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Sort of like this then?

Well... yes! AGA you seem to follow me around the forums like a guardian angel, always on hand with a swift spelling correction or piece of handy info.

John Entwistle (no h!) wrote a load of great Who songs. Most of his had a very dark sense of humour, or interesting themes (Boris the Spider, Heaven and Hell, 905, My Wife etc).

Don't forget Trick Of The Light! Great riff on that one. He also wrote Fiddle About on Tommy (and I bet last year Pete was pretty glad John was the one who got the credit for that part of the story). But yeah, he wrote some good tunes.

[Linda Scott: I've Told Every Little Star]

I'm a self-indulgent bastard, so I'm gonna write a painful amount about a bunch of my favorate songs:

Lets see...

Linda Scott: I've Told Every Little Star – an old 60's doo-wop tune that I first heard in Mulholland Drive, and I'll be damned if it isn't just about the catchiest pop tune I ever heard. Twee as all get out, but who cares?

Glenn Cambell: Wichita Lineman – another cheesy easy-listening choice, but in my book the melody on this one simply cannot be beat. I have to admit I hate that fucking "I need a small vacaeeeyyy-sheuunn" bit, but I guess that’s my cross to bear.
   
King Crimson: Sleepless – I'm thinking of the version on the Absent Lovers live album here, for what its worth. *Fantastic* bass line, and the two guitarists are just kicking up a storm just like super-cool guitar gents should. Energetic and powerful as hell, I think. 'Fracture' and 'Starless' by the same band (or half of the same band, to be exact) would also go on my list - songs longer then 10 mins don’t get much better then those two.

Talking Heads: The Great Curve – holy christ is this a cool song. Hypnotic is the word.

Autechre: Rae (better known as track 3 on LP5) – this is just beautiful, another hypnotic song. The catchiest drum patterns I've ever heard.

REM: Near Wild Heaven – the chorus of this one does something to me.

Bob Dylan: It's Alright Ma (I’m only bleeding) – mainly because I think it has pretty much the best set of lyrics ever, but it's a fantastic dark, edgy folk tune anyway.

Metallica: The Thing That Should Not Be – admittedly I only heard it for the first time this week, but right now I'm addicted to it. The way the main vocal part segues into the guitar riff in the verse sections is pure audio heroin.

Motorhead: Ace Of Spades – if I had to sum up the very concept of Rock 'n' Roll with a single song, I'd probably have to pick this one.

Pixies: River Euphrates – I've never heard a song that sounds anything like this one. It's like something from another planet. Those rah-ooo-rah-ooo harmony bits are just wonderful. And the lyrics are all in Haiku form! I mean, how good is that!?

Scott Walker: Farmer In The City – odd half-crooner half-opera styled track, but I just love it. As haunting as any song I've ever heard.

The Who: Heaven and Hell (Live at Leeds version) – probably my favourite Who song ever, and friggin' John Entwhistle wrote it, of all people! Amazing chunky rockin' sound, and Pete's guitar solo just kicks my arse. And I don't usually care about guitar solos.

Beach Boys: Girl Don't Tell Me – no one ever seems to notice this one, but I just love it. Probably the most Beatley song they ever did. My other Beach Boys favourite: 'Till I Die. Christ, that's an unsettling song to come from such a happy band. But that's growing insanity for you, I guess. Oh, and I can't forget "Busy Doin' Nothing" - my *other* all time favourite Beach Boys track. I just love all three of these songs.

How many was that? About 15? Oh well. Looking at it, I really should've stuck some Beatles and Zep on there. For who can resist a bit of Beatles and Zep? Abba's Dancing Queen too. Man, I love that!

Blackthorn519: "Long Distance Runaround – YES"

Aw man, Yes rule. The first two thirds of Starship Trooper would be my ultimate Yes pick, though.

Kinoko: "David Bowie - Thursday's Child"

Cool, it's always good to see stuff from "Hours" getting appreciation for once – I think it's one of the best Bowie albums, but most people seem to think it's one of the worst. New Angels Of Promise is my fave off that one, though.

Offtopic, but PaulSC gets a million points for having Geogaddi cover art as his avatar.

Wow, that didn't take long - I only put it on there yesterday! One of my all time favorate album covers, though.

Heh, I played a bit of BaSS and that annoyed me SO. MUCH. Nobody uses emphasis in EVERY. SENTENCE. Ahem, sorry.

Yeah, I can SEE how it could drive SOME people crazy, but I thought it just ADDED to the CAMPY comic book FUN.

Actually, the one thing that struck me about BaSS is that for a sci-fi game the scope is surprisingly small - I mean, the whole thing is basically set in two buildings. I still think it works fine, but it would've been very nice to see a sequel that explores the game world a bit more.

Nobody has ever given me a decent reason this world is real and not just the figment of my imagination. Maybe I'm God, and you are all my dream. Who would be able to tell the difference?

To all the God-bashers out there. There is NO SUCH THING as FACT! It is all beliefs.
I believe I exist, but I can't prove it. That all hinges on other beliefs, such as the belief that people really exist. What it all comes down to is the need to put what we fondly call "reality" into a system. Some people find this through religion, some through science.
There is no difference between the two, it's still beliefs.

Personally I keep my eyes, ears and mind open, trying to make sense of it in my own way.

^^^ This seems fairly sound thinking, but stuff like the old "what if reality is a dream?" thing is yet another theory where all I can say is "There's no reason to assume this is true, and it probably won't affect my life as I experience it either way, so why worry about it?".

Scientific theories are observable and testable, and have practical value for us here on earth - for me, it generally makes sense to believe them, unless there's reason to think otherwise. In contrast, the issue of whether or not there is a god is apparently unobservable and untestable, and in the end has no practical relevance for my life here on earth that I can see.

To be honest, holding a bunch of arbitrary beliefs based on absolutely nothing does seem a little odd to me. But whatever floats your bike, I guess.

SSH: "Or maybe that expression on her face wasn't wind but rather existential angst?"

Ha! That was a good'n.

But what solid reason do you have that there is no god?

Can we agree that modern science knows less than 1 percent of the known universe? The rest is inferred through looking at our part of the universe and saying "The rest of the universe must act this way also." [in an extremely simplified way]

Can you tell me without a shadow of a doubt that 500 million lightyears away there isn't a popsicle stand floating in space? And if so, how do you know this for sure?

e-dog

Maybe there’s a god, and maybe there’s a popsicle stand floating in space. But maybes are maybes - there’s no solid evidence to support either of those claims, so what reason is there for actively believing them?

The idea of that popsicle stand sounds crazy and unlikely to me, so I'm not gonna believe in it until someone actually finds it. In that case, though, whether it exists or not makes no difference to my life either way. But in the case of gods I’ve got a thousand different religions telling me I’ll be punished if I don’t believe - maybe I'll even have to suffer unimaginable pain for an infinite amount of time if I don’t. If people are going to start making claims like *that*, which turn the issue of whether or not I believe into a MAJOR issue, I think it’s fair to ask for a little solid proof before being forced to make a lifestyle decision that would change the course of my life. But they still can’t give any, so what else I’m I gonna do but dismiss them as empty threats and go back to happily not caring either way?

If you try to forget about your upbringing and build your understanding of the world from the ground up, *without* presupposing the existence of a god, there’s no particular reason to believe any one supernatural claim over any other, as far as I can tell. There’s just as much reason to assume that some long dead tribe on easter island stumbled on the one correct belief system as there is of any modern religious person (and frankly there’s no reason to assume either is correct).

In summary: I don’t believe anything without a decent reason. No one’s ever given me a decent reason to believe in a god or religion, so I don’t! Simple as that. And I'm not trying to force my opinions on anyone, I'm just trying to show why I think my way of looking at the universe is a pretty sensible one.

Well... yep you're exactly right.Ã,  I knew it was older, but I only played through BASS for the first time the other week, and was just thinking how similar the style was to BS. Damn my fool brain!

The only thing I don't like is when people quickly dismiss religion with a wave of the hand and consider any religious person a short-minded imbecile.Ã,  Some of the greatest thinkers in history have been religious, such as Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Al-Ghazali, Gandhi, Nagarjuna, et al.

The thing is, that last bit doesn't really change anything. What it all boils down to is that atheists generally don't believe in god because no one, great thinker or not, has ever been able to give them a solid, objective reason why they *should* believe, or why it actually matters whether they do or don't in the first place.

When you looking at life from that perspective it's hard to understand how people can happily hold these extremely specific beliefs without any solid, objective reason at all, and frankly "these people are either deluded, or idiots. Or both" is quite an easy conclusion to jump to. I agree that a lot of atheists should probably be a bit more tactful and tolerant about the whole thing, though (including me).

Sorry, I know you don't want to start a discussion, but... I'm just an argumentitive jerk, I guess.

I think Blade Runner is great - atmospheric as all hell, and very replayable due to the different endings and random factors and so on. It's also nice to see a point and click adventure that mostly breaks from the traditional "find item/use item" puzzle system.

Beneath A Steel Sky's a nice Broken Sword style thing. The story isn't that remarkable but the whole thing's so polished it doesn't matter that much. And hey, the backgrounds are drawn by Dave Gibbons, who drew "Watchmen" - the single greatest thing ever. Also: Using CAPITALISATION for EMPHESIS is COOL.

Discworld is entertaining enough, but some of the puzzles are obtuse in the extreme, and I personally think overdoes it with the amount of whimsical dialogue that doesn't go anywhere. And you'll want to kill Eric Idle after the ten thousandth time you hear him say "That doesn't work". It looks really nice, though, and has some wonderful music.

Haven't played any of those other games, though.

I saw the cartoon once - I seem to remember that for no clear reason they switched Sam's deadpan Bogart detective voice for a generic 'wacky' cartoon voice, and I basically dismissed it just because of that. Aside from that, I don't know whether it was actually any good or not. The style seemed kinda similar to the Earthworm Jim cartoon, which was actually pretty good, so who knows?

Well, that's not really the attitude we want Lucas to have.Ã,  Lucas essentially DOES want to put the "studio-butchered" version out, and nothing else.Ã,  You could sort of equate the US edit of Brazil to Lucas' revisionist tendencies.Ã, 

What I mean is I wish Lucas had the attitude that *every* version of the film released is worth making available just for the historical value. The US Brazil set has three different versions of the film on it, I think, and so will the Blade Runner special edition set, if they ever manage to release the damn thing. Those are what I would call good DVD sets. In contrast, I don't think it's known whether high quality prints of the original Star Wars trilogy even exist any more.

The really ironic thing is that Lucas is a board member of Martin Scorsese's film preservation foundation. He so crazy! Still, I can't help admiring his apparent complete lack of interest in what other people think of him.

It was based on a short film of his that won a student prize

I think I already know the answer, but does anyone know whether this short will be included on the new THX DVD?

I've never seen any anime TV shows and I'm no expert on Japanese animation in general, but have to say holy christ does Hayao Miyazaki make some incredible movies! Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away are truly the best films... OF ALL!

I think people are a little too eager to jump on everything Lucas does these days - most of those changes *do* look like improvements to my eyes. Only the all-CGI shots and that rolling eyes thing set the quality control warning alarms in my head ringing.

But does drive me crazy that he refuses to release the original versions of all these films. Doesn't he realise that so much of the hatred he gets nowadays would just dissapear if he'd only let the public make their own choice between the old and the new? I mean, it's not as if releasing alternate versions is any kind of big deal nowadays.

Ever hear about that "Brazil" DVD set which contained the entire studio-butchered edit of the film? Terry Gilliam flat out HATED that version of the film, but he was happy to include it on the DVD just because of the historical curiosity value. Why can't Lucas have that kind of attitude? It just seems bizarre to me. He's an odd man.

Hey there - this was the first game I tried after finding this site. And it's good! I was surprised how much I really liked it, considering that, for whatever reason, I was fully expecting to hate and be embarressed by it. For the most part it felt like it was being written by a funny, clever person, as opposed to someone *trying* to be a funny, clever person (the difference between the first two Monkey Island games and the second two, if you ask me), and it pretty much nails the old-fashioned atmosphere it's obviously aiming for. That slightly off-kilter music is pretty cool, too.

It would be great if you end up doing some follow ups. It might be a good idea to make the puzzles a bit more complex, though - Oddyseus Kent (the other great game I tried) had this game beat in that respect. This one'll be staying on my hard-drive though.