So, a couple of you have emailed to let me know that American Apparel is holding a contest on their website called The Search for the Best Bottom in the World. It seems a bit scam-like to me, since you have to be wearing their brand of underwear in the photo, and all the winners get is a few hundred dollars of merchandise (probably things that didn't sell). But if you'd like to enter, the submission deadline is February 21st. And if you want to help out with the judging, all you have to do is visit the site:

http://i.americanapparel.net/storefront/UGCStyle/BestBottom2010/index.asp

Well, a lot of snow came down Friday night and it kept coming down until sunset on Saturday. It was the shiniest, most glistening snow I've ever seen and quite fluffy. We had two feet on the sidewalk in front of our house, although because of the vagaries of wind some streets had less than a foot. Fortunately we were well-stocked with food in the house, but like a silly-headed fool I hiked out in the snow anyway to buy some parchment paper at the Acme so that I could bake cookies. Fearing that all the desperate people there buying milk and bread would be angered by the frivolity of my purchas, I added a handful of foodstuffs as camouflage.

I mixed up some pumpkin pancakes, baked oatmeal cookies, roasted up a nice little edamame and corn salad, and made my famous homemade chicken pot pies. Yes, most of my time this weekend was spent either cooking or eating. And that is just fine by me!

Every morning, I take a little transistor radio into the bathroom with me, because god forbid I should be left alone with my thoughts for ten or fifteen minutes. But it's been frustrating lately because I usually listen to NPR and it's their annual pledge drive, so it's virtually content-free. And to make matters worse, my backup station, WXPN, a music station which is also public radio, always overlaps their pledge drive with the local NPR station's. We must be approaching a point in technology where they'll be able to switch off the pledge drive on a listener by listener basis as soon as they make their annual pledge. I think they'd clean up.

So, this morning, I spun the dial into the heady realms of commercial radio, where I was lucky enough to hear "Sister Christian" by Night Rider. Now "Sister Christian" isn't one of the greatest songs ever or anything, but it is undoubtedly epic, a big overblown, melodramatic power ballad that I'm likely to hear only once every year or two, and each time I hear it, I think to myself "Well, this is your annual dose of Sister Christian. You better enjoy the hell out of it." And I do.

I remember one time in the mid 90s, I was over at a friend's apartment for the first time and he told me to put some music on. I was stunned to find out he had like five or six Night Ranger albums! First of all, who knew they had made all that music! And second, despite being an avid CD collector, the notion of actually buying a Night Ranger album had never even occurred to me. So, of course I had to find and play that one song--probably to my Night Ranger-loving friend's chagrin, as he cursed himself for letting me play DJ.

In fact, the only time I remember failing to enjoy the song was when I saw Boogie Nights, but only because I'd been tricked. In the trailer, you saw one of the characters interrupt a plot-important conversation during the big build up of Three Dog Night's version of "Mama Told Me Not To Come," saying "I love this part." That moment really connected with me, both because it's one of my favorite songs and because I've been known to make people stop talking during my favorite songs. So I was way disappointed when, in the actual movie, the song he was interrupting was "Sister Christian" instead. The bait-and-switch of it threw me out of the moment and prevented me from enjoying my annual Sister Christan pilgrimage.

Incidentally, Wikipedia tells me that the song was written by the band's drummer, Kelly Keagy, which he was alarmed to find out his little sister, Christy, had taken up "motoring" (i.e. cruising down the main drag in your car for potential romantic partners) and reminds me that a nun in Pushing Daisies referred to it as "nothing but a heavy-petting power ballad." Awesome.

Also: this picture just seemed too perfect for today's post...

Seriously, there are spoilers for last night's episode of Lost coming up....

Well, that was certainly an episode of Lost all right. A bit of coolness, a little frustrating obfuscation, a whole lot of people not asking the obvious questions, and a healthy dose of WTF?!?!?! So the island is now Schrödinger's cat, eh? Quantum mechanically, both alive and dead, the castaways both saved and stranded.

As a (would be) writer, it seems like a cheap trick to me. When writing a story, I'm often stymied between two equally good ideas of what should happen next. Using this device, you don't have to choose. You can do them both! In his younger days, one of my writing professors in college wrote a novel wherein the main character has to make an important decision and from that moment on, the text splits into two columns, one for each decision. Clever, but would you want to read it?

However, as a fan of goofy sci-fi television, I actually think it's a pretty fun concept and it's certainly thematically-consistent with the rest of the show. Plus it's a situation that cries out for my favorite character Daniel Faraday, who I'm hoping is somehow alive in the new alternate universe (maybe Eloise fled the island immediately after realizing she shot her own son?).

It was great seeing Boone back. I always liked Ian Somerhalder (he's pretty much my chief reason for watching Vampire Diaries). I guess they couldn't convince Maggie Grace to come back, which is a shame because I felt pretty invested in her character arc and relationship with Sayid. Likewise with Michael and Walt, although Walt would have obviously required some re-casting. I didn't really care that much about Charlie's return and the writers seemed to share my lack interest. Hopefully that will change. I liked how they re-introduced Claire, just as long as it doesn't interfere with my plans for Kate to run back to Nathan Fillion (what? he's on the same network, it could happen!).

In other news, I found a Bettie Page photo that I haven't used! Woo hoo!

It seems like ages since I've actually had to post any text here. Lately I've been concentrating on surviving the short, cold, depressing days of winter, which mostly consists of eating heartier and drinking more often. I made a ridiculously delicious carrot cake with cream cheese icing a week or so ago. And this past Sunday, I made a big mess of beef stroganoff, which turned out pretty spectacular too. Fortunately it's not all eating and drinking. I've been very good about keeping up with my bicycle commuting in the frigid weather. So far that seems to be balancing out any damage from the extra carbs. I was pretty psyched about the opening of the Roller Derby this weekend, but unfortunately there was a fire at the Armory, so that's been postponed. Maybe I need some live music....

Also: Lost is on tonight!