Bob Barr on FOX

This moment with Bob Barr on Neil Cavuto's FOX News show aired on 09/08/2008. Barr may not be popular, but he sure is sensible.

Survivor

I admit it, I am a Survivor addict.  This 16th season of the show, SURVIVOR:  MICRONESIA-FANS VS. FAVORITES, is absolutely the best season in ages.  In fact, week after week, I can't believe how entertaining this season has been.  This is certainly my favorite season since I first started watching way back in season 7 in PEARL ISLANDS. Last Thursday I couldn't believe what the girls pulled off.  Poor Erik (pictured above) will now go down in history as the dumbest "survivor" ever.  I still dig the guy though. Jeff Probst was right, talk about a life lesson. It's great television! Lovin' it.

LOST: Garden of Eden Theory

Some of you know that I am LOST fanatic. I think the television series LOST is one of the most creative things to ever grace the small screen. The writing is genius and the acting first rate. I also think the show is getting better and better, something quite rare as television shows mature. I must admit that dwelling on the plot of LOST can easily become an obsession for any of us regular viewers. There are many theories out there as to just what the island actually is.

I just read the best theory and explanation of said theory. Out of anything I've heard in the past, I believe the theory that I have posted below is the most interesting idea thus far. I do not want to take credit for this nor do I want to violate copywrite laws so let me say up front that the author of "The Garden of Eden Theory" is Matt Harrison and this comes from the website About.com in their LOST section.

Now, I am not saying I'm 100 percent sold on all this, and I'm not saying the debate is over, but this theory is well written. Also, I've got to hand it to the guy, Matt really did a good job at backing up his conjectures!

The Garden of Eden Theory
From Bonnie Covel,Your Guide to LOST
A Theory by Matt Harrison

Hello all, I'm pretty sure I have the most convincing theory to date. It doesn't explain (yet) everything, but it does offer a general idea of "where they are".

It goes like this:

The island is the Garden of Eden. Paradise. Straight out of the bible. The place where man is tempted by good and evil, where freewill and destiny are put to the test.

The Monster

When Danielle Rousseau is asked about the moster she says that it's not a monster, it's a security device to keep things out (Ep: 1x23, Exodus, Part 1).

The black smoke is that security device. Pick up the bible, read Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God kicks them out of the garden. To prevent them from eating of the tree of life, God places a cherubim as a guardian to the tree. It's said to hold a flashing sword that guards every which way into the garden.

Think back to the episode with Eko when he encounters the black smoke (Ep: 2x10, The 23rd Psalm). It comes out to him, long and cylinder like (sword like?). It is dark and flashes. If you pause carefully as the camera moves through the smoke, you'll see still images that are of Eko's past life, as though he were standing at the judgement seat (of God). After seeing the black smoke what does he do? He builds a temple to the Lord (sort of like what the children of Israel did after they witnessed the awesome power of God on the mountain in the wilderness).

God is frequently manifested in the old testament as appearing as a cherubim, as black smoke, as flashes of lightening (see the story of Moses and Elijah's encounters with God on the mountain and the appearance of God to the children of Israel in the wilderness).

Black and White

In the caves, they find two skeletons, one male and one female (Ep.1x16, House of the Rising Sun). They jokingly dub them Adam and Eve.

In one of the skeleton's pocket there is a black stone and a white stone. Locke tells Walt about backgammon (the oldest game in history). He says that backgammon is a classic battle between good and evil. The Garden of Eden is the birthplace of good and evil.

Eden as an Island

In season 2, Locke is in the hatch working a crossword puzzle (Ep. 2x8, Collision). The camera focuses in on two words: Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Gilgamesh is an ancient hero (Mesopotamia) who survives a great flood (likely Bible's equivalent of Noah) and who afterwards calls on his God, Enkidu, for help finding eternal life. The ancients knew that eternal life used to reside in the Garden of Eden (it contained the tree of life). And during his search he locates it on an island -- read David Rohl's theories on Eden. The famed author/archeologist places Eden as likely the island of Bahrain. Now I'm not saying they're in Bahrain, just that at some point, Eden was thought to be on an island. That's the significant part. Eden was probably located somewhere in Armenia, but there was a post-flood change in thinking and somehow the idea of it as an island entered popular thought.

In episode 2x17, Lockdown, Locke sees a map on the blast door. The bunkers are strewn around the center of the island. The center is marked by a big question mark. Is this not the center of the garden which the black smoke, i.e. the cherubim, is keeping people away from?

Four Toed Statue

Sayid, Sun, and Jin see a giant statue of a foot with four toes (Ep: 2x23, Live Together, Die Alone). In Genesis chapter 4 there's a reference to giants (Nephellim) living on the earth. Personally I don't believe the bible means literal giants, rather men of great renown, but popular culture/thinking has turned giants into the literal translation. Assume that this is how the Lost creators chose to translate the Genesis 4 passage.

Social Experiment

The Garden of Eden was the first social experiment. God placed temptation, good and evil, in the garden. From that point on, mankind has been in a struggle with themselves and others. People argue that since God knew that by putting the tree of temptation (good and evil) there, it wasn't freewill. In other words, destiny. Others say that it doesn't matter that God knew, man still had a choice.

The garden has never been found. It is lost. Eternal life is still sought by mankind.

My theory doesn't fit everything yet into place. I'm still not sure who the Others are, whether they're remnants of the Dharma project or not. Maybe they're God's guardians, using the hatches/island as a test to put the people of Flight 815 through. Perhaps one has to be purified, or face their sins before they can come to live in peace with the island (like the others have?). That would answer the questions of why it seems like the Others test the people of Flight 815, why the hatches seems more like social experiments (push the button), and why Ben talks about those of 815 being "good" or not, and why the children were removed (since popular culture generally assumes that children are morally innocent).

©2007 About.com Inc., a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.

"Diane, Let's Pre-Order This"

It's a happy day for Doah! I just received my e-mail alert from Amazon.com that TWIN PEAKS: SEASON TWO is available for pre-order now. The long awaited DVD set will finally be released on April 10, 2007!

Definitely in the running as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, this David Lynch masterpiece ran from 1990 to 1991 and those of us who lived from week-to-week for the next installment during it's first run, have wanted all 30 episodes available on DVD for quite some time now. It looks like it is finally going to happen!

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but for us TWIN PEAKS fanantics, it's more than a big deal. You see I have the season one box set. That came out six years ago in December, 2001. With only four discs, it contains only the first seven episodes. There were only two seasons so this next six-disc set will have the remaining 23 episodes!

Think of my poor wife: she has only seen the first seven episodes. The last thing Chrisy saw was Cooper getting shot three times at the Great Northern! I cannot imagine wondering: "Who did it?" and "Will he live?" This, of course, is wonderful for me, because watching season two with a newbie will bring a whole other really cool dimension to my viewing, sort of like bringing an E-Street-virgin to a Springsteen show!

The amazing thing is that TWIN PEAKS is actually only the second favorite of my Top Ten Television Shows. My first all-time favorite, PICKET FENCES (1992-1996), has never been released on DVD. Until now! That's right, David E. Kelley's gem is coming out in February. Cool year for me.

Lost Season 3 Opener

I think the above picture from the opening sequence of the new season of LOST is totally amazing. Just like the opening moments from season two, last night's opener blew my mind! When they were in the house doing their book club discussion, I'm trying to figure out, "What is going on?" When we see Ethan, Goodwin, and Henry (Ben), I'm saying, "No way." But, when they pull away for the wide shot and we see that they are on the island I was speechless! I would have never imagined that. The shot of the plane crash was amazing. I am so addicted to this show. It's genius. It's right up there with TWIN PEAKS and the X-FILES for me in terms of greatness. Definately not disapointed last night. Now 7 days of waiting. What do you think?

Heard on Conan

The latest Hollywood rumor is that Britney Spears has been writing poetry about her marriage. The rumor got started when Britney was overheard asking someone, "What rhymes with deadbeat?"

--Conan O'Brien

That was from a recent "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" monologue. Funny! I wish I wrote that
joke! Classic!












Honey, is "Kev-beat" a word?

Help Me! I'm Lost!

I just want to confess that I am totally addicted to the television show LOST. It's been awhile since its been this bad. In fact, I know when it was: 1990-1991. That's when I could barely handle waiting for the next episode of TWIN PEAKS, thirty episodes of bliss. Now comes LOST. It's bad follks, I'd pay money to see the next episode today instead of next Wednesday. For example, that image you're looking at is the secret map from the episode, "Lockdown" that aired on March 29th. I'm obsessed with having them revisit the map, but did they do it in the following episode? Of course not! What does it mean? Somebody help me!

Did you catch the most recent amazing episode? It was called "Dave" and it aired on April 5th. It completely screwed with my understanding of the show's reality as I knew it (and that's pretty hard to do because anything goes). But, now we're told that Libby was a patient in the mental institution with Hurley! There's just absolutely no way it's as simple as they presented it! Hurley cannot be simply imagining everything. The other characters have to be real. So just what are the larger implications of last week's final shot? Somebody help me please!

The bottom line is, I could sooner give up coffee than prepare myself for a summer hiatus of LOST.

Back to the map. I think I may have figured this out, if the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 decipher the map, I'm convinced they'll find a ninth hatch; they'll open it and inside will be David Lynch and a dancing midget! Lynch and the midget will have a reel of film and a projector. The reel contains episode 31 of TWIN PEAKS and our screen instantly sees Agent Cooper saying, "Where's Annie?" All the lingering questions from 15 years ago are resolved.

A man can dream. Can't he?

Natalie Portman Rap

Okay, I'm sorry, but I think this is really funny! Check out the infamous Natalie Portman S.N.L. rap now at the NBC video website. WARNING: If "bad words" offend you, don't watch this; otherwise, click here to watch.

Top Ten Television Shows

As many of you know, I am a compulsive list-maker. That is I love "top ten" lists of all kinds. I love reading them. I love making them. I love ranking things. When my family is driving in the car, often we'll play a game we call "Either, Or" which means you just roate asking questions and everybody answers. For example, "If you had to choose to give up either ice cream or steak for a year, which would you choose?" You get the idea.

Driving back from Arizona over Christmas break, somebody asked: "If you had to choose to give up television or music for the rest of your life, which would you give up?" As often happens, our family split down the middle: Wes and Dad would give up TV whereas Max and Mom would give up music. (The girls don't really play yet). Although I would never change that answer, and, like I read on a bumper sticker once, "Life without music would be a mistake," I did get to thinking about television shows since then. Thus, here is my top ten television shows of all-time list. Keep in mind, these lists are always fluid and they can change on any given day. Also, I am excluding variety shows such as "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" which would make my list or "Saturday Night Live" because I'd have to specify a time period like 1975-1979 only; so, I'm talking "episodic television" here. You know the "Academy Awards" may be my Superbowl, but I can't say watching the Oscars being handed out is a favorite show. And, I may be totally hooked on "Survivor" but I'm not ready to put reality TV on a list like this yet. Best comment you could give me is your own top ten list, that is if you like this sort of thing.

DOAH'S TOP TEN TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME

1. PICKET FENCES
2. TWIN PEAKS
3. THE ROCKFORD FILES
4. SEINFELD
5. THE X-FILES
6. LOST
7. L.A. LAW
8. THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW
9. THE TWILIGHT ZONE
10. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION