US: Some California fans will have been queuing nearly two weeks for the new Star Wars film, writes Kimi Yoshino
They're normal people. Really. They are accountants, college students, disc jockeys; and husbands, wives, parents.
But when they utter the words "Star Wars", something inexplicable happens, and normality flies out the window.
"Would I categorise myself as a geek? Probably not," said Robert Estrada (34) of Orange, California, a.k.a. Robeewankenobe and Supreme Chancellor of the Orange County Star Wars Society, a group nearly 350 strong.
"But then I start talking about Star Wars, and I light up and you say, 'OK, he is a geek'. I think there's a geek in everybody. . . I think it's chic to be geek today."
That may be true, as thousands of Star Wars fans, geeks or otherwise, prepare for next Thursday's worldwide release of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, the final instalment of George Lucas's epic
The local society has been camped across the street from Fashion Island at the 1,108-seat Big Newport cinema since Sunday. There's also a group of six self-described "normal guys - with wives, girlfriends, jobs and lives" who are posting on the Star Wars Campout Blog, rhapsodising on friendship and childhood, life and possibly growing apart without the glue of Star Wars to bond them.
Never mind that they bought their tickets weeks ago.
Then again, this is Star Wars.
"We take it fairly seriously," said Don Trim (53) of Anaheim, Star Wars name Zhi-Don. "This is not a joke to us."
Sure, things are in high gear now, but year-round, Trim teaches young Jedis how to handle their light sabres. The group meets weekly at an Anaheim park for lessons in technique and line battles, their neon-glowing weapons and flowing Jedi robes often attracting onlookers.
For the six bloggers at Big Newport cinema, who have camped out together for Star Wars opening days since 1999, it is perhaps more about their history as friends. "It's morphed since that time from a bunch of guys being stupid and camping out for a movie that we like to something like a last hurrah," said Alex Douvas (24) of Placentia, who will graduate next weekend from law school.
"It is a closing chapter. . . for a lot of us in terms of where we're at in our lives."
So they've come prepared for their two-week camp-out with tents, refrigerators, space heaters, Playstations, VCRs and televisions. The cinema leaves a door unlocked so the fans, who are on rotating shifts, have access to a bathroom and can run extension cords to their gear.