This is Not Amnesia

Where to start? One of the Big Questions behind the show (at least in my book), along with “what is the smoke monster?,” “what exactly is the island?,” and “who are the Others/Natives/Hostiles?” was “how is time flowing differently on the island?” Not the most cogent phrasing, I know, but you get the idea. There’s been a steadily increasing flow of hints and allusions concerning the fact that time ain’t flowing quite right there, whether it be a throwaway reference by one of our castaways “[insert event] felt like an eternity ago,” or in analysis of empirical data from an experiment hastily assembled by an eccentric scientist (Faraday’s ship-to-shore rocket payload). Well, we have a pretty good idea after tonight. I’m sure that episode made the heads of many feel pain under the weight of the equations and concepts thrown at the audience, so let’s try and make some sense of it.

faraday on beach
He might be even more confused than we are

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So Long

Sharks acquire Campbell from Sabres

Unable to sign their potential unrestricted free agent to a long-term deal, the Buffalo Sabres have traded defenceman Brian Campbell to the San Jose Sharks for forward Steve Bernier and a first-round draft pick.

STEVE FREAKING BERNIER. Here are the right wing’s NHL career stats:
Year Team League GP G A Pts +/- PIM Shots Sh%
2007-08 San Jose NHL 59 13 10 23 -2 62 96 13.54
2006-07 San Jose NHL 62 15 16 31 +5 29 104 14.42

So why not just keep Campbell until July, Darcy? You would’ve got nothing in return for him then, but you’re getting nothing now. So why not keep him for a playoff run?

Gone

Someone’s gotta help me out here and tell me the point of being a sports fan in this town. I’m struggling.

Oscar 2008

OscarDue solely to my wildly successful Super Bowl running diary, I thought I’d go back to the well for one on everyone’s favorite awards show/liberal political showcase, the Academy Awards!

7:52pm I’m catching the tail end of Barbara Walters’ annual special, interviewing Harrison Ford. The highlight was a word association question from Walters, asking him to say the first word that comes to his mind as she names his movies. American Graffiti: “BEER.” Well done, Dr. Jones.

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Vantage Point | C+

director: Pete Travis
writer: Barry Levy
starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Eduardo Noriega

Vantage PointA self-proclaimed “thriller” that doesn’t thrill so much as it devolves into another generic Hollywood product that’ll do good business opening weekend before fading from the consciousness of every moviegoer that sees it. I know, this is a refrain you’ve heard me start reviews with many times, but seeing as 85% of the stuff in the mutiplexes ain’t that great, what choice do I have?

Vantage Point’s story focuses on the assassination attempt of the U.S. president as a peace summit in Spain, the gimmick being that it’s told from the different perspectives of eight strangers with eight different points-of-view. That concept makes the movie relatively interesting for the first half, though by the time we get to the eighth recounting of the same event, it’s a little grating. The eight vantage points converge in the final act, but there’s no real pay-off. There’s no great revelation or “holy cow!” moment where our preconceptions are turned on their ear. You can see the finish line of the movie from a distance, so there’s no surprise and thus no real enjoyment.

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Bad Eggs

Not a whole lot going on this Thursday night. Locke takes charge of his supplicants. Jack looks tired and conflicted. Hurley looks awkward. Sawyer gets pissed. Ben machinates. And Kate finally settles down as mother to a stolen kid. Tonight’s edition of Lost was relatively pedestrian, by the show’s lofty standards, the plot more filler and setup than anything of significant substance. I shall not let that damper my enthusiasm, nor yours, for analyzing each frame of footage, however.

cards
My God, look at the shape of that cloud! It’s a giant hamster/human hybrid!

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Off the Reservation

First, a quick word from the show’s creative leaders in light of the recent end of the writer’s strike:

Damon [Lindelof] and I are going to try to make five more episodes before the end of May, which is ambitious. But we’ve found ourselves in a situation where we had eight episodes of story planned, and we’re going to try to fit that into five hours of the show. Even though it’s going to be very hard to execute, we felt like any less would be doing a disservice to the story we had planned. We really want to give the fans the best possible experience and ending… to Season 4.
[executive producer Carlton Cuse]

Good news. Now, let’s talk about science!

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Primary Objectives

As my last three Lost posts have all begun with discussion of the Find 815 online game, so shall the fourth. It’d be hard not to, what with tonight’s episode giving us a direct link to it in the opening scene. We start with an underwater ROV happening upon the wreckage of “Flight 815.” I utilize the quotes because you and I both know that ain’t Flight 815. More on that later, but aforementioned ROV was piloted by none other than Sam Thomas, the star of the Find 815, the game that culminated with the discovery of the “Flight 815” wreckage by the salvage vessel Sam hitched a ride on, the Christiane I. Tonight’s footage had a bit more of a budget than Find 815’s.

815

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WOW

Ignore the title and pretend the game hasn’t happened yet, so you can enjoy my Super Bowl Running Diary; a post idea blatantly stolen from ESPN.com writer Bill Simmons (who thought the Pats would blow the Giants out in this game)! All times are Eastern, as this site fully endorses the East Coast Bias™ inherent in all professional sports coverage.

Super Bowl

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