off to radiothon

I won't be blogging about LOST this week, as I will be hosting our 18th annual radiothon to benefit the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. It is my 13th year as host, and I can absolutely tell you, that while emotionally, mentally and physically draining, it is a life affirming event for me.

Every year, while preparing the hours of tape and interviews for the event, I get tired, stressed out and cranky, and I start feeling sorry for myself, thinking about not being prepared for the event. I whine as I'm want to do and I forget what it's about. And then Sunday at the Change Bandits event, there was a little kid named Brandon, born 15 weeks premature, following me around signing in sign language for me to give him some potato chips, and all of a sudden, my silly ass problems were miles away.

If I get a good wireless signal this weekend, I will live blog from the event.

We will be broadcasting live from the Children's Center in the mornings, and live from the Mall in Columbia in the afternoons.

I hope you can help us out, and to motivate you, here is an essay from the NPR program "This I Believe", in which ordinary citizens tell of what their belief system is founded upon.

This one comes from Daniel Ferri, a sixth grade teacher from Mississippi:

I believe in the kindness of strangers. I learned to believe this from a hurricane and a newborn baby boy.

Our son Owen was born just as Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast. Two days later, as Katrina neared landfall, Owen began suffering seizures; he'd had a stroke.

I didn't follow the catastrophe on the Gulf Coast as closely as I might have, but those weeks taught me some things about catastrophe and about the kindness of strangers.

All catastrophes are personal. Some in the Gulf Coast sought survival; some sought to help others. Some prayed; some preyed upon others.

At the hospital, we watched our son Owen sleep. Despite the tubes dripping and the monitors beeping, he still slept his baby sleep. My wife asked for the pastor; I asked for the doctor. She prayed for him. I held the CAT scan up to the light and searched for answers.

No one can know what you will feel or fear in a time of need, but I learned that in this, the most difficult time of my life, the people our family depended upon most were people we had never met, people who we would likely never see again -- strangers. We depended upon strangers, strangers who knew their duty was to help others. We depended upon the nurses who cared so well for our son, who cooed to him and caressed him, who watched me hold him through the night and never seemed to notice how ugly a man is when he cries. We depended upon the hostel that gave us a place to stay near the hospital, upon the members of my union who believe caring for our child's health should not ruin us, upon the doctors and clerks and ambulance drivers. We depended upon a commitment made to helping others. This commitment is a web that holds us together in times of need.

By the time we took Owen home, the worst effects of Katrina were evident. I watched the images from the Gulf Coast, images of communities, lives and families whose fabric had been torn apart. I thought of that web of strangers that had embraced my family in our time of need, and that it is the most fortunate among us who are served best by it.

I can only hope this web will be strong enough, that it will be spun wide, that it will hold and care for many, that we can all depend upon the kindness of strangers.

cooking with sound

(via april winchell)
Where are the cooking shows like this?

Beatbox Fame Game
Uploaded by loranger

So here's a photo from the 1907 World Series. Please note all the fans in the stands who have apparently decided to tie a hankerchief on their heads, not unlike John Cleese from "Monty Python" used to when he was portraying a really, really stupid moron.


Am I to assume World Series fans were idiots or was Cleese making fun of Americans. At any rate, I'm curious as to why people did this. Anyone have a clue? Or was it just a fad like "thundersticks"?

AMERICAN IDOL, THE FANTASY GAME

SCORING RULES FOR AMERICAN IDOL, THE FANTASY GAME

Sit down with your friends, and conduct a fantasy draft of all of the remaining twenty Idol contestants. After your "fantasy idol" performs, you score points based on the following scoring rules. If your Idol advances, you get five bonus points. If they're kicked off, you're short one contestant. If you have the winning contestant, you get 100 bonus points.

The most important rules is that more rules can be added as the show progresses, these are only the starting point… As always, feel free to add your ideas in the comments...

• IF SIMON COMPLIMENTS YOU IN ANY WAY. +1
• IF PAULA OR RANDY CALL YOUR PERFORMANCE “PITCHY” -3
• IF PAULA STANDS UP DURING YOUR PERFORMANCE. +2
• IF PAULA “SEAL CLAPS” FOR YOU. +1
• IF RANDY SAYS “YOU CAN BLOW”. +3
• IF RANDY CLAIMS AFTER YOUR PERFORMANCE “WE HAVE A HOT ONE” +3
• IF ALL THREE JUDGES AGREE THAT YOU STINK. -3
• IF ALL THREE JUDGES AGREE THAT YOU’RE GOOD. +5
• IF PAULA SAYS SOMETHING INCOHERENT. +5
• IF SIMON APPEARS TO BE HITTING ON YOU. +3 (IF YOU’RE A GIRL; +10 IF YOU’RE A GUY)
• IF ANY JUDGE CLAIMS THE SONG YOU DID WAS A BAD CHOICE. -3
• IF ANY JUDGE CLAIMS YOURS WAS THE “BEST SONG OF THE NIGHT” +5
• IF SIMON USES ANY OF THE FOLLOWING COMPARASIONS: LOUNGE SINGER, BAR BAND, WEDDING SINGER, CABARET SINGER, SINGER ON A CRUISE SHIP OR THEME PARK, OR “STUDENT GIG”. -3
• IF RANDY SAYS IT WAS WEIRD. -2
• IF RANDY SAYS IT JUST DIDN’T DO IT FOR HIM. -2
• IF PAULA HITS RANDY OR SIMON FOLLOWING YOUR PERFORMANCE. +2
• IF THEY REFERENCE A PAST IDOL. +5
• IF ANY JUDGE COMMENTS POSITIVELY ON YOUR APPEARANCE. +3
• IF ANY JUDGE COMMENTS NEGATIVELY ON YOUR APPEARANCE. -3
• IF YOU MAKE PAULA CRY. +3
• IF YOU INSULT SIMON. +3
• IF RANDY CALLS YOU DAWG, DUDE OR MAN. +3 (IF YOU’RE A WOMAN +5)
• IF SIMON USES THE TITLE OF YOUR SONG TO INSULT YOU. -2
• IF SIMON INSULTS RYAN WHILE YOUR ON STAGE. +5
• IF PAULA SAYS YOU HAVE “STAR QUALITY” +2

Another LOST entry

Alan Sepinwall has a solid blog on TV (he's a critic from NJ), and this week's LOST discussion dwelled on how disappointing this week's ep was. I concur, except, I have hope that it was setting up a huge show next week with a ton of revealing info. Here's hoping I'm not wrong.

Here's one of the comments from his blog that exemplifies the tone of their discussion:

They need to get rid of the Others already. The only thing interesting about them is why they're there and what they're doing. But if they're not going to tell us that then they're just boring as hell. And having the characters interact with them and NOT ask those questions just comes off as ridiculous and a lazy way of avoiding having to give any answers. I was literally yelling at the screen through most of the conversations last night. Like Karl's "we take them to give them a better life." "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?" would have been the normal response. But Kate and Sawyer just freaking sat there. And the whole story about Jack's tattoos was incredibly dumb. I mean, I don't mind getting the story behind his tattoos, but was there really any reason to try to make a mystery out of that too? "I have a gift." "There will be repercussions." Whaa? I think I actually got a headache from all of the eyerolling I did. I actually don't mind extra mysteries (like Desmond's story last week) but they need to be interesting and have some impact on what happens on the island. This story didn't. Let's put it this way: last week's episode ended with Desmond's "you're gonna die, Charlie." This week? Jack and Juliet doing their own personal version of "I'm king of the world!" zzzzzzzzzzzzz

using kids to pimp movies...priceless

Here's a neat video about a kid who paints really well...or does he? If you follow the great editing you realize the kid ain't doing the painting and that the web site shown at the end is pimping an upcoming film...This is what viral videos have come to? I remember when they were all about trauma to the groin...

spanning the globe to give you the constant variety of the interwebs

This Philly band has penned a tribute to Barbaro (he was a race horse who got hurt at the Preakness, not that any of the 80,000 drunks in the infield noticed), it's not my job to comment on it -- it's your job to comment on it.

We also have our first tribute song to young Anna Nicole (it's the first song on the page), courtesy of Dr. BLT. I do love the title and the theme of the song, and the fact that the guy who wrote it is a psychologist.

Here's what Maryland's one dimensional legislature feels needs to be stopped: bull nads hanging from truck wheel wells. I'll be honest with you, I never noticed them until they pointed them out, now I see them all the time.

China is shocked by the number of internet addicts there are, so they're shocking them back.

The greater theory of blogging explained.

This week's "Heroes" promises to expose HRG. Is Claire's dad good or bad?

And then there's "Zeroes" a "Heroes" parody that features a guy who's special power is the ability to kick himself in the head.

Cute. Perhaps too cute, but cute nonetheless.

Hey, as a general rule, don't crank the audio on your porn, because a guy with a sword will bring swift, exacting justice. Watch the video and the guy's response when asked if he'll stop watching the porn. Hey, it's a six billion dollar a year industry, somebody's watching it.

Oscar spoilers. And I hope Ellen does well.

All things Idol are spoken well here. Is a web site called "vote for the worst" to blame for keeping Antonella on the show? FYI -- There could a storm a brewing about our little Catholic University girl. Stay tuned.

And pray to God that this goes away. I just barfed. Luckily popwatch skewered it.

Hey, LOSTIES. Another bizarre misfit find. Photoshopped or not?

Matthew's got a kid, so he's on the same movie going page as me, he doesn't see stuff until it seems old, but his reviews are hysterical. Please read the comments as well. If I had a band I would name them "Pixels of Wang".

Greg weighs in on current events. And crock pots.

Love you all! Remember, we're all counting on you!

retro jojo

Another new band that sounds like they are straight out of 1985. Ladies and Gentleman, The Cinematics...

A set up show?

While LOST contained some interesting moments last night, it seemed to be a show setting up a revealing show next week, as the story revealed little.

Jack has a tattoo from an Asian visionary that apparently reads "He walks among us but he is not one of us." This innocuous slogan apparently pisses the hell out of Thai beach bums, because Jack got his butt soundly whupped just for walking on the beach with it. The mysitc, played by Superslut Bai Ling, also told Jack he was a leader who was reluctant and lonely. Nothing new there.

Cindy and the kids from the tailsection show up to watch an execution, they seem okay. Karl tells Sawyer the kids are better off with the "others". Karl also reveals that the "others " live a fairly normal suburban life, when they're not on the other island submitting each other to Clockwork Orange type torture, executing and hot branding each other on the back.

The "others" also have a servicable shuttle boat that traverses the narrow straight between the two islands. Sawyer and Kate had to paddle back, however, and continued their odd sexual tension, which basically consists of Sawyer telling "Freckles" what to do and Freckles responding by whining a lot.

Karl, the goofy other teen, reveals that he likes to watch the stars with his girlfriend Alex, whose Dad responded to Karl's love by subjecting him to watching werid sixties Psyedelic videos, complete with backward masking.

The "others' Have a Judge Dredd like purveyor of justice named "Isabel" which is an oddly feminine name for a man-like lady. She knows how to read and speak Chinese and taunts Jack with her ability to read his tattoo. She reminds me of my high school principal, Sister Margaret, who also could lay out the justice, even though none of us was ever branded that I know of.

FYI -- Cheech from Cheech and Chong stars in a Hurley flashback next week.

TV characters that annoy you

Whitney has a great post going about which TV characters drive you nuts.

I think Meredith Grey goes without saying, and I would add Michael Scott from "The Office", who's over the top attention whoring makes Britney's look mild.

Also on my list:

Claire's Dad on "Heroes", Juliet on LOST, Randy "King of Vagueness" Jackson on American Idol, and Rob and Amber on "Amazing Race: All Stars".

Of course, it's the annoying characters that bring you back a lot of the time isn't it?

Who are your most annoying TV characters?

FYI -- Best LOST web page!

This is fast becoming my favorite LOST site. It's goofy, irreverant, and comes up with some bizarre finds.

LOST observations

I was laid up with a touch of virus for the last few days, so I pulled out my season one LOST DVDs and watched a few eps. There is something they had in that first season that is missing now -- the sense of the spiritual.

When the viewpoint shifted last season and this to the "Others" and the Dharma Experiment and all that is psychology and time travel, they let up on the faith angle, so well parlayed by Eko and Locke. The show in season also always ended on an up note with musical interludes and people shown helping each other, now they seem to end course and usually with drama, or frustration, like Desmond's inability to break out of the loop and ask Penny to marry him.

While I realize that this will return eventually, it's been sorely missing since the return this month.

I wonder if that's the reason why ratings have slipped.

What do you think?

quick hits from around the interweb

World Series of pop culture; test tonight at 7pm; sample test here: http://pciq.vh1.com/, but be prepared to know what Jeremy does in the Pearl Jam song.

Hugh Grant goes 80’s with his PoP! Band here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S0A7dtdc-nU

Barenaked Ladies new video features stars from you tube videos…How many can you recognize?

http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=FoFMRXlNJ6Y&eurl=http%3A//boingboing.net/&iurl=http%3A//sjl-static14.sjl.youtube.com/vi/FoFMRXlNJ6Y/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJhSfHNlLEOkjql1MnXTGs2

LOST spoilers

If you don't want to know about this week's LOST, don't read on, as we will discuss some things that will be happening this week.

This week's show will feature a Jack flashback and according to BuddyTV, the following questions will be answered:

• What Jack’s Tattoo means?
• What happened to the tailsection children that were kidnapped?
• What happened to Cindy?
• What will become of Juliet after she shot Danny?
• What will become of Jack after he double crossed Ben?

Jack has a shady past in Thailand, which included covorting with a tattoo artist, played by Bai Ling (she of the really nutty performance on VH1's "But Can They Sing?").

Jack is also placed in a cage on the small island, where he is exhibited like an animal. Maybe this is symbolic for man's tendency to box himself in, or maybe Ben's a nutty man who likes to humiliate people wh save his life. Your call.

Grey's becomes not-so-original

One of the things viewers of "Grey's Anatomy" have always banked on, was the slightly off kilter approach of its writers, who talk to viewers on their blog, to keep the show from being like every other medical show on TV.

But if it's a near death for the title character, Meredith, at least one blogger says that would be nothing new. And long, drawn out comas are the province of day time TV.

another video using infographics

I found another music video that uses infographics to tell its story (like the Ryskoff one below). I love these videos and I don't know why. Maybe I've become too left brained for my own good.

This one is by The Longcut

barry white meets gollum

LOST, Groundhog's Day and the Time Traveller's Wife

We tripped the life fantastic with dear old Des last night on LOST.

It's clear after the show that the island has some sort of time vortex going on, and once you're in it, you need something to pull yourself out of it.

Desmond's flashback made it clear to me that the explosion has fragmented his time or has put him in some sort of time loop a la Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day. It's also similar to the plot line in the novel "Time Traveller's Wife" in that he doesn't seem to be able to control where in time he travels, or if he can control time when he gets there.

It appears that he keeps coming back to a certain place in time and maybe that's when he lets Penny know about the island (kind of like McFly leaving Dr. Brown a message in 'Back To The Future'). And what of the old lady in the antique shop? Has he let her in on it during his travels in time? Is she with the Dharma group? Or did she escape the island like Michael? She called him Desmond David Hume, David Hume being a Scottish philosopher (are we surprised? Hume was a discliple of John Locke!), is she related to him somehow?

And is it even time travel we're dealing with here? Maybe all of this went on in Des' head.

Other things I noted and have scoured from bulletin boards around the net:

* Charlie singing Oasis' "Wonderwall"...the line was "maybe you're going to be the one who saves me..." Also, did you hear "Building A Mystery" playing when Des and Penny were in the apartment?

* Does Des need trauma to travel back and forth? What the Frantics would call "A boot to the head"?

* Was it just me or has both Charlie and Claire changed their hair from last season? It was kind of distracting.

* Since the Henry Gale fake name made "Wizard of OZ" mentions up for grabs, did the guy with the red shoes getting crushed remind anyone of the Wicked Witch of the East?

* Is free will vs. pre-destiny the real battle on the show? Who's for what? Who's good and who's bad in that fight?

* Who wants Charlie to die? Not me, he and Hurley are the lone comic relief, that and Sawyer's nicknames.

As always, feel free to comment.

who are you? waht is love?

What defines you? Is it how you look? Or is your soul something that has no appearance?

On this day of love, I came across this story of a Marine returning from Iraq to marry his childhood sweetheart. This is what love is. Link to the PDF and read the whole thing. It's not long.

I love his sense of humor (he'll hide and scare kids who tease him). I love her refusal to let what happened phase her, "I fell in love with his heart, they haven't taken that away."

I'm not ignorant about these things, I know there's underlying issues that can't be covered in a five page piece, but I want so badly to read an article 50 years from now about their anniversary.

Semper Fi, Renee and Ty. Semper Fi.

are you okay?

A story (and video) about the man who fell 12,000 ft... and survived.

It's the most gut-wrenching, mesmerising and shocking clip of video footage imaginable. Shot from the tiny camera in the helmet of champion skydiver Michael Holmes, it records with chilling clarity what happened when he plummeted 12,000ft to earth.
There is the moment when he tugs his ripcord and discovers his parachute won't open. There are the frantic efforts to release it, made as he spins so fast that movement is almost impossible.

The funniest (if there's any humor in falling 12,000 feet) moment is when his buddy finds him in the bushes and asks, "Are you okay?"

My man just dropped 12k, what the hell do you think!



(via j-walk)

time, space and desmond

What if you began experiencing life in fragments? One minute you're 24 and hanging with your friends at the pub, and then you're catipulted back to today and you're dealing a nasty boss yelling at you, just as it escalates, you're 32 and working a different job.

That's what happens to Desmond tonight on LOST as this new theme of what is time and what is space continues.

What is most important, is that Hurley and Charlie are featured, and so it's going to be a great episode. I can't get enough Hurley and Charlie.

Flashbacks will be handled differently through the eyes of Desmond, who's time/space continuum may have been fractured by the hatch explosion. Is he time travelling or is his time just different now that he's been blown through it. Can he see things differently because of the explosion? His he witness to the time loop that may be in effect on the island? It promises to be a great episode that should answer many questions.

Also making a comeback -- dour Penny Widmore. What does she have to do with all of this?

should I be worried?

I went to take this leadership test on this site.

My result was this:

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Now I'm afraid of myself.

Help.

only fools are enslaved by time and space

I have yet to decipher what Ben was telling Juliet in last week's episode, but in searching, I found this webpage, which plays back the audio in Karl's cell backwards. It
repeats this mantra over and over, "only fools are enslaved by time and space."

Okay.

Can someone pass the brown acid, because I apparently need it to follow this show.

retro jojo

While this clip is not technically retro, it is reminescent of the 80's electro pop of Depeche Mode, Yaz and Erasure. This band is called Röyksopp, and they're from Norway, who gaves us a-ha.

I just love the animation in the video and while it seems a little bleak and numbing, stay with it, it has kind of a happy ending.

Grammys

The Grammy Awards are tonight, and throwingthings lays down this great look at Grammy performances from year's past. (Nothing will ever beat Kanye's marching band duel from last year. )

• 2003: Joe Strummer tribute with Springsteen, Costello, Grohl and Van Zandt thrashing "London Calling"
  
• 2003: the most excellent Roots band backing Eminem on "Lose Yourself"
• 2004: Prince & Beyonce medley, about which I said at the time, off by two years, "If that's what Prince is going to be like in five years when he starts playing Vegas, I'll send in my $125 right now" and now is recognizable as the Super Bowl medley done backwards
• 2004: a Black Eyed Peas performance of "Where's The Love" w/Timberpants that just keeps building
• my absolute favorite -- a 2005 tribute to Janis Joplin with Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone, Etheridge's first post-cancer performance, and words cannot describe just how awesome it is.
• 2005: Kanye, Jamie. The FAMU marching band. Gold. Digger. Completely, wonderfully excessive, as opposed to a more subdued Mr. Foxx joining Alicia Keys on "Georgia On My Mind".
• And just because it's so weird to even say this -- from 2006, Jay-Z, Linkin Park and Paul McCartney throw down together.

New videos from Idol alumni et al

Kimberly Locke looks hot in her video for "Change", which is a surprisingly good mainstream ballad. (via popwatch)

Clay Aiken, meanwhile, makes love to the camera in his overwrought "A Thousand Days".
I think Clay needs to gain an edge and do some more challenging material. He's playing it safe, and that will not expand his audience. (via popwatch)

But the song I can't get out of my head right now is this one by the Shins, "Phantom Limb." It's nice to see a video that has actual production elements, even though they're cheap. I love the fake fire when they burn Joan of Arc.

Jojo and Reagan web page

Google monkey Scott Lester, our producer on the J2R Show has updated the show's myspace page to include audio. We're podcastin there now and will be updating the audio regularly.

sheepwalking

I hate to admit it, but there are times I feel like I'm sheepwalking. But it's hard to take risks and try and blow up the mold when you're raising a family. I have tried to impart novel ideas, but they get shot down by the dozen, and I'm just too weary to fight that battle day in and day out.

Anyone else sheepwalking? Here's your chance to vent about it.

can you save Boston?

Save Boston from the evil lite brite Mooninites.

What makes this game funny is how the Mooninites taunt you by yelling things like "Chowdah!" and "Hahvahd Yahd!"

By the way, I decided to find out what the Mooninites were on youtube, and the characters are hilarious smartasses full of braggadocio. They think they're cutting edge, but their technology is 1987.

Meet the mooninites:

The Food Network: Unwrapped

Chef Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations rips the Food Network a new one in this blog post. The only good news, he loves Baltimore's Ace of Cakes, which you really need to watch.

LOST update

Hurley and Charlie are back this week, as Wednesday will give us a Desmond-centric episode.

Desmond's occasional disappearing, and his ability to know things ahead of time and turning up naked makes me think he's involuntarily time travelling a la this book. (Which is a great read if you find the time.)

This fact is reinforced this week when Desmond appears in a flshback scene mumbling incoherently to Charlie on a London street circa 1995.

Here's a scene from Wednesday's show via AOL:


The bizarrely written, but darn informative site themfitishere, offers a couple of good finds.

1) This flow chart of all the characters, which I'll need to post by my TV every week.
2) And these video stills of Rachel's bedroom which reveals a strange dharma-esque clock/spy camera type thing. Was the Dharma Intitiative watching every move?

quiz time

Answer this and you are smart mcsmarty smart.




Feel better about yourself? Good.

bye bye miss american pie

She, in her odd way, was the American Dream.

Raised in a trailer park in Texas, her Dad in and out of her life, her Mom poor and uneducated. She grew up too fast and left home early.

After a brutally rough young marriage which gave her a son, she worked in a strip club and wooed herself a sugar daddy, who married her and left her millions.

But she couldn't break the chains of her past, and alcohol abuse and pain killers followed her around like a sad puppy. She gained weight and passed he time in the new American art form: reality TV.

The one thing in her life who held on to any semblence of sanity, her son, careened quickly out of control and died the day her daughter was born on an island paradise.

Her sleazy lawyer claimed he was the daddy, while a guy who had a brief fling with her believed it was his. Too bad there's not a Maury show for b-level celebrities.

If there were still a "movie of the week", it would be up there with "Brian's Song".

RIP, Anna Nicole, the diapered astronaut is happy you bumped her off the Nancy Grace Show.

more LOST findings

Here's a link to some LOST chat over at popcandy.

My favorite post:

"Is it just a coincidence that Dr. Jack Shepherd and Dr. Juliet Burke from ABC's Lost have the same last names as Dr. Derek Shepherd and Dr. Preston Burke from ABC's Grey's Anatomy? Perhaps, but I doubt it."

And this link takes you to screen shots of the imagery in cell 23. It looks like a bad art school project.

And this is just funny: "24" and "Lost" in a conversation reminscent of the Apple/PC ads.

Part 1 of 16, the LOST chronicles

I call last night's episode "All About Juliet", and what a hot little vixen she is.

As usual, many more questions arise out of last night's show than answers.

We did find out that Alex is indeed Ben's daughter, that she has dug a series of trench like hiding places on the prison island, and that she is in love with Carl, who was being subjected to a bizarre torture of bad techno music and what appeared to be a propaganda film supplied by Scholastic films (remember those movies your history teacher used to show when he was too lazy to come up with a lesson plan?) It's very similar to a scene in the Kubrick film "Clockwork Orange".

We found out that Juliet was a medical researcher in the field of fertility, who impregnated her sick sister by means of a syringe. She worked for her ex-husband, who apparently regularly "serviced" the hot college help around the place. His name was Edgar, and we would bad mouth his mom over the phone, calling her "mean and insufferable" His his Mom a flashback character? Hard to say, but stay tuned.

The name of the research company she worked at was Mittelos Bioscience, the first word is an anagram for "Time Lost" which may relate to a Proust (French philosopher) book called "In Search of Time Lost", which wikipedia describes as a "meditation on time, memory and the superiority of art in recapturing past experiences."

Juliet is recruited by a medical firm from "Portland" and in the interview, she says she can't take the job unless "Her ex-husband is run over by a bus." The next day, her ex takes a bus to the body, and in the morgue, she agrees in terms to go with them, Ethan of "the others" is their to accept her offer, which is now revealed to be "not quite in Portland".

That's the known unknowns as Donald Rumsfeld would say. The unknown unknowns are many.

Tom makes reference to a "day the sky turned purple" which may or may not portend the second coming of Prince. What does it mean?

Juliet tells Jack Ben promised her she could leave the island if she made sure Jack let him live. Is that really what Ben said. A screen shot of him saying something needs to be analyzed before we take that at face value. Anyone know what Ben said?

Why did Juliet impregante a clearly unhealthy Rachel? Did she have a hand in Sun's pregnancy?

Tom implies that Juliet and Ben have some sort of history, if you know what I mean.

Sawyer nicknames included "lollipop" for Alex and "cheech" for Carl.

He also chastizes the "Others" guard for falling for the Star Wars hostage trick.

I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff, so let me know what you found by leaving a comment here or e-mail direct at : jojo@mix1065.fm.

I want to thank everyone at ABC2 for their hospitality. I look forward to working with them as their "Lostologist", a position I am not worthy to hold.

mad world

This song has always been haunting...combined with these images, it's emotional factor is multiplied by seven...Semper Fi...

see all the Oscar nominated movies in one day

This may be the best idea I've seen in awhile.

my super proposal

You've probably heard about the guy on the west coast who wanted to propose to his girlfriend using an ad shown on the Super Bowl.

It didn't work out, and last night, he ran the ad during his girlfriend's favorite show, Veronica Mars.

As jaded and cynical as I am, I have to admit the ad turned out great:



And her reaction was priceless:

the return of LOST

Don't forget, I'll be recapping LOST following the show on ABC2 News.

The most asked questions I've fielded over the last few days are:

What happened to Walt and Michael? Are they coming back?

In an interview with EW, producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof say Walt and Michael's storyline is dead for this season, but say it will be dealt with in season four.

They also say we'll learn soon if Claire is indeed Jack's half sister, and they say an anagram will be revealed tonight which will answer a lot of questions about the island, including why there were skeletons found in that cave a few eps back. (FYI--an anagram is a word where the letters can be rearranged to form another word)

Specifically on tonight's show, look for the death of a non-essential cast member, Alex plays a key role, and we learn how Juliet was recruited to join the "others".

Are you fired up for the show's return or has the long delay mad you lose that LOSTIE feeling?
Let me know below and we'll see you after the show.

When VD goes bad

These cupid ads are pretty funny. I don't even know what the product is.

The way it should be

Miss the Super Bowl game? Here it is for you in three minutes, which actually seems too long.

sculpted baby cake

While this clip is highly entertaining, the questions that pop into my mind are "why?"
and "who wants to eat this?"

retro jojo

It's Rick Astley's 41st birthday! All you white soul singers pay homage to this:

all you need is to get your product in the 24 hour news cycle and BAAAAAAM! instant ratings.

Remember those guys in Boston, who got in trouble for posting lite-brite-like cartoon characters all over town, and how Turner had to shell out two million bucks to pay for the police effort?

The marketing plan worked.

How's that for cutting through the clutter?

(paraphrasing throwingthings)

Here it is the middle of February, the ratings high holy month for television, and the news directors around the country must have been thinking, "I wish we had a sexy story involving a good looking person in a high profile job committing a crime of high passion."

Looks like Lisa Nowak, NASA astronaut and attempted kidnapper, has solved that problem for them.

And she's from Maryland, so the locals have an angle!

LOSTIES rejoice

LOST returns this week and I'll be doing commentary on the Channel 2 news immediately following every episode. I'll also be previewing the episodes on the 5:00 edition.

So help me out LOSTIES...Let me know what topics you would like me to pursue as we finally resume season three. Either e-mail me or comment on this blog your feelings on the show.

This week I'll be discussing the folly of Jack's desperate move, what may have happened to Michael and Walt, and why we need more Hurley and Charlie episodes.

I love a good video mash up

From boingboing comes this wonderful reversal of the "When Harry met Sally" trailer.

this is your brain on suger

Moulin Rouge meets the Beatles

Another weird movie coming your way...All you boomers, saty away from the brown acid when you go see this one...

prince doesn't take questions

...and the sequel

doing battle with your won art

This tremendous animation was done by a 17 year old kid.

Prince: crap or not?

Let's continue to have it out over the Prince performance at Super Bowl XLI.

Did it suck or was it the virtuosity you expected from a guy wearing a doo-rag in the rain?

WTF, part 963

CNET is reporting that one Richard Silver has taken to sending notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act demanding that allegedly infringing instances of The Electric Slide be removed from YouTube and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Where credit is due: Slashdot.

Super Bowl bad ad-ness

All the Super Bowl Ads are here for your viewing. My favorite is still the check out girl who gets hot over Doritos. Something about the fact that it wasn't the stereotypical "sexy girl" made this work for me.

My not-so-super proposal

Last month, we told you about a guy who had planned to propose to his girlfriend using an ad on the Super Bowl. I never saw an ad like that, neither did anyone else.

Now, he says the ad will air on the next episode of Veronica Mars.

Hey, it's still better than proposing on our show. I think.

how to open a car door with a tennis ball

This seems hard to believe, but if it's true it would be good to know, especially if you know how to hot wire cars.



The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

early idol favorite

Chris Sligh, the chubby jokester who cracked wise about David Hasselhoff, has been listed by several web sites as one of final twelve male contestants.

Yesbutnobutyes has linked to his band's myspace page. The song "Know" could be a hit now, the kid's that good.

more on the hoax

This video was on the web two weeks ago...



Popwatch asks a great question: similar Mooninite boxes went on display in other cities without incident. What sort of punishment, if any, do you think these guys deserve? Are they going to be the fall guys for Turner or for Interference, Inc., the actual marketing company behind the ATHF Attack?

had a bad hair day

Many of you have e-mailed me about a YouTube video featuring a bride who cuts off all her hair shortly before her wedding. Reagan and I looked at it and immediately said "fake!"

We were right.

The video is here if you want to see it. Warning: It's longer than it should be, a sure sign of bull crappity crap crap.

Accordimg to popcandy, she fooled the Today Show. They featured the clip Wednesday.

Hoaxes and the law

I saw this great commentary on ABC.com about the arrest of the two guys who put up the "lite brite" looking signs mistaken for bombs by the Boston Police.

Mark Frauenfelder makes some great points, but missed one: how much of the panic was fed by the news organizations?

Yes, a potential bomb found on a freeway overpass is news and should be reported, but non-stop on the national cable channels, even after it was determined they were harmless?

We seem to be addicted to fear. No?