Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Boris and Brandi featured on Metromix

We have to wait until tomorrow to see the feature about WRRV's 15th anniversary in the Times Herald Record. Until then, here's a short interview Boris and Brandi did for Metromix:

Q&A With Boris and Brandi of WRRV

Woman in China grows horns!

This 101-year-old woman is causing a stir in China, because she has begun to sprout horns on her head! A horn started growing on her head a year ago and just continued to get bigger and bigger. Now it looks like another one is sprouting up on the other side of her head. Not to worry, this woman isn't the offspring of a forbidden human / goat relationship... it looks like she just has an abnormally large "cutaneous horn" which is a raised growth that can be commonly found on elderly people who have been exposed to radiation.


Lost: Doin' it with the school nurse

Last night we finally got to see which side Ben lands on. Throughout the series, Ben has bounced back and forth from being a hero and a villain... I was rooting for him all along, and am glad he's finally been revealed one of the good ones. As for the rumors of his demise from the previews last week; they were greatly exaggerated.

In the flash sideways, where Jacob has no control over any one's lives, Ben is leading a very similar existence to the one he has in the real "touched by Jacob" world. He's a powerless man who cares deeply for his surroundings (school / island) and wants to do anything he can to protect it. He eventually gets the opportunity to seize power (blackmailing the principal / killing off Dharma), but at the cost of destroying his daughter-figure's life (keeping Alex out of Yale / Killing Alex). In the world untouched by Jacob, Ben makes the right decision and puts Alex's future over his own Napoleon-like desire for power (Catch the not-so-subtle parallel that Ben was teaching the class about Napoleon?). In the end, Ilana forgives Ben and welcomes him to "team Jacob", otherwise known as "the team that was screwed over by Jacob".

Back on the island, we finally catch up with Richard. He's distraught over Jacob's death and feels cheated and alone. We find out he never ages because of a "gift" of eternal life that Jacob bestowed upon him. The gift comes with a crappy loophole, however - you can die if someone else kills you. I'm assuming this is the same eternal life dilly-o that Jacob had before Ben killed him. This eternal life deal shouldn't be confused with what Michael went through before returning to the island and blowing up the freighter. He couldn't die because the island wasn't "finished" with him yet... That's why Jack believes the dynamite didn't kill him and Richard. After his field trip to the lighthouse, he knows the island needs him, and that he's there for a reason.

I was so happy to see everyone together on their respective teams at the end of this episode. If I had to wait a whole other episode to see Jack and Hurley arrive at the beach I would rip my hair out. The "war" that Widmore told Locke was coming to the island is finally starting to begin. Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Crazy Claire and the remaining others are all on team Smoke Monster. The fightin' Jacobs now include Ilana, Miles, Lapedis, Ben, Sun, Jack, Hurley and Richard... Damn, where's Jin? Last we saw, he was with Claire heading to the temple. Since then, he's been MIA. From what I hear, we've got a few more weeks until this is cleared up.

Some things I took notice of this week:

Big news - the island did exist in the flash sideways. Ben and his father did go there, and somehow left. What happened to the island that sent it miles underwater? Hopefully we'll find out in a couple of weeks with the rumored Richard flashback episode.

The Ben parallels between his life and the flash sideways were great. I especially liked the irony that he killed his father with a gas canister in the real world, but in the flash sideways he's using a gas canister to keep him alive.

Nikki and Paulo were actually on the island for a reason? So Miles could read their thoughts and get their diamonds? It's a stretch, and an obvious attempt to say "see, that storyline wasn't stupid after all". Out of respect for an awesomely written Ben episode last night I'm going to just shut up and give the writers this one.

This really bugged me - so why didn't Ben just tell the principal I want you to resign AND give Alex a great recommendation or else I'm telling everyone you slept with the Nurse. Ben had all the cards in his hand and blew it. I know it was necessary for the story to have Ben choose between Alex and seizing power, but that really bugged me.

Here comes Mr. Widmore on his private submarine (what?). Looks like he's headed to the Hydra to catch up with team smoke monster. How did he find his way to the island? What is his plan? Is he the smoke monster's ticket off the island?

I'm sure I missed a bunch... what do you have?