I closed my eyes last night and had a dream about black smoke.  The smoke came out of air vents and wrapped around the people in the hotel in my dream.  The smoke sounded like an electric snake and crackled with fire.  I scrambled to get into the basement.  I awoke-

I have never had a dream about something I had watched on TV.  It was a little strange.  The truth was that I was very restless last night.  My brain was processing the last year of LOST.  I could not shake the last episode.  The realization that I had just watched something that my brain could chew on for days or weeks was overwhelming.  I am still coming to terms with the details of the last season of one of the most original and interesting shows ever produced.

LOST-Hatch-Numbers

Each Character Showed Their Soul

The most important part of the last season is that it represents a way of dissecting characters that has never been done before.  The characters are able to live an entire season in a world that they construct.  Each person has died and meets again in a world that is created through their love for life, care for one another and their inability to move on.  They are truly LOST in purgatory.

Many other movies and shows will throw a few words on the screen to tell you how a character turns out years after the film is over-  Like the end of Animal House.  But LOST shows characters living in a world that they create after a life of regret, loss and love.  They are living in a metaphysical world.  Their purgatory gives them an opportunity to out live regrets, relive a life without regrets or just muddle through existence as they wait to connect with others.  All of it depends on their personality.

Desmond-  Obtains the highest level of approval from Penny’s father as his right hand man.

Sun and Jin-  Are in love and happy.  They turn their fear of her father to a shared struggle and not Jin’s burden  to bear as his assassin.

Jack-  Gains the approval of a son he never had.  He become the father his father never could be.

Sawyer-  Takes the struggle for the man that destroyed his life and makes a turn for the positive.  He explained it to Charlotte as a cross road- he had to choose and he chose to be a cop.

Hurley-  Used his money to be the greatest philanthropist of his time.  He took the curse of his money and turned it into good.

The list goes on and on.  Each character was allowed to take on the best dreams and the lessons learned from their life and live them in purgatory.

There is No Time

The key to all of this is not to get hung up on when everyone dies.  According to Jack’s father, there is no time in purgatory.  Purgatory is a world all of the characters needed to have in order to find one another.  It was a landing place for them to sort out their life on earth and come to terms with their relationships.  The connections were critical to moving on.  They needed to move on together.  Most of them anyway…

It is important to understand not everyone form the show needed to be at Jack’s church.  Linus was there, but decided he could not move on.  I can assume he is waiting for his daughter.  Michael is trapped on the island in order to pay for his sins and could not be at the church.  Notably- Richard Alpert was there- he found his end after hundreds of years of life.  Again-  the list can go on…

In the End

I do not believe there is a show that has provided such incredible room for interpretation and dissection.  I am very happy to have been a part of such a great show as a viewer.  The meandering, the  flashes and the suspension of disbelief have been tough at times and fun at others.  The bottom line is that LOST will be one of the most important shows ever to have been produced and the season finale will go down as one  of the most defined events in television history.  Great job guys!

We are walking-  actually we are sprinting….  My step-daughter trips over a case of beer in the street next to a couple of guys who looked like they had walked out of a Lil’ Wayne video.  They growled and then “Hey Girled” her. NICE!  We then side step two pit-bulls on our way past some vomit and  piles of trash on the street.  The air was thick with alcohol, urine and trash.  It was almost 11pm.  We had left the concert portion of the festival early because of the growing masses of drunken nerds and degenerates in the streets surrounding the fair grounds.

This was not the family event I was hoping for.  The Old Towne Spring Crawfish Festival was not a place to have your children after dark or your wife for that matter.

I am a little frustrated.  Not as much as when  I went off on Grey’s Anatomy-  but still frustrated.  I was at the Texas Crawfish Festival yesterday.  Overall I had a good time with the people I went with.  That being said-  we could have  all gone out for pots at Blue Fish and gone to see a good local band at POs for less money and felt safer.

Don’t get me wrong-  I have no problems with walking into the middle of a good old fashioned street party.  People drinking and music pumping.   I sometimes enjoy the energy.  I loved my college days on Sixth Street and Northgate.  I enjoyed the occasional trip to New Orleans as much as anybody.  I have even done New Year’s Eve in  Time’s Square.

The issue I have  is with Spring’s Crawfish Festival and the city/coordinators lack of planning, law enforcement and crowd control.  The event is touted as a family friendly celebration of mud-bugs, beer and great live music.  The fact is the event resembled a disorganized New Orleans Mardi Gras bash.  I saw frighteningly few law enforcement officials for the thousands of people attending the event and there seemed to be no focus on crowd control.

The streets were crowded beyond control with trash, people and vendors acting more like this was a carnival than a family event.  ”Half Price Ritas!” and “Get Your Drink ON!” was chanted loudly from a megaphone in front of a local store front turned bar.  I was reminded of Cancun…  It was sad.

Olde Town Spring is a place that may be commercial, but is rooted in small  town values.  To see this center for crafts, antiques and home cooking turn into a dirty cesspool was sad.  It was apparent that the festival had stopped being about a home town celebration and opening of a community and had turned into a money making frenzy where allowing people and business to run a muck was more important than values.

I will say that Charlie Robison was awesome.  He is always good and should be listened to whenever beer is involved (ANYTIME).

Charlie Robison - Spring Crawfish Festival 2010

So-  we will not be back until Spring decides to clean up the festival and make the party more like a fair and less like a weekend on Bourbon St.