lost

Tuesday various

  • Last Thursday, I posted this image to Capper Blog, and I planned to follow up with the original source article here. Better late than never. The pictures there actually give you a better sense of these so-called infinity pools, and moreover just how high up and close to the edge they are. I think I’d be terrified to swim in one these. [via]
  • Going back even further on things I forgot to follow up on: back in June I posted about a link that was going around, suggesting that every actor reads the same newspaper. Well, Slate followed up on that link and found out the story behind the ubiquitous prop. [via]
  • The world really is a poorer place without Jim Henson, isn’t it? [via]
  • I can’t say I’ll miss Blockbuster all that much, but Matt Zoller Seitz makes a compelling argument that we’ve lost something with the company’s (now almost certain) passing [via]:

    I’m talking about the pre-Internet experience of daily life, which was more immediate, more truly interactive: in a word, real. Bland and aloof as it was, Blockbuster was a part of that — and for certain types of people, it was a big part. There was nothing special about Blockbuster as a business, but special moments did happen there, simply by virtue of the fact that the stores were everywhere, and they stocked a lot of movies, and people who wanted to see movies went there regularly, sometimes alone but more often in the company of relatives or friends. You’d go through the front door and pass the front counter — where an employee was checking in a pile of returned videos (when opened, the boxes went whuck!) and check out the new releases wall (Seventy-five copies of “Hard Target?” Seriously?). Then you’d fan out among the aisles and try your luck.

  • And finally, some video game-related links:

Gales fully spanged

Time to spang my gales and write a quick recap of what did today on my day off. Except I spent the day doing mostly the same sort of thing I did all weekend, which is really nothing much. I watched last night’s Lost series finale first thing on my iPad. (I tried watching it on my laptop, but I wound up with a virus I had to clean up, and ABC’s player app is actually really good.) I don’t really have a lot more to say about it than the very little I said about it here. Except for the AV Club’s write-up, I’ve been pretty much avoiding reviews of the episode, preferring instead just to have enjoyed it. At some point, I think I’ll revisit the commentary, just as I plan at some point to revisit the series in its entirety, but for now, I’m just amazed the show is actually over. I don’t think I’m going to go into crazy withdrawal (thanks Betty), but I will miss the show. It really was like nothing else on television. (And the few shows, like FlashForward, that have tried to be like it have mostly only adopted the superficial elements. It was never about the mystery, but about the characters those mysteries happened to.)

Okay, maybe I had a little more to say about it. But, for now anyway, that’s it.

Other than that, I spent the day mostly just lounging about, reading some, trying to get caught up on Kaleidotrope slush submissions. I think I only have a couple of stories still hanging around since February, but those couple really do need to get read right away. I try to keep my response time down to a month or two if at all possible.

It’s back to work tomorrow, for a grueling four-day week.

Monday various

  • It probably should come as no surprise, but I’m pretty much in complete agreement with Noel Murray about last night’s Lost finale. “These are the new myths. Now it’s up to us to misinterpret them.” I liked the episode a whole lot.

  • Meanwhile, Terry Pratchett is maybe a little harsher than I would be about Doctor Who and the title character’s deus ex machinations. I’m not entirely convinced there’s real value in rigidly defining science fiction and fantasy this way. (And, unlike him, “Small Worlds” is one of my least favorite Torchwood episodes.) But he makes some good points, while still happy to enjoy the show for what it is. [via]

  • Speaking of Doctor Who, here’s an interesting take on The Comparative Lives of the Doctor.

  • Here’s a scary thought from the New York Times:

    Ask a first grader to identify Bugs Bunny and the response more likely than not will be a blank stare.

  • And finally, Neil Gaiman on Ray Bradbury [via]:

    So when the wind blows the fallen autumn leaves across the road in a riot of flame and gold, or when I see a green field in summer carpeted by yellow dandelions, or when, in winter, I close myself off from the cold and write in a room with a TV screen as big as a wall, I think of Ray Bradbury . . .

Monday various

Something Lost in translation

In my continuing efforts to recycle material you’ve already read (or elected not to read by not following me on Twitter), here are some of the Lost spinoff ideas I posted yesterday. I didn’t originate the thread — and heaven knows I didn’t go as crazy with this as I did with those fake Beatles facts a few months ago — but I enjoyed coming up with these. I am, as always, a sucker for a good (i.e. bad) pun.

All of these require some basic knowledge of the show — and a few, in fact, offer some pretty big spoilers for past seasons. So, even though these have already been posted on Twitter (and re-posted to my Facebook page), enjoy!

Dr. Marvin Candle and his fellow island scientists are thrown back in time to coach the 1920s Brooklyn Dodgers in DHARMA BUMS.

Find mysterious plots, nefarious misdirection, and maybe even love — all aboard NOT PENNY’S LOVEBOAT!

Nigerian guerrilla leader, drug smuggler, priest, and now — family court judge! It’s THE MR. EKO CHAMBER!

By day, he’s a helicopter pilot for hire living the easy life in the Florida Keys. But by night he’s — FRANK LAPIDUS, P.I.

Learn eyeliner tricks and other handy island jungle camouflage on RICHARD ALPERT’S BEAUTY SALON.

Where will lottery winnings take globe-treking millionaire “Hurley” Reyes next? Wherever it is, rest assured, HUGO’S THERE!

Can quantum physics lead a football team to glory? Will this TX town accept its new teacher? Find out on FARADAY NIGHT LIGHTS!

Can a weird string of numbers delivered to his doorstep each morning help Hugo set things right? Find out on HURLEY EDITION.

Explore the many festive uses of dynamite in your home studio with ARZT & CRAFTS.