LOST WFTB – Tweetcaps

A bit of a catch up… I’m gonna link to text files of the tweetups, that you can download and read, versus the inpost quotes.

I’m lazy. I suck. I know.

All credit goes to @batchoutlost for herding all the tweets.  If you MUST have the tweetcaps in a post, let me know and I’ll have my intern put it on my schedule. 😀

It’s Ess Tee Ewe Eee Vee Eee

And it’s pronounced, as my Dad once wore on his church league basketball jersey: Stew-Vee

If you haven’t come here from Jeff “Doc” Jensen’s column, then let me post a picture of what I woke up to this morning.

steuve

All’s forgiven Jeff, my name’s been misspelled all my life, my favorite is “Stlieve” Ell-Eye? Really?

Once when I was at Naval Postgraduate School, I won a prize and the navy wife pronounced it like the Swedish Chef was trying to say my name. So I’m used to it.

If you’re here for the first time, I run the twitter rewatch, titled Watch From the Beginning (#WFTB) using my special twitter account LOST_WFTB. We’re currently re-watching the beginning of Season 5, with the next twitter re-watch happening on We3dnesday for Season 5 Episode 5. Tune into Twitter and re-watch with us. (And urge Doc Jensen to show up for once… Just one night…)

Peace, out.

#WFTB – Watch from the Beginning – Refresher

With the final season of LOST just around the corner, it’s time to get the Twitter rewatch back in full stream.  We’ve had a nice break over Thanksgiving, and all you all everybody has had a chance to get their hands on the LOST Season 5 DVDs. (some of us were lucky and won a contest, and have recieved the LOST Dharma Initiative Orientation kit… be very jealous)

So it’s time again, to get to re-watching.  The Season 5 #LOST #WFTB Twitter re-watch party kicks off on December 14th at 9PM CST.  The rest of the schedule is here, so bookmark it.  (Or just ask me @LOST_WFTB on twitter)

What do you need to do to join in?  I made a handy list:

  1. Follow me @LOST_WFTB for #WFTB news updates and reminders.
  2. You might consider following my list of WFTB regulars, and if you aren’t on that list, give me a holla on twitter and I’ll add you.  The list feature of Twitter is also a great way to participate in the #WFTB Live tweets, if you don’t have TweetDeck (my favorite) or some other Twitter client.
  3. Get your DVD (or stream, or whatever you use to watch episodes) ready with time to spare.  I try to be hitting up twitter with reminders at least 42 minutes in advance, but sometimes I’m late, keep an eye on the #LOST #WFTB hashtags.
  4. Start on time (I usually tweet at “Press Play” tweet at the starting time.  I post times in my time zone, CST, so be prepared at your local time.
  5. Start watching and tweeting your comments, all types of comments are allowed.  Snarky MST3K type, or obeservations, or OMGILTS.  Include the episode hashtag (usually #s5E1 or whatever episode we’re on, the finale will have a special hashtag.
  6. Have fun! Everyone is a LOST fan, and all shippers are welcome.
  7. Last and final one, is don’t be a jerk. (That is a general rule of the internet, IMO) We all love the show, and with that common thread, we should all be able to get along.

Namaste, and if you’ve read this far, congratulations.

If you are hard core invite a friend, like @CarltonCuse, @DamonLindelof or @EWDocJensen to join in on the re-watch.  How awesome would it be to have them join in… supremely awesome, beyond words.

See you Monday at 9PM CST.

WFTB v. Lost Rewatch – My thoughts.

First and foremost, the goal is the same, Re-watch (or watch for the first time) all episodes of LOST, sequentially before the beginning of season 6.

That is what we’re both trying to do, and I’m going to continue to do my best to promote not only LOST (aka the greatest tv show evah!) and re-watching efforts.

lost_wftb_80 We started early, admittedly off the cuff (read the first post of this series). We focused on a twitter based live tweeting experience and that has been our strongest point.

200px-Thelostrewatch

Lost Rewatch seems to be blog and message board based with some of the biggest and best LOST blogs/sites/wikis participating and promoting. Here’s a sample list from one of the participating sites: “A bunch of Lost bloggers, including Doc Artz and Friends, JOpinionated, Sledgeweb and the Lostpedia Blog

I think it’s entirely possible to do both, if you have the time, and inclination.  Join us for a  LOST_WFTB Live TweetUp, and then you’ll be more than prepared when Lost Rewatch watches the same episode two weeks later. (For instance, this week their re-watching episodes 1-4, while we live tweeted episode 9-11.)

I don’t think its a competition.  I’m not treating it as a competition.  The point is to enjoy LOST.

So do. Enjoy. Lost.

John Locke black, white, or just an easy pawn

LOST 005 As part of the re-watching experience, one of the fascinating things to examine is the role of John Locke in the epic battle being waged.  In the first few episodes, John Locke is portrayed as a mystical guru that is in tune with the island.  He saves Jack from certain death falling off a cliff, coaches him towards leadership of the survivors.  He sees Charlie’s battle with heroin addiction, and gives an impassioned speech about how the struggle makes one stronger like a moth coming out of a cocoon. Then we see a darker side of Locke, encouraging Sayid to torture Sawyer, indicting Sawyer as the saboteur of Sayid’s triangulation experiment.

Re-watching just shows how morally ambiguous they have portrayed Locke from the beginning.  The episode Walkabout is revealing.  Locke’s pre-island paralysis is hidden in plain site for all of the flashbacks, his ability to walk miraculous, his determination to become the hunter of the group fulfilling his preparation for a walkabout.  The lead up to the final memorial scene is interesting.  Just a few hours before, John Locke came face to face with the smoke monster.  Then Jack sees his father disappear into a clearing, and after chasing after the white rabbit, finds Locke emerge from the brush covered with blood, hauling a dead boar.

There are several theories on the role of Locke, who is influencing him? How early?  Is he dead from the beginning?  Was he scanned by Smokie but allowed to live?  Did he die from the first encounter and is possessed by Esau?

Here is a place to discuss and talk about the role/character of Locke. I think he is the key, not only in the struggle between Blackshirt(Esau) and Jacob. Let’s hear your theories.

The Twitter conversation that sparked this post is below the fold.

Continue reading

Lost in LOST

If you’ve read my blog at all in the last week, you’ll know I’m embarked on the ambitious project of re-watching all of the LOST episodes to date before the beginning of Season 6.  So, please excuse me if I get a little (my daughter would say more than a little) obsessed with the topic of LOST.

The show itself is masterfully produced, the themes a seemingly endless maze of twisty little passages all the same. Going back to the beginning and re-watching it my thoughts return to what might be the best starting point for a potential möbius strip through time:

BLACKIE: I don’t have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?

JACOB: You are wrong.

BLACKIE: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.

JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.

This is the struggle where our beloved Oceanic survivors were plunged.  I view this series through my series of lenses, part geek, part pop-culturist, part husband, part father… However, the over arching filter is that of my faith, and the more I watch the early episodes, the more I’m reminded of a passage from the bible:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. – Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)

We have been viewing the continuing drama from the eyes of men, and have allowed the hidden battle of two mystical opponents to be obscured by the characters we’ve grown to love.  A struggle summed up by John Locke while explaining a game of backgammon to Walt in the series pilot.

LOCKE: Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That’s older than Jesus Christ.

WALT: Did they have dice and stuff?

LOCKE: [nods] Mhhm. But theirs weren’t made of plastic. Their dice were made of bones.

WALT: Cool.

LOCKE: Two players. Two sides. One is light … one is dark.

Seeing the characters from the beginning with that perspective shines new light on everything. Our characters, are they nothing more than pawns played against each other in an unseen game, where chance, choices are played along with strategy and foresight on behalf of higher powers?  Is Locke’s guru like wisdom, as we observe early in the first season could colored by influences of one side versus the other?  Do the manipulations of the various factions in the struggle effect the different passengers on the flight, and start to ripple outwards as we’re introduced to more of the inhabitants of the island?

Those questions along with others are worthy of inspection as we’re introduced again to Rousseau and Ethan, the mysterious, nameless whispers in the jungle, the shrouded others that plot against those plopped on the island by the coincidental fluke in the crash of Oceanic flight 815.

I’ll use this space to ramble more as I worry these thoughts in the back of my mind.

Namaste.