Year: 2009

Don't Forget What Day Today Is…

…that’s right, it’s International Weezer Day!

Last year was a good year for fans of the Weez- with a new album, tour, and a boatload of solo stuff from Rivers.  Who knows what’s on tap this year? Could be more albums, another tour or two (hopefully without a co-headliner) and more solo stuff from RC.  But then again, it could be the beginning of another multi-year wait before any other Weezer action.  

But I have a feeling it’s the former rather than the latter (or is it latter rather than the former? I never get that one right).  Anyway, from all of us here at the Kingdom to all of you out there, may the Weez be with you.

King Tom

Beer Week Started Early in Philly

From Fox News:

Philadelphia’s primary mass transit agency is embarrassed about a discount pass it sold that features a picture of New York City.

The pass is marked with the logo for Philly Beer Week, a festival celebrating local breweries and taverns. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is selling the pass to discourage people from driving from one event to another during the festival.

A spokeswoman for the agency, Jerri Williams, says transit officials liked the look of the pass but didn’t realize the stock photo was of the wrong city.

I haven’t been to Philly in years, but I never thought it’s skyline resembled New York’s at all.  Guess it’s a good thing most of the people who would be using those passes won’t have full control of their faculties.

King Tom

[This Place is] Death on a Redheaded Perm

So Charlotte, Lost’s most annoying on-island (for Season 5) character is dead, and I’m supposed to care.

I don’t mean to sound callow, but ever since she showed up on the island (“Don’t you people want to be rescued?”), she annoyed me, and I’m just not sad to see she’s gone.  Or, as The Civee put it, “I’m glad Charlotte’s dead, because this plot is boring.”

I wouldn’t entirely put it that way–her last few minutes established that Faraday tried to break his “don’t do it, because you can’t change it anyway” rule, which should mean he gets into some interesting situations during his next jump.  Speaking of which, if he meets Charlotte back in the day, then shouldn’t he be, like, her Constant?

Perhaps the most interesting revelation in tonight’s episode comes from a different story thread: John Locke can’t follow orders.  When he meets Christian at the bottom of the well, Christian emphasizes the fact that Locke was supposed to move the island.  But Ben moved it instead, causing the whole mess the island has gotten itself into.  Well, a few seconds later, Christian tells Locke he has to push the frozen donkey wheel.  And what does Locke do? Well, permit me to illustrate:

In the above screen capture, we see Locke with the wheel.  The blue arrow represents the direction Locke would have had to go to push the wheel.  However, Locke moves in the direction of the yellow arrow, pulling the wheel.  

And this is the guy they expect to save the island?

A few other thoughts:

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King Tom5 Comments

Relationship Issues

Tonight on 24, we learned the main bad guy is having issues with his girlfriend, who thinks he’s an importer/exporter who is extremely devoted to his work.  

The FBI agent who’s [most likely in the end] a good guy and smitten with his female co-worker is frustrated by the fact that each minute she’s getting more and more like Jack Bauer and less like the bright-eyed by-the-book FBI agent he fell in love with all those years ago.

In the White House, the president is showing some backbone by refusing to negotiate with the terrorists who have kidnapped the first husband.  Meanwhile, upstairs in President Heaven, President David Palmer is looking down on all this and thinking to himself…

 

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King Tom1 Comment

Male Bonding

So the people on the island are flashing forward and backwards through time.  The Oceanic 6 are stuck in 2007 (or 2008).  And I’m watching the show, wondering how an hour can feel like it passed by in 15 minutes.

Tonight’s episode of Lost, The Little Prince, didn’t have a lot of action, but it made up for that with answers and more riddles.  Most of this show seemed to be about groups of people doing things.  More specifically, groups of men.  Locke and Sawyer had their little bonding moment.  Sayid and Ben (and somewhat Jack, when he wasn’t trying to help Kate out) also spent some quality time together.  The most surprising thing in this episode was the transformation of Sawyer into Mr. Emotion.  

First he’s pining over Kate. Then he sees her, but can’t do anything about it. Then he has a heart to heart with Locke.  Then he shares a special moment with Juliet, is shot at, travels through time, and picks up where he left off.  Because he’s an everyman stuck on a journey with a scientist who specializes in time travel and a man of faith, I can actually sympathize with his point of view.  I just hope they don’t make him cry anytime soon.

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King Tom

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

So on tonight’s episode of 24 (Day 7: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.), an industrial plant in a small town is threatened.  A remote computer controls the release of toxic gas, but when that system is compromised, the buildup of said gas threatens to explode, putting that town in danger.  Only the brave efforts of one man, who must sacrifice himself to save the day by throwing the manual release lever can save the day…

King Size Homer looks better in a mu-mu than Jack Bauer would.

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King Tom3 Comments

If That's Jughead, Is Locke Mr. Weatherbee?

So this is Season Five of Lost–minor action off-island with major exposition on the island, with the audience left to figure out what time it is.

I like it.

Jughead was like a history lesson about the Lost island.  However, this lesson just tells us what happened, leaving out all the names and dates.  The when becomes pretty easy to figure out.  But the who, that’s for us to determine.  The why, I’m sure will be answered later.  But if the who turns out to be who we think they are, then my mind is blown.

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King Tom1 Comment

Lost Geeks Are Everywhere

Al Trautwig: Lost fanBack in the day when Yankees games were telecast over the MSG network, my favorite broadcaster who covered the Yankees was Al Trautwig.  Al didn’t specialize in baseball, but covered every sport–he’s done hockey, he’s done the Olympics, he even covered the Jamaican Bobsledding Team.  

Al is a damn good broadcaster.  When he did the Yankees games, he’d appear throughout the game and on the MSG pre and post game shows.  Then the Yankees went to YES, and other than the Olympics (and the fact that I moved out of MSG’s viewing area), I haven’t had much of a chance to listen to Al–until now.

It turns out Al is a Lost geek.  Al has started what looks to be a weekly video blog on the MSG Network Web site where he talks about Lost.  And boy, does he talk–he goes on for seven minutes.  I can’t say I agree with all of his analysis, but it’s solid.  He makes a lot of good points, and isn’t ashamed to hide his fanaticism.  He even plugs Lostpedia, which makes me wonder if he’s an active member of the online Lost community.  If you’re out there Al, you’re always welcome at the Kingdom.

If you’re a fan of Lost, give Al’s podcast a view–hopefully, it’ll show you that we’re everywhere.

King Tom

I Saw The Sign and it Opened Up My Mind

We’ve had a hellacious winter here in central Ohio.

It seems like there was no fall–back in October, the weather felt like it went from summer to freezing temperatures instantaneously.  And in the last few weeks, while it hasn’t piled up, it has felt like it’s snowed every day.

Well, yesterday, we were told, we’d get this huge storm- and for once, the weather people were right.  Had a few inches Tuesday morning, then a brief respite during the day.  But right around 5:00, it started snowing again, which turned to sleet, to freezing rain, and back to huge chunks of white death falling from the sky, which is where we are now.

When The Civee and I first woke up this morning, we figured we’d clean off our car and see how things were. Well, there was a slight problem- our front door wouldn’t open.  The door was frozen shut at the bottom.  After leaving through the other door, we started clearing the ice off our car, which went well until our scraper broke.  After that, we figured someone was trying to tell us something and here we are, looking out the window, watching these huge snowflakes keep falling.

King Tom