Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Questions about Prayer
This whole situation with my friend Aaron and his daughter has caused me to re-examine what my take is on prayer. Before I throw out my questions I'm struggling with, I want to make it clear that Aaron, Kate, and their entire family has been on my heart and mind non-stop since I first heard the news a week ago. My current struggles have nothing to do with the way the prayers have been handled by everyone involved with Kate and everything to do with me working out my thoughts and beliefs on prayer. Now on to my questions (which I have no real answers to at this time)
- Does it really matter to God if one person prays or many? Are prayers answered solely in response to the amount of prayers being lifted to God and the multitude of intercessors? Can and is one person's prayer be just as effective as 1000? 10,000? If so then why ask for people to pray? If not then is prayer more like a popularity contest?
- Does it matter who prays? James 5:16 says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" So does only the righteous have their prayers answered? What about the people who aren't "believers" but still feel the need and desire to lift up a prayer for someone even though they don't have a clue what or why they are doing it?
- Is focusing your thoughts and prayers on one person while ignoring the rest of the hurt and suffering just because we are connected in some way with that person the right thing to do? Don't get me wrong, I've probably prayed more for Kate then my own kids this past week, but what about every other 5 year old at any hospital that's going through the same thing? Who's praying for them? What if they don't have the deep family and friend support Kate does?
How much do what we pray for (healing, peace, etc) really effects the outcome? Jesus said to pray, "Your will be done". So why do we ask God to fulfill our will? Oswald Chambers said, "It's not so much that prayer changes things as it is prayer changes me and I change things". I'm not sure why but that has always resonated within me as seeming right. So if it is then does all of our prayers for someone else really change anything for that person? Or does by the simple act of praying for that person we are changed because we are finally in constant communion with God?
Again, this whole situation effects everyone differently. For me it has caused me to search deep for these answers. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
- Does it really matter to God if one person prays or many? Are prayers answered solely in response to the amount of prayers being lifted to God and the multitude of intercessors? Can and is one person's prayer be just as effective as 1000? 10,000? If so then why ask for people to pray? If not then is prayer more like a popularity contest?
- Does it matter who prays? James 5:16 says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" So does only the righteous have their prayers answered? What about the people who aren't "believers" but still feel the need and desire to lift up a prayer for someone even though they don't have a clue what or why they are doing it?
- Is focusing your thoughts and prayers on one person while ignoring the rest of the hurt and suffering just because we are connected in some way with that person the right thing to do? Don't get me wrong, I've probably prayed more for Kate then my own kids this past week, but what about every other 5 year old at any hospital that's going through the same thing? Who's praying for them? What if they don't have the deep family and friend support Kate does?
How much do what we pray for (healing, peace, etc) really effects the outcome? Jesus said to pray, "Your will be done". So why do we ask God to fulfill our will? Oswald Chambers said, "It's not so much that prayer changes things as it is prayer changes me and I change things". I'm not sure why but that has always resonated within me as seeming right. So if it is then does all of our prayers for someone else really change anything for that person? Or does by the simple act of praying for that person we are changed because we are finally in constant communion with God?
Again, this whole situation effects everyone differently. For me it has caused me to search deep for these answers. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Praying For A Friend
Long, heart-breaking story short: An old friend from high school who is now lives with his family in AZ found out this week his perfectly healthy 5 year old little girl has a golf ball size cancerous brain tumor. She is schedule for surgery today. Please lift up Kate, her family, the doctors, and nurses as they begin what will seem like the longest day of their lives. You can read all about their situation here:
CaringBridge / mcraekate / Welcome
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Top 10 Things I learned while on our youth mission trip to Pittsburgh
1) We have the most raw, real, honest, and transparent youth group God ever created. It's like we're all from the island of misfit youth. "I want to be a dentist"2) Having such a diverse group of adult leaders is a challenge, but a good challenge.
3) Students worshiping inside, gun shots outside make for a surreal experience.
4) Every resident was over-joyed to have us there. Very nice people in Wilkinsburg
5) Might be the best Group Workcamp program material ever.
6) Whoever designed the road system in and around Pittsburgh should be waterboarded.
7) I discovered the worst McDonalds on the planet. It's located on Penn Ave in Pittsburgh. No refills on tea and you can forget about a Mcflurry.
8) After spending a week of 24/7 with Scott, I'm now a graduate of Fogel University.
9) If I had recorded the ride with Scott to and from Pittsburgh, I would have to put a parental advisory warning sticker on it.
10) Al's fish and chicken may be short for al-Qaida. Although the 9/11 crab cakes and Tora Bora Tilapia was excellent.
The month of June in 10 words
Where did June go??? And now for a brief recap...
New Kid Coming January
Packing For New House
Mission Trip
New Kid Coming January
Packing For New House
Mission Trip
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Movie Review time: Slumdog Millionare & The Wrestler
The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke pulls off the performance of his life (and one the best performances I have ever seen by an actor) as Randy "the Ram" Robinson. This tragically heartbreaking story is about a famous wrestler who's dealing with his age, a failing heart, and is beginning to believe it's time for retirement. He has no job skills, his love interest (Marisa Tomei) is a standoffish stripper who only regards Randy as a customer, while his daughter (Evan Rachael Wood) hates his guts and refuses to see him. The opposing challenger he fears most and wrestles with is his future loneliness. Randy lives alone in a trailer park, works part-time in the deli department at a grocery, but his faithful fans and fellow co-wrestlers love him because he's a marvelous guy and a true legend in the ring. The title of the film is a bit misleading because the story actually focuses on Randy's personal life and relationships, how he lives and gets by when outside the wrestling arena. Being a wrestler is what he does and shooting for the title is just a secondary plot which documents all the behind-the-scenes activity in the art of fake fighting. 4 Stars
Slumdog Millionaire
Where to begin? There is so much to say about this film but I am at a loss for words. How do I describe the way it made me feel? It's a drama, a romance, an adventure with action, a story of survival and social injustice. It will tug at your heartstrings and stimulate your mind. Shocking visuals of poverty and violence will assault your senses, but a story of enduring love and perseverance will counter the scenes of sorrow and deprivation. Top notch directing, amazing character development and acting, excellent cinematography, and most of all great storytelling make this a film that will not soon be forgotten. Told in a series of flashbacks, we see the events that shaped the life of the "slumdog" that enabled him to answer the questions as they were presented to him on the Indian version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". To put it simply, this film is awesome and a must-see. 4 Stars
Mickey Rourke pulls off the performance of his life (and one the best performances I have ever seen by an actor) as Randy "the Ram" Robinson. This tragically heartbreaking story is about a famous wrestler who's dealing with his age, a failing heart, and is beginning to believe it's time for retirement. He has no job skills, his love interest (Marisa Tomei) is a standoffish stripper who only regards Randy as a customer, while his daughter (Evan Rachael Wood) hates his guts and refuses to see him. The opposing challenger he fears most and wrestles with is his future loneliness. Randy lives alone in a trailer park, works part-time in the deli department at a grocery, but his faithful fans and fellow co-wrestlers love him because he's a marvelous guy and a true legend in the ring. The title of the film is a bit misleading because the story actually focuses on Randy's personal life and relationships, how he lives and gets by when outside the wrestling arena. Being a wrestler is what he does and shooting for the title is just a secondary plot which documents all the behind-the-scenes activity in the art of fake fighting. 4 Stars
Slumdog Millionaire
Where to begin? There is so much to say about this film but I am at a loss for words. How do I describe the way it made me feel? It's a drama, a romance, an adventure with action, a story of survival and social injustice. It will tug at your heartstrings and stimulate your mind. Shocking visuals of poverty and violence will assault your senses, but a story of enduring love and perseverance will counter the scenes of sorrow and deprivation. Top notch directing, amazing character development and acting, excellent cinematography, and most of all great storytelling make this a film that will not soon be forgotten. Told in a series of flashbacks, we see the events that shaped the life of the "slumdog" that enabled him to answer the questions as they were presented to him on the Indian version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". To put it simply, this film is awesome and a must-see. 4 Stars
Thursday, June 04, 2009
The Man Behind The Curtain
I stalled as long as I could. After many years of request to record our worship services and after many years of putting it off, the gift of modern technology has finally gotten the best of me. Our church recently purchased some recording equipment for our fellowship hall, which is where I lead our weekly Refinery service, so people would have access to past services.
I'm not sure the exact reason why I never cared if my services were recorded. One reason is I know how I am when I hear a really great talk at a conference. I buy the CD afterward then when I listen to it again it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it. I was always afraid the same thing would happen with me. Someone would love the message and service then listen to it again and see it really wasn't that great. Another reason is the demon of self-doubt I wrestle with daily. After every message I ever give I'm immediately attacked by my dark-passenger. I convince myself that what I said didn't make any sense, or that it was not biblical, or instead of leading people closer to Jesus I actually managed to push them further away. Now that we can and are putting the services online for the whole world to hear it opens up the door for outside criticism of what I say and what we do. And believe me there are some morons somewhere just waiting to pick apart everything that is said and done. It happens to the largest churches and most famous pastors and it happens to the smallest and least known. I just didn't want it to happen to me. I get beat down enough from me much less getting it from anyone else.
So here we are now slowly catching up with the rest of the church world with our new online website. If you care to listen you may, just remember that this is still in it's infancy stages and we're still working out some of the technical mishaps. As far as the music and preaching, there are no excuses for that.
http://www.msbcrecordings.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure the exact reason why I never cared if my services were recorded. One reason is I know how I am when I hear a really great talk at a conference. I buy the CD afterward then when I listen to it again it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it. I was always afraid the same thing would happen with me. Someone would love the message and service then listen to it again and see it really wasn't that great. Another reason is the demon of self-doubt I wrestle with daily. After every message I ever give I'm immediately attacked by my dark-passenger. I convince myself that what I said didn't make any sense, or that it was not biblical, or instead of leading people closer to Jesus I actually managed to push them further away. Now that we can and are putting the services online for the whole world to hear it opens up the door for outside criticism of what I say and what we do. And believe me there are some morons somewhere just waiting to pick apart everything that is said and done. It happens to the largest churches and most famous pastors and it happens to the smallest and least known. I just didn't want it to happen to me. I get beat down enough from me much less getting it from anyone else.
So here we are now slowly catching up with the rest of the church world with our new online website. If you care to listen you may, just remember that this is still in it's infancy stages and we're still working out some of the technical mishaps. As far as the music and preaching, there are no excuses for that.
http://www.msbcrecordings.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
So this is what winning feels like!
In my not so illustrious sporting career I have never, I repeat never played on a winning team. I know it's early and the Mike Gianopulos "Kiss Of Death" will probably come back to kill this but after one game of my new soccer season our team is 1-0! I'm playing with the same group I played in-door soccer with at the Y this past winter. The Kernersville Soccer Association organized their first adult league and had over 200 people sign-up. We joined as a team and added a few more folks to the mix. After getting killed in the in-door season I wasn't expecting to much this go around. I'm not sure yet if the competition is not quite what it was at the Y or we are just a much better outdoor team. We scored the first goal about 5 min into the game (that became the first time our team had ever had a lead) At the half we were up 2-0 and when the final whistle sounded we had won 4-1. Look out Barcelona here we come!
Friday, May 15, 2009
LOST Season Finale: In His Words
This past weeks season finale of LOST is being called the best episode yet for the 5 season long show. Looking back at, I can't argue that it wasn't. One ritual I have each week is checking out the best LOST fan site in the world, darkufo, and reading the commentray recap from a guy known only as Vozzek69. His reviews are always well thought out, full of wit, and dead-on target. His recap of the finale was one of his best so I thought I'd pass it on. Here is the LOST season 5 finale in his words...
Things I Noticed - The Incident by Vozzek69
Posted by DarkUFO
Last night when my head hit the pillow I realized something: The best season of LOST had just ended with the best episode ever. My opinion of course, but it was also my pillow. Way too many things to talk about, so no clever intro. Things I Noticed:
What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue? Red Snapper
Nothing could be cooler than opening the finale with this amazing scene. Delivering Jacob two minutes into the finale was awesome writing... waiting until the end to reveal him would've definitely been too little too late. In what's possibly the most pivotal scene in all of LOST, Jacob and the stranger in the dark shirt reveal an ageless battle between light and dark, fate and free will, maybe even between good and evil itself. All this while the Black Rock sails along in the distance, within the shadow of what now looks to be Anubis, jackal-god of death.
We learn so much stuff here it's hard to know where to start. You've got the repeated visual imagery of Jacob in white, the other man in a dark shirt. They discuss a seemingly eternal struggle between right and wrong, each of them sure of their position, neither one of them able to prove it... yet. We also learn what we've always suspected: that some force on the island - now explained to be Jacob - has been bringing people to its shores for a very, very long time. And for just as long, the dark force opposing him has been 'dealing' with these people in his own way, countering every move Jacob makes. Turns out it IS a game. A game between these two players. A game that has played out over and over again, in almost exactly the same ways, only each time with different people of different eras.
The dark man is annoyed at Jacob's attempts to keep bringing new players, or pieces, onto their chessboard. "They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt"... these are the points he makes to indicate once again that Jacob will fail to prove him wrong. He seems to suggest that the darker sides of human nature won't allow the circle to be broken. No matter who's on the ship, or the next ship, (or the airplane...) "It always ends the same". Jacob's response: "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that? It's just progress".
This conversation is the crux of the entire show. The dark man is resigned to the fact that LOST's loop will never be broken. He argues that Man's destructive history and propensity for war will never allow anything but corruption. This is an inner corruption too; one of the heart and soul. The dark man is judging humankind here on a very general basis - it doesn't matter who the Black Rock brings to the island, he believes Jacob will never be right.
Jacob on the other hand, believes in change. Maybe even an inner change, brought about by sacrifice and purity. All throughout LOST we've seen the terrible things done by everyone throughout their flashbacks. They've each been guilty of being impure on one level or another. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing - there are skeletons in every closet. At one time or another, every single one of our characters has done something to prove the dark man right... something that could be judged to be impure by his own definition of human nature. Everyone, of course, except for one person: Hurley.
So just as the dark man believes this wheel will spin round and round, forever unchanged, it's Jacob's opposite belief that there will be an ending. One single ending. And everything else that happens up to that point? It's nothing but practice. Progress. Evolution. Because eventually, Jacob believes that someone will be born out of all this record-skipping mayhem that will have the purity needed to end this really long game. Someone who passes judgment. Someone who can actually change things.
"Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?" The casual coolness of this line totally made the scene for me. It summed up the power struggle between these two entities (demi-gods?), and how neither one has been able to triumph over the other. When the dark man suggested "I'm going to find a loophole", I could've sworn he said "We're in the final loophole"... after replaying it a half-dozen times I'm going with the obvious first choice, but I also wonder if maybe it wasn't made to sound that way intentionally. Jacob's answer to the dark dude's death threat? Bring it.
What can we conclude here? It's obvious to me at least, that the guy in the dark shirt represents the smoke monster. This fits well with all the judging we've seen smokie do throughout the show. He abhors Jacob constantly bringing in all these tainted outsiders to violate the sanctity of his island. He killed Mr. Eko for refusing to repent. He destroyed the pilot before he could radio for help... to keep other slimy corrupt humans from finding the island. The smoke monster is the island's judge and jury, but he's also locked in a timeless power struggle with Jacob - one that goes by a very specific set of rules (the book of laws?) These dictate what they can and cannot do, and one thing they seemingly can't do is move the chesspieces around the board with their own hands. They can indirectly influence these moves by manipulating certain things, but the ultimate choices must eventually be made by the pieces themselves.
Perhaps this also explains why the kids, Zach and Emma, were taken away so early in the show. While they're almost certainly innocent and pure, they also haven't grown up yet. They haven't had the chance to be exposed to the vices of man, or to make any potentially corruptible decisions. Therefore, they don't count. And because they don't count, they cannot be pieces in this game... and are quickly removed.
I also found it interesting how the dark man refused Jacob's offer of fish with the line "I just ate". I'm probably not the only person wondering exactly what, or who, he just ate. The whole scene absolutely rocked. I think it opened the finale by shedding all new light on the way we'll view the island, the show, and everything else from here until the end of the series.
Juliet... Master Architect of The Great Sub Escape
If anyone took charge of their own destiny this episode, it was Juliet. She made some very command decisions last night, and all of them were key to bringing about the final resolution at the end. You had to feel bad for Sawyer, too. Even to the very last minute, Sawyer fought hard for his off-island fantasy. Seems like he really wanted to give living an honest life with Juliet a try, but as she points out later on, it probably wasn't ever meant to be.
I also give Juliet credit for knowing and accepting a lot of really hard things. For one, even though she knew her life with Sawyer wasn't ever meant to happen, she loved and clung on to it with both hands. This is why she agrees with Kate to go back to the island. If Jack were allowed to hit the show's reset button, it would erase everything she had with James. Juliet would rather give up any chance at freedom if it meant still having a life with the one man who really made her happy. She even looks back woefully at the sub's periscope as it disappears, inwardly knowing it was her last shot at ever leaving the island.
Richard - Now 0 for 2 When it Comes to Picking Leaders
As Sayid dismantles Jughead according to Dan's crazy scribbles, 1977 Richard has a few questions for Jack. He explains that he's visited a young John Locke three times already, and in none of those instances did he see anything that would indicate Locke to be 'special'. As we'll see later on, maybe John Locke wasn't special after all. He was a puppet in life, and a puppet in death: nothing more than a vessel used by the smoke monster on his quest to find a loophole.
Richard's instincts are correct here, but then Jack tells him not to give up on Locke. Maybe it's these very words that cause Richard to approach Locke on that hill a few seasons ago, incorrectly pushing the role of leadership upon him. Locke was never supposed to be chosen. He didn't have any more of a claim to leadership over the Others than Ben did. Richard was wrong on both counts... or so it seems that way. More on Locke later.
The one thing however that Richard is very serious about: protecting those leaders once they're chosen. Pistol-whipping Eloise was a good start to the violence that overwhelmed the whole second half of this episode. As much as Eloise wants to prevent the death of her son by helping Jack's mission succeed, Richard's loyalty to keeping her (or maybe her child?) safe precludes that. So it ends up with just Jack, Sayid, two jumpsuits, a bomb, and a whole lot of flying bullets.
Hurley & The Van to the Rescue - Parts II and III
This isn't the first season finale where Hugo drives to everyone's rescue in a periwinkle van. In fact, he even does it twice this episode. When the shit hits the fan, it seems like Hurley's always there to turn the fan off. And Jack's look as he saw Jin helping him load Sayid into the van was priceless.
Also priceless? The angry Jackface we got right after Roger put a bullet in Sayid's stomach. Jack went OFF this episode! He served bullets to anyone who looked hungry. I also have to say, Sayid's "Don't shoot me because I'm carrying a nuclear devic-" argument was a little weak considering the current situation. When Dharma's at DefCon 1 and you're staring down the barrel of Roger Linus' rifle? It's time to duck. Diplomacy goes out the window, here.
And just as it was lucky that Jack had the key to the janitor's closet a few episodes ago, it's equally lucky that Hurley just happens to know where the Swan station is. It's a good thing he and Miles are in the circle of trust, because it's not like they could stop at a gas station and ask directions.
What's in the Shadow of the Statue? A Whole Lot of Anti-Aging Cosmetics
All our little LOST lives we've been waiting for cool interactions like the ones between Locke, Richard, and Ben - and now we get them rapid-fire, all at once. In another great scene we see Richard pull Locke aside to call bullshit on his resurrection. Locke responds by calling double-dog bullshit on Richard for never aging. And that's when we get at least a partial answer to a BIG question we've always wanted the answer to: "I'm this way because of Jacob".
Finally seeing the origins of Richard Alpert will be one of the great scenes of Season 6, and I'm looking forward to it. And now that we know Richard's eternal youth is Jacob's doing, we can theorize he left him altered that way as the ageless keeper and counselor for the Others. These are Jacob's people, and apparently the dark man hasn't been able to touch them. Probably because they're island-born: they maintain a certain purity by living on its soil, drinking its waters, fishing its oceans. They're not intruders, and so he has no beef with them. That's my guess anyway.
Of bigger importance this scene is what Locke says will happen after Jacob is killed. He tells Richard that they're going to need to "take care of" the rest of the people from Ajira 316. Smokie has it out for the shadow-statue people, putting them firmly on the side of Jacob. The fact that he plans on doing anything after Jacob is dead also tells us that the battle isn't fully over, and that the monster will most likely keep using the form of John Locke next season. Which is awesome, because none of us want to see the end of Terry O'Quinn.
Someone's Been Sleeping In Jacob's Bed
And they trashed his whole cabin, too. Maybe ghost Claire had some friends over? Whoever it was, they even took down all his cool dogs playing poker paintings - something that was totally uncalled for.
And as Illana rummages through the ruins of Horace's once great vacation spot, we see the cabin for the first time in stark, revealing daylight. This time there's nothing spooky or supernatural about it: it's just a very run-down cabin. We don't need Illana's words to Bram in order to realize that whoever or whatever was using the cabin is now long gone. We also learn that Jacob hasn't been there for a very long time, and that "someone else" was using the cabin. Oh, and the machete note pinned to the wall? That's left there by Jacob, to let Illana know where she and the shadow-statue people can find him.
My theory on this is long and complicated, and probably has some holes in it... but here it is:
The man in the dark shirt was somehow imprisoned in the cabin, kept there by the circle of ash. This is who we first saw say "Help me" when the cabin was introduced. Maybe Jacob tricked him in there and trapped him, and maybe Richard even helped. This could explain why the dark man could at first only appear in one of his most ancient forms - the smoke monster - because his physical being was stuck in the cabin behind the circle of ash. We also saw him appear in the forms of Yemi and Alex, but only after having scanned the minds of the people who knew those characters.
Whatever the case, once the circle was broken the entity was allowed to leave. It took the form of Christian, but it also knew that Richard would never lead Christian to where Jacob was hiding out. It therefore needed to take the form of John Locke, a man who Richard envisions should be the true leader of the Others. As Richard points out, only the leader of the Others would be permitted an audience with Jacob... it's part of "the rules" and the smoke monster knows this.
And so the dark dude/monster develops an elaborate plan: To become Locke, it knows the original John Locke needs to die. But the island (Jacob?) won't let allow Locke to die; this is best evidenced when Ben shoots him point blank and he somehow lives. It realizes it needs to get Locke off island in order to kill him. It then uses ghost Christian to manipulate Locke into turning the wheel, where it knows/hopes Locke will be killed, while at the same time planting seeds in Locke's head that he'll need to die in order to come back. Ben dutifully brings Locke's body back on Ajira 316, thinking he's doing the island's bidding when he's actually doing the opposite.
The smoke monster takes over from there. All that's left at that point is to gain a weapon with which to kill Jacob. That weapon is Ben, and the dark man has been sharpening that weapon for a long time now.
That's The Door to the Hatch, Where You and I First Met
After breaking through a thick wall of sarcasm, Locke asks Ben about his initial meeting with Jacob in the cabin. Ben admits to never having seen Jacob, even opening up to being embarrassed that he'd been living a lie. He'd lied to his people, Locke's people, and Locke himself. Bitterly, Ben realizes he was never special. He wasn't ever supposed to be chosen, and Richard made the wrong decision in bringing him to the temple. Ben's sacrifice wasn't a sacrifice at all - he was taken without ever given a chance to decide... forced to lead a people whom he didn't belong to, made to follow a leader he could never see. His whole life has been nothing but a big lie, and he tells Locke so. And once he admits it, Locke seems satisfied with the answer. Is this the smoke monster judging Ben again, trying to get him to admit his big charade? Yes.
Then Ben asks Locke why he wants HIM to kill Jacob. Locke responds by throwing more fuel on the fire... giving Ben's motivations against Jacob a huge push. The dark man/smokie wants to breed anger and resentment toward Jacob, causing Ben to lose control of himself again the way he did when he killed Keamy. The smoke monster is honing Ben to a razor-sharp edge this last episode, breeding the anger and resentment needed to strike the killing blow.
The act of actually finding Jacob is being taken care of by Richard. The dark man needs to locate him, and Richard is obliged to lead him there in the form of Locke. When they finally get there: "Well that's a wonderful foot Richard, but what does it have to do with Jacob?" Look at the sideways glance he gives Richard when he responds by telling him that's where Jacob lives. Almost like "Dang, that should've been the first place I checked!"
Jacob's Oceanic 815 Round-The-World Tour
In some of the coolest moments this episode, we get to watch Jacob visit a bunch of the main characters at all different points in their lives. Some were kids, some were adults. Sometimes Jacob spoke, and sometimes he didn't say much of anything at all. As I watched these meetings I wondered what the purpose was. I couldn't understand why Jacob was taking the trouble to show up in all these characters lives for such brief moments. But then I watched the episode a second time, and suddenly I saw a common thread that ran through every single one of the meetings: In each scene, Jacob *touched* the person he was visiting.
* Jacob buys Kate a New Kids lunchbox, then tries to tell her not to steal again. A moment later, he touches Kate on the nose.
* Jacob hands James Ford a pen so he finish writing his infamous letter to the real Sawyer. As he does that, his hand lingers on young James' fingers.
* With Sayid, he's even sneakier. Jacob waits until Nadia gets creamed, then reaches up and touches Sayid on the arm as he turns his head.
* After his fall, Jacob touches Locke distinctly on the shoulder. His touch also seems to almost revive (or resurrect?) him.
* At Sun & Jin's wedding, Jacob reaches out and pats them both on their shoulders at the same time. He then goes on to speak flawless Korean and mows down the shrimp cocktail (deleted scene).
* Jacob hands Jack his Apollo bar and holds it just a second too long, lingering enough so that their fingers touch. Jack responds with a creepy stare.
* And with Hurley, Jacob reaches over the guitar case and touches him pointedly as he explains about flight 316.
Only in the meeting with Illana does Jacob not touch her. But we can't see his hands, and he does lean in really close to her... so it still might've happened. Then again, Illana wasn't a passenger on flight 815 as the others were, and seemed more of Jacob's agent. Touching her didn't seem as important.
So, why does Jacob touch each character at some point in their past? I'll bet it's got something to do with knowing (and reading) their thoughts, their memories, and their lives. Remember all those crazy coincidences between everyone all throughout LOST? Duplicate places, people, objects we've seen over and over again, like MaCutcheon's whisky? My theory has always been that the island's (or Jacob's) knowledge consists only of a finite amount of these things. What if it obtained these images and memories by reaching out and touching these characters, absorbing the major events in their lives, kind of like the way the smoke monster can scan people in it's own special way? There you go.
In retrospect, it does seem that Jacob's showing some genuine compassion for each of these people when he meets them. I totally believed him as he apologetically told Locke "I'm sorry this happened to you". He seemed concerned for Sawyer, and genuinely happy for Sun and Jin. Maybe he even visited Sayid at the exact moment he would've crossed the street and gotten killed, effectively saving him from being buried along with Nadia. And maybe Sayid dies from the gunshot wound he receives this episode because course correction puts him back where he belongs? Let's hope not.
The Jacob scenes were all good, but the most vital one by far was his visit with Hurley. Here, Jacob takes the time to actually speak with Hugo. He convinces him that he's not crazy, which is all-important to getting Hurley back on the plane. It's probably the one thing he needed to hear, and leaving him that guitar case to remind him of Charlie was probably another great motivator in Hugo boarding that flight. What's in it is another story.
I believe Hurley is the most special character on LOST when it comes to ultimately changing the game. He's the dark man's nightmare: someone who's totally above judgment. Hugo is the one pure, good, innocent and untarnished person lost in a sea of people who did some really bad shit. Nothing can ever corrupt him: not even the tremendous amounts of money or power associated with winning the lottery. Hugo's untouchable, and Jacob knows it. He allows Hurley make his own decision, and his decision was to come back to the island.
The Drive Shaft Ring Scene
Totally cool. Classy and awesome. Just watching Sun picking that thing up flooded my head with memories of all the old characters we don't even realize how much we miss anymore.
Didn't Y'all Hear Meet at the Creek?
Rose, Bernard, Vincent! I didn't think I'd be all that happy to see them, but this scene was so totally cool. For about five minutes, it broke up all the seriousness and tension building up during the other two hours of the show. And wow, it sure looks like Bernard got into the canned goods.
Now Rose hasn't had all that many lines in LOST, but when she does speak it's usually something filled with wisdom or purpose. So as Sawyer and the she-commandos burst onto the scenes with pistols and rifles ready, Rose echoes some of the very thoughts the dark man brings up in the opening scene this episode by telling them "It's always something with you people".
Rose and Bernard have retired, which is an interesting way to phrase it. If the island were a great big bunch of kids all playing tag, it's like these two kids just quit in the middle of the game and went off to do something else. They don't care about bombs, guns, or flying through time - all they want is to chill out and enjoy each other. This might be their own personal redemption; to stop running around looking for the next best thing and finally just smell the roses.
In the cool, coy way they seemed to regard Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet... it almost seemed to me as if they knew something the other three didn't. This was magnified when Bernard stops Juliet on the way out of camp: "Are you sure you don't want to stay for some tea?" Call it foreshadowing, sixth sense, whatever you want... I got the impression Bernard somehow knew Juliet should've stayed for tea. But sadly she didn't.
There's No Shortage of Klaxon Horns in Dharma
Seriously, they're everywhere. And just look at Radzinski: I haven't seen anyone this hellbent on drilling a hole since Armageddon. WTF did he think was gonna happen when he hit that pocket?
Well it Was a Long Time Coming...
Finally, we get to see the knockdown drag-out fight between Sawyer and Jack. As with past Locke/Jack battles, one of them takes the logical road and the other is pushing destiny down everyone's throat like a furious drug dealer. Jack's on the complete opposite side of his past arguments now, and Sawyer's on the opposite side of his past responsibilities. Both of them make good points, but as is often the case with LOST, it's nearly impossible to know which side is right and which is wrong.
Sawyer's "Think you can do whatever the hell you want?" line refers directly to Jack messing up his cozy Dharma lifestyle, but it also steps on the toes of free will. Jack's response is equivalent to "Hey, if I'm not supposed to do this then something will stop me". They beat the snot out of each other here, and I'm pretty sure the makeup department had to borrow some fake blood from the set of the Twilight sequel next door.
Juliet's flashback interrupts this scene, where she learns that sometimes two people love each other but aren't meant to be together... just like her and Sawyer. Suddenly everything's clear to her on this subject. I'd wondered why Juliet had the only flashback that didn't include Jacob, but that's because she wasn't ever necessary to the island's whole plan. She was someone Ben brought in for his own purposes only, and never really place in the grand scheme of things. More lost than anyone, really.
Sawyer's freakout at her sudden flip-flop to Jack's side of the argument is squashed when Juliet tells him "I saw the way you looked at her". Sure enough, she caught the glance Sawyer gave Kate back at Rose & Bernard's condo. Knowing they probably weren't meant to be together is one thing, but realizing they couldn't be together forever is another. At this point, Juliet realizes she'd rather go back to living an Other life - without ever having known Sawyer - rather than suffer the pain of losing him.
Holy Cow He Really Beat The Crap Out of You!
This line was cut from the original script, but it's probably what Kate was thinking. In a direct parallel of their first scene ever, Kate's cleaning Jack up. He pulls the Aaron and Claire cards from his sleeve, and asks her to trust him. Suddenly he talks a good game, and Jack's pretty convincing here.
I'd wondered why we got to see a flashback where his dad actually gave him a timeout, but what Christian was trying to do was instill Jack with a firm belief in himself. The lesson here was to forget about what everyone else was thinking and concentrate on your own beliefs and abilities. Jack uses this confidence to win Kate over. He somehow knows what he's doing is right. He makes her realize that if she truly did come back for Aaron, this is the only way to help Claire. Kate searches her feelings and agrees with him: all or nothing.
And the "See you in Los Angeles" line was GREAT.
Nothing Can Save Me...
Sayid, close to death - close to unconsciousness... it's only then that he realizes he can never be saved. It doesn't really matter what Jack does, the sum of Sayid's past sins is just too great. Even if he makes it, he can never atone.
The Incident
It was everything it needed to be, and it completely exceeded my expectations. The incident was a total mess for Dharma, for the 815'ers, and for the sanity of LOST fans everywhere who have to endure a *very* long eight or nine months of not knowing exactly what happened. But they did it up right! They made it awesome.
Did whatever happened happen again? Or did things change? There's no definitive answer here. Until we see what happens in the opening scene of next season, you could easily make arguments for both sides. Jack and company definitely accomplished Dan's goal: to detonate the bomb as close to the magnetic pocket as possible. But was that a big enough boulder to make changes in the great river of time?
Personally, I think so. Although Miles made a good argument that perhaps the 815'ers showing up with the bomb is what actually *causes* the incident, it's pretty obvious that there was going to be an "incident" no matter what. Nobody was going to stop Radzinsky from drilling - apparently not even Chang physically shutting the drill off. They were going to break through to that pocket - gunfight or not. Everything metal got sucked into that hole, jeeps and everything, and that was going to happen even if Jack's crew was drinking tea back at the swing set.
Chang lost his arm, just like we knew he would. Radzinski lived. Phil got what was coming to him. Bad stuff went down. But it was only after all of this had already happened that we saw Juliet set off the nuke by banging it with a rock. THIS could be the thing that changes everything... including the LOST logo, which for 100+ episodes has always been white on black, but is suddenly reversed to black on white. Hmmm.
Now of course you could argue that the nuke itself was always part of the original incident. Maybe this is why so much cement is poured on top of the Swan site. Maybe this is why the area gets quarantined, and everyone stationed there gets fancy yellow suits. Maybe this is why Desmond needs to inject himself with serum every time he wakes up to Mama Cass. All decent arguments.
However (and I'm definitely not an expert), I'm thinking the detonation of an atomic warhead would cause the following big problems:
1) Everyone would be thoroughly and completely dead.
2) The whole area would be a molten mess.
3) Radiation at the site would be deadly for a really long time.
To me, if that bomb went off things are looking pretty grim for Radzinsky, Chang, and the future of half the island. I can't see a way around that. I'm guessing that the whole plan to change things might've finally worked... something happened to create ripples way too big for even course correction to overcome. But again, that's me.
No matter what happened here, it leaves us with tremendous questions regarding our main characters. What happens next?
I think we can safely rule out everyone being dead. As great as Ben, Richard, Locke and Sun might be, they can't carry the show. And while the possibility of them all landing safely in LAX sounds plausible, I don't know how it could fit into the storyline with a whole season left to go.
Could they wake up on the beach just after the crash, at the beginning of the show... but retaining all their current memories? I love this idea. But I also don't think this type of result is doable from a production standpoint. It would require Boone, Shannon, Charlie, Michael, and a very young Walt. Can't see this happening.
The most likely possibility is that our main characters wake up on the island in 2007. Maybe the release of magnetic energy flashes them back to current time a split second before they're evaporated. If so, who goes? Just the people from 815? Wouldn't Juliet go too? Rose, Bernard, Vincent? Big questions.
Finally, let's consider this scenario: the bomb never went off. The flash we saw was just like all the other flashes, spinning everyone through time. Maybe the drill broke into the pocket just before Juliet could detonate the nuke (in which case maybe she's still alive). This would be a pretty big lie to carry on for eight or nine months, but I could totally see them doing it. ;)
He Who Will Protect Us All
Halfway through the episode I was pretty sure I knew what was in the box... and it was exactly what I thought it was. The major death this episode was John Locke, a man who died the same way he lived - completely bamboozled by someone he trusted.
But was Locke really nothing special, as Richie Ricardus would have us believe? Or do remnants of Locke's consciousness still remain within the form currently being inhabited by the dark man/smoke monster? If so, they didn't get there on the ride back on Ajira. Locke was dead as a doornail by then, and so was his mind.
Although he's dead, I'm pretty sure we're going to see lots of Locke next season. Knowing he's someone else - and only someone else - would put a pretty negative spin on his character for a lot of people. This is why I think there's a lot of John Locke still left inside that person in the now green shirt. And maybe it even got put there by Jacob. Just speculation here, but Jacob did touch each and every one of the characters he visited... but he touched Locke in an extra special way. Maybe he took something from him when he did that - and that's all I've got to say on this subject before someone gets all Search for Spock on me.
Jacob... Disrespecting Benjamin Linus for 35 Years And Counting
The final scene of the present-day storyline was every bit the incredible confrontation it needed to be. Jacob recognized immediately who had come for him. He looked saddened, not scared - expressing a form of pity instead of fear. His arch nemesis goes on to tell describe the incredible amounts of trouble he had to go through to arrive at this moment, and Jacob looks stoic as his adversary savors what finally looks to be victory.
It was surprising to me how fast Ben's role in everything was reduced to nothing more than a tool needed to commit murder. Sure, it's the murder of a demi-god... but I still thought Ben would've seen something like this coming. Instead, he didn't. The dark man used Ben as his very own dagger, finally using his long-sought after loophole to plunge Ben's knife deep into Jacob's heart. And Jacob just stood there and took it.
We've finally seen the entirety of Ben's character - from his beginnings as an innocent kid to the calculating, quick-thinking liar who ruled the island as an adult for so many years. In the end however, his emotions are reduced quickly back to that of a needy child, one looking only for some type parental recognition. Jacob never acknowledged Ben... whether he refused to do this or simply couldn't we really can't say. What we do know is the complete absence of Jacob caused a void in Ben's life, one that got filled with hatred and vengeance once Alex was killed. These fires were further stoked by his banishment after thankless years of obedient service.
At the exact moment Ben stands before Jacob, all he wants is that recognition. All he needs is a little attention from the person he so faithfully and blindly served for so many years. But Jacob offered him none. And as Ben closed on him, Jacob offered no resistance. There were probably a hundred things he could've said to ease Ben's 35 years of pain, maybe even explain some things to him. Instead, Jacob actually egged Ben on by answering his servant's query with his own sardonic version of the same question: "What ABOUT you?"
This triggers kill-crazy Ben, the same unstoppable force we saw in Keamy's last moments of life. Jacob knew this. He knew those words would elicit Ben's killing response, and he stood there and took each blow of Ben's knife without trying to stop it or fight him off. The smoke monster couldn't kill Jacob directly, but instead provided Ben with a weapon, a motive, and a confrontation with his enemy. This was his loophole. Ben kills Jacob by choice, but I also believe that Jacob chooses to die here.
In short, I think Jacob has a plan. That plan has something to do with Illana and the shadow-statue people. It might also have something to do with Illana's mention of Frank possibly being a 'candidate'. While I'm not exactly sure how he'll survive, I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of Jacob. I can't help but keep thinking about the ending to the movie Legend. Darkness needs light, light needs darkness. One cannot exist without the other - it's both poetic and cool.
Guys, Gals... it's been real. This season was my favorite one. The story's circle is closing, and I love where the writers are going with it. I've enjoyed all these weeks writing this stuff, reading your own thoughts and ideas, and talking about LOST with everyone. I know I've promised this before, but I'll try really hard to be around in the off-season. This is our last hiatus. It's going to be the longest, and possibly the worst, but we'll stick it out together.
As always, here's wishing everyone a great summer!
-Vozz
Things I Noticed - The Incident by Vozzek69
Posted by DarkUFO
Last night when my head hit the pillow I realized something: The best season of LOST had just ended with the best episode ever. My opinion of course, but it was also my pillow. Way too many things to talk about, so no clever intro. Things I Noticed:
What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue? Red Snapper
Nothing could be cooler than opening the finale with this amazing scene. Delivering Jacob two minutes into the finale was awesome writing... waiting until the end to reveal him would've definitely been too little too late. In what's possibly the most pivotal scene in all of LOST, Jacob and the stranger in the dark shirt reveal an ageless battle between light and dark, fate and free will, maybe even between good and evil itself. All this while the Black Rock sails along in the distance, within the shadow of what now looks to be Anubis, jackal-god of death.
We learn so much stuff here it's hard to know where to start. You've got the repeated visual imagery of Jacob in white, the other man in a dark shirt. They discuss a seemingly eternal struggle between right and wrong, each of them sure of their position, neither one of them able to prove it... yet. We also learn what we've always suspected: that some force on the island - now explained to be Jacob - has been bringing people to its shores for a very, very long time. And for just as long, the dark force opposing him has been 'dealing' with these people in his own way, countering every move Jacob makes. Turns out it IS a game. A game between these two players. A game that has played out over and over again, in almost exactly the same ways, only each time with different people of different eras.
The dark man is annoyed at Jacob's attempts to keep bringing new players, or pieces, onto their chessboard. "They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt"... these are the points he makes to indicate once again that Jacob will fail to prove him wrong. He seems to suggest that the darker sides of human nature won't allow the circle to be broken. No matter who's on the ship, or the next ship, (or the airplane...) "It always ends the same". Jacob's response: "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that? It's just progress".
This conversation is the crux of the entire show. The dark man is resigned to the fact that LOST's loop will never be broken. He argues that Man's destructive history and propensity for war will never allow anything but corruption. This is an inner corruption too; one of the heart and soul. The dark man is judging humankind here on a very general basis - it doesn't matter who the Black Rock brings to the island, he believes Jacob will never be right.
Jacob on the other hand, believes in change. Maybe even an inner change, brought about by sacrifice and purity. All throughout LOST we've seen the terrible things done by everyone throughout their flashbacks. They've each been guilty of being impure on one level or another. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing - there are skeletons in every closet. At one time or another, every single one of our characters has done something to prove the dark man right... something that could be judged to be impure by his own definition of human nature. Everyone, of course, except for one person: Hurley.
So just as the dark man believes this wheel will spin round and round, forever unchanged, it's Jacob's opposite belief that there will be an ending. One single ending. And everything else that happens up to that point? It's nothing but practice. Progress. Evolution. Because eventually, Jacob believes that someone will be born out of all this record-skipping mayhem that will have the purity needed to end this really long game. Someone who passes judgment. Someone who can actually change things.
"Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?" The casual coolness of this line totally made the scene for me. It summed up the power struggle between these two entities (demi-gods?), and how neither one has been able to triumph over the other. When the dark man suggested "I'm going to find a loophole", I could've sworn he said "We're in the final loophole"... after replaying it a half-dozen times I'm going with the obvious first choice, but I also wonder if maybe it wasn't made to sound that way intentionally. Jacob's answer to the dark dude's death threat? Bring it.
What can we conclude here? It's obvious to me at least, that the guy in the dark shirt represents the smoke monster. This fits well with all the judging we've seen smokie do throughout the show. He abhors Jacob constantly bringing in all these tainted outsiders to violate the sanctity of his island. He killed Mr. Eko for refusing to repent. He destroyed the pilot before he could radio for help... to keep other slimy corrupt humans from finding the island. The smoke monster is the island's judge and jury, but he's also locked in a timeless power struggle with Jacob - one that goes by a very specific set of rules (the book of laws?) These dictate what they can and cannot do, and one thing they seemingly can't do is move the chesspieces around the board with their own hands. They can indirectly influence these moves by manipulating certain things, but the ultimate choices must eventually be made by the pieces themselves.
Perhaps this also explains why the kids, Zach and Emma, were taken away so early in the show. While they're almost certainly innocent and pure, they also haven't grown up yet. They haven't had the chance to be exposed to the vices of man, or to make any potentially corruptible decisions. Therefore, they don't count. And because they don't count, they cannot be pieces in this game... and are quickly removed.
I also found it interesting how the dark man refused Jacob's offer of fish with the line "I just ate". I'm probably not the only person wondering exactly what, or who, he just ate. The whole scene absolutely rocked. I think it opened the finale by shedding all new light on the way we'll view the island, the show, and everything else from here until the end of the series.
Juliet... Master Architect of The Great Sub Escape
If anyone took charge of their own destiny this episode, it was Juliet. She made some very command decisions last night, and all of them were key to bringing about the final resolution at the end. You had to feel bad for Sawyer, too. Even to the very last minute, Sawyer fought hard for his off-island fantasy. Seems like he really wanted to give living an honest life with Juliet a try, but as she points out later on, it probably wasn't ever meant to be.
I also give Juliet credit for knowing and accepting a lot of really hard things. For one, even though she knew her life with Sawyer wasn't ever meant to happen, she loved and clung on to it with both hands. This is why she agrees with Kate to go back to the island. If Jack were allowed to hit the show's reset button, it would erase everything she had with James. Juliet would rather give up any chance at freedom if it meant still having a life with the one man who really made her happy. She even looks back woefully at the sub's periscope as it disappears, inwardly knowing it was her last shot at ever leaving the island.
Richard - Now 0 for 2 When it Comes to Picking Leaders
As Sayid dismantles Jughead according to Dan's crazy scribbles, 1977 Richard has a few questions for Jack. He explains that he's visited a young John Locke three times already, and in none of those instances did he see anything that would indicate Locke to be 'special'. As we'll see later on, maybe John Locke wasn't special after all. He was a puppet in life, and a puppet in death: nothing more than a vessel used by the smoke monster on his quest to find a loophole.
Richard's instincts are correct here, but then Jack tells him not to give up on Locke. Maybe it's these very words that cause Richard to approach Locke on that hill a few seasons ago, incorrectly pushing the role of leadership upon him. Locke was never supposed to be chosen. He didn't have any more of a claim to leadership over the Others than Ben did. Richard was wrong on both counts... or so it seems that way. More on Locke later.
The one thing however that Richard is very serious about: protecting those leaders once they're chosen. Pistol-whipping Eloise was a good start to the violence that overwhelmed the whole second half of this episode. As much as Eloise wants to prevent the death of her son by helping Jack's mission succeed, Richard's loyalty to keeping her (or maybe her child?) safe precludes that. So it ends up with just Jack, Sayid, two jumpsuits, a bomb, and a whole lot of flying bullets.
Hurley & The Van to the Rescue - Parts II and III
This isn't the first season finale where Hugo drives to everyone's rescue in a periwinkle van. In fact, he even does it twice this episode. When the shit hits the fan, it seems like Hurley's always there to turn the fan off. And Jack's look as he saw Jin helping him load Sayid into the van was priceless.
Also priceless? The angry Jackface we got right after Roger put a bullet in Sayid's stomach. Jack went OFF this episode! He served bullets to anyone who looked hungry. I also have to say, Sayid's "Don't shoot me because I'm carrying a nuclear devic-" argument was a little weak considering the current situation. When Dharma's at DefCon 1 and you're staring down the barrel of Roger Linus' rifle? It's time to duck. Diplomacy goes out the window, here.
And just as it was lucky that Jack had the key to the janitor's closet a few episodes ago, it's equally lucky that Hurley just happens to know where the Swan station is. It's a good thing he and Miles are in the circle of trust, because it's not like they could stop at a gas station and ask directions.
What's in the Shadow of the Statue? A Whole Lot of Anti-Aging Cosmetics
All our little LOST lives we've been waiting for cool interactions like the ones between Locke, Richard, and Ben - and now we get them rapid-fire, all at once. In another great scene we see Richard pull Locke aside to call bullshit on his resurrection. Locke responds by calling double-dog bullshit on Richard for never aging. And that's when we get at least a partial answer to a BIG question we've always wanted the answer to: "I'm this way because of Jacob".
Finally seeing the origins of Richard Alpert will be one of the great scenes of Season 6, and I'm looking forward to it. And now that we know Richard's eternal youth is Jacob's doing, we can theorize he left him altered that way as the ageless keeper and counselor for the Others. These are Jacob's people, and apparently the dark man hasn't been able to touch them. Probably because they're island-born: they maintain a certain purity by living on its soil, drinking its waters, fishing its oceans. They're not intruders, and so he has no beef with them. That's my guess anyway.
Of bigger importance this scene is what Locke says will happen after Jacob is killed. He tells Richard that they're going to need to "take care of" the rest of the people from Ajira 316. Smokie has it out for the shadow-statue people, putting them firmly on the side of Jacob. The fact that he plans on doing anything after Jacob is dead also tells us that the battle isn't fully over, and that the monster will most likely keep using the form of John Locke next season. Which is awesome, because none of us want to see the end of Terry O'Quinn.
Someone's Been Sleeping In Jacob's Bed
And they trashed his whole cabin, too. Maybe ghost Claire had some friends over? Whoever it was, they even took down all his cool dogs playing poker paintings - something that was totally uncalled for.
And as Illana rummages through the ruins of Horace's once great vacation spot, we see the cabin for the first time in stark, revealing daylight. This time there's nothing spooky or supernatural about it: it's just a very run-down cabin. We don't need Illana's words to Bram in order to realize that whoever or whatever was using the cabin is now long gone. We also learn that Jacob hasn't been there for a very long time, and that "someone else" was using the cabin. Oh, and the machete note pinned to the wall? That's left there by Jacob, to let Illana know where she and the shadow-statue people can find him.
My theory on this is long and complicated, and probably has some holes in it... but here it is:
The man in the dark shirt was somehow imprisoned in the cabin, kept there by the circle of ash. This is who we first saw say "Help me" when the cabin was introduced. Maybe Jacob tricked him in there and trapped him, and maybe Richard even helped. This could explain why the dark man could at first only appear in one of his most ancient forms - the smoke monster - because his physical being was stuck in the cabin behind the circle of ash. We also saw him appear in the forms of Yemi and Alex, but only after having scanned the minds of the people who knew those characters.
Whatever the case, once the circle was broken the entity was allowed to leave. It took the form of Christian, but it also knew that Richard would never lead Christian to where Jacob was hiding out. It therefore needed to take the form of John Locke, a man who Richard envisions should be the true leader of the Others. As Richard points out, only the leader of the Others would be permitted an audience with Jacob... it's part of "the rules" and the smoke monster knows this.
And so the dark dude/monster develops an elaborate plan: To become Locke, it knows the original John Locke needs to die. But the island (Jacob?) won't let allow Locke to die; this is best evidenced when Ben shoots him point blank and he somehow lives. It realizes it needs to get Locke off island in order to kill him. It then uses ghost Christian to manipulate Locke into turning the wheel, where it knows/hopes Locke will be killed, while at the same time planting seeds in Locke's head that he'll need to die in order to come back. Ben dutifully brings Locke's body back on Ajira 316, thinking he's doing the island's bidding when he's actually doing the opposite.
The smoke monster takes over from there. All that's left at that point is to gain a weapon with which to kill Jacob. That weapon is Ben, and the dark man has been sharpening that weapon for a long time now.
That's The Door to the Hatch, Where You and I First Met
After breaking through a thick wall of sarcasm, Locke asks Ben about his initial meeting with Jacob in the cabin. Ben admits to never having seen Jacob, even opening up to being embarrassed that he'd been living a lie. He'd lied to his people, Locke's people, and Locke himself. Bitterly, Ben realizes he was never special. He wasn't ever supposed to be chosen, and Richard made the wrong decision in bringing him to the temple. Ben's sacrifice wasn't a sacrifice at all - he was taken without ever given a chance to decide... forced to lead a people whom he didn't belong to, made to follow a leader he could never see. His whole life has been nothing but a big lie, and he tells Locke so. And once he admits it, Locke seems satisfied with the answer. Is this the smoke monster judging Ben again, trying to get him to admit his big charade? Yes.
Then Ben asks Locke why he wants HIM to kill Jacob. Locke responds by throwing more fuel on the fire... giving Ben's motivations against Jacob a huge push. The dark man/smokie wants to breed anger and resentment toward Jacob, causing Ben to lose control of himself again the way he did when he killed Keamy. The smoke monster is honing Ben to a razor-sharp edge this last episode, breeding the anger and resentment needed to strike the killing blow.
The act of actually finding Jacob is being taken care of by Richard. The dark man needs to locate him, and Richard is obliged to lead him there in the form of Locke. When they finally get there: "Well that's a wonderful foot Richard, but what does it have to do with Jacob?" Look at the sideways glance he gives Richard when he responds by telling him that's where Jacob lives. Almost like "Dang, that should've been the first place I checked!"
Jacob's Oceanic 815 Round-The-World Tour
In some of the coolest moments this episode, we get to watch Jacob visit a bunch of the main characters at all different points in their lives. Some were kids, some were adults. Sometimes Jacob spoke, and sometimes he didn't say much of anything at all. As I watched these meetings I wondered what the purpose was. I couldn't understand why Jacob was taking the trouble to show up in all these characters lives for such brief moments. But then I watched the episode a second time, and suddenly I saw a common thread that ran through every single one of the meetings: In each scene, Jacob *touched* the person he was visiting.
* Jacob buys Kate a New Kids lunchbox, then tries to tell her not to steal again. A moment later, he touches Kate on the nose.
* Jacob hands James Ford a pen so he finish writing his infamous letter to the real Sawyer. As he does that, his hand lingers on young James' fingers.
* With Sayid, he's even sneakier. Jacob waits until Nadia gets creamed, then reaches up and touches Sayid on the arm as he turns his head.
* After his fall, Jacob touches Locke distinctly on the shoulder. His touch also seems to almost revive (or resurrect?) him.
* At Sun & Jin's wedding, Jacob reaches out and pats them both on their shoulders at the same time. He then goes on to speak flawless Korean and mows down the shrimp cocktail (deleted scene).
* Jacob hands Jack his Apollo bar and holds it just a second too long, lingering enough so that their fingers touch. Jack responds with a creepy stare.
* And with Hurley, Jacob reaches over the guitar case and touches him pointedly as he explains about flight 316.
Only in the meeting with Illana does Jacob not touch her. But we can't see his hands, and he does lean in really close to her... so it still might've happened. Then again, Illana wasn't a passenger on flight 815 as the others were, and seemed more of Jacob's agent. Touching her didn't seem as important.
So, why does Jacob touch each character at some point in their past? I'll bet it's got something to do with knowing (and reading) their thoughts, their memories, and their lives. Remember all those crazy coincidences between everyone all throughout LOST? Duplicate places, people, objects we've seen over and over again, like MaCutcheon's whisky? My theory has always been that the island's (or Jacob's) knowledge consists only of a finite amount of these things. What if it obtained these images and memories by reaching out and touching these characters, absorbing the major events in their lives, kind of like the way the smoke monster can scan people in it's own special way? There you go.
In retrospect, it does seem that Jacob's showing some genuine compassion for each of these people when he meets them. I totally believed him as he apologetically told Locke "I'm sorry this happened to you". He seemed concerned for Sawyer, and genuinely happy for Sun and Jin. Maybe he even visited Sayid at the exact moment he would've crossed the street and gotten killed, effectively saving him from being buried along with Nadia. And maybe Sayid dies from the gunshot wound he receives this episode because course correction puts him back where he belongs? Let's hope not.
The Jacob scenes were all good, but the most vital one by far was his visit with Hurley. Here, Jacob takes the time to actually speak with Hugo. He convinces him that he's not crazy, which is all-important to getting Hurley back on the plane. It's probably the one thing he needed to hear, and leaving him that guitar case to remind him of Charlie was probably another great motivator in Hugo boarding that flight. What's in it is another story.
I believe Hurley is the most special character on LOST when it comes to ultimately changing the game. He's the dark man's nightmare: someone who's totally above judgment. Hugo is the one pure, good, innocent and untarnished person lost in a sea of people who did some really bad shit. Nothing can ever corrupt him: not even the tremendous amounts of money or power associated with winning the lottery. Hugo's untouchable, and Jacob knows it. He allows Hurley make his own decision, and his decision was to come back to the island.
The Drive Shaft Ring Scene
Totally cool. Classy and awesome. Just watching Sun picking that thing up flooded my head with memories of all the old characters we don't even realize how much we miss anymore.
Didn't Y'all Hear Meet at the Creek?
Rose, Bernard, Vincent! I didn't think I'd be all that happy to see them, but this scene was so totally cool. For about five minutes, it broke up all the seriousness and tension building up during the other two hours of the show. And wow, it sure looks like Bernard got into the canned goods.
Now Rose hasn't had all that many lines in LOST, but when she does speak it's usually something filled with wisdom or purpose. So as Sawyer and the she-commandos burst onto the scenes with pistols and rifles ready, Rose echoes some of the very thoughts the dark man brings up in the opening scene this episode by telling them "It's always something with you people".
Rose and Bernard have retired, which is an interesting way to phrase it. If the island were a great big bunch of kids all playing tag, it's like these two kids just quit in the middle of the game and went off to do something else. They don't care about bombs, guns, or flying through time - all they want is to chill out and enjoy each other. This might be their own personal redemption; to stop running around looking for the next best thing and finally just smell the roses.
In the cool, coy way they seemed to regard Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet... it almost seemed to me as if they knew something the other three didn't. This was magnified when Bernard stops Juliet on the way out of camp: "Are you sure you don't want to stay for some tea?" Call it foreshadowing, sixth sense, whatever you want... I got the impression Bernard somehow knew Juliet should've stayed for tea. But sadly she didn't.
There's No Shortage of Klaxon Horns in Dharma
Seriously, they're everywhere. And just look at Radzinski: I haven't seen anyone this hellbent on drilling a hole since Armageddon. WTF did he think was gonna happen when he hit that pocket?
Well it Was a Long Time Coming...
Finally, we get to see the knockdown drag-out fight between Sawyer and Jack. As with past Locke/Jack battles, one of them takes the logical road and the other is pushing destiny down everyone's throat like a furious drug dealer. Jack's on the complete opposite side of his past arguments now, and Sawyer's on the opposite side of his past responsibilities. Both of them make good points, but as is often the case with LOST, it's nearly impossible to know which side is right and which is wrong.
Sawyer's "Think you can do whatever the hell you want?" line refers directly to Jack messing up his cozy Dharma lifestyle, but it also steps on the toes of free will. Jack's response is equivalent to "Hey, if I'm not supposed to do this then something will stop me". They beat the snot out of each other here, and I'm pretty sure the makeup department had to borrow some fake blood from the set of the Twilight sequel next door.
Juliet's flashback interrupts this scene, where she learns that sometimes two people love each other but aren't meant to be together... just like her and Sawyer. Suddenly everything's clear to her on this subject. I'd wondered why Juliet had the only flashback that didn't include Jacob, but that's because she wasn't ever necessary to the island's whole plan. She was someone Ben brought in for his own purposes only, and never really place in the grand scheme of things. More lost than anyone, really.
Sawyer's freakout at her sudden flip-flop to Jack's side of the argument is squashed when Juliet tells him "I saw the way you looked at her". Sure enough, she caught the glance Sawyer gave Kate back at Rose & Bernard's condo. Knowing they probably weren't meant to be together is one thing, but realizing they couldn't be together forever is another. At this point, Juliet realizes she'd rather go back to living an Other life - without ever having known Sawyer - rather than suffer the pain of losing him.
Holy Cow He Really Beat The Crap Out of You!
This line was cut from the original script, but it's probably what Kate was thinking. In a direct parallel of their first scene ever, Kate's cleaning Jack up. He pulls the Aaron and Claire cards from his sleeve, and asks her to trust him. Suddenly he talks a good game, and Jack's pretty convincing here.
I'd wondered why we got to see a flashback where his dad actually gave him a timeout, but what Christian was trying to do was instill Jack with a firm belief in himself. The lesson here was to forget about what everyone else was thinking and concentrate on your own beliefs and abilities. Jack uses this confidence to win Kate over. He somehow knows what he's doing is right. He makes her realize that if she truly did come back for Aaron, this is the only way to help Claire. Kate searches her feelings and agrees with him: all or nothing.
And the "See you in Los Angeles" line was GREAT.
Nothing Can Save Me...
Sayid, close to death - close to unconsciousness... it's only then that he realizes he can never be saved. It doesn't really matter what Jack does, the sum of Sayid's past sins is just too great. Even if he makes it, he can never atone.
The Incident
It was everything it needed to be, and it completely exceeded my expectations. The incident was a total mess for Dharma, for the 815'ers, and for the sanity of LOST fans everywhere who have to endure a *very* long eight or nine months of not knowing exactly what happened. But they did it up right! They made it awesome.
Did whatever happened happen again? Or did things change? There's no definitive answer here. Until we see what happens in the opening scene of next season, you could easily make arguments for both sides. Jack and company definitely accomplished Dan's goal: to detonate the bomb as close to the magnetic pocket as possible. But was that a big enough boulder to make changes in the great river of time?
Personally, I think so. Although Miles made a good argument that perhaps the 815'ers showing up with the bomb is what actually *causes* the incident, it's pretty obvious that there was going to be an "incident" no matter what. Nobody was going to stop Radzinsky from drilling - apparently not even Chang physically shutting the drill off. They were going to break through to that pocket - gunfight or not. Everything metal got sucked into that hole, jeeps and everything, and that was going to happen even if Jack's crew was drinking tea back at the swing set.
Chang lost his arm, just like we knew he would. Radzinski lived. Phil got what was coming to him. Bad stuff went down. But it was only after all of this had already happened that we saw Juliet set off the nuke by banging it with a rock. THIS could be the thing that changes everything... including the LOST logo, which for 100+ episodes has always been white on black, but is suddenly reversed to black on white. Hmmm.
Now of course you could argue that the nuke itself was always part of the original incident. Maybe this is why so much cement is poured on top of the Swan site. Maybe this is why the area gets quarantined, and everyone stationed there gets fancy yellow suits. Maybe this is why Desmond needs to inject himself with serum every time he wakes up to Mama Cass. All decent arguments.
However (and I'm definitely not an expert), I'm thinking the detonation of an atomic warhead would cause the following big problems:
1) Everyone would be thoroughly and completely dead.
2) The whole area would be a molten mess.
3) Radiation at the site would be deadly for a really long time.
To me, if that bomb went off things are looking pretty grim for Radzinsky, Chang, and the future of half the island. I can't see a way around that. I'm guessing that the whole plan to change things might've finally worked... something happened to create ripples way too big for even course correction to overcome. But again, that's me.
No matter what happened here, it leaves us with tremendous questions regarding our main characters. What happens next?
I think we can safely rule out everyone being dead. As great as Ben, Richard, Locke and Sun might be, they can't carry the show. And while the possibility of them all landing safely in LAX sounds plausible, I don't know how it could fit into the storyline with a whole season left to go.
Could they wake up on the beach just after the crash, at the beginning of the show... but retaining all their current memories? I love this idea. But I also don't think this type of result is doable from a production standpoint. It would require Boone, Shannon, Charlie, Michael, and a very young Walt. Can't see this happening.
The most likely possibility is that our main characters wake up on the island in 2007. Maybe the release of magnetic energy flashes them back to current time a split second before they're evaporated. If so, who goes? Just the people from 815? Wouldn't Juliet go too? Rose, Bernard, Vincent? Big questions.
Finally, let's consider this scenario: the bomb never went off. The flash we saw was just like all the other flashes, spinning everyone through time. Maybe the drill broke into the pocket just before Juliet could detonate the nuke (in which case maybe she's still alive). This would be a pretty big lie to carry on for eight or nine months, but I could totally see them doing it. ;)
He Who Will Protect Us All
Halfway through the episode I was pretty sure I knew what was in the box... and it was exactly what I thought it was. The major death this episode was John Locke, a man who died the same way he lived - completely bamboozled by someone he trusted.
But was Locke really nothing special, as Richie Ricardus would have us believe? Or do remnants of Locke's consciousness still remain within the form currently being inhabited by the dark man/smoke monster? If so, they didn't get there on the ride back on Ajira. Locke was dead as a doornail by then, and so was his mind.
Although he's dead, I'm pretty sure we're going to see lots of Locke next season. Knowing he's someone else - and only someone else - would put a pretty negative spin on his character for a lot of people. This is why I think there's a lot of John Locke still left inside that person in the now green shirt. And maybe it even got put there by Jacob. Just speculation here, but Jacob did touch each and every one of the characters he visited... but he touched Locke in an extra special way. Maybe he took something from him when he did that - and that's all I've got to say on this subject before someone gets all Search for Spock on me.
Jacob... Disrespecting Benjamin Linus for 35 Years And Counting
The final scene of the present-day storyline was every bit the incredible confrontation it needed to be. Jacob recognized immediately who had come for him. He looked saddened, not scared - expressing a form of pity instead of fear. His arch nemesis goes on to tell describe the incredible amounts of trouble he had to go through to arrive at this moment, and Jacob looks stoic as his adversary savors what finally looks to be victory.
It was surprising to me how fast Ben's role in everything was reduced to nothing more than a tool needed to commit murder. Sure, it's the murder of a demi-god... but I still thought Ben would've seen something like this coming. Instead, he didn't. The dark man used Ben as his very own dagger, finally using his long-sought after loophole to plunge Ben's knife deep into Jacob's heart. And Jacob just stood there and took it.
We've finally seen the entirety of Ben's character - from his beginnings as an innocent kid to the calculating, quick-thinking liar who ruled the island as an adult for so many years. In the end however, his emotions are reduced quickly back to that of a needy child, one looking only for some type parental recognition. Jacob never acknowledged Ben... whether he refused to do this or simply couldn't we really can't say. What we do know is the complete absence of Jacob caused a void in Ben's life, one that got filled with hatred and vengeance once Alex was killed. These fires were further stoked by his banishment after thankless years of obedient service.
At the exact moment Ben stands before Jacob, all he wants is that recognition. All he needs is a little attention from the person he so faithfully and blindly served for so many years. But Jacob offered him none. And as Ben closed on him, Jacob offered no resistance. There were probably a hundred things he could've said to ease Ben's 35 years of pain, maybe even explain some things to him. Instead, Jacob actually egged Ben on by answering his servant's query with his own sardonic version of the same question: "What ABOUT you?"
This triggers kill-crazy Ben, the same unstoppable force we saw in Keamy's last moments of life. Jacob knew this. He knew those words would elicit Ben's killing response, and he stood there and took each blow of Ben's knife without trying to stop it or fight him off. The smoke monster couldn't kill Jacob directly, but instead provided Ben with a weapon, a motive, and a confrontation with his enemy. This was his loophole. Ben kills Jacob by choice, but I also believe that Jacob chooses to die here.
In short, I think Jacob has a plan. That plan has something to do with Illana and the shadow-statue people. It might also have something to do with Illana's mention of Frank possibly being a 'candidate'. While I'm not exactly sure how he'll survive, I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of Jacob. I can't help but keep thinking about the ending to the movie Legend. Darkness needs light, light needs darkness. One cannot exist without the other - it's both poetic and cool.
Guys, Gals... it's been real. This season was my favorite one. The story's circle is closing, and I love where the writers are going with it. I've enjoyed all these weeks writing this stuff, reading your own thoughts and ideas, and talking about LOST with everyone. I know I've promised this before, but I'll try really hard to be around in the off-season. This is our last hiatus. It's going to be the longest, and possibly the worst, but we'll stick it out together.
As always, here's wishing everyone a great summer!
-Vozz
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Friday, May 08, 2009
Where has the time gone? (Golf, Movies, Music, and Our New House)
It seems like forever since I've blogged anything of importance. (Some would argue I never have) Not that I haven't had lots to blog about, I've just been so busy I just haven't had the time. I'll try now to fill in the gaps in the life of this Jesusgreek...
Golf
So I was pretty bummed last month when I got to go to the Masters practice round and never got to see Tiger. My lack of a Tiger sighting only fueled my desire to see the greatest golfer ever at some point in my life. I decided to keep a close eye on the Quail Hollow Championship that was to be played in Charlotte to see if Tiger would enter. He waited until the last possible minute to commit but once he did I grab up a couple of Thursday first round tickets and pastor Mike and I headed down. Tiger tee'd off at 7:40am and we arrived at 7:30am. Our strategy was simple: let the thousands that were following him in his gallery go from hole to hole while we skipped ahead and waited. This worked to perfection. While Tiger and everyone else was on #1, we were on the #3 green with a front row view. When Tiger finished #3 we headed to # 5 for another front row view. I only got to see Tiger play half the holes this way but I was within touching distance on almost all of the ones I saw him play. He is as good and as big a celebrity in person as he is on television. he's like a rock star out there. I have no idea how he concentrates. By comparison, Masters champ Cabrera had about 20 people following him when we stopped to watch him play one of his holes. I can now mark "See Tiger Woods play in person" off my bucket list.
Speaking of golf, I'm really making my first concerted effort ever to get better at playing golf. I've never put much time into practice since at most I play 6-8 times a year. I've recently decided that if I was going to play even that little amount that I mine as well be the best I can at it versus going out and getting frustrated because I'm so bad. I usually shoot around 100 (98 on a good round, 102 on a bad one) I've started going to the driving range near my home once a week and even watched some golf instructional videos on netflix. I like to think it's paying off. On Monday I shot a 45 on 9 holes which is really good for me. It was highlighted by my first ever near miss hole-in-one. I drove a par 4 290 yard green and the ball rolled about 2 feet from the hole.
Movies
I had a chance to catch the new "Wolverine: X-Men Origins" last weekend and it was in one word - Awesome! I was as good if not better then any of the other X-men films (which I have loved all 3) The action, story, and special effects are all top-notch. 4-Stars
Music
I bought the new "Jars of Clay" and "Kristian Stanfill" CD's last week and both are two of the most refreshing music purchases I've made in a while. Kristian Stanfill is cut out of the Passion mold and if you love Crowder, Hall, and Tomlin then you'll love this. The new Jar's CD is exactly what you'd expect from one of the greatest Christian bands of all time. Great lyrics, different musical styles on each song, terrific depth, melodies, and arrangements. This CD is so different from "Good Monsters" that at times you question if it's event the same band, and GM was album of the year. So why change a good thing? Because that's who JOC is and that's what they do. 4 Stars for both!!
New House
On Monday we signed the buyers agreement on our new home. No we're not moving to Iowa like some thought. We're staying in K-vegas for what appears to be our last move until the kids are grown and gone. Here's a couple of pics for now:
Golf
So I was pretty bummed last month when I got to go to the Masters practice round and never got to see Tiger. My lack of a Tiger sighting only fueled my desire to see the greatest golfer ever at some point in my life. I decided to keep a close eye on the Quail Hollow Championship that was to be played in Charlotte to see if Tiger would enter. He waited until the last possible minute to commit but once he did I grab up a couple of Thursday first round tickets and pastor Mike and I headed down. Tiger tee'd off at 7:40am and we arrived at 7:30am. Our strategy was simple: let the thousands that were following him in his gallery go from hole to hole while we skipped ahead and waited. This worked to perfection. While Tiger and everyone else was on #1, we were on the #3 green with a front row view. When Tiger finished #3 we headed to # 5 for another front row view. I only got to see Tiger play half the holes this way but I was within touching distance on almost all of the ones I saw him play. He is as good and as big a celebrity in person as he is on television. he's like a rock star out there. I have no idea how he concentrates. By comparison, Masters champ Cabrera had about 20 people following him when we stopped to watch him play one of his holes. I can now mark "See Tiger Woods play in person" off my bucket list.
Speaking of golf, I'm really making my first concerted effort ever to get better at playing golf. I've never put much time into practice since at most I play 6-8 times a year. I've recently decided that if I was going to play even that little amount that I mine as well be the best I can at it versus going out and getting frustrated because I'm so bad. I usually shoot around 100 (98 on a good round, 102 on a bad one) I've started going to the driving range near my home once a week and even watched some golf instructional videos on netflix. I like to think it's paying off. On Monday I shot a 45 on 9 holes which is really good for me. It was highlighted by my first ever near miss hole-in-one. I drove a par 4 290 yard green and the ball rolled about 2 feet from the hole.
Movies
I had a chance to catch the new "Wolverine: X-Men Origins" last weekend and it was in one word - Awesome! I was as good if not better then any of the other X-men films (which I have loved all 3) The action, story, and special effects are all top-notch. 4-Stars
Music
I bought the new "Jars of Clay" and "Kristian Stanfill" CD's last week and both are two of the most refreshing music purchases I've made in a while. Kristian Stanfill is cut out of the Passion mold and if you love Crowder, Hall, and Tomlin then you'll love this. The new Jar's CD is exactly what you'd expect from one of the greatest Christian bands of all time. Great lyrics, different musical styles on each song, terrific depth, melodies, and arrangements. This CD is so different from "Good Monsters" that at times you question if it's event the same band, and GM was album of the year. So why change a good thing? Because that's who JOC is and that's what they do. 4 Stars for both!!
New House
On Monday we signed the buyers agreement on our new home. No we're not moving to Iowa like some thought. We're staying in K-vegas for what appears to be our last move until the kids are grown and gone. Here's a couple of pics for now:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
My Jimmy Buffett Experience
Last Thursday Beth, myself and our friend Jennifer went to see Jimmy Buffett in concert in Raleigh. Her are some of my observations...
First the amazing song set:
Summerzcool Tour
Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion - Raleigh NC
Thursday April 23rd, 2009
1 Lage Nom Ai
2 Stars On The Water
3 SummerZcool
4 It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
5 Manana
6 Conky Tonkin' (with Nadirah on vocals)
7 Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
8 Volcano
9 Cheeseburger In Paradise
10 Come Monday (with the Beach Band)
11 Son Of A Son Of A Sailor
12 Brown Eyed Girl
13 One Particular Harbour
14 A Lot to Drink About
Recess from SummerZcool
15 My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don’t Love Jesus (Jimmy on uke with Mac on guitar)
16 I Heard I Was In Town
17 Last Mango In Paris
18 I Feel Like Goin’ Surfing in a Hurricane
19 Southern Cross
20 Coast Of Carolina
21 Rhumba Man
22 A Pirate Looks At Forty (Jimmy solo)
23 Gypsies In The Palace
24 Margaritaville (with the lost verse)
25 Fins
First Encore:
26 We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About
27 Yellow Submarine
Second Encore:
28 He Went To Paris (Jimmy solo)
** This was the first concert I have ever been too that I can say every song I wanted to hear was sung. It was an awesome set list!
Jimmy Loves Summerzcool
No matter how sober, drunk, or high a person was when they left the concert there is no doubt they woke up the next morning with the words "Summerzcool" ringing in their head. Jimmy made sure every person in the sold out amphitheater knew that was the theme of the tour. He not only mentioned it in-between every song but he even incorporated it into half the songs he sang. I'll give him one thing, that guy is a salesman.
Jimmy Loves His Job and His Fans
The guy is 62 years old and has been touring for over 32 years. You'd think by now the whole beach bum routine would be getting a little old. Not if you saw Jimmy. The guy still eats it up and plays with as much enthusiasm and sincere enjoyment has any musical artist alive today.
Parrotheads Unite
Rumor had it that the first tailgaters showed up at 6am. All I know is when we arrived at 5pm the parking lot looked more like a scene from a major college football game then a concert. Tents, grills, and coolers lined the parking lots as fans played, sang, and shared all they had with one another. As much as I wanted to walk around and try the free food being offered by the various parretheads, my germ-a-phoebe tendencies wouldn't allow it. During the concert it seemed more like a back yard beach party complete with dozens of beach balls being bounced around then a concert. None of it distracted from the experience, it just enhanced it.
It was a very good concert, not quite on par with the Eagles or Tom Petty but still a very solid show.
First the amazing song set:
Summerzcool Tour
Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion - Raleigh NC
Thursday April 23rd, 2009
1 Lage Nom Ai
2 Stars On The Water
3 SummerZcool
4 It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
5 Manana
6 Conky Tonkin' (with Nadirah on vocals)
7 Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
8 Volcano
9 Cheeseburger In Paradise
10 Come Monday (with the Beach Band)
11 Son Of A Son Of A Sailor
12 Brown Eyed Girl
13 One Particular Harbour
14 A Lot to Drink About
Recess from SummerZcool
15 My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don’t Love Jesus (Jimmy on uke with Mac on guitar)
16 I Heard I Was In Town
17 Last Mango In Paris
18 I Feel Like Goin’ Surfing in a Hurricane
19 Southern Cross
20 Coast Of Carolina
21 Rhumba Man
22 A Pirate Looks At Forty (Jimmy solo)
23 Gypsies In The Palace
24 Margaritaville (with the lost verse)
25 Fins
First Encore:
26 We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About
27 Yellow Submarine
Second Encore:
28 He Went To Paris (Jimmy solo)
** This was the first concert I have ever been too that I can say every song I wanted to hear was sung. It was an awesome set list!
Jimmy Loves Summerzcool
No matter how sober, drunk, or high a person was when they left the concert there is no doubt they woke up the next morning with the words "Summerzcool" ringing in their head. Jimmy made sure every person in the sold out amphitheater knew that was the theme of the tour. He not only mentioned it in-between every song but he even incorporated it into half the songs he sang. I'll give him one thing, that guy is a salesman.
Jimmy Loves His Job and His Fans
The guy is 62 years old and has been touring for over 32 years. You'd think by now the whole beach bum routine would be getting a little old. Not if you saw Jimmy. The guy still eats it up and plays with as much enthusiasm and sincere enjoyment has any musical artist alive today.
Parrotheads Unite
Rumor had it that the first tailgaters showed up at 6am. All I know is when we arrived at 5pm the parking lot looked more like a scene from a major college football game then a concert. Tents, grills, and coolers lined the parking lots as fans played, sang, and shared all they had with one another. As much as I wanted to walk around and try the free food being offered by the various parretheads, my germ-a-phoebe tendencies wouldn't allow it. During the concert it seemed more like a back yard beach party complete with dozens of beach balls being bounced around then a concert. None of it distracted from the experience, it just enhanced it.
It was a very good concert, not quite on par with the Eagles or Tom Petty but still a very solid show.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Jesusgreek Knows Bo
I love April. When it comes to sports, there is not a better month during the entire year. The NBA and NHL playoffs begin. Golf has the masters. The NFL has the draft. And of course there's the start of baseball season.
Baseball has always been my favorite sport. I've never been any good at it but I love to watch it. Growing up I collected years and years worth of baseball cards, which I still have boxed up in my old room at my parents home. When it comes to following the game, the Atlanta Braves will always be my favorite team and Bo Jackson will always be my favorite all-time player. As a teenager my walls were lined with Bo Jackson posters. As my son is now watching a little bit of sports with me (his favorite "player" is Tiger Woods) I wish he could have experienced the phenomenon that was Bo Jackson. I ran across the following article that describes Bo better then I ever could:
Between the Seams Recalling Bo Jackson's days in baseball
Twenty years after his rookie season, his baseball exploits remain mythical to those lucky enough to have seen him. By Joe Posnanski
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — OK, so one day in New York, Bo Jackson complained in the dugout before a game. Reporters surrounded Bo, which never made him happy anyway. Reporters wanted to explain things, and Bo Jackson wasn't about explaining. Bo was about doing.
"Everything I do, people tend to exaggerate it," he moaned. "With me, they want to make things bigger than they are."
Bo said he was just another guy. He wasn't some sort of folk hero, like John Henry or Pecos Bill. No, he hurt like other players. He made mistakes like other players. He struck out a lot. He wasn't forged out of steel, and he couldn't outrun locomotives, and he couldn't turn back time by flying around the world and reversing the rotation of the earth.
"I'm just another player, you know?" he said.
Then the game began, Royals versus Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
First time up, Bo hit a 412-foot homer to center field.
Second time up, Bo smashed a 464-foot opposite-field home run. Longtime Yankees fans said that ball landed in a far-off place where only home runs by Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle from the left side ever reached.
"Colossal," teammate George Brett would say. "I had to stop and watch."
Third time up, Yankees manager Stump Merrill walked out to the mound to ask pitcher Andy Hawkins how he intended to get Bo out this time.
"I'll pitch it outside," Hawkins said.
"It better be way outside," Merrill replied.
Hawkins threw it way outside. Jackson poked the ball over the right-field fence for his third homer. The New York crowd went bananas.
Bo never got a fourth time up that day. Instead, he hurt his shoulder while diving and almost making one of the great catches in baseball history. New Yorkers stood and cheered as he walked off the field.
"You know what?" Royals Hall of Famer Frank White said almost 20 years later. "I really did play baseball with Superman."
It began a generation ago
It has been 20 years since Bo Jackson was a rookie. An entire generation of young baseball fans never experienced the thrill of watching Bo play baseball.
How can you explain Bo Jackson to a kid today? Old-time baseball fans and scouts tell tall tales about players. "Oh, you should have seen Mickey Mantle before he hurt his knees; he ran so fast he could bunt for doubles," they'll say.
Or, "Before Pete Reiser started running into walls, he could play left field and center field at the same time."
Or, "There was nobody quite like Monte Irvin before he went to war; he used to hit for the cycle three times a week."
So what makes Bo different? Well, for one thing, it's all on video. Bo really did break a baseball bat over his thigh after striking out. Bo really did throw a ball from left field all the way to first base on a fly to double up Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk. Bo really did, in his spare time, transform into the most sensational running back the NFL has ever seen. He really did ... well, he really did a lot of stuff.
But Bo Jackson was always grouchily unimpressed with himself. Michael Jordan thought that was part of Bo's magic. "Neither of us is very easily amazed," Jordan told Newsweek in those days when he and Bo were the two greatest athletes in the world.
When Bo Jackson was called up to the big leagues after only 53 minor-league games, he shrugged. When he had his first four-hit game in only his fifth game, he announced, "It's just another night."
Two days after that, he faced Seattle's Mike Moore, a power pitcher who would win 161 games in the big leagues. Before the game, Bo went over to Willie Wilson's bats, liked the feel of one, and announced, "This is mine."
With Willie's bat, Bo hit a 475-foot blast to left-center, the longest home run ever hit at Royals Stadium.
"There's something about Bo," Royals general manager John Schuerholz said then. "Call it mystical or magical."
Sept. 2, 1986: Bo's first game. His first at-bat was against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. He hit a ground ball to second base, and Tim Hulett picked it up and threw to first — only Bo was already past the bag.
"Oh man, nothing that big should move that fast," said Royals Hall of Famer and former hitting coach John Mayberry.
July 29, 1988: Bo Jackson was facing Baltimore's Jeff Ballard. He called timeout and stepped out of the box. He adjusted his batting glove when he realized that the umpire did not actually grant his timeout, and Ballard was throwing the ball. Jackson jumped back into the box, swung that bat and ... yeah. He hit a home run.
"Most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life," says Bob Schaeffer, Kansas City's first-base coach at the time.
May 15, 1989: Baseball writer Peter Gammons was in Minnesota to write a Sports Illustrated cover story about Jackson, so he watched Bo take batting practice. It was a typical Bo hitting session — he cracked rockets all over the field. Then it was time for his last swing. Bo jumped into the cage and hit left-handed.
He hit a titanic shot 450 feet off the Hardware Hank sign in right field.
Left-handed.
"I got work to do," Bo said to the other players, whose jaws had dropped. He ran out to the outfield to shag some fly balls.
July 11, 1990: Bo ran up the outfield wall. Literally. He chased down a fly ball and caught it about four steps in front of the fence. He put his right foot on the wall, then his left, then his right — until he was 7 feet off the ground and sideways. For a guy who didn't want to be seen as a superhero, he sure kept doing superhero things.
"What do you think of Bo Jackson?" a reporter asked Bo Jackson.
"I've known this guy for years," Bo said of Bo. "And nothing he does fazes me."
"The Throw"
There are so many more. Once, he ran over catcher Rick Dempsey. Dempsey broke his thumb but said, "I held him to fewer yards than Brian Bosworth." That goes back to a Monday night game.
And we don't even have time for all the legendary football stories.
"The Throw" deserves its own section, however. On June 5, 1989, the Royals were playing at Seattle. It was the 10th inning, score was tied 3-3, Harold Reynolds was on first base when Scott Bradley rifled a double to left field. Reynolds was running on the pitch, so it was obvious he would score the winning run. He rounded third, headed for home and prepared to have his teammates mob him when he saw his teammate Darnell Coles pumping his arms, the baseball signal for "SLIDE!"
Reynolds thought: "Slide? Are you kidding me?"
So, he was about to launch into what he called "a courtesy slide" when he saw that Kansas City catcher Bob Boone had the ball. Boone tagged him.
Bo Jackson had made a flatfooted throw of 300 feet in the air. It was a perfect strike. It was so impossible, so ridiculous, so absurd that no umpire was on the spot to make the call. Plate umpire Larry Young finally came to his senses and made a fist — Reynolds was out.
"Now I've seen it all," Scott Bradley said.
"This is not a normal guy," said teammate George Brett.
"That was just a supernatural, unbelievable play," said Seattle manager Jim Lefebve.
"I just caught the ball, turned and threw," Bo grumbled. "End of story. ... It's nothing to brag about. Don't try to make a big issue out of it."
Bo Jackson's baseball career really ended on a football field in Los Angeles. He hurt his hip against the Cincinnati Bengals. He did come back and did a few remarkable things after that, but it was different. He wasn't superhuman anymore.
Harry Houdini in cleats
The thing is, anyone who saw him play will never forget him. Every game was like a Harry Houdini performance — you expected to see something you had never seen before.
This story began with that July day in 1990 at Yankee Stadium when Bo Jackson hit three home runs before being injured.
He missed more than a month, then returned on Aug. 11 to face Seattle. He came up in the second inning. The pitcher was Randy Johnson. First pitch, Bo crushed a long fly ball to center field. The ball splashed in the waterfall to the left of the scoreboard. The Royals estimated the homer flew 450 feet.
"I'm not trying to brag," Jackson said. "But I actually saw the threads on the ball right before I hit it."
For once, Bo Jackson had impressed himself. And that might have been his greatest feat of all.
Baseball has always been my favorite sport. I've never been any good at it but I love to watch it. Growing up I collected years and years worth of baseball cards, which I still have boxed up in my old room at my parents home. When it comes to following the game, the Atlanta Braves will always be my favorite team and Bo Jackson will always be my favorite all-time player. As a teenager my walls were lined with Bo Jackson posters. As my son is now watching a little bit of sports with me (his favorite "player" is Tiger Woods) I wish he could have experienced the phenomenon that was Bo Jackson. I ran across the following article that describes Bo better then I ever could:
Between the Seams Recalling Bo Jackson's days in baseball
Twenty years after his rookie season, his baseball exploits remain mythical to those lucky enough to have seen him. By Joe Posnanski
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — OK, so one day in New York, Bo Jackson complained in the dugout before a game. Reporters surrounded Bo, which never made him happy anyway. Reporters wanted to explain things, and Bo Jackson wasn't about explaining. Bo was about doing.
"Everything I do, people tend to exaggerate it," he moaned. "With me, they want to make things bigger than they are."
Bo said he was just another guy. He wasn't some sort of folk hero, like John Henry or Pecos Bill. No, he hurt like other players. He made mistakes like other players. He struck out a lot. He wasn't forged out of steel, and he couldn't outrun locomotives, and he couldn't turn back time by flying around the world and reversing the rotation of the earth.
"I'm just another player, you know?" he said.
Then the game began, Royals versus Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
First time up, Bo hit a 412-foot homer to center field.
Second time up, Bo smashed a 464-foot opposite-field home run. Longtime Yankees fans said that ball landed in a far-off place where only home runs by Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle from the left side ever reached.
"Colossal," teammate George Brett would say. "I had to stop and watch."
Third time up, Yankees manager Stump Merrill walked out to the mound to ask pitcher Andy Hawkins how he intended to get Bo out this time.
"I'll pitch it outside," Hawkins said.
"It better be way outside," Merrill replied.
Hawkins threw it way outside. Jackson poked the ball over the right-field fence for his third homer. The New York crowd went bananas.
Bo never got a fourth time up that day. Instead, he hurt his shoulder while diving and almost making one of the great catches in baseball history. New Yorkers stood and cheered as he walked off the field.
"You know what?" Royals Hall of Famer Frank White said almost 20 years later. "I really did play baseball with Superman."
It began a generation ago
It has been 20 years since Bo Jackson was a rookie. An entire generation of young baseball fans never experienced the thrill of watching Bo play baseball.
How can you explain Bo Jackson to a kid today? Old-time baseball fans and scouts tell tall tales about players. "Oh, you should have seen Mickey Mantle before he hurt his knees; he ran so fast he could bunt for doubles," they'll say.
Or, "Before Pete Reiser started running into walls, he could play left field and center field at the same time."
Or, "There was nobody quite like Monte Irvin before he went to war; he used to hit for the cycle three times a week."
So what makes Bo different? Well, for one thing, it's all on video. Bo really did break a baseball bat over his thigh after striking out. Bo really did throw a ball from left field all the way to first base on a fly to double up Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk. Bo really did, in his spare time, transform into the most sensational running back the NFL has ever seen. He really did ... well, he really did a lot of stuff.
But Bo Jackson was always grouchily unimpressed with himself. Michael Jordan thought that was part of Bo's magic. "Neither of us is very easily amazed," Jordan told Newsweek in those days when he and Bo were the two greatest athletes in the world.
When Bo Jackson was called up to the big leagues after only 53 minor-league games, he shrugged. When he had his first four-hit game in only his fifth game, he announced, "It's just another night."
Two days after that, he faced Seattle's Mike Moore, a power pitcher who would win 161 games in the big leagues. Before the game, Bo went over to Willie Wilson's bats, liked the feel of one, and announced, "This is mine."
With Willie's bat, Bo hit a 475-foot blast to left-center, the longest home run ever hit at Royals Stadium.
"There's something about Bo," Royals general manager John Schuerholz said then. "Call it mystical or magical."
Sept. 2, 1986: Bo's first game. His first at-bat was against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. He hit a ground ball to second base, and Tim Hulett picked it up and threw to first — only Bo was already past the bag.
"Oh man, nothing that big should move that fast," said Royals Hall of Famer and former hitting coach John Mayberry.
July 29, 1988: Bo Jackson was facing Baltimore's Jeff Ballard. He called timeout and stepped out of the box. He adjusted his batting glove when he realized that the umpire did not actually grant his timeout, and Ballard was throwing the ball. Jackson jumped back into the box, swung that bat and ... yeah. He hit a home run.
"Most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life," says Bob Schaeffer, Kansas City's first-base coach at the time.
May 15, 1989: Baseball writer Peter Gammons was in Minnesota to write a Sports Illustrated cover story about Jackson, so he watched Bo take batting practice. It was a typical Bo hitting session — he cracked rockets all over the field. Then it was time for his last swing. Bo jumped into the cage and hit left-handed.
He hit a titanic shot 450 feet off the Hardware Hank sign in right field.
Left-handed.
"I got work to do," Bo said to the other players, whose jaws had dropped. He ran out to the outfield to shag some fly balls.
July 11, 1990: Bo ran up the outfield wall. Literally. He chased down a fly ball and caught it about four steps in front of the fence. He put his right foot on the wall, then his left, then his right — until he was 7 feet off the ground and sideways. For a guy who didn't want to be seen as a superhero, he sure kept doing superhero things.
"What do you think of Bo Jackson?" a reporter asked Bo Jackson.
"I've known this guy for years," Bo said of Bo. "And nothing he does fazes me."
"The Throw"
There are so many more. Once, he ran over catcher Rick Dempsey. Dempsey broke his thumb but said, "I held him to fewer yards than Brian Bosworth." That goes back to a Monday night game.
And we don't even have time for all the legendary football stories.
"The Throw" deserves its own section, however. On June 5, 1989, the Royals were playing at Seattle. It was the 10th inning, score was tied 3-3, Harold Reynolds was on first base when Scott Bradley rifled a double to left field. Reynolds was running on the pitch, so it was obvious he would score the winning run. He rounded third, headed for home and prepared to have his teammates mob him when he saw his teammate Darnell Coles pumping his arms, the baseball signal for "SLIDE!"
Reynolds thought: "Slide? Are you kidding me?"
So, he was about to launch into what he called "a courtesy slide" when he saw that Kansas City catcher Bob Boone had the ball. Boone tagged him.
Bo Jackson had made a flatfooted throw of 300 feet in the air. It was a perfect strike. It was so impossible, so ridiculous, so absurd that no umpire was on the spot to make the call. Plate umpire Larry Young finally came to his senses and made a fist — Reynolds was out.
"Now I've seen it all," Scott Bradley said.
"This is not a normal guy," said teammate George Brett.
"That was just a supernatural, unbelievable play," said Seattle manager Jim Lefebve.
"I just caught the ball, turned and threw," Bo grumbled. "End of story. ... It's nothing to brag about. Don't try to make a big issue out of it."
Bo Jackson's baseball career really ended on a football field in Los Angeles. He hurt his hip against the Cincinnati Bengals. He did come back and did a few remarkable things after that, but it was different. He wasn't superhuman anymore.
Harry Houdini in cleats
The thing is, anyone who saw him play will never forget him. Every game was like a Harry Houdini performance — you expected to see something you had never seen before.
This story began with that July day in 1990 at Yankee Stadium when Bo Jackson hit three home runs before being injured.
He missed more than a month, then returned on Aug. 11 to face Seattle. He came up in the second inning. The pitcher was Randy Johnson. First pitch, Bo crushed a long fly ball to center field. The ball splashed in the waterfall to the left of the scoreboard. The Royals estimated the homer flew 450 feet.
"I'm not trying to brag," Jackson said. "But I actually saw the threads on the ball right before I hit it."
For once, Bo Jackson had impressed himself. And that might have been his greatest feat of all.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
SOLD!
Beth and I quietly put our house on the market a couple of months ago just to see what would happen. We like were we are currently living but we would love to be closer to town which would put us closer to church, the Y, shopping, and our friends. (In that order - HA) With the housing market like it is (or at least what we're being told by the media and government) we thought it would take a while to sell. Wrong. We signed the papers last week and as of July we'll be homeless. We have no idea where we might move. The good thing is the couple buying our home doesn't want to close until July so that buys us a few more months of looking.
I also threw the idea out to Beth that if we were ever going to make a major move then now is the time. Our house is sold, we're debt free, the kids haven't started school yet and we've always talked about making a big move to another state (or country)
I've come up with a list of place we could move based on places we've been before or wanted to go and on the the 1% chance we would move away from Kernersville:
- Southern California (With great weather 24/7 who cares if we'd only be able to afford a 600sqft apt)
- Estes Park, CO (One of the most beautiful places in the country)
- Chicago (my favorite city)
- Atlanta (For some reason I've always had a special place in my heart for that city)
- Blacksburg, VA (It would be way cool to work w/ D & K)
- Mexico City (I wonder if I could get a full time interpreter?)
- Kona, HI (Or any part of HI)
- Nashville, TN (I'm not a country music fan but I love the city)
- Places we've never been but would be open to moving sight-unseen: San Antonio, Seattle, Portland
- And according to findyourspot.com we should live in Charleston, SC or Jacksonville, FL.
I also threw the idea out to Beth that if we were ever going to make a major move then now is the time. Our house is sold, we're debt free, the kids haven't started school yet and we've always talked about making a big move to another state (or country)
I've come up with a list of place we could move based on places we've been before or wanted to go and on the the 1% chance we would move away from Kernersville:
- Southern California (With great weather 24/7 who cares if we'd only be able to afford a 600sqft apt)
- Estes Park, CO (One of the most beautiful places in the country)
- Chicago (my favorite city)
- Atlanta (For some reason I've always had a special place in my heart for that city)
- Blacksburg, VA (It would be way cool to work w/ D & K)
- Mexico City (I wonder if I could get a full time interpreter?)
- Kona, HI (Or any part of HI)
- Nashville, TN (I'm not a country music fan but I love the city)
- Places we've never been but would be open to moving sight-unseen: San Antonio, Seattle, Portland
- And according to findyourspot.com we should live in Charleston, SC or Jacksonville, FL.
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