365 Project May 2010
Five months done — almost half way through the 365 Project! I’m starting to regret that I went for a strict framework, only landscape, only iPhone. It’s a limitation and it’s really convenient at the same time. This thing needs to be simple for me to pull through, might go all crazy if I decide to do this all over again in 2011 — iPhone camera apps, Kai’s Power Tools (with lens flare) and all pics in portrait. Anyway, here they are, my daily photos from May 2010:
Link:
My May 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com
LOST: Series Finale – Final Episode Ever
There, the last frame of Lost, ever. Jack on his back in the bamboo just like in the very first episode six years ago. I saw the final show a few hours ago and I was left with a searing headache — not because of all the lose ends and unanswered questions — but because I cried like a woman during all of the “connection”/”flashback” cuts.
Like many viewers I rushed to different reviews on the net to see what others made of it all. About 100 comments in I became really angry and saddened, I felt that people wanted more, a REAL ending — answers! I have no real say in what viewers are supposed to feel or expect. The reason I wanted to hear what others had to say was really about seeing if others had come to the same conclusion as I’ve had:
WARNING! THE REST OF THIS POST MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. WARNING!
I realized something on my way home to see the show today. Something about the title, Lost. I had this strange feeling all of a sudden — it might not be that the characters are missing in the sense of the word. Since English is my second language I had to check Dictionary.com for this one. OK, here goes: NOT “no longer to be found” BUT “having gone astray or missed the way”. Yeah, that’s it. They all needed to make things right in the sideward/purgatory afterlife-reality, learn from their past mistakes, forgive and let go. Jack didn’t have a son, just as Locke pointed out near the very end. No he didn’t, but he needed to see what kind of father he would have been if he ever had the chance — a father figure who’s vastly, if flawed, different from his own dad. Jin got to be a better husband, Claire found out she had a real, loving family and so on. You get the idea.
Polar bears, the Dharma Initiative, giant statues with four toes and electromagnetic fields. These things meant nothing. The plane did crash on the island, the survivors survived, strange things happened. In the end some had died, a handful managed to leave the place and some stayed behind on the island living out their lives. In the show — as in reality — everybody dies sooner or later. The characters who had the strongest, most meaningful relation to each other from the stay on the island met up in limbo after they died. This is my own conclusion and I think it’s pretty solid. When the characters meet up in the “limbo-church”, Kate tells Jack “I’ve waited so long”. Jack, Kate and the others (not THE Others) worked a few things out on their own after death in a sort of purgatory (even though J.J. Abrams said it’s not purgatory — but this was back in 2005 when he also said that the viewers of the show came up with better stuff than the writers) and in the end they were all at peace ready to move on into a glorious cliché of white light. What that light is no one knows. By the look of the stained glass windows in the church, they were in a supermultireligious, anything-goes happy place beyond the imagination of the living.
To be honest, THIS is the last frame of the final episode. It showed up for a few seconds during the credits. Different angles (moving images) of the wreck on the beach. I wonder why they (Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) chose to include these shots. The plane is obviously there, there are footprints in the sand but the place is empty, completely void of people. I better stop, I’m afraid I’m going to start speculating again – I’VE GOT THIS ONE FIGURED OUT! I really do, I think.
UPDATE:
Turns out that last shot of the wreck on the beach was added by ABC as “visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news”. What a crappy move ABC, I’m guessing Lindelof and Cuse feel the same way.
Remix Magic #3 Robyn – Dancing On My Own
Time to start blogging again. No updates for a while — didn’t feel like it. But, I just got news that Robyn posted her new video for “Dancing On My Own” on Vimeo.com three hours ago. I felt I have to post it here and help spread it. It’s also a great opportunity to post one of the amazing remixes that’s been posted on the web, more on that after the video itself.
http://www.vimeo.com/11925060
I like the video and I really like the track, too bad it’s the only track I like on her new album (Body Talk Pt. 1). Just as with Marina and the Diamonds “Hollywood” video Robyns “Dancing On My Own” is slightly different from the single version. There’s a new blippy synth line in the video version and I don’t like it when artist change stuff around — why change something that’s already working? The remixer is another story, he or she is supposed to change stuff around and make the track into something of their own. New York producer Chew Fu made the best remix so far, the track is not that different from the original single version, maybe that’s why I like it. Am I contradicting myself? I hope not. Ah, hell — just listen to the remix and you might understand where I’m coming from; Robyn – Dancing On My Own (Chew Fu Extended Mix).
There are several remixes of the track out there, Google “Robyn – Dancing On My Own (Buzz Junkies Club)”, “Robyn – Dancing On My Own (Rex The Dog Club)” to find a download link.
From Robyns Vimeo.com page: The single is available to download from June 14th (June 1st in the US), with Body Talk Pt. 1, which also includes Fembot and None Of Dem (with Röyksopp), in stores on June 14th on CD and Download, Pre-orders are already available here.
That’s it for now, have a nice weekend!
Links:
Robyn | Official | MySpace
Chew Fu | MySpace | Interview MTV UK
42 Inches Of TV Heaven
Yes, I am the proud owner of a TV again. It was a delayed birthday gift from my mom, hi mom! It’s one of the latest Philips, 42″ LCD TV’s and I’m currently enjoying a complete trial package from the cable provider. God knows how many channels I have at the moment. I’ve been without a TV set for a few years since I gave my last TV to a friend. I live in a bigger apartment now and crouching in front of my (still great) 21″ widescreen computer monitor watching stuff is a bit limiting, to say the least. It worked out great in my previous apartment though. I sat through about 1.000.000 pages on forums before going with the Philips, modern TV devices are new to me and I wanted to know as much as possible before choosing what make and model to go for. I was a bit worried about the blacks and the fact that it’s not 100MHz but the TV is great with pretty deep blacks and the lack of 100MHz is not noticable, at least not to me. I’ve bought a mini displayport to HDMI cable to connect the Macbook to the TV to view content and the TV actually accepts external hard drives through USB (movies, music and pictures), it works pretty well but what I really want is the Boxee Box.
I’ve been running Boxee on my mac for a while now and I love it. Boxee is a software media player that also incorporates a lot of content from the net. There are several alternatives to Boxee, XBMC and Plex (mac only). They are nice but I really like Boxee. All of the media players/streamers are capable of playing video without unpacking the archived files in your downloads folder — saves a lot of time. Boxee is currently in league with D-Link to produce a physical, real box that hooks up to your TV and it will ship with this awesome RF-remote.
The RF part (Radio Frequency) means that you can use the remote without pointing it at the TV and this fact makes it easier and more comfortable to use the QWERTY keyboard on the back of the remote. The Boxee interface is really good too.
It feels snappy and navigating is a breeze, even through my iPhone running the Boxee Remote app. The Boxee Box is expected to be released Q2 2010 and I cant wait. Expected retail price is $200 and that’s on par with the Xtreamer, a competitor with a huge following. So, Boxee, get this device on the shelves or I’m giving my money to your enemy!
UPDATE: New release date is November 2010.
Links:
Boxee
Boxee Remote app for iPhone
Plex
XBMC
Xtreamer
365 Project April 2010
Another small win in my year long 365 Project. I present you with the complete Flickr set for the month of April. I think I’ll be updating the blog a lot more now since I’ve finally set up my work space at home — beats sitting on the floor with the laptop on the coffee table!
Link:
My April 2010 Flickr set at Flickr.com
