The Return Of Mechasmack

Last night's episode of Lost - The Brig - was very satisfying. It's been a while since I've felt that with this show. Having become engrossed last season by watching the entire first season and the first half of the second season in the span of two weeks (thanks Netflix and Tivo), I have been driving myself crazy with theories and combing the web for discussion and clues and then this season I'd had enough of that. From what I've been reading online lately, it seems that the writers are butting heads with the network. Lost is still a popular show, even if the ratings aren't where they used to be. And ratings = money, so the network wants to keep it going as long as they can, even beyond the point of logic. Apparently the writers have a definite ending for this story, but keep having to create filler to keep the show going. And it hasn't really been going lately, more like meandering. There have been too many episodes where nothing really happens But last night something happened, something we've been anticipating for quite a while. Don't read any further if you haven't seen The Brig.

We found out through flashbacks and the super detective work by the others that Sawyer is not Sawyer, but James Ford. And he's been looking for the man that ruined his family many years ago. That man's name is Sawyer. After seeing enough flashbacks of the Losties, the connections between them start to grow and as a viewer you start to make connections that they haven't yet. One of those connections was Locke - Sawyer - James. After seeing the con-man in action, I started to suspect that Locke's father was the real Sawyer and somehow this would be revealed. And once he showed up on the island I knew it for sure. And last night, that was resolved. And to me, that was a satisfaction I had not received from the show in a while.

So of course the preview for next week is probably more exciting than the episode really will be. But there's still hope. And my biggest hope is that the network will let the writers end the show next season. It can't keep going on like this. And last night's episode made me think about the questions I need to have answered to be satisfied with the resolution of this show.

1. What is the island?
2. Why is the island invisible?
3. Why did the numbers have to be entered every 108 minutes?
4. What happened when they weren't entered?
5. What happened to Michael and Walt?
6. Who are The Others and who are Dharma People?
7. Why was the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815 faked?
8. How did Penny know to look for the electromagnetic phenomenom in regards to finding Desmond?
9. What's up with Jack's father?
10. What is that smoke monster?
11. What was that 4-toed foot statue?
12. Will Danielle and Alex be reunited?
13. What is the "Magic Box"?
14. Who is Jacob?
15. Why are The Others such pricks?

You could probably list at least one hundered questions to be answered. But I think this list covers my main questions. I hope to get the answers before the end. And I hope they can keep me interested until then.

You've got them all, by the balls
causin' waterfalls
Stone walls
Bar brawls
Common stalls that cause 'em all

To you they crawl, body sprawl
Smokin' Pall Malls
Close call, stand tall

Doll, you make them feel so small
AND THEY LOVE IT!

The boys wanna be her (The boys)
The girls wanna be her (The girls)
The boys wanna be her (The boys)
The girls wanna be her (The girls)
The boys wanna be her (The boys)
The girls wanna be her (The girls)
The boys wanna be her (The boys)

I wanna be her

Yes I do

The way you rock, don't stop (or lone star)
Girl, you got the chops
Flip flop
She bop
Self-taught
You lick so hot
Are you conceived
Kids receive
Crawling up the sleeve
Parents bleed
Can't conceive
That indeed we'll never leave

AND WE LOVE IT!

The boys wanna be her (The boys)
The girls wanna be her (The girls)
The boys wanna be her (The boys)
The girls wanna be her (The girls)
The boys wanna be her (The boys)
The girls wanna be her (The girls)
The boys wanna be her (The boys)

I wanna be her

So do you

Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her

Ever since I got to play with Serato Scratch earlier this year, I've been eager to get a vinyl emulation setup for myself. It seems as though the tech has reached prime time in the past year or so. I see more and more DJ's using them. As someone who has schlepped crates of records all over and whose back isnt' getting any younger, I welcome the increasing variety of services and software that allow you to download and spin music. And I feel like if I'm going to continue doing this, I need to be up on the new dj and production tools out there.

I got Traktor DJ as a gift a couple of years ago and have played around with a little bit. But when Native Instruments decided to make their own hardware to couple with the software, I became very interested. And when they announced the introductory pricing for owners of the software and competing vinyl emulators, it was a no-brainer.

So I got my Traktor Scratch set in the mail yesterday. It was a long day and I planned to wait unti today to start playing with it. But I started installing the software last night and after reading the first few pages of the manual decided to see how far I could get in 30 minutes. I was pleased that I was pretty much up and running after about 10 minutes of hooking up cables and configuring the software. I've been reading the bad experiences of users with G4 processor machines online and I was expecting problems from the get-go. So far so good. The Audio 8 interface is top notch. It feels really solid and has plenty of inputs and outputs The vinyl and pitch control was very responsive with no hiccups. I was able to start mixing right away. But I've only just begun. Round two tonight.

I got home last night while the sun was still up. And for some reason everybody in the building was doing laundry yesterday. I guess too many people were out enjoying the weather or watching Shrek to get to it over the weekend. Anyway, I have clean clothes now and had a chance to play with Traktor Scratch for a couple of hours.

Supposedly there's an update coming this week for G4 users such as myself as many people have expressed disappointment at the performance on their laptops. But I have to say, I haven't had any problems yet. Now I'm not a turntablist so I'm not really pushing the boundaries of the hardware or the software (yet). But based on what I've been reading online the past couple of weeks I expected it to just not work well at all. But in the couple of hours I was messing around with it, there were no major problems. I think the audio dropped out for a split second on one track about halfway through my session. That's it. The only other problem I had was I thought I was recording but I had the input set to the wrong channel - user error.

So hopefully it will continue to perform well for me. And the software update will only help I'm sure. I might actually venture out with this in a couple of weeks.