Last night, I caved. I avoided MySpace as long as I could.  It is equally annoying and addictive, but I could no longer ignore the viral nature of the beast. It is a great way to reconnect and network with friends, share blogs, promote events, and market new artists/films/products/sites/shows.  Of course as an adult, I am very aware of public domain, and leery of strange requests, content and photos. It is unfortunate that some of the younger contributors lack parental supervision and are not exercising the same discretion, because there are an alarming number of personalized MySpace pages created by kids who clearly lied about their ages in order to become members.

 

The number of visitors is astounding, and corporate media giant Rupert Murdoch is looking like a genius. Murdoch is the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, which owns and runs FOX Broadcasting Company, 20th Century Fox, FX, DIRECTV, TV Guide, The New York Post, and Harper Collins Books, among many others. Last year, News Corp. acquired MySpace for a cool $580 million, adding it the Fox Interactive Media division. With access to the personal preferences of millions of people of all ages, News Corp.’s opportunities for direct marketing on all consumer levels are endless.

In case you’re interested, here is my official entry into the world of MySpace. Be gentle, I’m new and it’s a work in progress:
http://www.myspace.com/jopinionated

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Better late than never – here are some thoughts about last week’s Lost.

 

* Was Libby stalking Hurley after they both left the institution? Is that why she was on his flight? Did he really step on her foot on the airplane like she said when he told her he looked familiar? 

 

* Libby also heard Leonard mumbling the numbers in the institution…did that result in bad luck for her too?  

 

* Was Libby really sick and/or crazy? Was she employed by Dharma as a clinical psychologist? That may explain her ability to know how to act exactly like a mental patient. Also, she must have noticed the numbers on and in the hatch by now – and note that she hasn’t mentioned them or reacted to them…

 

* Libby was institutionalized for what seemed like a mental illness requiring meds, whereas Hurley seemed to be in a temporary, curable fog. Clearly she doesn’t have her meds on the island, so either she is acting or faking.

 

* If Libby wasn’t a clinical psychologist, then how was she able to hypnotize Claire to help her remember her kidnapping ordeal? Could the treatment Libby received as a patient really have resulted in her ability to do a spot-on impersonation of a psychologist?

 

* Libby told Hurley she’d buried a man with a broken leg. Was it broken before the crash? Were those his crutches that Kate found and gave to Locke?

 

* My only real clue that Libby is indeed still ill/crazy? When she led Hurley off of the cliff at the end of the episode, and he asked her if she thought it was possible to change, she said yes to his face, but her smile quickly dissolved into misery as soon as he looked away.

 

* Hurley has been eating the Dharma packaged food consistently, more so than any of the other survivors. Is the food drugged? Could it be contributing to his delusion?

 

* Dave said the same thing to Hurley that Desmond said to Jack in the stadium after he hurt his ankle running: “See you in another life.” And Nadia’s note on the back of her photo to Sayid also said something similar. What is the connection between these three?

 

* Hurley is yet another survivor who had contributed to someone’s death (the deck collapse) before the crash. He joins Locke, Kate, Jack, Sayid, Ana Lucia, and Sawyer on the list so far.  

 

* Was Henry Gale telling the truth about not entering the numbers? Something tells me he used the computer to contact Walt or the Others instead. Did he tell Locke he didn’t enter them because he wants the survivors to stop entering the numbers for some reason?

 

* Is the magnetic field beneath the hatch directly related to the numbers, blast doors or food drop? Did it contribute to the ‘incident’ that is referred to both in the Orientation film and on the hatch blast door map?

 

* If bearded ‘Other’ Zeke isn’t the HIM that Gale was referring to, then who is?

 

* Is Gale really HIM?

 

* Did Gale orchestrate this entire series of events, from capture to trade? Was he selected to learn more about the survivors? If he is indeed traded for Walt in this week’s episode, then he will return to the Others with key information to expose the weaknesses of the survivors: who’s in charge, power struggles, specific names, etc.

 

* Why didn’t Gale leave when he had the chance? Was he hoping to gather more information and then wait to be traded? 
 
* Right before Sayid was about to shoot him, Gale shouted that he wasn’t a ‘bad person.’ Was he referring to the Others, who only take good people?

* Were Sayid and Ana Lucia playing good cop/bad cop with Gale, or was their interaction real?

* Could the real, deceased Henry Gale have been Desmond’s traveling partner on their race around the world?

 

* This theory is way out there…Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy’s uncle in The Wizard of Oz.  Could the deceased Henry Gale be the uncle of a survivor? Walt, perhaps? 

 

* Looking back at who visited Gale when he was locked down in the hatch…it seems that Sayid, Ana Lucia and Eko all made confessions of sorts, like the makeshift jail cell was a church confessional. 

 

* By the way, if you take the words Henry Gale and Minnesota, you get an anagram for SEE AN OTHER LYING MAN. Remember that Ethan Rom is an anagram for OTHER MAN. Too coincidental…

* When Rosseau originally captured Gale in the net, why didn’t she torture him herself, to find out about her daughter Alex’s whereabouts?

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I just got chills. I’m having a total guy moment. It is opening night of the new baseball season, and my favorite team has just taken the field for the first of 162 games this year. I love it. The unshaven boys of spring (training) have emerged from the desert healthy and ready to go, and I have a good feeling about their chances of winning the division and making it past the first round of playoffs this year. The uniforms are clean, but I look forward to the slides and catches that will promptly wear them in. The home crowd is dutifully booing the visiting opposition. The Golden Gloves have been rightfully doled out, and now it’s game time.

 

I admit to watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN. Every night.  And I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new book “Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports.” Of course that means that I need to find time to finally finish “Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball” first. I was at PacBell Park when Bonds hit two historic home runs (numbers 71 & 72) in 2001. I will always remember the absolute appreciation and joy emanating from the crowd at deafening levels, the physical response throughout the stadium. However skeptical I may be now, neither this new book nor the endless speculation about Barry will ever ruin that night for me. It is forever etched into my short list of fantastic sports memories.

Although I grew up near two ballparks and attended high school with the kids of several major leaguers, I was not a true baseball fan until about ten years ago. In retrospect, I should have gone to more games and saved those damn baseball cards. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes they had predicted and prepared for the advent of eBay…

 

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My theories & questions about last night’s episode:

• Were the supplies dropped via parachute intended for the survivors of flight 815? If so, that means that Dharma (or someone else) knows about their crash and location. Are they being fed to remain alive on the island while unwittingly taking part in an experiment, or being drugged via the food?

• Was the distorted sound coming from the speakers in the hatch a warning system of incoming supplies? Did the hatch doors shut because an alarm was triggered by impending the arrival of the supplies?

• The warning speaker in the hatch is like something you see at a subway station. I believe there is system of underground tunnels somehow connecting all hatches. Remember that in the Pilot episode, Rose mentioned that the monster sounded familiar; that she was from NYC…

• Did all of the other hatches also lock down and receive the same warning?

• If the supplies were indeed dropped…from what? No one heard a plane or helicopter. Was it a stealth military-type plane? Of course, hot air balloons are pretty quiet…

• In Locke’s flashback, as he was standing in the parking lot of the motel, an Oceanic airplane flew by overhead at a very low altitude, but it was almost silent..

• We are assuming that the supplies were dropped. They could have been planted there by the Others.

• Are Dharma supplies dropped from Oceanic planes? Did flight 815 malfunction during a drop, causing it to crash?

• Did the hatch shut down to turn off the electromagnetic fields so it wouldn’t bring the supply plane down? A hot air balloon would not be affected by an electromagnetic field…

• I doubt that entering the numbers is related to the hatch locking down. Why would Dharma design it so that a blast door prevents access to the computer when the hatch locks down?

• In Hurley’s flashback last season, we learn that he first got the infamous numbers from a crazy man. Is it possible that this guy used to deliver supplies to the island, and that the numbers are a request for supplies?  Or did he overhear/intercept a message containing the numbers at some point in his life or career?

• Was the mural on the hatch wall (outside of the blast doors) created by someone who was in the hatch, saw the map when the doors closed, and then tried to recreate it from memory? Or did this person leave the hatch to go explore the island, and update the map upon his return?

• Whoever drew that map was in lockdown for an extended period of time. Did this person know how to make it lockdown on purpose?

• Locke has serious trust issues; he really wanted to trust his dad, and couldn’t. Turned out to be the same way with Henry Gale.

• Is the fake Henry Gale really Kelvin, Desmond’s hatch partner?

• Is the fake Henry Gale related to Bernard? They have similar features.

• Did fake Henry Gale recognize the numbers when Locke repeated them to him? He sure recited them back fast.

• Was fake Henry really knocked out after falling off the shelves trying to get to the vent in the ceiling, or was he faking it to stall? Perhaps he knew exactly what would happen with the computer numbers and/or the lockdown.

• It took Henry some time to return to Locke once the hatch doors reopened. Was he on the computer, in contact with the Others, telling them his location? Or were the Others trying to contact Henry?

• When Helen follows Locke to the motel and confronts his father, she asks “are you him?” That is what Desmond asked Locke the first time they met too.

• Was Helen in on the con with Locke’s dad? It seems too convenient that she was reading the obits and found his father’s name, and that she always shows up to catch Locke in a lie about his dad…

• Locke inspected Nadia’s house. She was Sayid’s girl.

• Is Locke’s dad the real Sawyer, the con man that Island Sawyer was seeking to kill to avenge the death of his parents?

• We haven’t found out how Locke became paralyzed, but I’m sure it had something to do with the two thugs who were after his father. And did Locke ever go back up to the motel room to grab the $200k?

• There must be some significance to Jack being in Thailand…

• Sawyer mentioned being in Tallahassee. That is where Kate was buying a ticket to escape to in one of her flashbacks.

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I was surprisingly impressed with Inside Man. I went in with lowered expectations because Spike Lee’s last major release, She Hate Me, was appalling. However, I have enjoyed most of his earlier films and was not disappointed with his latest. Aside from a few grainy flash-forward scenes, Inside Man did not showcase typical Spike Lee flair. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Jodi Foster play such a morally ambivalent, manipulative character, but she nails this role with a smarmy grin to accompany her corporate sheen. Denzel Washington applies his usual wit and charm to the film, but manages to supersede his sex symbol status with a convincing performance as an everyman with a cheap, cluttered apartment in NYC. As is the case in many of his films, Spike Lee’s love of New York is evident and appreciated in Inside Man. In 2002, he was the first filmmaker to highlight the city and feature the altered skyline (in 25^th Hour) after the tragic events of 9/11.

 

This brings me to a sensitive issue. The preview trailer for United 93 is now airing before certain films. Each time I’ve seen it, the audience around me has squirmed and whispered. On one occasion my movie companion even started crying after watching it. So perhaps I am not the only one who is not ready for this film. In my personal opinion, it is too soon and too fresh in our history. I’m not sure I’ll ever see this one.

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V for Vendetta is fantastic; a compelling, thought-provoking, mysterious ride anchored by an incredible Natalie Portman. It really is a shame that this movie was released so soon after the Academy Awards because Portman deserves a Best Actress nomination for her performance, and by next year her portrayal may be overshadowed in the wake of other strong actresses and films. Portman’s character, Evey, is complex and conflicted, heartbreaking and entirely watchable. The film would not have resonated as much had Scarlett Johansson or Bryce Dallas Howard, who were also under consideration for the role, taken the lead.

 

Hugo Weaving is a gifted actor; he is able to convincingly make V, the man behind the mask, alternatively sympathetic and evil using only his voice and body language – without so much as a glimpse of his face. British actor James Purefoy was originally cast as V but left shortly after filming began for unknown reasons, clearing the way for Weaving (a favorite of the Wachowski Brothers, who wrote and produced V). In addition to voicing Rex the male sheepdog in the two Babe films, Weaving appeared in fabulous fashion in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994. He then gained a cult fan following as Agent Smith in all three Matrix movies, followed by yet another successful trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

 

The film is as aesthetically pleasing as you would expect from a Wachowski Brothers production.  And although the brothers did not direct this time around, it is quite clear that they had their hands in every aspect of the movie. In fact, director James McTeigue was one of their assistant directors from the Matrix trilogies.

 

Although set in the future, V’s political undercurrent is surprisingly prevalent and somewhat realistic. The pace is appropriately intense, and there are a few unexpected twists and turns. Aside from one scene with slow motion violence bordering on gratuitous, I loved V for Vendetta and recommend it to anyone who can appreciate both great acting and a story that intermingles sci-fi with history.

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Here are some thoughts & theories about this week’s epsiode of Lost.

• Sawyer had a pregnancy test among his hoarded supplies, which means that someone else on that flight thought they might be pregnant. The question is this – is it someone who survived the crash? Did Sun have one in her suitcase and was hoping that Sawyer found it? If so, that means she did sleep with her language tutor.

• Was Jin’s procreation power magically restored, like Locke’s legs? Did the crash or the island or the hatch or Dharma have anything to do with it?

• It can’t be coincidence that Sun started to feel the signs of pregnancy right after babysitting Aaron. And I’m not convinced she’s actually pregnant by normal means. Was she injected with something? Those Other scientists certainly have the meds and are seeking children. I also seem to recall that Locke’s mom told him he had no father, that he was an immaculate conception…

• Henry Gale is an Other. Someone did crash a balloon on the island, but not him. He and the Others saw the accident and killed or kidnapped the balloon passengers, and now Gale is using their story. That would explain how he knows the location of the balloon.

• Jack said he couldn’t hear Ana Lucia talking to Gale inside the holding cell  even when he was standing right next to the door, and yet Gale was able to hear Jack and Locke talk quietly further outside that same door? This reinforces my theory that Gale has super hearing powers, which is probably one of the characteristics of the Others.

• How could Gale have known that more than just Ana Lucia went looking for his balloon? He told Jack and Locke that the map he drew could lead to a set up, and then the Others would “trade them for me.”

Random Thought (not related to the latest episode):

• Did Locke know what was going to happen on the island before he boarded the plane? Was he told that the island would somehow cure him if he agreed to oversee a hatch? Was Locke the replacement sent for Desmond? When he first found the hatch in the jungle and couldn’t get it open, he yelled that “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” like he knew he had to get in there…

 

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