Lost 6.12, "Everybody Loves Hugo"
Apr 19
Seriously, everybody does.
While the takeaway from this week’s episode was clearly meant to be its final few minutes (otherwise why put it there?), the entire hour showcased a great character, a really underrated actor, and more touchy-feely for Lost’s final season.
More after the jump, for those who DON’T WANNA BE SPOILED (OR ARE ALREADY SPOILED)…
Harry Potter and the Alert Nerd Giveaway!!!
Apr 13Hey muggles! (Har!)
You, yes YOU, the awkward fella in the home-sewn wizard robes and real lightning tattoo, and YOU, the gothy gal who insists your mom calls you “Hermione” when she calls you down for supper–all of YOU can win wonderful prizes and the gratitude of an adoring nation with Alert Nerd’s “Real Magic of Harry Potter” Online Giveaway!
Courtesy of Scholastic, we’ve got a prize pack including the paperback box set of the Harry Potter series and a $50 Visa Cash Card. Here’s a picture; drool away.
Scholastic is also running their own contest to celebrate the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the new Hogwarts-themed land opening at Universal Orlando in June. Let me tell you: I am DYING to see that, and I live about twenty minutes away. I may camp out. No promises. You can win one of FOUR trips down here to Orlando to experience the Wizarding World for your own self.
We’ll be returning to the world of Harry Potter for some themed posts over the next few weeks. In the meantime, to enter the giveaway, leave a comment on THIS POST and tell us who your favorite Harry Potter character is…mine is Snape, and I’m guessing everyone else’s is, but PROVE ME WRONG. Contest ends April 30, 2010; US residents only please, or international folk with friends in the US willing to send them prizes.
Good luck, muggles! (Again: Har!)
Lost 6.10, "The Package"
Apr 07
So does every pair of lovers on the island need to have their stars crossed?
This is a show that has a big thing for tortured romance. Whether it’s the unrequited triangle of Kate/Sawyer/Jack, the gone-too-soon tragedy of Sayid and Shannon, or the torn-apart agony of Sun and Jin, the course of true love never does run smooth on Lost. It makes me pine for the days when Bernard and Rose were a more regular presence, although there again, you’ve got the terminal cancer.
The Bin – 4/2/10
Apr 02
Have you heard about this? This “Bin” thing? There’s this thing, see, it goes on computers and it comes from the wall. Well, not from the wall, from a cord that comes out of the wall. I think it’s electric.
So you plug in this cord or sometimes it just floats around, this stuff that goes into computers; it floats around you in the air. It puts stuff on your computer. This internet stuff. And these people, they like things and they put it on the internet because I guess they have nothing else to offer the world? And they call it the Bin.
Reconstruction of the Fables
Mar 29
(WARNING: If you haven’t read Fables yet, and hope to someday, and you would NOT like spoilers for your reading, please surf elsewhere. Thank you and godspeed.)
There’s a great old Alan Moore essay, the foreword to one of the myriad editions of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, where he talks about how DKR is so great because it gives the Batman mythology an ending. Maybe not the only ending Batman will ever get (and as we know, with Dark Knight Strikes Back Miller essentially took away the very ending he gave the character), but an ending nonetheless.
Myths require an ending, Moore says, to truly resonate. Robin Hood has the lone arrow marking his grave; the Norse gods have their Ragnarok. Thanks to Miller, and even in spite of his own sequel, Batman will always have that hand around Superman’s throat, the quiet tick of a heart reawakening in the grave, and a new empty cave full of heroes and potential.
I think about this essay often because unlike the world of endless corporate superhero universes, more and more comics are giving us stories with endings. Not just miniseries or graphic novels, but long form stories in the tradition of Sandman, perhaps the first modern comic to adopt this template. Eighty issues, many stories and characters; spinoff miniseries and graphic novels and one-shots. But eventually, an ending.
