The Silent Planet

The Wilhelm Scream

2011-02-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

I heard of this thing called a Wilhelm scream on a podcast. It pops up in the occasional movie, including the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" films, and the Simon Pegg alien movie "Paul" that comes out in March. I thought it was a name for a general kind of over-the-top scream, but no. It's a collection of sound files (six total, though a couple are most recognizable) that have been used over and over again, for decades now, to humorous effect for people in the know. Watch and find it funny:

Obviously ...

2011-02-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

My favorite fortune-cookie fortunes that I've gotten:

World, here I come.

A poem

2011-02-03T16:54:00.001-08:00

Poetry
2.3.11

I decided to write a poem for you
because it’s been a long time since
words strung together like letters or songs
a long, long time without words that rhyme
or maybe not, not this time
drat

they come when you don’t see them sometimes
like shooting stars
and surprise parties
and adulthood
and that moment when you realize you can’t think of a single thing you’ve done in ten years that’s worth mentioning

will the day come when we stop writing poetry
real poetry, with real words
not letters that count as words
and emoticons
and the loss of something

I think maybe I’ll start writing poetry again
because I think, sometimes, that I’ve forgotten the things
that feed the soul
and I miss them

Curious correlations

2011-02-03T16:09:00.000-08:00

In its bid to keep me firmly in its clutches by suggesting more and more titles it thinks I will enjoy, Netflix sometimes gets creative. Humorously creative. I first noticed this with the names of specific genres that Netflix determines I enjoy. For example:

*Critically-acclaimed Violent Dramas
*Dark Suspenseful Supernatural Movies
*Exciting British TV
*Exciting Space-Travel TV Shows
*Emotional Dramas Featuring a Strong Female Lead

That last one was the result of my taste preference for Dramas, plus my interest in the movies "Brothers" and "The Fall." The "strong female lead" in "The Fall" is a little Romanian girl who is all kinds of entertaining but whose part is particularly ... childlike ... to be a "Strong Female Lead." She was a little girl with a broken arm, with nothing mature about the role or her situation. It wasn't, like, a Jodie Foster role or something.

Anyway. This week, I glanced across some of my recommendations and was struck by the seemingly non-existent correlation between some of the recommendations and the taste preferences that inspired those recommendations. Umm …

(Click on it to see a bigger version.)

I get that Claire Danes was in "Romeo + Juliet" and "My So-Called Life," but I don't remember watching any part of "Lost" and thinking, "This show reminds me of that episode of 'My So-Called Life' when Jordan Catalano was standing by that locker ..." I guess that both "Flight of the Conchords" and "Shaun of the Dead" involve non-Americans being funny? And what major factor could a motorcycle-trip documentary series ("Long Way Round") have in common with "Battlestar Galactica"?

Even better, though, are these. I did a little graphic that isn't nearly as funny and cool as I wanted it to be, but here it is anyway. (Again, click on the graphic to see it bigger.)

Spice, Spice Baby

2011-01-27T15:51:00.000-08:00

"The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel."

Also vital to space travel: your pet pug.

I am one of those unreliable bloggers who writes regularly for a while, stops, and maybe posts something here and there. I have several Google Docs (because I enjoy and utilize Google Docs very much, and create new ones at least weekly) that contain ideas and starts for blog posts that never became actual blog posts. One of those I will share today.

One of the blog series I intended for The Silent Planet that I remain most excited about is Geek Treasures. (Being excited about an idea does not guarantee follow-through. Bloggers know this.) Geek Treasures would require me to read, watch or otherwise partake of something from the broad geek canon that I had not previously watched, read or otherwise partook. Is "partook" a word?

I bet these people use the word "partook."

I planned to start with "The Wrath of Khan" but didn't take notes, let time pass and couldn't remember it well enough to do justice to the experience of watching it. So I wrote about "Blade Runner" instead.

That was in June. It was my first and only Geek Treasures post. Geeks around the world moped around in sad disappointment for the next several months (or not at all), (not) anticipating the follow-up that would never come.

Until now. I give you Geek Treasures entry #2.

This look never caught on. It's hard to predict fashion trends, isn't it?

The thing: David Lynch's "Dune," the 1984 film based on Frank Herbert's novel. I haven't read the novel, but I presume it is not as weird as David Lynch.

This bizarre and ... off-putting ... man with his eyebrows and his red-around-the-mouthness inspired me to take the first screenshot of about 36.

The means: Netflix streaming, which enabled me to capture many screenshots to make this entry extra special. You could also argue that it makes this entry extra creepy.

Geek moment: Several cast members appear in other notable science fiction and fantasy shows and films, but I'd most like to mention Patrick Stewart, aka Captain Picard of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" / Professor X in "The X-Men," and Dean Stockwell, of both "Quantum Leap" and the "BG" reboot. Also, IMDb lists Michael Bolton (yes, that Michael Bolton) as "Drummer At Knife Fight (uncredited)." Geek? No. Noteworthy? Obviously.

Does Captain Picard (far left) know yet that Dean Stockwell (center) is actually a Cylon?

This shot reminded me of a "Star Wars" movie. Is the Emperor arriving? Does this count as a geek moment? I think so. That, and this ...

... guy reminding me of Viggo Mortensen, aka Aragorn from "The Lord of the Rings."

Other impressions: I watched "Dune" back in June (no rhyme intended). I did take notes, but it's been awhile and I thought that just posting the notes themselves might be funnier than rewatching the film to come up with a fresher, more thorough take on my impressions.

I watched the movie over two days. I typed notes on the Stickies notepad on my computer as I watched the film. I'm adding bullets to make them easier to read. Here is day one, covering the first 40 minutes of the film:

Spice of life
oh yes, I forgot to tell you...
Toto
we felt his presence
bald people-emperor of known universe
floor-length garbage bag parkas
Jessica
AraKIS, DUNE, desert planet
Sean Young
a lot of telling — inner thoughts, educational presentations, title cards, Virginia Madsen — suits, planets, families, prophecies, how they feel, etc.
more fun to watch with friends
old school effects with models, etc.
tiny flying metal assassin
When you see the baron, remember the tooth, the tooth, the tooth.
poison gas tooth
rated R for the unsettling combination of weirdness and grossness
a dream ... unfolds

Examples of "old school effects with models, etc." I honestly prefer a model ship flying in front of a fake screen sometimes.

Also from the list: tiny flying metal assassin.

Notes from day two:

sound out of synch, though I would forget it for sections at a time because of the lack of dialogue vs. the large amount of inner thinking
my inner thoughts are not whispers
wild, half-mad John Lydon quality, and it wasn't just the hair — more in the eyes than the hair [this was in reference to Sting's portrayal of one of the bad guys]
the love story gets a teeny tiny story arc
didn't quite catch what was going on despite all the telling — why he has to drink the sacred water, what his code name is, who all the people groups are esp. in relation to each other
sometimes they chant things, or yell one word together loudly
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer."
where you can tell the background isn't really there where the person/ship/worm is — I like that
"The worm IS the spice. The spice IS the worm."
Picture: "Father! The sleeper has awakened!"
Emperor: "Bring in that floating fat man. The Baron."
Things that would give adults nightmares:
Dune is an odd combination of early 80s/late 70s sci-fi and special effects, gross Lynchian eeriness, and random ...
the tiny creepy child basically aided in the killing of the repulsive baron
Patrick Stewart re: Sting: "This is a Harkonan animal."

From the list: Sting and his crazy eyes.

Also from the list, the tiny, creepy child. My big win of the movie was recognizing the actress playing her as Alicia Witt, who would have been 7 years old when "Dune" started shooting in early 1983. I've only seen her as a young adult/adult, most recently in "Friday Night Lights." She pretty much looks exactly the same as she did as a kid, though, just taller and older.

And yet more from the list, things that would give adults nightmares:

She should have brushed her teeth more often.

One of the grossest, plain yuckiest character depictions ever on film, I think. It's much worse when you're watching the movie and there's moving and talking and lingering on the boil-covered man and entire scenes in which people have to be in the same room with him.

I left some other things out, figuring these three creepy pictures were plenty.

Side note 1: Frank Herbert wrote six "Dune" novels, and his son and another author have written several more. The novels are really popular. The movie "Dune" has no sequels. The Sci-Fi Channel aired a couple "Dune" miniseries in 2000 and 2003, which Wikipedia says were popular, which I guess means they are more like the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot miniseries and less like all the movies Syfy shows on Saturday nights. (Not enough like the "BG" miniseries to spawn a TV show, but not as bad as CGI gators attacking women with limited acting abilities.) Also according to Wikipedia, a new film adaptation of "Dune" was announced in 2008. We'll see how that goes. I predict that it will not be as weird as David Lynch's movie, because that's a really high bar of weirdness that most people don't have it in them to reach.

This worm is bigger than all the worms of Earth.

Catching a ride on the side of a worm that looks even larger than the last one.

Side note 2: I didn't intend for Geek Treasures to have a Sean Young streak, but here it is, if anyone considers two movies a streak.

Sean Young seems to have gone through a sci-fi phase.

Side note 3: The Wikipedia definition for the "dune" page, referencing sand dunes rather than the movie or the book, cracked me up a little in its simplicity: "A dune is a hill of sand." Yeah, "Dune" is a pretty accurate name for the movie.

Sandy sand dunes of spicy life-extending spice.

Rating on a scale of Shiny to Dull:

A Long Way Down

2011-01-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

I have this idea that I want to read a lot of books each year. One per week is 52. Four per month is 48. Something in that range sounds challenging enough to be interesting but not so challenging as to be unreasonable.

But things aren't going as well as I'd hoped for 2011. (Yes, we're only on day 19 of 2011.) I've finished one book so far that I started at the end of 2010. It's been 10 days since I completed Book #1, and I'm not even halfway through reading Book #2. At this pace I will only read maybe three books each month. That's 36 in one year. That's how many I read last year, when my initial goal was 50 books. I want to at least hit 40 in 2011.

I started with something that seemed appropriate to the time of year, "A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby. I purchased my copy used at the Lexington book sale in November (where paperbacks are a quarter, and I bought more than 100 of them) and hadn't intended on reading it right away. I didn't even know what it was about. I just knew that I was interested in reading a Nick Hornby book, and so I had a couple in mind — "High Fidelity" and maybe "Fever Pitch" — when I went to the sale. What I found were "About a Boy," which I presumed would be similar to the movie based on it, and "A Long Way Down," which I'd seen on Amazon.com and elsewhere but knew nothing about.

It turned out that "A Long Way Down" is about four people who run into each other when they all go to the roof of the same building to commit suicide on New Year's Eve. It's about more than that, but that's how things get started. Since real-life New Year's Eve was coming up, I figured hey, time-appropriate. So I read it.

The book is recorded by four narrators, the four people who went to the rooftop to jump: Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ. They are interesting characters with reasonably distinct voices, and I enjoyed spending time with them. It bugged me a little how JJ, an American, would write "man" into his sentences sometimes, since I think people who say "man" a lot in conversation wouldn't normally write it in a narrative, but I guess that's not really a big deal ... man.

It did seem like there was a lot of telling rather than showing, which struck me as the novel's greatest flaw but perhaps an inescapable one for a narrative structure like the one Hornby chose. It's like a long relay race, with the characters picking up the threads of the story, one narrator at a time. Hornby's tackling of that structure is, overall, impressive, with the way he weaves the story through four different voices, sometimes altering what we know about a situation when our perspective of it changes as the narrator does. My inner "show, don't tell!" alarm kept going off, though, as the characters repeatedly shared their internal responses and ruminated on their experiences in a way that felt indulgent at times. It came across more like a person telling you a story, which I guess was the point anyway.

I would give the book a B; it's not fantastic but it is readable and interesting. It was weird at first to have the subject matter (people intending to commit suicide) always running in the background of my mind, threatening everyday thoughts with the influence of morbidity. But once the action moved beyond the rooftop, that background noise in my brain mostly turned off.

The novel itself is funny, and significantly quotable. I marked lots and lots of parts to note in my Google Doc of "A Long Way Down" quotes so that I can return to them later. In this way, it reminded me of Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club": It's a popular book from a popular, modern, male author that, amid the profanity, offers a lot to say about the human experience and culture that is relatable and worth pondering. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend "A Long Way Down," but I do look forward to compiling those quotes and reading over them again and again.

Nick Hornby also wrote the screenplay for "An Education." I've never seen it, but I have recently seen Carey Mulligan in a few British TV series and I really like her. Everybody wave to Carey Mulligan and congratulate her for NOT starring in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." I do not mean that sarcastically.

Of note: "A Long Way Down," published in 2005, is apparently going to be turned into a movie, if you believe what you accidentally find on IMDb and don't bother to research elsewhere. Hornby's "Fever Pitch," "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy" also inspired movies ("Fever Pitch," an autobiographical nonfiction book about soccer/football/whatever fandom, inspired two). If you haven't heard of him, maybe you've heard of the movies based on his books.

At the movies all by myself

2010-10-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

Do you go to movies by yourself?

I went to see “October Sky” by myself in Huntington, and it turned out that “by myself” meant “I was the only person in the theater.” It was a smaller theater but being alone in there was still a little unsettling. If someone attacked me, no one would know. It seemed like a pretty good set-up for a violent crime, if a would-be violent criminal had considered a Homer Hickam movie to be a reasonable place to find a potential victim.

I also went to see “28 Weeks Later” by myself, and was thankfully not the only person in the theater. I sat in the back row so that I wouldn’t be jumping and acting afraid in the view of others behind me. Another plus: avoiding that nagging feeling that a killer was looming while my back was turned.

But do you know what was behind the back row? A wall, sure. But on that wall: long, thick curtains. Ideal for hiding a moviegoer-stabbing killer who thinks it’d be fun to knock off a person or two during a horror movie. In hindsight, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to go to a scary movie by yourself. Mental note noted.

Do you like scary movies?

2010-10-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

I’ve been reminiscing lately about the time I saw “The Exorcist” with my friend Mara. Occasionally we would rent movies and watch them in her parents’ bedroom, where the TV and VCR lived, and one evening we picked “The Exorcist.” (Another time, we watched something that I think was called “Grandma’s House,” one of those innumerable one-star films that filled horror movie racks back in the day when people went to video stores and rented VHS tapes. “Grandma’s House,” regrettably, is not available at Netflix. If it were, I would not recommend watching it. Also, it apparently goes by the name “Grandmother’s House” sometimes.)

My primary memory of “The Exorcist” is the discovery that demons are real. At some point during the movie, I asked Mara (a Christian who had more knowledge of the Bible and Christianity than I did) whether she thought demons really existed, and/or maybe whether they could possess people. I asked her this so that she would say no, and make me feel better. Instead, she said something like, “If you believe in angels, you have to believe in demons.” I’m pretty sure she also came down on the side of “demons can really possess people,” though not Christians. At this point, I don’t know whether I myself had become a Christian. I do know that we eventually turned on the lights.

For years, I remembered “The Exorcist” as the scariest movie I ever saw. Watching it made the room feel like it was filled with demons and evil. My mom told me that she’d read the book and it was so terrifying that she wasn’t scared by the movie. I have never read “The Exorcist.”

And I suppose it is still the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I can’t think of any others that compare. I remember a few that left me with a lingering repulsion* of sorts, or a taste of that sense of evil** hanging in the air. But I guess demon possession is difficult to beat.

What about you? What’s the scariest movie you’ve seen? Do you like scary movies? Which are your favorites? What do you like — or dislike — in a scary movie?

*“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
**“Event Horizon,” “The Good Son”

Books 15-17: Review Bundle

2010-06-23T17:17:00.001-07:00

So, I'd forgotten that I never reviewed the fourth "Vampire Diaries" book, which I read around mid-May. And I wasn't motivated/forgot to review "Classic Crime Short Stories" and "The Fairy Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, Book 1)," which I read in May and May-June. So here we are. Mini-reviews.

Book 15: "The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion"

An image from Max Ernst's "Une Semaine de Bonté" (cropped)

"Dark Reunion" is the 1992 follow-up to the original "Vampire Diaries" trilogy, which was published in 1991. (I reviewed the trilogy here.) Wikipedia notes that "pressure from readers led Smith to write" this fourth book, which is entirely believable if you've read the first three. The original trilogy ended in a way that I found refreshingly surprising.

I gave the first two books each a B+, then an A- for the third, but I am dropping the grade to only a B for "Dark Reunion." I did enjoy getting to spend some more time with side characters, most notably Bonnie here, and I enjoyed the continuing arc for the side characters and also Damon. I liked the book. (Sorta spoiler) I do wish that maybe what was done in the trilogy hadn’t been undone, but hey, no surprise with that development. (End spoiler)

I don't remember right off who the villain was in "Dark Reunion," which seems like a bad sign. This line of dialogue did inspire what I'd originally planned as the title for my review of this book: "I should have seen it, but I was preoccupied. Still, that's no excuse. And obviously somebody else — the psychic killer — saw it right away." Psychic killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?

Which isn't to say that I do not want to read the newest editions to the series, which started rolling out in 2009 with the extra title "The Return." Now they look something like "The Vampire Diaries — The Return: Nightfall" if you try to add the series name in there, a distant cousin of “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," which of course used to be called "Star Wars." Two "The Return" books are available now, "Nightfall" and "Shadow Souls." "The Return: Midnight" is scheduled to come out in 2011.

Book 16: "Classic Crime Short Stories"

"Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime" by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (cropped)

Sometimes you wonder where your mind was at when you read a book or saw a movie, considering how much you don't remember years/months/weeks later. The thing about "Classic Crime Short Stories" is that I listened to it via free audiobook rental from the local library, and I listened to it often while driving in my car, and while that works for podcasts, it makes for distracted listening that significantly inhibits my brain from grasping and getting into the story.

Also, I haven't been successful at locating a list of stories and significant information about the collection, so I remember no titles and only a couple author names. I do remember specifically liking the stories by G.K. Chesterton and Robert Louis Stevenson. I would like to reread them in print if I only knew what they were. Grade: B+

Book 17: "The Fairy Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, Book 1)"

An illustration by Warwick Goble for "Beauty and the Beast," 1913

"The Fairy Tale Detectives" is the first in a series of young-reader novels about two sisters, Sabrina and Daphne, whose parents have disappeared and whose allegedly dead grandmother, Relda Grimm, brings them to live with her. The Grimms live in Ferryport Landing, a town that also houses all the world’s Everafters, i.e. the make-believe characters who exist in fairy tales, folklore, Shakespearean plays and the like.

First, the name "Everafters" is my favorite thing about the book. Love it. The idea behind the book is interesting, too; thus, me reading it. I was disappointed, though, to find that the world of the Sisters Grimm is one that makes the make-believe world real, so to speak, in a way that sacrifices much of its magic. The promising notion of "what if these stories were true" becomes a means of smudging the luster of the stories, which may seem inevitable but I'd argue is unnecessary, even in light of the fact that fairy tales tended to be more than mere children's stories anyway. Some bits retain a "wow" factor, but they are overshadowed by the rest.

It seems odd to include, in a book for kids, references to Prince Charming being married half a dozen times, and Beauty's response regarding Momma Bear attending a ball with the Tin Woodsman: "What Poppa Bear doesn't know won’t hurt him." I also have a perhaps-weird dislike for combining modern technology and culture (past a certain point) with make-believe people and places, which is only exacerbated in situations such as King Arthur saying he'll send someone a repair estimate for his damaged car. The car is one thing, and not so jarring on its own; giving King Arthur a petty complaint about "repair estimates," though, is disheartening.

I prefer my make-believe more other-wordly, I guess. Grade: B

Heaven

2010-06-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

When I am weary of the circumstances of this world, remembering heaven reminds me of real, present, certain hope for the long-term future. It is to come. It will be.

Sure, it freaks me out a bit that heaven is eternal. I can't wrap my mind around that.

R.C. Sproul's "Renewing Your Mind" podcast included a short series on heaven that helped put it on my radar. I think this is a subject I need to study more thoroughly and more often. Hope, remembering, and looking forward are so easily misplaced or left forgotten in a pile in a life that's so full of other things.

Geek Treasures: Can Somebody Turn on a Light?

2010-06-12T20:34:00.001-07:00

What is Geek Treasures? Well, the world of the geek -- a broad term for a broad world where quoting Yoda is cool and knowing the Three Laws of Robotics is par for the course -- is full of many a movie, book, TV show, etc. that even proud members of the Geek Club have never seen, read, etc. Specifically, me. I have never seen a complete episode of any "Stargate" TV show. I have never read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." But I want to. It's on my "to read" shelf right now.

And thus, a series. I was going to start with "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan," but I didn't take notes while I watched it, and I never bothered to write about it, and I watched it back in February so I don't remember details very well now. Instead, I'll kick things off with another sci-fi movie, this time one that's more "cult" than "co-stars Ricardo Montalban," not that those two things have to be exclusive anyway.

The thing: "Blade Runner," a 1982 movie "loosely based" (aka "not really based," from what I hear) on the Philip K. Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (Philip K. Dick also wrote stories that inspired, loosely or otherwise, several other movies, including "Total Recall," "Minority Report" and "A Scanner Darkly.")

"Blade Runner" stars Harrison Ford as a wanna-be-retired police operative -- a blade runner, if you will -- who tracks down genetically engineered "replicants" who have escaped from off-world colonies and returned to Earth. Joanna Cassidy (who I invariably associate with "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead"), Darryl Hannah and Brion James play replicants with barely-drawn personalities, and Rutger Hauer plays a fourth replicant with a little tad more of a personality. Sean Young plays the love interest. Also, if you are like me, though you may not have seen "Blade Runner" you might have a vague memory of seeing pictures of Darryl Hannah looking like this:

The means: Huntington's Cinema Theatre, as part of its $5 FlashBack Mondays series

Geek moment: Seeing Edward James Olmos, aka Admiral Adama in the more recent "Battlestar Galactica" series, as an origami-savvy younger man who actually doesn't look as young as you'd think he would.

Other impressions: When I left the movie theater, I wondered how "Blade Runner" did at the box office. I figured this was not a movie that got good word of mouth from a mainstream movie audience. Beyond rabid sci-fi fans and cinephiles, who would like this film?

Not that I didn't like it. I didn't love it. I don't feel compelled to rewatch it anytime soon. But I liked a lot about it, and don't look back on it with any significant gripes about the plot, characters or execution of the story. But this is not a movie for everyday theater-goers. Box Office Mojo puts "Blade Runner's" domestic total gross in 1982 at $27,580,111. Is that a small, average or above-average amount for the time? "Tron," which opened in theaters two weeks later, grossed $33 million. A re-issue of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," which made more than $242 million the previous summer, made $21+ million in July 1982. "An Officer and a Gentleman," which opened in late July, grossed almost $130 million. So no, "Blade Runner" was apparently not a massive hit.

It has mostly low lighting. My mom pointed out that it never seemed to be daytime. I found myself thinking, as a character walked into a large, dark room, if only he could turn on a light he'd be able to find things/people much more easily.

Also, Joanna Cassidy wears a really ridiculous jacket:

I really enjoyed revisiting young Harrison Ford, and rediscovering how really good he was. Not that he's awful now, but it's been awhile since I've seen him in a movie I guess. (I keep forgetting about the newest "Indiana Jones" movie, which I actually liked.) I don't think there's anyone right now who is comparable to the actor and presence he was back in the "Star Wars"/"Indiana Jones" era. It wasn't that he was the best actor of his generation; he just had something about him, something immediately endearing but not in a frou-frou way, that can't be ... haha ... so easily replicated.

I also liked Sean Young's hairstyles (not kidding here) and her whole style in general. Going old-school in a futuristic setting holds up better than trying to be sleek and "Star Trek"-inspired. I liked Sean Young better than I probably would have expected. I haven't seen her in much, and when I think of her I remember her being upset about not getting cast as Catwoman in "Batman Returns," and her seeming a bit crazy. But she has a softness that I'd not noticed before.

I liked those big things that floated above the buildings and shone light randomly through windows. I really enjoyed one shot in particular of Sean Young talking, and then the light shines into a nearby window, blinding the whole shot and obscuring her face, and a few moments pass before the light goes away, and the camera stays on her the whole time. I think Ridley Scott took some chances with the look and lighting that really succeeded in the details.

And I did like the end, the idea of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) finding something to care about and going for it, fleeing together even as an impending, inevitable end comes along too, to meet them at some unspecific yet inescapable time.

Side note: I looked over Ridley Scott's director resume at IMDb to see if I've ever seen a Ridley Scott movie that I loved. It seems like people love "Gladiator" and "Alien." I liked them, but nothing too passionate there. I didn't really like "White Squall" of "Thelma & Louise." Am I missing something?

Rating on a scale of Shiny to Dull:

Thinking Geekly

2010-06-03T16:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I've been a bit lax with the blogging other than that flurry of "Lost" quote posts. Inspiration for my return comes from ThinkGeek, which appeals to the geek within each of us. Oh, ThinkGeek, how I wish I could afford that $90 TV-remote-control wand.

Speaking of which, how about a list of some of the things I most want to own from ThinkGeek? Even better, how about a few lists?

First, my bathroom. I want to redecorate to give it a "Big Bang Theory" theme. This could include things that are not specifically from the show, but might be appreciated by the show's characters. Thus:

1. The Periodic Table Shower Curtain. And I'm picturing little solid-color elements (heh, heh ... elements) in the colors from the curtain. A red toothbrush holder, etc.

2. Pop Quiz Math Clock. I would like a clock in the bathroom anyway, and this one is pretty brilliant. Well, Sheldon would probably consider it pretty elementary. But whatever.

3. LED Faucet Lights. These would be an extra little bonus. And hey, I think they match the shower curtain.

A few t-shirts:

1. Science to Do. This one is notable because it quotes my favorite line from "Still Alive," that song from Portal (video game) that some of us know from Rock Band.

2. Bazinga! It has a certain Kablam! comic book feel.

3. Under Attack.

And, some other stuff I like:

1.-3. "Star Wars" things like the Yoda backpack, the Tauntaun sleeping bag and the R2D2 trash can.

4. The aforementioned Magic Wand that can be programmed as a remote control for your TV.

5. How adorable are these Wee Ninjas? I had an idea one time to try to make some myself but I never got around to trying.

6. The Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock, which I think might be good for those of us who tend to overuse the Snooze function on normal alarm clocks.

Plus, lots more. And they also write really entertaining, often clever copy about their products.

"Lost" Quotes, Eps. 17&18

2010-05-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

All photos from ABC.com

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to the final post in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are about the series finale, also known as ...

Episodes 17-18, "The End: Part One" and "The End: Part Two" (everyone and then some)

"Have you ever been in one of those pop culture conversations where you've seen a movie that someone else hasn't, and you trick-spoil them by joking, 'And in the end, they all died'? Well, be careful using that punchline if you find yourself at the water cooler tomorrow morning with someone who hasn't seen tonight's 'Lost' finale, because yes, they really did all die in the end."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Before we get into any dissection of the plot logic of the ending (or, retroactively, the entire series), the answers or lack thereof, or the balance between science and faith in the resolution, this has to be said. 'The End' was an epic, stirring two and a half hours of television, full of heart and commitment, that was true to 'Lost's' characters as we knew them from season one. And through elaborate use of symmetries, echoes and callbacks — as well as some go-for-broke acting and a visual grandeur by director Jack Bender that matches the show's pilot — it brought them powerfully and cathartically full circle."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"I don't know that a person who'd never seen 'Lost' would've been able to watch this episode and get much out of it (unlike the best 'Losts' in the past, which work as individual units of story), but as far as delivering action, emotion, wit and 'whoa, what the hell?' I'd say 'The End' was enormously entertaining. The best storytelling gambit in this episode? The full-arc-flashes, which put an emotional button on nearly every major character's storyline, and allowed even the prematurely dead to have one last curtain call."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

" 'The End' was an emotionally draining epic that had me crying with almost every single 'awakening' and has left me mulling the true significance of the Sideways world, which was revealed to be a Purgatory-like realm created by the souls of the dead castaways themselves. (Purgatory! The irony!) I was so happy The Island was saved. I was so moved by Jack's heroism and sacrifice and the glorious significance of ending where he began."
— Jeff Jensen

"Some will say the last chapter of 'Lost' was one of the best series finales ever. Others will say (if they haven't already) that it was one of the worst. From my worn-out edge of the seat, I'll just say that it was one of the most. Most emotional. Most exciting. Most cathartic. Most entertaining. And — as usual with this one-of-a-kind series — most open to interpretation, which for some will negate all the 'mosts' that came before. But not for me."
— Matt Roush, TV Guide

"Did it work on a plot level? I'm not sure my head is wrapped around the mythology implications of this finale well enough to say right now. And it's not going to get better wrapped around it by, say, 3 a.m., so I'm going to largely leave that aside for today. I have questions: first, if in fact the Sideways does not exist in the mortal world, then what did it mean when Juliet said the H-bomb detonation 'worked'? All it evidently did was kicked the Losties from 1977 to 2007. With the Island safe and no Man in Black, why, how, did Hurley ever die? Why exactly did Locke become mortal? And — a question with a zillion subquestions — would it really have been so damn bad if the Island sank after Locke died? &c., &c. I have questions that will never be answered. You do. And more will come to me. But at this moment, what's more important to me is: the dog made me cry."
— James Poniewozik

"And then there was Vincent. You know, playing the dog card is kinda shameless, but man, did that work for me."
— Jeff Jensen

"I expected to be more surprised. You're kind of the obvious choice, don't you think?"
— Locke re: Jack being the new Island protector

"I guessed about halfway into the episode that Jack would not survive it. This is no work of genius on my part. In a way, the ending was almost so perfect that it's amazing we didn't all call it. Certainly people have guessed that the series that began with Jack's eye opening would end with it closing. And it made perfect sense that Jack, who was meant to die at the end of the original version of the 'Lost' pilot, instead die at the end of the series. But though I saw that — and knew, as Jack staggered through the bamboo, that he was going out to die precisely where he first came to the Island — all my intellectualizing went out the window when Vincent reappeared as he had in the pilot's first minutes. The show was returning to its simplest roots: life and death in the wild, and people trying to save other people. Even if you saw the closing eye coming, what that eye saw before it gave up its spark — a plane flying, safe in the sky, with Jack's friends on board — counts among the loveliest images 'Lost' has produced in six years of them."
— James Poniewozik

"I've had my issues with Jack as a character over the years — my feelings ranging from irritation to admiration that Cuselof would make such an irritating guy the center of the show — but he acted the hell out of this finale, both action and emotion. When he finally clasps his father — not Smokey-in-disguise but his father — and sobs, you can feel the weight lifting from him. And when he lays himself down in the bamboo and smiles, laughs at Vincent walking up — a gorgeous last display of childlike happiness — he sells Jack's relief at giving up life, at his work being done, at having, finally, fixed things."
— James Poniewozik

"Sad Day Monster says that Sawyer and Jacob's other candidates are going down with the island. Right on cue Sawyer drops a solid elbow to Ben's face. Boom. Sawyer takes off running. Ben says 'Aren't you going to go after him?' Sad Day Monster says 'No. You deserved that elbow to the face.' Linus is then upset to find out he was double crossed by an evil entity. Also, he carries a man purse."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Ricardo, Sea Pilot, and Miles (Team Awesome) gets to the beach and is letting Team Protagonist (Kate, Hurley, Linus, Sawyer) know that they are on the beach through the walkie talkies. Linus looks nerdy even while talking on walkie talkie."
— John Durbin

"I saved you a bullet."
— Kate to Jack after shooting NotLocke, who was then injured but not yet dead

"Jack tells the group that whatever Dez did he needs to undo. He wants to send the rest of them on their way. He asks Sawyer if he can get the boat to Hydra island. Since Sawyer has a backpack he's operating at 100% confidence and says absolutely. Linus says he is going down with the island. I'm relieved to know I will never meet him."
— John Durbin

"The great puzzle of the last season of 'Lost' has been: how can both the flash-sideways universe and the Island universe mean anything? If Sideways is the universe in which Oceanic 815 never crashed, who cares what happens on the Island? If the Island is where the characters' fates are sealed, how can there be any meaning to what happens in the Sideways? The moving, soulful finale that Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse gave us met that challenge. The Island world, we learned, absolutely mattered to the physical fate of the survivors. (And sci-fi purists ticked over the spiritual ending should at least give it up for this: what happened, did, indeed happen.) And the Sideways world mattered because it was the culmination of the spiritual, moral, human lives — the souls — of the characters."
— James Poniewozik

"Just as 'The End' found a way that both the Flash Sideways and the Island universe would matter, it finally found a way that Locke's faith-based worldview and Jack's science-based one would be vindicated. (And not simply because they ended up arguing opposite sides; as each told the other, they have also both been wrong.) In the end, it was right that they were brought to the Island for a purpose; but it was also true that what happened, happened. Empirical answers and physical reality — say, that of duct tape — did affect the physical outcome; and yet without the spiritual endgame, what would it mean?"
— James Poniewozik

"I've always liked that 'Lost' has been willing to risk looking goofy in order to go for the grand effect. ... And yet what made 'The End' work so well were the smaller moments, like Eloise worrying that Desmond would take Daniel away from her to the afterlife, or an awakened Kate telling Jack 'that's not how you know me,' or Locke telling Jack he doesn't really have a son, or Ben apologizing to Locke and receiving forgiveness, or Jack passing his mantle on to Hugo and throwing an 'I believe in you' back at him. I loved that in the Sideways world, the characters woke up not just by 'true love's kiss' but by other associations. And of course I loved the reunion of James and Juliet, which may have been the most touching moment of the whole series for me."
— Noel Murray

"In the end, 'Lost' finishes its sprawling story with an allegory of acceptance and communion and forgiveness — see Locke and Ben's touching scene outside the church — and however you feel about the explanation, which probably won't satisfy those obsessed with the mechanics of this audacious construct, it's worth it for the moments when they rediscover each other and understand what exactly happened. Because as ephemeral and inexplicable as this purgatorial waiting room is, it's important to note, as Christian tells Jack in his mighty download of climactic exposition, 'Everything that's ever happened to you is real.' What happened happened and what happened mattered."
— Matt Roush

"Does it work as a finale? Yes and no. ... It was definitely emotional, and allowed fans to say goodbye to the characters. But 'Lost' wasn't just about the characters; it was about the place where the characters met and lived together and died alone and had that shared adventure that Christian Shephard insisted represented all of them at their best. Understand this: I don't need to know any more about The Island than we already do. It's a source of great power that can be exploited for ill and thus must be protected — I get that. But in focusing so much on the Sideways resolution, I'm afraid that 'The End' doesn't give The Island itself a proper sendoff. This is a magical place, right? I needed to feel that magic a little more in the closing moments."
— Noel Murray

"Now I don't know how much of my reading of the show meshes with what Lindelof and Cuse intended, nor do I know how of the metafictional aspect of 'Lost' has been conscious, as opposed to just the result of the writers throwing all their influences into a blender. Either way, it's been exciting for me to contemplate. And those virtues don't disappear because the mythology turned out to be cornier than we'd hoped. The themes persist, the characters persist, the mood persists, and the many, many great episodes persist."
— Noel Murray

"I respect the position of the dissenters, but I wish they'd respect the position of the defenders, which is that for all of Lost's imperfections — and they are myriad, I'll grant — the show still offered an experience like no other in the history of television. ... I like that 'Lost' has dropped enough clues to its minor mysteries — just about anything to do with DHARMA, for example — that viewers can interpret them however they'd like. Why couldn't women give birth? What was the deal with the statue? Those kind of questions are answerable, with a little viewer imagination and the details already provided. When the show spelled out its answers, it became painfully prosaic. When it was focused on keeping viewers stimulated and disoriented, it worked much better."
— Noel Murray

"We didn't see Walt. We didn't learn about the Egyptian imagery. And now, yes, we also have to wonder who carved out that perfectly round bathtub plug at the core of the Island. For tonight, I have the answers that mattered. And I got them in a way that was moving and real and right enough that, as for the rest — I can let go."
— James Poniewozik

"For the record, I was able to follow this season fine. I enjoyed the finale. A lot of stuff went unanswered from the season (and likely the series), but after watching only one season I feel like I caught the most important stuff."
— John Durbin

"As for the very end, on The Island, where Jack lays down in the bamboo and watches the Ajira plane fly off (presumably to Guam) while he closes his eye? Absolutely perfect."
— Noel Murray

"In the end, I'd point to Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Marvel Comics … all the popular serialized entertainments that have sought to divert and provoke on the installment plan. 'Lost' brought back the thrill of big stories told in tiny pieces. Like I said, it's too soon to say what 'Lost's' legacy will be, but I have a strong feeling that people will still be watching it years from now, and introducing it to newcomers, and starting arguments all over again. And I think the images of Hurley, hatches, Smoke Monsters and Sawyer will be pop-culture touchstones for a long time to come. These are the new myths. Now it's up to us to misinterpret them."
— Noel Murray

Book 14: "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"

2010-05-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

Of course I harbor great affection for this book, and "The Chronicles of Narnia" in general. I hadn't read "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" for several years, and I wanted to reread it before the movie comes out (scheduled for December this year), but I wanted enough time to pass for my memory of the book to fade a bit again.

I didn't read the Narnia books until after college, but they are the painting on the wall through which I discovered the power, inspiration and soul-stirring potential of fantasy, allegory and their sibling genres. C.S. Lewis opened a new world for me, one that has never closed. It is a great gift.

"The Horse and His Boy" was my favorite in the Narnia series when I read all the books the first time through. I got the impression sometime along the way that "Dawn Treader" tends to be the favorite among people who have read the entire series. There is something to be said for adventure, for discovering new lands and for reaching the end of the world. Plus, Reepicheep.

Instead of saying more, I'd rather list some excerpts from the book that I liked. Many soul-stirring things. I wonder what children think when they read some of it.

**

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

**

"The question is," said Edmund, "whether it doesn't make things worse, looking at a Narnian ship when you can't get there."

"Even looking is better than nothing," said Lucy.
**

"When I was in my cradle a wood woman, a Dryad, spoke this verse over me:

"Where sky and water meet,
"Where the waves grow sweet,"Doubt not, Reepicheep,
"To find all you seek,
"There in the utter East.

"I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life."

**

[Edmund and Lucy] were delighted with the Dawn Treader, and when they returned aft to the cabin and supper, and saw the whole western sky lit up with an immense crimson sunset, and felt the quiver of the ship, and tasted the salt on their lips, and thought of unlands on the Eastern rim of the world, Lucy felt that she was almost too happy to speak.

**

"I'm sorry we're not landing on Felimath," said Lucy. "I'd like to walk there again. It was so lonely--a nice kind of loneliness, and all grass and clover and soft sea air."

**

This so infuriated Reepicheep that in the end the number of things he thought of saying all at once nearly suffocated him and he became silent.

**

He wanted to be friends. He wanted to get back among humans and talk and laugh and share things. He realized that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race. An appalling loneliness came over him. He began to see that the others had not really been fiends at all. He began to wonder if he himself had been such a nice person as he had always supposed. He longed for their voices. He would have been grateful for a kind word even from Reepicheep.

**

[Eustace:] "So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it--if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it."

[Edmund:] "You mean it spoke?"

[Eustace:] "I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it."

**

And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's book.

**

[Lucy:] "Shall I ever be able to read that story again; the one I couldn't remember? Will you tell it to me, Aslan? Oh do, do, do."

"Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years."

**

Apart from that, the fighting-top, lit by the masthead light which was only just above her, seemed to be a little lighted world of its own floating in lonely darkness. And the lights themselves, as always happens with lights when you have to have them at the wrong time of day, looked lurid and unnatural. She also noticed that she was very cold.

**

The whole long paragraph about the albatross, including:

But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart," and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's.

**

And every night they saw that there rose in the east new constellations which no one had ever seen in Narnia and perhaps, as Lucy thought with a mixture of joy and fear, no living eye had seen at all. Those new stars were big and bright and the nights were warm. Most of them slept on deck and talked far into the night or hung over the ship's side watching the luminous dance of the foam thrown up by their bows.

**

It had no mountains but many gentle hills with slopes like pillows. An attractive smell came from it--what Lucy called "a dim, purple kind of smell," which Edmund said (and Rhince thought) was rot, but Caspian said, "I know what you mean."

**

Lucy said afterward that it was high, almost shrill, but very beautiful, "A cold kind of song, an early morning kind of song."

**

[Reepicheep:] "My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan's country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise and Peepiceek will be head of the talking mice in Narnia."

**

Lucy had liked that girl [who lived in the sea] and she felt certain the girl had liked her. In that one moment they had somehow become friends. There does not seem to be much chance of their meeting again in that world or any other. But if they ever do they will rush together with their hands held out.

**

Day after day from all those miles and leagues of flowers there rose a smell which Lucy found it very hard to describe; sweet--yes, but not at all sleepy or overpowering, a fresh, wild, lonely smell that seemed to get into your brain and make you feel that you could go up mountains at a run or wrestle with an elephant. She and Caspian said to one another, "I feel that I can't stand much more of this, yet I don't want it to stop."

**

And suddenly there came a breeze from the east, tossing the top of the wave into foamy shapes and ruffling the smooth water all round them. It lasted only a second or so but what it brought them in that second none of those three children will ever forget. It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterward. Lucy could only say, "It would break your heart." "Why," said I, "was it sad?" "Sad!! No," said Lucy.

**

Then he took off his sword ("I shall need it not more," he said) and flung it far away across the lilied sea. ... Then he bade them good-bye, trying to be sad for their sakes; but he was quivering with happiness.

**

... and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane.

"Oh, Aslan," said Lucy. "Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?"

"I shall be telling you all the time," said Aslan.

Scattered Thoughts About the "Lost" Finale

2010-05-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

My favorite detail is probably Vincent lying down beside Jack in the end, keeping him company as he died.

I liked the joy of each person as they awakened, and the multiplied joy of shared awakenings.

Juliet and Sawyer. Charlie's emotional response when he remembered Claire and was with her again.

Shannon and Sayid. That Shannon got to have that joyous moment, too.

Daniel and Charlotte meeting. The Sideways world not being the final destination, an idea that I dreaded.

I like that Sideways Jack's injuries were from his wounds in the Island finale, and that when he saw flashes of his Island life, he saw the kiss with Kate from earlier in the episode.

I liked seeing Daniel Faraday again, and all the others. It was like a year-end party, but moving and heart-stirring, over and over.

The boldness here lies also in the happiness of the finale. I expected everyone to leave the island or die, except Jack. The only one who died in the Island story, other than the Man in Black, was Jack. "Lost" proved me wrong yet again.

The theology in the ending is notably wonky, but I think it is from the depths of our souls that we long for all the people we care about to go to heaven, and for us to share these things -- our biggest moments, our growings, our passing into an eternity stripped of the temporal and the evil -- rather than to face them alone. Really, the Sideways ending seems to give us our ideal for characters we have grown to know and care about: happily ever after. Redeemed. Together. Reunited. Loved.

I woke up earlier than expected this morning and just kept thinking about "Lost" and thinking about it and thinking about it. So glad for entertainment that can entertain and stir the brain simultaneously, and stir your emotions too.

P.S. The finale reminded me of "Les Miserables" when the souls of the dead sing about going to heaven, and "Titanic" when Rose returns to Leonardo DiCaprio. You?

"Lost" Quotes, Finale Day

2010-05-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 of "Lost."**

Finally, it is time for the 2.5-hour series finale of "Lost," and our 17th installment of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." (Programming note: I plan to post commentary and quotes from the finale and its wake in a couple days.)

Today's selections are not specific to any one episode. I have also censored one word in one quote, with those cute little asterisks, because it surpasses the accepted "expletive" threshold for quotations featured on The Silent Planet.

First, I want to plug the "Midtroduction" post over at John Durbin's blog, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST. He wrote it during that one-week hiatus between episode 13, "The Last Recruit," and episode 14, "The Candidate." It is a really funny round-up of characters, plot and lists like "Things New People Shouldn't Worry About." He calls Jack "as handsome as the day is long"; Desmond is "probably the most important character" and "has a delightful accent and is extra smooth"; Sayid was an "Iraqi who has an evil bug in him"; and Whitmore is a "white haired dude who brought a sub full of nerds to a tropical island."

And now, to the other quotes (emphasis mine).

"In 2004, ABC called on producer J.J. Abrams to create a prime-time drama that capitalized on the success of 'Survivor': something tropical, 'Cast Away'-ish, and closer to 'Lord of the Flies' than 'Gilligan's Island.' Oh, they asked, and could you make it a towering, mainstream megahit, please? What executives got from the guy best known for a brainy college soap ('Felicity') and an even brainier spy soap ('Alias') was 'Lost,' a fiendishly obscure, cast-of-thousands epic about … well … to say it's about people on a magic island is selling it short. To say it's about Everything — which its adherents swear it is — is a bit grandiose. So let's just say it's about destiny. And metaphysics. And quantum physics. And leadership, torture, time travel, synchronicity, Skinner boxes, geodesic domes, polar bears, doomsday equations, comic books, the Casimir effect, and the no-less-potent Cass Elliot effect. It was weird. Even weirder: It was a hit. A towering, mainstream megahit. You'd think a show like this could happen only in some alternate television universe. Maybe so. Maybe for the past six years we've been living in that universe. That would be so 'Lost.' "
— Scott Brown, Wired Magazine

"[The EW staff, in Entertainment Weekly's 'Lost' finale issue] brought it all back to the characters and the moments that have made 'Lost' so memorable, reminding fans of how far the show has come from its introduction: that plane crash on a beach, that monster in the trees, and that mysterious transmission in French."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"The writers mingled their mythology with the real world, making our world that much more fantastic and beautiful and scary."
— Director Zack Snyder, quoted by Wired Magazine

" 'Lost' doesn't attempt to answer those eternal questions. What it does instead is challenge the audience to ponder such mysteries themselves. Cuse and Lindelof have dropped plenty of guideposts along the way. Several characters are named for authors or philosophers (Locke, Milton, Rousseau, the Zen master Dogen) whose concepts play into the story, and classic works of literature sneak into key scenes. The writers say they use these references as 'a tip of the cap' to their influences, as Lindelof puts it, 'as opposed to saying, "Hey, we came up with this idea for the first time." ' Also, says Cuse, 'it's usually meant to say, If you want to go deeper, here's something that you can explore.' 'Lost' is like a TV show with footnotes."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"Something special is ending here. The cast knows it, I know it, fans at home know it. In an era of diminished major-network expectations, 'Lost' has made big, demanding, intellectual TV on a broadcast network. It's married epic action with myth, science and ideas about human nature like few mass-culture hits besides 'Star Wars' and 'The Matrix.' Audaciously and improbably, it's become TV's most philosophical work of entertainment — or its most entertaining work of philosophy. ... In a business that's too often about dumbing down, 'Lost' is unapologetically challenging."
— James Poniewozik

(From an interview with "Lost" executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, and physicist Sean Carroll)
Wired: "Do you still see that as the central issue, man of faith versus man of science?"
Lindelof: "The paradigm has shifted from that to, were we brought here for a very specific reason, and what is that reason? Locke is now the voice of a very large subset of the audience who believes that when Lost is all said and done, we will have wasted six years of our lives, that we were making it up as we went along, and that there's really no purpose. And Jack is now saying, 'the only thing I have left to cling to is that there’s got to be something really cool that's going to happen, because I have really, really ****ing suffered.' "
Carroll: "It's like purposefulness versus randomness."
Lindelof: "That's right. It's order versus chaos, which is what it always was. But first it had to start as science versus faith, because Jack is a doctor and Locke is a guy who got up from his wheelchair and walked. Now the question has been boiled down to its essential root — is there a God or is there nothingness?"
— Wired Magazine

"Here we are as fans worried about the integrity of our 'Lost' experience and worried that the show is going to render our investment meaningless … and here we have [Sideways] story that threatens the integrity of reality and threatens the redemption arcs of Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and all their castaway friends. Here we are protesting a storyline that could erase all of 'Lost' history, making the past six years meaningless … just as the Sideways characters are recalling their Island history and realizing their lives have greater meaning than they realized. Here we are as a culture, mulling the legacy of 'Lost' … and here we have a show whose final season stands revealed as a deep and clever rumination on the themes of continuity and discontinuity, meaning and meaninglessness, of legacy itself. In other words: The meta-tensions about the show mirror the dramatic tensions within the show. Put another way: Now more than ever, we are the castaways."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

" 'Lost' has not a single protagonist but a huge ensemble of heroes and antiheroes with checkered pasts. The loser, the con artist, the arrogant doctor, the fugitive, the junkie: each has his or her part in the quest, which has less to do with good beating evil than determining how to be good, less to do with getting the happy ending than finding out what it means to have a happy ending. Collectively, they are — to borrow the title of Joseph Campbell's classic study of myth — the Hero with a Thousand Faces, or at least a dozen or so."
— James Poniewozik

"We've confronted this subject before, but we're nearing the end (pause to collect oneself) and it seems more apparent by the week that however hard the show's architects try to clarify certain mysteries, there will always be a chorus of 'Really?' out there. ... 'Lost' has set such a high bar for itself that I'm equal parts apprehensive and enraptured as we approach that end date. I hope we're not 'let down' at the end, but coming down from 'Lost' will certainly not be easy."
— Matt Roush, TV Guide

"If anything other than a 150 minute fight sequence happens next week, I will be disappointed."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"I'm satisfied with the finale. I think both storylines that were introduced in the season, the finale wraps them up well. They make a bold choice. Anytime you do that on a show like this, we know we're gonna get — the reactions will be mixed. It'll be interesting hearing the reactions over the summer. It's nice not being a writer around here when finale time comes around."
— Jorge Garcia, quoted at Time

"It's become so much huger than anything I could ever have imagined when we started. ... The finale is tremendously spiritual. It becomes much more character-driven, and focused on some of the big philosophical questions. What's the nature of humanity? What happens when we die? I was incredibly happy what Damon and Carlton reached for. It was incredibly moving to me."
— Matthew Fox, quoted at Time

"Yesterday was... there is no word. To watch the people who actually MAKE this show as they made it one last time... man, what a gift."
— Damon Lindelof via Twitter, April 20

"Starting working out the beats of the finale today... To quote Dylan: 'Oh mamma, can this really be the end...?' "
— Carlton Cuse via Twitter, Feb. 10

"Paley tonight. LOST fans, I am humbled. We are not worthy of your awesomeness. The show will forever be just as much yours as it is ours."
— Damon Lindelof via Twitter, Feb. 28

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 16

2010-05-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to No. 16 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's long list of quotes is from ...

Episode 16, "What They Died For" (everyone)

"Why, hello there, Jack's Eye!"
— Noel Murray, The AV Club
(You know, because the episode opened with a close-up of Jack's eye, like in the pilot.)

"Well, I lived in these houses 30 years before you did. Otherwise known as last week."
— Miles to Ben, who insisted he knew the way to the DHARMA camp because he lived there for decades

"What's that, a secreter room?"
— Miles

"When I saw the title 'What They Died For' come up on various 'Lost' news sites a couple of months ago, I shuddered. It's such an evocative set of words, especially as the title to 'Lost's' penultimate episode. I expected this episode to be filled gloom, portent … mourning. But instead this was a very zippy hour. ... Of course, there's still more to be explained, and I have a hard time believing that everything that happened on The Island in this episode — from Jack semi-unceremoniously assuming the mantle of Island Protector to the mounting death toll — are as straightforward as they appear."
— Noel Murray

"I enjoyed the heck out of 'What They Died For,' even when it made me say, 'Wait… what? Go back!' It was funny at times, poignant at times, shocking at times, and it made the overall picture a little bit clearer."
— Noel Murray

"Finally we check back in on Ricardo, Miles, and Ben. Apparently they've been taking the long route to find Sad Day Monster. Miles starts getting all weird and I start questioning our friendship. Then he says the word 'wonky' and all is forgiven. Also, Ricardo buried Ben's daughter a while ago. How many single parents are on this show?"
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Ben sits on the patio. Sad Day Monster comes by for a visit. ... He tells Ben he needs him to kill some people for him. If he does, he gets the island to himself. Because sharing it with those other 10 people was probably what made it so miserable."
— John Durbin

"Speaking of Ben, I hope and expect Michael Emerson will get another suitable showpiece before the finale's over (this is not based on any secret set-visit knowledge), but I love his reserve and his cool delivery after he saw Smokey dispatch Richard and steeled himself to meet the monster on his porch. 'Can I get you a glass of lemonade?' "
— James Poniewozik, Time

"It was a delight to be back with Ben, and his long-awaited final showdown with Widmore was both tense and surprising, as Ben — the ultimate survivor — used Locke as a weapon to exact revenge for Alex's death. (I like, by the way, that even if Widmore had been converted to Team Jacob, he still retained the all-around tool-ishness that was his downfall here, as he high-handedly demanded Ben's assistance without so much as a 'Sorry about that whole killing your daughter thing.')"
— James Poniewozik

"After Widmore whispers his reasons for coming back to The Island to Not-Locke, it's Ben who guns Widmore down, as revenge for Alex. ('He doesn't get to save his daughter,' he explains, to the amazement of Smokey, who never ceases to be shocked by how awful people can be.)"
— Noel Murray

"Then Sad Day Monster and Whitmore talk about why Dez is here and Linus shoots him. Probably out of jealousy. Then asks if there is anyone else to kill. Illana should have shot him a long time ago."
— John Durbin

"A different kind of mirror business: Ben gets even with Widmore for Alex, and Alt-Desmond gets even with Ben for trying to kill Penny."
— Noel Murray

"Do you think Ben has really switched teams and fallen off the redemption wagon? Or do you think Ben is playing a con on Fake Locke and still fights on the side of the castaway angels? I'm hoping for the latter, for many reasons. I like Ben. And it would be fitting. Throughout 'Lost,' Ben always got the best of the original John Locke in their psychological skirmishes. Ben got his just desserts last year when Fake Locke brilliantly manipulated him into killing Jacob. But Ben won't let it happen again. I say, Ben will now return the favor, and play the Monster toward his doom."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Is Richard dead? He certainly got the crap knocked out of him, but I'm not 100% sure that Smokey can kill Richard. Also, it would be such an ignominious exit for a guy who played such an integral role in The Island's history. We had a whole episode dedicated to Richard's pathos. If he has to die, he deserves a suitably heartbreaking and emotional death."
— Noel Murray

"Sawyer jokes, 'I thought that guy had a God Complex before,' but neither Hurley or Kate are amused, and Sawyer understands why. I thought the moment where Sawyer says, 'Yeah, I know' — like the moment where he watches the life-jackets roll in with the tide, or the moment where he asks Jack if he's responsible for the sub blowing up, or the moment where Kate talks about Ji-Yeon — were all well-written and well-played. The whole transfer of power was too rushed, but those little emotional beats along the way were fair compensation."
— Noel Murray

"OK, so the fact that Jacob's focus on free will is reflected back in polar-bear time is neat. But what's really important about it is how it reflects on the endgame as we move to the finale on Sunday. Because as I've said over and over, we're simply not invested in Jacob or MIB as characters. Their fate and their rivalry matters not in itself but in how it is reflected in the actions and choices of our characters. Which means that Jack's becoming New Jacob has to be just that—a choice, and one that finally comes not out of some thousand-year-old fight over glowing water, but because he is Jack, and Jack Fixes Things. This is a return, in a way, to the old-school Jack of the first season. And that's paralleled in this week's flash-sideways, in which once again, Locke is trying to tell Jack that fate has brought them together, and Jack tells Locke that he's mistaking coincidence for destiny. But this is a Jack who's trying to fix things for the right reasons, who's been through the wringer and questioned himself and is surrendering not out of a need for control but out of a true spirit of self-sacrifice. He is, in a way, exactly where he was when we met him; and in a way, he couldn't be farther. This is important. Whatever choices our characters make in the finale, whatever they do right or wrong, it must be them doing it, and not Jacob acting through them. Because Jacob, frankly, is a stiff, and we're right not to care about him."
— James Poniewozik

"As he sewed up her gunshot wound with a black thread pulled from an old shirt, Kate's anguish and Fake Locke rage peaked: 'We have to kill him, Jack.' But Jack needed no amping. 'I know,' he said. The sequence was a subtle callback to 'Lost's' pilot, which now seems so very long ago, doesn't it? Once again, our heroes found themselves a rag tag band of beached castaways. Once again, Jack stepped up to play leader and hero and tended to the wounded. Once again, we got a tender moment between Jack and Kate built around the closing of a wound."
— Jeff Jensen

"The organizing principle of the original castaway community was defensive. Now, it's offensive. There's a monster roaring in the jungle, calling out for their blood. But they're not hiding from him anymore. Now, they're taking the battle to him."
— Jeff Jensen

"Jacob says we are close to the end. About 2 hours by my count."
— John Durbin

"Smokey likes the feeling of his feet on the ground, because he likes feeling human. Mark my words: that will be his downfall."
— Noel Murray

"In the Sideways world, Jack will fix Locke's spine and facilitate Locke's awakening. On The Island, Guardian Jack will defeat Fake Locke and protect the spiritual circuit between the 'real Lockes' of both worlds. It's sweet happily ever after ... but I worry about the implications of what we saw in the opening moments of the season some 15 weeks or so ago, an ominous image that has been left for the last episode of 'Lost' to explain: The Island, dead and underwater."
— Jeff Jensen

"And now 'Lost' sets up a race to its climax, with Desmond as the double fulcrum of action. In one universe, will he be the tool Locke uses to destroy the Island? (However that happens and whatever it does?) In the other, will he bring the band back together at Little Jack's concert and convince them to see their true reality (and, I'm guessing, give up the lives they've known — and in Jack's case, his own son)? Will the one act negate the other?"
— James Poniewozik

"So here's where we stand, going in to Sunday: In the Sideways, Desmond is conspiring to get everyone to Eloise's benefit, where he'll get them to 'let go,' for reasons still completely mysterious. And on The Island, Smokey and Ben are intending to use Desmond — whom Jacob and Widmore brought back as a 'failsafe' — to destroy The Island. Since we saw The Foot at the bottom of the ocean at the start of the Sideways back in the Season Six premiere, it seems pretty clear to me that The Desmond Of Two Worlds is about to face a choice in both. As to the nature of that choice, and the role to be played by our two sets of heroes — Island and Sideways — that remains to be seen."
— Noel Murray

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 15

2010-05-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to No. 15 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 15, "Across the Sea" (Jacob and the Man in Black)

"Wait. 'Polarizing' is a BAD thing?"
— "Lost" co-executive producer Damon Lindelof via Twitter, May 12

"Wow, early the next morning and the Internet is discussing the crap out of this episode. This is one of the things I love about 'Lost' — the way it invites unpacking and meaning-making. And whether 'Across the Sea' fascinated or frustrated you, I'm guessing we're going to do more talking about this one than any episode yet this season. (Plan to call in sick the day after the finale.)"
— James Poniewozik, Time

"Loads of info in this episode of LOST. So much so that I am completely caught up on the series (brushes dust off hands). Excellent. To be fair, this might not have been an episode of LOST. ... The only similarities are that it was on an island. And Jacob was in it. And Sad Day Monster showed up. Which, in hindsight, seems like a fair amount of similarities."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"'Across The Sea' was an unconventional outing that deserves props for benching its stars to give us a story that felt absolutely necessary for establishing the Big Picture context for the final act that is at last upon us. Still, I can't say I loved it. I thought it was a collection of Grade A ideas in a Grade B package."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"I have only one real criticism of 'Across The Sea,' and it's that when 'Lost' deals directly with the transcendental — rather than just glancing at it — the show can get awfully gooey, and painfully blunt. And given that the first half of this episode featured children asking Big Questions and getting simple answers, 'Across The Sea' really tested the audience's willingness to sit through talk of good and evil and truth and lies and mystical lights under the water."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"Preggy goes into labor and Allison looks way too excited to deliver this baby. A clean (not bloody like most) baby comes out and doesn't make a sound. Preggy says his name is Jacob. Ooooooooh, I get it. This is a background episode. Wait. Why? Wasn't there going to be a huge fight? ... The second baby cries a lot when he is born. He must be evil. Preggy doesn't have a name for him. So let's pick one right now. I'm going to name him Cecil. Done. That was easy."
— John Durbin

" 'Lost' over the last several weeks has clarified just who the villain of the piece is, and what the responsibilities of our heroes are, vis-a-vis said villain. Yet the roots of that hero/villain dynamic remain awfully tangled, and indicate that when it comes to faith vs. reason, and choice vs. no-choice, there's still quite a bit of gray in this story of white stones and black stones."
— Noel Murray

"Something my wife noticed that I missed: Jacob and The Woman have not adopted the shoe technology of The Others. Blackie, on the other hand, has embraced it. This has been a recurring pattern with the brothers. That's why I wasn't surprised last week when Smokey rigged a makeshift time bomb out of a watch, some wires, and bricks of C4. This is a creature fascinated by men and their inventions."
— Noel Murray

"One thing you could argue that the episode did was that it complicated our moral view of Jacob and MIB. After last week's episode, Cuse and Lindelof were on record saying that the submarine bloodbath happened in part to establish that, unambiguously, Locke/MIB was the antagonist of the remainder of the series. After this episode, though, we see that he's not an entirely, thoroughly, uncomplicatedly bad guy. He has reasons for his behavior; he didn't necessarily start out bad. And Jacob — well, not an entirely good and selfless guy. A bit of a sap, actually."
— James Poniewozik

"To no one's surprise, Jacob grows into a 30 year old man who sews and lives with his mother."
— John Durbin

"Oh, and for some reason they can't leave the island and for an even stranger reason they aren't allowed to hurt each other. Even though Jacob wailed on Sad Day Monster a couple times and even killed him. So … ya know … that completely contradicts one of the key points of this television series."
— John Durbin

"Blackie really does seem to be the special one, not Jacob. It's Blackie who can communicate with ghosts, not his brother. Did everything go haywire because the wrong man became The Island's guardian?"
— Noel Murray

"We wanted to make it clear to the audience that this little family drama, this dysfunctional relationship between these three people is really responsible for everything that's happening to the passengers of Oceanic 815. We wanted to illustrate that by, at the very end of the show saying, 'Oh, right, Jack and Kate and Locke are affected by the fact that Mother decided to raise her kids this way, and Jacob ended up bringing these people to the island.' The idea was to say that this chapter of the series is significant to the story we've been telling you, and that the series is about the survivors of Oceanic 815."
— Damon Lindelof quoted at HitFix re: including scenes from season 1 in the episode
("Lost" co-executive producer Carlton Cuse also noted that, "We felt it was interesting for the audience to see the growth, the change, the evolution, the degree to which these characters had been affected by their time on the island. ... It really provided a contrast that shows you how these characters have evolved.")

"There's an original sin, but it's not only a murder. It's a theft — a mother stealing another's babies, something that we've seen repeated down the history of the Island, with similar results of madness and murder. And really, there's another original sin, one that brings these characters closest to the psychology of the contemporary Oceanic 815 characters: parents passing their issues, deceptions and mistrust on to their children."
— James Poniewozik

"It's a fair guess to say that 'Lost' is, in part, about whether people can break cycles of behavior and avoid repeating their parents' (and their own) mistakes: in this case, Mother's belief that people who come to the Island will inevitably (echoing MIB's words exactly) fight, destroy, kill, over and over again. It makes me wonder if MIB/Smokey/Locke will have the chance, through our favorite characters, to finally see that he and Mother were wrong."
— James Poniewozik

"Every question I answer will simply lead to another question."
— The Woman

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 14

2010-05-20T06:37:00.001-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to No. 14 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 14, "The Candidate" (everyone; Jack heavy)

"It's going to be you, Jack."
— Sayid

"I know it probably doesn't help, but I'm depressed today, too."
— "Lost" co-producer Damon Lindelof via Twitter, May 5 (the day after "The Candidate" aired)

"Okay, everybody buddy-breathe."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"I can only imagine what you're thinking. I can only imagine what you're feeling. And if I had to put a voice to those thoughts and emotions, I suspect it would sound something like this: '... How dare they take down Jin and Sun in a sinking submarine! How dare they make the Korean couple's daughter Ji-Yeon an orphan! And how dare they kill Sayid! So what if he died a heroic death and by trying to smother the Locke-ness Monster's bomb? He's Sayid! We love him! Why did they have to die? WHY?'

" 'Because now you know this show is willing and capable of killing anyone,' says Damon Lindelof, suddenly materializing in my office in a puff of brimstone accompanied by Carlton Cuse. ... Why was it so important for 'Lost' to prove that it can be downright homicidal during its last season? To establish once and for all that the Locke-ness Monster is the true villain of season 6 and quite possibly all of 'Lost.' 'There is no ambiguity,' says Cuse. 'He is evil and he has to be stopped.'
"Or, as Terry O'Quinn told me in a recent interview: 'Puffy is one nasty mo-fo.' "
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

" 'Lost' was amazing last night — and heartbreaking, and horrifying, and breathtaking, and in some ways maddening — in an episode that advanced the endgame plot, gave Matthew Fox a potential Emmy clip, and took away some of the characters we've loved since the series began. It can be easy, watching a show like 'Lost' — especially one with so many resurrections and fake-out "deaths" — to be lulled into the sense that certain characters are simply unkillable because they're too important. ... Even Lapides — seemingly residing in Davy Jones' locker now — seemed to be bulletproof: they have to keep him around to fly the plane, right? Apparently not."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"The second half of 'The Candidate' — from the moment our heroes reach the sub-dock — is edge-of-the-seat suspenseful, and then heartbreaking. While Michael Giacchino's music cues get faster and faster, we move through several rapid turns of fortune: Sawyer gets most of his people on the sub, but in the process Kate gets shot, which leads to Jack having to help her on the sub, unaware that he's carrying a pack of explosives rigged up by Not-Locke, who means to blow up all the remaining Candidates and free himself. Sayid, in his element at last, explains how the bomb can be defused — maybe — but Jack asks for a little faith from everyone, arguing that since Not-Locke can't really kill them, the bomb won't go off unless they do something to make it go off. Sawyer, faithless, pushes Jack aside and pulls the wires Sayid suggested, and because this is a TV show, Not-Locke's timer stops for a moment and then starts going extra-fast. (A corny cliché, but I'll allow it.) Sayid then grabs the bomb and runs as far from the group as possible. The bomb explodes, Sayid dies (again), and Sun gets pinned under a metal bar, so that while everyone else is making their escape to the surface, Jin — who promised never to leave his wife — stays with her as the sub sinks to the bottom. They die, and once Kate, Hurley, Sawyer and Jack reach the beach, they break down in tears. And elsewhere, Not-Locke fumes alongside the perpetually left-out Claire, because he knows instinctively that three Candidates are still alive."
— Noel Murray
(This is a long quote, but I like the reminder of all that went on in the latter half of the episode.)

"Sun and Jin's deaths, after a pulse-pounding, claustrophobic rescue attempt in the sinking submarine, were wrenching but, more important, ultimately true to their characters. I did wonder, as a parent, why Sun would not ask Jin to swim to safety for the sake of Ji Yeon. But it makes sense to me that he wouldn't be able to leave her. They've been separated for three years and finally, briefly, brought back together."
— James Poniewozik

"Jin tells Jack to go and take Sawyer. Jack says no, Jin says yes. Finally Jack agrees. Looks like there's going to be one more orphan in the world. Jack makes a break for it and we see him swim out what appears to be a giant clam. Jin continues trying to save Sun. She wants him to go. He doesn't even consider it because he loves her that much (in your face, The Notebook!). They both know what is going to happen. They share an embrace. Jin talks to her in their native language and tells him he can’t leave. They hold hands. It's very sad and romantic (in your face, Titanic!). Later, we see their arms underwater drifting apart. It’s a really touching mome-COMMERCIAL BREAK! No fade to black before jumping to an ad. Good work, ABC. Glad you squeezed in that extra second of commercial. Save up enough of those and you can run a crappy 5 second promo for V."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"With all this going on, Sayid's self-sacrifice — which could have been a pivotal moment by itself — was overshadowed and comparatively sudden, but I was glad to see that he had the chance to make one last, autonomous decision to do the right thing. It's important to remember that Sayid, as sympathetic as he is, was not exactly a good guy even before he took his Magic Smokey Bath: extenuating circumstances or not, he's done some awful things. He's been a character who's teetered between good and bad, manipulated by others to compromise himself. Whether it was the urgency of the moment or that conversation back at the well with Desmond, it was satisfying that he got one moment to decide, of his own volition, that however badly he wanted to see Nadia alive again, he was no longer going to be somebody's hit man."
— James Poniewozik

"Sayid's entire season-long arc has basically been, if you tell him that he is evil, you can convince him he is evil. But if you tell him he is good, maybe you can convince him he is good. We basically decided that in a moment of pure instinct, if he did something, if he sacrificed his own life in favor of saving the other people's lives, that would convey to the audience, 'This guy was actually a good guy.' "
— Damon Lindelof quoted at Entertainment Weekly

"For all the deaths in the episode, the moment that crystallized for me the fact that things are getting real here was when Hurley, our designated cheerleader, started sobbing. Hurley's had dramatic moments before, but — and I may be recalling this wrong — I don't think we saw him weep that unrestrainedly even when Libby died. That may have been the most unsettling moment of all."
— James Poniewozik

"Meanwhile, 'The Candidate,' between the flash-sideways and the events on the sub, deftly swung Jack back to being the sympathetic protagonist for the series' ending. Jack has often been a hard character to like—high-handed and stubborn—and I've admired both 'Lost' and Fox for being willing to make him hard to like. But this new Jack, both on the Island and in the flash-sideways, has seemed finally to internalize his experience and become better for it."
— James Poniewozik

"Part of the whole point of 'Lost's' one-character-story-per-episode approach has been an explication of Jack's 'live together or die alone' speech. When our heroes get preoccupied with their own personal journeys, trouble tends to ensue. When they work in concert — as they always tend to do towards the end of a 'Lost' season — they can accomplish amazing things. ... Look a little more closely, and you can see why Sawyer's scheme — and Not-Locke's for that matter, and Jack's too if we're keeping score — was bound to fail. Each of them were really working for themselves. Not-Locke's dispatching the people standing in everyone's way, but only to suit his own agenda, and Sawyer's so focused on his sub-hijack that he doesn't consider all the angles. (Bad strategy for a long-con-man.) Meanwhile, Jack's shifting his trust around situationally, following anyone who'll help him achieve his ultimate goal: to be left alone by all these maniacs so that he can finally figure out his Purpose In Life."
— Noel Murray

"I still have qualms — about the fate of the sideways universe, and about everyone's moment-to-moment motivations — and my ultimate opinion of those elements will depend largely on where we end up. But I'm not one of those who thinks my six-year investment in 'Lost' will have been wasted if the show doesn't have the most mind-blowing end-game of all time. I expect to be frustrated in the final weeks, and I expect to be thrilled in the final weeks. I'm hoping for more of the latter than the former, but it's been a great ride regardless."
— Noel Murray

"Boats blowing up, dural sacs being severed, repeated phrases, people trying to leave and then washing up on shore … to quote Sawyer, 'Feels like we're running in circles.' But it doesn't bother me. I know some of you will think I'm giving 'Lost' too much credit, and maybe I am. Maybe the writers really just don't have that many new ideas. But I've always seen these recurrences as thematic more than lazy. What happened before happens again. Over and over. Until they get it right."
— Noel Murray

"Everything we saw last night, [Lost producer Carlton Cuse] said, was setting the series up to resolve itself by focusing on the characters, in a way that feels earned. ... I'm taking his word for it. But I don't assume that means we're going to get all happy endings."
— James Poniewozik

"Nobody is safe."
— "Lost" co-executive producer Carlton Cuse, quoted at Time

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 13

2010-05-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to No. 13 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 13, "The Last Recruit" (everyone)

Hurley: "What about Sayid?"
Sawyer: "Sayid ain't invited. He's gone over to the Dark Side."
Hurley: "Yeah, but you can always bring people back from the Dark Side. I mean, Anakin."
Sawyer: "Who the hell's Anakin?"

"When she asks what you did to be with her again, what will you tell her?"
— Desmond to Sayid (who is about to kill Desmond on NotLocke's orders, thinking NotLocke will bring back Nadia, who is dead)

"Sayid's biggest problem is that he allows other people to define him — and then buys into it. His father, his country, the United States, Ben, Dogen, and Man-Thing — they've all told Sayid that he's a killer, and he's accepted their judgment. Desmond's challenge to Sayid: Decide for yourself who you are and what you want to be, then believe in it and live it out. I like to think Sayid accepted Desmond's challenge and decided that who he is and what he wants to be is the man Nadia fell in love with — the man who chose not to be her killer; the man who sacrificed his own safety so that she could be free. He made a choice to be that man once. I want to believe that at the well, Sayid made the choice to be that man again."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"[Jack] asks if Sayid is going with them. Kate says that 'Sayid is different now. We're all different now.' Yeah. But Sayid got shot, then drowned in a magic hot tub, then came back to life, then was diagnosed as being infected. So he's especially different now."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"And then, finally, one great 'Lost' moment, one that reminded me of the early seasons: Kate convincing Claire not to be so nuts. Kate senses that the best way to appeal to Claire is to emphasize what they have shared: a son. 'So please come with us,' Kate says. 'Just come home.' Call me sentimental, but that line got to me."
— John Cloud, Time

"Are Sayid and Claire on the way to some kind of redemption, now that they're away from Locke?"
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"Locke has an odd method of mobilizing the troops: first, he breaks them up. He claims that he does this because, 'The bigger the group, the slower it moves,' but really that's been the way he's worked for as long as we've seen him in action. This creature still doesn't have a name, but if you name animals by the sounds they make, you might as well call this guy, 'Can I talk to you a minute?' That's a marked contract to Jack's leadership style, which at its peak was all about 'live together or die alone.' "
— Noel Murray

"Jack is coming to realize that if The Island is going to keep jerking him back no matter what he does, it's probably pointless for him to try and escape until he knows once and for all why the hell he's there. So he tells Sawyer, 'I'm sorry that I got Juliet killed,' and he dives into the drink to swim back to The Island."
— Noel Murray
(This moment gave me hope for the Island Losties, that they might do more than just wander around while NotLocke, Widmore, etc. put the pieces into place for their war. Finally: Action. Specifically, action that sounds like the right idea.)

"Locke goes to Sawyer and takes out a hand drawn map. I'm not joking when I say that I think I drew it. It was the best thing I have seen on this show. There was a little sailboat at the top. And a circle that said camp. It was AWESOME."
— John Durbin

"Locke doesn't know why Sun believes he caused her to lose her ability to speak English. That could be a huge clue, the more that I think about it. It's clear (to me at least) that what was affecting Sun wasn't anything medical, but rather a bleed between the two realities. And if that bleed caught Locke by surprise, then maybe that means he has nothing to do with the creation of Alterna-World."
— Noel Murray

"As everyone relaxed, Jin stepped out from behind a tree. Sun spotted him. The reunion was on. Sun spoke of her unflagging journey to find Jin — and she did so in English. There was much hugging, touching, squeezing. Their friends beamed, except for Sawyer. The sight of the Jin/Sun restoration only reminded him of what he would never have with Juliet, and it tore him apart."
— Jeff Jensen
(I liked that fleeting, unexpected touch — the anguish in Sawyer's teared-up eyes as he looked on Jin and Sun's reunion.)

"Can I just say that the Lapidus quip 'Looks like someone got their voice back' was maybe the most cornball line ever uttered on 'Lost'?"
— Jeff Jensen

"It was suggested last year that Lapidus might be a candidate. That seems highly unlikely, but are the producers just keeping him around so he could possibly fly that plane off the island? I do think Jeff Fahey has done a remarkably wry job of playing the Lapidus character, but is he just around for laughs at this point?"
— John Cloud

"What is Frank's role in all this? I think about that more and more each week, as the parallels to Season One become more boldfaced. There was no Frank in Season One. And I don't think you can say he stands in easily for any of the dead folks. He ain't Boone. He ain't Charlie. Who is he?"
— Noel Murray

"... that pilot that looks like he stepped off the set of a Burt Reynolds movie."
— Sawyer re: Lapidus

**

"For the past few episodes, The Beast With Locke's Face has been talking about how his escape plan requires all the surviving Candidates to be together, and as 'The Last Recruit' opens they are together, and in his camp to boot. But they're divided into factions and sub-factions, just like the old days. Meanwhile, Ben's on his way back to Otherville with Richard, exactly where they were when this whole adventure started in Season One. And Desmond? Well, he's stuck in a hole in the ground that only Locke knows about. Sound familiar?

"And yet, as Jack so astutely notes tonight, 'We're all different now.' I argued before the season began that 'Lost' as a whole has been about cycling through various kinds of storytelling modes, and examining how the characters do and don't take charge of their respective stories. Season Six, in my view, has made that theme more explicit, by literally turning the characters we thought we knew into different people—and not just in the sideways universe. On The Island, Claire's not Claire, and Sayid's not Sayid, and I'd be willing to argue that Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer ... have also all been profoundly changed in the three years since they last sat around a campfire with a guy who looks like Terry O'Quinn."
— Noel Murray

**

"Sawyer rejects Locke as 'not one of us,' one of many familiar 'Lost' phrases/ideas in tonight's episode. In Alterna-World, Ilana asks Jack that age-old question: 'Do you believe in fate?' And in the boat, Sawyer orders Jack to get out, telling him to take 'a leap of faith' (much like Eloise said to Jack in '316'). But the most telling re-use of a 'Lost' chestnut comes after Jack goes overboard. How many times on this show have we heard Jack or somebody else say, 'We have to go back!' Sawyer's response to that? 'We're done going back.' "
— Noel Murray

"Some will disagree I'm sure, but for me it's worth all the confusion of the flash-sideways for an episode like tonight's, where everything comes to a head in both worlds, and not a scene is wasted. There's still a little too much lurching for my taste, as characters say what could be shown or implied (or just said better). Still, few shows have ever been as good as 'Lost' at ratcheting up the tension and the action as a season reaches its end."
— Noel Murray

"And then there was the set-up for the next episode: Sideways Jack's scramble to save Sideways John's life. That passing reference to Locke's obliterated dural sac was a nod to the classic moment in the pilot when Jack recounted his most harrowing moment as a young doctor. It led me to wonder if 'Lost' is about to come full circle and give Jack an encounter with mind-clouding fear in both worlds. Count to five, folks: I think things are about to get scary."
— Jeff Jensen

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 12

2010-05-18T13:09:00.001-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to No. 12 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's second batch of quotes -- I'm catching up! -- are from ...

Episode 12, "Everybody Loves Hugo" (Hurley)

"How do you break the ice with a smoke monster?"
— Hurley

"For those of you considering switching over to Glee, we have copious Madonna songs tonight too. And by 'Madonna songs,' I mean 'explosions.' "
— Damon Lindelof via Twitter, April 13

"So which shocking moment should I start with? Ilana setting down her bag of explosives and immediately going up in noisy flames? Not-Locke tossing Desmond down The Well? Alterna-Desmond running over Alterna-Locke?"
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"If there's one thing we've learned from 'Lost' over the last five years, it's this: the Black Rock dynamite is really, really unstable."
— Noel Murray

"When old characters come back I have no connection to them, I just judge based on what I see. I think it finally dawned on me in this episode because ... there were a couple characters from past seasons that would make a Lostie squee with delight. But I just want to see someone fight or blow up. Lucky for me, I got one of my wishes."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Sad Day Monster rags on Whitmore then asks Dez why he's not afraid. Dez doesn't see the point in being afraid. Sad Day Monster throws him in the well. Dez might just have crappy instincts."
— John Durbin

"Desmond's hit-and-run on Locke suggests an explanation for why he seemed so beatific and calm when Sayid intercepted him: he has consciousness of his existence both in the Island and the alt-universe, and has agency in both, which means he's unafraid. I'm still not sure why it benefits anyone to run down the alt-Locke — who presumably is not an evil smoke monster — but it looks like Des has a plan, and that plan needs to be executed in both of the universes we've been watching."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"Dez, tired of Linus's lies, punches the accelerator and DESTROYS Wheelchair Locke. He really messes him up. It seems completely unnecessary."
— John Durbin

"Before pushing Desmond into the well (and we all know that if a character on 'Lost' falls into a well and does not set off an H-bomb they're not dead, so relax), Smokey says that Widmore is only interested in power, not answers. Might he be right? This is, after all, close to what Ben (and thus presumably Richard) thought of Widmore in the past. Could it be that Widmore is an enemy of both Smokey and Jacob?"
— James Poniewozik

"Have we discussed Mysterious Ghost Island Boy? Because there's Mysterious Ghost Island Boy again, this time older but just as capable of agitating Smokey. The floor is open to your theories. Some avatar of Jacob? (Doesn't make sense, right? Why then would Jacob also appear to Hurley as an adult?) Aaron? Or could it [be] a vision of Smokey himself, from a time earlier in the formation of his mysterious mommy issues?"
— James Poniewozik

"Another nifty parallel: When Desmond and Not-Locke are off on their excursion, they pass by The Creepy Kid, whom Desmond sees plain as day. ('Just ignore him,' Not-Locke spits.) Nearly simultaneously, across The Island, Hurley pretends to have a vision of Jacob that no one else is sharing. Real mojo vs. fake mojo. It reminds of all the other people on The Island who've claimed to carry messages from Jacob. Something about the existence of actual supernatural phenomena seems to tempt people into fraud."
— Noel Murray

"Not-Locke hesitates before he calls The Island 'godforsaken.' Much like the way he makes a point of using words like 'forgive,' I'm sure the choice of words and the hesitation are both intentional."
— Noel Murray

"On the other side of the island, Sad Day Monster is widdlin'. Sawyer is awesome and starts asking him why they're just sitting around. Locke says, for the 15th time, that since they all came to the island together they need to leave together. Is no one on this island paying attention? He even specifies he needs Hurley, Jack and Sun. Starting writing this down, 'Lost' characters."
— John Durbin

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 11

2010-05-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 11 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 11, "Happily Ever After" (Desmond)

"You really do have the life."
— Charles Widmore to Desmond

"Penny, your son, and everyone else will be done. Forever."
— Charles Widmore to Desmond, re: what would happen if Desmond doesn't help him

"This one was gooooooooood. And downright essential. 'Happily Ever After' was the episode we've been waiting for all season. At last! Contact! Connection between the Island world and the Sideways world — a close encounter of the 'Sliding Doors' kind. The moment came in ingeniously unexpected form — an ironic reprise of Charlie's unforgettable sacrificial death inside the Looking Glass. The scene was simultaneously unsettling and exhilarating, and next to Jacob's allegory of the wine bottle, it stands as the most significant moment of season 6 so far. For Sideways skeptics, I'm guessing the episode either won you over or scared you away for good."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

**

"I want to begin at the end, with the last five minutes, which had me on the edge of my seat and more outright nervous than any other stretch of 'Lost' this season, outside of maybe the climactic scenes of 'The Substitute' and 'Sundown.' Right before Alt-Desmond (or can I even can call him that anymore?) slipped into the back of George Minkowski's limo and asked him to be the Abaddon to his Locke, to drive him around Los Angeles to round up the 815ers so he could 'show them something,' I was certain that Alt-Desmond was going to get killed. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when Minkowski didn't pull out a gun and shoot Desmond right in the groceries.

"Maybe I was still anxious from the scene immediately before, on The Island, where Desmond agrees to help Widmore prevent The End Of Everything, then suddenly Sayid emerges from the shadows to whisk Desmond away. Once again, I was briefly terrified, sure that Desmond, now so full of answers we haven't yet heard, was about to be snuffed. Instead, he falls right into step with Sayid, calmly saying 'Aye, of course' to Sayid's offer of escape. Does he go with Sayid because that's actually part of Widmore's plan? Was he lying to Widmore and hoping to escape all along? Or is it just that Desmond, never 'a big fan of surprises' before, is beginning to accept his lot as The Guy Who Ends Up Places?"
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

**

"Sayid pops out of the woods and murders some nerds. Or as I like to say, commits nerder."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"You could make a good argument that Desmond Hume is the protagonist of 'Lost.' That, despite the fact that we didn't meet him until season 2 and he disappears for vast stretches of the action, 'Lost' is about him more than about anybody else. He's 'special,' as Daniel Faraday once told him. Many of the big revelations about how the universe of 'Lost' works — what was down the Hatch, the funky nature of time on the Island, the notion of the Constant, the themes of predestination vs. change — have been told through him. He, with Penny, arguably has the most compelling emotional story in the series. You look at the episode description for a 'Lost' and think, 'All right! It's a Desmond!' If not the literal protagonist, he is at least the linchpin. Maybe the key, as in answer key. In other words, you can often count on Desmond to introduce a paradigm shift, to substantially change the way we view 'Lost.' "
— James Poniewozik, Time

"Desmond, like some of the other characters, is living his 'happy ending.' Now he must figure out how to escape it."
— James Poniewozik

"For [Sideways Desmond], 'NOT PENNY'S BOAT' was a call to hope; a call to faith; a call to something more hopeful than the lonely island of himself."
— Jeff Jensen

"Another key in this episode: love. Both Charlie and Desmond are awakened to another plane of existence by recalling someone they loved there. If that's too corny for you, sorry. I like this idea: here, 'love at first sight' is not just fate, but a flash of awareness of a life that you are meant to have. It is, literally, a moment of clarity, in which you see beyond the confines of time and space. If that's corny, it works for me — not just emotionally but in terms of 'Lost's' alt-universe story."
— James Poniewozik

"Unthankfully the theme of this episode was love. And not the good, passionate kind of love that Ricardo treated us to. This was the love at first sight, everything is sunshine and lollipops, I'm gonna marry that cute boy/girl/class pet that I met in jr high kind of love. Gross."
— John Durbin

"Now the floor is open for theories as to what the alt-universe is: some kind of gnostic illusion, or (as Faraday's scrawled note suggested) a parallel existence in 'imaginary time,' or whatever. We can speculate how it was created, for whom and why. (Eloise Hawking's warning to Desmond that he wasn't 'ready' to find what he was looking for suggests it serves some purpose.) But after 'Happily Ever After,' I am finally fully confident that it means something, and this leaves me feeling very good about the remaining episodes."
— James Poniewozik

"I wouldn't be shocked if Alt-World ends up figuring heavily into how 'Lost' ends, but I don't think we're going to end with Jack waking up on 815 and Season Six's sideways about to start. And that, to me at least, is a great relief."
— Noel Murray

"In one universe you're on an evil island with Sad Day Monster. In another, Linus is a shady teacher, Locke can't feel his legs, Kate is [a] fugitive, Jin and Sun can't speak English, Claire is slightly less crazy, Jack is a terrible dad, Sawyer and Miles are secret cop lovers, and Sayid … well … Sayid is pretty much the same guy, he just has no respect for the vows of marriage. I think you know where my preference lies. (Hugs Sad Day Monster.)"
— John Durbin

"If you've been a Sideways hater, and you remain one after last night's episode, you may as well call it a wrap on your 'Lost' interest and skip ahead to the rest of your post-'Lost' life. For the rest of us, I'm guessing 'Happily Ever After' moves into the arena where Best Ever Episodes are debated."
— Jeff Jensen

"Another way I know it's a good episode of 'Lost': when I realize the hour's almost up and I feel a sense of imminent loss."
— Noel Murray

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 10

2010-05-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 10 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Day 10 was supposed to be yesterday, but I didn't get around to posting after a long drive home from Indiana. I hope to double-post sometime in the next few days to get everything up in time for Sunday's series finale.

Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 10, "The Package" (Jin and Sun)

"I didn't mean to startle you. Bad day?"
— NotLocke to Sun

"Maybe you should put a mercenary in charge instead of a geophysicist."
— Zoe

"I come in peace."
— NotLocke to Widmore

Sawyer asks NotLocke why he doesn't just turn into smoke and fly to the Hydra Island.
NotLocke: "You think if I could do that I'd still be here on this Island?"
Sawyer: "No, because that'd be ridiculous."

"Whatever happens, happens."
— NotLocke to Claire, re: once Kate has served her purpose ...

"This show has really thrown off my perception of what a human can and cannot survive."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Where was the money? The Koreans could not understand and talked amongst themselves about what to do. The language barrier exasperated Keamy: 'I feel like I'm in a "Godzilla" movie.' Offensive and factually inaccurate! (Personally, I got a whole 'Pulp Fiction' vibe from this subplot. But I won't digress...)"
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly
(I definitely noticed some John Travolta in the Keamy of the sideways world, and was glad to sort of have someone corroborate that.)

"And speaking again of familiar faces, Kevin Durand is just playing the hell out of his role as alt-Keamy the hit man. Who'd have thought he would turn out to be one of the highlights of 'Lost's' last season?"
— James Poniewozik, Time

"Sayid hands [Jin] a little knife to cut himself out and says good luck. Thanks Sayid, for being mediocre at helping."
— John Durbin

"The return of Room 23 continues one of the subtle motifs of Season Six: revisiting all the show's old haunts. I'm not sure if this intended to give the season a summary feel, or if it's significant that we've been essentially re-mapping The Island and its environs. Either way, I've enjoyed it."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"Hey, you know me: I'm a 'Lost' apologist through-and-through. Even a down episode — and I wasn't crazy about 'The Package,' I have to admit — isn't going to dissuade me. So let's dispatch with this one without too much rending of garments. After all, there'll be another 'Lost' in a week. (And it'll have Desmond in it!)"
— Noel Murray

"And hey! Desmond's back! Just in time for things to all go to hell, too."
— Jeff Jensen

"Interesting choice of words from Widmore, who claims that letting Smokey off The Island would cause everyone we know to 'simply cease to be.' That doesn't sound like the armageddon we've been led to expect, exactly. It sounds like something else — something perhaps related to the Alterna-World, where our characters are not quite as they were."
— Noel Murray

"To me, 'The Package' seemed to mark the true start of the Island endgame. Said contest will boil down to a competition among storytellers, long-conners, and unreliable narrators for the hearts, minds, and trust of the castaways/candidates. Whom to believe? Right now, the matter seems to be undecided. ... Who's in control? Who's running the show? Whose vision will win out on Master Plan Island?"
— Jeff Jensen

"There's 6 episodes left, huh? Of all the things I have boffed in our short time together, this is the one that I am most thrown off by. Why did I think there would be only 12 episodes? The worst part is I don't understand why there are only 16 episodes in this season. Aren't tv seasons usually 22 episodes or is that no longer the case? How much more is there to explain? We just have a huge fight left to happen between good and evil and we're square, right? There's a lot of questions in this paragraph. Wait. I thought I was supposed to be getting answers. You win again, 'LOST.' "
— John Durbin

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 9

2010-05-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 9 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Well, it's almost day 9 anyway. I'm posting this early, on the eve of day 9, because I am going out of town tomorrow and I haven't packed yet and I have a gift to wrap and I'm sleepy, and I think it will be wise to have one less thing to do in the morning. Also, I have scheduled a hiatus for Friday and Saturday, and plan to start posting quotes again on Sunday. In the meantime, Day 9 Eve's quotes are from ...

Episode 9, "Ab Aeterno" (Richard!)

"If it makes you feel any better, it's not exactly Locke."
— Ben

"Think of this wine as what you keep calling hell. There are many other names for it, too. Malevolence. Evil. Darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island. And it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs."
— Jacob to Richard

"Just as Not-Locke did last week, The Man In Black confesses to Richard that he's The Smoke Monster. He lies about other stuff, but he doesn't seem to mind sharing that one embarrassing secret about himself."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"Smokey is imprisoned on the Island. He is a malevolent force — call him evil, call him hatred, call him the devil if you want — who, if released, would spread over the world like, well, black smoke. (Or wine. I like the idea of a Wine Monster.) Jacob brings people to the Island, where — whatever they have done in the past — they have a chance to choose good over evil. (He is, metaphorically, the producer of 'Lost.') Jacob believes people can choose good. Smokey believes (as he said in the season 5 finale) that they always go bad in the end. Smokey tries to manipulate and tempt them toward that end; Jacob believes they must choose of their own free will."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"As all this unfolds, I hope that the other conflicts over the Island built over the last five seasons — the 'science-based' story, if you will — aren't wholly subsumed in the 'Paradise Lost' scenario. How does Hanso, and his descendants in the Hanso foundation, figure into all this? Why did they come to see the Island as significant, and what exactly did Dharma want to achieve on the Island? How did Widmore get there in the first place, and what did he want — and what investment, if any, do Smokey and Jacob have in his war with Ben, and vice versa? The closer I get to the center of the onion, the more I want to revisit the layers."
— James Poniewozik

"One of my favorite aspects of 'Lost' is the way that any given week, the show can whisk us to other places and tell stories in any genre the writers choose. Last week, they dropped us off in a cop show. This week, it was a tragic Victorian romance with Biblical overtones."
— Noel Murray

"This episode was clearly for the ladies. It was like reading a Harlequin romance novel that had all the intimate parts edited out so it could be put in the school library. Plus, no women were harmed in the making of this episode. Good work, fellas. Unless this was a work of fan fiction. Which I'm not entirely convinced it was not."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"We've been rightly praising the work of Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson this season, but let's give it up for Nestor Carbonell, who's finally gotten to play a few notes other than 'quiet confidence' this season. His performance in the dynamite scene two weeks ago was so wonderfully raw; I've watched it about four times now, and it still gives me a jolt. And I loved his first appearance in this episode, giving a rueful giggle when Ilana asks him what to do next."
— Noel Murray

"I've seen Nestor Carbonell in a variety of roles on TV (from Bat Manuel in 'The Tick' to the CBS soap 'Cane'), and it's not like he's been a slouch as Richard on 'Lost.' But until this season, he's had to play Richard on a single, subdued, sustained note of enigmatic cool. In 'Ab Aeterno,' he almost literally made Richard into another character, showing us the decent, desperate, heartbroken man who would be transformed over 140 years as Jacob's ambassador on the Island."
— James Poniewozik

"It may have seemed like a lot of time spent to some viewers, but clearly Cuse and Lindelof thought they needed to show, not just tell, the circumstances that brought Richard to his current pass. And Carbonell sold it, embodied Ricardo's horror as he lived through a Victorian-horror melodrama. Which is important, because they had to place us in the mindset of someone who believes, literally not figuratively, that he is actually in hell.
"So are they in hell? (That, and Purgatory, were among the first theories fans spun about 'Lost.') Are they actually in danger, as Ghost Isabella says, of going to hell? No, but Ricardo has come to what he thinks of as hell, and to a place that someone of his era and mindset will naturally interpret as hell. Unlike, say, Hurley, a religious, penitent man living on the Canary Islands in 1867 has not read sci-fi or seen a monster movie in his life. If he ends up in a place where he sees horrors, where the dead come to life (and are seemingly killed again), and a thing made of smoke snatches men up to their death — well, that's hell, case closed."
— James Poniewozik

"Isabella asked Ricardo why he had buried her cross — her soul; her love; his compass. It was a gentle indictment of Ricardo's misplaced values — of finding treasure in the material, not spiritual, in what he can hold in the moment, not carry forever in his heart."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"As for what makes 'Ab Aeterno' a 'Lost' story, I have to point to a narrative structure that has the protagonist in shackles and in the dark for a good chunk of the episode. That's 'Lost' in a nutshell, yes? There's so much we want to see, and so much we want to know, yet again and again, the writers lock us into one place, and leave us there in ignorance until our spirits are broken. And then just when we're about to give up they take us someplace new and unexpected, and we're so grateful that we'll believe anything they tell us. It's quite canny, how often 'Lost' becomes a metaphor for itself."
— Noel Murray

"We got a story that asked questions that we've been asking ab aeterno — since the beginning. What is good? What is evil? How do we know the difference? Who knows what is truly best for us? Who should we trust? How do we make moral choices amid such ambiguity? Why must we figure this stuff out on our own? Why don't the gods of the universe play straight with us? How the flaming hell are we supposed to live like this?"
— Jeff Jensen

"I am very satisfied with this season of 'Lost' so far, and thought the Richard-centric episode was the high point of the season to date (and not just where 'Lost' is concerned; I'd nominate that as TV episode of the year to date ...). ... The big-picture answers are beginning to resonate for me, and I'm hoping this week's Desmond episode takes us another substantial step forward in understanding the end game, but even if there are loose ends when it's all over, I'm not sure I'll mind. ... 'Lost' is a show with great rewards for both the casual and obsessive viewer, and anyone who's been crying about that blasted jumping shark (especially where the Richard episode is concerned) has a screw loose."
— Matt Roush, TV Guide

Regarding "Overall What is Happening": "Pretty simple stuff. Ricardo has been alive since 1867. The island is the cork on a bottle of evil wine. Hurley is the grown up version of the kid from the Sixth Sense. It's kind of sad that that is considered simple."
— John Durbin

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 8

2010-05-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 8 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 8, "Recon" (Sawyer)

Zoe: "What plane did you come on?"
Sawyer: "Long story."

"Terrific opening of the flash-sideways, with Jim doing the whole 'pigeon-drop' routine again, in front of a woman who thinks she has the advantage. She pulls a gun and says, 'Here's the thing, Dimples,' before he speaks the code-word that brings in his back-up, guns drawn. That code word? 'LaFleur.' This episode had me at 'LaFleur.' "
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

" 'Here's the thing, Dimples ...' The nicknamer has been nicknamed!"
— James Poniewozik, Time

"There's not a whole lot of incident here [in the flash-sideways story]. But I didn't mind a bit. James Ford and his buddy Miles, fightin' crime? You kiddin' me? I would watch that show every week. Call the folks at USA and tell them we've got a new timeslot partner for 'Burn Notice.' "
— Noel Murray

"In the alt timeline, James is a cop, but a cop with more than a little con man in him: he runs scams officially on undercover stings, and he's still secretly pursuing revenge against Anthony Cooper. In the Island timeline, he's a con man, but one whose ultimate goal is not just to save his own skin but his fellow survivors', pulling double and triple crosses if he has to. In both timelines, he can use his 'bad' elements for good, and his 'good' attributes for bad, because in truth, they're both manifestations of his true character."
— James Poniewozik

" 'Is your name really even Zoe?' he asked. She replied, 'Is your name really Sawyer?' The answer is no. In a story that was all about reminding James Ford who he really was, the answer should have been: 'LaFleur. James LaFleur.' "
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Sawyer asks where she was headed. She says Guam. 'Why?' 'To see my boyfriend.' 'Liar. No way you have a boyfriend.' Ouch. I feel bad for this girl that the concept of her having a boyfriend completely exposed her as a fraud. She whistles and a bunch of nerds with guns pop out of the bushes and capture Sawyer. He asks nerd librarian if her name was really Zoey. She asks if his is really Sawyer. Unfortunately for me, he doesn't answer. But I think the answer is no."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"In the end, Claire tries to reconcile with Kate, but I'm not sure Kate's buying Claire's contrition. Either way, Kate's clearly in a state of shock, and surrounded by familiar people who aren't at all what they used to be. All except Sawyer, that is."
— Noel Murray

"Squirrel-Baby looks a little like Alf."
— Noel Murray

"Smokey asks Kate, 'Have you ever had an enemy?' That appears to be the way he understands the world and how to thrive in it: by nurturing hate for an adversary. Without that, what reason do you have to go on? And if that is his philosophy, then what does The Man In Black have now that Jacob is gone?"
— Noel Murray

"This is why the Anti-Locke is the Anti-Christ: He keeps the castaways shackled to the past, to their demons, to their infernal affairs; he's using the castaways as means to an end. And worst of all: it appears he sincerely thinks he's doing right by them."
— Jeff Jensen

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 7

2010-05-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 7 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 7, "Dr. Linus" (Ben)

"He was hoping he was wrong about you."
— Miles to Ben re: Jacob's last thoughts before Ben killed him

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
— Richard to Jack and Hurley re: where he'd been

"The Island story in 'Dr. Linus' focused on three disciples of Jacob who processed their grief and despair and anger over his death in different ways. Richard wanted to die. Ilana wanted vengeance. Ben, as usual, just wanted to survive, by any means necessary. All three were on the precipice of making dark, damning choices to resolve their agita. Instead, they each chose something different, and found themselves stumbling into something totally unexpected: hope."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Illya (?) is totes suspicious of Ben. She asks Miles if he can talk to dead people. Miles says not technically forgetting that there is really no technical way to talk to the dead. He can, however, pick up some last vibes. Illya hands Miles a sack full of Jacob to find out what happened. He says Ben stabbed him dead. No one likes Ben anymore."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Things I am grateful for: Alfredo Sauce. My Waterpik. And last but not least, Michael Emerson."
— "Lost" co-executive producer Damon Lindelof via Twitter, March 9

"We shouldn't be surprised that Michael Emerson turned in another great performance. What he accomplished so well in his flash-sideways was to show us Ben as simultaneously a very different man and yet the same man, gone in another direction."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"Last week, we were led to believe that no matter the world, Sayid's stories would end bleakly, with murder. This week, we got the opposite: we saw that at least in two possible worlds, Benjamin Linus is capable of making redemptive choices — and even telling the truth."
— Jeff Jensen

"Something changed in this Ben, or rather, didn't change, didn't make him go wrong. 'Dr. Linus' makes the case more explicitly than any other season six episode that the failings of this character are specifically the products of circumstance: here, that staying on the Island led Ben to go bad. 'Imagine how different our lives would have been if we'd have stayed,' Ben's dad, having lived to old age, wistfully tells him. If only you knew, dude."
— James Poniewozik

"Benjamin Linus: unappreciated, unloved, and unwanted. He has spent most of his entire misbegotten existence hustling to secure and maintain a toe hold in the world, improvising his relevance and significance to the narrative of life that he worries would otherwise neglect him and forget him and leave him behind. When the cosmos is that indifferent to you, you might gas a village, too. Ah, they were just stupid hippies, anyway."
— Jeff Jensen

"Between Richard's story and Ben's, it told us that we're not here to cheer Team Jacob or Team Smokey in whatever megalomaniac game they have going, but to cheer our characters in their progress. One of the characters I care about most at this point, God help me, is Benjamin Linus, and if nothing else, this episode reminded me why."
— James Poniewozik

"In the second storyline, man of science Jack is acting more and more like a man of faith, sitting Richard down in the Black Rock ... letting the dynamite fuse burn down and trusting that Jacob will not allow it to go off, because he brought Jack to the Island 'for a reason.' Between this and the poison pill scene, I've gotta say: I like Crazy Deathwish Jack."
— James Poniewozik

**

"Angry and despairing about having spent centuries serving a man who just up and died without ever explaining his 'plan,' Richard tells Hurley that the next time he talks to Ghost Jacob, 'don't believe him,' and he asks Jack to light a stick of the Black Rock dynamite so that he can end his pointless life. ('When Jacob touches you, it's not a gift, it's a curse,' he says, by way of explaining both his boyish good looks and inability to commit suicide by his own hand.) Jack does light the dynamite, but only to prove to Richard that Jack can't kill himself either, because Jacob considers Jack part of his 'plan' too. It was an exciting scene, even though I was (mostly) sure that the dynamite wouldn't go off.

"All of this leads to an alternately poignant and tense final minutes, as Jack and Hurley reunite with Sun at the beach—a familiar scene, but one that 'Lost' always does well—and we see a submarine approaching ferrying Charles Widmore. But during all that, my favorite part were the few shots of Ilana, cradling the sack full of the ashes of 'the closest thing I've ever had to a father,' and weeping. Ilana has been trying to do the job that Jacob asked her to do, protecting the Candidates, but when it comes to deciding if someone like Ben Linus lives or dies, it's clear that she had 'a choice' all of her own. And as she sat by herself, crying, unsure whether she'd done the right thing, I typed in another note: 'That's the 'Lost' I love.' "
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

**

"On the whole, I was intellectually stimulated by yet another complex sketch of nature/nurture psychology and redemption dynamics, and I must admit my geeky heart was microwaved to soggy mush by the (partial) castaway reunion at the beach (The Beach! At last, the Beach!), complete with slo-mo montage and Michael Giacchino strings, to boot."
— Jeff Jensen

"They get to the beach where they find some wreckage. Cool, this is a show about a plane crash then. Illya says she'll build a shelter, some people get food and build a fire. Miles says 'oh sure, because fire will fix everything.' Miles and I high-five."
— John Durbin

"I'd previously failed to focus on 'Dr. Linus' as a heartening answer-episode to 'Sundown.' The previous episode was chillingly bleak, with its depiction of unchanging characters guided strictly by fate, while 'Dr. Linus' pulled back to show that free will actually does exist (at least for those who choose to embrace it). The difference between Jacob and The Man In Black is getting clearer: the former allows people to join if they choose, the latter says 'join or die.' I'm still not convinced that they're not both ultimately just manipulators, but there are contrasts. And I have to give it up once again for the two best scenes in 'Dr. Linus': the Jack/Richard dynamite scene (some of Matthew Fox's best acting on the series to date), and the final reunion. I mentioned Ilana in that scene, but there's so much else going on: Richard walking on the beach among a group of people he barely knows, Ben standing alone … when 'Lost' is really cooking, it takes everything we've learned over the past six years and distills it into a single facial expression or pose. That's what a show with this kind of ambition and mythological underpinning can accomplish. I should remember to appreciate that while I still can. The end is nigh."
— Noel Murray

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 6

2010-05-10T05:14:00.001-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 6 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." I have used photos to break up today's MASSIVE list of quotes from ...

Episode 6, "Sundown" (Sayid)

"For years he has been trapped, but now Jacob is gone. He is free. This man will not stop until he has destroyed every living thing on the Island. ... He is evil incarnate."
— Dogen to Sayid re: NotLocke

"In the midst of it all, Ilana, Frank, Sun and Ben arrive and spirit Miles away, though not before Ben can try to convince Sayid to come with them. Instead, Sayid gives Ben a creepy 'too late' look, kicking off a disturbing slow-motion sequence where Sayid and Claire leave The Temple and join up with Smokey and his not-so-merry men, while 'Catch A Falling Star' plays distantly on the soundtrack. And in with their group? Kate, who's like the Final Girl in a body-snatcher movie, trying to go along with the rest of the pod people. If 'Lost' really is going to be about the battle of good versus evil, then friends, at the end of 'Sundown' I think we got a good look at Evil's Army."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"There's been much debate about whether Jacob might actually end up being the bad guy of 'Lost,' but I'm not buying it — at least not if that means SmokeLocke is supposed to be good guy. Tonight SmokeLocke said to Sayid, 'What if I told you that you could have anything you wanted? What if I said you could have anything in the entire world?' This is pretty standard Satan talk: only the devil promises everything. It also echoes the famous line that preternaturally wicked Ben Linus says to the real Locke in season three: 'What if I told you that, somewhere on this island, there is a very large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it when you opened that box, there it would be?' "
— John Cloud, Time

The Lockeness Monster's "m.o. is now clear: What if I told you could have your heart's desire? It's hard not to hear Fake Locke's enticements and not wonder if what he's offering the castaways is a psychic ticket to Sidewaysville, that if they do what he asks he'll transfer their minds/souls into the bodies of their parallel world doppelgangers. Of course, his wish-upon-a-star come-ons also sound like he's selling pipe dreams (literally), like Satan tempting Eve with the apple."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Fake Locke is a tricky little devil. See, by promising our castaway heroes to satisfy the unfulfilled desires of our heart — love; children; meaning; justice — he baits them to hope, but also keeps them enslaved to their painful lack of fulfillment, or put another way, keeps them trapped in the past. Fake Locke is full of 'Nothing's irreversible' and totally devoid of 'Let it go.' One thing 'Lost' has shown us pretty consistently is that when characters remain stuck in the past and remain defined by past pain, bad stuff happens in the present. Further proof, then, that His Royal Smokeyness really is the prince of darkness. He's certainly the antithesis of the John Locke of season 5 who told Sawyer that he was at peace with his past pain."
— Jeff Jensen

"Sayid and Dogen agreed that both Island power players drive hard bargains, though I might suggest this difference: Jacob moved Dogen into a space of sacrifice and service; Smokey moved Sayid into a space of self-centeredness and self-righteousness. Still, 'Lost' allowed us a second to imagine Sayid and Dogen becoming friends, teaching each other cool fight moves and exchanging herbal tea recipes."
— Jeff Jensen

"You could look at 'Sundown' and say that the whole episode was one big 'that's it.' It was straightforward, simple, and sad in that way. Everything's falling apart, because contrary to Sondheim, there are villains in the world. But I keep thinking about Sayid's response when Dogen tells him that 'we think it would be best if you were dead.' He responds that he believes himself to be a good man. And I think The Man In Black believes the same. I'm certain that there are two sides in this game—one black, one white—but am I certain that the whole series comes down to which one is good and which is evil? No, I do not. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's not it."
— Noel Murray

"Apparently, I'm evil."
— Sayid to Miles, who asked why Sayid was leaving the temple after Dogen banished him

Ben: "There's still a way out of here. There's still time."
Sayid: "Not for me."

"Claire storms into The Temple ('acting all weird,' according to Miles, but 'still hot') and tells Dogen that there's a smoke monster outside that would like to have a word. Dogen begs off, and chooses to send a substitute: Zombie Sayid. Which is funny, because mere moments before, Dogen was trying to kill Sayid, before suffering an attack of conscience and settling for exile instead."
— Noel Murray

"Sayid is out in the jungle now. Sad Day Monster (as John) approaches him and says 'What up, playa' and Sayid stabs him. John stumbles a little but doesn't die. Awk-ward."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"On the upside, I thought it was a really nice shot when Zombie Sayid chokes the life out of Dogen and Dogen lets go of that oh-so-meaningful baseball. There's a clean visual metaphor for you: Dogen can finally let go of his personal baggage, but only when he's dead. Like I said ... this was a dark episode."
— Noel Murray

"It's not just all about the fighting with Sayid: [Naveen] Andrews is very good at playing Sayid as a man with a lifetime's worth of regret in his eyes. That sorrow informed his performance in both timelines, and also made me wonder: How much of what happened on the island was Sayid just purposefully turning to the Dark Side? How much of the darkness Dogen saw in his soul had been there for years?"
— Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune

"He's the reluctant killer, the reluctant protector, the reluctant soldier. But he's done what he's had to do, and what he's had to do has sometimes been very bad indeed. He's wanted to believe he was a good man, but he always wondered just what he was capable of. In 'Sundown,' he found out."
— Maureen Ryan

"He walked up to Nadia's door and rang the doorbell. This being 'Lost's' season of mirrors, we saw his reflection in the glass — but he did not. Instead, Sayid looked right through the vision of himself as he watched Nadia approach and welcome him into her home. It was like we were being shown a window into Sayid's heart. Inside, we saw an idol. Nadia, his beautiful muse and inspiration for redemption ... but also his unreachable standard and reminder of his damnation. In the Sideways world, Nadia doesn't complete Sayid — she negates him. She is not his constant — she is his scale."
— Jeff Jensen

"Despite his scarier side, there's usually something tragic and noble about Sayid no matter what he's doing, and now that we're not exactly sure what he is, he's all those things — tragic, noble, dangerous — plus more mysterious and possibly in league with 'evil incarnate.' Was he chosen for that role, or did he choose it? Can anything he's done, in either timeline, be redeemed? Will it all be worth it if he gets Nadia back? Can he really get Nadia back, or is he being played?"
— Maureen Ryan

"OK so are they zombies? Sayid (or Zombie Sayid) said explicitly earlier this season that he was not a zombie — but isn't that precisely what you would expect a zombie to say? Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid, is a talented enough actor that I don't think his vacant expression in the final frames is an accident. He looks and acts like a zombie, following SmokeLocke at will. SmokeLocke can't be killed because he's already dead — just like a zombie. (Hurley, where are you? At this point I need a funny line about zombies.)"
— John Cloud

"Dogen had Claire thrown into the Hole. No big deal for Squirrel Nut. She'd been squatting in the pit of her soul for three years and built a cozy little nest for herself down there."
— Jeff Jensen

"Is this show about a plane crash on a deserted island or not?"
— John Durbin

"I do feel that a certain amount of faith is required here. For one thing, it would seem strange in a way for 'Lost' to stop being 'Lost' just because it's the final season. Teases, red herrings, inexplicable behavior — these have always been a part of the show, right along side the spine-tingling reveals, white-knuckle action and amusing character moments. (All of which have been in ample evidence this season too.) For another, it's not like we have no investment yet in Alterna-Jack, Alterna-Locke, etc. We know a lot about their lives already — even if they're not exactly like the lives we know — and the contrast between the different versions of these people, while subtle, is still fairly poignant. To me, anyway."
— Noel Murray

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 5

2010-05-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 5 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 5, "Lighthouse" (Jack)

"If there's one thing that'll kill you around here, it's infection."
— Claire to Jin

"Mission unaccomplished!"
— Hurley to Jacob after Jack smashes the mirrors in the lighthouse

"Well, that was interesting. And I don't really know what to say about it. I'm at the point where I feel I can't really evaluate final-season episodes of 'Lost' until the season is over. As the series is entering its endgame, it appears as though it's going to play more like one long episode, particularly where the Island is concerned. That is: interesting, intriguing things happened — the scene in the lighthouse was one of 'Lost's' better gee-whiz visuals in a while — and they will pay off or they won't, but there's no way of really knowing yet."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"This season's wild, weird ride is working for me as compelling TV, in part because I have no idea where it's going."
— Matt Roush, TV Guide

"As I've written probably too many times, I think one of the under-recognized strengths of 'Lost' is how the structure of the storytelling reflects what the show is about. Long before the characters started traveling through time, we were traveling through time, via flashbacks and flash-forwards. And now it seems that this season — in which the story is split between two realities — is going to be devoted to alternate realities within the two realities. Choosing a side in the coming island conflict isn't just a matter of allying with friends against enemies. It's also about subscribing to a worldview. It's about picking a reality to live in."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"As intriguing as the Island mythology is, the characters are more interesting when they're acting of their own volition, not when they're being moved like chesspieces by the gods. The idea that he's been watched, and maybe controlled, by Jacob all this time is disturbing to Jack, and it is to me too. This is the thing that worries me most about 'Lost's' endgame: if the characters turn out to have been manipulated in some larger game by Jacob and Smokey all along, it could rob them of their free agency, turning the story into something almost pre-psychological, like a Greek myth. How much can you identify with a game piece?"
— James Poniewozik

"So here, yes, again, Jacob seems to be manipulating Jack. And Hugo. And everyone else. But it's a soft kind of manipulation, nowhere near as malicious as Smokey seemed to make it out to be. It's more about nudges and suggestions than demands."
— Noel Murray

"I love that fact that in any given week now, we have no idea where the characters on The Island are going to go next. New places? Old places? Both? 'Is leaving an option?' Jack asks Dogen in The Temple. 'Everything is an option,' Dogen replies."
— Noel Murray

"Hugo was so much fun in 'Lighthouse,' used in the best Hurley tradition both as comic relief and as perhaps the show's most sympathetic character. He's funny in his chats with Ghost Jacob, who has him get a pen and write directions on his arm. He's funny lying to Dogen about why he's wondering through The Temple's back alleys. ('I'm a big fan of temples … and history … Indiana Jones stuff.') And he's funny following Jacob's advice and telling Dogen, 'I'm a Candidate and I can do what I want.' "
— Noel Murray

"Something else about The Candidate premise: It gives 'Lost' another classic adventure text to reference. Roald Dahl's 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.' Expect an 8-page Doc Jensen ramble about Jacob-as-Wonka any day now."
— Noel Murray

"Inside this warm and cozy warren, the total opposite of his own austere, minimalist high-rise digs, Jack found the cave of his son's bedroom, filled with mementos of his son's rich, dynamic inner world. An epiphany occurred here, and I think it was this: Look at this boy. MY boy. I've been missing out on this. On who HE is. We remember that in 'White Rabbit,' Jack failed to find his dead father, but the quest led him [to] the Caves, with its intriguing details and more importantly its life-giving fresh water spring. And what did Jack do? He moved in. Made it his home. 'Lighthouse' was the same story. Sideways Jack went chasing after a different kind of dead father — himself. And inside the cave of his son's bedroom, the sleeper awakened and began to feel again. Resurrection. When he pressed play on the answering machine and solved the mystery of his son's whereabouts, an audition for the prestigious Williams Conservatory, Jack moved toward him, bolting toward life like Lazarus out of the tomb."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"The great thing about 'Lost' is that it can dramatize a damaged psyche in exciting visual ways that are utterly unlike any other sort of TV or movie depiction of father-son dysfunction. Jack gets to have mystical experiences mixed with Freudian flukes, such as losing his dead ('dead'?) father's coffin. Jack can go up to the lighthouse that gave this episode its title, look in its old mirrors and see an image of the house he grew up in ... and become so panicked and emotional about the sight, he smashes those mirrors. It's an act of destruction that both furthers the plot ... and summarizes Jack's dilemma throughout the history of Lost: 'I was broken and stupid enough to think this place could fix me.' That is almost unbearably sad, yet so satisfying as drama."
— Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

"It was regardless a fine performance from Matthew Fox, who's grown in this role. (Something I was reminded of both by his nostalgia-trip to the Caves, and by the Party-of-Five-era photo of Fox on his table in alt-2004.) He's become adept at showing us the 'broken' Jack, who — with his mother as always — is trying to fix other people as a way of avoiding what he can't fix in himself. But with David, we also got to see hints of a Jack who was a bit more in control — not just in control of his drinking, but getting the perspective necessary to pull himself together and be a supportive father to his son."
— James Poniewozik

"Jack gets to David's mom's house and breaks in using a key under a bunny. Much to his surprise David wasn't in there. Maybe we should have checked here sooner because we've lost a lot of valuable time to organize a search party. After violating his son's privacy by listening to his voicemail, Jack learns that his son has a conservatory audition. Then Jack listens to a voicemail he left for David and gets uncomfortable because everyone thinks they sound weird when they listen to a recording of themselves."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Back on the trail, Hurley asks Jack why he came back to the island. Huh? Jack wants to know why he did. Hurley says because Jacob told him to. Jack says he was broken and thought the island could fix him. The correct answer is that you got back to land, realized you had to work, pay taxes, deal with pollution, deal with people telling you about pollution, and had to spend a fortune to spend a week on an island almost identical to the one you were on. I'm completely clueless on how they got off, back on, and why they want to get back off again, but whatever." — John Durbin

"In the cave are some rotting corpses. They say they forgot they were there. I don't know how. Those seem like the kind of thing you would always see when you close your eyes."
— John Durbin

"One thing you can say for sure about 'Lost' this season: They aren't messing around: If someone brandishes an axe, you know it's gonna get used."
— Ken Tucker

"Lost" Quotes, Ep. 4

2010-05-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 4 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 4, "The Substitute" (Locke)

"Inside joke."
— NotLocke to Sawyer after throwing away the white stone from the scales in the cave

"One thing I'm glad to see about the final season so far is that Cuse and Lindelof have decided that their audience is all in: you're either along for the ride or you're not, and if you are, the rules of that ride are that it will take 16 full episodes to see how it plays out. But it's definitely gaining momentum."
— James Poniewozik, Time

"That's what makes 'Lost's' whole endgame so damned exciting. So much still unresolved; so much still in doubt. Does lack of faith in Jacob imply a faith in something else? Is making a bad choice really all that catastrophic, either personally or globally? And then the big question, which I think even Smokey would like to see answered: Why are we here, anyway?"
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"When Sawyer asked why the Island would need protection, Locke snapped: 'From nothing, James. That's the joke. There's nothing to protect it from. It's just a damn island!' [Percentage Chance I Believe Smokey]: 0%. My rejoinders to Smokey would include the following: (1) The Temple's magic healing spring. (2) Frozen donkey wheel time travel magic. (3) That Ghost Kid. (4) Oh, and uh … freakin' YOU, Smokey! Bottom line: The Island is totally special, and my guess is that whatever makes it special will prove to be Jacob's primary defense for playing god with castaway lives."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Some people have complained since last season's finale that they don't like the idea of 'Lost' turning into the story of two guys — Jacob and The Man In Black — that we hadn't met until the end of Season Five. But I think 'The Subsitute' shows that this is not Jacob's story, and it's not Smokey's story (no matter how compelling the writers have made him). It's still about who our heroes align themselves with, and what they learn about themselves as a result."
— Noel Murray

"This [Sideways] John Locke can laugh when the fates make fun of him. This John Locke has the self-awareness and strength to grow and change. And this John Locke is loved, and better, he knows it, and we were reminded last night how much we need that kind of love, both to flourish and survive."
— Jeff Jensen

"Fittingly, 'The Substitute' came to us during Valentine's Day week, and it played like a love letter to Locke. Allow me to give some love right back. Terry O'Quinn is the man, and big hugs to him and everyone who made 'The Substitute' the first truly great episode of the season, a moving mythapalooza that framed and galvanized the Island story line and proved that the Sideways storytelling device is capable of producing powerful, poignant yarns ... even if we still have no freakin' clue what the hell is going on over there in Otherworldland."
— Jeff Jensen

"For the third straight episode, the episode's lead [sideways] character was given a conspicuous moment in the bathroom, looking long and hard in the mirror. Where Jack saw an explicable (continuity) flaw on his skin and Kate watched herself flutter through the déjà vu blinky-blinkies, Locke struck a more conventional, contemplative pose, absent of any hint that he might be aware of his Island self. Which makes sense, given that Island Locke is, like, dead. But two simpler explanations for Locke's apparent agnosticism/atheism are (1) It might be too painful for him to consider divine possibilities (If there really is a God or grand design to my life, why the hell did He/She/It cripple me?); or (2) this Locke is a product of different influences, none of which have produced a yearning for divine connection or eyes to see the divine in the world. Might his life be richer if he were to allow himself to reconsider his spiritual perspective? Or might his life become worse?"
— Jeff Jensen

"The Sideways scenes just rolled, one great scene after another. The moments in the temp agency hit me emotionally. It started funny-surreal, like a moment from a Coen brothers film, when Locke got processed by a decidedly quirky clerk who first tried to get into his mind and figure him out. But Sideways Locke is not a man who wants or needs to be cracked open and explained. But he did want a job, and he seemed to want something more than a good income from it, too. He wanted a job that made him feel strong again — that made him feel like a man."
— Jeff Jensen

"It's a very strange experience watching 'Lost' these days. I get a kick out of the flash-sideways connections: Rose at the temp agency, Ben Linus as a fussy high-school teacher of European history (imagine the spitballs on his chalkboard). But without knowing why we're watching these alt-world stories, or how they fit into what's happening back on the island in the show's actual timeline, it's also a bit frustrating. (What else is new?)"
— Matt Roush, TV Guide

"Who would win in a sneer-off: Professor Snape or Professor Linus? Debate!"
— Jeff Jensen

"My top 5 moments this week: 1) 'This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to.' (Frank Lapidus getting a laugh after Ben's memorable eulogy for the real Locke turns into a murder confession.) 2) The look of terror on Richard's face as he tries to convince Sawyer of Smoke-Locke's deadly motives. 3) Sawyer dangling from Jacob's ladder in a dazzling cliffhanger sequence. 4) Katey Sagal as Helen, standing by alt-world Locke as he takes Rose's advice to 'get back to living whatever life I've got left,' which is miracle enough. 5) The smokey-eye-view tracking shot of the island, pausing briefly at drunk Sawyer's domicile before going on to cut Richard out of the tree."
— Matt Roush

"The thing I love about Frank is that he seems like a character visiting from some other show — like the pilot of the plane from 'Fantasy Island' or something — and yet though he's weirded out by events on the Island, he also takes them oddly in stride."
— James Poniewozik

"I have no idea what anyone's name is anymore. I thought the Rebel was named Sawyer but the Sad Day Monster kept calling him James Ford. I though the portly gentleman was named Hurley but apparently his name is Hugo Reyes. Again, shame on the LOST writers for naming a huge person Hugo. It's probably glandular."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"They go into a cave where Monster throws a rock and says it is an inside joke. I don't get it."
— John Durbin

"This season has given a whole new meaning to the term 'lost.' "
— my mom, Feb. 16

"Lost" Quotes, Episode 3

2010-05-07T05:19:00.000-07:00

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 3 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episode 3, "What Kate Does" (Kate)

"I don't trust myself. How am I supposed to trust you?"
— Jack to Dogen, the leader of the Temple Others

Hurley: "You're not a zombie, right?"
Sayid: "No, I am not a zombie."

"We'll be in the food court if you need us."
— Miles Straume

"Still getting used to being on Tuesday. Is the show LESS confusing earlier in the week?"
— "Lost" co-executive producer Damon Lindelof via Twitter, Feb. 9

"This is part of the new Jack, too. He's now a guy who can roll with the weird."
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"Josh Holloway did a fine job of reminding us that this is a tough guy who's going through one stage of grief, who just lost the love of his life, the one woman who made him feel vulnerable again. Now you can almost see Sawyer willing himself to grow a new, hard shell over his most tender feelings. He never wants to be that vulnerable again, and one way to do that is to go excessively macho, to bolt, to flee, to run through the jungle with a gun and bark at people, including Kate."
— Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

"Sawyer runs away. Kate goes after him. Claire shows up to shoot some pirates."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Someone set traps on the island. Those people are no longer around. Clearly it was Ewoks."
— John Durbin

"I've given up even trying to figure out 'Lost.' " — my mom, Feb. 11

"Lost" Quotes, Episodes 1&2

2010-05-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

**Spoilers may be ahead for anyone who has not yet watched season 6 (so far) of "Lost."**

Welcome to day 2 in the Silent Planet series of commentary and quotes from the final season of "Lost." Today's quotes are from ...

Episodes 1 & 2, "LA X: Part One" and "LA X: Part Two" (featured character: none)

Ghost Jacob: "I died an hour ago."
Hurley: "Sorry, dude. That sucks."
Ghost Jacob: "Thanks."

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that."
— NotLocke to Ben after appearing as the Smoke Monster

"You [had] all these fundamental mysteries going into season 6. What's the Monster? What's the Island? Why is Richard Alpert not able to age? But here's this new mystery. How dare they! How dare they present us with a new mystery at this late stage in the game!"
— "Lost" co-executive producer Damon Lindelof, quoted by Entertainment Weekly

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Some advice. 1. Don't think TOO hard. 2. Be patient. 3. Watch The Biggest Loser Instead."
— Damon Lindelof via Twitter, Feb. 2

"This is TV at its boldest, once again going where few shows would dare to go — this season, that means slipping sideways, bouncing between parallel worlds."
— Matt Roush, TV Guide

"This new storytelling technique intrigues me for now on multiple levels, perhaps because the introduction of the Alterna-815ers has helped me realize how much I care about the real characters. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have said over and over again that 'Lost' is about the characters, not the mythology, and I really felt that in the big scene between Ben and Smokey, where the latter tells the former that as the real Locke was dying, his last thought was, 'I don't understand.' That really got to me. We've watched over 100 hours now of characters trying to make sense of the weird things that keep happening to them — and the not-so-weird things as well — with a combination of take-charge arrogance and blind obedience. I really don't want them to die thinking that it was all meaningless. It would be as crushing for them as it would be for us fans to face the final credits staggering under the melancholy weight of nothing."
— Noel Murray, The AV Club

"I am beginning to feel Island archaeology is tangential to what the Island really is. The Island: the original and purest expression of the God idea, of God power. These ruins? The remains of those zealots who've attempted to claim, name, and tame this place over the centuries — those people the Man In Black spoke of last year: 'They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.' "
— Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

"When the carnage is over, Un-Locke turns to Ben and quips, 'I'm sorry you had to see me like that.' Classic! Smokey = UnLocke = Man In Black, who manipulated Ben to kill Jacob in last season's finale. My mantra on this and so many other 'Lost' enigmas: Don't understand, don't care. I'm just loving the sheer audacity of this narrative, as the Un-Locke who is Smokey the Monster emerges from his lair, pummeling Richard Alpert into submission and sending the Temple Others into a frenzy of defensive maneuvering."
— Matt Roush

"I have to say I knew we were in for a treat when the opening had a handsome guy (named Jake) on a plane then immediately took us into the ocean where there was an ancient ruin shaped like a foot."
— John Durbin, The Final Season of LOST as Seen by Someone Who Has Never Seen LOST

"Lost" Quotes, Pre-season

2010-05-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

I have been filing some of my favorite bits of commentary and other quotes related to this final season of "Lost," because such a momentous occasion as this deserves some sort of chronicle to remind us of what it was like while it happened. I am really excited that it's finally time to start posting them.

The quotes vary. Some are astute observations or interesting predictions, while others note significant moments or things that I found particularly striking or cool. Some are just funny — like everything from John Durbin, who blogged about watching the final season without having ever seen an episode from the first five. It's fun to look back and remember what's already happened this season — both on the show, and in the heads of "Lost" fans.

My plan is to post these quotes in episodic chunks daily (except for a couple of days when I'll be out of town and quite busy), leading up to the "Lost" series finale on May 23. I have organized the quotes according to their related episode. Tomorrow, I'll post stuff about both "LA X: Part One" and "LA X: Part Two," since they aired together, following that up with one episode each day (except two), and finishing on May 23 with some quotes about the show and the finale in general. I'll start off today with a couple pre-season quotes from my favorite "Lost" recapper, The AV Club's Noel Murray, and a smidgen from my favorite "Lost" co-producer, Damon Lindelof.

[Note: In general, I have fixed some little things related to punctuation and spacing, and combined paragraphs and stuff like that, for consistency and readability (and to eliminate some of my pet peeves). I didn't fix Twitter posts, or misspellings in John Durbin's quotes.]

[Note 2: I also didn't censor language — which includes an occasional word that you might hear in a PG movie, or on "Lost."]

Pre-season/early season

"I've had a blast watching 'Lost,' and I trust that the final season will be entertaining at times and frustrating at others. (Such is the appeal of the show; it's fun to get mad at it sometimes.)"
— Noel Murray

"I also like that 'Lost' has always been a celebration of storytelling, from the arcane to the archetypal. It's a genre-hopping story that pays direct homage to nearly every text that's ever influenced its creators. It's one long story, made up of a bunch of little stories. It's a story about how backstories encroach and affect the main narrative, whether it be via time-travel or flashbacks (which are a kind of time travel). And, finally, it's a story about the repetition of stories, and about which elements can be altered and which can't."
— Noel Murray

"We're moving into the endgame of the show [and] the stakes have moved beyond, 'Who's Kate going to pick?' and into, 'Is anyone going to be left alive?' says executive producer Damon Lindelof."
— Ausiello Files

Books 7, 9, 11: The Vampire Diaries

2010-05-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

Being a vampire would actually not be enjoyable. Also not fun: dating a vampire.

Why? Because you and your vampire boyfriend will fall and long and get married, but then he will stay the same age while you grow old and die. You will have to move around a lot so that people don't realize that he doesn't age, or you'll have to pretend he has impossible amounts of plastic surgery, or you will have no friends and you will instead just stay inside all the time.

Children? Not a good idea, if it's even possible to have children with a vampire. Pets will likely feel threatened by a vampire, and so you will have to only have plants.

You will never be able to stand in the sunlight with your vampire love. You will either have to sleep during the day too, which will never feel right, and you'll always have trouble sleeping, or you will have to only see each other during late evening and early morning hours. Even on the weekends. You will hang out a lot at night, during that eerie, lonely time when the world is indoors.

Your windows will have to have some serious blinds-drapes combo to keep out the sunshine. One of your cars will have to have special sunlight-proof glass. You will have to take vitamin D supplements.

And yet, the romance of the vampire endures. Why is that? Is it because when you think about vampires, you think of some cool guy being all pale and brooding and dangerously attractive? And what you don't think about is how disgusting it would be to DRINK THE BLOOD OF A HUMAN OR AN ANIMAL for sustenance. We're talking every meal, here.

The repulsion of that idea, specifically drinking the blood of another person, hit me as I read the first three books in the "Vampire Diaries" series. I don't think the repulsion was intentional; it came to me during some blood-exchange scenes involving a vampire and a non-vampire, and I think those scenes were supposed to be intimate and intense, not romantic exactly, but not disgusting. In any case, yuck. And I mean that in a visceral sense and in a moral sense. That just isn't the sort of thing a person ought to be doing. It is unnatural and gross. Double-yuck.

Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the books. I had read them as a younger person, maybe in late elementary or early junior high school, and really liked them. I wondered what I would think now, and whether they would hold up as both they and I age. It turns out that yes, they do hold up pretty well after all.

The three books, "The Awakening," "The Struggle" and "The Fury," tell one long story, with no significant resolution tidying up each of the first two. They end abruptly, successfully making you want to go right to the next one. The books are all compelling reads and the writing gets better and less young-adult-novelish as they go along.

Elena, the main female character around whom the story unfolds, isn't the most likable person, especially initially. She's your standard popular teenage girl, a very pretty go-getter who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. But she grows on you, or she did on me anyway, and her story turns out to be interesting and surprising. (I have a feeling that she is more likable in the TV series, which I hope to watch on DVD.)

Stefan, the requisite very-attractive vampire who insists on hunting animals instead of humans, broods and carries around lots of guilt all the time, and he isn't as fun as Angel is at that role. But he isn't annoying.

Damon, Stefan's brother, is a nice surprise both for how he is written during the first two books, as an unflinchingly evil guy who may be good-looking but is clearly dangerous and bad news for anyone in his path, and for his arc in the third book, and the arcs related to him, that manage to evolve the character without undoing him.

Overall, "The Vampire Diaries" is a notably well-written series, with some nice turns of phrase and a good sense of pacing and action. Book three brings several satisfying resolutions to mysteries large and small, and reveals the significance of some seemingly everyday details that turn out to be more important than they seemed at the time. I really like that kind of stuff.

Also, super kudos to L.J. Smith on the ending of the third book, which followed a legitimately creepy section and managed to shock despite the whole novel resting on what was already a shocking development. I wondered if the fourth book in the series, "The Dark Reunion," came about as a result of fan reaction to "The Fury." According to Wikipedia, that may have been the case.

"The Awakening," "The Struggle" and "The Fury," all published in 1991, were intended to be a trilogy. "Pressure from fans" -- not necessary unhappiness about how the trilogy ended, I guess, though I'm sure that was part of it -- spurred Smith to write "The Dark Reunion," which was published in 1992. She has since started a new group of books in the series, called "The Vampire Diaries: The Return." I have both "The Dark Reunion" and "The Return: Nightfall," and plan to read both soon. I also look forward to one day procuring the recently published "The Return: Shadow Souls" and the 2011 release "The Return: Midnight."

I may not want to date or become a vampire (super-yuck on both accounts), and I don't love the weird intimacy of the blood-exchange thing that appears in the books, but I still like the story and the characters. And I feel the booklust for more.

Grades: "The Awakening," B+
"The Struggle," B+
"The Fury," A-

Dealing Devil

2010-04-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

Photo from Lostpedia

So, I looked up "Faust" to confirm the basic details. Per Wikipedia, it is a German legend about a guy named Faust who is smart and successful, but unsatisfied. So he makes a deal with the devil: his soul in exchange for worldly pleasures and unlimited knowledge.

When put in this black-and-white scenario, we can all agree that Faust made a bad, stupid decision. It recalls Matthew 16:26, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Clearly, the correct answer is NOT "worldly pleasures and unlimited knowledge."

With that in mind, can we all also agree that the Man in Black on "Lost" is evil? Jacob and MIB represent, if not God and the Devil themselves, ideas about morality, good and evil. Jacob is hard to read. But MIB? Dude is obviously not the one you ought to follow.

The Man in Black likes to offer people their strongest desires in exchange for their service. This is a good time to note that God, on the other hand, does not offer us is the unlimited desires of our selfish hearts. God actually does not seek our happiness so much as our obedience. What is right, and what is right for us, often differs from what we want. Sometimes we desire good things, or things that are not inherently evil, but that are not right for us. Just because we want it, doesn't mean we ought to have it. Doughnuts remind me of that.

MIB, however, offers up the most enticing doughnuts. Not the box of powdered mini doughnuts that you buy in the bread aisle at the grocery store. He offers the Jolly Pirate Dutch crumb cake doughnuts. The kind I'd want most of all. He isn't in it for the sake of what is right, or for our own good, or for the good of the world. He wants to get off the island, and he'll promise what people want most in order to make them agreeable for his purposes. This is his tell. MIB might not exactly be evil incarnate, as Jacob says, but he's offering the promises a devil would make.

In closing, I'd like to share a few quotes from "Lost" recaps that reiterate and expand upon this general stance.

John Cloud, Time: "There's been much debate about whether Jacob might actually end up being the bad guy of 'Lost,' but I'm not buying it — at least not if that means SmokeLocke is supposed to be [the] good guy. Tonight SmokeLocke said to Sayid, 'What if I told you that you could have anything you wanted? What if I said you could have anything in the entire world?' This is pretty standard Satan talk: only the devil promises everything. It also echoes the famous line that preternaturally wicked Ben Linus says to the real Locke in season three: 'What if I told you that, somewhere on this island, there is a very large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it when you opened that box, there it would be?' "

Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly: The Lockeness Monster's "m.o. is now clear: What if I told you could have your heart's desire? ... Of course, his wish-upon-a-star come-ons also sound like he's selling pipe dreams (literally), like Satan tempting Eve with the apple."

Jeff Jensen: "Fake Locke is a tricky little devil. See, by promising our castaway heroes to satisfy the unfulfilled desires of our heart — love; children; meaning; justice — he baits them to hope, but also keeps them enslaved to their painful lack of fulfillment, or put another way, keeps them trapped in the past. Fake Locke is full of 'Nothing's irreversible' and totally devoid of 'Let it go.' One thing 'Lost' has shown us pretty consistently is that when characters remain stuck in the past and remain defined by past pain, bad stuff happens in the present. Further proof, then, that His Royal Smokeyness really is the prince of darkness. He's certainly the antithesis of the John Locke of season 5 who told Sawyer that he was at peace with his past pain."

An Apostrophe's Nightmare, and How to Use Apostrophes Correctly

2010-04-28T17:45:00.001-07:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

You know how bad it feels to be where you do not belong? You may be surrounded by intimidating people and circumstances. You might have that lingering pit of dread in your chest that makes it impossible to rest. You don't enjoy what is good. And the more you idle, which people often do when they are somewhere they shouldn't be, the easier it is to just stay there instead of moving into the place you do belong.

It's a good thing, then, that apostrophes are not people, and that they cannot comprehend the darkness of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Considering our current state of apostrophe madness, it's good that they don't know what we're doing to them.

Call it apostrophe indulgence. At an alarming rate, store employees, prop masters for television shows and other everyday citizens are inserting apostrophes into plural words. This practice seems particularly popular for making proper nouns plural. (For example, last names. A house might belong to "The Casey's," per the hand-painted sign on the door.)

This isn't an indication that people today are not intelligent. The problem, I think, is a breakdown of our collective awareness of how to properly pluralize a word. When the world around you says that "Mac's are the best computer's on the planet," you presume that the grammar is accurate, when only the statement itself is reliable. (Insert happy-face emoticon.)

In reality, an apostrophe is rarely used in plural words, unless those words are also possessive or have omitted a letter. One rare occasion is that of making a letter plural, as in the case of the Oakland A's. The Oakland "As" is confusing, turning the "A" into a common word. (The Oakland "Athletics," meanwhile, is simply a weird, if sports-appropriate, mascot.)

In most cases, you do not need the apostrophe. Some examples of correct apostrophe/non-apostrophe use:

Those strawberries look scrumptious.
The strawberry's color does not resemble the "strawberry" shade in the Crayola crayon box.

You don't run into many Peter Parkers in West Virginia.
Peter Parker's ability to scale buildings is impressive.

My favorite decade is the 1880s.
I am a '90s girl, myself.

In the last example, the apostrophe before the "90s" indicates that something has been dropped, in this case the "19" in "1890s." Nothing has been omitted from "1880s" and therefore we do not need an apostrophe.

So, in general: plural words, no apostrophe; possessive words, apostrophe.

I do feel like I need to include a little disclaimer here acknowledging that I do not think ill of my friends who have erroneously apostrophed their plural words, and those who will continue to do so. I myself unashamedly employ plenty of sentences that end with prepositions, and I sometimes split infinitives, and I am often too lazy to add a long dash (—) instead of two ugly short ones (--) to my blog posts. I can also be wordy. I just harbor a particular appreciation for correct plural/apostrophe use, and wish those poor apostrophes would only appear where they belong.

Random "Lost" Thoughts in List Form

2010-04-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

Some lists about "Lost." List items are not in order of importance.

Things about "Lost" that I like best:
1. Mystery
2. Characters
3. Character arcs
4. Sci-fi and supernatural elements
5. Story, both its storytelling and its reflection of a love of storytelling
6. Science and faith, their relationship and conflict
7. It stirs your brain

My favorite characters:
1. Richard Alpert
2. Desmond and Penny
3. Miles Straume
4. Daniel Faraday

Unsolved mysteries I am most curious about*:
1. Walt's superpowers
2. Aaron's future
3. Sayid's and Claire's "infections": How permanent and complete are we talking, here?
4. NotLocke: Who is his mom, how did he end up being the Man in Black, and what is the nature of his relationship with Jacob?
5. Sideways world identity issues: Who are Miles' girlfriend and Jack's ex-wife? How do Ana Lucia and Juliet figure into the Sideways world?
6. What is the Island?

*While glancing over some "Lost" mystery lists online, I came across lots of mysteries that have already been answered over the years, a lot more than you realize when you're watching the show and so much still seems unanswered.

Notable Man-in-Black-as-Locke nicknames:
1. Most creative — Lockeness Monster, UnLocke
2. Most useful — NotLocke
3. Absolute worst — Smocke, Smockey, Flocke

Predictions/wishful thoughts:
1. Jack will be the next Jacob. Everyone else from 815 will leave the island.
2. Jin and Sun will live happily ever after with their daughter.
3. The Sideways world will not exist ...
4. But if it does, then obviously Ben should live in that world, and Sawyer should live there with his future wife, Juliet. Hurley can live there and date Libby. Jack can't live there and be Jacob too, I suppose. Or can he? Maybe Claire should live there, too, without the craziness.
5. Sayid will be redeemed and will die in a sacrificial way.
6. Richard will fulfill his purpose and will finally be able to die.
7. Ben will die, or live in the Sideways world, or will live on the island as a servant of sorts to the new Jacob.
8. Desmond, Penny and little Charlie will live happily ever after, because there is no other acceptable option. I guess Desmond and Penny could start over in the Sideways world.
9. If Jack isn't the next Jacob, that role will be filled by Sawyer.

The Here and Later

2010-04-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

I wonder what H.G. Wells would think if were suddenly alive again. I mean, beyond the shock of being suddenly alive again. I've read that he was pretty prescient with some of his ideas about the future. I wonder what he would predict for our future, looking at the world, technology and the state of affairs right now.

I'd be curious to hear a group of writers, people who have imagined some sort of futuristic world, sit down and discuss things as they are, how they differ from expectations, and what may yet come to pass. Who would we include in this discussion? I don't have a well-honed knowledge of the people who pioneered or contributed most notably to futuristic literature. What I know is based mostly on movies and "Lost" recaps.

Of course, I can always scan Wikipedia for ideas. Here are a few people I'd suggest for the big sit-down:

1. H.G. Wells, author of "The Time Machine," "The War of the Worlds" and "The Invisible Man," among others. His novel "The Shape of Things to Come," published in 1933, speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106.

2. Robert Venditti, writer of "The Surrogates," the comic book limited series on which the Bruce Willis movie is based. "The Surrogates" takes place in the year 2054, when people are using robots of sorts ("humanoid remote control vehicles") to interact with each other. This isn't exactly an old story -- the series was published in 2005-2006. But still, it'd be interesting to include contemporary writers who have likely been influenced by older ones, and who offer a different perspective from a different time.

3. Robert Heinlein, who wrote (among lots of other things) the "Future History" series about the future of the human race from the mid-20th century through the early 23rd century.

4.-6. Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, whose "Brave New World," "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Fahrenheit 451" I had to read for AP English during the summer before my senior year in high school.

7. Philip K. Dick, who wrote the books that inspired movies like "Minority Report," "Paycheck," "Blade Runner," "Total Recall" and "A Scanner Darkly."

That's enough to get a conversation going, yes? I know I've left out a lot of people who would prove interesting.

Book #8: "Infected"

2010-04-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

I came across a free podcast of "Infected," a book written and read by Scott Sigler, and I decided to try it out.

I mean, it was free. It was apparently a scary-ish novel about people becoming infected with something. My threshold for scary isn't as high as my threshold for science fiction in general, but I did like "28 Days Later" and I don't mind some scariness. And besides, it was basically a free audiobook. If the sound quality turned out to be bad, I could just chuck it.

Oh, it did have that little red "EXPLICIT" box beside each entry. Most of the books I read have very little "explicit" content, if any. So I also figured I could stop listening if the "explicit" turned out to be "very explicit" instead of "just an occasional profanity" or "gross things happen sometimes" or a little of both.

For the first half of the book, I was thinking of a grade in the "B" range, give or take a half-a-grade. The presentation is pretty good, and Scott Sigler has a good narrator voice, though some of his character voices -- women, children and the breathy Southern accent of one male character -- are a little distracting. I don't envy someone having to give a distinct voice to several characters throughout the reading of a book, though, and I figured you have to give a person some slack with that.

I was surprised at the writing, too. You don't know how well-written a free podcast book will be, but I looked up "Infected" on Amazon (it is also available in print) and saw that the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Still, popular doesn't always mean good writing. But Sigler is a good writer, better even than most of the contemporary fiction writers whose books I've read in the past couple years.

"Infected" unfolds in chunks of plot and character introductions, and I liked this method even if it was difficult, initially, to remember everyone. (I'm sure this wouldn't have been a concern if I'd read the print version of the book.) There was profanity, which I could do without, and some occasional gross moments. There was also some science talk that could be hard to follow, but I like that kind of stuff.

Somewhere around the middle, though, things changed (for me, anyway). "Infected" is ultimately almost 12 hours long, not that much longer than a lot of audiobooks. But it started to feel like it was just going on and on. The novel has 88 chapters, though they are quite short, and the sound effect that indicates the end of a chapter is also used in the breaks within chapters -- something that becomes jarring and feels ridiculous near the end of the book, when the action seems to get interrupted mid-scene way too often. I was also experiencing some fatigue at the "explicit" elements, the language in particular, which gets rather crude at times.

Primarily, though, I'd say the book lost me when the storyline of one main character began to really take over the novel, and yet his plot seemed to be extremely singular and monotonous, a neverending descent into self-mutilation and a baffling insistence on going it alone. I realize that eventually, the character wasn't fully in his right mind. But his story, once interesting and promising, basically ruined the novel for me. The language and its underlying attitudes, in keeping with the character's devolution, followed suit. Especially once he met up with another infected person. Ugh. Ruinous, for sure.

I listened to the last couple of podcast episodes while working on other things, not fully paying attention since I can't concentrate on two things at one time. I just wanted it to be over at that point. I'm sure I missed a lot, but not enough to redeem the novel.

I recommend skipping this one, even if it is free. And I won't be listening to its sequel, "Contagious," or to the third book in the series that's set to come out next year (according to Wikipedia), "Pandemic." The tasty part of the brownie just isn't worth the junk in the batter.

Grade: B for the narration and the writing style in the first half, then more like a C- at best

Siblings: Famke, Claudia, Carrie-Anne

2010-04-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to renew the They Could Play Siblings series on this blog. And finally, here we are: TCPS, Silent Planet entry #1:

Famke Janssen, aka Jean Gray in the "X-Men" movies.

Claudia Karvan, one of the non-vampires in "Daybreakers."

Carrie-Anne Moss, otherwise known as Trinity in the "Matrix" films.

Calamity

2010-04-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

John Piper, in August 2007 following the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis (emphasis mine):

That any human is breathing at this minute on this planet is sheer mercy from God. God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on those who do not treasure him above all else. He causes the heart to beat and the lungs to work for millions of people who deserve his wrath. This is a view of reality that desperately needs to be taught in our churches, so that we are prepared for the calamities of the world.

The meaning of the collapse of this bridge is that John Piper is a sinner and should repent or forfeit his life forever. That means I should turn from the silly preoccupations of my life and focus my mind's attention and my heart's affection on God and embrace Jesus Christ as my only hope for the forgiveness of my sins and for the hope of eternal life. That is God's message in the collapse of this bridge. That is his most merciful message: there is still time to turn from sin and unbelief and destruction for those of us who live. If we could see the eternal calamity from which he is offering escape we would hear this as the most precious message in the world.

Psalm 71:20:

You who have shown me many troubles and distresses will revive me again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

We have hope, if we look for it from the right Source. May God bring salvation to unbelievers and strengthened faith to His children in West Virginia and beyond.

Bats & Zombies

2010-04-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Townsend's big-eared bat (above); "Chiroptera" from Ernst Haeckel's "Kunstformen der Natur," 1904

Last night, I had trouble falling asleep, and I eventually began thinking about bats. Even in the darkness, in that time that belongs to the furry flying creatures, I wasn't too scared. It isn't bat season yet.

We've had two bat visitations, that I am aware of, one for each year we've lived in the house. The second bat was in my bedroom. I had gone to bed but wasn't asleep, and Ally, my cat, was sitting on a chair near the window, a few feet from my bed. Looking up.

I saw a small shadow above the curtain, on the thick wooden frame that surrounds the window. I thought it was only a shadow, or maybe an area of chipped paint. I turned on the light, certain it was nothing, like when you see a piece of fuzz on the arm of a chair and you touch it to confirm that it is only fuzz, which you knew despite that insect alarm that went off in your brain.

The light came on, and then ... the horror that it wasn't a shadow.

And now, April. Don't bats come back in May? What if they decide to return early? We intended to bat-proof the house, but we haven't done it yet. We're not ready.

Lying in the dark, I thought of how I had been too afraid to sleep without covers despite the heat, how we'd spent days -- weeks, probably -- with the hall light on, presuming bats like light as well as vampires enjoy sunbathing. As I remembered the fear, the brushes with such brief, yet so very potent, winged terror, it seemed more like a funny memory than an imminent danger.

I also thought of that scene in "Shaun of the Dead" when Shaun and Ed are sitting on the couch, and they look up to see a zombie standing there, and they scream and Shaun waves his hands like a girl. I love that moment.

And I realized that I would be useless in a zombie attack. In the daylight, in the off season, I wonder if maybe I am capable of being calm in the face of a bat. Maybe I could put on gloves, get a towel and a broom, and shoo the thing out my balcony door (once I remove the duct tape around the door frame that inhibits any bat infiltrations through the cracks).

But I am, of course, wrong. And in a world without zombies, I can watch "Shaun of the Dead" and think that I would at least be capable of holding a cricket bat and standing behind my friends as they do most of the dirty work. I'm pretty sure this isn't true, though. I would shut the door, go downstairs and wait in the living room while someone else takes care of the zombie problem. My primary weapon would be screaming, and waving my hands like a girl.

Maybe the threat of death would make things different. Maybe I would be more likely to stick it out if children or similarly vulnerable people were involved. Maybe I would insist that everyone run and hide until the worldwide zombie problem has been eradicated.

There is a reason Batman is Batman. A bat strikes fear in the hearts of men -- or at least in the hearts of those who have ever woken up to discover a bat in their bedroom. The fear that didn't grip me last night has begun to color my thoughts. I am a little on edge, smarting at a falling flower petal as if it were a raging wasp. (I also don't like wasps.)

The critter creeps have begun. We've put bat-proofing on our to-do list for the weekend. And I am so glad zombies aren't real.

"The Lost Boys": Found Again

2010-04-01T05:21:00.000-07:00

Circa junior high or so, I had a VHS tape that contained the three best movies ever made: "The Lost Boys," "The Monster Squad" and "Stand by Me." Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland with his spiky bleached hair, Ryan Lambert (from "Kids Incorporated") and River Phoenix, among others, might have had something to do with my opinion of the movies.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see "The Lost Boys" in a movie theater with Tabby and Robyn and the other few people who realized it was playing on a Thursday, following a Monday cancellation due to a power outage. Finally, we were going to see "The Lost Boys" on the big screen.

Of course, it was as good as you would expect. And in the spirit of nostalgic fandom, some observations:

1. "The Lost Boys," circa 1987 (per IMDb), is not as '80s as you'd expect. You know how '80s movies look so very dated with the big hair and the shoulder pads and the pervasive '80s vibe? Well, other than the truly horrendous clothing of a couple characters (Max the video store guy and Sam Emerson, aka Corey Haim), and Jami Gertz's very fluffy -- though not poofed -- hair, the people in "The Lost Boys" don't fair so poorly. Many of them go for a motorcycle gang look or a vampire-hunter style, so that saves them from sporting the egregious of '80s attire.

2. Also, the music is more atmosphere-appropriate and not as filled with then-current pop, so it isn't as tied to the time, at least not in a bad way. (Lots of '80s music is great. Some of it, including movie-soundtrack filler, is very not great.) "Goodtimes" is still a really good song, and I like how the movie incorporates "To the Shock of Miss Louise," an instrumental song that ties in the Santa Carla amusement park setting and also hints at that gothic feel of vampire mythology. I never liked that song being on the soundtrack, but now I get it.

3. I still don't understand how Kelly Jo Minter gets a mention in the opening credits. Is she the girl in the background of a scene in the video store?

4. Vampire blood glitters madly in the daylight, but only briefly.

5. Vampires don't talk much.

6. When you put blood in a wine bottle, it must lose the taste and consistency of blood. (Or can a vampire mind-trick you into thinking it's wine, the way a vampire can apparently mind-trick you into thinking noodles are worms?)

Where are they now?

I was curious about whatever happened to Brooke McCarter, Jamison Newlander and other actors in "The Lost Boys," particularly those who are less recognizable. Here is what I found in my brief research at IMDb:

The vampire hoodlums (whose numbers correspond with the photo above) --

1. Kiefer Sutherland, who played vamp-hoodlum leader David, obviously plays Jack Bauer on "24" right now. (Jack Bauer you may know as the guy who took a knife out of his own torso and threw it into the neck of a bad guy this year on "24.")

2. Alex Winter (Marko, the first vampire killed; also Bill from the "Bill and Ted" movies) apparently starred as King Mole Man in five episodes of "Saul of the Mole Men" in 2007. He was also in an episode of "Bones" (I thought he'd been in a TV show I'd seen semi-recently). I checked on Netflix, and unfortunately "Saul of the Mole Men" does not appear to be available at this time. Also, he is allegedly involved in "Rock n' Roll High School," though the details are only available at IMDbPro. Is this a remake of the Ramones movie? What?

3. Brooke McCarter, aka Paul who died via holy water in the bathroom, spent about 17 years off screen (more if you don't count that one video game in 1993) but appears to be returning in a couple things that are currently in post-production. He's apparently been involved in music and used to manage Corey Haim. He is not as tall as I thought he would be (5'10").

4. Billy Wirth/Dwayne who died "by stereo," as Sam-Emerson-played-by-Corey Haim noted in the film, has done some on- and behind-the-screen work over the years, most of which I am not familiar with. He did compete as a contestant on "American Gladiators" back in 1989, so you might want to rent that from Netflix, because you can.

The half-vampires --

Jason Patric (in the poster at left wearing sunglasses), aka Michael Emerson, brother of Corey Haim's character, dated Julia Roberts in real life, didn't he? So did Kiefer Sutherland. Right? (Looking that up to confirm, it sounds more scandalous than I'd remembered.) He has worked mostly steadily since "The Lost Boys" and will co-star in "The Losers," which I think looks pretty promising, in late April. "Speed 2: Cruise Control" doesn't appear to have held him back too much, even if he never became Keanu-famous. (Side note: How is he the same height as Brooke McCarter?)

Jami Gertz, whose character name, Star, ought to only be uttered with that high-as-a-kite lilt she used in the film, was in "Twister" and also "Still Standing," a CBS TV show in which she played the wife of a guy who was also in "A Knight's Tale." She's also done quite a bit of other work, but those are the two things I think of when I look back on her post-"Lost Boys" career.

Chance Michael Corbitt/young Laddie has been in a big handful of other things, including three episodes of "Baywatch." I am unsettled, though, to see pictures of him on IMDb and realize that he is no longer a little boy. It honestly freaks me out to look at him. When did he grow up?

The adults --

Video store guru Max (real name: Edward Herrmann) played Richard Gilmore on "Gilmore Girls." He's done other stuff but I prefer to think of him solely as being in "The Lost Boys" and "Gilmore Girls."

Emerson mom Dianne Wiest has kept busy, including regular roles in "Law and Order" and "In Treatment" on TV.

Barnard Hughes, aka grandpa with the great final line in "The Lost Boys," died in 2006 a few days before he would have turned 91.

The everyday teens --

Corey Haim, you already know about.

Corey Feldman/Edgar Frog was on "The Surreal Life," so that's an indicator that his career hasn't been all sunshine and A-game success. Still, it looks like he has a few things going on right now, including ... No. Including "Lost Boys: The Thirst"!? He also made an appearance in "Lost Boys: The Tribe," which is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Jamison Newlander (the other Frog brother, who was pretty good I think and made a great pair with Corey F.) doesn't look like the Jamison Newlander in "The Lost Boys." Again, I forget that people age, and with age they change their looks to some degree. He is also in the "Lost Boys" horrible straight-to-video sequels, and I guess I blocked out the fact that he was in "The Tribe." I also blocked out that Autumn Reeser was in it, because I like her. Oh, his scenes were deleted. That's probably better for him in the long run. Meanwhile, he's only been in four non-"LB" things, and he is married to a woman from the Netherlands.

And to wrap up, a handful of quotes:

Edgar: This is just a cover; we're dedicated to a higher purpose. We're fighters for truth, justice, and the American way.

Sam: She's one of them! And don't tell me it doesn't make her a bad person, Mike.

Alan: Kill your brother, you'll feel better.

Sam: What's that smell?
Edgar: Vampires, my friend, vampires.

David: It is too late, my blood is in your veins.
Michael: So is mine!

Max: Don't ever invite a vampire into your house, you silly boy. It renders you powerless.
Sam: Did you know that?
Edgar: Of course. Everyone knows that.

Max: It was all going to be so perfect, Lucy. Just like one big, happy family. Your boys... and my boys.
Edgar: Great! The Bloodsucking Brady Bunch!

Alan: First come, first staked.
Sam: What was that? A little vampire humor? Well, it wasn't funny.

Buck Buck Buck Buck

2010-03-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

No. 2 in my Starbuck-as-pop-art series:

Buck Buck Buck Buck.

Just in time for spring.

Word of Truth

2010-03-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

The blog for the New Testament reading plan is now up. I'm calling it Word of Truth.

I've put up a Word document of 1 John for anyone who, like me, wants more room to make notes while they read. I am using the New American Standard version.

I plan to add links to the blog for sites and resources related to Bible study and related Christian disciplines. Tips and involvement on your part are appreciated.

"Lost" Verses

2010-03-30T13:06:00.001-07:00

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This week, I came across a page of haikus and a couple other poems I'd written while temping briefly in March 2008.

In honor of tonight's new episode of "Lost," the two related poems from two years ago:

A haiku --

"Lost" is on tonight!
Something to look forward to.
Poor Future Sayid.

A poem --

Tonight we can watch "Lost" again
Who will star? Sun or Jin?
They are my guess, I may be wrong
Oh! And I need to remember to read Jeff Jensen's article before the show

Reading the New Testament: Wanna Do It?

2010-03-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

(I am not feeling well, and so if this is a bit all-over-the-place, please forgive me. I am not proofreading, and wanted to get this out ASAP.)

One day, as I flipped through my Bible, I noticed all these marks I'd made in Nehemiah as part of an individual Bible study I'd done years earlier. I was surprised, because I didn't remember ever studying Nehemiah.

Are you satisfied with your knowledge of the Bible? I have looked into specific topics of interest at times, like abortion and war, and I've read influential Christian books and I listen to podcasts with sound biblical teaching and theological instruction. But I don't know the Bible. I know some things, and some very important, basic truths, but I have so much more to learn.

Last week, I was clearing out some of the links I'd bookmarked to read later, and I came across a page called "How to Study Your Bible" by John MacArthur. I kept some notes from it and planned to start in particular on the New Testament -- reading one book, or part of a longer book, for 30 days at a time, until I've read through the whole thing in about 2 1/2 years. MacArthur writes,

If you're going to read the New Testament anyway, you might as well read it so you can remember it. You won't find yourself forgetting what you read a few days ago, and you won't be dependent on a concordance because you'll know where to find what you're looking for. Scripture will stick with you for life if you keep up this practice of refreshing your mind with the text.

This is exactly what I want: for Scripture to stick with me for life.

This morning, I was thinking about this New Testament reading plan, and another idea blossomed: Why not tell other people about this? And then: Why not invite other people to join you? Studying alone can be good, and studying with a group, and with accountability, can be better. So here's my proposition: to read through the entire New Testament in the next 2.5ish years, starting in April with 1 John. MacArthur says it will only take 20 to 30 minutes to read through these five chapters each day. That's not much time at all to commit to learning the Word of God whose power is that of salvation and the renewing of our minds.

I will set up a companion blog for this Bible study, for us to put our thoughts, questions and tips on maximizing our studies. The only requirement will be reading the Bible itself. Commentaries and other sources will be up to the individual to use, only if you want.

A few more things ...

Regarding the readings: I am planning to print out each month's reading onto regular copy paper, about a page or two per chapter, and carry it around in a folder. This way, I can note questions and comments right on the paper, though I may also journal some of my thoughts too. (My Bible is pretty small, with little writing space.) I plan to ultimately put all the pages in a binder.

About the Old Testament, etc.: MacArthur, and others, suggest reading both the Old and New Testaments daily. While our Bible reading plan will not include the Old Testament, you are of course welcome to read it on your own, and to include comments about your reading at our Bible study site. (MacArthur estimates you can read the entire Old Testament in one year by reading about 20 minutes a day.) You are also welcome to continue personal devotions or group Bible studies separately from this reading plan. This plan can be the primary or a secondary part of your Bible-related studies. I know I make time for watching Netflix DVDs and reading books and other things I enjoy; why not make more time for studying God's Word?
About the blog: I will try to set that up ASAP, and will provide the link on my blog (which imports automatically, if delayed-edly, into Facebook). I would like to set up active participants to be able to log into the blog individually to post blog entries, though you are welcome to a) not post blogs, but simply comment on posts, or b) e-mail me your posts, which I can put up for you. I will use a Blogger account that will let people post comments even without signing in.

I have to say, I am looking forward to this.

Three Years of Solitude

2010-03-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: NASA / LOIRP. The world's first view of Earth as released to the public taken by a spacecraft from the vicinity of the moon. The photo was transmitted to Earth by the United States Lunar Orbiter I and received at the NASA tracking station at Robledo De Chavela near Madrid, Spain. This crescent of the Earth was photographed August 23, 1966 at 16:35 GMT when the spacecraft was on its 16th orbit and just about to pass behind the moon.

Earlier this year, I watched a movie called "Moon," about the lone worker at a base on the moon. The guy, Sam, played by Sam Rockwell, is coming to the end of his three-year contract, in which his only companion has been a robot with the voice of Kevin Spacey and video messages from his lady back home. As the time nears for Sam to leave, some strange stuff happens. This is the end of the plot summary, in case anyone wants to see the movie without knowing too much going in.

Something that "Moon" prompts me to think about is how I would spend three years alone on a moon base. Without the accountability of peers and society, and with the inevitable nemesis we'll call "moon base fever," I am not sure that I could handle three years of solitude well, even with a nice robot to talk to. Some alone time, yes. But humans aren't made for such long and thorough solitude.

But there could be an upside to the removal of certain societal constructs and conventions, such as scheduled work days, the monotony of receiving paychecks and paying bills, and the lack of some responsibilities that are only necessary because they are inescapable. The idea of having a lot of time to yourself to "get things done" is a tempting one, though I wonder whether I'd still end up with all sorts of things I never got around to completing because I was too busy playing three-hour games of Solitaire on the moon base computer.

Photo: NASA [http://www.nasa.gov/], ESA [http://www.spacetelescope.org] and J. Garvin (NASA [http://www.nasa.gov/]/GSFC) This image was taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts (Dr. H. Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan). It illustrates a view of the rim of Shorty crater and the lunar roving vehicle against a backdrop of the mountain-like massifs that define the Taurus-Littrow valley.

Some of the things that I dream I would do, if I had three years of solitude to fill while maintaining a base on the moon:

1. Read books. I envision taking a library of a few hundred books I've never read, plus some I have, just in case I want to read them again.

2. Read other things. I figure there'd be no Internet as we know it, so I'd print out articles I've meant to read, and pack them along with unread magazines that I haven't thrown out. I would probably bring along resources for the purpose of studying subjects of interest, like subcategories of theology and history, mythology and basic Latin.

3. Write a book. Maybe even a trilogy.

4. Write short stories.

5. Watch movies and TV shows on the moon base computer system, to remind me of humans. I think "Lost" would be sort of cathartic. A Jane Austen collection would be nice to have around. "Star Wars" is obvious. Nothing too creepy, scary, post-apocalyptic or claustrophobic.

6. Organize my photos. As part of my agreement to live on the moon alone for three years, I'd ask for a negative scanner and would take my negatives from Stint in Slovakia, college and other notable photos from the pre-digital-camera age, scan them and edit them, and create an extensive library of photo albums, including albums of digital photos. Nothing would be named "DSC###" anymore.

7. Catch up on podcasts. I'm talking hundreds of possibilities, including many sermons, lectures and the like from people like John Piper and R.C. Sproul, audiobooks, old radio shows, NPR shows, and podcasts by people I know. Of course, by the time I'd get back to Earth, I would be, unfortunately, three years and many hours behind again.

8. Hula-hoop.

And when I get back, moon rock souvenirs for everyone!

Hubble Shoots the Moon. The Moon is 238,857 miles from the Earth. The moon has a diameter of 2,160 miles.

Book 6: The Road

2010-03-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's sort of indescribable.

I initially planned to write a short review, a couple paragraphs, in a style imitating that of the book, Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." It took awhile for me to adjust to, and accept, the writing style, which is full of sentence fragments and run-on sentences, and lacks quotation marks and some apostrophes. I planned to write at least one paragraph this way, figuring it would be difficult but worth the inside joke.

But no. I started "The Road" in January and then put it on hold while I listened to an audiobook of "I Am Legend." I figured I needed to limit my intake of postapocalyptic literature, since it deals so much in isolation, sorrow and the kind of heaviness that can seep into your soul and cling to you, far enough under the surface that it isn't easily scraped out, and with a sadness that resonates as you attempt to move on to something in the real world that isn't so upsetting, though the real world is full of that heaviness too, just with enough distractions that you can pretend it isn't there.

It's hard to explain, though, the book. It's beautiful, it's poetry, or it's annoying and eye-rolling, or it's all of that. I imagine hundreds of potential readers picking it up -- it won a Pulitzer Prize, Oprah recommended it, it was made into a movie with Aragorn from the "Lord of the Rings" films -- and putting it down, unfinished, unable to face the writing style, the relentlessness of the journey of repeating grayness and starvation, the relationship of a father and son that breaks my heart over and over again.

It's heartache, all heartache, and I can't think of anything else to compare it to so you'll understand. I can think of other sad or difficult movies and books that were good but hard. It's hard to watch a movie where unfair things happen to a person who didn't do anything wrong, but "The Road" isn't really about the injustice of a boy and his father having to survive in a world where the food, water, animals and trees, civilization, are burned, corrupted, gone. When I saw "District 9" last year, I could count on one hand the people I would actually recommend it to, though I also was glad to see it nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, because it's good and special and too gross and repulsive. Gross outside, and gross inside. It's hard, unpleasant. But "The Road," despite some horrific moments, isn't like that either.

What it is, is almost unbearable. It is heartbreak, devastation, unrelenting and moving, and as I write this now I try not to think too deeply about it so I will not cry. What makes it good, better, gripping and soul-stirring is also what makes it suffocating and hard to shake off: the writing, and the father and son. I liked their conversations, and the way simple lines strike with beauty, devastation, insight, the honesty of what a kid would think about, or something else that moved me.

Before I got to the end, but with it in sight at 100 pages or less, I wanted to hurry and see what would happen. I think I was more tempted to peak at the end of this book than any other I've read. I wanted the heaviness to lift, from myself of course but mostly from the father and his boy. Honestly, I wanted them both to die or both to come upon some community of people with whom they could live. If the father died then, at least the boy wouldn't be alone on that road.

But death for both seemed lighter. Not only to escape the indescribable awfulness of their existence on a gray earth with no birds, but to avoid having to grieve for the other when he died. I was telling someone about how hard the book is, and I realized that having two characters instead of one made it worse. In "I Am Legend," the aloneness is devastating for Robert Neville, in a way, and living in such solitude is unimaginable. But in "The Road," the weight of one's unrelenting journey in a world of cannibals and scorched earth is compounded by knowing that the other is experiencing it too.

And as long as at least one of them lives, it is not over. I want it to be over for them. I want them to die and be free of the surviving. Colors. Life. That's what I want for them. Isn't it natural to want that? I wouldn't wish their gray existence on anyone. I would wish for anyone the lifting of that heavy yoke. I would wish for them more than survival, and more than merely surviving until death comes. Though I think that there were moments, and an undercurrent really, of more than survival. What makes "The Road" so hard, in a way, is love.

"The Road" makes me think about life and death, and about what makes life worth living -- or rather, what makes it worth not living, and if there is such a thing. We instinctively choose life and fear or want to thwart death. I thought of this when I watched the show "The Dead Zone." The main character, John Smith, sometimes saw visions when he touched an object or a person. If he saw someone die, he tried to prevent it. The writers didn't have to convince the audience that this was the right thing to do; it was instinct.

And yet, a world like that in "The Road" is full of so little worth living for. Would it be better to die? Is human life valuable enough to keep going, even when change from such a wretched existence is inconceivable? Is it worth living to keep your son alive when he is starving and the world is full of death? Is there something more than all the suffering that makes life retain its meaning? Somehow, I think so.

I am glad I read "The Road," but I am so glad it is over.

New Food Habits

2010-03-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am not a smart-eating guru. I still eat packaged foods, don't pay a lot of attention to sodium (though I don't salt foods very often), and I love me some snack-sized candy bars.

But I do try. My goal is more about a lifestyle change than a temporary fix. If it isn't sustainable, it won't work. Some little changes are easier to maintain than others, and it's all a learning process about being healthier, choosing more wisely, enjoying food and not making eating into a bigger deal than it is.

Here are some things I am enjoying now, and some ways I am changing my habits that I think might be helpful to others. This isn't some sort of healthy-eating gospel; these are just things that are working for me right now.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons/by André Karwath aka Aka

1. Drinking lots of hot tea at work helps to curb the temptation to stop in at Starbucks or a gas station. The allure of a flavored hot coffee fades some as we leave winter, but the tea is still appealing. It can help you feel fuller longer, and I find it a lot more tempting than plain water. It also helps to quell that desire to eat something just to have something to do or to have something to taste. Having a few flavors to choose from keeps tea-drinking interesting, even after weeks of having it regularly. I sweeten the tea with Splenda.

2. Adding vegetables to a meal is easy and boosts your food intake without adding many calories. Steamed broccoli, green beans and carrots are good sides. I didn't like broccoli until last year.

3. My friend Robyn made turkey burgers once when I ate dinner at her apartment, and now they are among my favorite things to eat at home. We just use ground turkey (choose the best ratio of meat to fat, usually 93/7), add some chopped green peppers and onions, and top it with a slice of fat-free Swiss cheese. Today's fat-free cheese slices taste much better than they used to, and they don't have that weird texture anymore, and they taste really good melted on a sandwich. We also like to use "Sandwich Thins" instead of buns. In Weight Watchers (WW) lingo, a sandwich thin is only a point, and they come in 100% whole wheat.

4. A George Foreman grill makes a sandwich something special. For lunch, I often grill two slices of bread or a sandwich thin, filled with a couple slices of ham or turkey and a slice of cheese. You can spray some of that "butter" spray on the outside if you want. I am often lazy and don't bother. WW points, if you use the fat-free cheese and the "deli style" lunch meat that's sliced thin: 2 per sandwich. Add most vegetables, like sliced tomatoes, for no added points.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons; apparently is Julius Moser's 1808 painting, your favorite and mine, Spaghetti essender Junge, Roma

5. I like organic Ragu spaghetti sauce because it doesn't have chunks of tomatoes in it. It also turns out that the flavors of organic Ragu (which we get at Kroger), ground turkey and 100% whole wheat angel hair pasta go together well. I didn't like whole wheat pasta when I tried it before, but we've found the right combination. I love it. We don't eat garlic bread on the side, but parmesan cheese is a reasonable low-point addition.

6. We made the change to 100% whole wheat bread a few years ago. My recommendation is the 45 Calories & Delightful kind from Sara Lee. It is soft and tastes pretty good, and two slices equals just one WW point.

7. Another of my favorite dinner recipes is the following: Brown some lean hamburger meat and rinse it with water to help drain out fat and to make it sort of crumbly. Add lots of vegetables (you can use fresh, frozen or canned). Top with uncooked biscuits, the Pillsbury kind that come in a can of 10 (use all 10). Bake. The trick here is that you can add all the vegetables you want, without adding fat and a lot of calories. We like to add a can of mixed vegetables, and a package or two of some frozen variety. Look at what is in those frozen vegetables -- some are lightly seasoned, and taste good without being salty or buttery. The biscuits we use are 1 WW point apiece, the lean hamburger maxes out at 5 (I think), and the vegetables might be about a point total per person, for a generous helping, if they're not swimming in a creamy sauce.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons; by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos, released under the GFDL license

8. Macaroni and cheese is really high in WW points. For the occasional splurge, treat it as your main course and surround it with low- or no-point vegetables.

9. We use butter spray on corn cobs and toast. Actually, we rarely use butter/margarine anymore, except occasionally for baking. If I eat biscuits at home, I have them with apple butter or I just eat them with whatever else I'm having.

10. Measure your cereal and your milk -- one cup each is reasonable for a breakfast. Cheerios are my go-to choice for cereal, since they are low in sugar and keep me full longer than most (all?) cereals I've tried. I eat a cup of plain Cheerios with a tablespoon of sugar and a cup of skim milk for 4 total points, or a cup of Honey Cheerios and a cup of skim milk for 4 points. My mom eats a cup of plain Cheerios (1 point) with a light yogurt (2 points). Also, I think organic skim milk tastes better than the non-organic kind, and it seems to fill me up longer, or at least it did when I first started drinking it. It costs more than regular milk, but if you start measuring your milk intake, you might actually drink less and find yourself wasting part of the gallon anyway. Organic milk has a longer shelf life, too.

Soon, I hope to post a short list of tips specifically related to eating out.

Insta-Gems: Aliens, Scary Movies & a Young Leonardo DiCaprio

2010-03-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ah, Netflix. Without you, I could not rent past seasons of TV shows that didn't air on Fox or cable. There would be no Film Sack podcast. I would have a lot less mail to look forward to.

But Netflix does exist. Obscure movies are obscure no more! I can watch hundreds of television shows and movies online! Classics! British miniseries! Horrible awful movies with horrible awful acting!

Not that I've been taking advantage of the streaming options like I could. Still, I'm making a little progress and I wanted to share some of the high- and lowlights of my journey into the Netflix-instant abyss.

Yes:

1. "Alien Apocalypse," 88 minutes -- This movie, which I watched last weekend with Tabby, still cracks me up when I think about it. Bruce Campbell: check. Terrible fake beards and wigs: check. Bad acting by most people not named Bruce Campbell: Check. Repeated, occasionally apathetic, synchronized cheers: check. Insect-like aliens who have enslaved Earth and taken over its lumber supply: check. This may be my favorite Netflix-instant movie so far. Just be sure to watch it with a friend, and expect to have fun with it. Freedom!*

2. "What Are Dreams?: Nova," about 51 minutes -- An interesting look into dreams, sleep and the study of dreams. Totally worth it just to see the rat with the brain-tracking tower on its head, and to see a cat acting out its dreams when the part of its brain that causes its body to stay relaxed during REM is paralyzed. (There are humans, too.)

3. "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries," about 48 minutes per episode -- This series started way back in 1977 and alternates between the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, eventually cutting out poor Nancy altogether, or so I've read. I don't remember ever watching it as a kid, back when I would've been 1 or so, but its charm still holds up. Pamela Sue Martin is a great Nancy Drew, Parker Stevenson is really cute as one of the Hardy Boys, and I actually laughed at a joke or two or several. Only some episodes are available online.

4. "Quarantine," 89 minutes -- Scary, gory, and may have made me motion sick if I had watched it on a TV or movie screen instead of my laptop, where I could make it smaller and could look away during the jerky/scary parts as desired. Good setup of the characters and plot, and believable utilization of the "Cloverfield"-like filming style, in which everything is seen through the lens of a TV crew's camera. ("Quarantine" is a remake of a Spanish-language movie called "Rec.")

Seen on the window of a closed Blockbuster store in Huntington, W.Va.

No (or, Movies I Didn't Watch in Their Entirety):

1. "Nine Dead," 86 minutes -- Oh, miscast Melissa Joan Hart. I only watched the first and last few minutes, and occasional minutes in between, but I saw enough. This movie is about a guy who kidnaps a bunch of people and handcuffs them to poles in his basement, killing off one person every 10 minutes unless they figure out why they're there. "Nine Dead" features a lot of bad acting in a bad way. The bad acting in "Alien Apocalypse" is bad-amusing; this is just bad. Its lameness lacks a sense of humor, it wasn't commissioned by the SciFi/Syfy channel, and its shortcomings are therefore lame and not fun. The guy in the mask was a pleasant surprise, and he did OK with the acting.

2. "The Canyon," 97 minutes -- A couple goes on a honeymoon and gets lost in a canyon, or something. I watched (part of) this because of: a) an interest in hearing Yvonne Strahovski speak in her native Australian accent (which she didn't), and to see how she did in a role outside "Chuck"; b) an instinct that says I like Eion Bailey, who has actually not been in much/anything that I've watched; and c) an underlying attraction to fringe "horror" and "thriller" movies (see above) that I rarely actually watch. I ultimately skipped a lot, because who cares really, and I even managed (thankfully) to miss the big moment at the end when -- spoiler alert -- she kills her wounded husband to save him from being attacked/eaten by a wild animal, only to be rescued moments later. No. Just watch "Chuck" instead.

3. "Excalibur," 140 minutes -- After watching the gem of enjoyable ridiculousness that is "Alien Apocalypse," Tabby and I watched another Film Sack-inspired movie, "Excalibur." About an hour into it, we realized we still had more than an hour left, and we couldn't face that prospect, and so we skipped through, watching bits here and there. The best part of the movie is the "angry acting," which involves all the men yelling most of their lines. Also, Arthur looks like a cross between Mark Hamill and Chris Lipp, for those of you who know both of them. These pictures don't really show their resemblance like watching them act (Arthur, Mark)/exist in person (Chris) would, but here are Arthur, Mark and Chris:

I didn't really buy Nigel Terry as Arthur, and his voice sometimes seems like it's a different person being dubbed in, but I'm sure he's a decent fellow in general. Gabriel Byrne is better as Uther, and Merlin is odd and not very wizardy, and all the women had to agree to be naked at some point in the movie. Them and Lancelot.

4. "Portrait of Leonardo," 53 minutes -- Tabby and I continued our Netflix Streaming Day with this 2000 look into the films and life of Leonardo DiCaprio, pre-Martin Scorcese. We actually watched the entire "portrait," which veered boringly into spotlights of "Marvin's Room" and "Titanic," and also allowed several unrecognizable Hollywood insiders, including an astrologist and a poorly lit Dr. Joyce Brothers, to reflect on aspects of Leonardo's talent and fame. The video seems directed at tweens, but includes brief references to drinking and nude pictures and stuff that doesn't jibe with the teen-magazine feel of the narration, production and tone of the, um, portrait. Overall, it's sort of fun for a goof, though the video's wretched Leo-related theme song burrows into your brain and lies in wait for the right moment to spring upon you again, like a serial killer, while any sort-of-humorous side to its lameness dulls the more you remember it. In lieu of watching "Portrait of Leonardo," you might just want to gaze upon its fan-art cover design, which really tells you all you need to know about it.

*Also, the president lives! (The president lives!)

Ides of March: A Lesson

2010-03-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Death of Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini

A short lesson from Wikipedia about today, the Ides of March:

The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term "ides" was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term "Ides of March" is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 709 AUC or 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus and 60 other co-conspirators.

According to Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated) Caesar saw the seer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar," when Caesar is warned to "beware the Ides of March."

Thoughts:

1. We are already halfway through March?

2. When I typed in "ides of march" into Wikipedia, I actually typed "ideas of march."

3. The reference to the "seer" makes me think of this English class project I did with friends in high school, in which we videotaped ourselves in a scene from some old play or other. I think I played the soothsayer. Was this "Julius Caesar"? Rebecca, Hope, do you remember this? We recorded it in Rebecca's basement.

4. Mars was the Roman god of war. (Per Wikipedia, he was initially a god of fertility and vegetation and a protector of cattle, fields and boundaries and farmers. ... Mars later became associated with battle as the growing Roman Empire began to expand, and he came to be identified with the Greek god Ares. Unlike his Greek counterpart, Mars was generally revered and rivaled Jupiter as the most honoured god. He was also the tutelary god of the city of Rome. As he was regarded as the legendary father of Rome's founder, Romulus, it was believed that all Romans were descendants of Mars.) Anyway ... "god of war" made me think of the KISS song "God of Thunder," and now that's in my head.

Mars doesn't look like what I thought he'd look like

Bucky the Vampire Slayer

2010-03-05T18:24:00.001-08:00

Starbuck Aroo Cuppett goes by many names. Bucky. Bucket. Buck. Buckaroo. Buckster. Buckles. Bucket. And more.

She is also cuter than you can imagine if you haven't spent time around her. She has a little face that just warms your heart to look at it. She looks thoughtful, sometimes wise, and she's covered with this thick, velvety fur over her stocky little body.

With her nickname-friendly name and all that overflowing cuteness, I of course started to think of phrases and words that could incorporate Starbuck's name. The idea of a (very amateur) poster series was born.

Thus, poster #1, Bucky the Vampire Slayer:

I took inspiration from Buffy DVD set covers and comic books. "Bucky" is written in a typeface called Buffied that I downloaded online.

Starbuck, by the way, is not allowed to play with vampires.

Books 4 & 5: Alice in Wonderland

2010-03-04T17:42:00.001-08:00

I recently read both "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel, "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There," which I wanted to complete before watching the new Tim Burton movie that comes out tomorrow. (The movie timing is now irrelevant, since I don't want to watch it in 3D. I'll wait for it to go to the $2 theater, or DVD.)

When I started "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," I thought I would like it a lot. I enjoy the tone of those children's books that speak in a pleasant storyteller voice while expecting their readers to be able to follow and understand, as intelligent, thoughtful children who like a good fantastical story. My favorite writers in this vein are C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl.

Unfortunately, while the tone is promising, the storyline of "Alice" happens to rely heavily on the sort of plot that I'm coming to realize I do not like: Basically, one person wanders from one weird, unmotivated encounter to the next. I can imagine this working as a series of made-up stories someone would tell to children on the fly, but as a book, it's not my favorite.

Making things worse, most of the book's characters are unlikable, and often mean. Sometimes fictional people who are mean or unpleasant are still likable, or at least they are people you like to spend time with (example: Dr. House). And then there are the ones you don't want to be around, even vicariously. People who make you think, "Why would Alice want to interact with this person?" I did like the Cheshire Cat, and the White Rabbit was OK, and Alice herself is endearing as an imaginative, creative little girl.

A highlight of the book (and its sequel) is its occasional meta commentaries on itself. In chapter 7, author Lewis Carroll writes, "Alice sighed wearily. 'I think you might do something better with time,' she said, 'than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers.' " Carroll sums up what seems to be the outline for his book with this bit in chapter 12: " 'Begin at the beginning,' the King said, very gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.' "

I already felt committed to reading "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There," since the two books are bound together into one in my copy. So it was with ---- resignation that I started the much better sequel.

"Through the Looking Glass" feels less aimless than "Alice" without losing Carroll's hearty appreciation for the weird, unexplainable and dreamlike. The wordplay that felt tedious in the first book was fun in the second, and the running theme of chess in "Looking Glass" was much more interesting than the I'm big/I'm little/I'm big/I'm little stuff in "Alice."

I loved the whole idea of a "Looking Glass" world that exists within and beyond a mirror inside Alice's house, where time does not run from past to future in the way we experience it, and books are written backward. Most of the characters here aren't nearly as unpleasant as those in "Alice," though I'd write out Tweedledee and Tweedledum if I were making the movie. It makes me wonder why the characters I remember from those movie mash-ups of the "Alice" stories are the ones I dislike, save the Cheshire Cat and Alice.

Grades:
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," B-
"Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There," A

To a Tea

2010-03-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Perhaps my best purchase of the past year:

I use this electric kettle at work, where the closest microwave is a few rooms away. I work in the front office, where I spend most of my time by the nature of my job duties. Behind my desk is a filing cabinet with plenty of room for a kettle to sit out of the way, and yet remain at my fingertips with a whirl of my chair. (I looked up "swirl," "twirl" and "whirl" to determine the best word to use there. "Swirl" and "twirl" both mean, among other things, "whirl," by the way.)

With this electric kettle so handy and well-located, I am drinking 3 or 4 cups of tea daily at work. I have bought several flavored teas for home, only to leave most languishing for an indeterminate time in a cabinet that was getting stuffed with tea boxes.

No more. I have finished off several of those flavored teas now, most notably ones that I bought but didn't love, but seemed a waste to throw away. Vanilla chai: Done! Candy Cane Lane: Working on it! It turns out that I don't love vanilla or caramel in tea (unlike coffee), and I prefer Irish Breakfast to English Breakfast, though I'm not entirely convinced there's much difference.

Favorites:
*Green tea with mint, in general
*Green tea with ginger -- I've tried the Tazo tea, and haven't found this option with other brands
*Black tea -- Tazo Awake tea, or Twinings Irish Breakfast
*Cinnamon apple herbal tea -- tried the Celestial Seasonings brand, which smells and tastes rich and great, though I prefer a tea bag with a string so I can use the bag to "stir" the water instead of a spoon or other utensil (I use forks at work because we have so many)

I bought my kettle at Target for maybe $20, after looking in vain for something at Wal*Mart and Lowe's. Several are also available online at Amazon.com.

Book 3: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"

2010-02-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

Photo by Aashish Rao/Aashish Rao Photography
All photos from Wikipedia

"I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis, with which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him." -- Dr. Watson, narrator of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"

It is a cold day today, in a cold season ideal for drinking mugfuls of hot tea and wearing a robe over your clothes/pajamas whenever you're at home. It would be a nice time to sit by a fire and warm your cold appendages, if I had a fire. You might prefer a little bit of brandy, if I had brandy. What I do have, though, is books. Reading a book, and more specifically, burrowing under layers of warm bedclothes to read a book, offers a sort of soothing comfort that other forms of entertainment, or hobbies, do not. With a good or even merely-okay book, you grow accustomed to the characters, the setting and the language, and they become this pleasant, welcoming familiarity, and you just want to return to them and their world of villains to face, and journeys to take, and relationships to develop, and missions to accomplish. And mysteries to be solved, for some.

Earlier this month, I finished "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."The Hound of the Baskervilles" last year and was inspired to look up Holmes online, purchase "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and ask for "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" for Christmas. Watching the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. movie in December further inspired me to read more of the original Holmes stuff, mostly to compare the movie's characterization and my own vague ideas of Holmes with what's actually in the books. Wasn't he tall and skinny, like Jude Law (who played Dr. Watson)? Just how extreme was his cold, analytical nature? Did he ever appear in a "Fight Club" scene in any of the written tales?

Of course, no. Not really. He was a boxer (though I've not come across any actual boxing scenes yet) and a cocaine addict (cocaine was legal at the time). He was also unemotional and detached, interested more in clues than in people. (The first time I heard someone mention the Holmes-"House" comparison, I was surprised it hadn't ever occurred to me. House has Dr. Wilson, Holmes has Dr. Watson. House and Holmes are both drug addicts and are exceptionally skilled at solving perplexing cases. Neither is known for having a soft, ooey-gooey center.) Holmes is accessible, though, to both readers and people who come to him in need. He is detached but not caustic or hateful, and while his interest in a client usually dissipates with the resolution of a case, he often employs a geniality with new clients, speaking calmly and often encouraging them to warm themselves by the fire (and an occasional bit of brandy). Watson considers this geniality one of Holmes' remarkable skills.

"A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into." -- Dr. Watson, "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

Dr. Watson narrates most of Holmes' stories, with the purpose of revealing Holmes' incredible aptitude of puzzle-solving and intuitive ability to understand the details that most people overlook or merely see without grasping their importance. As Holmes himself notes in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," "Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell." His cases don't tend to be the grim sort you'd find on "CSI" or "Law and Order," and even the stories about murder aren't dark and creepy so much as puzzling. Holmes is a genius, and the tales of his genius often grab their reader and make you want to know not only what is going on, but how he figures it out. The resolutions aren't often mind-blowing, but the stories are quite readable and the characters always a welcome companion on those cool evenings when you want to unwind before bed.

Conan Doyle is an accessible author, even more than a century after he first began writing the Holmes canon. (I keep expecting older novels and stories to be difficult to read; it turns out not ever writer born before 1900 was Nathaniel Hawthorne.) Sherlock Holmes, you might be interested to know, has been around since 1887, when he appeared in his first story, "A Study in Scarlet." This was followed by another novel, "The Sign of the Four," and eventually two more novels and 56 short stories. The short stories were originally published in periodicals and were later gathered into five anthologies. The Sherlock Holmes canon, chronologically:

"A Study in Scarlet," published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual
"The Sign of the Four," published 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," short stories published 1891–1892 in The Strand
"The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes," short stories published 1892–1893 in The Strand
"The Hound of the Baskervilles," serialised 1901–1902 in The Strand
"The Return of Sherlock Holmes," short stories published 1903–1904 in The Strand
"His Last Bow," stories published 1908–1913 and 1917
"The Valley of Fear," serialised 1914–1915 in The Strand
"The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes," short stories published 1921–1927

Before I read "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes," I think I'll go back and try the first two novels, and plan to read the rest of the canon then in order. I also look forward to a "Sherlock Holmes" sequel sometime in the near future, short Holmes or no.

Grade: A

"It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes celebres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province." -- Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"