Expose

The Filler Episode.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch."  Jack Nicholson

Remember in the middle of the third season of Lost when these two attractive extras were granted a speaking line or two and you wondered who the hell are they and why are they taking up my precious screen time on a Thursday night.  And then you wondered for a second if they were going to become an integral part of the show, a key to a door that held the answer to one of the many mysteries of Lost.  Well maybe you shared these thoughts or more likely you carried on with your life.

Five years ago, when this happened, I was thoroughly absorbed with Lost.   Along with countless others perched in front of the television on this Thursday Night, I became a victim of a dirty trick set by the Lost writing team.  The writers went ahead, and, drum roll, gave them their very OWN Nikki and Paolo centric episode, RIGHT when the season was building towards its final  five episode climax.   They didn't stop there now that they had your attention too! They delivered a perfectly timed, well conceived and in-and-out torturous..dun dun dun.. filler episode!

To make this quick, because I'd rather not think of it.  The plot had nothing to do with the rest of the show and they had the audacity to kill the two characters at the end of the episode.  And those bastards in the writing room, who've successfully detracted your attention for a full hour and offered no light or new perspective into the rest of the Lost universe, were probably laughing their heads off because they made you enjoy it.  I was so angry that when the twist ending happened, I couldn't appreciate the.. *takes deep breaths* well-made episode.  The feeling of reluctant anger brooded within me for a week and then the next episode blew me away and we got right back on track.

Well, Lost is over now after six years, and I miss it, but I live in Hawai'i, so life goes on right ... right? :)  This post wasn't meant to be about Lost, rather, it is a 'filler post.'  Something lighter, after-all, taking it easy and laughing til your stomach hurts are VERY worthwhile pursuits!

In light of recently rewatching High Fidelity, I'm making some conventional and some not so conventional Top 5 lists with conventional and not so conventional selections.  Try posting some of your own Top 5 lists or borrow some of mine!  It's a fun exercise that helps express how you are feeling in the moment.  Even if you don't share them.  

Dream Jobs (realistic or not)

Working as a Park Ranger or Tourguide on the Moon

Pirate, minus the pillaging and plundering - the parrot, beard, life at sea, bartering, and of course, rum.

Landowner, home builder, family man - build good community, own lots of land, have lots of animals, grow lots of edible and medicinal plants and fruit trees.

Cirque du Soleil Trapeze Artist

Film Director and Writer

Working in the wilderness with children, teaching a survival skills class

Head Chef, Co-Owner and Supplyer of Produce for 'The Green House: an Eatery made from Ground Up.' 

(So I went two over.  It's better to dream than not.)

People to share dinner and a movie with

Jenny Lewis (singer)

Penelope Cruz (goddess)

Charles Bukowski (poet)

Johnny Depp (Johnny Depp)

George Carlin or Steven Wright (comedians)

Songs preferred in high quality, high volume speakers

Oh Sweet Nothin'  - Velvet Underground

Uncle John's Band  - Grateful Dead

Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

Octopus Garden - The Beatles

America  - Simon and Garfunkel

You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones

Comfort foods (limiting myself to one food category)

Fresh out of the oven cinnamon raisin bagel with lox and cream cheese

A scoop of vanilla ice cream over a warm brownie drizzled with chocolate sauce.

A slice of New York pizza

Homemade Warm Berry Pie with Lattice Top and Whipped Cream

Good scrambled eggs with onions, meat and potatoes, smothered in cheese and gravy.

Un crepe de gateau. :-)

Places you'd love to Visit

The Pyramids in Egypt

Ireland

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Italy

Milford Sound

Brazil

Ideal places to fall asleep

Beach (sound of the ocean and the stars)

Tree House or Hammock (falling asleep suspending in the air, you know, like an ewok)

Jurassic Park

In the woods by a fire

Warm bed at home

Sensory experiences

Headphones in bed at night, possibly with a single candle lit

The silence and atmosphere at the summit of a mountain on a clear day

Seeing an action film in theaters roughly 12 rows up in a decent-sized stadium seating theatre

Being around a bonfire at night with friends, guitars and drums

Watching butter melt on fresh bread 5 minutes out of the oven, then consuming it!

Impractical Personal Items you Would Love to Travel with

A really nice set of pots, pans, knives, temperature gauges

Bean Bag Chairs

Typewriter

A Library of books (don't feed me the you can carry every book in the world in your pocket bs.  I like to read print, and dare I say the soon to be obsolete lost art of 'handwriting.')

A portable yurt (there's a task for Apple, build a shelter that fits in your pocket)

Poets with an instrument, be-it pen, mind, guitar, what have you.

Jimi Hendrix equipped with a guitar

William Blake equipped with words

Guy Garvey equipped with a voice (Elbow's Lead Singer and Lyricist)

Jack Kerouac equipped with knowledge of how to live

Leonardo Da Vinci equipped with a brain.

Relevant quotes you'd like to share with the 'leaders of the free world'

If we could read the secret histories of our enemies, we shoud find in each persons life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.

What does Marcellus Wallace look like?

What's in store for me in the direction I don't take.

All my answers are prone to change in 5 minutes. I'm not going to revise this, though I might make some late additions.  It turns out this takes a little more time and thought than in the pre-scripted movie.

Stay Tuned for Scenes from Next Week's APW Blog:

WOMAN: You hear that?

MAN: Hear what?

WOMAN: Everything around us, it's beautiful.

MAN: You talkin' birds and traffic and stuff?

WOMAN: Yes, it's always playing, and it's so pretty, even the silence.

MAN: Yeah, it's allright.  I like the sound an inflated balloon makes when you let the air out.

WOMAN:  All the sound in the world is music, one big beautiful melody.

MAN: Yeah, suppose I should pay more attention it. 

*MAN belches, hums a tune, and walks off.*

BOY:  When I grow up, I'm gonna be an astronaut.  I'm gonna go find life in space and trade my skills

as a super-cool spaceman to live with them.

GIRL:  When I grow up, I want to have 12 kids all one year older than the last, and I'm going to cook

all day long and bake the bestest cookies.

BOY:  I'll be a better astronaut than you a cookie baking mom!

GIRL:  I'll bake space cookies that will attack your belly once you eat them.

BOY:  I won't eat your cookies now that you told me!

GIRL:  I'll shove them in your mouth when you're sleeping!

BOY:  I'll learn in space how to build an immunity to dangerous space cookies that attack your belly!

GIRL:  Well, I'll be here, on Earth, building a family and being good to others.

BOY:  I'll be in space, exploring new frontiers, finding how to make mankind better!  

GIRL:  We all play our part.

BOY:   We may as well put on our best performance.