TEASER: "Who the hell is Nikki" Exactly. It looks like the character we've spent most of a season unsure of even her name is dead. Just as she gets a backstory. The catch phrase "razzle dazzle" was hilarious and makes me really question Australian television. Is Paolo next? Oh, and Billy Dee! Genius!
ACT ONE: Great episode in the making, I can feel it. I love seeing these two no-names when the plane crashed. So great to go back and see how this all began, how horrific yet simple it was. I also like the toss in of "I hope we don't end up like them" when talking about Shannon and Boone. Nikki and Paolo were initially uninteresting and fought uselessness while alive and ended up dead, just like their pretty predecessors. Ah! And Artz! I'm so glad to see him again!
ACT TWO: I like the Greatest Hits flashbacks plus they're doing a great job of explaining why we never saw Nikki and Paolo before season three. I love how they hung out with Artz, whose best moment was talking about how there were other survivors than just the dozen that got the spotlight in season one. Hurley's line about the bad guy who was a mystery until the fourth season sounded a little forced, could this be a big hint?
ACT THREE: Paolo was known to me as Bathroom Guy because of that one scene earlier in the season in "The Cost of Living." Now we know why the bathroom was important; he hid $8 million in it. The episode does have a bit of Forrest Gump to it, these two no-names visiting all the crucial turning points of the series before the rest of the cast (the plane, the Pearl Station, Ben and Juliet), but the bit about the toilet lets me know that they thought this far ahead to some degree. Genius.
ACT FOUR: Glad that Charlie's come clean. It's a step in the right direction after that nearly fatal-for-his-character move. I'm sure this'll lead to a "stay away from my baby!" from Claire if she finds out.
ACT FIVE: Holy crap! Perfect! "Paolo lies" and "paralyzed" are so close! How...I can't even think of how they came across that! I want commentary now! All the mysteries of this episode are solved and tied up, something I was afraid wouldn't be done. I'm shocked, really, but both Nikki and Paolo were pretty despicable people. They got what they deserved, I guess, and that's what the island does.
Overall this is a great episode, the only problem is that it was pretty seperate from the main story. Much like Nikki and Paolo, actually. That may have been the point. Really, this is exactly the type of episode that those two deserved after spending all of season 3 in the shadows being useless. They died as they lived, alone and apart from the others. The main cast can't eulogize them and then they bury them alive; perhaps if they were closer friends with Nikki and Paolo all along they would have known more about Arzt's bugs, been able to understand Nikki's final words (they weren't "Paolo lies" or "powerlines"), or gone looking for them that morning. But no, both of their deaths, while really murder at the hands of Sawyer, Hurley and Charlie, were total accidents and their own doing. This was a great little detour from the main drama and a reminder of what made the show great back in season one.
I have a roommate. Life is good. This means that I now have an extra $550 for the next two months to, you know, be able to live on. Of course the thought of having money is completely dismantling the good lil' spender I had become. I had dinner delivered Monday night. I bought myself a sandwich for lunch yesterday. I spent $20 on picture frames for the decoration of my newly healthily furnished room (pictures to come soon!). If I can finish Melinda & Melinda I'll return it and get back on track with The 100 Film Initiative. I've only watched Borat and Hot Fuzz in the last month. I'm falling behind.
M&M is not as good as the candy that just popped into your head after reading that abbreviation. Woody, seriously, people like those in your movies don't exist. And those that do aren't enough to make your movie successful, nor do they probably care about seeing themselves represented on the big screen. No one discusses philosophy constantly. No one is insanely well-versed in classical music, especially current classical musicians. It's annoying. Woody, your movies are loved by hipster indie Wes Anderson loving twentysomethings who have studied your films in college and cite Manhattan as a turning point in their film-viewing lives. This fan base loves ScarJo because of Ghost World and Lost in Translation and loves that you love her (Match Point is great). This fan base doesn't give a rat crap about any of the things your characters give a rat crap about and man, it's really hard to relate to them. Woody, stop making pop culture references or start making some that make sense in 2007. There are plenty of equally pretentious bands that are just dying to be referenced by your latest young muse (Arcade Fire, hello!).
And also, try making a movie where no one cheats on their spouse.
I'm trying to think of things to buy with my money. The number one thing on the list is a digital camera, a nice one that's small and portable. A nice zoom and big ol' mega pixels would be good, but the portability is key. My last camera was pretty nifty but pretty bulky. I need this so I can take pictures of The Decemberists on July 16th in Central Park. And upload them on FlickR along with the hundreds of other digital camera-equipped Decemberists fans that will be in attendance.
FlickR has become an obsession of mine. It's crazy that I can just type in a name and see all sorts of pictures, my favorites being celebrities with random fans. Once I get my internet up and running at home, I'll upload my photos to it. The pic above was taken at The Strokes show at the Ryman last year.
That's about it. I'm hungry. I'm going to go BUY lunch.
Traveling to Boston is a joy mostly because it's so easy. $15, four hours, I'm in another legendary and mythical locale of the Northeast. On the ride up I read the book I Know You're Out There by Michael Beaumier, which I got for free at The Late Show last fall. I also slept and listened to my favorite Decemberists jams since, you know, that's why I was making this trek. Thoughts of chimbley sweeps, infantas, shanties, bayonets, muskets, and ferocious whales all danced through my mind as I drifted in and out of an uncomfy slumber.
I met up with Dave in the early afternoon after arriving and we had a lovely lunch of Thai food. I wanted to scope out the venue and see what the waiting situation was going to be like. I always get to general admission concerts early since my lack of inches height-wise makes it hard to view anything if I'm not up front, clutching the metal barrier or stage itself. 4:30, ticket says 7:00, and already 30+ people in line. High school kids. The curse of an all ages show, kids with nothing better to do on a Saturday that wait outside for well over three hours. I can't tease, really, since I was like this once and still am, the difference being as the concerts I attend restrict their patrons strongly due to age, the number of people over 21 willing to wait long stretches of time is significantly smaller.
I sat outside until 6, reading, talking on the phone, and listening to the iPod. Upon entering I found myself about four standing rows back. Not bad but not up to the standards I'm used to, especially since this meant there would be four rows of people potentially blocking my view of Mr. Meloy and his merry band. There was a quartet of Frat Douches directly in front of me who would, from time to time, attempt to talk to the couple standing next to them who with which they were also associated. This couple, very James Franco/Busy Phillips from "Freaks & Geeks," made out continuously for the hour and a half until the opening group took the stage. During this time, I got to become very familiar with the Frat Douches.
Decemberist Douche - Knew everything about the band and pointed out how much acid they say they were on while recording "Perfect Crime #1." Acid or absinyth, not sure. He spoke with an annoyingly deep nasal voice and was very into and adamant about such pretty and mellow acoustic ditties.
RA Douche - The douche in front of me who, due to the crowd confines, spent some of the night having my chin on his shoulder. He told stories about his RA exploits and how he didn't bail on helping a drunk girl even though she wasn't hot. He then put his iPod on Picaresque and hippie danced for a good half hour, shoving the other half of his ear bud into the other Douches' ears in a "Hey, I'm listening to 'The Infanta'! Cool, huh?!" kinda way.
DMB Douche - The guy obviously drug along with his three Douches, his defining quote being "This place isn't as packed as when Sublime played." I don't know what decade this guy was living in. He put his iPod on and listened to some Dave Matthews Band, mislabeled DMB with song titles not corresponding to their albums and album artwork arranged all willy nilly. He kept pretty quiet.
Pot Douche - This guy spent the ninety minutes carving a hole in the bottom of his lighter with a pocket knife so he could "store ANYTHING" in it while also going over the details of all the pot the four of them were going to smoke that night. He also shared a video on his cell phone of two girls making out. After watching this, the four douches high fived each other.
Concert going is a weird experience. The music that you go to a concert to hear is, for the most part, private. You listen to these songs alone, you sing along alone, you love them alone, you internalize them, you apply all sorts of meaning and memories to these songs. They become yours. Then you go to a concert and stand behind people who slur the words to "We Both Go Down Togther" while passing imaginary orbs and talking about all the pot they're going to smoke during the show. You have to wonder if they're hearing the same song as you. Guess not.
The opening act, My Brightest Diamond, was decent. The woman was overwhelmingly charismatic and had a lovely voice, very Regina Spektor-y in my opinion. She later came out and sang the female part to "Yankee Bayonet." After the opening act, a pack of sidlers made their way next to me with every intention of breaking through and getting to the front. The cramped conditions finally got to them and they realized that they were now fourth-row dwellers next to me. Fine. But the Frat Douches decided to take a stand and started rigidly pushing everyone behind them backwards, doubling the already generous amount of space they had. This irritated me and led me to tell the sidlers that if they wanted to get up front, they should come in front of me and shove these guys out of the way since they were being rude. The James Franco/Busy Phillips couple looked at me with a mix of shock and loathing.
The douches were not only going to hippie dance, sully my songs and smoke loads of marijuana, they were going to kill me.
The show started and I tried to not interact with anyone and, once Colin Meloy came onstage, it was all right. The band opened with "Oceanside" and then went into "The Island," all 12 minutes of it. This was a highlight, with the band switching instruments for the last bit of it and creating such a beautiful atmosphere. Colin is a superb showman, stomping furiously and marching during "The Island" and instructing the audience to sing along at all possible moments. He plays to the audience, gets on his knees while playing the guitar with his teeth, and is downright hilarious in-between songs. The band did an impromptu jam which Colin dubbed "The Chris Funk Theme." He then did multiple versions of the theme, each with a different mood that Chris Funk (the guitarist) acted out. "All of those moods included the bottle of wine, I noticed" Colin said of Chris' characters. Someone in the audience yelled for them to do a ska version, and after doing so Colin noted that they were "really good at ska."
The best moment came during "16 Military Wives" where Colin parted us like the Red Sea (leaving a strip of bare floor down the center of the audience), instructed us to introduce ourself to the person across from us, give them a glare, sneer, and then led us in the last "la-de-da-de-da" part of the song. My side did not win, no matter how hard I tried.
"The Mariner's Revenge Song" was also a joy; a giant papier mache whale ate the band. Great!
Setlist (not in order) Oceanside Grace Cathedral Hill The Island: Come & See/ The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) O Valencia! The Perfect Crime #2 Shankill Butchers Summersong The Crane Wife 1 Sons & Daughters The Infanta 16 Military Wives The Mariner's Revenge Song
Seems short but you have to remember that two of these songs took up nearly a third of the concert. The Frat Douches, after all, did not sing along, dance poorly, or even smoke anything. They were all talk. Losers.
I love youtube. There are already videos from the show.
Mariner's Revenge Song
O Valencia!
Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
I can't wait to see The Decemberists again in July. Yes...yes...
I usually don't care about cutesy-wootsy stuff. I usually don't give a flying fig. Yeah, your baby bulldog is cute. Whatev. Let me read Uncanny X-Men #334. Sure, that kitty is cute, all mischievously peeping out from the toilet bowl that she has so playfully slipped in. Bored now. But Knut? The first polar bear cub born in captivity in Germany in 30 years? The surviving twin that was left for dead by a former circus bear (the bear equivalent of white trash) turned mother? Knut, the German celebrity who gets weekly updates on the news and is drawing fire from animal rights peeps who think his domestication can't lead to anything good? This darn polar bear gets me.
And the cull continues. With both Mighty Avengers and Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight blowing me away with comic-shaped goodness, I have to let another title go for now. This one is definitely a for now since I'm not so keen on dumping it.
MS. MARVEL (volume 2) First Issue Bought: #1, May 2006 Last Issue Bought: #12, April 2007 Total Issues Bought: 12 Length Of Collecting: 11 months
I associate this title with my time spent living at BarfCom, last summer, the summer I moved out of my parents house and had my lovely internship at NewsChannel 5+. I bought the first three issues at once and was pretty much hooked. I hunted down a Ms. Marvel action figure and grew quite attached to Carol. I'm still attached, she's one of my favorite Marvel heroines definitely. The strong start her series got off to was, much like everything else, hijacked by Civil War. Her crossover was pretty good with it, actually, and the themes of Civil War go along well with Ms. Marvel. But after that, a so-so two-parter followed and some solid retro-feel villains fought Carol. No problem, the book's not bad. It's just when compared to the other books on the list, this one gets the ax. Plus, it's easier to drop this book before it starts a new arc than to drop it midway. This way I can pick up the trade at some point and get caught up with the series. I'll be seeing you later, Ms. Marvel. Hopefully I'll get a roommate (with minimal personal belongings) and I can return in a month.
My Halloween costume five months ago was way lame. Way lame. I was a member of the Hives which, oddly enough, people recognized but involved nothing special on my part. Even my Peter Parker costume involved me hand drawing webbing on a red t-shirt. This year, and this may be the earliest I've done this (I usually start 5-6 months early), I'm going to be a full-fledged X-Man. My current comic craze needs this. But my dream costume will probably always elude me since...
A) Where do I buy spandex? B) How do I manipulate spandex to appear like that costume? C) How does the public deal with me in spandex?
So with that still out of reach, I need a comic book hero who wears clothes I can actually mimic. Just so happens that my favorite character of all time, Multiple Man, currently has an attainable costume.
Plus, I really want that shirt. It's nice and designy, I can't believe Marvel hasn't made one yet. I'm going to get on this as soon as I become financially stable.
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TEASER: "Who the hell is Nikki" Exactly. It looks like the character we've spent most of a season unsure of even her name is dead. Just as she gets a backstory. The catch phrase "razzle dazzle" was hilarious and makes me really question Australian television. Is Paolo next? Oh, and Billy Dee! Genius!
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