I've become convinced that those of us who are sci-fi nuts and fans of complex tv plots actually LIKE the headaches that come with trying to wrap our brains around the difficult...

SPOILERS BELOW!!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 (if you watch "Lost")

Not sure what to make of the season premiere, but I do have one or two burning questions:

-I was so excited when the white screen slowly disappeared and the clouds appeared and we realized Jack was back on Oceanic Flight 815...I thought "yay; they made it!" But of course we soon realize that is not necessarily the case...not only because of what soon unravels next, but also because something doesn't seem right on the flight...

-isn't the flight attendant the same woman who appears at the temple later with the two children??

-why did Desmond disappear on the flight?

-if the alternative timeline with the plane is what happens because Juliet DID succeed with the bomb, then where are Michael and Sharon?

-when Jack looks out the plane at the beginning and the camera tracks deep under the sea why are so many things from the Island underwater?? (later: okay i realize now that island is under water because in this alternate universe when the bomb went off it sunk the island)

-so far it seems that life is pretty bleak for the people in the LAX timeline, that somehow they were happier on the island (of course they don't know this because in this timeline they never crashed on the island)...maybe the writers are trying to suggest that life on the island was always (and always will be) their destiny?

 -some interesting ideas and thoughts running around on the IMDB message board for "Lost"...just watch out for the meanies and extremely odd birds who post:):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411008/board

And this article, which I just found, definitely answers some burning questions:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/02/02/lost-premiere-damon-carlton/

I like Nicole Kidman and most of her movies, but I'm not so sure I get the passion and slightly stalkerish sound to David Thomson's book about her...

At its best it reads like a text you'd read in film class on gender roles ...at its worst, like a man intent on what he thinks is best for Ms. Kidman's career as if he is well-acquainted with her and one of her closest advisors...

Still, it's one of the quirkiest things I've ever read, with some terrific insights on and little known facts on her less mainstream works.

What the Beep???

I couldn't sleep last night and started watching (the way you watch most any movie on SyFy) "100 Feet" in a weak moment. While I still can't decide if the flick is reinforcing woman as victim stereotypes or celebrating "I am woman; hear me roar" I do know one thing: whoever edits and censors these movies for tv is seriously crazy.

Throughout the entire movie any time someone utters a curse (whether mild or strong) the age-old bleep-out kicks in (even though we can clearly tell what is being said every time!). Yet when one of the most graphic deaths to EVER be shot on film occurs (we're talking worse than any of the "Saw" films) not one second is spared...

Now I don't believe in censorship at all (I don't!!) but I DO think there is something screwy going on when the film editors are worried more about words like "shit" and "fuck" than they are about a horrific, horrific scene of violence...the same thing goes with sex. Sex scenes are often yanked or softened when movies are being considered for tv viewing, even if they are clearly between two people in love. Sex without love or between two complete strangers may be base at times, but it still revolves around something that happens (consensually) between two adults whereas violence is born out of hatred or the need to destroy.

Often people who like to censor cite "moral concern" as their reason...yet isn't violence one of the biggest problems plaguing our world today? What does it say about us when violence in all its sadistic glory is apparently a go, but love and four letter words aren't?

Oh and p.s....even though I found this movie to be very unsettling and hard to get through, I do think Famke Janssen did as best she could with this rotten material...she deserves better dialogue and better storylines!! (But I'll save my soapboxing about how hard it is for women over 40 in Hollywood for another time.)

Hot Stuff

The remix of Coldplay's "Talk" that appears on +Thrivemix, Vol. 2+ and the track "Animal Attraction" (from She Wants Revenge's EP +Up and Down+)  are two of the most you-can't-fight-it-so-shake-it-till-you-can't-shake-it-no-more dance songs you will ever hear. And since it's been too cold to go out (and I don't really go to clubs these days when I go out anyway) I've been exercising inside to them...even better, songs like these make cleaning much much more interesting...

"Talk" as it appears on  +X & Y+ is radically different...with the remix you'll find lots of synth and drum machines, but it is so hypnotic and chill that you feel pretty dazed during the whole thing...still, it's so great to dance to.

Hearing the original version reminded me that Coldplay did so much before +Viva La Vida+...one of the most haunting and beautiful of their earlier songs (just my two cents, of course!) is "Trouble." When I first heard it back in 2003 it stayed with me for days afterward...perhaps because it hits so close to anyone who has ever done something they regret with all their heart...

 

So I've been listening to Spoon's new album +Transference+ a lot in the past 24 hours and I really, really like it...one of the songs has been especially looping in my head...with its driving beat and mystic sounds. I like the title because it makes me think of dreams. Below, the last line breaks up like it does because that's what happens when you listen to the song...very surreal how it just ends at the very beginning of my-----

"The Mystery Zone"

Picture yourself
Set up for good in a whole other life
In the mystery zone

Make us a house
Some far away town
Where nobody will know us well
Where your dad's not around
And all the trouble you look for all your life
You will find it for sure
In the mystery zone

Times that we met
Before we met
Times that we met
We'll go there
To the mystery zone
Ah the mystery zone

There goes the rider
At gates of dawn
He takes no prisoners at all
He'll be there on his own

What gets him gone
Off down that road
Is something he don't understand
Ooh! The mystery zone

Maybe all he wants
Maybe all he needs
Is to know that the sun don't set
On the mystery zone

How come it feels so familiar
When you never been there?
How come it seems so unreachable
You never tried to find
Never tired to find the mystery zone
Mystery zone, oooh!

All of the people
You used to run into but never do now
They took off for the mystery zone

And when you know love
When you find it for real
It contains the emotion sense of
Everyone ready
Your cover was blown
You weren't there but you were
Ooh in the mystery zone
You weren't there but you were
You weren't there but you were

Openin' windows
Doors never close it's the fresh air fiend
It's the information troll

We'll pack a bag
Sendin' it off just some things that never fit right
To the m...
And we'll send it ahead as a test so we'll know
Call it up when it gets there
"What's it like in the mystery zone?"

The times that we met
Before we met
We'll go back there
Oh, times that we met
We'll go back
We'll go back there
The mystery zone
To the mystery zone
The mystery zone
Oh the mys...