Lost. Season 4, Episode 5, "The Constant."

Huey's rule. I knew I liked the helicopter that Lapidus flew, but I didn't know why until I realized it was Huey. I'm not sure if it's a deliberate move on the part of the producers, but I really enjoy all the antiquated technology and vehicles on Lost.

For some reason, the freighter wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. I think they should jazz it up with a rear spoiler. An airbrushed picture of a barbarian warrior with a huge sword and a chick in a chain mail bikini clinging to his feet on the side of the freighter would be a nice touch. But no wizards, because wizards are so gay.

On the journey over to the antiquated, but not in a cool retro way, freighter, Desmond lost his marbles because of some time shifty quantum anomaly Star Trekky thingy. There was a lot of time travel that was hard to keep track of, and I'll just have to take Cuse and Lindelof's word for it that there were no paradoxes involved.

These guys are subtle. I just realized Cuse and Lindelof managed to kill two birds with one flashback. They showed us more of Desmond's past in the army and the probable reason for his stint (going AWOL?) in the brig. What really made the flashback work was the smooth integration of Daniel Faraday's backstory into Desmond's flashback, and as a result, no narrative momentum was lost.

It was a good episode, but apart from Daniel's meeting with Desmond, the episode didn't really impart any significant new information. They've dropped enough hints that time travel might be involved, and all this episode did was confirm what the audience already knew. If they can't come up with any cool plot twists next episode, the very least Lindelof and Cuse could do is to figure out a way to feature Pong prominently in the story.

Literati Gone Wild!

When I reviewed Juno, I didn't give Diablo Cody her props. Jason Reitman is a talented director, but the heart and soul of that film is definitely Cody's script.

I read Candy Girl, Cody's memoir of the year she spent as a stripper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There is no way the dialogue was ad libbed, not when Cody can write passages as funny as this:

My least favorite regulars were the assclowns who insisted on wearing parachute pants sans underwear to the club for maximum stimulation during lap dances. You could feel every wrinkle on their cock during a prolonged session, and they'd often pause the dance to "adjust." Some of them even wore condoms beneath their loserhosen, and after a private dance, they'd discreetly pull off their used Trojan Micron and shove it between the couch cushions.

Hilarious, and she has pierced nipples too! Someone give this woman a Pulitzer!

It's Got Electrolytes!

Idiocracy has my vote for one of the best comedies of the new millenium. This perversely anti-corporate film should also get an award for best marketing tie-in. I'm speaking about Brawndo, which is now being sold as an energy drink.

Fans of the film will remember the eponymous beverage as a dark green sports drink, an obvious parody of Gatorade. The Brawndo that Lisa gave me was a lighter shade of neon green, with excellent clarity. The color really pops when poured Brawndo is poured into a tumbler.

Brawndo is carbonated, and has more fizz than a Red Bull, which tends to have a flat taste. With a good, fruity nose, Brawndo has a very robust, citrus like flavor. It does leave a bit of an aftertaste, and will stain your tounge green. The biggest point in Brawndo's favor is that it did give me the boost of energy I'd associate with a cup of coffee (I rarely drink it) but without the jitters.

Lisa took a sip of my Brawndo, and said "I can see why it killed the plants." I suspect if energy drinks like Red Bull aren't your cup of tea, you might want to display your can of Brawndo on the shelf, and wear the t-shirt for a double dose of pimping.

Update: Another review I wish I'd written...

CEO of the Bean Bag Chair

In my college years, Dad would occasionally let me tag along when he went out to business dinners. The salesmen from Montreal always wore Tag watches and flashy sports jackets. They had an easygoing sophistication, and could order Chinese food off the restaurant menu in Mandarin.

Looking back on it, I think one of the reasons why I quit drinking was because I met people like the Gurman brothers when I was young. It's a cliche to say it, but they worked hard and they played hard. When I say "play hard" I mean they really played, hockey that is. Who needs liquor when you can get an even bigger rush chasing a puck around a rink?

I'm not going to be entertaining any clients at Morton's anytime soon, but I've got a shaky foot planted on the corporate ladder. I've left the Dickensian offices of the family law firm, and I am working as a temp at high tech corporation. The building I work at is about as big as the Death Star, but with more natural light and a Starbucks.

Document review might never deliver windfalls as impressive as a sales commission, but I'd argue it's the best of all possible worlds. And who knows? Next year I might buy myself a pair of ice skates...

Breaking Bad. Season 1, Episode 5, "Gray Matter."

It's hard out there for a crystal meth dealer. For the first time, I think I felt something like sympathy for Jesse. The episode opened with Jesse at a job interview. Like a lot of people trying to transition from one field into another, Jesse had prepared a CV instead of a resume, and was really trying to sell himself during the interview. Unfortunately, with his dearth of legitimate experience, all Jesse is qualified to do, at least on paper, is to wear a sandwich board.

I'd forgotten how much being a young man between the ages of twenty and twenty-five sucked. It's easier to get work now than it was in the nineties, but it's not until I hit my late twenties that employers deigned me trustworthy enough to operate scan documents into a computer. While Jesse fails to understand that he has to pay his dues, the employer on the other side of the desk doesn't realize a potentially brilliant salesperson is right in front of him.

Even though I thought Jesse threw in the towel a little too quickly for someone who really wanted to go straight, it was interesting to see that Walter's work ethic has rubbed off on Jesse. When cooking up crystal meth, Jesse uses the equipment the way it was designed to be used, and throws out crystal meth that he deems to be inferior. A drug dealer with a work ethic, an interest in his craft, and concerned with quality control - this is the first hard evidence that Jesse does have some potential, even if his livelihood is, well, illegal.

The writers on Breaking Bad are impressive amateur sociologists. Having Walter and Skyler show up at a birthday party overdressed in painfully out of date formal wear was brilliant. That's the kind of social humiliation that's the kind of social humiliation you would expect to see dished out on in a Tom Wolfe novel, not a television program. Walter initially rebuffs the offers of help he receives from his family and friends.

By the end of the episode, Walter does agree to get treatment for his lung cancer. However, it looks as if Walter will be doing it on his own terms, as he asks Jesse if he wants to cook more crystal meth. To use a very tired metaphor at this point, Jesse and Walter aren't content to tread water. While both men are determined to swim, it remains to be seen whether or not they can stay afloat in the fast moving rapids they've chosen to immerse themselves in.

Lost. Season 4, Episode 4, "Eggtown."

Locke is definitely nuts. Telling Ben that a second reading of VALIS might shed some light on the novel? That's just crazy talk. I haven't read VALIS, but I have read enough Phillip K. Dick to know that the man's brain was fried when he started writing it. Locke should just stick to his Hemingway and Dostoevsky.

At first, I thought the choice of VALIS was a highbrow literary allusion to time travel or alternate timelines. However, after reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia, I think it's bad literary joke that plays off Locke going all Colonel Kurtz on the survivors. Locke stuffs a grenade into Miles's mouth at the end of the episode, and it's beginning to make me wonder who the real bad guys on Lost are.

Miles wants to speak with Ben because he wants to blackmail him. Despite the fact that he earns his livelihood as a "medium", Miles is essentially a grifter, if only by avocation. Sawyer is still alive and well, even though Cooper, Nikki, and Paulo are dead. Is another sarcastic con-artist really necessary at this point? If the writers are trying to make some sort of point about Lost as a "metafictional" work, I'd argue they should stop flogging this dead horse, as they already made their point in season three.

One horse that is alive and kicking is the flash forwards that are being used to advance the storyline. I didn't find Kate's future all that interesting, mainly because it involved, by his point anyway, her boring criminal past. It was cool seeing
Shawn Doyle play her lawyer, but I lost interest in Kate's back story a long time ago.

There were two big shockers at the end of the episode. It looks like Claire's son Aaron, is one of the Oceanic Six, which means Claire didn't make it or is still stuck on the island. A pre-weird beard Jack testifies in court that there were only eight survivors who swam to the island. Two of those survivors later died on the island. Later, Kate says:

You know Jack, I've heard you say that story so many times I'm starting to think you believe it.

It looks like the Oceanic Six (at least those who aren't wearing diapers) are involved in some sort of cover up. While the identity of the fifth member of the Oceanic Six came as surprise, I hope the revelation of the sixth member's identity helps tie all these disparate flash forwards together. Maybe the audience will even learn the backstory behind Jack's weird beard. At least that (potentially) future episode can't be any worse than the episode that explained the origin of Jack's really lame tattoos...

On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Fourth Year

Best. Birthday. Ever. AP and my nephew came over this morning, and all I can say is, that boy is really smart. Little James said "Happy Birthday", and was even able to sing along with Mom when she sang "Happy Birthday".

Shortly after AP and little James arrived at my apartment, I got a call from a temp agency about a job offer. I'll start working in the legal department of a big, high tech, corporation on Monday. The job will last for at least a month, and if I do a good job there are lots of projects to work on in this city.

Dad called just before we left for lunch, and I was able to share the good news with him. Mom called later in the afternoon, just when I finished a three mile, thirty minute run at the gym.

My sweetie pie took me out to dinner. We went to McCormick and Schmick's, a seafood restaurant, on K Street. Oysters on the half shell kicked off the meal, and the monkfish and shrimp entree was, well, one of the best meals I've had since my birthday dinner at Morton's last year.

Lisa gave me some very cool gifts: a tie clip, a copy of Candy Girl by Diablo Cody, a dress shirt (french cuffs) from Brooks Brothers, a Washington Capitals t-shirt, two cans of Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator, and a Brawndo t-shirt.

Lunch with my sister and nephew, a new job, phone calls from parents, and a great dinner with my wife - I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!

I'm gonna get the Duke, and John Cassavetes, and Lee Marvin, and Sam Peckinpah...

The Osterman Weekend. Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Starring Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, and Craig T. Nelson.

Sam Peckinpah is a freakin' genius. I recently saw The Osterman Weekend, and while it isn't Peckinpah's best work, it still has traces of his brilliance. I've seen a lot of car chases in action films: most directors pick something obvious like a sedan, a coup, a motorcycle, or a semi-truck. Only Peckinpah would have the balls to film a car chase with a station wagon and a pick-up truck.

It's an uneven film, and I was baffled by the ending. I'm not sure how John Tanner (played by a younger, thinner, thicker accented Rutger Hauer) figured out where to find his wife and kids. Despite the occasional lack of narrative coherence, it stll has those signature touches that make a Peckinpah film worth watching: nice squib work and a lot of bare breasts.

If you haven't seen a Peckinpah film before, this probably isn't the best place to start. If you're a fan, and wondering if this is worth seeing, well, with dialogue like this how can you go wrong:

No. I'm not a revolutionary. What I am is a nihilistic anarchist who lives on residuals.

The Osterman Weekend definitely wasn't the high point of Peckinpah's career as a director, but as his final work, it wasn't such a bad note to go out on.

Useless Trivia Update: Before he died, Peckinpah directed a couple of music videos for Julian Lennon, "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes".

Zombies for Carter

Sure, George Romero is a dirty commie who has a sense of irony more akin to a polemcist's dull, rusty, machete than a satirist's clean, razor sharp, ceramic knife. But why fight about the sixties when there are more exciting horror franchises to parse?

Breaking Bad. Season 1, Episode 4, "Cancer Man."

The cutaway gag at the start of Breaking Bad was a nice homage to Bryan Cranston's work on the sitcom Malcom In The Middle. After Hank has finished briefing the other DEA agents about a new, intelligent, drug kingpin selling crystal meth, the viewer is treated to a brief shot of Walter brushing his teeth at home. The criminal mastermind has to put his pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us.

After the brief visual gag of the show's opening, the mood becomes much more serious as Walter informs his family and in-laws about his lung cancer. As a counterpoint to the main storyline, Jesse spends time detoxing with his family after a crystal meth binge.

It's the first time that I realized that Walter wasn't the only sick individual on the program. Jesse's addiction to crystal meth is a sickness as well, one that got swept aside by the black humor of the odd couple dynamic between Jesse and Walter in earlier episodes.

What makes Walter tick has been carefully delineated over the course of the last three episodes. The fourth installment of this series makes me wonder what motivates Jesse. For now, the most logical explanation for his actions is unfortunately the most blunt one: he is a spoiled, lazy, middle-class brat playing gangster in the suburbs of Albuquerque.

The night before his parents kick Jesse out of their home, he looks wistfully at some sketches he'd done at an earlier age. One of them was done on the back of a test Walter had given him in high school. Walter had given him an "F" and written words to the effect that Jesse should learn to apply himself. No surprises there; Jesse work ethic in high school and as an adult leave a lot to be desired.

The surprise comes later when Jesse's parents confront him about a marijuna cigarette the maid found in the house, and ask him to leave. It is revealed that the drugs belong to Jesse's younger brother Jake, and Jesse destroys the cigarette when his brother asks for it back. As Alan Sepinwall points out in his post, it's the first time the audience has ever seen Jesse do something that was sort of decent.

In previous posts, I've wondered if Walter will sink lower or continue to tread water as the series progresses. Another question worth considering, however, is whether or not Jesse will stop sinking and learn how to tread water under Walter's tutelage. While he may never enter rehab, if next weeks preview is any indication, Jesse just might be willing to learn enough chemsitry from Walter to make crystal meth. It's a start, I guess.

Alexandria, VA Man Loves Wife

Local resident Mark Guppy is very much "in love" with his wife, a very happy Guppy reported this Thursday. "It's true. I love Lisa very much," said Guppy, "I don't know what I'd do without her."

The thirty-three year old unemployed paralegal said he first met Lisa Raiti when they were teaching in Japan. "My friend Darren Pickett had started a book club. When I first met Lisa, I wanted to ask her out, but I assumed she had a boyfriend."

Both Guppy and Raiti dropped out of the book club, but had another chance meeting on an outing with some friends. "It was the first time I'd really been able to talk to Lisa outside the book club. I thought we had an amazing chemistry right from the start."

A whirlwind courtship ensued. Less than a year later, on December 28, 2005 Guppy proposed to Raiti while they were visiting friends and family in Washington, D.C. "It was like a dream come true," said Guppy, "I couldn't believe it when she said yes to me."

"All I could think about when I was working or at home was when I would see Lisa next," said Guppy, "I was so happy when she moved in with me before we left for Japan."

The two were separated for five months while Guppy applied for his K-1 fiance visa. "It was hard being separated from Lisa. When we'd speak on the phone, I'd try and keep her on the phone longer. I'm not much of a phone guy, so I knew she was the one!"

The two lovers were reunited on New Years Eve, 2006. "My heart skipped a beat when I saw her at the airport. I still get goosebumps every time we drive by the airforce memorial. It was the first DC landmark we saw together on the drive home."

On February 18, 2007 Lisa and Guppy were married at the restaurant 2941, in Falls Church Virginia. "It was the happiest day of my life," said Guppy, "And I would do it all over again. I love you so much sweetie!

Lost. Season 4, Episode 3, "The Economist".

Sayid's flashbacks had become a form of torture very quickly on Lost. I've never liked Sayid. While I think a Middle-Eastern character who is not a terrorist adds a nice little twist to the stories, I think some more thought could have been put into his backstory. Despite his military background, a former Iraqi soldier (check out the second definition of death blossom on the Urban Dictionary) is the last person I'd trust with a gun. That, and the fact that Sayid is a supposedly sensitive, intelligent, torturer - which is nothing more than a contradiction in terms.

Despite his redundant flashbacks and unsavory background, I did enjoy this Sayid-centric episode of Lost. Playing up the suave aspect of the character was an interesting angle, and makes him more sympathetic than the whole sadistic thug with a heart of gold routine. Sure, he's still a murderous psycho, but he does have a way with the ladies. And since he's working (willingly, albeit reluctantly) for Ben in the future, it's an ominous twist. Cue the music from The Twilight Zone.

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I woke up this morning sweetie, I realized why this Valentine's Day is so special. This isn't your typical, run of the mill, Valentine's Day, oh no. This ain't yo mama's Valentines Day. No baby cupids for us - our mascot is an extreme sports playing, steroid popping maniac, with bulging pecs and biceps, a big hairy beard, a throbbing vein in his forehead, and those Oakley shades, you know the ones that look really futuristic, the kind that cyclists like to wear. It will be a Valentine's Day to remember! With lots of exclamation points!!! It's our first Valentine's Day together as a married couple - I'm anxiously awaiting your return home tonight. I love you so much!!!

Bill Maher, Weirdo (But Still Funny)

P.J. O'Rourke was on Bill Maher's Real Time again, so I had to tune in and catch his appearance. At one point, Bill Maher really went off the rails and started talking about how antibiotics and pharmaceuticals were essentially poisons. Jonah Goldberg, Matthew Dowd, Bob Costas, and P.J. O'Rourke were all stunned.

In a remarkable display of bi-partisan unity, they tried to get Maher to explain his opinions, and when that didn't work to try and get him off the subject. It was not unlike one of those little "cutaway gags" that frequently appear on Family Guy. Maher couldn't have been any weirder if he took out a pistol and shot Jonah Goldberg in the head.

You'll have to pry my disposable cardboard speakers from my cold dead hands...

Lisa kindly brought to me attention an interesting article about my favorite Japanese department store, Muji. It explains the bizarre indifference of the Japanese to this retail phenomenon. According to this post, the customer service at the Muji department store in New York is every bit as good as it was in Osaka.

Breaking Bad. Season 1, Episode 3, "...and the Bag's in the River."

The flashbacks used to bookend the latest episode of Breaking Bad were an excellent way of underlining the dark moral compass at the heart of the series. A series of shots featuring a younger, hairier, and bearded Walter solving a chemistry problem are interspersed with shots of an older, less hirsute, and mustachioed Walter cleaning up last weeks mess. Walter 1.0 is figuring out the percentages of the different chemicals that make up the human body, but he can't make it add up to one hundred percent. He says:

There's got to be more to a human being than that

There is an almost immediate cut to a shot of Walter 2.0 flushing the remains of one of the drug dealers down the toilet. Nihilistic? Maybe, but I think the ultimate fate of Krazy-8 points in a somewhat different direction.

Krazy-8 is still a prisoner in Jesse's basement. Walter's decision to kill Krazy-8 is one of the main narrative threads in this episode. When Walter finally kills Krazy-8, he does not come across as any less sympathetic. Circumstances, and Krazy-8's own actions force Walter to do what would have been unthinkable last episode. Close to the end of the episode, Walter is parked on the freeway, contemplating what he has done. Cue the final flashback of the episode, and Walter's female lab partner reveals what he has forgotten in his breakdown:

What about the soul?

Walter is, or was essentially a good person who is now in over his head. It remains to be seen whether he will sink further or possibly tread water (morally speaking) in future episodes.

So far, the only chink in the armor of this series are the minor characters. Neither Skyler (Walter's wife) or Marie (Walter's sister-in-law) are all that interesting as characters. There is an attempt to add depth to Marie by revealing that she is a shop-lifter, but with the exception of Hank, Walter's DEA brother-in-law, none of the supporting characters are all that memorable in the way that the characters on Weeds or The Sopranos are.

The ending of this episode and next week's trailer indicate that Walter will be telling Skyler about his lung cancer diagnosis. It also looks like Hank and his partner, Gomez, will be more prominent in future storylines. Walter is struggling to keep his head above water, but it looks like the storyline is moving with a very impressive front crawl.

Lost. Season 4, Episode 2, "Confirmed Dead".

Poor Ben. I know Benjamin Linus is supposed to be evil, but I can't help but feel sorry for him as he has been consistently getting his ass kicked. I'm surprised Sawyer hasn't already used the obvious nickname for Ben, which would be "punching bag".

Lisa and I both chuckled when Sawyer addressed Locke as "Colonel Kurtz". If they ever remake Apocalypse Now, I think Terry O'Quinn would outshine Marlon Brando in that role, if his performance in Lost is anything to go by. I thought the writers were laying it on a bit thick with the religious imagery.

Locke as Colonel Kurtz is one thing, but Jesus Christ? When Locke came back from the dead it really tested my faith in this series. Now the writers are just hitting the audience over the head with the biblical allusions. Did Sawyer really have to play the role of doubting Thomas as Locke showed off the physical evidence of his near death experience?

The movie references for people in their thirties continued at a fast clip in this episode. Lisa spotted the first one, when Miles Straume opens the trunk of his car. It was an obvious homage to Pulp Fiction. Myles Straume's little scam is equal parts Ghostbusters and I suspect Frighteners. There was one final shout out that I spotted: Tunisia, where Charlotte's flashback occurs, was the location where the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars were shot.

The flashbacks in this episode were interesting, and unlike the flashbacks in past seasons, actually helped advance the plot. I understand what functions Miles, Daniel, and Frank might play in future episodes, and I understand what function Naomi served. However, I'm baffled as to what role Charlotte might play.

Charlotte discovered the polar bear skeleton with the Dharma collar in the desert, but how the polar bear got there is something Daniel would probably be better suited to explaining. Actually digging up the bear, well, anyone could do that. Is she meant to act as some sort of forensics investigator?

Ben might be able to shed some light on these questions, as he seems to know everything there is to know about Naomi and her team. In the final scene, Ben promises to answer any questions that Locke and the other survivors have. I feel sorry for Ben - I suspect that a game of twenty questions will quickly turn into twenty ass whuppings next episode.

From Watson and Crick to Beavis and Butthead

Idiocracy. Directed by Mike Judge. Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, and Dax Shephard.

Idiocracy, not unlike The Big Lebowski is one of those films that gets better every time the viewer watches it. I'll watch it on cable, and every time I see it I'll notice something different, whether it's the fact that everybody wears Crocs, or that President Camacho has to read the interjection "shit" off his teleprompter.

One thing that really strikes me about the movie is the following line, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." When I first saw the movie, I thought it was a very funny throw away line. After having seen the film, uhm, a half dozen times, I've come to the conclusion that the line has a much deeper resonance within the film.

By failing to reproduce, the hapless yuppie couple opt to "get out of the way", and the army officer mimicking Upgrayedd's (a pimp) behaviour has chosen to "follow". As for all those stupid people? Well, they've chosen to "lead" if the search for ways to prolong erections and promote hair growth is any indication.

However, I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a "feel-bad comedy". Sure on one level, it could be considered a film about the abnegation of any sense of social responsibility by the elite. However, the film's protagonist, Joe Bauers is average in every respect, manages to get the ball rolling by showing a little initiative.

At it's heart, it's a fundamentally egalitarian message. More often than not, hustle trumps skill, and a little bit of initiative at the most basic level can make a world of difference.

Evil Genius, Or Dumbass?

This morning, I watched Breach. Robert Hanssen, the evil criminal genius in the film, hides the money from his nefarious scheme under the floorboards of his house. It was a little disappointing to see that, and it was kind of like Hannibal Lecter saying he'll eat your liver with fries and a Diet Coke.

Cocksure

Elyse Friedman is evil. Funny, but most definitely evil. And not funny in that Rita Rudner, "Men never ask for directions when driving" way. I mean funny in the Sarah Silverman, "I'm fucking Matt Damon" way. I just finished reading her new collection of short fiction, Long Story Short.

Consider the following exchange from "Wonderful", as a satanic version of the angel from It's a Wonderful Life tries to convince George to kill himself:

"Oh." George stopped to catch his breath. "So, he'd still be around to rescue that pregnant woman when the time came?"

"Right. But it's not such a good thing. George, truth be told."

"How can you say that!?"

Terrance waved his hands and they were alone again in the dark park. "That woman's son is going to grow up to be trouble George. A pack of trouble. He's going to sexually assault more than a dozen women, and kill two of them before he's caught."

"No!"

"Yes. I'm afraid so. Now, had you been born and failed to save your brother, that would've made quite an impact on a number of lives."

Twisted? You bet. Funny? Damn straight! I haven't laughed this hard since I saw Juno.

Southern Comfort

Breaking Bad ran repeats during the Superbowl, so I'll link to my previous posts on Breaking Bad here and
here. I used that time constructively, and finished reading No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.

I had seen the film adapatation of No Country For Old Men a few months ago, and liked it so much I thought I'd give the novel a try. Like other Southern writers, McCarthy's fiction can be either hit or miss. Well, to tell you the truth, while I've enjoyed my share of William Faulkner and Walker Percy - for entertainment and self-improvement purposes - I've never gotten much more than a page or two into one of McCarthy's novels.

All that changed when I read No Country For Old Men. I can finally say I've read a Cormac McCarthy novel, and it wasn't bad. In fact, it was surprisingly good, given what I little of McCarthy I had read before. From what I can remember, McCarthy used to have a much more...wordy prose style. McCarthy's prose is pared down in No Country For Old Men, with dialogue that would make Ezra "Less is more" Pound proud:

Who.
This guy.
Yes. I did. At one time.
What's his name.
Chigurh.
Sugar?
Chigurh. Anton Chigurh.

Again, I've just paged through McCarthy's other novels, so I'm skating on thin ice here, but with the dialogue serving as a substitute for a lot of dense exposition, it makes for a much faster and more enjoyable reading experience.

How much did I enjoy this novel? I'll never get through his earlier novels like Blood Meridian, but after I've finished reading Long Story Short and Apathy and Other Small Victories, I'll give McCarthy's novel The Road a chance. If it's even half as good as No Country For Old Men, it'll be worth reading.

Lost. Season 4, Episode 1, "The Beginning of the End".

After watching last nights episode, I don't feel confident about making any specific predictions about the direction of the plot, or the fates of any characters. However, I do have a theory about Jack's beard in the flash forwards.

I suspect that th full on beard we saw Jack sporting in the finale of Season 3 represented a climax to Jack's problems off the island. I suspect story arc (or arcs) will mirror the growth of Jack's beard. In the first episode of Season 4, "The End of the Beginning", Jack is just starting to become unhinged, and the beard is in a stubbly phase.

Once Jack has hit the full on "weird beard" phase, his problems (and probably that of the other characters who escaped from the island) will have reached it's inevitable climax.

As soon as Jack shaves the mighty man moss from his face, it will signal his resolve to solve the problems and confront his father, the island, the magic turtle, or what have you. A group of characters lead by a clean shaven Jack will then try to resolve or change the aftermath of the groups "rescue" from the island.

I liked this episodes focus on Hurley. Jorge Garcia is great as the comic relief, but he also plays the dramatic moments really well. Frequently, Garcia can deflect attention from the other actor's weaknesses. Matthew Fox can be a little too mopey and serious, but when Fox and Garcia play horse together, that godawful seriousness was leavened somewhat by the distraction of the game.

The pacing of this episode was right. It looks like some sort of rescue is imminent, but it's hard to tell how long the writers plan to drag it out. Of course, it could all be a false start, and the real rescue won't even begin to happen until the middle of Season 5, but it looks like I've started another line of futile (and ultimately unresolvable) speculation.