Lostaholix (Every Man for Himself episode)

Bill:
I'm repeating myself but each week of Season 3 of Lost more and more resembles the second half of season '06 for the Red Sox …

 

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Bill:
I mean the story is going nowhere, there's no sense of momentum, the plot is full of holes and yet, and yet, I continue to watch for reasons unknown.

 

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Tara:
Yeah, well, at least with the '06 Red Sox you knew it'd be over at game 162, unlike Lost where there is no end in sight.

 

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Bill:
I remembah how when I first read they were going to split this season in two and only do 6 episodes in the first paht, I was all "6 episodes? Man, I'm going to be jonesing for more."

 

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Bill:
Now, howevah, it feels as if I've already watched 60 episodes so fah.

 

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Tara:
Absolutely. And of those 60 hours 40 were commercials. I think I tore my rotator cuff last night from repeatedly reaching for the remote to fast-forward thru the ads.

 

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Bill:
So let me get this straight: The Othahs have a frickin submarine?

 

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Tara:
Yeah, I heard the reference to the sub and I was like, what the hell, are the Others on Steinbrenner's payroll or what?

 

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Bill:
So the Othahs have subs, have aquariums, have fully-equipped surgery facilities, have close-circuit TV's and cameras, but, alas, they are totally impotent and infertile when it comes to making babies.

 

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Tara:
When you put it that way, it really does seem like the Others are the Yankees of desert island dwellers — A bunch of high dollar resources lavished on aging thugs who really believe they are on some higher plane of existence yet, in the end, just can't produce.

 

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Bill:
Othahs Su-uck. Clap. Clap Clap-clap-clap. Othahs Su-uck.

 

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Comments

[jdog71]

I sat next to a booze-saturated Rick Middleton (Tricky Rick of the 80's Bruins and current NESN studio "analyst")on a flight to Orlando when I was a kid. He was nice enough, when he wasn't snoring. He signed a napkin for me, which I used to wipe his sleep-drool from my right arm.

[jen in HI]

lou..I think that the love of Stephen King comes from his ability to write for the everyman. It's not like he's David Foster Wallace or anything.

[h.b.]

Couple of Lost observations:

1) We do not, in fact, know what where Sawyer, Jack, and Kate are being held is an island. We only know it overlooks another island.

2) We do not know if Benry was really telling the truth when pointed to the island in the distance and told Sawyer that was Sawyer's "home."

3) The Others Village at Wysteria Lane seen in the first episode of Season 3 doesn't appear to be located on the same piece of land where Benry and the cages etc are currently located. The crashing 815 jumbojet was much closer to the village. It was implied as well that two Others sent to "infiltrate" the Lostaways could get there "in an hour" and they split on foot in opposite directions. Yeah, maybe there are two submarines, but even then, an hour seems unlikely. (Not that anything in Lost needs make sense, though.)

[Dave S.]

Ah, the baggage claim line at the airport: the great equalizer of men.

[Dave S.]

I had always thought that SK's appeal came from the tremendous yarns he spins, as well as from his excellent grasp of psychology: his characters behave very believably in very unbelievable circumstances. He's a fun, wet read. But, as louclinton has said, he's often kind of a hack.

[louclinton]

I once peed next to Chuck Colson in the Atlanta airport.

lc

[Rob in CT]

Chuck Colson. Now there's a blast from the past. You should have peed ON him.

[Bob]

I have the BEST urination story. I peed on Franco Harris's shoes outside O'Brien's in New Orleans a few days before the Pats-Packers Super Bowl.

[Bob]

And yes, he was wearing them at the time.

[jdog71]

I peed next to Vernon Reid of the band Living Color at Great Tweeter Woods in '97.

[h.b.]

I'm not sure if I agree with the hack sentiment. You ever read any of the stuff the literati (NYT Book Review etc) put forth as the "best and brightest" new works in literature? For the most part the stuff is unreadable dreck. Rarely do you find anyone in that crowd who can tell a story.

I think people will still read Stephen King and John Grisham 25 years from now, maybe 50 and beyond in the case of King. Meanwhile the people getting churned out of MFA programs and writer's workshops and getting their stamps of approval from self-anointed gatekeepers of the the literary canon will be long forgotten.

I guess it's the nature of art criticism that anything popular must also mean it's bad. This seems more pronounced, though, with books than with music or film.

Writers of detective fiction, fantasy fiction, western fiction, sci-fi fiction and the horror genre are never ever given much respect, but, I personally think that in that group are the best writers of our age.

[COD]

Bringing it back to the Red Sox - I met Nomar in line at the Wendy's in Perimeter Mall in Atlanta - winter after his rookie season IIRC. Must have been back visiting his GA Tech buddies or something. He was wearing a Red Sox hat and jacket, and I appeared to be the only person in the mall that had a clue who he was.

Didn't pee or spill anything on him though.

[Jeffrey]

I liked Grisham for a short time, and then found all his stuff formulaic. I liked "Time to Kill" best.

I really have enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote "Fight Club," and thought "The Diary" was the best.

[Dave S.]

King 25 years from now, for sure. Grisham...errr....not so much.

I refer to King as a hack entirely in regards to the quality of his language. I love King. The Stand is a blast, "It" is wonderful ("We all float down here!"), The Dark Tower, The Bachman Books, Different Seasons, his various short story collections, The Shining...his reads are tremendous. I would totally agree that King is vastly underrated by the snobs a la ivory tower. But it's hard to say that he's really a great master of the language. It's in that that his hackiness lies.

I tend with literature more towards your take with history, HB: we really won't have it boiled down for rather some time.

[jdog71]

I always thought of King as being along the lines of Mark Twain. The fact that he is primarily a horror/supernatural writer should be secondary, but unfortunately it never will. Its a shame because he is a very gifted writer and his love of the craft really shows. He cares more about the tradition and practice of story telling than he does about his critical reception by the "self-anointed gatekeepers of the literary canon" (great phrase btw). I think he is assumed to be bad by the gatekeepers because of his subject matter more than by his popularity though. As you say, genre writers are never given much respect by those of the upturned-nose ilk.

[louclinton]

I respect your opinion, h.b.

SK is just not for me. I have read only a few of his novels, read his book "On Writing", and his little league baseball stories in the New Yorker. (Odd that, to the best of my knowledge, he never sold a piece of fiction to the New Yorker). Like all the rest of us, I received on Christmas '04 three copies of his '04 RS Book, which was basically a bunch of emails slapped together. Of course, I ate that shit up.

Give me "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White anytime. That mofo was a hoot.

lc

[louclinton]

One of my favorite EB White quotes:

"The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. "

lc

[h.b.]

Good points, all. Grisham has definitely waned. I should have given a better example. At one time, it seemed Grisham had "the great American novel" capability in him, but not so much now.

Probably King wasn't the best example either.

A better example comes from the world of poetry is Charles Bukowksi. When he first hit the scene most of the literati and critics dismissed him out of hand. But a few folks (including Sartre of all people) saw immediately that he'd go on to be one of the most influential poets in any language ever. And so he has. To this day, though, he's only grudgingly accepted, and usually with lots of caveats, by the academics.

The thing that makes Bukowski so great, and this is what I was trying to get at with the King bit earlier, is his work is immediately accessible to everyone. His language, too, is often brutal, raw, unadorned, indeed, simplistic.

[jen in HI]

Ah, Strunk & White. A brilliant hoot indeed. And the "peeing near famous people" stories are totally cracking me up. My only brushes with celebrity have been fairly lame. Sold Girl Scout Cookies to Judith Light-1979. Jim Neighbors- used to water his house plants (1995-96).

[h.b.]

Good news story of the year especially if you're a Dilbert fan.

[Rob in CT]

"Jim Neighbors- used to water his house plants (1995-96)"

Well, gooooolllllllllyyyyyyyy! :-D

[jen in HI]

Holy Cow, hb...That is an amazing story. Thanks for passing that along. wow. rob...you wouldn't believe how many of those Red Skelton clown paintings he's got. creepy. (LOL)

[harwich rich]

I'm still trying to get that image of Olive Oyl out of my head :(((

[IkeG]

Sat next to John Gruden's brother on a plane once. He's an Arena Football League coach, and he was doing a crossword with the gal in the seat in front of him (she was flirting terribly). He comes to a three-letter word for "football scores", and he was given T_S. He and the girl are totally stumped and I'm chuckling about it, and I finally let him off the hook and tell him it's "TDs". He says "Thanks ... pissant".

[Jeffrey]

I grew up with James Van Der Beek. (okay, not that exciting)

and I coach youth baseball, and every years someone noteworthy walks in our parade. this year it was Papelbon and Delcarmen. Had a chat with Jonathan. Got a couple of pictures with him and my team.

That is the extent of my brush with fame.

[Rob in CT]

Wow. Sox/Yanks, polar bears in submarines, Stephen King, Olive Oyl, urination, brushes with fame...

This is the best forum ever! :D

Where would we be without you, hb?

[Devine]

A little late to chime in again on King, maybe, BUT...

My problem with King (despite reading a couple dozen books of his, I'd say, so he must be doing something right) is that there's often great, great build-up and tremendous suspense...and then the ending comes and spoils it. I mean, maybe half the time, maybe more, I feel all "THAT'S what you brought me here to see."

*spoilers, though trying not to be too spoily*

IT (a wonderful book otherwise, I think) sort of loses some of its power when its (ITS?) final form is revealed--this applies to both the monster IT, which is a good thing literarily, and the book IT, which is not. I don't know how he could have made it work better. Maybe make the final form not quite so lame, so that it still boils to one thing, but is a little more scary. But I love the symbol they all see on the door near the end and how it means a different thing for each of them. Admittedly echoing the power of the monster itself, but still a good concept.

But anyway, yeah, I think that happens a lot in his books. It's been a frustration of mine for years. I feel he's a very good writer, but that perhaps his problem with endings (as I see it) keeps him from being a great writer.

[scott12xu]

A little late with the "brushes of fame" stuff but here we go:

My band opened up for Sonic Youth in 1986 at the Anthrax in Norwalk, CT. Conversed with band before and after show - all nice people.

Drove Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore (of SY) from New London, CT to Thurston's mom's house in Bethel, CT (literally from the SE part of the state to the western part near Danbury) after a SY gig in New London about 8 years later. Still nice guys.

Met Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) in a Tower Records in NYC in 1985. Interviewed him and fellow 'Cocks guitarist Steve Diggle for my fanzine 10 years later.

Bands that have stayed overnight at my apartment/house: Lisa (Suckdog) Carver, Pansy Division, Tar, Government Issue.

Meeting Michael Stipe and Mike Mills (R.E.M.) at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA (at Gang of Four and Robert Pollard shows, respectively)

Having an interview I did with Sebadoh posted online at their website.