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posted by admin on May 14

******SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE SEASON FINALE YET******

The season finale left me confused and, well, lost. Until I ignored Juliet detonating the bomb and accepted whatever comes after that for the ‘77 characters is unknowable given the information we’ve been given. Conservative guess Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc. are heading back to 2007 (the ‘They’ Jacob refers to in “They’re coming.”)

I loved the reveals on resurrected Locke’s true identity but most of all I loved that after weeks of destroying the credibility of every character we were finally given some mysterious answers again along with allusions to extrapolate what the Island is all about.

At one point a character is reading Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge”. This book seems to hold little importance other then as a character device but O’Connor borrowed the title from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who was a very interesting and controversial figure. Going all the way back to the beginning of the episode with Jacob and The Unnamed Man arguing about the nature of time leads me to believe these two in-some-way-supernatural men are using/guiding humans for an experiment or to solve an argument. Many are reading god vs. satan imagery into this which works just fine but I think misses the whole picture. The fundamental question being asked is whether mankind follows a cyclical path of war and destruction or if free will lead to the eventually emergence of Teilhard’s Omega Point.

According to Teilhard a being achieving the Omega Point would be free from the limitations of time and space. Sounds like Lost and sounds an awful lot like a person who wouldn’t age.

This is starting to get away from me a little bit but interesting to think about in terms of tonight’s revelations.

posted by admin on Apr 23

In preparation for the new G.I. Joe movie coming this summer they’ve made about an hour long story releasing in ten five or six minute episodes on Adult Swim’s website. Check out G.I. Joe: Resolute here. Enough nods to the cheesiness of the show to keep the feel of 80’s cartoons but still takes itself very seriously.

It doesn’t seem to tie into the movie at all but exists to excite old fans about G.I. Joe. It certainly worked on me as my interest in the movie has gone from five to one hundred. Keep in mind this scale runs to one thousand.

What’s really amazing is how little I remember of the show. Aside from Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (who have an absolutely badass story line in Resolute) and, of course, Cobra Commander I remember none of these characters and have no idea about the plot beyond Joe vs. Cobra. Shockingly, I remember the educational shorts at the end of episodes better than the show itself. I suppose my excellent safety record around fires, exposed wires and train tracks should have alerted me to this knowledge priorly.

posted by admin on Apr 22

I am tentatively obsessed with MLB ‘09′s Road to the Show mode. For those unaware, Road to the Show allows you to create a player and start a career from scratch. You only play the game situations that you are involved with directly. This works exceptionally well for baseball because the sport is more individual.

I used the qualifier tentatively because a few bizarre fielding/cut-off man glitches irk me. So far I’ve gotten past them because 20-year old starting pitcher, Mike Soucy, has only recently been moved up to Triple A and giving up an error ridden triple is probably reasonable in Double A. But if something I deem a glitch were to cost me a game or break up a no hitter rest assured my anger would suspend the game indefinitely. I would take my ball and go home.

The other reason for qualifying my adoration has actually started to suck me further down the rabbit hole. I started my career with the Dodgers as seemed reasonable given my affection for the organization. In hindsight this was probably a mistake as their major league rotation has three members younger than real life me and more talented than video game me. Their closer actually played in the same area as me in high school and was my nemesis my senior season as we battled for the area lead in strike outs. Given that he closes for the Dodgers now my humiliating defeat has been easy to come to terms with. The glut of young pitching talent led the Dodgers (video game) organization to a logical conclusion: trade me. Trade me to the Pirates. Trade me to the fucking Pirates!

The news was soul crushing. Never before has a video game impacted me so emotionally. The betrayal! I gave everything to this team and you send me to the Pirates who haven’t had a winning season in almost two decades! Suddenly players feeling disconnected, signing simply for the most money and not caring about the team makes sense. After nearly quitting the game I have a new goal: become a free agent and get the hell out of Pittsburgh. I’m likely four years away from that possibility and can’t imagine the frustration a real life player feels.

So I’m trying to balance my ardent desire of reaching the big league’s, establishing my greatness so I can sign with any team, going to LA and winning the World Series with some semblance of a functional, productive life. Fortunately, the southern Californian heat wave seems to have broken allowing my brain to work properly once again.

I do have to give props to the game for the Dodgers-Pirates trade. The Dodgers front office seems to have identified Pittsburgh as a Triple A affiliate to send all their tweener talent. That is one of my favorite aspects of sports: when a GM seems to identify another GM as gullible and continues to pull off trades until the later discovers what is going on. The video game reproduction of this is a low-hanging fruit to be enjoyed by all.

Speaking of video games, the newest Penny Arcade comic is deliciously dark and hilarious. Just know your laughter and tears sustain their nefarious powers.

Also, no new Lost tonight. What? On the plus side I could still do a Podcast about last weeks episode and be hopelessly out of date only in Internet time.

posted by admin on Apr 10

Here is another late Podcast. It’s about Lost theory. Enjoy.

I think it’s a little over 15 minutes.

UPDATE: Still not working. Trying to figure out what went wrong. I’ll see if I can get it up later. Sorry.

posted by admin on Apr 9

Last night’s episode of Lost was definitely one of the my favorites so far this season. And unlike last week’s episode “Whatever Happened, Happened” I am not inclined to give much credence to the title “Dead Is Dead”. Why? Because it’s a Ben episode, the title is taken from dialogue spoked by Ben and we all know Ben is a liar. Now my inclination towards Ben and Locke episodes certainly predisposed me to enjoying it but we learned quite a bit of Island history, Island mythology and several important character traits.

My favorite part of the episode (and possibly the show) is listening to Ben talk. Looking across message boards this morning people are formulating and disproving theories using some of Ben’s dialogue from last night. Well, if last night taught us anything it’s NEVER believe anything Benjamin Linus says. We saw several of his out and out lies but more importantly we can attempt to sift through his bullshit to find some form of the truth.

What I believed:
Ben suspected Locke would be resurrected by the Island.
Ben cannot control Smokey.
Ben feels great remorse over his daughter.

What I did not believe:
Ben wanted Locke resurrected. Given his daughter’s statements this becomes pretty clear.
Ben wanted to be judged.
Ben did not know the other survivors were in The Dharma Initiative.

Some of these things I believed or did not believe based on miniscule evidence and some I just want to believe but Ben continues to be a lightning rod of drama. I also believe Ben, at the moment he said it, intends to follow John Locke but does anyone really believe that will last very long? This episode did give a glimpse of humanity in Ben as he seems to have a soft spot for new mothers likely because of his own mothers death but can Ben ever really change? Richard’s speech about his lost innocence seems to condemn Ben to the manipulative asshole role for life but perhaps another trip down Smoke Monster way will make Ben a loyal member of the John Locke Island Initiative.

Speaking of John Locke, how badass was he last night? Comparing him to Jack last week it really stands out how poorly Jack is handling his laid back approach to the Island. But Locke showed some interesting signs last night. Primarily, he seems to be turning into Benjamin Linus. He really enjoyed knowing more about the Island then Ben and was overtly smug about the matter. Now maybe he was just sticking it to Ben but I see something different at work. Locke’s example for Island leader was Ben so that’s who he is emulating in his quest to lead. Likewise Ben’s example was Charles Widmore and just as Widmore left the Island and used it for personally gain well, all those passports, fancy suits and drawers of cash seem to indicate Ben fell into the same trap as his predecessor. Interesting to see if Locke continues down this path.

Two other huge moments: Desmond/Penny & Illana/Cesar.

Ben shot Desmond. Desmond returns with a vengeance and we finally find out what happened to Ben before boarding the plane. But shouldn’t have Desmond been down for the count? Did the Island heal him? Then it would seem the Island is not done with Desmond Hume. Will he return to the Island to finish Ben off in order to protect his family? Will we get a Desmond episode before the season is out? My prediction: April 29th the episode titled “The Variable”. We learn an awful lot about the man, to quote Daniel Farady, “the rules don’t apply to.”

Illana and her merry band of thugs. They’ve seemingly been to the Island before. Were they sent by Widmore or is there a new force on Lost? How did they know to be on the flight?

Is Cesar really dead? I think we can expect another resurrection. Why? The show’s spent too much time on him.

Next week we get a Miles episode and maybe finally find out why he can talk to the dead. Only four more weeks left this season. It’s going to be a long summer and fall waiting for the final season.

Podcast coming later today where I’ll spend time talking more about last night’s implications on the series as a whole and my own personal theories on where we might be headed!

posted by admin on Apr 3

Great episode of Lost this week. Due to popular demand (i.e. Bender) here is a podcast for this weeks Lost. It’s about 15 minutes and I spend some time talking about Kate’s return to the island, Ben and The Others and a bit of my own theory on how time travel works on the show.

Check it out here.

I am thinking of keeping a live diary during the Final Four and posting it after the games. Is that something you might be interested in?

posted by admin on Mar 26

Great, great episode of Lost last night. Dropping a podcast here. WARNING: Big spoiler in the last minute of the podcast, I warn you very clearly in the podcast but it has to do with next weeks episode in regards to what happened at the end of last night’s episode. So you have been warned. It runs about 17 minutes. I’m still not quite there but I do think I am getting better and slowing myself down.

Things I didn’t mention in the podcast:
Next week: Whatever Happened, Happened - Kate episode
Two Weeks: Dead is Dead

Very interesting titles given Sayid and Ben at the end of last nights episode.

For those who don’t want to listen to the Podcast, I talked about Ben and Sayid and what this means for the time travel theories of the show. Talked about a few problems I had with last night’s episode and possible foreshadowing indicated by the book Ben hands Sayid in his jail cell.

Possible SPOILER:
Final episode of the season is a two-parter called The Incident. Someone’s gonna die!

posted by admin on Mar 24

Get it out of the way. Wake Forest was a complete and utter disaster and disappointment. Five minutes into it I knew they were going to lose, just drank angrily the entire game and left the bar with seventeen seconds left. Thankfully, Cleveland St. lost to Arizona so no more talk of them.

UCONN looks unbelievable. Villanova looks very good. Blake Griffin is the best player in the country. Pitt looks suspect. Everyone else looks about how you thought they would.

I still feel good about Louisville losing at some point, we’ll see how hot Arizona really is but the mid-west is primed for a great Elite Eight game.

I’m still talking myself into Pitt winning it all. They’ve been too good all there and now have the bad games out of their system. I thought Villanova was a lock to destroy Duke but everyone is high on ‘Nova and that makes me a little nervous.

Non-sports related: The Venture Bros.: Season Three comes out today. I’m prepared to call it the funniest show on TV. If you missed last weeks South Park head over to South Park Studios site and check out ‘The Coon’. A very enjoyable spoof of The Dark Knight.

Still recovering from all the beer I drank this weekend and catching up on a number of things. Probably posting more the next couple days and I am planning a Lost podcast for Thursday so feel free to get back into checking the site for updates, I know the hit count drops like crazy when I go out of town and don’t post for a few days and takes a couple weeks to get back up.

Oh no! You outta time baby!

posted by admin on Mar 5

Heading out of town in an hour so not enough time for a full recap but some impressions from last night.

SPOILERS

The statue is back! Maybe, we don’t see it’s feet but can assume it’s the infamous four-toed statue of seasons past. Had a particularly Egyptian look to it that coupled with the ankh around Paul’s neck that sets Horace to drinking and dynamiting (and who doesn’t think that would be fun?) makes me wonder if the Egyptian symbols are a motif of the episode or an important clue about the island’s past. My favorite theory - the Island residents spread their culture to ancient Tunisia through the portal and created what we know as Egyptian civilization. Answers nothing about the Island and adds a hundred more questions, sounds an awful lot like a Lost explanation.

The polar bears - the Dharma Initiative brought them for some unspoken reason.

Richard Alpert. The mystery continues to build.

Sawyer + Juliet 4eva! Or maybe not. Kind of ironic that Sawyer sacrifices himself so Kate, Jack and the rest can get off the Island and he ends up being the only one to find happiness. But the Island will make Sawyer pay for his past sins. His utopia is about to be shattered with the return of the Jack, Kate and Hurley and I have the feeling his decisions will leave repercussions felt the rest of the series.

What’s the deal with the one-week break? Other then a few conference basketball tournaments I can’t think of anything happening.

In two weeks - “Namaste”. Welcome back old friends, we’ll try not to kill you.

Also, was anyone else bothered that the Hostiles drew first blood in breaking the truce? THEY DREW FIRST BLOOD!!!!

posted by admin on Mar 4

I think this is much funnier then the “Yankee Stadium Fake Proposal”. This involved a good deal of creativity while ruining your friend’s relationship, well, not so much.