I hate LOST. Those bastards can burn in hell.

LOST finale tonight, and since my favorite character, the brilliant and badass John Locke, is finally coming into his own I’m quite excited to see how things play out. There’s been a lot of foreshadowing and these odd beats with Jack and the Oceanic Six stories and after last week, from a pacing perspective, it looks like some of those things may boil over tonight.

Rather out of nowhere (okay, I confess I was intensively searching for it throughout the tubes) I found some info about the comic book MYSTERY TALES #40 that Richard left with kid Locke back in 4×11 ‘Cabin Fever’. A blog in fact dedicated entirely to the subject: http://www.mysterytales40.com/

There you can download scans from the book if you’re interested, but what’s really keen about this random piece of set decoration- if you can even call any prop or visual in LOST random- is that the story has some parallels to the wacky Island adventures. Which is why LOST is so great. I love buried stuff like this!

I think I’m done with long-form movie reviews. My reactions are a strange, skewed, subjective mess and unless I’m taking things apart from a hard theory critique standpoint and making the effort to support my thoughts (which sure as hell ain’t gonna happen at this hour), it’s essentially the same wank seen anywhere else online. So I’ll briefly stick to my reactions here at 3AM…

Indy IV doesn’t incite teh blood rage. Certainly a good thing! I was nearly prepared to go all Starkweather and scourge the knowledge from human existance if it turned out to be an atrocity. It wasn’t. But make no mistake, this is not your stock Indy flick. There has been some heavy chop-shop action done to structure whereby introductions and building momentum are done away with in favor of a ’such and such, skip to the end…’ approach. I’m okay with it, but it almost creates a sort of vacuum that leaves things thin or unnecessary in places and insincere in others.  Feels almost like all 3rd act which is somewhat better than none. Plenty of good stuff though and no major weak character issues for me except a few beats and one character who no doubt would have immensely benefited from a nice well-crafted first act. Go into it with the first three movies as your intro & building momentum and you’re good to go. (Plus a little AG… and also consider CEot3rdK an epilogue.) 

The job hunt is officially on, my eyes are finally recovering and I really enjoyed Iron Man. Bring on Batman and Hellboy, hell Hancock even, I’m already there.

Don’t ask me how, but I ended up on a satisfactory little blog about the peculiarities of language and formal grammar: Invented Usage is some fun stuff. I found their Ackbar Retrospective particularly amusing. The only possibly improvement to this gem:

…would be to somehow also work in DeNiro or To Kill A Mockingbird. What’s going on with that DeNiro/Pacino thing anyway? I worry the longer it is until its release, the greater the need for concern.

Somewhere between getting my drafts in order for the competition deadlines, my daily bill-paying 8 hours in front of the computer, the compulsive Sam & Max playing, weekly overseas television downloads, beefing up my digital design portfolio and the 3-year old eyeglasses prescription I’ve royally fraked up my eyeballs. Since I’m incapable of moderation, I’m stuck trying to come up with some way to take it easy while still getting things done. But nearly all of my awesome and sustainable activities involve bombarding my retinas with photons.

The top of my list right now for awesome is Sam & Max. Can’t really explain why the little things I enjoy for years and years sometimes suddenly possess me until I’ve somehow learned everything there is to possibly know about them. They just cancerously grow in the back of my mind until WHAM! I burst into flames. Because cancer is prone to spontaneous combustion. Bet you didn’t know that. So now with the Sam & Max Season 2 episodes, which is full of great vaudevillian noir & mania, and chars my brain with witty writing and lateral thinking puzzles. I also really like Telltale’s episodic game format. If you’re looking for something to play, look no further.

Speaking of game activities, while in Greenville for JF+Sessoms celebrations I got to play a little of Mario Kart Saturday night and Sunday morning. Very fun. I’ve always liked the idea of online competitive racing and the Mario Kart miis-en-scene (see what I did there?) is a nice blend. I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to buy a Wii. I want one, I fully expect to own one at some point, but as I keep coming across it in stock it just becomes a Meh. Unlike guitars, which I now seem to purchase at the drop of a hat. Console gaming is very much a social activity for me I guess. I think it’ll take another title or two like Mario Kart, where I’ll be able to hook up and compete with friends online, before I dump the Gamecube.

And just because Bart asked for it: