Previously on Rewatching Lost:
Rewatching Lost
There are 25 episodes in season 1, and I am through 20 of them. I guess it would make more sense to write about the end of season 1, but I don't know, I just kinda feel like doing it now. I just watched the episode where Boone dies and Claire's baby is born. It was a really good episode. The episode before that one was the one where they introduce the numbers.
Random shit:
* Charlie dies early on in the series when he and Claire get kidnapped by Ethan. Ethan leaves him hanging in a tree and then Jack CPRs him and he doesn't wake up. And then like a minute later he wakes up. I want to call that foreshadowing, but I also feel like it would be a stretch.
* People who have killed someone so far include Kate (they haven't said who yet, but she's admitted to murdering someone. Spoiler alert: it's her dad.), Sawyer (the guy who he thinks conned his parents, but it was the wrong guy), Charlie (kills Ethan when everyone else wants to take him alive for questioning), Jack (kills the federal marshal in more of a euthanasia than a murder after Sawyer shot him in the lung instead of the heart), and I want to say Sayid, although maybe he's just about torture up until now, though that won't be true for the entire series. I mention this just to ponder the idea that Michael is not allowed into heaven because he shot somebody. I feel like it's Shannon (God, I hope it's Shannon) or maybe it's Analucia. Anyway, that shit's mad racist.
* Walt is magical and possibly evil. This subplot never goes anywhere.
* Twice so far Jack has made promises to people and they've used the line, "I know you promised, but I'm letting you off the hook." First was Rose, when Jack promised he would stay with her until her husband came back right before the plane crashed. Second was Boone, who Jack promised to heal, but then he died. Fun fact: Jack's (ex)-wife is Julie Bowen from Modern Family. This whole thing is a running theme where Jack is too committed to shit once he decides to do something. I'm not sure how this plays out in the end based on my memory, but I'll keep an eye on it. (Get it? An eye. As in at least 5 episodes have started on a close up of some character's eye.)
* John Locke is named after an Enlightenment philosopher who was very influential in developing the idea of empiricism. Short version, you are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and you learn only through experience and rational thought. He was the first guy to write about man's right to life, health, liberty, and possessions, which was converted into the phrase you recognize from the Declaration of Independence. I don't think the writers wanted a super deep exploration of Locke's ideas, I get the sense more that they were interested in the "blank slate" that the island's John Locke got when he ended up there. Although it's also worth mentioning that John Locke was one of the first guys to deal with social contract theory.
* The French lady is named Rousseau, another enlightenment thinker who wrote a book called "On The Social Contract." Fun fact, Jean Jacques Rousseau was not actually French, he was from Geneva. Also, he wrote a famous book about the importance of education (Emile) but the five kids that he fathered were raised in orphanages. Anyway, the French lady is sortof the anti-social contract person of the island. She killed all of her colleagues on the island after having gone crazy or maybe they all went crazy, or maybe both. But both Locke and Rousseau are enlightenment thinkers and both dealt with social contract theory and I guess there's something to that.
* Jack's name is Jack Shepherd. Get it, shepherd?
* I assume Sawyer is supposed to bring to mind Tom Sawyer, known rapscallion, but ultimately pretty good guy. Also, I still have no recollection of the Sawyer story line. The only thing I remember about him were addressed in his one flashback episode this season, through episode 20 anyway, and even then there was stuff I didn't recall. I know he was there the whole time, but I don't recall what role he plays in any of the events that transpire.
* The Sun and Jin story line is much deeper than I remember. I recall by the end being really into their subplot, but that must have been the case from the beginning.
* I feel like this first season was set up for them to have been in purgatory all along, but then the writers changed their minds. I know they said that wasn't true, but I still can't shake that feeling.
* My memory says that the single best episode ever was the first episode of the second season. And I'm almost up to that episode. Also Desmond might be the best character, so I'm excited for that.
* This first season is super tight. There are no plot lines shooting all over the place. One solid through line about where are we, how do get off, are we alone on this island? The back stories blend perfectly with the episodes. It's just really well done.
On the next episode of Rewatching Lost:
Season 2, Episode 3
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
The Universe is Cool as Fuck
Ok, read a little bit about this here or just link straight to the video that lays forth a 3D map of the entire known universe. Because the universe is cool as hell.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Rewatching Lost
So, really this blog has been about nothing if it hasn't been about Lost. And recently I started to rewatch Lost, as it is available for streaming on Netflix. I haven't yet decided if this is an exercise in masochism, as my feelings towards Lost haven't really changed since it ended. I felt like the writers let me down, especially in the last season. I felt like I invested a lot of time and energy into the series hoping some of it would get wrapped up in the end, and really almost nothing got wrapped up. Like, practically nothing.
I guess I decided to watch it again without having to be surprised by everything that happens and with the benefit of knowing what happens (at least what I remember) and decide if I really was led astray. I guess I'm giving it a second chance. I want to decide if they really bit off more than they could chew, or if all of that stuff was there for a reason. I have never seen any episode more than once, with the exception of the finale, which I watched twice.
And now I've rewatched the first 8 episodes. Here's what I got so far:
* In the very first episode, Locke teaches Walt how to play backgammon and describes it as light versus dark in sortof a heavy handed way, which would obviously come back into play later down the road.
* Locke doesn't get killed by the smoke monster early on, but it is implied that he faces him down and sees into the soul of either the island or what we would find out later is the smoke monster. They don't show him facing down the smoke monster, they only imply it. They also haven't actually shown the smoke monster yet, only wind and trees being bent. And I guess there's something to that and the fact that Locke would later become the smoke monster, or I guess the converse of that is more appropriate.
* Sayid has that picture of Nadia and on the back she writes, "You will see me in the next life, if not in this one." After setting that up and knowing that he gets with Shannon at the end still makes me mad.
* I don't really remember the Sawyer story line at all.
On the Next Episode of Rewatching Lost:
The First 20 Episodes
I guess I decided to watch it again without having to be surprised by everything that happens and with the benefit of knowing what happens (at least what I remember) and decide if I really was led astray. I guess I'm giving it a second chance. I want to decide if they really bit off more than they could chew, or if all of that stuff was there for a reason. I have never seen any episode more than once, with the exception of the finale, which I watched twice.
And now I've rewatched the first 8 episodes. Here's what I got so far:
* In the very first episode, Locke teaches Walt how to play backgammon and describes it as light versus dark in sortof a heavy handed way, which would obviously come back into play later down the road.
* Locke doesn't get killed by the smoke monster early on, but it is implied that he faces him down and sees into the soul of either the island or what we would find out later is the smoke monster. They don't show him facing down the smoke monster, they only imply it. They also haven't actually shown the smoke monster yet, only wind and trees being bent. And I guess there's something to that and the fact that Locke would later become the smoke monster, or I guess the converse of that is more appropriate.
* Sayid has that picture of Nadia and on the back she writes, "You will see me in the next life, if not in this one." After setting that up and knowing that he gets with Shannon at the end still makes me mad.
* I don't really remember the Sawyer story line at all.
On the Next Episode of Rewatching Lost:
The First 20 Episodes
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Baller Status
Baller status is holding a night club in an abandoned water tower on an abandoned building. No one knows it's there. Like this blog post.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Can't Make This Shit Up
Blogging, am I right? For some reason, in the last week like four things have happened that made me think, "Hey, I should blog about that."
Today I gave a practice test for the culminating exam in the class. Some were fooling around and then this one kid, typically one who would join in shouts out, "Damn, some niggas is trying to get advanced Regents diplomas. Shut up."
I thought that was funny. Yay blogging.
Today I gave a practice test for the culminating exam in the class. Some were fooling around and then this one kid, typically one who would join in shouts out, "Damn, some niggas is trying to get advanced Regents diplomas. Shut up."
I thought that was funny. Yay blogging.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Deja Blue
That's not mine . . . I read it somewhere and I liked it; so kudos to whoever came up with it (though I am pretty sure it wasn't this guy).
In the two weeks leading up to Superbowl 46 (I am not doing the Roman numeral thing), I was pretty content with the distinct possibility that the Giants would lose to the Patriots this time round. The 2011 Pats were a very good team. Don't listen to people who say otherwise; bad teams don't go 13-3. The New England defense had improved drastically in the second half of the season (though, admittedly, it could only go in one direction) and Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks in the history of football. Throw in some intangibles like some cockiness out of the Giants, the supposed emotional heft to this game for the Pats because of the death of Mrs. Kraft, the revenge factor, the Brady-played-shitty-against-the-Ravens-and-now-he's-pissed factor, and it all seemed to point to a Patriots' win. In fact, Open Bar and I were out before the game and I confided in him that, gun to my head, I would pick the Pats to win the game. (To his credit, he picked the Giants).
I was really not bothered by the idea of losing, though, because the win in Superbowl 42 was so amazing, so exciting, so gut-wrenching, and so unbelievable, that I didn't think anything could ever come close to that again - not even another win. Nothing could take that last one away. And even if the Patriots' won and gave their fans a chance to say that 42 was a fluke, I just didn't care. That night in February of 2008 was just so much fun and so perfect that I figured there was no possible way to recapture it.
But I think that maybe last night did recapture it - or at least came closer than I thought was possible. They did it all over again. This group of Giants (football players all!) -- nearly a quarter of them veterans of what was probably the most unlikely Superbowl win of all time -- somehow managed to rip our stomachs out through our throats again and reward us with a win that was every bit as exciting, improbable and impossible as the last one. If the David Tyree "Helmet Catch" was one of the most exciting plays in the history of the Superbowl, the Manning-to-Manningham throw and catch might have been one of the best.
And while that play tops the list of similarities between 46 and 42, it was hardly the only one. This game was practically a repeat of the last win. The fumbles that didn't go the Patriots' way, the halftime lead for New England, that creeping, sinking feeling in the second half that maybe the impossible run was going to come up one game short, the late scoring drive, the devastating sack of Brady on the final drive, and a hail mary that came up short for the Pats.
For all of us, too, the setting was uncannily similar. Just a few blocks north of the apartment we watched the last one in, we got to do it all over again. Same crowd, same too many beers, same chili (sofuckinggood, dude), same post-game celebration on the Upper West Side (hat tip to New York's finest for not writing us a ticket for open containers. Not making this up: we were drinking beers and high-fiving strangers on 110th and Amsterdam. OB was drinking right out of a champagne bottle. And, when a police car drove up, they stared us, we stared back sort of awkwardly, and one of the officers gets on the speaker and says "just take it inside, guys." So we did).
When the Giants won Superbowl 42, I wrote that "last night was one of the most exciting nights of my life, and one I really do not think I will ever forget. In fact, other than the night I got engaged, and the day I got married, it may have been the very best." Since then, I've welcomed two amazing kids into the world, so 42 has been notched down a peg or two on my list. But now it's got some company.
Deja vu.
In the two weeks leading up to Superbowl 46 (I am not doing the Roman numeral thing), I was pretty content with the distinct possibility that the Giants would lose to the Patriots this time round. The 2011 Pats were a very good team. Don't listen to people who say otherwise; bad teams don't go 13-3. The New England defense had improved drastically in the second half of the season (though, admittedly, it could only go in one direction) and Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks in the history of football. Throw in some intangibles like some cockiness out of the Giants, the supposed emotional heft to this game for the Pats because of the death of Mrs. Kraft, the revenge factor, the Brady-played-shitty-against-the-Ravens-and-now-he's-pissed factor, and it all seemed to point to a Patriots' win. In fact, Open Bar and I were out before the game and I confided in him that, gun to my head, I would pick the Pats to win the game. (To his credit, he picked the Giants).
I was really not bothered by the idea of losing, though, because the win in Superbowl 42 was so amazing, so exciting, so gut-wrenching, and so unbelievable, that I didn't think anything could ever come close to that again - not even another win. Nothing could take that last one away. And even if the Patriots' won and gave their fans a chance to say that 42 was a fluke, I just didn't care. That night in February of 2008 was just so much fun and so perfect that I figured there was no possible way to recapture it.
But I think that maybe last night did recapture it - or at least came closer than I thought was possible. They did it all over again. This group of Giants (football players all!) -- nearly a quarter of them veterans of what was probably the most unlikely Superbowl win of all time -- somehow managed to rip our stomachs out through our throats again and reward us with a win that was every bit as exciting, improbable and impossible as the last one. If the David Tyree "Helmet Catch" was one of the most exciting plays in the history of the Superbowl, the Manning-to-Manningham throw and catch might have been one of the best.
And while that play tops the list of similarities between 46 and 42, it was hardly the only one. This game was practically a repeat of the last win. The fumbles that didn't go the Patriots' way, the halftime lead for New England, that creeping, sinking feeling in the second half that maybe the impossible run was going to come up one game short, the late scoring drive, the devastating sack of Brady on the final drive, and a hail mary that came up short for the Pats.
For all of us, too, the setting was uncannily similar. Just a few blocks north of the apartment we watched the last one in, we got to do it all over again. Same crowd, same too many beers, same chili (sofuckinggood, dude), same post-game celebration on the Upper West Side (hat tip to New York's finest for not writing us a ticket for open containers. Not making this up: we were drinking beers and high-fiving strangers on 110th and Amsterdam. OB was drinking right out of a champagne bottle. And, when a police car drove up, they stared us, we stared back sort of awkwardly, and one of the officers gets on the speaker and says "just take it inside, guys." So we did).
When the Giants won Superbowl 42, I wrote that "last night was one of the most exciting nights of my life, and one I really do not think I will ever forget. In fact, other than the night I got engaged, and the day I got married, it may have been the very best." Since then, I've welcomed two amazing kids into the world, so 42 has been notched down a peg or two on my list. But now it's got some company.
Deja vu.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Herm Edwards would like you to know that Tim Tebow is, in fact, a football player
This morning, in what I think is the first time ESPN has discussed Tim Tebow, Herm Edwards defended him against absolutely zero criticism whatsoever by saying this:
I also love how Herm felt the need to point out to nerdy-nerd host Mike Greenberg that three people at the desk, Herm included, did at one time play professional football while, he, Greenberg, did not. Presumably, that experience makes Herm unusually insightful when it comes to, say, evaluating football players. Herm's actual insight, however, boils down to repeating Tebow's profession, only with emphasis, because that adds special meaning that Herm is sure you'd understand if only you had played in the NFL instead of being such a nerd, you nerd.
Now, this particular stupid football euphemism isn't Herm-specific; usually it's Dan Dierdorf spouting this nonsense, and plenty of other commentators are guilty of it. But man, oh, man, was this one good. It distills it to its essence and, through the magic of repetition, makes it sound sillier and arroganter and Hermier than ever.
I'm not sure if "he's a football player" ranks higher on the stupid football euphemisms list than when someone points out that Team A will probably try to "outscore" Team B, but they're probably 1 and 2. Sort of like how the best rock bands ever are definitely Led Zeppelin and The Beatles -- the order you want to put them in doesn't really matter, as long as you have them in the top two spots.
(And as long as you have Zeppelin at number 1, obviously.)
"You know what you respect? Whether you think he's a great quarterback or not, this guy plays football. And I've played professional football. He's played professional football. [The other guy] plays professional football. You haven't yet, but let me tell you something. This guy, Tim Tebow, he's a football player, and that's what you respect about the guy. Whether he's a great quarterback in the future, I don't know, but one thing about this guy: When he lines up, you know you're playing against a football player."A big thank-you to YouTuber MrsGuerrasMole for posting that clip because it is maybe the best example yet of that line you sometimes hear during NFL commentary, that so-and-so is a football player (emphasis always added by speaker), as though that were some kind of, I dunno, point. Herm openly admitted he had no idea if Tebow was any good, but he was dead certain that Tebow plays football. That means something. It has meaning. It is a thing that MEANS SOMETHING.
I also love how Herm felt the need to point out to nerdy-nerd host Mike Greenberg that three people at the desk, Herm included, did at one time play professional football while, he, Greenberg, did not. Presumably, that experience makes Herm unusually insightful when it comes to, say, evaluating football players. Herm's actual insight, however, boils down to repeating Tebow's profession, only with emphasis, because that adds special meaning that Herm is sure you'd understand if only you had played in the NFL instead of being such a nerd, you nerd.
Now, this particular stupid football euphemism isn't Herm-specific; usually it's Dan Dierdorf spouting this nonsense, and plenty of other commentators are guilty of it. But man, oh, man, was this one good. It distills it to its essence and, through the magic of repetition, makes it sound sillier and arroganter and Hermier than ever.
I'm not sure if "he's a football player" ranks higher on the stupid football euphemisms list than when someone points out that Team A will probably try to "outscore" Team B, but they're probably 1 and 2. Sort of like how the best rock bands ever are definitely Led Zeppelin and The Beatles -- the order you want to put them in doesn't really matter, as long as you have them in the top two spots.
(And as long as you have Zeppelin at number 1, obviously.)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Birfday
Nobody writes on this blog anymore, and presumably nobody reads it, so this might be a tree-in-the-forest kind of message, but I just wanted to say happy birthday to one of the most happening guys I know from Queens, chuck jerry. 33 is the new 27.
everyone knows that friday birthdays are the best. have a good birth-weekend.
everyone knows that friday birthdays are the best. have a good birth-weekend.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
What Would Easy E Say?
What do you think this Ice Cube...
would say to this Ice Cube?
(Hey, this is Open Bar, hijacking Chuck's post...)
Maybe something like this?
would say to this Ice Cube?
(Hey, this is Open Bar, hijacking Chuck's post...)
Maybe something like this?
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