"Artistic Coincidences"

Unusual, misplaced, or coincidental things seem to stand out to me pretty easily. Maybe it's due to 25 years of doing inspection work on semiconductor circuits, or just my natural conspiratorial brain patterns, who knows. But this similarity jumped out as I was looking through old Lost magazines to find something to draw, and you don't need any inspection expertise to notice this one. The above image scan is a combined drawing/photo illustration in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue in a style that is pretty typical in Lost magazine. It's captioned as an "...exclusive piece of "Otherville" concept art..." done by, "Art director Scott Cobb, under supervision of Production Designer Zack Grobler..." In case it's not clear in the scan, the illustration is a collage of photos and sketches designed to depict the DI compound. It reminded me a lot of the controversial Barracks poster that we've come to know.

Like I said, the designers of Lost magazine often combine production illustrations and location photos and the following image was in this month's issue in a collection of photos about the DI Motor Pool, again attributed to Zack Grobler.

I'm not trying to detract or degrade the workmanship of the Barracks poster here, I'm just making note of an observation that just struck me as being a rather odd.

;-)

"Start The New Year Voting For Lost"

On the back of the current issue of Lost magazine is an ad for the Total Sci-Fi Awards, which I don't believe I've ever heard of before. Nevertheless, here we can vote for Lost in any category that it applies in the awards (TV show, director, etc.). If nothing else, it's another way that we can thank TPTB of Lost for their amazing efforts in giving us quality TV entertainment and hiatus fun, giving them the recognition that they deserve. Perhaps in these types of awards we can honor their creativity in the ways that the Emmy committee refuses to, *ahem*. There are other categories and genres to vote for there as well, if you're so inclined. Voting ends on January 4th, so get your ballots in while you finish up the leftover holiday champagne with a sparkling mimosa. :-)

Vote here: http://totalscifionline.com/features/4348-vote-in-the-total-sci-fi-awards

Happy New Year everyone, cheers and God bless! :-D

"Not To Nitpick But..."

The recent issue of Lost magazine contains a nice article on some of the sets and props of 1970s DI-ville, in which the items above are labeled as belonging to the DI. If I'm not mistaken, isn't this actually one of the tents that the Islanders were living in when Daniel found them in the woods? The two critters on the campfire spit rod show an error in the picture's caption, IMO.

"Merry Christmas"

Have a good Holiday Season and New Year friends. Best wishes and God's blessings to everyone, especially remembering and helping those who might be really lost in the world. Mele Kalikimaka!

"Project Memento Mori"

During the wait for the poster #16 release over at LostARGs, we talked about creating a legend for the Memento Mori painting of "Mr. Black", in the fashion of the "Linder Gallery" painting that Thorsten, et.al., have shared with us. So I numbered the objects (all of them, even MIB himself and his belt -- you never know, he might use it to strangle someone). Let me know if I missed anything. Just about the only things I didn't label were the table, wall, and the wooden looking form in the back shadow by the tapestry:

This might need to be labeled, I don't know. Could it be the door of the cabin? I raised the brightness and contrast to highlight it, but it just looks like a door or panel. Update~ thanks to all the help, here is how we've labeled the objects thus far:

1) Smokey

2) Charlie

3) Bird killed by Walt

4) White tennis shoe

5) Tapestry yarn/Locke's hatch cables

6) Jacob's tapestry

7) MIB

8) Hurley's paintbox

9) Toy airliner

10) Tree limb

11) Faraday

12) MacCutcheon Whisky

13) Gas mask

14) Four-toes

15) Coconuts

16) Cabin chair?

17) Hurley's drawing

18) Locke

19) Danielle

20) Wooden dolls

21) Mary statue

22) Eko's stick

23) Backgammon pieces

24) Compass

25) Sawyer's letter/Locke's Smokey or BDM sketch

26) Flies

27) Urchins

28) Papayas

29) Polar bear skull

30) Eko and Yemi photo

31) Swan timer/counter

32) Danielle's map

33) Knife -- that killed Jacob?

34) Dynamite

35) DI beer

36) Charlie's bag of heroin

37) Watership Down

38) Charlie's ring

39) MIB's belt/rope

40) Sand/Ash

41) Yemi's cross

42) Unknown cloth

43) Hurley's Lotto Ticket

44) Locke's note to Jack

45) Charlie's greatest hits list

Now that they are mostly all labeled it doesn't seem so mysterious, but it's good to know anyway, I suppose. Thanks for any help! The original can be seen here at the gallery blog for the Lost art project: http://lostundergroundartshow.blogspot.com/

"Happy Hanukkah Lost Friends"

Since all the ancient Eastern and Mediterranean religious symbols have been turning up on the island, I for one have been looking forward to the inclusion of some early Hebrew artifacts for us to study. I don't know much at all about Jewish history, but for what I learned in Sunday school in the Old Testament that always fascinated me. So I made up my own bit of artifact for the island, above. And in light of the recent reveal (show-canon or not, we don't know yet) of a new part of (or whole) tapestry included in the special DHARMA version of the Season 5 DVD, I looked for a tapestry of Jewish history for the season as well. It's not specifically for Hanukkah, but it looks very interesting.

Also found online was a nice piece of historical artifact from the Holy Land that would look good accompanying the other religious accouterments in the island temple area. Happy Hanukkah everyone. :-)

"The 5000 Fingers Of TPTB"

It occurred to me today that this crazy Lost hiatus poster-buying event is a lot like the Dr. Seuss story "The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T." In the 1953 fantasy movie, crazy Dr. Terwilliker decides to enslave 500 boys to all play the piano at once, for his amusement.

In the same way, TPTB of Lost have weekly enslaved (tens-of?) thousands of fans to their computers, hitting their F5 buttons every few seconds like robots, to participate in this super-limited poster sale. Dr. Terwilliker would be in awe. But what began as a lot of fun for all, evolved into much disappointment for many. Seconds after they go on sale they are sold out. Accounts of the making of the "Dr. T" movie reveal that at one point in the filming, almost all the boys at the pianos vomited simultaneously after one boy got sick, in a horrible regurgitation domino effect on the set. Some of the fans in this poster event have felt the same way.

And wouldn't you know, the story even has a Smoke Monster of sorts. Check out the movie, it's some silly fun. Maybe more fun than making yourself sick by F5ing repeatedly for a half hour, hoping against hope to get a little Lost swag for posterity. We really do thank TPTB for this generous hiatus scheme that they dreamt up to show appreciation to their fans, they are the best TV Powers That Be ever. But maybe next time this is done by a production team, an option for a not-so-limited appreciation might also be offered as well, so as not to create such an exclusive nature within the event. JMHO. We don't know how this DCAAPB event will end though, so perhaps TPTB have something more inclusive for all fans rigged up for the ending, who knows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_5,000_Fingers_of_Dr._T/

"A Juliet WCM For A Poster"

In spite of a few water cooler moments given to Juliet, it seems doubtful that she will get a poster all to herself. But if she did, her encounter with Smokey might make a great subject. She stood up to Smokey better than most of the guys when she and Kate were getting chased by it. Not only did she seem to be fairly confident in the banyan tree when Smokey was scanning the women, but she showed her usual island gutsiness at the sonic fence as well -- most likely due to the familiarity with Smokey that she gained as an insider in Otherville.

Why this seems like a Juliet WCM for me, is because it embodies the complete 180' turn that her personality made after she came to the island, possibly exhibiting what's known as "Pissed-Off Passive Syndrome" (which I can very much relate to after 32 years at IBM). Pre-Island, she couldn't even stand up to her Ex when he brought his Honey into the lab not even caring if Juliet would see them. She actually hunkered down on the ground hiding from them behind lab equipment. Then well beyond the supposed end of her term with the Others, she stands on her feet going toe-to-toe (if Smokey has toes) with some kind of unworldly monster. It would have made an interesting poster-worthy moment, IMHO.

"Happy Lostoween!"

Brought to you by poster #7, and my usual silly modifications. BTW, close-ups of the poster have been taken by the lucky owners who so kindly share their acquisitions with us, and this one has some very nice gold detailing.

"Poster #9"

This week's poster is an amazing piece of Lost subject done in minimalist (some say comic book) graphic style -- the radio tower, the A-team, and Shannon's first appearance in a poster. But the color did nothing for me. I would have tried to buy it if it looked more like how I manipulated the color above (but with a blue sky -- I couldn't make only the vegetation green and the sky blue with my program). I'm not crazy about beige at all. But it's a great poster and a perfect slice-of-Lost moment nonetheless, in my opinion. The translating of Rousseau's transmission was a jolting development that introduced a storm of questions in viewer's minds. Some people don't think so, but I do.

The original colors. An odd choice to me, but I must defer to the professional here.

"For Cusick Fans"

This week on the PBS series "Nova", the show veered off into more of a "Masterpiece Theater" genre, showing a two-part movie "Darwin's Darkest Hour." Henry Ian Cusick stars as Charles Darwin, looking still very much like island-Des with the longer Victorian period hair, but without the Scottish accent. Cusick plays the fatherly Darwin well, who in this stage of his life before his notes and ideas were published, balanced his passion for studying nature with family life. The 2-hour drama is interesting, but a bit heavy on the exposition. Much of Darwin's formative years of study are shown in flashbacks during talks with his wife. All in all though, a good venue for Desmond fans to see Cusick in another role.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darwin

"We've Got A Bomb"

Not much time for posting rambling words about Lost lately, I've been getting some tech training at a museum where I volunteer by day, and I've been fully engrossed in Ken Burns' "The National Parks" documentary series on PBS all this week by night. But I have been thinking about how great it was that TPTB gave us some scenes with the Hostiles in the temple-like grotto of the tunnels and taking some of the Losties there! Actually, Jack found out about Jughead before they swam to the cave, not like my liberty-taking graphic above shows, and he surprisingly believed it. He never believes anything anyone says usually, whoodathunk he'd buy that? I do have some difficulty understanding how the Hostiles moved Jughead to the grotto, I hope that we find out more about that. Maybe Smokey rolled it there, or they used Ed Leedskalnin's anti-gravity method of moving tons of coral to build a little castle garden in Florida all by himself. :-) http://coralcastle.com

By the way, if these tunnels are near and/or under the barracks, that seems to be the way that Richard evaded the security of the sonic fence when he marched in and planted the torch in the quad. Alluding to this array of tunnels also lends credence to the theory that there could be a tunnel network on the island that allowed Ethan and Goodwin to get to the wreckage sites so quickly. It also helps to picture the connection to the tunnel entrance in Ben's (and formerly Horace's?) cottage and Smokey's lair. Indeed, some details are coming together a bit for us, however sketchy.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the Lost poster activities, the latest artwork of Smokey and Eko is awesome. A very good graphic for Halloween as well.

"Some Emmy Satisfaction"

It's so fantastic that the Emmy people made the choice for Michael Emerson to win best supporting actor in a drama. Of course we all love him and wished for the best to happen last night, and there will be plenty of posts today on his win, but I couldn't resist a little Lost-gloating as a fan myself. Here's an interesting website dedicated to M.E. http://www.michaelemerson.net

"What Now Ben?"

This scene has been on my mind, and I've been wondering if this is the first time that Jacob ever touched Ben. If it is, will Ben be affected by Jacob's contact as we are to assume that the lives of the Losties that he touched were? Granted, Jack didn't seem to become any less of a tool after his encounter with Jacob at the candy machine, so I wouldn't expect miracles with Ben here. But since for whatever reason Jacob had withheld his presence from Ben, the gravity of this first contact could be a very profound one on such an attention hungry man. This could be the final straw that wrecks Ben's last good nerve, and becomes the release valve that blows the pressure that's built up in him after a life of working very hard on things that perhaps he never understood at all.

So it brings to mind the question of what's in store for Ben in S6. There are no take-backs when you bludgeon someone, Ben could stumble back from seeing Jacob callously kicked into the flames and feel that he made a terrible mistake. Or he could whip around and finish his stabbing spree on Not-Locke out of insane anger at being used for yet another killing. Maybe Jacob's phoenix spirit will whisper to Ben, the way that Obi-Wan whispered to Luke, that it's better this way. But Luke didn't kill Obi, so who knows if Ben can come back from the dark side after murdering the man he thought was his hero.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this event will effect Ben and what he will do next. But my imagination is leaning towards seeing the act of killing Jacob completely cracking Ben's mind under the weight of all his previous evil deeds, and then he lives the rest of his life mumbling and playing Connect-Four with Lenny at Santa Rosa.

"My Jacob Fantasy"

Before we finally learned who Jacob was, in my imagination I pictured him to be someone much like Captain Nemo. They do have similar personalities as far as we knew up to Season 5: reclusive, disliking the modern world, judgemental, with a peculiar wisdom of sorts that inspired devoted followers. Of course it would be totally unoriginal if TPTB did this, and I would not expect them too. I just enjoyed combining two of my favorite old fantasy movies ("20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", and "Mysterious Island") with the similar Lost story in my mind for a while.

And now we know that Jacob is actually two people! Well not really, but we got two for the price of one when Jacob was finally revealed, which added all kinds of confusion into the mix as far as who is telling whom to do what and for why, on the island. How about that, we were so intently trying to figure out who Jacob could be, and then they threw the Bad Twin at us too (sorry couldn't resist the reference). I pretty much dare TPTB to unwind this thing to my satisfaction by the end of Season 6, but I will bow to their artistic genius when they do.