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.