smacky and bucky

Three hours of Lost tonight, then a long summer break. This is about the only show on network television I make an effort to see live, rather than TiVo and fast-forward through later. When it's all over, the Lost arc is going to be a pretty impressive 5-season story. This year has been stellar. I don't know if they were revitalized after the writers' strike, or if having a definite endpoint allowed them to finalize the plot map, but they've been on this year.

I've managed to avoid all the finale spoilers online and in print mags, so tonight's revelations will be fresh for me.

Labels: Lost

Wife is out of town the rest of the week, and I slept horribly last night. The two facts are probably related. That, and one of the cats was a complete spaz, determined to wake me up every hour.

But it was a good episode of Lost last night, though now I don't know who to trust, other than Hurley, Desmond, Sayid, and the hobbit from Driveshaft. Oh, and Sawyer. Want him on your side. Damn!

Locke is iffy, since he may or may not have his own agenda and is willing to use anyone to get it, and though I'm not ready to label him an "other" yet, he does still have that puppy-dog need to belong. When he was in their camp, I thought about the pot plantation, and how he couldn't kill that undercover cop.

Jack is going to have to do something pretty spectacular to redeem himself, because I think he's a dick now. It's like he's other-whipped (as opposed to p-whipped). He's pretty much been a dick since that lame "Jack's tattoos" episode. Next week's episode looks like a Ben flashback! Awesome!

Oh, and Jericho was good last night too. End of the world and small towns are wiping out their adult male population on both sides. Nice metaphor for a certain war, huh? Next week is the season finale, and it's war, baby. (Say it with me: "What is it good for? Absolutely nuthin!")

Labels: Jericho, Lost

Well, last night's Lost had two women handcuffed together, beating each other up, and falling in the mud (this last part was after the fighting was over, so no mud wrestling) . Decent episode. We learned a few things, like for instance, in three years, Juliet went from a timid lab worker to someone with lightning-quick reflexes and kick-ass kung fu moves. I could see her still being a spy for Ben if he asked her, but it does legitimately appear she was left behind and is now an outsider. I'm looking forward to the episode that fills in the gaps of the previous night and what happened to Locke (hurt hand, leaving with the Others, etc.).



I stopped by a used CD place after work since I had to pick up some allergy meds from the nearby drug store. I stumbled across Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, 1984-1989. My college years were in the '90s, but this band's music brings back a lot of memories, mostly good ones, but a few bittersweet ones too. One of their songs is called Jennifer, She Said, and we (a girl named Jennifer, naturally, and I) were probably in year two or three of the about six years we were together. The song is about a guy who gets the name Jennifer tattooed on his arm, and of course then they end up breaking up. I never went as far as to do that, but I did purchase an engagement ring (which I later sold during grad school), so I can certainly relate to the overall tone of the lyrics, even without the tattooed reminder:

jennifer we can't go wrong let's put it in writing
jennifer we can't go wrong let's do it right now
maybe you were a little hasty
but they say love is blind
now her name on you
jennifer in blue
did you ever have a bad dream wake up and it not stop?
did you ever feel for a girl for a time and then stop?
well it's written there in blue
with a heart and arrow through
her name on you
jennifer in blue
and forever you said that's forever you said yes forever
and forever she said that's forever she said yes forever
but you change with the weather
you change with the weather
and this is the rain

Anywho, yeah, we ended up formally breaking up, I went to Africa, and she ended up marrying the next guy she dated. Wasn't meant to be. I picked up the CD for $5 and listened to it, and that's what led to this post.

Labels: Lost, music

I liked this week's return of Lost, with a few minor exceptions. I don't feel up to a full analysis, so I'll just point you to Lost... And Gone Forever, where this guy has posted a long, extremely detailed recap, with screen grabs from the episode's freakier moments.

What else has happened this week? I'm finishing a book that shouldn't take this long to finish. No excuse for it, except I get tempted by reruns of Scrubs, a show I've ignored for six seasons. Now all the episodes are new to me, and funny.

Speaking of being behind the curve of popularity, I picked up Maxinquaye by Tricky the other day. Released in 1995, I'm only now discovering it. A few of the tracks I already knew, thanks to a mix tape someone sent me when I was in Africa. I played the tape endlessly for a year, but I lost the insert with the song titles and artists' names, so I just knew them as "that song that goes da-dada-da" and so on. I suppose "trip-hop," as it's described, is now passe, but it's still an amazing CD. It sounds like the music that would play in the taxi in Paris, as you ride home with a mysterious good looking stranger you met at the club, someone who may become a lover or an enemy. Ohh, how poetic for a Friday morning!


We're staying in town again this weekend. Going out to dinner with one of the wife's sisters and sister's husband tonight. Saturday is looking open though. Any ideas?

Labels: Lost, trip-hop

Well, it's Wednesday, so time for quick recap of the weekend. Had a fun, relaxing time. Saturday I got up early and went to get my car inspected. Then I swung by to pick up the wife and head to IKEA. She wanted a new dresser (we left the beat-up old one in the house we sold in December). She picked one out and I spent part of Saturday afternoon putting it together. Saturday evening we went to visit friends. Since we're so often out of town on the weekends, it's rare we get to meet up with friends. It was a lot of fun. I finished assembling the dresser on Sunday. Watched about 75% of the Superbowl, got bored, and turned the channel.

Woke up this morning to about an inch of snow on the ground. The most we've had all winter! Sigh. What a letdown. Brushed off our cars and came in to work at my regular time.

Lost is finally back tonight, kicking off 16 uninterrupted weeks of new episodes. I hope it doesn't suck. I've been avoiding spoilers since November. It will be interesting to see if the Lost writers have been paying attention to the success of Heroes, and how the writers of that show tell a story. Especially the part about not having to have something happen only in the last five minutes of the episode!

Labels: Lost, snow, weekend