Lost is On: Turn of the Screw

The gears are turning. The board is set. The pieces are moving. This is the kind of Lost episode we find when the pot is slowly beginning to boil. It starts as a bubble. A little second glance in a mirror. The bubbles begin to appear more frequently; a gunshot wound, an explosion, a double-cross, an unspoken connection. The more of these that take form, the more violent the boil becomes. An episode like this is where things start to get crazy. Split second decisions are made and hands are forced. It's brutal, but somehow we can sense that it's only going to get worse. Not only are our characters reaching a breaking point, they're being changed in ways neither they or we could have expected, and maybe in ways we still cannot even see.

There were so many parallels going on in the real world and the alternate world that I can't even count. There were even more parallels drawn to previous seasons. We found out that Smoke/Locke was also Smoke/Christian earlier in the series. Then I suppose one could infer that he must've also been several dead people leading our characters astray. What we do know is that now Smoke/Locke cannot change forms. At least not into another human. So although I found it hard to believe last week that Michael was actually a "ghost of Island past", and not one of Smoke/Locke's minions, it must be true. So Jacob has obviously let go of the reins on his people and is letting them make their own decisions. But are they really their own decisions? Or is Smoke/Locke and Widmore forcing everyones' hands?

This battle between two opposing "big factions" is constantly dividing and changing our characters. Sayid seems questioning even of his own "absolute evil". Did he really kill Desmond? If he is absolutely evil, and feeling of no remorse, then he must have. But did you see the look in his eyes? Desmond's question to Sayid was brilliant: Does the end justify the means? That's a really good question. I'd pose that question to both Jacob and Smoke/Locke, who seem to get their kicks off manipulating both living people and dead people to prove who is superior or "right". In fact, one could attest that if it weren't for Smoke/Locke's everpresent "need" to get off the island, Sayid wouldn't even have to make a choice like that. But, if it weren't for Jacob, Sayid never would have come to the island in the first place. So really, what is this all about? Why these specific characters? And if several will wind up dead in the end, does the end justify the means?

I'd really like to know if the end of this show is going to live up to all the hype the show has created for it. I mean, I know we all want "answers", and slowly but surely we're getting them, but will we be satisfied with an answer to the eternal question of "Why?" Somehow I doubt that we would. Like great performance art, there is no why. One could ask the same question about real life and still come up with no real answers why. Is it ironic that the ficticious answer to the life, the universe and everything is...42? Of course not.

Ok, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't really want to know why. I just want to feel like my investment in this show has justified all this time I've spent with it. I know I've said all this before, and I must sound like a broken record, but I obviously love this show enough to write about it every week, so. I'm just going to pray for a decent ending. Even though I probably won't get one.

On a lighter note, I read a blog quote today by a user named Jakc's Beard. It read...

"WE HAVE TO GROW BACK!"

Man on Wire

I should have listened. I mean, I had heard about the story of Philippe Petit and his daring feats of wire walking before. I had read the reviews and heard all the accolades. I had even seen the cover, which should have instantly piqued my interest. But for whatever reason, my interest in the film never quite clicked until recently. Sometimes I think the hustle and bustle of life causes us to miss some of life's most subtle miracles, and I definitely think the story behind this documentary is one of the most beautiful, and perhaps the most tragic.

The story of Philippe Petit is one of a man with a passion; a dream that led him to attempt one of the most daring feats imaginable: to wire walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center. The courage it would take to accomplish this dream would mean so much more than just having the balls to wire walk 120 stories up. It would mean testing his relationships with everyone he knew, avoiding being caught by the authorities and overcoming the simple fear of failure. It's all very touching, but nothing saddened me more than knowing that these giant, towering artifacts that were so briefly tied together by this man's dream are now gone forever. Philippe didn't die on this glorious occasion - this glorious "coup" as they called it - but he did sacrifice his whole life just to reach his ultimate goal.

One of the most powerful voices of the film is Philippe himself. He spews like a madman retelling the story of some great legend of old, only that legend was actually him. He illuminates every minute detail of the event like it just happened. Obviously, this is the penultimate event in this man's life. He knows every detail by heart because he's relived it every day since it happened. You can feel his passion even through his broken English. It sounds every bit too good to be true. Until you see it happen. Even when you're looking at the pictures of him walking across this wire, it still seems like there's absolutely no way. That's what makes this story so extraordinary.

Petit gave everything he had to meet this glory and to revel in it. His girlfriend left him. His best friend ex-communicated him. Even some of the people helping him abandoned the dream midway through its execution. It was Philippe's greatest adventure, and with it came a completely new phase in his life. Once you've accomplished what you've set out to do, what is there left? Obviously, Philippe still walks across wires, but never will it resonate as it did then, when he lay amongst the clouds.

Lost is On: Captain Hugo

What a weird chain of events. Last week: CRAZY. This week: PERPLEXING. Division of loyalty! Love! Scandal! This season is turning into a doozy. Everybody loves Hugo alright, and everybody loves a good Hurley episode. But this one I thought was second rate for your average Hurley-focused episode. I'll give a pass because a lot was going on, and a lot was much more exciting than what was going on with Hugo in the alternate world. Hugo seems to me to be a character almost weakened by progress, much akin to if Dr. House were to suddenly grow-up and take less risks. If Hurley grows more into the position of leadership, we lose who the character used to be - fun loving, well spirited, and sort of just "along for the ride". Others may argue that this is good for Hurley, and I tended to agree, until now.

All this new responsibility and split factions is starting to make my head spin. Sawyer and Kate are in bed with Smoke/Locke, but they apparently aren't loyal. Staid is evil, but also merciful towards Zoe/Tina Fey? Sun and Jin are around, but they really just want to be together and go home. Richard and Co. just want the plane to blow up.. and stay out of their way! Jack and Hurley are learning to let go apparently and protect the island and each other by other means. And Desmond, well, Desmond is kind of an anomaly here. If all the characters of Lost were a deck of cards, he would be the Joker; the wild card mixed in with the Kings and Queens of the island. Jacob and El Smoke/Locke are of course the players of the game.

Desmond obviously is hiding something. To extend the card game references, he seems like the only character left (other than perhaps Jacob) with an Ace in the hole. That's good, because the mysteries of this show are beginning to dwindle. I mean, we still don't know how they're going to eventually meld the two alternate realities. And we also don't know who the hell the Kid in Rags is. Desmond seems though to be an on-going mystery throughout the series. How did he become the way that he is? Is he "The One"? If he's not "The One", then who is? Is it Jack? Hurley? None of the above? Is there even a "One" to begin with? Who is Smoke/Locke really? These are big questions remaining.

A couple mysteries were solved this week. One of them is "the whispers". I groaned when we were ham-handed an explanation via Hugo and Michael spelling it all out for us. I think we could've figured it out ourselves, but this show promised us answers, so I guess it feels like they have to explain them letter for letter? I don't know. I think I'm just a bigger fan of explaining by showing, rather than spelling it out so blatantly. Hugo has been like the Harbinger of explanation for the audience. I could probably pull up a reel of instances where Hurley has said what the audience has been thinking this season. It makes his dialogue more of an annoyance, and I'm used to Hurley's dialogue being just humorous and light-hearted. But again, this comes with the territory of gaining rank in the show. Maybe things will start to balance out next week, as both camps seem to be mostly merging.

God, this sounds way too much like a bad episode of Survivor. I'm wondering who they'll "vote off" next week. I guess I forgot to mention that Ilana evaporated into TNT ash quite randomly this week. Ben noted it odd that Jacob purposed all these things for Ilana, and there she goes, up in a puff of smoke. I agree with Ben here, it's extremely weird that they would introduce a new character this season only to kill her off so unexpectedly. And sure, she wasn't doing a whole lot, but come on. Give her the grace of facing off with the Smoke Monster and losing, or dying to save one the of the candidates. It seems very distasteful on the part of The Island. Very distasteful indeed.

Maybe people won't agree with me, and as hard as it is to write about a Hurley episode, I thought this was one of the weakest episodes of the season. The only saving grace for this episode was the twists and turns that we got to go through with Desmond. What is he hiding? Why did he run over John in the alternate universe? I'm going to ask Lost a series of questions, and I want them answered immediately!

Also if you didn't catch the end credits, there was a particularly spooky bit where they played the song from Willy Wonka where he sings in the tunnel. CREEPY, to say the very least about it. And yes, the danger must be growing because the rowers keep on rowing.

Dear John (Blockbuster)

Greetings, old friend.

It's been awhile. I've been thinking about all those good times we've had, like when my father would bring us over to play. We'd get such a kick out of renting Sega games, and playing them at home to our hearts' content... for three to five days. I remember how friendly you were about loaning us movies. "Not for too long!" you used to say. But we always understood. You liked to loan your movies and games to lots of people around the neighborhood. I'd hear from a friend that you had a movie that I wanted to see, and sometimes it'd already been loaned out to someone else. But that's okay. Eventually, you made us all a guarantee that you'd always have the movies we wanted to see. And even when you didn't, we always forgave you. After all, you were the only friend nice enough to do that for us. And with such a wide selection, both old and new.

You always asked us kindly to rewind our VHS tapes. We understood your reasoning for that too. No one likes to open a movie box and find the VHS tape at the end of the reel. Especially if someone borrowed Schindler's List or Ben Hur. After all, rewinding is the kind, reasonable thing to do with a VHS tape. Then along came DVDs, and rewinding became obsolete. We all rejoiced, until we found out that scratches could make your DVDs almost unwatchable. Our neighbors are our good friends, but boy are they irresponsible with your DVDs!

Soon, you told us that we could keep your movies for longer without worrying about the costs. This was great! It meant that we could keep a movie or a game for almost a month before you'd ask us to buy it from you. This was good for us, but not so good for you. We noticed that you almost never had the movies or games that we wanted, even after your famous guarantee! Were times just tough? Was economic strain causing you to buy less stuff? We thought maybe; even if at the time our economy was strong. 

I also noticed that you began to like old movies less and less, and focus more on the new stuff that was coming out. When I entered this relationship, I was under the impression that you valued the classics like I did. I thought we had made a special connection. Apparently, I was wrong. I feel as if we've been slowly drifting apart. It feels like coming over to your place is such a chore now. I often ask myself while staring at a wall of movies, "What the hell am I doing here?" I just wander back and forth, hoping that you'll strike my mood right, but nothing seems to fit anymore.

I turned a blind eye when you cheapened yourself like all the local mishmash that offers their movies cheap for shorter periods of time. Where is your self-pride? Your complete lack of hubris also went so far as to copy other peoples' style. I cannot believe that it has come to this. Clearly, we are at a crossroads, and we simply cannot part from here going in the same direction. I must bring a swift end to this before things get worse than they already are. Please understand, this isn't entirely your fault. I know that times have been hard on you, and that you're in a bad way. I hope that you do well for yourself without me. I loved you once, and I hope that you can get yourself back to how you used to behave, so that someone else can love you as I loved you.

I've met someone else. They're a lot less high maintenance and things are much more simple. You used to be such a fun escape, but I think I'm ready to settle down now. I hope you understand. Please do try and be kind to all our other friends and neighbors who still come over to your place expecting a good time. I'm sure that some of them feel the same way as I do. Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to speak on their behalf to your heart, and that you'll change your ways for a new generation of movie borrowers.

No hard feelings,

Chris

or as you know me,

#22907266866

[things actual Blockbuster employees have said to me]

"That movie sucks! Why would you want to rent that?"

"Didn't find what you were looking for? That's okay, we don't want to rent you movies anyway."

"Your movie was scratched? No surprise there."

"Your game was scratched? Well, we don't have another copy of that game, so you'll have to pick another one."

"You don't like horror? Man, who doesn't like horror?"

"Actually, you can't use our bathrooms, they're for employees only. But I know there's a bathroom down the way at the grocery store or the gas station."

[funny things to do to screw with Blockbuster]

1. Walk into the store. When an employee asks you if they can help you find anything today, tell them that you do in fact, and present a long list of hard to find movies. They'll help you at your beck and call, because you're going to rent like a ton of movies. Gather all the movies up with their help, take them to the front, and inform the employee helping you that you left your wallet at home.

2. Walk into the store. Pick a movie. Walk up to the counter and get ready to pay for it. When they inform you of the price, ask them if there are any late fees. When they tell you that there are (there are again), ask if they provide any early return refund. When they ask you what you mean, explain that other movie rental companies make it to where you have incentive to return your movies the day after you rent them, which just so happens to normally be the day that you watch them. When they say they have no such program, tell them you're just going to Redbox and ask them where the nearest one is. 

3. Walk into the store. Start a stopwatch. Start walking around aimlessly. After about five minutes, grab a movie off the shelf and begin reading the synopsis. Walk another minute or so, grab another movie and repeat. Do this until an employee asks you if they can help you find anything. When you leave the store, see how long the stopwatch has been going. With any luck, your timer could read anywhere from 20-60 minutes. I have done this several times, and the longest time I've gotten before an employee even spoke to me was over two hours. If you really want to have fun, politely inform the employee that they have just been secret-shopped.

4. Before going into the store, decide on two movie quotes. Jumble the words around a bit and memorize the wrong way to say them. Then, go into the store and ask an employee if they know what movie your first quote is from. When you say the first one, say it as if you're quoting a different movie entirely. A couple examples:

Your quote is: "There's no place like home."

Garbled: "There's no place like where the heart is."

Add movie: A Few Good Men - Like Jack Nicholson yelling "YOU can't HANDLE the truth!"

End result: "THERE'S no PLACE like where the heart is!"

Your quote is: "All right, Mr. De Mille. I'm ready for my close-up."

Garbled: "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Bellevedere."

Add movie: The Godfather - Marlon Brando saying "I'm gonna make 'im an offa he can't refuse."

End result: "I'm ready for my closhe-up, Mista Bellevedere."

After you've said your first quote, see what movie (or multiple movies) they take you to. Whatever they lead you to, tell them that it doesn't look like the one you're thinking of. Then say that the movie they picked is the one where they say "(your second movie quote)". Or, when in doubt, just say you wanna watch the movie that has "STELLA!" in it.

5. When you rent a movie, give a stupid reason why you're renting it.

Examples:

The Big Lewboski - "Someone peed on my rug. I need some sound advice."

Minority Report - "I saw a vision of myself in the future killing someone. Renting this movie was part of my vision."

The Lion King - "I cry every time Mufasa dies because my uncle killed my father too."

Braveheart - "My history teacher asked me to write a paper about William Wallace."

Apollo 13 - "I love science fiction."

Jurassic Park - "I can't believe this actually happened."

Cars - "I'm a big car buff. So..."

Five People You Meet in Heaven - "I hope one of them is Elvis."

Raising Arizona - "The history of western expansion has always fascinated me."

Yellow Submarine - "They just don't make kids' movies like they used to."

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - "Story of my life."

Coyote Ugly - "Well, the acting is great, but the pacing is terrible!"

Meet the Parents - "I thought I'd show this to my in-laws."

Meet the Fockers - "I thought I'd torture my in-laws."

Remember the Titans - "I forgot."
The Thing - "My friends and I are planning to start the Brutherhood of Antarctica"

Lost is(n't) On: The Shape of Things to End

I've been a bad, bad boy. I skipped out on Ab Aeterno (a fantastic episode) because my internets would not work properly. I didn't post a review of The Package either, but I have a reasonable excuse for that: I was on vacation. There were obviously more important things than Lost. And I guess that's what we're all going to have to remember in the coming weeks - this show will be over soon, and we'll have to go back to worrying about things like how to avoid watching Dancing With the Stars or baseball. We'll have to entertain ourselves in new ways midweek, and I doubt we'll be watching V. So just remember: there are plenty more important things.

So what did I think of Ab Aeterno and The Package? Solid episodes. Ab Aeterno got us a lot more places than we've been before, but The Package was still very appealing to me. I *loved* the flash sideways, and I thought that both Sun and Jin had captivating performances. And of course there was the return of one of my favorite characters to hate, Mikhail. Keamy was back too, but we already knew what part he had to play (getting shot in the chest) and he's pretty one dimensional. Mikhail seemed a lot darker and more mysterious this episode with the little screen time that he had. Oh, and the scene between Smoke/Locke and Widmore was spot-on brilliant. I wish it would've never ended. Desmond was no surprise, but really...are we surprised by anything anymore?

This show has given us twists, turns, spills, thrills, deaths both expected and surprising, alternate universes, flash forwards, twist endings, irony, subversion, callbacks, pop culture references, classic literature references, historical references, biblical references - I mean you freakin' name it. If this show is anything, it's a look into everything that makes us human, from the greatest of our personal struggles, of good vs. evil, all the way down to the little things, like what books we'd like to read before we die. It takes huge ideas like time travel and boils it down to "Well, that was weird", and communicating with dead as a parlor trick. The relief here also is that no one is a vampire. In the end everyone we care about is mortal and fallible. Rarely has a show about so many mysterious and surreal things seemed so down to earth and human. This isn't the Twilight Zone. It's not the last episode of St. Elsewhere. It's the universe we live in, filled with extraordinary things located in an extraordinary place, with extraordinary people connected by fate, or physics, or whatever you want to believe.

That's why this show is fantastic. It's like we know what makes us human, now let's go deeper. Let's test our human subjects and press their loyalties and their morals. Now let's give them the car keys. Let's give them the bomb, or the button, or the gun, or the knife, or the code, or the tazer, or the boat, or the whatever it is, and let them decide the rules of the game. Let them decide what is good and what is evil. Don't forget free will. Never forget free will. Destiny may play a role in this show, but let us never forget that our characters always have the right of choice. Maybe that's what this show will come down to: the power of choice.

So who will make the good decisions? Who will be good, and who will be evil? Or will all the lines remain gray?

Tonight's episode will be covered on tomorrow afternoon, at which point normal weekly updates will resume.

How Sufjan Stevens Disappeared and Disappointed Everyone

Many years ago, I remember thinking to myself that pop music was a genre of art that was not worth my time. I was still very young, and still had a very shallow understanding of the music world. Even bands that I felt were well above the usual grade didn't truly inspire me or shake me to the core. I felt slighted. I knew that music could be so much more, and that surely somewhere there was a man or woman who could make it fluently; so brilliantly and beautifully that it could bring me to tears. I never knew such a love could exist, until the day when I first encountered Sufjan Stevens.

I was hunched over a table waiting for my turn at a bowling alley when I first heard the name - terribly mispronounced. My friend Allyson wrote the name down on a napkin, which I took home. During this time I was going through a musical obsession with overbearing hardcore metal. Sufjan would be a flower in the midst of death and decay. I downloaded some songs (illegally), took a listen, and shrugged. It was just alright in my mind. I should have known better. I always take a full album better than a few disjointed songs that I have no familiarity with. I shelved the music and was sure that I would never return. But as this was a recommendation from a friend whose opinion I greatly value, I decided to give Sufjan one more try. I bought Greetings From Michigan (for the first time) on iTunes for a bargain, listened front to back, and was floored. I had never heard an album quite like it before, with all its quiet misgivings, bashful rhythms, and gorgeous crescendos. I decided to cut deeper. The next week I purchased Seven Swans (for the first time) and Illinois (for the first time) and my mind was flipped backwards. I couldn't believe how I had missed this whole world of music.

I told everyone - everyone within earshot who would listen - I told them to buy every record this man had. I got excited to tell them, like I had discovered gold that everyone could partake in. When someone knew of him before I got to tell them, it was even more exciting. They were automatically my new favorite person. My friends began to form into a new spectrum in my imagining: those who knew of and liked Sufjan, and those who did not. I immediately decided that if a girl did not at least appreciate his music, she probably wasn't worth my time. This was how much I valued musical taste, and how much I valued Sufjan. He became my musical obsession. Every chance I got I would listen to him. I scoured the internet for B-sides. I salivated at the thought of an album of Illinois B-Sides. New music was coming fast and plentiful, and so it was the Golden Age of Sufjan.

I laid in my bed some nights and prayed that he wouldn't die young. I hoped that he would make music forever, and that every year or two I'd be graced with another masterpiece. I checked his web site every day to see if anything new was coming out for me to anticipate. I bought Asthmatic Kitty memorabilia. I convinced my friends to take me to see him in St. Louis the night before a midterm. That concert was one of my favorite concert experiences period. I got almost no sleep that night, I didn't study, and got a C on my midterm. Who cares. It was worth every hour wasted, and every penny spent. I got a t-shirt at that concert that I still wear. I was introduced to Enjoy Your Rabbit that weekend as well.

After that concert, the Golden Age began a steady decline. I gave my girlfriend to be a copy of Seven Swans (the second time I bought it), a repeat of my giving her a copy of Illinois a year before (the third time I had bought that record). She probably didn't realize it at the time, but giving her the gift of Sufjan meant that I liked her. A subtle test of our compatibility? Maybe. Turns out she didn't like him like I thought she did. Turns out she didn't like me like I thought either. But that's another story entirely.

Soon after the release of the Sufjan Christmas CD package, I realized that Sufjan had little left in his bag of tricks. The brightness and happiness I found in his music slowly began to fade. Then there was next year's Sufjan X-mas Gift Xchange tragedy. After trading songs with an avid fan who made a great piece of music, the newest and latest Sufjan X-mas song faded into oblivion after its new proud owner decided to only share with special invitees, and no one else. Collectively, Sufjan's fandom hung their heads in disappointment. To the victor go the spoils, I suppose. I hold out hope that one day he'll release the song, but something tells me that its included in his will.

Thus ended the Golden Age of Sufjan. Recently, the BQE found its way to CD, but since then nothing has changed. No new music, no more proper albums. Sufjan's musical presence has been reduced to that of collaboration. And why? Because he doesn't feel like it anymore. There are lots of articles that go over why he feels like music isn't his bag anymore. And to some degree, I suppose I understand. He's had a lot of pressure to stand and deliver. I also don't think he does very well with a large audience of people, either. There was an interview that he did with a PBS program called Austin City Limits. He looked like a nervous wreck. I thought, "How the heck is he nervous? Everybody loves him!" But even during the performance he looked as though he wasn't himself. I guess even brilliant musicians get nervous sometimes. He has always seemed like a modest fellow. And I'm sure that if I met him in real life, after all the gush and craziness I would let out, he would probably reassure me that he was just a normal guy with normal problems leading a normal life. That's just the kind of guy he is.

The truth is, I love Sufjan and all that he does. He's does what he loves, and doesn't seemed phased by the outside world. He's reclusive, and shrouded in mystery, yet I always beg to know more about him and his work. I wonder if he will ever reemerge, and if he does, will he be the same? Will he be better because of this long hiatus? Or has he been crafting the best material of his life in secret? Only time will tell. For now, the Sufjan faithful will remain quiet, despondent, and hopeful for another Golden Age of Sufjan.