LOST 2.22: Your Hanso is Waiting

This entry is to fulfill my LOST entry quota for last week’s episode before the finale comes on tonight. Spoilers follow, of course.

Update: Of course we can’t go on without DCeiver’s latest Pompatus.

First off, they need a typography guy to look over the Hatch Computer font. It’s all over the place: a simple san-serif for “Numbers” mode, and at least two different serifed fonts for “Hatch Chat” mode. Note in the third screenshot (from “Three Minutes”) how the letters have higher stroke weight contrast and thicker stems, and the letter “W” middle strokes overlap in a way they do not in the second screenshot (from the final scene of “What Kate Did”).

I’m with “DocArzt” of TheTailSection on the insufficient plot treatment of Michael’s motivations in betraying the LOSTies. I’d thought he had been completely compromised, i.e. had joined the Others, but instead we’re shown him languishing in their camp for ten whole days before Ms. Klugh shows him his son. Based on that, he is willing to lie and kill for his boy and a boat. It doesn’t seem to be enough to drive him to the point of shooting Ana Lucia and himself (Libby having been a trigger-finger accident). Yes, yes, I know the writers want to show that a father will do anything for his son, but somehow the twist doesn’t work for me.

Another Michael thing: how come the compass worked? I thought the island was affected by an electromagnetic anomaly which made compasses go crazy, so how come Michael can suddenly tell which way is north with a compass? Couldn’t he have just been shown using the sun as a guide? And if “true north” is different on the island because of the anomaly, as was said earlier in the series, wouldn’t he be able to tell that he wasn’t actually going north because of the sun?

Eko in the Hatch: he’s a Numbers fan now, just as Locke now isn’t — but he’s not a believer the way Locke was. I think Eko’s aware that something is up, and he’s figuring out something about the button and the computer that will come to a head in the finale. Charlie’s scene with him was excellent — “get your own things” indeed.

As for Charlie, we’re seeing a rehabilitation of character, not quite a redemption from his Locke-directed anger, but a maturing, a shedding of idols which began with his kicking drugs and continues with his rejection of Locke and Eko as mentor figures. Hence the scene of him throwing the Mary statues out to sea while Locke watched from afar. Claire seems to understand this too, which is why she gravitates back to him. (Whatever happened to the Locke-Claire plot point that Sawyer once pointed out? That would have made for an interesting conflict.)

The Jack and Sawyer “I screwed her” scene should make the Jawyer shippers happy. Sweaty men and their guns in the Hatch, talking about sex, ending with a begrudging admission of masculine friendship and a cocked rifle, I mean, there were enough homoerotic undertones to fill a sequel to Top Gun.

That’s all I have to say. Finale should be fun. I bet Desmond’s on the boat.

Jury Duty: Done

Jury duty is over, which means I am now free to talk about the trial. It was a criminal case, United States vs. an Ethiopian (whose name I will leave out of here), on three counts: possession of a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon, and a separate, lesser charge of assault. Presiding was Judge Robert R. Rigsby, government prosecutor was Angela Hart-Edwards, and defense was Warren Gorman.

(More after the jump.)

Continue reading Jury Duty: Done

Pandora is Shoes

Jury duty today, and I will still need to serve further as a juror on Monday. Because of today’s deliberations, I missed Amy‘s MFA graduation ceremony in New York, and I’m rather cross and angry at the whole justice system for it.

The scowl on my face went away, however, when I came home to this:

Pandora is Shoes

Well, I’m off to catch a train. I couldn’t make it to Amy’s graduation, but I’m still visiting her for the weekend, since we haven’t seen each other for over a month. (She was very understanding about the whole jury duty issue — I had thought this trial would end Thursday, but it didn’t — and I feel quite blessed to love and be loved by someone as patient and gentle with me as her.)

LOST 2.21: ?!

My notes on LOST are delayed a week because of the rigors of jury duty. I’ll have more to say on the most recent episode a little after the DC justice system has spit me back out of its crowded maw. First, read DCeiver’s Pompatus of Lost 2.21. Lots more spoilers follow after Mad Eko.

EKO MAD! EKO SMASH!

So Locke and Eko found “Pearl” Station, supposedly the enigmatic question mark in the middle of the blast door map, and it turns out to be a monitoring station with a view of Swan. Clues point to recent use of the room. I’m glad they used a videotape for the station orientation video this time around; as I hinted in my Dharma and Ba Gua post, there’s no reason a Hanso-funded high-tech collaboration should have been using film reel for a 1980s project when videotapes were already in common use by then. It’s worth pointing out that “Mark Wickman” (a.k.a. “Marvin Candle”) seemed to have use of both of his arms, implying perhaps that the Pearl Orientation may have predated some injury that occured during the “incident” mentioned in the Swan Orientation.

Eko seems to have become the new island mystic to replace Locke. Interesting that supposed proof of a behavioral experiment at Swan has increased Locke’s skepticism, but somehow reinforced Eko’s sense of fate with regard to the Island. I’m still curious as to the meaning of the Numbers, and I’m hoping the plot doesn’t back off from the mystery raised in the first Hurley-centric episode. It’s hard for me to accept that the all the concrete walls and electromagnetism are just Skinner Boxing.

The revelation that Claire’s psychic is actually a fraud brings a new twist to the plot. (Those of you who came late to the story may have missed Claire’s flashbacks where she sees a psychic, after the boyfriend who got her pregnant leaves her, and the psychic tells her — against her plans — to never give up the baby for adoption, and later gives her tickets to fly on Oceanic flight #815, which Charlie later theorizes was him conspiring with fate to strand Claire with her baby on the island.) It’s implied, then, that the Hanso/Dharma people could have hooked the psychic up with the tickets to get Claire on the doomed flight so they could get their hands on her.

Also, what was all that stuff on the table? Drugs?

Speaking of Hanso, All the Hanso viral stuff — Sublymonal and such — is more involved than I want to get, but I’m glad the fans are enjoying themselves. ABC has really struck a chord with the proto-scifi aura of mystery surrounding this show.

More from MagicLamp, Lost_TV on LJ, MostlyMuppet, and MCSweetie.

Also see Ausellio on why LOST killed Libby, USA Today’s Bill Keveney, and Ten Things we Want to See on LOST.

Irony.jpg

(Irony.jpg, uploaded by brownpau.)

Outside the US Department of Labor. Don’t worry, he’s not dead, just sleeping.

Wright Night!

IMG_6707.JPG I almost didn’t make it, thanks to jury duty and some annoying javascript bugs at work, but finally I ran out of the office, grabbed a taxi to National Cathedral, and caught N.T. Wright speaking on his new book, “Simply Christian.” (And I also managed to snag the last hardcover from the Cathedral book desk, too.) Wright is a wonderfully lucid and witty speaker, and the comparisons to C.S. Lewis are not without cause. I especially appreciated his thoughts on the narrative-centric nature of Scripture, and the need for Christianity to engage in a postmodern critique of the arrogant historicity of Enlightenment Age thought.

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Above left: Wyclif, Eleysium, and a random grinning stranger. Above right: One great Anglican signs autographs for another great Anglican. (By the way, Brian Davis was there, but had to run back to Baltimore before I could pull my camera out. Sorry.)

Finally, nothing to do with Wright, but the amber rays of sunset provided some perfect light for this shot of the National Cathedral:

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Juror

Moultrie.jpg Well, as if May weren’t busy enough already, I’ve been selected to be a juror. This entails going to the DC Courts everyday for the duration of the trial. Judge says the case will last for three days, more or less, from 10am to about 4pm each day. If I’m really lucky, it ends early, and I can still make it to Wright Night and Amy’s graduation. If I’m not lucky, it stretches out for days into next week and all I get is $34/day for the trouble. Hurrah for the DC criminal justice system. Pictured at right, the courthouse building I’ll be really familiar with by the end of the week.

Wright Night is Coming!

As I mentioned, tomorrow is Wright Night: Bishop N.T. Wright (of “New Perspective” fame) comes to the National Cathedral to talk about his upcoming book, Simply Christian. I’ll be there to bask in N.T.’s shekinah, and so will Wyclif. Anyone else going? We’re thinking of meeting up afterward for burgers somewhere in DC. Or something.

The Busy Month of May Continues

I’m now halfway through the Busy Month of May, and the schedule is still filling up. Today is Jury Duty Monday, most of which I will spend sitting in a jurors’ waiting room in the Moultrie Courthouse Building, hoping that (1) I don’t get picked, (2) we all get let out early, and (3) I can find some decent wi-fi somewhere in the waiting area.

Today my younger brother Jungie comes back to DC after a jaunt up to New York to see friends. He leaves for Chicago tomorrow morning to visit my older brother. Tomorrow night is Wright Night, and then Wednesday night is the start of a special bible study series at church called “What Baptists Believe and Why: Being Baptist in the 21st Century,” an overview of Baptist beliefs and history.

The next two consecutive weekends will be spent in New York, this weekend for Amy’s graduation (she gets her MFA woo yeah), and Memorial Day weekend to meet up with aforementioned older brother, who’s visiting New York to see friends. (Yeah, it’s getting confusing, isn’t it?)

I’ve also got three clients, a heap of potentially profitable personal project ideas, and my day job. So yeah, this month is filled up with like ten different kinds of total awesome, and I’ll be riding high on caffeine and life for a lot of it.

Oh, check out Jungie’s Sea World Orlando photos. That was the day before I arrived, so I wasn’t able to go to Sea World. :(

Okay, off to jury duty.

Aussie BTQ Interview Done

Well, I suppose that went okay. Helen Razer called a bit after 10am, and we chewed the fat for a bit on my richly varied history before getting the recording going. The interview was just a few minutes long, in which I talked about what begging the question really means, the meaning of the original Latin phrase petitio principii, and why I started BegTheQuestion.info. It got a bit rambling at times, and my explanations of the term may have been a bit off. I also mentioned a couple of other pet peeves: “wait on/from” and “different than/from”, though these seem to be more American usage quirks with which the Australian audience would be less familiar.

There was a bit of a cage stage atmosphere to the conversation, so I may have come across as more strident about “BTQ Abuse” than I really am in real life; but I did point out that my whole purpose in starting the site was pure whimsy on an April Fool’s Day. In truth, whether or not BegTheQuestion.info actually helps lessen the erroneous vernacular usage of the phrase is of less concern to me than the Adsense and Cafepress income I get from the site. Hee.

I came in rather late for choir practice because of the timing, and when I told our choir director about it, he told me that he’d been taught that “beg the question” meant “beat a dead horse” — figuratively, that is. Someone who kept coming back to the same premise again and again was “begging the question.” There’s another “evolved” usage of the phrase to add to the vernacular definition, I suppose.

Oh yeah, buy the shirts!