Sadly, yes http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35313604 "Hans Gruber" was one of the greatest film villains of all time.

I always liked Black Tie White Noise...that was the first Bowie CD I actually bought, as a matter of fact. It's funky and jazzy, not really a bad song on it. I can't remember at the moment if I heard the rest of David's 90's stuff (Outside, etc) but based on what I did hear BTWN was really the last Bowie album I liked until Blackstar. I remember when a friend of ours -bigger Bowie fan than myself or my wife- picked up The Next Day and brought it over to crank up on the big stereo and we didn't even finish listening to it, we weren't impressed... Blackstar is a fucking masterpiece, though. I bought it on Saturday, having hear good things about it ahead of time, but hadn't even gotten round to listening to the damn thing until after I heard about Bowie's passing. I mean, now that we know what it's all about it seems just about impossible not to associate the album with Bowie's death, but, man, what a way to go out. Consciously writing about yer impending doom that way and saying goodbye at the same time...as far as artistic statements go Blackstar is pretty hard to beat.

After I heard the news about Wayne Rogers I found it necessary to bust out my Season 3 DVD's- "Officer Of The Day" being one of the episodes I had to watch (the aforementioned pinstripe suit episode) as well as two of my personal favourites, "Adam's Ribs" (where they wheel and deal to get the spareribs from Chicago) and "A Full Rich Day" (the one with the crazy Turk: "Damn good Joe!" )

Man, that sucks...I love M*A*S*H, the first few seasons with Trapper and Blake were probably the best ones. Seems to me that the three most consistently funny actors on the show -Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson and Larry Linville- are all gone now.

If anything, that was our biggest issue with The Force Awakens- it was so fast paced and action packed that it was kinda hard to get a handle on what the hell was going on at times. Very jumpy editing didn't seem to help matters much, either.

Shit, we were ready over a month ago (we have to send so many gifts overseas and to the States that we have to be done shopping by the beginning of December otherwise nobody will get their gifts until fucking Valentine's Day ) I know people who put everything Christmas related off to the last minute and I have no sympathy for them. None. Got my sister-in-law and her two brats here for the holidays. Actually the kids aren't that bad, we took 'em to see the new Star Wars movie the other night, even though my wife's eleven year old nephew was bitching about the lack of video games at our house (I told him he was lucky we had a TV and a DVD player- for many years my wife and I went without both and didn't really miss them, truth be told). I am tempted to pull my old thirty ought six out of the closet and take nephew out into the woods behind our house: "Here, you want a first person shooter? Try this!" but I won't. At least my niece in law is only nine and has been helping her mom and my wife out with the holiday baking (among other goodies, my wife does a killer shortbread cookie!) Other than them, we are not having a goddamn houseful of people for Xmas dinner this year...probably for the first year in five years, at least. Kinda nice, actually. We're not big turkey people, so I got a big old roast beast going in the oven Friday afternoon. Only problem with having kids in the house is that my wife and I have to smoke our shit outside All told, '15 wasn't that bad a year. Business was good, the missus and I still have our health, and for a change nobody close to us croaked. Can't bitch too much, I s'pose... So to my fellow forum freaks, Merry Fuckin' Christmas, and all the best in 2016! And a note to EVSD or any of those goddamn tape hoarders: let's have one of the Missing Seven '77 shows this year, shall we?!

Well, to be fair, we don't have much to complain about: we got a new Star Wars movie in 2015 that didn't suck for a change! Gawd help me, I think I'm actually going to buy one of those remote control BB8 toys I haven't bought a Star Wars toy in over thirty five years...when I was a kid I had all the old Kenner shit.

As with Sue, unless I'm going for a 'full show experience', I usually skip just about any version of "Dazed And Confused" longer than twenty minutes, "Stairway", The "Song Remains The Same"/"Rain Song" section in '75, Noise Solos, lengthy "White Summer"'s and the "Rain Song"/"Hot Dog"/"All My Love" trifecta in 1980.

My wife, her niece and nephew and I drove into town tonight to see the thing. The kids and my wife loved it, of course, whereas for myself -an old Star Wars anorak from way back- I thought it was good, but not great. Didn't quite live up to all the hype IMO. Sorta like comparing Zeppelin's 2007 reunion show to the April 28 1977 gig It was better than the prequels, mind ya, but nowhere near of the same caliber of 4,5 and 6. Good gawd, Harrison Ford looks old and the years haven't been too kind to Carrie Fisher, either (I know: to paraphrase Yoda, "When 72 years old you are, look as good as me, will you?"). I liked the new characters and as far as I'm concerned BB8 stole the fucking show. But, Jesus, I think JJ Abrams took just a few too many aspects from 4 for this new one...it seemed just a little bit contrived...a bigger, better Death Star kinda thing? A new villain that they are obviously trying to make more evil than Vader? I dunno, guys, I enjoyed The Force Awakens for what it was but I think the filmmakers played it just a little too safe here. That said, Episode 8 is gonna be fuckin' awesome, I think.

Give me the July 24 '79 Copenhagen show over either of the Knebworth performances any day of the week, and twice on Sundays!

^^^ Aboriginals tend not to vote Conservative, Patrycja- that's why Harper never gave a fuck about them. Sort of like how Bush left all the blacks in New Orleans to basically drown during Hurricane Katrina...I can hear Dick Cheney saying it now: "Fuck those n-----s, Mr President! They never voted for you anyway!" This inquiry is long overdue, like ten years overdue, if not more...there are more missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada than people killed on 9/11. Absolutely goddamn right we should be making a BIG DEAL out of it.

What a fucking waste. Stone Temple Pilots were one of the best bands of the 90's.

Dear old Maggie is now the reason why we're gonna see a $10 million bill on 'renovating' 24 Sussex Drive (where the PM lives, Canada's version of The White House). The place is more or less in an acute state of disrepair because it was neglected for so long...why? Because up till no no other PM wanted to actually have the Canadian taxpayers shell out the bucks to renovate the place. So Maggie basically told Justin and his family, "That place isn't suitable for you to live in!" (and they oughta know, after all, considering Justin's old man was PM for sixteen years) so 24 Sussex is finally getting the facelift it needs. Yep, our taxpayers dollars at work. When we heard about it, my wife said, "Shit- they should just get Mike Holmes to do the renos and make a fuckin' TV show out of it!" (In case you don't know, Mike Holmes is like the King of Canadian home renovations, has about half a dozen different shows on the Home & Garden Network...unfortunately at some point he started believing his hype just a little too much and now comes across like he's God's Own Handyman ) So, to answer yer question, Strider, maybe the Stones will play at the housewarming party...

No, yer right George- and it's the kind of hate pile on that just about any long time leader (hell, politician in general) is gonna get from the masses. But Harper did deserve at least some of the vitriol; he pretty much gutted everything the old Progressive Conservative party stood for here and rebuilt it in his own warped image...and it just seemed to get progressively worse (pun sort of intended) as time went on. I'm actually a pretty Libertarian kind of guy- I just kind of scoff at the idea of our government now (it's really all a big game anyway) and generally don't care what they do, as long as they leave me and my family alone But ultimately when they start actively spying on the citizens and whatnot, that's when I tend to stand up and say "Hey, hold on- this isn't how it's supposed to be!". I'm a fuckin' Canadian, man- I don't want to be like an American (no offense intended to the Yanks among us...I'm sure most of you feel the same way anyway). And Harper had almost ten years in power: that's longer than the American Presidency. I must admit, I did not like the way this country was headed after those ten years, and I thought this election was one of the most cynical, lowdown I've ever seen. I mean, I knew the Conservatives were gonna get their asses kicked out of office, it seemed pretty goddamn obvious- the Senate expense business and all that was enough to do them in...and when Harper took the opportunity to hide in a closet when that guy went nuts and shot up Parliament Hill, I knew (and I think he knew) that it was really all over for him. But I was surprised at just how big the "fuck you" turned out to be...when I got home from work and turned on the TV and saw that the entire East Coast was red on the map, I just laughed, I was like "Well, that's it- the people have spoken." I laughed even harder at what happened to the NDP, though; I live in BC and I still remember the 90's in this province, it wasn't pretty, especially around where I hang my hat. The Liberals kicked ass but it sort of still managed to seem, to me anyway, like a bit of a hollow victory- it was ultimately a massive protest vote...anybody would do at this point, and of the two main alternatives Trudeau and the Liberals just seemed like the safer choice. And, hey, let's not forget...we just elected the son of another one of those so-called "tyrants". I was born in '68, so I pretty much grew up in the P.E.T. era. The dude was divisive, and apparently so's his kid. I just hope Justin doesn't fuck up, or at least not too badly, in the next four years, it'll probably finish him if he does. Still, the guy's only been elected less than a week ago but doesn't sort of feel like a layer of dust has been cleaned off this country now?

Yeah, I know Maggie has some mental health issues etc, but for Stones fans it's almost an inside joke kinda thing

I oughta blast side three of Love You Live in Madcap Maggie's honour! You know, the "El Mocambo" side... What Patrycja said!

Well, I was only nine...my folks were probably right to put the kibosh on that one...at least they let my Aunt and Unc take me to see the Stones in Seattle four years later!

Hey, as far as I'm concerned Canada got our Good Luck back when we kicked Harper to the fuckin' curb on Monday...our luck certainly couldn't have gotten any worse, I don't think... Shit, round these parts, I know a lot of people who are mainly happy Trudeau won is because he's always said he'd legalize pot if he got elected

I just said that The Jawas should have been evil too. "Oo-tee-dee!" indeed.

From the trailer I thought it was a nice touch having Han and Lei's 'love theme' thrown in there (John Williams is doing the score for VII, isn't he?)- they also did a good job at making them look older but still pretty much the same. Obviously the guy touching R2 is Luke...he'll be like the new Obi-Wan with a little Yoda thrown in. 3PO is conspicuous with his absence though, but I suppose he'll show up somewhere. Online ticket sales for VII went through the roof. Think the raffle for the Zeppelin reunion show, it crashed some of the sites But just from the trailers it looks like the new movie has more action than Episodes 1,2,3 and put together...that's something. For me, I was nine when Star Wars came out, it was probably one of the first movies I saw in the theatre (I wasn't allowed to go with my Aunt and Uncle to go see Zeppelin in Seattle but Star Wars was okay for my parents). Saw Empire and Jedi as well, same theatre, I think, had quite a few of the toys...and years later when Phantom Menace came out my wife and I watched it and were like, "It looks and sounds like a Star Wars movie, but it doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie." I fell asleep and missed most of Clones when we saw it (and I haven't seen it since nor have I wanted to) and I thought Sith was a disappointment as well. The Force Awakens feels like a Star Wars movie again (and even my wife agreed when I showed her the trailer!)

Oh yeah, I've read some of those American political discussions...some funny shit for sure, I can't believe some of those guys actually believe half the shit they type- and that goes for both the hardcore right wingers and left wingers who participate in those discussions Lotta people in those threads wearing permanent "kick me harder" signs...they constantly get their asses handed to them and yet go back for more...is it a form of sadomasochism, or what? What I find really fuckin' funny is that, considering I minored in PolySci (majored in English) back in Uni about a thousand years ago, I've probably forgotten more about politics than a lot of those waterheads ever fuckin' knew

Well, sure, until ten years from now when we're back at the same point we were in 2006: "Fuckin' Liberals...nuthin' but a buncha goddamn crooks- we gotta get these guys out and bring the Conservatives back in!" Sound familiar? As Kurt Vonnegut liked to say, "And so it goes..." That said, I'm glad the Liberals won, Harper is resigning and the fucking NDP got decimated...let the good times roll.

^^^ No question, Patrycja, strategic voting is THE way to go for this election...it is pretty much a protest vote against Harper- not necessarily against the Conservatives, mind you, but against Stephen Harper. I watched him tell Peter Mansbridge on CBC a few weeks ago that he will step down if the Cons lose even one seat...don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Harper! Shit, I know people who haven't voted for decades -some a hardcore, anti-government types and whatnot- who are voting in this one. That's pretty telling. Dunno about the Facebook ads, but I'll be damned glad not to see anymore ads on TV...even watching hockey every other advert is a goddamn attack ad. We get it: the Conservatives don't want their portable Rome taken away so they want to scare us all regarding "Justin". Tom Mulcair can't wait to get his greedy paws on the keys to 24 Sussex. Trudeau almost seems to be running on Obama's 2008 mantra of "hope and change". But the constant propaganda on tv is getting to be a bit much...oh well, at least we're not in the States where they've got another fucking year and a half of this campaign shit to go...

Absolutely. This election is crucial. The bottom line is Harper needs to go if for no other reason but that he's a fucking religious fanatic (Fundamentalist Christian) who is hell bent on starting a holy war with the Muslim population. He's practically begging a Muslim to get pissed off enough over niqabs, etc to stage some sort of "terrorist attack"- all the excuse Harper needs to send more troops into the Middle East so that he can kill as many Muslims as possible simply because they believe in a different god than he does. Stephen Harper is Canada's version of George W Bush -a war mongering, biblethumping Big Oil shill- and enough is fucking well enough! I have no time for the NDP in any shape or form (I live in BC, after all, where we're STILL feeling the after effects of years of provincial NDP mismanagement) and I think Mulcair's loyalty lies with Quebec and fuck the rest of Canada. As for the Liberals Justin Trudeau may be the current "face" of the party but behind him is the same old goddamn Chretien/Martin Old Boy Network that raised the ire of so many people ten years back. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, in other words. Same fucking bunch of crooks we turfed out in 2006. To give Trudeau his due, though, he's come a hell of a long way from the blathering idiot he was at the start of the campaign to being someone who really is "ready" to run the country...his handlers have done a helluva job. That leaves the Green Party...Elizabeth May is a bit outspoken, but she tells it like it is, and that's refreshing coming from any politician. if nothing else I reckon they'll do well in British Columbia. But yes...to our Canadian forum members you owe it to yerselves to get out there and vote tomorrow. Now I know deep down that it's a big game in the end, all politicians serve their Corporate masters, etc but this is one election where when it's all over I don't wanna hear ONE GODDAMN WORD of complaint about "the government" from anybody who didn't fill out a fucking ballot. Adlai Stevenson said it, folks: "In a democracy, people elect the government they deserve."