January 3, 2010 | Battlestar Connectedness

Today’s blog post was to cover my thoughts on the closing of a local bookstore. Those thoughts shall be relegated for a post tomorrow, a post that will already be written sometime shortly after I’ve posted this one.

So let’s begin. I awoke this morning to find that a core theme of mine manifested itself. I’ll give you five cubits to figure out which theme it is.

One was in the form of a private message from the Quorum, The Colonial Fleet‘s message board; I received a message from one of the kind prop replica makers there, who went out of his way to thank me for creating the Battlestar Wiki. It made my morning when I read it, if only because it is a testament to a resource that I and many, many people worked on over the past five years to create and maintain.

The second was the discovery of a very interesting fact. It is a fact that was revealed when I posted yesterday’s blog about the Battlestar schwag—Dr. Kevin Grazier was never given a copy of the Battlestar Galactica Cast & Crew Yearbook.

It is a discovery that disturbs me a bit, seeing as I had received one with thanks to my friends at NBC Universal, Propworx, and the former Battlestar production office in Vancouver. When I received my copy, I had been informed of the following: it was one of the last copies up in Vancouver not given to anyone, and that everyone who worked on the series received one. Given this information, I’m a bit distressed to just find out more than a year later that Kevin seems to have been overlooked. Honestly, my involvement on Battlestar is not to the extent of Kevin’s and, let’s be honest, he had far more to do with shaping the show than I (or anyone connected to the Wiki, really) ever did.

So before I received a copy, Kevin should have received one. That would have been logical, fair, and… look, the human factor throws all that out the airlock. Whoosh!

I’m not blaming anyone for this oversight, because these things do happen. However, since we know that the issue is present and I feel that it should be corrected, I’m going to at least open my mouth about it—if only in the hope of the right person at the right place, and at right time, becoming aware of this and having the power to fix it.

So, for those of you who read this and have any worthwhile connections at NBC Universal, please make it so that a book ships to Dr. Kevin. There might be an extra one lying around somewhere. Also, if someone is thinking of selling their copy, please strongly consider sending it to Kevin.

Let’s make this happen. Call it a late Christmas present, if you’d like. So say we all.

January 2, 2010 | Battlestar Schwag

The book that (at one time) went for over $3,000. Believe it or not.

There are some very cool pieces of Battlestar Cast and Crew schwag up on eBay, all for charity. The stuff is authentic as 1) it’s been confirmed by Aaron Douglas on his LJ blog, and 2) since I have some of it.

The best thing to be auctioned off is the Cast & Crew Yearbook that is awesome; I would use the term “positively awesome,” yet since “negatively awesome” is a contradiction, there’s no need for the unnecessary modifier. Although I don’t think it’s worth the $700 that is being asked for, charity or not. This book has become, more or less, the cornerstone of my own personal collection, yet it pales in comparison to the information I procured about the series while I was working on the BSG Auction via the scripts, continuity materials, and all that good stuff that will never really make the light of day, if NBC Universal has anything to say about it.

I’d be interested in writing a book on it, if there were any people interested in reading it.

Oh, and the nitpicker within me was just summoned to inform you that the yearbook does not come with a DVD. It’s a CD, the “Best of Battlestar Galactica” CD that was first made for this thing and then later given out by Bear McCreary and his Battlestar Band for those who participated in his search for a web designer of his band’s website. You can follow them on Twitter, although they don’t tweet much.

Should you happen across this book, while you’re listening to the aforementioned CD, do feast your eyes on the “Whom Frakked Whom” tree… that’s just pure hilarity. There might be a picture or scan of it available online, but I couldn’t be bothered right now to look for it.