UConn James

Just to add... probably the funniest part of the night was when Jorge Garcia joined in on the opening skit. Seemed like the place erupted at that moment. Then, there was Jimmy Fallon's farewell covers, which used "Time of Your Life" the song that I wrote a while back best summed up the LOST experience. There were some good bits on the DarkUFO site, where a few of the best episode commentators were invited to answer some of the most burning "unresolved mystery" items from a poll on that site. I really recommend this. I really dig Robz888's answer on the question of Walt --- that Walt (and, probably all of the Island's protectors) always had certain powers that belong to the Island's protector. Case in point: How it stopped raining almost immediately when Michael said he's try to find Vincent when it stopped raining. And the argument that Walt will likely take over from Hurley. Full agreement here. Also, another note I read last week... The intentions coming into the season apparently had been to reveal Ilana as Jacob's actual daughter. It was deemed that there was not really enough time to make this happen to any degree of satisfaction. So it was left that Ilana described Jacob as being "like a father to me." Picked up the S6 DVDs today. It's probably the last TV show I will ever be doing this for. For me, tho, having this series on the bookshelf is like the need to have Shakespeare and a Merriam-Webster/ Don't know when I'm going to get to it. Still giving it some digestion and separation time. Also trying to work through several seasons of another show via online at the moment. Still awaiting the promised Doc Jensen column....

Well, LOST didn't get any Emmy love last night, besides those in attendance who amped up the cheering during the respective nominee lists. It was #1 in a lot of people's hearts. Apparently not the ones that matter, tho.... as they went toward more conventional drama. And I can at least understand that. Dramas involving the supernatural / sci-fi / spiritual historically don't win many awards from the academy (LOTR only won major categories in its final installment, a deferred testament to the work as a whole). Winning Best Drama for S1 was probably enough in most voters' minds. They'd rather vote for the conventional, where they do their work than usher in more sci-fi to their idiom. There's the adage that "just to be nominated is validation enough." And I think that applies moreso for LOST than just about any other show. To all the people who grumbled about the finale and how it was executed, you can point to 12 nods among people who make TV for a living saying, 'This was one of the best of the year.' I can understand them not winning, tho. It happens. Michael Emerson didn't have much screen-time or as juicy bits and Terry O'Quinn was hard to feel close to as MIB/FLocke. Matthew Fox's acting is a lot like how Theodore Dreiser's novels are described --- that brick by brick it's not really impressive, until the time when you step back a bit and view the completed structure, that's when the 'Wow' moment comes when you think about the totality of the work. Many shows come and go, many are confined to their era and forgotten... LOST will age well. And I hope that those viewers who were disappointed come back in 5 or 6 years and give it another turn.

I may be the last person in CT without a cellphone. Yep, it's inconvenient sometimes but I'll trade it for a little more sanity and not having people calling every 5 minutes just to ask where I am and what I'm doing. I am very much a 'Leave me the ---- alone" person.

I haven't had time to check the auction prices for a few items I had my eye on. Maybe if they're on eBay someday and I've hit the lotto.... I'm going to be making my own wall-worthy ankh and there are a couple of places to get a Swan failsafe key. I read that Daniel Faraday's journal sold for $27,500. Wow. Will be picking up the S6 DVDs next time we get out that way. The complete set looks cool (and I've read that there is a very carefully hidden disc unavailable elsewhere that has some extra featurettes), but having bought the discs all along, it doesn't make sense for me right now. Would love to have them in Blu-ray at some point, tho. I've also read a few things recently. - On Jorge Garcia's final podcast last week, he apparently revealed that it was Hurley's voice saying the numbers that brought the French team to the island c. 1988. I don't remember if they even had a voice saying them in that Jin timeflash, but that's something to go back and listen for in the re-watch. - The Complete Collection includes a page from the Black Rock journal. It reads, "Only one returned alive. He seems in a deep shock, muttering about exchanging musket fire with another vessel which promptly disappeared in a flash of heavenly light." Answer on who Juliet fired at with the M-1 during the time flashes when they were in the outrigger. - Someone had a little too much time on their hands.A complete list of the mysteries --- what was answered (in LOST canon form, including TNMIC) and what remains mystery. - Following from the epilogue "The New Man in Charge" I think this lends even more credence to the idea that Jacob is the one who brought about the DHARMA Initiative. The Island Protector is the ultimate head of DHARMA. Yes, they fought with the Others who followed Jacob. Yes, it seems disingenuous that this would be Jacob's way. But it was also Jacob's way to "push" gently --- to start things w/o getting too involved with the particulars and let things play out as they will through human choice. Therefore, DHARMA was funded by Hanso with the De Groots, the Others consisted of island inhabitants that got periodic messages through Richard, Ilana's group came to protect Jacob and the candidates, and Widmore came after "being shown the error of my ways" by Jacob shortly after the freighter explosion. Point of DHARMA and the Others was to (using MIB's words) push the candidates to the island and produce the experiences on the island that would bring them to where they needed to be. All of these groups were to "fulfill de book" as the Bob Marley song reference went.

I give that place 5 years before it's a total sh--hole. It's the same story, repeated. A high school in Lynn, Mass., last night had every window smashed and every room get trashed. Tell me this won't happen in LA. And the tax-and-spend crowd will never figure it out because they're too busy coming up with excuses for why kids are failing. It's not the lack of a "beautiful learning environment," it's not b/c the auditorium isn't themed like the "Cocoanut Club." It's parents who treat schools like free daycare, lack of expectations, lack of enforced repercussions when they fail. This was for 4,000 students. Even allowing for some splurges, anything beyond $200M was a waste of good money.

Perhaps there should be a poll to determine the movie order? Gather several recommendations every so often and let percentages determine the order? I don't know tho. A month is quite a long time to keep up interest.

I loved Alan Alda's character of Arnold Vinick in those last two seasons. Didn't agree with most of the politics, but it was a really well-written (minus some Laurence O'Donnell scripts), well-done show.

I'm also currently starting to re-watch "The West Wing" online one-a-day. Really appreciating it more, 10 years on. Not to totally hijack this into an "I miss LOST" thread (we may be there already, tho) but I think that if people who were pissed at S6 just give it a little time and then revisit it, it will have aged well --- like Widmore's 60-year McCutcheon scotch. That last season was a lot to digest, and it happened very quickly, and in the last half, w/o the repeats. Most people bitched about the hiatuses, but I'm one who thought they helped. Didn't have your coffee yet, Jokeman?

If it's confined to what's available on Netflix instant-watch, I'd be in. First movie choice would be the one to the left of this sentence. Classic. Is Gene Wilder still kicking? Second would be "Rachel Getting Married" which really surprised me at how invested I became in it. There's no one I know who's seen it. And you're right. OTW doesn't have the same draw for me anymore w/o the LOST thread.... and given the state of the Bills, TSW doesn't either. (I was actually going to start a LOST re-watch this weekend ahead of the S6 DVD release).

If sitting out of training camp is the main reason for it, I don't get why he doesn't just say a clean variant of the above. People would respect an approach that lets him save a little wear and tear on his body while letting the backups get the playing time in camp. Lord knows Bruuuuce was the master at timing "minor knee surgeries" just so he would miss camp. Favre should just say flat out, "I will not be at training camp. I'll show up in time to get ready for when the games count." Guys like them have paid their dues. In all of the retirement drama, a deal of it is on Favre... but it's amplified 2,000 times by the new 24/7 media hype. I'm sure older guys back in the day (Y.A. Tittle, George Blanda, etc.) wavered on retirement year-to-year depending on how their body felt, but they didn't have E$PN, FOX, Yahoo! Sports, etc. etc. crawling up their snizzle at every turn. And at least Favre has the ability to mock the media-created perception of him.

I distinguish b/w movies that tell a sad story, real-life or not ("Schindler's List") with movies that are nothing more than exercises in wallowing and depressing just to be depressing. My vote in this regard goes to "Far Harbor" with pre-Oscar Jennifer Connelly. Just a bunch of whiny/mopey, self-involved NYC yuppies who you just want to punch in the solar plexi and yell "Cowboy up!" at. I get enough of that in real life that I don't need to go seeking out and paying to watch these same kind of conversations, thank you very much. Seriously, I'd write that whoever wrote that screenplay ought to be shot, but w/o looking it up, I'd say the odds are 9 out of 10 that they've already done that deed themselves. I almost wrote "Rachel Getting Married" too, but there were at least parts of it that I rather enjoyed, with characters who were humans trying to move on with their lives after an event that defined their family.

I'm a rightie.

And at least they didn't come downstairs and steal his teevee while he was busy retching/yarking.

Can we call in any debt-forgiveness favors like most/all of the African countries do every so often? Oh, wait. This is America. We're supposed to put the meal tab on our credit card. My bad.

I was just about to post that. Rivers Cuomo went to my high school. About 10 years before my time, tho.

"Long a Patriot[*] killer" Hmm. I must've missed something. AS may have gotten to Brady more than anyone else, but that doesn't make him a "Paytoilet* killer." It means he could get coverage / garbage-time sacks when the main draft investments in the past 15 years --- the secondary --- could hold their own for 6 friggin' seconds until Schoebel, Kelsay et al circled around after getting the matador treatment by so many Left or Right Tackles. Not saying that production will go up w/o AS, or that it'll even stay the same b/c even his clean-up technique was the best we had with a FO busy drafting CBs, Safeties, and RBs when we didn't need them. Just another symptom showing that 93 percent of the NFL's product is hype. I'm sorry to break this to you, but despite whatever numbers on the back of a football card and the popularity contest that is the Pro Bowl (and which the NFLPA primarily uses to "make the boats float higher" for Franchi$e and Tran$ition Tag purposes (see: Jason Peters)), Mr. Schoebel was not a consistent game-changer and above all was definitely not a game-changer against good teams.

I was expecting / hoping for a series of shorts like the 'mobisodes' from a few seasons ago, that would give us a peek on what happened to our characters after Jack died. The ending of it leaves the door wide open for the future, if TPTB decide to go for it. Vouchsafe that they'll let some time pass. The LOST prop auction is scheduled for 21-22 August, with a lot of nice items. Despite the many tags of expected bids of "$200-$300" there are some serious lowballs and probably will all be too much for me to even think about bidding. Also, with that first clip, some of the doubts about being able to make any kind of sequel after getting rid of so many of the props is much less dire. Hurley's reign really starts fresh... minus the VW van. Waiting for the DHARMA failsafe key to be included on some more reputable shopping sites. And I think I'm going to be trying to make a large ankh (e.g. the one in the guitar case) to put on my wall.

I have some experience with that and many on avsforums say that's a piece of crap. The Zenith or Insignia converter boxes (they are the same design with different labels) have given me good results in several installs. I got the Insignia at Best Buy. Don't know if they're available anymore. At full price ($80 at the time of the switch), you're creeping into a cost-benefit decision of just getting a new HD teevee with a built-in tuner. Much better picture, fewer boxes, fewer wires, and to tell the truth, less hassle. I've installed both ways. It's the owner's choice.

You'll need either a newer teevee with a built-in digital converter, or a set-top converter box. You'll also need an adequate antenna to receive broadcast signals. Use TV Fool to enter your street address and determine your channel line-up and the compass directions to the broadcasting tower(s). In the city, suburbs, etc. a set-top antenna can be adequate. Doing a rough entry, it looks like the signals in Anchorage are all over the place. Try smaller first. You can hook up an old-style antenna and get an idea of what you'll get. There's nothing fundamentally different about digital, it just generally uses UHF and needs a consistent, fairly strong signal (our converter box has a "digital cliff" of ~ 68%) and if it doesn't work try a bigger antenna until it does. A double-bow-tie antenna like the Channel Master db-2 or the newer-design 4220 are pretty good models for inside ~30 miles. If you're a DIY-er, you can also make a good-performing one with instructions here. As you get more rural / farther away from the tower(s), bigger antennas and/or pre-amplifiers may need to be used. The three general rules are bigger is better, outside mount is better than inside, and higher is better. You can actually use your current sat wiring to hook an antenna up outside and get one more thing off of the TV. Put up a pole, stabilize it, connect the wires at the F-connecters. Then follow the directions on the converter box or teevee (if it has a built-in digital tuner) manual. We dropped cable about 15 years ago. It was a lot of money for a lot of crap. We mostly watch PBS (and lucky, in our corridor here in the northeast, we have 8 PBS channels (some are redundant, tho). On the whole, digital has been a big improvement. Antenna signals for HDTV broadcasts are actually better than cable or sat picture, as they are wholly uncompressed. As Dean noted, you can supplement antenna viewing with Internet sources (for example, we watched our rooting interest's entire World Cup via ESPN3.com). Frankly, I don't know why more people don't drop cable/sat... doing that might force them into a-la-carte pricing, where you just pay for the channels you want rather than subsidizing crap channels in the "tier" plans. Good Luck.

Thanks, guys. Planning on making some French bread pizzas and ice cream/cookie sandwiches tonight. Happy to report that nothing has creaked, snapped or broken off yet, now that I'm getting old and decrepit. Is that confirmed? Or is he like... 95? That might mitigate some of my ire from his second term with the team. Didn't remember TFB being that old. Your words to God's ears!

Matthew Fox was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, where they sifted through some of the Complete Collection stuff (they included a blacklight for Easter eggs). There's also a short backstage clip involving Foxy, Jorge and a sandwich. Part the First Part the Second Part the Third Doc Jensen's third part of The Island = Carrie was supposed to be there a while ago.... As for me, I've still got the idea in my head that Christian Shepard knew what was going to happen for some time. I've cataloged this before in a previous season thread (S5?). But in view of what we were shown in S6, I'm more convinced now than ever. Let's revisit the Lighthouse. In the mirror for 23- Shepard there was the reflection of Jack's father's house. Now, for all the other candidates, it showed where Jacob touched them (James/Sawyer's was the church, Jin&Sun was the pagoda where they were married), and funny enough we weren't shown the hospital where Jack was touched near the vending machine after the Count to 5 scene. Set up CS as delving into the drink as a way of dealing with his Island Enlightenment. Perhaps Jacob came to CS, perhaps CS was enlightened by contact with someone w/in the framework; but how it happened doesn't matter as much as that it happened. He knows that fate is totally in control, whatever's meant to happen will happen, so why not sit back and get sloshed? When CS was talking about "not having what it takes" a lot of people took that as him talking directly to Jack and being a terrible father. I... I see the relationship quite differently. In some ways you can contrast it to Eloise Hawking's relationship with Daniel Faraday. In "White Rabbit" (that was the one that started with young Jack getting beat up for defending Mark Silverman) there is a tropical photograph framed in Christian's study. There's also a weird sense from the scene in S5 with Jack's grandfather, like Ray had some knowledge of what was going to happen. And it just seems right considering that CS is the one who Jack needed to connect with to finally let go all the things that Fate had to do to "fulfill the book" to borrow from Bob Marley.

Wasn't sure whether to start another thread, but I guess I'll just post it here, as this thread seems the closest in pertinence. WSJ article from earlier this month. Look at the graph. Then read what broad govt policy changes caused the "'38 Recession w/in the Depression." You realize we're taking the same road, right? Guess nobody marked the map back then. It's a little joke of history that even those who do learn it are doomed to repeat it.

America is going at twice the speed, too. I'm reminded of the woman who was videoed dancing like a fool and saying that now BO was president, she wouldn't have to pay for rent, food or electricity anymore. Yes, those people exist in numbers that are hard to believe, and yet there they are....

Newsweek: Salinger like you've never seen him

Actually, that is defined as a clot that has reached the lungs. When it has progressed there, it is often a fatal condition. David Bloom of NBC News died of one in the early days of Gulf War 2, for instance.