Fish and Cherries Productions

You waited. You hoped. And now, you shall receive. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my first article looking at the old Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Star Wars Expanded Universe: The Early Days

But that’s not all. I’m adding a new short story to my fiction section called “The Badlands.” I’ve actually been sitting on this one for a while and I think now’s the best time to release it. After all, I’m working on getting an expansion of it published. Enjoy.

The Badlands

When it rains it pours. This update is going to cover a lot of projects, so let’s get started.

Beginning with an upcoming release, the Doctor Who Podcast has been trimmed and is almost complete. We’re going to chop this one up into three videos because an hour and forty-seven minutes is way too long to ask for people’s attention. Apart from that, we just need to do some audio cleaning, add the background music, and get the background picture all set and we’ll be home free! I may have to break my schedule for this one, since I want this one to come out before the premiere or the day of. So stay tuned for the tales of time traveling and the cosmos, coming very, very soon.

Second, this month’s Ronin Reads. Oh man, I can’t wait to share this book with you guys. September 29 is coming up soon and I’m pushing through the book. Every page is a turner and it’s been all I can do to bite my tongue about it all. I’m almost halfway through the book (it’s a 600-page giant), so that’s going to be my main focus for most of the month.

Which brings me to my final update concerning the Star Wars articles. I’m excited to share those and the first one will be coming this October. Apologies for the delay, but since I’m focusing on the book as of late, I can’t really dig my talons into those quite yet. Still, in October, get ready for a trip into the Legends of a galaxy far, far away. All of its ups, downs, and sidewayses will come to light as I take you on a trip through one of the most influential stories of a generation.

Keep your eye on the skies.

Oh yeah! It’s the last Thursday of the month! That means we get a new Ronin Reads! Since the new Star Wars movie is fast approaching, let’s cover the first entry into its new expanded universe tying into one of my favorite things on TV right now, Star Wars: Rebels. Enjoy.

Star Wars: A New Dawn

Whoa, what’s this? Three updates at once?! Yep, in order to get things balanced for my new schedule, I’m coming out with three different things on the same day. Let’s start out with two Reel Snippets, one classic and one new release.

Love Actually
Inside Out

Now let’s follow that up with my newest Ronin Reads on an obscure comic. One day, I’ll do an actual prose story…

Letter 44

The schedule will be posted this Friday. But in case you crave more content between then and now… how about our E3 podcast? Guess this isn’t a triple feature anymore! Accolades all around!

Title: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back
Author: Ian Doescher
Type: Play
Genre: Science Fiction, Parody

Summary: On the surface, combining Shakespeare and Star Wars sounds like an idea that a lazy student would do to try and get an easy A in his literature class. However, despite its inherent silliness, there is a sort of cleverness and, dare I say, dignity with the execution. It isn’t just The Empire Strikes Back run through a Shakespeare translator, there are whole new scenes between incidental characters to match the Shakespeare style, different characters are given entire soliloquies, and there’s even a chorus that takes over when it serves the purpose. The real cleverness, though, comes with what the author did with Yoda; rather than just keep his backwards dialogue the same and make it more Shakespearian, they have him speak entirely in haiku. That’s pretty ingenious. Personally, I think it was a good read and I can’t wait for The Jedi Doth Return.

The LEGO Movie took me completely by surprise and blew my socks off. By all rights, it had no right to be good, as it seemed like a complete complete cosh cow movie. But somehow, it turned out to be the one of the most imaginative and fun movies for the whole family that takes a twist into straight up meta commentary by the end. The big thing that makes the movie run so well, apart from the really fast comedy coming at you most of the time, comes from the fact that it is, in fact, a LEGO movie, thus everything is based around LEGO physics, motion, and logic. This leads to a lot of jokes and clever use of the set pieces, which I mean quite literally. Honestly, I don’t think the movie would have worked if it took itself completely seriously, but since the plot runs on complete irony, that’s not a problem. Oh, and the acting is superb too, including Charlie Day, who I never would have recognized were it not for the credits. I’m not sure if anyone who hasn’t played with LEGOs or had a kid who did so would enjoy this movie as much apart from the subtle adult jokes that would slip past the kids, but maybe they could. It’s one of the most upbeat, charming, grin-inducing movies that I’ve seen in a while and I think it deserves a watch. Go out and feel like a kid again.

Now we take a look at all the upcoming stuff that could be cool. Games and Green Lanterns ahoy!