As We Say Goodbye to 2008...

I thought I'd post before 2008 disappears into history like the island did just to say that I hope everyone had/is having a fantastic holiday season. It goes quickly, no?

Of course, there is a LOST connection to this. (Everything has a LOST connection. What's that? Oh, it's just me? Oh...) Firstly, 2008 brought us some great LOST moments - the Oceanic 6; the Freighties; the birth and death of Kevin Johnson; the fake plane; all things Daniel Faraday ("The light...doesn't scatter quite right here..."); Eloise the rat and her explanation of time travel in The Constant, which may be the best episode of the show ever; the Orchid and its secret frozen donkey wheel; and last but not least, a disappearing island. And since my family was kind enough to bestow upon me the Season 4 DVD set, I can relive it all again!

Which brings me to my second point. As is my way, I immediately began watching the episodes that have commentary tracks. The two commentaries I've seen (one had Evangeline Lilly and Jorge Garcia - check out his blog by the way, it's great, and it's listed in the blog list on the right of this page - and the other had Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjun Kim) were more entertaining than enlightening, which is just as well. I have not watched The Constant commentary yet, though; I'm saving that one for when I can sit down uninterrupted and listen to every word out of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse's mouths. I plan on watching them all and sharing with you any interesting things that come out of them in a later post.

Now I'm usually spoiler free, but I must admit - I broke down a little. I did. (But just a little; I have avoided what I've heard are major spoilers.) I've been so good during this looooooooong hiatus, but I was listening to a podcast in the shower a few days ago and they got to the spoiler section......and I heard it. My lame, fake excuse is that I didn't want to drench the floor with water as I jumped out to hit the pause button, but I won't lie. I listened. And since I post on a LOST blog, how could I not share them with you all?

"NOOOOO!" I hear you shouting. "Dooooon't teeeellll meeeeee!!!"

Don't want to read them? Well, I will post them below, but in such a way that you'll have to make the effort to read them. Black text on a black background? I think you'll figure it out...

They are not necessarily major spoilers, either - I guess you'd call them teasers, really. And by the way, you can also find the titles for the first seven episodes of Season 5. I have seen them, and there's only one I would consider spoilerish, but I won't share any here. You can find them in about a thousand places online.

Okay, so here you go, compliments of Ryan from The Transmission, the best LOST podcast out there. I'll share them with you the way he did - very simply - so that your imagination can have all the fun.

• Young Rousseau

• Young Charlotte

• Losties....in New Otherton.....wearing DHARMA jumpsuits!!!
• And 17 shiny new blue DHARMA VW vans!
• And a giant banner above them that the people watching all of this being filmed in Hawaii included the word "new" (they couldn't make out any other words)!
  

Are our Losties members of the new Dharma Initiative? Have they gone back in time and become members of the old Dharma Initiative? Is it all someone's dream?

Also, there is a lot going on with the website for Ajira Airlines in terms of hidden pictures, messages and the like. The latest seem to be hinting at a connection to the island of Guam. I haven't quite delved into it all myself, but if you'd like to know more, check out the main site here.

And there is one more thing: wanna see the symbol for the newest DHARMA station? Yes? Well, click.....here! There is no information about it other than it is official as it was flashed for less than a second at the end of Damon and Carlton's latest video update as a little Easter egg for all of us (you can watch that video at the same link). How soon into the new season do you think we'll see it?

Enjoy your New Year's!!! And only 21 days until our "second" New Year's!!!

Losties Links

Links, courtesy of our fellow Losties:

Chris shared these with me.
SL-LOST.com has a lot of unique stuff that I haven't seen anywhere else (though I haven't been keeping up with my usual favorite websites of late). Check out the Season 5 postcards - nice! Click on the pic below for an example.



This video, Redemption, is one in a series of YouTube videos called Lost: In Preparation for Season 5. If you want to get totally lost, (get it?) watch all of the videos in the series that are listed on the right of the YouTube page. This one is set to Coldplay's "Lost!" because, well, someone had to, didn't they?

Here is some fun stuff from Ellen's latest two emails.
The first is from EW.com's Ausiello Files, and is spoilerish, so scroll past if you don't want to read it.

Question: All of these Lost promos are getting me super pumped for January! Any more news on casting or plot twists to get me even more excited? -- Sam
Ausiello: How about a scoop that's equal parts casting news and plot twisty? Per my Lost mole, we're going to meet Jack's grandfather for the first time in episode 7! He'll be played by actor Raymond Barry, who's probably best known for his role as Tom Cruise's dad in Born on the Fourth of July.

The second is Doc Jensen's post at EW, which you can read in its entirety here. He is having the same dilemma I am - to watch or not to watch? As always, it's a great and entertaining read.

Thanks to both of you! I will be adding links like these to my blogroll to the right of the blog. And please, if any of you find any interesting info or websites, forward them on to me and I'll post them.

Season 5 Promos - Some Observations

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Season 5 Sneak Peek #2 - Jack and Ben

Either Jack and Ben are shacking up together in a seedy motel room (Back? Jen? Benack?), or they're up to something, and from this clip, it seems like that something is "getting the band back together."



Good stuff!
(By the way, is this the moment that Jack got rid of the infamous "I have nothing left to lose and don't care anymore" beard?)

Having said that, I'm getting a little nervous that watching the premiere is going to be boring since I've watched half the show by having already seen all these sneak peeks... I am spoiler free, and though I don't consider these officially released clips spoilers, I'm not sure if I'm going to watch any more. The best part of watching Lost is being shocked during the "live" episode. Agree? Disagree?

Fun Facts

I stumbled across this obviously (and somewhat painfully) fan-made site the other day that looks like it's trying to give Lostpedia a run for its money.

http://nowlostforever.bravehost.com/Main.html - Main site

It's very, um, basic-looking, but chock full of facts from the first four seasons of Lost.

http://nowlostforever.bravehost.com/FactsSeason1.html
http://nowlostforever.bravehost.com/FactsSeason2.html
http://nowlostforever.bravehost.com/FactsSeason3.html
http://nowlostforever.bravehost.com/FactsSeason4.html

The facts he/she compiled are actually quite impressive - very detailed and thorough, covering both the production of the show as well as the on-screen happenings. I don't know if they cut and pasted it all from other sources, but I can't help feeling bad for them because it doesn't seem like the site gets many visitors, even though they put all that work into it.
See if you find anything that you didn't already know - I did!

Next You'll Tell Me the Moon Landing Was a Hoax, Too

The video below is apparently on the Season 4 DVD set (which I believe was released today - did anyone grab it yet?). In the grand style of the Discovery Channel's various programs about UFO's, Bigfoot, the 9/11 conspiracies, the Freemasons, etc. (all of which I loooove), comes the Oceanic 6 Hoax Documentary.

The Oceanic 6 Hoax @ Yahoo! Video

I don't know, it seems slightly more cheesy in terms of production value than even the worst alien autopsy film or Bigfoot costume, but I suppose that's what the producers were going for. Regardless, a fun little clip during the hiatus.

Update: The video has been taken down, I'm guessing because it's now available on the Season 4 DVD set, so you'll get to see it when Santa leaves it under your tree.

Sneak Peek - "Because You Left"

Don't know if anyone has seen this already - enjoy!
(I guess you could consider this a spoiler, since, you know, it's 2 MINUTES FROM THE SEASON PREMIERE, but it's here if you want to see it...)

Also, when did Angela's father become a lawyer? ; )

Lesson #1: Learned

So the Comments should work for everyone who wants to comment on a post - I tested it out, it works, huzzah. But it looks like a regular ol' normal person off the street can't just subscribe to the blog (should I refer to it as "LOSTBlog"? Is that pretentious, like talking about yourself in the third person?) as I thought they'd be able to. Nope, unless I'm missing something (which is easily possible), you have to have an account with Google, or Yahoo, or Bloglines, or whatever Atom is. I don't know, maybe it's simple, or maybe you've done this before, and if you already know what you're doing, subscribe your arse off. Just wanted to say that for those new to the magic of blogs who were looking forward to getting an email when the blog was updated, it's not as easy on your end as I thought. Sorry about that!
I guess the easiest thing to do would be to just check the blog when you get a moment, no?

Welcome!

Hey Losties,
Welcome to the new and (hopefully) improved "mailing list"! I have a few reasons for changing from the email to a blog. First, I thought this might be an easier way to send out my updates. Second, it's waaaay better looking than my WebAccess email page. Third, it is easier to go back and read past posts about past episodes, theories, pictures, and the like. And fourth (yes, there are four reasons, because it had to be one of the numbers), and in my mind, most importantly, blogs are built for discussion! Instead of weeding through emails to find people's replies, we can all share our thoughts, ideas, musings, discoveries, and links all in one place. (So Ellen, consider this your second home! ;) )
I'm a little new at this, so bear with me here at first. I believe you are able to subscribe to the blog, so that way you'll know when I post something new. And if you happen to indoctrina....I mean "recruit," any new fans, all they'll need to do now is come to the blog and begin posting things like "So they're all in purgatory, right? Did I figure it out?" or "I'm begging you - what is in that @%&!ing hatch?!?!" I hope to keep things organized in a way that is easy for everyone to read and will allow you to find what you are looking for. I also hope to keep up with this as I did with the email, but I'll ask for your patience, as this has turned out to be quite a busy year for me at work, so I just can't guarantee immediate reactions. All I can guarantee is that I'll do my best to give you a place to discuss this show that we can't get enough of!
I've been meaning to post about the Season 5 preview, so that should appear fairly soon. But, until then - welcome, and enjoy!
Namaste,
~Matt