge and ensuring that it all fits. image: Courtesy of LucasArts In keeping with the Star Wars saga, The Force Unleashed is ultimately a tale of redemption. Under Order 66 at the end of Episode III, Emperor Palpatine orders the extermination of all Jedi officers in the Grand Army of the Republic. The Secret Apprentice must carry out assassinations, and he eventually encounters General Rahm Kota, a cold, honorable Jedi Master dedicated to the Force. Having survived the Jedi Purge (several Jedi have slipped through the cracks), Kota stirs up trouble by relentlessly attacking Imperial facilities. Their meeting will play an important role in the ultimate formation of the Rebellion. image: Courtesy of LucasArts In Episode IV, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are alive and on amicable terms. There's also no mention of Starkiller or a Secret Apprentice among the Rebels or the Imperials, so how does a Jedi this powerful go unnoticed? The Force Unleashed will be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, DS, and PSP, so no matter your console of choice, you'll be able to figure that one out for yourself. Wired.Com New Star Wars Videogame Unleashes the Force in You {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - image: Courtesy of LucasArts On September 16, LucasArts will release Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the latest addition to George Lucas' science fiction universe. Set between the events of episodes III and IV, the videogame promises to fill the gaps between the two film trilogies, a time period that saw the Empire cement its hold over the galaxy. image: Courtesy of LucasArts In The Force Unleashed, players take on the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller. Found as a child by Vader on the Wookiee home world Kashyyyk, Starkiller is trained to aid Vader in his quest to destroy the Jedi Order, and together with Vader supplant Emperor Palpatine. The game is set in the nether region between the trilogies and features many entirely new characters, so the game designers had some freedom to establish new events in the Star Wars timeline. But the major events had to be cleared with Star Wars creator George Lucas, and every detail had to be vetted by the Lucas Licensing department of Lucasfilm to ensure that it fits into the continuity. image: Courtesy of LucasArts The Secret Apprentice's appearance is crucial to the character's ethos. He wields the signature red lightsaber of the dark side, and his gaunt, sinister look—complete with tattered clothing, scars—shows that Darth Vader wasn't a particularly nurturing father figure. The character is voiced by the actor Sam Witwer, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his in-game alter ego. image: Courtesy of LucasArts As a Jedi, you'll be equipped with a lightsaber and a growing knowledge of Jedi powers. To put it bluntly, Unleashed is all about the ancient, primal art of kicking ass with the Force. Restrained feelings and a code of honor are fine and dandy for Jedi following the light side of the Force, but Dark Jedi get to have a bit more fun. As the title suggests, Starkiller's strength comes from reveling in bad vibes and unleashing energy with very little restraint. The end result? The glorious obliteration of your enemies. image: Courtesy of LucasArts Rather than relying on prescripted sequences and events, The Force Unleashed utilizes technologies that create on-the-fly reactions from characters and materials. Something called Euphoria grants characters biomechanical AI, allowing them to react to changes in their surroundings: Force Push a pack of Stormtroopers, and they'll stumble, or attempt to grab a railing or each other for support. Another technology, Digital Molecular Matter, applies that idea to inanimate objects: Force Throw a Wookiee against an object and it will deform or break in a lifelike manner, whether it's a tree, a hunk of metal, or a pane of glass. image: Courtesy of LucasArts You are Darth Vader's secret apprentice: And that means leaving no witnesses. Whether that's a sign of Vader's paranoia or a handy way to introduce a previously unknown character, this means that you'll be eliminating Imperial troops in addition to Jedi. Not a bad way to maintain continuity?and amp up the body count to God of War levels, giving players a chance to try out a range of increasingly powerful Force attacks. Killing everyone guarantees that the secret apprentice Starkiller maintains a low profile. It also explains why he wasn't invited to the Life Day celebration in the Star Wars Holiday Special. image: Courtesy of LucasArts New characters abound: Serving as a sidekick and a bit of comic relief is the droid Proxy, designed to accompany and train the Secret Apprentice. Proxy is equipped with advanced hologram technology and a body that can change shape—taking on the form of enemies, other Jedi, and even Vader himself. photo: Jeff Minton The kid's room at the Lucas Licensing department is jam-packed with merchandise offered by Lucasfilm. ?It's every parent's worst nightmare,? jokes Leland Chee, continuity database administrator in the licensing department, who is also known as the Keeper of the Holocron. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there existed a Jedi device called the Holocron: a Force-powered hard drive capable of storing vast quantities of information. In our own time, that Holocron exists as a FileMaker database with more than 30,000 entries, and Leland Chee of Lucas Licensing is its Keeper. His job is to ensure that additions to the Star Wars canon adhere strictly to the continuity established by works that have come before it. Unleashed will be joining a book, a graphic novel, and several lines of toys when it arrives, and the licensing department is tasked with adding all of the new lore to the growing compendium of Star Wars knowledge and ensuring that it all fits. image: Courtesy of LucasArts In keeping with the Star Wars saga, The Force Unleashed is ultimately a tale of redemption. Under Order 66 at the end of Episode III, Emperor Palpatine orders the extermination of all Jedi officers in the Grand Army of the Republic. The Secret Apprentice must carry out assassinations, and he eventually encounters General Rahm Kota, a cold, honorable Jedi Master dedicated to the Force. Having survived the Jedi Purge (several Jedi have slipped through the cracks), Kota stirs up trouble by relentlessly attacking Imperial facilities. Their meeting will play an important role in the ultimate formation of the Rebellion. image: Courtesy of LucasArts In Episode IV, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are alive and on amicable terms. There's also no mention of Starkiller or a Secret Apprentice among the Rebels or the Imperials, so how does a Jedi this powerful go unnoticed? The Force Unleashed will be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, DS, and PSP, so no matter your console of choice, you'll be able to figure that one out for yourself.
See the latest multimedia and applications including videos, animations, podcasts, photos, and slideshows on Wired.com {...}
Published: August 22, 2008, 5:00 am - Indexed: August 25, 2008, 8:17 pm - Page Size: 34KB
Category: News > Breaking News

]]> News > Breaking News {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity Cop http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/meet-leland-chee-the-star-wars-franchise-continuity-2008089619.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/meet-leland-chee-the-star-wars-franchise-continuity-2008089619.htm Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:55:00 GMT On the wall behind Leland Chee's desk is a portrait of an Ithorian, an alien with a hammer-shaped head that you glimpse briefly in the famous Star Wars cantina scene. In its leathery, foot-long fingers, the Ithorian holds a cube decorated with elaborate metallic tracings, a device known as a holocron. Think of it as a Force-powered hard drive, capable of storing an enormous quantity of information. "It's a piece of Jedi technology," Chee says. "It tells you ... everything." To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics. Keepin' it canonical: Leland Chee, continuity database administrator at Lucas Licensing, maintains the Holocron — a vast FileMaker database that's consulted to make sure that any new elements added to the Star Wars franchise fit within the existing mythology. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Of course, Chee's Holocron isn't a Force-sensitive crystal. It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward. In the past 31 years, Star Wars movies have grossed in excess of $4 billion worldwide. But retail sales of merchandise stand at $15 billion, and 20 percent of that has been earned since 2006, the year after the final film was released. Careful nurture of the Star Wars canon—thousands of years of story time, running through all the bits and pieces of merchandise—has kept the franchise popular for decades. So Chee spends three-quarters of his typical workday consulting or updating the Holocron. He also approves packaging designs, scans novels for errors, and creates Talmudic charts and documents addressing such issues as which Jedi were still alive during the Clone Wars and how long it takes a spaceship to get from Dagobah, where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker, to Luke's homeworld of Tatooine. The Keeper of the Holocron takes this very seriously: "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that color of lightsaber.'" The screening room at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, Lucasfilm's sprawling facility in San Francisco's Presidio District, is as opulent as you would expect—plush seats, wood panels, crystal-clear projection, and a perfect sound system. So when that classic John Williams fanfare begins and the Star Wars logo appears onscreen in that distinctive font, in that distinctive yellow, it quickens the pulse. It's also when Chee, sitting next to me, tells me that in an early version of what we're watching—a new LucasArts videogame called The Force Unleashed, due out in September—the logo was slightly wrong. "It was off by only a few pixels, but someone in Licensing spotted it and submitted a report." I grab an Xbox 360 controller and soon I'm striding through the corridors of a satellite that orbits the smugglers' moon of Nar Shaddaa, destroying everyone in my path. My character, Starkiller, is the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, sent here to eliminate a Jedi elder ... and leave no witnesses. I deflect laser blasts from militia troops with my lightsaber and then use the Force to hurl a chunk of metal through a window behind them. The glass shatters, and several foes are sucked into the vacuum of space before a safety wall snaps shut. I'm beginning to understand the power of the Dark Side. On the scale of badassedness, obliterating legions of good guys with the Force ranks right up there with leaping Snake River Canyon in a monster truck that can transform into a robot. And it's true that the game's sophisticated physics, combined with clever AI software for characters, means that when you Force-throw a Wookiee into a tree on its home planet, Kashyyyk, the Wookiee writhes realistically and the tree explodes in a botanically accurate cloud of splinters. But that's not what has fans most excited about The Force Unleashed. It's the stuff that happens between the interactive killing sprees: brief cinematic interludes that add new details—new plot points—to the saga. "The game is set between episodes III and IV," says Haden Blackman, who led the development team. Translation: Play it and you'll learn what happened before the original Star Wars film trilogy and after the prequels, two decades that have been shrouded in mystery. Over the course of the game, players will learn the details of the internecine feud between Darth Vader and his mentor, Emperor Palpatine, and the way these two unwittingly created the very rebellion that brought them down. The game has yielded a bountiful crop of tie-ins: a book, a graphic novel, a tabletop role-playing game supplement, and several lines of toys. With no more live-action Star Wars films forthcoming (or so we are told), games from the subsidiary division LucasArts are becoming ever more important in expanding the universe—and perpetuating the story-product ecology. And with every narrative beat and plot point, Chee and his dozens of colleagues with Holocron access are there. "Licensing approves everything," he says. "Text, dialog, art ... It all comes through our office." This is where the work of hundreds of writers and artists gets woven into a vast, internally consistent continuum. The power of the Dark Side: LucasArts' Haden Blackman discusses the story and the technology behind the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. In his 1932 book Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction, T. S. Blakeney used the term canonicity in reference to the mystery novels and short fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes enthusiasts treat Doyle's work as if the great detective inhabits a coherent and logically consistent universe. Some of the stories written by Doyle were canonical—genuine events in that alternate universe—while others had to be considered apocryphal. (It should come as no surprise that fans would appropriate theological terms. The ecstasy of true fandom can, after all, approximate religion.) Today, canon and its serial-fiction cousin, continuity, are integral to genres like mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. The giants of the field are known as world-builders as much as writers. J. R. R. Tolkien supplemented his Lord of the Rings series with hundreds of pages of appendices, genealogical charts, even pronunciation and usage guides for the languages he invented. Yet in the multiverse of fictional realities, Holmes's London, Frodo's Middle-earth, Buffy's Sunnydale, and Batman's Gotham are mere planetary systems compared with the grand galactic enterprise of Star Trek. When the original series—known to devout fans as The Original Series—went off the air in 1969, acolytes kept the flame alive. They extended the stories with their own fiction. They created technical manuals. Eventually, the series became a movie, and then another, and then another TV series, and a few more after that. Each new iteration produced more canonical information. Spock's death, Kirk's son, Picard's adventures as a cadet ... eventually, the writers' room on a Trek show became a minefield. "Someone would tell you that a Voyager episode last year mentioned a bit of backstory with the Romulans, and now you can't do this over here," says Ron Moore, a writer and producer on several Star Trek shows who went on to create the new Battlestar Galactica. "You'd argue the validity of that, but they'd be, like, 'No, now it's established.'" Lucas Licensing oversees billions of dollars in merchandise—from pillows to Pez dispensers. Photo: Jeff Minton But the many strata of Star Trek books, games, comics, and cartoons haven't been well tended. Some events in the movies and even later TV shows contradict preexisting lore. (A backward change like that is called a retcon, short for "retroactive continuity.") Gene Roddenberry himself, creator of Star Trek, was known to second-guess his own pronouncements about what was and was not canonical. After a while, the retcons and inconsistencies can become off-putting to fans and render once-beloved universes impenetrable to newcomers. One solution: a reboot. Start from scratch, like Moore did with Galactica. Clever preservation of original story elements retains the old fans, and streamlining and modernizing lets newbies spend their hard-earned quatloos, too. To Chee, the orderliness of the Star Wars canon is what sets it apart, what makes it feel more real than all those other franchises. "Look at James Bond," he says. "What's real in the James Bond world? What year does it take place in? It's not grounded in a real timeline." The Star Wars chronology, on the other hand, marks time from the Battle of Yavin, the assault on the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was born in the year 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It says so in the Holocron. Back in his office, Chee asks his database what else it has on young Skywalker. The result contains scores of fields covering lineage, favorite vehicles, the planet he's from, how to write his name in the Aurebesh alphabet. "Oops," Chee says, blocking the screen with his body until he has minimized the window. "There are things in the Holocron that aren't public knowledge, stuff coming down the pike two or three years from now." He won't say whether those secrets relate to upcoming books, movies, games, or toys. Probably all of them. Merch and more merch: Movies, games, comics, and novels are the tip of the iceberg. Leland Chee shows off more Star Wars goods, like Yoda skateboards, Wookiee slippers, and Darth Tater. Beware the Jar Jar lollipop! Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died." (Poor Chewie yowled his last yowl in 25 ABY, when he was stuck on the planet Sernpidal as it collided with its moon, Dobido, in the novel Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order series. His death is now canon.) "The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer." Star Wars was the number two toy brand aimed at boys last year, behind only Transformers. But toys account for less than half of the revenue for licensed merchandise. The Lucas Licensing office is positively drowning in other merch. Bedspreads, window blinds, pillowcases, wastebaskets, guitars, chairs, baseball caps, beach balls, jewelry, lunch boxes, cookie jars, and kites all added up to $3 billion in retail sales in 2006 and 2007. That figure includes big-ticket items aimed at adults. An R2-D2 DVD projector. A stormtrooper golf bag. A high-end fashion line created with superstar designer Marc Ecko, including $300 Star Wars jeans and a replica of the poncho Han Solo wore on the ice planet Hoth. There was even a $3,000 suit of Darth Vader-style samurai armor. "We realize that our fans have different levels of disposable income," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, who joined the company a week after the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980. "The kids who played with the toys have grown up." Leland Chee strolls the San Francisco campus of Lucasfilm. Photo: Jeff Minton There have been some egregious missteps, like the Jar Jar lollipop. It looks like a plastic bust of the hated character, but push a button and it opens its mouth and sticks out a hideous candy tongue for children to suck on. "The tongue had bumps on it," Chee says, wrinkling his nose. Chee's sense of what is correct in the Star Wars universe has been a lifetime in development. He saw the original movie at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco at age 6. He got his first plastic Star Wars action figures—R2-D2 and that lame C-3P0 look-alike, Death Star Droid—for his seventh birthday and from there steadily enlarged his collection, storing them all in a case shaped like Darth Vader's head (which he still has). Chee even kept the cardboard they were mounted on. "The packaging had great visuals, plus, like, a paragraph of backstory on the character," he says. It's easy to forget that before Star Wars, licensed merchandise was a different, less profitable business. All the big toymakers turned down the rights to make Star Wars action figures; upstart Kenner didn't sign on until a month before the film's release. The earliest product tie-ins were novels and comics—Marvel published an adaptation of the movie a month after it hit theaters, then continued with its own stories. Soon Marvel had smugglers Solo and Chewbacca teaming up with questionable characters like Jaxxon, a furry green creature with big floppy ears who wisecracked like Bugs Bunny. "The idea of continuity was alien at the time," Roffman says. "We let Marvel Comics do the stories they wanted as long as it didn't interfere with the upcoming movies, and they went in some bizarre directions." The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong." The success of the movies led to more products: TV specials, a Saturday morning cartoon show, newspaper comics, a board game, a D&D-style tabletop role-playing game, simple arcade and console videogames. Young Chee bought as much as he could, including the sheet music for the iconic theme song, which he played at his first organ recital. After the release of Return of the Jedi, in 1983, Lucasfilm assumed that interest would wane. But the merch kept selling. And then, Chee remembers, the novel Heir to the Empire was published. "Wait, was it 1990?" he says, tapping a search into the Holocron. "I need to get this date right." It was actually 1991 when Hugo Award-winning writer Timothy Zahn released the novel, set five years after Return of the Jedi. The book spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and proved to Lucasfilm that even without new movies, it still had a market. "I was in college at UC Davis by then, but that book brought me back into Star Wars," Chee says. Without movies at the core, though, Lucas Licensing couldn't afford to be lackadaisical—no more Jaxxons, no more incestuous flirtations. "We set parameters," Roffman says. "It had to be an important extension of the continuity, and it had to have an internal integrity with the events portrayed in the films." Closely tending the canon was paying off with fans. Essentially, all the new comic books, novels, and games were prequels and sequels of one another. If you wanted to know the whole story, you had to buy them all. Neither Lucasfilm nor its licensees will divulge just how much money Lucasfilm gets for each item; suffice it to say the percentage is substantial. Chee applied for a job as a software tester at LucasArts shortly before Star Wars: Special Edition was rereleased in 1997. The film was an updated version of the 1977 original, with new visual effects and added scenes. (The special edition proved that the canon is vulnerable to retcons. In the most egregious example, an f/x tweak now has alien errand boy Greedo, not Han Solo, shooting first in the cantina duel. This made Solo a more simplistic character.) Chee scoffed at the fanboys who waited in line for three days outside the Coronet to see a movie they already owned on VHS. He had the self-restraint to wait until 5 am on the day of the release to queue up. When Chee got home from the movie, there was a message on his answering machine. He had the gig. "That was the last time I had to wait in line to see a Star Wars movie," he says. At first, his job entailed identifying and logging game bugs. His uncanny command of Star Wars lore and his organizational skills allowed him to rise quickly to the role of lead tester, which eventually led him to work on the 1998 title Behind the Magic. Magic wasn't so much a game as an interactive CD-ROM of Star Wars trivia, a treasure trove of data for überfans that included a timeline, a searchable glossary, scripts, and deleted scenes. Assembling it revealed inconsistencies in the canon. "There were differences in the layout of the Millennium Falcon between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back," says Blackman, who, in addition to being project lead on The Force Unleashed, also wrote and did research for Magic. "The continuity fix is that Han Solo made some modifications to the ship's interior." Around 2000, Chee moved from LucasArts to Lucas Licensing, where he was tasked with creating an even more detailed version of Magic for internal use. "We had several game-design teams, several comic book writers, and dozens of novelists," Roffman says. "We needed a reference for everyone who was playing in our sandbox." Chee was the perfect person for the job. "I've been amassing Star Wars knowledge my whole life," he says. "My friends were always like, what the heck are you ever going to do with all of that?" Chee's answer: Create a FileMaker doc similar to the ones he had used to track game bugs. He started transferring information from Magic, from binders, and from the stream of new novels and comics. "You don't know how much you don't know until you get here," he says. "Like, I'd never heard the radio dramas." In a forum on StarWars.com, PiccoloKenobi poses a question that we've all wondered about at one time or another: Are the Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships used by the Grand Army of the Republic spaceworthy, or are they limited to traveling within a planet's atmosphere? "LAATs can be sealed to operate in the vacuum of space," Chee decrees in a response post. "But the standard LAAT is not equipped for long-distance space travel." In the world of continuity maintenance, Chee is something of an anomaly. Most geek-friendly franchises rely on volunteerism—while Chee was building the Holocron, fans of other canons were working outside official imprimatur. Babylon 5 has a fan-created database. The Buffyverse has several. In fact, the best source for Star Wars information on the older stuff that Chee hasn't logged yet is an online database created and maintained by a community of fans that Chee views with wary respect. It's called, inevitably, the Wookieepedia. Naturally, some fans chafe at the Lucasfilm pronouncement-from-on-high approach. Take Curtis Saxton, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the UK. Beginning in 1995, he released a series of amateur technical commentaries on TheForce.net, a Star Wars omnibus site, that sent shock waves through the fan community. A fan-made video critiquing Curtis Saxton's theory of the Endor Holocaust. Video: The Endor Holocaust Saxton wasn't writing fan fiction—it was more like fan physics. He started out by estimating the size and power of various Star Wars vehicles and weapons, including the Death Star's planet-destroying superlaser (2.4 x 1032 joules to blow up the planet Alderaan). His numbers didn't jibe with those in the Lucas Licensing-approved tech manuals. But he persisted. And that's what led to the Endor Holocaust. At the climax of Return of the Jedi, Death Star II explodes while orbiting a forested moon called Endor, populated by cuddly creatures called Ewoks. Saxton considered the Death Star's orbit, the power output of its hypermatter power source, and the sheer tonnage of debris its destruction would have generated, then concluded that the climactic battle must have rained death and nuclear winter onto the teddy-bear tribe. He wrote: "The mass-extinction event at Endor is an inevitable physical consequence of the circumstances at the end of Return of the Jedi. As such, it indirectly enjoys canonical status, even though it was not clearly portrayed in the film." In other words, science says the Ewoks are dead. You can't posit the genocide of the Ewoks without igniting a backlash. In the forums, debates raged between self-described Saxtonites and their foes. This willingness of some obsessives to go deeper into the fictional world than its original creators did is a mainstay of fandom. "It goes back to Hugo Gernsback, the father of modern science fiction, who encouraged readers to dig into his stories, expand on them, and critique the science," says Henry Jenkins, a sci-fi fan and MIT media-studies professor. Despite Saxton's heretical notions, he later worked on four official technical manuals. And the notion of an Endor Holocaust has been incorporated into several comics—as foul propaganda spread by Imperial loyalists. But the fact that official Star Wars products even addressed the idea shows how influential writing like Saxton's can be. It's called fanon—fan-generated canon—and it's still a controversial notion to the priesthood at Lucasfilm. "I don't like the term," Chee says. "There's no such thing as fan continuity." Yet even within the Holocron, not all reality is created equal. Chee coded a pulldown menu that lets him categorize entries. S, for example, stands for secondary continuity—early unvetted works, such as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Sure, it introduced fan-favorite character Boba Fett to the continuity. But it also featured Princess Leia singing a carol to celebrate the Wookiee ceremony of Life Day, and Harvey Korman in drag playing a cooking instructor making Bantha Surprise. Princess Leia serenades Wookiees on their homeworld Kashyyyk. From the quasi-canonical Star Wars Holiday Special. Video: Star Wars Holiday Special - Leia sings And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level of Truth, marked GWL—George Walton Lucas. It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it. Lucas approves every important addition to the canon. The ambitious story beats contained in the new game The Force Unleashed were permitted only after he signed off—and spent hours talking to the developers about the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Yes, he'll accept outside ideas. The novel Heir to the Empire introduced the planet of Coruscant, capital of the Old Republic, which Lucas later incorporated into the prequels. But he also used those prequels to retcon the hell out of Chee's otherwise well-integrated universe. Anakin Skywalker built C-3P0? GWL. Yoda knows Chewbacca? GWL. "George's view of the universe is his view," Chee says with a slightly grudging tone. "He's not beholden to what's gone before." The careful tending of the Star Wars continuity has yielded great wealth, but the key to a productive farm is to leave some fields fallow. A complete Holocron would leave little room for fantasy—for fans who, as Jenkins says, "love unmapped nooks and crannies, the dark shadows we can fill in with our imagination." That's something that GWL understands. For instance, the origins of the Jedi master Yoda, his species, and his home planet are off-limits. The backstory isn't even in the Holocron. "It doesn't exist, except maybe in George's mind," Chee says. "He feels like, 'You don't have to explain everything all the time. Let's keep some mystery.'" But ... what about the Holocron? "We work around him," Chee says. Senior editor Chris Baker (chris_baker@wired.com) wrote about the return of Futurama in issue 15.12. Wired.Com Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity Cop {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - On the wall behind Leland Chee's desk is a portrait of an Ithorian, an alien with a hammer-shaped head that you glimpse briefly in the famous Star Wars cantina scene. In its leathery, foot-long fingers, the Ithorian holds a cube decorated with elaborate metallic tracings, a device known as a holocron. Think of it as a Force-powered hard drive, capable of storing an enormous quantity of information. "It's a piece of Jedi technology," Chee says. "It tells you ... everything." To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics. Keepin' it canonical: Leland Chee, continuity database administrator at Lucas Licensing, maintains the Holocron — a vast FileMaker database that's consulted to make sure that any new elements added to the Star Wars franchise fit within the existing mythology. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Of course, Chee's Holocron isn't a Force-sensitive crystal. It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward. In the past 31 years, Star Wars movies have grossed in excess of $4 billion worldwide. But retail sales of merchandise stand at $15 billion, and 20 percent of that has been earned since 2006, the year after the final film was released. Careful nurture of the Star Wars canon—thousands of years of story time, running through all the bits and pieces of merchandise—has kept the franchise popular for decades. So Chee spends three-quarters of his typical workday consulting or updating the Holocron. He also approves packaging designs, scans novels for errors, and creates Talmudic charts and documents addressing such issues as which Jedi were still alive during the Clone Wars and how long it takes a spaceship to get from Dagobah, where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker, to Luke's homeworld of Tatooine. The Keeper of the Holocron takes this very seriously: "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that color of lightsaber.'" The screening room at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, Lucasfilm's sprawling facility in San Francisco's Presidio District, is as opulent as you would expect—plush seats, wood panels, crystal-clear projection, and a perfect sound system. So when that classic John Williams fanfare begins and the Star Wars logo appears onscreen in that distinctive font, in that distinctive yellow, it quickens the pulse. It's also when Chee, sitting next to me, tells me that in an early version of what we're watching—a new LucasArts videogame called The Force Unleashed, due out in September—the logo was slightly wrong. "It was off by only a few pixels, but someone in Licensing spotted it and submitted a report." I grab an Xbox 360 controller and soon I'm striding through the corridors of a satellite that orbits the smugglers' moon of Nar Shaddaa, destroying everyone in my path. My character, Starkiller, is the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, sent here to eliminate a Jedi elder ... and leave no witnesses. I deflect laser blasts from militia troops with my lightsaber and then use the Force to hurl a chunk of metal through a window behind them. The glass shatters, and several foes are sucked into the vacuum of space before a safety wall snaps shut. I'm beginning to understand the power of the Dark Side. On the scale of badassedness, obliterating legions of good guys with the Force ranks right up there with leaping Snake River Canyon in a monster truck that can transform into a robot. And it's true that the game's sophisticated physics, combined with clever AI software for characters, means that when you Force-throw a Wookiee into a tree on its home planet, Kashyyyk, the Wookiee writhes realistically and the tree explodes in a botanically accurate cloud of splinters. But that's not what has fans most excited about The Force Unleashed. It's the stuff that happens between the interactive killing sprees: brief cinematic interludes that add new details—new plot points—to the saga. "The game is set between episodes III and IV," says Haden Blackman, who led the development team. Translation: Play it and you'll learn what happened before the original Star Wars film trilogy and after the prequels, two decades that have been shrouded in mystery. Over the course of the game, players will learn the details of the internecine feud between Darth Vader and his mentor, Emperor Palpatine, and the way these two unwittingly created the very rebellion that brought them down. The game has yielded a bountiful crop of tie-ins: a book, a graphic novel, a tabletop role-playing game supplement, and several lines of toys. With no more live-action Star Wars films forthcoming (or so we are told), games from the subsidiary division LucasArts are becoming ever more important in expanding the universe—and perpetuating the story-product ecology. And with every narrative beat and plot point, Chee and his dozens of colleagues with Holocron access are there. "Licensing approves everything," he says. "Text, dialog, art ... It all comes through our office." This is where the work of hundreds of writers and artists gets woven into a vast, internally consistent continuum. The power of the Dark Side: LucasArts' Haden Blackman discusses the story and the technology behind the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. In his 1932 book Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction, T. S. Blakeney used the term canonicity in reference to the mystery novels and short fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes enthusiasts treat Doyle's work as if the great detective inhabits a coherent and logically consistent universe. Some of the stories written by Doyle were canonical—genuine events in that alternate universe—while others had to be considered apocryphal. (It should come as no surprise that fans would appropriate theological terms. The ecstasy of true fandom can, after all, approximate religion.) Today, canon and its serial-fiction cousin, continuity, are integral to genres like mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. The giants of the field are known as world-builders as much as writers. J. R. R. Tolkien supplemented his Lord of the Rings series with hundreds of pages of appendices, genealogical charts, even pronunciation and usage guides for the languages he invented. Yet in the multiverse of fictional realities, Holmes's London, Frodo's Middle-earth, Buffy's Sunnydale, and Batman's Gotham are mere planetary systems compared with the grand galactic enterprise of Star Trek. When the original series—known to devout fans as The Original Series—went off the air in 1969, acolytes kept the flame alive. They extended the stories with their own fiction. They created technical manuals. Eventually, the series became a movie, and then another, and then another TV series, and a few more after that. Each new iteration produced more canonical information. Spock's death, Kirk's son, Picard's adventures as a cadet ... eventually, the writers' room on a Trek show became a minefield. "Someone would tell you that a Voyager episode last year mentioned a bit of backstory with the Romulans, and now you can't do this over here," says Ron Moore, a writer and producer on several Star Trek shows who went on to create the new Battlestar Galactica. "You'd argue the validity of that, but they'd be, like, 'No, now it's established.'" Lucas Licensing oversees billions of dollars in merchandise—from pillows to Pez dispensers. Photo: Jeff Minton But the many strata of Star Trek books, games, comics, and cartoons haven't been well tended. Some events in the movies and even later TV shows contradict preexisting lore. (A backward change like that is called a retcon, short for "retroactive continuity.") Gene Roddenberry himself, creator of Star Trek, was known to second-guess his own pronouncements about what was and was not canonical. After a while, the retcons and inconsistencies can become off-putting to fans and render once-beloved universes impenetrable to newcomers. One solution: a reboot. Start from scratch, like Moore did with Galactica. Clever preservation of original story elements retains the old fans, and streamlining and modernizing lets newbies spend their hard-earned quatloos, too. To Chee, the orderliness of the Star Wars canon is what sets it apart, what makes it feel more real than all those other franchises. "Look at James Bond," he says. "What's real in the James Bond world? What year does it take place in? It's not grounded in a real timeline." The Star Wars chronology, on the other hand, marks time from the Battle of Yavin, the assault on the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was born in the year 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It says so in the Holocron. Back in his office, Chee asks his database what else it has on young Skywalker. The result contains scores of fields covering lineage, favorite vehicles, the planet he's from, how to write his name in the Aurebesh alphabet. "Oops," Chee says, blocking the screen with his body until he has minimized the window. "There are things in the Holocron that aren't public knowledge, stuff coming down the pike two or three years from now." He won't say whether those secrets relate to upcoming books, movies, games, or toys. Probably all of them. Merch and more merch: Movies, games, comics, and novels are the tip of the iceberg. Leland Chee shows off more Star Wars goods, like Yoda skateboards, Wookiee slippers, and Darth Tater. Beware the Jar Jar lollipop! Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died." (Poor Chewie yowled his last yowl in 25 ABY, when he was stuck on the planet Sernpidal as it collided with its moon, Dobido, in the novel Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order series. His death is now canon.) "The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer." Star Wars was the number two toy brand aimed at boys last year, behind only Transformers. But toys account for less than half of the revenue for licensed merchandise. The Lucas Licensing office is positively drowning in other merch. Bedspreads, window blinds, pillowcases, wastebaskets, guitars, chairs, baseball caps, beach balls, jewelry, lunch boxes, cookie jars, and kites all added up to $3 billion in retail sales in 2006 and 2007. That figure includes big-ticket items aimed at adults. An R2-D2 DVD projector. A stormtrooper golf bag. A high-end fashion line created with superstar designer Marc Ecko, including $300 Star Wars jeans and a replica of the poncho Han Solo wore on the ice planet Hoth. There was even a $3,000 suit of Darth Vader-style samurai armor. "We realize that our fans have different levels of disposable income," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, who joined the company a week after the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980. "The kids who played with the toys have grown up." Leland Chee strolls the San Francisco campus of Lucasfilm. Photo: Jeff Minton There have been some egregious missteps, like the Jar Jar lollipop. It looks like a plastic bust of the hated character, but push a button and it opens its mouth and sticks out a hideous candy tongue for children to suck on. "The tongue had bumps on it," Chee says, wrinkling his nose. Chee's sense of what is correct in the Star Wars universe has been a lifetime in development. He saw the original movie at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco at age 6. He got his first plastic Star Wars action figures—R2-D2 and that lame C-3P0 look-alike, Death Star Droid—for his seventh birthday and from there steadily enlarged his collection, storing them all in a case shaped like Darth Vader's head (which he still has). Chee even kept the cardboard they were mounted on. "The packaging had great visuals, plus, like, a paragraph of backstory on the character," he says. It's easy to forget that before Star Wars, licensed merchandise was a different, less profitable business. All the big toymakers turned down the rights to make Star Wars action figures; upstart Kenner didn't sign on until a month before the film's release. The earliest product tie-ins were novels and comics—Marvel published an adaptation of the movie a month after it hit theaters, then continued with its own stories. Soon Marvel had smugglers Solo and Chewbacca teaming up with questionable characters like Jaxxon, a furry green creature with big floppy ears who wisecracked like Bugs Bunny. "The idea of continuity was alien at the time," Roffman says. "We let Marvel Comics do the stories they wanted as long as it didn't interfere with the upcoming movies, and they went in some bizarre directions." The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong." The success of the movies led to more products: TV specials, a Saturday morning cartoon show, newspaper comics, a board game, a D&D-style tabletop role-playing game, simple arcade and console videogames. Young Chee bought as much as he could, including the sheet music for the iconic theme song, which he played at his first organ recital. After the release of Return of the Jedi, in 1983, Lucasfilm assumed that interest would wane. But the merch kept selling. And then, Chee remembers, the novel Heir to the Empire was published. "Wait, was it 1990?" he says, tapping a search into the Holocron. "I need to get this date right." It was actually 1991 when Hugo Award-winning writer Timothy Zahn released the novel, set five years after Return of the Jedi. The book spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and proved to Lucasfilm that even without new movies, it still had a market. "I was in college at UC Davis by then, but that book brought me back into Star Wars," Chee says. Without movies at the core, though, Lucas Licensing couldn't afford to be lackadaisical—no more Jaxxons, no more incestuous flirtations. "We set parameters," Roffman says. "It had to be an important extension of the continuity, and it had to have an internal integrity with the events portrayed in the films." Closely tending the canon was paying off with fans. Essentially, all the new comic books, novels, and games were prequels and sequels of one another. If you wanted to know the whole story, you had to buy them all. Neither Lucasfilm nor its licensees will divulge just how much money Lucasfilm gets for each item; suffice it to say the percentage is substantial. Chee applied for a job as a software tester at LucasArts shortly before Star Wars: Special Edition was rereleased in 1997. The film was an updated version of the 1977 original, with new visual effects and added scenes. (The special edition proved that the canon is vulnerable to retcons. In the most egregious example, an f/x tweak now has alien errand boy Greedo, not Han Solo, shooting first in the cantina duel. This made Solo a more simplistic character.) Chee scoffed at the fanboys who waited in line for three days outside the Coronet to see a movie they already owned on VHS. He had the self-restraint to wait until 5 am on the day of the release to queue up. When Chee got home from the movie, there was a message on his answering machine. He had the gig. "That was the last time I had to wait in line to see a Star Wars movie," he says. At first, his job entailed identifying and logging game bugs. His uncanny command of Star Wars lore and his organizational skills allowed him to rise quickly to the role of lead tester, which eventually led him to work on the 1998 title Behind the Magic. Magic wasn't so much a game as an interactive CD-ROM of Star Wars trivia, a treasure trove of data for überfans that included a timeline, a searchable glossary, scripts, and deleted scenes. Assembling it revealed inconsistencies in the canon. "There were differences in the layout of the Millennium Falcon between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back," says Blackman, who, in addition to being project lead on The Force Unleashed, also wrote and did research for Magic. "The continuity fix is that Han Solo made some modifications to the ship's interior." Around 2000, Chee moved from LucasArts to Lucas Licensing, where he was tasked with creating an even more detailed version of Magic for internal use. "We had several game-design teams, several comic book writers, and dozens of novelists," Roffman says. "We needed a reference for everyone who was playing in our sandbox." Chee was the perfect person for the job. "I've been amassing Star Wars knowledge my whole life," he says. "My friends were always like, what the heck are you ever going to do with all of that?" Chee's answer: Create a FileMaker doc similar to the ones he had used to track game bugs. He started transferring information from Magic, from binders, and from the stream of new novels and comics. "You don't know how much you don't know until you get here," he says. "Like, I'd never heard the radio dramas." In a forum on StarWars.com, PiccoloKenobi poses a question that we've all wondered about at one time or another: Are the Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships used by the Grand Army of the Republic spaceworthy, or are they limited to traveling within a planet's atmosphere? "LAATs can be sealed to operate in the vacuum of space," Chee decrees in a response post. "But the standard LAAT is not equipped for long-distance space travel." In the world of continuity maintenance, Chee is something of an anomaly. Most geek-friendly franchises rely on volunteerism—while Chee was building the Holocron, fans of other canons were working outside official imprimatur. Babylon 5 has a fan-created database. The Buffyverse has several. In fact, the best source for Star Wars information on the older stuff that Chee hasn't logged yet is an online database created and maintained by a community of fans that Chee views with wary respect. It's called, inevitably, the Wookieepedia. Naturally, some fans chafe at the Lucasfilm pronouncement-from-on-high approach. Take Curtis Saxton, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the UK. Beginning in 1995, he released a series of amateur technical commentaries on TheForce.net, a Star Wars omnibus site, that sent shock waves through the fan community. A fan-made video critiquing Curtis Saxton's theory of the Endor Holocaust. Video: The Endor Holocaust Saxton wasn't writing fan fiction—it was more like fan physics. He started out by estimating the size and power of various Star Wars vehicles and weapons, including the Death Star's planet-destroying superlaser (2.4 x 1032 joules to blow up the planet Alderaan). His numbers didn't jibe with those in the Lucas Licensing-approved tech manuals. But he persisted. And that's what led to the Endor Holocaust. At the climax of Return of the Jedi, Death Star II explodes while orbiting a forested moon called Endor, populated by cuddly creatures called Ewoks. Saxton considered the Death Star's orbit, the power output of its hypermatter power source, and the sheer tonnage of debris its destruction would have generated, then concluded that the climactic battle must have rained death and nuclear winter onto the teddy-bear tribe. He wrote: "The mass-extinction event at Endor is an inevitable physical consequence of the circumstances at the end of Return of the Jedi. As such, it indirectly enjoys canonical status, even though it was not clearly portrayed in the film." In other words, science says the Ewoks are dead. You can't posit the genocide of the Ewoks without igniting a backlash. In the forums, debates raged between self-described Saxtonites and their foes. This willingness of some obsessives to go deeper into the fictional world than its original creators did is a mainstay of fandom. "It goes back to Hugo Gernsback, the father of modern science fiction, who encouraged readers to dig into his stories, expand on them, and critique the science," says Henry Jenkins, a sci-fi fan and MIT media-studies professor. Despite Saxton's heretical notions, he later worked on four official technical manuals. And the notion of an Endor Holocaust has been incorporated into several comics—as foul propaganda spread by Imperial loyalists. But the fact that official Star Wars products even addressed the idea shows how influential writing like Saxton's can be. It's called fanon—fan-generated canon—and it's still a controversial notion to the priesthood at Lucasfilm. "I don't like the term," Chee says. "There's no such thing as fan continuity." Yet even within the Holocron, not all reality is created equal. Chee coded a pulldown menu that lets him categorize entries. S, for example, stands for secondary continuity—early unvetted works, such as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Sure, it introduced fan-favorite character Boba Fett to the continuity. But it also featured Princess Leia singing a carol to celebrate the Wookiee ceremony of Life Day, and Harvey Korman in drag playing a cooking instructor making Bantha Surprise. Princess Leia serenades Wookiees on their homeworld Kashyyyk. From the quasi-canonical Star Wars Holiday Special. Video: Star Wars Holiday Special - Leia sings And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level