Saturday, February 20, 2010

Overheard...

... this afternoon at the swim-up pool bar at the resort in Mexico where we're staying.

Drunk guy: SO WHERE ARE YOU FROM?!

Not-as-drunk guy: Germany.

Drunk guy: WHERE ARE YOU FROM IN GERMANY?

German guy: Dusseldorf.

Drunk guy: DUSSELDORF? ISN'T THAT WHERE HARRY POTTER IS FROM?!

[beat]

Drunk guy's drunk friend: Dude, you're thinking of Dumbledore.

20 comments:

JennM said...

Bwah haha! That's too funny!

I overheard someone the other day say that Lost was like Gilligan's Island, but with time travel. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from telling them that Sayid has yet to build a radio from a coconut. :P

Hope you're having fun on your trip

VW: coment. Well, that's what I doing isn't it? Gosh blogger, stop being so bossy! (Oh, and learn how to spell) :P

Joan Crawford said...

Yay! Hope you're having an amazing trip :D

When I was in Iceland a Viking said to me "Why does someone from Canada come to Iceland? What, it's the warmest island you could think of?"

And then he had me drink "black death" out of horn.

Erin {pughs' news} said...

Ha! I love it.

Jealous about the swim-up bar. Good think I love you, Nik, or else I might have to hate you.

The Question Mark said...

As Bumblebee Man from the Simpsons would say: "Aye aye aye!"

Are your Mexico travels taking you to a little place called Xelha, by any chance? I hear there's some wicked old Yucatan ruins around there.
At least, I THINK they were Yucatan...

Unknown said...

Ahahaha...Oh wow...

Ali Bags said...

Hope you're enjoying Mexico Nikki - I just got back from Sri Lanka and have only just watched 'The Substitute' A whole week without internet access was weird (especially considering i spent the first 30 years of my life without it and now a week seems forever) Watching that episode after travelling all night was not such a good idea - my brain now hurts and as Locke would say 'we''ll have to watch that again'

Fred said...

@Jenn: don't laugh, but LOST really is Gilligan's Island with time travel. Orson Scott Card edited a book called "Getting LOST," wherein Adam-Troy Castro wrote the short essay, "The Same Dammn Island." And actually, Castro makes a pretty convincing argument that LOST really is Gilligan's Island. Check it out, you'll be convinced.

Marebabe said...

I hope you soak up enough rays to tide you over till spring. Cheers!

We're getting a dose of freezing rain right now. Tossing another log on the fire. Dreaming of warm, soft breezes...

Marebabe said...

@Fred: I’d never heard of the Gilligan’s Island theory of Lost. This is interesting, because I’ve just spent a couple hours today reading Vozzek69’s new book, “Things You Never Noticed About Lost”. Near the end of it, he talks about various theories that are out there, including Lost as a video game or virtual reality experience. He even makes a comparison to paintball war games. Anyway, the idea of some god-like gamer running scenarios and messing with people’s lives helped me formulate my brand-new “Duck Amuck” theory of Lost. To see what I mean, pop on over to YouTube and type in “duck amuck 300”.

I never realized all the parallels between Lost and this classic Warner Bros. cartoon. Briefly: there’s a farm setting (Ray in Australia, and Iowa); a scene in the frozen north (polar bears, evil Canadians, and FDW); a tropical setting (the Island); a mirror; a sea picture (the freighter); TWO Daffy Ducks in the same scene (time travel); a plane crash; an explosion; and at the end, a DEMAND for an explanation! It’s uncanny. All that’s missing is some guns, but the cartoon opens with a little Musketeer-type swashbuckling, and that’s close. ;)

Jazzygirl said...

OMG that is HI-LARIOUS! You should have jumped in and messed with the drunk guys and started spewing a bunch of HP names and stuff. LOL!
Hope you're having a fabulous time. A swim up pool bar is just fan-freaken-tastic!

Fred said...

@Marebabe: Vozzek has his book out? Oh, I will be looking for that. On the web, there is a site, "Lost is a game" which highlights elements from LOST as a game. A similar Matrix-like idea was proposed by Marc Oromaner in "The Myth of LOST". LOST can be read in so many ways--here is one I came up with this morning that I've not yet heard of:

LOST--Jacob raises MiB::parent raises son.

Using metaphors and plot lines, we can cobble together an idea that LOST is about Jacob raising an "infant", i.e. MiB/Smokie.

(1) Moth metaphor--Locke told Charlie he could help the moth out of the coccoon, but it needs the struggle to get strong before being free, or it will die. MiB's existence on the island has been a struggle to get free, and Jacob has really not helped MiB escape. Another similarity is Locke's remark that the moth does not get the respect a beautiful butterfly gets, so equally Smokie does not get that respect.

(2) Claire told to raise Aaron, not let others do so--similarly, if Jacob is to raise MiB, then he cannot let the Others do his job. The Others are there to assist Jacob, but not help with Smokie. In terms of storyline, we have seen how main characters help other minor characters in their youth: Sayid helps his brother, Jack gets beaten trying to help his friend, Kate tries to help her mum, Desmond helps raise his brothers, Ben raises Alex. It may be Jacob's role is to raise Smokie/MiB.

(3) Christian raises Jack by "making a soft metal hard"--"raising" in this case means making something soft harder to take on the toughness of whatever the world throws at you. To do this, Jacob brings people to the island so that Smokie can scan them. Smokie has no experiences of the world, and must learn about it via other people. The people Jacob chooses are troubled, sinful and guilty of crimes. Smokie has a wide set of experiences to choose from (if Smokie is being raised to be an judgemental angel, then he needs to know the character of people). In this case, Jacob becomes a sort of substitute father, and a stern one at that trying to teach MiB not only about the world, but the role of free will, a necessary part of understanding sin/guilt/humanity.

(4) Finally, Desmond says "we're all in a snowglobe"--in a sense the island is a sort of snowglobe to keep Smokie trapped, much as you keep an infant in a crib or playpen.

Now I know this idea doesn't fit all the elements of the storyline, but it is another way of looking at LOST without reverting to seeing it as a tried and true story of 2 antagonists. It also helps tie together metaphorical and story elements, such as children/parents (especially fathers), notions of guilt and character development, references to understanding (Juliet makes such a comment to Jack). I am sure you can run with this idea and see even more. Who knows, it just might turn out to be correct. Also it makes sense of Jacob's response to Ben, "What about you?" Correct, Jacob's only concern is MiB, not the human desires of individuals like Ben.

Rebecca T. said...

hahahahahahahaha!

gotta love overhearing stuff like that :)

Hope you're having a mah-velous time dah-ling....

VW: enizetry - what the poorly accented villain says when then hero nearly catches him.

Joan Crawford said...

In all fairness to the drunkard, the German guy was dressed like this.

http://picasaweb.google.com/118328224551211801096/UntitledAlbum#5440779808784684594

Rebecca T. said...

@Joan: AH hahahahahahahahahahahha!

Marebabe said...

@Fred: Not only does Vozzek have a book out, but in honor of the final season of Lost, he finally made the time to get his very own blog up and running. If you’re a fan of his writing, you’ll love this!

http://www.thingsinoticed.com/

You can get his book directly from him, autographed, no less. And while you’re browsing around his blog, looking at articles, be sure to read the reviews of his book. Various Lost characters chime in about it, in character. “Vozzek? I enjoyed his sodding book.” – Desmond Hume.

And thanks for listing some of the many theories about Lost. Several of them I’d never heard of before.

frecklesnpt said...

I have a lockhorns comic strip on my fridge. Mrs. L and friend are watching Lost and the caption reads "Leroy never watches.. he had trouble understanding Gilligan's Island."

Gillian Whitfield said...

LOL! I'm a Harry Potter nut, so if I was there, I would be laughing so hard.

Hope you're having fun!

VW: Unchocol. A short form for something that doesn't have any chocolate. What a disgrace.

Fred said...

@marebabe:Thanks for the Vozzek site. I tried to get it through Amazon, but they won't deliver here to Canada. Weird. So I went to Vozzek's site to obtain the book.

Shout out to Nikki. Of course, your books are the Bible from which everything else is just Apocraphyl texts.

The thing I was trying to show about LOST is that if you look at it from a different character's point-of-view, then the clues sprinkled throughout the story-arc can be interpreted in multiple ways. I am kinda liking the idea MiB is being "raised" by Jacob--rather than seeing 2 adults, think of it as an infant and adult. Didn't ancient Egyptian kings have visiers or adviors who helped them before they reached the age of maturity? Time will tell, and like as not, I expect to be wrong. But that is the fun of LOST.

bowlhed said...

Hello fellow Losties. Not really relevant to this thread in any way but thought you might like to know that Michael Giacchino, he of the wondrous Lost original score, picked up a Bafta (UK Oscars) last night for his work on UP! Good to see him getting some recognition for his brilliant work ;)

Unknown said...

Note to self: never read Nik at Nite while supervising exams... now all my students think I am more of a nutbar because I just let a mwahaha go.
Very funny!