Widescreen

The Numbers: A Partially Speculative Timeline
(We'll see how accurate this turns out to be in the next few episodes, methinks. Props to lostpedia.com for being my virtual fact-checker.)

1977: The DHARMA Initiative begins construction of a facility meant to study and harness the electromagnetic properties of the island it inhabits. Workers emboss a serial number on an entry hatch: 4 8 15 16 23 42.

Blogger's note: I just can't help myself. Here's an extension of the blog I posted earlier today. Enjoy.

lostbook

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Benjamin Linus has been judged by the Smoke Monster.
4 seconds ago • Comment • Like

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Benjamin Linus wrote a note: 15 random facts about me!

Let Others know a little more about yourself, re-post this and tag 15 people of your choice. Once you have been tagged you must do it and then tag the person that tagged you...

SPOILER ALERT: If you are a "House" fan and haven't seen last night's episode yet, do not click to read more.

I love karaoke night, but so often I fail miserably when choosing the song to sing. A few weeks ago, four of us were at my favorite watering hole -- the Neighborhood Inn in Hoffman Estates -- and we were taken aback by the large number of attractive young women dancing in front of the karaoke stage. Some dude was up there singing "Livin' La Vida Loca," of all things, and the place was going nuts.

I decided to take action. If they love something as stupid as that, I thought, then they'll really love this.

So I grabbed a pencil and a slip and wrote down the silliest song I could find in the book: "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News.

I went up there to sing, and everyone turned away and stopped dancing.

And what happened was that Kate Austen betrayed the Oceanic Six by telling the truth about the island to two women she barely knows. Not that I can blame her, seeing as we still don't quite know why Jack -- or Ben, for that matter -- insisted they return, and all that lying sure didn't seem to help. Jack claims he felt he was supposed to come back to the island, but is that him or John Locke talking? I think Jack came back because, deep down, he knows his father is somewhere in that jungle.

At least Kate gave herself a good reason to return in tonight's episode: she's going to rescue Claire from her cabin fever. There can be no doubt that Claire (and, of course, Emilie de Ravin) will be returning to the show, possibly in the season finale, but certainly in Season 6.

Last week we got a true rarity, a good Sayid episode. This week we got a good Kate episode. Will wonders never cease? (What's next, a good Boone and Shannon episode?) Evangeline Lilly gave a great performance, maybe her best since "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" way back in Season 1. She was helped by Michael Giacchino, who gave us another one of those beautiful, building melodies over the climactic flashback. Good stuff.

Six Flags Great America, a place I very much enjoyed in my youth, opens for the 2009 season on Friday. The very same day, a new film coming to theaters tells the story of a young man who hates his summer job -- working at an amusement park.

"Adventureland" is based on director Greg Mottola's experiences working at a park with the same name on Long Island. They didn't film the movie there, ostensibly because the real park might object to an ad campaign for a movie about an amusement park with this tagline: "It was the worst job they ever imagined ... and the best time of their lives."

I still have this wacky dream of one day, after paying down all debt, working for peanuts as a Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland. That's just one of those jobs I always thought would be fun, cranky customers (sorry, Mr. Lasseter: guests) notwithstanding.

Blogger's note: Please, no comments about how I'm wasting my time playing a plastic guitar when I could be playing a real one. It's a video game. Of course it's a waste of time.

I'm the guy at the concert who still plays air guitar. I have been for ... well, forever. I'm also the guy who screams all the lyrics back toward the stage, the guy who slaps the drumbeat against his knees, and that guy who wears the Metallica T-shirt to a Metallica concert. This probably doesn't make me the most popular dude at concerts, but I'm having too much fun to care, and at least I'm not starting drunken fights or hitting on your girlfriend.

I have been playing air guitar to Metallica's songs for the better part of the last two decades, tapping out four-fingered rhythms in my palm to every James Hetfield riff and Kirk Hammett solo. So playing "Guitar Hero: Metallica," now available for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, came naturally. The five-color, expert-level note charts for each song are just as I'd imagined, and the game's roster of uber-challenging thrashers turned out to be much easier than I expected, "Disposable Heroes" excluded. Finally, I can play Kirk's awesome solo from "The Unforgiven"! (Never mind that I'm not really playing it.)

The "Lost" live-blog returns tonight shortly before 8 p.m. Hit refresh throughout the episode for real-time reactions, and don't hesitate to ask questions and share crazy theories in the comments below!

Another week, another "Lost" episode packed with significant developments. You know things are getting heavy when it almost slips your mind that our friends are all back on the island, but not all of them are still in 2007.

The biggest bombshell we tonight was learning that Daniel was apparently wrong -- the future can be changed. When Sun and Frank arrive in New Otherton, it appears to have been untouched for many years, and there are still remnants of the revised DHARMA Initiative to be found. Huge, game-changing events have apparently transpired in that 30-year gulf!

So why do I feel like the show is more concerned with catty, soap-opera B.S.?