So last night I got to enjoy one of the perks of being a shiny happy new employee of LFL-a bunch of us from the Online group, some from Licensing, some from Marketing, and a pair from the doc crew, quietly infiltrated the Metreon's digital theater at last night's midnight premiere. The Metreon had 5 theaters going, but there was definitely a coolness factor to witnessing one of the only digital presentations in town-the one George himself attended just days ago for the company screening.

Anyway, the fans were in good form-plenty of lightsabers waving, lots of costumes, and an unbelievable number of laptop screens playing Ep 2. We arrived late and had to scramble for seats-most of us settling for scattered pairs and singles. Coincidentally, a friend who I know through Steve Sansweet was seated nearby, who I'd also been randomly seated next to on the plane returning from Celebration III. No time to talk though. Show's starting.

This was my third viewing, so I was here to watch the audience this time. The previous viewings had been with LFL for the most part, and being so familiar with the storyline, there were few surprises. For most of these fans, however, it was all new. People cheered, booed, and whispered in all the right places, picking up details I'd even missed my first time around (Kenobi's New Hopish "Hello there!", for instance).

As it ended and crowds were leaving the theater, some were literally teary-eyed. It really just occurred to me that this was to be the last cinematically screened Star Wars feature, and I instantly remembered the same emotion during the last scene of Jedi in my Montrose hometown theater back in '83. A sad day, to be sure, but there's still a bright future for the franchise in TV and cinematic re-releases.

As a collector, the adventure never really ends though-this film alone will produce so many posters (my first interest) in so many countries that I'll be scrambling for years to catch up. Don't think all this stuff just comes in free and in quantity to LFL employees-I get ALL my stuff just like everyone else, usually competing (and losing) on eBay. Fortunately, my tastes aren't mainstream, so I can find a lot of good deals in the fringe categories.

So I was definitely glad to be here at LFL for at least a piece of the cinematic saga, even if I just came in during the last act (four months ago). There's definitely good times ahead, and plenty of good company.