T.G.I.F. – Ten Smiles of the Week

Barry Levinson’s great film Diner remains one of my favorite movies, ever. Wonderful cast – Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Kevin Bacon and many more – and although the coming of age story predates my own, I can identify with the feeling of juggling hope and hopelessness one encounters when transitioning into a more responsible life. Music geeks will identify with Shrieve; his obsessive knowledge of the tiniest fragment of information on a record, his frustration when his wife can’t follow his complicated system and misfiles his albums after playing them.

Bacon plays an irreverent, drunken guy who just doesn’t take anything seriously; he’s in it for the laughs. When something great happens, he often declares that it’s the “smile of the week“.

I’ll take a slight liberty with his phrase for my TGIF theme this week and list ten things that brought a smile to my face during a week when I really needed it. So enjoy these Ten Smiles Of The Week…

(01) Australian comic genius Jim Jefferies

(02) Gov’t Mule playing Neil Young‘s Rockin’ In The Free World

(03) What Tina Fey really said during the Mark Twain Award ceremony.

(04) Rich Vos killing at the Jim Florentine Roast

(05) The Futon Critic‘s list of remaining TV episodes.

Great album!

(06) Brendan Benson and The Posies playing “September Gurls”

(07) Newly revised NFL logos (don’t miss page 2 as well)

(08) How to make millions…by farming!

(09) Titus Welliver, who makes any show better just by being in it.

(10) Daniel Stern and Ellen Barkin in that scene from Diner.

Prodigal Sons Return

Come along for the ride

I”m sad to see summer end, and with it a few very enjoyable shows, none more than the off-the-charts comedy Louie. But the sounding of September’s bells also brings the return of the “regular season” shows, those that arc in the familiar Fall time frame. Near the top of my list is the biker drama Sons of Anarchy, which I previously wrote about as the perfect hybrid of a Shakespeare play and a Western.

Last season’s plot featured the dynamic performances of Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins playing against the main cast (strong in its own right with a mix of seasoned veterans and intriguing lesser known actors); frankly it will be hard to top. Creator Kurt Sutter hints that there will be some time spent in Belfast as the Sons pursue the fleeing IRA gun runner, which hopefully means more appearances by his boss, played by the wonderful Titus Welliver. Tonight’s opening salvo also indicated we might get to see more of Jeff Kober (China Beach) whose career has shown he can play twisted as well as anyone.

Even the small subtle parts of this show are top-notch. What other show could sell a version of a Herman’s Hermits hit (“No Milk Today”) as the score for a dramatic montage? But like the best shows (Homicide, The Shield) the use of music has always been a strong suit for SOA; hearing Richard Thompson during the closing scene was icing on the cake.

During tonight’s episode I had a fleeting thought that this was going to be a season where damaged, weepy Jax became a neutered man (hinted at even in the scene where he hesitates when the Sons are headed to the boat launch; Clay asks “Are you with us?”). That chance was crushed like a skull at the end of the show in a shocking and violent scene.

Revenge is a powerful dramatic motivator, as is desperation. When a man feels he has nothing left to lose, who is he? Does he become his purest essence, good or bad? Or does he become merely a vessel for his dominant emotion?

Sutter has just dealt the cards, and once again I’m all in.

Sons of Anarchy official website

Totally Lost

Countless websites have covered Lost over the years, from ABCsponsored summertime diversions to weekly episode reviews to the endless ether aisles of Lostpedia. It’s impractical to follow several religiously, let alone all, but I’ve whittled my list over the years to a handful of worthy places to share my early morning Wednesday coffee.

When I want to validate something I think took place, see an enlarged screen cap of a pivotal moment or research the endless twine linking characters and events together, there are few better places than SL LOST, Doc Arzt’ Blog, Lostpedia , The Tail Section and LostMedia. When I want to read some feedback from fellow show fanatics, I turn to Alan Sepinwall, Maureen Ryan and especially Doc Jensen.

Jeff (“Doc”) Jensen and Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly usually delve into some deep metaphysical wordplay, source countless books and historical events, draw the thinnest of threads into a golden rope and pontificate about ideas so convoluted and outrageous that one could easily contract a migraine just by reading their weekly tomes. Almost instantly, thousands of comments pepper their message board, making it as impossible to follow the reactions as it is to quickly understand their current theory.

But they also give us a weekly video file called Totally Lost that has changed from an initial video podcast version of their column to some of the most outrageously funny stuff on the Internet. And they have really outdone themselves this time, thanks largely to their two special guests Mark Pellegrino (Jacob) and Titus Welliver Smokey/Man In Black/Nameless Brother of Jacob).

Watch Totally Lost…a six-parter this week!

Pelligrino and Welliver get playful discussing their characters in Across The Sea. And after you see What They Died For tonight, join many of your fellow fans online at the sites above to share your thoughts and theories. Remember – you will live together or die alone.

Food for thought…Pellegrino must get confused bouncing back and forth between Lost and Supernatural, since his characters have appeared to be almost polar opposites of good and evil. And as for Welliver – is there a show he isn’t on? The charismatic actor plays recurring characters on Lost, Sons of Anarchy and The Good Wife…none of them particularly righteous, by the way. The man is a busy dude.)

Some fun sites to carry you over until The Lost Weekend:

815 Sentences about Lost

The LOST cast says goodbye to the fans.

Never Seen Lost – Season 6 recaps from a person who…well…never did.

Geronimo Jack’s Beard