All LOST in the Supermarket...

Okay, so as the couple of you who read this notice, I have been away for a little bit, partially due to work, and I needed a break too. Got to plan vacation, perhaps a little trip to New Mexico or something. There has been one thing occupying my mind of late and that is the best damned program on television... LOST!

So the finale of the show premiered last week. If you aren't familiar with the show, check out the website. The jist of it is, there are a group of people that have crashed on an island in the Pacific, that no one in the outside world can see. These people are linked, as many of them have crossed paths at one point or another, making it seem like something other then chance brought them all together. On top of all of that, this island has many mysteries, and the survivors begin to realize that they are not alone.

The season has progressed as the people from the tail section of the plane reunite with the rest of the survivors and begin to explore the many hatches left on the island by the Hanso Foundation's Dharma Initiative. The big issue is whether the hatches have meaningful purposes or whether they are just tools for others that wish to observe human response. And if the latter is true... who are the others...



So the Finale came, all two hours of wonderous glory. Were the questions answered? What happens in the Swan hatch if the button is not pushed? What is Michael planning to do to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley in order to get his son back? Who are the others who captured Walt and just what do they do? And what will happen now that Desmond, the Scottish ex-soldier and primo button-pusher is back?

In the end, more questions were brought up then were answered. But the suspense was riveting. The most interesting part of the finale, may not have been the fact that we saw the Others in their full glory or that we found out that the hatch was actually important, stopping the world from being sucked into a major black hole.

What I felt was most interesting about the finale was that the hope of survival, of love was reiterated in the story line of Desmond. Desmond, of the Scottish boat racing breed, we come to find out is a former soldier who was court-martialed and jailed; for what reason, we do not know.



Desmond was released from prison, taking with him an unread book, Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, which he promises to read before he dies. As he leaves prison in Britain, a limosuine is waiting for him, with a passenger asking him to get inside. Desmond refuses, with distain, but he is finally convinced inside. It turns out the man is the head of a powerful corporation, Widmore Labs; which have links to the hatches on the island. The man also is the father of Desmond's girlfriend, whom he loves desperately and has not seen or heard from; as he wrote her constantly in prison.



Widmore offers Desmond two boxes, one of his past, and for his future. The box from the past is a box containing the letters he wrote to Penny Widmore, never delivered to her. The other box is filled with money. Desmond refuses to take the bribe, and instead sets himself to the goal of winning a boat race that was run by Penny's father, in an effort to win back both his honor and his love. He set's off to America where he subsequently run's into Libby the Tail-section survivor, who by sheer luck owns a boat that she would like to give to Desmond. He also runs into Jack, the night that Penny tracks him down and confronts him.

Desmond sets off on the race, and eventually lands on the island, where he is separated from his girlfriend and his goal, atleast temporarily. Throughout this time, Desmond is tortured with the fact that he may never be able to get home. Isolated and alone in the hatch, he comes to a decision that he will kill himself, and looks into the book that he wished to read before he died. In it, Penny leaves a letter telling him that no matter where he is, she loves him, and that love will bring them together. As he finishes the note, he hears a noise, someone banging on the hatch, the survivors of the crashed Oceanic plane.

It is this hope of a tomorrow with the chance to make things right; lost love, separation, anger, desperation, greed, all can rectified, if you keep hoping for the chance. The hope of Desmond to be reunited with Penny is the same as the hope of Jack who wishes to heal a woman paralyzed in a car accident or any of the others on the island, who all seem to be looking for redemption in their troubled lives.



Throughout the series, characters have tried to come to grips with the choices they have made and the inequities in life. I think this will be the driving force as the next season approaches, and I think Lost will be the better for it. Keep an eye out for re-runs or Netflix that baby!

4 more years?!

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Ummm, Dubya... America called; you don't need to be President anymore. I mean damn, after listening to his speech about immigration reform, isn't it obvious that this man is in over his head?! With 6,000 troups being sent to the border, the pattern of immigrants trying to cross over doesn't slow. Immigrants find their way around walls and around troops, the key is to make immigrants not want to come in the first place, by improving the economies of all these sending countries.

Vanity Fair/Annie Leibovitz

And if the level of President Bush's incompetence isn't exposed enough, the June-issue of Vanity Fair has some hard hitting articles on the failure of government response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina written by Douglas Brinkley and Anderson Cooper. Those stories are accompanied by a piece on Dick Cheney. And to think we have three more years to go with this current administration, God, please save us!

That's our 'Stilo....

AFP/Getty Images

Yo homie, you got the intel on WMDs in Iraq? No dude, I thought you had that shit!

Everything is going wrong for the Republican Party these days, with issues of corruption, arrogance and prostitution adding to the failed agenda of President Bush and Congressional leadership.

With issues like immigration taking front stage in the debates leading up to midterm elections, the Democrats are moving quickly to galvanize support to bring America out of the dark ages. And even a few old faces are taking to the airwaves to get their message out:



Yes, La Chilindrina may be coming out of retirement to support efforts to throw out the Republicans. Supposedly, the Republicans are going to try to match by bringing Professor Jirafales out of retirement. It's on now bitches...

Just to illustrate how we have digressed in Presidential quality... lets follow a segment from The Late Show.



Oh lord, it makes me pine for the days of Bill fighting the good fight against Newt and Bob.

In other news, Jenni and I caught a good movie in Irvine, don't ask me why we ended up there. But I highly recommend the movie. Best work by Joseph Gordon-Levitt since 10 Things I Hate About You.



Who knew San Clemente could be such a cool place? Watch your back though, cuz you might end up not coming back.

A Day without Ryan and Rachel!

Our favorite Canadians, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams marched on Wilshire on Monday in solidarity with immigrants. I heart this couple, first the Notebook and now this.

Brings a tear to my eye.

Source

We the People...

Courtesy:REUTERS/Lucas Jackson


If we can take one thing away from yesterday's marches around the country, it is the fact that immigrants, illegal and legal and many American citizens want a change to the current immigration system. A sea of people from San Diego to Boston, Seattle to Miami marched in support of the opportunity for undocumented immigrants to receive legal status in this country. Eugene Robinson, who has written a serious of opinion pieces on the issue of the movement continues with another intriguing piece.

The march was huge and energetic, LA Times estimated 200k at City Hall
and 400k on Wilshire, but ask anyone who was there and they would tell
you that this was much bigger then La Gran Marcha, I would say
anywhere between 600k to 900k were walking on Wilshire Blvd. You
couldn't quite tell because people kept coming, and Wilshire is much
bigger then any of the downtown streets.



A great mix of people representing different groups: Mexican, Central
American, Irish, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, etc. were all present. The
crowds were boisterous, focused and energetic, with the exception of
the usual crazy Larouchies, some Socialists, a few religious groups
and senoras selling weenies con tocino; the smell was intoxicating
since we didn't each much yesterday.



We even ran into actor Martin Sheen, everyone was scrambling for an autograph, so I didn't say hello... pobrecito, I figure if a guy like him is going to take their time out to protest, let him do it in peace.

When we got to La Brea and Wilshire, Paquita La Del Barrio was singing and everyone from Bill Weir, to Anderson Cooper and Lourdes Garcia were reporting. It was packed to the brim with people and I think the most interesting part of it all was the fact that thousands of immigrants were streaming into Hancock Park and Larchmont, catching rides to get back home in the most upscale section of the city.

Instead of addressing the concerns of immmigrants, everybody has been fixaxted on the news that Gloria Trevi, Ivy Queen and several other D-list musicians helped make a spanish version of the Star-Spangled Banner. George Bush and Antonio Villaraigosa have come out against the anthem, and while I tend to agree with them on this issue, particularly because Gloria Trevi is trash and I am not a fan of reggaeton... Latinos were not the first to write a spanish version of the national anthem. In fact, a version was commissioned by the U.S. Bureau of Education in 1919, and the State Department has four versions that are listed on their website. Whats up with that Georgie, how come you can't get your own government to keep the anthem in english?

Contact your members of congress and keep the fight going, ask for comprehensive immigration reform.

AP Photo/Jennifer Szymaszek

In Mexico, as these groups were marching, Mexican citizens were protesting American businesses and the American government. How hypocritical is it that Mexicanos are protesting American companies of creating this broken immigration system? Make no mistake, American businesses with a thirst for cheap labor are a magnet that attract immigrants to come here, but one of the biggest factors pushing these immigrants to migrate is the economic disparity that persists in sending countries like Mexico.

If Mexicanos want to protest, they should march on Los Pinos or the Zocalo and demand that their government work to redistribute the wealth that Mexico earns on the backs of countless impoverished workers. The Mexican government under Vicente Fox continues to be a disgrace, a sham that was sold as a force for reform, but has continued to be more interested in fattening the wallets of their power brokers in Monterrey. May'be today, Kate del Castillo might be regretting her words of support.



In order for us to make a permanent change to slow the cyclical patterns of migration that lead to the disenfranchisement of power migrant groups in receiving countries, we need to equalize the economic environments of sending countries. In laymans terms, we need to make Mexico, El Salvador, etc. countries with greater average living standards.

Back to the protests... my parents marched in Fresno, CA in support of immigration reform. They said it was the largest protest that has ever taken place in the San Joaquin Valley. Check out my mom who was quoted by the Fresno Bee in their lead article.

Courtesy: Eric Zamora/Fresno Bee

Great to see people turning out in farm country to express their opinions.

Finally, I leave you with a small tidbit of a speech given by Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's Colbert Report, at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.



Take a look and enjoy some hard jabs directed at the President.