Friday, February 27, 2009

LOST: Locke it up

So, Ajira 316 DID go down. Decent crash landing, too, Lapidus. Nicely done. And hey, whaddyaknow? Ex-Locke returns to the Island (actually, the smaller island, where the Hydra station is) and the Island brings him back to life. And not all weirdly darkly reanimated, speaking for the Island, but completely, wholly, himself. Alive! Not wax!

And all without any Vulcan shenanigans. O well.

So, Locke exits in Tunisia, just like everyone else who's taken a turn at the wheel (we've seen Ben and a Dharma polar bear and Widmore seems to claim a turn as well). Y'know, if I knew about this BEING JOHN MALKOVICHian trap door from the Island, I'd keep it watched, wouldn't you? It's almost disappointing that Widmore took this long to figure that out. Or, does his not setting up the cameras there sooner mean that he did NOT actually know about the exit until recently? Does it mean that when he left the Island, he didn't land in Tunisia? Didn't turn the wheel?

Charles fills Locke in on a story that we've all pretty much pieced together or guessed at. Widmore was once leader of the Others. Ben tricked him into leaving the Island, with no way to return. That certainly sounds like it means he turned the wheel. Ben could have easily manipulated him into doing it, taking advantage of some real or perceived threat to the Island, or maybe strategically garbling a communique from Jacob. Anyhow, with Charles gone, Ben took leadership, perhaps declaring that Jacob and the Island chose him next, when, in fact, Locke should have been next in line. And Ben led the Others down the path that we've seen, off the reservation, moving them into Dharma's village and stations and technology and reaching out, off the Island, to find a solution to the fertility problem. Not a direction that Jacob and the Island chose.

When Ben takes Locke to the cabin, we and Locke hear Jacob plead for help. Ben seems to be playing at having a conversation with Jacob, not actually communicating. Every chance he's gotten, Ben's been doing everything in his power to thwart John's ascendancy, even before he meets him, thanks to a time skipping run-in with Ethan. Ben's been playing false priest.

I like this story. It fits nicely. There are a couple of Big Questions that come to mind in light of it, tho.

1. What is Ben's motivation for taking control of the Others?

The only thing that I can think of is bringing back or saving his mother. How to do that? Time travel would be the best option. To actually go back and get his mother to a hospital in time to save her and himself. But Ben scoffs at Dharma's time travel research, perhaps because he knows that destiny cannot be changed. Until Desmond was granted his gift, of course. But Ben couldn't have planned on that.

Maybe he hoped that a next generation of Island children, completely native to the Island, would have gifts that would allow him to change destiny, or maybe just bring her back, the way the Island does, but whole, not as a pawn of the Island...?

* Theory. Others choose to leave the Island (maybe they were once forced to, at a certain age?) to join/return to the regular world, settle down, and have kids. Kids who would then, if worthy, inevitably find the Island themselves.

2. Why does Alpert rule that Locke fails his childhood "chosen one" test?

Alpert asks young Locke to choose his own things from a collection of items. From what I can remember, he correctly selects the items that he left behind at Camp Other back in the 50s on the Island. The compass is the selection that seems to result in his failure, and the adult Locke gave that to Alpert himself! Did semantics fail young Locke? At Camp Other, adult Locke tells younger Alpert that older Alpert gave it to him to give "back" to younger Alpert. Locke never says that it belongs to him, so Alpert could take the compass to be HIS (Alpert's), and not Lockes, which would render young Locke's selection technically incorrect...

But that is lame.

Someone must have gotten to Alpert. Used some screwy logic to explain that if young Locke chose the compass, that would be wrong, and he couldn't be the Island's chosen one.

Of course, there's the destiny factor. If he hadn't failed, he wouldn't have grown up to become the John Locke he is today, the man that the Island apparently needs.

Still, at the micromanaging scale, destiny would have Alpert make his decision based on his own judgement and free will. So, the question might be reworded as: How the heck did Ben poison Alpert in the past against choosing Locke to join and/or lead the Others? Even after meeting his time travelling adult self even farther back in the past?

*sigh*

Back to Tunisia... Widmore bankrolls Jeremy Bentham. That works out quite nicely. Charles even chooses his JB alias, knowingly. A philosophical contemporary of John Locke. Widmore believes that Locke's parents had a sense of humor when naming him. How wrong is that? His teenage mother insisted on "John" in the delivery room. Who knows if "Locke" belonged to either of his parents, right? But it's cool to see an acknowledgement of at least one of the very peculiar namesakes on the show, from within the world of the show.

* Here's a crazy what-if theory... What if each character with such a name got caught on the time skipping Island, but managed to leave the Island during a time period where s/he would live on to BECOME their historical namesake? Not gonna happen, I know... (Well, maybe once, right? =) ... but it's a fun idea, eh?

Widmore sends Locke out into the world to round up the Sixers. Charles intuits that that's the only reason that Locke would willingly leave the Island. He sends Abbaddon along as his driver. It's kinda sad and full circle when Abbaddon breaks out the wheelchair for John.

Charles doesn't seem to know that Ben is back until Locke tells him. That can't be true, tho, can it? Ben shows up at Widmore's place, promises to kill Penny, before Locke arrives, right? I suppose it's possible that that meeting could have happened after Charle sends Locke on his way... At this point, I guess I want to believe Charles's basic story, so maybe that's how it happened. Cuz if he did know that Ben was back, wouldn't he warn Locke, and even Abbaddon?

Weird, tho. Except for Abbaddon, whom I'm assuming is Otherly, with his gift as a "driver," Widmore's using hired help, henchmen, mercenaries, and self-unaware Otherly relations (Miles, Faraday, Lewis). Meanwhile, Ben's using the Others network. Maybe Widmore's exile carries with it some huge shame, an Other brand of "unclean" which completely cuts him off from all things Other? Sad, tho, as they're "his" people. He says it with more conviction than Ben ever has.

Armed with Widmore's files on each of them, Locke visits the people who have returned from the Island prematurely...

Sayid explains to him how he lived the best nine months of his life after getting off the Island. He does not explain that Widmore supposedly arranged for her death. Altho it seems more likely that Ben did, to manipulate him into working for him. He's done w the Island and asks Locke who's manipulating him.

He meets Walt, for just a few minutes, and chooses not to ask him to return with them. IS he really one of the ones the Island needs? Walt tells him about a dream he had, where Locke is dressed in a suit and surrounded by people who want to hurt him. In a very un-Locked moment, he dismisses Walts dream as "just a dream." Kinda lame. Of all the people on the Island, Locke would be most likely to take Walt's dreams seriously, as a kind of truth or prediction. Walt asks about Michael and Locke dances around an answer about the freighter. Walt has an understanding, tho. I'm surprised he hasn't TALKED to Michael, the way Hurley might. This exchange is way too short and dismissive. Classic LOST withholding. *sigh*

Speaking of Hurley... Hurley's painting the Sphinx in Egypt!

* Crazy talk/theory. I forget if I've blogged this before, but I have a feeling that the Island is connected to ancient Egypt somehow. That in a time skip, it appears in the desert there, as an oasis (any geographers out there? how far is Tunisia from Egypt?). Some people from the Island step off, maybe some people from Egypt step on, and the Island continues on. This is ridiculous, but my first push towards an Egyptian connection was Alpert's appearance, in particular, his naturally heavily mascara'd eyelids. The first time we see him on the show, it was just very striking to me, visually. He seemed the vision of a Pharaoh from an Abbot and Costello movie or something, y'know? And then of course, there's all of the heiroglypics we've seen around the Island, first, owned by Dharma (so could have been imported by them) but then, on the walls (I think) of the temple ruins, the place that the smoke monster seems to guard or call "home."

When Locke shows up Hurley's totally unfazed. He talks to dead people all the time...

Hurley: So, you didn't make it, huh? You're not the first person to visit me you know.

Heh. Too fun and perfct! Of course, he freaks a bit when he gets confirmation that Locke's alive and breathing in front of him...

Hurley: Excuse me, am I talking to a dude in a wheelchair right now?

Hurley begins to listen to Locke, but when he sees Abbaddon waiting and watching in the wings, he really freaks out. Matthew approached him in the asylum as a shady rep of Oceanic, leaving him on a menacing note...

Hurley: That dude is far from okay! He's evil! You should not be trusting that guy!

Hurley's not going anywhere w them. O well.

When Abbaddon tells Locke he'd better step up his game, or we're all in serious trouble (Matthew seems to Believe in Widmore's notion that a WAR is coming, eh?), Locke challenges him on his purpose, what he does, and does for Widmore.

Abbaddon: I help people get to where they need to.

That's Matthew's gift. Abbaddon had to know that his appearance would spook Hurley, right? Maybe as "driver," he's holding Locke back in his quest, knowing that he has to be led to despair to take the next step.

Kate flat out refuses to go back to the Island. Who cares if everyone they left behind dies? Bitch. She deflects Locke's "why?" by asking him if he's ever loved anyone. He gets it out of Locke that he has, but...

Locke: It just didn't work out.
Kate: Why not, John?
Locke: I was angry. I was... obsessed...
Kate: Look how far you've come.

This is the last pairing that I would've thought would lead to a revelation like that. It's a great and important admission and owning-up, a reminder to us, too, about how irrational and damaging Locke's behavior is.

Never mind that he's right. =)

That's why it's called faith. That's why they call it sacrifice...

Blerg. B.S. lines to avoid real explanations and move on to the next act. Annoying. Bleah.

Next, Locke visits the resting place of Helen (aka Leela), his one lost love. Died of a brain aneurysm. He imagines that things could have been different, which leads to an exchange w Abbaddon about Locke's foretold death, inevitability, destiny, and choice. Poor Locke.

Speaking of death, F-hole Ben wacks Abbaddon! Locke gets himself put in the hospital while trying to get away and regains consciousness to find Dr. Jack at his bedside. Nicely done.

Jack flat out rejects Locke's idea that he, or any of the LOSTies, is special. There's no great destiny, no great plan. He's about to make a lame dramatic exit when Locke snaps him out of it...

Jack: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions, that you're special, are not real. That maybe there's nothing important about you at all. Maybe you are just a lonely old man who crashed on an island. That's it. Goodbye, John.
Locke: Your father says hello.

Locke brainteased it out. Christian told him to say hello to his son and given his mission, that could only be one of three people. Gold star for John! Jack still leaves in denial, but he's been staggered, which can be deadly to a spineless spinal surgeon.

Locke returns to his hotel room at the WESTERFIELD HOTEL (at night the sign only reads WEST RFIEL HOT L... LOST THREW LIFE?) in despair and ready to hang himself. Inevitable? Or a choice?

Of course Benhole shows up to stop him. He tells him again that he's important, he has work to do on the Island, he's special, and... Jack bought a round-trip ticket to Sydney. He successfully talks him down from the ledge/table.

Locke THANKS him for it.

Locke explains to Ben how he can't go after Sun, he promised Jin, and has his wedding ring as proof to deter Sun from returning. Ben's surprised to hear that Jin's alive. Then, Ben gets it out of him that once they've rounded everyone up, Eloise Hawking will tell them how to get back to the Island. Ben knows who she is, but apparently didn't know that she was important in this way.

Then, Ben is the gaping asshole that he is and strangles Locke to death. I suppose a Christian might say that he saved his soul, keeping him from committing suicide.

The f@cker.

Ben leaves with Jin's ring, but not Locke's note to Jack. Did he take the 2-3 international phone that Widmore gave Locke?

"Meanwhile," back on the little island. Caesar explains to Locke how some people on the plane vanished in midair. This gives Locke an idea of how he arrived at the Island. Then Caesar takes Locke to see the injured passengers and...

Caesar: You know him?
Locke: Yeah. He's the man who killed me.

Oh, I SO want Locke to baseball bat Ben's jaw clean off his head! But what I fear he'll do is something saintly. I mean, he has been frickin resurrected. It's clear the Island's with him. Isn't Ben nothing but a scurvy little spider?

Still. I think he'd look wonderful jawless, all periscope-headed.

We'll see...

* Hrmm... I wonder if Caesar is a paramedic...

* Ajira 316 as Bizarro Oceanic 815...? Caesar = Jack / Sawyer. Alana = Kate / Anna Lucia.

* Would Ben be able to fool Eloise into believing that he's on Locke's mission? Eloise can see people's fates, right? Maybe she's supposed to "help" him whether he's lying to her or not. She IS pretty ambivalent about Ben's lying to everyone else in her presence, i.e. about the Lamppost.

Lapidus and a woman (passenger?) took an outrigger, along with the passenger manifest. Lapidus might remember where the LOSTies camp was, right? So, he and this woman paddle over to the camp on the Island. Locke and Ben would know the camp location as well, which would get the outriggers there in time and place for the time skipping Sawyer and company to take one, to try to get to the Orchid faster.

Who's the woman? Sun should've been pulled back in time w Jack, Hurley, and Kate, right? Widmore, with his connections, could easily have found out that the Sixers bought tickets for Ajira 316 and arranged for someone to board as well. Or... Maybe it's Zoe Bell, the freighter hand who jumped off the ship? That would be cool with me. The Ajira flight attendant seemed to get a conspicuous amount of lines and time, maybe Lapidus has flown w her a few times?

Who else could've ended up on the small island after the freighter explosion? Just Others, right?

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

THE CURIOUS CASE OF...

Kinda sorta spoilery... Y'know, if you haven't seen the trailer and are younger than/haven't seen or heard of FORREST GUMP.


Thanks to JC and EE for the tip. =)

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: Ajira 316

I like how it starts. A replay of the pilot, I think. Jack wakes up on his back, dressed in a suit, looking up at the sky and sun-dappled rainforest around him.

I think that's the first time I've ever used the phrase "sun-dappled."

Let's start at the end, ha. Ajira 316. Dammit. With the plan earlier in the season being to have the Six rendezvous at the marina or wherever, I just assumed that they would return to the Island by sea. Y'know, a GILLIGAN'S ISLAND three-hour tour gone wrong? But OF COURSE it's an Ajira plane what gets them back! Me and my crazy alternate universe riffing. Duh.

At the airport, we see the Sixers show up, one by one, each on their own path. This REMINDS me of something, story-wise, but I can't quite remember what. I know it's been three years, but isn't anyone in the gen pop creeped out by seeing all the (adult) Sixers in an airport at once?

Jack checks in the coffin and body of Jeremy Bentham, aka Locke, aka proxy dad. He doesn't cause a scene like the first time, but whatev. When he walks away from the counter, mystery guy, played by the Iraqi torturer from THREE KINGS tells Jack that he is sorry for the loss of his friend...

Kate showed up at Jack's place the night before, telling him that he can never ask her about Aaron again. We'll see how long that lasts. She would have had to make arrangements for Aaron's safety, but the way she's all screwed up, it seems like she might have had to make an unfavorable deal to accomplish that. Or even "lost" Aaron somehow. Maybe to Ben's people?

OR, maybe Claire visited her again, and guided her to give Aaron up. To Claire's mom? If Kate wasn't forced into some f'd up deal w Ben or Widmore, I'd have her leave Aaron with Clementine and Sawyer's ex.

Would love to see Kate's reunion w Sawyer's ex after returning from the Island. What sort of insight would material girl Kate get from the cosmic coincidence of their interconnectedness?

Sun shows up at the airport. No surprise, really, cuz she's gonna do whatever she can to get back to Jin. Not knowing that coming back to the Island is the last thing Jin wants her to do. Locke agreed not to solicit her, but the proof that Jin gave to him to keep Sun away became the proof that Ben uses to draw her back. Ah, LOST~

Sayid shows up at the airport in handcuffs, escorted by an officer or agent of some kind. Federal marshall? For the murders of Widmore's stooges in the "Weekend at Sayid's" episode. Did he know to turn himself in, to free Hurley AND get himself onto 316? Maybe just to free Hurley, cuz he's got that resigned look of surprise when he sees Jack on the plane, no? Escorted by a federal marshall, he can be himself, but also a part of the Kate ingredient from the original crash.

Hurley! He shows up at the airport with a guitar case. Raise your hand if you think he was visited by Charlie. I'm guessing that Island Charlie asked for a new guitar. In the spirit of recreating the original flight, do you suppose there's a wad of heroin in it?

Decent guy, he's bought 70-some seats on the plane (first class?) to minimize the likely collateral damage (even tho they go more LANGOLIERS than LOST). It's too bad about coach, eh? I love it when Ben gets on the plane, last second, and Hurley's so freaked out.

Hurley: No one told me he was going to be here!
Ben: Who told you to be here, Hugo?

So, that's all of the adult Sixers, right? Aaron was barely on the plane the first time around. Is one of the Sixers pregnant? Sayid's marshall?

LOVE when Jeff Fahey's voice comes out over the PA in the plane. Lapidus! And when he steps out of the cockpit to talk to Jack, he looks over his shoulder and spots the rest of them...

Lapidus: Waitasecond. We're not going to Guam, are we?

I like this coming together all in this episode, cuz it means that we're gonna get a few episodes about what we didn't see, y'know? How everyone on the plane got there from when they split up on the dock. "46 hours agos" for Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and—this could be potentially awesome or F'd up—Ben and Desmond.

Ben leaves Eloise's chapel and tells Jack he has a loose ends to tie up, a promise to an old friend. That would be Charles Widmore. The promise, that he would kill his daughter. Was there anything in that promise about making him watch? I forget.

Still, he can follow Desmond to Penny, and little Charlie, and who the F knows what Ben would do? I don't think is Other Goodness would let him kill a child, but he did promise Charles about Penny.

Later, Ben calls Jack from the marina. Bloodied and beaten up. He went after Penny and apparently met with difficulty and/or resistance. If he succeeded in killing her, that would guarantee that Desmond (left for dead?) would come after him and so return to the Island. But maybe Ben attacked and hurt Penny badly, maybe knocked her unconscious, but didn't kill her. And Desmond fought him off but had to take care of Penny. He might go back to the Island to protect Penny and Charlie, take Ben out for good. OR... maybe he would approach Widmore again, and/or Widmore would enlist him or aid him as his assassin...?

Eloise Hawking. Faraday's mom. One-time Islander and Other. She takes everyone downstairs in the chapel to a Dharma station—the Lamppost! More C.S. Lewis and Narnia! A pendulum hooked up to some old school computing. Jack spots a miitary intel photo of the Island, dated 9/23/54. Eloise explains that the Lamppost is built on or near a pocket of EM energy, one of many all over the world, all connected. A "clever fellow" built the pendulum to take advantage of these connections to predict where and when the Island would appear. A little macro-Heisenbergy, eh? The Island is always moving.

Theory/crazy talk. This "clever fellow." I think it's Daniel Faraday. Who else do we know who's so steeped in this kind of pseudo-physics? Maybe in a time skip we haven't seen yet, he gets off the Island (turns the wheel?) in the pre-DI past, and joins Dharma in the outside world in its infancy.

Theory/crazy talk. Mystery guy, the other Iraqi in first class, is connected to Locke somehow. He's like McCoy in SEARCH FOR SPOCK, the living vessel containing and transporting Locke's spirit/psyche/soul. So, before Locke died, they did a mind meld, and when the time is right, the Vulcan elders of the Island will reunite body and spirit. Or maybe he's a spiritual guru that Locke sought out. And he pulled an ALL OF ME sorta thing, and drew Locke's spirit into a bowl or crystal or less-than-4-ounce bottle of liquid, for safe-keeping while he plays proxy.

We met Jack's granddad, Ray. Christian's father. He conveniently has a pair of Christian's shoes to give to Jack to enhance Locke's proxy role. How much does Ray know about the Island?

Theory/crazy talk. Just plain scattin here... I've always thought that Christian was connected to a group involved w the Island. I thought it was some kind of cabal, including Widmore and Paik. Maybe not, tho. Maybe Ray was an Other, and Christian, as the child of an Other, had a gift. To heal? I've had it in my head for a long time that Christian *gave* Jack the win/save in the spinal surgery of his future wife, whatzhername. It was a favor from the Island, or his own ability, and a gift to his son, to boost his confidence and esteem. Maybe a step toward making him more of a leader than he would otherwise naturally have been?

The Ajira non-crash. A time skip flash affects castaways/survivors/friends of the Island and anything they're in contact with or using. Does that extend to people as well? For instance, would Sayid's escort be pulled along with him because she grabs him or she's cuffed to him? Or, does she have a history with the Island as well? I'm totally assuming she's on the Island cuz, y'know, she's cool... She was the secret agent chick from LONE GUNMEN who always uses anagrams of Lee Harvey Oswald as her name! And I'm going to assume that mystery guy is somehow connected to Locke, so he gets a free ride. Lapidus. Hrmm... Maybe a couple of bonus players from coach who are destined by clueless.

Anyhow, the plane flies into the wacked-out EM field of the Island during a time skip into present day (2007?), somewhere between LA and Guam. And while within the field, the Island flashes away to another time and place, sucking Jack, Hurley, Kate and presumedly Sayid, Sun, Lapidus, Ben, mystery guy, and miss marshall, along with. And hey, who's there to greet them on the ground when they collect themselves but Dharma Jin! So fun that he gets two awesome hey-it's-mes in the last few episodes! =)

Keep on keepin on~

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Oscar picks

A quick rundown, mostly gut picks, without trying to "think like the Academy." In general, I feel like the SLUMDOG noms were to boost a very excellent "indie" picture at the box office. The BENJI the BUTTON noms are just plain confusing. While it's full of great production value and talent, I don't see it as best anything outside of technical categories. Both of these films are a little too FORREST GUMP to win my complete love.

* best picture *

MILK. I think it's between this and SLUMDOG, but I just can't give it to SLUMDOG. SLUMDOG is gorgeous, but the story needs a little work, a little fixing. It's decent magical realism, and fun, but at the same time cliched and a little too uncomplicated/uninteresting. An Indian-flavored FORREST GUMP feel. MILK is simply a perfect hunk of cinematic storytelling.

* best director *

Gus Van Zant / MILK

* best actor *

Mickey Rourke / THE WRESTLER. Sean Penn is amazing as Harvey Milk, but Rourke is freakishly perfect as the Ram. It may be a conjunction of stars that made this possible—the story, the director, the star's life experience—but I can't let that take anything away from the impact and resonance of the resulting performance.

* best actress *

Kate Winslet / THE READER. I wish she'd been nominated for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, instead. There's no denying Kate is amazing in both, but THE READER itself, while well-crafted, is hurt in my mind by a serious flaw, a key plot point. I almost want to give it to Melissa Leo, for her gritty beat-up performance in FROZEN RIVER, but can't deny Kate's continued and consistent excellence, despite the particular movie in which it'll be recognized.

* best supporting actor *

Heath Ledger / DARK KNIGHT. For a supporting actor who added so much to a movie.

* best supporting actress *

Penelope Cruz / VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA. I missed the film, so I'm just going w my gut. I saw all the others and of them, would choose Amy Adams, but suspect that Cruz tops her in VCB.

* animated feature *

WALL-E

* foreign language film *

WALTZ WITH BASHIR

* original screenplay *

IN BRUGES. Tough call. I want to give it to WALL-E, too, but BRUGES is more elegant.

* adapted screenplay *

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

* documentary *

MAN ON WIRE. By reputation.

* music *

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

* song *

"Jai Ho" - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

* film editing *

MILK

* documentary short *

"The Witness." Haven't seen any of these, so a guess.

* cinematography *

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

* costume design *

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD / Albert Wolsky. I'd love to see the fashions from this movie and/or MAD MEN make it back onto the streets of today in a big way.

* sound mixing *

WANTED. Sure, why not?

* sound editing *

WANTED. Sure, why not?

* short film *

"Spielzeugland." Another guess. Didn't see any of these.

* animated short *

"Presto." This is the only one of the nominees I've seen. It is GENIUS. =)

* makeup *

BENJAMIN BUTTON. Yeah, well, I gotta give it that.

* art direction *

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.

* visual effects *

IRON MAN. How am *I* not gonna give it to IRON MAN, right?

Well, we'll see...

Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

black saturday: Love Always Instant Messaging

Io Lupercalia! Or, in other words a very...

(please check any that apply)
[ ] ...Happy President Valentine's Day!
[ ] ...Bloody Black Saturday!
[ ] ...Lucky Friday the 13th!
[ ] ...Shadowy Groundhog Fortnight!
[ ] ...Historic Black History half-Month!

... to you and your sweetiepies! =)

Speaking of sweetiepies, do you find yourself wondering what your special guy or gal might REALLY be thinking this Hallmark Holiday? Well, thanks to the Extra Sensory Perceptive Amorous Messaging technology of Cupid Erotech, Inc., and their Love Always Instant Messenger, you can stop wondering! That's right, Cupid Erotech's ESPAM-powered Love AIM allows you to directly log into and query your Valentine's romantic subconscious, bypassing those pesky, lying filters known as the brain and mouth. Get to the heart of the matter! Go ahead, give it a try!

Try out the Love Always Instant Messenger! =)
Beware, the unfiltered, unconscious, and lusty thoughts of the object of your affections may not be what you hope or expect, or even sensible. Use at your own risk. =)

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. There's music and sound effects. Both can be turned off, but you might want to adjust your speakers accordingly.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Pepsi's new logo bullstuff...

I think this means that Pepsi's new logo moved the frickin Island!

Or maybe that's what Faraday's really working on in his journals...?

Thanks to PJ for the "breathtaking" headzup.

Keep on keepin on~

Friday, February 06, 2009

"David After Dentist"

Thanks to Paris Jen for the hilarious headzup. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, February 05, 2009

"Aurica, this is my first time..."

Digital insertion? Crystal virgins? Check out this hot RPG action!

With soundtrack apparently provided by a baby mobile.

Thanks to dfemme for the... umm... whatever this is. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

LOST: YES! =)

First off...

AWESOME! When Rousseau's people turned over the guy and it was Jin I literally yelled, "YES!" and pumped my fists in the air.

I'm that big a dork.

But it really was that awesome. =)

Y'know. I don't feel like deconstructing/rambling all that much right now. So, summarizing...

Ben is like the Brain, of Pinky and the Brain, except his plans work. And... he looks more like a rat.

Guess that would make Jack his Pinky right now... Jack's cleaned up, but still kind of a wreck.

Hurley's kicking back in lockup. Cool.

Kate is trying to be the best fake mom she can.

Sayid is like the Borg. You can never use the same thing on him twice and he always kicks your ass.

Sun wants revenge on the two people responsible for Jin's death. One was her father. The other is Jack.

Aaron is a mealy mouthed dope who needs his mommy to put ketchup on his food.

Sawyer's moony, and everyone is in his business.

Sawyer won't change the past cuz what's done is done.

Juliet... I usedta like her way early on. One day she'll tear off her fake human skin and reveal the cold-blooded Visitor beneath.

Charlotte and Miles are getting bloody noses. I usedta think that the Fantastic Four were people who were meant to be on flight 815. Now I'm thinking they were all born on the Island. Well, the three nerds were. Lapidus is the kid who's doing his own thing.

Locke won't change the past cuz it's what made him who he is today. Also, he wants to get back to the Orchid to do whatever Ben did to get himself off the Island.

Oh! I think maybe they flashed into an alternate universe where an Ajira flight 815 crashed instoead of an Oceanic flight 815. As Sawyer put it...

Sawyer: Who came in these? Other Others?

Jin... AWESOME! =)

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: processing...

(Some bee-boppin and scattin on the show, bits of it lifted from some back and forth with Larry...)

The 1950s Other chick. Did they call her Elle? Yeah, GOT to be Moms Faraday. Sfunny how Daniel begins to remark on how familiar she looks, and she takes it to be his weak attempt at making a pass at her, RIGHT AFTER declaring his love for Charlotte.

Did Faraday name his test mouse, Eloise, after his mom?

I really dislike Charlotte, but the show's writers, they're sneaky. By making Daniel love her, I begin to grow a bit more... well... fond is too strong a word... tolerant, perhaps?

Well, according to Miles, or perhaps more accurately, Miles's dead friends, Charlotte's been on the Island before. That's something that Ben didn't know or chose not to reveal when he told everyone who she was. And MAYbe Charlotte doesn't remember it either, selective memory resulting from time travel, perhaps, or exposure to weird radiation... a leaky H-bomb?

And what the heck's a cultural anthropologist doing on the team anyway? Is she gonna visit truly proto-Other culture in one of these time-skips?

Concrete and burial immediately made me think of the Swan station. Maybe the leaky H-bomb created the Swan anomaly? Or maybe its proximity caused the "incident?" Or maybe it's still buried and could be used to hold the Island hostage in some ultimate gambit, against Widmore, Linus, or even Jacob.

I would love for the time skips to continue for the rest of the season. Would love for Sawyer to get a practical handle on what's going on. And would love for him to play a few long cons with the Others and Dharma people over time.

Yeah, everything points to Abbaddon being Widmore's man. I was kind of hoping for some leeway in there, that maybe he's an unaffiliated rep of the Island, cuz when he appears to Hurley, he claims to be an Oceanic rep, and I suspect that Widmore owns or controls Oceanic (pretty handy for keeping track of who's on what flight, or faking a crash), but won't even produce a business card. Just a weird and dumb oversight. But, whatev. Everything supports him being Widmore's man.

And of course it makes sense that Widmore would have Abbaddon put the walkabout bee in Locke's bonnet. Widmore knows that Locke has to end up on the Island so that he can meet him in the past.

Was Charles sent out by the Others into the real world to create Dharma? Was he the leader of the Others when he did so? Maybe he went all free market on them while enjoying the good life on the outside, ostensibly, as part of the plan, and once Dharma got a physical presence on the Island, did Jacob/the Others turn on him and his ideas and go Hostile?

Charlotte. She really just seems so useless on all kinds of levels. It's annoying. Of course, that probably means that she's going to be important. I'm thinking she might be the daughter of a Dharma person who left the Island. Oh! Maybe she's the daughter of the guy who drilled into the Orchid chamber (which might account for extra sensitivity to timesickness)... AND... Desmond's half sister? Whaddyathink?

Saving her at this point might not require huge meddling. If she's timesick the way Desmond and Faraday (to a lesser extent) have been, then when she's unconscious, and her body's w Faraday and the Losties, her consciousness is visiting some other moment/time in her own life (maybe future episode?), and getting in touch with a constant in both times would restore her temporal balance, or whatever.

Hrmm... If Charlotte WAS on the Island as one of the Dharma kids way back, then maybe that's partly what Daniel's doing when we see him at the Orchid station in the past when it's being built. He's establishing himself in a second era in Charlotte's life, and perhaps making himself a constant.

Maybe.

The station that Candle is shooting an orientation video for is the Arrow, which was dedicated to gathering intelligence on the Hostiles. Interesting.

Just re-watched a chunk of season 4 finale (SciFi's playing 4 in a row Monday nights) and... Miles mentions to Charlotte that it's strange that she would want to leave the Island after searching for it for so long. THEN she tells Daniel that she'll stay, and also tells him that she's been looking for the place where she was born. So, really, no guesswork there, except perhaps for who her parents might have been. Horace?

Hrmm... Was she ACTUALLY born there? Does Ben know this? Was there a time when babies could be conceived and delivered safely on the Island? Why was Aaron an exception? Sun made it off the Island before her second trimester. Aaron was conceived elsewhere. And I guess Claire was already past the second trimester when they crashed.

Claire appears to Kate, in Aaron's bedroom, and tells her she must not bring him back. She says "him," not Aaron. What up w that? Is she Claire, Aaron's mom, there, or is she Claire, agent of the Island. Is the Island afraid of Aaron?

Y'know, Jin hasn't appeared to Hurley, so, I *want* to believe that he lives. But where? Not on the Island. The chopper was outside the radius of the Orchid and the freighter was farther out than that. Amnesiac somewhere? Picked up by Widmore or Ben's people? So unlikely. The best thing that could happen is that the Losties fix things in time so that he never dies in the first place. *fingers crossed*

What if the Island is like proto-Narnia in MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW? When a chunk of steel from the real world becomes embedded in the ground, it grows into the lamp post. What if that happens to things buried on the Island? Like, say, an H-bomb?

This is the first time I've pseudo-seriously had this thought—What if the Island is a geologically overgrown or buried spaceship? Alien/REPO MAN in origin? Maybe, but that might be too messy. Instead, SPHERE-like. A donkey wheel from the 19th century could've been fitted to replace a physically damaged or destroyed something else in that chamber, right?

Keep on skippin on~