May the FORCE be with me...

I haven't always been the biggest fan of Star Wars. There, I said it.

When I was growing up in the 70's and 80's, a few of my friends were Star Wars freaks and had every piece of Star Wars memorablia, toys, and action figures that hit the streets. My parents took me to see Return of the Jedi at the Drive-In one time, and when the box set of the Trilogy was released on VHS my buddy Chris bought it and we had a Star Wars marathon.

Well, I'm back on the bandwagon thanks to Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and a guy by the name of Duncan Jenkins. (And truth be told, I had to go out last week and rent Episode I and II to catch up with the saga.)

Duncan is the subject of one of the stories in the upcoming Summer 2005 edition of Soda Pop Dreams. That particular story is dedicated to soda collectibles released to commemorate the Star Wars movies over the years. It's not just a Pepsi story either - Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, 7UP, and Red Bull have also released their fair share of Star Wars promotional signage and collectibles as well.

So where does Duncan fit in? He's got a collection of more than 50,000 Star Wars items in his house - most of them food-related packaging. So when it came time to find a source for the story, Duncan was the natural choice and let me tell you, it's a great story with a number of excellent photos of rare and foreign soda Star Wars memorabilia that you probably won't find elsewhere.

Living in Rosseau, it's a bit more of a roadtrip to get to a decent movie theater. We have a theater about 30 minutes away, but it's one straight outta the 70's, retro seats and tiny screen to boot. So yesterday afternoon, I sucked it up and drove an hour to Orillia to the new Galaxy theater (with stadium seating, booming surround sound, and all the high tech stuff) to finally see Star Wars Episode III. It was all that it was hyped up to be, and then some... I loved every minute of it! Not that George Lucas needs any more money stuffed into his pocket, but I highly recommend seeing Episode III the way it was meant to be seen - on the big screen. If you're not a fan of this genre, after seeing this film, you will be.

See you next week, Happy Collecting, and may the force be with you.

Mac Geeks Converge for Toronto Store Opening...

It seems some people will do anything for a free t-shirt - myself included. And today I was made painfully aware that I'm a macintosh geek. But let me tell you... I'm not alone.

This morning was the opening of the Apple Store in Toronto's Yorkdale Mall - the first of its kind in Canada. Basically it's a macintosh corporate store with the full line of mac products (all the ibooks, G5s, ipods, videocameras and software). The reason this is so unique is because up to this point, you could either order Apple products online via their website or visit an authorized mac store. Few stores carry much in the way of selection, but will gladly order products/software/memory for you. The new corporate concept means that you show up and have the opportunity to try the products before you buy.

When I heard last week about the grand opening today, I was so excited about this Apple Store concept since I now use mac exclusively to produce all of my magazines and the websites that go along with them. These days, I live about 2 hours north of Toronto, but I got up at the crack of dawn and made my way through cottage country and arrived at Yorkdale at about 9:20 (ten minutes before the store was to open). I figured there might be a bit of line, since Apple was giving away a free 'Yorkdale Apple' t-shirt to the first 1500 people to visit the store. I certainly wasn't prepared for the mob that had gathered to worship the Apple brand.

According to one rather weary security guard, the crowd of nearly 1,000 had started arriving at the mall the night before to secure their place in line. One guy had been there camped out since Tuesday (five days before the scheduled opening). I was awestruck. At first, I decided against waiting for 4 hours in line just for a 10 minute glance at some mac products that I wasn't going to buy anyway (I just got a new machine back in January)... I called my wife to tell her the bad news - that every mac geek in Toronto had come out of the woodwork to catch a glimpse of the new Apple Store. Her response: "Every mac geek in Toronto, and you - the mac geek of Rosseau". Ouch.

Is it really true... are we mac addicts really computer geeks in disguise? After watching the herds of folks in line at the mall earlier today, it's safe to say that some aren't disguising their 'geekness' very well. Some are downright blatant about it.

After I sat in the car for a while, I decided that I had driven for 2 hours and wasn't going to return home with nothing to show for my day. So, I waited in line with the rest of the commoners.... I had a few conversations about macs, the new Tiger OS (which I now have), and the brand in general. I sipped a bottle of diet Coke in the heat (yes, the line from the mall stretched all the way outside and around the corner) and waited for nearly 3 hours to get into the store.

At one point a guy approached the mob and asked, "Is this the line for Star Wars?" To which one rowdy mac fan yelled, "Star Wars.... what the hell is that?" That stirred a wave of laughter from the crowd because for as much hype as the Star Wars movie has been getting lately, it's almost a relief to be obsessing over something else for a change this week.

And so I got my free t-shirt (very cool shirt by the way), bought some RAM for the emac, and got a brief lesson on the new OS 10.4 Tiger. Lots of cool trinkets and gadgets at the new Apple Store, some of which I hope to add to the Playing With Words arsenal this Fall - so keep an eye on the Soda Pop Dreams Magazine website for some new innovations and technologies being implemented, courtesy of the Apple Store.

See ya, and Happy Collecting!

Soda Pop Dreams Goes Hollywood... maybe.

In the not-too-distant-future, Soda Pop Dreams Magazine may be going Hollywood. First off, I'm working on a story at the moment dedicated to Pepsi-related Star Wars memorabilia in honor of the summer's biggest blockbuster in years, Star Wars Episode III. Pepsi's affiliation with Episode I-III has produced some fantastic cross-promotion items (of interest to both Star Wars fanatics and Pepsi collectors). Signs, bottles, cans, P.O.S. displays, and so much more. Since this is the final movie in the saga, it's only fitting that we pay homage to Pepsi and Star Wars for our upcoming Summer 2005 print edition. Currently on eBay, there are more than 500 Pepsi Star Wars items up for bids. And that, folks, is only the beginning.

Hollywood continues: last week I got a call from a production manager in Vancouver, British Columbia. He's in the process of compiling props to appear in a movie that's starting production next week. The movie takes place, in part, in a fictional beverage company called 'Alpine Beverage'. He came across the Soda Pop Dreams Magazine website and figured that since we are dedicated exclusively to the beverage industry and soda pop collecting, that the magazine would be perfect for props... in background shots of the beverage company office, that sort of thing. So, while nothing is set in stone (we'll probably end up on the cutting room floor), copies of Soda Pop Dreams and The Soda Spectrum Series are now on their way to Vancouver to debut as 'movie props'.

Oh yeah, the movie is called "RV" and did I mention... it stars Robin Williams. 'Nuff said.