Spicedogs

Questions for Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) are wanted.

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:07:59 GMT

I found this online. Apparently, a journalist from Daytona Beach managed to get an interview date with Michael Emerson. Our input is requested. Here's the journal entry:

PHOTO: Starpulse.net

For next week's season finale of "Lost," Fanboy and "The Lost Report" bring you Michael Emerson, the brains behind head Other, Benjamin Linus.

I know you Losties are dying to hear what he has to say and have a ton of questions so I'm gonna give you the opportunity. Over the next few days, feel free to email me any questions you might have for Michael Emerson about "Lost," his career or anything else you may be curious about.

I'll pick some of the best questions and get you the answers you want. (Or don't want perhaps.) Post them here or send me an email at tom.iacuzio@news-jrnl.com.

Fire away!

If you have any questions that you would want this journalist to ask Michael Emerson, please click on this link and post them directly to that blog:

Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal

Michael Emerson Movie: Ready? OK! Update

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:19:41 GMT

Ready? OK! will be showcased in the following festivals and dates:

Official selection for the following festivals:

Q Cinema, Fort Worth TX
www.qcinema.org
Sun. June 1 at 5:30 pm

Newfest, NYC
www.newfest.org
Sat. June 7 at 5:30 pm
Sun. June 8 at 1:30 pm

Frameline, San Francisco
www.frameline.org
Tues. June 24 at 7 pm, Victoria Theatre
Thurs. June 26 at 7 pm, Elmwood Rialto Cinemas, Berkeley

There will be screening in Philadelphia and Los Angeles in July. Info to come...

Garrison Keillor returning to Montague

Mon, 12 May 2008 18:47:34 GMT

Garrison Keillor, famous host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac will return to The Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 19. He will be signing books and chatting with his many fans. Why can't he do that here in Washington, DC? I'd love to chat with him again. He is such a nice man.

Garrison Keillor, famous host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac will return to The Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 19.

He will be signing books and chatting with his many fans.

The man who once quipped “I'm not busy... a woman with three children under the age of 10 wouldn't think my schedule looked so busy,” is taking time out of his very busy schedule to visit Montague to enjoy the small town atmosphere reminiscent of his famous Lake Wobegon stories.

He is coming to the area for a 7:30 p.m. performance at the Frauenthal Theater in Muskegon. At the Book Nook & Java Shop, his many books are available for purchase, prior to and the day of Keillor's visit.

Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac heard on public radio stations across the country and the author of more than a dozen books, including Lake Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, Love Me, Homegrown Democrat and his latest is, Pontoon .

On Keillor's last visit in 2004, proceeds were donated by The Book Nook & Java Shop to two local non-profit organizations (White Lake Senior Center and Arts Council of White Lake); and with this next visit proceeds will benefit Adult Literacy via Muskegon County's “Read Muskegon.”

Debra Lambers, The Book Nook owner, is focusing her attention on Adult literacy. Lambers indicates her concern. “There are more than 27,000 adults in Muskegon County with minimal or no reading skills. These people are unable to read to their children, grandchildren etc.”

Those visiting Keillor at the Book Nook & Java Shop on May 19 will be asked for a minimum $1.00 donation toward Adult Literacy in Muskegon County. For fans to reserve a space to meet Garrison Keillor up close and personal and have books signed, they will participate in the following process.

The registration will be on a first call, first email basis. Patrons may also stop into The Book Nook & Java Shop located in downtown Montague. That will be the order in which they will visit with Garrison Keillor. To register, call (231) 894-5333 or email debra@thebooknookjavashop.com. Time slots will be assigned so there will be minimal waiting to see the author. Because this is a fundraiser for Adult Literacy, fans are asked to limit books brought in, to one copy only.

On his last visit to The Book Nook & Java Shop, he spent five hours interacting with visitors

SOURCE: White Lake Beacon

Here's what the bookstore itself has to say....

IT'S A LOVE AFFAIR...WE LOVE HIM AND HE LOVES US!

Foley Schuler (Blue Lake Public Radio)

Interviews Garrison Keillor From

The Book Nook & Java Shop in 2004

Garrison Keillor returns... to The Book Nook & Java Shop to say "Hello" to his many fans and sign copies of his books!

Monday, May 19th @ 2pm.

Mr. Keillor is in Muskegon County again, four years later to perform at the Frauenthal Theater Monday night. (A few tickets are still available.)

Garrison visited The Book Nook on his last visit to Michigan and signed for five uninterrupted hours. "He is the most gracious author, he personally spoke with every person that waited so patiently in line to meet him".

Garrison Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac heard on public radio stations across the country and the author of more than a dozen books, including Lake Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, Love Me, Homegrown Democrat and his latest is Pontoon . He was born in Anoka, MN, in 1942 and graduated from the University of Minnesota. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and daughter. He has two grandsons. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and the Episcopal church.

Currently there are 27,000 adults in Muskegon County that have very little skills or cannot read or write.

When Garrison came to visit the Book Nook & Java Shop four years ago - The Book Nook &

Patron with Garrison Keillor in 2004

Java Shop donated proceeds to the White Lake Senior Center and to The White Lake Arts Council. This year owner Debra Lambers is dedicated to Adult Literacy in Muskegon County. Focusing her attention on "Read Muskegon".

The Book Nook & Java Shop is asking for a minimum $1.00 donation at the door the day of Garrison Keillor's visit.

Registration is on a first come first serve basis. Meaning...if you are the first to register you will be the first in line or number 200 to register 200 in line to see Keillor. Time slots will be set up so that Keillor fans are not waiting so long in line. In addition, because this is a fundraiser for Adult Literacy, The Book Nook asks that Keillor books be purchased there. The shop will only allow one book to BE BROUGHT IN. All Garrison Keillor titles are available now and will be available the day of the signing. You can register on line at http://debra@thebooknookjavashop.com, 231–894–5333 or by stopping into The Book Nook & Java Shop!

We recommend that you purchase books in advance so that you are not in line the day of the signing. You may also purchase the books over the phone with a credit card.

Thanks Everyone -

AVAILABILTY IS LIMITED.

SOURCE: The Book Nook Java Shop

”Lost”: Cabin Boy

Mon, 12 May 2008 04:04:50 GMT

KNIFE GUY FINISHES LAST Little John Locke chose the wrong thing in the test

May 11th, 2008

As Locke leads Ben and Hurley on a quest to find Jacob, we learn that since his childhood, people have been trying to draw him to the Island

By Jeff Jensen

Last night was for us. The cultists. The obsessives. The crazies who have committed to this long, strange trip and gotten lost in it. Like the candy bar Hurley generously shared with Ben while Locke was chatting with the spectral squatters inside Jacob’s shack (a nod to the Neo-Oracle-cookie scene in The Matrix?), ”Cabin Fever” was an episode packed with a chunky abundance of brain-fattening cryptonuggets

to nourish our fevered theory making and message-board blustering. Comic-book references. Biblical allusions. Mythological connections. Double meanings to scores of lines. I loved Hurley’s ”theory” that he, Ben, and Locke were chosen for this vision quest because they were the craziest ones on the Island. This in an episode whose ’50s-set flashbacks evoked, fittingly, AMC’s Mad Men and whose thematic concern with fate mirrors that of No Country for Old Men, a narrative about three men dangling on sanity’s thread, though at different points. Amid the clues, red herrings, and tomfoolery, I saw in the episode a fiendishly clever love letter to those of us who’ve become so locked up inside Lost that they’ve been somewhat deliriously messed up by it. That’s really why they called it ”Cabin Fever.” Just my theory, but who knows? Maybe I’m just seeing things again.

”Can history then be said to have an architecture? The notion is most glorious and most horrible.” — From Hell

Should John Locke be lucky enough to see the year 2008, he would be 50. That would make him as old as the central figure in the aforementioned text, one Sir William Gull, a 19th-century English physician. Some interesting overlaps between these characters. In From Hell, Gull is a middle-aged man uncertain of his purpose, but he is convinced he is special and senses that the architecture of his life is building to a point. Or, in the sweet, hiccupy phrasing of Buddy Holly that was quoted by Lost last night, ”Every day it gets a little closer/Rolling faster than a roller coaster/A love like yours will surely come my way.” At 50, though, Gull suddenly finds his calling in the form of a mystical mission to defend his country — an island, don’t you know — from an insidious conspiracy. You know, just like Locke. Gull is also, probably, totally crackers; he’s Alan Moore’s speculative pick for being Jack the Ripper. And while Locke is not yet a mass-murdering maniac, I have the strangest feeling, based on what we saw last night, that the architecture of his life is building exactly to that horrifying point.

The Buddy Holly connection

‘Cabin Fever” began by showing us the foundation for such a life: Locke’s birth. We’ve previously been given reason to believe Locke was born in May of 1956. But in the opening scene, we saw his mother, a rebellious 16-year-old Emily, secretly six months pregnant with John, dancing to that Buddy Holly song and primping for a date with an older man — presumably, John’s con-man biological pop, Anthony Cooper. ”Everyday” was released on vinyl in July 1957. This sounds picky, but timing is crucial in light of future events. I got that whiff of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men when Emily ran out in the rain and got hit by a car. No Country also featured an out-of-the-blue automobile accident, one that involved Anton Chigurh, one of three debatably unhinged dudes who drive McCarthy’s plot and the one who serves as the author’s embodiment of terrifying inevitability, a mass-murdering monster formed in the William Gull-From Hell mold.

Struck down by…well, we never saw who was behind the wheel, did we? Maybe that’s important, maybe not, or maybe not yet, but anyway, Emily was rushed to the hospital, and with that, John Locke entered the world three months ahead of time. ”He’s okay,” said the nurse. ”He’s just a little early.” As Preemie John was wheeled away in a toasty incubator that looked like a microwave oven (talk about cabin fever!), Emily cried out her wish that the boy be named John. Now, all of that should have sounded familiar to you. Flashback one year ago this week, in which Lost gave us another cheery Mother’s Day edition, ”The Man Behind the Curtain.” That episode told the origin story of Benjamin Linus, who, if you recall, was also born prematurely, and also born to a woman named Emily who cried out his name, although she did so as she died. Some points of difference: Ben was raised by his biological father (oops), while Locke was given up for adoption and raised in foster care. Also, Ben was born about five years after Locke; call it 1963. But as it so happens, Locke’s fifth year was a key marker in his fate-whipped trajectory, for it brought Richard Alpert into his life.

We had seen the forever young Other No. 2 earlier in the episode, checking in on Preemie Locke and beaming like some admiring magus from the east. Or west. Or wherever in Christendom the Island is/was/will be positioned in the space-time continuum. Returning five years later, the wise man unexpectedly dropped in on Locke as the boy was playing backgammon, much to the consternation of his sister. Alpert claimed to be with a school that catered to ”extremely special” children. He said that Locke could be a candidate for his institution and wanted to assess his aptitude. And then, after puzzling over one of John’s drawings — a stick-figure man bowled over by a cyclone of black scribble (Smokey?) — Alpert gave Locke a test, and with that, Lost gave us a scene so dense with (potential) subtext it just might take all of the forthcoming eight-month hiatus to unravel it.

Little John’s Island aptitude test

The test involved Alpert setting six objects in front of John. They were a baseball mitt; an old tome titled Book of Laws; a corked vial containing a granular substance (sand?); a compass; a Mystery Tales comic book (”What was the secret of the mysterious ‘Hidden Land’?” asked the cover; other stories in the issue were ”The Travelers” and ”Crossroads of Destiny”); and a knife. ”I want you to look at these things, and think about them,” said Alpert. ”Now…which of these belong to you…already?” There will surely be a great debate on how to interpret that ”already.” To me, it seemed that Alpert was asking Locke to consider looking forward into his life for these objects — as if for people like Alpert and perhaps Locke, past, present, and future happen all at once. That’s just my take, and anyway, Locke seemed to fail the test. He slid the vial toward him and off to the side. Then he picked up the compass and set it down. Both of these actions seemed to please Alpert. But then Locke chose the knife and held on to it, and even seemed to enjoy holding on to it, like a knight getting the feel of his sword. Alpert was not only crestfallen but vaguely pissed. ”I’m afraid John isn’t ready for our school,” he said as he left in a huff, and raced out to…catch the next time machine back to the Island?

This is where Lost nutjobs like me lose our minds, or at least much sleep — deconstructing scenes like these. As it turns out, these six objects are portals that, if opened, can flood your mind with possibilities on how to ”read” the show. Taken individually and separately — and further reinforced by other winks and nods throughout the episode — these embedded clues can link provocatively to The Uncanny X-Men (may I recommend Giant Size X-Men #1, in which ”new” X-Men must save ”old” X-Men from ”Krakoa, The Living Island”); Jewish and Mormon history; Egyptian mythology; Freemason conspiracy theory; and, yes, even that From Hell business. The underlying connection: ‘’special people” and ”chosen people,” tapped by fate, biology, or higher powers to execute great work in the world, often in secret. In a word: ”Others.”

But the Book of Law reference is worth focusing on for a few sentences, because it strikes me as proof positive that the writers of Lost not only are keenly aware of how its cultists scrutinize their work but mischievously play to this crowd too. After all, Book of Law evokes a bona fide cult text — or should I say occult text? It’s called The Book of the Law, written in 1904 by ”the wickedest man on the planet,” Aleister Crowley. The book extols the philosophy of Thelema, which is summed up thusly: ”Do what thou wilt.” Or, in the words of Lost-cited Mama Cass, ”Make your own kind of music/Make your own special song.” Or, as 16-year-old John Locke raged in the character’s third flashback scene, ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” This came after a bunch of bullies locked Locke in a locker — continuing a recurring theme of a boxed-in confinement throughout the episode — and a kindly teacher encouraged John to attend a summer science camp run by Mittelos, which we know is the off-Island outfit run by the Others. But the brainy Locke refused. He didn’t want to be a man of science — he wanted to be a boy of action. Play sports. Go on adventures. Play with knives and hunt some boar, presumably. His teacher responded, ”You can’t be the prom king. You can’t be the quarterback. You can’t be a superhero.”

Is John Ben, or vice versa?

I guess that’s some pretty good advice to get from a teacher, though I think a very sharp point was being made by keeping the name of the school’s athletic teams in constant view during the whole scene: the Knights. Locke might be a geek by nature, but he lives in a culture that idolizes the stud. Toss in the female issues in his life — abandoned by his mother, only conditionally loved by his foster mother and sister — and factor in the daddy anger and desperate-for-purpose disposition, and you have the portrait of a conflicted, impotent man yearning for clarity and empowerment. Such men are known to make very stupid choices — and sometimes, deadly ones. See: Benjamin Linus.

Which brings me to the provocative Big Idea that I strongly believe ”Cabin Fever” was jerking its head toward, hoping that we would ”get it” without spelling it out. There was a moment last night when Ben accused Locke of manipulating Hurley into going with them to Jacob’s cabin by using Ben-patented reverse psychology. Locke denied doing so, saying, ”I’m not you.” Ben jumped on this, saying, ”You’re certainly not.”

Now, do the timeline math.

Locke is born early. At age 5, he takes a test that most likely would have taken him to the Island if he had passed. He didn’t. That same year, Benjamin Linus is born. At age 16, Locke is invited to go to a science camp that again would have taken him to the Island. He refused. About that same time, Benjamin Linus and his father joined the Dharma Initiative. The implication, it seems, is that Ben has been walking the path that was originally meant for Locke. Ben was the contingency plan — the course correction — for Locke’s altered destiny. But Ben is his own person, of course, and he has done things differently from what Locke would have done, and this, in turn, has created further changes in the original order of things — changes that I think a certain ticked-off, Island-deprived billionaire named Charles Widmore is trying to reverse. The scene at the rehab center between paralyzed adult Locke and his wheelchair pusher, the creepy Matthew Abbaddon — who accepted the description of ”orderly” with knowing irony — was meant to suggest one way Widmore is scheming to restore the original order: by getting Locke on that Island and taking back the birthright that was supposed to be his.

(Unless I’m getting this reversed: What if Ben was the man of destiny, but for decades, various forces — including Alpert and Widmore-Abbaddon — have been vainly trying to change destiny by getting Locke to the Island to supplant the über-Other?)

Regardless, here’s the twist — the twist that could turn Locke into a mass murderer of sorts. As we saw at the end of the episode, Locke’s plan for saving the Island is moving the Island. Now, I have no idea how he intends to do that. But if I’m tracking correctly the weird science Lost has been laying down this season, I wonder if where we’re headed is a catastrophic gambit in which Locke will move the Island not only in space but also in time, which I’m guessing will cause some kind of massive retroactive course correction — or, rather, already has enacted a course correction. In fact, I wonder if the secret to many of the metaphysical mysteries of Lost is that all of the show’s drama is playing out against the backdrop of a timeline that’s in flux — where old history is giving way to new history as the consequences of Locke’s future Island-saving actions trickle down through time. And so that wreckage of Oceanic 815 at the bottom of the ocean? That isn’t a hoax — at least, not in the new timeline taking hold. That’s real. And it will be John the Quantum Ripper’s fault.

OTHER THINGS

Locke’s dreamy encounter with dead Dharma dude Horace Goodspeed We learned that ”Jacob’s cabin” was actually built by the Dharma mathematician as a getaway pad for himself and his wife, Olivia. But other than tip Locke off to the whereabouts of the map that could help him find his now on-the-loose lodge, Goodspeed didn’t give up any more factual info. Other details may be symbolic or foreshadowing of events to come. Did the nosebleed mean that Horace was a Dharma time traveler? Was the looping nature of the dream a clue that the castaways are caught in a time loop? And where was Olivia?

Ben’s big Purge spill In between griping about not being the Island’s chosen boy anymore (you buying that?) and how fate can be a ”fickle bitch” (great line — and possibly yet another punch at Locke’s issue buttons; I don’t totally believe Ben isn’t in complete control of what’s currently going down), Ben revealed that he hasn’t always been the leader of the Others — and that he didn’t order the Purge. So who preceded him in leadership? And who ordered the gassing of the Dharma barracks? Michael Emerson’s line reading — as always, perfectly intoned to suggest a multiplicity of possibilities — seemed to hint that it might be someone we know. So maybe Charles Widmore? Time-looped John Locke? Who?

How the doctor died

The death of the freighter doctor First, let me say that I think Kevin Durand, the actor who plays Keamy, is emerging as a real find this season; he plays that mercenary part with a scene-stealing mix of menace and damaged vulnerability. Profoundly angry — and profoundly spooked — by his ill-fated Island excursion to extract Ben, Keamy rallied his merc squad with a ”torch the Island” mandate. To that end, he pulled out a secret Dharma file that revealed to him where Ben will probably go next (what was that — the script for the season finale?) (just kidding — Ben’s destination is probably the Orchid station), then he shot the captain and slit the freighter doc’s throat to motivate Lapidus to fly him back to the Island. Keamy’s sarcastic line after dumping the doc overboard was interesting: ”Did that change anything?” It changed more than Keamy could imagine. As we saw in ”The Shape of Things to Come,” the doc’s corpse traveled through the offshore anomaly and washed up on the beach in the past. As a result, Jack and company confronted Faraday and Charlotte and finally confirmed that the freighter folk aren’t there to save them. This is all to say that, thanks to the doc’s death, Jack’s camp knows to either avoid that helicopter or, if they follow after it, do so cautiously, and with a battle plan in their back pocket, just in case.

Finally, where was Jacob? When Locke went into Jacob’s shack, he found the grumpy old specter was still out to lunch. But a spry Ghost Christian Shephard played his representative, and his daughter/sidekick/death friend (?) Claire sat nearby flashing an array of coy smiles, implying some kind of enlightenment or some kind of evil. What do you think? Is she dead? I think so. And where did Jacob go? Was it just me, or did anyone else think that Locke in the wheelchair at the hospital looked similar to the Jacob we’ve seen, if he had a little more hair. Finally: Are you thinking that Locke spent more time inside Jacob’s shack than we saw? Do you think there was more to his meeting than just ”Move the Island, dude”?

SOURCE: EW

Happy Mother's Day

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:22:34 GMT

Happy Mother's Day

It had to be done.

Sun, 11 May 2008 03:29:16 GMT

Ben was too cute sleeping in the jungle. My header had to be changed. The Spicedogs are protecting him.

Screencaps, LOST—Episode 4X11: Cabin Fever

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:44:57 GMT

Ben screencaps for this episode are finally up.

http://michaelemerson.net/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=374

Teaser:

I don't know about the quality of these screencpas. I usually take my caps off of iTunes, but they were not up on the iStore. I am getting fed up with iTunes. I wish that they can get their act together. It took till Tuesday for the last episode to be uploaded to their store. If I find that the iTunes caps are better, I will just substitute them.

EDIT: I finally was able to download from iTunes. I deleted the old album and uploaded new screencaps.

LOST—Episode 4X11: Question

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:18:41 GMT

Did anybody notice that the doctor washed ashore before he actually got killed on the freight? There is some weird time travel on that island.

If you don't know what I am talking about, let me refresh your memory. The doctor washed ashore. His throat was slit. Keamy was already on the island and was capturing Alex.

When Keamy returns from the island is when he actually slits the doctor's throaT.

Michael Emerson Sighting

Thu, 08 May 2008 03:52:18 GMT

larger one here:

http://michaelemerson.net/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:06:51 GMT

I recently posted Garrison Keillor's essay about Mother's Day: http://spicedogs.livejournal.com/246263.html/. It was a nice post encouraging you to contact your mom. After all, she suffered a lot of pain to have you.

Today, Robert Dougherty of the Michael Emerson Fan Board posted this on the forum:

When it comes to Lost, neither Mother's or especially Father's Day seems like a happy occasion for everyone on the show. But Macy's put out a little Lost-related ad for the upcoming Mother's Day holiday. I only bring it up because it relates to "The Shape of Things to Come" found at http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2008/05/macys-lost-mothers-day-advert.html

I find it to be one of the grossest ad ever. What do you think?

Jacob?

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:21:06 GMT

I found this on the comments from the readers page of TV Guide:

Clcik on the picture to enlarge.

Original is housed here: http://michaelemerson.net/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=8

Garrison Keillor: Why Mother's Day?

Wed, 07 May 2008 03:27:58 GMT

Because you entered this cold world causing her more pain than she thought possible and now she won't ever give up on you.

by Garrison Keillor
May 7, 2008

The last time I witnessed a woman becoming a mother, it wasn't anything like the frilly sentiments of Mother's Day. She lay on her back, perspiring heavily and yelling, "Oh my God, why did you do this to me? I'll never forgive you in a hundred years. I hope you hurt like this someday. Give me another epidural, you sadists. And get this thing out of me!" and looking up at me as if she were burning at the stake and I had lit the fire. And when the Infant appeared and was placed on the Madonna's chest, she said, "What in the world am I supposed to do with that?"

It begins in innocence. Music is playing, the night smells of lilacs, she asks if he would like to come in for a minute, and he does, and little does she know what cataclysm awaits her inside: the loss of individuality as she joins the Holy Order of Maternity.

Mothers were, at one time, young women with Possibilities who might have taken a different route and become glamorous and powerful figures in Size 2 dresses and instead found themselves cleaning up excrement and jiggling colicky babies to get them to stop screaming. They hardly ever get to London anymore or have time to read James Joyce. They sit down to dinner with adults and feel brain-dead. A bouquet of flowers hardly seems compensation enough. How about a million dollars and a house in the south of France?

My mother appears in a photograph of five young women in white summer dresses walking hand-in-hand, grinning, on a country lane near Cottage Grove, Minn., in 1932 when she was 17, not long before she met my father, and they all look so fresh and happy, as if in a careless paradise all their own. She is willowy, shy and beautiful and she might've modeled evening gowns at Dayton's Sky Room and maybe been spotted by a Hollywood scout and wound up in pictures, playing the village girl who charms the world-weary tycoon stranded in Littleville by the blizzard. Instead, she became a suburban pioneer, making a home in a muddy cornfield, putting up the stewed tomatoes and canned beans every fall, raising six children, slogging through bouts of mumps and flu, whomping up big Christmases, fishing the laundry out of the washing machine and putting it through the wringer and hanging it on the line. Is that what the smiling girl of 1932 had in mind?

The cruel injustice of motherhood is that, out of devotion to her brood, she sacrifices so much of her own life that her children grow up to find her a little boring in comparison to the maiden aunt who is a little rebellious and more fun to be around, whereas Mom is just the lady who runs the vacuum. As Erma Bombeck said, the kids walk in and ask her, "Is anybody home?"

But she loves you. You could come home with snakes tattooed on your face and she still would see the good in you. Most great men were mama's boys. She encouraged them long before anybody else could see any talent there.

Your mother is on top of the situation. Your father has a hard time remembering your birthday or even your Christian name, but your mother knows you by scent, thanks to years of doing your laundry. She knows when you're in trouble. And you will get into deep trouble someday. Count on it. Someone will file a lawsuit against you and subpoena your e-mail and it will all come flooding out, your dark secrets, your nefarious dealings, and your friends will cross the street to avoid you and your brothers and sisters will fade into the woodwork, but your mother will still love you. Like an old lioness, she'll come running even if you're 2,000 miles away.

That is why you pay homage to the old lady on Mother's Day. You entered this cold world causing her more pain than she thought possible and now she won't ever give up on you. Those old ladies you see being wheeled onto airliners are the mothers of children facing imminent indictment for terrible things. Mama will be in the courtroom for you, baby. She will look the jury in the eye and her look may get you acquitted.

Buy her something nice, like a set of gold ingots. Or a black car with a chauffeur. She's your mama, honeybuns. At least you could write her a note.

SOURCE: Salon.com

Mood Themes

Wed, 07 May 2008 03:20:41 GMT

Thanks to divka, I now have the mood theme I so desired: Lady and the Tramp.

LOST Notes: Ben and Penny (From ryan Ozawa's Blog)

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:49:29 GMT

May 5, 2008

A couple of tidbits to start the week. First, local “LOST” fans may want to make their way down to the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel tonight for the taping of the “NightTime with Andy Bumatai” show. Tonight’s star guest is Michael Emerson, a.k.a. Benjamin Linus. Head down to the S.O.S. Showroom at 6 p.m. to see if Andy’s easygoing style will be able to pry any answers out of one of the show’s most incredible actors. Secondly, of likely interest to “LOST” fans everywhere, a chance star sighting at the Halekulani yesterday. Pulpconnection reports that Sonya Walger, a.k.a. Penelope Widmore, is on the island. Does that mean she’s on The Island? Who knows. But I’m hopeful that this means we’re going to see long-lost lovers Desmond and Penny draw at least a little bit closer in the Season 4 finale.

Source: HawaiiBlog.com

The Shape of Things to Come—Observations

Mon, 05 May 2008 18:50:07 GMT

“The Shape of Things to Come” was such an emotionally intensive story that I still cannot formulate my views in paper. I was mesmerized by Michael Emerson’s brilliant performance. If he doesn’t get an Emmy, there will be a lot of irate fans knocking at the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences' door.

At the Beach

Let me begin by saying that the first scene of this episode was just absolutely ludicrous. Why does Kate take off her bras strap? What was the purpose? Was it to lure men to watch LOST? It’s too late in the game. The people who are watching faithfully will continue to watch it. For anybody else, this show is way above their heads at this stage of the came.

Will we ever learn anything from Daniel (Faraday)? He is a scientist, and yes, there are those scientists who are a bit absent minded. I am married to one. But this guy is beginning to give a bad connotation to the word “scientist.” The man is a bumbling fool. I am not sure whether it is the actor’s or the writer’s fault here. Is it that Jeremy Davies is not able to properly portray what the writers’ are trying to convey or whether the writers’ are not aware of how exactly a very eccentric scientist would behave. I am hoping that the story line will soon clear why Daniel is such a fool. I really would not want him ending up like Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro).

A dead body is seen floating to the shore. No one knows who he is but Charlotte and Daniel. Charlotte keeps quiet about the man, Daniel tries to hide what he knows, but we can see through his lies. Why does he have the need to lie? Frankly, it seems as if the people stuck at the beach are continuing with the old LOST saga: Give no answers, keep the audience guessing, give nothing away, and just shove mysteries continuously at them.

The Scientists Are Not the Crash Survivor's Friend

Daniel tells Jack that the body is that of the doctor in charge on the freight. When Jack tells him to inform the freight’s captain that the doctor’s dead body was washed ashore, Daniel comes up with all sorts of excuses as to why he can’t. One of the excuses is that the satellite phone is broken. When his bluff is called by Bernard who tells him that he can use Morse code, Daniel has no alternative but to use Morse code to communicate with the freight. The captain of the freight answers in Morse code that the doctor is fine and on-board, but Daniel translates it as 'they didn’t say what happened to the doctor, but that the castaways on board were fine and a helicopter will be coming in the morning.' However, Bernard, who knows Morse code, called his bluff. He told Jack that the message was, “What are you talking about? The doctor is fine.” Jack asks Daniel why he was lying. Were they there to take them off the island? Daniel says, “No.”

Jack realizes that he made a mistake for trusting the freighties and not listening to Locke.

Kung-Foo Ben

Here we learned some things. Ben travels outside of the island. In fact, he finds himself wearing a warm parka in the middle of the Sahara Desert. What happened to him? Where did he come from? The two Bedouins who find Ben in the desert do mention that “he seemed to fall in from the sky.” Kung-Foo Ben is awesome. He speaks Arabic, fights off the Bedouins, and rides off to the sky. More proof that Michael Emerson is an amazing actor. Frankly, giving credit where it is due, Mr. Emerson is not the Kung-Foo actor type. He is small and not muscular. But that scene does not seem unbelievable.

At Otherville and Code 14J

So the Others did have a code to protect them from predators: Code 14J, which is used by the US Army as the Early Warning System Operator. My question is as follows: Why are these “Others” using US military codes? How did they learn about them? Probably it has no meaning what so ever. More than likely the writers used the code to mess with our minds. They have been doing that for the past 4 years. Why not continue. Gosh, I love this show!

Alex

Alex was caught. She foolishly told the enemy who she was. She saw her biological mother and her boyfriend get killed in front of her, and she did what she thought was the right thing to do: She surrendered. I guess her dad never taught her how to defend herself from the enemy. I think that Ben’s demise was not thinking ahead and not teaching her survival skills in case of an attack. But then, he may have thought that there was no need to teach her those skills. After all, we find out later in the episode that Ben accuses Charles Widmore of changing the rules. I hope that we do get to find out what the rules were and why there was a need to have rules in the first place.

Martin Christopher Keamy, a mercenary and the leader of the military team that was hired by Charles Widmore to invade the island, captures Alex. He uses Alex as bait to make Ben leave the house where he is holed up. Ben, thinking that the rules prevailed, played the pawn named “Alex” by telling Keamy that she meant nothing to him. She was only a child that he stole from a crazy woman. Keamy shoots Alex in cold blood. Ben’s face is in shock. He never thought that he’d witnessed his daughter’s death. Keamy did not play by the rules. The rules changed. (And Michael Emerson deserves an Emmy. His acting was impeccable and extremely believable. He elevated the death of a minor character to a higher level that it would have been had another actor played her father. Alex’s death became a tragedy that otherwise would have been long forgotten had it not been for Michael Emerson’s acting. It was pathos with a capital “P.” )

By the way, upon checking on Keamy on Wikipedia, I found out the following about his name:

· In Mayan Astrology, the sign CIMI, pronounced the same way as Martin's last name, means DEATH.

· The tattoo on his right shoulder is similar to the company logo of Blackwater Worldwide, a PMC located in North Carolina.

· The name Martin comes from the Latin Martinus, which means "Servant of Mars" or "Servant of War".

So is Keamy the Death Lord? Is he going to be destroyer of life as we now know on the island?

The Smoke Monster

A few episodes ago, Locke asked Ben what the smoke monster was. Ben said that he didn’t know. In this episode, Ben summons the monster forward. The monster attacks the militia that has come to capture Ben and kill everyone else in the island. I was hoping that Keamy would have gotten his demise. However, from the looks of the upcoming episodes, Keamy is alive and unharmed.

What does it mean that the smoke monster is summoned? Does it mean that Ben knows what Smokey is all about? Or does it mean that Ben knows how to summon it and he may not know what it is? We found out in the episode that Ben fears it as much as everyone else. He just seems to know how to stay out of its way.

I Had Everything under Control, but He Changed the Rules

Before Keamy killed Alex, Ben assured her that he had everything under control. He played his chess piece; Ben called Keamy’s bluff by telling the mercenary that Alex meant nothing to him. She was just a pawn piece—a child that he stole from a crazy woman. Keamy is cold blooded and kills Alex in the head. Pool Alex, the last words she heard was that her father never cared for her. Poor Ben, he got to see his daughter’s execution.

Ben realized upon the death of his daughter that the rules have been changed. “He changed the rules,” he muttered. At that point, we had no idea who the “he” was. Ben sat in shock for a long while and then he got up and disappeared into his private room, into yet another hidden room. Later we found out that he summoned Smokey. I guess that he now changed the rules accordingly as well.

Revenge

Alex’s death changed the direction that the show is now going to take. I am quite sure that in season 5 we will learn what DHARMA is all about, what the purge was for, and how Ben will avenge his daughter’s death. We already got to see how Sayid was recruited into “Ben’s army.” Ben took advantage of Sayid’s need to avenge his own wife’s murder (Nadia).

According to Locke, everything that happened to the crash survivor happened for a reason. Ben finding himself in the Sahara Desert when he was teleported from what seemed to be a cold-climate area, as he was wearing a winter parka was also for a reason. According to Mr. Friendly, the island dictates what can happen to you. Michael was not able to kill himself, because the island wouldn’t let him. Michael had a purpose and the island made sure that he accomplished it. I think the same thing is happening to Ben. He found himself in the Sahara Desert because he was supposed to go to Tunisia, and, at his hotel, he was to see the video of Sayid returning to Iraq to bury his murdered wife. Ben wisely knew that he could recruit Sayid to become an assassin and get rid of those people who are against the island.

Good-Bye, Alex

Alex’s body was cold. The mercenaries were punished by the smoke monster, and Ben had to say his final good-bye to Alex. This was a very poignant, emotionally fully charged scene. This is another scene that showed Mr. Emerson’s talent. And, by the way, Tania Raymonde did a great job in this episode as well. She should be named for an Emmy for Best Female Supporting Actress.

Wake Up, Charles

Ben knows where Charles lives and knows how to charm the doorman into letting him “visit” Charles. Of course, Ben is ready to knock the doorman out if he prevents Ben from going up to the penthouse. When Ben gets in to Charles' bedroom, the two talk. They have animosity against each other, but they cannot, for some reason. harm each other. Why? We don’t know. I, personally, believe that the island is commanding the truce between the men. However, the men are free to hire or recruit people who can destroy each other’s hired and recruited personnel. It’s a crazy game. It has rules. But according to Ben, the rules were changed by Widmore. Therefore, he, Ben, is now going to look for Penelope and murder her. That way, Widmore will have a taste of what Ben went through.

Widmore blames Ben for Alex’s murder. It was his island that Ben took. Ben never denied that he stole the island. And he never affirmed it. Season 5 should be a great season. Already, we are at the finish line of season 4, and I can say that up to now, the show did not disappoint me. And this episode made my love for the show even stronger. And, once again, if Michael Emerson does not win the Emmy, there will be a lot of angry fans out there.

Episode rating: A+++++

Lost Commentary

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:58:11 GMT

Robert Dougherty has a lot of good insight about LOST. I encourage you to read it.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/751239/losts_most_important_mythology_episodes.html

Spoiler: Is Claire Dead?

Sun, 04 May 2008 17:11:26 GMT

I've been wondering about whether Claire is dead or not? I think that she is, and I think that Miles either knew that she is or knew that she will be. Here's my proof:

What do you think?

Jimmy Kimmel Interviews Damon Lindeloft and Carlton Cuse

Sun, 04 May 2008 04:36:16 GMT

This video contains a sneak preview of the next episode towards the end of the interview. Jimmy does tell you when it comes on, enabling all of you who live spoiler free to stop watching. The sneak preview shows Ben, but he has no lines.

Lost's Big Question: Why IsThis Man So Scary?

Sat, 03 May 2008 05:02:20 GMT

My thanks goes to shalimar77777 for this great find:

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/05/2008

As the long-running plane-crash drama returns to the small screen, its sinister star, Michael Emerson, tells Michael Deacon he's as surprised by the plot twists as viewers are

Preview of an episode from Season 4

In 2004, an American study suggested that watching a lot of television could reduce a child's attention span. Parents, help is at hand. Sit your offspring in front of Sky One at 9pm tomorrow. Because if there's a television drama that actually increases the attention span, it's Lost.


	'I think it's the imaginations of viewers that make Ben scary', says Michael Emerson

The American thriller serial about plane-crash survivors stranded on a remote tropical island is about to reach its 80th episode. And still its mysteries are multiplying, getting ever more complex and strange. At first, viewers were asking, "Why did the plane crash? How will the survivors get home?" Now they're asking, "Who or what is the invisible and presumably malevolent spirit that lives in the hut in the jungle and answers (occasionally) to the name of Jacob?"

Keeping up with this tangle of riddles, exciting though it is, requires stamina. Happily for its producers, millions have it. In the US, Lost is watched by about 13 million people per episode; here, it's more than a million, which isn't bad for a programme available only on digital.

Tomorrow, the second half of season four begins. (The split was caused by the American television writers' strike.) Faithful viewers will tune in because they yearn for answers. But they'll also tune in for something else: television's scariest villain.

Michael Emerson plays Ben Linus. So scary is Ben that, when fans bump into Emerson in the street, they're scared of him, too.

"People are guarded with me," says Emerson, who was nominated for an Emmy last year for his work on Lost; he won one in 2001 for his guest role in a legal drama called The Practice, in which he played a serial killer. "They tend to be not too chummy, and they don't invade my physical space much. 'Hello, Mr Emerson,' they say. And when they shake hands, they hold themselves at a slight distance. I think they're afraid I'm going to whip something out on them. What that might be, I don't know…"

Ben leads a ruthless gang called The Others, who lived on the island before the plane crashed; at present he's a captive of Locke (played by Terry Quinn), the most enigmatic of the plane-crash survivors. Yet even as a captive Ben seems threatening. Impressive, given his build: he's short, scrawny, rat-like. He looks as if he lost his eyebrows in a small explosion. He talks quietly, in a menacingly measured drawl… with lots of pauses and emphases… which make him sound as if he knows… everything.

Remarkably, Ben was originally written as a minor character. Emerson was hired to appear for only a few episodes, in season two. But so skin-tinglingly sinister was he during those episodes that the producers had a rethink and turned Ben into perhaps Lost's most important character.

"I think it's the imaginations of viewers that make Ben scary," says Emerson (who isn't at all scary himself; polite, precise and elegantly suited, he comes across like a nicer version of Frasier's Niles Crane).

"He's not an imposing figure, not an overwhelming personality - he runs in neutral gear a lot. We fear the things we don't know or can't figure out, so maybe he falls into that category." We'll be seeing plenty of this seemingly unknowable creature in the new episodes. Particularly in a setting new to Lost: London. Previously, all Lost's scenes have been shot on Hawaii or mainland America.

The reasons for shooting in London, I'm afraid, will remain unclear until we see the new episodes; the most Emerson will say is that "I don't know if it's a quality of light [the producers] are looking for, or maybe the weather…" But then, it's almost always impossible to squeeze upcoming storylines out of Lost's stars.

For one thing, they don't know much more about what's going to happen next than we do. Emerson says he's only one script ahead of the viewers, and that sometimes an actor will open the latest script and find that their character is dead. That's it; the first they know of it. Indeed, so secretive are Lost's producers that they don't even let their cleaners have keys to their office in Los Angeles. When the cleaners come in, the producers stand by watchfully to ensure that there's no sneaking a peek at their scripts.

There are critics, though, who no longer want to know what secrets those scripts contain. Their attention spans have been stretched further than they can bear. Too many mysteries, they grumble; not enough answers. And they're not prepared to wait until 2010 - when Lost will conclude - to find out what it all means.

Emerson says he sympathises, a little. "It has always been thus on Lost - more questions than answers. But if they're worried that it's a great tease, then I guess most yarns are a tease - Homer is a tease, Dickens is a tease. Hang on in there. There must be something pleasant about the journey along the way, and I think Lost offers some of those pleasures - at the same time as it strings us along. I don't think [the producers] are any more guilty of that now than they were three years ago."

(One of Lost's teases-in-chief, executive producer Damon Lindelof, promises that, by the end of the final season, all the plot's loose ends will be tied up. Hope we can trust him on that.)

Emerson is unsure how long he himself could survive on a remote island: "Are we talking hours or minutes?" He doesn't have many Boy Scout skills; in the Iowa town where he grew up, "the Boy Scouts were juvenile delinquents, so I didn't last long. I think there was such bad misbehaviour that the troop was broken up." Also, being in the Hawaiian jungle at night unnerves him; while filming there a few weeks ago, he was startled mid-scene by a rush of wild pigs, "large and crazy and semi-dangerous-looking".

Still, he's steeling himself. Only two more years of sudden pig attacks - and other, grander mysteries - to go.

Lost returns to Sky One tomorrow

SOURCE: Telegraph.co.UK

What2Watch: Lost: Ben There, Done That

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:58:09 GMT

Something on Lost has happened so gradually that I didn't even think about it until last week: the show is becoming Ben's show. Handing the return episode last week over to him was an acknowledgment of how important Ben has become to Lost, and as we learn more about him, he's becoming more fascinating -- and even, for all the crap he's pulled, more human. Primary credit goes to Michael Emerson, but also credit the producers, who with a few exceptions (Nikki and Paolo), are excellent at picking up on what's working and what we want to see less of. I'll even forgive them for killing poor Alex in such a cruel way. A big part of island mythology died with her and her mother so I think there's a risk in eliminating them, but I'll trust the show knows what it's doing here too.

Tonight (ABC, 10 p.m.) what was once the Locke camp is no more and Ben and Locke go off looking for Jacob, while Sawyer leads the others (not the Others) back to the beach. The original beach crew is alarmed by Jack's deteriorating state. And since it's sweeps month now, that might just mean another high-profile death. We know people leave the island and then return, but sometimes I wonder if there's going to be anyone left to come back for.

SOURCE: Film.com

It Had to Be Done!

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:36:35 GMT

Once again.....

This cover

Should look like this:

More altered magazine covers are found here:

http://michaelemerson.net/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=63

(Click on the pictures to view the larger versions.