Season Four of LOST coming soon!

It's only a little over a month away. January 31st. Thursdays!! Yes!! One of my days off! I was hoping to have cable and a flat-screen TV for this season, but oh well--maybe later! Trust me, I will find a way to watch the show!

That said--does it look like an incredible season coming up or what? The writer's strike happened just as LOST had eight episodes in the can, so what I'm hoping is that we will have an eight-episode mini-season...the strike will be resolved (in the writers' favor)...production will commence for the last eight episodes of the season...these will air in the summer...the DVD box set for season 4 will come out in December with 16 episodes...and season 5 will begin in January or February of 2009.

That's what I hope at any rate.

Cool LOST stuff.

It's been hard on us LOST-ians these past months.

We've been waiting with the proverbial patience of Job for the 4th season to start, and the Writer's Strike may have an effect on that, but we still wait. And wait. And wait.

Sooner or later, though, we have to resort to any number of things to get some sort of LOST fix. Over on DarkUFO, they've been doing all kinds of things (polls, fantasy leagues, etc.), the 2 minute mob-isodes get critiqued and analyzed to the bejayzus, and me...well, I crawl from site to site, looking for more theories, more analyses, more cool stuff to feed the Inner Geek.

And this is one thing I found:











The Lost Boys, of whom I know absolutely nothing, are clearly some damned fine cartoonists. They do a weekly cartoon based on LOST, and yeah, you kinda gotta be in the know to actually get the jokes, but they are done with such panache, skill and affection that I think even non-LOST-ians would get la frisson au Geek. And when I find that *$%#@ website address, I'll get a link to it for yez.

Can you imagine similar cartoons done for (gasp!) Sex and the City? Desperate Housewives? Grey's Anatomy? Heaven forfend.

We are Geeks and we rule.

UPDATE: Here's the link.

LOST Season 3 DVD coming out soon!

And by soon, I mean real soon!

Here's the plan: Buy the DVD set ASAFP, but don't watch it until December 22!! I won't have rehearsals that day, it's a day off of work, and all I want to do is watch each episode back-to-back, and then feast on all the extras. Mmmmm. Pizza, Mountain Dew and LOST.

Man, it really is the simple pleasures that make life so sweet!

Housekeeping. Literally.

I can't believe the whole of November went by and I only posted ONCE on my blog. Well, "Forum" ended at the beginning of the month, and from there I started immediately on my living room project (my landlord gave me the go-ahead to replace the stained, shabby carpeting in the living room with spanking-new, shiny and aesthetically pleasing laminate wood flooring!), which wasn't completed until this very morning.

I also--and against what I thought was a pretty determined path I was going to follow--went ahead and auditioned for another play...and got cast.

So, I barreled pretty much straight from one play to another. I will be playing the Ghost of John Barrymore in "I Hate Hamlet". I have to rehearse a sword-fight for an hour-and-a-half before the regular rehearsal, which goes from 6:30pm tp 9:30pm. And then, I go to work.

And to top all of this off, the car broke down. In the winter. And my job is 2 miles uphill from where I live. I know, I know, I shouldn't be grumbling. I'm actually glad to be involved in another show, the swordfight is going to look waaaaay cool, the living room is done (so that burden is gone), and sooner or later, the car will get fixed.

It's just that right now...I feel like grumbling.

An Unintended Hiatus

Well, it's been a while.

The last blog I posted was just before "Forum" opened, and that was, what? two, three weeks ago? The show closed last Sunday, and I've been slowly re-adapting to the humdrummery of the night shift.

Not that there hasn't been plenty to write about.

The writers' strike in LA has some quite possibly serious ramifications not just for LOST, but for every TV show, period. I have thoughts on that, but not for right now. Suffice to say, I am with the writers on this (of course!), and I hope they get what they want soon.

I could write quite a bit on how "Forum" went, and I will probably do so. All I want to say is that the cast party for that show was grrrreat! And no, not for what you might imagine was an alcohol-drenched debauch among nubile coeds--nope, sorry. It was just fun. That's all. Simple fun. Belting out Disney cartoon songs, goofing on this, cackling at that. Just a lot of fun.

I guess the thing foremost in my reveries (concerning this blogsite) is that when I began this blog 3 months and change ago, I intended to write about LOST a lot more than I actually have been. To be fair to myself, this is one looooong hiatus before the fourth season starts (IF it starts, due to the strike). I scour the Internet looking for something, anything, related to LOST. I have found some really cool sites, but they all seem to be suffering from the same malady as me; hiatus uninterruptus.

Well, if it comes to it, I can always change the name of the blogsite from Station 15 to Kyle-topia.

Tomorrow I plan to do a few more posts. I have a very busy winter looming ahead of me, so I want to articulate what some of my winternial challenges will be. I have started writing my alternate history, The October Tsar. If I want to be successful between writing a book and going to the gym, I have to apply the same sort of discipline that I use when I make sure I go to rehearsal every day.

AND...in addition to all that, I have been (happily?) coerced into auditioning for I Hate Hamlet, quite possibly to play the part of John Barrymore's ghost. AND, my pal Lauren (who played Philia the Virgin in "Forum") is going to direct The Three Musketeers for her senior project. Can anyone say...Richelieu? Mmmm, perhaps.

(Sigh)

Gonna be a busy-ass winter. But I guess it could be worse.

More "Forum" pictures

EVERYBODY OUGHT TO HAVE A MAID!


PSEUDOLUS TRIES TO SCAM MILES GLORIOSUS



FUNERAL FOR A FAKE VIRGIN




COMEDY TONIGHT!!!

"Forum" opens Thursday

You gotta love sophisticated comedians like me and Nathan.

I Think I Figured It Out

Don't ask for a full explication as to how I arrived at this deduction (if you want well-thought-out LOST theories, go to EYE M SICK and feast on the writing therein!), but I think I finally figured out what the Lost Island Smoke Monster (aka "Cerebus") really is.

Here's Smokey....






And this is what's behind all the smoke....





Yer welcome. I know this was puzzling the frak outta people.

"The Golden Compass" points to December

It's coming....





It's almost here....






About six weeks away....

December 7, 2007.

(Oh, please, Mighty Crom, let this movie refrain from being Suckfest '07! It looks so good, and has such a great cast. PLEASE let it be as marvelous as it looks like it will be!!)

I want to buy this island someday!

It's called Kanacea, and it's in the Lau Archipelago of Fiji.

It's only $45,000,000. Only $44,999,999 left to go!

Ahhh, but to buy it and totally pimp it out in a Bond villain-meets-Myst kind of way. Killer robots don't come cheap, you know. Plus all the henchmen to hire, and the underground lair to construct, and the sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to purchase and train.

I can finally come clean; I want to be Dr. Evil. I already have the cats.

The Actor's Life For Me

God, do I love theatre!!! Giggity!

"And what will you name it then? Conjugia?"

Saw Elizabeth: The Golden Age last night. Fan-TAS-tic. What a treat it always is to watch a movie that respects your intelligence, and assumes you don't need a car chase every five minutes to hold your interest.

They might just as well send the Best Actress Oscar over to Cate Blanchett's house right now. I can't see anybody giving a better performance. The real Queen Elizabeth I was mecurial, vain, flirtatious, witty, generous, devoted, arrogant, beautiful, frail, politically savvy, gracious--on and on, a mass of grand contradictions, using what aspect of her personality she needed at the moment to accomplish what needed to be done. And Blanchett captured that personality dead on.

There are swirling, poetic images throughout the movie. The image of Elizabeth in her night-clothes standing on the cliffs of Dover watching the vast Spanish Armada burning in the dusky, distant English Channel is one I will never forget. And Cate Blanchett is surrounded by a terrific cast; Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham, her chief spymaster; Jordi Molla as Philip II of Spain; Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scots; Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh.

The movie was one of the most determinedly accurate historical epics I've ever seen. Yes, there's always going to be a certain amount of telescoping events for dramatic effect, but by God, the filmmakers got so much right!

One of my favorite little scenes involves Dr. John Dee, Elizabeth's astrologer. Dee figures prominently, though not explicitly, in the book I'm working on, so it was cool to see him in the movie. The actor playing him, David Threlfall, looked exactly like John Dee. Spooky.



John Dee

Go see the movie immediately. And the title of this post is one of my favorite lines from the film, but I won't explain it.

In Need of a Hat Trick

First things first.

Congratulations to Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change!

Yesterday, Al Gore and the IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work surrounding climate change. Well deserved. It's interesting; after skittering hither and yon around the Internet, reading as much as I could about Gore, the Nobel, and the possibility of him entering the Presidential race--and there's a lot of information about this--several things occurred to me.

First, there are still a LOT of 'people' (and by that, I mean 'humans') who for some reason have this urge to cut that smart-alecky Al Gore down to size. Still. Seven years after the 2000 race. In the argot of my cyber-peers, WTF? I've read criticism that the Nobel prize was given to him for political reasons, I've read snotty little posts that sneer at Gore-Gone-Hollywood, and in an astounding display of a ham-handed attempt at lop-sided objectivity, waaaaaay too much credence has been given to a right-wing judge in England who ruled recently that An Inconvenient Truth may be shown in British schools, so long as a disclaimer is attached stating that there are several factual errors in the documentary.

Well, so what, and who really cares what some dinky judge in England thinks. But jeez, the way this ruling has been mentioned by the media concurrent with the announcement of Gore's win, attaching the two events together like Cheng and Eng's hipbone, you'd think this was the equivalent of Solomon adjudicating the law of ancient Israel.

It's not surprising. The media (the so-called liberal media, mind you) really had it in for Gore in 2000. They're probably nervous, right now. They (these glorified pundits and pretty-faced 'reporters' and hack journalists) should be nervous. If the guy actually does enter the race, and actually wins, and actually is sworn in, he would probably do a lot to return the American media back to some semblance of decency, starting with the return of the Fairness Doctrine (repealed by Reagan in the late 1980s). And once that happens--well, I think a lot of the shit these guys (Fox News, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, etc.) get away with now is going to get jettisoned into the gutter, where it belongs. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are basic rights--but they are also responsibilities, and not too many people have truly been held responsible as of late.

The other thing that struck me tonight is almost (kinda/sorta) the opposite; there were lots of writers and bloggers and columnists praising Gore for his work, praising Gore for his real achievements since 2000, and honestly evaluating Gore's value as a presence in the American (and global) environmental stage. Yet--a lot of these writers dismiss the idea of Gore entering the race, saying that he's too valuable, too pure, and going back into politics would only serve to diminish the work Gore has done outside of politics. Somehow, to their minds, the Presidency is little more than a tawdry and sordid government post which would cheapen Al Gore's standing in the world.

I thought to myself, "WHAT!!"

This is exactly the reason we need someone like Al Gore--oh, hell, not someone like Al Gore, let's just get the real deal! If any one person stands a chance to bring back respect and integrity to the American Presidency, Al Gore is the guy. He's the best prepared, the best qualified, just plain the best period.

It's rather amazing--the Democrats running for President are all pretty decent folks and would all do a pretty good job, more or less...and the Republicans have got an amazingly pathetic confederacy of dunces running for the White House. But that's the trick--we have to get a Democrat elected. HAVE to. Any one of those jokers running on the GOP side would do nothing less than finish off the disaster that Bush-n-Cheney have been stoking since December 12, 2000.

Go here for more information. And be sure to read this very cool ad in the New York Times urging Gore to run.

Why can't this country have the best lead us? Why the frak not?

So, we are needing a hat trick; first, an Oscar. Second, the Nobel. Third--an announcement that Gore will run.

Gore 2008. Boola!

From "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum"

Here's the cast for "Forum"! Great bunch of people. I've worked with a few of 'em before, and I gotta say, this is the funnest time I've had rehearsing a show. It's hard work (as Preznit Bush is so fond of whining), but you don't really mind.

And look at those costumes!

Gonna be great. Gonna be really great.

So Sorry

Almost two weeks since I last posted--well, I have been busy with a show, and for most of this past week I've been fighting off a cold.

I got better....

What is Station 15?

I have been tempted to try some LOST-based fan fiction with this blog, and as soon as I'm done with "Forum", I think I'll give it a whirl.

The basic idea is that Station 15 (note the use of one of The Numbers, heh!) is where some of the more frightening research into parapsychology was done on the Island by the Dharma Initiative, and the station was designated The Black Cat because of its connotations with the occult and the weird.

I've already decided I'm going to do it in a sort of epistolary-style, but using diaries, e-mails, research papers, etc. to tell the story.

Just my way of wishing I was actually on the LOST writing staff!

The Aspects of Magic

Lofty title for a post....

In beginning work on my alternate history/fantasy, one of (many!) problems immediately came to fore, specifically what will the nature of magic be in the story?

Will I want transmogrification? Will I want talking animals? What sort of magic will be needed for transportation? Will food be created out of thin air, a la Harry Potter? Will magicians need to study incantations, cast spells and hexes, will they need wands, OR will magic be kind of a strange branch of physics, and machines will need to be constructed to carry out magical functions?

I still don't know yet, because obviously I want the most organic and effective approach to the use of magic as possible. And that hasn't quite occurred to me, though I mull these problems constantly.

As enamored as I am of the steampunk subgenre of fantasy, I am inclined to think of magic as being Science's odd cousin, powering all kinds of ornate doo-dads. This is in the same vein as Martha Wells world of Ile-Rien, or Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials books. Perhaps even that of Oz, come to think of it. However that all works out, I'm pretty sure I won't be using magic the way Tolkien did, or J.K. Rowling either.

All I know is that I have to establish a consistent framework for the use of magic, and then make sure I DO NOT have a character use magic in a way that violates my own framework. I will NEVER be a writer like that!

But even with all the contemplation and frustration, the main thing is that this is kinda fun!

Musings on Mysteries

I haven't posted a whole lot about LOST recently, but I think that's largely due to the show being on hiatus. Come the beginning of December, when the 3rd season DVD set comes out, I plan to blog about all the episodes...and then, come February, when Season 4 starts, there should be a lot to write about at least for the next 16 weeks.

In the meantime, I just write what I can, post a few lists, embed some videos and some trailers, that sort of thing.

However, earlier today, as I was letting my mind go adrift, away from such distractions as bills and going to the gym, it suddenly occured to me that we might never get an explanation for how the Nigerian airplane ended up on Lost Island. Is it some kind of throwaway mystery, whose only purpose is for us the viewer to go "Oh, wow, weird....!" and that's pretty much the end of it--OR will we get some kind of payoff, such as we had at the end of Season 3 when we finally found out the purpose of the wire Sayid found on the beach in Season 1's "Solitary" episode.

I started wondering which of LOST's many mysteries will find such resolution and revelation.

I'm pretty sure we'll find out more about Jacob, and I've already reconciled myself to the idea that I won't know exactly what The Smoke Monster is until the very end of the series, but there are some other mysteries that have me wondering if we'll ever get to their revealment.

In no particular order (just as they occur to me):

1. The statue of the foot with four toes.
(The statue looked Grecian to me, something like a remnant from the Colossus of Rhodes--certainly not like anything you'd find amidst the Polynesian sphere of influence, e.g. the Easter Island statues. There's a good opportunity for a real mind-blower here; I hope they don't slough it off.)

2. The Black Rock
(Boy, do I want to see a flashback episode of how the Black Rock ended up on the Island. I know Hanso is involved somehow. I know what you're thinking: "How could there be a flashback episode going back to the late 1800s?" Well, as was tantalizingly hinted at in the episode "The Man Behind The Curtain", the Hostiles might very well be either ancestors of the Black Rock survivors, or (fanfare trumpet) actual survivors themselves. Wouldn't immortality be exactly the sort of Secret Which Must Be Kept that would make the Others react so violently to the accidental incursion of the Flight 815 survivors, just as they did a few decades before when the Dharma Initiative set up shop? Many answers lie within the rotted timbers of the Black Rock.)

3. Hillbilly Others
(This isn't the biggest mystery on the Island, but it has perplexed me nonetheless. Why did the Others pretend to be little more than savages? This appears to have been the way the Hostiles dressed when young Ben Linus came across Richard Alpert in "The Man Behind The Curtain", so I'm thinking there might be a band of immortal Hostiles elsewhere on the Island, and the Ben Linus Others might have had to dress like them as a way to throw them off their track. In fact, now that I think about it, when Eko and Jin hid in the bushes ( in Season 2 episode "...And Found") and saw a dozen Hillbilly Others creep past them in single file, I'm wondering if that wasn't our first introduction to the Hostiles that'd refused to participate in the Purge. It still remains one of the creepiest things I've ever seen on LOST.)

4. Rousseau
My ideas about the mystery that is Danielle Rousseau would be an entire post in itself.

5. The Hurley Bird

6. The Blast Door Map

7. The Whispers
(They have to explain this one. Please. We've seen enough of the Others in Season 3 to see that NONE of them communicated via whispering. Hence, someone else is doing it. Who? Jacob? Ghosts? Dharma Initiative parapsychology experiments run amok?)

For more insight into the mysteries of Lost Island, go here.

A Vagrant Thought

In case anyone was wondering, the quote at the bottom of the blog's header:

"In the ocean an island waits...."

is from the song "Pretty Little Picture" by Stephen Sondheim, part of the music from the show I'm rehearsing now, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum". When we were rehearsing that song, that line stood out to me.

As part of the song, it's a pretty innocuous phrase. However, taken out of context and left to stand alone, the phrase (especially when placed in conjunction with a show like LOST), the words take on mysterious, even dangerous connotations.

So, although I was loath to drop the Locke quote I'd had, I thought serendipity was too strong to ignore.

Another meme

Total Number of Books I Own:

Around 1,000 I think.

Last Book I Bought:

"The War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield

Last Book I Read:

"The Golem's Eye" by Jonathan Stroud

Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:

1. "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs
[I had read science fiction and fantasy before reading this book at the age of 12 in 1973, but I had never read such a thrilling, weird, sensual ass-kicker of a book before. It is a supreme work of Imagination, and still holds up very, very well.]

2. "Again, Dangerous Visions" edited by Harlan Ellison
[In 1975, I was a freshman in high school and looking for some kind of direction. I came across a copy of "Again, Dangerous Visions" in the school library, not really knowing anything about the editor or many of the writers, but it turned out to be my first introduction to the work of Harlan Ellison, and in the 32 years since then, I've yet to be disappointed by anything the man has produced, said or snarled. He's still one of My Heroes.]

3. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
[I know it seems odd to have such a recent book on a list of books that mean a lot to me, but the seventh Harry Potter book had a LOT riding on it, and Rowling did not disappoint. I've never hugged a book after I'd finished reading it. It was like finishing a quest , and one of the very, very BEST reading experiences I've ever had. That means a lot.]

4. "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne
[I read this while quite young, well before I read "A Princess of Mars", probably an edition edited for young readers, but it did ensnare me. I remember wishing I could find some runes left by Arne Saknussen while I was out playing in the woods at the edge of town. No such luck. Nonetheless, this book led me to more Verne, to Conan Doyle, to Robert Heinlein, and eventually to Edgar Rice Burroughs.]

5. "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss
[This is the first book I remember reading. It may not actually be the one, but it's the earliest book I remember reading, around the age of 3. Yes, 3. Dr. Seuss--or Saint Ted, as some of us call him--has probably been responsible for starting more kids toward enjoying reading than anyone else in history. So, whether it's actually the first book I read or not, it's the one I credit for gunning my Imagination Engines.]

Terry O'Quinn wins Emmy

Yeeee-haw!!!

It really, really is nice to see an actor who deserves it get the award, and not just get the award but get it for the work he or she's been doing (rather than as a Life Achievement award, which is what the Oscars tend to do).

Terry O'Quinn won--justly--for doing some incredible work this past season. Did the guy make any false steps, sound any false notes? At all? Noooope. It's not for nothing that John Locke is my favorite character on LOST, and Mr. O'Quinn deserves every plaudit imaginable for bringing this character to life.

Congratulations, sir!

The Mist

I'll write more about "The Mist" a little later--right now, I just wanted to make sure I got it loaded onto my blog.

Iron Man Trailer

Saw this on "The Daily Show" last night. HAD to put it on the blog! After a summer of incredibly lackluster sequels, it's nice to have something to look forward to. Besides, "Iron Man" comes out about the same time as LOST will be wrapping up Season 4--so I'm gonna be a pretty happy camper come May.

WTF?

I've been wanting to create a Dharma logo to my header--which I did, spending the last couple of hours clicking here, pasting there, etcetera...and when I added it, I wasn't able to have the blog title, my Locke quote AND the new logo.

I'm keeping the logo, and I'm going to try and figure out how to add the old Station 15 title and the Locke quote BACK into the header.

Guess Blogger ain't quite as user-friendly as I'd hoped!

UPDATE: Well...the header isn't quite what I wanted--but it ain't too bad. It'll do for a while. I wish I could have made the background some shade of green, but it seemed the only thing the Paint application would let me color with was grey. C'est la guerre.

Icons for the upcoming political year

I have selected two icons that will be used by me over the course of this next year when I will need a visual label to identify political posts.





This one will be for Democrats. (Run, Al, Run!)






And this will be used when referring to Republicans. (heh!)

Yeah, I'm not partisan.

Video Rewind #2

Psychedelic Furs. Love My Way.

(I love doing this! When I got back to the States from Germany in 1983, I was entranced by all the bands I saw on MTV. Posting these videos is part for nostalgia's sake, and also in the hopes that any of my younger friends who read this blog, and who aren't familiar with early 80s pop/rock/new wave, just might become a fan as well.)

(And, on a related note, maybe become avid fans of LOST as well!!!)

One Month In (more or less)

I started blogging a month ago, and have found that not only is it fun (even when I don't do much more than embed a video or create a list), but it is as beneficial to just about every other aspect of my life as exercise or proper diet are.

When Me Cuz recommended I check out a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, (and this would be roughly toward the end of this past July) I scampered down to Montana Book and Toy to see if they had a copy. Nope. But they ordered it for me and I got it not even a week later. All I can say is this: If you are any sort of creative person, go out and grab your own copy.

This is a blurb from Pressfield's website:

"Yes, the War of Art is hell. But Steven Pressfield is our Clausewitz who shows how you too can battle against the Four Horsemen of the Apologetic: Sloth, Inertia, Rationalization and Procrastination. Shakespeare, Rembrandt and Beethoven all are proof of what you can do with talent and General Pressfield."
--Frank Deford
author and NPR commentator

And here's a bit of what you read almost as soon as you open the book:

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life. Between the two stands Resistance.

I think I've read this book cover-to-cover about ten times since I bought it. I dip into every now and then just to see what page I'll chance upon, and mull a bit over the advice therein. Yeah, it's been making a difference. I started this blog, for one thing. And it's been a great way to beat back Resistance.

Not that Resistance has been a paper tiger; A couple of days ago I was in a deep blue funk, so blue I could have fathered a Smurf, and this was (I think) Resistance trying to fight back--I mean, after all, I've been listening to Resistance for so many years now, and all of a sudden, I'm trying to assert myself? Heaven forfend!!!

Blogging gives me a sense of accomplishment. This ain't deathless prose here, folks, nor will you find the kind of meaningful insight into O Tempora, O Mores that you'll find elsewhere in the blogosphere, but for right now, it's enough...it's more than enough...just to post my few silly thoughts--

--because it's positive. It's moving forward. And it has been igniting a few other areas as well (exercise, housekeeping, diet, and so on), and ya know what? This silly little idea for an alternate history/fantasy I've been swearing I'll write one of these years (and doing so for--ahem--a loooong time now)...well, I started writing it a few days ago. Left my weekly therapy session, feeling kinda drained, and instead of trying to merge into One-ness with my sofa (as is my usual wont), I did a couple of simple things: shave. shower. dishes. clean the litterbox.

Felt better. Felt like I'd done something. Turned on the computer and wrote a bit. Felt even better. Went to rehearsal and had lots of energy. Basically, I managed to find a way to tell Resistance to kiss my ass--at least for that day. It's like quitting smoking. It really, really is something you do one day at a time.

So, thanks, Cuz. Thanks, Mr. Pressfield.

Onward.

80s Video Rewind of the Week

Duran Duran: Hungry Like The Wolf

Just for schitzengiggles, here's the first in a series of 80s videos I loved--BEFORE mtv sold out.

I am...Pseudolus!

Got the phone call today offering me the part of Pseudolus in "Forum". Hells, YES, I accepted!

Looking forward to posting photos from this.

Countdown to the Most Important Announcement EVER

RUN, AL, RUN!!!

I am predicting Al Gore will enter the race for the Presidency after he wins the Nobel Peace Prize in October. (yup--I'm bristling with optimism!).

More on this later.

I know, I know--a post about auditioning for a show, and then a quick blurb about my preferred candidate for President. What's all that got to do with LOST? Well...not much, and everything. I'll explain later. But even so--it IS my blog, and I post what I want...dagnab it!

My 50th Play (more or less)

Thursday last, I auditioned for a part in "A Funny Thing...." (see above for full title) at the local college. "Forum" was the first play I directed (in 1999), and I hope to be able to be a part of this production. Damn funny show. High jinks and low brows.

I am not...ummm...a confident singer, but I've gotten through about ten musicals now (ranging from Fagin in "Oliver!" to Vandergelder in "Hello, Dolly!"), and even so, it's still a nerve-rattling experience. That's why I chose 16 bars of "High Anxiety" as my audition song.

Had to show up again the following Friday. Did some more cold-reading (mostly for Pseudolus, yay!) and sang a bit from "Pretty Little Picture". The director will have the cast posted by Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. I really don't care what part--they're all funny--I just want to be in the darn thing!

Besides, now I have a place to post pictures from rehearsal through performance. (Even if it doesn't have a whole lot to do with LOST!)

Definition of a Writer

Last week there was a story about J.K. Rowling being spotted sitting in an Edinburgh cafe, working on a novel--this one supposedly a murder-mystery. Gotta tell ya, I read that and was pretty damn impressed.

Here's the author of probably the most successful series of books--EVER--and not even a month after the final book is published, what is she doing?

Writing.

Here is someone who could have taken the next few years off, taking a well-deserved vacation, spending part of that Gawd-awesome fortune on whatever she wants...and I don't think anyone would fault her if she'd chosen to do so.

But what does she do instead?

She gets right back on the merry-go-round and starts writing again. This, ladies and gents, is truly the definition of a Writer. As successful as she is, Rowling clearly loves writing so much she couldn't wait to get started on a new project. Impressive, I say. And I would think, rather inspirational as an object lesson for a lot of us who dilly-dally about writing ourselves.

If the most successful writer in history can sit down and start anew mere weeks after finishing a ten-year project, why don't more of us who fancy ourselves 'writers' do the same with out own modest little projects? Made me do some serious cogitating, lemme tell ya.

I wish all continued success to Ms. Rowling. I've got a good feeling about this book, whatever it may turn out to be. After all, she was seen writing in a Scottish cafe, and the last time she did that, the results weren't too bad.

Tagged

My cousin Charlene tagged me with a '4' meme. Ho-kayyyy....

Four jobs I've had or currently have in my life:
Air Force medic
Newspaper reporter/editor
Shakespearean actor
Substitute teacher

Four countries I've been to:
Germany
France
England
Canada

Four places I'd rather be right now:
LOST island (duh!)
The Shire
Cair Paravel
The Emerald City

Four foods I like to eat:
Tacos
V for Vendetta Eggs
Bangers and Mash
Denver omelettes

Four personal heroes, past or present:
Al Gore
Harlan Ellison
Chuck Jones
John Lennon

Four books you've read or are currently reading:
"War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield
"The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore
"Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Four words or phrases you would like to see used more often:
Impeach Cheney
Impeach Bush
Re-Elect Gore
It's free of charge

Four reasons for ending a friendship:
Time
Distance
Ennui
Betrayal

Four smells that make you feel good about the world:
After the rain
Barbecue
Cinnamon
Fresh ground coffee

Four favorite activities you did as a kid:
Raiding gardens
Read comic books
Trick-or-treating
Ice skating

Aw, What the hell--Another Top Ten

Favorite episodes (as of today):

1. "Pilot" (I count 2-parters as one episode) Season One

I can watch this epi over and over. You cannot--simply cannot--beat the first fifteen minutes of the pilot. Here's a bunch of strangers thrown together by an airplane disaster, and if that weren't bad enough--but when the first night falls on the island, there's a horrific sound, a mechanical howling, and trees shake in the distance. Uh-ohhh....They haven't crashed on Club Med, that's for sure. By the end of the episode, things are certainly strange for our castaways--but how little they know that polar bears and a 16-year old radio distress call were the merest portents of the mysteries yet to come, and not nearly as strange as survival on the island would soon prove to be.

2. "Through the Looking Glass" Season Three

Beautiful. The last epi of LOST so far, the capper to a fantastic third season. A daring new means of storytelling introduced, the death of a major character, and one HELL of a cliff-hanger. It's only been three months since it's aired, and the remaining five-plus months before the fourth season starts are simply agonizing!

3. "Lockdown" Season Two

Notable for the reveal of the Blast Door Map of the island, with its tantalizing clues and comments, many in Latin. Even though the map was no doubt destroyed in the Implosion, I hope the cryptic comments about Cerebus activity (among others!) have a payoff down the road.

4. "The Other 48 Days" Season Two

Brilliant way to show how much the Others had terrified the tail section survivors. Almost like "Lord of the Flies" or "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", with more than a dash of paranoia salted in with the terror. The befuddlement of the characters registers so well, although no one really says out loud what they must all be thinking; "Why are these people doing this to us?"

5. "Numbers" Season One

The first Hurley flashback, and the introduction of 4-8-15-16-23-42.

6. "The Brig" Season Three

Josh Holloway more than holds his own in probably the best Sawyer epi ever--even though it was a Locke-centric epi. Best performance I've seen from any of the LOST actors, and surely a portent of what's to come for Sawyer next season.

7. "One of Us" Season Three
Detailing Juliet's arrival to the island, and cleverly integrating the teaser from the Season Three opener into its storyline.

8. "Orientation" Season Two
Ladies and Gentlemen...the Dharma Initiative!

9. "Walkabout" Season One
The show that let you know that John Locke was going to be a very, very interesting character. And we still don't know exactly what made Locke smile with such unvarnished joy when he confronted The Monster! Will they ever reveal that?

10. "The Man Behind The Curtain" Season Three
When I first heard about a Ben Linus flashback, I was beside myself. It ended up not being quite what I hoped (I would have liked a little more Dharma background, and hey, maybe an appearance by Marvin Candle that isn't on a Dharma orientation film!), but I certainly wasn't expecting to see Richard Alpert in a Ben Linus flashback, and that little mystery more than made up for what I was hoping the epi would be.

Top Ten #1

There will be more....


But for right now, I feel like listing my ten favorite characters on LOST as it stands today:

1. John Locke

2. Sayid Jarrah

3. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes

4. Mr. Eko Tunde (Dead, and sadly missed)

5. Desmond D. Hume

6. Jin Soo Kwan

7. Ben Linus

8. Ethan Rom (Dead, but still showing up)

9. Jack Shepherd and James "Sawyer" Ford (tie)

10. Michael Dawson *

* (man, is his story gonna be GREAT this season!--I am prepared to move Michael waaaaay up the list if his story arc is as cool as I think it will be!)

Lear, LOST and The Tempest

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to be cast as King Lear for the 2005 season of the Montana Shakespeare Company. Not for nothing is this considered one of the Great Roles for an actor to play. (BTW, the photo is from directly after the show...duh.) It was demanding, frustrating, exhausting...and the best time I've ever had playing a part. (And yes, I bleached my hair and would dye the beard white before a show---I'm getting older, but I'm not that old yet!)I really don't have a reason to post this other than I want to post it.

I was thinking I could try and find comparisons between Lear and LOST--mostly because of the nature motif of the play, as well as Daddy Issues being a HUGE aspect of both works--but ultimately, if there is any one of Shakespeare's plays that has even the remotest resonance with LOST, it would be The Tempest.

Both take place on a strange mystical island. Castaways wash up on both islands (perhaps brought there by magic?). The castaways are connected to the people already on the island. There is a struggle between black and white (like Locke's backgammon example) exemplified in The Tempest by Ariel and Caliban, and on LOST--well, you can pretty much take your pick: is Rousseau like Caliban? Or, are the Others like Caliban, and is the Dharma Initiative like Ariel? Or is it the other way around? If you really sit around and ponder it, I'm sure there would be all kinds of interpretations you could make. Anyway, there is also a mysterious sorcerer at the middle of events (Prospero--Jacob). And comic relief; Trinculo in one, Hurley in the other.

The point is, LOST is at that level of artistry--yes, Shakespearean-- and is something I enthusiastically declaim to any of my friends who are unfortunate enough to say in my presence, "It's a stupid show." WOW, do they get a verbal landslide from me!!

The world of LOST is indeed a brave new world, that has such people in it.

Weird Happenings at "The Orchid"

Didn't have much time for blogging tonight, but I did want to embed this video. It was shown last month at ComicCon in San Diego (presented by LOST producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, so it's a legit video), and there are those that say it's just a goof, something done for fun. Others, however, say it is supposed to give us a taste of some lovely LOST weirdness for Season 4.

I'm skewing a little bit toward this is a hint of Things To Come.

Just For Fun

Wow, three posts in one night! Bojemoi!!


Movies I've seen this year that are AMAZING!

1. Children of Men
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3. Stardust
4. Ratatouille
5. Sicko (not technically a movie, but you know....)

Movies that I endured, movies that sucked worse than a drunken whore with dementia.

1. Spiderman 3
2. Fantastic Four 2
3. Pirates of the Caribbean 3
(notice a trend?)

BTW, I don't consider Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to be a sequel, and therefore immune from my criticism of, and abhorrence for, big, bloated, hot-air-filled sequels.

Also, apropos of nothing, in my post about why I love LOST, I did want to make mention of my favorite two fansites: Lost and Gone Forever and Lostpedia. Check them out, if you wish.

Meeting Thomas

Met Keir O'Donnell last week. Keir is probably best known for playing Todd, the very strange artist brother in "Wedding Crashers", but (per the pic above) he also appeared on an episode of LOST called "Raised by Another", as Thomas, the biological father of baby Aaron.

I've been in the Montana Shakespeare Company for the past five summers. Last year, an actor named Justin McCaffrey came up from L.A. to play Orlando in "As You Like It" and Laertes in "Hamlet". Justin is a great guy, a great actor, and has become a good friend. He and Keir both attended the same school in Connecticut, and have been friends ever since then. Keir came up this summer to see Justin in this season's shows ("A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare [abridged]), and we all hung out after "Dream".

More on all this later, as soon as the photo of Justin, Keir and me at the Windbag Saloon is e-mailed to me. I'll post the photo and a little more about hanging out with someone who actually got to be on LOST (not an insubstantial reason for me to declare someone cool).

For now, suffice to say Keir is a very cool, very down-to-earth guy.

What is it about LOST?

Apologies to my thousands of readers for not blogging in over a week.

It seems to me I need to go into a little more detail as to what this blog is about. Obviously, it is a LOST fansite, by and large, although I hope to take a few detours now and then into other areas that fascinate and/or interest me. But, yeah, primarily I wanted to use this as a personal forum to write about this incredible TV show, a show that continues to enthrall me, captivate me, amaze me. At the risk of indulging in some unalloyed hyperbole, this show has literally changed my life, and continues to effect this change.

So, what is is about LOST?

I never watched the show during it's first season. I remember reading something at the time about the premise and rolling my eyes at it. "People crash on an island and try to survive? What, is this gonna be some mytant hybrid of 'The Love Boat' and 'Survivor'? Boooooooring." Indeed, it was more than halfway through the second season--after reading bits and pieces about the show, noting that it won the Emmy as Best Drama in its first year, and particularly after reading how Stephen King babbled on fulsomely about the virtues of the show--that I decided to Netflix the first season on DVD.

Got the Netflix envelopes in the mail, popped 'em in on a day off, watched the first three discs back-to-back, one episode after the other.

HOOKED! HOOKED! HOOKED!

Even though it was sheer torture, I decided to wait until the second season DVD came out before I got caught up the storyline. I knew I wouldn't want to start watching halfway thru the season. I wanted to replicate the experience of watching Season 1. So...I was patient. I waited. And it was worth it.

Remembering the last shot of the last episode of Season 1 (Jack and Locke staring down into The Hatch as the camera receded further and further away from them), I couldn't wait to see what was waiting down there. I wasn't disappointed. Some people disparage Season 2, but you'll never catch me doing that. The storyline was extended, was expanded, and we got some truly great moments and met some great characters: Desmond. The Dharma Initiative. Mr. Eko. Realizing that The Others were only pretending to be hillbillies. Eko facing down the Smoke Monster. Finding out that Libby was in the same mental institution as Hurley. Seeing how the Tailies spent their first 48 days on the island. On and on.

Season 3 I will go into sometime in December, after the DVD set comes out.

Watching LOST is truly (as has been pointed out elsewhere) like watching a novel unfold in a cinematic format. Each episode is a chapter. It is episodic television in the finest and truest sense of the phrase.

My reasons for adoring this show are multivarious. I love the characters--ALL of them (even Nikki and Paolo!). I love the concepts. I love the Dharma Initiative. I love the Black Rock. I love how when one mystery is resolved, another is created to take its place. I love the use of flashbacks (and am eagerly waiting to see how they are going to employ the flashforwards in Season 4). I love the locales. I love the sets. I love the eerie, compelling music by Michael Giacchino. I love anticipating finding out more of how Danielle Rousseau survived on the island for 16 years. I love empathizing with John Locke and idolizing the actor who plays him, Terry O'Quinn. I love watching the pilot episode over and over, and still being thrilled by it.

I love the fact that my Dad loves this show. FINALLY, my dad and I actually have something in common!

Most of all, what I love about the show is the longing.

When I watch the show, when I talk about the show, when I write about the show, when I think about the show...I feel such an utter sense of longing--and it feels remarkably pleasant. I long for an adventure of my own. I long to wander on a deserted island--like Locke, like Ben Linus, like Desmond--in hopes of finding the remnants of something paranormal. I long to find myself amidst mystery.

And if I can't find such things in the life I live, LOST, I think, assuredly points the way for me to find these things in a life as yet unlived...and perhaps, find a way to live that rare and mysterious life and not spend so many of my days...being lost.

An Experiment, and some Meta-Blogging

The past few days, since I started this blog, I've tried to make each post something wherein I can learn a different aspect of blogging. The first post was to learn how to import photos from Photobucket, the second was learning to embed a YouTube video. This is indeed a learn-as-you-go process. Now I"m going to try that neat little trick where a word or phrase covers up a link to somewhere else. For any experienced bloggers who may read this, try not to chortle too much at my naivete; this is all pretty new to me, and I'm learning a lot of lingo and tricks as I go.

So, I picked up a how-to for this link trick from my cousin, who just had her first hardcover book published by St. Martin's Press. It's called Wild, Wild West and I'm very, very proud of her. She has her own awesome blog, which you can link to from here.

Meta-blogging? Just blogging about blogging, which I will probably do for a little bit at the outset. Sorry!

Immediate update: Experiment successful!! Blogging ahoy!

Jonny Quest and the Mystery of Lost Island!

I found this quite by accident. I loved 'Jonny Quest' as a young kid in the 1960s, and I love 'Lost' as a 40ish man accelerating toward decripitude--so it was a real pleasure to find this combination of the two shows on YouTube.

I'll probably go into the 'Jonny Quest' and 'Lost' similarities later on, but for now--I find it tickling that one of the best JQ episodes was "The Invisible Monster" (it certainly is my favorite!), and one of the central mysteries on 'Lost' is their own version of an invisible monster.

Welcome to Station 15: The Black Cat

It is appropriate that this is the very first image of this blog--as "Station 15" will be primarily a forum for me to blather, explicate, rant and praise to the heavens about this genius program, "Lost". I imagine every now and then I'll go off on other tangents, but in the main...if you are a die-hard "Lost" fan, I hope you will enjoy this blog, because I plan to do some crazy things with it.