Lost bids good-bye for summer and I miss it already

Ah TV. How I hate it, yet how I love it.

In my opinion, this was a great year for season finales: Grey’s Anatomy, The Office and now Lost. And I love the trend of super-sizing the finales. I know it’s a ton of work for the producers, but how awesome was a three-hour Grey’s or a two-hour Lost or even a 40-minute Office? I can’t complain.

The one finale that I thought sucked was Will & Grace. A) I don’t want to imagine them old and B) I don’t want to imagine them not being friends for 20 years and C) having their kids get together in the end, much like Will and Grace themselves did, is retarded, as is the idea of Jack and Karen living together, as is their stupid duet of “Unforgettable,” which I believe should be looked at as a “next phase of my career” demo tape. Lame.

Anyway, let’s talk a little Lost, shall we? People who don’t watch this show need read no further because you will have no idea what the heck I’m talking about.

The show has gotten even more unbelievably complicated, something I think that J.J. Abrams and crew cannot avoid despite themselves (see Alias for confirmation). I love that the show is complicated and deep and messy and unexpected, but it’s not a great tactic for winning new fans or keeping old ones who feel they can’t pop back in if they miss a few episodes. The age of the DVR is helping that scenario, but with only 10% of TV households using DVRs, producers shouldn’t really be counting on that factor to preserve their shows.

Now on to the part where I act like the characters in this show are real people: I have to say that I agreed with Jack and then Locke that the whole pushing the button thing was utter crap, but now we learn that in fact, it’s the whole deal. Now that Desmond has gone to the measure of last resort and used the “system failure” key, where does that leave us for next season? Is the magic of the island that healed Locke’s legs, cured Rose’s cancer and got Sun pregnant now off? And where are Locke and Eko – fighting it out in the hatch?

More unanswered questions: Are Jack, Kate and Sawyer going to go live with The Others? For how long? And who the hell are these people? Are they in fact “the good guys,” as non-Henry Gale said they were? I am proud to say that I always thought Henry Gale was the leader and I was right about at least one thing.

Finally, did Michael and Walt really get away? It’s possible because Harold Perrineau is not signed on a season regular next year. While his return is not ruled out either, it looks like murdering Michael made a clean getaway for now.

Just as I expected, the finale opened more questions than it answered, but it did answer some very important questions, like “why did the plane crash?” and that was a big one. Overall, I thought it was a better season finale than last year’s.

While I was savoring every minute of "Lost," it looks like most of the rest of America was watching Taylor Hicks finally take the "American Idol" crown that should have been Chris Daughtry's. I know it’s a big deal, I know 500 million people voted, I know it’s the highest-rated show on TV, but still, yawn.

In a totally irrelevant, non-TV aside -- I’m going on a float trip (traveling in canoes, camping on the shore, drinking beer -- good times!) down the Gunnison River this weekend, which should be a blast. Blog on that next week.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend! It’s one of my faves – first weekend of summer, a day off and no presents to buy.

Yes, I haven't posted since Halloween

It's crazy how fast time flies and I've posted -- well, nothing. And not at Jack Myers either. This is good, because I've been muy busy with work, but bad in terms of keeping up with the bloggers. Anyway, I'm still not really posting, but doing some minimal updating. I also am trying to get my business web site up at Jumpcliff Press.

Here's a clip from my "comment of the moment" on Jumpcliff that I just posted. Somehow I'm going to get these two sites to work in tandem:

The Grey's Anatomy Finale

The first thing you have to know is that I am obsessed with this show. And I've written like ten stories on it, including about five cover stories for the NY Post, so I feel like my obsession is legitimate and profitable.

So let's talk about the finale.

In a word: Awesome.

Total soap opera, totally ridiculous from the POV of my friend Quinn, but still awesome. It had everything you wanted in a three-freakin'-hour finale. Drama, death, sex, ambiguity, hysteria. Katherine Heigl (empathetic intern surgical Izzie Stevens) deserves an Emmy. Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey) deserves me switching places with her so I can live forever suspended between hot Chris O'Donnell and hotter Patrick Dempsey (who I've interviewed twice, by the way) with the potential of possibly encountering supernova hot Mark "McSteamy" Sloan again in the ever-after.

OK, so I'm crushing on the men on this show like a teenage girl, but tell me a woman who isn't? Only the ones without televisions in my opinion.

My DVR is going to be on fire on Thursday nights this fall, recording Grey's. Hopefully Aaron Sorkin's new show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, sucks or is moved to Wednesdays because no matter when Grey's is on, I'm watching.

New blog!

I have a new blog at Jack Myers' Media Village, where I'm blogging, well, supposedly daily, but we'll see how it goes because if you check out this site you know I'm pretty slow about it. My blog is called TV Diva Talks Back, because sadly I couldn't think of anything better, and I'm basically going to just chat about the TV news of the day and anything else that comes to my mind. I'm also supposed to be running a forum on the site: Talk Back with TV Diva, so we'll see if anyone starts participating. I get compensated based on traffic, so I guess I should get to marketing!

Cassini flies by Saturn's moon Dione

 
 

Even though I typically write about inane things such as TV shows and celebrity gossip, I've also always thought exploring space would be really cool. I even considered becoming an astronomer (not astrologer, although I've considered that too) but then I realized I would have to do physics and that wasn't going to work. That's why I went into writing, and even then sometimes I have to do math. Don't these people get the fact that if I could do math, I would be doing something that paid a lot better?

Anyway, here's the link to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena's Cassini home page. It's a great place for wanna-be astronomers to hang out and regret that physics eludes them.

Amateur astrologers, go here: Susan Miller's Astrology Zone. It's a fave of all the people I know who have an unhealthy obsession with astrology.

More bragging and shameless self-promotion

 

Adewale on the cover of the New York Post's TV Week 

I do love to brag, but mostly I just want people to see the cover photo of this week's TV Week because it is so hilarious, especially if you are a fan of Lost. I wrote three stories for last week's edition, and the cover photo of Adewale blah blah blah (I still can't spell this guy's name even though I wrote a whole thing about him) is the best thing ever (well, besides Google Earth. And maybe Baked Ruffles). Other stories in the issue: one on the gorgeous Jaime Pressly, starring in NBC's My Name is Earl, who was the world's biggest pain in the ass to get on the phone, but it was completely her non-existent, non-working publicist's fault, and NBC agrees with me; and one on the equally gorgeous and actually very articulate Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is starring in CBS's Ghost Whisperer.

Added bonus on the Love interview -- I got to also talk to James Van Praagh, who is a famous medium and also the creator and exec producer of GW. He was so interesting, even if you think that stuff is total bunk, which I don't. I'm a total sucker for all that stuff!

Anyway, he said that since I'm a Scorpio with Pisces Moon that I'm super-intuitive and should become a medium myself. I actually think that would be really cool, if I could see or talk or sense any dead people. But since I have trouble communicating with real live people, maybe I should just work on those skills and leave the crossing-over stuff to others.

Google Earth is the coolest thing in the world!

Get your own copy at earth.google.com. You can fly from Boulder to New York and then watch yourself zoom into the canyons of Manhattan. You can visit the Forbidden City of China and check out the temples, and then zip over to see the Great Wall. You can even fly to Aspen, click on the "restaurants" tab and see all the good places to eat and where they are located. Seriously, go check it out!

OK, I'm easily amused. Plus anything to avoid working!

I'm confused

OK, I give up. Maybe I was totally wrong. Maybe all that jumping up and down on Oprah's couch really was Tom Cruise in love. In any case, after a barrage of hot Hollywood gossip today -- skankmeister Lindsay Lohan crashes AGAIN supposedly evading the ever-present paparazzi, and Nick and Jessica really are splitting up -- this little nugget comes out.

Now my cynical little head is spinning -- did they actually have sex or is this just Cruise trying to put to rest the rumors that he's infertile, hence adopting children with Nicole? (Watch for her pregnancy announcement soon.) Even though it seemed like the world's most obvious PR stunt, are they actually in love? Or do people actually go so far as to produce children in the name of publicity?

That seems like the most cynical thing of all time to me, so I might have to switch all my negative thinking and go with "in love." Because if these two got pregnant as yet another way to maintain Cruise's image, they are definitely on the fast track to hell.

And here's the lamest thinking of all on my part: Why couldn't Katie just stick with fellow Dawson's cutie, Joshua Jackson? He's adorable and he's not a crazy scientologist. Granted, he's also not the world's top movie star, but I for one still love his boyish charm.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise and his fiancee of six months Katie Holmes are expecting a baby. The "Mission Impossible" and "Top Gun" star's publicist and sister, Lee Anne DeVette, told People magazine that 26-year-old actress Holmes is pregnant with the couple's first child. "Tom and Katie are very excited, and the entire family is very excited," DeVette was quoted as saying. Cruise, 43, and Holmes, who was virtually unknown before starring in this year's "Batman Begins," first said they were dating just six months ago and announced their engagement at a press conference in Paris in June. DeVette could not be reached by AFP at the time of reporting.

A shot of a different part of the same valley. 

The Maroon Bells

The famous Maroon Bells in Aspen with a fresh dusting of snow. This is the perfect time of year to see them, and I was lucky enough to be up in Aspen sharing a junket with Ross last week. The Maroon Bells are the most photographed mountains in the U.S., and they are named as such because of the red-colored rock that comprises them, and their bell-like shape.

The path that leads into the MB valley. 

One of the hillsides in the Maroon Bell valley ... 

Ok, I may sound like a wacko but does anyone else think it's ironic that these giant hurricanes, caused by warmer-than-usual waters in the Gulf of Mexico (and thus potentially linked to petroleum-based global warming) are hitting towns -- New Orleans, Gulfport, Galveston, Houston -- where the majority of U.S. oil refineries are located? It almost seems like nature is making a direct attack on the industry that's heating her up.

Me at the top!

See how I am a mountain goddess? I stayed about three minutes and then scurried back down to get out of the wind. I was like Chevy Chase in Vacation.

Lisa at the top of Triangle Pass

For some reason I do not understand, my crazy friend Lisa loves strong, freezing wind so she calmly ate her chicken caesar wrap from Whole Foods while I ran back down the rocky mountain. Not being as well prepared, I ate my squished but delicious PB&J on the way back to camp. Oh, and chocolate, of course.

Voila! The view. This picture doesn't do it justice, however. You can backpack up to Conundrum from this site (Crested Butte) as well, but going over this narrow and windy pass with a backpack on my pack does not seem appealing. It was hard enough on the easy Aspen side!

On the way up to Triangle Pass. It was really really really (I can't really emphasize this enough) windy and cold. I thought I was going to get blown off the mountain and felt a bit like Frodo climbing up to the Cracks of Doom. But the view from the top was worth it. 

The valley behind our campsite at 11,200 feet.  

More scenery, which helped keep my mind off the giant pack on my back and my increasingly sore shoulders. 

On the way up to Conundrum

OK, I promised photos and blogging from my Conundrum trip, and here they are!

The trip was totally amazing, although I didn't take enough pictures to record everything. The hike in was long but not brutal, the weather was perfect and the moon was full. Sitting in the hot springs was fun, social and most importantly, warm. Getting out was a bit of a challenge since you had to scramble out naked, under the light of the full moon no less, and then get your towel quickly around you while standing in the freezing wind. But even that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and the hours spent sitting in the spring kept me warm in my sleeping bag all night long. Waking up to the sun peeking over a tall mountain and lighting the whole valley also was cool.

This picture is of some of the gorgeous scenery on the nine-mile hike up to the springs. I didn't take enough pictures, so refer to my picture of the springs in my previous posts to see what it looks like. Ok, it looks like a small mudhole, but it's really quite a magical place. Imagine 40-50 naked people all sitting in there together, howling in unision at the full moon on Saturday night. It was quite the rockin' place to be.

Backpacking. Why?

I'm going on a backpacking trip to Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen this weekend, and can I say that the scenery had better be pretty damn rockin' and the hot springs better be pretty damn hot because it's taken me three freakin' days to prepare for this trip! I don't know if I'm just mentally challenged or what, but this is now the second backpacking trip I've gone on (why, I do not know. That's a subject for a coming blog) and it takes me longer to get ready for the trip than to actually go on it. And why this takes so long, I also do not know, because the whole point of backpacking is to get as much stuff as possible into as lightweight form as possible and then shove into the smallest amount of space as possible. This would seem to indicate that it wouldn't take too to long prepare because by definition you don't need that much stuff, but sort of like technology, getting everything to be small and light requires many shopping trips and much careful consideration. So before we even set off for our nine-mile hike into the mountains, I am exhausted. What I think about all this craziness when I come back should be interesting. How did I go from city girl to backcountry girl in just one short year?

The pictures above are of the Conundrum Hot Springs, which at 11,200 feet above sea level are the highest in the country, and of scenery along the nine-mile path. (Pictures taken by some guy named Evan Ravitz, who was nice enough to put them on-line for me to steal.) Once I get over the pain of carrying my heavy pack for hours and hours, I actually think it's going to be an amazing time. And I think if I can carry a huge pack six miles up a mountain in three feet of snow, like I did last January, I can do this!

Oh, and one fun fact -- people sit in the hot springs naked, which my friends and family know is really not my bag, but I'm trying to be adventurous. (Maybe there will be a story to sell in all this? Ideas anyone?) Plus, I think it's going to be pretty cold up there, so I probably won't care too much at that point anyway. I'll just want to get get warm.

Is this sounding fun yet? I wonder if it's too late to bail in order to stay in Boulder and drink all weekend like I usually do.

Wish me luck -- blogging and pics to follow next week.