LOST 6x1 - 6x2: "LA X" Thoughts, Speculations, and Theories

To echo the Internet: "Wow."

This was truly an incredible season opener, for one of the most fascinating TV shows ever. I say this with no hyperbole. I can't remember any other show that so drastically played with time and space. In the first few minutes of this episode, we have 5 seasons of drama and action reset, only to have that realization blown out of the water, and "our" characters back, almost where we left them. Over the summer break, the big question running around was: "Did it work??" The incredible answer: "Yes it did. And it didn't!"

This totally fulfilled my wildest speculation about how the season will unfold. I was hoping Faraday's gamble would work - that would give a lot of weight to the previous season. But I also didn't want to lose our characters, the drama and heartbreak of Jack and Sawyer and Kate and Juliet. I could not conceive of losing them and their history. So the creation of an alternate reality (as opposed to changing the past) is a perfect solution!

And then we get the added benefit of bringing back some old favorites who died on the island, like Boone and Charlie. This was a great touch and I hope these returned characters are dealt with well and not killed off quickly in a fulfillment of their "destiny." Especially Charlie.

The first episode spent a lot of time with Not-Dead-Yet Juliet. This was a little crazy since she died dramatically in the season finale and here she is, yelling for help. Awesome, right? Well, kinda. I'll echo the complaint that with the recap episode and the Previously On segment and then a few of the final minutes of last season replayed early in the episode, we watched Juliet die many times and it was getting a little old before Sawyer even managed to free her.. Only to watch her slip away.

BUT, not before revealing an important tidbit of info. Right before Juliet dies, she whispers a few words that seem to be random ravings of a dying woman. She says, "We should get a coffee sometime. We could go dutch." And she smiles. This confusing bit of dialogue has an extra weight later in the episode when Miles is able to communicate with the deceased Juliet and we find out that she wanted to tell Sawyer: "It worked."

My brilliant and beautiful wife had an incredible theory that I believe will turn out to be true. Basically, the idea is that somehow, in her final moments, Juliet was able to tap into the OTHER Juliet, from the newly created alternate reality, and a scene sometime in the past when Alternate Juliet met Alternate Sawyer and they flirted briefly. So even though our Juliet has died, she was happy because she knew that their gamble had worked. We will probably see that scene between Juliet and Sawyer in the alternate reality late in the season. Props to Shawn for figuring it out early.

The other main conceit during the first episode was the differences between the new alternate reality and established backstories. Some glaring differences are Desmond on the plane. Boone alone, without his sister Shannon. But the really interesting ones are the tricks that the writers pull on us harmless viewers to try and trick us into thinking things were MUCH different. For instance, Locke tells Boone that he actually did go on his walkabout. Hurley claims to be the "luckiest man alive." But as the episode ends, we see Locke being put into a wheelchair and we wonder..How different is this new reality from what we know?

The second episode spent more time on the Island, in the present. This part is glossed over a little in the first episode and left intentionally vague, but Jack and Kate and other time traveling survivors are now back in the present, where Jacob, Locke, and Ben have begun their war. The revelation about the Man In Black/Jacob's Nemesis/Fake Locke is the Smoke Monster is pretty huge and explains a lot about the dynamic of the island, including the significance of the ash surrounding Jacob's cabin. I've also always been curious about the Sonic Fence that surrounded New Otherton, why would the Others, led by Jacob, need to protect themselves from the Monster if the Monster was just a manifestation of the Island (like I assumed). Well, he's not. He's this guy, whoever his name his. It still doesn't explain how Ben was able to use the Monster to defeat Widmore's soldiers, but we may get some explanation for that in coming episodes.

But the big deal was The Temple, finally! After years of this Others hideaway being cloaked in mystery, we finally get to see it, and it's very impressive! At first I thought they traveled through time again, the Temple looked so ancient and yet well preserved. But no, they're in the present, led by an Ra's al Ghul-looking mofo and his Jewish translator (Played by John Hawkes from Deadwood. That's the sixth actor from Deadwood in a minor role on LOST. Awesome!). I didn't mind the other language or the weirdness of the situation, it actually felt more "right" with the strangeness of the Others. For awhile there, at the end of Season 5 with Locke leading the Others, the people looked a little too much like young survivors of a plane crash, not the wild indigenous population who have been on the island for a long time.

Meanwhile, in the alternate reality, landing in LAX may not have been the best thing to happen to our characters. Charlie is arrested. Jin looks like he's about to be arrested. Oceanic lost Christian Shepard's coffin. Only Kate seems to come out well, freeing herself from captivity and then stealing a cab with everyone's favorite Australian: Claire! It should be very interesting to see what happens next in all these storylines.

The ending of the episode, while satisfying, left me with some definite questions and some confusion. The scenes with Sayid in the Spring were very confusing, but I'm happy with the end result. What is Sayid's importance to the Others? And what will the Others do now that Jacob has seemingly died? On the beach near the Statue, the scene with Fake Locke and Richard was also confusing because I could not understand why the Others did not leap to defend their defacto leader, Richard? They all had guns, but they stood there like dumbasses. I wonder if there's a real reason for that or that was just to serve the overall story.

I can't wait to see what happens next!

For Shawn :)

Beach House on p4k.tv

"Zebra"



"Norway"

The End of LOST and What it Means for the Future

So this is what Christmas morning feels like.

LOST will begin its final season tonight with a 2-part episode titled, "LA X," and the excitement and anticipation is palpable, both on the world wide webs and pretty much everywhere. This type of frenzy for a TV show is not completely unprecedented, but it's been awhile since it seemed like the whole country, maybe the whole world, was so enamored by a TV show that its big reveal tonight has been debated and speculated about for almost a year.

But there's a big question looming over everything. When LOST is over, what happens next? Where do we all go from here? Some people are ready to give up TV all together, claiming "there will never be anything like LOST again..", which is very similar to all the people who canceled HBO after The Sopranos ended, claiming "That's it! They'll never be a show like that again!" I, of course, disagree! I believe that not only can the magic of Lost be reproduced again, but that there are shows on TV right now that have the potential to be similarly epic and exciting to the mass audience.

I acknowledge that LOST is special in very unique ways. LOST managed to appeal to a very wide range of audiences by siphoning out tiny bits of information slowly regarding a big mystery. That pulled in many viewers. LOST created some fascinating characters that clicked with a huge range of the population. Unlike the white-washed ensemble casts of the past, the LOST crew was pulled from all corners of the globe, its characters origanting from random countries like Korea, Iraq, and Australia. Yet if you had to pick a setting for the show, besides the all-important Island, it would be Los Angeles, the original destination for Flight 815, and where I believe most of the action will take place in this final season.

So what does the end of LOST mean? To me, I look at the end of a great series as an opening to introduce a lot of people to new and exciting series. Just last week, Caprica began on Syfy. Another series set in the world of Battlestar Galactica (but you don't need to have watched Galactica to understand), Caprica is a very adult take on science fiction, much like LOST. With incredible actors, nuanced writing, and gorgeous futuristic settings, the show has all the right ingredients to become a fascinating look at a society on the brink of collapse. Other series include two new one hour dramas on HBO premiering soon: Treme, from the creators The Wire, a show about musicians rebuilding their lives and their city in post-Katrina New Orleans, and Broadwalk Empire, starring Steve Buscemi as a gangster in 1920's Atlantic City. HBO is always fascinating in period pieces (see: Rome, Deadwood) and the latter show looks to follow the trend.

While I plan to enjoy every second of the final LOST season, I've got my eye to the future and what will be the next big thing that is the subject of endless dinner conversations and long, meandering, blog posts.

The infamous SNL Potato Chip Sketch

To answer the obvious question, NO, I'm not planning to rename the blog: "Elad Likes Saturday Night Live" but it just happens that I'm posting a lot of SNL stuff lately. But they did rerun a episode this weekend which was mostly just okay, but the last sketch is one of the funniest I've seen in a very long time. I don't know why exactly. It's a ridiculous sketch with a lot of yelling, but at the end, when the uber-hilarious Will Forte says in his faux Southern accent, "Cause they're hungry," I challenge you not to laugh!

And The Winner of the "They're Making a Movie Out Of THAT?" Category is..

Despite myself, I laughed a couple times at this trailer for MacGruber.

SNL movies has been going downhill since Wayne's World but this is a pretty new low. I think Will Forte and Kristen Wiig are hilarious, but seriously, a MacGruber movie?

As Seth and Amy would say, REALLY?

Brit-Love

The Ting Tings remind me of a less schizo Fiery Furnaces, which I think is exactly what the universe has been asking for. To be honest, I haven't paid them much attention, but this performance from SNL over the weekend was spectacular. Check it out, judge for yourself.

2010 and the New TV Season

Of course, I believe everyone should be watching what I watch. Intellectually, I know that's not possible, but I still like to believe it. For instance, you could have overheard me on Monday saying to one of my co-workers "So what did you think of the Big Love premiere? Awesome, huh?" Only to be met with a confused and slightly annoyed look.

But you'll indulge me (right?).

Let's start light, with the comedies. This past Monday brought the return of How I Met Your Mother. I'm fairly new to this show but am fascinated by it. It's the most interesting premise for a sitcom I've ever seen and the characters are all hilarious in their own right, all brought together with some truly original writing. This was How I Met's 100th episode and ended with a great musical number via the amazing Neil Patrick Harris. Although I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if the whole episode was a musical. (Musical number below)



Monday also brought a new Big Bang Theory, another show I promised myself I would watch consistently this season (while catching up on the early seasons). This is such a great nerd show. The casual references to everything from the Green Lantern, to Firefly, to Halo touches a sensitive part of my nerd heart. It's also got damn funny people in it with Sheldon, a cross between Urkel and Kramer, being the superstar.



Thursday returns with the laugh riot on NBC. The fledgling Community is still a little rocky in its first season. I think the show would improve dramatically if they stop trying to give every character a story every episode. Focus on the big funny and let the minor characters evolve slowly. Learn from The Office.


Six words: Will Arnett on Parks and Rec. (Almost) 'nuff said. Parks and Rec has been the funniest half hour on TV this season, which is all the more amazing after the lackluster first season. In an era where shows barely get a chance to grow, NBC gave this mid-season replacement a second shot and they did an incredible job of sharpening the comedic knife. (Image above from the severely underrated Blades of Glory.)

(FYI: No new Office this week. sad face.) But the ridiculously hilarious 30 Rock is all new with Agent 420... I mean, James Franco. 30 Rock has been consistently great this year (as always), I worry though, that some of the stories are getting repetitive. My solution? More Hornberger!

Now, onto more serious stuff...

This week will also see the return after a seemingly long hiatus of Fringe, a show that you should definitely be watching. This show, from the LOST creator and Star Trek writers, constantly surprises and intrigues. The arc for this season, involving an alternate universe and an army of shapeshifters from that universe who are waging war on us, is some of the most fascinating stuff I've ever seen on TV. The show has a lot of dark themes, with a lot of murder and death and disgusting inner body stuff, YET it's really witty and has truly great action sequences. The lead actors are wonderful, especially the Should Win An Emmy performance by John Noble as Walter Bishop.



Probably the biggest deal in TV right now and something I am very anxiously waiting for is the beginning of the last season of LOST. Anybody who watches the show knows it ended on a spectacular cliffhanger so I know we're all waiting to see what happens next, but before we go headfirst into the final chapter, I recommend (if there's time!) to watch some older episodes of the series to appreciate just how much planning and preparation the producers put in before this last piece of the story. I did a Rewatch over the summer (not the whole series, but most of it) and it was an amazing thing to behold.

Unlike a lot of other shows that seem to make it up as they go along (*cough*Battlestar Galactica*cough*), LOST really does progress in a very deliberate way, both from an overall story arc to a character level. All the time travel stuff from last season really does have roots in the early season stories and will be very important for the series climax (Can you say Egyptian?). And the characters arcs are novelesque in their scope, my favorites being Sawyer and Ben and what they did with them last season. February second can't come soon enough!



This month will see the beginning of the Next Big Thing (in my opinion) in Science Fiction TV: Caprica. Most of us have already seen the pilot episode (released onto DVD to coincide with the finale of Galactica) and I, personally, was blown away by the deep and dark story of this show. The actors are amazing, the premise is smart and complex, the settings are gorgeous, and the team behind it has a proven track record. All signs point to Awesome.

Here's a great scene from Episode 2 of Caprica (major spoilers!!) :



Lastly, the aforementioned Dollhouse has two more episodes left in the series. The revelations in last week's "Getting Closer" was not as over-the-top "WOW" as I would have hoped, but the overall episode was very strong. They are definitely in "End of Series" mode with characters randomly getting shot and alliances in flux. It should be very interesting to see how it all wraps up!

And don't think I'm not going to talk about Big Love, one of my favorite shows HBO has ever done (saying a lot). I'm going to wait till we get a few episodes in and then do a post devoted to just that show!

Dollhouse: Out With A Bang!

For some backstory for anybody who doesn't know but cares to, check out Mo Ryan's various writeups about "Dollhouse" here.

Ironically, I am of multiple minds about Dollhouse. I've gone into every episode with almost zero exceptions, been disappointed, been entertained, been put to sleep, but more recently been amazed, excited, and impressed. The first season of Dollhouse was pretty weak. I think even the producers and writers would cop to that. The show is a very highconcept sci-fi drama with many moral, cultural, and technological implications that were rarely touched in the first season. Instead, the show played up to the most base human instincts: sex, greed, power and violence.

In its second season, the show took a lot of those same ideas and fleshed them out and explored them in new and interesting ways. While the first season had maybe five episodes I would consider "successful," every single episode in the second season has come through and delivered, elevating what was just a "cool idea for a show" into a great series that will be missed. It was an incredible thing to watch this season and after every episode think, "That was the best episode yet!"

Once the ax went down and the series was unceremoniously canceled while not even airing (don't EVEN get me started..), the producers were given a chance to finish the series in a proper way. We should be thankful. Most shows don't get that chance. With Dollhouse, where the endgame was pretty obvious from the first episode (Echo gets out), the showrunners had a double task of pushing their premise to the limit in a condensed way.



So far: They've outdone themselves! The last six episodes of the series, played in doubleheader fashion, have been almost note-perfect. They've had just the right blend of action and adventure. They've touched on politics. They have not ignored the best characters in the show: Victor and Sierra. They even went all Eternal Sunshine and it wasn't cheesily-done.

There's now just two episodes left, airing in early January, and I have high hopes that this series will end better than most series ever get a chance to.

Elad's Top 9 Albums of 2009 (Updated!)

I know you've been waiting for it. And here it is! My favorite albums of this past year.

9: Alec Ounsworth - Mo' Beauty.

This late '09 release from the lead singer of the incredible band, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, is interesting and flawed at the same time. Though it lacks the rampant innovation that signifies Clap Your Hands, Ounsworth tries to create some truly unique rhythms with his strange voice and weird pacing. It's never boring, but it doesn't always work. A couple of the best tracks crib from his own previous hits, "Me and You Watson" especially sounds like "Satan Said Dance" but that's a minor thing in a overall very satisfying album.

Live performance from KEXP of the album opener:



8. The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World To Come

The Mountain Goats have been creating some of my favorite music over the last few years. Their roots are in low-fi and acoustic guitar music. I prefer their most recent Sufjan-esque bombast and even the pop-friendly stuff from last year's brilliant Heretic Pride. This record was more of a return to their roots with John Darnelle alone with a guitar or a piano for most of the record. It's a beautiful piece of music, tied together with a loose biblical theme that I really don't get (New Testament stuff is lost on me). I just wish there was more variety. Still, this is some of Darnelle's most vulnerable music and it's an amazing thing to listen too, as always.

Live performance from The Colbert Report (I was there!!)

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The Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2
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7. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

These guys can not not make great music. While not as amazing as their last record, Sky Blue Sky, this is nonetheless another great record to add to the ever growing list. Standouts include "One Wing" (possibly one of the best Wilco songs ever written - Yeah, I said it and it's true!), the Fiest-collab "You and I," and the anthem "I'll Fight." A little more scattered than we've seen Jeff Tweedy in the past, this record finds Wilco a little more pop-friendly at some parts and more random in others (I did not think "Bull Black Nova" needed to be five minutes long). Wilco, in my opinion, is up there with Radiohead as one of the best bands of our generation.

Great performance from Letterman:




6. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Seems to be another breakout year for these French dudes. Cadillac commercials aside, they're still everywhere. Much deserved, of course. These guys know exactly what kind of music they excel at and they deliver pretty much every time they go into the studio. I feel like their last album, It's Never Been Like That, was stronger than Wolfgang on some levels, but you can't resist how catchy and memorable these songs are. The first two tracks could be considered for singles of the year, but it's the mesmerizing third track, "Fences" that's one of my favorite songs of the year.

Live performance of "1901" from SNL:

Phoenix - 1901
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5. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

This one's a doozy. Another awesome outing from the Flaming Lips, this Double LP (1 CD) is a lot of music. A lot of great music. More distorted, dyslexic, and dysfunctional than ever before. I've previously called it Expert Level Music Listening. It's an amazing piece of music, but you have to be ready for such a musical onslaught. The Lips have definitely brought a lot of their signature "moves" together into one massive shout-out to their proggy influences and their huge back catalog. The interlude "freak-outs" can be a little much after many listens, but the honest-to-goodness songs are pure gold.

Check this crazy awesomeness out!




4. The Dodos - A Time to Die

This short record from the San Francisco trio is so full of incredible music, it's hard to believe it comes from a band whose fairly young and new to the indie scene. There's tons of variety here, from poppy ballads to Arcade Fire-esque epics, this is a band with so much to say, it's amazing they condensed the album into 9 songs. Their last album, the not-to-be-missed-by-any-chance Visiter, was almost overflowing with music: 14 tracks, some of them over eight minutes long. This new record is only 9 songs, about 45 minutes of music, but it feels bigger and grander than it seems on first listens. After listening to just one or the album as a whole, I always feel like I've just gotten a glimpse at the something truly original.

Cool performance of one of the stranger tracks on the record, "Two Medicines"




3. The Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha

You may never have heard of the Appleseed Cast but they've been around for a long time and have been evolving for awhile. From an emo band with pretty straightforward music, they've morphed into a post-rock outfit with an overwhelming power. Fans of pure guitar-bliss music (Interpol, My Morning Jacket) can not let this record go by without listening. Though steeped in some oldschool metal influences, the interplay of what sounds like dozens of guitars (but isn't) is so addictive, you'll want to listen again and again to pick up all the subtleties. The album feels like a roadtrip album with long meanderings songs in the beginning and tighter more accessible stuff towards the end. This is the kind of album I'll be listening to years and years from now.

(Had a little trouble finding a video for these recluses. Here's the first track from the album on youtube. not very interesting visually, but an incredible song.)




2. The Handsome Furs - Face Control

This band is a husband and wife team. The husband, Dan Boeckner, is the co-leadsinger of the amazing Canadian band Wolf Parade, one of my favorite new bands of the last few years. Unlike the expansive music of Wolf Parade, I look at this record as simply great indie rock done in a new and interesting way. Heavy on beats and the incredible guitar licks of Boeckner, this albums feels like a neverending well of head-bobbing awesomeness. Themed together under the guise of a Russian occupation, the songs on this album blend together better than any other tracklist I've seen since probably OK Computer. The album is fairly quick and to the point with some of its best tracks, "Officer of Hearts" and "Radio Kaliningrad", at the end. Face Control is an amazing achievement that is not getting enough recognition this year.

Weird, kinda gross, but kinda awesome "Thriller"-esque video to single, "I'm Confused"





1. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

This is not entirely unexpected to those close to me. I've been in love with Andrew Bird's music since I first stumbled across his records in 2006. I put him on a pedestal as one of the most amazingly innovative artists to ever grace our fair planet. His latest record, Noble Beast, is the next step in his incredible career. Discarding conventions like song structure, Noble Beast has the feeling of a dense novel full of delightful diversions into a man's confused pysche. It puts me in mind of Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but less weird.

Andrew Bird made it a point to keep this record a little less "sprawling and erratic" (his words) as his last one, the (once again) not to be missed Armchair Aprochyra, but in creating a more unified piece of music, he leaves the listener with the distinct sense of restraint and unresolved passion. The album has no big climax, no dramatic finish, and I think that's entirely intentional. A couple of songs are worth pointing out as standouts though the whole record, in any context, is an amazing piece of music: "Masterswarm," a brilliantly executed song from beginning to end, "Effigy," a long sprawling work with some of the most vivid images Bird has ever written and a violin-based chorus that sounds like something off Beck's Mutations; "Not an Robot, but a Ghost" with its otherworldy chrous and haunting lyrics; and the creepy "Anonanmial" (below).

For those of us who are looking for something new in music, Andrew Bird provides a dozen new ideas in every song.

Official Music Video for "Anonanimal"



Honorable Mentions:

Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP. Brilliant title track, if the rest of it was as good it would have definitely made it onto the list.
Islands - Vapours. Third effort from yet another Montreal-based band. Definitely more accessible (less dark) than previous works. It's fun in a surprising way.


One final note:
2010 looks to be another incredible year for indie rock music. New albums by Spoon, Broken Social Scene (!!), Arcade Fire (!!), Interpol, Midlake, Band of Horses, and The National (among others) has already got me extremely excited! See you next year. :)

Yes, please.

How awesome does this game look????

So, the full title is a mouthful. It's Final Fantasy: The Crystal Chronicles, The Crystal Bearers. But you could just call it the Crystal Bearers.

I've been following the development of this game for about two years, ever since I got the Wii. It's not the first Final Fantasy game on the Wii. The company, Square Enix, created a pseudo-exclusive series within Final Fantasy, The Crystal Chronicles, for Nintendo. So there has been a few Crystal Chronicles games for the GameCube, the DS, and the Wii, as well on WiiWare as well, the brilliant My Life As A King/My Life as A Dark Lord games. It's kind of cool because even though Square has a contract with Sony to develop the bigass Final Fantasy games for PS, us lowly Wii owners have gotten a lot of sorta off the beaten path style games.

But now we have this massive game that looks incredible. The developers have tried utilizing the Wii's unique motion controls to the max and pushing the graphical limits of the system. That combat you see on the previews is all motion based, which sounds incredible. The game comes out next month and so I haven't played it yet, but all early previews show that the developers succeeded in creating an experience unlike anything else seen before, which is pretty amazing when we're talking Final Fantasy, which probably has more games than Mario.

I'll be pre-ordering this game and playing the hell out of it for a few months, so expect some posts.

:)

100 Greatest Quotes From The Wire

This is quite awesome. Obviously, 10 minutes isn't enough time to cover all the amazing lines of dialogue from this spectacular series, but this comes close:



via Videogum

In Praise of Stargate Universe

I'm not one to jump to conclusions. I've been enjoying Stargate Universe since the premiere episode, but I wanted to wait until at least a few episodes before crafting a coherent opinion about this brand new series. And I have to say, I am very impressed!

First, some background. I have a interesting history with Stargate (at least I think I do). Like most other normal people, I was a fan of the movie and I had heard about the series, Stargate SG1 and wanted to see it, but did not have Showtime (still don't) and could not watch it. A couple years later, the show moved to the Sci-Fi Channel, but I still didn't get into it. Only when I heard of a new series, a spinoff of SG1 called Atlantis, that I thought: "Great, here's an opportunity to get into a new series from the start."

But I knew that Atlantis, unlike Universe (I'll get to that later), was heavily dependent on what came before it. Sure, they were going to be focused on a new galaxy, but the whole mythology of Stargate had obviously changed and grown so much since a single two-hour film. So I started watching SG1, from the beginning, on DVD. And I fell in love.


SG1, like Star Trek The Next Generation, will be remembered as one of the best Science Fiction series ever created. It may not have the largest mainstream audience, but it does have the distinction of being the longest running American ScFi show. A lot of people dismiss SG1 as some kind of cheap movie-tie-in (Yes, that is Richard Dean Anderson, better known as McGyver, in the main role. And yes, HE IS AWESOME) but the far-reaching plotlines and incredible humor and action of that series remains a strong ceiling to compare other similar SciFi shows.

So, after watching nine seasons (the next three ran concurrently with Atlantis), the time for Atlantis was finally here and I watched it very excitedly. Unfortunately, something about the series didn't click for me. I didn't particularly like any of the main characters and felt the storylines were so similar to a lot of what SG1 did - and better - that I'd rather just watch SG1. Also, Battlestar Galactica was on at the time and that took a lot of my focus away from other deserving series.

Fast forward to the end of Atlantis (a little prematurely, from what I've read online) and a new, bold direction for the Stargate franchise in SGU. From the first moments of the first episode, I felt a sense of seeing something original unfolding. The way they thrust us into the storyline without any proper backstory and then reveal it Lost-style (through flashbacks) was a clever way to unfold a introductory episode. The focus on characters and their reactions to extreme stress (ala' BSG) was another refreshing facet of this new show.


The premise of SGU is not overflowing with originality. A group of people flee an attack and end up on an ancient vessel traveling through space "several million light years from home." A little Voyager, a little Lost in Space, a little Battlestar Galactica (without the End of Humanity drama, thankfully), and finally a little similarity to Stargate Atlantis. So, all that is working against the show: That feeling of Haven't We Done This Already? But yet, despite all that, SGU feels fresh and new.

And here's why. The characters that have made it onto the ship, Destiny, have no clue what they're doing. Unlike Atlantis (where they had the Ancient city up and running with their fancy laptops within twenty minutes) or Deep Space Nine (where they moved the Space Station in the first episode), these guys have no idea how to control the ship. The early episodes dealt with emergency power, air, and water issues, before any of the characters had a chance to catch their breathe.

Speaking of characters, the show's creators took a page from Galactica and focused on some truly remarkable and troubled characters. The main character, Dr. Nicholas Rush, is a frustrated genius with some real emotional issues and a heartbreaking past (not yet revealed). Other great characters include Col. Young, the reluctant leader, and Lt. Scott, an even-headed marine (or is he in the Air Force?) who has great leadership skills. And then there's the "kids," young twentysomethings who have been the cause of much derision online - people have been joking that SGU is more like Stargate 90210 because of these characters, but nothing can be farther from the truth. Both Eli (comic relief Jew-kid) and Chloe (a politician's daughter with a lot to prove) add a much needed aspect to the Stargate franchise: Something different. After 15 seasons (SG1's 10 and SGA's 4) and countless scientists and soldiers, a new kind of character is a breathe of fresh air.

Those blue stones are another innovative addition to SGU. They're a bit of Ancient tech (just like the ship and the Stargates themselves were created by a long gone civilization called The Ancients) that allows for communication over loooooooonng distances. Using these stones, characters can swap bodies with other people on Earth. This has brought a fascinating new dimension to the classic lost in space storyline. True, they are millions of light years from home, but yet many episodes so far have spent a good amount on Earth. Last week's "Earth" (simply and aptly titled, like every other episode of this series so far) had Eli and Chloe visit a club and get drunk. I was watching it thinking, "Is this really Stargate?" That was a great feeling.

And then there's the sex. Unlike its family-friendly predecessors, SGU is aiming for a darker, more adult, audience so there was been a lot of sex scenes so far. Nothing that would make an HBO viewer think twice, but it's different coming from the Stargate franchise has done in the past. What it has done is given yet another dimension to these vibrant characters.

SGU has received a lukewarm reaction online, from what I've gathered. Many people, like myself, have already fallen for this series, but many others are railing against it in very large numbers. People criticize the pace, the tone, the lack of action, the inclusion of the young characters. I don't see where they're coming from at all. I'm loving this new series and am looking forward to watching closely at how the first season plays out. If it's anything like the smart and deliberate storytelling in the first set of episodes, this is going to be a great ride that will hopefully last a long time.

(Update.) I would be remiss if I did not mention the latest episode of SGU, "Time," aired after finishing this post last week. What a brilliant hour of TV that was! Reminded me of the best time travel episodes from Next Generation, taking what's somewhat of a SciFi cliche and ramping it up to 100. The episode will have its detractors based on the sheer insanity of the plot and the resolution but I thought it was amazingly done from start to finish. That whoooshhh you hear is the sound of this show taking off!

Rush's line before he jumps into the unstable gate: "For a moment there I thought we were in trouble," despite being a quote, is a perfect tagline for this show.

The Amazingly Incredible Antics of Andrew Bird

The irresistible Andrew Bird was on Austin City Limits last week with a short set, unfortunately. But the four songs he played that were televised were fascinating. His studio work is brilliant (see the multi-layered awesomness that is his latest record, Noble Beast), but his live show takes his whole approach to music to a completely different level. In a post-set interview he says that if something "dangerous" doesn't happen during the show, he feels like he did something wrong.

Here's an great video for the song, "Fake Palindromes," from The Mysterious Production of Eggs:



The cool sketch was stolen from this guy's blog. More here.

Did you say Mickey? Really, Mickey?

Okay, so this looks awesome. It's a new Wii game on the horizon called Epic Mickey. Yes, that Mickey.

First of all, this game looks great. Visually it has a hyper-impressionistic style with a very dark tone. Screenshots posted so far are early builds without proper lighting and they still look awesome. (That's concept art up at the top of the post and screenshots below.) This is another game that shows that you can do a lot with the Wii. Looks like Dali was very much of an inspiration of the look of the world.



Secondly, this game is being designed by Warren Spector, one of my all-time Game Design heroes. (Yes, that Warren Spector.) His breakthrough game, System Shock, was one of the best gaming experiences of my life and that was back in the mid-90's! He has also worked on the Ultima games and helped create Thief, another great series. Oh, and his company created a little phenomenon called Deus Ex, up there with Half-Life and Quake as some of best computer game series ever created.

To think about Mr. Spector making the jump to the Wii (much like I did recently) is exciting enough. But the game he's creating looks to have all the right ingredients to be one of the finest games on the system.

The story is extremely interesting. The original progenitor for Mickey, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, rules a kingdom called Cartoon Wasteland, a sort of graveyard and garbage dump of relics from Disney's past. Micky is forced into the world and has to save it from Oswald's evil reign and return home to The Clubhouse (I guess).


Those who know me know I love a good re-telling and this has some incredible potential for storytelling. The freedom to dive into Disney's long long history and find the rejects and make them into badguys sounds so inspirational. And the team seems to have taken inspiration from a lot of various theme park rides at Disney World, an extremely rich reservoir of the weird and freaky.

One of the main game components seems to be a paintbrush where you can create or destroy various items in the gameworld. That sounds very similar to the Magic Paintbrush in Okami, a classic on the Wii. Which is great! The Wii's unique gameplay mechanics lend themselves to these types of uses. Add RPG-style game dynamics and a really quirky visual style and this looks to be a winner.

Thanks to the always informative IGN for all the info.

Oh, Oh, Oh, Embryonic. I think I love you.

So, the new Flaming Lips album is here and it's been playing in my car non-stop since I got it.

Pitchfork hailed the album with a surprising 9.0 rating and said, "The record is extremely dense, initially overwhelming, but unusually rewarding upon repeat listens." Which I agree with completely. First listen of this album would scare most people away, but a few days later, the music seems to wrap around your brain and small pieces start to make sense and then the whole thing comes together as a single symphonic piece. It reminds me of Radiohead's OK Computer in its motif-uniformity.

The album has a loose psychedelic vibe like early Lips material but is based around heavy bass and electronic sounds which makes it fit in the post-Yoshimi era. At the same time, it feels completely fresh: not acid-inspired tales of superhero children with giant heads or tall tales about magicians and space stations. The stories on the album feel almost personal but told through a muffled filter, in an third-person manner with an invariably female protagonist. This being the followup more to the Christmas on Mars soundtrack then the underrated (in my view anyway) At War With The Mystics, it has that visual quality, as if the band is scoring a film about a single character going through a series of trials and troubles.

Initially, I was weary of the extreme manipulation of Wayne Coyne's voice. Although he's no Bon Iver, Wayne's falsetto, though not technically strong, is one of the Flaming Lips' ramshackle strengths. I didn't like the idea of burying it under waves of feedback like in the mesmerizing album opener, "Convinced of the Hex." (Which - by the way - was my first taste of the new record when they played it on the Colbert Report a few weeks ago. My first thought then: "These guys have LOST IT.")

But even after my first "WTF?!" listens, that sweet bassline from "the Hex" started showing up unprompted within my brain, along with the similarly haunting riff from "See the Leaves," the best song about the apocalypse I ever heard. It's almost as if the album comes up from behind and surprises you with its strengths rather then revealing itself through repeated listens, like say, every other piece of music ever produced.

I remember thinking the spacey "Evil" was weird and too long, but now the strangely poignant lyrics ("I wish I could go..Go back in time.. I would warn you... These people are evvvvvvil..") and the yearning gaps in the music make it all the more powerful. And I'm completely surprised about how much I love "I Can Be a Frog," which is two minutes long and brilliant. How they did that is beyond me.

The biggest two-part punch in the album comes firmly in the middle, tracks 9-10 in this 18-track epic. The brooding, dark, bassline hinted at in early songs comes full force in the sublime "Powerless" and climaxes in "The Ego's Last Stand." Rarely does an album work so well that similar sounds come in and out of focus and morphs from weird to something that sounds practical back to something that is completely out-there. The idea of inserting segue tracks in a long record is nothing new, but it's not something The Lips have done before to my knowldge. The short "freakout" tracks (Wayne's own word) serve to punctuate the emotions from the traditional "songs," but I think the intention here was to sever the cord of typical album structure and have the whole thing be listened to as one. In that regard, it works very well. In fact, the transition from album closer "Watching the Planets" back to "Convinced of the Hex" is one of my favorites, as if the band is daring you to listen to something else.

This is as close to an intimate performance of "Planets" as you can find, for the awesome radio station KCRW,



The album doesn't lose steam towards the end, either (a feat many bands can't quite get these days). Take, for example, "Worm Mountain" which is so overflowing with ideas that it seems almost too much, until you start to pick out the various pieces and realize each one has a power of its own and without any of them, the song would just not be as good. And one of my favorite songs on the album,"Silver Trembling Hands," an almost traditional yet equally awesome song that would have fit nicely on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots comes in at Track 16!

It's amazing to think that thing this band - in various incarnations - have been together for over 20 years (The Flaming Lips initially formed in 1983, with Wayne's brother, Mark, on lead vocals, first album released 1986) and still have so much to say! Embryonic is their twelfth studio album, with a thirteenth, a full album cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon already announced.

Though Embryonic is dense and hard to swallow on first listens, it's a true gem for fans of The Flaming Lips. It's a unique and incredible band that can produce a genre-defining shift in direction and tone every couple albums but that's exactly what these guys have done, notably with the incredible The Soft Bulletin (which I still listen to A LOT) and the mainstream breakthrough Yoshimi, here's another one, even more challenging and thus rewarding than anything that came before it.

Poke.

I am still alive.

(I think.)

It's funny how I forgot about this blog, but the internet never forgets. Sorry, blog. I feel bad. I'm going to post on you some more even though nobody will probably read it. But it will make feel better about abandoning you.

I'll take some pictures of my fish and share them with you. How does that sound, blog?

Austin City Limits 2007

After last year's Lollapalooza '06, I attempted to coin the phrase Mega-Festival to describe the attempt to shove massive amounts of people into a single space over the course of a weekend. Well, Austin City Limits blew that festival away by the sheer size of it. The day-after guesses bring the number at sixty-five thousand, which might be lowballing a little, in my opinion. That number seems sort of abstract and hard to pin down, until you're on a field with sixty thousand other people trying to flee a festival you tried so hard to get to in the first place.

But I'm skipping ahead.

First off, we had some trouble starting off. Actually, before we even left our home state, we were terribly delayed by stupid airline nonsense. I won't bore you with the details (which I'm sure you can guess it), suffice it to say, our plans for the day were thoroughly shot down before they barely began. And we missed one of the bands we really wanted to see mid-day Friday, Peter Bjorn and John. Word around the campfire wasn't we didn't miss much, but still. Sucks. Big time.

We did manage (desperately) to catch Spoon's 6:30 pm set. We were a little too exhausted that day to remember we had a camera so no pictures from that first night, but Spoon put on a damn good show for a few thousand of their loyal Austin fans. I had heard in years past that Spoon's live show leaved something to be desired, and it's true, the pitch-perfect perfection in Spoon's brilliant albums were missing in the one-or-two-note performance, but my hips certainly didn't mind. I shaked my white ass to such classics as "I Turn My Camera On" and "Someone Something" as well as almost every song from the new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I had been waiting to see this band for a long time and was so glad we got there in time.

We caught a little Gotan Project on the way to buy beer or iced tea. I knew them from my trip-hop days. A very engaging performance from a band I knew very little about. Made mental notes to check them out some more.

Headlining that evening was the irreplaceable Bjork. Her liveset was, as you can imagine, crazy. Lasers, costumes, a jangling and dancing Icelandian sounding beautiful amidst super-loud beats. Unfortanetly, the day caught up with usand we didn't stick around for the whole set. It was hard to leave, but very nessecary.

Saturday, we woke refreshed and ready to take in the day and some of Austin. We grabbed some kick-ass barbecure downtown and went to the festival in time to rock out to Cold War Kids. I never heard of this band before so I didn't really know what to expect. I was impressed. They have a sprawling rock sound that references a lot of post-rock, but with lyrics. It's indie rock for adventurers.


We then headed to see one of my favorite new artists, the amazing Andrew Bird. Those who knew his stuff cheered at every opening chord. Those who didn't stood perplexed but amazing by this extremely talented violinist/whistler/singer/songwriter. He blazed through the opening tracks to Armchair Aprochrya and The Mysterious Production of Eggs to ferocious applause. His vocals, his dynamic violining, the authenticity of his words poured through those speakers and I was transfixed. His performance was everything I hoped it would. The first highlight.

And then, particularly no time later, the big highlight of the weekend: Arcade Fire. Shawn and I moved in real close to get the best of this wonderful band. It wasn't easy. It was hot. And sweaty. And sort of gross. (And eventually dangerous). But so freaking worth it!

Everyone - I think - has heard of Arcade Fire's legendery live performances. Allow me to elobrate: Every word you've ever read is true. Watching them blast through fiery song after fiery song, my mind kept saying.. As if there was any doubt, this is the best band in the world right now. It felt like there was hundreds of thousands of us in the audience shouting every word, singing our hearts out to such made-for-concert choruses to songs like "Leave the Car Running" and "No Cars Go." (I don't know why they're obsessed with cars, but I digress.)

The Arcade Fire have somehow tapped into a sense of need in today's young people. We need this band. We need its anthems of rebellion and justice and glory. And we need it delivered with every ounce of being in their collective bodies. Three or four songs in and the band's sweat matched the audience. The way they shouted every lyric (even if they didn't have a microphone anywhere near them) was spellbinding. The washes of horns and guitar and violin and whatever the hell Regine was playing was caked with emotion. An amazing experience, from beginning to end.

The only downside was that some kids just got into the spirit too much and decided to crowd surf, almost coming down hard on Shawn. Stupid kids.

Sunday, weary but determined, we woke early to grab some waffles and eggs and oh-so-delicious bacon for fuel and headed to the festival in time to watch The National, one of the most promising young bands in the indie rock scene today. I've been fan for years, but have never been lucky enough to watch a performance. I was mightly impressed, as was the few friends we had around who weren't familiar with them. They played mostly stuff from their new album, of course, and they played with such fire, I loved every moment of it.

Next big band came at the Big Big set for Britian's Bloc Party. They didn't play any b-sides, much to my disappointment, and for some reason, I felt like the massive set and huge huge audience were a little too much for the kids from England, but they still played a fun and upbeat set. I'd seen them before and wasn't too impressed, but the new album tracks worked out really well live.

Next up was Amos Lee, a soulful guy from Philadelphia who poured his heart out for an hour to much ado. There wasn't much God talk this weekend, and this guy wasn't evangelical or anything but his soul grooves and pure heart leaked out and was infectious.

Then, another highlight, the wonderful My Morning Jacket. These guys know how to have fun. They dressed up the set and themselves for this headlining spot. It was a Hawaiian motif with lead singer Jim James in a blond wig and tight-pants, complete with Hawaiian girls holding pineapples and some dudes metal-detecting on the "beach." As for the performance, incredible. So much power in that voice! So much emotion in those guitar licks. People around me didn't seem as into it as I was, but that didn't faze me from rocking out until my flip-flops were so sweaty, I almost tripped.

Finally, after three very long days, the last shows of the fest went on. There were quite a few performances before the headlining Bob Dylan, but I, of course, chose to see The Decemberists. It was my third time seeing them and, though they didn't seem to have the same intensity like when I saw them last in San Francisco, it's hard not to be transfixed to such a wonderful band, even half-exhausted as I was immediately following the My Morning Jacket set. These guys have such wonderful material and they played some of their best songs in an all-too brief set, closing with the powerful "I Was Meant for the Stage."

The final act of the festival was Bob Dylan. At this point, the sixty-five thousand people converged on a single section of Zilker Park and though we had intended to stay for a few songs, we got the hell out of there as soon as we could. I don't "get" Dylan, so I didn't mind leaving. I was curious, for sure, but I was more convinced I didn't want to spend a few hours in line waiting for a bus back downtown after a looooong day out in the sun.

To sum up, Austin City Limits was a remarkable experience. There is no way one person could see so many different bands in such a short time for so many different parts of the country and the world than in one of these mega-festivals. Sure, it's a lot to take. But it's also wonderful. And extremely memorable.

(Stay tuned for a couple more Austin posts, including "Fun Diversions" and - assuming I can figure out this new Blogger feature- video!)

Tell Me You Love HBO

Last night, Tell Me You Love Me, HBO's newest one-hour-long drama premiered with much ado and almost as many commercials as that Justin Timberlake thing. I don't usually like to form an opinion on shows based on pilot episodes, but the internet is abuzz today with talk about the show so I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

From the outset, I knew a point of comparison for this show would be the brilliant Six Feet Under. Although centered around death, Six Feet Under was really about relationships, familial and sexual and marital. From the first episode of Six Feet Under on, we were thrown headfirst into a troubled family and all the crazy characters of that family, the Fishers, and all those around them.

After one episode of Tell Me You Love Me, I can't say I know much about any of these characters except that one couple is not having sex, one couple is trying to have a baby, and another couple is young and likes to have sex.

Okay, so I guess I'll talk about the sex now. Everyone else is. There's a word for the kind of sex we saw on display last night. It's called pornography. The producer and headwriter Cynthia Mort joked that she didn't think people would pay much attention to the sex (at least I hope she was joking). HBO has been showing nudity and sex scenes for years on their dramas, but this was long, drawn-out, choreographed sexual escapades.

In other words, gratuitous.

From the outside, one could say the enormous amount sex and the extreme display of flesh was a simple ratings ploy. If this was any other network, I would say they're right. But this is HBO and HBO, to me, has more credibility than... well, anybody and anything.

So the question remains, was all the sex trying to prove something? I kept watching the episode wondering if there was hidden meanings in all the bare asses and naked breasts.

Early in the episode, therapist Mary Coster looks at two pictures of naked bodies for an photo for a book she's writing about sex. A scene or two later, the young couple gets down and dirty and certain flashes evoke those same images. Okay, that's interesting. But by the fourth sex scene in single hour, I started to wonder if this wasn't just a way of shocking people.

Well, I'm not shocked. And frankly, I was kind of bored. Six Feet Under had a lot of sex, some of it graphic, but all of it served some purpose. Some overlaying story arc that needed to be shown during that sex scene, not just two straight people getting it on for fun.

Furthermore, trying to go beyond the obvious, the show seriously lacked a sense of humor. The premise of the show, couples dealing with relationship issues through therapy, is serious stuff. You must buoy that seriousness with some kind of comedy. A joke here or there or - shit, have someone fall on a rake, if that's all you can come up with.

All that being said, I will watch another episode, just because it's HBO and because I'm damn loyal. But there better be some serious improvement or I'm out.