LOST episode 409: "The Shape of Things to Come"

(There's an interesting photo update at the bottom)

Well we learned that Ben certainly knows enough about the Smoke Monster to be able to direct him. And we learned that he manipulated Sayid into volunteering to be his Future Assassin.

But what I learned more than anything else is that the series LOST has become the show about Benjamin Linus. Ever since the craven "Henry Gale" showed up in the wayward hot air balloon (with a yellow smiley face air bag!) the show stopped being about the survivors of Flight 815 and how they live in a mysterious island and when/if they'll ever get home. The show became about the Island itself and about its (at that time) avatar, Ben--who was certainly LOST himself.

"The Man Behind the Curtain" in season 3 showed us Ben's complicated history, how he came to the Island and how he took his first steps on the path of serving the Island's needs. But we don't yet know how the craven, semi-mute son of a Workman fully became the duplicitous, fighting/killing machine that we saw on display in last night's episode.

We also see that the war between Ben and Charles Widmore is (all things considered--and discounting the very real deaths committed by both generals) more cordial than we had thought. So cordial in fact that Ben can "drop in" on a sleeping Charles in London with no fear of attack. This leads me to my first impetuous guess of the last five episodes of this season . . . Charles Widmore is Jacob!

Yep, think about it.

We know that Jacob is (in what we've been able to see) an older man with little to no hair. While some people guess that points to Locke (how? I ask), or to Christian Shephard (why bother? I ask . . . espcially since Jack is increasingly irrelevant as a character now), I point to the balding dome atop Widmore. Also, it is clear that Ben and Charles have an adversarial, yet cordial relationship--perhaps one that points to the fact that Widmore can only project a faint presence of himself onto the Island (HIS Island, he said) that he can't seem to reach. I don't know WHY Widmore claims it to be his, unless he is the immortal leader of the native tribe represented by Richard Alpert, and he built the four-toed statue somewhere in the deeps of time past.

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking now.

UPDATE:

I found a photo this morning of the stone door that Ben goes through before "calling" the Smoke Monster.



As soon as someone smarter and more dedicated than me translates the runes on the door, I'll let you know what they find. Thanks to DocArtz's Lost Blog for the image.

Helvetica--the movie

Sunday night I watched a documentary about one of the most ubiquitous typefaces (or in computer terms, font) found in the world today.

That type is HELVETICA, a font created by Swiss typographers in the late 1950s and which contributed to a design movement known as Modernism.

You've probably heard of Helvetica and you might even use it on your computer screen. (I would have set this post in Helvetica if Blogger would have allowed it.) But the movie made me realize that Helvetica is EVERYWHERE. As a representation of a modern, clean design many corporations adopted the font in an attempt to present an up-to-date, less stogy view of their identity in the second half of the twentieth century.

Here are some corporate examples--American Airlines, Crate&Barrel.

There are also many government examples--the Internal Revenue Service, for example, or the Environmental Protection Agency.

And Helvetica is used in signage style all over the world.

The movie interviews the people that embraced the spirit of Modernism and celebrate the spirit of "Helveticaness," then talks to those graphic designers in the 1970s and 1980s that reacted against the corporate/government nature of Helvetica and went in a Postmodern direction. (To learn a bit more about Postmodernism, check here.) And finally, it introduced new designers that are embracing the clean lines of Helvetica, but in their own way.

I really liked this movie and I admit that I have developed a new found appreciation of Helvetica, the font. I like its clean lines and I find myself a bit intrigued by the odd void shape within the lowercase "a," one quick way to recognize the font--at least in its lowercase form. I will be spending a lot of time noticing it everywhere.

Check the movie out when you get a chance.

Some thoughts on "Heroes"

Hey there--flipper here. Long time no post on Omnimedia, huh? This morning it struck me--what better way to procrastinate posting on my own blog than to post on another blog? This is the ideal way to get some thoughts off my mind and maybe get the writing juices flowing.

So, what's on my mind is this. I started watching "Heroes" last night for the first time, through the wondrous evil that is Netflix instant viewing capabilities. If you're not familiar, Netflix now has certain shows and movies available for immediate download, and with a regular Netflix membership, you can watch as many of these as you want at no additional cost. This is truly a great power, but one that can easily be abused in the wrong hands (i.e., mine). Last night, I watched around seven episodes in a row, from 9:30 until 3:00 in the morning, at which point I had the laptop in the bed and kept drifting off and having to rewind to make it through to the end of the show . . . this kind of sounds like a problem, doesn't it? I just couldn't stop watching.

Anyway, as everyone who thought I should watch it predicted, I love it--obviously. But, I do have a couple of problems with it. WARNING--spoilers ahead in case anyone else hasn't yet started watching but plans to in the future.

O.K., first, the cheerleader who can't be hurt. What's up with how, after she discovered her power and explored it through the joys of home video with her geeky friend, does she continue to hurt herself on purpose or through carelessness over and over? I mean, I totally get it already--you can't be hurt, you will regenerate. But do you really have to stick your hand in the garbage disposal to retrieve your ring while the disposal is still running? I mean, the switch is right there! And just because you can regenerate, does that automatically mean you don't feel pain either? Why would you want to do that, just to show us your hand growing back? I guess the writers are trying to really beat it into the viewers' heads that she has this power, but come on--we get it, no need to turn the cheerleader into a Gore Excuse. (Also, that autopsy scene--how gross and utterly nonsensical was that? No one's going to just start randomly doing an autopsy on a dead girl without contacting her family or anything, especially when the obvious cause of death is the stake sticking out of her neck. Come on! I don't mind gore, except when it's obviously gratuitous, as it was here.)

Another issue--did they have to make the Japanese guys so campy? I mean, I understand from the time travel scene that Hiro eventually gets serious and turns into a normal earnest and confident superhero (with a sword!), but seriously--those early scenes reminded me a little too much of the way-over-the-top sterotyped Asian guy in "Sixteen Candles." Can't you convey someone's sweetness, goodness, and innocence without also making him come off as a total goofball?

Then, the stripper with the doppelganger or whatever. I like her (primary) character (and she's really hot!), but I don't understand her motivation for framing her husband in the first place. I mean, apart from him being some kind of criminal, he seems like a decent guy and a good father, and they really seemed to be in love. Could her evil side really come up with no better plan for getting money than to frame him and set in motion the deadly chain of events that ensued? Why? I guess I really don't understand this one yet. I like how her other self comes out to protect her and her son, but I don't like the idea of it happening preemptively for personal gain. Am I supposed to like this character? Which side am I supposed to root for? Is the evil side really evil, or were her actions justified in some other way? I just don't know yet. (This one isn't really a complaint--I'm just confused.)

Finally, the guy who can fly but doesn't want to? I don't get that. Who wouldn't want to fly? Also, his brother the empath, who we are obviously supposed to identify with, is just kind of annoying.

These are minor complaints, though. This is a great show! It will be a struggle today to actually do something productive instead of plopping down on the couch with the laptop and watching the remaining episodes. . . .

Grace gym videos

Dream diary #1

Well, maybe lack of sleep has something to do with it, but I had some weird dreams last night (actually early this morning, I think).

Sometime between 10 pm and 2:30 (when I got up to feed Hannah the first time) I dreamed that I was hanging out with a mouse that had the voice of Sound of Music Julie Andrews. I think maybe that she also have a young Julie Andrews appearance--as much as a mouse can. I don't know for certain if I was also a mouse, but I am going to say that I hope so. At the very least, I hope that I was mouse-sized. The weird thing was that I was attracted to Andrews Mouse. I know this because I was coming up with pretences to help her out, either helping move stuff into her mouse house or whatever. And I kept giving her my cell phone number and telling her to call me if she needed anything (smooth operator I am, huh?).

But I realized, in the funniest twist of all, that I was continuing to give her Lynda's cell phone number. So, even in my dreams I can't cheat.

After I fed Hannah at 2:30, I slept again and this time (before H. woke me up for good at 5:30) I dreamed that I was hanging out with Harry Potter and Hermione and other non-specific Hogwarts kids in a blank featureless room. It had the feel of a dance party that didn't so much feature dancing as the ever looming potential for teenage hookups in the dark corners. And the only other detail I can remember is that some kids were using some heretofore unknown magical ability to send their hearts out of their bodies in search of a girlfriend.

Weird stuff.