lots of lil’ bits

i’ve been thinking about the blog lately, and i realized i was starting to miss when there were topics thrown into the air for discussion and there would be lengthy debates about (insert whatever here).

oh well.

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i tweeted this earlier tonight…

i just had an epiphany: i’m ok if certain elements of #LOST aren’t explained away by science, like an episode of ‘House’ or something.

it came to me after reading the latest entry on lostpedia about who Jacob’s nemesis is and what that’s all about. i was reminded that way, way back that Darlton stated that everything in the show could/would be explained (at the very least) by pseudo-science, and i thought how cool that was. but the latest kink they’ve thrown here (Esau, Mr. X, whatever) seems to really, truly border on going anywhere past science.

and i really am cool with that. it seems that they’ve been sliding towards some sort of religious element in the course of this past season. now, whether that’s an attempt to sort of cover for the science and dress it up as religion/mythology/whatever, i dunno. but if Jacob and whoever his un-friend is are some sort of supernatural, omnipresent beings… that’s cool. it would actually annoy me a little bit if they felt this intense need to explain it away like some super stupid ridiculous disease on House.

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tomorrow night is Coldplay night!

we’ll be traveling with the Mielkes to B’ham to meet up with Cassie, Jacob, Jenna, & Kevin. i’m really excited about it and cannot wait to see the show they put on.

[btw, if you haven't grabbed the free live EP from them, hop on over here to grab it. it is excellent.]

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last week, i wrote that i had come across (eh hem) a whole load of new music and that i would write about it.

so, in short form, here it is…

• The Boy Least Likely To, The Law of the Playground- this is an odd one. its incredibly shiny and sounds like sparkly pop plastic toy (along the same lines as Apples In Stereo), but the lyrics have some really dark undertones. but its really entertaining and makes for good summer time blasting. just, you know… ignore the lyrics.
• Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown- i’m still working on this one, kinda’ like i’m still working on the last U2 album (No Line on the Horizon).  American Idiot was such an incredible album and a brilliant, watershed moment for the band that anything deemed “less” will have a hard time impacting anyone. there are some good moments throughout, but… i dunno. its hard for me to not think, “i want American Idiot part 2,” and in a way, 21st Century Breakdown is. there’s a story, there are characters, disaffected youth, yada yada yada… but at times it seems they’re not so much reinventing as they are rehashing. more listening required.
• Manic Street Preachers, Journal for Plague Lovers- i am completely new to this band, so i’ve nothing to really base this album off of (as far as comparisons go). judging by what’s available on iTunes right now, it seems they’ve been sorta’ out of the game for awhile. anywho, i’ve really enjoyed this album. its just rock. a little bit… weird… at times, but its good rock. so i like it.
• Howling Bells, Radio Wars- this is the band opening for Coldplay tomorrow night. meh. they’ve a good sound and i can see why the boys picked ‘em, but… meh.
• Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix- yes, they’re French. yes, the album title is a bit self-aggrandizing. but its fun, in a Nada Surf pop sort of way. its fun pop rock, and seriously: is there anything the world needs now, more than ever, than some good, fun pop rock? yeah, i didn’t think so.
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!- i’ve never been a big fan of Y(3). don’t get me wrong: i loved “Maps.” but i’ve never made the effort to jump in on their bandwagon. however, i felt compelled to after seeing them on SNL earlier this season and also because the cover for the album is of someone breaking an egg in their hand and its kinda’ cool looking. its very 80s, very discotheque, very dancy. therefore, i thoroughly enjoyed it. check it out.

other things i haven’t gotten around to listening through:

• Sparklehorse, Dark Night of the Soul
• Pet Shop Boys, Yes
• Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe
• Conor Oberst, Outer South

more on those at some later date.

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hopefully you caught the season finale of SNL this week with Will Ferrell hosting. it wasn’t the best episode of the season (that award collectively goes to everything pre-election in one lump sum), but it was fan-freaking-tastic to see reprisals of old roles. not only did we get Harry Caray on “Weekend Update,” and not only did we get Celebrity Jeopardy… we also got the return of the brilliant Norm Macdonald as Burt Reynolds (for all of 30 seconds). and of course, we also got Artie Lange in the last sketch (which was brilliant, btw).

[quick aside: the return of Artie Lange was fantastic. i never knew the guy's history until he popped up one day on 'Fresh Air' on NPR. dude has seen/been through alot.]

catch some of the stuff on Hulu if you can.

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that’s about all. g’night.

quick notes about LOST

yes, that LOST. the tv show.

warning: MASSIVE FREAKING SPOILERS AHEAD. HUGE MAJOR SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED, QUIT READING.

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still there? k.

• the “thing” that bothered me so much (at first) was the introduction of this apparent anti-Jacob (he, of course dressed in black, whilst Jacob donned a white shirt… thing). and then to have him play such a huge part in all this, in sort of an undercurrent way, really kinda’… i dunno. it just didn’t feel right at first. but after sleeping on it, i was fine. in a more positive spin on Jason’s feelings on LOST, in that basically anything can happen at this point, it shouldn’t have been too unexpected to throw such a major kink in things. and in a way, i guess it wasn’t too much of a huge surprise to some. tons of folks have been theorizing that Locke wasn’t “Locke.” so i’m cool with it now.
• i’ve been slowly rewatching the finale and getting close to revisiting a part that really unsettled me: Juliet’s childhood flashback. anyone else notice how modern everything looked in that house? the design, the clothes, the hair. i’ll check a bit more carefully, but it smacked of something a bit… weird.
• there’s this whole theory of Jacob vs. Esau floating around the interwebz that probably deserves a bit of attention. i’m unsure of how literally the LOST folks will play that out, but there are some potential parallels.
• i really dug the final LOST screen being white with black text. well played.

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that’s all i’ve got at this point. we’ve now 8ish months until we start back on the LOST train, during which time i hope those of y’all who became disenchanted can rest up and recoup and be ready for the final season. i really have no idea where things are headed next, and i like it.

blech

haz a happee

i feel like i have a 20 ton boulder laying on me right now. i’m playing catchup like a crazy person at work and i just can’t seem to keep everything in order.

hence… i am up right now, having finally put work stuff away for the night.

yes, its after 1am.

yes, it’ll probably be like this until after Annual Conference is over.

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i loved the LOST season finale. like, for reals. i initially had a pretty major beef about it (which i won’t expound upon here because i have no idea who all has seen it and who hasn’t), but since last night, i’ve come to terms with it and actually appreciate it.

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not only was last night (er, Wednesday night) the LOST finale; it also was a day for celebration and fun. my great friend William Jones came through for a visit. he’s home on vacation from Niger, where he is stationed as a PeaceCorps worker. i hadn’t seen him in nearly two years, so it was great to visit with him and see him doing well.

he’s doing some great work way over there, and i’ve kept up with him via his wonderful blog (which you can find in the sidebar) and Google Chat (when he is somewhere with decent internet access). he wraps up his “tour of duty” in September, and after that he plans to travel around Europe for a bit before returning home.

he’s a great guy and such a dear friend to both me and Jackie. we already miss him. safe travels, good friend.

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in case you hadn’t heard, HB373, aka the Free the Hops bill, passed! all that’s left is for Gov. Riley to sign the bill into law, and it seems a sure thing seeing as he just signed a fortified wine bill (meaning, higher alcohol content) in yesterday afternoon. i’ve written him an email already, detailing why this is the right move for Alabama.

fingers crossed!

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i know i don’t update much on the progress of The Baby, and i feel a bit guilty for it. truth be told, there just isn’t too much to report on past sharing that everything seems to be going very well.

we got through the first trimester just fine, and Jackie seems to be past all the exhaustion that plagued her to begin with. now she’s starting to deal with the bigger body changes that include random cramping all over her body.

i’m hoping for more days off for her in the future. i’m a bit biased, but Jackie’s likely the hardest working mom-to-be i’ve ever come in contact with. while this is good, in that it ensures that constant, steady flow of income, i feel that she’s sometimes missing out on the “fun” part of expecting, namely choosing & shopping for all the things we/The Baby needs: nursery stuff, colors, clothes, etc etc.

its sometimes nigh impossible to pull her away from her responsibilities with her work and even on her days off, she’s busy doing stuff that doesn’t always involve babies. and the lack of a weekend is a pretty big damper, too; her off days don’t really ever coincide with mine.

i dunno. i’m hoping that things will start to work out soon. its frustrating.

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i’ve gathered a whole bunch of new music in the past few days, and i’ll write more about it later. i’m proud of myself for keeping up with that little New Year’s resolution so far.

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g’night.

a thursday survey

first question

i’m actually stealing this one from Sports Radio 740. it was yesterday’s question on The Roundtable, and i thought it was actually a pretty good one: what is the one sporting event you want to attend before you die?

my answer (and it comes with a condition): the World Cup, but it has to be in Europe somewhere. just imagine: a whole month that’s been built to for 4 years, culminating in the world’s biggest sporting event. unlike some non-WC matches, it seems games at the Cup are pretty friendly affairs. but i mean, c’mon: a full month, in Europe, celebrating the sport of fütbol with a huge demographic of people. count me in.

so what about you?

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second question

its come to my attention (as of this morning) that there are many of you out there who are quite frustrated and/or bored with LOST. this comes as a pretty big shock to me, as in my mind, its the best season since Season 2. so what is it that is bothering you? i seriously am just not getting it. is it the lack of mystery, and consequently, the multitude of answers that are washing away the mysteries? is it the time travel? is it the pacing?

i really want to find out what’s going on here.

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answers in the comments!

that was big

it was a good day. yes it was.

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some quick deets/recap:

• jackie’s about 6.5 weeks along, not quite as far along as we first thought.
• her OBGYN seems pretty awesome. she’s younger, she’s cool, looks like she could be Courtney Cox’s sister.
• the office staff there… hm.
• as exciting as the ultrasound was, it was a bit anti-climactic. we got to hear the heartbeat (!!), but only for like 5 seconds (??). yeah. we got our pictures, then “thanks, y’all can go now.” ugh. we’ll know better next time.

woo! a baby! in other news…

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i got my big, giant Ten box set on Tuesday, and boy oh boy… it was well worth the wait. its massive and quite awesome. head on over to my flickr site to see pictures of it if you’re interested.

i plan to go a bit more in depth with a review this weekend, but i can tell you this much: the remastered sound is astounding. its like when i got The Beatles Love release last year, and hearing how incredible the quality and reworking of the music was, how everything was deeper, brighter, crisper than ever before, as if it was brand new.

that’s how the remaster sounds. it sounds like it was recorded in the past six months. they did some beautiful work on the remastering and the remixing, as well as the whole package. its just a thing of beauty.

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also, if you’re a fan of The Decemberists, their new album, The Hazards of Love, is a monster. its louder, bolder, ballsier… just brilliant. its a concept album in the truest sense of the word and quite the hard rocker. definitely pick it up.

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and LOST… whoa. just… whoa. jackie and i have differing opinions on what exactly happens next, and while she’s probably right, i’m gonna stick to what i’ve got just for the sake of having a differing opinion right now.

(the following are spoilers and typed in white. if you’d like to read, simply highlight)

i mean, seriously?? Sayid shoots lil’ Ben?!? you can probably guess what the difference of opinion is: Jackie thinks Ben is still alive and i’m of the thought that no, he’s dead. she’s probably right. probably. i mean, that’s a huge freaking plot point that if true, means that adult Ben is gone. but what does that mean? like a Back to the Future sort of thing, where he dissipates out of photographs?
its a tough one to figure out, especially considering how this relates to the structure of time. if lil’ Ben really is dead, then isn’t adult Ben never supposed to happen? be alive and walking around? or are we gonna get another instance of the Island saving someone special, much in the way that a spinal surgeon shows up on the island to do surgery on Ben’s spinal tumor?
i’m having a hard time really wrapping my head around this, mainly for the reality of it: if what i saw was correct, Sayid shot lil’ Ben in the heart. in the freaking heart. and if not the heart, then his lung. and lil’ Ben, being about 12 or 13 years old, there’s no way, no way, his scrawny little pubescent body can handle that sort of trauma for a long enough period of time to be saved.
but if this was always supposed to happen, was part of the pre-destination of “history,”… ack, i dunno. Jackie’s probably right: lil’ Ben will be fine in the end.
burning questions: where is Vincent? are Sawyer & Juliet going to crap on everyone else’s plans to save their own? where the hell are Rose & Bernard??

(end spoilers)

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that’s about all for tonight, folks. its been a long, big day and i’m ready to pack it in with my wife… and child! whaaaaaaaat!? yep.