It’s been a sad few days as I’ve come to grips with the ending of LOST, one of my favorite shows, which finished its sixth and final season on May 23rd with a finale almost as epic and infuriating as the series itself.
My relationship with the show has always been personal. It was really the first series that I was old enough to be invested in and appreciate for its entire run, having premiered in the fall of my sophomore year of high school. I was devoted to a number of shows before it - namely The West Wing - but LOST was my gateway drug into the world of grown-up online television analysis, the kind of fannish-ness that moved beyond merely appreciating the show to actually hashing it out every week, looking at the characters’ development and debating the nuances of plot and setting. It was the first show that challenged me to think critically about its themes and about its place in the greater scheme of pop culture.
Every Sunday I post a video, song, image, story or quote that really resonated with me during the week, in the hopes that you might pause to enjoy it, too, before beginning the Monday rush. Responses and suggestions are welcome in the comments! See previous posts here.
There’s a lot - a LOT - to be said about tonight’s series finale of LOST, but instead of my overly-sentimental ramblings, I leave you instead with a look at one of my favorite parts of the show: Michael Giacchino’s score.
“parting words”
Michael Giacchino - who won an Oscar this year for his work on Pixar’s Up - did a lot of wonderful things in the six seasons that he scored LOST, chief among them making the case for the use of legitimate orchestrations in a medium that loves to abuse radio-friendly tunes. Through off-beat instrumentation and slightly varied themes, his music helped to give the series its air of uneasiness, sadness, danger, and hope, and made for a soundtrack that works as both a stand-alone work and as cinematic accompaniment.
This theme played over a mostly-dialogue-free montage at the end of the first season episode “Exodus, Part I”, and showed up consistently in every season after that. It’s deceptively simple, a repetitive theme of strings, barely-there brass and a little timpani that builds and builds to a moving finish. It’s easily one of my favorite instrumental pieces in recent history and a great example of Giacchino’s grasp of the fundamentals of good composition.
This is not my final word on Michael Giacchino’s work (especially on LOST), but until next time, put on some headphones and crank up the volume. You won’t be disappointed.
This week my Twitter feed, RSS reader and blogroll were pretty evenly divided into two camps: The film geeks, who focused their energy on following updates from the Cannes Film Festival; and the TV geeks, who obsessed over the schedule changes, time slot announcements, and trailer reveals that took place at network upfronts. For the first year ever I fell squarely into the second group, which I guess means that I’m officially a TV person. Team Serialized Storytelling ftw!
But anyway.
The Hollywood Reporter’s TV blog, The Live Feed, has an excellent breakdown of all the relevant info from this year’s upfronts, complete with handy charts. Over at Hitfix.com, Alan Sepinwall and Dan Feinberg (probably my two favorite critics) have discussed each network’s programming choices at length. But if all that coverage isn’t enough, my thoughts on the upcoming season behind the cut.
My BFF Chad and I caught the 22nd performance of the just-opened revival of Promises, Promises on Broadway last week. Based on the 1960 Billy Wilder/I.A.L. Diamond-penned flick The Apartment, the show follows the misadventures of Chuck (Sean Hayes), a bachelor and insurance company employee who loans out his studio apartment to the company higher-ups for use in their extramarital trysts. In exchange, he is promised a swift move up the corporate ladder - all the better to woo Fran (Kristin Chenoweth), a waitress in the company restaurant and the proverbial apple of Chuck’s eye. Things get complicated when the company’s personnel manager (Tony Goldwyn), a sexed-up barfly (Katie Finneran), and Chuck’s elderly neighbor (Dick Latessa) get involved.
The original production (headlined by the late, great, Tony Award-winning Jerry Orbach) ran for four years and over 1000 performances, and churned out a few memorable tunes, namely the [mostly ridiculous] “Turkey Lurkey Time”. But it took over forty years before the show was revived on Broadway, and with good reason: It’s kind of a mess.
Thanks to a timely tip from a few lovely bloggers, I was able to nab tickets to a Thursday evening panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media titled “Women and Late Night Television”. My interest in feminism as it relates to media, especially comedy, has been on the rise over the past year, so it felt serendipitous that the event was scheduled for the first night of my most recent weekend trip to New York City.
Co-sponsored by the Writers Guild of America East, the panel featured Ann Cohen (Best Week Ever), Jill Goodwin (The Late Show with David Letterman), Hallie Haglund (The Daily Show), Morgan Murphy (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), and Meredith Scardino (The Colbert Report). Allison Silverman, formerly of Best Week Ever and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, served as the moderator.
The first half of the discussion was geared toward getting to know the panelists. We got to hear a bit about their backgrounds - Scardino worked for a few years as an animator, Goodwin has a degree in business, Cohen is a two-time Emmy nominee - and see clip packages of their work on their respective shows. Then the conversation delved into analyzing the role of women in late-night writers’ rooms. Check out some highlights after the cut!
I’ve had the good fortune to travel fairly extensively over the past few years, so for one of my journalism classes I put together an interactive Google Map to showcase the places I’ve been and things I’ve done. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Every Sunday afternoon I post a video, song, image, story or quote that really resonated with me during the week, in the hopes that you might pause to enjoy it, too, before beginning the Monday rush. Responses and suggestions are welcome in the comments! See previous posts here.
Hey Arnold! S01×02/2 “Field Trip”
Like most kids of the ’90s, I spent an inordinate amount of time watching the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. One of my favorite shows was Hey Arnold!, which aired 100 episodes on Nick between 1996 and 2004. Created by Craig Bartlett (brother-in-law of Matt Groening, the guy behind The Simpsons), the show follows Arnold, a fourth-grader who lives in a brownstone boarding house in the city with his grandparents and a host of other eccentrics. I loved the show as a kid because it was simple and funny and relatable, but I’ve been surprised by how frequently it still pops up in conversation at parties and in classes and just in general, really. Stoop Kid, “Let’s all hold hands/here on the subway”, Helga’s gum-wad shrine, “Wheeeeeezin’ Ed” - this is classic stuff! Seriously, float a HA! reference next time there’s a lull in conversation and see what happens.
Anyway, I stumbled on a bunch of full-length episodes of the show on YouTube this week. As I re-watched them, I thought this one - the second half of the series’ second episode, titled “Field Trip” - really showcased all the reasons why this show was so fantastic. In it, Arnold and his classmates go on a field trip to the local aquarium, where Arnold discovers the much-hyped giant turtle LockJaw has been ignored and mistreated. So Arnold and his [batshit crazy] grandma decide to do something about it. (Ignore the backwards text!)
There are some great one-liners and recurring gags (the security guard cracks me up every time), but the best part is the section from about 3:35 to 5:20 when Arnold, wracked with guilt, starts to see turtles everywhere. There’s a melancholy in that sequence (and at other moments in this episode) that I could really connect with as a kid, and that realistic quality gave the show a depth that most other cartoons of the era couldn’t match.
Every Sunday afternoon I post a video, song, image, story or quote that really resonated with me during the week, in the hopes that you might pause to enjoy it, too, before beginning the Monday rush. Responses and suggestions are welcome in the comments! See previous posts here.
James Tissot’s “London Visitors 1874″
I discovered this oil painting by French realist James Tissot on a senior-year art class trip to the Toledo Museum of Art* and to this day it remains one of my favorite pieces ever. Tissot experienced a lot in his 60+ years: He fought in the Franco-Prussian War, drew caricatures for Vanity Fair, lost his lover to suicide, and produced a series of 700 watercolor paintings depicting the life of Christ that was exhibited in Paris and London.
London Visitors 1874
I don’t know much (read: anything) about the context of this particular painting, but for years I’ve been captivated by the mystery behind it. Most analyses place the visitors on the steps of London’s National Gallery, looking towards Trafalgar Square, but questions surround the woman’s glance - is she inviting us to join her in the square? Is she amused by her husband’s inability to read a map? - as well as the lit cigar that sits on the steps. It’s an inscrutable vignette, a demonstration of Tissot’s understanding of human mannerisms as well as his own sense of humor, and its mystery and artistry has made it my favorite painting.
*If you live in Ohio and you’ve never been to the Toledo Museum of Art, make it a point to visit as soon as possible. The space is beautiful and the docents are super friendly, knowledgeable and excited about the art. Plus the museum offers great tours, live music, and art classes for all ages. And the gift shop is sweet.
Well, three years into my undergraduate career at Ohio University I finally made the time and effort to take part in the annual Athens International Film + Video Festival. Started in 1974, the seven-day fest brings in feature-length and short films from around the world for both competition and exhibition. Tickets are free for students (thanks to a few generous sponsors, including Arts for Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts) and my schedule was open, so I was all over it this year. Below are my thoughts on the six films I saw in the order in which I saw them.
Fish Tank (2009, UK) dir. Andrea Arnold, starring Katie Jarvis and Michael Fassbender
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia and her impoverished, broken home when her mother brings in a new boyfriend. Made my heart hurt and my jaw drop - it’s gritty realism at its best and most heart-wrenching. Katie Jarvis is a revelation, and her performance is even more amazing given that she was apparently discovered on a train platform where she was, ironically, arguing with her boyfriend. My favorite of the fest. Must see.
The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009, USA) dir. Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
The story of a former Pentagon insider’s quest to end the Vietnam War with a little help from a file cabinet full of classified documents. This doc leans heavily on the side of hero-worship when it comes to Ellsberg’s life, but overall it’s a great primer on the impact of the Pentagon Papers on American politics, journalism, and anti-war efforts.
The Secret of Kells (2009, Ireland) dir. Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey, starring Brendan Gleeson and Evan McGuire
Brendan’s life inside the walls of his uncle’s abbey is overshadowed by fear of barbarian raids until the arrival of an infamous illuminator and his magical unfinished book. A simple, quiet film elevated to dizzying heights by its breathtaking 2D animation. Every frame is a feast for the eyes.
Kynodontas (Dogtooth) (2009, Greece) dir. Giorgos Lanthimos, starring Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni, and Hristos Passalis
Under the tyrannical rule of their parents, three teens are raised in and confined to the walls of their country estate with no knowledge of the outside world until a stranger puts them on a path to self-destruction. An intensely weird, disturbing, darkly funny film. Certainly not for the prudish or feint of heart, and perhaps best viewed in the company of an open-minded audience, but still so, so good. Must see.
Ajami (2009, Israel) dir. Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani, starring Ibrahim Frege and Shahir Kabaha
Lives and stories intertwine to disastrous effect in one mixed-religion neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Surprisingly moving and complex - the thinking man’s Crash.
My Neighbor My Killer (2009, USA/France) dir. Anne Aghion
The people of Rwanda attempt to reconcile after the genocide of the 1990s through an open process of admission and forgiveness. As a glimpse into the thought processes of people affected by genocide, it’s fascinating and at times almost poetic; as a film, though, it suffers as a result of rudimentary camera work and a lack of narrative cohesion. Worth seeing for the discussion it provokes, not so much as a work of entertainment.
Did you make it to this year’s film festival? What did you see? What did you like? Let me know in the comments!
Every Sunday afternoon I post a video, song, image, story or quote that really resonated with me during the week, in the hopes that you might pause to enjoy it, too, before beginning the Monday rush. Responses and suggestions are welcome in the comments! See previous posts here.
Sarah Hughes, 2002
You may recall then-16-year-old American Sarah Hughes‘ domination in figure skating at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, but if you haven’t re-watched her long program since then, you should give it another look. There are so many good things happening here: The routine itself is solid, the music (a selection of Rockmaninoff pieces) is gorgeous, and Hughes is relaxed, fluid, and at the top of her game. The real highlight, though, is her joy as she realizes she’s nailed it. The build-up towards the end of each routine is the scariest part of watching the Olympics for me (WHAT IF SHE SLIPS? WHAT IF SHE FALLS?), so to see it pay off so well for someone so young is just awesome, even in hindsight.
I also want to point out CBC’s camerawork in this clip. It’s seriously such an excellent example of unobtrusive, complementary live coverage that it puts our current sportscasters’ love for close-ups and quick cuts to shame. Look at the movement at 2:35, and the framing at 3:15. So good.
LAURA, 21, is a journalism student and entertainment enthusiast from ohio. her favorite color used to be green, but now it's yellow. you can read more about her (and about this site) by following the links below.
