Lost - The Shape Of Things To Come

Man, there is nothing better than a Ben-centric episode. Every single time the show focuses on the villain Lost fans love to hate we not only find out more about the multi-faceted Benjamin Linus, but also more details concerning the history of Lost’s mysterious island. This episode seems to have really set the stage for things to come this season and in future seasons…we learned how Ben and Sayid ended up working together in the future, we learned that Charles Widmore once controlled the island and that Ben has the ability to call for and direct the Smoke Monster. The episode also had a ton of Easter Eggs including the name and logo on the Dharma jacket Ben was wearing when he first woke up in the desert, the hieroglyphics on the door to Ben’s second secret room and the re-appearance and death of Sayid’s one true love, Nadia.

I’d be remise if I didn’t talk more about what at first appeared to be Ben escaping from the mercenaries by locking himself in his house’s secret room. How cool was it when Ben opened the door to the then unknown second secret room that was attached to his original secret room and called for the Smoke Monster? I guess there really is more to Smokey than we ever thought possible. And the hieroglyphics on the second secret room’s door evidently translate “to summon protection” which seems to be exactly what Ben did. (link)

The biggest question I now have is who set the rules Ben and Charles Widmore seem to be playing by and how far will Ben go to even the score now that his “daughter” Alex has been murdered. At least we now know Penelope will be playing a much bigger role on Lost in seasons to come, which is great because it means Desmond’s story is far from over.

One last note, considering how absent Claire has been all season combined with the fact we know Aaron makes it off the island, is there any question Claire bites the big one tomorrow night? I really hope this doesn’t happen considering how underutilized Emilie de Ravin has been all season, but whenever a character’s storyline seems to have run its course that character is typically killed off relatively soon after.

I’m hoping this is just a ploy to keep us guessing who will be killed off next though, because I had read a few months back that there were big things in store for Ms. Littleton and we’ve barely seen her at all this season. In fact, I think her baby Aaron has been getting twice the amount of screen time she has and he can’t even talk. All should be revealed tomorrow night at 10/9 central, that is if you believe the promos ABC has been running constantly all week long.

The Flash / Barry Allen Returns From The Dead Today After 23 Years

Today the NY Daily News is reporting that “DC Comics is reviving Barry Allen – aka The Flash – the popular superhero killed off by the publisher 23 years ago.” (link) The Flash’s resurrection is part of a new company wide crossover that begins today called Final Crisis and occurs in the final pages of DC Universe #0, which hits stands today.

The Blot honestly never thought I’d be typing those words. You see Barry Allen, DC Comics’ second Flash, sacrificed himself back in 1986 to save the world in one of comics’ most famous issues, Crisis on Infinite Earths #8. Crisis on Infinite Earths, to this day, is one of the most popular, earth shattering comic book mini-series of all time and the death of the Silver Age Flash is one of the reasons for that. What many people don’t realize is DC has had multiple Flashes. The first Flash of the Golden Age is Jay Garrick. Many years later DC introduced Barry Allen as a new Flash, which ushered in the Silver Age of super hero comics and really revitalized super hero comics in America.

After Allen’s death in 1986 his sidekick and nephew Wally West/Kid Flash stepped up and took over his mentor’s role as the Flash. While Barry Allen has made a few appearances over the years in stories where characters have jumped in time, his death has been one of the very, very few to have ever stuck in comics. It seemed like the highest honor the company could pay Allen’s sacrifice by allowing his death to stand for all these years.

To me it’s a shocking move for DC because the character has been deceased ever since I started reading comics. As a comic reader in his late 20’s the only way I’ve come to know of the character is posthumously and the only modern day Flash I’ve ever followed has been Wally West, one of my favorite comic characters. Hearing this news really brings me concern, both for the future of Wally West as the Flash and what the impact this resurrection will have on the character of Barry Allen.

Thankfully the writing of the return of Allen’s Flash is being handled by Grant Morrison (writer of Final Crisis) and Geoff Johns (writer of The Flash), two comic book writers whose works I really enjoy and admire. Johns told the Daily News “when the greatest evil comes back to the DC Universe, the greatest hero needed to return. Without Barry Allen, we’d still be reading comic books about cowboys.” (link) Morrison added that the Flash is “the God of the modern world, people are doing more everyday, moving faster and I think the Flash can be their hero.” (link) As with life things can change in the blink of an eye, only time will tell if Barry Allen’s return is for good or just another publicity stunt to increase readership in a new title…either way it’ll be nice to see one the DC Universe’s central characters running the streets again.

24 Season 7 Cast Photo

Even though we’re still eight months away from the Season 7 premiere of 24, FOX doesn’t want us to forget about Jack Bauer and his co-workers at CTU. To start building hype for next season FOX unveiled a puzzling cast photo which gives away a major spoiler for the season to come. This is the second time they’ve given away this particular spoiler, the first being in a press release before they started filming the seventh season. So, in a roundabout way I guess the 24 Season 7 cast photo really isn’t a spoiler.

But nonetheless I don’t really understand why they chose to blatantly give away this plot point again in the photo. If you hate spoilers then ignore the photo below, but if you love 24 and either already know the spoiler or just don’t care check out the photo below:


By now you should have noticed the return from the dead of CTU agent and Jack Bauer’s best friend, Tony Almeida (actor Carlos Bernard). They’ve been talking about this for a while now, and supposedly the original plan was for Tony to return last season as the show’s main villain. But instead the creators of 24 have decided to announce to the world Tony’s return for next season as one of the main adversaries for Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer.

Tony has always been my second favorite character on 24 (after Jack), and I was pretty annoyed with the show when they decided to kill him off. So in some small way I’m glad he is returning from the dead, even if he is going to be portrayed as a bad guy. What puzzles me is why bring him back at all? The show has always had a strict rule of "when a character dies on the show they are dead for good" and this flies directly in the face of that. I just think bringing Tony back sets a bad precedent and lessens the impact future deaths on the show will have on the television audience. Plus, if you’re going to bring Tony back why put him in direct conflict with Jack? Doesn’t that just mean he’ll probably end up dying all over again?

24 has had a good mixture of meaningful character deaths, but they went a little haywire with this last season by killing off a bunch of characters that the audience never had a connection with. Because 24 has always chosen to kill off main cast members the show seemed to be running on fumes last year and it made it hard for the audience to connect with the new cast. Hopefully Tony’s rise from the grave will mean a return to form for 24 and good things in the season to come.

Jimmy Buffett Live in Frisco, TX at Pizza Hut Park on 04/26/08

After my meeting in Waco on Friday, The Blot headed north to Dallas in order to partake in one of the best pre-concert tailgates in all of music. I might be a tad biased though since The Blot is a bit of a parrot-head. While Jimmy Buffett is an amazing song writer, it’s his concerts that most fans rave about. I know a lot of people think he’s a two song artist, but I think most people would be surprised with how many Buffett songs they actually know if they gave him a listen. He’s definitely one of those artists where you might not know it’s him, but you definitely know his songs.


So last Saturday night Aly and I drove way north of Dallas to Frisco, Texas to see Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band perform at Pizza Hut Park (home of the local Major League Soccer franchise FC Dallas). This was only my second Jimmy Buffett concert, but after listening to his music for years and finally seeing him perform last year in Houston at Minute Maid Park, I wanted to relive the experience all over again.

If you’ve never seen Buffett live you really need to attend one of his shows at least once in your life, even if you generally don’t like concerts. The tailgating and pre-partying starts early in the morning with food, drinking and your basic debauchery going on all day leading up to the show that night. With everyone in their craziest hats, finest Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts and coconut bras, the scene inside the stadium is often as wild as the tailgate outside.


With hundreds of beach balls flying through the air at Pizza Hut Park and more beer and margaritas being sold at a concert than I can ever remember, the crowd was definitely into the show. At some points the show around me was even more entertaining than what was happening on stage, but that’s what's to be expected at a Buffett show. Its not just about the music, but the experience and the party.


While Buffett’s voice is not as strong as it once was, he is just as much of a showman as ever, at one point even pulling Texas native Lance Armstrong on stage. Jimmy, as always, played his most popular songs and closed the night with three strong covers, including one of my personal favorites “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” by Bob Dylan. The only thing I can complain about is that after two and a half hours of performing, the show seemed to have ended way too early. I guess I’ll have to wait until Buffett’s next visit to Texas for a return trip to Margaritaville.

Jimmy Buffett
2008 Year of Still Here Tour
April 26, 2008 - Set List
Frisco, TX - Pizza Hut Park
01. Homemade Music
02. The Tiki Bar Is Open
03. Fruitcakes
04. Pencil Thin Mustache
05. Miss You So Badly
06. It's Five O'Clock Somewhere with Mac McAnally
07. We're Still Here
08. Cowboy in the Jungle
09. Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison cover)
10. Cheeseburger in Paradise
11. One Particular Harbour
12. Creola (performed by Nadirah)
13. The City (performed by Mac McAnally)
14. Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw
15. Come Monday
16. Makin' Music for Money (performed by Nadirah)
17. Piece Of Work18. Volcano
19. Son of a Son of a Sailor
20. Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
21. School Boy Heart
22. A Pirate Looks at Forty
23. Far Side of the World
24. Southern Cross (Crosby, Still & Nash cover)
25. Margaritaville
First Encore:
26. Fins
27. Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 (Bob Dylan cover)
28. Another Saturday Night (Sam Cooke cover)
Second Encore:
29. Stories We Could Tell (John Sebastian cover)

Barney-ism Of The Week

In my experience the way this normally goes is we lie here for a while, make a little awkward chit-chat.

“Check.” - Robin

Then I make up some cabinet meeting, heart surgery, rocket test flight I’ve got to be at, slip out of the apartment
and never call you again.

“And later at the bar you tell your good friend Robin the story of your latest conquest and she thinks to herself who is this sad, self-loathing idiot who climbed into bed with Barney Stinson.” - Robin

Actually, you usually say that out loud.

- Barney Stinson
To Robin After
Sleeping Together

"The Goat"

How I Met Your Mother

I know, I should have gone with Barney’s Bro Code, but I thought this situation/discussion was too funny to ignore. If you want to find out more about The Bro Code check out Barney’s latest blog post here where he goes into great depth about key Articles of The Bro Code.


On a side note, USAToday is reporting that Britney Spears’ return to How I Met Your Mother is official. (link) Britney “will reprise her role as bubbly secretary Abby in the May 12 episode” and the episode sees Abby collaborating with Barney on “their mutual dislike of Ted and acting on it.” (link) I’m guessing from the episode’s description that the bro break-up between Barney and Ted at the end of last night’s episode will not be resolved as quickly as I would have thought. At least if they’re bringing Spears back it sounds like it’s to advance the story line and not just another celebrity sighting for a quick ratings boost.

The Dark Knight Character Promo Posters

I don’t know why this is, but I always seem to post on certain topics in bunches. After posting on the new “Welcome To A World Without Rules” Batman poster yesterday, I stumbled upon these great new The Dark Knight character promotional posters and a UK promo poster of Batman on his new Batpod.


The new three piece poster set features headshots of Heath Ledger as The Joker, Christian Bale as Batman and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, with all three characters holding something up in their right hands covering the right side of their faces. I am assuming the symbolism of the covering of the right side of the characters’ faces foreshadows Harvey Dent’s eventual turn to the dark side as the enigmatic Two-Face.



I’ve been keeping my eyes open for leaked photos of Eckhart as the disfigured villain Two-Face, but the only photos I’ve found has been Eckhart as Gotham City’s mild mannered District Attorney. I don’t know how they’ve kept the Two-Face scene so top secret, but hopefully their hard work will pay off big time when the movie is finally released to theaters.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics - Worlds Collide

Following the success of company crossover fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter in the 90’s, it was only a matter of time until we saw another versus style arcade game finally developed. Now comes news that Midway and DC Comics are joining forces to bring the heroes of the DC Universe and the warriors of Mortal Kombat together for the very first time in the new Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics video game.


As a child of the 90’s I can’t even begin to determine the amount of quarters I spent playing Mortal Kombat back in the day. There was nothing better than beating an opposite and then killing them with Mortal Kombat’s patented “Finishing Move.” And now to be able to control both Mortal Kombat and DC Comic characters in a versus style fighting game might just be the thing needed to finally motivate me to retire my PS2 and look into getting a PS3 or Xbox360.

According to News-a-rama.com, “there will be two different stories, one told from the side of MK, one from the side of DC, where each universe is invaded by the opposite universe’s characters. These stories will be told in a new version of the traditional single player campaign. The story will be used to balance the fights more evenly, and will do so using established mythology. For instance, the story will feature magic factors, to weaken Superman against a character like Sub-Zero.” (link)

Already confirmed in the game are Superman and Batman from DC and Sub-Zero and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Be on the lookout for future confirmed characters and an official release date at WorldsCollide.com. In the meantime check out this awesome “first look” trailer for the game, which shows Batman and Sub-Zero going at it Mortal Kombat style.


There has been some serious mixed reactions to the announcement of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics, but my favorite commentary on it comes from David Willis’ Shortpacked!. Shortpacked! is one of my favorite webcomics and is updated 3-5 times a week. Check out Willis’ Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics comic strip below and click here to find out more about Willis and his cast of Shortpacked! characters.

Be A Pepper Too - The Dr Pepper Museum

The Blot had a meeting last Friday in Waco, Texas, a city I never thought I’d find myself in and will probably never go to again. Since I was having to drive all that way, I thought I’d look to see if there were any big tourist attractions in Waco I could hit up before heading out of town. What I found was the Dr Pepper Museum.

Like most of you, I couldn’t figure out why Waco, TX had a Dr Pepper Museum. As it turns out Dr Pepper was created in Waco back in 1885, and was even originally called a “Waco.” (link) According to the Dr Pepper Museum’s website, it was “founded in 1988 to educate and entertain the general public through the collection, preservation, interpretation, and exhibition of objects relevant to the history of the soft drink industry.” (link)


The coolest part of the museum has to be its building, the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, which was built in 1906 and is the original bottling plant of Dr Pepper. The museum walks you through the history of Dr Pepper and its 23 flavors, its merger with 7UP and the company’s eventual purchase by Cadbury Schweppes. It really was fascinating to learn about the early creation of a new soft drink back in the late 1800s, but most of all where else can you truly be a Pepper?


If any of you have ever been to the World of Coca-Cola, the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, GA, then you’d be a little disappointed in the Dr Pepper Museum. It’s a fraction of the size and does not have anywhere near the technology or sophistication of the World of Coca-Cola, but if you’re in the neighborhood it’s well worth the $6.00 admission fee. Then again how often do you find yourself with some time to kill in Waco, TX?

Welcome To A World Without Rules

We haven’t had a Dark Knight update here on The Blot Says… in a while, but it seems like The Dark Knight viral marketing campaign has started to pick up since the untimely death of star Heath Ledger. A few new Batman themed sights have been popping up around the web, and this new Batman promotional poster showed up last week on WhySoSerious.com. It’s a pretty sweet movie poster and is probably the first sign of The Dark Knight’s campaign to focus less on The Joker and more on Batman. The Dark Knight debuts this summer on July 18th.

Jimmy Fallon Returns To NBC As Host Of Late Night

After years of speculation, we now know who will be taking over as host of Late Night when Conan O’Brien leaves in 2009 to take over the Tonight Show. (link) The Hollywood Reporter found out earlier today that Jimmy Fallon has signed a deal to take over hosting duties for NBC’s Late Night upon O'Brien's departure. (link) Conan’s chair became available in 2004 when it was announced he would be Jay Leno’s successor as host of the Tonight Show upon Leno’s retirement in 2009.

It has been a long four years since the initial announcement of Leno’s scheduled retirement as rumors mounted that Leno was unhappy about his already planned exit and was hoping to either extend his Tonight Show run or move to a rival station. Many names have been floated around as the eventual successor to O’Brien on Late Night, with Fallon’s name repeatedly being mentioned as a front runner based upon his popular run on Saturday Night Live and his stint as co-host of SNL’s Weekend Update with Tina Fey.


While Fallon has been The Blot’s favorite Saturday Night Live cast members in recent years, I am worried that his unique style of delivery might be found a little grating when on television 5 nights a week. Hopefully his transition to behind Late Night’s desk will be a smooth one and much more successful than the comedian’s movie career which pretty much died on impact after Taxi and Fever Pitch bombed in theaters.

G.I. Joe The Movie - First Look at Storm Shadow and The Baroness

More and more pictures of the live action G.I. Joe film’s cast are slowly leaking on to the internet and here we have our first look at two of the movie’s villains, Thomas S. Arashikage, a.k.a. Storm Shadow, and The Baroness. I’ve been pretty impressed with the movie’s costumes so far and like the modern feel of the characters. With that being said I’m a little disappointed in Storm Shadow’s uniform. The character has always had a very distinct look in the G.I. Joe comics, cartoons and toys, but here he looks like a generic ninja straight out of the Matrix trilogy.


After having done such a great job with Snake Eyes’ uniform and staying so true to his character, I am surprised the movie went such a different direction with Snake Eyes’ blood brother and fellow ninja, Storm Shadow. The Baroness, on the other hand, has always had a very simple look, one that is easy to reproduce in a live action movie. I’m anxious to see how the movie chooses to recreate G.I. Joe’s main adversaries, Cobra Commander, the leader of COBRA, and Destro, into living breathing characters. Storm Shadow is played by Byung-hun Lee and The Baroness is played by Sienna Miller.


Update 5/9/08: To see BRAND NEW photos of Storm Shadow (in a different uniform) and The Baroness click here!

To see other G.I. Joe First Look photos of characters from the upcoming live action G.I. Joe movie click here.

Wanted - Teaser Movie Poster

Wanted, a new movie based on the comic book mini-series of the same name created by writer Mark Millar and artist J.G. Jones, “tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforce of justice. In 2008, the world will be introduced to a hero for a new generation: Wesley Gibson.” (link) Wanted is a highly regarded, creator owned comic book that many have compared to the classic Watchmen comic book series with its adult themes and unique take on super heroes. Even though the book had a short run, Wanted has had a lasting impact in comics since its debut in 2003. Jones’ artwork in particular is amazing and his comic book covers are some of the best in the business.


Hopefully the movie version of Wanted will be as spectacular as the comic. The movie, by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (the Night Watch series), stars James McAvoy as Wesley Gibson, Morgan Freeman as Sloan, Angelina Jolie as Fox, Terence Stamp as Pekwar and Common as The Gunsmith. Look for Wanted in theaters this summer on June 27th, 2008. If you’re interested in reading the trade paperback of Wanted, which includes all six issues of the comic, you can do so here.

GID 8 Inch Zombie Pet Dunny

The Blot’s pretty excited for tomorrow’s release of a new, glow-in-the-dark 8 inch Dunny. Designed by Argentinean illustrator Patricio Oliver and produced by Kidrobot, the new Zombie Pet Dunny is an “undead predator…made of translucent, blue vinyl and printed with glow-in-the-dark bones, for a distinctly ghoulish (but adorable) look. (link) This limited edition designer vinyl figure is sure to be a “must get” for fans of the zombie craze. One thing I like about this Dunny in particular is the fact that the figure doesn’t actually glow, just the printing on its body. It’s a unique twist on the glow-in-the-dark Dunnys of the past and, like most 8” Dunnys, should not last very long in stores.


The 8” glow-in-the-dark Zombie Pet Dunny hits stores tomorrow, Thursday April 24th, and has a retail price of $39.95.

Daniel Johnston’s Jeremiah, The Frog Of Innocence Vinyl Figure

Daniel Johnston, the eccentric Texas singer/songwriter/artist and subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnson, has crossed over from music into the designer toy market. At Arms will be releasing a limited edition vinyl figure of Daniel Johnston’s iconic character Jeremiah, the Frog of Innocence in five unique colors (Green, Yellow, White, Pink and a still undisclosed color).


For those of you who have had the opportunity to live in Austin, TX you might recognize the famous mural Johnston created featuring Jeremiah and the title of the album Jeremiah was featured on Hi How Are You? on the old Sound Exchange building on Guadeloupe across from the University of Texas campus. The album cover has also been featured on t-shirts for many years. The Hi How Are You? t-shirts were popularized in the 90’s by Kurt Cobain who often performed and was photographed wearing the Jeremiah, the Frog of Innocence shirt.

The Spirit Teaser Trailer and Poster

The Spirit doesn’t come out until January of 2009, but the movie is doing its best to hype up its take on the classic comic book hero now. Not only has The Spirit started to promote its official website MyCityScreams.com with a new teaser promotional poster, but the movie unveiled its first teaser trailer this past weekend at the New York Comic-Con.


I think all of this PR is a smart move by the producers of The Spirit because its important to latch on to the super hero craze now while the movie industry is gearing up for a big summer. With six super hero/comic book movies coming out over the next four months (Batman, Iron Man, Hulk, Hellboy, Wanted and Will Smith’s Hancock), The Spirit needs to try and connect with the millions of moviegoers attending those movies now in the hopes that it makes it easier early next year to reconnect with them (and hopefuly entice them to the theaters).


I think The Spirit’s teaser movie trailer does everything it hoped to by teasing the audience of the movie to come without giving any real hint of a storyline or the characters involved. What strikes me as odd is how similar this movie’s look and feel is to Sin City. Obviously I knew Frank Miller was going for a similar look when he decided to employ the same filming techniques he and Robert Rodriguez used on Sin City, but with the teaser’s darkness it almost looks like the same movie.

This worries me considering how different Will Eisner’s The Spirit is from Miller’s Sin City comics. I really hope Miller has stayed true to Eisner’s vision and not turned The Spirit into Sin City lite. As much as I loved both the Sin City comic books and movie, I fear Miller might be using this directing opportunity as a warm up to his production of the Sin City sequels scheduled to hit movie theaters in 2009 and 2010.

The Barney-ism Of The Week and Robin Sparkles' Return

“When I was young I was so…vulnerable and open to things, ya know? I guess I just wanted to feel that way again.
I wanted to be sixteen again.” - Robin

Robin…that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth.
You want to be sixteen again?
I have watched your first Robin Sparkles video a thousand times, and it’s not because I’m proud of you as a friend.
It’s because you were totally, totally lame back then.

- Barney Stinson

"Sandcastles In The Sand"

How I Met Your Mother

Wow, Robin Sparkles is back and it was so worth the wait! “Sandcastles in the Sand” was awesome and the James Van Der Beek cameo was really, really good. I couldn’t stop laughing at the line about his “amazing collection of Hard Rock Café t-shirts.” There was definitely no Britney like letdown here!

Robin Sparkles - “Sandcastles in the Sand” Music Video


Plus, the second Robin Sparkles video for her song “Sandcastles in the Sand” was as good as her first video for the “hit song” “Let’s go to the Mall.” Between Marshal’s made up word “revertigo,” Lily’s bad case of revertigo and the show’s shocking, yet rewarding, ending, “Sandcastles in the Sand” was an all around classic episode of How I Met Your Mother.