Birthday Paintings (and other thoughts)

Everyone had their favorite cereals growing up.  I loved several, though, including Cookie Crisp, Count Chocula and Frankenberry, Pebbles of all types, be it Fruity or Cocoa, and Lucky Charms.  When I ate Lucky Charms, I always at all the pieces that were not marshmallows, then at the end, had like, one or two huge scoopfuls of nothing but 'mallow.  It was awesome.

My cereal tastes really haven't gotten all that refined as an adult, though I steer more towards the less sugary, less cartoony kind.  Don't get me wrong, I still like a bowl full of Fruity Pebbles, but I do enjoy Corn Chex (or Kellogg's Crispex, which is essentially the same thing) or some Rice Krispies.

But two I usually have, or at least rotate through are Frosted Mini Wheats and Kellogg's Raisin Bran.  I have the latter in my house at this moment, though I do dig on the former a little more.  Problem is, its so cotton' pickin' expensive.  A good box of Frosted Mini-Wheats will cost you upwards of 4, maybe even 5 dollars. 

Sure, I could go to Wal-Mart, where many times items are a bit cheaper... however, Wal-Mart doesn't carry the Mini-Wheats I want.  I want the Mini-Wheats in the red box.  I want the Mini-Wheats that are frosted, they are about two inches long per... well, the box says "biscuit", but I'd just call it a "mini-wheat"... anyway, I want the regular Frosted Mini-Wheats.

Worked at Starbucks tonight, and after work, I stopped by Wal-Mart to get some milk...

...is there anything worse than having like, a half-inch of milk when you really want some cereal?  Like, just enough milk to wet whatever you pour in a bowl, but if you pour more than a half-inch of cereal, you have dry cereal... its dreadful... where was I?

...and some cereal.  Checked out the cereal aisle, and studied the mini-wheat selection.  I'd been here in this very aisle before, with the same results.  There are Frosted Mini-Wheat Little Bites, Chocolate Mini-Wheat Little Bites, Cinnamon Streusel Bite Size, Cinnamon Streusel Regular, Blueberry Muffin Bite Size, Strawberry Delight Bite Size, Maple and Brown Sugar Bite Size and Maple and Brown Sugar Regular Mini-Wheats.

But no Regular Sized Frosted Mini-Wheats.  Can't a guy get some Frosted, regular size Mini-Wheats?  I don't ask for much, really.  I did end up buying some Eggo Waffle Cereal, because it was only $2.00 and it looked like it might be good and not good for me.  Always a plus. 

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This past Saturday was The Lovely Steph Leann's birthday celebration.  Her birthday is actually next Saturday, but she'll be out of town, so we celebrated a little early.  I had to work Saturday morning, but still had our friend Cah-Lah Rah pick her up at 11a, take her to lunch to meet her (our) friends DeLisa, The Dainty Steph Halpert and Emmy Turnbow, then off to Painted By U, owned and operated by Amarylis By Morning (up from san antone) to meet up Mama Ruthless and The Lovely Steph Leann's sister and kids for a big pottery paintin' party.




Here's Cahlah Rah, The Lovely Steph Leann, DeLisa and The Dainty Steph Halpert

 Had to do a bit of rushing around after I got off work, though.  Had to pick up dessert (chocolate covered strawberries), had to run into Wal-Mart (somehow I always do), and I had to go into The Dollar Tree for a couple of gift bags.

While I was in Wal-Mart, I picked up a few things needed for The Lovely Steph Leann's big day, and also a bottle of water, because I was thirsty as all get out.  So, when I walked into The Dollar Tree, I didn't think anything about taking my water with me, sipping/gulping as I did my quick shopping.  I ended up with two gift bags and, did you know they do Mylar Balloons there?  I got two of those.

I bought these at Edible Arrangements.  They are very
pricey, but extremely tasty.

The girl ringing me up just did not enjoy her job.  Don't know if it was that she was in her mid-30s, maybe 40s, and was working retail at The Dollar Tree, don't know if she had a personal issue in her life that was just keeping her from enjoying her day, but she didn't want to be there.  I was bothering her with my gift bag and my balloons and my smile and my "how are you today?" and my easy-to-please purchases. 

"That's $4.38" she says.
"Alrighty," I replied cheerfully, running my card through the swiper.  She put my bags into a plastic bag, then glanced down at my half-full bottle of water.

"Did you get that here?" she said suspiciously.
"Nope, bought it at Wal-Mart a few minutes ago.  Didn't even know you sold Dasani water."
"We do," she said, smirking at me, glancing at my water, and back up at me again.

"I got it at Wal-Mart," I said again.  I paused, and then added, "I have the receipt in my car.  I'll be happy to get it for you."

She smirked again, not believing anything  a word I said.

The rest of the day was just smashing, however.

You can contact Amarylis by Morning (up from san antone) at Painted By U by calling 205-988-8933, visiting their website at www.paintedbyu.com, or find them on Twitter and Facebook by looking for "Painted By U"

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So, as I said before, I worked Starbucks tonight, which means after the visit to Wal-Mart, I got home around 11p.  And I fired up the DVR and watched this week's episode of WWE: Raw, and when it was over, I scrolled to Hawaii Five-O.  Watching it now, and it's awesome.

Though it is a little weird to have Jin from LOST speak English.

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Two restaurants I've visited recently... one is Flip Burger.  Located at The Summit, its the "burger boutique", two words that may or may not ever belong together.  The atmosphere is modern, a little quirky and kind of fun.  The booth I sat in, as are all the booths, have backs that go all the way to the ceiling, almost like you are sitting in this little alcove in the wall, with a window.

The food is a bit pricey.  I ordered the burger combo with the fries and a milkshake ($12), and they delivered it fairly soon.  The burger reminded me of the overpriced sized burger you'd find at Hamburger Heaven or The Varsity in Atlanta, but was pretty good.  The fries were tasty, but the real treat was the milkshake. 

They serve some of the milkshakes with nitrogen on the top, so they are still smoking when they bring it to you, cold as they can possibly get without freezing.  I had the famous "Krispy Kreme Milkshake" and while it was good, and MZ, who I had met for lunch (I love Starbucks meetings on my day off... at least I got lunch) had the "Creme Brulee Milkshake", and that one was exceptional.  As always, I want the thing I didn't order.

Overall, it was a good dining experience, but my bill, with tip, came out to be about $16.  Considering I can get a huge meal at Milo's for about $6, and if I'm really wanting a milkshake bad enough, I can go over to Zaxbys and get a fantastic shake for $3, I'd probably do that.  Meaning I probably won't go to Flip again unless I'm with a group I want to be with and they all go, or someone else is buying, though I'd take The Lovely Steph Leann if she wanted to go.

Also recently, on a whim because I was hungry, I visited Chuy's (pronounced "Chewie's), again at The Summit.  The atmosphere was cool, with Mexican license plates all over the walls, a south of the border motif, and even stuff hanging from the ceiling everywhere.

I went around 11am, and a good thing too, because by 1130, people were starting to line up in the front to get in.  The menu is quite extensive, as you'd expect.  I ended up with the Baja Tacos, with no jalapeno sauce and light cilantro (its funny, because I asked for light cilantro and they put one small, single leaf on each of the two tacos I got.)

The plates were huge, and my tacos were essentially two pieces of fried shrimp wrapped in a tortilla... and surprisingly, it was great.  What wasn't all that great was the cheese dip.  Its slightly spicy, and for anyone who knows me, you know I'm not digging on spice, but even then, it was a little too thin and not nearly as good as you'd get from Pablo's around the corner.

The chips were excellent, though.  When the basket was emptied, the waitress came around with a huge scoop, and poured new chips into the basket--and they were warm, almost like she dipped them straight out of the fryer, shook off the grease and came to my table.

I feel like I paid about the same for my lunch as I did at Flip Burger, but Chuy's was a better value for the amount of food I recieved.    I'd go to Chuy's again, but like Flip, I'd probably go with people or if someone else was buying (hello business lunch!)... or, of course, if The Lovely Steph Leann wanted to go.

Make sure you visit Chuy's at off-hours though, like before or an hour or two after lunch, or before and after the dinner time hours.  Friday and Saturday evenings are probably impossible.  I've heard horror stories about the wait time there.

Namaste

108 Thoughts on LOST as the series finale nears...

(1) I was talking to Cindy Jo earlier after a group dinner, and I made a revelation that I don't think I had admitted before.  LOST is quite simply my favorite show.  Of all time. 

Of.  All.  Time.

I don't say that lightly.  I don't use the words "of all time" just, well, all the time.  Thus my reluctance to discuss my favorite movie of all time, listed on The Dave100, without a proper buildup.  Thus my favorite song of all time being a song from the mid-90s, not some cool song I heard a year ago.  Oh, I might say, "That's one of my favorites of all time", with the phrase "one of my favorites" encompassing anything from a few to a dozen of whatever we are talking about. 

But to point out a single something as my favorite of all time?  That's big.



Yet, I can say that comfortably about LOST.  For years, for almost two decades even, my favorite show of all time was "The Wonder Years", discussing this in a post from almost five years ago, during the first year of Clouds in My Coffee.  

(2) The Lovely Steph Leann and I spend the better part of the last 5 or 6 months going through the episodes of LOST on DVD.   Though I pride myself on being there at the beginning (when NO ONE was discussing this show), I can ashamedly admit that I lost it somewhere around Season 3 (the reasons are here).  I even tried to start again last year, but was unable to do so, until The Lovely Steph Leann and I just made it a commitment.  Last week, we caught up, and watched the latest episode of LOST this week the actual night it came on, for the first time in years.  And it was awesome.  And when Jack drank from Jacob's cup of life, and the revelation was made that the island must be saved and Fake Locke must be destroyed, when it ended, The Lovely Steph Leann and I looked at each other with a "NOOOO!!!!!" look on our face... this was a cliffhanger.

We had not experienced a LOST cliffhanger in a long, long time, because we just had Seasons 1-5 on DVD, and all episodes of Season 6 on our DVR.  Now... we had to wait for the Series Finale on Sunday night.

(3) And I will mourn the loss of LOST, but I'm glad its ending.  I am relieved that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the producers/creators, were given an end date a few years back, and were able to wrap up their story in a finite amount of time.  I am mad at Fake Locke, I am happy the Desmond is back, and I am sadden by the loss of Jin and Sun, and Sayid Jarrah.

(4)

SlideshowLost: 100 Funniest Sawyer Nicknames

(5) I've heard it said that there will never be another show like LOST.  I'm not sure I fully agree with that... in the mid-80s, it was said that "The sitcom was dead".  Not long after, we were treated to "The Cosby Show", the prime years of "Cheers", "Seinfeld" and eventually "Friends".  The procureal drama was also dead by the early 2000s, which gave us "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", "The West Wing", "Alias" and stellar years of "Law and Order"... and of course, LOST. 

So to say that there will never be another show like LOST is misleading.  After LOST premiered, what happened was what usually happens when a hit show premieres--numerous similar shows will pop up around it.  Anyone remember "Coupling" and "Boston Common" during the run of "Friends"?  Or how about "Threat Matrix" when "CSI" came on?  Yeah, me neither.

And with LOST, you had "Surface", "Threshold", "Invasion" and others that wanted the same type audience and showed the same type story, one that you had to watch every week to keep up with.  All fizzled before the season was up.  People had their LOST, and one show to watch, absorb and remember was enough.   Perhaps their will be another show like LOST, one that relies on its audiences keeping up with the story.  With the advent of TV-on-DVD, NetFlix, iTunes, Hulu, the interweb's technology and instant viewing, there's no reason someone can't catch up and keep up with a show... its all about the commitment.

That being said, there will never be another LOST.  Survivor meets Cast Away meets The Real World meets The X-Files makes for an incredible adventure, one that we are in love with, one that we follow to the very end, one that we get angry with (didja really have to kill Libby, just when Hurley was happy?), one that we almost gave up on (Seriously?  Did we care how Jack got his tattoos via Bai Ling?) but one that we kept coming back to for good reason ("Penny?"  "Desmond?"  "I love you!").

It's with this thought in mind that I tip my hat to the writers of LOST, for giving me six wonderful, frustrating, glorious, maddening, amazing, confusing, patience testing, inventive, creative, aimless, purposeful years of television. 

My Favorite LOST Characters, in No Particular Order:
(6) Sayid Jarrah... a torturer by trade, yet you could tell that the time on the island helped him forgive himself for all the things he'd done
(7) Daniel Faraday... twitchy as Elmo Blatch, he was the one who told all of us how this time travel stuff worked.  He seemed to answer (some) of the questions we were all trying to figure out the moment everything flash-forwarded
(8) Hugo "Hurley" Reyes... Everyone loves Hugo
(9) Jin Kwon... All he ever wanted was to love and protect his wife.  Sometimes he took the wrong way around (see Season One), but in the end, at the very end, he was there for her. 
(10) Juliet Burke... really only because I thought she was the hottest thing on the entire show's run
(11) Desmond Hume... another transformation within the show, he went from confused, almost mental guy who's lot in life is to push a button and miss his woman to Brothah.

(12) The Lovely Steph Leann says some of her favorites are, "Hurley... Sawyer... Jack and Kate (better that Sawyer and Kate)... Desmond."  She goes on to say that she likes how Jack is always trying to fix things, and she wonders how Sawyer would have been different if his parents hadn't died like they did.

Some of My Favorite LOST Moments
(13) From the Very Beginning... The moment Jack opens his eyes and sits up, looks around and sees Vincent running by him.  He stands, walks out of the woods and the camera pans, sound growing louder to suddenly see a wrecked airplane sitting on the shore, people screaming all around, things blowing up everywhere, metal and shrapnel flying through the air, and that guy who gets sucked into the engine making the whole thing explode.  It's on.

(14) Grieving for Jin & Sun... When I say "favorite", I also mean impactful.  When the sub sinks, with Jin and Sun aboard (after Lapidus and Sayid are already dead), Hurley, Jack, Kate and a unconscious Sawyer wash ashore.  Hurley asks, "Where's Jin and Sun?" and all Jack can do is shake his head, "No."  Kate begins to tear up, but Hurley's reaction is worse.  He just starts bawling.  Jack walks to the water, and begins to cry as well.  Wow.  Just wow.
(15) "The Constant"... the whole episode kinda put things in perspective. Sort of.  When Desmond finally gets through to Penny, its unbelievably awesome. 
(16) Charlie's Redemption... Another death, at the end of Season Three. Charlie Pace, another character I just loved, started as a heroin addict and ending as a heroic martyr. 
(17) Hurley Builds a Golf Course... right after Jack and Sayid torture Sawyer, Hurley goes and builds a golf course.  And it was a perfect bit of comic relief amidst all the drama and building confusion
(18) Sayid vs Keamy... Big Keamy was one of the coolest cats on the show, but when he and Sayid finally went toe to toe in a fist fight, it was darn near awesome.  The rolled, they tumbled and they kicked and punched for what seemed like five minutes before Sayid finally got the win... but it was awesome.
(19) Charlie and Claire Share Peanut Butter... Well, it was invisible, but still... Charlie, still getting close to Claire, knows she wants some PB more than anything.  So after a fruitless search, he gets an empty jar, scoops his fingers inside, and licks off invisible peanut butter off of his fingers.  Then he offers it to Claire, who hesitates at first... but then gives in, hungry and charmed at the same time.
(20) Hurley Takes Down Sawyer... After so many "fat jokes" at Hurley's expense, he snaps.  He runs over and tackles Sawyer through his tent, pounding him in the sand until he's pulled off.   He also gets the better of Sawyer in later seasons, when he hustles him in a game of ping pong for medical supplies and the agreement to not use any nicknames for a week
(21) Miles and Hurley Discuss Time Travel... One of the reasons The Lovely Steph Leann likes Hurley so much is "He's us".  And this was never more true than the conversation between Miles and Hurley, as Miles tried in vain to explain what was going on with the time shifting, the time travel and the rules that can and cannot be broken.  Hurley asked the questions we were asking, as we kept wanting Miles to dumb it down for all of us.

(22) Hurley hurls the Hot Pocket... Ben shows up, Hurley whips around in surprise and chunks the Hot Pocket in Ben's direction.  Hilarious.
(23) Sawyer Talks to Jack's Dad... After the entire first season puts Jack and Sawyer at odds, Sawyer is set to leave with Michael, Walt and Jin on the boat to find rescue.  They say a quick goodbye, but Sawyer turns to Jack and tells him of a conversation he'd had in Australia.  With man who Jack knew... because it was Jack's father.
(24) The Writing on the Wall... The wall comes down on Locke, trapping him under the door.  Locke screams for help, and then... the lights go out.  When the emergency lights come on. there's a huge map on the wall, a Dharma map with notes and stations and other fun things.  If we didn't know there was secrets on the island by then, we certainly did now.
(25) Mr. Eko Stares Down Smokey... When Smokey zips through the jungle and runs across John Locke, Locke stands motionless, but is petrified, later describing it as "I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful."  When Smokey runs into Eko, the fake priest seeking repentance stands strong, looking more bewildered and amazed than anything else.  That is what you call a bad-a**.

(26)

Slideshow108 Things I Love About 'Lost'

Things I'll Remember About LOST:
(27-39) Oceanic Flight 815... Ajira Flight 316... "DUDE!"... "You got some Arzt on you"... The jar of invisible peanut butter... "Freckles"... The numbers... Dharma... Hanso Foundation... The caves... flashbacks... flash-forwards... flash... sideways??...

(40) KATE: Are you serious?

SAWYER: Baby, I am tied to a tree in the jungle of mystery. I just got tortured by a damn spinal surgeon and a genuine Iraqi. Of course I’m serious.

(41-52)The Flame Station... the Swan Station... the Hydra Station... the Temptest Station... the Lamppost Station... the Orchid Station... Penny... "Not Penny's Boat"... the hatch... Mr. Cluck's Chicken... Smokey... the sound Smokey makes before he arrives...

(53) "A 12 year old Ben Linus just brought me a chicken salad sandwich.  How do you think I'm doing?"

(54-73) Henry Gale... Cassidy... Clementine... Turnip Head... Ethan Rom... Santa Rosa Mental Institution... that glowing cave... that big foot statue... Dogen & Lennon... The Others... The Tailies... The Freighter... enter the numbers...  Expose!, starring Billy Dee Williams... Richard Alpert's agelessness... Richard Alpert's guyliner... Some Like it Hoth... press the button... DriveShaft... "You All Everybody"...

(74) Jeff Fahey has a career again!  No more "Lawnmower Man" sequels for you... at least, not yet...

(75) RIP Juliet... Charlie... Shannon, Boone, Danielle, Alex, Karl, Sayid, Jin, Sun, Widmore, Frogert, Ana Lucia, Eko, Libby, Lapidus, Charlotte, Daniel, Michael, Nikki, Paolo, The Real Locke...

(76)

(77-87) The Oceanic 6... "Bad Twin"... "Watership Down"... Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite being Ben's dad!... I Heart My Shih-Tzu... "if anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant"... Dharma ranch dressing... "You and me ain't done, Zeke"... bear cages... getting it on in those bear cages... Fish Biscuits..

(88) "Face it dude... Ewoks suck"

(89-106) Greg Grunberg getting snatched out of the cockpit in a tree... Geronimo Jackson... The Man in Black... Mr. Eko's Jesus stick... Bernard to Eko:  "I think I liked you better when you were just hitting people with your stick"... Jughead... Fake Locke...  white rock... black rock... Black Rock... polar bears... backgammon... Locke's orange-eating smile... "Good Vibrations" in the Looking Glass... Vincent the Eternally Surviving Lab... the Lighthouse... Locke's knives... Finding out Bernard was white!

and, of course...

(107) SHANNON: I’m alone now. On the island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they’re … they’re dead. It killed them. It killed them all.

BOONE: That was good.
SAYID: Sixteen years.
SAWYER: What?
SAYID: Sixteen years. And five months. That’s the count.
BOONE: What the hell are you talking about?
SAYID: The iterations. It’s a distress call. A plea for help. A mayday. If the count is right … It’s been playing over … and over … for sixteen years.
BOONE: Someone else? Was stranded here?
KATE: Maybe they came for them.
SAWYER: If someone came, why is it still playing?
CHARLIE: Guys…where are we?

Oh yeah... what better way to end this post than to shout:

(108) BAD ROBOT!!

LOST Ramblings

Here are some random thoughts while (re)watching the Season 1 finale of LOST on dvd...

This show is so amazing. Seriously.

The Lovely Steph Leann and I are working our way through it, and are finishing the first season. We'll work on the 2nd season in a few days, perhaps get through it in a week or two, then go to the 3rd, then the 4th. We'll wait for the 5th on DVD, probably in December or so, and then be ready for a week by week take on LOST, the final season.

I might even blog it episode by episode, to coincide with American Idol. I will say, though, there has never been a more impressive, more amazing series first episode than LOST.

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I was surfing the interweb this afternoon, a relaxing Sunday afternoon, while The Lovely Steph Leann worked on computer. While we were doing our tasks separately, yet still in the same room, the Enzyte commercial came on. You know, the "once a day pill for male enhancement" commercial? Bob is all smiles because... well, he takes Enzyte, and Enzyte... well, it... um... it makes... makes men happier, which in turn, judging from the look on Mrs. Bob's face, makes the wife happier. Do we really need to explain this?

Anyway, I was curious about Smilin' Bob. Hold your imaginations until I get this paragraph finish, okay? I did a Google search on Smilin' Bob and in the process, I found out that not only is the actor named John Larson, which apparently is the name of a congressman (D-CT) as well. The company that owns the brand Enzyte, a place called Berkeley Premium, had thousands of complaints against it to the Better Business Bureau because... well, it didn't work. Plus there was everything from credit card fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy against at least five of their CEOs.

Says Wikipedia: On February 22, 2008, Steven Warshak was found guilty of 93 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. On August 27, 2008 he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Arthur Spiegel to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $93,000 in fines. His company, Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, along with other defendants, was ordered to forfeit $500 million. His 75-year-old mother, Harriet Warshak, was sentenced to two years in prison.

They have changed the company name to Vianda.

You think thats weird? In my searching, I also discovered that apparently, John Larson (the actor, not the congressman) was in a boating accident off the coast of Martinique, and has been missing since May. Apparently, around June 12th, he's been presumed dead.

How 'bout that for random, huh?

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Watching Vh1 Classic this afternoon, they had a Michael Jackson retrospective with a ton of videos. We watched a few, like "Billie Jean", complete with this cool, balance on your toes while posing dance move. I tried it many, many, many times over as a child. Didn't work.

Another video we watched? "We Are the World". Its a total list of 80s Former Mega Stars... Huey Lewis. Cyndi Lauper. Lionel Richie. Diana Ross. Peabo Bryson & James Ingram (I actually am not sure which is which, but I'm pretty convinced they are the same person). Daryll Hall AND John Oates. And Dan Aykroyd, who somehow made into this group of superstar singers.

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At church today, that being Valleydale Church (an sbc fellowship), we had a presidential impersonator. His name is John Morgan, and he came out and deadpanned former President Dubya. The laugh was the same, the mannerisms were the same, the voice was the same... it was pretty close to being spot on.

And he was really, really funny. The great thing was, though, he didn't stay in character the whole time. He came out character about 3/4s of the way through, enough to introduce himself and share the gospel.



On his own website, georgebushimpersonator.com, you'll see video of him with Tony Danza, doing his own music (as Dubya) and more. Its a hoot. If you have a chance to see him, go.

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AND FINALLY... I WANTED TO GIVE A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO BILLY MAYS, WHO DIED TODAY. I CAME HOME FROM VALLEYDALE CHURCH (AN SBC FELLOWSHIP) AND AS WE SAT DOWN TO RELAX, I HEARD THE LOVELY STEPH LEANN SAY, "WHAT HAPPENED TO BILLY MAYS?"

"I DUNNO," I SAID, BUT AS I SURFED THE INTERWEB A LITTLE MORE, I DISCOVERED THAT YES, HE IS DEAD AT AGE 50. DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, BUT I COULDN'T THINK OF A MORE RANDOM PERSON TO HAVE DIED... WELL, RANDOMLY.



WHEN WE USE OXICLEAN HERE AT THE CABANA EXTENDED STAY SUITES AND RESORT SPA, I'LL MAKE SURE I POUR SOME IN THE WASHER FOR ME, SOME ONTO THE GROUND FOR MY HOMIES. OR FOR BILLY.

WHY AM I TALKING IN ALL CAPS? CAUSE THIS IS A WRITER'S WAY OF YELLING. AND BILLY WOULD HAVE WANTED IT THAT WAY.

Go Speed Racer Go... and Keep Going

Some movies rely soley on effects, with a story tossed in there… this was a problem that plagued the last three Star Wars films, and, coincidentally, the 2nd and 3rd Matrix films, directed by The Wachowski Brothers.

This is the problem that prevents “Speed Racer” from being a pretty good movie. First, and hear me on this, the visuals in this movie are spectacular. Perhaps overly so. In fact, its one of the few movies I can honestly say I’m glad I didn’t see in the theater and not because I didn’t want to pay the 8 or 9 bucks for the ticket.

When you were a kid, did you ever play with the television menu? You know, moving the little dials on contrast and tint and such, and do it so the color almost screams at you obnoxiously? I wouldn’t bet against some kid doing this to “Speed Racer” while it was in final production. The racing scenes are glorious, a sensory beatdown for your eyes that feels as if just before shipping the film to theaters, they tossed in a box of primary color Crayolas and shook the can vigorously.


This is a live action still shot. Imagine this color being blasted over a fifty foot screen.

The Wachowski Brothers are known for their movie techno prowess, being the directors who created the visuals of the character jumping in slow motion, the camera spinning wildly in a circle and then everything coming back to normal speed as the character does the punch and kick. We first saw this when Neo did it in “The Matrix”, on all accounts one of the most amazing films to ever experience for the first time, and we’ve seen it a thousand times in other films, be it a rip-off or a parody.

In saying all of this, I can totally appreciate what The Wachowski Brothers are trying to do here. They want to make a family film that can not only be enjoyed by kids and adults, but also set another bar for how g ood a film like this can be. The problem is, I can truly see how kids would be dazzled by the colors and scenes, but it moves so fast and blurry that they would be lost. I can also see how adults, unless truly focused on this film, would be lost in the storyline and not care enough to figure it out.

It boasts a decent cast, including Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Speed’s parents and Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer. Two casting decisions left me cringing, though, one being Christina Ricci as Trixie, Speedy’s girlfriend. I’ve never been a huge fan of Christina Ricci, and here she looks… well, she just looks frail and ghastly. While that one is more a personal preference, the other cringe casting is Matthew Fox as fellow driver Racer X. At first I was thinking that it was just I could only see him as Jack from LOST and couldn’t picture him in anything else… but the more I watched it, the more I realized he just doesn’t fit. He looks out of place, he looks like he’s having a miserable time, he looks like he’s just truly mailing it in.


Poor Matthew Fox.... pretty good in "Vantage Point", pretty decent in "We Are Marshall", a square peg in a round hole in "Speed Racer"

All in all, “Speed Racer” is one of those films that if you are flipping channels and come across it, especially in HD, you should take a few minutes, soak it in, enjoy the color and sight and splendor of it all. Then go find something like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, my 29th favorite film of all time, a movie that finds its color, sight and splendor in its characters and in telling its funny, sweet story.

LOST again

LOST's fifth season started tonight. When the show was first being teased, in the Spring of 2004, I was soooo pumped. They were advertising these two new shows, "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" to premiere in the fall, and both were on my list to watch. "LOST" looked very promising, and "Desperate Housewives" has Teri Hatcher, one of the goddesses of my youth.

At that point, The Lovely Steph Leann and I would flip through the television guides, sometimes the actual TV Guide--which, if you haven't heard, is on the brink of bankruptcy, mostly because... well, they completely suck.

They used to be this great, digest sized magazine that had three sections, the color pages of TV articles, the black and white TV grid, and the pay channels guide at the end. Oh, and the crossword at the end. A few years back, they went and changed it all up. The magazine went to a regular sized edition, they reduced the grids, the articles went from informative to US Weekly type glam crap, and the whole magazine just tanked. Things have gotten so bad there, the company was sold for a single dollar last year to a private company. Read last week that they ended up dropping The CW and MTV from their program listings. Heck, Mom was a subscriber for about 15 years... and she dropped them like a bad habit. No muss, no fuss.

Where was I?

Yes, The Lovely Steph Leann and I would flip through previews of the upcoming shows, and would pick out shows we wanted to see. Sometimes this worked great, like LOST and Desperate Housewives, other times it didn't work out so well. See "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Miss Match". Or heck, you might not.

So when LOST premiered on September 22nd, 2004, I was there in front of the television. And it was amazing. It was absolutely incredible, like nothing I had ever seen. Jack, Charlie, Kate, Michael, Locke, Hurley, Claire, Sun, Jin, Sayed, Sawyer, Shannon, Walt, Vincent, Boone... this was my show. This was a keeper.


...from the first five minutes, ever, of LOST...

So, as the weeks went by, I watched it more and more, week after week. In 2005, it was the 3rd Coolest Thing of 2005. As soon as the first season DVD came out, I bought it on release day. My intentions were to watch it again, to catch up on what I missed.

Well, season 2 started, and so I put season 1 on the shelf, and absorbed myself into season 2. By season 3, however, I ran into a problem. This show was becoming so complex, so involved, it was harder and harder to keep up with. I hit a wall, life was coming at me faster and faster and darn it, I missed an episode here, an episode there. No worries, right? The Lovely Steph Leann and I still had a VCR, three of 'em to be precise in Casa de Pesos, our apartment. Stacks of shows, though, were building up. "ER", "Desperate Housewives" and... "LOST".

Somewhere around February of season 3, right after Sawyer and Kate did the deed and Juliet's backstory was told, we stopped watching. I didn't want to. I really didn't. Somehow, all these people I knew were all about the show, the show that I felt like I discovered, cause darn it, I was raving about it for months when it first came on, and everyone was saying, "Haven't seen it", or "I heard about that show" or whatever.

So now, I sit on the couch in The Cabana. The first time in five season premieres that I didn't watch the season's first episode. It came on tonight, and I didn't even DVR it.

Do I want to? Absolutely.

But first, I have some catching up to do. I popped in Disc One of Season One about thirty minutes ago. I'm going to watch the show's pilot episode tonight, and do all I can to shoot through the seasons in the next few months. I'm going to see the story from the beginning.

What's funny about watching this is knowing now what I know about these characters. Its great when they show a scene of the plane and its passengers, and you can pick out just about everyone--something you couldn't do when you first watched it, because you didn't know who these guys even were.

And... the captain of the plane just got snatched up by whatever that monstery thing is on the island.

We don't do the VCR thing anymore, not with DVR. And we don't flip through TV show previews anymore to find shows we want to watch. I learned that lesson with Fox's "Drive", an excellent show that was cancelled after four episodes. I wanted to watch "Pushing Daisies", but I wanted to make sure it would last before I got involved. It reached Season 2, and I ordered it off of Netflix. I got it in the mail the day I learned that "Pushing Daisies" had been cancelled. So, without watching it, I sent it back, even though I love me some Kristen Chenoweth.

Currently, the only shows that The Lovely Steph Leann and I watch together, other than the random episode of "Clean House" on Style, is "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Grey's Anatomy". For the most part, she and I have seen just about all of those episodes together. We started watching "Heroes", and both loved the first season immensely, and bought the second season pretty quicklike. However, we've both heard the 2nd season is terrible, so that hasn't made us rush to watch it yet.

Anyway, I'm rambling, as I tend to do... bottom line is, I'm re-watching LOST and all its splendor. And I'm excited about it. I just started Pilot-Part II,with a lovely Shannon laying on the beach in a bikini, as Boone rolls his eyes.


Here's a LOST recap, everything you need to know from Season One to Season Three, all in 8 minutes and 15 seconds

Fear is sort of an odd thing... terror is just so crazy, so real. I made a choice. I'd let the fear in, let it take over, let it do its thing. But only for five seconds, that's all I would give it. So I started to count. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Then it was gone. -- Jack