The Island Isn't Done With Me Yet

Hello my dear friends -

Wow, it feels good to write those words. It's been waaaay too long—over a year! And I didn't even realize until last night that the date is 8/15, so it's kind of perfect that I got my act together to publish this post today of all days. (For those of you who don't remember, it was Oceanic Flight 815 that crashed onto The Island. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you.)

I actually have an even better reason to fire up this beloved blog again today, though: I'm going to try to convince you to come celebrate LOST with me (and others... but not The Others, of course) on The Island.

That's right, we have to go baaack! As I mentioned at the tail end (LOST pun intended) of my post back in May 2013 and a few posts before that, a fan meetup called LOST 2014 is happening on Oahu to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the September 22, 2004 series premiere. Can you believe it's been that long? A full decade. Whoa.

When I first heard about LOST 2014, I knew I was going to do everything in my power to try and attend, but I wasn't sure how many other people there were out there who'd feel the same way. As I prepared to write this post in advance of the August 31 registration cut-off, I checked in with Kelley (the organizer) about how attendance was shaping up so far. To say I was shocked to learn that I'd be joined on Oahu by 233 LOST fans (and counting) from more than 12 countries is an understatement. I mean, I know there are millions of people around the world who love the show, but it's one thing to love a show and quite another to haul yourself out to Hawaii in order to bond with fellow fans, am I right? This means there are at least 233 other people out there as #=@*!$%^@* crazy as I am, hooray! LOST FANDOM 4EVA!

Needless to say, I couldn't be more excited to meet up with everyone. I remember being a little nervous to go out to Oahu by myself for the Season Six Sunset on the Beach premiere event. My husband was like, "Um, what if these people are ax murderers?" when I told him of my intention to finally meet other LOST bloggers and Long Live Locke readers and fans of the show "in real life" (or IRL, as the kids say). But I am not exaggerating when I tell you that weekend ended up being one of the best of my life; I solidified some close friendships over the whirlwind that was those few days. And I know the LOST 2014 event is going to be just as special.

WHOA, COME WITH ME NOW
I'M GONNA SHOW YOU HOW

So my goal today is to convince anyone reading this who has perhaps already been saving up for a vacation and who may be on the fence about LOST 2014 to just go ahead and do it. Come to Hawaii! IT'S HAWAII, for Jacob's sake. There is no way you won't have a great time. There is no way it won't be one of the coolest things you've ever done. There is no way you will regret it. And there is no way I won't buy you a fruity umbrella drink if you tell me this post made you take the leap.

But just in case my offer to shell out $10 for booze isn't enticing enough, there's this: Jorge Garcia—that's right, Hurley himself—is gonna be there. You can get the full scoop at the post I linked to, but suffice it to say that Jorge deserves to be crowned Coolest Dude Ever (yes I used "dude" on purpose) for making what was already going to be a rockin' three days even better. Somebody cue up Shambala already!

Since the Lost 2014 site has the full schedule of events and other important information covered in great detail, I'm not going to run through what'll be happening day by day. But I will be back with another post after I'm home and promise a full debrief on what went down when hundreds of crazy LOST fans descended upon The Island.

I'll end my plea for you to attend LOST 2014 with this: the registration deadline is August 31, and they really mean it. They can't extend it for anyone, for any reason. So if you think there's even a remote chance you may be able to join us approximately five weeks from now, you should just pay the $108 (ha) registration fee before it's too late. The worst that could happen is you lose that money, but you'll still be happy to know that part of it is going toward Cancer Gets LOST's contribution to the American Cancer Society, and the rest will be in support of your fellow LOST fans' Island tomfoolery. If you're anything like me you've spent more money on much less deserving things in the past! 

WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO RUDE?

So if you're sitting there thinking, "ENOUGH, e! I CANNOT GO—I wish I could, but I can't, so just shut up already" I have some good news. There are still a few ways you can participate that don't involve a trip to Hawaii:

1) You can submit a question for Jorge. There's no promise that what you send in will make the cut, but if it does that would be pretty cool, right? Details on how to submit a question are in this post.

2) You can bid on more than 400 incredibly awesome items from all of your favorite TV shows (not just LOST!) in the new Cancer Gets LOST online auction beginning September 1. You may remember that Cancer Gets LOST raised over $60,000 (!!!) for the National Brain Tumor Society in 2012 with its first auction in honor of co-founder JOpinionated's friend Jackie. This year's event (hosted by Blacksparrow Auctions) will be to honor Jo's mother-in-law, who is currently battling pancreatic cancer; proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society. The auction itself is dedicated to the memory of Doc Jensen's wife Amy, who passed away in June after a fight with brain cancer.

I'll be back with the full LOST 2014 rundown in a few months. In the meantime, here are a few other LOST-related things of note...

YOU AND I
WILL BE YOUNG FOREVER

BEHOLD: I found Ageless Richard and tortured him into giving me the secrets of his agelessness!

But once he gave me the scoop we were like old pals. And no, I'm not letting you in on his secrets.

Alright, so what really happened was that I met Nestor Carbonell (Richard) at Walker Stalker Con Chicago earlier this year. Both he and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) were supposed to be there, so I also bought a ticket for MY Desmond and made plans to finally take a "Desmond, meet Desmond!" picture.

But then HIC had to back out due to work commitments (have you seen him on The 100?) and so the closest I have to my dream shot is this:

Ah, well. My Des/Des picture WILL happen one day. It's fate!

Anyway, after a quick chat with Nestor about how much LOST changed my life for the better, he signed this for me:

You never know what to expect when you meet an actor or actress, but I'm happy to report that the man behind Ageless Richard was so, so nice. He cherished his time on the show and seemed truly moved by the fans who were there to meet him.

The other person I got to meet at Walker Stalker Con was Cancer Gets LOST co-founder Jay, who was actually Nestor's assistant at the event. Here is Jay up on stage with Nestor and the Walker Stalker podcast guys—Nestor even put in a good word for Cancer Gets LOST and LOST 2014!

And here's me asking a question to Nestor after the panel was over like a big dork:

One last thing about Nestor—he's in one of the best pictures I've seen in recent memory. This is from his Twitter account, snapped during the Bates Motel/Playboy party during Comic-Con:

I mean seriously, how great is that?

Here's a shot of him and Carlton from that same event:

CLOSING TIME

Just as it was back in my LOST write-up days, I've been trying to get this post finalized forever, so I will close now with a few last thoughts:

1) Yes, I have been watching Damon's new show The Leftovers on HBO. And yes, I do like it, even though it's depressing as hell. I read the book it's based on and think the show is way better. My favorite episodes have been the ones focused on a single character—the one about the reverend was astounding.

2) If you've been missing me since LOST ended, you can find my movie reviews for Redbox here. I'm also on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I will definitely be posting on Instagram and Twitter a lot during LOST 2014! Oh, and if you want to connect on Facebook, please also shoot me a note saying that you're a LLL reader. I'm trying to keep out the randoms!

3) And finally, THIS is what I saw on the beach in Chicago two days ago. You know where my mind went! But as my friends MF and BC pointed out, there are a full five toes. Someone else clued me in that it's a promotion for the Magritte exhibit here at the Art Institute. Phew.

I look forward to bringing you the LOST 2014 rundown in the near future. If you're going to be there, please drop me a note in the comments section!

And if you know of someone else who might be interested in going to LOST 2014, please forward them the site before registration closes on August 31.

Until next time,
- e

A Chat with the Megafans Behind the LOST Nursery

Hello my dear friends -

Anyone who's kept up with my personal blogs — this one (Long Live Locke), Baba G and Me and According to e — knows that I'm not the most consistent poster. After my paid writing work is finished each day, any free time is going to be spent with little Desmond (now 15 months old!).

But I'm still EXTREMELY ASHAMED that it's taken me nine months — yes, the same amount of time that it takes to bring a human life into this world — to finally post the interview I did with the couple behind the infamous "LOST Nursery": Monica and Joao. We wrote back and forth with each other in August of 2012 BEFORE their son was born a few weeks later... and then the days turned into months on my end. Maybe my delay was because I was so jealous of their cool idea. Or maybe I'd become ashamed to call myself a LOST megafan after chatting with this cool couple — I mean, I DID go so far as to name my firstborn after one of the show's characters... yet still didn't come up with this brilliant plan for a nursery myself. Perhaps Monica and Joao's awesome level of fandom had me questioning my very existence.

One good thing that came out of my increasingly poor time-management abilities and/or existential crisis, however, is that now we get to see some pictures of the family all together. Yay!

[Please note that all pictures of the nursery are the property of Monica and Joao and are not to be duplicated or distributed. Thanks.]

Before we get to those, however, here's the original interview from August 2012:

Can you tell me a little bit about yourselves? I wasn't sure if you are designers for your job (because of your web site) or if that's something you do on the side? 

We live in Cascais [Portugal] with our 3 cats and soon with our little baby boy. We are in real estate and we work mainly with houses in this area. About our site, we're not designers; we learned how to do everything we did by ourselves.

We met back in 2001 through mutual friends — Billy Idol was playing and it was love at first sight. And since then we've been together. On January 8, 2011, we went to Brazil to get married at the Redeemer Christ in Rio de Janeiro (one of the new wonders of the world). It was breathtaking.
Before we met, we both loved and collected movies, so we've become even bigger collectors now.

The happy couple in the nursery before the baby arrived. Think those cats knew what was coming?

When did you start watching LOST? Right from the first episode, or did you hear about it at some point later and catch up on DVD?

We heard that it was a good TV show, but we waited for more seasons to come out (as we usually do with almost every series). So we stayed away from spoilers until 2008, and then we started from the pilot and watched four seasons in less than a week! (We also did that with 24 — we watched it all at once in "real time" — so it was easy for us!). LOST was mind-blowing from the Pilot on and immediately became our favorite series.

This is your FAVORITE MOMENT?!? Damn you!

What is your favorite moment (or a few of your favorite moments) from the series?

Monica - For me it was when Locke sees the light turn on in the Hatch, when Sawyer kills Locke's father, and when Sawyer says "Don't you leave me!" to Juliet.

Joao - For me it was when Charlie dies (Not Penny's Boat), Desmond calling Penny from the Freighter, and also when Juliet falls down the hole.

This is just to name a few, but we have many, many more moments we love!

Who's your favorite character and why?

Monica: For me it's Locke and Sawyer, because of their stories and their evolution as characters on the Island.

Joao: For me it's Sawyer and Desmond. Sawyer is funny, sarcastic, knows all about movies and series, and has one of the best stories on and off the Island. And Desmond is the man. The man from the hatch, the man with visions from the future, with time travels, The Brother. And he has the best love story ever!

Desmond Not Included with any hatch you build yourself, though.

Why do you think you loved the show so much?

Monica: Because it's one of those shows that we just can't stop watching, we want more. And because I love the Island, I love the Hatch (we want to build one), I love the mystery and the adventures.

Joao: First, we never saw anything like LOST, not your typical castaways, not your typical island, and the show had a different way to show us the background from the main characters. And every time we thought we saw everything on the Island, they just kept us giving another and another mystery!

Who came up with the idea for the nursery? Did the other person agree right away or did you think it over for a bit? How have your family members and friends reacted?

We always talked about doing a movie/series theme for the nursery, and we talk about LOST and other possibilities like Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and V (the series). We start browsing around in local stores to get some ideas, and we saw the polar bear (at a toy store) and the trees. We thought "The Island is telling us to do it." We realized that we could make a cool jungle and create a relaxing and calm environment in the room for the baby, and a room that we would love, too. After we bought the bear and the trees, all kind of ideas came and it was just a question of finding some and making the others.

Our friends and family (most of them never saw LOST) love the room, they find the jungle very original. And they like the neutral colors.

"You didn't hear about the polar bear?" - Charlie

I LOVE the time-elapsed video (set to the LOST score, no less) of you guys setting up the room! How long did it take to put together — I'm assuming it was over several weeks?

The idea of the video was to show it to our baby someday. We made the room in about two months, but what took us more time was customizing all the stuff.


We customized the baby food products, the supply crate, the bed, the mobile and the planes, the baby clothes, the rabbit, the blanket and the van. From scratch, we made the Baby Dharma Station wooden Symbol, the pillow, the comforter cover and the diaper-changer cover.

When's the next food drop?

Namaste and sleep tight, Dharma baby.

Who's pressing the button to keep these in the air?

I want to go to here.

What was the hardest item to buy, secure, or otherwise make for the nursery?

The hardest to find was the Virgin Mary, to get one closest to the original. By the way, this one is full love!

Sure, the Virgin Mary is great... but check out that recreation of the Des and Penny picture! Impressive.

And also the rabbit. We were thinking of a stuffed rabbit, but it was not good to put a number on it. We had almost given up on the rabbit when we saw on the net that a Portuguese store had the one (another signal from the Island!).

They need to reposition that Sawyer figure so he can say, "Baby, I'm tied to a tree in the jungle of mystery."

Does Ben know they've got his bunny?

It's their own version of the Hatch Light!

The Dharma Symbol was what took us the most time to make. And looking around every store to find the items wasn't easy, either!

What's your favorite thing in the nursery?

Joao: For me it’s all of the jungle, but I really like our “Desmond and Penny” picture.
Monica: I also think the jungle is fantastic and I love the polar bear.

You've gotten a LOT of coverage on your nursery. Can you share some of your favorite reactions or things that have happened after it started going viral?

We never thought that our baby nursery would get all this attention. We were very surprised — and very happy that everyone liked it instead of thinking that we were big geeks!

The best thing we've heard or read is that our baby is going to be a happy kid. Also, it's kind of fun when someone tells us that we're such cool parents (thanks!).

But what makes us laugh is seeing so many people saying they want to get pregnant so that they can make a nursery like this. We are very glad to contribute to increasing the population of LOST fans!

That is too funny. I have to add to the chorus of people who think you guys are really cool parents. On that note, what other pop culture things do you enjoy — other TV shows, movies, music, etc?

These peeps are tough and all, but they'd be no match for Smokey. Or Rose.

Some of our favorite TV shows are: LOST (naturally), Prison Break, 24, Dexter, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, V (the old and the new), Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory.

Movies are harder to say, because we love all kind of movies (drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, thriller, etc). We can name a few that we watch at least once every year (our classics): Alien, Aliens, Predator, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Duplex, Romancing the Stone, Troy, Fargo, Die Hard, Halloween, The Thing, A Simple Plan, Misery, Lord of the Rings, Panic Room, Psycho, and The Descent.

We love music a lot, too — it's a passion. Our favorite band/artist is Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor.
We also paint together, mainly pop-culture paintings, and we also make some limited DVD/BD editions just for ourselves and our friends. And we also write together; we are writing a TV show that I'm pretty sure Damon Lindelof might be interested in!

e's latest Fictional Character Crush: Daryl

But of course he will! Is there another show you're watching now that has helped ease the pain of LOST ending?

After LOST ended, we felt a great void. We didn't find anything like it, so the only thing we could do was to watch LOST again and again. We tried to watch other TV shows, but they were all weak in comparison to LOST. We then discovered Dexter, and that helped. Now we have The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

Do you know if you're having a boy or girl? Will the name be something related to LOST or otherwise pop-culture inspired?

We're going to have a baby boy. His name will be Páris (like Páris from Troy). Unfortunately in our country we can only give Portuguese names, so it is impossible for us to give him a LOST-related name. We looked at the approved list of names and found that Páris was accepted in 2007.

And finally, how much are you looking forward to the first time you watch LOST with your son?!? 

We think that it's going to be very cool when he watches LOST and starts to realize that he knows many of the things. All kinds of childhood memories will come back to him!

NOW, FLASH-FORWARD TO MID-OCTOBER 2012...

Hello again! So, when did Páris make his grand entrance?

He was born on September 9, 2012, weighing in at 3.270 kg and measuring 48.5 cm.

Baby brotha!

How are you adjusting to parenthood?

We are loving every moment (even the lost sleeping hours). He is the best thing that ever happened to us, our love... our precious! You must also feel the same way with your lovely Desmond. When they get together, I think they will have a lot to talk about!

Is that a polar bear on your towel, little buddy? Why yes, I think it is.

Yes, they can compare tips on how they've dealt with their nerdy parents. So how does Páris like his nursery so far?

Páris has been at home for almost a month now and he still doesn't sleep in his room. We only go in there to give him bath, change diapers and dress him, but I have to say it seems that he likes the nursery — he is always very calm and peaceful there. Let's wait for a couple a years to see what he really has to say about his crazy LOST-themed nursery.

Congrats again — he is a doll! 

NOW, FLASH-FORWARD SEVERAL MORE MONTHS to SPRING 2013...

When I knew I was finally getting ready to publish this post, I checked in one more time with Monica and Joao and was treated to these additional pictures. They also reported that little Páris is starting to get some teeth that have been bothering him, but overall he is doing really well! 

This has got to be one of the best LOST-inspired pictures ever.

Mini Sheriff Rick (aka Páris and his zombified parents). This is what happens when babies don't sleep through the night.

My parents did alright, huh?

Would you look at that smile? This guy already knows how cool his parents are! 

I'd like to give a HUGE thank-you to Monica, Joao AND Páris for doing this interview, sending me their pictures and continuing to respond month after month. 

I hope we all get to meet each other one day. Maybe at the 2014 LOST reunion on The Island? Yes, people, it is happening!

I'll be back at some point between now and 2014 (seriously, that's the best I can do) with updates on a bunch of LOST-related happenings and news. I hope all of my fellow LOST fans and loyal Long Live Locke readers are doing well. In case you missed it, here's what I've been watching.

And if you haven't already, please connect with me on Facebook (include a note saying you're a LLL reader/LOST fan) and/or Twitter.

And speaking of Twitter, did you know that the one and only Terry O'Quinn himself is tweeting? You best start following him now so that you can be privy to cool pictures like this... and totally random pictures like this.

Until next time,
- e

Cancer Gets LOST is Live... and More LOST Thought Winners

Go to CancerGetsLOST.org for all the details!

Hello my dear friends -

How have you all been? Good, I hope!

I'm slowly but surely getting my life back in order now that Little Des is seven months old. But if it weren't for my fellow blogger JOpinionated launching the most awesome charity auction of all time on 8/15 (LOST Day, of course), who knows when I would've finally gotten this post up!

So here's the deal: Jo and her producing partner Jared Wong founded Cancer Gets LOST, a charity event that benefits the National Brain Tumor Society 100%. As in, every single cent raised from their auction, live webcast and party is going to the NBTS. Jo's dear friend Jackie passed away this month after a four-year battle with brain tumors and cancer, and I can't think of a better, more wonderful way to help keep Jackie's memory and spirit alive.

Jo and Jared have gone ABOVE AND BEYOND in pulling this thing together. I mean, I really urge you to browse through the CGL site on your own, but here are a few spoilers: they got everyone from LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof to Jorge Garcia (Hurley) to not only help promote the cause but also sign and contribute incredibly cool and rare items for the auction. A LOST Pilot script signed by Damon and the one and only JJ Abrams? Check. The musical score to Locke's mind-blowing "Walkabout" flashback, signed by LOST composer Michael Giacchino? Check? Props from the show? Check, check check! You get the idea, right? And there's actually a lot of great stuff from other popular TV series as well. I'm not going to do it all justice—you just have to promise me you'll scroll through all of the 250+ items (and counting!) yourself, m'kay? And if you simply want to contribute to Cancer Gets Lost without bidding on anything, there's a way to do that, too. Just contact Jo or Jared and they'll help you out.

The online auction will remain open until 8/29. There's also a live charity webcast this Saturday, August 25 from noon - 4 p.m. PST, and I'll direct you to all of the info for that event here. Let's just say some very familiar faces are going to pop up on the stream and you'll definitely want to tune in!

And finally, if you live in or near Los Angeles, you need to get your behind to the Cancer Gets LOST party this Saturday evening, August 25, for a chance to hang out with the LOST fan community once again. Details are here.

OK! Geez, I hope after all that I've convinced you to go check out the auction. Swear on The Island that you will! You really don't want to anger Smokey, now do you?

Let me know if you end up being the highest bidder for anything and I'll do the same in a future post. If it's not already extremely obvious, I am just so thrilled that the LOST community has pulled together to support Jo and Jared and their cause in this touching way. If that doesn't scream from the mountaintops how special the series was, is, and will always continue to be, I don't know what else could.

NOW... onto announcing the most recent LOST Thought contest winners. Since I made you guys wait so long, I added a winner to the mix. Here are the four randomly selected new owners of LOST Thought and the scene that's stuck with them most from the series:

Dave Murray:

"On the evening of May 3, 2006, I was up by myself watching Lost in the dark while the rest of the family slept.

Michael: "I'm sorry"
Ana Lucia: "Sorry for what?"

My mouth opened and I raised my arms over my head.

Libby: "Michael?"

I stood up.

L O S T

Frozen, standing up with mouth open and arms raised. In time I sat down and lowered one arm to reach the remote and play back the last recorded minute."

Damn.

Elizabeth Koelle (Kindle):
"Wow, there are so many, it's hard to choose just one! I lost track of how many jaw-dropping scenes there were. But to this day, I think of Claire and Charlie whenever I have peanut butter, so the scene where Charlie offers Claire the imaginary peanut butter still makes me smile. :)"

Mmm.

Alyssa:

"That scene in Deus Ex Machina really set this show apart from all the others; SO powerful!

But I have to say the moment that sticks with me to this day is when Charlie writes on his hand: Not Penny's Boat. That moment has so much building up to it: Desmond will finally see Penny! All the problems are solved! They'll get off the island!

Charlie is such a beloved character, and his sacrifice, the music (oh, the music!), the cinematography... all of that building to what was a huge shocker for me. That image of his hand on the glass—it gets me!"

So tragic!

AND

Jennifer:

"My "most memorable" (and it doubles as most favorite") scene was Desmond and Penny speaking on the phone in "The Constant." I loved that the entire episode wasn't linear, and that we got to learn so much of their back story. I remember trying to explain it to a friend the next day, and I know I sounded crazy! Time jumping...consciousness shifting...! I was also swearing that it was the most amazing episode yet (and I still believe that)! Years later, I eat up the idea of time travel and timeline hopping by getting my regular dose of "Fringe"! But man, do I miss LOST."

Brilliance.

If you're one of the winners, please leave a comment below (or contact me through Facebook or Twitter if we're connected there) and let me know your email address so I can get in touch with you. I will not publish the comments you leave with your email addresses, so no worries there.

Thanks to all who participated! You can read through everyone's memories here—I promise you it's worth a few minutes of your time. And if you didn't win, remember that you can get your LOST fix through LOST Thought, edited by Pearson Moore, via paperback or Kindle. I've liked hearing from people who enjoyed my joint-chapter with Jo—keep those comments comin'!


Alright, that's enough for today, but guess what? I'm going to be back soon because I'm interviewing a couple of LOST fans that put even my fandom to shame. So stay tuned for that and best of luck securing some great items in the Cancer Gets Lost auction!

Cancer Gets LOST site

Cancer Gets LOST online auction

Cancer Gets LOST live webstream page for this Saturday from noon - 4 p.m PST

- e