Friday, March 28, 2008

enjoy the talent of the Boston Celtic and Americana music scene Saturday night!

Short version:

Come experience some kickass plucking, strumming, and fiddling Saturday night at 11pm as a host of talented Boston Celtic and Americana musicians, rounded up by Hanneke Cassel, take to the stage at Club Passim in Harvard Square!

Hanneke Cassel on miceSpace

Club Passim

Long version:

Saturday is the final night of fiddling majestrix Hanneke Cassel's residency shows at Club Passim in Harvard Square. Past shows in the series have featured some wonderful rollicking original tunes including "The Ron Burgandy Tribute" and the Voetbergs' "Kung Fu Homeschooler," as well as music from ONCE, LORD OF THE RINGS, and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, the opening theme from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, and an incredible closing number last week of PHANTOM MENACE's "Duel of the Fates."

Pretty frickin kickass. =)

This week is gonna be a finale of a show, showcasing the talent of the local Celtic and Americana music scenes, featuring fellow fiddling crimefighters and banjo team-ups with The Deadly Sins, Simplifly (Hanneke, Aoife O'Donovan, Laura Cortese), Tashina Clarridge, Ben Krakauer... and more!

The show starts at 11pm (tickets $10, $11 in advance), so if you're game, we can warm up with a late dinner somewhere else in the Squarea and then check it out. Sure to be a foot-stomping good time. You don't hafta go with me (form your own posse!), but, really, you've gotta go! =)

Get in touch if you want to rendezvous.

Keep on keepin on~

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Thank you, Easter Bunny...

Secret Lives: Easter Begins
Sweet Zombie Jesus!

In case you weren't around last year or the year before, you can find out what happens next here. You do NOT want to miss it. =)

Keep on peepin on~

p.s. Thanks to BA for the peep show. =)

"Number 6: Number Six"

So say we all.

Keep on keepin on~

Friday, March 07, 2008

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR: the Zen master and the boy

Saw it tonight (again). A parable that Hoffman's CIA man Gust offers to Hanks's Congressman Wilson, paraphrasing from what my perforated memory can recall...
Gust: Did I ever tell you the story of the Zen master and the little boy? On his 16th birthday, a boy gets a horse as a present. All the villagers say, "How wonderful!" The Zen master says, "We'll see." One day, the boy is thrown from the horse and is hurt and can no longer walk. All the villagers say, "How terrible!" The Zen master says, "We'll see." A short time later, war begins, and all the young men of the village are taken away to be soldiers, but this boy can't fight, so he is spared, and all the villagers say, "How wonderful!"

Charlie: And the Zen master says, "We'll see..."

Gust: You're catching on...

See this movie. Excellent script and story, kickass cast, including the always amazing Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and if you're not careful, you might just learn a thing or two. It's remarkable, uncanny, really, how the events of 20 years ago parallel much of what's happening today. History repeating itself. Doomed to be repeated. History as cautionary tale. Alas, this particular one comes to theaters a bit late. Check it out!

Tonight was my second screening of the film. A week or so after my first screening, I went out and picked up the book. It's several books down on the next-read queue, but I'm gonna bump it up to the first spot, so that I can get into it with the movie still (once again) fresh in my every-smoothing mind.

I wonder if Aaron Sorkin wrote himself into this script as a certain minor character, or perhaps it was actually him. Would be too perfectly kooky if that was the case.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: It's very stressful, being an Other, Jack.

From the "previously, on LOST" montage...

Daniel: Rescuing you and your people, can't really say it's our primary objective...

I just like that line.

Before things really get started, I just want to say that right now, I don't care if the black smoke grabs Charlotte and repeatedly throws her into the sonic fence. She is annoying and unlikeable as hell. Miles is a bastard, but I like him. Charlotte? Not so much. She's gotta go.

Okay. A Juliet story. We've got Juliet and a tabletop rock garden in what looks like one of the village bungalows. What up with the painted whore look? I thought she was recruited *after* the 80s?

Juliet: Please dont take this the wrong way, but I really don't think I need therapy.

A visit from the Island psychiatrist, Harper someone. To check up on Juliet's settling in after her first week in the village on the Island. Frack. Where have I seen this woman before? Is she a LOST blond that we've seen before?

Whoa. Did you see that? Was Ben checking out Juliet's backside? Not at all subtle, man. But hey, could be interresting. Back in the heydey of the Others, was he more like your classic egomaniacal cult leader, with lots of conquests among his recruits? Wives?

Meanwhile, in the present...

Hey hey! The whispering jungle is back. We now know that that was always the Others, right? And not, like, the Island? Hey, wow! Island-reanimated Harper!

Harper: Hello Juliet, Long time, no see.

Oh, no, wait. She's alive. Apparently. Nuts.

Harper: They're heading to the Tempest. and if they figure out how to deploy that gas, then everyone on this island is going to die.

Harper: Ben is exactly where he wants to be.

Juliet: How am I supposed to stop them?

Harper: By pointing a gun and pulling the trigger.

Whispering and then disappearing? That's a new trick, isn't it? Hrmmm... Is Harper alive, or isn't she?

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Goodwin: She's my wife.

Juliet: If you promise not to tell anyone what I said about your wife, I won't tell anyone that you liked about how you burned your arm. I know a chemical burn when I see one.

Goodwin: By the way, I'm Goodwin.

Juliet: Juliet.

Meanwhile, in the present...

Juliet claims that Daniel and Charlotte are heading to an electrical station that powers the island. The same lie that Goodwin told?

Faraday has a map of the island. With at least one of the stations marked (the Tempest). Where did he (and his people) get that?

Daniel: What happens if I? What if I can't do it?

Charlotte (after clocking Kate): What?

Ha! That was funny. Still, what a bitch.

Juliet: It's very stressful, being an Other, Jack.

Haha! More funny. =)

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Ben continues to look way creepily at Juliet. Okay, this looks more like a unique crush or obsession scenario than a regular occurance for Ben. Ben and Juliet, sitting in a tree~

Do you think maybe he wrote "Juliet Linus" all over his Trapper Keeper?

Harper: So, Juliet. What do you think of Ben?

Juliet: He's great. Very smart, and intense, and challenging. He's been very good to me.

Harper: Of course he has. You look just like her.

Just like who? Ben's little girlfriend? Was there an adult old flame that we haven't met yet? Ben's mother, whom he's never known alive?

Oh! Harper's the Dennis Leary's bitch wife from RESCUE ME!

Harper: If you continue to have a relationship with Goodwin, there will be consquences. I don't want him to get hurt.

Hurt like... Murdered by Anna Lucia-hurt? Okay, this Ben obsession is looking more interesting. Ben will take Goodwin out for stealing his babe, Juliet.

Meanwhle, in the present, back at Smurf village...

Ben IS reading his VALIS. Frack. I've been meaning to pick that up. I feel like I've got it somewhere already, tho. Might hafta open up some boxes this weekend. Foo.

Ben: Rabbit today?

Locke: Runnin out of chickens.

Ben: This didn't have a number on it, did it?

Heh. Aw. Poor number eight.

Ben: So, has the revolution begun yet?

Ben: I always have a plan.

Locke: Does it involve you raising 3.2 million dollars? That's a lot of money.

Ben: I can help you John. We have shared interests, or at least a common enemy.

Again with the Ben button pushing and needling... It's so transparent now for someone watching the show, but I guess at this point, it's also that way for the people he's working over. Locke KNOWS what he's getting into, but has to deal with him this way.

Random thought. I wonder how Scientological Ben and the Others are...

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Goodwin and Juliet picnic on the beach. Wine, swiped off the sub. How romantickal. Blurgh.

Goodwin: Why? Because he has a crush on you?

Goodwin: What's Ben gonna do?

He's gonna send you to the Tailies, dude.

Meanwhile, in the present...

On the trail of Daniel and Charlotte, Juliet and Jack find Kate knocked out. Lucky. Man, this island's small. Then again, we've seen Jacob's cabin apparently move, perhaps the Island can reshape itself, or cloud people's minds into following paths it wants them to take.

Kate: Jack, they had gas masks.

So, this was their plan from the start? A replay of the Ben's coup from years ago? Wipe the Island clean of living humans and then plunder it, keep its secrets and resources for themselves.

Back at Smurf village...

Ben: If my people still wanted me, they would have stormed this camp long ago. It's behind that picture...

Ben: 36-15-28.

Freakish measurements, no? Juliet's? Heh.

In the safe is a videocassette. The tape that Ben showed Jack?

Locke: "RED SOX?"

Ben: I taped over the game.

Ha! Whoa, Charles Widmore! Sweet!

Locke: Who's the man in the blindfold?

Ben: One of my people who had the misfortune to be caught.

Ben: Charles Widmore wants to exploit this island and he'll do everything in his power to possess it.

Locke: Your man on the boat. I want you to tell me who it is.

Ben: Allright but you might want to sit down.

I like the idea that it could be Michael. (Thanks, Monette!) He's the only one who's left the Island that we already know. How Michael would be in contact with Ben is a big question mark, tho. Would Ben have directed Michael to his agents on the outside? Maybe Walt is communicating with Ben, Professor X style?

Good angle on Widmore. He's not PART of Dharma, but he's following their tracks, and the Island's roots. Slightly different from my theories, but I'll allow it...

Meanwhile, on the way to the Tempest...

Kate: God knows where Juliet is.

Apparently, she's at the shield control bunker on Endor.

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Ben: Sorry, I have to get this Ham out of the oven or it will dry out.

Juliet: Ben, I thought this was a dinner party.

Ben: Just you and me...~ I guess I should've made that clearer.

Awww... Am I allowed to feel sorry for Ben? A false pretenses date!

Zack and Emma! The kids taken from the Tailies. Interresting.

Juliet: They've been asking me about their mother in Los angeles.

Ben: They'll stop asking in time.

Ben: They're on the list, Juliet. Who are we to question who's on the list and who's not?

Hrmm... I wonder if we'll see or hear about Zack and Emma's mom. Searching for them? Perhaps connected to Widmore?

Charlotte and Juliet. This is a pretty lame catfight. What? They couldn't write in some kind of cooling tank for them to splash around in?

Charlotte: We're trying to disable it before he can use it against us. Look me in the eye in tell me you are certain that Benjamin Linus would not use this gas to kill everyone on this island... He used it once before.

Daniel: That... was a close one.

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Juliet: Why are you showing me this? Why did you bring me out here?

Ben: What, you mean instead of his wife?

Juliet: You knew this would happen... You sent him out here because you knew this would happen... Why?

Ben: Why? You're asking me why? After everything I've done to get you here? After everything I've done to keep you here? How can you possibly not understand... that you're mine!

Ben: Take as much time as you need.

I'm not sure I love this odd weakness of Ben's...

Meanwhile, in the present...

Juliet: It's okay. They're on our side.

Dammit, Kate, just feckin clock Charlotte! "Our side or not," she deserves it.

Juliet: He wanted me to kill them. Ben, he told me to kill both of them.

Juliet: Don't you understand? These people came here to wage war against Ben, and Ben is going to win, and when he does, you don't want to be anywhere near me.

Jack: Why is that?

Juliet: Because Ben thinks that I'm his, and he knows how I feel about you.

Jack: He knows where to find me.

Well, okay. That's sort of a good reason for Ben's weakness.

Meanwhile, back at Smurf village...

Sawyer playing horseshoes w Hurley.

Hurley: I dunno. Guess I'm just lucky.

The LAST of the Oceanic 6? That means they're counting Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, *and* Aaron as the first five? I really didn't like the idea of Aaron being counted. That's annoying. Bleah.

Charlotte tells Juliet that Ben's gassed the Island before. I wonder if Juliet knows about that. I'd think that only the Others who were on the Island at the time would know, and post-coup recruits would have no idea. And *is* that how the coup went? I thought I remembered there being cannisters of gas, and it being localized to the village, and Ben taking care of his pop, Roger Work Man, in the van personally with a dose of some kind as well. Or... Did Ben just look at his watch and then put on his gas mask? Hrmm... That would fit. Guess I just imagined gas grenades or whatever, dropped into village bungalows, and Roger's van, as the delivery system, without seeing them.

Widmore! So, not as much a cartel or conspiracy as a single rich eccentric egomaniac with time on his hands... Still, doesn't mean that guys like Jack's dad and Sun's dad aren't in cahootz with him, just that Ben's identified him as a ringleader.

Does Widmore own Oceanic? Maybe the route of Widmore's boat race was designed to land a competitor on the island. As a pretense for a search and rescue? Desmond just happened to be the one to cross over? Or Desmond, because of his experiences and character and maybe even his relationship to Widmore, was the best candidate for crossing over, and Widmore somehow KNEW this, and purposefully made him an enemy, treating Desmond and challenging him in just such a way that would get him to enter the race in a misguided and hollow attempt to prove his worth and worthiness of Penny. Could he have gone as far as somehow arranging for Penny and Desmond to meet for the first time?

Perhaps Libby was SENT by Widmore into that coffee shop to await Desmond and his story.

Maybe Widmore packed Oceanic 815 with people who had the greatest chances of wanting or needing the Island. Or the kinds of people that the Island wanted or needed most. Baited the Island (and Jacob) into taking the plane. But also on the plane were just the right people to open up the Island to vulnerability, to challenge Ben and the Others, keep them busy while Widmore closed in.

Keep on keepin on~