I'm right behind you Jackass!

Okay, we are now less than 24 hours and from the season 4 finale of LOST. Some of the episode I have seen myself and the rest was filled in for me by the rest of the spoiler team. My sources for the first part of the episode (No Place Like Home part 1) was right on the money so I do consider these spoilers to be 100% accurate or very near that. Read at your own risk! To read the text left click and mouse over as you would when you cut and paste. The spoiler text is written in the same color as the background so not to allow anyone to accidentally see the spoilers. It is not in this post it will be in the post titled READ AT YOU OWN RISK!. After the episode we will of course have our normal recap. Regardless if you read the spoilers or not, enjoy the episode. The spoilers are put in chronologically as with the flow of the episode as best as I can figure them out. I didn't see the clips in order and I didnt get all the spoilers in order from my sources so they may jump around a bit while you are watching the episode. In other words what I write first may not be the first scene, it might be the third scene and what I write third might be the second scene. Did you follow all that? I will be posting the spoiler post by 4:00 p.m. eastern time on the day of the season finale. If you come to the site and all you can see is the blog post titles than you know to click and mouse over the post titled READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! to view the spoilers.

The Man Who Sold The World

We passed upon the stair




we spoke of was and when




Although I wasn't there




he said I was his friend




Which came as some surprise




I spoke into his eyes




I thought you died alone,




a long long time ago




Oh no, not me I never lost control




You're face




to face




With The Man Who Sold The World




I laughed




and shook his hand




and made my way back home




I searched for form and land




for years and years I roamed




I gazed a gazely stare




at all the millions here




We must have died alone




a long long time ago




Who knows? not me




We never lost control




You're face




to face




With the Man who Sold the World

No Place Like Home Part 1 (part three)

How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan. - Benjamin Linus





You can almost hear the writers in Ben's voice letting the audience know that something big is coming. There was definitely a Star Wars vibe as Ben almost heroically walked into the greenhouse to create the distraction needed for Locke to get into the lower levels of the Orchid. Then again, maybe Ben is just plain evil. Maybe he's leading Locke to destruction by bringing him to the Orchid just like the evil magician Professor Hinkle led Frosty the Snowman to his death by trapping him inside a greenhouse, melting him down so he can steal back his enchanted hat. Or maybe his motives are more self-destructive. Maybe Ben wants out of the crummy Island life that was always meant for Locke so he's manipulating Locke toward changing history and negating his own timeline with the Orchid's much-speculated time machine. Once at the greenhouse, Ben examines the situation as if weighing all possible options. Perhaps he even somehow knows the results of those options. When the timing seems right, Ben offers to be a diversion so that Locke can access the underground Orchid station. He even literally passes Locke the baton or whatever the little black stick thing is. He walks straight up to Keamy and is summarily knocked right the hell out. Ben wanted to be unconscious so he could commune with the island and find out what to do next. Kooky I know, but there’s actually some evidence of this. Last week I went over examples of how the island’s most instructional visions and revelations seem to happen during unconsciousness. I believe the island made Jack sick just so it could communicate with him. We should also remember back to just before Ben was going under the knife, and Jack was about to put him under. Ben almost seemed to look forward to it. The weird way he said "See you on the other siiiiide..." - it seemed like he knew something the others did not, or was going someplace he needed to go.





It was pretty interesting to see Christian's funeral. Jack capped off an episode of telling lies to himself and others by saying he loved his father and missed him. Seriously? So much for honestly processing and exorcising the daddy demons on the Island. Jack’s choice of words were actually very interesting. He says "I loved you dad" instead of "I love you". It seems more accurate that way, as Jack wasn’t too fond of the man his father had become at the end of his life. When he says "I miss you" Jack’s referring to the pre-vodka Christian Shephard. That’s the father he does miss. It turned out the funeral was really nothing more than a vehicle to bring Claire’s mom and Jack together. Here Jack finds out the shocking truth Claire is his sister! We knew this long ago, so all we really had to do was watch his reaction. And react he did. Either Matthew Fox completely overacted this scene or Jack was perilously close to passing out from the revelation. His reaction seemed natural at first, but then it seemed to get a little odd. What was going through Jack's mind at that moment? How about I'm guilt-racked over leaving so many people behind. Some of them intentionally. And now I learn one of them was my sister? I am scum! I triple-loathe myself now!





We saw Jin and Sun reach the freighter and have a tense reunion with Michael. We learned that Keamy rigged the boat with explosives; most likely that gizmo he taped to his arm last week will set it off should his pulse stop pulsing. Life insurance rocks. Richard Alpert and the Others popped out of the woodwork like the cavalry-cum-Robin Hood and his Merry Men! No season of LOST would be complete without a nice little rifle circle ambush by the one, the only, the original Others! Richard emerges from the jungle, apparently on Ben’s orders, hands raised non-threateningly. There is an air of tension. There is unnecessarily heavy eye makeup. We’re meant to think the Others are up to their old tricks again, but in reality they’re here to protect Kate and Sayid. Maybe they’re taking them someplace safe. Or maybe they’re all joining forces to purge the island of the testosterone-fueled freighter jocks. Maybe there's a Misfits concert over at the Temple!





Daniel decides it’s time to see what happens when members of the freighter crew stop being mysterious and start being REAL. His offer to ferry people back and forth the 80 mile round trip to the S.S. Soon-to-be-Vaporized seemed genuine enough. He raises his hand in Charlotte’s concerned direction as a way of telling her he’s now choosing peoples lives over any type of protocol. Perhaps this influences her to keep the promise she made to Jin, when inevitable craziness goes down in the finale. With this season almost over, and with everything we know about the future lives of the Oceanic Six, it’s important to point out the common thread that runs through each of their lives: the island wants them back.





Each of the Oceanic Six step off the rescue plane to a Tabula Rasa. The island is a horrible memory, but they try to wipe the slate clean. Almost immediately, for every one of them, it’s puppy dogs and ice cream. Hurley’s welcomed back to a happy family. Sayid is reunited with and marries the love of his life. Kate gets away with murder, rocks a beautiful house, and goes about being a new mother to Aaron. Sun’s got a powerful new company and is about to bring Jin’s baby into the world. And with Jack’s career back on track, and no third party competition, he finally gets his hands on Kate’s ass. Life starts off pretty good for everyone, at least until the island gets re-situated.

Slowly, one by one, the island pulls them back. It starts with Hurley and the visions of Charlie driving him to eventually disbelieve the very fabric of flash forward reality itself. Hugo was really the only one who tried to stay a purist, too. We saw him try to denounce his lottery winnings, content to drive his shitty old car and throw down a bucket of Mr. Cluck’s. He knew his newer enmities were tainted by the numbers, and Hurley wanted no part of them. Yet it matters not. He ended up in Santa Rosa anyway, haunted by the island.





Hurley’s visions are what end up corrupting Jack’s perfect world. With the seed of doubt planted, the island uses images of Christian Shephard as a crowbar to pry the rest of Jack open. Alcohol and drugs abound; as Jack spirals down he brings Kate with him. On the other side of the world, Sayid’s own utopia is destroyed. Everything that started out so well on Hawaii ends up worse than it ever was. Since last season’s finale, my theory on getting back to the island has been that the O6 have to do it all together or it will not work. Jack and Hurley are now ready. Kate still might take some convincing. I’m pretty sure Sayid’s willing to do whatever it takes, which leaves us only with Sun. And Sun, I think, has been ready to go back to the island all along. I think her owning her father’s company will play a big part in the O6 finding and getting back to the island wherever the hell Locke parks it next.

One other question now haunts me at the end of this episodes three part post: Why the hell is there not one photo of Sawyer? I must be slipping! See you in a week after the final finale.

No Place Like Home Part 1 ... part 2

Sawyer came bumbling in carrying baby Aaron and for the first time ever on LOST, Sawyer looked like complete crap. He looked exhausted, pained, and totally despondent over the loss of Claire. In many ways, he exhibited some very Jack-like traits in that scene. For his whole life Sawyer has only had to look out for one person – himself. Now he’s unselfishly tasked himself with watching over blonds and babies. He’s also just now realizing that it’s a lot harder than it looks. He follows Jack into the jungle for what initially seem to be Han Solo-ish reasons, not wanting to give Jack all of the hero points. But in reality, we can all agree that Sawyer truly cares about Claire and Hurley. The survivors have been on the island long enough to develop some very strong bonds, but Sawyer’s feelings go beyond simple companionship. Remember back to last season when Hurley gave him a crash course on how to be a leader and a friend. At this point, Sawyer feels responsible for his friends.

In the span of a couple lines, Sawyer quoted the concept of "déjà vu" and likened Jack to a "broken record". With the show taking on a "we've done this before feeling", this only supports my theory that Sawyer really did recognize Room 23 last year when he helped save Karl. Given how reincarnation and eternal-recurrence theories gained considerable traction last week with Richard Alpert's Dalai Lama test of John Locke, hearing "déjà vu" and "broken record" in a sequence that deliberately echoed another scene in a previous episode well, it's enough to make you wonder if LOST was trying to tell us something. Or maybe it was just playing with us. Maybe LOST is a lot like the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, duping people into thinking his city is made of glittering emerald by making them wear dazzling, green-tinted glasses. In truth, his city was made of plain old white marble. I dug the Jack-Sawyer tension. Sawyer rubbing it in Jack's face about how Locke was right concerning the freighter people, how good was that? And how about Jack striking back by accusing the rogue of running away (gotta give Jack a point there)? But I dug it even more when these two put the sniping aside, found common ground, and played Superman and Batman together; in this case, saving Hurley from mad Island mystics Ben and Locke. I've always been a sucker for the rivals-who-become-allies arc in any kind of story. Rushing off to help Jack, Sawyer quipped, "You don't get to die alone!". Another great line in a great scene.



Sun's hostile takeover of Paik Industries was one of the evening's most surprising developments. We learned that flash forward Sun leveraged her settlement from Oceanic Airlines to buy a controlling interest in her father’s company. Her motivation: getting his respect, and possibly revenge. She held him responsible for Jin's death and for putting both of them on the plane. Depending on how you interpret her lines, she seemed to imply he deliberately conspired to kill them, as if he knew the plane was going to crash. She also said that Paik was one of two people she holds responsible for Jin's current corporal status, whatever that might be. Did she mean Paik was/is in cahoots with someone else? Maybe Charles Widmore? Who is the other person? I'm guessing Jack from the way she spoke to him on the plane. Maybe there is a choice to be made as to who goes Jin or someone else and Jack doesn't pick Jin. Or maybe some other decision Jack makes causes Jin to get left behind. Either way, that must be one freaking huge settlement they all got from Oceanic for her to be able to buy a controlling part of a multi billion dollar company. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Sun is receiving additional financial support from other sources, like Ben, or even Hurley. Heck, maybe the Orchid isn't hiding a time machine like everyone thinks. Maybe the dirty little secret of Dharma was that it was actually a secret gold-mining operation, and the Orchid was where the finished bricks were stored. The Oceanic 6 found the gold, took it, and are now drawing upon it to rebuild their lives and settle old scores with their enemies.

One thing I'm fairly sure of is Jin is not dead. Sun doesn’t believe him to be dead, refuses to believe he is dead, and/or "knows he’s alive" the same way Rose knew Bernard was. Sun’s going to try and find the island and get back to her husband. To do this, she’s going to use her dad’s evil empire, and we’re going to see it all happen next season. This is purely my own speculation, but I make it from the nonchalant way in which she grieved Jin, coupled with the fact that the O6 "have to go back!" to the island. I’m guessing that Sun might be the only one of the O6 (aside from Aaron) who never even needed convincing of this. The Orchid Station and Paik Heavy Industries logos are rather similar. Both have a tripartite structure in the center that winds out into a spiral. It'd be interesting to learn if some of the equipment used down in the Orchid Station was made in Korea.



"Jesus Christ is not a weapon." This was the line, from Hurley's mother, just as he was about to club her and his surprise party guests with a gold-plated Jesus figurine. "Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?" Hurley muttered to himself over and over again, evidencing an aspect of psychological ambivalence: the divided self. But what was up with the blinged-up Jesus? It conjured memories of the heroin-stuffed Virgin Mary idols, themselves complex allusions to Marx's idea that religion is the opiate of the masses. Maybe it's a clue or a marker, pointing to the possibility that the Island throbs with life-after-death resurrection power. Or maybe it means nothing.



Ben sees a pile of rocks, pauses strangely, and stares at it for a moment. Only afterward does he kneel and move the rocks aside to reveal a Dharma box. When he opens it, it contains three very distinct items; one for each of them. Hurley gets tossed the crackers, Locke grabs the binoculars. Ben gets exactly what he wants too; a signal mirror. And oh look, there happens to be someone, presumably Alpert and his group, on the hilltop all ready to be signaled. How very convenient, right? Right! Why? Because if you need something, the island provides. The island always provides, especially when time travel is involved. What if I were to tell you guys that somewhere on this island there was a box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it when you opened that box, there it would be. All that and crackers too!. That was very nice of Ben, don’t you think?



Ben, Hurley, and Locke arrived at the Orchid and Ben confessed that he happened to know exactly why Charles Widmore wants possession of the Island. Theory: Orchid time machine = key to eternal life? Last episode we watched John Locke receive Jacob’s orders (or did we?). This episode we watched Ben once again yank the baton from John’s hands and run with it. At this point each needs the other for specific goals, yet neither one of them is revealing the entire truth. Ben tells Locke "That’s none of your business John.", and I’m pretty sure Locke hasn’t yet told everything that happened inside of Jacob’s cabin either. No one is being "entirely truthful" here. "I haven't been entirely truthful.", Ben said. Then came Locke's retort, "When have you ever been entirely truthful?" , which was followed by no response from Ben. Was Ben just ignoring Locke, or did his silence speak volumes? This is the fundamental question about Ben, isn't it? Why he does do what he do's? Is he some kind of Machiavellian Ben Kenobi ruthlessly molding his Luke Skywalker for a showdown with a phantom menace that Locke was destined to fight? We can only watch and wait.

Part 3 later

No Place Like Home Part 1 ...uh part 1

We already know where almost everyone needs to "end up" by the close of this season’s finale. This episode was a necessity; a pre-finale and it was the best it could be, what with everyone zipping around the island (and ocean) in frenzied dashes. Knowing what’s coming next, this episode was like watching two great players setting up the pieces for a really kick ass chess game. One that we unfortunately have to wait two weeks to watch.



Ominous signs of impending doom abounded in part one of "No Place Like Home". There was flash forward Hurley's T-shirt, the one that said "Ace of Spades", which is the death card or the card of war. There were also his numbers taunting him from the speedometer of his Camaro, causing the soon-to-be loony-bin returnee to run like a proverbial madman. There was the Orchid, our newest Dharma station, also known as the greenhouse, perhaps the most foreboding omen of all. Operation Greenhouse was the code name for America's A-bomb testing program in the South Pacific during the 1950s, a terrifying allusion in an episode where we learned that the freighter is a ticking time bomb and that "moving the Island" could be a perilous, possibly catastrophic endeavor. "Doing it is both dangerous and unpredictable", said a cryptic Ben. "It's a measure of last resort." Whatever it is that the Orchid can do, it was enough to cause Faraday to make an I-think-I-just-peed-myself face: "We have to get off this island, right now!"



It's probably premature to be jumping to conclusions about what any of this could mean. We've only seen part 1 of No Place Like Home. Then again, since when have these recaps been governed by common sense? The title comes from The Wizard of Oz, of course, though the line is actually found in (Numbers alert!) chapter 4 of L. Frank Baum's book, not at the end as in the Judy Garland movie. The title of that chapter? The Road Through the Forest. Perfectly fitting for an episode that saw much jungle trekking and emphasized the importance of following carefully marked if treacherous paths, be it the route from freighter to beach or the scripted lines of the Oceanic 6 cover story. The episode ended with Ben getting knocked out in the greenhouse and whaddya know, if we continue to use the Numbers as a guide, chapter 8 of Oz, The Deadly Poppy Field, finds Dorothy passing out in a field of flowers. Perhaps the two-hour finale will correlate with chapter 15 (could The Discovery of Oz the Terrible = Jacob?), chapter 16 (could The Magic Art of the Great Humbug = Ben's tricky secret plan?), chapter 23 (could The Good Witch Grants Dorothy's Wish = Charlotte fulfilling her promise to Jin to make sure Sun gets away), and chapter 24, which is 42 backwards (Home Again is clearly a reference to reincarnation/eternal-recurrence theory. I mean, clearly, OK maybe forget about that last part). At this point I don't think I have to add any more LOST/Wizard of Oz connections but I will give you one more anyway: Thursday's date, May 15Th, when No Place Like Home aired is the birthday of L. Frank Baum. Yeah, the guy who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.



The episode began with the Oceanic 6's turbulent flight home. I'm not talking about the choppy air: I'm talking about the underlying tension aboard that Coast Guard rescue plane. From the jittery copilot rubbing his rabbit's foot (that must have come from a "white rabbit") because of his bad-luck passengers (the cargo back there...bad mojo) to antsy Jack almost conspiratorially coaching his fellow Oceanic 6 members on the press conference to come. Jack seemed desperately invested in the bundle of lies the Oceanic 6 was about to spew. Why? As for the others, they were admittedly shell-shocked by something. What? For a bunch of rescued castaways, their saggy body language screamed defeat instead of euphoria. There was also a slight whiff of disappointment with Jack. Did Jack's sweaty, desperate zeal to fulfill his exit-strategy oath lead to shocking choices that will cost him their respect? Aaron picked his nose and ate it. Right after the Oceanic chick says “see you on the ground”, she walks away in high heels on a grated floor? That’s when Aaron surreptitiously makes his move. It’s lightning-fast too, you got to be quick or you’ll miss it. So go back and watch carefully. I'll wait.

Regardless, these preoccupations were washed away when the plane reached Hawaii and the castaways met their families. The theme song could have been Paul Simon's Mother and Child Reunion, for it was the moms who got most of the love. Sun and her mom. Jack and his mom. Umm… Oedipus much? At the airport, Jack’s mom looks exactly like Kate. So much so, it’s just got to be intentional. Add this to the long list of look-a-like sightings peppered throughout the history of the show, and what does it mean? Who the hell knows, but after the Jack and Kate play house episode it’s kinda creepy. Hurley and his mom. Cheech got an affectionate pat, but Mr. Paik didn't even get a glance from Sun. Sayid was alone, though not for long; Hurley shared his family with him. But Kate and Aaron, the poser mother and orphan Island child stood alone. And awkward. The wink-wink of the Oceanic Airlines publicist's saying, "They're referring to you as the Oceanic 6. It's not the best branding as far as we're concerned, but it's catchy." was pretty good. For those of you who felt ABC didn't play fair with its O6 puzzle marketing meaning "Aaron wasn't technically an Oceanic 815 passenger!" you can consider this your apology.




One other thing that surprisingly hasn't had much made of it on any of the Internet boards; right before little Miss Let's-Spin-Everything-So-As-To-Not-Make-Oceanic-Look-That-Bad talks to the O6 she nods and gives a smile to ... someone who we cannot make out in the shadows. To me it looked a little like Michael's profile and before you give me the "Then they should be called the Oceanic 7." argument, let's think about it for a minute. Michael is supposed to be Kevin Johnson. Look at Sayid's reaction last episode when he realizes that the freighter Captain gave Michael up to Keamy. Sayid is definitely feeling a little regret for outing the survivor trying to make good. So giving that Sayid has come around a little to Michael's side, there is obviously plenty of time to concoct stories. And just what is the story you may be wondering? Sayid let's the rest of the O6 in on Michael's attempt at redemption and convinces them to help get him back with them. He can't go as Michale Dawson he has to go as Kevin Johnson. There is obviously going to be a huge explosion from the freighter so possibly he will be joining the O6 as a survivor of the freighter which wouldn't call for all that much press coverage considering we have 815 survivors who come back after being thought dead for a hundred or so days. I can tell you absolutely that Michale is not the person in the coffin so it is definitely possible that in a future season 5 flash forward we will see Michael off the island and still working for Ben.



Whatever happened to separate the O6 from the island must have been disastrous. Sun should be grief-stricken and bleary-eyed from Jin’s death. Jack should be wracked by guilt for having let everyone down. None of them should really give a shit what the world thinks happened to them at this point. So what gives? The Big Lie is a propaganda conceit attributed to Hitler that argues that the bigger and more perverse the lie, the more people are likely to believe it. Yes, there is a reason for dragging Hitler into this; the Oceanic Airlines publicist, Mrs. Decker, shares her last name with Nazi flack Will Decker. But the Oceanic 6 spin strategy went the other way: presenting a credible substitute for their utterly incredible situation. Decker gave us the overview. Oceanic 815 crashed in the Indian Ocean south of Indonesia. Eight people survived and made it to an uninhabited island called Membata. According to one online dictionary, "membata-bata" in Indonesian means "ambivalent". As in the post-rescue demeanor of the Oceanic 6 with profoundly conflicted hearts divided is a compelling definition of ambivalence. On day 108, six of them made it to the inhabited island of Sumba. And that was that. Not one word of ghosts, polar bears, or smoke monsters. Interesting fact about the inhabitants of Sumba: They're known for their megalithic burials, in giant stone crypts. Megaliths usually bear symbols called "cup and ring marks", pervasive throughout prehistoric cultures; they resemble a series of concentric circles, just like the Oceanic Airways logo, or a spiral, just like the Orchid logo, spotted in Faraday's notebook. These symbols reflect the belief of earlier cultures that there is spirit inside earthly substance, that all is connected, that time is eternally recurring. I don't know what all of that points to but it sounds damn intelligent.

The Oceanic 6 had some curious things to share personally, too. Jack embellished the cover story with some survival-at-sea detail. Hurley defused a question about their healthy appearance by humorously accusing the reporter of commenting on his weight. He also boldly announced he was giving up his restored lotto winnings. Sayid flatly denied that any of the other castaways had survived. Sun seemed to struggle the most as she reluctantly, bitterly claimed that Jin never made it off the plane. “Was your husband one of the other two people who died on the island?” After Sun said no, how come no one else asked who those two people were? That did not make much sense, as that would seem to be monumentally more important than Hurley’s diet. Either way, this begs the question: Why would any of the O6 even mention that two other people survived the plane crash? Would that not make things more complicated? Unless of course, Oceanic found a pair of bodies. In that case, they’d have to make stuff up about people surviving the crash and subsequently dying prior to rescue. But Kate's lie had the most readily apparent implications. She claimed Aaron was her child and tacitly confirmed a reporter's conclusion that she was five or six months pregnant when she got on the plane. One would think that this claim could be easily disproved; time will tell if anyone investigates. Just as intriguing, Kate's story messes up a lot of fan theories that the Oceanic 6 would leave the Island by way of the anomaly and move forward in time. But who knows? Maybe when Locke reboots the space-time continuum with Orchid magic, we'll get a new timeline that helps Kate's yarn and saves those theories.

More tomorrow

"I'm a complex kinda guy, Sweetheart!"

Yeah, so I'm running out of episode titles to use as post titles but we still have Sawyer-isms and nicknames we can use. Besides it gives me a chance to put that picture up. Yes, I have a man crush, I'm forty frigging years old I can admit that now! Being forty makes it cute! Least that's what they tell me. Which brings me to this post. Thought I would try my hand at this whole "5 Songs" thing. Here's 5 songs that have helped me along the way to dealing with turning the big 4 oh.



Like A Rock by Bob Seger has always been a favorite song of mine and no, not because I drive a truck, cause I do NOT. Thank the man Jeezus, no. It's a song about a man looking back on his life and remembering a time when he was "Like A Rock". Meaning, to me at least, I might not be as good as I once was but I can still be as good as I was, once. If I have to.



Another Seger song, Rock and Roll Never Forgets, has helped prep me for many years. The opening line So you're a little bit older and a lot less bolder/Than you used to be may be true, except for the less bolder part, I think I'm getting bolder, at least with my mouth I know I am. I don't hold back as much as I used to. Could be a good thing or not. Depends on which side of my mouth you stand on I reckon. So now sweet sixteens turned thirty-one/You get to feelin weary when the work days done I've felt like that for a while now, so yeah this one helps me make it through. Guess you can tell from the pictures, I ain't the only one that has gotten older. Sheesh, is that really the same guy in both pictures? Time is a fickle bitch!



100 Years by Five for Fighting is a microcosm of life. I feel like so many things that have happened in my life "just" happened but the calendar says otherwise. How long has it been since I drove a black Mustang and was called Ooter? Over twenty years. Damn...



Changes by Bowie is another one of those songs to keep in the arsenal. Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older/Time may change me/But I can't trace time the good thing about getting older is it's sort of like a fraternity or a club. You get to 40 and you have younger people making lite of it and using you as the brunt of the joke but it's called Karma buddy. We all do it unless you "River Phoenix" it out of life and if you do, well, that's a shame you didn't get to join the club. Even if I'm not around when they turn 40 I have the confidence that there will be some young whipper snapper waiting in the wings to make them feel "over the hill". Where is this goddamn hill anyway? Besides if I'm at the top of the hill and just went over and am starting to go down the other side, isn't this the best view I'm gonna get? Ha ha blow me 20 somethings!



All These Things That I've Done has been in heavy rotation for the last few years in my CD player. Another of those songs that has helped me brace for the collision with "Father Time". Another head aches, another heart breaks/I am so much older than I can take/And my affection, well it comes and goes/I need direction to perfection, no no no no gives a sort of desperation to aging. Gracefully? I think not. These changes ain't changing me/The cold-hearted boy I used to be . But we do end with a positive thought: Time cures hearts



Landslide by Fleetwood Mac has shown me that hopefully, I still have some mountain to go. I can fight the landslide or I can sail on life's tides. Also makes me grateful for the people in my life. Even for some of those not in my life anymore as much as they used to be that have helped me along the way. Thanks for letting me use you. Also it makes me miss those that have left the world. And yes I can see their reflection in the snow covered hills. This song also reminds me of my Doddy's Mommy who is a huge Stevie Nicks fan. She always used to dress like her, kinda think she probably still does sometimes, and she likes to dance too.



Yeah, I know it's more than five songs, shove off, it's my list and it's my birthday, so hook me up with a quick rusty trombone, will ya! Last song on the list is Puff The Magic Dragon. I was Jackie Paper, at least for a little while. Thankfully I still frolic. Not as often as I used to or would like to. But somewhere I know the ability is still there. I think I need to do that soon now that I think about it.

That's it, now I gotta go drink some prune juice and take a nap. I's tired!