Mr March

"I love Angelina Jolie! Does anyone else like Angelina Jolie? She's got enormous lips!" Best...RVB...ever!

No problem. Like I said, I was lost on the reference. I am indeed a Halo fan (though Half-Life will always be my number one) and you're right, can't really think of a humorous, message board worthy quote from the two X-Box games. Red vs. blue is a great idea though

Yes, but it's only the most insane and retarded player! ... But Gnakins? I'm pretty sure it was Jenkins... Ouch, that hurts. Never knew I came across as insane and retarded. But, whatever the mods prefer...

Thanks Amped! I've been wondering what the White Stripes play for quite some time. I'd love to listen to some of their tunes before purchasing a CD. Supposedly they get radio play, but I never listen to the radio. I'll have to search on the net and give some of their more popular tunes a try.

A player name from a MMORPG? Wow, that's quite obscure.

I'm didn't see it in the preceeding pages, but does anyone here listen to The White Stripes? I'm trying to decide whether I want to give their stuff a shot, but I doubt I've ever heard their music. Can anyone do some comaprions or describe what kind of music they play?

This reminds me so much of 1970's style science fiction artwork, particularly what one would see in stuff like Heavy Metal. The shapes, the nature of the peice itself, the colors...it's very much like going back in time. Very well done!

I'm afraid I don't get mine

Strange. I'm afraid I've never heard of them. Nice picture though!

Just got back from watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It was what I expected, a mindless action film with some fun fighting scenes, silly story, and solid humor. I liken this film to other guilty pleasures I enjoy such as True Lies. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was enjoyable and I'd easily watch it again. I liked the Fight Club t-shirt. I'm such a geek

I've also thought about the Jabba encounter this way myself. I've felt that Luke was just "going through the motions," already beleiving that he would have to destroy Jabba and his cronnies. The reason he gave Jabba a chance was to hold out the slim hope that Jabba might see value or some profit in a trade with Luke. But I believe Luke knew all along Jabba was most likely to simply stay true to his vile nature and attempt to possess everything he wanted rather than negotiate. Luke sent the R2-D2 to infiltrate Jabba's palace, lightsaber secretly stowed inside R2-D2 as a planned surprise strike all along. I don't beleive Luke was dealing unfairly or scheming per se. I felt his plan was more akin to properly managing the circumstances in which he knew he could deal with Jabba. Luke knew his enemy, understood Jabba and how Jabba thought, and planned his options for rescuing Solo in such a way as to take advantage of Jabba's weaknesses.

I really like that poster. Very minimalist and striking. Well done...if you can understand this

I have many fears that this franchise is done. The revolving door of directors on the third film and the fact that Benioff wrote Troy is just shaking any faith I have in future X-men projects. I don't want to predict doom and declare the films a failure before they are even released, but every piece of news does nothing but breed disappointment.

Your utility belt was vibrating. Nine times out of ten, it's some Sith's lightsaber. But every once in a while...it's a dildo. Of course, it's policy on Coruscant never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo. We use the indefinite article "a dildo" never...YOUR dildo. I am Jack's enjoyable paraphrasing

I also agree about the Bespin fight, while not the best fight in my opinion, there are dynamics to that duel that are just awesome. Vader starts of really easy on Luke and as the fight goes on he slowly ups his tempo as he realizes that Luke has "some" skills. I really love the end of that duel when Luke finally lands a hit on Vader on his shoulder, to me that was when Vader said F*** this and quickly cuts Lukes hand off. You can really see then that Vader was holding back on him. Chris I liked the arrangement and progression of the Luke vs. Vader duel on Bespin as well. Though the story and dramatic result is what ultimately makes it such a great duel (much like Obi Wan/Anakin vs. Dooku and Obi-Wan vs. Anakin in RoTS), the progression and rising action of the Bespin duel creates this sense of impending doom and inevitability. The fight works in stages, gradually getting more desperate and more lethal as time goes on. Yet at no time does the duel drag on or feel uninteresting. Each step, the fighting and the seperation all build toward a great climax. Then, just when Luke is defeated and you think it can't get any worse... No...I am your father! *sheds a tear* One of my favorite cinematic moments

LOL, where, in France? Trek has a cult, but not wide appeal or popularity. How often are trekkies made fun of because of their very strange behavior? Is it really shocking to anyone that they like to diddle little boys as well? As much as I love to bash Trek, play up the cinematic bombs, and revell in the cancellation of their television shows, Trek has a long way to go before it reaches Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 levels of science fiction obscurity. Even longer before it falls out of public awareness. Ridicule the fans all you want (and trust me, I do), but I cannot deny that even as the wretched monster that is Trek slowly dies, it's still pumping out merchandise and feeding one of the largest sci-fi fandoms on the planet.

I can't imagine anyone else besides a child with poor judgement enjoying Trek I'm not really offering a theory per se. Trek is still popular enough among younger people and children and hence it will find use in such a case. More importantly though, Trek is not a cause as the article suggests and that article failed to meet a burden of proof while simultaneously preying upon the public's feelings towards weirdness of extreme Trek fans. Much in the same way Jackson is guilty in the court of public opinion because he's weird.

So now you Canadians can check out Def Lep AND The Tea Party at one show! *in Napoleon Dynamite voice* Luuuuucky!!! (Which reminds me of a funny story... one time at Red Wings hockey game, the announcer - who was used to having to pronounce French Canadian hockey player names - was listing upcoming events and he announced Def Leppard with an accented 'E' so it sounded like dEf lEHpAHRD... LOL ...funniest thing ever! Well, OK maybe you have to be a metalhead and a hockey fan, but it was F'in funny I tell ya!!!) (BTW, the new Audioslave album is more of the good stuff too!) The new Seven Circles album was good only as a plain rock album, but wasn't very innovative or fresh. It's strange though, that everyone I know who doesn't regularly listen to The Party wanted to borrow my copy of the new album. They seem to think that "Writing on The Wall" is a great song and they all want it. I like the album and the track, but it's far from their best stuff. Not really sure why Seven Circles is suddenly in demand among non-fans. I know The Party is huge here in Canada and Australia. I understand that one of the reasons they weren't big in the U.S. is because EMI had a non-existant marketting portfolio for them in the States. No push was ever made to get them on stages, articles in magazines, play on radios, and what not. Even when they started selling millions of albums, no support was given. But, the did well enough without big success south of the border. Personally, I love the influences and the innovations the Tea Party has done for metal and rock. The diverse sounds they create from a team of just three musicians is amazing. They often sound like a symphony with the amount of instrumentation put into many of their tracks. They are most definitely their own band and they offered a lot to music while most of the bands of the 90's were simply following alternative rock trends or rap. I've seen The Party twice here in Calgary, usually at the Coca Cola stage during Stampede. They were fantastic both times. You're lucky to be so close to their home base and see them when they play bigger shows.

I'm of the opinion that all the prequel duels are far more dynamic and interesting than those in the original trilogy. However, I have to say that dramatically Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader on Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back was the most satisfying duel. The fight was always one sided and you knew Luke was going to lose, but it was so heroic of Luke to fight on and so tragic when we discovered that simply losing the duel wasn't the worst that could happen to him. The intensified pace in the latter half of the duel was also a very nice touch to the overall duel. It's still my favorite Star Wars saber fight, even though it's dated. My other favorite duels would be Obi-Wan/Anakin vs. Count Dooku in the opening of Revenge of the Sith. Simply the way the duel ended was incredibly rewarding; a true guilty pleasure.

I typically jump at any chance to bash Trek, but in this case I can’t let the greater crime committed by this article go unchallenged. The article uses one of the many errors often made when statisitics are used in the media. A correlation does not necessarily equal a cause. Only when one examines all factors involved in a comparison and can prove (burden of proof) that one factor alone is responsible, then one can firmly establish cause. However, investigative reporting often makes the mistake of relaying the words of talking heads, reporting theories that they present as facts. The article also uses circular reasoning rather than presenting the underlining realities of the criminals. They are trying to make a link between Trek and criminal behaviour using the result of that criminal behaviour to establish the cause of the criminal behaviour. Anyone with a brain can simply ask themselves what would the criminal do if he/she were to prey upon children? The criminal would appeal to what children enjoy, as any criminal predator would. And since Trek is very popular, what method do you think criminals will use more often? Aha! Now we’re beginning to think aren’t we. Naturally, I don’t expect people will even bother thinking when they read this article, so I expect more of this trash to go on for years enjoying the success of continued print. According to the media, stabbings are caused by heavy metal music, video games are responsible for shootings, and the devil trains terrorists.

It appears I missed this thread the first time around, so I'm going to join in the thread necromancy and post my music. I listen to a bunch stuff, from Jazz, to Classical, to Rock, to J-Pop, to Indie, to Instrumental, blah, blah, blah. Basically, if I hear a piece of music in some film and I like it, chances are I'll go on a mission to learn more about this artist/band. Typically, it leads me into the slippery slope of fandom for the new found music While I listen to over 600 songs on me computer right now, the following list is a good primer on my musical tastes: Metal/Industrial The Tea Party Rage Against The Machine Audioslave Rock U2 No Doubt Indie Elliott Smith The Shins Classical Hans Zimmer Gustav Holst Jazz Miles Davis

HEY! Another fan of The Tea Party on the boards! The Party is the best Canadian band in the history of popular music. I own all their albums, Edges of Twilight and Transmission being my two, all time favorite albums from the Party. I love the way they combine exotic world music with metal, industrial, and classic rock. Makes for a very potent musical innovation and produces an extremely rich sound that's so indicative of Canada with it's broad cross-cultural population. Love em Audioslave is good too. I like Shadow on the Sun; it's a great track.

Good points, I agree with you there but I still wasn't thinking that Vader was weak because of these things. When I first watched Ep.IV, I didn't know that his breathing was mechanically assisted. For all I knew, the dude wore a space helmet that gave him freaky ventilation. But just because I learned in ROTJ that he couldn't survive without his suit didn't signify that he was a weak cripple, it just made it seem more like a mechanized monster instead of a human. Anyways, Stealth sucks y'all. Well, while I always beleived Vader had been damaged watching the OT, I never felt that Vader's injuries were so severe that I would exaggerate and call him crippled or an invalid. Vader was obviously still a capable and powerful force. But what was clear enough was the permanently disfigured state that he was in. Obviously, that would have realistic implications for anyone, especially given the obvious extent of the damage. As I recall, there was mention in the novelization of the OT that Vader was somewhat lesser than he was before his injuries. That's the only canon quote I can recall before the prequels that applies directly to his condition. Regardless, that's more than enough IMO. It is also in the RoTJ novelisation that makes specific mention of his breathing being regulated by machine, but we pretty muh know that from the films as is.

When I was young and first watched the original films, Vader appeared to me as a strong, armored giant and weilder of mystical powers as opposed to someone who possessed great finess, dexterity, or skill with a blade. However, within the suspension of disbelief given to the skill level and budget of the sword fighting in the OT, Vader didn't appear to be a slouch either. However, I can honestly say there was always strong indication that Vader was a damaged person and his condition was certainly not favorable long before the prequels. Vader's breathing was mechanically assisted and was always an obvious disability to me. In TESB we learned that Vader was horribly scarred, which is not an optimal condition. It was stated in RoTJ that he could not survive without his armor intact. Then we have Ben always commenting on Vader in a context that did not speak of impressive cybernetic power...the context spoke of "less than a man" in a twisted mechanized form. The original films never once gave me the impression that the mechanization of Vader was something he sought or that it made him more powerful. Just my perspective on my pre-prequel feelings.

Given the method in which the custom titles would be granted, I would think it a fun and enjoyable way to build community. So much debate and disagreement happens on these message boards, I see the granting of custom titles as a team building effort. It adds yet another reason to enjoy MacrossWorld and have fun with your fellow members. So I say go wild. If it's more of a reward to the chosen few, it's not my place to demand otherwise, but I say it's a lot less fun.