I saw that one on IMDb: Ben can’t kill Widmore, and Widmore can’t kill Ben, because they are each other’s constants. Interesting theory.

On some news from the upcoming “Lost” episodes, apparently the actors who play the plane pilot and Claire’s mother are casted for the finale. Sounds like Jack might find out the truth about who’s his half-sister is, although nothing is known at this point. And Richard “Maybelline Man” Alpert is back!

Also, I love this poll.

I fail to see why there is a controversy around Miley Cyrus’ photo. Why the media circus about it? Why even the apologizing comments from her and Disney? I found the picture artsy, not pornographic. If anything, this controversy is as stupid as having people getting shocked for seeing publicly someone in underwear, but completely ignore individuals on the beach in swimsuits.

Plus, she’s 15 now. She’s not 12 or 9 anymore. In the western world 15 year olds already have had sex, in one form or another. So why lie to the fans and behave that she’s still 9? She’s not. She’s evolving into a beautiful young woman, that the picture accurately, and artistically, captured.

And besides, 9 year old girls don’t read ‘Vanity Fair’. Their parents do. So these young kids who look up to Cyrus’ as a role model, under normal circumstances, will never see that photo. Instead, now that the media made such a big deal out of nothing, all the kids would want to see that photo.

Disney should shut the fuck up too. They should not control the lives of their employees outside their workplace. If they don’t like the development, they should fire her, not make stupid announcements about it. Cyrus is in the show business, and show business craves for some meat. If she doesn’t like that, she should quit and become a teacher.

Update: JBQ can’t understand this “controversy” either. He said: “Wait, and the photo was taken by ANNIE LEIBOWITZ? I mean, that’s the most respected name in portrait photography for like 30 years. Having your photo taken be Leibowitz would be like having paintings of you made by Andy Warhol, or something. Seriously, she’s the one who made the pregnant Demi Moore photos, and the incredible Lennon/Yoko Ono photo. Seriously, this is just outrageous. Literally.”

Update 2: JBQ blogged about it too.

SyFyPortal reports that there might be an “Avengers” movie under works. I’ve blogged about it in the past, and I raised concern that the Avengers story is not very movie-worthwhile, but mostly TV-series or CG-only worthwhile. We will see how this pans out.

I am curious as to who can play the android “Vision“. You know, it’s a fantasy of every woman to have an android: he can clean up the house, drive her around, and serve in the bedroom too.

I feel like writing about the Dharma Initiative stations as seen in “Lost”. Lostpedia has some really nice info on them, with accompanied renderings of each station’s logo.

- “The Orchid” appears to be a time travel and tele-portation station.
- “The Looking Glass” was an underwater station used to guide vessels to the Island.
- “The Swan” was used to research the unique electromagnetic fluctuations of the Island.
- “The Arrow” was a restocking/storing supplies station.
- “The Flame” was a communications station.
- “The Hydra” was a station about zoological research.
- “The Tempest” was a power source and toxic gas controlling facility.
- “The Staff” was a medical research and operation station.
- “The Pearl” was a psychological research and observation facility.
- “The Temple” is a sanctuary and not much is known about it.

The logo that Ben wore on his jacket on the latest episode is believed to be “Orchid”’s. I believe he wakes up in the middle of the desert because he got tele-ported there. We should see his great escape from the island at the end of this season.

The logos of each station are pretty cool. They should make nice t-shirts.

One of the best “Lost” episodes aired last night. However, from the direction point of view, I have had some problems with the way the plot was presented:

1. When Ben wakes up in the Sahara desert, within seconds there were two men in horses approaching him. Well, the director should be left in the Sahara desert for a day to realize how big it is and how difficult it is to stumble on someone.

2. Ben using that knife like a ninja, was a bit over the top. Ben has given me the impression so far that he can barely program his VCR.

3. The “redshirts” (the non-speaking lostie roles) all died within 10 seconds. Sawyer and Claire were unharmed by the bullets and the explosions, while the redshirts died so easily and so fast. It’s stupid and unrealistic. Even for those who claim that “the island protected Sawyer and Claire”, it looks stupid from the direction point of view. It’s not how the action scene should have been constructed. It was not dramatic, or fair, the way these characters got rid of. It felt like excess fat removed and that’s not what we have been led to feel about the losties, including the ones we know nothing about. Each lostie death should have had its own (quick) scene, and at a similar tone, the way Keamy’s team escaped the Smoke Monster should have had its own scene too (because they did escape).

Oh, and I hope the reason for this “hurry up” direction was not the fact that “Greys Anatomy” ate 2 minutes of “Lost”’s programming, because I will hate that STUPID show even more. For the 10th time: why do people watch medical dramas which are not really medical dramas but slut dramas? Each doctor is humping every nurse and other doctor in there. God, I hate that shit.

There are a number of Madonna rare or unreleased songs out there. Thanks to the remixing community, you will find their video remixes with these (usually leaked) songs on YouTube.

My favorite two are “Revenge” and “Fighting Spirit“. These two songs should have been part of her albums, no doubt.

Then, on a second tier, there’s “History“, “Superpop“, “Has To Be“, “Liquid Love“, “Bittersweet” (based on an ancient Persian poem), and “Cyberraga“.

And two released songs, that they were never released as singles, now get some video support thanks to the video remixers: JBQ’s favorite “Let It Will Be and my favorite “Sky Fits Heaven“.

And of course, if you search hard enough on YouTube you will also find “Gone Gone Gone”, “Like a flower”, “Supernatural”, “Fantasy”, “Shame” and at least 15 more songs that never saw the light of day.

Watch the latest episodes of CSI:Miami in HD. Then, look carefully at the scenes where Caruso appears. All his close-up scenes are shot with a heavy diffusion filter, while the other actors’ scenes aren’t. They are obviously trying to fool you about Caruso’s true age by hiding his wrinkles like this. It might work with most viewers, but not with me. It totally destroys the experience because it looks stupid. So what if he’s wrinkly?

Nine months ago I wrote a post about the 12th Cylon. In there, I presented my opinion that either Baltar or Cally would be the last Cylon.

Now the writers are showing Baltar on a different light: that of the sidekick one, who’s there to get the plot rolling and be the character that brings together the Cylons and the Humans — for better or worse. Similar to what Locke is for “Lost” pretty much.

Because of that, I think the last Cylon is Cally. The reasons why I believe so are:
1. She had a child with a Cylon, while Helo’s and Boomer’s child (Hera) was supposed to be “the only” child among humans and Cylons that could ever be conceived and that’s why it was “special”. This means her child holds lesser importance than Hera, and this could be an indication that she is a Cylon.
2. Cally could not sleep after the nebula, the same time the other four Cylons were hearing music. She’s also affected, but differently.
3. The writers said that the last Cylon is not included in this promo picture. They also said that Laura, Baltar, Helo, Starbuck, and the two Adamas are not Cylons. This leaves Cally, Dee, Admiral Cain, Romo Lampkin, Gaeta, Billy, Ellen Tigh, Tom Zarek, Kendra Shaw, and maybe Crashdown.

So, if I am not completely off base here, the writers are trying to pull a “Lost”-like WTF, having Cally waking up from the dead (not resurrected on a ship). Her story is more recent and more relevant than resurrecting, let’s say, Billy. Having Dee or Gaeta as Cylons is a bit too much of a boring choice. They would be the definite choices if this was a TV show in the ’80s, where everything was predictable.

We’ll see in the next few weeks.

Madonna’s new album, “Hard Candy”, comes out in a few days. There is a preview of 30 seconds of each of her new songs over at VH-M (not sure how legal this is, but it features previously unreleased pictures and a personal message from Madonna, so I would assume it is an official site).

So, for this album Madonna supposedly went hip-hop. However, with the exception of her first single “4 Minutes”, when listening to these songs, it’s not hip-hop that I am hearing: it’s early ’80s disco/funk. You know, these cheap pop songs of the early ’80s that were the only things that survived the disco era of the ’70s. The kind of music you would hear in clubs in Greece at the time, and would appear in the cheap straight-to-VHS Greek comedies of the time. Now, this doesn’t mean that the album is that bad. In fact, it’s pretty nostalgic and has nice melodies. However, this is like saying that you are going to eat the peanut butter you were forced-fed by your grandmother as a kid, just because you want to remember your childhood and not because you like peanut butter. It’s “liking” for all the wrong reasons. Having said that, I will be buying the record, as I do like Madonna’s sound.

Based on these previews (that I’ve listened a number of times so far), my favorite songs are “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” and “Miles Away”. These two songs are indeed miles away from anything else in the rest of the album. On the second tier, I like “4 Minutes”, “Give It 2 Me” (her second single), and “Dance 2Night”. The rest are pretty yawwwwn…

Speaking of Madonna. I remembered a pretty embarrassing moment from my childhood. It was summer of 1985 (I was 12), and “Like a Virgin” was in its heyday. All girls in my age were infatuated with Madonna’s look and style. My cousin’s uncle arrived from Australia to visit for a few days. As my english were almost non-existent at the time, I went on and asked him: “There is this nice song we hear on the radio. What ‘like a virgin’ means?“. The guy gasped. After taking a big breath, he said that he is not familiar with the word.

It took me another 2 years to find out what the word “virgin” meant. And when I did, my first thought was: “FUCK“. How ironic.

If you are a late bird like I am, you probably have seen these “Girls Gone Wild” informercials on cable TV. This is a reality soft-erotic DVD where it shows young girls “going wild” and do crazy things. Well, I never really “got” this DVD. What’s the point of it? Why would I wanna watch stupid young women doing stupid things?

But I gave the product the benefit of the doubt, thinking that I might feel differently if there was such a DVD with men, targeting women. So tonight, I saw this other informercial, “Guys Gone Wild”. It involved the same kind of stupidity and unnecessary nudity, but with college guys instead. I hated it just as much.

And this kept me thinking: even a third rate porn movie has more practical value than these (arguably popular) “reality” DVDs. Your IQ must be lower than 50 if you find these DVDs entertaining.