LOST: (imploded) but not forgotten...

No more spooky UV map. Except what Locke manages to scribble from memory... Stupid imploded hatch! Bleah.

And, hey! What Desmond knows/remembers. Snowman, and (granted, invisibble) painting onlooker, and all... The Pearl *was* a surprise to him, but according to the map, it would have been, right?

We also lost those murals in the corridor! Although no survivors ever really gave them too much consideration on the show. Still, they looked kind of CANDYMAN spooky to me. Did Desmond paint those? Kelvin? Razinksy or whatever-his-name-was who splattered himself on the Hatch ceiling? Will Locke ever bring up the UV map in convo with Desmond?

Frickin frackin sazzafrazzin TV show... GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

*sigh*

I realized something after posting my last LOST entry. The Others do the costumed-as-savages thing for the benefit of the Dharma Hatchlings. Could be costumes, for their assigned act, or disguises, to cover their island activities and engender underestimation of their resources and threat level. Kelvin referred to them as something snarky, like "the natives," when he discouraged Desmond from exploring outside the hatch on his own. Other civilized Dharma Hatch tenders would think of them in the same way—wacky natives. I don't think any of the orientation films or vids have referred to island denizens, so maybe Dharma has them active on the Island as part of whatever simulation/psych experiment they're running on the Hatchlings (was there any reference to them in the excerpts from the pile of notebooks?), OR, perhaps Dharma doesn't know about them at all, which would mean that the Others are a group APART from Dharma that periodically need to mess around on the island, but appear to be "natives," stranded castaways without access to tech or sophisticated tools and materials...

Black Cloud. Dharma guard dog? Dharma guard dog gone rabid? Dharma experiment? Dharma experiment gone haywire/escaped subject? A god? A god complex? Does it care about Good and Bad and guilt and repentance...?

Thanks (for nothing!) to enabler Kirsten for the map to the map! =)

Keep on keepin on~

my feelgood hit movie weekend...

The PUSHER trilogy plays as the late shows at Brattle this weekend. Anyone wanna check it out?Also, keep a close eye on the Brattle schedule for the next few weeks as they continue to screen classic foreign film fare from the Janus Films library.
I remember the two-faced doorway God's image with the logo appearing before all the Kurasawa films I watched on VHS way back when. If you see anything coming up that piques your interest, but you don't think you can finish a large popcorn by yourself, do get in touch and I'll see what I can do to help you out. =)

This weekend—PUSHER!

Keep on tweakin on~

Halloweenerds =)

Some pretty nifty and nerdy costumes. Submissions to WIRED's gallery of Techie Halloween Costumes.


Keep on geekin on~

LOST: You speak to me as if I were your brother.

Well! Fina-frickin-lutely! The return of the Black Cloud!

And... those frickin second stringers. Maybe they'll be like STAR TREK's "red shirts," more disposable human shields than characters? Well, I can hope. Well, okay, just the guy. We can keep the girl, right? =)

When she was speaking up down in the Pearl (two birds, one stone), I wondered if the writers wanted to advance some of the second stringers as "voices of the fans," y'know? The show's g(r)eek chorus, bringing up questions and events that the Cool Kids have repeatedly ignored, for whatever reasons, but viewers, and people with a few hundred less issues, have *got* to be asking...

As long as they're entertaining and/or helpful, I'll suffer them.

Guy with the eye patch. WTF? Do we need another mystery person manning another mystery hatch? I'm pretty sure we don't. Looked like it could've been the setup for another EM containment hatch, eh?

And was that eyepatch dude the craggy guy from PROFILER and lately STARGATE and one of the bad guy sons from GOONIES? Eyepatch...

Echo. I'm going to miss him. Y'know, until the Island (or the Black Cloud) decides to reanimate him to communicate with other survivors.

The way that Yemmi and the Cloud tag-teamed Echo made it appear like they were one and the same. Especially when they one-two him at the end. WTF up with that? Echo "faced" the Cloud down last season and walked away. What changed?

Something that occurred to me early on in this episode... The Black Cloud was likely already on the island before Oceanic 815 (I thought maybe it was Walter's Id, and maybe it is, I'm just talkin here, another theory, y'know), but not necessarily before Echo's brother's plane. It could have been created by the small plane's crash, or delivered, somehow. Maybe it's a kind of Ju-On Curse...

Just talkin...

Something that I was hoping for before this episode... That the spinal x-rays were of Locke, not Ben. Even when Jack confronts Ben about it, I was still hoping that Ben was just playing dumb/along to not give anything up.

I would really like for there to be some internal problems regarding Ben's leadership of the others, but of course, it could all just be more of the brainwashing/breaking game...

Bastards.

So, the x-rays *could* still be Locke's, and the tumor the cause of the loss of the use of his legs in the real world... They could persuade Jack to operate, and then do a switcheroo on the patients, with the body covered by hospital sheets or whatever, with a cutout for the spinal area that needs to be worked on. Could be a test to see if Jack would actually let Ben die under the knife. Or maybe just paralyze him.

Oh, that would be FUN! =)

The politics within the Others' camp... Interesting. A distraction from real Island mysteries, of course, but interesting. It's a pretty consistent set-up, when you recall the smartass "guess I'm out of the book club" remark/non-sequitur from the premiere, followed thru with Ben treating Juliet as expendable, and Juliet pretty obviously not appreciative of being ordered around.

Ben's proof of God is nice and LOSTy...

___________________________________________________________
Ben:	Do you believe in God, Jack?
Jack:	Do you?
Ben:	Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky... And if that's not proof of God, I don't know what is.
___________________________________________________________

How many other wishes were fulfilled by Desmond not entering those numbers in time?

___________________________________________________________
Locke:	Echo's heading for the plane that crashed on top of the entrance to the Pearl station.
Desmond:	Well, that's quite a coincidence.
Locke:	Don't mistake coincidence for fate...
___________________________________________________________

I would like some clarification on what Locke believes in each episode now. I've accepted that he's flipped back to being a true-believer after being All Wrong about the numbers and his hatch, but it's a bit annoying that it hasn't been addresed by himself, Charlie, Desmond, or even Echo, all of whom were present at the hatch implosion, y'know?

Maybe Wendy or Marvin will get around to asking them about it.

Does BURNING a corpse give it over to the Black Cloud's realm of control? And death without immolation offers it up to the Island's authority? We've seen Jack's dad, Anna Lucia, Boone, and Echo's brother appear post-mortem, to Jack, Echo, Locke, and Locke and Echo, respectively, apparently benevolently. This is the first time that we've seen the identity of a dead body on the Island used to deceive and punish a survivor.

They burned Colleen's body.

I really don't think that Juliet looks *uncannily* like Jack's ex-ED-wife, do you?

Not even cannily.

Even tho he'd killed quite a few people in his life, Echo's name was on a list. A list of the "good guys" that the Others wanted to abduct. Were those somehow righteous/justifiable kills? After clubbing two of the Others, does he no longer make that list? The Black Cloud didn't touch him even then.

Where are the newbie Others? Y'know, abductees from Oceanic 815? Smashing rocks?

This second island business... So unnecessary, bleah. Is it invisible from the survivors' island? Is it on the UV painted map? Is it b.s., and the island that Ben showed Sawyer is some kind of meteorological reflection phenomenon?

Nah. I suppose it's there. A smaller island within sight of the big LOST island. Does it share all the strange properties of the big island? Does the healing/pain-killing/mind-over-matterness of the big island also apply on the small one? Did the polar bears swim over? What's up with the sub? Seemed like Jack was led out of his aquarium cell to the viking funeral (and also to surgery last episode) pretty quickly/directly, with no reference or glimpse of a sub.

If the island will repair sickness or damage that is less than severly traumatic/catastrophic, i.e. a bullet to the brain or decapitation—look at Rose(?) and Locke, right?—shouldn't it save Ben? Or is it "saving" him now, but what that amounts to is his being able to do everything he believes he should be able to while the tumor continues to grow?

The Others' village is on the big island (the end of the opening scene of the season premiere).

Echo hallucinates/Black Cloud takes the form of the gangsters he wacked in his brother's church and then the little altar boy, who does a Walt "shush" with a little more...

Shhh... confess...

Taking those forms also fed my theory of the Cloud coming to the island with the heroin plane.

So not fair wacking Echo like that. A crappy way to go. At least, I guess, it didn't take a bite out of him. I do love Echo's non-confession to his non-brother. Well said.

___________________________________________________________
Echo:	I ask for no forgiveness, father, for I have not sinned. [Yemmi looks a bit ticked off at that.] I have only done what I needed to do to survive. A small boy once asked me if I was a bad man. If I could answer him now, I would tell him, that when I was a young boy, I killed a man to save my brother's life. I am not sorry for this... I am proud of this. [kneeling] I did not ask for the life that I was given, but it was given, nonetheless, and with it, I did my best.
Yemmi:	You speak to me as if I were your brother.
___________________________________________________________

Helluva way to reveal some bad mojo.

Assuming that Black Cloud was playing the part of Yemmi, that Cloud really wanted Echo to confess. It was judging him as guilty, a sinner, but was ready to be pleased with/appeased by Echo's confession. This thing wants people to be good, or at least some kind of good. Maybe the difference between their earlier "face-to-cloudface" encounter and this one is that Echo did feel guilty then, but no longer.

___________________________________________________________
Sayid:	What did he say, John?
Locke:	He said, "We're next."
___________________________________________________________

Keep on keepin on~

the day after...

Keep on keepin on~

maybe next year...

I waffled/slacked hard on assembling something resembling a Halloween costume this year. Typically I sit this unholyday out, but I quietly talked myself into considering perhaps possibly thinking about putting a little bit of something together this time around. With a week to go I scrambled to get a mask and half-assed outfit for some possible Saturday zombie socializing, then for a possible Sunday outing, and ultimately for a trip to the Brattle for some EVIL DEAD 2 action. Alas, Saturday and Sunday whatnot didn't happen, and I just couldn't mobilize to get things put together for tonight's Brattle session. I think I've got all the pieces...
I tried putting together the mask bit using foil, tape, and paint, but that worked out to be less than lovely. The foil made for a decent form fit, but the tape and paint created a scrubby surface, bleah. Then I tried using yellow craft foam, which was more what I was hoping for. Although creating a foam mask that would also work with my wearing glasses posed a serious problem. In the end, I decided that I'd combine both materials—the foil and tape would be the "inside," which could work with glasses, and the foam cutout would be the "outside"/front/surface. Of course, I didn't get around to executing on this, but I think it sounds good in theory, at least. No?

___________________________________________________________

EVIL DEAD 2 at the Brattle tonight was AWEsome! =)


I hadn't seen it on the big or little screen in years I think. It's really amazing how satisfying it is even after dozens of viewings. Of course, at the Brattle on Halloween, there were a lot of fans—two dressed as decent Ashes =) — but from the crowd reaction, there were also a decent number of newbies in the nearly sold-out crowd. So it was a great, fresh, mob audience experience, y'know?

I was a little surprised that there was nary a chuckle at the part where Ash is in the cellar, you can hear his right-hand chainsaw purring, and he reaches up into the pipes above him to grab some of the missing pages of the Book of the Dead... WITH HIS RIGHT HAND! Maybe that's no big whup to diehard ED2 fans? Or maybe there just weren't that many diehards in the room...

Scene after scene, I could hear Zorky's comments and laughs and our shared awe and observations on the film from our own screenings and discussions. How does Bruce Campbell not get an Oscar for "Best Fight With One's Hand?" Or greatest ADR one liner? And the plot itself, it's so damn tight and clever, just like the smallest cabin in the woods you'll ever see, with the most doors and rooms ever, heh.

The movie is just so frickin entertaining! =)

In and Rowan and Glen made it to the 10pm showtime, which was preceded by a costume contest. My sister, channelling Velma of the Scoobies, is in the running. I guess the Brattle will post photos soon and then the contest results [*November 9: found the photos posted!]. There was also a pre-show audience choice costume award. There was a peasant-dressed and old-school roller skated Kyra, from XANADU. There was a Wash from FIREFLY, carrying around miniature dinosaurs. There was a guy with a giant right hand, which I totally dug. Flashed me to THE SIMPSONS of course, where Homer is walking thru the corridors of the power plant reading what he's written on his hand to say to Mr. Burns. He passes this guy walking the other way who's also reading from his hand, but it is giant-sized, and he's reading, "...I'm tired of the comments about my enormous hand..." Heh heh. That show really did usedta be awesome...

*sigh*

There was also a guy in a green shirt and a green ski cap with green, like, spikes on it—"I'm asparagus." Also, he danced. A little. There was an Ash, alas, sporting only a _toy_ chainsaw. There was a decent Mario and Luigi combo. When Ned held the mic up to them to identify themselvs, Mario triggered some recording of the game music he had in his coveralls pocket. Too bad they didn't set up any boxes, heh. Then there was a computer... *with ethernet!* SCAARY =) Also, a well-dressed zombie. And finally, the audience award winner, a frightful and prettily done up melting china doll. This girl was dressed and made up quite perfectly in a china doll way, white face, painted/inked in features and expression, but had blackened/charred out half her face makeup and done SOMEthing to her hair to make it look quite burned up and once-molten. Pretty amazing.

My sister and I were at the theater for the 7pm KWAIDAN also, which is gorgeous. Four spooky short stories set in the good old peasant and lord days in Japan. I think it was released in 1965, and it may feel a bit slow for the average 21st century movie-goer, but man, the atmosphere is timeless and the visuals gorgeous. More spooky and haunting than outright jump-out-of-your-seat scary. A lot of the wide-open action must've taken place on giant sound stages, on which giant fields, sprawling temples and homes, tumultuous seas, and snow covered woods were re-created, against beautiful painted skies. I could see the origins of "hair horror" in one of the stories, and another I *know* I've seen ripped off by TWILIGHT ZONE or OUTER LIMITS in a modern version with Rae Bleah Chong as a "perfect girlfriend" to a not-so-starving artists.

Me go lie down now...

Keep on keepin on~