In addition to the following, I will also be checking out the series premieres of Cougar Town (ABC, 9/24) and The Good Wife (CBS, 9/22).

Dexter
SHO, returns Sunday (9/27)

I will reviewing the first four episodes this week – stay tuned for an extensive (spoiler-free) Season 4 preview right here, on or before Sunday!

Dollhouse
FOX, returns Friday (9/25)

One of the most unique new shows of 2008  returns for a sophomore season, following a mind-blowing DVD & iTunes only episode (“Epitaph One”) that did not air with the first season. 

FlashForward
ABC, premieres Thursday (9/24/09)

This is, without question, the best pilot I have seen in five years. Stunning cinematography, fantastic script and cast, immediately intriguing. I have already started a website for the new series, and will be giving away copies of Robert J. Sawyer’s book FlashForward there later this week.

Obviously my main focus every week from January through May is the Lost blog, but when I’m not watching, researching or writing about the show, I’ve been turning off the television more and settling in with a graphic novel or book instead.

The stack currently residing on my nightstand accurately reflects many of my interests; music, sports, superheroes and even the afterlife (which I blame on my undyling love for Six Feet Under; pun absolutely intended)…

I am openly fascinated by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so it was an easy choice to pick up a copy of Scar Tissue. Bonus: HBO is developing a series based on Anthony Kiedis’ childhood.

I know nothing about Captain Freedom, except that the cover and tagline grabbed me instantly: A superhero’s quest for truth, justice, and the celebrity he so richly deserves. Sounds right up my alley on many levels.

The X-Files. Dead Like Me. Pushing Daisies. Bones. True Blood. Just a few of the reasons that I’m enjoying Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. It also doesn’t hurt that my better half is a modern day Scully of sorts. : )

I read Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina series last year, and am now enthralled with and absorbing his visionary Y: The Last Man graphic novels. Vaughan is actually a co-producer and writer on Lost (the 3rd issue of Y was featured as an Easter Egg this season; Hurley was reading it in Spanish at the airport).

Sticking with the post apocalyptic theme, I just finished Brian Wood’s chilling and prescient Channel Zero. It is an alternatingly exciting and frightening narrative.

So there you have it, an excuse which I don’t expect you to respond to. Every night I think about posting something on this site, and apologize for not doing so at least a few times per week. My non-Lost friends and readers deserve an extra virtual hug for being patient with me; I appreciate that you’re still here, and promise to post movie reviews and TV news again soon!

- Jo

[Unless otherwise noted with a link, you can find all of these items on Amazon.  Keep your eyes peeled for great online coupons from Borders and Barnes & Noble as well.]

APPAREL & ACCESSORIES

Dr. Leo Spaceman T-Shirt (30 Rock)
$17.95
He’s a fine doctor, and a pretty good dentist!

Edward Cullen’s Replica Wristcuff (Twilight)
$19.99
Seriously. You can purchase this man bracelet for your swooning daughter or girlfriend.

Top Chef logo cap
$14.99, Bravo Shop
For the top chef in your own kitchen or life.

BOOKS

The Bro Code
Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
$12.98, CBS.com
I believe that the cover photo says it all.

Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 1)
Charlaine Harris
$7.99
Get to know Sookie Stackhouse and the other cast of characters from Harris’ series, on which the new HBO show True Blood is based.

Heroes, Volume 1
Illustrated by Tim Sale
$13.59
Regardless of how you feel about the television series now, this compilation of online comics that accompanied the first season is very cool.

Lost Ate My Life: The Inside Story of a Fandom Like No Other
Jon Lachonis & Amy J. Johnston
$13.57
If you or someone you know has ever posted on a Lost message board/forum or spends hours analyzing and discussing every episode, this is the perfect gift for them; a fantastic behind-the-scenes perspective about how one show has inspired an entire online community.

Roasting in Hell’s Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words and the Pursuit of Perfection
Gordon Ramsay
$11.16
Even if you haven’t seen any of Chef Ramsay’s shows, this is quite a fascinating autobiography.

Watchmen
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
$11.99
One of the most celebrated graphic novels of all time; you do not need to be a comic book aficionado to appreciate it. The film debuts next year – read this first.

DVDs

Can’t Hardly Wait (10th Anniversary Edition)
$17.99
One of the best ‘guilty pleasure’ teen movies around, featuring an ensemble cast of future television stars and character actors: Lauren Ambrose, Eric Balfour & Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under), Selma Blair (Hellboy), Clea DuVall (Heroes), Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg), Ethan Embry (Sweet Home Alabama), Peter Facinelli (Dr. Cullen in Twilight), Donald Faison (Scrubs), Seth Green (Family Guy), Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer), Breckin Meyer* (Robot Chicken), Jerry O’Connell (Crossing Jordan), Chris Owen (American Pie trilogy), Erik Palladino (ER), Jaime Pressly (My Name is Earl), Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect), Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) and Sean Patrick Thomas (Save the Last Dance).

* Pop culture sidenote: Breckin Meyer is married to Can’t Hardly Wait writer/director Deborah Kaplan.

Friday Night Lights
$10.49
The excellent film that preceded the stellar television series, both of which are based on H.G. Bissinger’s book of the same name.

The Office, Season 1
$19.98, NBC.com
Watch Jim watch Pam, from the beginning.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season
$18.99
This gem of a show was recently canceled, but it is destined to become a cult classic.

MUSIC

Matt Nathanson: Some Mad Hope
$10.99
I never pass on the opportunity to promote Matt’s music. Even if he wasn’t a very good friend of mine, I would own this CD. His songs have been featured on Eli Stone, Men in Trees, Private Practice and Scrubs.

OMFGG No. 1: Gossip Girl Soundtrack
$14.99
An upbeat compilation with tracks from The Killers, Phantom Planet, The Ting Tings, Junkie XL and more.

TOYS & GAMES for Grownups

The Dude Abides: a Big Lebowski talking keychain
$11.99
Clip this bad boy on when you go bowling or to the bar when you order a White Russian.

LOST Dharma Be@rbrick
$15, Meltdown Comics
What LOST fan wouldn’t want this cute little Dharma bear figure on their desk?

Sex and the City Trivia Game
$16.99
We all know someone who knows entirely too many details about Miranda, Charlotte, Carrie and Samantha. This should be right up their Manolo alley.
—
And of course, here are a few items on my personal wish list of pop culture gifts:

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone – safe travels!

To our surprise, they allowed early birds in the theater an hour before the film started rather than making everyone wait in a line outside. And that’s when it began…the palpable excitement emanating from gaggles of girls, proud and loud exclamations about Robert Pattinson’s eyes and whether they prefer brooding vampire Edward or the cute and mysterious Jacob. Swoons and sighs. Giggles of glee. And I sat there absorbing it all, sharing occasional eye rolls with the parents who were chaperoning in large groups of tween BFFs.

Many people have asked me if reading Stephenie Meyer’s first book of the series is essential before seeing the film. The quick answer is no. That being said, the movie is a very faithful adaptation of the book and I found myself looking forward to certain scenes because of how they would translate from page to screen.

PROs
I was pleasantly surprised by the direction of Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown); she was able to establish and maintain lead character/narrator Bella’s surreal perspective throughout the film. We walk in her shoes through the dream state that her life becomes upon meeting Edward Cullen.

Everyone can attest to the fact that high school is an awkward time, complicated by love at first blush and unfamiliar lust. If there is one element that Meyer and Hardwicke both nail with great success, it is the blundering interaction between Bella and Edward…which account for a few appropriately cheesy and inadvertently funny moments on film.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were perfectly cast and share an indisputable chemistry. I loved that Pattinson chose to portray Edward in a way that it was always unclear whether he wanted to kiss or kill Bella. However, my favorite relationship was actually between Bella and her father (played with quiet, understated grace by Billy Burke).

Without giving away a key scene, I will say that the confrontation between vampires toward the end was very well choreographed and executed, and it was easily the best sequence in the movie. 

CON
Honestly, the hair and make-up used to distinguish the Cullen family from the rest of the town was distracting – it was more Halloween costume than naturally pale vampire (in unflinching close ups, the caked on white powder was painfully obvious). It was announced that they are moving forward with the sequel (New Moon), and I have no doubt that they will improve upon this look.

After listening to a group of very passionate women at Comic-Con earlier this summer imploring me to read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (imagine Beatles/Backstreet Boys level fanaticism during their heyday…but for a book), I finally gave in and bought it.  The aim is to finish it by Sunday.

The expectations for the film adaptation appear to be astronomical, and I’m sure that the dedicated masses will both dissect it to pieces and contribute to its monster success at the box office.

And even though I’ve been anxiously awaiting the debut of Alan Ball’s True Blood on HBO, my TiVO is apparently not a fan of bloodsuckers; it has failed to record the premiere episode every single time thus far. Crossing fingers for a successful effort tonight…stay tuned for a review this weekend.

If you enjoy any of those people, shows, books, characters, etc., click here to view my photos from Comic-Con 2008.

I may be exhausted, overwhelmed, exhilarated and overstimulated, but the experience far exceeded my expectations. I would like to truly thank those of you who read along or sent encouraging emails and Tweets; they really made me feel like I wasn’t attending alone.  And a huge note of appreciation to my brother-in-law John, who not only drove several hours to join me on Friday, but promoted the hell out of my Lost blog while collecting swag for my nephews all day. I had as much fun watching him in action as I did attending most panels.

Phew. Bring on SDCC 2009.

Of the many things I’ve been labeled, ‘handy’ is not one of them. But I was recently inspired to undertake the daunting task of transforming our junk room into a more practical space. It was a very cathartic experience. Not only did I have 12 banker boxes full of paperwork from the last 12 years of our life shredded, I actually built a desk and lamp (and by built I mean…followed instructions to put the pieces together using actual tools!). The entire room makeover took 3 weeks and cost a whopping $135. And I did it all quite stealthily while my better half was out of town. Given that I haven’t been able to do much for months because of my back surgery, it was a pleasant surprise and very well received.

On top of being a pack rat, I am a collector of entertainment and sports memorabilia. So the dusty bobblehead boxes and movie figurines safely encased in plastic are now stashed away on the shelves in the closet. There is far less clutter in here now. 

I’ve always had one wall in here with framed press kit and autographed photos. The black and white pictures are a nice contrast against the stormy blue gray paint.  But after I finished framing and hanging everything, I was very surprised to notice a glaring omission from my collection…not one photo or poster from Lost. How is that possible?

Aside: When I go to someone’s house for the first time, I love to quickly peruse 3 things: the bookcase, the CD and the DVD collection. As a Lit major, I have always been fascinated by what people read for fun and/or in their spare time. And as a pop culture sponge, music and movies are my way of assessing someone’s entertainment IQ.
 
Getting rid of my textbooks from college was a long overdue chore. For some reason I schlepped all of my sociology and feminism books from place to place after college. But as I spent several days on my side recovering in the guest room a few weeks ago, staring at our largest bookshelf, I realized that most of those books now merely serve as a reminder of the activism that I abandoned along with the Birkenstocks back in the early 90′s (thankfully). And I had to ask myself questions like, “will you ever really want to read The Beauty Myth again?” and “seriously, do you think you’ll revisit The Word of a Woman: Feminist Dispatches, 1968-1992?”

But of course I will never abandon certain classics and authors; their novels are always welcome, wherever and as long as I live.

I don’t really have a point.

So I will make a list of my favorites authors and/or books, because you know I can’t resist a good list opportunity.

Raymond Carver
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories
Where I’m Calling From: Selected Stories

Michael Chabon
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Summerland
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union

David James Duncan
The Brothers K
The River Why [quite possibly my #1 book]

Nick Hornby
A Long Way Down
About a Boy
Speaking With the Angel (anthology edited by Hornby)

Michael Lewis
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (a fantastic look behind the scenes of building a professional baseball team, especially for an A’s fan like me)

Annie Proulx
Close Range: Wyoming Stories (includes original Brokeback Mountain short story)

Adrienne Rich [my favorite poet of all time]
The Dream of a Common Language

Sarah Waters
Affinity
Fingersmith
Tipping the Velvet

And a garden variety of other writers grace my shelves as well: Isabel Allende, Jane Austen, Melissa Bank, Michael Cunningham, Dave Eggers, Jeffrey Eugenides, John Irving, Frances Mayes, Rick Moody, David Sedaris, Alice Walker, etc.