I spent the week before last in Los Angeles on a mini-vacation (although from what, I’m not really sure). My week started out by conquering my fears on the roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The one called “X” was my first one, which definitely set the pace for what the rest of the coasters would be like. I have never been on anything so intense. Imagine being suspended on a seat with legs dangling (not a big deal), but in addition to that, your seat swings to the momentum of the ride. In a nutshell, you really can’t anticipate how you’ll be moving, where you’re going, and what the heck is going on. This hilarious video gives a good idea of how it feels (wait about 1 minute):

Needless to say, after riding the “X”, the rest of the coasters seemed like cake - but not always good cake. I think that after too much cake, I was getting very lightheaded and very sick of cake, yet I kept eating it until closing time. I think I’m all roller coastered out for the next 10 years. And I’m glad I got to go to Disneyland a few days after all of this, because I think Disney-ish coasters were about all I could handle after that day.

So, what I didn’t anticipate about my week in LA was attending the Star Wars Celebration IV convention, a huge 5-day gathering of Star Wars fans, young and old, big and small. I have never been to a Star Wars Celebration, as it is usually somewhere in the Midwest and its pretty pricey to spend 5 days out there just to attend. Lucky for me, I was in LA at the right time because it just happened to be at the LA convention center this year (where E3 usually is). I was only able to make it for one day, but it was well worth it.  However, embarrassingly enough, because I didn’t plan ahead on attending, I wasn’t very equipped with any Star Wars apparel. Shame on me.

This place was every toy collector’s dream. There were booths after booths of all things Star Wars – action figures, models, statues, apparel (I can always use another Star Wars tee), plus all the vintage stuff that you remembered playing with as a kid. Of course, no convention is complete without panels. They had special guests like Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Irvin Kershner (director of Empire Strikes Back), a special preview of Star Wars Family Guy (watch the whole thing here), slave Princess Leia belly dancing lessons, and tons of panels all about costume making. One of my favorites had to be Star Wars in 30 minutes – a very creative and very funny live performance reenacting the entire Star Wars trilogy all in 30 minutes with special effects such as flying silver “X-Wing” chairs, a trash can R2-D2, and flashlights for an extra scariness to the Emperor’s face.

As a Star Wars geek myself, this convention was a dream to attend and I will definitely never forget it. Now on to the pics!

Little Star Wars Tykes:

It’s dark in here!!

Thank you… thank you very much, Jabba

All Things Vintage:

Ooh, my jacket matches Darth Maul’s face!

Who doesn’t need a Chewbacca face backpack?