Friday, June 11, 2010

World Cup 2010

The greatest, largest, most fantastic sporting event in the world begins today. Where else can you find a month long sporting event which showcases the greatest players in the sport from all around the world? You can't.

This World Cup is especially exceptional because it is the first one ever held on the continent of Africa. South Africa hosts the 2010 World Cup of Football. Watch it!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Lost without Lost

Okay so Lost is officially history. No new episodes ever again. Yes, I will be re-watching the entire series over and over until I die, but no new Lost. None. No more. Ever. I am not having withdrawal symptoms yet, but at the same time its only been 2 days since it finished.

Lost going off the air is like losing a good friend. Its not like a friend died; I can buy the DVD set and sleep with it next to me in bed, I mean, watch it over and over again. But when there is something great in your life that you enjoy and all of sudden it is no longer there, its a little sad.

(Feel free to make fun of me before you continue reading).

I love good storytelling and Lost is some of the best storytelling I've ever experienced. It was always a hybrid between TV and film. Sure there were some things that didn't ever make sense and inconsistencies now and then. There were even episodes that I didn't like. But what matters is the big huge story that the creators were weaving. It transcended the inidividual parts to form a truly astonishing whole.

The storytelling was so good that most episodes I was riveted to my seat. I cried more than once during Lost's 6 year run. I remember some episodes so clearly and even their titles. The episodes have titles? Yes, like Greatest Hits or The Constant, two of may favorites.

So why did I love Lost so much? I do love the sci-fi elements and the idea that fantastic things happened on the show. But as I watched the finale, what I realized is that I had grown to love and care for these fictional characters. When Charlie and Claire had their moment of mutual realization, I cried. No lie, I did.

I use Lost to mark certain events and periods of the past 6 years of my life. When Lost started 6 years ago, Jo and I were living in Morocco. We heard about this awesome new J.J. Abrams (Alias, Cloverfield, Star Trek) show about a plane crash. Having been Alias and J.J. Abrams fans for years, we figured Lost would be good. We were right. I knew from watching the first episode that this would be a great show. If only I'd known then how amazing it would turn out to be! Since we were in Morocco, we would download the episodes and watch them with out laptop hooked up to the TV.

During Season 3, we were living in Pennsylvania and hosting a small group. I insisted on not having group on Lost night. That worked well for a while, but halfway through the season there was a break of several months. When it came back on again, it was on small group night. So we had to record it and watch it after group. What a hardship to have to sit through small group knowing that Lost was on and I wasn't watching it!

Then when I was unemployed, looking for a job, and we were living in my in-laws' basement in VA, Lost was one of the things that helped make life interesting. As pathetic as that sounds, it's true. My in-laws have a huge projection screen TV in their basement (like 5 feet wide) and I would turn off all the lights and drink beer while watching Lost on the big screen.

There are so many more things I could say about Lost, but since nobody is reading this anyway, I'll quit now. Goodbye Lost. At least goodbye to any chance of new Lost. So many unanswered questions, so much to still think about. So long Desmond. Farewell Sawyer. Goodbye Kate. Godspeed Vincent. Au Revoir Lost. Now I can have my life back. Until I start watching the whole series again.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Amazing books

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. And books are one of my favorite things in the world. I love bookstores, but love free public libraries even more because, well the books are free. Its not so much that I love the actual books themselves; I'm not infatuated with paper, ink, book bindings, and slip covers. I love stories. And I especially love good stories. I love to get lost in stories. For me if I start reading a book and I don't get lost in it pretty quickly I don't read anymore. My love is also at the root of my love for movies, but that's a different topic altogether.

Anyways, I have three books that I've recently that are all pretty spectacular. Two are probably some of the best I've ever read. The other is quite awesome as well:
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The first two books are the two I mentioned as being two of the best I've ever read.

I also recently read one of the best short stories I've ever read, Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang which is is his collection of short stories Stories of Your Life and Others.

If you're into reading at all I highly recommend all of the above. Happy reading!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Metal

I've been on a metal kick recently. Real, metal not hair bands (although I love them too). I love heavy metal music (good metal anyways). I love the the technical skills of the musicians, the vocal range of the singers, the theatrics, the image, basically everything. So in light of my metal kick, here's a classic metal song, Season in the Abyss by Slayer:

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Lost plane crash 'mash-up'

Mash-ups happen when a creative editor takes video or audio and mashes them together. The pieces that are fitted together were never meant to be together, but the creative individual finds a way to make them fit well together. Below is one of the my favorite mash-ups. Its the Lost plane crash like you've never seen before.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Life lessons I've learned from Lost

Lost is currently in its 6th and last last season. I will be beyond sad when it is done. It is my favorite show of all time. There are few TV shows that havecaused me to think so much and made me anticipate the next episode as Lost has. As I look back on these past few years of Lost watching, I've realized I've learned a lot. So here are some lessons I've gleaned from Lost.

Relationships

From the example of Jin and Sun, don't ever under any circumstance let your partner out of your sight. Bad things happen when they're not together.

If you're anyone else in the world, don't get involved with people like either Jack or Kate. Some people will always hurt you regardless, because that's the way they are.

Life and Death
No one can escape death forever. Even major characters are not exempt (Charlie). If you're not a major character, its just a matter of counting the minutes until death.

Mystery & Ambiguity
A little mystery and ambiguity makes life interesting. A lot of mystery makes life terrifying. An island of mysteries might be kind of cool if there were just a few, but having like 700 mysteries gets tiring.

Fate
You cannot under any circumstances escape from your fate. No matter how hard you try. Case in point, The Island - no matter how hard you try to leave, if you're meant to be there, you're going to either end up back there, even if you leave, or die trying not to end up back there.

Summary
Lost has taught me so much about life. When it is finally done, I don't know where I will go for life lessons. I guess I'll have to start watching Scrubs again.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

recent views and reads

This post is lame, filler, not worth reading. But since I have nothing else to blog about, here are things I've read and watched that are much more than memorable (meaning I loved them):

Movies
The Baader-Meinhof Complex
District 9
Zombieland
How to Be
The Vanishing
Sin Nombre







TV

Neverwhere

Books

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Y: The Last Man