Rebel Force Radio - It's All About The Wars.

Way back in August, 2006, almost by accident, I became aware of a new podcast that was to kick off in the first week of September of that year. Titled "The ForceCast", this podcast began as a weekly round up of news and views from around the world on the continuing popularity and love of all things Star Wars. It was an extension of the popular fan sites TheForce.Net and RebelScum.Com.

Now, those who know me, know just how big a nut I am for anything Star Wars and The ForceCast quickly became a weekly staple. In fact, it was my Saturday breakfast ritual. First thing I'd do upon waking up was to check my smartphone's RSS feed and smile with a twinkle in my eye seeing a minty fresh episode waiting.

For 1 to 2 hours each week, the show - helmed by Jason Swank and Peter Nadel - would take me through the week in Star Wars. What was happening in the fan community, the conventions, new toy releases, the game releases, the discussions about the movies and so on. With the advent of the Star Wars The Clone Wars animated series in 2008, there was fresh Star Wars to discuss as the guys transitioned into talking about the episodes of the series. By then, Peter Nadel had stepped aside from the program and Jason was joined by Chicagoan Jimmy "Mac" McInerney.

Rebel Force Radio Co-Host and Producer Jason Swank.

I contributed a couple of recordings to those early shows in which I related memories of Star Wars from when I was a kid back in the early 80's, a teen during the "dark times" of the early 90's and as a nurse in my early twenties when I nursed a young man who was dying of cancer and whose one last wish was to see The Holiday Special, which he had never seen.

Rebel Force Radio Co-Host and Producer Jimmy "Mac" McInerney.

I always loved the sense of community that both Jason, Peter and Jimmy fostered out of the show and they were the first uber fans I knew of that had a direct line to many of the inside people at Lucasfilm. Jimmy Mac himself, scored the penultimate opportunity when he was granted an audience with none other than George Lucas a couple of years ago and was able to interview him at length. The community was global and through the message boards associated with the show, it flourished.

A new era for the show came just this year - 2013 - when Jason and Jimmy announced the launch of their own show "Rebel Force Radio", separate from the umbrella of TheForce.Net and RebelScum.Com. Fans had little time to digest the news of the guys striking out on their own - not that it really mattered - since the first episode of their new show dropped pretty quickly onto the iPods, Androids and smartphone devices before most even knew what was happening.

Rebel Force Radio brings Jason and Jimmy together as a dynamic team who offer up the world of Star Wars with such enthusiasm and energy that it's kinda like being a kid all over again. With the recent acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd. by Disney and the announcement in late 2012 of a brand new trilogy of Star Wars films, both Jason and Jimmy are sure to have their finger on the pulse of Star Wars and they will be the news source that many will trust before all others.

Rebel Force Radio is available to subscribe to at iTunes now and has its own RSS feed to which non Apple listeners can subscribe. Their official site will launch shortly and is sure to become thee go to portal for Star Wars fans.

In the mean time, check out the Rebel Force Radio Facebook page and keep up with the gang as they deliver all that is good about "The Wars".

DFA.

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Memory Palace.

As an avowed Star Wars geek...

...You know - perhaps I shouldn't have started this post with that sentence because, already, I can imagine a good bulk of you groaning and switching off. But stick with me here because this is a good one - I swear. 

Anyway...

I have met and interacted with a lot a like minded Star Wars geeks over the years and many of these interactions have been wonderful with a lot of mutual geeking out, talking all things Skywalker, Vader, the Galaxy far, far away and much playing with Kenner/Hasbro figurines...

Still with me?

One of the most significant of these interactions however, was one of those unique experiences that is tinged with a little tragedy. In 1999, which was of course the year Episode One was released into cinemas, I was nursing here in Adelaide and I came across a young cancer patient who was possibly the biggest Star Wars fan I had come across - apart from myself. His name was David and over the course of about 6 weeks in April/May of that year, I spent a lot of hours looking after David. 


The writing was on the wall for David. 


He was terribly ill, terminally ill as it were and everyone knew that his days were numbered. His room at the hospital was decked out with Star Wars paraphernalia, posters, toys, books. Someone had brought in a TV and video set up so that he could watch the films back to back (this was of course the Original Trilogy on VHS at that time). For a short time, while David was there in the hospital, you could step into his room and disappear into a kind of localized galaxy not so far away. 


And of course me, being a well known Star Wars geek amongst my colleagues, found myself (well...I made sure I found myself) allocated to his care most of the time. Which suited us just fine. Most shifts were me and him swapping stories, sharing collectibles and like I said before...just geeking out.

A well understood but not often discussed reality between us was the likelihood that David would not survive to see Episode One and, given his parlous condition in the lead-up to the film's release, it was highly unlikely that we could ever get him into a position where we could get him to the cinema - not that we didn't investigate the possibility mind you.

I could continue the story in words here and now but I'd like to share with you, a short piece of audio that I recorded for the Star Wars internet radio show The Force Cast. I recounted the story during a period where the Kyle Newman directed movie "Fanboys" was going through a pretty rough patch in it's development - precisely because it's own story dealt with a very similar case of someone facing death in the lead-up to the release of Episode One.

It's not a long piece of audio but even now, it says much about all that is good about Star Wars and it's fan base. 


Enjoy...


DOWNLOAD .MP3


DFA.