Greensboro News & Record article

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/star_wars_051905.htm

The photo for this article is very nice. It features the dude in the Vader costume crossing blades with Stardog with the Palladium as a backdrop.

I have, at this time, 2 extra copies of that paper. Need one? Let me know FAST.

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HARD-CORE JEDIS INVADE THEATERS

5-19-05

By Jason Hardin Staff Writer
News & Record



The Jedi Knight rose to his full height, moving among the shadows, ready for action.

Then, he answered his cell phone.

The collision of fantasy and reality lasted all day Wednesday and into this morning as hard-core "Star Wars" fans readied themselves for the movie many had been waiting all their lives to see.

Fans dressed up, brandished lightsabers, quizzed one another on arcane movie trivia and generally immersed themselves in all things "Star Wars."

It was part of the painful wait until midnight, when theaters across the Triad planned to begin showing "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," the sixth and final installment of the "Star Wars" series.

Fans took heart in knowing, however, that the wait was nearly over.

"When you first see the 'Star Wars' logo, the opening crawl, everybody will just let out a big cheer," said Dave Hill, 27, of Clemmons.

He and 10 other fans gathered Wednesday afternoon outside Palladium Cinemas in High Point, watching the minutes tick past with agonizing slowness. Some had been camping out since Tuesday.

The items on the concrete plaza around them spoke to the presence of sci-fi devotees: empty pizza boxes mingled with 12-packs of Coke and plastic toys.

Even among the hardest of the hard-core, Kiel Mann of High Point stood out.

The 20-year-old guesses he has seen the films 300 times.

"I can quote every movie word for word," Mann said, who mentioned enviously that he had heard of a guy in Las Vegas who had been camping out for more than a month.

"If I could do that, I would," Mann said.

Although they drew stares from other moviegoers, fans said they didn't care if people looked at them as geeks.

"If somebody wants to label me, I don't care. I'm proud to be a 'Star Wars' fan," Hill said.

At the Carmike 18 in Greensboro, Tricia Glenn and Scott Stanley, both of Greensboro, were among the first who arrived Wednesday afternoon to wait for the movie.

"We have no life," Glenn, 53, joked.

Vinnie Mannino, a 28-year-old Winston-Salem resident who camped out at the Palladium, said he has been a "Star Wars" fan his whole life. He was a month old when the first movie came out.

"It's in our blood," he said.

Mannino, sporting a sunburn from having spent the day in the largely shadeless plaza, said he and his brothers used to act out "Star Wars." Perhaps in a case of adolescent age discrimination, he got to be Luke Skywalker, while a younger brother wound up as Darth Vader.

He and a group of friends planned to watch the midnight showing, head out to a late-night diner, talk about the movie, perhaps grab a little sleep, then come back and catch the film again this morning.

It was an ambitious schedule, particularly since no one had gotten much sleep the night before.

"The only thing that's affecting us is sleep deprivation," Mannino said. "But when the screen gets dark ... it's going to be eyes wide open."