Author: King Tom

Jacob Needs Help and The Candidates Are Way Across The Sea

Mother
Can you keep them in the dark for life?
Can you hide them from the waiting world?
Oh, Mother

Around this time last year, I was all but ready to declare Eloise Hawking the worst mother ever.  But after seeing the third-to-last episode of Lost, Across the Sea, I’m not so sure.

Tonight, we met the mysterious mother of Jacob and fLocke/the Man in Black.  Of course, she wasn’t their real mother.  She killed their real mother and raised them as her own children.  Strike one.  She played mind games with them to the point of denying the existence of life off the Island.  Strike two.  And after the birth mother was unprepared to give a name to her second child, mother let the poor kid live his whole life without giving him a name.  Strike three.

No wonder Smokey is so pissed.

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Weezer: The Year of Nothing

The final chapter in my article about Weezer between Pinkerton and the Green Album is up at All Things Weezer, which you can read here.

As frustrating as it is that there was all this material the band worked on that never made it out of the studio, it was enjoyable to work on this article.  I got to dig through some old-school Usenet posts and get some new information from sources close to the band (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase).

Who knows, one day we may get to hear more of what Weezer recorded in ’98.  Then again, that stuff may stay in the vaults forever.

King Tom

Jack Bauer Doesn’t Find Torture Hard To Stomach

Last summer, The Civee and I went rafting.  My phone ended up in the water for just a minute or two, but even that was too much.  I later found out that my phone and SIM card were toast (or soaked, as it were).  Had I seen tonight’s episode of 24 before that fateful rafting trip- I would have known better.  I would have swallowed my SIM card, because at least that would have survived the rafting trip.

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Artichoke 1, Knife 0

The Civee and I are huge fans of artichokes.  We love our daughter, but we’re not looking forward to dividing artichokes into thirds instead of halves like we do know.

I have a few different ways to cook the artichokes, but some of the best results I’ve gotten involve grilling them.  Usually, I’ll just stuff them then stuff them down into the coals, letting them catch fire and cook off for 20 minutes or so.  But there’s another way I’ve done it- cut the artichokes in half, boil them for 10 or 15 minutes, then finish them off on top of the grill.

Last night, I was getting the artichoke ready for boiling.  I cut it in half (after some struggling) with a large knife.  Then, using a smaller knife, I started to dig out the annoying fuzzy choke part of the thistle.  While digging out the innards, I heard a snap, but didn’t think anything of it.  It wasn’t until I took the knife out that I realized there was something wrong: the tip of the knife had broken off inside the artichoke.  I dug out the tip of the knife and finished preparing the artichoke.  But here’s an after shot of the knife:

It’s a shame because until yesterday, that knife had served me well.  But then I boiled and grilled the artichoke and it was worth it.  It was one of the best artichokes I’ve ever made.  The knife was a sacrifice the grill demanded.

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Searching For Weezer’s Holy Grail

For most Weezer fans, the time period between 1997 and 1999 holds a lot of mystique.  The band lost a bassist, replaced him and started demoing and recording songs for their third album.  But by the time The Green Album hit record stores in May 2001, the material from the summer of 1998 was forgotten by the band and never heard by the fans. Not much is known about this time period, perhaps something adding to the era’s mystique.

A few months ago, I was selected to be a blogger at All Things Weezer, the band’s leading fan site, with the idea that I’d write and develop feature-style pieces  Back in February, I started writing about the fascinating, yet maddening period between 1997 and 1999.  It’s taken a while to compile it all, but I’ve published the first of three pieces on the time period.  The first piece mostly deals with Rivers’ time in Boston and while it sets up what’s next, it’s probably the part with the least amount of new information.

Taken overall, the article isn’t meant to be a definitive statement about the time period, but rather, it will hopefully shed some light on what happened.  If you want to take a look, the first part is online at allthingsweezer.com/2010/05/05/indecision-and-abandoning-the-past-part-i/.

King Tom

Not Even The Candidate Is Guaranteed A Happy Ending

Back during Lost Season Three, something surprising happened to me as a viewer; I started to like Charlie Pace, the English burnout has-been rockstar.  It was surprising because he could be very annoying at times and to me, his storyline, recovering from drug addiction, was one of the show’s least interesting.  But during Season Three, Charlie started getting appealing.  He was paired up with Hurley and later Desmond and actually committed a few heroic acts as the season wound down.  Then, in the season finale, Through The Looking Glass (an episode which unleashed the flashforward twist), Charlie died.

After watching that episode, two things hit me about Lost: first, I could not predict where the story was going to go.  Second, no one is guaranteed a happy ending.

So as I watched tonight’s episode The Candidate, these two things hit me again.  I have no idea where the story is going.  And no one is guaranteed a happy ending.

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There Is Nothing You Can Do For Jack Bauer. Nothing.

I have a crazy thought about these last few hours of 24- not just the day, but the series as a whole.

Because we are nearing the end of 24 (save for some possible feature films sometime in the future), we the fans (at least those who would rather Google “Jack Bauer kills a guy with a screwdriver” than “President Wayne Palmer”) are getting what we want.  At this point, the show is light on boring political scenes, idiot family members and an unnecessary focus on incompetent bureaucrats.  Rather, we’re getting a lot of Jack going rogue, uncovering government conspiracies and killing bad guys.

This show can’t go out on a better note.

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King Tom

Greetings From Awesome Town

The Civee, Hope and I have pretty much settled into the new house.  The basement and attic still need to be sorted out, and some pictures need to be hung on the wall, but overall, we’re comfortable in the new place.

When telling people about our house, I get a lot of questions about where it’s located.  Technically, we’re in an area called Old North Columbus. But nobody knows where that is.  It would be much more easier to say the more popular Clintonville, but we’re a block south of Clintonville’s official border.  Now, I have a better answer.  We’re in Awesome Town.  At least that’s what the Columbusite calls it.  And if it’s on the Web, it’s good enough for me.

 

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Springing a Jack Trap

Tonight’s episode of 24 was a study in the paths its main characters have taken.  For one, Jack Bauer continued doing what he’s done at least once a season since the show started: going rogue.  Not just operating outside the authority of the U.S. government, but taking action against it.

On the other hand, you have President Allison Taylor, who we learned last season was a person of such character that she’d sacrifice her family to do the right thing for her country.  But things have changed this season: she’s travelling down the path of corruption, escorted by former President Charles Logan, the poster boy for presidential corruption.

So Jack is doing what he’s done many times before to varying degrees of success.  And the President is uneasily participating in a cover-up to secure a peace deal.  It will be interesting to see how Jack and the President converge and if both, one or neither will get what they want.

Also tonight, we met two new characters.  Michael Madsen is playing the part of Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. And one of the new American villains, a private security contractor, is played by D.B. Sweeney, who hasn’t been seen since (one of The Civee’s favorite movies) The Cutting Edge.

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King Tom