Earlier today I read about marathon vigils -- month-long lineups outside local theatres to ensure that the participants get their hands on the very first tickets to TPM. As a matter of fact, I was further informed that the Toronto Star ran an article on some university students that were organising just that. I quickly referred to Coundown, a site that is currently preparing lines for most US cities, a site that is currently preparing lines for most US cities, having already set one up for Mann's Chinese Theatre in the Los Angeles area where the phenomenon of Star Wars first began.

Following the pattern of all my other editorials, I suppose you expect me to ramble on about how these people are overdoing it -- it would only be consistent. But no, this is not the case. I plan to hold something like this myself. Maybe not so extensive -- the hotel across from the theatre costs $400 a night, and since it's named after the movie Highlander it's probably not that good anyways. As for the parking-lot idea, that's out of the question. The weather up here is absolutely unpredictable; by the time you can say "Beautiful out today, eh?" there's enough snow to freeze a Wampa to death.

There are obviously many forseeable problems with holding a marathon vigil. Food? Local concessions. Shelter? Parking lot. Web site? Laptop. But a setback that nobody else has thought of except me is this: how are you going to watch the Star Wars Classic Trilogy while you're waiting in line? A portable VCR can only last so long. As a matter of fact, I'm getting a team to work on that right away.

Why do people want to be the first to see Star Wars? Is it really worth it? Well, yes, of course. Being the first is kind of prestigious, in a way. Personally, what I'd really like is an opening-show ticket autographed by George Lucas himself (we can only dream). Of course, things would really be looking up if I got a chance to go to the Denver convention -- not that I know anything about it other than the fact that it's there -- but I'm thinking it'd be pretty cool to come back and tell everyone about my little experiences.