LOST - "He's Our You"

Wow. This almost felt like an extended episode tonight, cuz there was SO MUCH going on. And, since we're at that point in the season, it ended with a crazy, mind-bending little cliffhanger that's gonna keep me up at night trying to figure out.

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****

Hooray, we finally got another Sayid episode! I think it was right around this time in Season 3 when a Sayid episode, "Enter 77", pushed the accelerate button on the plot line and sent the whole rest of that slow-starting season into overdrive. I'm guessing that at the end of Season 5, we just might look at "He's Our You" in the same way. Sayid is such a great character, and all of the amazing things about him were explored tonight - his dual nature of being a trained and often willing killer at the same time that he has tremendous regrets, his kick-ass fighting skills, his skill with the ladies, and, for all his strategic nature, his too frequent tendency to just trust the wrong person.

Before I get to much more about the plot development, I have to thank the lost writers outright for giving us not one, but TWO, of my new all-time favorite LOST lines tonight:

"A 12-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken sandwich. How do you think I'm doing?" - Sayid to LaFleur/Sawyer

"Three years, no burning buses. Y'all are back for ONE day....!" - LaFleur/Sawyer to Jack and Kate

Those just made me giggle! Okay, back to the story.

Sayid Jarrah, this is your life...
We certainly saw some of the highlights, from way back in Tikrit when an adorable little Sayid first showed his killer tendencies (and showed us that like so many characters in LOST he has a domineering father), to the return of the fluffy-haired Oceanic 6 assassin and the repentant charity homebuilder in the Dominican Republic. And, perhaps most importantly, we learned more about the mysterious and slightly-scary Ilana and why Sayid was her prisoner on the Ajira flight. Retribution catches up with him... or does it?

A lot of holes were filled in, including the many key conversations between Sayid and Ben. Once again we see that Ben is a master manipulator (forcing him to become an assassin then just dropping him with no next plan, lying to him about John Locke's death and always threatening that his friends were in danger) and his words often helped shape Sayid's motivations and in some ways helped define who he had become. Let's not forget that key moment when Ben, who has been the scourge of Sayid's life, pushing and pulling him to his own needs for years, reminded him "You're a killer." It's reached the point where even Sayid believes that is what he truly is. (Although I want to believe he still knows he has a good heart in there... like all sexy but vulnerable bad boys...)

Back in DharmaLand, circa 1977...

In the midst of the glimpses of Sayid's past (which is, of course, in the future on this show), we had a very tense storyline that revolved around the question of "what do we do with the prisoner?" Sound familiar???? There's some great blog writing out there that theorizes that the seasons of LOST will end up paralleling each other. That 4 was a parallel to 3, and now that Season 5 is nicely lining up with Season 2 (and thus that the final season would echo the first). Our Survivors integrating themselves in Dharma, dealing with the Hostiles, learning all these Island secrets, feels very similar to Season 2 with the Hatch and the Tailies and the Others. And what mysterious prisoner first appeared in Season 2? Why, that would be none other than Henry Gale, aka our introduction to the inimitable Benjamin Linus. At first, that's what I thought they meant by "He's Our You," which still seems a good parallel.

But that title was actually a line from LaFleur/Sawyer (I really am starting to think of LaFleur as almost a different character, well played Josh Holloway). After numerous attempts to try to get his old friend to play along with the charade, LaFleur/Sawyer was outvoted on being patient and Sayid was subjected to the Dharmites' interrogator -- Oldham. This creepy old dude - played by William Sanderson, who looked so familiar to me it was driving me nuts until I realized I was used to seeing him with his brother Darryl and his *other* brother Darryl - living out in his teepee in the jungle fed Sayid some crazy truth serum. And boy oh boy, our trained Iraqi Republican Guard guy was not immune. He started talking like a crazy little child, telling them the whole story, much to LF/Sawyer's chagrin. I think he almost had Horace (aka Eugene Tooms of X-Files fame) and crazy Radzsinsky believing him, until he went a little too far by shouting "I am from the future!" :-)

The Dharmites don't buy this story (would you?) and instead calls for a very "civilized" house meeting and vote on Sayid's fate. Radzinsky is still all crazy about the Swan, which apparently hasn't been named yet, and is sure that Sayid is a spy. LF/Sawyer seems to be putting up a good fight on exercising caution and giving him another chance to talk until new mom Amy chimes in (damn you Michele Dessler!) about worrying about baby Ethan (creepy little bastard) as long as Sayid's around. So the group votes to kill Sayid, and LF/Sawyer is pressured into making it unanimous.

Trying yet again to save his friend, LF/Sawyer visits Sayid... offers him a chance at escape... but Sayid refuses and gives a very resigned speech about waking up back on the Island and finally knowing what his purpose was. Here, I thought, Sayid's finally seeking redemption and thinks dying is the only way to make up for his life of sin. I was afraid for a few moments there that the show might actually kill Sayid... that would've been shocking, but the moment *almost* felt right. Instead, we got another shock... which brings me to...

"If I Only Had a Purpose"
The real meat of this episode..... the relationship between Sayid and Ben. For the last 3+ years of his life, Sayid has been totally dominated by Ben Linus. He hates him, thinks he's evil, but has still worked for him and often follows his lead. What is this power Ben has over him? What made Ben this way?

Well.... we got to see a little start of that tonight. Cuz after last week's big reveal of that 12-year-old and his sandwich, tonight we saw how young Ben looked up to the prisoner Sayid, how he was humiliated by his father in front of him (more LOST daddy issues), how he begged to be brought over by Sayid to the Others. And at some point, Sayid realized his true purpose... at least the way he saw it upon returning to the Island back in 1977... in the moment, I thought he meant his purpose was to CREATE Ben Linus.

But, with that final, shocking scene.... after little Ben let Sayid go and finally had a leader, a mentor to take him into the jungle and help him escape his wretched Dharma life... after lying to Jin and then knocking him out... Sayid did the unthinkable. HE SHOT LITTLE BEN.

Hominawhat?!?!?!?!?

Put that in our closed time loop and smoke it! Where's Daniel Faraday when we need him??? If he shot little Ben, can he kill him? You can't kill 12-year-old Ben when we know damn well Ben lives into his 40's, right? Set aside dates here, this is about linear age... Ben grows older. We know that! So either that was a non-fatal close-range gunshot wound to the chest, which means adult Ben will know all along that Sayid shot him back in 1977, or we just saw something that will SERIOUSLY screw with the LOST time-space continuum. Bring it!!!

In other Craphole Island news...

- The 'shipper stuff was on a back burner tonight, and I'm okay with that. It still seems like Sawyer wants it to work out with Juliet, but she's a smart gal and realizes that having the others back will change everything. But the various Juliet-Kate, Kate-Sawyer, Jack-Kate, etc. scenes were all relatively straightforward and low on the longing-glances scale, and that's fine with me.

- Hurley both as a Dharma cook AND as the "hub" of info makes me happy!

- So now we've seen more of the stories of the Oceanic 6 getting back on the plane. I can't wait to see Hurley's!

- A reference to Ann Arbor! Could the deGroots be far behind?

It looks like next week's ep is going to be all about the aftermath of Sayid's escape. I can not wait to find out what happens to little Ben!

My Second Foray Into the Jungle

A few years ago, my parents took a trip down the Amazon and explored all of the exotic flora and fauna of the jungle. I did *not* inherit their adventure-travel genes, at least not yet, so the closest I'm getting to the vast, mysterious jungle is through my own armchair explorations in the pages of a few good books.

I just finished reading a new non-fiction story of the jungle, David Grunn's The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Grunn, a journalist, weaves together the story of British Victorian-era explorer Percy Fawcett and his obsession with finding a reputed lost ancient civilization in the Amazon with Grunn's own growing obsession with solving the mystery of what happened when Fawcett and his team disappeared seemingly without a trace.

This book is part biography, as Grunn spends the first half or so detailing Fawcett's early military career and then the many expeditions he made into the South American interior, building his reputation and fame in the years before his final journey into the unknown. (He is the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World). Fawcett is called the "last Victorian gentleman explorer," representing the end of an era as exploration itself changed. What began as a field where courageous, and often eccentric, adventurers made names for themselves and victories for science by cutting through the jungle using their wits and their physical prowess was transforming into a field where new technologies like wireless radios, airplanes, and aerial photography would soon make people like Fawcett seem like foolhardy anachronisms.

The book is also part mystery, told from two perspectives 80 years apart. The world was paying attention when Fawcett and his team, which included his adult son and the son's best friend, disappeared in the jungle. Fawcett had arranged for financing that included support from an international newspaper syndicate following the team's progress through his periodic reports from the field. When the team lost touch, many from Fawcett's family and followers rallied to send search teams in after him, but many of those explorers met their fates in the jungle as well. These expeditions to find Fawcett, or a trace of what happened to him, have continued right up to the present day. The author Grann embarked upon his own adventure, from British archives to Brazilian museums to the Amazon jungle itself, investigating Fawcett's life and presumed death at the hands of the wild place he loved so much, as well as trying to find that Lost City of Z along the way.

I couldn't help but compare this book all along with another book I read 2 years ago, Candice Millard's excellent story about Theodore Roosevelt's own expedition to forge the "River of Doubt," an uncharted tributary of the Amazon. To my pleasant surprise, some of the same real-life characters appeared in both books, as many of the Brazilian officials encountered both Roosevelt and Fawcett in the heyday of European exploration into the jungle.

While the subject matter is similar, I enjoyed Millard's book more because her protagonist - the great TR - was such a charismatic, compelling, and relatable character. Grann suffers a bit, in my opinion, because Fawcett himself comes across as being aloof, unsentimental, obsessive almost to the point of madness. He doesn't seem to have strong family or emotional ties, and while Grann does demonstrate his notably progressive approach (for the time) towards dealing with the Indian tribes he encountered and shares some of Fawcett's interesting experimentation with spirituality and the occult, Fawcett remains a somewhat unreachable character. Since you know from the beginning that he doesn't make it back out of the jungle, I didn't really find myself rooting for him much. Instead, I enjoyed more of Grann's historical information about the Victorian explorers, the South American tribes, and the years of continued searching.

According to the Internets, Brad Pitt has snapped up the movie rights to this book, so we may soon be seeing Fawcett's adventures on the big screen. If Brad plays him, Fawcett will probably be a lot more relatable... so I'll be sure to check that out!

What I'm Listening To Now

I mentioned a week or so ago that I fell in love with the world of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen's latest movie with a very sensual Spanish setting.

Well, now I just *can not get enough* of the movie soundtrack. It's an amazing collection of Spanish music, gypsy guitars and flamenco. It's almost all instrumental, other than the bouncy and addictive first track "Barcelona" by Giulia y Los Tellarini and a few choruses sung here or there on the flamenco songs. The album also features Juan Serrano, Paco de Lucia, Jean-Felix Lalanne and Muriel Anderson, Emilio de Benito, Biel Ballester Trio with Graci Pedro and Leo Hipaucha, The Stephanie Wrembel Trio, and Juan Quesada. Thank you, Woody, for introducing me to them all!

I don't know enough about Spanish music to articulate just what's so great about this album, other than the fact that whenever the album finishes I just press play all over again. I've been listening to it over and over, and it just takes me away -- it makes me smile on the Metro and dance in my seat while working the computer. And it's now a "gateway drug" as I've gone ahead and downloaded a full album by Giulia y Los Tellarini and added a Juan Serrano CD to my Amazon shopping cart.

Okay, gotta go, time to press play again.... I hope you'll check it out, too!

LOST - "Namaste"

Another really strong episode from Season 5! After the amazing "LaFleur" 2 weeks ago, which was such a rich, emotional, historic episode, tonight's "Namaste" felt a little more like one of the "moving the chess pieces" hours, but it still had some really great little nibbles of tasty goodness and ended with one of those great scenes that has me screaming "Omigod omigod omigod!" at the screen.

****Spoilers Below****

So, all of our 1977 Losties have reunited. Sawyer's still the man in charge, with Jin and Miles on his security team and Juliet a mechanic/Sawyer's gf. Now, Jack, Kate, and Hurley are new Dharma recruits, even showing up in the 1977 class picture in their silly jumpsuits. Sayid's been mistaken for a Hostile/Other, but Sawyer's promised to take care of that little problem. Hail, hail, the gang's all... wait a minute. Where's Daniel Faraday? We still don't know, but Miles hinted that he's gone... does that mean gone in space and time, or did tragedy hit our Dan yet again?

And, back in 2007, we finally learn (though I've been doubting it lately, so other bloggers have much better ESP than I do) that Sun did stay in the present. Why??? What did she do or not do to prevent the time jump? Ajira 316 did indeed land on the runway on Hydra, Caesar and that new woman whose name I've forgotten seem to be rallying as the leaders of the new Socks, and Ben, Sun and Frank headed off into the jungle. For once, that bug-eyed genius Ben fell victim to the old villain trick of telling his master plan a little too soon, and Sun - proving she's still a badass - clocked him so that she and Frank could head off in the outrigger back to the main Island alone.

Once there, they found the usual creepy Island quirks like Smokey and the whispers along with the dilapidated camp and the always-spooky (ghost of?) Christian Shepherd. Ghost Dad clued Sun and Frank into the time warp scenario, with that aforementioned 1977 class photo as a prop, and then with some spooky wind effects told Sun and Frank they have quite a journey ahead of them. So -- the race for the rest of this season will be to reunite all of our characters, hopefully in 2007... so we can all stop scratching our heads every week trying to figure out all these time loop questions!

Some of my favorite moments from "Namaste:"

- Sawyer (LaFleur) having to explain to Jack, Kate, and Hurley that they were now in 1977. Loved that awkward conversation!

- Radzinsky, he of the Flame and the itchy trigger finger, making a live appearance! Remember, he's the possible last-remaining Dharmite, Inman's partner who draws the blast door map and who kills himself in the Swan station (aka the Hatch) sometime shortly before Desmond arrives. Yeah, seems a volatile guy. But we know he survives the purge somehow...

- Holy crap! The little Dharma baby that Juliet helped deliver last ep is Ethan! Creepy, creepy, Claire-kidnapping, Charlie-attacking, super-strength Ethan!!! So, he survives the purge, too.

- Jin was a total man with a mission trying to determine if Sun, too, had magically appeared on the Island. I loved his determination. Hopefully it will all be rewarded soon.

- It was so nice to see Sayid smile, when he first recognized Jin. I'm hoping things with Sayid work out well, he's had a really rough path.

- LOVED LOVED Hurley asking Sawyer questions about his Dharma life -- and, dude, how come you're not telling them they're all gonna die in the purge? I love that we can rely on Hurley to finally get to the heart of so many things.

- So, how did Ben know that the outrigger boats would be on the Hydra where they were, covered in branches? And, this relates back to that runway... I'm guessing that the time travel-closed loop thing will end up explaining all of this. That somehow the Others knew to build the runway and put the boats out cuz one of our people from the future told them to. How much else of what we've seen was all conveniently planned by the future characters, knowing they would eventually need it?

- This was an idea a few weeks ago, too, but now especially after seeing Jack, Kate, and Hurley get processed as Dharma recruits, I'm SURE this is all going to connect back to the 3 of them plus Sawyer being the ones on "Jacob's list" and taken by the Others at the end of season 2.

- Sawyer made Jack a janitor!

- I really, truly loved the scene between Sawyer and Jack. Yes, because I love Sawyer and hate Jack, but I also thought it was so well-written and true to their characters. Sawyer's reference to Churchill reading a book every night, and comparing their styles of thinking vs. reacting, was so on the nose. At least I hope it is! I'm trusting in Sawyer to pull them all through this, though from the previews it looks like there's going to be some rocky times ahead.

- I was very worried at the end of the last episode. Sawyer and Juliet's relationship has instantly become so precious to me, I want to protect it! I think they had a good ep tonight, as Sawyer was more upfront with Juliet, seemed to keep his (tortured) distance from Kate, and Juliet was steely-strong but nice enough in her own interactions with Kate. Plus there was that strange emotional moment when Jack saw Juliet again and figured out their relationship. But, looks like there are some troubles ahead for all of us 'shippers. I'm totally in favor of Sawyer/Juliet and Jack/Kate being the final result. Let's just settle that and move on!

- And, finally, the reason why I was screaming at my tv.... in a much-anticipated scene, we finally got the answer to one of the major continuity questions that's been bugging the heck out of me. Cuz which awkward little adolescent boy was so fascinated by the idea of a prisoner that he just had to bring him a sandwich? None other than BEN LINUS!!! And it was so perfect that Sayid was the first to see him, Sayid who has spent at last part of the last 3 years under Ben's thumb doing dastardly deeds all around the world, Sayid who just saw the adult, scheming Ben on the Ajira flight, who knows all too well the horrors that this small child will grow up to create... Awesome!!!

Since I'm not going to work tomorrow, I've got lots of time to surf the blogs and see what kinds of things people are saying about this season so far. I know it's about time for that 2/3-mark where they flip the switch and it becomes all action from here on out. I can't even imagine what they have in store for us next! But, where's Daniel? Did Ben kill Penny? And where are Rose and Bernard? :-)

----------------------
Oooh, my favorite tv blog had some of the text of Sawyer's great speech up:

"It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, because back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead." -Sawyer

Teach Our Children Well

In the midst of all of the AIG-bonus outrage (nice to see ya angry people, but where were you angry members of Congress a few weeks ago when you approved the bailout package that made an exception allowing contractual bonuses?), there's still talk about the different economic rescue plans that are aimed at homeowners or other Americans who've been caught up as victims in this mess. Sure, it's a controversial part of all of this rescue stuff, cuz some people feel like they shouldn't have to "bail out" people who made bad decisions. I tend to be a rising tide, help your neighbor person... but that's beside the point of this post.

Here's my idea. I think all these stimulus packages should somehow incorporate legislation - and *funding* cuz we all know just how effective unfunded mandates are - requiring every single high school student in America to take a personal finance class.

My high school offered personal finance classes, but it was more on the general/remedial track. The college prep/AP kids never took it. So while I understood the concept of compounding interest from my pre-Calc class, when I became a wide-eyed college freshman I gladly signed up for a high-APR, high-annual fee predatory credit card just to get the free t-shirt. Getting cash out of the ATM sure seemed like free money to me. I was young and stupid, and hadn't really learned enough about the way money works to realize I was digging myself a hole. Luckily, I received a bailout from the Bank of Mom and Dad. But, then in my 20's as an underpaid, overworked non-profit drone, I chose to live in cities that I still couldn't quite afford and I really "floated" my relatively modest lifestyle on credit cards, racking up a balance that I didn't pay off until I was 32. It's a darn good thing I didn't buy a house in the middle of all of that, but I almost did. Had a bid accepted and paid my hand money and everything, and it was just luck that enabled it to all fall through.

Anyway, my point... I was a smart kid, and I'm still a smart adult, but even I've had my problems with credit and financing. There are whole industries out there who thrive on finding people like me or so many others willing to make impulsive and uninformed decisions with their finances.

So -- I think our country and our economy as a whole would really benefit by, as a start, insisting all high school kids learn the basics... how to balance a checkbook, how to compare and not become bogged down by interest rates, how the stock market works* and what a 401k is, how to evaluate different kinds of mortgages, etc. This is all stuff people would really use (unlike, say, the year I spent on advanced trigonometry). I've been lucky to learn some of this stuff along the way thanks to my parents' expertise and patience, and taking advantage of 401k sessions at work, even reading some articles along the way. But it would be so much better if people could learn these lessons BEFORE they make big mistakes, rather than after.

* One of my podcasts takes call-in questions, and the business reporters did a good job handling a guy who called in with a question so basic it almost surprised me, though I know there are millions who probably think the same way. He asked, paraphrasing, "I've lost so much in my retirement account -- but where did all that money go???" The reporters explained very clearly and simply about stocks' value and price fluctuations, and how that wasn't actually real money that was lost, just value. But this is exactly the kind of thing people should learn before they put their money in with such trust and expectations.

When's a Bonus Not a Bonus?

Okay, seems like the moment of outrage might be bubbling up... as AIG announces $165 million in executive bonuses. After a $75 billion government (taxpayer) bailout, and a request for more. Or something ridiculous like that.

I've only read a few articles, but it's enough to just make you sick. The AIG head, conveniently named "Liddy," argues that the company is contractually obligated to pay these bonuses. Well, if it's a contractual obligation it's not much of a "bonus," is it? Aren't bonuses supposed to be rewards for good years? And you don't know if you'll get them until you know if it was a good year or not? And AIG, resoundingly, did NOT have a good year? Yeah, contractual bonuses are a BAD IDEA.

So Liddy's saying that paying the bonuses is better than the alternatives -- that those *top quality* executives (huh) might decide to leave for better-paying jobs, or my guess is that they might try to sue AIG for breach of contract to try to get that money anyway. Which would then mean AIG would still have to pay the bonuses plus legal fees, etc., so the argument is that it would take even more money not to pay than to pay in the first place. Right? Is that what they're saying?

I've heard lots of arguments, from the Administration and from my economic news podcasts, about why it's important for us to grit our teeth and save AIG cuz it's just too important a company - as the major insurer to just about all other major companies and industries - to fail, and that losing AIG would have an even more catastrophic effect on the economy. But, good Lord, how can we continue to reward this kind of behavior??? Is there anything the government can do to put more controls on the bailout money so that it's not used for bonuses or bathtubs or corporate retreats or anything other than strictly shoring up the bottom line?

And if there's finally going to be some populist outrage about some of this stuff, what form will it take? I hope everyone out there with Congressional representation (yes, I'm still waiting) lets their elected officials know what they think about all of this. I'm just imagining how all of this will read in history books 50 years from now, and it's not pretty. (And those history books just might be written in Chinese.) Here's hoping we all pull ourselves out of this soon.

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Update: This just came across my inbox. We'll see what happens.


News Alert
from The Wall Street Journal

March 16, 2009
President Obama, trying to contain a political firestorm, has instructed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to "pursue every legal avenue" to block $165 million in bonuses to American International Group executives who were in part responsible for the company's near collapse.
"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama was scheduled to say ahead of a small businesses announcement, according to prepared remarks released by the White House. "Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123721970101743003.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

The Habits of a Modern Viewer

I love television. I watch *a lot* of television. People are often surprised to learn that I do not have a TiVo, which seems to be the modern tv-watching miracle. But, I have figured out ways to still see every show I love without having to invest in another gadget - instead I pay for downloads or onDemand and I think that works out to be cheaper. (I hope?)

My tv viewing habits are governed by a few things: schedule, the way I want to watch (with or without commercial interruption of any kind), and whether I'm trying to show support for a show by viewing it in a way that seems likely to register in the ratings in some way.

TV ratings have become a bizarre thing to figure out. It used to be relatively easy - the Nielsen research folks did a small sample to represent the overall viewing habits of American households, back when there were just a few networks and deferred viewing really only came if you taped something on your VCR. Well, as TiVos and downloads and online viewing have changed all our habits, my understanding from being an EW reader is that the networks are having a hard time keeping up on figuring out how to measure a show's viewing audience. So, sometimes, if one of my shows (like Chuck, for example) is "on the bubble" I will sometimes choose to watch it in a way that just might help me stand and be counted as a loyal viewer. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, but I like to think it does...

So, even without a TiVo I try to find ways to watch everything I like within a relatively short time of its original airing. Here are the tv shows I've been watching in the 2008-09 season, and how I watch them, roughly in order of the night of week they're on:

The Amazing Race - live, or free online on cbs.com now that they're finally showing it online

Desperate Housewives - live, or on abc.com

Mad Men - I watched the first season on DVD. 2nd Season was either live or downloaded from iTunes. I'd gladly pay for commercial-free episodes and let them count me among the obsessed fans of Don Draper.

(Note: Monday nights are tv hell, when there is literally a show on every major network that I want to watch.)

How I Met Your Mother - live, or on cbs.com later

House - usually via iTunes, cuz I don't like Fox's online web site so I pay for the downloads

Chuck - usually free on nbc.com usually a few days later, but lately I have been paying on iTunes to try and show my support.

Dancing with the Stars - I'm hoping to watch this season if they keep rebroadcasting it on Saturday nights, otherwise it may fall off the list or be an online viewing only.

NCIS - Now we're on to Tuesdays, which I usually use as a night to catch up on all the Monday shows. So I tend to watch NCIS for free on Comcast On Demand on Saturday or Sunday mornings.

LOST - LIVE. Of course! If for some ungodly reason I have to work on Wednesday nights and miss it, I will pay to download it from iTunes and watch it commercial-free.

Top Chef - I tried to watch most of this live or on one of Bravo's many rebroadcasts, but I did download several eps from iTunes. With an hour-long show, I do think it's often worth it to watch commercial-free and keep it more at the 40 minute mark.

The Office - Thursday nights are also tough. I try to watch this live, but if I miss it I'll pay 99 cents to watch it either on Comcast onDemand or download it from iTunes.

30 Rock - same plan as The Office.

CSI - I usually catch this one for free via Comcast onDemand on weekend mornings.

Supernatural - I actually bought an iTunes season pass for this season, to make sure I wouldn't miss it, so they usually download a few days after a new ep airs.

Bones - I usually wait and watch new Bones eps about once a month, 3 or 4 at a time, free via Hulu.

Grey's Anatomy - This is often my Friday night viewing, as I watch it free on abc.com.

Dollhouse - So far, I've watched this Friday night show live, and via Hulu, and once via iTunes. I'm not in love with the show yet but I do want it to have time to prove itself, so I didn't mind paying on iTunes to try and show Joss Whedon some support.

So that's my weekly viewing routine. Then there are the shows that I tend to watch a season or two behind via Netflix, either because the year is too busy or because they're on pay cable and I don't subscribe. I just wait for them to come out and then cruise through them on DVDs: 24, Weeds, Entourage, Dexter.

I know just one viewer isn't enough to make a difference, but I do hope sometimes that my iTunes and online viewings register and are counted in some new-math versions of the ratings. I do love my tv, and I hope my shows continue to survive.

So how do you watch? Do you change how you watch based on how your shows are doing in the ratings?

Image Source DryIcons

Weekend Movie Roundup

I'm trying to get rid of this dang cough, so this was a perfect weekend for me to stay house-bound and watch a whole slew of great movies. Here's just a sampling...

First up, Ira & Abby. This was one of those small, indie romantic films that Netflix recommended to me and I took a chance, mostly because I like the main star Jennifer Westfeldt. She also happened to be the writer of this film, and it was very charming all around. Ira is a typical tightly-wound, over-thinking kind of NY character who often shows up in Woody Allen films (and little did I know I'd see the same previously unknown-to-me actor again the next day in an actual Woody Allen film), unlucky in love and paying a lot of money in therapy bills to talk too much about it. Abby is a free spirit, sweet and friendly and caring towards everyone she meets - sometimes spreading herself too thin and neglecting those she's actually in a relationship with. They meet cute and fall in love, and get married way too quickly. That's the setup, and what follows is the story of their break-ups and make-ups in trying to make a modern marriage work.


Their parents feature prominently in the story as well, well-played by Judith Light and Robert Klein (his stuffy analyst parents) and Fred Willard and Frances Conroy (her hippy-dippy jingle-singing parents). Also featured: a super-hot and scruffy Jon Hamm, Jennifer Westfeldt's actual bf, as one of her many exes. This is an enjoyable weekend afternoon kind of a movie, and I give it a B+.

Next, I settled in for a loooong evening with Baz Luhrmann's Australia. I just can't do 3 hour movies in the theaters anymore, so DVDs really are a perfect format. I'd been really unsure of this movie back when it was in theaters, cuz from the trailers you could never really tell what it was trying to be -- epic romance? war movie? Western? Baz-style extravaganza? Well, it falls somewhere in between the first three. The good news is that I liked it a lot more than I expected. Nicole Kidman, who often plays very fragile, breakable characters, shines in this movie playing a much stronger, sassier, more resourceful character than we've seen from her in a while. I think Baz has found a good way to bring some of that spirit out of her, and I hope they keep working together. And I'm not always a Hugh Jackman fan, cuz sometimes he seems much more suited to being a Broadway baby than a really rough-and-tumble character, but he really sells it as The Drover. And their chemistry is great. So, though the movie is a bit too long and sometimes stretches with the CGI-plus-Aboriginal-magic hoo-ah, it's a good story and you end up rooting for them both, and their adopted son Nullah, in the end. I also give this a B+.

And, finally, I spent my Sunday night in a world that I found so appealing, I'd just love to live there forever. That's Woody Allen's vision of the world, this time in Spain, with Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I like Woody and have seen most of his movies over the years, and I always think one of his hallmarks is that he "elevates" people and the world we live in, as he always creates articulate, artistic characters who spend their times in cafes, art galleries, or gorgeous homes, talking about poetry and disaffection in meaningful ways. No one ever seems to work or worry about everyday problems like bills or being stuck in traffic. They're all content to live and play in these beautiful places and debate the meaning of life and love. Yes, I want that! Here, Woody does it again, with what feels like almost a perfect film... two American tourists (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johanssen as Vicky and Cristina) head to Barcelona and get romantically entangled with an artist (Javier Bardem) and his ex-wife (Oscar winner Penelope Cruz). That's the story in a nutshell, but it's so beautifully played out, with such captivating and sensual performances, that I just didn't want it to end. Penelope really comes alive with a ferocity and a humor that comes through the screen, both Hall and Johanssen do a fine job playing sort of 2 sides of the same coin, both yearning for what they don't have, and Javier? Oh, Javier. How do you sigh in Spanish? I loved this movie, and as soon as it ended I clicked on to Amazon and bought a copy to have myself. I give it an A. I mean, really, just look at him!

Hollywood Comes to DC

And, even the best of us sometimes go a little wacky around real live movie stars. :-)

I work very close to the Navy Memorial, so I was able to spend about 1/2 an hour today watching as Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber - who are both ridiculously attractive in person, and he's super-tall and she's super-tiny - film a scene where they were running onto the escalator at the Archives/Navy Memorial metro stop.

Sadly my camera phone can't zoom, so you can't make out much here -- but if you look just to the left of that umbrella, you can see Liev (in a greenish overcoat)sitting in a chair with his back to the camera. Angelina is sitting to his right, but she's leaning forward so you can't see much other than the black backpack she's wearing, with a tan coat and black knit cap.

This made for a nice little lunch break for all of us who are used to the concept of "DC famous" - as in, "hey, I was in line next to Justice X" or "I shared an elevator with the Secretary of Y" or "I was at a party with Senator So-and-So" etc. - to get a little thrill from a taste of Hollywood.

LOST - La Fleur

Okay, I loved LOST tonight, and not *just* because it was a Sawyer-centric episode. (Although that did have something to do with it!)

After two parallel episodes in a row ("316" and "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham") that focused on John Locke getting the old band back together on the mainland, with mostly present-day action among the Oceanic 6 leading to their return to the Island, tonight's episode took us back to the Island itself to check in with the Skipping Survivors and what happened after Locke turned that darn Frozen Donkey Wheeler.

And while many fans, myself included, felt like those last 2 eps were more process-oriented in terms of getting the right people in the right place, etc., tonight's ep for me was a real return to both LOST's emotional heart and its central mythology. A welcome return, in my book.

**Spoilers Ahead, Ye Mateys**

So, when Locke turned the wheel and disappeared... it worked! The Island Survivors (Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Dan, and Miles) stopped time-skipping and the nosebleeds went away. Locke's plan worked, but the group was stuck back in time at the moment when the flashes stopped.. which turned out to be 1974. The Dharma Initiative if in full swing, under the not-so-able-bodied leadership of good old Horace Goodspeed, and they're living on the Island under a tense truce with the "Hostiles" (who we now know as the Others), led by good old Richard Alpert.

Our Survivors stumble upon a fateful scene as 2 Hostiles appear to be attacking 2 Dharma folks (Dharmites?), and when the Dharma man is shot Sawyer can't handle seeing a lady in distress so he steps in. (That lady being one of the notable new cast members of the season, Reiko Aylesworth, aka Michele Dessler Almeda from 24.) The Hostiles are killed when they turn their guns on our gang, and now they're pulled in to an Island War, '70's style, that they never planned to get involved in. Through a series of jumps from 1974 to 1977, we see that our Survivors integrate themselves fully into the Dharma world, under pretense, and seem to be fairly accepting that they're going to live out their lives 30 years ago.

James Ford, aka Sawyer, aka Jim La Fleur
This was a fantastic Sawyer episode. If I'm not mistaken, this was his first real showcase since the back half of season 3, and Josh Holloway did a great job tonight. Setting aside how happy I was that in the Dharma barracks he finally found a shower, our Sawyer was really starting to show his true potential tonight.

If you're of the camp that the series-long arc of LOST will be to show the long-term redemption of all of its original troubled characters (which I think I am), then you've probably been noticing Sawyer's character development over the last 5 years. He started out the villain of the group, the surly, nasty con man who was only out for himself and didn't care about anyone else. Remember back when he hoarded everything in the camp and Sayid tortured him to try and find Shannon's inhalers? Well, even then we learned Sawyer's bark was worse than his bite. But over time, and with some notable help along the way from Hurley, Sawyer's been finding his redemption in learning to not only care about others but to actually start emerging as a real leader. Tonight, with crazy charismatic Locke gone, Sawyer was clearly the man in charge of his group - with Juliet as his #2, but more on that later - and even 3 years later he appeared to be in a real position of authority within Dharma and close to Horace, the camp's leader. I was proud watching him take action and take responsibility for the group, cuz he's really come a long way since those first days on the beach. And, I mean, just look at him! Doesn't he melt your heart? ;-)

What I loved the most about Sawyer's take-charge role tonight? The con man has found his redemption in being a leader, and as that leader he's had to con everyone in the Dharma Initiative to help protect his group. He was great thinking on his feet, convincing Horace Goodspeed that he was the leader of a shipwrecked salvage crew looking for the Black Rock. Of course, he knows that ship quite well, considering what he had to do in that brig. But that was just another great little moment of the writers pulling a thread together -- not all of the Survivors knew of the existence of the ship, but Sawyer does and he used that knowledge like a good con man would. He's putting his formerly dastardly skills to good use.

Sawyer and Richard Alpert
And speaking of thinking on his feet, Sawyer knew that he was the one who could diffuse the escalating tension between Richard Alpert and Horace over the apparent breaking of the truce. Seizing his moment in an electric scene, Sawyer left all pretense behind and convinced Alpert by using the truth - revealing his purpose in waiting for John Locke to return, just like Alpert is. What I loved so much about that scene was that, I think for the first time, we saw the tables turn as one of our Survivors had the upper hand in a conversation with one of the Others. Sawyer knew more than Alpert did about Locke and their history, and probably at this point still knows more about the Island's time slips than Alpert does. What a great moment to see "our guy" get the upper hand over the previously omniscient-seeming Alpert. (Or, as Sawyer called him, "your buddy with the eyeliner.") This may be a real sign for how our Survivors will continue to have an advantage over the Hostiles/Others and the Dharmites thanks to their time travel and their actual experiences of knowing their history from the perspective of 2004.

The Dharma Initiative
Which raises all sorts of questions for me, by the way. I *loved* getting more glimpses of Dharma back in its prime, though we still really don't know much about their experiments or what they were trying to prove. But we learned more about the truce and their leadership. And, perhaps most importantly, we see that in 1977 it was still possible for a woman to give birth on the Island. I'm thinking more and more that "The Incident" is coming soon and that it's what causes the pregnancy problem.

Anyway, what I kept wondering about as we watched our Survivors become regular Dharmites was how they kept up their pretense of not only who they were with their assumed names/backgrounds, but also how they could keep from interfering. They *know* that all of these Dharmites will be killed in a few years, but they can't change the past so they can't do anything about it. Talk about a moral quandary.

And... the boogeyman is around! According to LostPedia, Benjamin Linus was born in the early 1960's. And he and his father Roger came to the Island in the early 1970's. So, even though we didn't seen him, I'm guessing adolescent Benjamin Linus is running around on that Island *right now* WITH our Survivors! Have they met him? How would THAT interaction go??? But, in keeping with the rules of time travel, they aren't supposed to do anything to change who he is or what he does... but might we see some encounters that shape the future bug-eyed maniacal mastermind? I'm so curious about this, and I really hope they don't make any continuity gaffes and leave it unaddressed. I have faith in the writers! Show us young Ben!

Tasty Tidbits

A few quick hits...

- That was a touching moment when grieving Dan Faraday saw adorable little red-headed toddler Charlotte.

- The giant statue!!!!! So, WHEN were they in that quick flash? Way back in time? (Part of me was saying to myself "please don't let it be a dinosaur, do NOT go Jurassic Park on me!" so I was very glad to see that statue.)

- Sawyer got new glasses. Nice.

- Jimmy Barrett (Patrick Fischler, in real life) from Mad Men was in Dharma?!?

- The security fence -- Amy wore ear plugs and walked through? And Richard Alpert can get through? So was it really just to protect the barracks against Smokey?

And, finally, Sawyer and Juliet.. aka a 'Shipper's Dream... aka the Love Rhombus
Ah, the 'shipper heart of this episode. They've been building to a relationship between Sawyer and Juliet ever since they started sassing each other in late season 3. Early in tonight's episode, I was enjoying their growing friendship so much and Elizabeth Mitchell and Josh Holloway have *great* chemistry together, so I was really happy when they showed in "three years later" that Sawyer and Juliet are a couple. A sweet, romantic couple, from the looks of it! But how strong will that be? Sawyer gave a convincing answer to Horace about how you really can get over someone in 3 years' time, and he seemed really happy with Juliet.

But, alas, the moment of the big reveal that we all knew was coming... when Sawyer learned that the Oceanic 5/6 (3?) had finally been found on the Island, he *lied* to Juliet about what was going on. And that look on his face, when he finally saw Kate again? He's so not over her. (Though he and Juliet are such a better match!) And I guarantee you that once those 4 people are all together again - Sawyer, Juliet, Jack, and Kate, the love rhombus is going to make for some pretty tense emotional scenes. What are their true feelings? Who really belongs together? I'm afraid Juliet, who's my favorite woman on the show, might get the short end of the stick here... but as is my typical (and as of yet unsuccessful) personal tendency, I'll still believe that bad boy has a heart of gold and will make the right choice. Jack and Kate should be together, and Sawyer should realize he's found something real with Juliet. That'd make this 'shipper very, very happy.

Phew! TWO WEEKS to go until a new episode!!!

The Secret of Success

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Our book club chose OUTLIERS this month, and I enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's latest effort. I have read both of his previous books, THE TIPPING POINT and BLINK, though I still think THE TIPPING POINT is his best and he's been coasting a bit with lighter stuff ever since.

OUTLIERS has a simple premise: people who have achieved great success have not actually done it alone, they were helped along the way by having a variety of opportunities created by timing, culture, and the actions and support of the people around them. Well.... that premise is so simple it almost makes you want to say "Duh."

But Gladwell's talent has always been to find compelling examples to support his thesis, and to tell those stories in a page-turning way. That's where his background as a journalist really shines, even if it may sometimes seem has if he's just cherry-picked a few good examples that strengthen his argument and leaves the hard research to others. His books are very readable, but not necessarily heavy on the first-hand research.

Anyway, in OUTLIERS he uses the examples of Bill Gates and the Beatles among others to demonstrate how circumstances have just as much of an effect on some one's success as hard work and innate talent, though he stresses they are all equally important. He tells the chilling stories of Korean Air Lines' disastrous crash record to demonstrate how culture, and the way it dictates communication in a hierarchy, impacts a company's success. (And that whole section made the prospect of flying scary all over again.) He also uses two different tales of immigration - European Jews in the garment industry in NYC and Scotch-Irish in Appalachia - to explain how cultural tendencies are handed down among generations and led to current behaviors in surprising ways.

Overall, OUTLIERS is fun and filled with interesting cocktail-chatter-style new information. Sure, it's light and probably won't stick with me for long, but I'm glad I'm continuing on with Gladwell's career, as he follows along a path he describes very lovingly in the epilogue as set in motion by his own ancestors not so long ago.


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