13th generation n. The generation born between 1961 and 1981, so-called because they are identified as the 13th generation since the founding of the United States.
Well I have to say, I really enjoyed tonight's episode of LOST. It was funny and more importantly, included so many of the characters that have been conspicuously absent this season. What struck the most was how I had actually forgotten that a typical episode would check in with most, if not all, of the characters on the beach.
STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!
Of course there was one absent Lostie on the beach; Jack is with The Others, but I really didn't miss him much. Although I am starting to like him again, I am feeling Jack-fatigue from his almost constant focus of the first ten episodes not to mention his two flashbacks thus far this season. In any event, it was nice to see Hurley, Jin, Charlie and Vincent (!) having a good time this week.
As has become the case with flashbacks this season, we learned very little about Hurley that we didn't already know although we did learn the source of his weight problem. It was also touching to see him having a very heartfelt conversation with Libby in the graveyard. I hope we see her again in some flashbacks this year; there has got to be more to her story.
We also really didn't get a lot of island mythology other than DHARMA had a least one powder blue Volkswagon bus and the poor bastard who died in it was named Roger (Work Man; that made me laugh out loud!). I also have to say that I loved Sawyer's banter with Jin, Hurley and Charlie. He's definitely glad to be out of his cage!
So Hurley and company have "hope" again after getting the bus started and it sure did make me feel good too. What made me feel even better was that Kate sought the help of Danielle Rousseau. Of course we won't find out how Rousseau will be able to help until next week (if you believe the preview...fool me once...). I think next week's episode should start with Kate shaking Rousseau and demanding to know why she has been lying about what she knows about The Others. Of course this is only my opinion and it would be far too logical to ever occur in this show.
So after two weeks of what I considered mediocre episodes, I had a good time watching tonight even if there were no big mysteries revealed. Things seem better now that almost everyone is back on the beach. Now I'm just looking forward to finding out about Mr. Eyepatch.
The answers to three big questions; that's what last week's promo promised, but they failed to deliver...again.
I know that the network execs are really starting to sweat their decisions to put LOST on a thirteen week hiatus and stretch the story out to milk the show for more money, but promising answers and failing to deliver from week to week only hurts the already disgruntled loyal fan base.
STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!
I'm still trying to figure out which three questions last week's promo was referring to, but as I mentioned before, I think that they were supposedly:
1. How did Jack get his tattoos/what do they mean?
2. What happened to the children that were kidnapped by The Others?
3. What happened to Cindy when the Tailies were making their journey across the island?
By the end of the episode, we only really got the answer to number one...and I don't personally know anyone who cared about that. Apparently, it was a big question on message boards, but it was never something that I was concerned with. The producers essentially wrote it into the show because the fans wanted it. You know what else the fans want? MORE ANSWERS!!! So Jack's tattoo says "He Walks Amongst Us But He Is Not One Of Us" which not only summarizes his time in Phuket, but also what appears to be his immediate future in The Others little neighborhood.
Speaking of their quaint little village, it is apparently on the main island. So the Losties really need to explore their island more if they are ever going to get to the bottom of these mysteries. As Sawyer learned from his talks with Karl, The Others "have yards." Speaking of Karl, he sure seemed to be towing The Others' line pretty strong in this episode. When Kate asked him what happened to the kids, Karl said that they were taken so that they could have a better life. And what about the Hydra station on the smaller island? Karl says that they "work" there. So what happened to the kids? Well, we saw them with Cindy outside of the cage in which Jack was being held. Cindy sure seemed to think that everything that that's going on with The Others is fine. The little boy with the teddy bear was there as was the girl who asked Cindy to ask Jack how Ana Lucia was doing. Jack of course being Jack got pissed and ran them all off by yelling at them. So are Karl, Cindy, et al brainwashed or do they really know something that none of us know?
Ben still needs help because his surgical wound is infected. Jack used the opportunity to save Juliet's life seeing as how the creepy "sheriff," Isabel, would have handed her a death sentence for killing Danny Pickett. On thing that really got to me about Jack's conversation with Ben was that Jack said he would respect The Others more if they had a good surgeon. Ben replies that they did and his name was Ethan. So Jack looked shocked whereas I respected The Others even less. If Ethan was their only surgeon and so important to them, WHY THE HELL WAS HE SENT TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK!?!?! It makes no damn sense! That's the kind of crap really pisses me off about this show. It is extremely illogical. Anyway, Jack saves Juliet but she is "marked" not unlike Jack himself. What does the mark mean? Should she care because I seem to remember her being a prisoner and not a true Other. She's still hiding something. But that pretty much sums up the show. And what was with the "Titanic" ending on the boat as they ride back to the main island? No cliffhanger? At least give me something to be excited about next week.
If you believe the preview for next week, it looks like Kate and Sawyer will return to the Losties camp and Hurley and Charlie will go on an exciting adventure. Will we see The Others village as Jack is taken there? Probably not next week. Will we learn anything new? Probably not.
Fat Tuesday has finally arrived and as usual, I feel like I did all of my celebrating before today. Roxi and I met some friends last night and perhaps overindulged in the Lundi Gras specials, so neither of us were really in any mood to do too much drinking today. But we still made it out to see a little bit of the Independent Parade that traditionally closes out the Lafayette festivities. All in all we had a very enjoyable Mardi Gras and am sad to see it go, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to a close.
We passed a good time this weekend with family and friends here in Lafayette for the Mardi Gras. My parents arrived on Thursday night and spent Friday getting things ready for more arrivals. After work, I got home to help Roxi and my parents do some last minute work cleaning up the house and we got everything ready just at about the time that Karl, Jan and Jordan arrived with some of their friends from Houston. They had been out at the Friday Night Parade and were cold and ready for some hot gumbo. As we sat down to a huge pot of chicken and sausage gumbo with some fresh homemade potato salad, Travis and Danielle arrived from College Station. We finished off our gluttonous dinner off with slices of a giant King Cake from Southside Bakery.
Saturday started out slowly with most people waking up in waves throughout the morning. After a lunch of leftover gumbo and desert of Blue Bell's King Cake flavored ice cream(!), we organized ourselves to make it out to the Mardi Gras carnival set up at the end of the parade route at Cajun Field. It was a great day to be outside, but rather windy and so made it a little cooler than we all would have liked. After having a some daiquiris I felt the need to indulge in some fresh boudin and a crab burger. They were absolutely delicious. Of course at this point, I was feeling like I was eating a bit too much, but what the hell, it's Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday! Roxi and I watched as Danielle, Jordan and their friends rode some nauseating looking rides before we headed home to get my parents for the Bonaparte Parade.
After our rendezvous at the house, we made our way back downtown to the tent that Karl's company had set up on the parade route. Roxi got some great rockstar parking a short walk from the tent and we made our way through the crowd to join our group. Just before the parade started, we had to indulge just a little more and have a bowl of hot chili on the very cold night. Finally, the Bonaparte Parade arrived.
Of course all good things come to an end and everyone has to return to their normal lives tomorrow, but I have a couple of days off of work so Roxi and I are planning to enjoy more festivities on Mardi Gras Day.
Due to Valentine's dinner, we weren't able to watch the newest episode of LOST until late into the evening and I was a bit too tired to blog immediately. However, even if I had been able to blog, I feel that I wouldn't have had much to say. Not much has changed since last night. I still don't have too much to say about this episode.
STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!
I guess my first thought was "island flashback" when we started to see a flashback to Desmond turning the failsafe key. However, I quickly realized that he appeared to be hurtled back into his own life in the past. So then I thought he was more like Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. But of course by the end of the episode it was clear, from Desmond's own comments, that when he turned the failsafe key, his life flashed before his eyes and now he knows that Charlie will die no matter what Desmond does to try to stop it. So does that mean that Desmond also had his future life flash before his eyes as well? I would think so which begs the questions, why didn't we see any flash-forwards in addition to the flashback in this episode?
We learned a little more about Penny Widmore and her father and possibly why Desmond was motivated to join the Royal Army. But I wanted a little bit more about the island folks. This episode was 75% flashback to Desmond and Penny!
That's really about all I have to say about this episode other than the ABC promo department is full of liars. Their preview last week for this episode was completely dishonest. It looks now like they were more likely showing a preview that included scenes from the next several episodes.
Of course the promo for next week's episode claims that we will learn the answer to three big questions:
1. What's the story with Jack's tattoos? 2. Why did the Others take the children from Flight 815? 3. What is Cindy doing with the Others? (I guess...I couldn't really figure out the third question.)
But as I've said above, I am a little suspect of the honesty of this preview. I hope that a little more island story happens in the next episode because "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was just okay; not a great episode, but okay.
That's how much The Police will be making on their upcoming tour of North America. I guess that answers the question of how much money it takes for Sting to submit to nostalgia. As expected, more dates will also likely be announced due to popular demand.
With those words, Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers launched into "Roxanne" to open the Grammy Awards last night.
This morning, the three convened at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angleles to officially announce their North American tour that will kick of in Vancouver on May 28. Other official tour dates are as follows:
May 28, 2007 Vancouver BC CA GM Place Jun 06, 2007 Seattle WA US Key Arena Jun 09, 2007 Denver CO US Pepsi Center Jun 15, 2007 Las Vegas NV US MGM Grand Garden Arena Jun 16, 2007 Manchester TN US Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Jun 18, 2007 Phoenix AZ US US Airways Arena Jun 26, 2007 Dallas TX US American Airlines Center Jun 30, 2007 New Orleans LA US New Orleans Arena Jul 02, 2007 St. Louis MO US Scottrade Center Jul 22, 2007 Toronto ON CA Air Canada Centre Jul 25, 2007 Montreal QC CA Bell Centre Jul 28, 2007 Boston MA US Fenway Park Aug 01, 2007 New York City NY US Madison Square Garden Aug 03, 2007 New York City NY US Madison Square Garden
Hopefully more dates will be added due to popular demand.
Other than The Pixies, there is no band that I have most wanted to see live in concert (The Beatles can't really be counted since John Lennon was murdered when I was only three years old). I don't know what the sponsor Best Buy is paying these guys, but it must be a ton for Sting to agree to do this. He has always been pretty much against another tour.
Tickets will surely be scarce and I would say the best bet to see them would be at Bonaroo or any other festival they choose to add to the schedule. I saw The Pixies at Coachella in 2004 thinking that their reunion might be short-lived plus the odds of acquiring tickets were much higher. Other than Bonaroo, most of the listed venues probably only have about a 30,000 person capacity. I would certainly not be crushed if I didn't get to see The Police play, but if I have the opportunity, I certainly intend to take it.
George Lucas is responsible for creating the most popular science fiction film franchise in history, yet he continues to chip away at it by constantly alienating even the most loyal fans. At a recent ceremony while giving an award to Sid Ganis, the publicist for The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas said, "Sid is the reason why The Empire Strikes Back is always written about as the best of the films, when it actually was the worst one." George Lucas is officially irrelevant to the the Star Wars universe.
The first parade of Mardi Gras officially rolled tonight here in Lafayette, Louisiana and it really got me into the spirit of the season! My parents are in town this weekend to help Roxi and I get the house ready for Mardi Gras visitors next weekend. They will be back along with my brother Travis and his fiance Danielle as well as her family and some of their friends. It will be a big group but it is a fun group.
Roxi was busy working on her PhD and my mom was just not in the mood yet, but my dad and I made the quick drive down to the tail end of the parade route near Cajun Field and started the long process of the parade to make it's journey through downtown Lafayette. It's been a while since I've been to a parade in Lafayette and I had kind of forgotten how slowly they move. The parade rolled at 6:30 pm so I was certain that when we arrived at the end of the route at 7:30, it would be right around the corner. But it wasn't and it continued to not roll around the corner for another hour and a half. Finally, at around 9:00 pm, the advanced police escort motorcycles made their way down the street and the parade got going.
The Krewe of Carnival en Rio is apparently the newest parade in town starting in 2005 but they did not disappoint with their much locally hyped Grand Marshal, Mr. Erik Estrada. This video I took is a little dark, but it was indeed Officer Francis Llewellyn 'Ponch' Poncherello from TVs "CHiPs."
We had a fun time and it really got me excited about the coming festivities of next weekend. All in all, time well spent and it was a good dry run for planning wait times for next weekends bigger parades.
LOST is back and as usual it left viewers with more questions than it answered, but the biggest questions might be: Why didn't the producers put an episode like this in the first six of last fall? This was by far the best episode of Season 3 because things actually happened. More happened in this one hour of LOST than happened in the six hours of nothingness that we were given four months ago.
STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!
From the beginning, I had read that this was to be a Juliet-centric flashback, so I was not surprised to see the episode start with the fertility doctor in Miami, and I was also not surprised to see Ethan pop up from the get go. What I did not expect was that the medication Juliet was giving to her sick sister was a fertility experiment as opposed to a cancer treatment.
Moving on from there, as expected, Sawyer and Kate were able to pull off their escape from the cages with the assistance of Alex. Again, no real surprise there. We saw bits of this in some of the LOST Moments and honestly, who else could have had access to the prison island and be willing to help them escape. It was cool to see that Alex had a little hiding place and I'm sure there are plenty more like it both on the prison island and the big island. Alex has a boat and she'll help Sawyer and Kate escape if they help her rescue her boyfriend Karl.
Meanwhile, we learned about how Juliet was once married to her questionably ethical boss in Miami and that she, of her own questionable ethics, was stealing drugs for what I still thought was a cancer treatment for her sister. Back in the operating room, Juliet orders the recapture of Sawyer and Kate with a threat to kill if they can't be returned to the cages. With this Jack, spills the beans to Tom about Juliet's secret communication to Jack about killing Ben on the operating table but making it look like an accident. Tom kicks Juliet out of the operating room for this and the fact that she can be of no assistance in helping Ben. Of course, about this time, Ben comes out of his anesthesia and asks for Juliet to be brought back into the room.
Back in Miami of the past, Juliet's ex-husband and boss coerces her into sharing her research with him so that he can get a publication and be part of the work she is doing, for his own financial benefit of course. Then on the prison island, Tom retrieves Juliet who has a very private conversation with Ben that we, the viewers, are not privy to, although it certainly makes Juliet very emotional. After the conversation, Juliet declares that if Jack continues the surgery, Juliet will help Sawyer and Kate get off the prison island.
In Juliet's past we see her getting what seems to be a very good job offer from a smooth talking recruiter. He hints at her fertility research and shows her lots of slides of the Portland area, the location of the company he represents. Curiously, he shows her a medical slide of a woman's endometrium that she analyzes and believes to belong to a 70-year-old woman. The recruiter tells her quickly that it is from a 26-year-old before telling her that she could have complete freedom of research at their company. At this point, I was pretty sure this part of the story was going to get he to the island which leads me to the question: who's that slide belong to? What's wrong with the female Others? Finally Juliet declares that she would like to take the job, but because of her ex-husband, she can't leave. The only way she could is if he were "to get hit by a bus."
Back on the island, Alex, Sawyer and Kate storm the building holding Karl and we see that he is in a Clockwork Orange-esque "brainwashing/programming" room. Loud techno music is being played and seemingly random images and phrases are being displayed on a large screen. Before Carl is released, we see the following phrases: "Plant a good seed and you will joyously garner fruit," "Everything Changes," "We are the causes of our own suffering," "God loves you as He loved Jacob," and "Think About Your Life." We also catch a quick glimpse at Gerald DeGroot. All this even hypnotizes Sawyer until he is snapped out if it by the rescue of Karl. Pickett is right behind Sawyer and Kate until he is informed by Juliet that they are to be released. Always one to hold a grudge, he refuses and continues his pursuit.
Back in Miami, we find out that Juliet's research does work and that it has caused her cancerous sister to become pregnant. Juliet goes to tell her ex-husband about the success and he takes it as a major breakthrough for his research. She refuses to share information with him and as he is threatening more coercion...he is hit by a bus!
Back on the island, Jack is working on Ben with Tom doing his best not to vomit from seeing the blood. Jack is making conversation and asks if they have the power to get off the island, why wasn't Ben taken to a facility for surgery. Tom responds with: "Because ever since the sky turned purple..." At this point Jack accidentally cuts something that bleeds out and in typical LOST fashion, the answer to a big question is snatched away from us just as it was about to be given.
Alex, Karl, Sawyer and Kate reach the beach and Alex's boat. As the escape is imminent, Pickett approaches with gun drawn, ready to kill Sawyer. Just as it appears that he is about to shoot Sawyer, Juliet shows up and shoots Pickett three times and kills him! I'm really starting to like Juliet! Juliet tells everyone they can go, except Alex. Alex of course asks why and Juliet says: "We both know your father and the only way he'll let Karl live is if you're here when he wakes up." So as many of us speculated, Ben is Alex's father. This opens many questions about Danielle's entire story? If she is Alex's mother, was she once part of the Others? Was she ever really on a research team that crashed on the island? I have been wanting a Danielle flashback since the beginning of the second season. I hope that we get a little something about her this year.
Jack's still working on Ben and gets Tom's help suctioning the blood during the surgery when Kate walkie talkies in to tell Jack that they are safe. She tells Jack the story of his most terrifying surgery experience the he told her in episode one. All the while, Tom is looking on wondering if Jack is the best person to be performing spinal surgery on Ben. Jack is satisfied with the story and tells Kate to never return to the prison island to rescue him. Jack tells Tom to turn off the walkie talkie and thus ends the conversation. Sawyer, Kate and Carl set off to return to their island leaving Juliet and Alex watching from the beach.
Back in Miami, Juliet is identifying the body of her dead ex-husband. She breaks down and cries but is comforted by Ethan Rom and the recruiter for the company from Portland. She asks how they knew she was there and they have some cover story. She starts putting things together and thinks that they killed her ex-husband the way that she flippantly suggested in her meeting with him. They want her to come work for them for six months and she can be back in time for her sister's baby to be born. She asks if her sister can come but is denied because they are actually outside of Portland and there are no clinics that can treat her sister's cancer.
Back in the operating room, Ben is recovering from successful surgery and Jack asks Juliet what Ben told her that made her help Sawyer and Kate. She doesn't want to tell him, but Jack demands that for all he has been through, he deserves an answer. Juliet replies, "I've been on this island for three years Jack; three years, two months and twenty-eight days. He said that if I let him live and I helped you, that he would finally let me go home." Personally I saw this coming during her flashback, but this gives us a real time frame to work with. One of the people that Roxi and I watched this episode with informed us that on the time on the show (December 3, 2004), counting back three years, two months and twenty-eight days would put Juliet on the island on September 11, 2001. Very interesting.
So this was a pretty good way to start back in on LOST. Not the best episode ever, but it actually delivered some of the goods. I just hope that they don't feel the need to insert a bunch of filler episodes otherwise the producers may lose the goodwill that I am feeling for them right now.
UPDATE: Roxi found this video of Room 23 (the brainwashing room) on YouTube:
Also, as mentioned on Fark.com, here is a file posted on YouTube that supposedly plays the audio from the above scene backwards and it reveals several different voices saying: "Only fools are enslaved by time and space."
I'm not sure if this is legitimate, but it would seem to go along with other hints by the producers about island time vs. real world time as well as a hint in the name of the company that Juliet is being recruited for: Mittelos Bioscience. Mittelos is an anagram for "Lost Time." And although I don't try to read too much into the books that appear in the show, the guy who was guarding the building where Karl was kept was reading a copy of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time." Perhaps these are all coincidences or perhaps they will never be addressed again on the show, but something tells me that they will be mentioned again.
Several months ago I read a story that I hoped was untrue, but today I found this article that appears to confirm the existence of a script for Ghostbusters 3 as well as confirmation of plans for production. Dan Aykroyd has decided to go forward with his plans to ruin another classic movie of the 1980s (i.e. Blues Brothers). But he is taking this turd even further down Shit Creek.
It won’t happen as a live action because Billy [Murray] won’t come on to the live action but he will voice his part, as a CGI animated project.
Good lord! An animated version of a movie no one wants! I would quote more of Aykroyd's comments about the movie, but I am crying too much to work on this post any longer. I weep for our future.
The end is finally here. This is the last LOST Moment before the season resumes next week. More about Jack's tattoos...I don't think I care but I guess the writers are determined to make it an important part of the show.
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