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.

TOPH TUCKER '08

First of all, great Oz reference in the title. Lost is really an amazingly similar story—catastrophe plops our hero(s) down in a strange land that’s totally isolated from the “real world,” and they have to make it back, but it’s a bittersweet farewell, etc. And certain folks from home, interestingly enough, show up in that strange new land—with the multiple parts played by the same actors in Oz, and the “ghosts” in Lost.

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. :)

Images from Lostpedia

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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.)

TOPH TUCKER '08

It was great to see Locke’s childhood, completely with obligatory “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” moments. The concept, which some people have suggested, of Richard as Locke's dad is definitely very interesting. (Great to see Richard back, btw.) I thought the same thing when he was standing there at the window. I don’t know how it would work, of course, but there’s definitely a connection there. Perhaps Richard is the immortal recruiter, finding “chosen ones” through the ages, people to lead the island. Abaddon’s appearance was also awesome. We last saw him giving instructions to Naomi and chatting with Hurley post-island in the mental institute, so we have to assume he’s with Widmore. Nifty that both Widmore’s people and Richard had both sought out Locke before he ever reached the island. Also fascinating the Abaddon believes he’ll see Locke again. That means that either Abaddon will reach the island—unlikely—or Locke will be captured by the Widmore/freighter people—more likely.

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!?

UPDATE: OK, so the comic book was a different one. But check out the cover! “What was the secret of the mysterious ‘HIDDEN LAND!’” “Does it pay to ignore the ‘VOICE OF WARNING!’” And look at the city above the city! Reminiscent of the Lost logo for this season, with the city reflected in the ocean around the island. It’s like the hidden land—the island—is a parallel universe, right next to our own but impossible to detect. We could be getting into wormhole territory here.

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

Other images from Lostpedia

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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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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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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!

TOPH TUCKER '08

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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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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