Henry Gale is Dead and Dharma is Dropping Food

This weeks episode of Lost provides quite the identity crisis for everyone favorite manipulator Henry Gale. Turns out Henry Gale is dead. He was either killed by the man we know as Henry Gale or died when his hot air balloon crashed. He's been pretty keen on his story for some time and it appears that he knows something about the hatch as well. He triggered something in the hatch to lockdown ruining Lockes legs again and revealing a secret map(above courtesy of The Tail Section) to him.

At least our losties got some food dropped off from the Dharma initiative. There was a mysterious parachuted box near the hatch entrance that contains lots of food. Are the so called Gale's actions in the hatch related to the food drop? Who knows, the island is mysterious. We also got more backstory from Locke, is his father the original Sawyer? Only time and more seasons of Lost will tell. Tune in next week for more mysteries of the island and maybe some truth from our David Gale imposter.

Who is the real Henry Gale?

"Lockdown", the newest episode of Lost is on tonight and everyone is asking, who is Henry Gale? Is he an other? Is he the replacement for Desmond? Is he just some guy that lost his wife in a freak hot air ballooning accident? Will this question be answered tonight? Probably not.

The writers of Lost are smart, they hook us in with a mystery and don't want us to solve it until the last possibly second. This isn't like the Davinci Code where you can read a chapter in 2 minutes and get sucked into reading the next because they are so damn short. Fans have been waiting through 3 weeks of reruns and then last weeks episode where we just saw Henry manipulate Lock and Jack. So what do I think? The jury is still out and I keep second guessing myself.

He seems too obvious to be an other and that's what everyone wants him to be. Everyone on the island has some kind of secret so he must have one too. I don't think the hot air balloon that they are going to find was his. Maybe he's part of "them". This way we'll have the "others", the "survivors"/"losties", and "them". It is all speculation until 10 o'clock tonight when everyone will know a little know about the real Henry Gale.

It WAS Arrested Development

TELEVISION / R.I.P., 'Arrested Development' -- critics' fave not given room to grow
Cue the Good Grief Charlie Brown music because at least 4 million people will be walking around with head and shoulders slumped down for the next few days. It's really over this time. No more incest jokes about wanting to make-out with your cousin. No more Tobias homosexual slip-ups. No more "Final Countdown" with GOB's magic tricks. No more brilliant callbacks, or call forwards. No more Ron Howard filling in the holes. No more Gangy being a total bitch. No more Buster and his "hey uncle father brother sister nephew". No more George senior and his get out of jail schemes. No more Arrested Development. It's sad, but at least there is the DVD's to keep the memory alive.

Broken Social Scene on Conan Download

Thank God I'm A Nutsack: Broken Social Scene on Conan Download

For those of you that missed this back in February I just uploaded it again. Follow the link for the original post.

I'm Lost

I've been completely sucked into the world of Lost. I've just finished the first complete season and I've watch the majority of the second season except for the first few. If you are a fan of the show you know why it is so addicting. It is well written and intriguing begging you to come back after each episode.

There are two types of Lost viewers in my mind. There are those that watch it to be entertained because they like the plot and characters. Then there are those that appreciate the deeper meanings implied with character names such as Locke and Rousseau. To the second type of viewer Lost seems to be some kind of purgatory. Each of the characters has an intriguing backstory that connects to something they must deal with on the island. There is no doubt that the island is mysterious. There are polar bears, black gaseous monsters, hatches full of food and supplies, cripples can walk, and the inconvievable can concieve. No matter how anyone reads it the show is one of the most entertaining shows on television. It takes a lot for me to get into a drama so this speaks pretty highly of Lost.

This weeks episode was the trough in the action of the movie, it was there for development not action. Next weeks episode promises 5 big events. From the looks of the 15 second teaser it looks like they are going to find the smiley face balloon but that doesn't mean a thing about Gales guilt or innocence. Anyone from the island could have made a similar story up, heck Gale could have used the Nigerian airplane as his reason for being there. I don't trust Gale until they find his wifes dead body. That's why Sayid will pull a gun on him and Locke will forget to press the button. Sayid will get out of the hatch while Locke and Gale will have to find a way out through the ventilation system.

Jack and Kate will go out to save Sayid, Ana, and Charlie. They won't find them but they will stuble upon some others or something mysterious. We're 16 episodes into the second season and we have 10 left. I can't help but wonder how long this island and the writers can keep coming up with things for our favorite castaways to deal with. I say 4 seasons max before the mystery of the island wears off or the writers lose their steam. The 1st season was great and so far the 2nd season has been great. With 10 episodes left there is bound to be a lot of craziness. The only way to stay informed is to keep watching.

Tis the Season for the Shamrock Shake

McDonalds brought it back for the 36th year, the Shamrock Shake. It's a seasonal milkshake that they only bring out in March for St. Patricks day. According to McDonalds Ireland it was first introduced in 1970. So what is the Shamrock Shake? It is the thickests mint ice cream you'll ever try and drink through a straw.

Yesterday my buddies and I decided we'd go out for lunch and get a shamrock shake. Of course I prompted the idea because 18 years ago my grandmother brought me to McDonalds in Lake Placid, NY and got me a happy meal with one of these legendary shakes. It was heaven when I was 4 years old, so how is it now at the age of 22? At first taste it is pretty amazing, but don't be fooled. If you are going to get one only buy the 1$ mini size because any more than that is completely unnecessary. I ordered a medium and all my friends got smalls.

We were all sick within 5 minutes. The shake is so thick you get a serious workout sucking it through the straw. None of us actually threw up but we all wanted to by the time we were half through. The shamrock shake brings back lots of nostalgic feelings for me but I think that yesterday may be the last time I ever have one. I'd rather just see the signs and http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifget nostalgic then want to vomit and get nostalgic.

For Minty Shake Related News Read The Onion
Watch the two Shamrock Shake commercials on youtube:
Irish Guy wants a refreshing shake
Green Grimace

Another musicBlog Aggregator, Seventrack

Seventrack - Music news from around the web

All of a sudden I was getting links from Seventrack. They are a blog aggregator specializing in music news. I guess only people who like Pearl Jam have clicked on my blog through it. I don't know how my blog shows up on these search engines but I'm not complaining. If you need the most recent music news try Seventrack out.

Brian Sendrowitz the Brain of Beat Radio

Brian Sendrowitz is the brain child behind Beat Radio. If you haven't already downloaded treetops do it now and thank me later. I have to give credit to 3hive for introducing me to this guy back in september. Anyway Brian has all kinds of tracks for download on his site as well as two albums up on iTunes. His solo work is a little more folky but his voice is essentially the same as the beat radio stuff. Brian has I think 3 fans on Last.fm but I'm sure once the Beat Radio Ecstatic EP comes out he is bound to have some people interested in his older stuff. The song "Desdemona"is my favorite solo track for now as it repeats the refrain, "I'm just a man" with a strumming guitar, organ and harmonica to boot. While the production value of this ep is low it sounds as raw as the Beat Radio demos. In this case raw is good.

the preservation ep (check out brian sendrowitz.com for more downloads)
fearful
silver birds
olivia
preservation theme
the man i should be
desdemona
standing at the shore


In addition to this stuff I've been listening to a lot of Tapes N Tapes lateley. Look a few posts back for the Tapes downloads. The two new Pearl Jam tracks are beginning to grown on me as well. iTunes has "unemployable" up for essentially 50 cents tagged onto "worldwide suicide", a dollar for both. Band of Horses was reviewed in Pitchfork today with a 8.8, pretty impressive but I think I a lot of their stuff is Jim James like. Their album is definitely worth picking up though.

Rogue Wave Added to the Live Music Archive

Browse Top Level > Audio > Live Music Archive > Rogue Wave

It's nice to see good music added to the Live Music Archive. Rogue Wave has 3 shows to offer right now, 1 from last year and 2 in store appearances from this year. The show from 2005 includes their Nirvana cover of "On A Plain" as well as a solo Postage Stamp World. If you haven't heard Rogue Wave yet this is a good free way to check out some of their live music. Their 2005 release Descended Like Vultures and their 2004 Out of the Shadow are both stellar albums so get them if you haven't yet.

Finding the Good in the Bad

The Bad: Syracuse lost to Texas A&M.

I had Syracuse winning the tournament. I didn't have them because I thought that they were the strongest team. I had them because they are my team. How can you expect to win a game without your team playing. That's right Gerry McNamara didn't play. He played but he only played a little and scored 2 free throws. When a team depends on a player to win for a whole season and a whole Big East Tournament they can't expect to win without him. The saddest part of the whole night is that he didn't get to play for the closing seconds. They say his groin was bothering him but I think it was his heart.

The Good: G-Mac was the only SU player that already had a National Championship under his belt, so he already knows what it feels like.

The Bad: I have no further vested interest in the NCAA tournament.

The Good: My thesis that is due in 2 and half weeks will get some serious attention and be finished on time.

The National - Alligator Bonus

The National - Alligator
If you haven't purchased this album yet go get it now! I'll wait.

Ok, now that you have it and you're listening to it head on over to The National Bonus Site and plug in that UPC code to get access to some sweet downloads. You get access to 3 music videos and a 5 track bonus disc.
The Bonus Videos Include(.mov downloadable format):
Abel
Lit Up
Daughters of the Soho Riots

The Bonus CD Includes:
The Thrilling of Claire
Driver Suprise Me
Lit Up (Remix)
Secret Meeting (Remix)
The Geese of Beverly Road (Live)

If you're like me you and you love The National than you probably already purchased half the bonus tracks off of iTunes. If you just found Alligator go ahead and grab these tracks for free. The videos are great and very artistic. The only thing that I see that sucks about this bonus download site is the fact that if you buy the album from iTunes you get no UPC code. I guess you better find a friend or a clever way of accessing the code. The code is really easy to find, it's on the back of the CD. Don't use the code though until you've purchased the CD.

Pearl Jam - Self Titled Cover Art

The Real Cover Art
A Screenshot of the wrong images

The weird orange version


Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam are coming out with their follow up to Riot Act. It comes out May 2nd and if you order it from PearlJam.com you get a free live disc from 1992 plus you get to download the album 1 second after it is released. The pre-order comes to about 19 dollars with shipping so with the download and free live disc it is worth it. My first CD I ever purchased was VS. back in 1994 so Pearl Jam has some nostalgic value to me in addition to the fact that they are amazing. If you haven't listened to "Worldwide Suicide" yet, you can get it for free from PJ.com or find it on any blog. iTunes is now offering it for download with a free bonus track for 1 dollar. It's curious that this cover art isn't up on their website yet but oh well, enjoy.

Arrested Development - Genius Writing + Watering Down = Sons and Daughters

I watched the first two espisodes of ABC's Sons and Daughters. I'll be honest at a first glance I enjoyed it. It's a funny show but only on the surface. This show has some quirky characters, all stolen from Arrested Development, and interesting plots, also stolen from Arrested Development.

ABC is smart they are trying to steal the 4 million fans that watched Arrested Development each weak with their own version of the show. This version is the middle class version of the show and I don't just mean the characters socio-economically, I mean the writing too. Maybe I'm being too harsh because it has only aired two episodes but this show lacks the depth and originality of Arrested Development. The callbacks or Mitch Hurwitz's patented call-forwards are what Arrested Development stives for and that's where they succeed. A friend of mine once wrote a paper analyzing what makes things funny and he came to the conclusion that everyone wants to be part of the inside joke. Arrested Development rewards the careful viewer by letting them in on so many inside jokes that you can't stop laughing. The reason people who don't watch the show religiously don't get AD is because of these inside jokes, those people aren't in, they're out.

Am I going to keep watching Sons and Daughters? Yes, it wasn't as horrible as Crumbs and it actually had me laughing at times. It will be interesting to see how the plots and characters develop because so far it looks to be an exact Arrested Development rip off with a few added characters and less money. Maybe this show will succeed because more of the United States will be able to relate to these characters but so far I find them much more annoying and less funny than the AD folks. Give Sons and Daughters a chance, it airs on tuesdays from 9-10 opposite Scrubs. If you don't want to waist your time on trying to get into a show trying to be like Arrested Development then go buy the DVDs of the first two seasons and study them until you get every single inside joke.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Tour Starts and Conan

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Their tour started today so in honor here is the video from their performance on Conan the other night.

Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket

Two of my favorite bands are touring together!! Pearl Jam has just announced all kinds of news including a self-titled album that will be coming out this year. The first single World Wide Suicied is available for download right here or on their bootlet site. My Morning Jacket will be opening for almost all of their shows. I want to get tickets to the Boston show on May 24th but I don't have a ten club membership.

Do you have a ten club membership?
Can you buy me tickets to the Boston show?
I will pay all shipping costs and what not?
I can trade ticket requests to any Dave Matthews Band show for this summers tour, and I'm a 6th year member so they should be good seats. Post here or email me if you can help me out with the tickets.

Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide

Fell out of Phineas Gage

Camera Obscura Records

Fell is a dreamy rock project by a couple guys I know, one of them being my cousin. The lead singer Josh used to be in a band called Phineas Gage and back when mp3's were first being traded on the internet I downloaded one of their songs. Phineas Gage was featured on some website and I downloaded it along with a some live pearl jam tracks probably close to 8 years ago. The Phineas Gage song was called "Kite" and I loved it. I still have it on my iPod and know you can get the whole album off of cameraobscura. It was an early project of Josh Wambeke, a guy that beat me up when I was a little kid and I visited my cousins on Colorado. He's matured and made some good music.

Anyway Fell just came out with a new self-titled album that you can order through cameraobscura as well. I have their older album or some weird incarnation of Fell on my iPod. This album was heavily influenced by Joy Divison and the Cure's "Disintegration". It's dark and dreamy music but very listenable(if that's even a word). Download a few of the tracks and if you like it buy it off of cameraobscurea.



Fell - "Date + Backspace = Error"
Fell - Cause of Cancer

If you like these tracks there are a few more on their Fell Music Myspace Site

gmail errors gallery

Anyone having problems sending emails through gmail? I have been trying to send emails from my gmail account to people using accounts through my school, Bates. If I send 5 emails to them only 1 of them gets received. It's really weird and starting to bug the hell out of me. I've seen that people are having trouble with the server, anyone know if this might be related? I want to know my emails are being received because as of right now gmail tells me they are sent but only 1 in 5 is actually getting it. Help me gmail or I'm about to stop using you.

Update: According to some of the gmail help message boards gmail emails may be getting blocked from spamblockers such as sorbs or spamcop. I'd recommend not using gmail for a while until they figure this out.