No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt. ~Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
No, it’s not the end of the world. The Colts lost to the New Orleans Saints in a game they should have won. But they didn’t. Heroes sometimes fail. What makes them heroes is that they get back up, dust themselves off, and reenter the fray.
There’s a lot of vitriol behind bandied about this morning, much of it directed toward Peyton Manning, whose 4th Quarter interception put an exclamation point on the Saints’ first Super Bowl win. Anyone who would point their finger solely at Manning doesn’t understand the game of football… There’s plenty of blame to go around, though I’m sure that Peyton is shouldering the brunt of it. Truth is, Reggie hung Peyton out to dry on that play. His job is to cut underneath the defender and shield him from the ball. He misread the play. Pick Six for New Orleans.
There were a lot of positives in the game. The running game was outstanding. Peyton delivered some beautiful passes throughout the night. The offensive line did a great job of protecting the quarterback. The Defense played a phenomenal first half and had a fourth down stand on the goalline that was truly epic. And Dwight Freeney manned up and brought it, registering an awe-inspiring quarterback sack that made Drew Brees look like little more than a ragdoll.
But there were too many missed opportunities.
Too many loose balls left on the field.
Too many dropped passes.
A mishandled onside kick.
A missed field goal.
Added together, these missteps resulted in a check mark being placed in the loser column. But heroes rise up and dust themselves off, and next season we can begin the slow and steady climb once more in an attempt to reach the pinnacle of this great sport.
Super Bowl 45.
I’m calling it now.
Colts by 17.
***
You can preorder a copy of Bob Freeman’s Occult Detective collection from Bandersnatch Books, That Olde Black Magick — featuring Special Agents Wolfe & Crowe, Landon Connors, Father Rainey, and more — by emailing Rich and Scott at preorders@bandersnatchbooks.com.
An excerpt from DESCENDANT by Bob Freeman,
coming in August from Belfire Press
Betty gasped as Dr. Strunk hurriedly withdrew, fumbling with his pants that were all a jumble around his ankles. “I, uh… we were just…” the doctor stammered. He had his pants up and snapped, though his fly was still open, a bit of his shirt sticking out like a turtle’s head, curious as to what was about. He glanced toward Betty who had sunk back into the shadows, embarrassed and ashamed, he imagined. “Who…?”
“I understand that I might reacquaint myself with some of my dear and departed friends here,” the dark figure said, calmly. He walked along slowly, at home in the shadows. Strunk got the sense that he wasn’t using them as concealment… more like a lover, weaving in and out of the darkness in a perverse mockery of foreplay.
“I’m afraid you’ve come at a bad time, perhaps you could call and…”
“What’s this?” the figure said, ignoring the doctor. He picked up the book from the desk and turned it over in his hands. “The Other Bible,” he read, “edited by Willis Barnstone. Not the best collection of Apocrypha or Pseudepigrapha, but he did try. Have to spread the love, right?”
“Please, if you could just…”
“Let’s see,” the dark one continued, flipping through the pages, then pausing. He cleared his throat, “You were in Heaven but the mysteries were not revealed to you. You knew worthless ones, and in the hardness of your hearts you revealed these to women, and through these secrets women and men work much evil…”
“Please…”
“No light reading for you, huh Doc?”
“What do you want?”
“Oh, I think you know, Doctor Strunk,” the dark figure said. He returned the book to the desk and began walking toward the shrinking coroner. “I think you know.”
I had planned to blog about Fringe: Jacksonville and Supernatural: The Song Remains the Same today, but an email from Belfire Press has changed those plans. The publication of my Occult Detective novel, Descendant, has been moved up from September to an August release date and they’ve requested the completed manuscript to began the arduous editorial process. So I need to spend the weekend poring over it one last time before dropping it into their very capable hands.
I will, of course, keep you updated on any and all developments as Belfire Press and I prepare to deliver to you this exciting glimpse into a world of magick and wonder, of gods and devils, angels and demons, and all manner of things that go bump in the night.
***
You can preorder a copy of Bob Freeman’s Occult Detective collection from Bandersnatch Books, That Olde Black Magick — featuring Special Agents Wolfe & Crowe, Landon Connors, Father Rainey, and more — by emailing Rich and Scott at preorders@bandersnatchbooks.com.
“Yes there are two paths you can go by
but in the long run,
there’s still time to change the road you’re on.” ~Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
Where to begin? It’s been a long hiatus filled with anticipation and conjecture… and yes, a little bit of fear. So many things could have gone wrong. As the fractured LOST fan base struggled with the revelations and implications that Season 5 wrought my mantra had always been, “In Darlton I Trust”. My faith, it seems, was not misguided.
Once again, the producers have delivered a complex narrative structure that compliments the characters and the show’s intricate mythology. From flashbacks to flash-forwards to time travel, each narrative device has served the story well, and now we get flash-sideways. Taking a page from Abrams’ Fringe, LOST has presented us with two realities being played out side by side. In one, we see what might have been. In the other, we see what came to pass.
In the realm of theoretical physics and parallel universe cosmology, it is important to realize that one is no more valid than the other. This isn’t a case of a real versus alternate reality — and seeing as how both are fictional the point is mute anyway — but an opportunity to see how these two worlds are both similar and different. I expect that there will be a convergence of the two at some point and I’m presuming that Jacob’s reading of Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge last season is a clue to just such a thing.
The timeline in which Oceanic 815 didn’t crash was interesting, with plenty of nods to the characters we became invested in during the first season. The interactions between these characters were carefully constructed with well placed winks and nudges along the way. Everyone’s been reset to their original iconic archetype, with a tweak here and there. It was a fun way to reintroduce everyone to what these people were… but don’t be misled into thinking these sideways glimpses through the looking glass don’t matter. I believe the producers have something up their sleeve and they’re not in the business of wasting our time.
I found the exchange between our resident Man of Faith and Man of Science to be particularly thematic.
John Locke, looking up from his wheelchair, with just a hint of remorse, said to Jack, “My condition is irreversible.” And good old Jack the Dragon Slayer replied, “Nothing is irreversible.”
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
But enough about “the other side” for we will have to be patient to see where Team Darlton are taking us with this narrative journey through the what could have been — should have been — would have been reality… for there were plenty of goings on back on the Island.
Wow. The producers weren’t playing around were they? Excising the mirror reality we are still left with almost too much to ponder. It came at us fast and furious. Team Reset wakes up post-Juliet rock pounding in 2007. Sawyer gets his hate on for Jack and a tender farewell with his lady love. Hurley chats with Jacob. Miles chats with Juliet. Sayid dies and is reborn. The Temple and Cindy and the kids and by Odin’s Scruffy Beard, we’re lost in a world of mental gymnastics and what-in-the-name of pete exclamations.
But never mind all that. Let’s talk Flocke.
How delicious was that? As we surmised, Locke is dead. Long live Flocke… or should we call him the Man in Black, or as was confirmed, Smokey. Can we get a pre-Emmy nod for Terry O’Quinn please? He sold it every step of the way. He relished in his evil… in his cruelty… but I still can’t help but think that somehow Flocke’s not necessarily all bad. There’s a method to his madness. He has a mission and he’s not going to let a little ash get in his way.
A lot of people have been stating that the ash had no effect on the Smoke Monster, failing to save Bram who inscribed a hastily made circle of protection against its ferocious assault. Look again. The ash repelled Old Smokey just fine. Smokey was just smart enough to fling a column at his target, knocking him outside of his little safehaven so he could snatch him up and lay a beatdown on him.
Man, that was awesome. Flocke is a “man” with a mission and the “good” folk at the Temple are scared… Flocke’s coming, kids, and I suspect he’s taking names and kicking much ass in the episodes to come.
So what’s Flocke’s agenda? He states that he wants, “the one thing that John Locke didn’t. I want to go home.” I suspect that “home” is the Temple proper. Regardless there’s a definite sense of this epic feud between Smokey/MIB/Flocke and Jacob being tied up in some sort of “American Gods” meets “Paradise Lost” conflict.
The Guardians of the Temple know what’s at stake and via some old school fireworks signal Richard Alpert and Ilana’s forces of this imminent threat, but as Flocke emerges from the foot of the Statue he commands their attention. “It’s good to see you out of those chains”, he says to Richard before beating him down and slinging the ageless one over his back. He has nothing but contempt for Ilana and the others gathered here.
This is a “man” who has been wronged.
So I’ll sit back and enjoy the twists and turns that the mirrorverse offers, but it’s the Island and Flocke that I’m invested in. This is the mythos writ large on the grandest of stages. The scene is set for the stuff of legends to be born.
LOST’s return has been everything I’d hoped for and more.
I can hardly wait till next week…
As always with LOST, you can expect more from me later as I slowly digest LA X…
Until then… Namaste.
***
You can preorder a copy of Bob Freeman’s Occult Detective collection, That Olde Black Magick, by emailing Rich and Scott at preorders@bandersnatchbooks.com.
“The impossible is possible tonight.” ~Smashing Pumpkins
And the first note in this season’s swan song begins tonight. The anticipation is maddening. For a show with so much mythology and overt themes involving science fiction, fantasy, and even horror, the real crux of the show has always been about the characters.
If you were to ask me what my favorite scene from the previous five seasons was, it would be the moment shared between Sawyer and Juliet just before her tumbling into that great dark pit at the end of last season. It chokes me up every time I think about it, let alone see it again.
That’s what makes LOST work. Yes, the intricate plot and storytelling devices are epic in scope, played against the backdrop of myth and legend, but at the heart of the show are these character defining moments…
There are many revelations ahead, but for the endgame to ultimately succeed it must do so by keeping these characters front and center. The writers and producers have a good track record thus far and so I have every ounce of faith that they will continue to deliver the same quality to the end that they gave to its beginning.
Charlie once asked, “Guys, where are we?”
Tonight that answer will begin to become unraveled.
“There’s no secret back door embedded in there,” Carlton Cuse said. “The story of Lost that we’ve been telling these past six seasons is coming to a close this May.”
Posted in Ruminations on February 2, 2010 by cairnwood
One hell of a way to start my morning. About 6:10, as I made my predawn commute into work, I noticed four deer cross the road ahead of me. They were moving fast and headed across the field and toward the distant treeline. My eyes followed them and then, in a split second, I caught movement to my left. It was a buck, straggling behind the members of his small herd. With no time to react, I hit the brakes and watched as the deer flipped up into the air, somersaulting into the ditch. Pain raced through my injured right shoulder as I gripped the wheel in anticipation of the impact. I came to a stop, grimacing as I climbed out to assess the damage to both van and beast. The buck had a sizable chunk missing from its hind quarter. The van had seemingly minor damage to the left front, the fender being slightly dislodged.
I stood there for a few moments staring at the fallen animal. Being a man my initial thoughts were of food… of how good that deer would taste… especially it’s liver and heart. But I also thought of how fleeting life can be. We’re here for but the briefest of moments and then in an instant we’re gone… dead and broken on the side of the road as our loved ones stand at the edge of the woods watching our soul rise upward and onward into the great unknown.
I said farewell to that noble beast and asked its forgiveness. Our chance encounter ended in bloodshed before the sun even had a chance to rise and christen a brand new day. There will come a day when the sun does not rise for me. But not today. Today, I was the deerslayer.
No, it’s not the end of the world. The Colts lost to the New Orleans Saints in a game they should have won. But they didn’t. Heroes sometimes fail. What makes them heroes is that they get back up, dust themselves off, and reenter the fray.
