Darth Groovy

The Kurgan!!! He Lives!!!!

Most epic thread bump ever....10+ years? Jeezum freaking crow!

That's a Hell of a compliment Bill. I appreciate that man! Thanks!

I can totally do this: Favorite movie: Favorite game: Favorite album: Favorite book: Favorite new TV show:

In case you fools missed out, or were passed out like I was....North American premier of my first single; "Saturn"! Click the link below, click two week archive, and set it for Jan 19, 5:45am! Then listen to the rest of the show, because it is the best radio show in the universe! http://kunm.org/programs/cyberage

Don't get too cocky buddy...we have not sent that cookie just yet!

Well I see my reputation as "hot topic starter" has not been tarnished! Good points here...one of the best discussions I have seen in years. All of you make very good points with carefully placed bullet points. Good on ALL of you! Now to answer some questions and comments: I am glad you asked this! I apologize it was really late at night when I wrote that and I was starting to drift off. Let me explain. My point was not to defend or excuse the faults. There are many of them indeed. My point is that in many arguments, a great deal of what people complain about are things that make the movies what they are. AND at what point, do you make changes enough to where it is no longer a Star Wars story, but something else entirely? For example, some people criticize the story for being juvenile. In a multi generational modern day myth, you are telling the story of archetypes that encompass good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark. Those stories have been passed down over generations of cultures all over the world throughout history. If we made it dark...and about science....now it is Aliens, or Prometheus. The Star Wars is intended to be more of a fairy tale, than a science fiction film. Again glad you brought up the midi-chlorian thing, because people have been bitching about that online ever since TPM came out. In all the problems with the prequels this bothers me the least. It was mentioned in the novelization by Terry Brooks (which is superior to the film in my opinion, because it portrays Annakin as more of a disturbed tragic figure than the film ever did.) and like you pointed out...it simply bridges the gap between the living force and life forms in general. However for the sake of argument THIS is a GREAT example of why you don't mix science with a fairy tale. The same thing would have happened in the OT if we had spent the same amount of time explaining to the audience the mechanics of light sabers, or how hyper space is even possible. We introduced midi-chlorians into the works, and it just pissed most people off. We never really explained why some Jedi disappear and others have to be burned either....I mean not really if you think about it. Keep it coming guys.....this is great podcast material too!

I cannot speak for Lynky, but I think most of us vets are kind of partial to the OST than TPM....for starters. That pod race in TPM ran about 5 minutes too long... Escape Pod works on many levels, because it encapsulates the magic of the original movies that we love AND echoes some humor as well. It is not a done deal yet, but it IS growing on me!

Where is the fun in that? That is like calling your pet dog..."dog"!

Yes I agree, but what do you challenge them with? Do you ask them what they would personally change to make it better if they had the means to do so? AND, after said changes how many things do they change until it is no longer Star Wars but some other science fiction? That is where this begins...

Hey it has been a long time since I posted a rant. Some of you know how I like to write. I have to get this off my chest! Lets face it, since the hostile take over of the internet and the social media blitz across the globe, one thing that is constant, is the arguments about how bad the Star Wars films really are. Main points I hear and read all of the time are as follows: Bad acting Silly script silly characters bad special affects George Lucas Constantly changing the movies Let me break it down this way. Go get yourself a cup of coffee before you start reading this, because you are in for a long haul! Mind you, I am trying to write this from a rational non fan boy perspective to give validity to the argument at hand. So bad acting? Yes absolutely! George is not know for being a good director. He simply tries to tell a story, and is not the slightest bit concerned about the performances. It is evident in the 4 Star Wars films he did direct. Irvin Kirsher did Empire...and that one had some decent acting and character development without sacrificing story. Save for Hayden, Hammil, and Lloyd, I think the rest of the crew did the best with what they had to work with. These are movies where the performances and dialogue are there only to move plot points...not much to work with here. However there is no excuse for Jar Jar what so ever. None of us will know what was up with that bit. Silly Script? Well I have had this argument for quite some time. One fellow on facebook recently said that this is just "The Hero's Journey" all over again. This comment kind of annoys me. Lucas has been up front since day one that these films were inspired by the likes of King Arthur, and Kurosawa. Hey! Know what other movies were direct copies of Kurosawa? Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven, was The Seven Samurai, and A Fist Full of Dollars was Yujimbo, AND the gangster film "Last Man Standing" was ALSO based on Yujimbo! Also... Forbidden Planet from 1956 us based on Shakespear's "Tempest". Also arguably the 1951 film "The African Queen" is pretty similar to The Empire Strikes Back. In The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart takes a missionary up the river while being chased by the Germans during WW1 in a beat up boat. Remind you of a certain princess trying to escape the imperials in a beat up freighter? Tell me the pod race scene from The Phantom Menace is not suppose to echo a familiar chariot race from the movie "Ben-Hur". Almost as identical, and almost as long! See! This stuff has been going on for decades! And the biggest joke is that this "mulit cultural modern day myth" is picked apart so badly simply astounds me! Silly Characters? Some of them...yes! Characters from The Phantom Menace such as Jar Jar, Boss Nass, and Watto really drive me nuts! They are just too silly...too stupid, and at times....kind of socially offensive in ways if you think about it. The core characters however represent heroes and villains that have shown up in stories throughout generations. Before The Phantom Menace came out...I read an article where they explained the appearance of Darth Maul. Without direct quotes....Lucas studied several cultures throughout the world. One thing that was consistent through out all cultures from generations present, and generations past, was the appearance of the color red, and horns. This is why Darth Maul looks like he does. The red face...the tattoos represent war and death in primal cultures. From the time you see him first on screen...no trouble telling he is the bad guy...he is clearly not hear to sell you magazines! Bad Special affects? Really? Well this is a double edged sword. Back in 1977Lucas employed a team of geeks to produce effects that had never been seen on film...so at least he cared about that. The result was a company formed in 1975 as industrial light and magic. So folks....he basically invented the stuff you see on screen these days. The accolades are endless...look them up yourself! This is an award winning company that still exists well beyond and past Star Wars. I will argue that some of the stuff in the Special Addition looked pretty goofy, but it was a work in progress. And lets face it...movies more recent than that had worse special effects and still did ok. I don't agree with this argument. Though I do have a personal beef with that whole Han Solo shooting greedo scene. This is where I agree with the haters...seriously...wtf? However, most people loose site of the fact that at the time in 1997, Lucas was celebrating a 20 year anniversary, AND trying to get you excited about Star Wars again...and for most parts it worked. Everybody wanted to see the new scenes...at the time! Now with that last argument in hand...yes...some of these changes are pretty derpy by today's standards. However....I think one thing that even Lucas lost sight of, is that what might of worked in 1997, AND the early 80's does not always translate to the new audience. Since the mid to late 90s we have been deconditioned by the over saturation of CGI, and those stories that were once golden to us...just seem silly now that we are older...right? Let's face it...we had got used to the characters that we loved...Han, Chewie, Luke..Leia...now they are all gone. Having to introduce new characters to us old timers was pointless. It was doomed to fail! Ewan McGregor is a fantastic actor...so is Liam Neeson. They did not have a chance walking in the shadows of Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. Of course the likes of Boss Nass, Jar Jar and Watto did not help. Also Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christiansen playing different versions of Darth Vader did not help either. We got accustomed to Vader just being a horrible villain. Nobody wanted to see him as a regular kid from the projects with some talents using the force! Better yet a slave! In conclusion...and not to get TOO off subject here, but JJ Abrams has been handed the helm of Star Wars now.... Arguably the most successful Star Trek films being The Wrath of Kahn, First Contact, and Into Darkness have all drawn influences from Moby Dick, as well as the pacing and action of Star Wars! See where I am going with this? On film we want a fast pacing story with a lot of focus on the action, and adding traditional archetypes for the characters that populate this universe is what the public truly wants! You want deep meanings in this universe, you check out the expanded universe and read the books. I feel Abrams is doomed, but he does have his pulse on story, and action elements...we will see the results when we see them. I guess my main gripe about all of this, is that you can only deconstruct Star Wars so much until it is no longer Star Wars, but some other form of science fiction. It is kind of like criticizing the color green for not being brown. Ask your rivals exactly what they would change about Star Wars, I guarantee they will make it into a form of Science fiction that does not fit into the Star Wars universe. This works ok, for the expanded universe books, but for the films...anything less than fast pacing, high action and fast storytelling is moot point! May The Force Be With You Always! ~Groovy

Lynky's idea is pretty cool! I am a sucker for logos! Escape Pod is pretty cool too! Gee where have I heard that one before? Lynky?

As some of you may or may not know... In our hopes of re-launching a new fan site, we are also planning a new podcast. Obviously we can't call it LucasCast anymore. And we are struggling to come up with a new name. We had some really good ideas, but a lot of them are already taken. Help us come up with a new name, and we will send you cookie! Thanks in advance, Groovy

It is good! I like the simplicity and ease of use of the design. I still think it needs a chat room right there in the front where everybody can see it.

For over a thousand generations the moderators were guardians of peace and justice in the old forums. Before the dark times. Before the merger.

Good to see somebody thinking about this early. I mean with new games and movies on the way this place COULD be big again. Suggestions: Graphic overhaul. Some of these banners are almost as old as me. I think we could handle some extra bells and whistles too. Possible name changes? I like the idea of merging up with smaller fan sites if you can even make that possible. LucasArts was a golden thing in it's prime, but we have been detached from them since forever, so we don't owe them anything anymore. I don't expect this to be a popular thought, but what I would REALLY like to see, is our name pop up in just about any search engine related to Star Wars. That's how I found this place back in 2002. Wouldn't hurt to hire a few more moderators and train them early. At least down the road. Lastly, I will CONSIDER doing a podcast again, but only once this place starts jumping again. I do actually have the ability to commit to this 100% this time. I been doing a lot of music related stuff, so I have access to all kinds of wonderful sound management software. I bet Jae would be down for it. We still joke about it. I can actually handle all of the mixing and production on my end this time. A lot of that was really my fault, and I accept the blame for those jokes. I admit, our viewership was a joke, and I was taking the Howard Stern approach to try to make things more interesting. I admit it was a bad idea, and I would not repeat those mistakes again. I really am sorry about that. Also we had a serious lack of material to cover. We did the video game thing, but we didn't keep it star wars related. There are already too many video game podcasts out there. So if we did another podcast we would only release them when a new star wars game is out, or there is new star wars related news that gives us stuff to talk about. even if its like six months between podcasts. How does that sound? Also why it is fresh in my mind. One thing that always bugged me about LF was the lack of a chat room. You always had to go on mIRC or Skype and it was a pain in the ass. It's 2013, I don't see why we couldn't merge a chat room into the forum itself. It would make things seem a lot more live and fun! Other forums have done this, so I know it is possible.

Worst thread bump ever.

Yeah I should get back on huh?

Something I been working on... (This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

Good ear! I am a VNV Nation fan myself, so therein lies the influence! "Saturn" will probably be the super big single off of that album, we are all pleased how that one turned out! After the album launches I will tell you some of the hidden messages behind some of these songs.

I can link you to SOME of it. Enjoy!

No, not that idiot. I am talking about your pal, Darth Groovy, Dapper Zabrak, naughty person, The Groovinator, Grooves...pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name! Anyways I wanted to update you all what has been going on, because you deserve to know. Only a few people out there like Jae Onasi, acdcfanbill, and Lynk Former have been keeping my secrets quiet. Lucasforums is my home away from home, and my family so you deserve to know. In the last year, I left GameStop. Got rid of most of my worldly possessions such as my overgrown CD collection, my overgrown Star Wars collection, my car, my condo, and almost all of my furniture. Had a heart attack. Yeah seriously had a heart attack and did not know until my doctor told me so. Went to get a hernia fixed, and found out I need a quadruple bypass....icky I know. I quit smoking, quit drinking, and joined Weight Watchers! I am currently on disability, due to a couple of conditions that I cannot begin to pronounce, and waiting on a few surgeries. I am a pretty tough guy, but it is still scary stuff because you never think this crap will happen to you. I know I am an old fart, but to quote Al Jourgensen of Ministry: "I'm not dead yet!" Starting September 11, I go in for a sleep study so that will hopefully fix my sleep apnea. I personally believe, as well as some of my doctors, that the sleep apnea caused a lot of this crap I am currently going through! Then I plan to get the bypass after I get stronger. Then get this damn hernia fixed. Once all of that gets fixed, I am going back to school to pursue my second passion which is cooking. I have a culinary arts program all in place, and should finish up in just two semesters. I have a buddy who is going to get me a job as a cook on a cruise ship, so I will be leaving Joliet, and moving to Florida. I'm also hoping to do some live shows for my new album with my buddy and producer Denny from the band Coalmind. In the meantime, I have played Borderlands 2 to death. I am currently playing Warhammer Dawn of War 2 on the PC., and Payday 2 on PS3. I have a PS4 on reserve, as well as Killzone, Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty Ghosts on reserve for that system. I have been working very hard on a solo music album which is being produced by a childhood friend of mine. It's basically a throwback to old 80's synth pop, and its going to kick ass! Should be on iTunes in the coming months. I also been doing some volunteer work for my favorite band Ministry such as setting up fan pages and forums and what not. Ministry will be putting out there last and final album this month. Due to my failing health, I been trying to take it easy, and keep busy. I got a pretty decent laptop for Christmas in 2012, but by July, for some reason unknown the VGA chip went bad, and the screen wiped out. I have tried to fix this several times....with no success. Currently my laptop is plugged into my HDTV via HDMI cable. At least that way I can still play Warhammer! Well sorry for keeping all this stuff from you guys, but I didn't want to get you worried for no reason, and I really didn't want to post a bunch of doom and gloom in a somewhat dead swamp....not at least until I had some form of good news. So what have the rest of you knuckleheads been up to? Miss ya all, Grooveh

This place goes through a very bad dry spell when there is no new games in the works, and lack of new movies doesn't help either. Just remember that those who stick it out usually wind up elders in the end! Clone wars died finally, and good riddance. The demise of lucasarts, what can I say? After that horrible Kinect Game and Lego Star Wars 1-347, so what? We cried about it constantly on the podcasts, and the answer to our plea was the demise of a once powerful and awesome company. Rest in peace. But there IS HOPE! First and foremost, Battlefront! Coming from the company that invented the Battlefield to begin with DICE! I will be kicking ass and taking names again once that bad boy hits PC/PS4! JJ Abrams has the world on his shoulders, but from what I have read, he has the best interests in heart by choosing story over special effects. He has seen the successes and failures of our beloved franchise and I do believe he has his finger on the pulse of what fans want. I think it is going to be fun again, and I encourage all of you to just wait and see! When the new movies hit, we will be overstocked with noobs again and most likely will be hiring new mods and admins to deal with the usual nonsense!

Don't knock it till you try it! What?

Bumpage to the maxiumus? Oh seeing the names in this thread make me all misty eyed...I miss them all!