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Most of y'all heard that by now. He passed away Saturday. So in a few days' time we've lost Art Linkletter, Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper.
He was quite the memorable sort, no matter what he was in: be it Easy Rider or Speed or the first season of 24 or even the otherwise atrociousSuper Mario Brothers movie (where he played King Koopa).
Somehow, his recitation of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" seems a most appropriate tribute to his life and career...
Rest in peace Mr. Hopper. And were I a drinking man, I'd open up a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and raise a toast in your memory.
Something very similar to this happened to me in 2002, but I don't pretend to be an attorney so I couldn't do it as awesomely kewl as Georgia attorney Regina Quick did in court this week. I had to speed through a red-light camera intersection in Greensboro 'cuz the car behind me was about to rear-end me hard. A week later the citation came in the mail, and I didn't think it was fair.
So I filed a subpoena at the courthouse in Greensboro to have the source code for the software operating the cameras be given to me, so that I could "cross examine" it. 'Course, my real motive was to post it on the Internet so that better heads than my own could examine it.
Suffice it to say, my case was dropped like a hot rock.
At trial in Athens-Clarke Municipal Court on Tuesday however, it was the red-light cameras themselves which had been summoned to court in order to testify against two of Miss Quick's clients. The cameras were a no-show, and the judge found in favor of the defendants.
The story goes on to say that Athens-Clarke County is considering installing more of the cameras at intersections. Which tells me that they are another government jurisdiction with a budget shortfall, and is looking at making up for it by putting the safety of its citizens at risk. The Palm Beach Post this week ran a story in which it found that red-light cameras cause the rate of rear-end collisions to soar to more than double what they had been before the cameras were put in place. Figure that it's common knowledge by now that the duration of the yellow light at these intersections is usually much shorter than at a non-camera "assisted" intersection, and that the private companies under contract to run these cameras are profiting from each guilty citation, and there's a lot of reason to despise these things.
Remember: a robot is not a citizen. Not yet anyway. It doesn't enjoy the rights under the Constitution that you and I have. So if a droid sends you to court, dare it to take the stand.
First of all, and I don't know if anyone else has made note of this but this final season of Lost borrowed a lot from Marvel Comics' Earth X trilogy that Alex Ross and some others did about a decade ago. If you're not familiar with the series, a big part of the story (which consisted of Earth X, Universe X and Paradise X) was about an "afterlife" that the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe were stuck in, unaware that they were dead and because of that, unable to move on. The Kree hero Mar-Vell winds up getting himself re-born in the real world even as he's still in the realm of the dead (much like Desmond was working in the real timeline and the "alternate" timeline). In the end heroes and villains alike realize their state and get to "let go and move on" to a new world that Mar-Vell had been conspiring across space and time to prepare for them. All except people like Kingpin who decided they wanted to have power in the world of the dead just as they had in the living. The only other ones who didn't move forward were people like Captain America who - very much like Benjamin Linus did - chose to "stay behind" awhile and work some things out before being able to let go.
I've been thinking that ever since reading the title of the sixth season's premiere, "LA X", that the Lost showrunners might be more than paying a homage to what happens to be one of my favorite Marvel stories. And, looks like I might have been right :-)
Anyhoo, the series finale aired almost 36 hours ago but the discussion and debate is just getting started... and threatens to continue for the next thirty or forty years. It's pretty clear by now that we won't be getting solid answers to everything (and I'm glad that we aren't) but lo and behold we have got a few answers to some burning questions, thanks to Kristin Dos Santos from E! Click on the link to watch the video which puts to rest a bunch of mysteries. Such as... the Man in Black's REAL name!
Yup, he had one even though it wasn't ever mentioned on the show. But it did appear in the scripts though Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof decided against letting the audience in on it.
But in case you're wondering, the Man in Black's real name is Samuel (an old Hebrew name meaning "man of God"). Jacob and Samuel: I like that. Has some symmetry to it.
Other things noteworthy from the video: the "Kwon" written on the wall of Jacob's cave was Jin, since Sun was removed from consideration as a candidate by Jacob because, like Kate, she became a mother. Whoever it is that is protector of the Island can cause the Island's weather to also change (which will no doubt have many going back to look for the times when it started raining during dramatic moments). The voice that Locke heard in the cabin in "The Man Behind the Curtain" was that of the Man in Black/Samuel.
And the DVD/Blu-ray release will reveal what happened to Walt. I'm thinking that he has already "moved on" but his time on the Island wasn't as important as it had been to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the rest. Walt still had all his life left to live and prepare for that moment, in his own way. Who knows: maybe Michael also was able to finally enter into it, eventually. And I'm wondering if that scum Keamy is now eternally damned because he chose to remain the bastard that he was when he was still alive. I can't remember any other time during the "flashsideways" that a character was shown to have died, and I can't imagine him ever wanting to go inside the church... but who knows?
Indeed, who does really know? Lost's departure with so much unanswered still, well... more and more I'm seeing how that's a good thing. It kept drawing faithful viewers because we all loved speculating and analyzing stuff, and set itself up to keep doing that even after the show itself had "let go".
In a cyclical sorta way, I find that rather appropriate :-)
Dude Perfect, a group of guys from Texas A&M specializing in basketball trick shots. And they have set the Intertubes ablaze with this insanely awesome "nothing but net" shot from a low-flying airplane!
Check it out...
From what I understand, it only took them two attempts to make the basket.
...and I am still stunned and numb by how powerful and poignant that was.
I don't mind sharing this at all: the closing minutes of the series finale of Lost, very beautifully articulated many of the hopes that I have come to have across my life.
If you want to know what Chris Knight's image of Heaven is like, that final scene inside the church is pretty darned close: reunions, reconciliations, rejoicings... and moving on together.
This finale hit me in places that I didn't realize needed hitting upon. Lost on the morning after, and somehow I'm feeling more appreciative. More thankful. More hopeful.
This was only the second television series that I've followed this intently in my life. The first was Babylon 5. And in the end both of these shows brought me to tears for all the right reasons. But I don't know if anything has been as emotionally jarring as Lost became. Maybe that's because I watched it through all the way to the end with more lifetime behind me to make me consider it more.
Honestly don't know what else to say about this folks. I am just plain overwhelmed by this story and its magnificent conclusion.
Dear Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and everyone who has been involved with Lost during the past six years:
That was time well spent. All of it.
And in "The End", you brought it to a perfect, astounding and beautiful conclusion.
The greatest praise that can ever be given a story is the sense that the reader or the viewer is coming away from it a better person than he or she was before picking up the book, or tuning in to the show. And that the story now belongs on the shelf with the others, to be brought out again and enjoyed many more times in years to come.
Lost made me think a little more, cry a little more, laugh a little more... and it's leaving me a better person. And I shall certainly enjoy rediscovering this story and these beloved characters many, many more times during the rest of my life.
Best. Series. Finale. Ever. And just as Lost should, it leaves one having to think things through, even now.
To all of you on the west coast: you have no idea what awaits you. Nothing in your wildest dreams can prepare you for how good "The End" is.
But I give you fair warning now: keep the tissues handy.
To everyone involved with Lost: Thank you. You have delivered the greatest mythology that the television medium has ever produced. Thank you for bringing us along for such a remarkable journey.
This is Chris Knight, Lost viewer and blogger since 2005, signing off on the last post-show reaction to a Lost episode that I'll ever write.
Well, this is it. In a little less than thirteen hours from now Lost will have aired its series finale "The End" and this most iconic television shows of the past decade will belong to the ages.
I had originally thought of doing a "Top 23 Lost Episodes" feature on this blog, but everyone and his brother is probably doing that today already anyway. So instead, how about we take a look at what many consider to be the best and most unforgettable final chapters of some classic television series. Will Lost's stack up to these? We shall soon see...
10. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: "The Last Show"
One of the funniest television comedies ever went out solid, on-top and just plain hilarious right up to the final moments! This is how to end a sit-com, people! And hey in retrospect, having Betty White in it made it all the better! The "group hug" where everyone embraces and reaches for the tissues en masse has become one of the most beloved (and parodied) scenes in television history. Such a testament to a show that took its bow in 1977.
9. Star Trek: The Next Generation: "All Good Things..."
Some die-hard Trekkies are prolly gonna jump flunky all over me with "...but Deep Space Nine's finale was much better!" I can see where that can be argued but let's face it: "All Good Things..." broke the ground for how a Star Trek series should wind down (barring the inevitable movies 'course). Not just an excellent episode in its own right, but brilliant as a "bookend" piece to the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" seven years earlier. But personally, my favorite part of "All Good Things..." was the very last scene: Captain Picard finally taking a seat at the poker table with his colleagues. If there had been nothing further done with The Next Generation cast of characters, that would have been the perfect note to have closed their story out with.
8. Cheers: "One For The Road"
"Sorry, we're closed." Sam Malone straightens up a few things around the place - hearkening back to his appearance in the very first episode - and then a quiet shot of the bar at night. That's all that was needed for this, one of the most exquisitely executed finales ever for a television series. By the way, to date I've never seen an episode of Frasier and it's partly because of "One For The Road": this is how I most wanted to remember Cheers and its characters. With everyone happy and Sam realizing that he is indeed "the luckiest son-of-a-bitch on Earth".
7. Six Feet Under: "Everyone's Waiting"
Many have called this the finest series finale... ever! I don't know about that since in my mind it borrowed too much from the series finale of Blake's 7. But if you're gonna kill off EVERYONE among your cast of characters, Six Feet Under did it with dignity rather than forcing viewers to watch them get violently dispatched one by one.
6. The Sopranos: "Made in America"
"Don't stop..." Hard cut to black. The ensuing bewilderment was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Three years later and loyal fans of The Sopranos still debate what happened to paterfamilias Tony Soprano in those final moments. Ultimately, it is simply... what it is. And I think that with the passage of time many others will agree that this was not only one of the best finales ever, but the spot-on perfect way to end The Sopranos' run.
5. The Prisoner: "Fall Out"
And then there are some television series that the passage of time does nothing to lessen the confusion and controversy! Witness "Fall Out", the last episode of The Prisoner. Look, I don't know of how else to put it than this: anyone claiming to completely understand "Fall Out" is either a genius savant, or outright lying. The only person in history who ever did "get" The Prisoner and its bewildering final chapter was series creator and star Patrick McGoohan... and he passed away last year. So strange was "Fall Out" that broadcasting network ITV's phone system crashed within a few hours of it ending and McGoohan had to go into hiding for several weeks because people kept coming to the door of his house demanding answers (Lost producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof should take note!). More than forty years later, The Prisoner fans are still trying to suss it all out.
4. The Fugitive: "The Judgement"
"Tuesday, August 29: The day the running stopped." Dr. Richard Kimble had been an innocent man on the lamb for 120 episodes across four seasons, trying to stay one step ahead of Lt. Philip Gerard while also trying to track down the one-armed man who was the real murderer of Kimble's wife. Until the "Who Done It" episode of Dallas this had been the most-watched episode of television in American history. Couldn't have ended better than this: Dr. Kimble a man exonerated, leaving the courthouse... and shaking hands with Lt. Gerard before starting out to begin a new life.
3. M*A*S*H: "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen"
The one television episode that almost destroyed the entire New York City sewer system! With 77% of the country's TV sets tuned in to the last episode of M*A*S*H after an eleven-year run, so many people waited until the show was over to use the bathroom: all those toilets flushing at the same time wrecked havoc with Manhattan's water pressure. Curiously, for an episode of M*A*S*H that was two and a half hours long (as opposed to its regular half-hour format) this is probably the least funny episode of the entire eleven seasons. Looking back, it was like Alan Alda wanted to ramp up the "war is hell, dammit!" for the last episode even as the ink was drying on the armistice in Kaesong. But even so, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" remains a most fitting capstone to a sitcom about war and dying that lasted nine years longer than the actual Korean conflict.
2. Babylon 5: "Sleeping in Light"
You know that this series finale stands out from the rest when even the credits rolling at the end are enough to break your heart (thanks in no small part to composer Christopher Franke's epic score). Creator J. Michael Straczynski fought tooth and nail for five years to bring Babylon 5 to this: the final moments of the series, set twenty years after the story proper. And when it came time to turn out the lights on that last best hope all alone in the night, who better than Straczynski himself (playing the technician, and just look at that mixture of relief and sorrow on his face) to hit the switch? This is just about the most PERFECT episode of television in the history of anything. There hasn't been a show like it or since... and I really don't know if anyone else will come close to pulling off what Straczynski and his crew did with Babylon 5.
And the #1 Greatest TV Series Finale (so far) as listed by The Knight Shift's eclectic proprietor is...
1. Newhart: "The Last Newhart"
Awright look, I gotta get this off my chest: I am absolutely positive that I read somewhere back when this show was running that the name of the town in Vermont where Newhart took place was "Johnnycake Lake". I read that in a television listing magazine that came with the local paper, but to this date I haven't seen that name given anywhere and in fact most authorities say that the town's name was never given. Maybe it's called "Newhart": which sorta has a Vermont-ish/New England sound to it. But anyhoo, even before this episode aired twenty years ago this week in 1990, it was arousing no small amount of crazy interest. Most of it had to do with the rumor that Bob Newhart's character, the longsuffering Dick Loudon, was going to get killed off! The tidbit about him getting hit in the head with a golf ball had even leaked out well in advance. What happened? Well when Dick really did get conked on the noggin by the errant ball and began slumping down in slow-mo, many viewers immediately turned their TVs off, numbstruck with horror! But those who kept watching were treated to one of the most clever and funniest wraps to a television show ever: Newhart's character Dr. Robert Hartley from The Bob Newhart Show waking up bed in his Chicago apartment and telling his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) about "the dream I just had!" The idea to have the final scene take place on the bedroom set of The Bob Newhart Show had been that of Newhart's wife. And the episode is also memorable for featuring the only occurrence during Newhart's eight-season run in which Larry's brothers Darryl and Darryl actually spoke ("Quiet!") I hope and pray that more Newhart season DVDs will be coming out: 'twill be worth it just for the buildup to "The Last Newhart".
And those are the ten greatest and most memorable finales to various television series, up 'til now, per my rough reckonin'.
Might Lost join the ranks as one of the most renowned? We'll find out tonight. But no matter what, these ten and others that I could also mention (including St. Elsewhere and The Cosby Show) will definitely stand the test of time.
Well, not tragic for me anyway. But this will come as absolutely heartbreaking news to the very many would-be suitors who have written in during the past several months asking if my extremely beautiful, incredibly sweet and saintly-in-spirit cousin Lauryn was taken.
She is now! :-)
Now don't y'all worry: I shall continue to post pictures of her whenever there is dire need to publish something aesthetically pleasing on The Knight Shift (which is more often than not). However this will affect some changes to my task.
So to celebrate the occasion, and to mark the passing of the shotgun some of my duties, here is a new photo of Lauryn... along with her FATHER, the elusive and enigmatic Bob!
Perhaps someday I shall be able to also post a photo of Lauryn's brother Robbe, if he ever walks back out of that jungle...
Of all the clever logos that Google has done to mark various occasions and moments in history, this is by far the kewlest. Tomorrow is the thirtieth anniversary of the debut of Pac-Man, and Google has a fully-playable Pac-Man logo up!
Use your keyboard's arrow keys to move Pac-Man around the maze. Other than the customized Google design it plays EXACTLY like the arcade original: including 255 screens and the 256th "kill screen". It even has the act breaks!
Thanks to Chad Austin for the heads-up! And hey, while we're on the subject of celebrating video gaming's first bona-fide hero, how about we also play "Weird Al" Yankovic's never-officially released parody of The Beatles' "Taxman"? Here's a homemade music video of "Pac-Man"!
Many egotisticial nutcases in history have had pastimes. Fidel Castro almost made it as a professional baseball player. Charles Manson wrote songs. Even Hitler painted roses.
And apprently local cult leader Johnny Robertson of the Martinsville Church of Christ (part of what many are now calling "Sons of Hell" and "Stalkers for Jesus") is not exempt.
Here's the original photo that was sent in by "Code Name Exelsior"...
This photo was taken inside Martinsville Church of Christ's sanctuary. That's Johnny Robertson himself in the left of the picture, and fellow cultist/stalker (and partner with recently found-guilty criminal trespasser Micah Robertson) Mark McMinnis in the plaid shirt sitting down.
Have you spotted it yet? Is your "Spider-Sense" tingling?
Well if not, behold true believers!
I count at least nine and possibly more Spider-Man comic books sitting in a pile on the pews of Martinsville Church of Christ. The headquarters of the cult that puts out What Does The Bible Say?, A Word From The Lord and Religious Review on WGSR: live TV broadcasts where Robertson and his cronies do nothing but condemn everyone else for such imagined slights and sins as having church car washes and bake sales, instrumental music and books during church worship that aren't the Bible.
Yet there it is, most presumably during a worship service at Martinsville Church of Christ: a heap of Marvel Comics and within arm's reach of its head magus. And not only that but Marvel Comics featuring Spider-Man: a character whose fathers include two Jewish comic book legends (Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)! I could also note that Spidey's co-creator Steve Ditko also created Doctor Strange and worked on the New Gods at DC for awhile, so it could be argued that Johnny Robertson is also allowing "eastern religions" and pagan worship inside as he puts it "the church that you read about in the Bible".
Johnny Robertson you damn hypocrite: sit down and SHUT UP, sir!
And you thought it was bad enough that Robertson gets the Bible all twisted and convoluted. Lord only knows how he would interpret the X-Men books.
But as one trusted associate put it when I showed this photo to him: "Of course, I did wonder if comic books is where Johnny Robertson gets his theology from."
Feel free to post whatever clever and snide captions and comments you can think of!
(P.S.: Speaking of hypocrisy, why is Johnny Robertson giving more than a quarter of a million dollars of his congregation's money per year to a multiple-convicted criminal, habitual thief and bisexual purveyor of "filthy" entertainment?)
The more that I've examined the so-called Sarah Palin "phenomenon" the less impressed I have become with the former Alaska governor. My respect for her would shoot through the stratosphere if Palin would completely ditch the Republican Party machine and seriously "go rogue". But as it is she's too beholden to the ones who "brung her to the dance".
But the biggest reason why I'm tremendously leery of Sarah Palin isn't so much with the lady herself as it is with her followers... and what Palin isn't doing to put the brakes on what she has become: a cult of personality.
I despise cults of personality. Lord knows we've seen too many of them in this country in recent years. The cult of personality surrounding George W. Bush was abominable. It might have been even worse than the one engendered by Barack Obama. The United States has suffered three consecutive administrations of Presidents with severe narcissistic disorders: God knows we don't need another.
I don't know what's more sad: that young Bristol's qualifications for the lucrative lecture circuit comprise of little more than being her mother's daughter and getting knocked-up, or that I know fully well that there will be gads of people who will pay good money to see her talk.
Like I said: cult of personality. And there's plenty of $$$ to be made from it.
Before anything else in this post, I'm gonna get this off my chest: I've never understood why Waterworld has such a bad rap. I saw this movie during its first week in theaters in 1995 and thought it was pretty good. Not overwhelmingly "excellent", and the science behind it is atrocious (namely that there isn't enough water in the polar caps to cover the Earth's surface if they melted) but Waterworld was still a great action flick that has only gotten better with age.
Anyhoo, that photo is Kevin Costner at the till of his vessel in Waterworld... and not Kevin Costner at the controls of his very own real life invention: the "Ocean Therapy" water cleansing system. Who'da thunk that all this time he was making Waterworld, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Open Range, that Costner was also working behind the scenes with millions of dollars of his own money to develop the system?
Well, it now looks like Kevin Costner's innovation is going to come to the rescue of the Deepwater Challenger oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. New York Daily News has the story...
Could there be a happy Hollywood ending to the Gulf oil spill?
Enter "Waterworld" star Kevin Costner, who has spent years and millions of dollars perfecting a device that cleans oil from seawater.
British Petroleum - desperate for ideas - gave the okay to test six of Costner's gizmos this week, said BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.
Costner's high-speed centrifuge machine has a Los Angeles-perfect name: "Ocean Therapy."
Placed on a barge, it sucks in large quantities of polluted water, separates out the oil and spits back 97% clean water.
"It's like a big vacuum cleaner," said Costner's business partner, Louisiana trial lawyer John Houghtaling.
"The machines are basically sophisticated centrifuge devices that can handle a huge volume of water," he said.
The "Field of Dreams" star first got a team together to create the device in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
His scientist brother, Dan Costner, helped develop the device, and together, the brothers formed Costner Industries Nevada Corp. to pursue various energy projects, including a non-chemical battery that could last 15 years.
The 55-year-old actor eventually sank $26 million into the Ocean Therapy oil separator project. He obtained a license for the device from the Department of Energy in 1993 and has been trying for years to promote it.
In 2007, he told London's Daily Mail that he had blown millions on "technologies I thought would help the world" and had nothing to show for it.
"I've lost $40 million-plus," he said. "But I knew that if I was right, it would change things in an incredibly positive way."
Last week, he was in Louisiana seeking redemption, demonstrating his Ocean Therapy contraption.
"I'm just really happy that the light of day has come to this," Costner said.
Though reporters largely greeted his ideas with snickers, BP apparently wasn't laughing.
At least 210,000 gallons of oil per day is gushing into the sea from the ocean floor where the BP rig exploded April 20. The oil company has tried several novel solutions, but none has worked so far to plug the leak.
The company is skimming the oil, spraying it with dispersant chemicals underwater and trying to burn it on the surface.
Nineteen percent of the Gulf's lucrative fisheries are closed, billions of beach tourist dollars are at stake and dozens of seagoing species are threatened.
Costner has 300 of his Ocean Therapy machines in various sizes. The largest, at 21/2 tons, is able to clean water at a rate of 200 gallons a minute - faster than the well is leaking, Houghtaling noted.
WOW!! This sounds like it could probably do a heap o' good. Gotta give Kevin Costner bigtime props for actively applying his mind and resources toward solving a problem like this. If ya ask me, that is what old-fashioned American ingenuity is all about :-)
Pixar animation artist Josh Cooley has been making a series of illustrations inspired by - in addition to parodying - those classic Lil' Golden Books that so many of us grew up with. And now this summer Cooley is coming out with an actual honest-to-goodness book of his work! Lil' Inappropriate Golden Book: MOVIES 'R' FUN! takes scenes from well-known R-rated movies and, ummm... "kiddifies" them.
Ever seen serial killer Buffalo Bill in a children's book? You have now!
This is the second time this week that grenades have been found at Goodwill Stores around here. On Monday a training grenade was found amid some donated clothing at the store in Mayodan.
So... what's the trend here? Some idiot kids "goofing off"?
Or perhaps we should heed the words of one Auric Goldfinger: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
(Seriously though: if this is "terrism" this has pathetic written all over it. I mean, trying to bring chaos down in a Goodwill store?!)
