One of my admitted guilty pleasures on TV is America’s Got Talent. Unlike shows like American Idol, this one allows anyone to do anything to impress the world, and this leads to some disastrous failures as well as some absolutely incredible performances.

On one of the episodes recently, a “technological performance group” from Austin, Texas called ArcAttack took the stage for what looked like it would become a certain failure, even catching an X by Sharon Osbourne a tad early.

To everyone’s surprise, they put on quite the spectacular show using some guitars, a self-playing drum set, the immense power of Tesla coils, a chainmail suit, and the intimidating beats of Darth Vader’s “Imperial March” from Star Wars.

Remove all metal items from your possession and head over to the dark side to check out this very cool performance.

The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Special Edition)
Composer: John Williams
London Symphony Orchestra
1997 Release

WARNING! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS!

It’s been thirty years since The Empire Strikes Back, the much-anticipated sequel to George Lucas‘ 1977 mega-hit cultural touchstone Star Wars, opened in theaters around the world and the impact it made upon audiences and critics has not dulled a bit, and for good reason. The movie proved that the success of the first Star Wars film was no well-timed fluke and even a movie that essentially paid homage to space operas, samurai films, and westerns could evolve beyond its influences and become its own beast. Best of all it was better than Star Wars in every possible way: the script by Leigh Brackett (screenwriter of such classic films as The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and The Long Goodbye) and Lawrence Kasdan (who later went on to co-write Raiders of Lost Ark and enter his own directing career) opened up the universe Lucas had created and expanded the scope with an epic, serpentine tale that was more darker, richer, and emotional than the original and overflowing with memorable characters, and quotable dialogue; the direction by Irvin Kershner was professional and assured; and the cast, free of George Lucas’ stilted writing and relative inexperience with actors (despite the fact that he had directed the actor-heavy American Graffiti to great success), were able to give deeper and more nuanced performances under the direction of the deferential Kershner.

These days, most people with newer vehicles have some sort of navigational system to help them get to their destinations without getting lost. One of the popular GPS devices comes from TomTom, a company who might just be about to become a whole lot more popular to geeks and fanboys worldwide.

I many cases, people can choose the voice that is the most appealing to them who will dictate directions to them as they drive. Over the next few months, TomTom will be releasing a line of Star Wars character voices for just this purpose. The first voice released was that of the Sith Lord, Darth Vader, and in the coming months the assistance of C-3PO, Master Yoda, and Han Solo will also become available to users of the service.

Click on over to the other side for more and to check out a video of Darth Vader recording his lines for his TomTom debut!

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I like that nearly all my contacts are stored in one self-updating database, but am constantly annoyed with the notifications and inherent disregard for privacy. That being said, I’ve never been much for posting pictures to my account.

For a while my profile picture was represented by the default silhouette and it still would be had someone not drawn a picture of my likeness, which now occupies the space. However, if I’d have seen this collection of geeky Facebook silhouettes when I initially signed up, I’d probably still be rocking one of them now.

The collection features The Batman, Yoda, Darth Vader, and Stewie Griffin, among many others. It was created by Picasa user “TheBlasto” who points out “if you’re a basic Photoshop user, these are really quick and easy to make. The trick is finding something that can be recognized by its silhouette.”

This will be a day long remembered…

Iconic characters from the Star Wars saga, along with LucasFilm executives, made an appearance yesterday morning at the New York Stock Exchange.

The Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader, rang the opening bell at the NYSE while surrounded by a group of clone troopers.

The ever-lovable droid R2-D2 was also present at the festivities.

Watch the video here below of Darth Vader ringing the bell to open the stock exchange.