Lostpedia: Where 'Lost' Addicts Go to Die...

Ok, it's no secret that I'm a huge Lost fan and since it's gone off the air last week I've been reeling with Lost withdrawal. So, one way for me to deal with this lack of Lost is by posting my favorite blog sites for Lost. Most of you probably don't care, but for the die hards you might find some that you'll enjoy.

1. Lostpedia. This is the ultimate Lost website. It's designed in a Wikipedia format so you can search pretty much anything that your heart desires. Be careful, however, it's easy to spend hours on this website. Here's a post from the last episode dealing with just that episode's cultural references:

• Kurt Vonnegut: The author of Slaughterhouse Five is mentioned as an answer on the game show Michael is watching. (Literary works)
• The Shining: Minkowski remarks that Michael reminds him of the main character from this 1980 horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. (Movies and TV)
• Star Wars: Before he is shot, Karl says, "I've got a bad feeling about this." This is a line that is spoken in every episode of Star Wars. (Movies and TV)
• Cass Elliot: The song playing in the car when Michael tries to kill himself is "It's Getting Better" by Cass Elliot, who also recorded "Make Your Own Kind of Music." (Music)
• The Hotel Earle: This is the former name of the Washington Square Hotel. [1]
  • In the 1991 Coen Brothers film Barton Fink, this is the name of a fictional hotel, which is a metaphysical manifestation of hell for an awkward, isolated New York City writer. (Movies and TV)
• Star Trek: The second sneak peek for this episode featured the "red alert" sound effect from Star Trek: The Next Generation as the freighter's alarm. This was altered for the broadcast version. (Movies and TV)
• Hinduism: When we see Ben talk to Michael on the radio, at the beginning of the shot there is a statue of a Hindu deity in the foreground. (Religion and Ideologies)
• The Great Escape: Michael throwing on the ball against the wall references Hilts doing the same whilst in the cooler in The Great Escape.

2. Doc Jensen: EW.com. Here you'll find one of my favorite Lost experts who gives thoughtful and almost touching analysis to the Lost world:

They never made it to Albuquerque in the flash-forward future (at least, not yet), but Jin and Sun landed somewhere deeper in last night's moving, deviously tricky installment of Lost. Back on point after last week's subpar Juliet-centric episode, ''Ji-Yeon'' had me dabbing my eyes repeatedly. You're always going to get me watery with a story about the sometimes perilous road of bringing new life into the world; it's a personal thing, and Lost tapped it well enough, so there you go: I'm sold. Even better, I loved how this story, unexpectedly, dealt with resolving Sun's sin against her husband — her infidelity with Jae — yet also completed Jin's redemptive reconstruction into a husband worthy of his wife's faithfulness. I'm not sure if Jin really is destined for death, as the final moments of the show seemed to suggest, but in many ways the episode felt like a valedictory for the character....More.

3. J. Wood: PowellsBooks.blog. This blog is over-the-top amazing, even if most of it is over my head. If you want analysis so deep that you'll need a dictionary and wikipedia close at hand just to understand it, then this is your blog. Here's an excerpt:

The theme of the number (our constant?) is reflected in the very architecture of the episode, making "The Constant" possibly the most intricately structured episode of Lost to date. This kind of thematic structuring is what classical and Renaissance artists and architects did when they took classical ratios and had them reflected at the macro and micro levels of the work to create intrinsic harmony and resonance. The eight idea resonates throughout the episode in theme, structure, symbolism. This is not to say that the episode was designed as carefully as suggested above, but at this point many of the themes have already been established and are now being recuperated while questions are answered. If all the thematic pieces were designed to fit together, the writers may not need to over-plan an episode, because the structure is implicit....More.

4. Lost Screencaps and Easter Eggs. This little website takes HD stills of important shots that you probably missed on initial viewing. I'm always amazed when I check it out because I realize how much I overlooked. For example:



A glimpse of Alvar Hanso (founder of the Hanso foundation) next to Michael in a hospital bed. Hanso is Danish for 'his island.'

Life In Government

Here is a bit of required reading for 1) anyone who ever thought that they wanted to work in government, 2) anyone who currently works in government but thinks maybe it's just their office that is bad, and 3) anyone else.

http://www.federalwasteland.blogspot.com/

PS - The fact that this blog is about the federal government in no way prohibits it from applying to state or local government as well.

A Duty-Dance with Death

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes'. (27)

Lost recently ended its eight episode run, but will be back for five more episodes in one month’s time. The last episode had a lot to do with a character that I was sure we’d finally be rid of, yet for some reason the creators decided that there was a need to bring him back. Thus the episode was probably my least favorite of an amazing plot-forwarding season four. Before this character, Michael, left the series, he would always shout: ‘They’ve got my boy!!’ over and over again. The Others had taken his boy at the end of season 1 and for all of season 2 Michael only had one objective: getting his boy back. This motivation, of course, was an excuse for him to do whatever he needed to get his offspring, which included killing two main characters (Libby and Ana Lucia).

What's interesting is that Ben (the Others' puppet master) pointed out in the last episode that he never asked Michael to kill; Michael did it all on his own. In the lastest episode it's revealed that Michael decides to tell his son Walt about what he did to get off the island, thereby shattering their relationship which has devolved into estrangement. This is too much for Michael to bare. We’re not exactly sure about the details, but apparently Michael has now decided that a self-inflicted death is the only option left. He’s ruined the only thing that he loved and he’s at the end of his rope. But there's a catch: as Mr. Friendly (aka Tom) pointed out, ‘The Island won’t let you’ just kill yourself—it’s not that easy.


Michael's failed attempt to blow up the freighter is met with a little note

After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, Michael finally realizes that he has no escape from his past sins (killing innocent blood) and current hell (guilt and separation from Walt). Maybe the writers decided that in an attempt to make us sympathize with this damned character, his penance will be to somehow rescue his ‘friends’ that are still on the island, while acquiescing to Ben’s demands by killing some of Ben's enemies. Thus Michael has graduated from Ben’s chessboard pawn to Ben’s queen: nothing to lose and the willingness and motivation to kill.

You see, Michael cannot die and he has nothing to live for. His future is somehow laid out before him according to the island’s wishes and demands, and he has sunk into fatalistic realization of his own destiny. The difference between Michael and Desmond is that Desmond feels like he can still determine his future somehow, even though it’s bound by some immutable laws of inevitability (i.e., Charlie’s death). Desmond can control actions, however, and chooses the details of when and how things come to pass. I believe that Michael will become the Billy Pilgrim of Lost: the ill-fated character of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House Five.



Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death

I recently re-read it since the author, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away last year. Have you ever read it? You must. The main character is “unstuck in time,” meaning that he experiences the events of his life in a seemingly random order, with no idea which part of life he will “visit” next (something akin to flipping through the channels of your own life). This has something to do with the fact that he has been adducted by aliens who don’t hold the same concept of time as humans. To them everything always exists at the same time. The author uses these aliens as a literary tool to satirize the idea of fatalism, or the acceptance of all things and events as inevitable. One alien said: "I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe... Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." I think that Vonnegut is satirizing this concept because so many people feel like they can’t change their own life. But the thing is…we do have free will. We can’t just sit around and wait for life to happen to us; we are masters of our own fate.

I think that ultimately Lost and its characters will begin to understand this concept of fatalism on a broader scale, as they come off the island and have ‘unstuck in time’ experiences. This may be why Jack tries to kill himself in the future by jumping off a bridge, or that Hurley tries to get into a car accident and ultimately ends up in psychiatric ward where he feels ‘safe.’ This is just a theory, but it feels like time-travel has become a central theme of Lost this season wrapped around theories brought to us by Vonnegut, who has been mentioned at least three times during the eight episode run. If this were to be true, then we’ll see more characters turning to suicide (freighter folk), going insane (Minkowski), or maybe developing a sickness (Rousseau’s comrades). Ultimately, I believe that the characters will all have to face their past demons and reconcile those with the island (aka smokey) and themselves in order to find peace and become masters of their own fate. Only then will they truly become ‘found.’

Arrested Development Strikes Back!!

You might have heard, but I just need to say that the most brilliant TV series in the history of sitcoms might be turned into a major motion picture!! Talks have already begun:



Test your Arrested Development skills here. I got 9 out of 20, which isn’t bad since I haven’t seen an episode in awhile.

Music, Movies, TV.

Music

Check out this new band that has received a lot of buzz recently.

'A-Punk' - Vampire Weekend

Movies

Could 2011 be the year of the sequel at Disney? That's the rumor coming from Ain't It Cool News, which claims there'll be not only a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean adventure in 2011 but a follow-up to Cars, a third entry in the Nicolas Cage National Treasure series and a TRON 3-D remake. Regarding a potential fourth Pirates flick, AICN reports that there are conflicting rumors about the plot, with one suggesting it would be "far more contained than its predecessors, allowing for a budget-friendly downsizing," while another suggests it would be even more big-budget than the first three, as in "ultra fantastical (dinosaurs, Jules Verne-esque floating fortresses, etc.)." No one is confirmed for a fourth Pirates flick, including star Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski, though Depp has claimed he'd be up for it if, as they say, the story is right.

TV

LOST (ABC)
CURRENTLY AIRING For 10 episodes
INSIDE SCOOP Lost will take a break in mid-March before resuming the next month; the 16-episode season arc will be told in 13 episodes.

THE OFFICE (NBC)
RETURNS April 10
EPISODES TO AIR 5 or 6

30 ROCK (NBC)
RETURNS April 10
EPISODES TO AIR 5
INSIDE SCOOP What's in store? Spills Tina Fey via e-mail: ''Liz has a pregnancy scare.'' Even better, ''Jack may get called to serve his country.''

24 (Fox)
RETURNS Early '09
EPISODES TO AIR 24 (duh!)
INSIDE SCOOP For once, Jack Bauer isn't running out of time. Eight eps are done, and production will resume soon for an uninterrupted '09 season.

From 'Bourne' to 'Bronchos'

The Bourne franchise is coming back for another. While there are those who might complain, I think most people will welcome the fourth entry into this tight-run series. The only question is: how do you add on to a trilogy? Robert Ludlum, who wrote the original Bourne books, has passed away and only wrote three books. However, there are other Bourne books from another author:

The Bourne Legacy

Veteran thriller maestro Lustbader (Black Heart, etc.) seizes the reins of Robert Ludlum's bestselling Jason Bourne series, proving that even Ludlum's death can't stop the ex-CIA operative. David Webb, a mild-mannered Georgetown professor, harbors his old Bourne identity deep within his psyche—except in moments of danger. A mysterious assassin, Khan, has targeted Webb. Seeking counsel from his old CIA handler, Alex Conklin, Webb arrives at Conklin's home to find him, along with Webb's psychiatrist and friend, Mo Panov, murdered. Unsurprisingly, it's a setup, and Webb is declared a rogue agent and the prime suspect. His only clue to the real killer is a pad of paper with a faint impression of the notation "NX 20." Meanwhile, in Reykjavik, preparations are underway for the upcoming summit on worldwide terrorism. Even the dimmest thriller reader will immediately intuit that Bourne, pursued by the world's leading intelligence agencies, will end up in Iceland confronting some evildoer out to wreak havoc on the international terror conference. And thus it comes to pass. Lustbader has wisely eschewed mimicking Ludlum's signature style—short punchy paragraphs with lots of exclamation points. His own prose, often cliche-ridden ("Khan felt as if his brain was about to explode. He was shaken to his very foundation"), is perfectly serviceable, effectively conveying the myriad cinematic hairsbreadth escapes, crosses, double crosses, explosions, furious fisticuffs and careening plot twists. It's a hearty serving of meat and potatoes action adventure, just the sort of fare that both Ludlum's and Lustbader's fans relish.

The Bourne Betrayal

In Lustbader's workmanlike second novel to continue the saga of Robert Ludlum's amnesiac assassin and spy (after 2004's The Bourne Legacy), Jason Bourne joins the war on terror. Troubled by visions of a woman dying in his arms, Bourne seeks psychiatric help, unaware that the doctor is an imposter who has tampered with the rogue agent's already messy and incomplete memories. That mental sabotage is part of a diabolical plan by Islamic terrorists to strike at Washington, D.C., led by Karim, a human chameleon who has fooled the CIA—and Bourne—into believing that he's actually deputy CIA director Martin Lindros. Aided by an attractive fellow agent who manages to overcome her distrust of Bourne, he races the clock to uncover the traitor within the intelligence community. Lustbader is less successful than Ludlum in dramatizing Bourne's inner torment—a feature that distinguished the character from many similar thriller heroes.

Jared and Jerusha Hess who wrote Napoleon Dynamite as well as Nacho Libre are all set of their next big movie, Gentlemen Bronchos. I’m more than a little excited for this one cuz it’s going to star Sam Rockwell (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Jemaine Clement (The Flight of the Conchords). Also, Mike White is producing (School of Rock, Freaks and Geeks, Orange County). Here’s what one blogger had to say:

Though he's doing it rather quietly, it's hard not to be impressed with what Hess and co-conspirator (and very funnyman) Mike White are doing here. Their comedies will never be as racy (or probably as funny) as the stuff coming from Camp Apatow, but I'm glad there's room in the world for directors who can make clean (Hess is a Mormon, in case anyone didn't know) but still solidly entertaining flicks without preaching to us about the filth that too often makes up the rest of our entertainment slate. 'Nuff said.