Blue skies and best friends

Magnet #845 - Pier

Needed something that was pretty to pick me up after another wonderful day here at Martyr Kingdom. And this swag magnet from Corbis - despite its subject matter - is pretty.

Check it, it's where the blue of the sky meets the green of the earth. I love when I see that in nature. It's beautiful, and makes you think Earth's totally the best planet in the solar system!

Plus, dudes. It's totally the pier where the LOST submarine was docked. Or, for those of you in the know, it could totally be the pier where Jake Cutter lands Cutter's Goose on Tales of the Gold Monkey.

Wait. What? You haven't heard about my love for Tales of the Gold Monkey? (The follow-up to that magnetpost is that I have a couple of very, very special Direct Messages that my inner sixth grader is so very fangurly squeeeee-ish about.)

Anyway, ya'll know I hate the beach, it's like my idea of not fun. Ya'll know that despite my best attempts, I'm afraid I'm going to end up there a little over a week from now.

But, you know what? If it happens, I'll do it, because that BFF Babymoon's meant for the two of us to spend time together, these last months before she pops that kid out. And, I'll put up with it, because I've known the girl for almost 30 years.

Thirty years. Shoot. That's insane. I remember she and I giggling over knowing each other 10 years. And 18 years. And 20 years. And 25 years. I can't wait to see what she says when I say, dude. 30.

Whoa. Too bad we both can't drink on this trip!

NOTE: This magnetpost brought to you by the fact that the New York Times posted the single-silliest article I've read in a long, long while - the death of the Best Friend relationship, and how schools are trying to encourage kids to have more friendships and not have one single BFF, and how sleepaway camps are hiring "friendship coaches" to help kids have more friends.

Seriously? What kind of liberal, overcoddling, overmeddling child-rearing crap is that?

LOST in Hawaii

Magnet #821 - Hawaii dolphins

A friend of mine bought this magnet for me, probably knowing that I'll likely never visit our 50th state if I can help it.

On the flip side, LOST has managed utilize Hawaii's natural beauty, and it's the one reason I would actually consider visiting Hawaii. To see the majestic views...and pretty much take every official and unofficial LOST tour available.

Oh, I know I sound nuts to never want to visit paradise.

But, even if my people come from islands, I have big issues with them. They scare me. They're surrounded by water. They're too far away from help. And like, what if something happens, how will you get away?

Come on, haven't the last six years of LOST taught you nothing?

At the corner of coincidence and fate

Magnet #820 - Inset of Hopper's At Two Lights

This inset of Edward Hopper's Lighthouse at Two Lights that I magnetblogged about before, is supercool. If you go back to the original magnet, and compare it with this, and the Met link above, it's amazing how these art magnets change colors depending on the production process and the image resolution they're reproduced at.

Technically, I suppose the colors also depend on how you look at the image, and ultimately even the person who is looking at it.

It's much like watching LOST. The show means so many different things to different people - everyone has their own set of theories about it.

I said last year that I was just going to enjoy the show for what it was. That I wasn't going to make my head crazy by trying to figure out the ins and of the plot, the story, the characters, the time frames, the whatevers.

For me, there was just no sense in becoming obsessed with the details. I kinda realized that I was out of control the day that I stayed on hold for like half an hour having called in to that one marketing number, freaking myself out, wondering what secrets would unfold on the phone.

Of course, I'm using this magnet for today, because I'm still trying to figure out how they built that lighthouse that Jack destroyed - how'd they build it to reflect the lives of the candidates on LOST? Did they answer that question? Probably, and I just had to move on.

I've had to put LOST on self-imposed hiatus since the beginning of March - and now that I finally watched 11 episodes back to back yesterday and today, I cannot believe how much I managed to stay unspoiled for! Like, boom, went the sub!

Today's backend of the marathon included a 3-hour break for the Last LOST Weekend at the Paley Center. It was a screening of the pop-up pilot, and then a panel with a couple of my favorite crix, @Sepinwall and @poniewozik. So fun.

But, now that I'm totally caught up before the show's finale, I find myself wondering what people will be feeling tomorrow night at this time. Of course, everyone better than to think that tomorrow, when the LOST end credits roll, that half the questions we've asked over the last several years will be answered, or even addressed. I just hope that when the box set comes out, that they'll put in the writers room storyboard and timeline tracker. That, I would pay big money for.

In the meantime, I'm loving this @DamonLindelof tweet:

Folks. Things are going to start leaking. Resist. It's Christmas Eve. You've made it this far. Don't read it. EXPERIENCE IT. Please.

Of course, I dunno how to take that...I open my Christmas presents on Christmas Eve!

Beaches

Magnet #819 - At the seaside

Something I don't know a lot about - American Impressionism. I just never thought about how the movement in Europe would have of course, been carried out over here, too.

American artist William Merritt Chase painted this seaside scene, very much an Impressionist piece if ever I've seen one. He was also an art teacher at a beach resort - I love that he apparently taught open air classes to like a hundred students at a time. That must have been cool to see on the beach.

Mind you, I saw this image, and immediately assumed Normandy, or somewhere else in France. As it turns out, it's Long Island. Heh.

Picked this for today, because everyone seems to rally at the beach on LOST. Everyone. Makes sense - as Linus said, the water at our backs...well, except for that part where there are subs watching people on the beach.

I'm going on Hour 4 of my Great LOST marathon. I had to put the show on hiatus before I left for Tampa, so I'm about 11 episodes behind. Well, 8 now.

And I have to hurry! There's a Paley Center LOST party this weekend that I was hoping to go to, but if I can't get sufficiently caught up, I don't really want to go. What if I get spoiled?

It worked, indeed.

Magnet #716a & b - Magnerine Polar Bears

Though I've had CBS on all day for pre-game coverage, I've had it on mute, while I just finished catching up on the LOST premiere.

What can I say about it that everyone hasn't talked about already?

Other than seriously, the only thing missing from the first two episodes beside my kitchen sink were the damn polar bears.

Honestly, could this show mess with my mind any more?

What might have been

Magnet #446 - Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob

Good gravy - Kentuck Knob is only seven miles away from Fallingwater, in Western PA. Since I found out last night, I've wondering how we could have been in the neighborhood and not dropped by!

Instead, I think my sisters ended up getting me this when they went on their Pennsylvania rumspringa.

The Hagens had fallen in love with the Kaufmanns' house Fallingwater, and commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build it - it would be one of the last he ever built. Indeed, it was 1953, and the guy was busy working on the Guggenheim at the time. And, dude was 86 years old!!!

I picked this magnet for today, because the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that had I paid more attention to Mrs. Misenheimer's long division lessons in 6th grade, that I might have been an architect in an alternate reality.

More than Kirk's space travel, or the Doctor's time travels, or Sam Beckett's quantum leaps, or Buffy's Angel, or even Prue's astral projections, the concept of alternate realities has always fascinated me. The very idea that every single decision made on a timeline sparks a new reality of possibilities is just mind-boggling.

I will say that I'm betting J.J. Abrams has been living and breathing alternative realities for a few years at least - what with a SpUhura'd Star Trek and a non-9/11'd Fringe, and, I guess if you want to get technical, you can probably throw a bit of LOST in there, as well. My thing is that if you bother to think about it for too long, and you basically freak yourself out wondering about all other yous running around.

But, I'm of the mind that no matter what decisions you've made, or wherever those life decisions have led to you live whatever life you're living now, it must the life that you should be living. Otherwise, you'd be off living that other life. Or that other life. Or that other, other life. See? Trippy.

Oddly, Lord Palumbo, the guy who ended up buying Kentuck Knob kinda sort of agrees with me when he said (about buying the house), "Life, on occasion, becomes a matter of serendipity. When circumstances conspire to propel one in a certain direction it is best to go with the flow, or so I have found, even if the precise destination is at the time unknown."

I (don't) know why the caged bird resigned...

Magnet #336 - San Francisco Joy

That little spec on the horizon under JOY, is Alcatraz, which I've talked about before. But, I'm using this magnet to get me to my The Prisoner marathon. It's a bit of a stretch, but really - how many prison magnets do you think I have?

Right. So The Prisoner. Somewhat obscure for my generation, given the show aired more than 40 years ago in 1967. But, because Patrick McGoohan passed away last week, and because I hate missing out on something so iconic, but mostly because AMC has the classic series streaming on their site to promote their Ian McKellen remake (which you know I'll totally watch), I've been marathoning the show.

I'm on the fifth episode (there are only 17) and I gotta be for serious here: I dunno about this show.

It's a pretty good premise: Guy resigns from his government spy job, wakes up, and finds he's been squirreled away on an island he can't escape from by people who have one goal - to find out why he resigned.

I can see how LOST takes some of its cues from this show - this island is a fully functional, actually kinda cool, self-governing, self-sufficient island - complete with oddball and ofttimes nefarious neighbors in funny uniforms with odd little badges, helicopters that don't actually let you escape, giant unidentified objects hovering and attacking, and supercute signs done in supercute fonts.

It's a pretty cool setting as well, quite amazing, in fact. What I had thought was a huge backlot at Pinewood Studios, was actually shot in North Wales, in a gorgeous private Italianate resort called Portmeirion.

It has the same fairly cool opener for every episode. It's interesting that the producers gave up like 3:17 in airtime for the opening, and we've now been reduced to the 10-sec logo build or swoosh and accompanying sound effect.

And it has a supercool lead. Mr. Googhan plays the ever-so-smooth prisoner Number 6, well-suited for the role. The guy spends every week alternatively beat down and stymied at every turn.

So don't get me wrong, overall, there's some good stuff here.

But, I think I'm having fundamental issues with it. Instead of a running MoW (Monster of the Week), it's more like an EToW, Escape (from the village) Tactic of the Week, or Extract (info) Tactic of the Week. Or even, IoW (Ingenue of the Week).

Can a show sustain itself if it's really all about how he's going to try and get off the island, or find out who these people are? Then again, with 17 episodes, maybe you don't have to. Then again, LOST's been doing it for more than 100.

Frankly, the MacGuffin of "why did you resign" is getting old. At some point, who cares? It feels like if, after all this, he won't tell his captors why he resigned - he's not going to sell whatever information is in his head, and it certainly won't be squeezed out of him involuntarily.

I'm also a little worried, because I saw somewhere that the show's ending was never truly resolved, and the mystery of his resignation solved. That will drive me batty. Like, forever.

Again, I'm only at the fifth episode. I'll keep watching, because really, even after all my brazen talk above, I'm way too far in to go back now.

Poor Number 6. I hope he makes it off the island. But maybe he can hook up with the Oceanic 6 if he does!

The Orchid Station is bigger on the inside...*

Magnet #335 - Circles of LOST

So, yeah, I'm totally not spoiling anyone for last night's LOST, I promise.

We know about time travel. We know about the Orchid Station. Both from last year. This year, I'm just betting that David Tennant or the Doctor or the TARDIS shows up on the island.

The pros have the reviews and more comprehensive thoughts covered - ya'll know my favorites, Televisionary and What's Alan Watching.

I really just wanted to use this fun magnet, part of a set that my sister's fiance gave me. Dudes, if you change the colors, and perhaps drink a little, you totally have the Oceanic Airlines logo.

A quote about Oceanic from the possibly overinformative Lostpedia:

Oceanic Airlines is the fictional airline that operated Flight 815 which crashed on the Island. The Oceanic Airlines logo has 18 dots spread around concentric circles, creating a total of 4 circles. Also, when the letters of the name are counted they add up to 15 and when the logo is used as an "O" in the Oceanic Airlines heading, it has 16 dots spread around it. The logo incorporates a motif that is reminiscent of Australian Aboriginal glyphs.

What?

NO. I've made my stand, people. I decided last season that I will not buy into the LOST mythology. In the beginning, I visited every faux marketing site, played all their fun online games, devoured all the ads, and totally called the Hanso Foundation and listened for the freaky voicemail like the rest of America.

But, I had to stop - I was overthinking the damn show too much, searching for answers and finding more questions.

So, no more. Oh, I'll totally watch the show, and I'll second-guess everything and everyone, and I'll freak out at the scary music cues, and of course, Lindelof and Cuse will have me running around in circles like this magnet. Dudes, I'll even buy the DVD sets, as well as have weekend-long marathons to refresh my memory of what happened the season before.

But, mark my words, I'm not going to get sucked back in to the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey LOST mythology. Nope. No more fake sites and clues. No more wondering who did what and when are they. No more spinning theories. No more spoilers.

I'm just gonna watch the show and enjoy it.

Although...I'm not gonna lie: Hell, yeah. I'd probably go back to the island.

Particularly if Sawyer loses his shirt again.

*/tm jenny


eta:
Annnd, I'm sorry. I totally just deleted a whole very, very long eta here about The Prisoner that got away from me. Since it was almost as long as a real magnetpost, figured it might be easier to continue on with my marathoning theme and use it tomorrow. Stay tuned.