Lost Season Finale: Two Alternate Endings

Neither would have worked with everything we had been told prior so who did they think they were fooling.

Lost Season Four: "No Place Like Home" (Part II & III)

What I Liked:

• Sayid vs. Keamy! Sayid finally met his match
• The three year time leap allows them to use Walt again. Brilliant!
• Ben throwing all the metal in the chamber as Locke is told via that orientation video that no metal objects so be in the chamber
• Ken Leung did so much with his brief lines in the episode. I hope we get a lot more Miles
• With Charlotte, Miles and Daniel staying behind, we might actually get some backstory from them that we lost due to the writer's strike
  
• Yunjin Kim's Emmy clip
• I'll admit, I welled up a little bit when the shipmate said "Ms. Widmore." No matter what happens in the future as long as Desmond and Penny got together once makes me happy.
• This is probably the most information-heavy episode ever. A lot of the questions raised this season were addressed while leaving the big overall questions intact.
  
• Funny Line of the Night: "Dude, I've been having regular conversation with dead people. The last thing I need is paranoia."- Hurley
  
• Creepy Line of the Night: "Checkmate, Mr Eko." - Hurley
  
• Character Damning Line of the Night: "Lie to them Jack. If you do it half as well as you lie to yourself,they'll believe you." - Locke to Jack, regarding lying about the island
  
• Word of the Night: "So?" - Ben, regarding Locke telling him he's killed everyone on the freighter
  

What I Didn't Like:

• It wasn't as mind-blowing as other finales but I still loved it.
• Now that Penny and Desmond have been reunited, I'm worried about the fate of both characters
• I think the reason for the "lie" while solid wasn't sold very well. Also, I can't accept that everyone would have signed off on Jack's lie, especially Sun who looked like she would have stabbed him with a knife every time he looked in her direction.

What We Learned:

Flashforward (Oceanic Six)

• Cover story addendum: Boone, Libby, Charlie are the people they say died the initial crash but died afterwards*.
• It's been three years between rescued Jack and Wolfman Jack
• "Jeremy Bentham" was the guy in the coffin
• "Jeremy" came to Kate and told Kate the same thing about going back to the island
• Michael's mother and Walt come to see Hurley in the asylum.
• No one came to see Walt when they came back except "Jeremy."
• Sun goes to London and confronts Charles Widmore
• Sun offers to help Charles Widmore
• In a nightmare, Kate receives a weird backwards phone call saying "The island needs you. You have to go back before it's too late.". She goes to check on Aaron and Claire is in the room with him! Claire tells Kate not to bring Aaron back
• Jack goes back to the funeral home where he viewed Bentham's coffin and breaks in
• He sees Ben there
• "Jeremy" told Jack that he was off the island
• "Jeremy" told Jack that after he left the island, some very bad things happened and it was his fault for leaving and that he had to come back.
• Ben tells him that the island won't let him get back to the island alone. They all have to go back including Jeremy's body.
• Sun blames Jack for Jin
• Locke is Jeremy Bentham

Island:

• Locke would make a horrible florist
• Kate helps Richard Alpert & The Others set a trap for Team Keamy
• Hurley loves 15 year old crackers
• Locke tries to convince Jack to stay on the island.
• Locke tells him that if they leave, he will have to lie about the island to protect it
• Jack shares Robin Scherbatsky's belief that there are no such thing as miracles while Locke is more of a Marshall Eriksen.**
• Miles doesn't want to leave the island
• Charlotte has been to the island BEFORE according to Miles
• The Orchid Station comes with a new Orientation video. This time the doctor's name is Edward Halliwax.
• "Halliwax" explains that there is a Casimir Effect on the island allows them to move things through space/time
• Keamy cheats death a second time to pursue Ben in the Orchid and taunts him about killing Alex
• If Keamy dies, the detonator sets off the C4 and the freighter blows up
• Ben doesn't care and proves that while Keamy can survive a smoke monster and bullets, a knife works just fine
• Charlotte decides to stay after all because she "is looking for where she was born"
• The fuel tank of the chopper was hit with a bullet and they don't have enough fuel to make it to the freighter
• Sawyer whispers something in Kate's ear, kisses her then jumps out of the chopper ("Top that, Jack")
• Sayid kills a guy outside Hurley's asylum and sneaks in.
• Sayid tells Hurley that Bentham is dead.
• Sayid wants to take Hurley "somewhere safe"
• Hurley was playing chess with Mr. Eko.
• Jack makes Frank them leave without Jin (Jack, Sun, Aaron, Sayid, Hurley and Desmond are on before they take off)
• Christian tells Michael "He can go now" and the freighter blows up with Jin on it
• Sawyer makes it back to the island and sees Juliet on the beach getting drunk because she saw the freighter blow up
• Ben is going to move the island knowing he'll never come back and leaves leadership of the Others to Locke
• Ben goes through a whole behind the chamber opened up by the explosion he caused
• Ben hurts his arm falling off the ladder
• Ben spins the wheel and a noise similar to the hatch exploding starts to hit the sky
• A bright light hits the island and it disappears
• The chopper runs out of fuel and crashes in the water
• They all make it to the raft okay.
• They see a boat and before it comes to them, Jack tells everyone that they have to lie to protect everyone still on the island from whoever sent Keamy and put that fake plane in the water
• It's Penny's Boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Penny tracked Desmond's phone call.
• Penny helps Jack cover up their story
• A week after Penny finds them, they sail to Membata to make the cover story work.
• Penny, Desmond and Frank presumably go into hiding

Questions:

• What does Miles mean when he says that Charlotte has been to the island before?
• Why did the orientation video start rewinding?
• Did Jin make it off the freighter or is he dead?
• What is Christian's true nature?
• Why won't they just say Bentham's real name?
• Why does Walt dress the same and have the same hairstyle three years after the plane crash?
• Wouldn't "Jeremy" have told Walt why they had to lie since it was his idea?
• Why does Charlotte pronounce Daniel "Danielle"?
• What did Sawyer whisper in Kate's ear?
• What kind of conditioner does Sayid use?
• Where did Sayid take Hurley?
• Who was Sun referring to when she told Widmore that more than the Oceanic Six got off the island?
• Why does Sun want to help Charles Widmore?
• How many nameless Oceanic 815 survivors are left?
• When was the last time the island was moved?
• Why isn't Richard Alpert the leader of the Others?
• Why is the room Ben goes to frozen?
• Does that explain how the polar bear got in Tunisia?
• What happened to Daniel and the red shirts on the raft?
• Where and when did the island move to?
• How did Sun's pregnancy survive all the shit we've been through?
• How did Aaron survive all that shit?
  
• How did Locke get off the island? Did he move it as well?
• Did Locke travel to the future like Ben did when he got off the island?
• Who killed Locke?
• Who is the teenage son mentioned in the obituary Jack reading last season's finale?
• What happened after Jack left the island that made Locke (of all people) leave?
• How the hell is Jack going to convince all those people to go BACK to the island?
• Does everyone going back include Desmond and Walt?
• What is Season Six going to look like? Are we going to spend more time in the present? Are we going to find out what happened on the island in the three years since the island was moved?
• When all is said and done, how many indie bands will be named after characters, places and hatches from the show (I think Richard Alpert & The Others would make a great band name)?

*From the enhanced replay of Part 1
** How I Met Your Mother reference

The Venture Bros. Season Three trailer

Sunday at 11:30 PM. I'm so excited.

Choke trailer

100 Random Movies I Love (That I Not-So-Secretly Hope You Love Too)

I haven't done an "100 Things" list in awhile so I decided to be lazy and picked an easy one for me to do.

I tried to stay away from movies that would have been considered box office hits when they were in theaters and also movies that I'm pretty sure a lot of people have seen but as I started randomly picking movies from my DVD collection and Netflix rentals past the rules became fuzzy.

I'm not saying these are all good or great movies. Some of them are. Some of them are pretty bad but I find them incredibly watchable. I'm not saying that I'll hold it against you if you don't like, hate or haven't even seen any of these movies. But if you love them too...cool.

In alphabetical order (links to IMDB)

1. 12 Monkeys
2. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
3. American Psycho
4. Army of Darkness
5. Away from Her
6. Best In Show
7. Big Trouble in Little China
8. The Break-Up
9. Brick
10. Children of Men
    
11. The Chronicles of Riddick
    
12. Clean
13. Closer
14. The Constant Gardener
15. Dancer in the Dark
16. Dark City
17. The Descent
18. Devil in a Blue Dress
19. Don Juan De Marco
20. Drumline
21. Elizabeth
22. Equilibrium
23. Eve's Bayou
24. Fear
25. The Fisher King
26. Fools Rush In
27. Fountain, The
28. Galaxy Quest
29. Gattaca
30. The Gift
31. Go
32. Grosse Pointe Blank
33. Half Nelson
34. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
35. High Fidelity
36. In the Mood for Love
37. Infernal Affairs
38. The Iron Giant
39. Keeping the Faith
40. Kicking and Screaming*
41. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
42. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
43. Labyrinth
    
44. Lars and the Real Girl
45. Layer Cake
46. Léon: The Professional
47. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
48. Lift
49. Little Man Tate
50. Little Manhattan
51. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
52. The Long Kiss Goodnight
53. Lord of War
54. Love & Sex
55. Mad Dog and Glory
56. Memento
57. A Mighty Wind
58. Monster House
59. The Monster Squad
60. Murderball
61. My Life Without Me
62. Notes on a Scandal
63. Oldboy
64. Once
65. Orgazmo
66. Pan's Labyrinth
67. The Paper
68. Punch-Drunk Love
69. Quick Change
70. Raising Victor Vargas
71. Reign of Fire
72. Requiem for a Dream
73. Rescue Dawn
74. Road House
75. The Royal Tenenbaums
76. The Science of Sleep
77. Serenity
78. Shortbus
79. Sin City
80. Sliding Doors
81. Snatch
82. Sneakers
83. Spartan
84. Spirited Away
85. The Squid and the Whale
86. The Station Agent
87. Stir of Echoes
88. Swimming with Sharks
89. The Tao of Steve
90. Team America: World Police
    
91. Thank You For Smoking
92. Three O' Clock High
    
93. The Truth About Cats & Dogs
94. The Upside of Anger
95. A Very Long Engagement
96. Volver
97. The Way of the Gun
98. The World According to Garp
99. You Can Count on Me
100. Zodiac

So let me have it. Which of these movies do you absolutely hate?

* The Noah Baumbach one, not the Will Ferrell one

R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

I liked him as an supporting actor as much as I did as a director

Movie of the Week: My Baby Mama

It was funnier than I was expecting it to be. Tina Fey is really growing as an actress.

It was pretty dumb but I laughed so mission accomplished.

Movie of the Week: Harold & Kumar - Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Not as funny as the first one but funny in its own right.

Quotes for days.

If you didn't like the first one, don't bother.

Don't Call Me During...: Summer 2008 Edition

I bet you thought that now that Fall Tv is slowly wrapping up, my days would be spent reading Victorian novels and taking my bicycle out for a spin. Don't you know boys & girls, TV never ends for a person like me. There's always something on...

Actually, you can call me during most these shows because odds are I'll be out when they are on

(Sorted by premiere date)
May:
So You Think You Can Dance (FOX/May 22)
The Andromeda Strain (A&E/May 26)

June:
In Plain Sight (USA/June 1)
The Venture Bros (CARTOON/June 1)
30 Days (SPIKE/June 3)
Swingtown (CBS/June 5)
My Boys (TBS/June 12)
Weeds (SHO/June 16)
Secret Diary of a Call Girl (SHO/June 16)

July:
Burn Notice (USA/July 10)
Generation Kill (HBO/July 13)
Psych (USA/July 18)
Eureka (SCIFI/July 29)
Mad Men (AMC/July TBD)

Swell Season & Interference @ Radio City Music Hall

The first time I saw Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová perform was a year ago at NYU Cantor Center after a sneak preview of Once. To say I loved it would be an understatement. Anyway, afterwards we stuck around for a Q&A with writer/director John Carney and the two stars (who were unknown to me at the time). They were really humble. Irglová seemed nervous and barely spoke even when asked questions. Then they performed a couple of songs from the movie with Hansard's (now-famous I'd reckon) broken guitar. It was really cool. They invited everyone to go to a bar afterwards but it was a Lost night and you know me.

To see them performing at Radio City Music Hall a year later is kind of surreal. Clearly they thought it was surreal as well, especially Hansard who opened the show singing "Say It To Me Now" acoustic and away from the microphone. Throughout the night they did songs from the movie, The Swell Season album and a couple of Frames songs. They did two Van Morrison covers ("Astral Weeks" and "Into The Mystic", both which were amazing and garned standing ovations). Irglová got her sister on stage and they sang "Gently Johnny" from the original The Wicker Man soundtrack (when she was on stage and said they were going to sing a song from The Wicker Man, I turned to my friend and said "Oh no, not the creepy song!).

My favorite moment of the night was when they were singing Star, Star (a Frames tune) and turned it into "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

They played until midnight almost. They just didn't want to get off stage. I don't blame them.

It was an amazing show. If they are coming to your city, buy tickets! They are playing at at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park on September 17, 2008. Tickets are on sale now.

*Photo from Brooklyn Vegan

Lost Season Four: "No Place Like Home" (Part I)

What I Liked:

• I love Michelle Forbes. I hope this is a sign that she'll be making more appearances
• We finally got the Oceanic Six cover story
• "Genghis"(Miles), "Shaggy"(Frank). It's been awhile since we heard some Sawyer nicknames
• BatManuel and The Others returned!
  
• Line of the night: "You don't get to die alone." - Sawyer, a ply off of Jack's oft-used "live together, die alone" line.

What I Didn't Like:

• Knowing that she dies in the future kinda took away the emotion out of Sayid's reunion with Nadia.
• It's hard to judge this episode because it felt like the first hour of a three-hour episode
• That my DVR scared the shit out of me by appearing to not record Lost.

What We Learned:
Flashforward (Oceanic Six)

• Ms. Decker Oceanic Representative
• They were flown back and landed in Honolulu, Hawaii
• Press came up with "Oceanic Six"
• They all agreed to a cover story
• When they land, Hurley is greeted by parents, Sun by her parents, Jack by his mom, Kate, Aaron and Sayid are greeted by no one
• The cover story:
• Eight people survived the initial crash
• Used flotation devices to wash up on an island, Membata
• On Day 103, a typhoon washed fishing supply ship with food and a raft
• On Day 108, the six survivors took the raft and washed up on the shore of Sumba
• Kate was six months pregnant on the plane, she gave birth on Membata
• Jin was not one of the eight surivors who survived the crash
• Hurley's still rich, doesn't want the money
• Sayid says they are absolutely no other survivors
• Nadia comes to the press conference and reunites with Sayid
• Sun goes to visit her father and tell him off
• Sun bought a controlling interest in, Paik Heavy Industries, her father's company
• Hurley's parents throw him a birthday party, Kate, Nadia, Sayid and Aaron show up.
• Hurley's dad gives him the car his father was working on as a kid (Trisha Tanaka Is Dead) (same one he crashed in "The Beginning of the End")
• The speedometer shows The Numbers, Hurley freaks out and "runs" down the street
• Jack speaks at his father's funeral
• Claire's mom (she was in a coma last time we saw her) shows up at the funeral and tells Jack about Claire
• Jack knows that Claire is his half-sister and that Aaron is his nephew!

Island:

• Daniel turns the sat phone to monitor and they Overhear Keamy talk about going to the Orchid
• The Orchid is the secondary protocol, Daniel says they have to get off the island
• Jack and Kate run into Sawyer, Aaron and Miles, he informs them that Claire is gone
• Jack goes off to find the copter, Sawyer goes with him
• Sayid gets to the island,taking people back 6 at a time
• Kate tells Sayid about Jack and Sawyer and they run off to find them
• Ben, Locke and Hurley are headed to the Orchid to move the island
• Moving the island is "dangerous and unpredictable", a measure of last resort
• Ben opens a hidden box with a mirror, 15 year old crackers (that Hurley eats) and binoculars
• Uses the mirror to communicate with someone
• Daniel is going to start taking people to the boat, Sun, Jin and Aaron go on the first raft
• Ben, Locke and Hurley reach the Orchid but Keamy's team has beaten them there
• Michael fixes the freighter engine but something on the boat is broadcasting and isn't letting them find their way to the island
• Jack and Sawyer catch up with the copter and Lapidus was handcuffed to it
• The interference is being causedby the remote for a shitload of C4 on the freighter. Desmond, Michael and Jin are alone in the room with the C4
• Kate and Sayid run into Alpert and an armed group of Others
• Ben gives Locke instructions about how to reach the Orchid station then surrenders to give Locke a chance to get inside
• Keamy knocks Ben out

Questions:

• Who made up the cover story?
• Why did they feel the need to lie about the island?
• If everyone on the boat was kept in the dark about Keamy's intentions, how come Daniel has so much information in his little notebook?
  
• What is the secondary protocol?
• Is Daniel ever going to take off that tie?
• What did Ben say with the mirror and who did he say it to?
• How much money did Oceanic give the survivors?
• Who is the other person Sun feels is responsible for Jin's death?
• Did Kate overhear Claire's mom?
• Have they moved the island before (like 15 years ago when those crackers first made it into the box)?

There really is no sense in asking any big questions until we see Part II so I'll save them.

Movie Characters I Want To Date: Celine

Since I’m not dating real people, I came up with this idea a couple of days ago. I think I’ll make this an ongoing thing that I’ll fall back on when I have nothing to blog about. This has nothing to do with the attractiveness of the actress playing the role (although it’s a movie so, odds are, they’re attractive). Certain elements of the character appeals to me romantically and sets unrealistic standards for real people who don’t have the benefit of rewrites.

For the inaugural post, I’ll pick my favorite.

Character: Celine (no last name ever given)

Film: Before Sunrise; Before Sunset; Waking Life (sorta)

Actress: Julie Delpy

Attractive Qualities: She’s a romantic which, despite my many negative views on love and relationship (many of which I’ve post), I love. She is also a cynic which feeds into those aforementioned negative views. Celine is full of theories on life and love and when I was more of a talker, so was I. Nothing makes me happier than theorizing (ask anyone foolish enough to ask me for relationship advice) and sharing opinion on the nature of people. The accent is a plus too. :)

Favorite quote: “I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.”

Mommy, I Want One!

Wall-E Spotted in LA! from Blink on Vimeo.

Tegan & Sara @ Terminal 5

First of all, I had been trying to get tickets for this show off Craigslist for months but I finally scored some (at face value no less) a week before the show and I'm glad I did.

Jenny and I ended up standing on the third floor of Terminal 5 because, frankly, the rabid Tegan & Sara fans were packed tight up on the standing floor and looked at you like you lost your mind if you tried to push past them.

It was a great show and I hope I get a chance to see them again (with a better view). They did all my favorite songs so I couldn't complain plus I didn't have to deal with being suffocated on the floor with the crowd

Here are the rest of the pictures I took.

I also took some video with my new camera: Nineteen, Hop A Plane, Back In Your Head, Living Room

Movie of the Week: Speed Racer: The IMAX Experience

To quote Andrea upon leaving the theater, "Well, that was fun to look at."

I think the biggest problem with the movie is it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a kids only flick or a flick that could have some adult appeal. If it was only for kids, then you could forgive the awful plot and the stale acting. If it was supposed to appeal to adults, then it was pretty bad.

Then again, you have to take into account that the cartoon made absolutely no sense. Speed Racer could never really be taken seriously. If you weren't a fan of the cartoon, this might seem like the dumbest movie you've ever seen.

The races looked amazing, especially in IMAX (think the pod races in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace while tripping balls on acid). Although there were a couple of times where I had no idea which car was which.

If you are planning to see this movie, please get there early do you can get a good seat. You don't want to be stuck in the front rows. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be with all the speed and colors but my eyes were definitely sore when I left the theater.

Lost Season Four: "Cabin Fever"

What I Liked:

• The Dali Lama-esque backstory of John Locke. Locke is probably the only character who's backstory still provides information about his character
• Line of the night: "Because destiny, John, is a fickle bitch!"
• Moment of the night: Hurley sharing his Apollo bar with Ben outside Jacob's cabin

What I Didn't Like:

• I know it's TV but I just wish that once someone would hear some crazy stuff and be like, "Get the fuck outta here"
• The whole thing with the doctor finally being kileld and thrown overboard and how that works with the crazy space-time continuum issues on the island made my head hurt.
  

What We Learned:
Flashback (Locke):

• Locke's mom = Emily Locke
• Cooper was twice the age of Emily when he was conceived
• Locke was born six months early and had a variety of infections but always survived
• He was put up for adoption
• Richard Alpert was present while Baby John was in the hospital
• John Alpert visited John as a toddler
• John was into backgammon even back then
• Alpert invited John to a school for special children
• Alpert gave John a test: He put a number of items on the table including a knife, a compass, a vial of sand, The Book of Laws, a comic book who's cover text basically described the island and asked John to pick the item that belonged to him. John picked the knife. Alpert said that it didn't belong to him and left saying he wasn't ready.
• John drew a picture of himself being attached by Smokey as a adult when he was a little kid
• Locke was a nerd who got beat up in high school
• Mittelos Labratory sent Locke an invite to their summer camp but he declined
• Michael Abbadon was Locke's orderly while he was paralyzed!
• Abbadon suggested the walkabout to Locke that lead to him being on Oceanic 815

Island:

• The Doctor is still alive on the freighter when the helicopter comes back
• Apparently the island won't let Michael die on the freighter either
• John has a dream where he is Dharma member, Horace, building a cabin despite being dead.
• Horace tells John to find him in order to find Jacob
• John goes to the Dharma mass grave and finds a map to the cabin in Horace's pocket
• Keamy unlocks the secondary protocol for the island infiltration
• Captain Gault thought he was only there for an extraction mission
• Gault arranges for Sayid and Desmond to get a raft to start getting people off the island
• Desmond won't go back to the island as he's had enough of being on that island
• Keamy killed the doctor when Frank wouldn't fly him and his solders back to the island
• Keamy kills Gault too.
• Frank is a pussy.
• Locke enters the cabin alone and meets Christian Shepard,speaking on Jacob's behalf
• Claire's is in the cabin too!
• Christian tells Locke to MOVE THE ISLAND!

Questions:

• Why was it important to Emily that the baby was named John?
• Why does the cabin keep moving?
• How is the doctor still alive on the frieghter?
• How did Michael get all that information about Keamy and everyone else?
• Why is Locke seeing Horace who he's never met?
• Why doesn't Ben "have dreams" any more?
• Was the island keeping Baby John alive as a preemie?
• Why was Richard watching Baby John?
• What was special about John?
• What was the purpose of the test?
• Was there really a school?
• Is Richard really immortal or is he time-traveling?
• What was the significance of John taking the knife?
• Who were the leaders (plural) of ther Others before Ben?
• How are they going to "torch" the island?
• Where does Widmore think Ben is going to head to?
• What is Keamy strapping to his body?
• What miracle happened to Matthew Abbadon?
• How did Daniel send a message to one of the guys on the helicopter about the fate of the doctor when it appears the helicopter crew was still on the island last episode?
• How many people are left on the freighter aside from Desmond and Michael?
• Why did Frank drop of the satellite phone to the beachheads?
• Why has the island rejected Ben?
• How is Christian alive?
• Is he really speaking for Jacob or is he Jacob assuming Christian's form?
• Why is Claire in the cabin, happy as a pothead?
• Is Claire dead?
• Why doesn't Christian want anyone to know Claire's with him?
• Why is Aaron supposed to be with Sawyer?
• When Christian/Jacob says move the island, does he mean physically or temporally?

Movie of the Week: Iron Man

How good was Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark? So good in fact that you don't realize that it takes an hour for him to suit up and actually blow something up as Iron Man.

What was so great about this movie was that Jon Favreau had the confidence to spend a majority of the movie on the character of Tony Stark which is crazy considering Tony Stark/Iron Man isn't exactly Superman, Spider-Man and Batman in the collective consciousness. Because of that, this movie could have easily fallen apart in the hands of the wrong star but RDJ was more than up to the task.

This was really Robert Downey Jr's show. I was excited he was cast as Tony Stark and couldn't think of a better person to play him. Hopefully, this will mean bigger things for him (but I hope Marvel Studios has him locked up contractually for their future movie endeavors)

The casting was great all around especially Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Stane and Gwenyth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. Hopefully Terrance Howard gets a bigger role in the sequel (as was alluded to)

There were a lot of great Marvel comics winks (I loved the recurring S.H.E.I.L.D. joke) and at this point you should know to stick around until the end of the credits.

If You Cheat And You Win, You're Saaaavvy

A former New England Patriots employee has sent the N.F.L. eight videotapes showing the team recorded play-calling signals by coaches of five opponents in six games between the 2000 and 2002 seasons, in violation of league rules.

Walsh’s tapes show that the Patriots recorded the signals of offensive and defensive coaches in regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins, the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns and the San Diego Chargers and against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2002 American Football Conference championship game. In that game, the tape has been edited to show Steelers coaches signaling plays, followed by two different camera angles of the actual plays that were called.

From The New York Times

iDontThinkSo

So a little while back, my mother asked my brother and I to buy her a camera for Mother's Day. Not a digital camera, mind you, but an old school 35mm point and shoot. Do you know that they don't even really sell those anymore?

Anyway, my father, unbeknownst to me, bought her a camera already. So I called her on Monday and asked what she wanted instead. She said, "I want a new phone". I'm like okay. What kind of phone do you want. "That iPhone," she said.

I told her, "No."

No way am I spending $400 dollars (or $200) on a phone I am 99.8% my mother will never fully understand how to use. Nope. Not gonna happen.

Any time my mother gets anything that has the slightest bit of technology, I get non-stop calls about how to use and 8 times out of 10, it's something she would have figured out if she read the instructions. I had to come down to Long Island to sort out her DVR. Do you know what would happen if I got her an iPhone? I would have to change my number. I would not wish that on my worst enemy (and I love myself).

She accused me of saying she was dumb and I'm not but I know what she is capable of handling. Shit, she *just* started using e-mail on a semi-regular basis.

No.

She doesn't even know why she should want an iPhone. She just wants to bring it to church and show off to her church buddies, "Look what my two sons bought me." (Isn't that a sin or something?)

The problem is now I can't buy her anything for Mother's Day because once my mother has decided she wants something, you can't buy her anything else. My brother and father have foolishly tried and had their good intentions destroyed by eye rolls and and half-hearted thank yous. I love my mother but she is one of the most unappreciative people I have ever met (and I've known her my entire life so I think I've had plenty of time to think this through).

I just ordered a bouquet of flowers to get delivered. Yes, I will get one of those eye rolls but I don't care.

I'm not buying her an iPhone. I don't care if that make me a bad son.

Wolverine and The X-Men preview

I was skeptical at fist because a) it's on NickToons and b) it's called Wolverine and The X-Men but after seeing this, I'm kinda excited.

I'm No Photographer...

...but this shot came out really well. Taken on my friend Havilah's roof in Spanish Harlem

Feist on The Colbert Report

Have I mentioned that I love her?

New The Dark Knight Trailer

Lost Season Four: "Something Nice Back Home"

What I Liked:

• I know Jeremy Davies has a pretty small role but I love every twitchy move he makes.
• Sawyer's alive (or at least they think he is)!

What I Didn't Like:

• The beach has become increasingly annoying and boring
• Jack made too quick a turn from being okay to becoming a drunken pill popper
• I thought we didn't have time for these kind of filler episodes

What We Learned:

Flashforward (Pre-crazy beard Jack/Post-Kate trial):

• Jack and Kate were living together
• Jack apprently got over his issues with Aaron
• Hurley is still committed, not taking his meds, thinks the Oceanic Six are dead
• Hurley is still seeing Charlie, told Hurley Jack was coming and Charlie gave Jack a message,"You're not supposed to raise him."
• Jack proposes to Kate and Kate says "Yes"
• Jack starts seeing his father Christian, starts taking pills
• Kate is doing something for Sawyer off the island
• Sawyer's alive!
• Sawyer chose to stay on the island
• Jack knows he's related to Aaron

Island:

• Jack has appendicitis
• Danielle and Karl are officially dead
• Jin thinks Daniel was a crush on Charlotte despite her "attitude" problem
• Charlotte understands Korean
• Charlotte promises to get Sun off the island
• Juliet removes Jack's appendix without incident (Yawn!)
• Claire has a vision of Christian holding Aaron
• Claire walked off into the forest in the middle of the night
• Aaron ends up alone in the forest

Questions:

• What does Miles sense about Claire and/or Aaron?
• Rose is kinda right. Why did Jack get sick?
• What is the nature of Charlie's "visit" to Hurley and Christian's "visit" to Jack?
• What happened to Smokey after his run-in with Keamy and friends?
• Who is Kate talking to on the phone?
  
• Who does Jack think Kate it talking to on the phone?
  
• What was Kate doing for Sawyer? (Theory: Probably helping out Cassidy and Sawyer's love child, Clementine)
  
• Was Jack implying that he knows he's related to Aaron?
• Where's Claire?

Read High Yella Magic

My friend Jasika has a really good comic she's been posting on line and I've been really selfish by not telling anyone about it.

Check it out!