Monday, March 22, 2010
501st Catch Up!
Whew, it has been a busy season.
Now, between hockey games, there were 2 major 501st events that happened. First was the 2010 Atlanta St. Patrick’s Day Parade downtown. The number of 501st participants are growing each year. This year there were members from Georgia, Carolina, Alabama and Mid-South. We also had members from two divisions of the Rebel Legion.
This is a FUN event.
We meet and park at the parade route end point and get ready. Then we take Marta to the Parade staging area. I love to watch the people stare as a line of Star Wars characters go marching by them. 
At the parade staging area, Jesse pointed out a convertible Cadillac with Blues Brothers signs on it.
There we met Jake and Elwood Blues. Elwood gave me some beads and told me that he and his friend had been doing the ‘Blues Brothers’ and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade since the movie came out. Elwood was our friend.
It’s didn’t take long before Elwood popped the trunk of the Caddy and started offering drinks. He asked if I wanted some Crown Royal and I said, “Are you serious?” He answered “Sweetheart, I am retired, do well for myself and have 40 bottles.” How can you say no to that! Needless to say the 501st LOVED him. By the time the parade started moving, he had given us our own bottle for the parade. I did make sure to get his email so I could say 'Thanks' and send him some of the pictures I took.
Now add in loud dance music and we were starting to have a party at the parade line up... That is all I’m gonna say about these clips…
And there are more over at on the rumbunny13 YouTube channel.
Another exciting part of the parade was General Grievous. Ed, from the Carolina Garrison, had made an amazing body puppet of Grievous. Here are some photos and videos but they really don’t do it justice.
Put Pix side-by-side
He even got into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit…
I cannot move on without mentioning Princess and my favorite spectator on the parade route. Princess is an incredibly sweet and beautiful Husky. This is the second time her owner and the 501st have parked in the same parking deck. Needless to say, there is no lacking in love…
When I saw this little guy, I had to stop and get a picture of him…
Here are a few other pictures from the parade…
The Movie Magic of John Williams
Last and definitely not least, was the 501st helping out at the Woodruff Arts Center yesterday with the ‘The Movie Magic of John Williams’ program. It was a rare opportunity to participate with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. All costume characters were on stage at least once during the performance. We had to arrive early and work with the Conductor on blocking what would be happening during the show. Luckily, this was the second performance and we had a couple of people who had done it the night before. It went pretty quick and smooth. The biggest thing was creating a ‘generic’ Jedi out of Auggie so Count Dooku would have someone to fight. Actually, he looked more like a Nun from the dark side.
I did have time for a quick group shot with the Conductor during the walkthrough:
The area they had for the 501st the change was pretty sweet (by 501st standards). It was just the ‘Chorus Dressing Room’ but we liked it…
Since the Star Wars music was not till the end of the performance, I had the opportunity to head upstairs and watch the 1st half of the concert. It was fantastic! They played music from Superman, E.T., Harry Potter and Jaws. During the Jaws segment, an inflatable shark appeared and ‘swam’ its way through the orchestra to the other side of the stage.
At intermission, I headed back downstairs only to head back upstairs and backstage with everyone else. I was surprised we were able to get another quick group shot with the 501st is full costume with the Conductor before the second part of the program began.
I stood back stage and listed to music from Jurassic Park and a piece called ‘The Mission’. ‘The Mission’ is the full piece of music that was written for the NBC Nightly News – who knew???? On TV, you only get a small sampling of the music.
Once it was over, they changed and we packed up. I think everyone was exhausted. When we were about to leave, someone mentioned that Jason was now dressed up like his favorite Garrison CO. There had to be a picture…
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