In LOST

Sorry I took so long. I was out of town for a lot of last week. Here's your well-reasoned, non-fanatical discussion for Episode 3.08: Flashes Before Your Eyes and 3.09: Stranger in a Strange Land.

These Weeks' Contributors: Ally, Claire, Jim, Laila, and Starr

3.08: "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

Time Travel

There is actually a TON to unpack about Desmond's ability to see the future. There are a ton of theories popping up about it, and they're all actually pretty interesting. The first thing to note is that Ms. Hawking, a clear reference to Stephen Hawking, says that the sequence of the universe more or less cannot be changed. We saw this when the man with the red shoes got killed. She said that tomorrow he would die another way, and if he were saved tomorrow he would die yet another way on the third day, etc.

This view of the universe is interesting to me only because I recently watched 12 Monkeys, and it employed the same thinking (the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle). So the question is, do we interpret everything in the show as having a predetermined outcome? Is the show going to have an existential crisis theme, a la I ♥ Huckabees?

Another question that is coming up is whether Desmond actually traveled back in time when he turned the key. Think about it for a second. He was so happy to see Penny when he woke up from the fall. This does kind of make sense. However, if he did in fact travel back in time and the universe doesn't change, he would have ended up back at the island and turned the key again, thus sending him back in time in a kind of loop. How did he get out of the loop and end up naked in the jungle? How did Penny know to search for Desmond, as we saw at the end of the second season? Did he tell her or something?

Another interesting thing that I'm pondering is whether or not he is doing the kind of time traveling that Billy Pilgrim does in Slaughterhouse-Five.

The other obvious implication that we have to grapple with is whether or not Charlie will actually die soon. Thoughts?

Cultural and LOST References

This episode was packed pretty tight with references to things in LOST and to other shows. Laila and Jim came up with a lot of these.

• The red shoes on the man dying was likely a reference to The Wizard of Oz
• Charlie is cheating death like the characters did in Final Destination
• Desmond threw his tie down on the sidewalk just like George Clooney did in Out of Sight
• "Hey Lost! Twin Peaks called and they want their plot back!" --Laila
• Polar bears in Penny's dad's office, the boat in his office, the numbers, etc.
• The word "namaste" comes up in the same office, as it has several times in LOST

3.09: "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Shark Jumping

I'm sure that some people are going to get upset at me for this one, but it needs to be said that last night's episode quite possibly might have jumped the shark. It pained me to watch it at times. My first big problem with the episode was Jack's backstory. It was a COMPLETE non sequitur with regard to how it fit into the rest of the LOST storyline. It served only to explain how he got part of his tattoo. I don't understand why they couldn't have woven it in some other way. Did this trip to Thailand happen before or after his marriage fell apart? Also, elements of his backstory were annoying. First, Jack would never use force to get a woman to do something; it's so not his character. The mystery and power behind the tattoo is pretty ridiculous. Are we supposed to believe that Jack will be a leader because of the power that ink on his skin brought him? I'm so not buying in. Is it supposed to be the other way around, such that the tattoo is a marking of one's inner self? I could understand all of those dudes beating up Jack for forcing Achara to do something, but they were upset about the magical tattoo. Honestly, that's some nonsense you'd see in Charmed.

Second, The whole soft Sawyer thing kind of made me want to gag. His whole fight with Kate looked really contrived, and since when does Sawyer have heart-to-hearts with anybody?

Third, the episode purported to answer big questions, but I don't really think that it did.

This is not to say that the entire episode was worthless, though. I did enjoy Jack dealing for Juliet's life. The investigation into Juliet revealed some insight to the Others' inner-workings. They apparently have some uniform code of rules, which Ben can veto. I didn't really like the woman investigating, but as Ally pointed out, she's probably supposed to come across as a Nazi nurse or something similar.

Other Questions

Starr thinks that the Others are courting Jack to become one of them. He says that based on all that they are showing him a lot of their inner-workings. I tend to disagree with that, but I really don't know what they would be doing to him otherwise, so maybe they are.

One really big question was about the survivors from the plane. Were they brainwashed? Why were they all normal and happy? Drugs?

Post any other questions you guys have. I hope that next week has some better material.

Posted by at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In LOST

The show is finally back, so let's pick it apart. Here's your well-reasoned, non-fanatical discussion for Episode 3.07: Not in Portland

Contributors this week: Claire C., Ally G., and Laila M.

Alex Crusoe

It seems odd that I'm leading off with a minor character, but I think that what went on this past episode with Alex is the most interesting. The most obvious question is still about her true relationship with Ben. It was revealed that he was most likely her adoptive father after she was taken from Rousseau. However, she seems to have emancipated herself from him, in a sense. I can't figure out why, especially if she doesn't know that she was taken from Rousseau.

Also, what will Alex do about Karl, who will likely end up back at the survivors' camp? It sounded like if she ever went to be with him, Ben would put a green light on Karl's life. How can, or will, she mitigate that little problem? If she does go to the survivors camp, she will likely run into Rousseau at some point.

Karl (Marx?)

Speaking of Karl, does it strike anybody else as odd that his name is spelled with a 'K'? Given all the references to philosophers (Rousseau, Locke, Hume, etc), it wouldn't surprise me if he did end up being Karl Marx.

That aside, there seems to be some disagreement about why Karl was being brainwashed. Is it because he is trying to escape, and they think that they can make him lock-step after showing him some creepy videos? Ally says she thinks he's being brainwashed because he's more susceptible to it being effective, whereas it would not work with Jack, for instance.

I actually don't know what to make of the whole brainwashing thing. Feel free to chime in on that one. I do know that it creeped me out in a way that he show hasn't done in quite some time. Also, I want to call how I spotted a Hanso scientist at the end of the brainwash sequence.

Will They Stay, Or Will They Go?

Juliet has been offered a ticket off the island, but will she even be able to go? Tom said to Jack that they were going to have a surgeon come work on Ben, but then said something about the purple flash in the sky, alluding to the hatch explosion. Ben allegedly keeps his word when he makes deals, as he (maybe) did with Michael and Walt. I think Juliet is getting screwed here. Ben was on his deathbed and said the one thing that would have saved his life, whether it's true or not. Besides, we're barely invested in Juliet. It would be useless to off her so soon.

Claire also pointed out something pretty interesting about Juliet. She seems to have a pattern of becoming involved with very controlling men (Edmund and Ben). Will she break that cycle by getting involved with Jack?

Jack, on the other hand, is a big question. It's inferred from the LOST Moments that he's kept alive and that Kate goes back to rescue him. It's impossible to say one way or another what will happen to him, but I hope that he gets out of capture soon. The show drags a lot when they focus on the characters being in captivity.

Odds and Ends

Ally said this to me and I'm completely sold in it: Tom is gay. Remember how he coyly said "you're not my type" to Kate? Now watch.

Edmund Burke, Juliet's ex-husband is yet another philosophical reference. He kind of looks like the real Burke, too. Laila pointed that out and says, "If we meet a Dr. Hegel, I think I can no longer watch this show."

Things I'm Required To Post

Ally says that Edmund Burke's accident with the bus was very "Mean Girls-esque." I've (obviously) never seen the movie.

Laila says there is some parallel between the Jack/Juliet dynamic on LOST and Derek/Preston on Grey's Anatomy. They're all doctors to boot. I don't watch Grey's Anatomy, so...

Finally, here is Laila's weekly commentary on Sawyer: "Sawyer = hot."

Post your thoughts.

Posted by at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In Music



A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the Squirrel Nut Zippers' Wikipedia Page and noticed that it listed the band as currently active. I wondered if it was a mistake. After some quick searching, I found out that the band had booked four shows in the mid-Atlantic region, one of which was right outside of DC at the Birchmere. I booked a ticket immediately because I had wanted to see them since 1998.

For those unfamiliar with the Zippers, they are an eclectic band from Chapel Hill, NC who gained popularity in the late 1990s during the short-lived swing revival. But, to fold the Zippers into the 90s swing fad does not nearly do their talent justice. Wikipedia describes the band like this:

The Zippers defied description, incorporating everything from Harlem Hot Music, Cab Calloway, Johnny Ace, Delta Blues, Raymond Scott, Fats Waller, Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits, and klezmer.

It's their eclectic blend that has kept me listening to their music all this time, despite their disbanding in 2000.

I went to the show this past Tuesday and took note of the set list along with the album(s) where the songs came from:

• Club Limbo, The Inevitable
• Memphis Exorcism, Hot
• Good Enough for Granddad, The Inevitable
• It Ain't You, Hot
• Wash Jones, The Inevitable
• You're Driving Me Crazy, The Inevitable
• Danny Diamond, The Inevitable
• Fat Cat Keeps Getting Fatter, Perennial Favorites
Prince Nez, Hot
• La Grippe, Sold Out / The Inevitable
• Put A Lid On It, Hot
• My Drag, Perennial Favorites
• Low Down Man, Perennial Favorites
• Do What, Bedlam Ballroom
• Bad Businessman, Hot
• Hell, Hot
• Ghost Of Stephen Foster
• I Raise Hell, Sold Out, Perennial Favorites
• (3 Covers)
• It's All Over, Perennial Favorites

Club Limbo was a really interesting number to open on. I expected them to come in strong, and they completely surprised me when they went with a slower, melodic tune. It was as if they were bashfully saying, "Hey, remember us? We're back." The slow opening changed when they moved on to Memphis Exorcism, of course.



The Zippers' tunes were of course awesome. To fill out the parts, the Zippers borrowed a couple members of The Old Ceremony, the opening band. However, there are a couple of other things to note about the set list. First, they only played one song from Badlam Bedroom, their final album. The last album was pretty lackluster, and the set list's lack of tracks from it made me wonder if it was the band's tacit agreement that the album was sub-par, for the Zippers, anyway. Also, the band played either three covers or three new tracks during the encore. I tried to take notes about the tracks and find them, but have had limited success.

The new material made me wonder if it was a prelude to new work from the group. I actually hope that it's not, because all three of the tracks lacked the edge and eccentricities of their hits. Regardless, I still have faith that the Zippers can deliver some amazing work. But the set made me anxious. I started wondering if their creativity existed inside a vacuum or if it would continue to flourish.

Another strange vibe I got was between Jimbo Mathus and Katharine Whalen, two of the founding members. The two seemed uncomfortable by each other. Furthermore, I always imagined Katharine Whalen as very passionate, intense vocalist. But, she seemed uncomfortable and indifferent onstage, despite how well she sounded. This guy was at the show and says that the show was different than past Zippers performances:

It was quite a different type of show than what I had seen before - I think some of it was that they are now older and more mellow, a bit out of practice from being on stage, and some of it was that the performance was at the Birchmere.

After the show, I did some research that I should have done beforehand. This article tells the whole saga of the band's 2000 demise. Unbeknownst to me, Mathus and Whalen were married when the Zippers formed, and after the band's breakup, Mathus left Whalen and their newborn child. I would never presume to fully understand the relationship between two people I've never met, but their body language toward each other on the stage suggested a palpable amount of awkwardness between the two.

The article about the band's downfall, written last May as a lead-up to Whalen's solo album, also mentions that the band still owed $30,000 from a settlement with two members who quit the band. The band might play some shows to finally pay their debt off in full, according to Whalen:

We wouldn't be trying to re-form the group to make records and get on the radio," Whalen says. "It would be more about us surviving. The idea would be to do maybe three shows, probably just a couple of corporate gigs for some money. We'll be paying off that settlement for two more years, so it would be cool to play a few nights and just make that go away."

The set list had worried me, and after reading the article, I wondered if I had perhaps seen one of the four final performances of the Zippers that served the sole purpose of them paying past debts.

I was feeling kind of grim and depressed about the whole thing, but then I found a glimmer of hope. Chris Phillips, another band member, said this in a press release:

One day early last year I was just looking out the window when it hit me. I thought, I miss those guys, let's do some shows.

I wasn't totally convinced by this, because it was in a press statement leading up to the tour. You can't exactly say, "Yeah, we're doing this to pay debts. Come see us." However, I found another tidbit that makes me more optimistic. The band did an interview with North Carolina Public Radio last month about the reunion. In it, the band says that the reunion is genuine and that they are going to give it a go. Listen here:

Click here if you can't see the player.

Whalen says in the interview that the band is just touring for the time being and that they will need to see if they can still write together. The band even goes on to say that not having the pressure of a recording company takes an immense burden off of them, part of what led to their demise. More importantly, though, it was the absence of pressure that bred the band's creativity in the first place.

So, will the band be back to produce new material? I, for one, certainly hope so. I would also venture a guess that the 250+ people that packed Birchmere on a cold Tuesday in January hope so, too, along with all those who couldn't make the show.

Posted by at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In Teach for America

Last night Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America, was on the Colbert Report. I was pretty excited for the interview because I'm a TFA alumnus (teaching stories here), and I love the Colbert Report.

Overall, the interview went pretty well. It was one of the few fairly straight-up interviews Colbert has done, because, honestly, how do you make fun of someone who recruits talent from the private sector for teaching poor and minority kids in the nations worst schools?

He did get a couple of his buffoon questions and statements in, though. Here are the two best:

I feel like I do that every night. I teach for America.

I agree. I think we should have equal educational opportunities for everybody. But isn't the simplest way to do that to eliminate school for everyone?

The first quote is especially funny to me, and probably most TFAers, because TFA often makes us reflect on why we 'teach for America.'

Watch the video for yourself. And hey, consider applying.

Posted by at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)