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Seeing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith yesterday tied together two distinct parts of my life: the toys and movies that shaped my imagination throughout my childhood and the good storytelling and spectacular special effects that I love about movies in my adult life. Therefore, call me biased but this is the Internet, so you should be used to dealing with that.

Star Wars Episodes I and II unarguably had great digital effects, but while the storytelling may not be as bad as all the die-hard fans of the original Star Wars trilogy say, it was definitely not as strong as the older Star Wars movies. On the other hand, Episodes IV, V, and VI had a great storyline, but while some of the special effects of the late seventies and early eighties can still be considered pretty amazing, most effects pale in comparison with the standards of today's action movies.

Episode III ties the two trilogies together very well with great effects and by closing the loop on much of the storyline between the two sets of movies. Anyone who had seen the other Star Wars movies knows how Revenge of the Sith will ultimately end, but bringing you through the tragedy that Anakin faces definitely lets you see Darth Vader in a new light.

For me Star Wars movies were a great escape from reality, but never an emotional undertaking. However, there are two scenes in particular in Revenge of the Sith that show the demise of the Jedi that were really upsetting to me. Maybe it was the child within me coming out, but more than likely it was the father who I am today.

For all those who said this year would be different but are still wondering how you are going to finish your taxes by midnight tonight, you'll want to check out these websites that offer free tax preparation and filing.

TurboTax agreed to develop a free version of its online filing software to avoid the government doing the same and potentially hijacking many TurboTax customers. Keep in mind that only the basic federal offering is free - don't fill in the state tax return section unless you mind paying a $30 fee. States like NJ and PA also offer free filing (albeit not as nice as TurboTax's), so check out your state's website.

Hopefully by now, you and my cousin Marc realize that Friday's blog entry was a little April foolishness. However, the truth of it is this book - or at least the front and back cover of it - will be appearing in a short film by Jason Salmon and my good friend Jack Reiling.

Yes, the photo to the right is me, but from a snapshot taken in the middle of a beard removing event. Since shaving a beard only comes every so often, you've got to take full advantage of the moment with photographic documentation.

I can't wait until the film comes out so I can see if my book actually makes the final cut.

Many of you may not know that I will soon be a published self-help author. My book "Find Your Soul Mate...Before It's Too Late" will be hitting the shelves at midnight tonight. After years of research watching Oprah and Jerry Springer, I have concluded that I too can scare people into thinking that they may soon be running out of time to find true love. The book is very believable too; if I hadn't already found true love with my beautiful wife Christi, I would be nervous too. Although most of the book is just pictures I took of rose petals, champagne flutes, and candles, I think this should only compliment the text which is based on the thousands of fortune cookie sayings (and lucky numbers) that I've compiled over the past 20 years. I look forward to a review on Metacritic any day now.

One of my good friends, Mike Tichy, has just released his third solo album called when the sun went down. I'm now on my fourth run through the CD in so many days and the songs are infectious. Even after the first time through the album, I caught myself humming more than a handful of the tracks which is in contraction to what I would expect since I also consider this album to require some digesting. It's not because Tichy's style is way out there; it's almost just the opposite with this album being a bit more mainstream than his last. If I had to describe his music based just on this CD, I would say it is a mix somewhere between Elliott Smith, Phish, The Allman Brothers, and The Beatles.

Two of my favorite tracks are neanderthal and i'm on hold. Here's the title track.

The songs on the CD were performed by The Mike Tichy Disaster which in addition to Mike Tichy includes two other mikes and a joe: Mike Low, Mike Catapano, and Joe Vigliotti. As you know, Tichy is a staple band member of my indie band Cuscus and Catapano has also contributed his musical talents on previous Cuscus recordings.

If you are interested in booking The Mike Tichy Disaster or in obtaining a copy of the new CD, please contact Tichy through his website.