Art

Lost for the Lost

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I watch Lost religiously, and I actually picked up a few tidbits of information from this article on the show by Paul Scheer.

I didn’t catch that there were six Dharma Initiative science stations around the Island. I didn’t catch the Dharma Initiative logo on the shark, or that ghost Walt was speaking backwards. Ethan Rom, the first “Other” that kidnapped Claire in season one, is an anagram for “Other Man.”
The article itself isn’t very well written, though. It doesn’t give enough detail about the characters (it only highlights two) and it mentions the Dharma Initiative stations at the beginning, and talks about “the hatch” later, without noting that they’re the same thing. It also gets a bit too caught up in narrating and leaves out some pretty gaping details in that narrative. But I’m always interested in juicy bits I didn’t get.
Other stuff I discovered after doing some googling: Jack appears in Shannon’s flashback in the hospital where her father dies. Her father was apparently in the same accident as Jack’s future wife Sarah, whom he saved.

Also, you can see the Orientation video here: The Dharma Initiative. And if you notice the little copyright info at the end, it is to the Hanso Foundation. Screw around on this site for a while, and you’ll discover lots of hidden clues to Lost info. Run your mouse over the picture of Alvar Hanso and you see a mirrored letter pop up. Click on it, and the computer screen that we was in this last episode displays, only the message is : Hello? Hello: Who is this? MOLE. Then we see a cryptic letter displayed. The site contains a ton of information on what the Dharma Initiative was attempting to do, including:

The Hanso Life-Extension Project
The Hanso Foundation Electromagnetic Research Initiative
The Hanso Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
The Hanso Mathematical Forecasting Initiative
The Hanso Cryogenics Development Imperative
The Hanso Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute
The Hanso Accelerated Remote Viewing Training Facility

I gather there are several Disney-owned sites like this one out on the internet, with cryptic information about the show and hidden pages and puzzles.

Also, check out this photo, from the speculation that the DeGroots, the scientists who founded the DI, are The Others.

This is on the Lostpedia wiki, which I’m just now combing over, after having spent quite a bit of time looking through posts at losttv-forum.com.

Continue ReadingLost for the Lost

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy – your life appeals to a select few.
But if someone’s obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky.

Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

Showgirls? Ahem. No.

Continue ReadingIf Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

Favorite Movie List

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I answered this movie meme several years ago. I need to update it quite a bit, but since I received another meme recently asking the 10 movies I hate, I thought I’d combine them.

10 Favorite Comedies

  1. Auntie Mame
  2. Amelie
  3. Shakespeare in Love
  4. Twelfth Night
  5. Much Ado About Nothing
  6. There’s Something About Mary
  7. Breakfast At Tiffany’s
  8. The Truth About Cats and Dogs
  9. Southpark: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
  10. The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love

10 Favorite Dramas

  1. Joan of Arc – the miniseries
  2. The Matrix
  3. Fight Club
  4. Life is Beautiful
  5. All the President’s Men
  6. Pleasantville
  7. Sense and Sensibility
  8. The Usual Suspects
  9. American Beauty
  10. Donnie Darko

10 Favorite Musicals

  1. The Wizard of Oz
  2. The Sound of Music
  3. The Music Man
  4. Grease
  5. Singin’ In the Rain (I can’t put it higher on the list, because the others are childhood favorites)
  6. Camelot
  7. Oklahoma
  8. Oliver
  9. West Side Story

10 Favorite Tear-Jerkers

  1. Terms of Endearment
  2. Beaches
  3. Steel Magnolias
  4. The Madness of King George
  5. It’s a Wonderful Life
  6. Waking Ned Devine

10 Favorite Action/Mystery/Thriller/Western Movies

  1. Rear Window
  2. Vertigo
  3. North By Northwest
  4. Dial ‘M’ for Murder
  5. Marnie
  6. King Kong (1933)
  7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  8. Wild Things

Movie Characters You Wish You Could Be

  1. Auntie Mame
  2. Tyler Durden
  3. Gina Gershon’s character in Bound
  4. Professor Harold Hill from The Music Man because as a kid I wanted to kiss Shirley Jones.
  5. George Bailey from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Jimmy Stewart was a pretty stand-up guy.

Ten Movies You Hate

You have to take into account here that there are lots of crappy movies I didn’t see; these are just ones I did see.

  1. Closer. (read my rant on this movie here)
  2. Jaws (never seen beyond the opening sequence because it’s too scary).
  3. The Piano. New Rule: Harvey Keitel is not allowed to be naked anywhere, even in the shower.
  4. Basic Instinct. Because all lesbians are hot blonde killers. And we have nothing better to do with our lives than chase your lame, paunchy ass around with an ice pick. Right.
  5. Pieces of April (started to watch this dismal movie on HBO, quit halfway through.)
  6. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
  7. Forrest Gump (It’s okay to not think. Smart people will kill themselves.)
  8. Pretty Woman. You don’t need me to explain, do you?
  9. Apocalyse Now. I know I’m supposed to like that “heart of darkness” shit, but I’m sorry, I just can’t sympathize with toxic masculinity.
  10. Chuck & Buck. I’ll admit I only remember this movie after seeing it on other worsts lists. I did hate the hell out of it, though.
Continue ReadingFavorite Movie List

Time’s 100 Best Novels 1923-present

Bil asked the question: how many of Time’s list of 100 Best Novels have you read?
41 of them. Most of them in high school or college English classes. When I read the list I was disappointed at what was missing and some of the crap they included. These people can’t tell me they actually read Infinite Jest. I don’t believe it. And what the hell is “Are you there God, It’s me Margaret” doing on this list? If they needed to pick a teen novel, there are 30 better than that. I also wonder why they picked the year 1923 as the starting point. What’s significant about that year?

  1. The Adventures of Augie March
  2. Animal Farm
  3. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (what the hell?)
  4. Beloved
  5. The Blind Assassin
  6. The Bridge of San Luis Rey
  7. Catch-22
  8. The Catcher in the Rye
  9. A Clockwork Orange
  10. The Corrections
  11. Death Comes for the Archbishop
  12. The French Lieutenant’s Woman (TOTAL SUCKAGE!)
  13. Go Tell it on the Mountain
  14. Gone With the Wind
  15. The Grapes of Wrath
  16. The Great Gatsby
  17. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
  18. Herzog
  19. Invisible Man
  20. Light in August
  21. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
  22. Lolita
  23. Lord of the Flies
  24. The Lord of the Rings
  25. Midnight’s Children
  26. Mrs. Dalloway
  27. Neuromancer
  28. 1984
  29. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  30. Portnoy’s Complaint (SUCKED!)
  31. Possession
  32. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  33. Rabbit, Run
  34. Slaughterhouse-Five
  35. Snow Crash
  36. The Sound and the Fury (Two Faulkners listed, but not “As I Lay Dying?” Shame.)
  37. The Sun Also Rises
  38. To Kill a Mockingbird
  39. To the Lighthouse
  40. Tropic of Cancer
  41. White Noise
Continue ReadingTime’s 100 Best Novels 1923-present

Movie Theater Police States

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  • Post category:Movies

Boing Boing has an article on movie theaters introducing the idea of patting down customers and “coat checking” camera phones and cameras to prevent “copyright infringement” of movies. Apparently this is common at previews in California and is now making it’s way to Toronto and other theaters.
Yeah, good idea. I’m giving you my camera? No fucking way.
I can get a Netflix account and you can kiss my ass.

Continue ReadingMovie Theater Police States

Indoor home composting machine

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  • Post category:Brain Food

I ran across this product on a design site I read regularly, because it get’s good reviews for usability. It’s a compost machine that you keep in the kitchen next to your trashcan.
Since Stephanie and I have been dating, I’ve moved toward recycling almost everything: aluminum cans go to a scrap metal place where we get money for them; glass, plastic and tin cans go the the recycling near the grocery store; and all paper products, including cardboard, cardstock, magazines, newspapers and office paper go to the drop-off on south West street. Per week, I’m down to a single kitchen-sized garbage bag and cat litter waste that goes to the dump. If I could compost my food waste, I’d be reducing even further, plus creating mulch for my flower beds.
Currently, my recycling is in the extra room downstairs near the back door, but when I get to finally have the kitchen I want, a recycling closet/pantry in the kitchen is a must-have item.

Continue ReadingIndoor home composting machine

Welcome, WISH-TV Viewers

If you’re here because you saw Dick Wolfsie’s report on the news this morning, thanks for thinking of me. My pictures of “Big Things” are here.

Mr. Bendo
Mr. Bendo

I think when I talked to Dick I mentioned some “Lost Big Things” that I took pictures of at one time or another which are no longer around. I mentioned Habig’s giant gardening trowel at 52nd and College as being one of them, but that isn’t correct. The trowel disappeared for several months, but it came back recently with a shiny new coat of paint, proudly displayed where it has always stood. I was very excited to see it.

The Giant Colgate Clock that the anchors were discussing is in Jeffersonville, Indiana, just outside of Louisville, Kentucky, and it is at the Palmolive Colgate Plant. It’s the second-largest timepiece in the world.

Continue ReadingWelcome, WISH-TV Viewers