"Lost" Finale Roundup

(Yea, once again the pic above was ripped off from the good folks at Shakesville.)

So, I had the great misfortune of having to watch the two-hour blow-out season finale of Lost with a gal who's never seen it... and couldn't help herself from making snarky comments throughout. I guess it beats watching it alone, but not by much. And same goes for my deadbeat Florida Lost contingent. You all fell off, my friends. Fell right off on the biggest night of the season.

I think I'm gonna have to stake out a couple hours this weekend and re-watch it for whatever subtleties I may have missed.

It was, as each season finale has been, an excellent episode. This season's more sci-fi tinged themes were expanded upon and as we've come to expect, entirely new mysteries were laid out for us fans to salivate over all summer long. But there were some answers... or at least some moments of relative congruence, which, in this show, is about the best one can hope for really. My (and after checking the intertubes, apparently everyone's) favorite one of those was seeing Desmond and Penny finally re-unite. I had a goofy goddamn grin from ear to ear for that. Very sweet.

Anyway, Salon.com has a great rundown of last night's show. And Shakesville has their usual post-show dialog up and Sadly, No! has a message board going as well. But if you really wanna geek it, there's always the super-fan site, The Fuselage.

Hungry For Worms

Er, words. Yea, words.

So, here's a poem by a writer far better know for his short fiction, Raymond Carver:


The Possible

I spent years, on and off, in academe.
Taught at places I couldn't get near
as a student. But never wrote a line
about that time. Never. Nothing stayed
with me those days. I was a stranger,
and an impostor, even to myself. Except
at that one school. That distinguished
institution in the midwest. Where
my only friend, and my colleague,
the Chaucerian, was arrested for beating his wife.
And threatening her life over the phone,
a misdemeanor. He wanted to put her eyes out.
Set her on fire for cheating.
The guy she was seeing, he was going to hammer him
into the ground like a fence post.
He lost his mind for a time, while she moved away
to a new life. Thereafter, he taught
his classes weeping drunk. More than once
wore his lunch on his shirt front.
I was no help. I was fading fast myself.
But seeing the way he was living, so to speak,
I understood I hadn't strayed too far from home
after all. My scholar-friend. My old pal.
At long last I'm out of all that.
And you. I pray your hands are steady,
and that you're happy tonight. I hope some woman
has just put her hand under your clean collar
a minute ago, and told you she loves you.
Believe her, if you can, for it's possible she means it.
Is someone who will be true, and kind to you.
All your remaining days.

Something Completely Diff'rent

Something cheerier. Yea, I get it.

So there's this homemade, shot-for-shot remake of the first Indiana Jones movie that's been floating around for like ten years now. It's been hard as hell to track down and I've yet to see it (though it's apparently out there in Bit Torrent land if you're into that kinda thing).

Anyway, in this week's Chicago Reader there's a great little article about the homemade Jones vs. the real thing in the light of this week's release of the 4th Indiana Jones film. And apparently there's a more in-depth one over in the Vanity Fair archives.

Let's Do The Timewarp... Again

Another set of lyrics as a post. A sorry excuse for blogging, I know. Especially cuz they're aimed at someone who couldn't be bothered to look here anyway. But I'm having a regressive day today. And what better place to regress than back to some good ol' high school angst.

And with that, here's the words to "Gutless" by Jawbreaker:

Swallow your pride.
But take it slow.
You might just choke on it.
And you wouldn't want to do a thing like that.
What's left inside without your words
And fists to hold them up?
Can you look at it without rose colored lenses?
Doesn't speak too well of you.
You crawl to pass their tests.
I would like to help you but
I'm not sure who to address.
There are so many of you.
Used to be just one.
Lost you to the other side
To promises of fun.
Do you define yourself by some remembered set of empty phrases?
Do you question them at all?
Is what you do and what you say just following companions?
Do you do it from fear of not belonging?
I don't condemn you.
I know that we've all got to cling to something
To find our way through this life.
Just look inside and see if your beliefs have any meaning.
Or are they something that you found?

Recycled Boner Jokes

Yea, this has been all over the internet for years, but it cracked me up anew after surfacing over at the glorious Sadly, No! site today in yet another post on right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin's pretzel logic.

Also, someone in the Sadly, No! comments section directs our attention to a post on Dial 'B' for Blog where they lovingly posted all the panels with boner references from that particular Batman issue.

Speaking of the Red Sox...

...it looks like we in Red Sox nation have another hero in our midst.

Last night ESPN cut away from the Cubs drubbing the Astros to show Boston Red Sox pitcher, John Lester, seal the deal on his no-hit pitching clinic against the ever-lowly Kansas City Royals. It was a marquee moment for Lester who returned to the Sox rotation late last season after taking nearly a year off to battle cancer.

As a fellow cancer survivor, I can tell ya that beating cancer and getting your life back on track is a monumental struggle... it's something to really be proud of. To not only get back on track but to blow the doors off of your career, well, damn. I think I've got another hero to add to my list.

"Lost" Roundup

The writers, actors, directors and everyone else involved in the TV show "Lost" have really hit it out of the park this season. Last year with the show floundering and ratings falling, the network reined the creative team in and demanded they tighten things up and cut out alot of the fat. This season they've certainly righted the ship... and then some. Television just doesn't get any better in my opinion... well, unless it's the Red Sox winning a world series.

Anyway, as we "Lost" fans gear up for the season finale, over at Shakesville, Brad from SadlyNo and Melissa from Shakesville get down into it in a salon-style back and forth. Jump on in to the Lost Salon and Open Thread.

(Image stolen from the Shakesville post... obviously.)

Stay Classy GOP

(Via Politico.com)

In a 20-page memo on GOP electoral woes, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) repeatedly misspells Barack Obama’s name – it’s one R, congressman, not two -- and then manages to use the racially charged term “tar baby” in a paragraph about Obama and immigration.

“Remember,” Davis writes, “Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere.”

Ahhh today's GOP. While the ship hasn't yet split in two, it has gone vertical and the panic has certainly set in hasn't it. No sooner than the media declared Hilary Clinton's campaign hopeless against the Obama juggernaut, than the American Right lets loose with all manner of slightly veiled racist barbs directed toward their almost-crowned opponent. Well, enjoy the relative benignity cuz shit's gonna get a whole lot worse the closer we get to November.

*Bonus - Dig the quick and smug retorts in the comments section of the Right-leaning Politico article linked above... people are apparently trying to rebrand the phrase, "Tar Baby." Yikes.

Oh Internet... Sometimes You Bring It Real Good

Such as over at a website called, Manbabies.com. Oh, it's really almost too much.

(Via the mighty Boing Boing.)

Hot Times Over At WFMU

WFMU gives us the skinny on a band pretty well ahead of its time, Hot Poop.