Lost Season Three: "The Brig"

My name is James Ford. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

What I Liked:

• Say what you will about season three but this season has produced some of the best Lost episodes ever...including this one.
• Finally a connection between two castaways has some sort of payoff
• Josh Holloway's Emmy reel will come from this episode
• The backstory showing us what Locke's been up to since we last saw him.
• The divisions amongst the castaways AND the Others
• Um, Naomi is cute and had my favorite line of the night: "Remind me not to save you, Sayid"

What I Didn't Like:

• How Kate went over to Jack at Mach 5 speeds to spill the beans about Naomi

What We Learned:

• Sawyer is still Kate's booty call
• The Others have apprently been "waiting" for Locke
• Ben's plan for the 815ers: kidnap all the pregnant women
• Oceanic Flight 815 was found at the bottom of the ocean near Bali, all the bodies were accounted for
• Naomi is part of a company hired by Penelope Widmore to find Desmond using the coordinates she got at the end of Season Two after the Hatch imploded
• The ship Naomi came from is about 80 miles away from the island
• According to Alpert, Ben is purposely trying to make Locke look bad in front of the Others
• Cooper was kidnapped after a car crash
• Cooper is Tom Sawyer, the man who conned James' mother.
• After all he's been through on the island, somehow that letter James wrote when he was a little kid is still intact

Questions:

• Is there really a schism in the Others faction or was Alpert doing exactly what Ben wanted him to do by getting Locke to get Sawyer to kill Cooper?
• Did all the Others have to do something for their initiation?
• Why does Danielle need dynamite?
• What secret is Juliet and Jack keeping?
• Why did Ben tell Locke about his plan to kidnap the pregnant women on the island?
• what bodies did they find in the wreckage of flight 815?
• Why does the island heal everyone so quickly?
• When will Locke and Danielle realize they are perfect for one another?
• Like Inigo Montoya, now that James has finally gotten his revenge on Cooper, what's left?

Björk at Radio City Music Hall

What a weird, awesome woman

So Bill & I went to her Radio City Music Hall show. I expected she would be doing mostly songs from her new album, Volta. So I was pretty pleased when she essentially ran through the greatest hits, sans "Hyperballad" which is probably my favorite Björk ever so that was disappointing.

She came out with the same horn section that she did for her recent Saturday Night Live appearance.

This was the setlist:
"Earth Intruders"
"Venus As A Boy"
"Aurora"
"I See Who You Are"
"Oceania"
"Dull Flame of Desire"
"All Is Full of Love"
"Pleasure Is All Mine"
"Pagan Poetry"
"Joga"
"Where Is the Line?"
"Army of Me"
"Innocence"
"Wanderlust"
"Pluto"
"Anchor Song"
"Declare Independence"

I'm always amazed at how powerful her voice is and how she's been able to maintain it it. Especially when she says "thank you" after every song with a voice of a ten year old at a spelling bee and is dancing around stage like Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine.

The funniest moment was when some fan tried to get on stage and dance along with Björk. Radio City Music Hall security does not fuck around. That guy took two hops on stage before he was taken down and dragged off the stage on his stomach.

All and all, a great night.

Iron Man Movie Armor

Good job, Jon

Movie of the Week Pt. 1: Once

My favorite movie of the year thus far

This is sort of a musical ("modern day musical" is how the writer-director John Carney described it at the Q&A following the screening). It's not like a Dreamgirls/Chicago musical where characters break into songs about the scene. The songs (some featured on the album, The Swell Season, some written specifically for the film) come along while the characters are collaborating and making this demo but the songs are about both the characters' (who are never named so they are referred to as Guy and Girl) past and what is going on between them.

The two leads Glen Hansard (from the Irish band, The Frames) and Markéta Irglová have great chemistry together and their friendship seems natural and not forced. And the songs were great.

I want to say more but it would spoil certain aspects of the movie.

The movie isn't perfect but it felt perfect so I'm sticking with my rating.

Just see it and hate me if you don't like it.

It comes out in limited release on May 18th.

24 Season Six: 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM

Body Count: 25 (0)

A mole, relationship problems during a crisis, conflict between CTU and Division, Jack beating up CTU guards, just another hour in CTU land...

White House Ho
Show surprise, there's a leak and it's in Lisa Miller's drawers. Apparently, VP ODB isn't the only person she's been sleeping with it. Far be it from me to judge her promiscuous ways but syhe just happens to be boning a guy who's linking intel to the Russian which allows them to find out about Cheng getting away with the chip. Little do they know, the chip is broken and now Cheng is looking for someone to fix it. Wait, isn't this how the day started? Morris better not go outside for a smoke break. Anyway, VP ODB tells the Dragonslayer his sob story of being a widower and his feelings for the traitorous slore. Boo hoo! Dragonslayer comes up with a plan to get Lisa to tell her booty call they found the chip so World War III won't have to start.

CTU Days of our Lives
After Nadia denied Morris of his transfer due to hurt feelings, he dumps Chloe with some now-trademark face touching. He leaves her crying and now she appears to be missing (Chinese?). Division sends a psychologist to deal with catatonic Audrey which Jack is being detained in another room. The doc, who probably has degrees and experience in this sort of thing, tells them that they are going to give her some drugs to try as get much information as possible, possibly killing her. I don't see a problem with this. Jack, who only has a degree in killing people with limited resources, thinks he can cure Audrey just by being Jack Bauer. Doyle in attempt to make the viewers like him sides with Jack and sets him loose on CTU and Division staff like a pit bull in a kindergarten class. He kidnaps Audrey, locks her in a room and eventually she says one word which helps give them a hint to where the Chinese might be.

Heller An Ending
Out of nowhere, Secretary of Defense (still?) Heller is at Audrey's bedside. Before he gets her out of there, he talks to Jack and tells her to stay away from his daughters, blaming Jack for her state and telling him that everything he touches dies. If that's true, Jack must have touched one too many writers this season.