Also, Dorkman, thanks to you in particular for serving as one of my chief Inspirational Type People over the last several years. 
1,126 2012-11-22 19:20:50
Re: Happy Thanksgiving! (29 replies, posted in Off Topic)
1,127 2012-11-22 19:15:52
Re: Happy Thanksgiving! (29 replies, posted in Off Topic)
Aww, thanks, Dorkman. 
Thankful for all the work you guys have put into the show over the last several years. Hats off, good sirs.
1,128 2012-11-17 01:11:12
Re: The New Introduction Thread (431 replies, posted in Off Topic)
Marty J wrote:
Darth Praxus wrote:I hate TNG with a passion.
You deserve to be eaten.
Sorry. I just can't stand the "This show is important and relevant and talking about BIG IDEAS, and you WILL listen to our philosophical discussions" vibe I get from it. *shrugs* To each his own. I guess Teague has work to do.
1,129 2012-11-17 00:19:41
Re: The New Introduction Thread (431 replies, posted in Off Topic)
Zarban wrote:
Teague wrote:I generally like your taste.
Careful. The last person Teague said that to, he ate.
I'll watch my back. 
Though I have to say, I'm much more scared of Trey and Dorkman than Teague. Oh, and Brian, if he ever finds out I hate TNG with a passion. 
1,130 2012-11-16 23:22:34
Re: The New Introduction Thread (431 replies, posted in Off Topic)
Teague wrote:
Nice to hear that people actually see that LCC stuff.
Yeah, it really saddens me how no one watches the entries anymore. I guess the lightsaber fanfilm is a dying breed.
1,131 2012-11-16 23:03:08
Re: The New Introduction Thread (431 replies, posted in Off Topic)
Well, I'm about two years too late with this, as I joined back in the winter of 2010, but I only just bothered to look at this thread and realize what it was for, and I haven't posted on these forums too much, so...better late than never.
I've been listening to DiF since 2010, when I was fourteen. My initial discovery of the podcast was due to its involvement in the Lightsaber Choreography Competition; I was watching some of the entries and saw that they had commentaries. Curious, I decided to watch one. Then I saw that Dorkman was involved. Full stop. Dorkman? As in THE Dorkman? The one who made the Youtube short film I have watched dozens of times and shown to family and friends? I had to check this out, and decided to start at the beginning, with the commentary on The Phantom Menace. Less than ten minutes in, I was hooked.
Since then, the guys have indeed become four "friends in my head". I have spent countless hours listening and re-listening to episodes, drawing odd looks from family members as I burst into snorts of laughter. Finding the podcast was a huge turning point in my life; you guys were the ones who first encouraged me to think critically about the storytelling of the movies I was watching (and I can think of no better introduction to critical thinking than listening to you guys lay utter waste to the prequels). While I have definitely become more cynical since my discovery of the show, I don't think that's a bad thing. Thanks so much to you guys for what you've taught me and all the laughs you've given me; it means a lot.
Now, as to my own interests: my first and greatest love is reading, but film has been a huge part of my life ever since I was introduced to the original Star Wars trilogy by my parents at the age of eight. Seeing Star Wars remains the defining moment of my life, one that changed everything; Star Wars led to other sci-fi led to fantasy led to nerdiness led to looking up lightsaber duels on YouTube led to DiF.
I'll leave you guys with these three Top 10 lists so you can explore my tastes in entertainment. Try not to be too harsh.
Top Ten Films
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Princess Bride
3. The Fellowship of the Ring
4. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Groundhog Day
7. The Dark Knight
8. The Prince of Egypt
9. Beauty and the Beast
10. The Thing (1982)
Top Ten Albums
1. American Idiot (Green Day)
2. Who's Next (The Who)
3. Abbey Road (The Beatles)
4. The Black Parade (My Chemical Romance)
5. Warning (Green Day)
6. Zoso (Led Zeppelin)
7. Revolver (The Beatles)
8. Live at Leeds (The Who)
9. A Night at the Opera (Queen)
10. The White Album (The Beatles)
Top Ten Books
1. Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)
2. Different Seasons ("Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", "Apt Pupil", "The Body", "The Breathing Method") (Stephen King)
3. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J. K. Rowling)
5. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
6. The Man Who Was Thursday (G. K. Chesterton)
7. Misery (Stephen King)
8. American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
9. Apathy and Other Small Victories (Paul Neilan)
10. Revenge of the Sith (Matthew Stover)
1,132 2012-11-16 04:10:31
Re: The cool photos thread (Bandwidth Warning, Yo!) (956 replies, posted in Off Topic)
From my entry on my yearbook's senior pages. Thought Dorkman might find it of particular interest.
1,133 2012-11-13 02:59:47
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
Dave wrote:
I've never really enjoyed Star Wars. It's ok, poorly acted. *shrugs*
I find your lack of taste disturbing. Sorry, someone had to do it.
1,134 2012-11-13 02:17:37
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
Owen Ward wrote:
Oh oh oh, I got one. Chinese Democracy is my favourite Guns N' Roses album.
I am honestly not sure how to respond to that. So I won't. To each his own.
1,135 2012-11-13 01:54:13
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
Here's one for all you animation nuts out there: I don't believe that the title of greatest traditionally animated feature goes to any of the Disney Renassaince films (though Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback come close). Rather, the honor goes to Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt.
1,136 2012-11-13 01:13:23
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
Marty J wrote:
Both Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were groundbreaking (although they had some really bad episodes).
More like a really bad *season* for TOS (although "The Enterprise Incident" from said season is actually one of my faves from the whole show, and feels the most like an episode from an actual television series of any TOS scripts, IMHO.
1,137 2012-11-13 01:05:51
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
Doctor Submarine wrote:
Radiohead is awesome. The problem is that they're an album band, not a song band. You can't just say, "Oh, I really like that one Radiohead song, I'll listen to it now." You really have to listen to an album as a whole, and then it really clicks.
Totally agreed. I listened to "Paranoid Android" and "Fitter Happier" and enjoyed both well enough. Then I listened to the entire CD of OK Computer and went "Holy crap. This stuff is incredible." It's the same thing with The Who's Tommy. Listen to "Pinball Wizard" or "Sally Simpson", and you'll like them. Listen to the whole LP, and you'll fall in love.
1,138 2012-11-13 00:51:01
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
I feel the same way about Star Trek V. Sure, compared to Wrath of Khan it's crap, but I personally actually prefer it to The Undiscovered Country, and *much* prefer it to The Motion Picture. If nothing else--it has Kirk give *God* the finger. C'mon guys, I'm a firm Christian and I find that awesome. The reboot was my first exposure to Star Trek, and while it's definitely full of holes and fridge logicy, I still rank it as my second favorite after Khan. It's definitely a Star *Wars* film, though. On Firefly...while it remains my *favorite* television series, and *one* of the greatest sci-fi series, I'll concede it's not the greatest. That honor goes to either the original Star Trek series or The Twilight Zone.
1,139 2012-11-13 00:37:42
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
Oh, and Teague, MCR isn't unpopular, exactly; Black Parade went platinum. It's just that they get very little credit outside their own fanbase. Typical music snobbery is the main culprit.
1,140 2012-11-13 00:32:38
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
The thing that bugs me the most is the "Green Day aren't real punk! They're sellouts!" First of all, if becoming successful and spreading their music around the world is the definition of sellout, that means that The Clash are just as guilty. Second, Billie Joe Armstrong is quoted as saying "Punk is dead, and I fucking killed it." Green Day has at no time recently claimed to be a punk band anymore, because they're not; their last two albums have been arena rock reminiscent of The Who and Queen, and they're perfectly willing to admit that. I think the whole stupid punk/sellout conflict is summed up perfectly in a quote by Armstrong: "So a guy asks me what punk is. I go over to a trash can, kick it over, and say, 'You want punk? THAT's punk.' So he picks up the trash can and kicks it over himself, and says, 'That's punk?' And I say, 'No, THAT's trendy.'"
1,141 2012-11-12 23:41:25
Re: #45 - Unpopular Opinions (316 replies, posted in Episodes)
For music (Teague did it, so I can too):
1. I do not and never will get Pink Floyd. There are exactly two songs by them that I like, both off The Wall ("Another Brick in the Wall" and "The Trial"). I just think they're completely overblown, self-indulgent, and dull.
2. In the same vein, I do not care for the Rolling Stones. There are a few songs of theirs that I like, but The Who blow anything by The Stones out of the water, particularly whilst playing live (look up The Who's performance of "A Quick One, While He's Away" at the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus to watch them upstage the Stones at the Stones' own concert).
3. Green Day is my favorite band of all time. Yes, their most recent stuff has been crap, but I'm firmly convinced that American Idiot and Warning are two of the best albums of the last decade.
4. In a similar vein, I love My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade.
1,142 2012-10-30 20:45:55
Re: #44 - Disney Buys Lucasfilm (473 replies, posted in Episodes)
I am freaking terrified right now. We already saw the legacy of the originals destroyed once with the prequels. Now there are SEQUELS?! (Sequels that will in all probability wipe out the entirety of the Expanded Universe after ROTJ; as an EU fan, that bothers me).
One possible plus: since Lucas will no longer directly control a lot of the business decisions that are made, maybe that means that we'll finally be able to get the ORIGINAL original films in general home video release again—cleaned up properly, this time.
1,143 2012-10-29 22:44:51
Re: Episode III (50 replies, posted in Episodes)
Just curious here—has anyone besides me on this forum read the novelization of ROTS by Matthew Stover? He basically doubled the length of the story, replaced all of George's dialogue with his own, changed the motivations of many of the main characters, threw in a lot of subtlety and a HECK of a lot of awesomely written battle sequences. The result is one of my favorite books of all time. That's right, not one of my favorite STAR WARS books, one of my favorite BOOKS. Period. He actually succeeded where Lucas failed and wrote a highly convincing, emotional story of a fallen hero that affects the reader tremendously.
1,144 2012-09-22 18:57:36
Re: Suggest a movie! (2,061 replies, posted in Episodes)
It's not really horror so much as melodrama, social commentary and black comedy artfully woven together with the best music Broadway has witnessed EVER, but please, for the love of all that is good in this universe, DO SWEENEY TODD, PLEASE.
1,145 2012-08-14 00:40:18
Re: Recommend some books (38 replies, posted in Off Topic)
Anything by Ray Bradbury, but Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes in particular.
1,146 2012-08-14 00:33:15
Re: Suggest a movie! (2,061 replies, posted in Episodes)
Labyrinth. The Hunt for Red October. Sweeney Todd.
1,147 2012-07-30 04:23:39
Re: "The Kids Are Alright (The Who)" Review by Darth Praxus [No Spoilers] (5 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)
Tommy is probably my personal second favorite studio cut by them, but I'll be the first to admit it can get pretentious and overly long. If you ever get the urge, try the albums Who's Next, Live at Leeds, and Quadrophenia.
1,148 2012-07-23 20:43:09
Re: #38 - The Aurora episode. (38 replies, posted in Episodes)
Wow, Teague. I'm about ten minutes into the episode and I have to say, this is the first time I've heard you sounding genuinely angry. You have a good reason, too.
1,149 2012-07-20 02:50:36
Re: "The Kids Are Alright (The Who)" Review by Darth Praxus [No Spoilers] (5 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)
Nah. I find Floyd too dull. In terms of live greatness, yeah, Led Zeppelin is pretty close, and Jimmy Page definitely beats Pete Townshend as a lead guitarist, but Daltrey is a much better frontman than Plant, Entwistle is a better bassist than John Paul Jones, and while Bonham is a better drummer than Moon technically, Keith just had so much more energy and passion. Plus, it was The Who who gave Led Zeppelin their name in the first place (interesting anecdote, that). I'd tie late Beatles with The Who for innovation in the studio--both helped to redefine rock and roll, with The Who inventing instrument smashing and the rock opera, pushing the limits of rhythm instruments like the bass and drums, and utilizing some of the first synthesizers in rock music, and The Beatles being, well, The Beatles. However, in terms of live showmanship, The Who blew The Fab Four out of the water. And as for the Stones...eh. not a fan.
1,150 2012-07-19 19:04:37
Topic: "The Kids Are Alright (The Who)" Review by Darth Praxus [No Spoilers] (5 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)
This cult classic is often lauded as one of the great examples of a so-called "rockumentary" film, e.g. a documentary that follows a rock band and attempts to do more than just provide us with concert footage. The Who being one of the two contenders for my favorite band of all time (they and Green Day constantly wrestle for the top slot), I'm naturally bringing a bit of bias to this review, but I'll strive to be as objective as possible throughout.
A bit of background: The Kids are Alright is really nothing more than a fanboy who has been hired by his heroes and given a colossal amount of time and resources to compile some of their favorite home movies. Jeff Stein was an American and an ardent fan of the 'Orrible 'Oo. Despite never having been involved in the film industry, he approached Pete Townshend, the group's guitarist and lead songwriter, and asked for his cooperation in compiling clips of interviews and live footage to record the story of The Who on film. While Townshend was initially reluctant, he and the rest of the band were won over when Stein showed them a preview reel that contained 17 minutes of live footage he had been able to gather. They gave him the go-ahead, and for two years he scoured through warehouses, rubbish bins, and television studios to find enough material to fill out the film's running time, sometimes literally rescuing film from the garbage, and the band recorded two new gigs to give him additional footage of some of their most famous songs. Drummer Keith Moon died just after the final cut had been assembled.
In terms of pure rock 'n' roll awesomeness, this film is unmatched. The Who were universally considered to be the greatest live band of all time during their heyday, and The Kids Are Alright contains some of their most spectacular concert performances, including their rendition of "A Quick One, While He's Away" at The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus, a performance in which they blew the Stones out of the water at their own concert and has been universally lauded as one of the best live songs ever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNSRfy56o3M for the video); their infamous performance of "My Generation" on the Smothers Brothers show, in which they smashed their instruments and blew up Keith Moon's drum kit without warning the producers beforehand (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xZOrWK6d4g); and blistering tracks such as "Baba O'Riley", "Pinball Wizard", "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Cobwebs and Strange", and "I Can See for Miles". The Who were the first true rock and roll band, and they prove that they deserve their reputation here. The footage is quite restrained, lacking the choppy every-three-second cuts and shaky-cam that plague most concert films.
As an insight into the four different band members (Roger Daltrey—lead vocals, Pete Townshend—guitarist/songwriter, John Entwistle—bassist, Keith Moon—drummer), the film falls rather flat. There are interviews aplenty, to be sure, but most of said interviews are with either Moon or Townshend. Moon, the best rock drummer in the world before his untimely demise, had a manic, childish and demented sense of humor, which made for incredibly energetic live performances but unfortunately rendered him a rather poor interview subject. Townshend provides much more material to work with, but this actually works against the film, in a way; instead of giving us a look at the band as a whole, it seems as though Townshend has seized the spotlight for much of the piece, which can get annoying. Daltrey and Entwistle each have a handful of clips that last all of fifteen seconds each.
As a proper documentary, the film also fails. There is no obvious through line running through the whole thing; there is no sense of an overarching theme or connective tissue. Townshend makes lofty statements about what he's trying to accomplish with his music that quickly become repetitious (and sometimes self-contradictory). Closer to the mark are Daltrey's brief meditations on the future of rock and roll and the nature of said genre, which seem far more interesting than what Townshend is trying to say, but don't last long enough to give us more than a taste. It feels as though Stein was attempting to give us that through line; perhaps the underlying theme he wanted to leave us with was "This is rock and roll, like it or not; it's loud and tasteless, no matter how much people try to make it rise above its origins, and maybe it doesn't have a future, but we're just gonna keep having fun for as long as we can." If he had cut some of Townshend's ramblings and added in some more of Daltrey and Entwistle, perhaps this theme would have been more clear; as is, it's there but hard to see. The film comes off less as a documentary and more as what it really was: a fanboy who wanted to relive some of his favorite band's best moments on the big screen, but wanted to make it look like more than just an ordinary concert film at the same time. Did Stein succeed? Not really.
In conclusion, is The Kids Are Alright worth watching? Despite my rather negative perspective on its merit as an actual film, I have to say yes, as long as you recognize that you're in for some good, loud fun and not much else. It's a good way to show people who have never listened to the band before what their music was all about, and if you're already a fan you'll be sure to appreciate the amazing concert footage and what worthwhile interviews are there, and even though Moon was not a great interview subject, we do get a good look at his final days before his tragic demise. If you're not a fan of the band, I'd recommend that you give the film a look anyway as a chance to experience their great music, but caution you to realize that what you are getting is not by any means a film-making masterpiece. Just take it for what it is—entertainment.