KIRSTEN GUTE '11, KAT ROSENTHAL '09, SABRINA BROWN '09
The Phantom Gourmet is so over rated. It is time for a new era; where three brilliant Beaver students with extraordinary taste buds take the reins of critiquing into their own hands. Throughout the year Kirsten Gute, Kat Rosenthal, and Sabrina Brown will be turning your savory glands on to the tasty sensations of the best cuisines in town.
The smell of fried deliciousness tickles your nostrils as you walk down the street. My tongue begins to salivate as I think about my medium rare hamburger drenched in the special house dressing and a thin slice of white American cheese. As I open the southern screen patio door and step over the threshold into Flippin’ Burger, Bert, the owner greets me with “Hello Katherine five, what can I get you today? Who are your friends? By the way, how is Katherine four?” I tell him that my friends are Kirsten and Beeny and that my mother is just ducky. I walk towards the counter and giggle with glee as I reach for the burger list and begin to make my decision.
Peering at the multiple choices of burgers on the menu, I look over at Beeny who’s making a face of straight amazement and fear. Quickly, it occurs to me that she has never seen a menu full of burgers before. As I prepare myself to describe to her the different kinds of delightfulness each burger would have on her taste buds, she turns away, and interrupts my sentence to order a plain burger with Swiss cheese. Excited that she was going to taste the softest, most delicious, burger she has ever had, I quickly ordered my normal Mexican burger and sit down to prepare Kirsten and Beeny for our astounding meal.
We all wait impatiently at our small round table for juicy and wonderful burgers that Flippin’ has to offer. It feels like it is taking forever, but in reality, there’s only a very short wait, yet another reason to try out this special place. Finally Bert arrives with our meals and I can’t wait to see Beeny’s reaction to the best burger she has yet to taste. As Bert passes her the burger, the waft of the spicy sweet home dressing enters my nose and I can hardly wait to get my own. We all look at each other as if to count off, 1-2-3. It is silent for a moment but I hope that is because of great joy. And it was! We all agree that these burgers are absolutely amazing. Beeny finally knows what she’s been missing this past year and a half or so. Kirsten and I are proud that we are the ones who introduced her to this amazing experience. I think I can speak for Kirsten and Beeny when I say, if you haven’t tasted Flippin’ Burger, you’ve definitely been flippin’ out.
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Cooking Corner: Flippin' Burgers
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1"
We're nearing the end here. :( Only two hours left! Stupid writers strike. Anyway, click through for (tardy--sorry!) thoughts on Part One of the finale. And not that it's any surprise, but I feel obliged to point out as usual that spoilers lie ahead.
Second of all, great to see some more of Richard. It’s nice to have him back. And I love the mirrors. Can we assume Ben was communicating with the rest of the Others? Apparently in morse code his message said "seize." As in, "I'm going to allow myself to be seized"? Or as in, "Seize Kate and Sayid"? Or as in, "Follow me, ambush the bad guys, and seize Keamy and the other freighter people"? Or something else?
Third of all, more coolness: we finally figure out when Jack finds out that he’s related to Claire and thus Aaron. Could this affect how comfortable Jack feels about raising Aaron? Does Kate know? And Sun’s buyout of Paik was very cool. Also: what about when Hurley walked into his abandoned house to find the coconut and whispers? At first I thought we were seeing elements of the island “leaking” into the illusion of the “real world,” which would go well with Hurley’s theory that they’re all dead. But no, it was just a party. But the writers are clearly hinting at stuff there. I loved how clueless Hurley’s dad was—“Hey! How's everybody doing? [laughs] What are you talking about? Building a fire or huntin' boars?” It was nice to see the numbers return, too.
Fourth of all, has anyone else noticed how Memento-esque this past season has been? Well, it really started with the Season 3 finale. But consider: that flashforward was the farthest forward we've seen yet. Ever since then, they've been working their way in both directions, forward on-island and backwards off-island. And in 2 weeks, the two plotlines will meet. And... then what? Where will the story go after that?
Fifth of all, I have faith in Ben's plan.
Sixth of all, great to (sorta) see the Orchid. If you haven’t seen the orientation video that was a Season 3 DVD extra, do so now:
Seventh of all, moving the island… OK, so we've seen things ostensibly teleported to around Tunisia before. The polar bear that Charlotte found, for instance, and Ben was wearing a jacket with the Orchid logo when he landed in the desert. (I don't believe he walked. Besides, he asked what year it was; it makes sense that time and space travel could be all wrapped up into one.) Can the Orchid teleport to there? Moreover, can the Orchid only teleport to there? Will the whole island be plopped down in the middle of the desert? Haha. I doubt it. Also, it’s clear now that moving the island won’t solve the Keamy problem, so it’s just one part of Ben’s plan, probably to keep Widmore from finding the island again. I bet the Keamy problem solution has to do with the monster or the Others or both swooping in to ambush (/"seize") them.
Let's look at the Orchid logo for a moment. We've heard from the producers that the Orchid is tied to the time/space properties of the island, and we know it's very dangerous. (Could it be tied to The Incident? Maybe teleportation requires enormous energy, so it has to draw on the electromagnetic anomaly, so it caused a leak and... yeah. Everyone seems to be scared to be around when it is used.) Anyway, logo. The spiral-like design (although it's actually just concentric rings) is definitely reminiscent of time/space/teleport/time travel/wormhole stuff. And what's that thing right in the middle? A hook, something to tether the time-traveller so (s)he doesn't become unstuck in time like Desmond did? A split, a branch in possible futures? A, um, bird?
Moving on: with the freighter laden with explosives and the helicopter not big enough (or having enough range) to save everyone who is saved, neither of those is looking like a great rescue method for the 6. Could something entirely new be introduced? Could they be teleported off? Am I overthinking it?
But one thing I think is key is this: we can't assume we know enough to even have a clue what happens next. The freighter took this show in an entirely new direction. Prediction may be impossible.
Season 1: intro to the island and characters
Season 2: the hatch
Season 3: Hydra Island; the Others
Season 4: the freighter
Season 5: ???
Season 6: ??????
But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s see where the Oceanic 6 are now:
Jack: With Sawyer at the Orchid
Kate: With Sayid and the Others, trekking through the jungle
Hurley: With Ben and Locke at the Orchid
Sayid: With Kate and the Others, trekking through the jungle
Sun: On freighter, with Aaron
Aaron: On freighter, with Sun
Also worth noting: Ben is captured by the freighter people. When he confronts Sayid at Naomi’s funeral, Sayid asks how he got off the island:
SAYID: How did you get off the island?
BEN: Your friend Desmond had a boat. Remember? The Elizabeth. I followed a heading to Fiji. Then I chartered a plane.
So when the Oceanic 6 leave, Ben is still on the island.
Also remember that Matthew Abaddon, ultra-creepy deep-voiced guy, told Locke that he’d seen him again some day. Abaddon is (apparently) one of the Widmore guys. Could Locke end up getting captured and taken to him?
Assuming the Oceanic 6 get off by the end of this season—and it would be very annoying if they didn’t, haha—how could that work? Either the island people need to get to the freighter, or—if the freighter’s going to blow up—Sun and Aaron need to get back to the island and get, you know, teleported out or something. Frank could pick everyone up in the helicopter, fly them back to the freighter, and then the island could teleport away and disappear, meaning there’s no point in trying to fetch more folks from there. And then the freighter would go to Fiji or something.
Alternately, as the freighter explodes and the island skedaddles, the 6 could squeeze onto the zodiac or helicopter and teleport through a wormhole in the storm that surrounds the island. (Without some kind of teleportation, neither has the range it needs.)
I don’t think the finale will be anything as huge as the introduction of the flashforward last season. But it’ll be good. I’m excited. :)
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Found in Lost: Thoughts on "Cabin Fever"
After a brief break, we're catching up on our weekly Lost analysis--sorry about the delay! Scrambled thoughts follow. Click through, and leave yours thoughts in the comments. One more episode! (And of course, as usual, spoilers follow, so only continue if you're up-to-date.)
As for Locke being born on the island (supposedly the hospital looked like the medical station)—another interesting theory, but Emily was rushed to the hospital cause she got hit by a car, right? And there aren't really many cars on the island (that we know of). I guess it's possible that she was moved to the island in-between, but that seems awfully obtuse. Hmm... it’s also super-interesting that Ben and Locke’s mothers are both named Emily, and even look alike.
Claire's totally dead. Dead dead dead. And almost certainly dead ever since her house exploded. It's like her dad came as if he were the Grim Reaper or something. And now all those ghosts are hanging out with Jacob, who I now think is Horace's "ghost." (How creepy was Horace's ultra cyclical cameo?) The only issue with that is that it would mean Jacob hasn’t been around for very long at all—only since Ben’s gassing of the Dharma Initiative. That doesn’t really make sense. But Horace the fact that Horace was shown to be building a cabin is definitely significant.
The question, I suppose, is whether all these "ghosts" are the same sort of thing. Are the appearances of, say, Yemi and Ben’s mom and Christian Shephard the same phenomenon? Because there've been comments that say Yemi's appearances were manifestations of the monster. If the same is true of Christian and now Claire--is Jacob the monster??? Does Horace = Jacob= Monster????
OK, so it doesn’t make sense that Horace is Jacob in a purely literal sense. But it does sort of make sense (as much as these things can) that he and other dead people have been assimilated into the consciousness of the island. There was another comment on one of the official podcasts about the monster's confrontation with Eko, where Eko's life's memories were flashing in the smoke. They suggested that perhaps the monster was "downloading" all this stuff from Eko's brain, and from there it created the Yemi-ghost.
That doesn't fully explain this, or even come close, because these ghosts clearly know things their, uh, victims don't. But still, it's an interesting concept—that these half alive/half dead guys exist in the consciousness of the monster, and perhaps in the consciousness of the island itself. And if you look at the monster's alternate name of "Cerberus" and the mythology behind that name, Cerberus is the guardian of the underworld. So the smoke monster is the link, the bridge, between the land of the living and the land of the dead. The island is the Garden of Eden and the underworld all wrapped into one bite-size mobile invisible magnetized package!!! :D
Responding to other comments people have made about this episode: Sayid's plan is indeed a little ridiculous, Locke's test was indeed cool (Book of Laws was interesting, and I think that was the comic book Walt read the day of the crash, with the polar bear), Aaron is indeed Luke Skywalker-esque (as an orphan with a destiny who'll probably at some point be guided by "dead" people), and the island-on-wheels thing is indeed sorta weird. Besides, the helicopter was already on the island! Is it gonna just slip out from underneath it or what!?
How frustrating was it when Jack determined he was being told to follow the GPS signal??? And in that ultra-creepy long shot of the helicopter approaching, I totally expected it to just blow up, indicating that there had been a scuffle and Keamy had died, triggering his suicide bomb or whatever. Either that, or I expected it to nose-dive straight into the ocean as Frank attempted to bring the mercs down with him. And how cool was Keamy being unable to kill Michael!? And what's up with this total war/shock and awe Plan B they've got up their sleeves? Will this season end in a fiery inferno?
I liked when Locke gave Hurley the option to go back, and Ben complimented Locke on his sneakiness, and Locke said he wasn't like Ben, apparently meaning he was being honest. When it comes to leadership style, that's big.
OK, time for an overview of freighter politics.
There are four factions. The mercenaries, led by Keamy, are a strike team working directly for Widmore. They will do whatever they must to extract Ben. The researchers are an exploratory force, meant to test the waters—and they knew very little of the merc's plans, albeit more than we know they know. And then there's random staff, the captain and the doctor and Minkowski and Michael and maybe even Frank counts. And then there's the Island faction, which Michael also sorta belongs to, plus Des and Sayid.
The mercs are the big guys. The support staff is just ferrying them where they need to go, and certain aspects were outsourced to researchers eager to get their hands on such an island. And the Island faction is clueless, except Michael, who's beyond suicidal. And besides, they're not really freighter people (except Michael), they're just visiting.
So Keamy and Captain Gault had an agreement that Gault would provide ferry services for this slightly shady group. Sort of (very much) like how—OK, Star Wars reference time—in Empire Strikes Back, Vader had an agreement with Lando to use Lando's facilities in Vader's quest to retrieve Luke for his master:
[Palpatine / Widmore] very desperately wants to get his hands on [Luke / Ben]. His hitman is [Darth Vader / Martin Keamy]. [Vader / Keamy] enlists the help of [Lando / Cpt. Gault] so as to gain access to [Lando's / Cpt. Gault's] resources--specifically, his [carbon freezing chamber / freighter]. But after interactions with [Leia and Chewie / Michael and the Losties], [Lando / Gault] realizes he's on the wrong side. He defies [Vader / Keamy]--and pays the price: [loss of his mining facility / death].
The interesting thing now is that almost all the important boat people are either dead, or not on the boat. Who is on the boat? Desmond and Michael are. I feel like now would be a pretty great time to take the helm... hmm...
NOTE: I actually wrote all this shortly after the episode aired, but I’m only posting it here now, so some of it is out-of-date compared to what we’ve now seen in There’s No Place Like Home Pt. 1. Specifically: we've gotten a little more clarification about moving the island, it turns out Jack was right to follow the GPS after all, and Keamy's device triggers a bomb on the *freighter* (not that he's wearing himself). And it looks like I was right about Desmond and Michael taking the helm of the freighter. For more on that, see our article on There's No Place Like Home Pt. 1.
Image of the comic source
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark Tour
SARA MARSH & SABRINA BROWN '09
Get ready for May 15th! Kanye West is coming to the Tweeter Center, located in Mansfield Massachusetts for his Glow in the Dark Tour directed by Larry Charles. The artist will be joined by popular R&B and pop singers Rihanna, Lupe Fiasco and N.E.R.D. This fabulous line consists of Grammy winners and top seller artists.
Recently, Kanye West has been getting media attention for his top selling album Graduation that includes three top hits: Stronger, Flashing Lights, and Good Life. He released his debut album, The College Dropout, in 2004, and his second album, Late Registration, in 2005. He is a nine time Grammy award winner and also runs his own record label GOOD Music. West's mascot and trademark is a teddy bear which has appeared on the covers of his three albums. He enrolled at Chicago State University but later dropped out to continue pursuing his music career, which is how he developed the name for his first album. In July 2007, West changed the release date of Graduation, from September 18, 2007, to the same release date as 50 Cent's album Curtis, September 11, 2007. 50 Cent later claimed that if Graduation were to sell more records than Curtis, he would stop releasing solo albums. In the end, 50 Cent ended this bet. The album has been certified double platinum, with guest appearances from T-Pain, Mos Def, & Lil Wayne.
Rihanna, a native from Barbados, is currently heating up the charts with her new album Good Girl Gone Bad, which hit stores June 5, 2007. The artist has recently changed her image from a sweet innocent teen, to a feisty, sex image. Her hit “Umbrella” became the number 1 hit single for ten consecutive weeks in the United Kingdom, and was played all summer on the radio in the United States. Rhianna has won many awards including World's Best-Selling Pop Female Artist & Entertainer of the Year at the 2007 World Music Awards, "Favorite Female Artist - R&B" at the 2007 American Music Awards. Her hit "Shut Up and Drive" won best R&B song at the 2008 People's Choice Award, while "Don't Stop the Music" won best international song at the 2008 NRJ Music Awards in France.
Lupe Fiasco is a Grammy-winning American Hip-hop artist, who is also the co-founder and vice-president of 1st & 15th Entertainment, a record label under Atlantic. Lupe is open about discussing his Islamic beliefs, and one of his musical influences happens to be Kanye West. Fiasco, a Grammy winner for the 2008 Best Urban/Alternative Performance ("Daydreamin' (feat Jill Scott)"), hasn’t been recognized for any other awards, however he’s been nominated for many. These nominations include BET Awards Best New Artist of 2007, Grammy Awards 2007, Best Rap Album: Food & Liquor, BET Hip Hop Awards 2007 for Hip-Hop CD of the Year (Food & Liquor) and Hip-Hop Video of the Year ("Kick Push”). His most recent hit song is “Superstar” from his 2007 album Lupe Fiasco's the Cool featuring Matthew Santos. “Superstar” was the first single off his album released September 25, 2007.
N.E.R.D. is an alternative rock band consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, and their friend Shay Haley. When asked what n.e.r.d. stood for, Pharrell Williams, the lead singer replied, “N.E.R.D stands for No One Ever Really Dies.” Their second album, Fly or Die, went on sale on March 22, 2004. The album went top 10 in the USA, featuring their hit single, “She wants to move.” Their most recent album, Seeing Sounds is due to be released June 10, 2008. The group is currently promoting it during their tour with Kanye West.
If you are anyone you’ll be at the concert Thursday, May 15th! We hope to see you there!
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Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Jason Shwartzman Does it All
TAYLOR HAIGLER '08
Jason Schwartzman definitely has solid indie cred. He has starred in many quirky Wes Anderson films, like Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited, and when he was just 14, he founded the rock band Phantom Planet. He is a cousin of Sofia Coppola and his brother Robert Schwartzman is the lead singer for Rooney. Last year he started his own indie rock solo band called Coconut Records. Recently, Nylon magazine called him, “the coolest guy in Hollywood.”
He can act, he can sing, he can play the guitar. This should come as no surprise as Jason comes from a family full of Hollywood royalty. His mother Talia Shire Coppola, was an actor and his father Jack Schwartzman was a producer. He is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and cousins with the Coppola offspring and Nicolas Cage. His stepbrother is John Schwartzman, cinematographer of Armageddon, Seabiscuit and Pearl Harbor.
Jason is both an actor and a musician. He has had starring roles in Shop Girl, I Heart Huckabees and Marie Antoinette. Before he began acting, he was the drummer and songwriter for Phantom Planet but he gave it up to pursue his acting career. (The band is well known for their song “California”, which is the theme song for The O.C.) Jason’s upcoming movies are The Mark Pease Experience and The Fantastic Mr.Fox. Jason composes music for many films, has been in a music video for Puff Daddy’s rock remix of “It’s All About the Benjamins” and in 2005 he contributed to Ben Lee’s album “Awake Is the New Sleep”.
Coconut Record’s album “Nighttiming” is Jason’s latest project: his own indie rock album. Amazingly, he is the sole songwriter of every song and he plays all of the instruments himself! The general sound is clean and crisp and reminds listeners of artists like Albert Hammond Jr., Matt Costa, Death Cab for Cutie and The Stars. Schwartzman’s voice is sweet yet melancholy. It is folksy and his songs sound like more poppy versions of Bright Eyes’ music. Unfortunately the album is very short, clocking in around 30 minutes. Hopefully we’ll get a longer album from him in the future!
One can purchase the CD from the Young Baby Records website. The best part about it all is: he personalizes each album with a Polaroid photo that may range from a picture of his foot, to his house, to a picture of his dog. So, given the personalization of each album, delivery runs slowly (Jason apologizes… and how can you blame him for it). It can also be found on iTunes or can be purchased from http://www.thinkindie.com/.
Additional notes: Jason is dating LA fashion designer Brady Cunningham. He was dating his childhood friend, Zooey Deschanel, for several years until they broke up in 2005 (Zooey has a new CD out called “She & Him”) Jason has a bulldog named arrow and a cat named extra mayo.
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Monday, May 5, 2008
Iron Man 2 already set for April 2010
TOPH TUCKER ‘08
The summer blockbuster Iron Man began showing in theaters last Thursday, and took in $100.7 million domestically on its first weekend. Its worldwide total currently stands at around $198 million. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive; it stands at a 93% “fresh” rating on rottentomatoes.com. (I mean, it’s no Grand Theft Auto IV, with that ridiculous 99% average, but hey, what is?)
Those of you who saw Iron Man and stayed through the credits (please do) got a pretty heavy-handed tip-off that there’d be a sequel. Today Marvel announced that sure enough, Iron Man 2 will hit theaters on April 30, 2010. (Clear your calendars!)
The more interesting part of the announcement was that, in addition to The Incredible Hulk coming this June 13, Marvel will also be releasing Thor (June 4, 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6, 2011), The Avengers (July 2011), and Ant-Man. Moreover, these films will all exist in the same “universe.” That is, Robert Downey Jr. will appear in The Incredible Hulk as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), and they’ll all co-mingle in the films after that. This is possible thanks to Marvel financing these newer films independently, as opposed to licensing its superheroes to outside studios (like it did for Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four).
What do you think? Is this new strategy a winner? Was the film any good? How crazy is GTA’s average? (OK, that last one is a little off-topic.) Leave your comments below.
Further Reading:
MSNBC.com: Iron Man 2
MSNBC.com: Iron Man box office receipts
Iron Man on BoxOfficeMojo.com
Iron Man on RottenTomatoes.com
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Found in Lost: Thoughts on "Something Nice Back Home"
OK, so we're a little later than usual, but here's our weekly Lost analysis. Enjoy! DON'T CLICK THROUGH IF YOU'RE NOT CAUGHT UP!
This was a nice Jack-centric episode, and filled in a lot of missing pieces to the story. Interesting how Hurley thought things were TOO happy, but by the end of the episode that's clearly proven incorrect. Still, that the idea that they're all dead has been given any sort of serious attention is interesting.
I liked the Red Sox reference and the Millennium Falcon, by the way. I'm glad to see Aaron's on his way to becoming as big a Star Wars fan as Abrams and Lindelof. :)
Jack's dad--that's interesting stuff. First of all, is it possible that the smoke alarm was set off by the smoke monster, appearing in the form of Jack's dad? ...or was it just a low-battery alarm? Also: where's Claire off to? (And what's up with Sawyer and Claire?) Interesting about whether Jack is fit to raise Aaron. Remember that psychic said he had found a nice, good couple in LA? Could that have been referring to Jack and Kate, years before they were a couple in LA? Or must it really be Claire who raises Aaron?
For a few episods now I've been wondering how much the research team knows about what Keamy and Co. are doing. I mean, they've been helping them out, disabling the Tempest and what not, but did they expect them to just start killing people like this? Miles certainly seemed surprised by his gruesome find. Could they turn good? I trust Frank; I trust Daniel, just because I like him, but I'm not sure whose side he's on; I don't trust Charlotte at all; and I trust Miles in the sense that even if he's not loyal to the Losties, he's not loyal to the Boaties, either. (I liked Daniel's 'attitude' speech.)
What exactly did Sawyer want Kate to do? Does he feel responsible for Aaron, since he was trying to take care of him and Claire, and apparently failed? And how do they have regular phone communications with the island? I mean, isn't that a big deal? I guess Ben had a phone.
Moving on to the main storyline--Jack's appendix. Rose's comment is especially interesting:
ROSE: I was thinking, "Why did he get sick?"
BERNARD: Why? It's just--it's just bad luck.
ROSE: The day before we're all supposed to be rescued, the person that we count on the most suddenly comes down with a life-threatening condition, and you're chalking it up to bad luck?
BERNARD: Well, what are you saying, that--that Jack did something to offend the gods? People get sick, Rose.
ROSE: Not here. Here, they get better.
It seems to me that the island, or some closely associated entity, sometimes exercises its power over your well-being as a tool.
Here are the implications of all we've learned about the island and healing: many injuries heal faster on-island; this healing power can be withheld or revoked; injury or illness maybe may be inflicted as punishment; this power over well-being extends off-island (Michael); certain people are "needed," or just favored.
Let's detour for a moment to talk about the Temple. Here's the Lostpedia entry:
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Temple
The logo is pretty interesting. Reminds me of a tree. But I imagine it's not just any tree. Tree of Life, anyone? :) I mean, looking at the logo, combined with the healing powers, combined with (!) the discovery of the bodies Locke called "Adam and Eve" in the caves... I'd say we have a pretty solid body of evidence.
Island = Eden
Barracks (within fence) = Garden of Eden
Monster / Ben / ??? = Snake?
Widmore = Exiled from the garden.
I may have talked about this before in one of these articles. But the Temple logo is a critical new piece of evidence that I hadn't noticed before.
Adam and Eve, found as they were outside the fence (in the caves), had been exiled from the garden. And anyone who can't find their way back has been exiled.
So if it's the Garden of Eden, then there's a Tree of Life, and a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There's tons going on in Lost about knowing what is
good ("we're the good guys") and what is not. And there are these healing powers. Fascinating stuff.
Note that the Garden of Eden is generally placed, geographically speaking, around, oh, northeast Africa/Mesopotamia/Persian Gulf--aka opposite the globe from the estimated position of the island, where some weird stuff tends to show up, like the polar bear and Ben (teleporting?). Also, according to Wikipedia, the garden was apparently "one of the four holy places that the Lord has on Earth, the other three being Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, and the 'Mount of the East'." I think I've mentioned the idea that the island is just one of several special spots on Earth, and that Widmore's quips to Ben suggest that by that time she's hiding out in one of the other ones. Hm. Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm.
And take a look at that image up top. Does that look like the island or what!?
Image from Wikipedia
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Friday, May 2, 2008
The Writer's Strike
SARA MARSH '09
Television viewers across the country were affected by a three-month writer’s strike. Television programs were postponed while 12,000 writers protested. The Writer's Guild of America initiated the strike on November 5 of last year and it lasted until February 12 of this year. The strike was led in opposition to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Every three years the Writers Guild of America negotiates a new contract called the Minimum Basic Agreement, which collaborates with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, where many writers are employed. WGA members argued that a writer's residuals, or profits made from re-runs or purchases of the shows, are an essential part of a writer's income that is normally relied upon during periods of unemployment common in the writing industry The WGA demanded a doubling of the residual rate for DVD sales, which would raise .03% per DVD sold. One of the other critical issues addressed was “residuals for new media”, or compensation for Internet downloads, and other online distribution methods, along with video on demand on cable and satellite television. Writers felt as if they were being cheated because they weren’t getting the profits and notations wanted. All of their hard work was not getting the credit it deserved, when they are largely responsible for creating each show.
The strike lasted 100 days before coming to any conclusions. Writers voted on February 12th on whether to lift the restraining order and the majority voted to end the strike. The leaders of the Writers Guild of America have authorized a new three-year deal pertaining to the writers’ desires, mostly increasing their payments and recognition. Movies, television shows, and plays will more publicly recognize writers’ names and credit them for their work. The public will be more informed on who they are and their contributions to the productions.
The last major writer’s strike was in 1988, which lasted much longer than the most recent strike. The biggest concerns within the contract were the reduced payments for hour-long shows, as well as reruns broadcasted in foreign countries. The strike lasted 21 weeks and six days, and over 9,000 movie and television writers went on strike. With the advancement of technology the most recent strike was more complex because there are many new forms of media and ways to download illegally. For example many used the Internet to watch movies that had just been released in theaters for free, rather then paying money to go see the film in theaters.
New episodes of television shows are starting now! Check your local listings for channels and times!
New shows airing:
• Cashmere Mafia
• American Idol
• America’s Next Top Model
• Big Brother: till death do you part
• MTV reality shows
• Survivor: Micronesia
• LOST
• Lipstick Jungle
• The Biggest Loser
Popular shows returning:
• Desperate Housewives Heroes
• House
• Grey’s Anatomy
• The Office
• Private Practice
• Brothers & Sisters
• Reaper
• Law and Order: SVU
• Gossip Girls
• One Tree Hill
Sources cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike#Response
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/27/eveningnews/main3756612.shtml
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Friday, April 25, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on "The Shape of Things to Come"
Lost is finally back!--and better than ever? See our analysis and leave your thoughts after the break. As usual, MEGA spoiler warnings apply.
Very, very intense. Love the code for "OK I'm opening the fence BUT it's only under duress." Reminiscent of both Naomi's codephrase and Ben's line back in Season 3:
LOCKE: [checking to make sure they've left] The man from Tallahassee? What is that? Some kind of code?
BEN: No, John, unfortunately we don't have a code for "There's a man in my closet with a gun to my daughter's head." Although we obviously should.
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/The_Man_from_Tallahassee_transcript
Makes me wonder if they DO have a code for that and Ben was just choosing not to use it. :)
Nifty, too, how they exploited our knowledge of what is to come to make us all think Claire was a goner.
Interesting that we have the research arm of the freighter crew, who served as scouts, and now the militant arm. What was the point of the research stuff? Just to see if the coast was clear? And the disarmament of the Tempest seems more signifiacant now that we know the crew had been planning an invasion. Of course, they couldn't stop Cerberus. :) Makes me wonder whether they were worried about it. You'd think they'd put the fence back up after going through. But there the monster was, in the heart of the barracks. Could it have circumvented the fence? Hmm. (It was probably just that they were too dumb to put the fence back up.)
What was up with Ben summoning Cerberus anyway? How'd that work? How come he came out all roughed-up and dirty? At first I though he'd teleported/time-travelled. Which, moving right along, was clearly how he got to Tunisia. The Orchid. That's why he was wearing Halowax's coat.
Poor Alex / Poor Ben. It's sad that the last thing she heard him say was that she was just a pawn, although he clearly didn't mean it. And it's sad for Ben that she died. I thought a few things when he let it happen. (1) How often does that happen in TV and movies? That the guy doesn't give in to the hostage plea, and that the hostage then gets shot? Not too often. (2) When he said he had things under control, he seemed to mean it. Which brought me back to the bizarre "off-island dead people returning on-island" issue. Could it be that even if she was "killed," she wouldn't truly be dead? But no. The writers have talked about this. Even amidst all the craziness, they don't want to introduce a cop-out like that. So scratch that. But as soon as he said "He changed the rules," I thought that (3) Jacob had told Ben that Alex wasn't SUPPOSED to die and thus couldn't, a la Michael. So he thought he had to have faith that the gun would jam, or Keamy wouldn't go through with it, or whatever. But someone brought up a very good point after the episode: (4) Maybe it was WIDMORE who had changed the rules. They're clearly fighting over the island, and maybe they promised each other at some point in the past that they wouldn't target each other's families. You know--civilized war. And thus it had been Widmore who changed the rules, and with that rule broken, Ben felt OK about going after Penny.
Speaking of Widmore--wow. Makes Ben look like the bad guy again after all, eh? I'm guessing Widmore controlled the island before Dharma. (Or maybe he led Dharma, of course--that's in ways the more obvious answer--but in a way it's more interesting if we're introducing him as the group that preceded everything we know, but which is implied via cyclicity to exist. Would certain Hostiles be remnants of that group? Richard, maybe? ...nah...
Interesting the way Ben said Widmore would never find the island, and Widmore said Ben would never find Penny. Seems oddly... parallel, no? What if Widmore *is* associated with Dharma, and the island isn't the only "special spot" on the face of the earth, and Penny's being hidden in another???
And there were definitely Star Wars-esque moments there, especially revolving around fear/anger/grief comments. But the stress in Lost is on revenge. The stress in Star Wars is on fear. Fear is pre-emptive; revenge is retailiatory. In general, there's huge overlap (REVENGE of the Sith, anyone?), but that's an interesting distinction to make. Another Star Wars connection: the Widmore/Ben relationship is reminiscent of the relationship between Sith. Hm.
For the Class of '08'ers out there, could the guy named Ishmael be a reference to the themes of our favorite gorilla book???
OK, I could write more, but I really should be getting back to other things.... oh, and what's up with Jack??? Drug issues????? Already???????
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Monday, April 7, 2008
Muggle Quidditch
“I see Quidditch as a work of art- it’s not rehearsed, it’s spontaneous,” Benepe said. “The players are like actors, the stadium is like a set, your have props, and equipment, lights, and sound.”
TAYLOR HAIGLER '08
Quidditch is the new sport sweeping (pun intended) the nation, or rather a few small colleges on the east coast. With brooms between the legs, players dressed in capes play the ‘muggle’ version of the game from the world-famous Harry Potter Series. As music from the soundtracks of the Harry Potter movies blares from speakers, Middlebury’s improv troupe provides commentary on the games that ensue.
It all began at Middlebury College in Vermont, where students of the 2009 graduating class, Alex Benepe and Xander Manshel, fooled around by playing the wizarding sport with friends on campus fields back in the Fall of 2005. They have since gained a devoted following; more than 100 students have joined the Quidditch League at Middlebury and every Sunday in the Fall, students practice and compete. The newly-admitted students to Middlebury’s class of 2012 have already begun to chat about whether or not to join the team in their facebook group. One hundred and five other campuses have formed leagues of their own including Bucknell, Tulane, Oberlin, Whitman and Vassar.
Benepe and Manshel have compiled a 39-page rulebook where they have written the re- created the game for non-magical folk. The basic rules include:
Students representing the Quidditch League at Middlebury College in Vermont traveled to seven colleges in the Northeast last week during their Spring Break to challenge other schools at Quidditch. They scrimmaged at Princeton University, Columbia University, and Amherst College, among others. Middlebury will host the World Cup next year and students hope that at least 10 schools will participate. Benepe hopes that J.K. Rowling, the author of the series who started it all, will attend.
"Knowing Middlebury had [Quidditch] was a childhood dream come true," said Olen, a 19-year-old freshman environmental studies major from St. Helena, Calif. "For the most part people think it's hilarious. Everyone I have told has been super interested and wanting to play. It really is an infectious disease. Once you hear about it, see it, and play - it's all you want to do.”
Video
Boston.com Article
Image Source
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
"Speed Racer" looks nothing short of revolutionary
TOPH TUCKER ‘08
When the Wachowski Brothers released The Matrix in 1999, it was groundbreaking (for obvious reasons). When they followed it up with V for Vendetta in 2006, they maintained a similar feel (totalitarian regime, underground resistance, dark and gloomy and everything) but more or less left the crazy special effects sequences at home. The trailer for their latest endeavor, then, comes out of the blue—unless you consider that half the premise of their films is just shaking things up.
Speed Racer, visually, is everything that The Matrix is not. Bright, colorful, cartoony, vibrant, ever in-focus, and done with an even greater reliance on CGI. The trailers, in many parts, feel downright goofy… but amazing.
I highly suggest you watch all four.
We’ve had some pretty interesting films this past year from a special effects standpoint, from über-stylized 300 to stunning over-the-top Michael Bay awesomeness in Transformers. Industrial Light & Magic got robbed of a VFX Oscar this year; though they held two of the three nominations, for Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, ultimately the lackluster (in my humble opinion) The Golden Compass took the cake. (Our readers seem to agree--in our poll, 82% picked one of the ILM films over Compass.)
Here’s hoping they get due credit next time.
UPDATE: Looking at the IMDB credits, I have no clue who the main effects company is, but I like ILM so I'll stand by my earlier statement. :)
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"The Urban Nutcracker" Presents a Fresh Spin on a Classic
JEHANE SAMAHA '09
This past holiday season, I had the privilege of attending both the classical Nutcracker and the Urban Nutcracker. Both productions got a little tiresome after a while. It was difficult to sit through an incredibly long performance that I already knew mostly by heart. After being overdosed on the Nutcracker music through television commercials and holiday shopping music, that extra bit of magic was lost. Overall, the differences in audience and in production quality were striking.
Many people are unaware that the Urban Nutcracker even exists. However, it has been around for a while and is well worth seeing. It presents a very creative, fresh, entertaining take on the classical story. The Urban Nutcracker was created by renowned dancer Anthony Williams, who grew up in a Boston housing project. He found great opportunity and success in the world of dance, and he created the Urban Nutcracker to open up this same world to the children of Boston.
This show is a bright explosion of colorful sets and costumes. Elements of tap, jazz, flamenco, swing, hip-hop, and step are infused into the choreography at many points in the show. From do-op groups to step teams, this performance has it all. The cast is incredibly diverse, containing dancers of all ages and backgrounds. The dance company, Ballet Rox, emphasizes opportunity and diversity, bringing kids and adults from all around the Boston area together in one joyful, edgy performance.
Student dancers, such as Hannah Riggs, a Junior here at Beaver, have the fabulous opportunity to play great roles in the Urban Nutcracker. This year Ms. Riggs danced many roles, including an Arabian dancer, a candy-cane dancer, a party girl, and a soldier. One evening, she was even given the opportunity to perform a solo. In contrast, had Ms. Riggs chosen to perform in the Boston Ballet Nutcracker, her height would have limited her, forcing her to play a small role, such as that of a reindeer.
If you are bored by traditional ballet, then the Urban Nutcracker would definitely be a perfect holiday outing for you. The casual atmosphere and funky vibe is a great twist to a regular, snowy December evening. I recommend that you book your tickets early to get seats as close to the stage (and the action!) as possible. Also, it is important not to go to the last performance that is offered. According to Ms. Riggs, the dancers do not put very much effort into the last performance of the season. The Urban Nutcracker often comes off as less professional than the Boston Ballet Nutcracker, but do not let this perception bother you; the mood of the show is very positive and the entire experience is very entertaining.
The traditional Boston Ballet Nutcracker is a completely different experience. The classical music is performed by a live orchestra, the costumes are impeccable, and the lighting is dazzling. There is no lack of dancers to play minor roles, and the major roles are played by incredible professional ballerinas. Even the young dancers who play the party guests are very well trained and handle quite complicated choreography. This Ballet is performed by members of the Boston Ballet and of the Boston Ballet School. This production is much more established as a holiday tradition in Boston. Little girls dress up in puffy pink satin dresses and wear tiaras to see this show. Although the classical Nutcracker is very prestigious, it may not be the right show to satisfy your holiday craving. This show indeed dazzles the senses, but for those among us with short attention spans, this performance can come off as mind-numbingly long.
I deeply enjoyed many parts of both of these performances. Between the two of them, there is something for everybody. It is a great holiday experience to see one or both of these productions, and I enthusiastically recommend either one.
For Further Reading and Ticket Information for next Christmas:
http://www.jamaicaplaingazette.com/node/650
http://www.bostonballet.org/nutcracker/default.html
http://www.balletrox.org/
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Monday, March 31, 2008
The Last Night of Ballyhoo Was A Great Success!
BECCA PLESKOW '10 & ADINA JICK '10
The Last Night of Ballyhoo, an interesting play about a Jewish family living in the south, was the winter play at Beaver this year. The play centers on a family portrayed by, Dan Katz, Jesse Rosenberg, Lindsey Yudkoff, Sara Mooney, and Hannah Hutton that wrestles with its Jewish identity. The family members try to deny their Jewish roots until they meet Joe Farkas (played by Sophomore Gus Polstein). Joe’s love interest with Sunny, Hannah Hutton, inspires her to embrace her Jewish identity.
The Last Night of Ballyhoo directed by Ms.Yolles was perfectly cast and exquisitely performed. The audience was enthralled by the tension between the characters. Sunny (Hannah Hutton) and Lala’s (Jesse Rosenberg) fight over Joe Farcus (Gus Polstein) kept the audience on the edge of their seats. The love interests between Lala (Jesse Rosenberg) and Peachy (Zack Levandov) was particularly humorous and enjoyable for the audience. The humor in the play was well delivered, and also sent a message to the audience, urging them to accept their true identities.
The set’s positioning was realistic to the given circumstances. Although at times the actors’ backs faced the audience, the blocking did not detract from the quality of the performance. The location of the audience enabled the viewers to enter the world (and literal living room) of the characters. The costumes also added to the performance. They were extremely realistic for the time period and the woman’s dresses even reflected each of their personalities.
A job well-done to everyone involved in the play!
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on "Meet Kevin Johnson"
It’s now on break until April 27, but Lost went out with a bang this Thursday. Eh, sort of. Not really. Anyway, thoughts follow. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS AHH DON’T CLICK if you haven’t seen the episode.
Hmm... OK, so no big surprises, Michael is the spy and Walt was just dropped off at home. (I was half-expecting him to be locked away on the freighter somewhere.)
This, for the most part, felt like it was just filling in a bunch of holes--a bunch of stuff that we just needed to know to keep going. We saw too little of the island itself for my tastes, but oh well. I was expecting an invasion or something, judging by the preview. So much for a midseason climax.
There were several moments when it seemed the concept of the island as purgatory/underworld were about to be introduced--for instance, when it seemed Michael had committed suicide. (Remember especially Locke's dad's highway accident.) But no, it was as if they were just teasing us. I think people (including me) are probably a little too quick to go to the supernatural for explanation of these things on this crazy crazy show.
Speaking of supernatural, though, the most interesting thing from tonight, from the Michael storyline anyway, was how the island wouldn't let him kill himself. It just wasn't supposed to happen. I think that explains a lot of why he was willing to go on the mission. (1) What else is he going to do? (2) I think ultimately he just wants to die, and he thinks the island will only let him die if he does this first. ("What are you doing here?" "I'm here to die.")
Oh, and regarding Walt: I didn't catch it, but Lostpedia says he was played by a double in that episode. Interesting. Does that mean they're going to have issues if they want to bring him back as a regular character, or are they going to explain it away with some little time travel excuse?
Image of double in Meet Kevin Johnson: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:Fake_Walt.jpg
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Walt#Trivia
Also: interesting how the Captain (working for Widmore) was implying that Ben planted the fake plane, while now Ben is saying that Widmore did it. And the captain seemed utterly nonplussed by Sayid’s revelation that Michael’s a traitor.
And also interesting: Miles. He's always been a little different than the rest of the freighter folks--more violent, confrontational, sneaky. "Another Sawyer," as Hurley put it. Apparently Locke took the grenade out.
BUT, OF COURSE, the most exciting part was the very end. Looks like Ben got his daughter's two best allies killed. Poor Danielle! And she had an interesting story, too. She was the one who was always talking about the illness and the whispers and what not, both of which remain mysteries. And she was always helpful to the Losties. And she was so sneaky, with her traps and everything. Of course, she may not be dead.
To whoever was manning the blowdarts--nice aim, it took you, what, like three shots to hit Carl? Actually, it almost seemed like an automated defense system, Indiana Jones-style. But no, you can't reason with a trap, which is what Alex was doing there at the end.
So presumably that was the Others, the Hostiles, Richard's people. Why would they kill Carl and Danielle? Did they not "belong" at the Temple? And what exactly IS the Temple???
So many questions left unanswered! So long to wait! This episode had lots of Michael, not enough island. Oh well. It was still great, of course. Any Lost is great, from my undiscerning point of view. :)
Oh, and apparently Aaron is the last of the Oceanic 6. Eh. Not a huge fan of that, but whatever. It has some interesting implications, now that that's locked down:
1. Michael doesn't make it back again.
2. People still don't know about Michael.
3. Either people still don't know about Walt, or he somehow ends up back on the island.
4. But there's no easy way for him to get back, soo...
5. He seems like an interesting ally in Jack's inevitable quest to get back.
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on "Ji Yeon"
Another interesting episode. Only one left before the break! :( Read our thoughts here, and leave your own in the comments. As usual, beware of spoilers! Only continue if you're up-to-date!
Hmm... OK, so nothing has really matched the splendor of The Constant yet. But next week will be a sort of mini-finale, so that ought to be very interesting.
The main plot dealt with Sun and Jin. I was originally unsure of whether Jin's scenes were flashbacks, but I'm now almost certain. The old-fashioned cell phone was the first tip-off...
It was pretty terrible of Juliet to reveal Sun's affair like that... she has an "ends justify the means" philosophy that I really dislike...
What was up with Hurley's ultra-creepy "good"???
HURLEY: Is anyone else coming?
SUN: No.
HURLEY: Good.
The tombstone is interesting. It lists the date of death as September 22, 2004--the day Oceanic 815 crashed. My guess is that the Oceanic 6 are just telling the world that Jin was one of the many who died in the crash, so clearly Jin hasn't made it off, but I'm not so sure he's dead. He could very well be one of those to whom Jack thinks "we have to go back!"
There was also some interesting stuff going on on the freighter. First of all, where's the helicopter??? Apparently Frank has taken it somewhere, and Ray-the-doctor implied that he was heading back to the island, but managed to dodge the question. Judging by next week's preview, maybe he's, y'know, getting ready to storm the beaches or something... or maybe there's something else out there, something he could land on other than the island, that the doc doesn't want Sayid knowing about.
Regina was weird. First with reading her book upside-down, and then with her suicide. And no one seemed surprised by that stuff. Clearly there's something maddening about the island, or at least there's something maddening about the snowglobe barrier.
And the captain didn't seem that bad. He implied that Ben was in on the faking of 815, which is interesting. The black box was also interesting. But was it the box of the real 815, or the planted 815? Here's the dialogue:
GAULT: That's exactly what it is. Now here's the funny thing. This black box comes from Oceanic Flight 815. A salvage vessel recovered it from the bottom of the ocean. It took a considerable amount of Mr. Widmore's resources to procure it. It was found with the wreckage of the plane, along with all 324 dead passengers. (to Sayid) That's not the complete story, as you are well aware, Mr. Jarrah, given the fact that you're standing here, breathing... The wreckage was obviously staged. Now can you imagine what kind of resources and manpower go into pulling off a feat of that magnitude? Faking the recovery of a plane crash? Putting 324 families through a grieving process based on a lie? But what's even more disturbing... where exactly does one come across 324 dead bodies? And that, Mr. Jarrah, Mr. Hume, is just one of the many reasons we want Benjamin Linus.
So it seems it's from the fake 815. But then what good is it? It's not like you're going to track it back to Ben's secret off-island HQ landing strip. It would be much more useful if it were from the real plane, and it would help explain how the freighter had found the island. But then how in the world would anyone have recovered it? Recovering it would presumably mean finding the plane, unless it had somehow escaped and floated off to Fiji or something. And we don't know of anyone finding the plane, the real plane. So, what, did Ben find it and sell it to Widmore? Seems unlikely, given how much he hates the guy. Did he find it and give it to Michael to take it to Widmore and lead him into a trap or something? Haha, nah. If Ben was the one who planted the fake, then maybe he took the real black box and planted it with it, but that'd just be stupid. Doesn't make any sense.
Also, it seems like one of the Oceanic Six remains unknown. Could it be the one in the newspaper clipping? It's odd--you'd think it'd be the funeral of someone Jack & Kate knew from the island, right? But if it was one of the Six, they'd be a celebrity, and of course their death would be a big deal and lots of people would go. So, non-Sixies who they knew from the island who made it off... um, Ben? I'm not sure anyone would go to his funeral, and he's sort of been operating in secret. We know it's a man, don't we? For Sixies, that leaves Hurley, Sayid, or the one yet to be revealed. Hm. Out of those choices, and knowing nothing about the sixth Sixie, I'd have to say Ben, however sad it would be to admit that the man we love to hate is mortal. Hey, he could always be faking it.
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Friday, March 7, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on "The Other Woman"
What’d you think of the latest episode of Lost? Where do you stand on America’s favorite love quadrangle? Read on for some of our thoughts, and leave yours in the comments. Spoiler alert: stop reading now if you’re not up-to-date!
First of all: The Tempest plot felt a little rushed. I'm really gonna miss the 9 episodes we're missing this season....
Moving on, umm, I can't stand Juliet. However lost she may have been upon arriving on the island, Ben has gotten to her, by which I mean that she has been infected by his sneaky schemingness. Except when Ben does it it's great, and when Juliet does it it's annoying. She has adopted the "ends justify the means" mentality. Whatever she’s doing—saving them all, killing them all, whatever, it’s hard to tell sometimes—she is not afraid to completely betray her allies (many times over) in the process.
Regarding Ben & Juliet's relationship: whoah, crazy. I think there needs to be Lost-brand Valentine's Day cards with that great line—“Why? You're asking me why? After everything I did to get you here, after everything I've done to keep you here, how can you possibly not understand THAT YOU'RE MINE? …Take as much time as you need.”And it could be one of those talking Hallmark cards, for extra creepiness.
HARPER: So, Juliet, what do you think of Ben?
JULIET: He's great. Uh, very smart... and intense. Challenging. He's been really good to me.
HARPER: Of course he has. You look just like her.
It’s unclear who Harper was referring to—Annie is one possibility, but Liz suggested Emily, his mom, which would be oh-so-Oedipal. Anyway, the Annie reference is intriguing--if she's still around, and I'm still convinced she is, then Ben's relationship with Juliet seems a little... dishonest. And it’s further proof that Harper is very close to Ben (professionally, naturally), and probably has been for a long time. Also, it's dangerous for Ben to be forming attachments like that. I've mentioned how I think so much of what he does is motivated by his guilt over killing his mom, and that has probably caused him to make some unwise decisions. Any sort of romantic relationship jeapardizes his ability to be a cold, calculating, removed, infinitely patient, oh-so-creepy mastermind.
What was going on in the present with Ben and Locke was pretty interesting. I think Ben was lying when he said the Widmore info was his last bargaining chip--hello, how's he contacting Harper and Juliet???--but may have been telling the truth when he said his people don't want him any more (which isn't to say that most of them aren't still loyal to him). I've thought for a little while that it's possible that the failed attack on the Losties last season was actually orchestrated by Ben to cull the weak and disloyal from his group. Or it may just have been a big stumble. Speaking of stumbles, it would seem he stumbled by failing to stop Daniel and Charlotte. But who knows. His new allegiance with Locke ought to be interesting.
I'm hoping that the relationships are only so messed up now (e.g. Jack w/ Juliet) so that it will be that much more satisfying when, ultimately, everyone ends up with the person with whom they are SUPPOSED to be. The universe has a way of course correcting, and Jack is way off-course. I hope.
Regarding the Widmore revelation—I’m pretty sure Penny isn't manipulating/using Desmond. I'm pretty sure that, if anything, her dad is just secretly piggybacking on her work. But of course, he's been looking for longer than she has. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Desmond is on the island in part *because* Mr. Widmore was looking for it. That race around the world? What if he had a vague idea of where the island was, so he decided to send hundreds (?) of sailboats streaming past it under the pretense of a "race"? What if he was tracking every boat in the race (you'd think he would) via GPS, and Desmond actually led the freighter to the island?
I LOVED the Red Sox bit. But after Ben's tape of Widmore, instead of going to static it should have gone back to the game. That'd have been awesome.
And finally, did anyone else notice the "hostiles" talk?!? Completely reinforcing the concept that the Island's power progression is cyclical.
JACK: That woman--what was her name?
JULIET: Harper.
JACK: The two of you friends?
JULIET: Not exactly. She was my therapist.
JACK: You people had therapists?
JULIET: It's very stressful being an Other, Jack.
JACK: Seemed kinda hostile, even for a therapist.
---
CLAIRE: John, we have to find out who these people are and where they came from and why they're not interested in rescuing us.
JOHN: And you don't think I'm gonna get that out of him?
CLAIRE: No, I... I just think we might be taking the wrong approach. I mean, you killed one, Ben shot one, and now we're holding one prisoner. You know, it's not hard to understand why they might think we're hostile. I might be just a little less intimidating.
See?!? Damon & Carlton (the writers) made a good point in some interview: when the Losties arrived, there were already cliches and power struggles going on, but the Losties didn't have a sufficiently nuanced view of the situation to call them all anything but "others." And now the Boaties have arrived, and they're not all sure who to trust, and they sort of see the Losties/Others as being hostile. Look at how they killed Naomi! Of course, *we* know that that was just Locke, but how are the Boaties supposed to realize that Locke is fundamentally different than the rest??? The Losties ARE the Others.
Images from http://www.lost-media.com/ (beware of spoilers, including for upcoming episodes)
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Thursday, March 6, 2008
Advanced Drama Play Advances to Semi-finals of Festival
DANIEL KATZ '08 and JESSICA PENZIAS '08
The High School Drama Festival is the Drama Guild's largest event of the year, with over 100 schools competing from across the state. The festival is now in its seventh decade, and is open to every secondary school in Massachusettes. Sponsored by The Boston Globe and John Hancock Hall, the festival includes three levels: preliminary, semi-final and state finals. Individual awards are given out at each level, and two schools are chosen at the State Finals to represent the state at the New England Drama Festival.
Announced before each performance, the most important rules are as follows:
-No entry may exceed 40 minutes running time.
-A school is given 5 minutes to set up and 5 minutes to strike
-The director, cast, and crew must attend all levels of Festival in which they participate.
Beaver has a tradition of competing in the festival, and has done quite well in the past under the direction of Jen Yolles. Seven plays have made it to the semi-finals, and one play, “Volpone,” moved onto the state finals in 2004. Next time you walk from the main building to the lobby of the arts building, look at the wall to your left and notice the plaques from past festivals. In a school that sometimes lacks competitive success, the Drama Festival is often full of refreshing victories.
This year’s preliminary round was, once again, quite successful. After a strong performance at Sharon High School, Beaver was one of three schools from the site who moved onto the semi-finals. Beaver, Sharon High School, and Cambridge Rindge & Latin beat out five other schools for the three coveted spots. At the award ceremony, Beaver also picked up nine individual awards. Hannah Hutton, Dan Katz, Chi-Chi Ibili, and Vivek Pai received acting awards. Tech awards went to Micah Telegen for stage-managing, Nat Harrington for sound production, and Jeremy Karpf, Evan Leventhal, and Emily Salfity for on-stage technical work. The semi-finals will occur on March 15 at Marblehead Veterans' Middle School at 9:30 am.
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The schedule of plays for the Semi Finals are as follows:
Host: Marblehead Veterans' Middle School,217 Pleasant Street, Marblehead
9:30 am Beaver Country Day School- Episode in the Life of an Author
10:30 am Cohasset Middle/ High School- A Whole New You
12:30 am Leominster High School- Wind in the Willows
1:30 pm Westford Academy- Dancing at Lughnasa
3:00 pm St. John's Preparatory School- The Odyssey
4:00 pm Saugus High School- Servant of Two Masters
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Monday, March 3, 2008
NY Fashion Week
SARAH MINK '08
Despite fashion’s frivolous nature, the tents in Bryant Park fill to capacity twice a year with hordes of magazine editors, upscale department store buyers, celebrities, socialites, and those who fall under no labels or too many to count. Also in attendance are people who have once graced the halls of Beaver with their noteworthy presence—namely Eliza Dushku, a Beaver mystery herself. All sharing the prerequisite of being well dressed, these people fly into New York or walk across the street to be part of the extravaganza that is Fashion Week, specifically, the semi-annual Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. First held in 1943 during the Second World War, its goal was to take the attention away from French fashion when traveling to France wasn’t possible for fashion journalists.
New York Fashion Week is very much like an art festival backed by German automotive sponsors. The designers are the artists, and the runways are the galleries on which the art is displayed for the world to see. As art is illegal to forge, the designer’s guild has worked hard to copyright their designs, but clothing and accessories are still copied and mass-produced in such stores as Century 21. The designs that came down on the runways on top models such as Coca Rocha and Agyness Deyn, however, were completely original creations.
Fall MMVIII (2008) fashion week began on February 1st and finished on February 8th. Over 100,000 guests were expected to attend, which included 3,000 of the worldwide press and fashion industry. Some lucky college students worked on the shows behind the scenes and as seat-fillers. One NYU student who volunteered at the Y-3 show described it as: “Great! I got stuck in the second row (VIP section), which was both terrifying and the coolest moment of my life!”
Whether or not you approve of the models’ weight, or even the consumer culture that the week represents, the spectacle of Fashion Week has become a tradition in cities worldwide. However, the Internet has made the exhibition of designs available to those who cannot make it to the tents in Bryant Park, which were decorated this year as Greco Roman “Temples of Fashion.” All the collections are available for your viewing pleasure on http://www.style.com/, as are front row and backstage pictures, including an appearance by the not-so-well-dressed Ms. Dushku. Stay tuned for collection highlights and the aftermath.
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Sunday, March 2, 2008
Shoe Review: The Adidas ‘Olympic’ Conductor Hi
MARCO FABRIZIO ‘09
The Adidas Olympic Conductor Hi, first released in 1987, was recently re-released. It pays homage to the 1988 Olympic Basketball final between the USSR and Yugoslavia. The shoe has a very basic color scheme; white is the main color, accompanied by smaller amounts of black, grey and red. The multicolored patch located on the side of the shoe is the 1988 Olympic Logo and information on the final game is located on the inside of the shoe. This shoe can cost anywhere from $150-$210.
SOURCES: http://www.crookedtongues.com/
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Friday, February 29, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on "The Constant"
Read some of our thoughts and discuss the latest episode of LOST in the comments below. We'll update throughout the week as we think things over. Spoiler alert: don't click through if you haven't seen "The Constant" yet!
Um, wow. Gotta be one of my favorite episodes ever.
First of all, the Black Rock thing was awesome..jpg)
We got more hints regarding time dilation and such. (Dan's way of putting it--that their perception of the passage of time was different than the helicopter's--was interesting.) And, as suspected, the storm does indeed look like a permanent feature of the world/island "snowglobe barrier" (as Maddy put it). Looks like it's a combination of time dilation and some sort of... well, not portal/wormhole, but some sort of catastrophic event that "unhinges" people from time. If you think about time as just another dimension, like time and space, it makes sense. People are free to move around wherever we want in space.
Great to see who Minkowski was--fascinating given his namesake that he, like Desmond, would also suffer from temporal unhinging.
You know how Penny said she's been looking for Desmond for 3 years? Interesting that, by going back in time and telling her about the island, he causes her to then look for it. But you know, I don't think he could change anything significant about the past even if he tried. This is not Back to the Future (although tonight's episode was extremely reminiscent of it). The universe has a way of course-correcting; paradoxes may not be allowed to exist.
Then again... I wonder. What the creepy ring lady was saying (the course-correcting thing) was essentially that the universe was stable. Like those little dolls that can't be pushed over, or a river in a deep gorge, it always comes back to the same spot, the same path. But what if the river reached a delta? Is it possible that it could become, well, *un*stable? That'd be baaaaad news, I reckon.
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Found in Lost: Thoughts on “Eggtown”
Will some of the above turn out to be the same thing? Who knows… UPDATE 23 Feb. 08: MR. CAMPANALE (fac.) 
OK, so we’re a little late to the party. But from now on, every week, members of the Beaver community will share their thoughts on LOST in this new column. This isn’t about summarizing what happened, although there will be some of that—it’s about sharing and discussing theories & ideas. Throw in your two cents in the comments.
Major spoilers after the break; don’t keep reading if you’re not up-to-date! (But please don’t post spoilers about upcoming episodes…)
So, like every other week, this episode was full of countless twists, revelations, and, typically, questions. We learn that Jin speaks perfect English, Daniel can’t remember the three of spades in his pack of Dharma playing cards, the helicopter is M.I.A., and apparently Kate has a son. Oh wait- CORRECTION: Kate STOLE AARON.
Apparently the Oceanic Six have an entire story crafted out; eight people survived the crash, two died, the other six returned, along with (or including?) Aaron, posed as Kate’s son. The obvious question is, what did they do to get off the island, and, in this specific situation, why did they take the kid but ditch the mom (Claire)? Are the other Losties still on the island, or are they dead?
An important thing to consider is how exactly Kate could pull off being Aaron’s mom (this is, of course, assuming that Aaron is Claire’s baby, and not actually Kate’s, whom she decided to name after Aaron Sr.). One thing we must come to realize is that they don’t get rescued for a long time after the freighter people land on the island. If, lets say, they were to get home within a few months of where the show is now, it would be very obvious that Aaron was born only a few months after the crash. This would be discovered because, for young children at least, it is very easy to deduce when they were born. They would realize that Kate would have had to be in her third trimester prior to the crash, which she definitely wasn’t. If Aaron was a few years older, however, it would be harder to predict his exact time of birth, meaning that Kate could pretend that she was only a few months along at the crash, or got pregnant on the island.
Something else to ponder is why Jack seems so hesitant to see Aaron in the future. Well, there seems to be a few possible explanations to me. We all know that Jack and Claire are half siblings, although they don’t know this—yet. My guess is that they somehow figure this out, and that is why its so difficult for Jack to face his nephew. He most likely feels guilty for either leaving her on the island and stealing her kid, for the fact that she is dead, or, in Toph Tucker ‘08’s opinion, Jack feels bad for murdering his new-found sister. (Note from Toph: I’m not saying it happened, just that we need to consider the possibility. :)) Another fact we must consider is something that Desmond told Charlie last season—he told Charlie that he had a vision of Charlie pushing “the button” and then saw Claire and Aaron getting onto a helicopter. Of course, maybe Des only said this to get Charlie to push it, or maybe they both did get on the helicopter. Maybe they pushed Claire out over the open ocean and kept the kid? Who knows, it could happen…
One thing that, looking back, struck me as odd, was something that Kate told Jack in front of the taxi. She clearly states that “she has a son”- something that Jack knows is a lie. But before this, they were being completely honest about the lies that Jack had just told in court, so why would she be trying to cover up now? Or is it really her son? My initial thoughts when I saw Kate’s “son” was, why is he blonde? Now that looks like proof that it is Claire’s son, although, one could argue, that Kate might have the recessive trait for blonde hair (cause we know her mom is blonde), and Sawyer, if he is the father, has pretty light hair as well. No matter whose child he is, though, there is one thing that is answered; we now know that, in the season 3 finale’s last scene, when Kate says, “I have to go, he’ll be wondering where I am,” she is referring to Aaron. Still doesn’t answer whether Aaron is actually her son, or, as suggested by the ending of this episode, Claire’s. But would the writers really name the kid Aaron if it was Kate's child? I mean, isn’t that ridiculously confusing? Well, of course, this is LOST, which means that anything is possible.
Wanna see the episode again? Just go to ABC.com and watch it again for free, along with every other episode of LOST. As Locke said at the beginning of this episode, “you might catch something that you missed the second time around.”
Tonight’s episode focused a lot more on Kate than on the “big picture,” unlike the past few episodes. Since this is the first time we’re doing this, I’ll share some of my accumulated thoughts about stuff beyond Kate.
1. Time Dilation
“The Economist” introduced what promises to be a huge plot point: there’s something going on between the island and the rest of the world that messes with time. The clock on the payload was about half an hour ahead of Dan’s clock. There appear to be TWO phenomena at work. (1) The payload arrived much later than expected. (2) When it arrived, the clocks had fallen out-of-sync.
It could be time travel. But if I were a betting man, my money would be on time dilation—time moving at different speeds for different people/places. Super-high speeds (like INSANELY fast, faster than anything on Earth) can slow down time, as can big gravitational fields. We know the island exhibits wacky electromagnetic characteristics. Could there also be gravitational weirdness? What if the button in the hatch, which was releasing electromagnetic buildup every 108 minutes, also regulated that? Now that the hatch is gone, could the island be falling out of sync with the rest of the world?
I think the characters would have noticed higher-than-normal gravity on the island. But what if it’s something about the water surrounding the island? Some kind of barrier?
Tonight we may have gotten another clue, as the helicopter appears to be late getting back to the ship. A lot of people have written theories and such on Lostpedia, etc. But none of them are particularly convincing, and it's not clear that all these people have a clue what they're talking about. I need to think more about this…
…and then again, there’s a precedent for time travel facilitated by the island: Desmond. We have no evidence of prior time dilation. But in the “real” world, time dilation has been tested and proven, whereas time travel has not. Then again, I can’t remember the last time I saw a smoke monster, either. I suppose I’m just lucky I’m not a betting man.
2. Equilibrium
The island appears to have a different sort of "equilibrium" state than the rest of the world. In normal life, people are born, age, reproduce, and die. And that's the natural state of the world. But look at Richard--who, like Locke (at times), appears to be "in tune" with the Island. And look at the pregnancy problems. Assuming that Richard, like Locke and unlike Ben (e.g. Ben's cancer wasn't cured), is somehow more a "friend" of the island, and thus exists in the way that he is "supposed" to. It appears, then, that the natural state of the island is that no one dies, but no one is born. In the real world, change is constant and unavoidable. On the island, it is smothered.
3. Matthew Abaddon
I'm still wondering about his line to Hurley, "Are they still alive?" We don't know who "they" are, and we don't know how the Oceanic Six got off the island. But the line is one piece of evidence that Abaddon is somehow out-of-the-loop. That, of course, doesn't tell us that the Oceanic Six got off via someone other than the freighter people. But it tips the equation in favor of that. After all, if the Six had gotten off via the freighter, Abaddon & Co. would've have plenty of time to question Hurley & Co. on the way back, in whatever setting they desired, on their "home turf." But now Abaddon has to track down Hurley to ask him? And Hurley doesn't recognize him? (We don't know whether Abaddon is on the freighter, of course.) Again, it doesn't tell us anything conclusively, but it makes me lean away from thinking the Six & the freighter people are all friendly with each other. Oceanic, on the other hand, seems to be friendly with them. (Then again, no matter how the Six turned up, Oceanic would of course be quick to hand them Golden Passes and everything. It's also possible that Oceanic is associated with the freighter people.) And Ben, we now know, can come and go. Maddy mentioned another thing: Abaddon could just be playing games with Hurley. Who knows.
4. Coming Full Circle
As Ben pointed out, he is once again being held captive, LOCKEd in a room by Locke. But there’s more. Just like the Hostiles/Others wiped out Dharma and began living in their houses, the Losties have now driven away the Others and are living in their houses. Ben referenced this natural cycle of conflict, purge, and rebirth in the Season 3 finale. It would be interesting to know whether anyone came before the Others & Dharma. Also: the Others clearly survived the Losties’ mini-purge. Of the Dharma Initiative, Ben, at least, survived the Hostiles’ purge (because he defected, akin to how some Others have survived by defecting to the Losties). What about others? Specifically, what about Annie? We still haven’t seen the Others this season. Last we heard they were heading to “the temple.” I’m going to guess three things: Mikhail survived, Richard is leading the Others, and Annie is at the temple. Remember, there’s a ton to the island that we still haven’t seen. Roger Linus even mentioned an airplane in a way that makes it sound like there could be a little airport somewhere. It’ll be interesting to watch.
5. On Parenthood
Parenthood seems to be a big theme. All the characters seem to have problems with their parents. And sometimes, parents who died off-island show up on the island. (Note that Richard was careful to ask Ben whether his mother had died on- or off-island.) So the island likes old parents, but—since mothers-to-be always die—not new parents. Weird.
Ben, who never knew his mother and who may feel responsible for her death, seems to have somewhat of an obsession with this. Being reunited with his mother was his goal from the start. And Richard mentioned to Locke that Ben was getting distracted by the fertility stuff, to the point of ignoring what the island is really about. Obsessions tend to be bad. Obsessions tend to lead to bad decisionmaking. Again, we’ll see.
6. Faction Overload
On Day 1, there was one faction: the survivors. That quickly began to grow, thanks to the others, stragglers on the island, separate plane sections, flashbacks, flashforwards, and more. Who are they all? Let’s think.
*First, check out Lostpedia on the episode: the part about why the episode is named "Eggtown" is awesome and filled with depth in all the meanings of "egg" and its references. As you know, I love connections and deep references!
*Also, the "unanswered questions" section on the episode page is interesting, too.
*Locke's leadership proved to have a lot of layers (THINK Prospero, Rochester, and Lord of the Flies in how it played out in many ways): his weakness when flipping out after meeting with Ben which is exactly what happened in the hatch; him asking Ben for help is a preposterously dumb move by a leader; his calling it "not a democracy"; Kate calling it a "dictatorship"; Locke calling himself "not Jack"; Locke getting easily duped by Sawyer for Kate; then Locke deciding that he has to rule with an iron fist and punish people; yet, Kate still fears him enough to leave the barracks in the morning.
*Weird scene with Daniel and the cards: I always thought he was a little strange, but his memory loss thing is odd. Not sure what's going on with that.
*Jack's story on the stand: we should really be wondering, now, about 8, not 6 people. Obviously only 6 make it back, yet for some reason they had to say that 8 survived. The fact that their whole hero status is wrapped around all THREE TYPES of LYING is very interesting.
*Aaron: I'm kicking myself for not realizing there was a reason that the episode focused on Kate and Claire (and also Jin and Sun at the beginning!) and realizing that something was going to happen because of that. Very, very, very cool twist to the story. (sidebar: my mom called me today and asked who the father was of Kate's baby. I said, "What?!" She said, "Yeah, her baby 'Eric." After I finished laughing over the phone, I had to break it to her that Kate didn't say 'Eric'......)
*Miles: I loved it when Ben said to him, "Why not 3.3 or 3.4 million?" because that's what I was thinking. Wonder why 3.2??
*Next week's episode: It should be filled with a lot of action based on the previews and the fact that we didn't see the helicopter the whole time. The previews showed the picture of Desmond and Penny, so we may get some answer as to why Naomi had that picture. [ed. note: see the preview here.]
There's more swirling around, but that's a chunk.
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