Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.

The Glass Ballerina

Sorry for the lateness. I start off so well and then it all just falls apart, doesn't it?

OK, so, this week we move to our second parallel storyline, which centers around Sun, Jin and Sayid on the sailboat. This week's story is told from Sun's point of view, and through her flashbacks we see that she has always been quite the accomplished liar, lying to protect herself even if it means it will be at the cost of others.

We open with a slo-mo shot of the titular glass ballerina crashing to the floor. Sun is a little girl in the flashback. Her father enters a room where she is practicing piano and she flinches a bit as he approaches. He asks her who broke the ballerina. Little Sun says the maid did it. Her father tells her that the maid will lose her job if she broke it, and little Sun repeats her assertion that it was the maid who broke it.

We cut to the present, where Sun, Jin and Sayid are waiting on the sailboat. They don't know that Kate, Sawyer and Jack have been captured and it's been a day since they lit the signal fire on the beach for them. Sun has morning sickness and Jin wants to head back to their camp. Sayid says they should stay and light another fire further up the beach and Sun agrees with him. She goes against Jin and tells Sayid that she will help him sail the boat.

At the Hydra station, it's day 2 (I think) and Juliet takes food to Jack. When she leaves Jack's cell, she knocks on a door, the same door that Benry came through last week. Benry opens the door and steps out into the hall. There is a wall of video monitors in the small room he just left. Benry makes a snarky comment to Juliet about how she never made soup for him and then who should f*ckin' come down the f*ckin' ladder but f*ckin' Trixie from Deadwood!



Hi Trixie! Except she's not Trixie here, she's Connie. (and the fact that she came down a hatch-like ladder confirms that they're holding Jack underground) Connie seems a bit put out that Juliet and Benry are having a little private chat and I'm getting the feeling that the Others have are in the middle of a raging soap opera. Connie tells Benry that they have a situation on their hands - "they have a sailboat." Benry is genuinely surprised at this news and tells her to round up a team and go after them: "I want that boat."

Sawyer and Kate are removed from their cages by someone named Denny, and given a lunchbox. As Denny and his group lead Sawyer and Kate through the jungle, Connie intercepts them. Denny gives her a kiss on the cheek and Connie seems less than enthused. Connie takes one of Denny's guys for her sailboat raid and Denny, Kate and Sawyer continue on their way.

In the next flashback, we find out that Sun did indeed have an affair with her English tutor, Jae. As they lie in bed, he gives her a pearl necklace, which she says she cannot accept. Just then, there's a knock on the door and it's Sun's father. Busted!

Sawyer and Kate are put to work on some sort of chain gang/rock quarry job, the purpose of which is unclear. There are other people (Others) working there, but is it for real? I can't imagine it is. Kate says she won't do any work until she sees Jack, so Denny shocks Sawyer with his taser.

Flashbacking again. Jin has been called to Sun's father's office (because I don't know his real name, I'm calling him SunDaddy). SunDaddy hands him a file on Jae (who I don't think Jin has seen before), tells Jin that Jae has "been stealing" from him and he wants Jin to "deliver a message". Realizing that SunDaddy wants him to kill the man, Jin tries to quit. Silly, silly Jin. SunDaddy tells him that their family has been shamed by this man and Jin needs to restore the family's honor. Jin leaves with the file.

Back on the boat, Jin's cooking some kind of monster for dinner. He's called up on deck, where we see that the sailboat has reached the dock from the season finale. Sayid thinks it's abandoned and they should tie up the boat there and build a new, bigger signal fire on this beach. Jin is worried and asks, "Safe?" Sayid replies, very condescendingly, "Yes, Jin, of course it's safe." You'll be eating those words soon, mister.

While Kate and Sawyer are breaking rocks on the chain gang, Kate hears a "psst" from the nearby bushes. It's Alex, Rousseau's daughter: "Don't let them see me talking to you. Are they keeping you in the cages? Did you see another guy in there, about my age, named Carl?" Kate says no because Carl was gone before she got tossed in the cage. Then Alex says something cryptic, like, "he's not even supposed to be in that cage", that the dress Kate is wearing is hers, and takes off before Kate can ask any more questions.

The sailboat is tied up at the dock and Sayid, Sun and Jin are building a huge bonfire on the beach. Sun brings a gas can from the boat to use on the fire. I mention this because it just seems wasteful to me to use that on the fire. Anyway, Sun figures out that Sayid has been lying about why he wants to light such a big fire. "Why are you lying to me, Sayid?" He replies, "And what would you know about lying, Sun?" Oh, quite a bit, actually. You'd be surprised.

By the way, did anyone else notice that Sun's accent is now markedly more American? No?

Being the master interrogator/torturer that he is, Sayid instantly cries uncle and tells the truth: He is certain that Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been captured by the Others. And Sayid has a plan: light a big fire on the beach to attract the Others; since they live so far away, it will be nighttime before the Others arrive and at that point Sayid will ambush them and take a couple of them hostage, killing the rest. How does he know how long it will take them to get to the beach? I'm already thinking this is a piss-poor plan. Sayid asks Sun to continue to lie to Jin about the plan so he can use him to get the fire built and lit.

Flashbacking. Jin comes home from SunDaddy's office and sits down to dinner with Sun. He tells her that her father has asked him to "deliver a message" to someone. Of course, Sun knows exactly what the message is and who it is intended for. She asks Jin if he will deliver it and Jin says that he has to: "I do this for you, Sun...I do this because that's what it takes to be married to you." Jin leaves to deliver the message to Jae and Sun does nothing to stop him, protecting herself just like she did with the glass ballerina.

Back on the beach, the fire is burning. Jin asks Sayid for a gun and tells them that he knows that Sayid plans to trap the Others and that he understands English better than his wife thinks he does. Oops. Sun says, "He knows I betrayed him." Does he know about Jae? Sun goes to hide on the boat while Sayid and Jin wait in the bushes on the beach. Sayid tells Sun that there is another gun on the boat, just in case the Others get past them on the beach.

On the chain gang, Juliet offers a canteen of water to Sawyer, who pours it onto the ground in front of her. Then he walks over to Kate and plants a big, wet one on her. The guards attack, Sawyer gets one of their guns, but Juliet has a gun pointed at Kate. Sawyer drops the gun.

It's night now, and Sayid and Jin are hiding in the bushes while Sun is on the boat. I'm watching this, and I'm thinking, "Um, Sayid, I'm no Iraqi Republican Guard, but I think your plan has a huge hole in it - what makes you think they won't come by water and go after the boat instead?" And whadya know, that's just what they do. Sun hears footsteps on the deck above her and she grabs the gun.

Flashabacka. Jin goes to Jae's apartment at the hotel (was the number on the door "1516"?), beats the crap out of him, scares the crap out of him but can't go through with killing the crap out of him. Jae believes that Jin knows about the affair, but at this point I don't think he does. Jin tells him to disappear from the face of the earth, to go far away and never come back, or he will kill him. Jin leaves the hotel and gets in his car just as Jae's body comes crashing down on top of it, his hand clutching the pearl necklace he bought for Sun. Did SunDaddy send a backup team to complete the job if Jin didn't? Or did Jae really kill himself? Or did Sun have something to do with it?

Back on the boat. Connie enters the cabin and Sun pulls a gun on her. Connie knows Sun's name. She tells Sun, "Despite what you think, I am not the enemy, we are not the enemy. But if you shoot me, that's exactly what we'll become." Someone starts the engine above, Sun is startled and she shoots Connie in the stomach. The Others shoot at Sun, which brings Sayid and Jin running from the beach. There's a shootout and Sun falls overboard. Jin dives off the dock after her as the Others motor away on the boat. After a short round of Marco Polo, Sun and Jin find each other.

Flashiebackie. It's Jae's funeral, and Sun stands away from the proceedings, observing. SunDaddy approaches her and tells her to go home to her husband. She asks if he will ever tell Jin about the affair and he grumbles back that it is not his place to tell him. On the beach, Sayid apologizes for his shitty plan and says that they should have listened to Jin after all. They start walking back to camp. I wonder how long it will take them? They'll probably get there in time for May sweeps.

At the zoo, Sawyer and Kate are tossed back into their cages after a hard day at the quarry (yabadabadoo!). Kate asks him why he kissed her and Sawyer explains that he did it to test the guards, to see if he could take them. He thinks he can, except for maybe Juliet, who seems pretty hardcore to him, and he and Kate work on a plan to escape, all while Benry watches and listens.



Finally, Benry enters Jack's cell for a chat. Jack asks him what he wants from him and Benry tells him that he wants Jack to "change his perspective." Benry introduces himself formally to Jack as Benjamin Linus and says that he has lived on the island all of his life. I totally believe him and I'm so psyched for the questions this opens up. Like, WHY? Do they stay because of the healing powers? He tells Jack, "If you cooperate, we'll send you home." Cooperate how, he doesn't say. Jack actually asks an intelligent question: "If you could leave this island, why would you still be here?" Benry replies, "Yes, Jack, why would we be here?" Ooo!

Benry has called out to someone who wheels a television into the room on the other side of the plexiglass. To prove that they have access to the outside world, Benry tells Jack that it is November 29, 2004, they have been on the island for 69 days and that since they've been there GWB was re-elected, Christopher Reeve died and the Red Sox won the World Series. This scene was fantastic. Jack, of course, does not believe the whole Red Sox thing so Benry hits play on his remote and Jack watches the final play of the final game of the World Series that the Red Sox won. It almost looks as though there are tears in his eyes. Benry says, "That's home and I'll take you there. I'll take you home, if you listen to me and do as I ask."

Tomorrow, we get to find out what happened to Desmond, Locke and Eko!

M&Ms

M&Ms, originally uploaded by gina64.

Halloween peanut butter M&Ms.

A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Oleksiy Zalevsky

And she doesn't look happy about it.

Beads

Beads, originally uploaded by gina64.

Quartered

Quartered, originally uploaded by gina64.

White Flower Farm

White Flower Farm, originally uploaded by gina64.

Occupation, insurgency and suicide bombings -- sound familiar?

Occupation / Precipice

Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica premiered last Friday night with a 2-hour episode. I won't recap it scene for scene but instead I'll do a quick summary for you.

At the end of last season: Roslin stole the election from Baltar but couldn't go through with the deception. Baltar became President and moved immediately to abandon the search for Earth and settle on the desolate rock now known as New Caprica. A year later, the Cylons return, invade and Baltar surrenders. The Galactica and Pegasus, which had been orbiting New Caprica, fled since they were severely outnumbered and outgunned by the Cylons. This time, however, the Cylons are not set on obliterating the human race. According to them, they just want us all to get along.

As this season begins, it appears as though about 4 or 5 months have passed. On New Caprica, a resistance movement has begun (called an "insurgency" by the occupiers) against Baltar's Vichy government and the Cylons. Tyrol and Anders lead the resistance, setting off bombs while Tigh is being "detained" on suspicion of being an insurgent leader. He has been tortured (his eye was ripped out and then presented to him) and holds a serious grudge against the Cylons.

Starbuck has been in her own form of detention: Leoben (a Cylon) found and kidnapped her. She has been held against her will by Leoben these few months, and he wants them to be lovers. He claims to love her, and if you know anything about a Cylon's understanding of the concept of "love", you'd believe him as I do. I don't however think that there has been any rape going on here - I think he's being patient and waiting for her to come around. So anyway, they sit down to dinner one night and Starbuck manages to grab a knife and kill Leoben. Unfortunately, since he's a Cylon, he will simply resurrect. It seems Starbuck has killed Leoben many times and the act has become purely symbolic.

Up in space, Adama and Lee, commanders of the Galactica and Pegasus respectively, spend their time devising plans for an attack on the Cylon occupiers that will take place once they get word from the human population they left behind (Cylons are jamming the frequencies). Oh, and they're also eating. A LOT. Or at least Lee is - man needs to back away from the cheetos. He and Adama are at each others' throats about a course of action and whether or not they should return to New Caprica, fight the Cylons and rescue their people, or take whatever is left of the human race on board the 2 ships and continue the search for Earth. Adama wants to go back and fight and Lee wants to cut their losses and head for Earth. And they both have their points.

Ellen Tigh has been doing the dirty with Brother Cavil (ew!) in order to get her husband released from prison. And it works. Tigh is released and takes the resistance in a new direction: suicide bombings, much to Tyrol's strenuous objections. Based on intel from a source inside of Baltar's government (Gaeta!), the first suicide bombing kills scores at a police academy graduation, where humans join the police in order to help enforce the Cylon Occupation (Iraqi Security Forces, anyone?). The bombing horrifies many and takes the Cylons by surprise. They roundup "suspicious" individuals at night and put them in the detention center. Among them are Roslin, Zarek and Cally, Tyrol's wife and mother of their baby.

In the meantime, Leoben tries a different tack with his wooing of Starbuck: He presents her with a toddler child that was grown in the Cylon baby factory from the ovary they stole from Starbuck. How nice. She wants nothing to do with the child at first, but then when the child falls and hurts herself (actually, I think Leoben pushed her down the stairs), Starbuck's maternal instinct kicks in. Has she been broken? I don't think so.


Tigh insists on continuing the suicide bombings because at the very least they create chaos and will help to distract the Cylons when Adama and Galactica come to their rescue, which Tigh is convinced is imminent. The Old Man wouldn't just abandon them, he says.

He's right. Adama's been sending a long range raptor to New Caprica to look for radio messages from the ground all this time, but none have gotten through (Cylon frequency jammers, remember). Until now. Gaeta has provided Tyrol with a channel on which to send a message and it works. Adama and crew receive the message with great joy and send one back: "Have hope. We're coming for you."

A plan is devised: Sharon (the one on Galactica) has become Adama's confidant. He trusts her and makes her an officer. She will lead the initial landing on New Caprica. The fact that she's a Cylon should help her break through some of their defenses. The landing site is chosen, but there's a problem: the location of the landing site has been compromised. You see, Ellen Tigh is still screwing around with Brother Cavil (ew! I mean, Tigh isn't much better, but still), I presume to keep the heat off of her husband, and he tells her that they know about Adama's plan and she is to get the location of the landing site from her husband and give it to him or they will throw Tigh's ass back in detention. Ellen manages (easily) to get a copy of the map and the meeting at the landing site is ambushed.

In order to gain back some control and win over the human colony, the Cylons have decided to summarily execute 200 of them. Baltar is forced to sign off on the order after Six is shot in the head in front of him. The 200 detainees (Roslin, Zarek and Cally among them) are loaded into trucks and driven out to the edge of a gravel pit. Jammer, a "police" officer, helps Cally to sneak away as we hear the Cylons guns fire at the assembled group offscreen.

*******
That wasn't really a quick summary, was it? Ah well.

This show works well on so many levels, not the least of which is as a mirror to be held up to ourselves during wartime, and particularly the current war. What makes it watchable and not thoroughly depressing is how highly entertaining it is. Please watch this show!

We can rebuild her.

'Galactica' guy preps revamped 'Woman': "Eick and Kalogridis will exec produce a new take on 'Bionic,' a 1970s spinoff of 'The Six Million Dollar Man' in which Lindsay Wagner played tennis pro-turned-superwoman Jamie Sommers. "

Combine the creators of one of the best shows on TV with one of my favorite shows from growing up and what do you get? A match made in TV heaven, I hope!

I so wanted to be Jaime Sommers when I was growing up. I hope they're able to use her in some small way in the new show (like Richard Hatch in BSG). Get her off that sleep number bed and back to work!

I wonder if they think we need to "stay the course"?

Study: War blamed for 655,000 Iraqi deaths: "Violence including gunfire and bombs caused the majority of deaths but thousands of people died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict that began in 2003, U.S. and Iraqi public health researchers said."

655,000 people.

And for the American casualty list, please see The Human Cost of Occupation.

My Job.

Make sure you watch through to the end!

Cute!

Sam Paletsky, Cattle Dealer

Sam Paletsky, Cattle Dealer, originally uploaded by gina64.

Fall in New England

Fall in New England, originally uploaded by gina64.

Autumn Afternoon

Autumn Afternoon, originally uploaded by gina64.

Turning

Turning, originally uploaded by gina64.

I went for a Sunday drive on...Sunday. I did some leaf-peeping and pumpkin-buying. And picture-taking.

What Would Tony Do?

A History of Sex With Students, Unchallenged Over the Years: "Many in this gray, insular city are at a loss to explain why Diane Cherchio West was allowed to continue working in the public school system for two decades after she was caught in 1980 kissing and groping a 13-year-old student at an eighth-grade dance."

I'm sure they know exactly why, they just can't say:

"Ms. West, now 52, was raised in one of the city’s more comfortable Italian sections, the daughter of John Cherchio, a regular on who’s who lists here, who ran a successful construction and waste-carting business."

Ah, well, there ya go.

Unattractive, frightening, sad and most of all...

Just plain irresponsible.

Drive Thru Review

Inside Man - I love heist movies, Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster, so this was a no-brainer for me. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the movie was a "Spike Lee Joint". A heist/action movie is not in his every day bag of tricks, but maybe it should be. The direction is slick and the writing is tight and the actors are all excellent. And Denzel and Clive are hot.

Frak!

Don't forget, season 3 of Battelstar Galactica premieres tonight at 9:00 P.M. on SciFi! (it's 2 hours long)

The lights are much brighter there, You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares.

A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times? No, that doesn't really fit, does it? Is it the story of 2 men during a time of social upheaval, who look remarkably alike but are quite different in character and who are both in love with the same woman? Sort of, but no, not really. Was the episode literally about 2 cities? No.

Maybe it'll come to me.

So, what a way to start the season!! It's similar to last season's opener with Desmond getting ready in the morning in the hatch. This time it's a woman in a nice, sunny little interior and she's listening to Petula Clark's "Downtown" and is clearly upset. But the song makes her smile. Later, she's preparing for her bookclub meeting and burns her muffins. It seems to be an all around bad day as the book club meeting deteriorates into a sniping match between her and a guest. Just then, the earth starts shaking. When the "quake" passes - was it the EM pulse that Desmond set off that caused the quake? - everyone runs outside to the street in this idyllic suburban neighborhood and who do we see gathering around? Why it's Ethan! Goodwin! Henry Gale! Except his name is not Henry Gale, it's Ben, and I think he and Juliet are in a relationship (or are breaking up, actually) and they all look up in the sky and what do they see? Oceanic Flight 815 breaking apart! Benry tells Goodwin and Ethan to head to the different crash sites for the tail and fuselage, to pretend they're crash survivors and to get the lists of passenger names. The camera pans back and we see that this little slice of small-town America is actually in the middle of the jungle on the LOST island and the Others are actually not all that different from you and me.

From this I'd guess that the Others did not anticipate the crash and the Lostaways were not chosen by DHARMA or the Others and brought to the island. All of the information that Benry Gale knew about the survivors was compiled once they got their names from Ethan and Goodwin. And I think that means that the Others have reliable contact with the outside world.

So what does that mean for all of the connections we saw between the characters in flashbacks? Are they just coincidences? Or do they fit into some mathematical theory? Or is there someone else pulling the strings?

OK, back to the present and where we left off at the end of last season...It looks like the writers have divided the story into 3 groups:

Jack, Kate and Sawyer, held captive in OtherTown
Sayid, Sun and Jin on the sailboat
The rest of the group back at the camp/beach, including Locke, Eko and Desmond (and what the heck happened to them in the EM explosion)

This episode centered around Jack, Kate and Sawyer and the flashback was all about Jack. Ho-hum. I am so bored with his backstory - how many different ways can we revisit his divorce and troubled relationship with his father? I'm not going to bother recapping the flashbacks. I think the important things to mention from them are 1) Jack never knew the name of the man Sarah left him for, but it wasn't his father; 2) Jack's father was actually on the road to sobriety when Jack, driven by his childish obsession, pushed him right back into the bottle.

Back on the island...our heroes are each being held in different locations: Jack wakes up in "cell" in what turns out to be the Hydra Station, an underwater aquarium; Sawyer wakes up in an outdoor zoo cage that once held bears (polar?); and Kate wakes up in a sort of locker room, where she is instructed to take a shower and put on a pretty dress. Ick. They all have bandaids in the crooks of their elbows and puncture marks from some kind of injection. Was it just something to knock them out? Or was it a truth serum of some kind and they used it to get
information from them?

Jack's cell and the room next to it are divided by a clear plexiglass wall and I have to say I laughed right out loud when he ran into it. I've done that a few times myself. Anyway, Juliet comes to see Jack, from the other side of the plexiglass. She offers him food but he must first agree to sit at the far wall so she can come in through the door on his side and place the food on the floor. After a few flashbacks, he agrees, but he was only foolin': As soon as Juliet opens the door, Jack lunges at her and forces her out into the hallway. There are two doors leading away from the cell. Benry walks in through one and tells Jack that if he opens the other one, they will all die. Jack says he'll kill Juliet. Benry says go ahead. Oo, that's cold, dude. Jack decides to try the door and Benry was right - the entire ocean comes rushing in. Instead of helping Jack and Juliet, Benry runs through the door he came through earlier and locks it behind him. That's really cold. Juliet and Jack make it back inside his cell and close the door and she promptly knocks him out cold.

When Jack wakes up later, Juliet is back on the other side of the plexiglass and has a file in front of her. She tells Jack that she knows everything about him, his marriage, his job, his education...she even has a copy of his father's autopsy report. After being asked repeatedly if there is anything he would like to know from the report, Jack finally lets go of his obsession about Sarah's lover and simply asks if she's happy now. Juliet says yes, she is, and Jack has clearly been broken. Juliet offers to try to give him food again and this time he agrees to her conditions. As she goes out into the hall to deliver the food to Jack, she runs into Benry, who tells her, "Good work, Juliet." She replies, barely civil, "Thank you, Ben."

Elsewhere at the Hydra Station, Sawyer is on display in the zoo. There's a kid in the cage across from him named Carl, and I think he must be an Other plant. Why? Who knows. Carl breaks out and they try to escape but Juliet catches them. It was sll very "Planet of the Apes" for me, even the music. I loved it. Damn dirty apes!

After Kate has her shower and puts on her girly dress, she's brought out to the beach to have aborderline romantic breakfast with Benry, who makes her put on a pair of handcuffs first. Ick. She asks him why the nice breakfast, pretty dress, beachside table? He tells her it's because the next 2 weeks are going to be pretty terrible for her and he wants her to have something to old on to when things get bad.

Later, after Carl is taken away, Kate is tossed into the cage across from Sawyer, and they take her handcuffs off. Her wrists are cut and rubbed raw, but we don't know what happened to make them that way. Did she refuse to eat with Benry and was punished for it? Sawyer shares his fish biscuit (did I mention the fish biscuit? no? well it's too late now) with her and they exchange meaningful glances.

And that's it. It looks like next week we'll be concentrating on Sun, Jin and Sayid. In the meantime, check out these links:

Utopiaville

Hydra Station

What He Said.

Mike does an excellent job of putting into words the way I'm feeling about coverage of the Amish funerals:

"Private funerals are not something you cover. They're things you should allow to happen with peace and dignity. You can report that the funerals happened, but to film them and show them is unnecessary and creepy."

Thanks, Mike.

155 t-shirts, 4 hours and 100 pounds later.

One Less Show to Watch

It's looking like I wasn't the only viewer on the fence about Kidnapped.

From Ask Ausiello at TVGuide.com (be careful, that page is a minefield of spoilers for quite a few shows):

Question: I'm such a huge fan of Kidnapped. Do you see it lasting for a full season? — MelanieJo

Ausiello: Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I just got word that the show is essentially dead. Producers have been told to finish making 13 episodes, and then stop. On the bright side, another Reunion this is not. They had a contingency plan in place that lets them wrap up the mystery by then.

Drive Thru Review

X-Men: The Last Stand - Please tell me this was not really the last stand for this franchise. Please.

I was sad while watching this last night, and it wasn't because of the character deaths; on the contrary, I was sad because I was watching Brett Ratner come very close to killing the entire X-Men series. Who told this guy he knew what he was doing? When I should have been tearing up as people died, I was instead cringing at the awful dialogue and complete lack of character depth and development. When I say I loved the first two movies, I really mean it. This one was a complete clusterf*ck.

There may be a single ray of hope, however. Apparently there is serious talk about an X4 movie, with Bryan Singer back as director. I repeat: Please.

Today's TV Talk

First things first, a reminder: Don't forget that tonight is the season 3 premiere of LOST (9:00 PM)! EW.com names it the "Must Watch of the Week":

We could say what happens in the season 3 opener...but then we couldn't run this quote from co-creator J.J. Abrams: ''The way it begins is my favorite kind of thing - it's the last thing you'll ever expect.'' Or this one from executive producer Damon Lindelof: ''Here's what you won't see: Globetrotters, zombies, the guy Meredith Grey didn't choose, coconut radios, Laura Palmer, Jack laughing, Desmond running naked through the jungle, the Others' Annual Talent Show, buttons, timers, electromagnetic anomalies, Cylons, cyclones, or Clones, nanobots, Captain Jack Sparrow, and time travel. And hell: It just wouldn't be Lost if we weren't lying.'' Oh, we don't know anything, anyway.

Next up: I watched Monday's episode of Heroes last night and wow, I really liked it! I see a really well-written, intricate storyline developing and I hope they can sustain it. So far, so good!

And of course, I watched the season 3 premiere of Veronica Mars last night. God I love that show. All of the kids are in college now and while some of the themes/issues are more mature, the basic feel of the show is the same.

I also wanted to mention that I am in love with my DVR. We watched a X-Men 3 on DVD (more on that later) and then watched Heroes while the DVR recorded VM. My TV and I are very happy right now.

Google Copernicus Center is Hiring!

Google Jobs: "Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at our lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007. This unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen. "

Big Bux

A silver Mercedes was in front of me as I drove into the Target parking lot today and you can just imagine my colossal eye-roll hwen I saw his license plate. Give me a BREAK.

I watched as he drove around the entire parking lot, looking for the perfect, isolated spot in which to park the VERY EXPENSIVE CAR THAT HE HAS ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY BECAUSE HE IS SO RICH.

Unfortunately, because he chose to park his FABULOUS GERMAN CAR THAT COSTS A LOT OF MONEY a bit of a distance from the rest of us mere peasants, it wasn't all that easy snapping a photo with my cameraphone. I was sly, though, and pretended that I was carrying on a phone conversation as I strolled within picture-taking distance of the CAR OBVIOUSLY OWNED BY SOMEONE WHO IS FABULOUSLY WEALTHY and surreptitiously took a couple of quick shots before MR. BIG BUX was any wiser.

The lengths I go to for you guys.

Hanso Exposed.

Just one more day!

Vancouver Sunset

Vancouver Sunset, originally uploaded by gina64.

Don't. Get. Eliminated!!

I pre-ordered this from Amazon a few weeks ago and I can't wait to get it in the mail!

Drive Thru Review

The Third Man - I finally got around to watching this classic. A great noir mystery that seems years ahead of its time (1949), it provides a view of post-WWII Austria that I had never seen. Fascinating. The music was a little off-kilter, imo, but the movie was good enough to overlook that.

Season Premiere Palooza

What a week this is going to be for me and my TV!

Tonight - The BBC America series Wire in the Blood returns for its 4th season at 9:00 PM. Also airing at 9:00 is the second episode of NBC's Heroes. Looks like I'll have to christen my new DVR! Yep, I signed up for the DVR service through my cable company. It's an 80-hour, HD-ready, dual-tuner DVR for $8.40 per month. Not bad.

Tomorrow - Veronica Mars returns with its 3rd season premiere at 9:00 PM on CW (what does that stand for, anyway?), with Veronica heading to college.

Wednesday - The season 3 premiere of LOST! Did any of you finish the LOST webgame this summer? I didn't. It was way too complex and I'm not enough of a tech-head to enjoy that sort of thing so I sort of drifted away from it. EdHill over at TVgasm has a great post about the return of the show and the conclusion of the game. Make sure you check it out. Also on Wednesday night is the third episode of Kidnapped. This may be the make-or-break episode for me, so it had better be good.

Friday - The long-awaited (by me) third season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. Hot damn!

Asleep at the Wheel.

George Michael 'had drugs in car': "Pop star George Michael has been arrested and cautioned after being found once again slumped over the wheel of his car in London and in possession of cannabis, British media said on Monday."

Look at this photo of him. Yikes!

It's no wonder he wears sunglasses all of the time now.

Tom Thumb

As much as I would like to imagine that in real life Tom Cruise is of the same stature as those little oompa loompa guys in the most recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies, I just have to think that this photo has been doctored in some way. I don't think the size discrepency can be explained away by claiming forced perspective, either - yes, he's standing a little bit behind her but they're also holding hands so he couldn't be THAT far away. I do love their headline, though.

Now, while this photo may not be a true representation of Cruise's itty-bittyness, it does, however, have the dubious distinction of disproving the one absolute rule I have regarding men: That any man, no matter how attractive or unattractive, looks better in a turtleneck.

Why?

Coroner: At least 6 dead in Amish school shooting: "A gunman killed six people at a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday morning in Pennsylvania's bucolic Lancaster County, and several others were taken to hospitals with injuries, authorities said."

What is happening? I don't even have the words to talk about this. I can't understand why people do these things, nor do I understand why it's happening so frequently these days.

My God a one-room schoolhouse? It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel.

Headline Hijinks.

Justices refuse to ungag Gloria Allred.

And I ask you, can you blame them?

Splishin and a Splashin

Have a great day!

Summer Hope E-Bay Auction

One of the recappers over at tvgasm, Umnata, is the founder of the Summer Hope Foundation, a "...non-profit organization that supports the fight against cancer (alas none of our proceeds go to getting Paris exported) through fundraising events, such as "Drink for the Cure" ("We hate cancer... but we love to drink") and "Rock Out for the Cure" ("The Let's Kick Cancer In The Ass" Concert Series). With the money raised at these events we donate money to cancer research facilities as well as fund our own internal programs, like the HOPE package, which we send out to people diagnosed of cancer."

Well, the Summer Hope Foundation is holding an auction over at E-Bay to raise money for their organization and
the stuff they have up for grabs is pretty cool.

Are you a fan of Veronica Mars or Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, Serenity) or perhaps the musical "Wicked" or maybe The Office or Without a Trace? Well then I suggest you beat feet over to EBay and support a worthy cause and maybe even, as Umnata puts it, help him get into heaven.

Kidnapped

So I watched the second episode of Kidnapped last night and, well, some of the bloom is off the rose, I think. The writing seemed better and the acting was good, but the story veered a little too far from where we were at the end of last week.

I got NO sense of urgency about Leopold last night while they pursued the sister-abduction instead. I mean, let the cops in Rhode Island deal with the possible disappearance of Leopold's bar-hopping, coke-sniffing co-ed sister - Christ, she could have been anywhere, hooked up with some guy - and concentrate on the kidnapping case at hand. Am I right? No?

I'm aware of the practical side of this, that they need to weave more stuff into this story in order to stretch it out over the entire season, but it just seemed wrong that at the end of the episode Knapp and the FBI guys were hanging out, having a drink at a bar, like they were chillin' at happy hour at the end of a workday. Hello!? Kid has been abducted? Remember? Shouldn't you be camped out at the parents' house?

I'll still watch next week - they haven't lost me yet - but they're on thin ice now.

This is how I spend my lunch hour.

, originally uploaded by gina64.

The Order of the Phoenix Stills

Check out this Photo gallery for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I want picures of Sirius Black, please!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Little Superstar!

Red Rover, Red Rover, send T.O. over to the hospital.

Flamboyant Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens tried to kill himself by overdosing on pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened, according to a police report obtained Wednesday.

Note: The police report at The Smoking Gun

Stranded.

Stranded., originally uploaded by gina64.

The leaves are really starting to turn around here and I wonder if we will have some decent color this year.

TV Talk

I caught NBC's re-airing of the Heroes pilot last night. The show wasn't on my list of "new shows to watch", mostly because of a bad review I read at teevee.org; however, a bunch of my friends did like it, and that's enough of a recommendation for me to check it out. And I'm glad I did. There are elements of the teevee.org review that I think ring true (the female roles, the hospice character), but I didn't think it was nearly as bad as he led me to believe it was. It's certainly worth another look.

Eureka, on the other hand, is nowhere near as good as I had hoped it would turn out to be. Last night's episode was particularly bad, lacking any suspense, logic, originality, or decent acting, for that matter. It's a shame because it really could have been a good show. In fact, if I look hard enough, I can almost see the show it wants to be, hidden under all that mediocrity.

Chocolate Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting., originally uploaded by gina64.

Baked by Sheila and delicious!!

Little Drummer Boy ROCKS.

These are the times I wish I knew someone else who watched BSG.

What better way to celebrate the season premiere of television's best show than with a Frak Party? The organizers of the Frak Party Movement (who are also affiliated with MoveOn.org) say that everyone they've "ever met who's into Battlestar is pretty frak'n cool. So we thought, why not get all these people together and have one big cool nationwide party when the new season Premieres on October 6th." I know plenty of cool people - why don't they watch BSG? I wanna have a party, dammit!

Oh well. Just because I won't be participating, doesn't mean it's not a great idea. Anything to spread the frakkin' word!.

(thanks, boingboing.net)

Mmmmm.

Mmmmm., originally uploaded by gina64.

Life doesn't get much better than being 7 years old, sitting on a beach in Maine and eating a chocolate chip cookie.

Dinks Taxi

Dinks Taxi, originally uploaded by gina64.

This is a sign over the door of the Route 66 restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine. The inside of the restaurant is filled with all sorts of 50s memorabilia and vintage toys. It's a great place to take little kids and they serve old-fashioned comfort food.

Wasn't there a movie, or a cartoon, with little characters that yelled "Dink! Dink! Dink dink dink dink dink !!"?? I know! Spaceballs!

Thank God I remembered or that would have driven me crazy all day.

TV Talk

So I watched Kidnapped last night. I'm not completely sold yet - I'm not likely to be sold on any show after only one viewing - but I definitely like it enough to watch it at least a few more times. It was no surprise that the acting was very good, but I found that I didn't really like any of the characters that much, except for Delroy Lindo's FBI agent, and that may be an issue for me. But it's really too early to make judgments about the characters so I'll give them all a chance to grow on me.

The pace was lightning-quick, which I liked, but the dialogue could really use some help. That may improve as we get deeper into the story.

So, yeah, I give Kidnapped my recommendation for anyone looking for a new show to watch, especially if you like shows like 24.

I also finished season 2 of Veronica Mars last night. I know that some of you are planning on watching it so I don't want to spoil anything for you. I'll just say I laughed, I cried, I scratched my head...and I'm really looking forward to the third season premiere on Oct 3!

White Hot

White Hot, originally uploaded by gina64.

This was a sunset on Second Beach, Vancouver. Check out my Flickr set of sunset pictures if you get a chance.

An eye for an eye, I say.

Man accused of dragging woman to her death: "Preliminary results of an autopsy indicated the woman died of asphyxiation and head injuries from being strangled by being dragged by a vehicle."

How one person can have so little disregard for another is beyond my capacity to understand. Jesus.

And her name is Veronica.

I've lately been spending most of my free time at home watching season 2 of
Veronica Mars on DVD. I get a DVD from Netflix, I watch all 4 episodes that night. I'm supposed to be receiving the last disc (6) today. I can't wait to find out who caused the bus to crash!

The second season started off a little slow for me. I'm a big fan of Veronica and Logan as a couple and when the season started with them broken up, I wasn't all that jazzed about it. But things picked up storywise and the writers really started to develop a lot of the secondary characters that I love - guys like Cliff the public defender and Vinnie Van Lowe the private investigator, and Kendall Casablancas and Mac Mackenzie. (What a kick it was so see Allyson Hannigan (Buffy's Willow) and Charisma Carpenter (Buffy's Cordelia) in the same scene together!) And the continuity and tightness of the writing is amazing. Loose ends are not a part of Veronica's world.

The show feels like it's about to hit its prime when the third season starts on October 3, and I can't wait. But first I get to find out who crashed the bus tonight!

Suspect Everything

I wasn't going to watch the new NBC show Kidnapped, but I saw an ad for it last night while watching Law & Order CI and SVU and you know what? It looks pretty good! The cast really appeals to me: Timothy Hutton, Dana Delaney, Jeremy Sisto and Delroy Lindo. And the actor who plays the kidnapped boy has a local connection for me - he's from my father's hometown.

Kidnapped premieres tonight on NBC at 10:00 PM. I'll let you know if I like it.

Arrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Arrrrrrrrrr!!!!, originally uploaded by gina64.

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Cap'n Marty says Ahoy, Mateys!

Cavewoman sought for questioning in baby theft.

So the 'woman' who slit a mother's throat and stole her baby has a goatee and slugs for eyebrows?

This is probably in bad taste but, come on! Either the perp is a man or that poor woman is a Neanderthal female, in which case she may have thought it perfectly acceptable behavior to attack another female and take her young.

Seriously, I hope they find 'her' and especially the baby, safe and sound, very soon.

Make a wish.

Make a wish., originally uploaded by gina64.

Some of you have been waiting for me to post pictures from Sheila's surprise 40th birthday party, and I thank you for being so patient. Click here to view the Flickr set. They are not all of the pictures - I'm still waiting on a bunch from my other sister Mary. I wish I had more of my own, but I was so busy that I didn't take nearly as many as I would have liked to, and of the ones I did take, about a third of them were blurry or folks had their eyes closed. You'd think it was a pretty boring party considering how many people looked like they were asleep.

Anyway, please check out these pictues. I'll notify you here when I've updated the set with shots from Mary.

I guess it *was* self-defense.

Remember the nurse who killed an intruder with her bare hands? Well as it turns out, the guy she choked the life out of was hired by her husband to kill her!

Connecticut

The land of giant babies.



The child wears clothes for a 6 month old and newborn diapers are too small. Imagine what he eats!

Please watch this.

Can I PLEASE take it off now?

Can I PLEASE take it off now?, originally uploaded by gina64.

Dressed to Kill.

Eddie Izzard will be joining the cast of 24 this season. Cake or death, Jack? Cake or death?

9/11 Memorial Hole

NYC Unveils 9/11 Memorial Hole: "Days before the fifth anniversary of the destruction of New York's World Trade Center by terrorists, city officials gathered on the site where the Twin Towers once stood to dedicate the newly completed 9/11 Memorial Hole.

'From the wreckage and ashes of the World Trade Center, we have created a recess in the ground befitting the American spirit,' said New York Governor George Pataki from a cinderblock-and-plastic-bucket-supported plywood platform near the Hole's precipice. 'This vast chasm, dug at the very spot where the gleaming Twin Towers once rose to the sky, is a symbol of what we can accomplish if we work together.'"

Never say never, honey.

Longoria says 'Housewives' her last show.

And David Caruso shakes his head in dismay, wondering, "Will they ever learn?"

Made in Eureka

Eureka is not only a new show on SCiFi, it's also where you can find the latest in nifty gadgets, like the eyePod Spy Satellite Tracker, which "bill" describes as "i like this prodcut. lets me watch whoevr i want all time. no hide. soon i not just wach, i show. i show them all."

Personally, I'm looking at buying the ThinkBack Memory Backup Drive, something I surely cannot live without.

Chicken Pugs!

Watch the carnage unfold as Marty and Mickey wear their chicken costumes for the first time.

From the sublime to the rid -- well, weird I guess. And sad.

Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son found dead in bed.

A Hole in the Heart of Manhattan

The Hole in the City's Heart: "The wreck that still stands tall and the pit that still sinks deep sum up the troubled history of ground zero. A site of horrific tragedy whose rescue and cleanup operation was a model of valiant efficiency, ground zero turned into a sinkhole of good intentions where it was as difficult to demolish a building as to construct one.

For all that has not yet risen from the ashes, there has been considerable sturm und drang, "like a novel, a cheap novel," said Daniel Libeskind, the master planner for the site. The combination of big money, prime real estate, bottomless grief, artistic ego and dreams of legacy transformed ground zero into a mosh pit of stakeholders banging heads over billions in federal aid, tax breaks and insurance proceeds."

I said to a fellow office worker the other day that I thought it a disgrace that five years after the attacks there is still nothing but a hole in the ground where the towers once stood. That was before I read this article. Now I'm just plain ashamed, for all involved.

Obey the Cute

Mickey, originally uploaded by gina64.

Weatherman Freakout

Defamer Headlines Rock

"Ellen DeGeneres To Put On Slightly Fancier Pair Of Pants As New Oscar Host"

Lion's Gate Bridge

Lion's Gate Bridge, originally uploaded by gina64.

Crossing from Stanley Park over to North Vancouver, the beginning of our day trip to Whistler.

I'm totally doing this the next time I go.

What we're doing the next time we go., originally uploaded by gina64.

I have no idea what it's called or which company runs the activity, but I'm going to find out.

Each one of these things has a person in a wetsuit strapped inside of it and they go rolling down Fitzsimmons Creek like a hamster in a ball. One of them was a woman who was screaming and laughing hysterically. Tell me that doesn't sound like fun.

Yellow Flower

Yellow Flower, originally uploaded by gina64.

Taken in the Upper Village, Whistler, British Columbia.

Mountains.

Mountains I don't know the name of., originally uploaded by gina64.

This was taken from a scenic lookout alongside the Sea to Sky Highway, the road between Vancouver and Whistler.

The beauty of the area is beyond description. Along with beautiful mountain ranges like this there are alpine meadows and lakes the color of turquoise.

Cupcakes at sunset.

Cupcakes at sunset., originally uploaded by gina64.

There is entire store devoted to cupcakes on Denman Street in Vancouver. What better way to enjoy them than on a beach at sunset?

Watching the day end.

Watching the day end., originally uploaded by gina64.

More of the sunset at Second Beach, Vancouver.

Our Inukshuk

Our Inukshuk, originally uploaded by gina64.

One night during our trip we watched the sun set at Second Beach in Stanley Park. We built our own Inukshuk from stones on the beach.

Red

Red, originally uploaded by gina64.

We went to the Chinatown Night Market on our second day in Vancouver. One of the vendors was selling these...things. I'm not sure what they're called but I loved all the red.

BSG: The Resistance

SciFi is airing 10 webisodes of Battlestar Galactica in preparation for its October 6 season 3 premiere.

The series of short clips deals with the Resistance against the Cylon occupiers. You don't need to see these in order to be up to speed for season 3, but they will be helpful in laying the foundation for the story. Check 'em out - new ones are posted every Tuesday and Thursday until the October 6 premiere.

How It Should Have Ended

On the set of LOST.

Did these two guys stumble across an abandoned LOST set in Hawaii, or were they invited? Check out their Flickr photoset and judge for yourself.

Spray

Spray, originally uploaded by gina64.

Granville Island in Vancouver is a great place to spend a few hours shopping, walking and eating. There's a large farm market, artisan shops, a brewery and a free water park. This is a boy playing in that park on the day we visited.

I'll post more photos from the trip tomorrow.

Blue on blue

Blue on blue, originally uploaded by gina64.

We were blessed with fantastic weather for the entire trip.

Day's End

Day's End, originally uploaded by gina64.

A day trip to Vancouver Island is it worth it for the ferry ride alone. The scenery is spectacular.

China Beach

Driftwood, originally uploaded by gina64.

This was taken on China Beach, Vancouver Island, such a pristine, beautiful place. We took the ferry to Vancouver Island on our first day in Vancouver. We were going to visit Victoria but the beach was calling us and we decided to skip the city and have lunch on the beach. I think it was a good choice.

More photos from the trip will follow this post. If you wish to see all of them, visit my Vancouver set at Flickr.

Dog Pile

Dog Pile, originally uploaded by gina64.

All of this togetherness is more than Marty can handle.

When Porsches Collide

Ellen DeGeneres gets hit by a Porsche while riding in her Porsche with Portia.

Hee!