There are days when I forget I’m not in Jasper, Alabama anymore. It’s not that I’m blind or ignorant to the fact that I’m in one of the most liberal cities in America, I’m just numb to it.
And then, like a twister through Kansas, I’m reminded. These are the top three things (TOP three… not three) things Seattleites want, according to our new mayor.
1. Expand as much light rail and subway as possible. (2,147 votes)
2. Legalize marijuana and tax it. (1,534 votes)
3. Set aside park beach areas for European-style, clothing-optional recreation (sunbathe and skinny dip). (828 votes)
I’ll quit with the whole “They didn’t answer my questions! Blarg!” thing with Lost soon, but it still bothers me a bit that ABC was running promos which told us “…your questions will be answered…”, because they weren’t.
Kottke said it best:
I am glad that someone compiled a list of all of the unanswered questions that the Lost producers/writers left when the show ended.
I don’t really care about the answers to most of these but watching it irritates me that they jerked us around with the Dharma/Others/Walt/4-toed statue crap when it didn’t matter at all. Oh, and the f***ing numbers and the whole ARG thing. “All of this matters”, Jack? Uh, no.
Aside from crafting the most vague Santa Letter ever, I’m not sure if my drawing helped or hindered Santa in his quest to meet my demands.
Mom found this letter to Santa while cleaning out some old boxes the other day. Evidently I wanted a Christmas tree, a donkey with rabbit ears, a floating piece of macaroni, a gingerbread man with elephantiasis, a gift wrapped by a blind man, and a… I actually don’t know what that thing on the far left was.
Josh Kyle mentioned via Twitter that one of Jackson, Mississippi’s prime eating establishments shuttered their doors. One of the better meals I had during my time in Jackson was at Schimmel’s. I thought their steak was just as good if not better than Shapley’s.
Aside from fine dining, Schimmel’s was most notably a hot spot on Saturday evenings for Jackson’s finest, sometimes douchiest young professionals. I was in that crowd, sometimes both, simultaneously, as were many of you.
All in all, Schimmel’s provided exactly what Jackson needed between 2003-2010: a place for the old Subway band to play, and a place for people to enjoy the band. The Saturday evenings were always loud, always enjoyable, always overpriced, and rarely rowdy (enter: drunk New Orleanians and/or attention-seeking former Ole Miss frat boys).
Some of my favorite moments:
…after recalling that last memory, maybe I’m glad that bartender is out of a job.
Now that Lost is over, I’m starting a list of all the questions I wanted to be answered, whose answer I may have missed, or wasn’t answered altogether by the show.
Don’t mistake this for poutintg of any sort. Simply a way of coping with the loss of my favoorite show.
The Man In Black
What was his name?
Why did he take the form of smoke?
What did the smoke symbolize?
The Island
Once the Smoke Monster was dead, what was the purpose of the Island?
Jacob
Where’s Jacob now?
Since he’s dead, did he (does he) pass through The Light as well?
And it launches 2 days before my birthday, no less.
The further I get from the series finale, the more sad I get about the fact that Lost is over. Granted, I was already pretty upset prior to the last airing Sunday night. Chelsea teared up multiple times during the last episode, and as my eye toggled between the clock and the TV during the last 30 minutes, my eyes watered if only due to high activity.
Lost was (is) the greatest television show of all time not because of what it was, but because of what it did between us. Borrowing and merging some quotes from today’s emails with friends, “Lost allowed us to have conversations with people we might not otherwise speak to, and in actuality really don’t really like. That’s the thing I’ll miss the most…the ongoing discussion that this show created amongst its followers.”
I’ve got alot more Lost talk in me, but this will do for now.
- [The writers] gave us exactly what they promised—resolution on the things that mattered most to the characters.
Why I actually liked the Lost finale
- Lost bait-and-switched us around a bit, imparting such a stentorian importance to the little things and then telling us that they didn’t matter.
[...]
But where “The End†didn’t provide the long-sought narrative resolution, it came through with an emotional resolution that, in the end, proved satisfying.
Lost mega-podcast. This is 90 minutes, but worth every minute.
(h/t Ernest Myers)
Alan Sepinwall from the podcast above posts his own review.
A pretty good breakdown of the last episode, plus this interesting note:
Visually, It was appropriate that Jack made his way back to the exact place he awoke on the Island, passing one of the tennis shoes his father was wearing in the casket, and even had Vincent by his side when we had our closing shot of his eye closing, rather than opening. While there are a lot of unanswered questions, we are supposedly promised additional scenes (about 20 minutes of them) on the DVD set that will answer yet more of them, as well as other answers given by the creators.
Chelsea made a great point last night when she said, “It’s so funny how we talk about Lost as a historical event. ‘Where were you when you first watched Lost?’”
In September 2005, I drove from Jasper to Gardendale to hang out with John Byars, his wife Amy, Stephanie Hannah. They put on this TV show called Lost. I’d seen the previews, though felt less than intrigued. But they were into it, and so I watched. It was Season 2: Episode 2: Adrift.
I was hooked.
My poor friends… they were incredibly gracious. They sat there and answered every question I had throughout the episode. I immediately drove home and (not having a full time job other than blogging) downloaded every episode on iTunes and sat on the couch for 3 days catching up.
To top it all off… Jasper, Alabama is the home of one of the characters.
It’s incredibly cliche to say, but there will never be another show like Lost. At best, there will bill another show like Lost right when we are on our deathbeds.
Granted, there will be many “Lost replacements” pitched by networks (see: Flash Forward), though as entertaining as they may be, they will certainly always fall short.
All told, I’m satisfied with the outcome. Yes, there are many question unanswered, and theories will still abound… but that’s what this show was all about: everybody watches the same show and ends up with a different opinion.
It’s sounds overly-dramatic, but I’m thoroughly depressed today. There’s a Lost-shaped hole in me.
Chelsea made Lost cupcakes for the finale.
Yeah, so, sorry I lied and told you I’d blog this week. It was my first visit to Las Vegas and I’m convinced that our group was one of the few to visit Sin City for 4 days and remember every minute of it.
The rundown of what my out-of-shape body was able to force itself to do during 21 meetings over 4 days:
…did I mention I was in Vegas through Thursday morning? Send me any tips/suggestions to me via Facebook.
The wife and I are on opposite ends of the country this week. I in Vegas, she in DC, both working. It’ll be a busy one, though I’ll have some posts here and there.
Aside from the bragging shots from In-N-Out, few pics will be seen on Facebook & Twitter (my first meetin is at 7AM Monday… What was I thinking?) as this trip is 100% work. However, text/email/Facebook me if you have any suggestions for “to do’s”.
The worst part is that I coupled it with my Southern Miss hat. I’m such a traitor. I’m sorry.
Yes, Chick-fil-A and it’s minimalist menu have slowly but surely expanded over the years. I don’t know if the Spicy Chicken Sandwich is jumping the shark per se, but it’s definitely akin to Chick creating and “eXtremE!!” version of their perfect, Utopian chicken sandwich.
Get one for free next Friday.
