American Idol - Top 8

Adam Lambert got something that I can't ever remember seeing on American Idol in all the years that I have watched it: a standing ovation from Simon (grouchy pants) Cowell. I love Simon. I really do, but I do not feel that Adam's performance of “Mad World”, a song you may have heard on Donnie Darko deserved the kudos that it got. And it's not that I think that Adam's untalented. He has a good stage presence that is worthy of a Broadway stage, and that's exactly where I feel that his niche is. He doesn't really seem to be the Top 40 type person, and if you look at the past Idol winner like Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, David Cook and almost winner Chris Daughtry, you will see that American Idol generally tries to reach the mass appeal.
Guys like Conway native Kris Allen, rocker Allison Iraheta, and my fave Matt Giraud are the ones that can make the most of the opportunities that Idol can give them. And I haven’t just jumped on the bandwagon because Kris is from Arkansas. This guy has the talent to make a hit record. If you don’t believe me, grab the iTunes studio recordings of Mr. Allen and listen to how talented he truly is.
I think back to the past winners like Fantasia, Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks and see that the formula doesn't always work. I hope America gets it right and doesn't fall in the Adam trap. I think it will be a disappointment in the end.

How to appreciate Lost

Here is a site that I thought was kinda cute about How to appreciate the show LOST....

http://www.wikihow.com/Appreciate-the-Television-Show-Lost

LaFleur, the Four Toed Statue and Juliet finds her Southern Romeo

Oh my freakin' lord!!!! All I can say is Four Toed Statue!!!! I am so psyched about the newest episode of LOST. The fact that we now know that Sawyer is going by the name of Jim LaFleur is just sorta unusual to me. The name means The flower in french -- ornamental surname borne by servants or soldiers in feudal France, from Old French flor ‘flower’ + the definite article la. Perhaps the most common of the distinguishing names in French Canada, it is associated as a secondary surname with some sixty family names and has been used independently since 1705. It would be nice to know the type of flower he give Juliet. Maybe I will search that soon.

LaFleur/Sawyer, Jin, Juliet, Daniel and Speaks to Dead people (lol, I can never remember his name but it is Miles) are a part of the Dharma Initiative is truly outrageous (yay, I haven't had the chance to say truly outrageous since back in the day when I watched "Gem", ha ha)! It's the 70's, and it's obvious that this is a night where a lot are being revealed. I mean, I figured that this was all gonna happen. I still think that we are gonna see some of our LOSTIEs in the old Dharma videos and such. I am still thinking that

It was great to know that Juliet can deliver babies without killing the moms and children. So, whatever caused the chain of events that prevents those who conceive on the island to bear children has not happened or the chain of events (ie the record) has stopped something that should have caused this to happen.

Faraday seeing young Charlotte was hinted at in last week's episode, so we all knew that this was about to come into play. It is safe to say that the record has to skip again to ever find out the origins of the Others and the mysteries of the island, but we may not know that until next season. It's great that they are finally digging into the meat of the story.

Sawyer and Juliette... hmmmm... not totally surprised there. I'm not really happy about it either. Kate and Sawyer have always been my choice, and before the show is up ... the Quadrangle is gonna get mighty interesting. It was honestly easier to watch them together than I thought it would be. I always imagined that the two of them would make me kinda nauseous, but it's actually not so bad after all.

Here's something I found on the Egyptian cross that Paul wore. The fact that the four-toed statue looked much like an Egyptian statue clued me in that the cross was significant:

Ankh (see also Cross, Knot) The Egyptian crux ansata, or looped tau-cross. This magic knot or cross, known as Nem Ankh, the key of life, was often used in the iconography of opposites. The loop over the tau-cross could stand for the Sun, for Heaven and Eath as the macrocsm and for man as the microcosm. It is generally interpreted as a symbol which expresses the reconciliation of opposites of the integration of active and passive qualities. This is amply confirmed by the fact that, when recumbent, the ankh symbolizes both male and female sexual attributes in precisely the same way as the very realistic Hindo depiction of a Hermaphrodite standing on a Lotus flower. Champdor gives a more traditional interpretation as:

the symbol of the millions of years of the life to come. The loop is the perfect symbol of what has neither beginning nor end and stands for the soul which is eternal because it has sprung from the spiritual essence of the gods. The cross erpresents the state of trance in which te neophyte struggled, or, more precisely, the state of death, the crucifixion of the chosen victim, and in some temples the priests used to lay the neophyte on a bed shaped like the cross... The possessor of the geometric key to the hidden mysteries, of which the symbol was this very looped cross, was able to open the gates of the Kingdom of the Dead and penetrate the hidden meaning of eternal life. Cham, p.22

Gods, kinks and Isis (almost invariably) are depicted holding the ankh to show that they command the powers of life and death and that they are immortal. The dead also carry it at the time their souls are weighed or when they are aboard the Boat of the Sun God, as a sign that they seek this same immortality from the gods. Furthermore the ankh symbolized the spring from which flowed divine virtues and the elixir of immortality. Therefore to hold the ankh was to drink from that well. It was sometimes held upside down by the loop - especially in funeral rites when it suggested the shape of a key and in reality was the key which opened the gateway of the tomb into the Fields of Aalu, the realm of eternity. Sometimes the ankh is placed on the forehead, between the eyes, and then it symbolizes the duty of the adept to keep secret the mystery into which he has been initiated - it is the key which locks these secrets away from the uninitiated. Blessed by the supreme vision, endowed with clairvoyance to pierce the veil of the beyond, he cannot attemot to reveal the mystery without losing it for ever.

The ankh is often set in the same category as the Girdle of Isis, as a symbol of eternity. This is not because its straight lines may be lengthened in the imagination to infinity, but because they converge upon and meet in a closed loop. This loop symbolizes the inexhaustible essence of the life force identified with isis, from whom life flows in all its forms. it is therefore carried by all those who wish to share her life. Hence the ankh may be identified with the Tree of Life, with its trunk and foliage.

The significance of the Girdle of Isis is far more complex. Like ropework or plaited hair round the arms and the loop of the cross, it infuses the concept of life and of immortality with the concept of the knots which tie down mortal life on Earth and which must be unravelled to enjoy immortality. `Free your bonds,' says The Egyptian Book of the Dead, `untie the knots of Nephthys.' And again: `Shining are those who carry the girdle. Oh! Bearers of the Girdle.' The same meaning is conveyed by the Tibetan Buddhist book called The Book of the Untying of the Knots. While the plain looped cross symbolizes divine immortality, sought orattained, the Girdle of Isis makes clear the conditions under which that immortality is obtained - by the untying of knots - dénouement in the true sense of the word.

A Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, translated from the French by John Buchan-Brown, Blackwell, 1994 (the French edition was originally published by Éditions Robert Laffront S.A. in 1969, 2nd ed. 1982)

After that lovely history lesson, I want to talk about my favorite part.

Sawyer's thoughts on lost love .... Sawyer's thoughts to Horace (hmmm, see below for the Egyptian reference to Horus) was one of my favorite moments from Sawyer. Sawyer really made me melt with his thoughts about Kate. He talked about how much he had loved her, though he didn't even mention her name. And now that 3 years had passed, he could honestly say that he couldn't remember what she looked like. Sounds like a con on himself, don't you think? I believe he remembered every inch of her. I bet money that not a day went by, even after he started being with Juliet that he didn't think of Kate. And when he saw her, man, you could see the torment in his eyes. Yes, he has feelings for Juliet and doesn't want to hurt her, but his heart belongs to Kate ... always has and always will.

From Wikipedia:
Horus is a god of the Ancient Egyptian religion, most commonly known by the Greek version Horus, of the Egyptian Heru/Har. Horus was an ancient and important deity. He was also the son of Isis and Osiris. Some details of the character are changed or intermixed with other characters throughout the different dynasties and Egyptian cults and religions. For example, when Heru (Horus) fuses with Ra the Sun God, he becomes Ra-Horakhty.^[1]

The Eye of Horus became an important Egyptian symbol of power. Horus had a man's body and a falcon's head. Horus fought with Seth for the throne of Egypt. In this battle one of his eyes was injured and later it was healed by Hathor. This healing of the eye became a symbol of renewal. Horus united Egypt and bestowed divinity upon the pharaohs who were viewed as incarnations of Horus in life.

Okay, I bolded the statement that says that the healing of the eye became a symbol of renewal. Most episodes begins with an eye. So, what does that mean, hmmmmm??????

The ending of the show was the most anti-climatic ending of the whole series, I believe. How crappy was that! I mean, I love the eye contact and facial expressions from Kate and Sawyer, but COME ON, for the type of beginning the show had to that ending. I was sadly disappointed.

John's Wild Ride

It was fun watching Wednesday night's big epi to see the things that I had been expecting from this season. I finally got to see that Charles Widmore was supposed to be the fearless leader of the Island, but for whatever reason that Ben may have had to get him dethroned, Chuck's mysterious exit led to the rift between Linus and Chuck ...hmmm, there's a Charlie Brown theme in every show ... LOL.
Anyway, Chuck and Linus reminds me of good angel/bad angel, sitting on the shoulder of John Locke. It seems that he is tempted on both sides and has trouble seeing the right from wrong, because essentially, both sides claim to be right. Both sides have their own agenda, their own stake in the Island's future. I honestly think neither one should be on the island again. Send them off to Tunisia to pick sand fleas off each other! :)
Good ole St. John wants to safe the world and kiss the girl, but alas, his girl is apparently six feet under (think that grave is real? ... nah, me neither). There were so many religious references/Narnia references in the last couple episodes. We see the lamp post, the doubting Thomas, the Christ-like individual who is struggling with his impending death/path, and we have the Ice Queen (ha ha, Ben plays that role) and the Devil (b/c Widmore just seems evil to me) both trying to wield their agenda into poor confused Locke's little innocent mind. Sorta just makes you want to shake Locke and say "What the eff are you thinking? Just ask these fools what is really going on since YOU are going to be the one who is going to save them all!!!"
Unfortunately, we can't reach through the screen and pick on poor JL so we will all have to do our best to get by. If JL is gonna play the Savior role, his disciples (both our original Losties and whatever new plane crashed fools we see now) are going to have reconnect, which looked like there was a prelude for next week's episode.
I feel like Caesar, the newest of the new crashie's, looks very much like one of the guys that was in Iraq with Sayid. Does anybody else think that? I am determined to go back and watch the Sayid inspired epi's, do some research and get down to the truth.
For the rest of this week's show, I felt that it was just a rehashing of what we already knew. That was kind of a waste to me, since I feel that they need to spend our time more productively (like learning about the four-toed statue!!!) It's crazy to think that there are maybe 30 or less episodes before the show is completely done. I don't want to admit it or deal with it.

First blog

FIRST off I would like to say that I never have claimed to know everything about the show LOST, nor will I claim that I can remember every single aspect of each season. I do, however, love the show and am trying to find a place to blog about it without giving away any spoilers for those of my friends that may be a few days behind.
LOST has been an instrumental part of my life since the first season, but last year as I faced a horrible divorce and all it entailed, I really became engrossed in all the intricate plot lines and have been searching for answers to the islands mysteries. It has served as a form of escapism and has been so much fun to just let the island carry all the problems away for an hour each week.
I want to work on this blog often in the remaining two seasons, to share my thoughts about what is going to happen.

I hope you enjoy!