Hey, stop calling me Lucan! Call yourself Lucan!
— Lucy’s rebuttal upon being compared to a 70s TV character
Occasionally the kid lets her freak flag fly and expresses her general disagreement with the concept of clothing by running around in her underwear shouting, “I’m half-naked! Can’t catch me!”
Picture a 3′ 3″ blur of hair, undies, and attitude. She basically looks like a miniature caveman with a Pampers sponsorship running amuck. Invariably, I’ll start calling her Lucan, no doubt because the most accessible (and least cluttered) filing cabinet in my brain is labeled:
“Old TV Show/Comic Book/Movie/Music (60s-80s) Trivia—VERY IMPORTANT!”
Lucan was a short-lived TV show in the ’70s that my little sister and I watched semi-regularly. It told the story of a dude who spends his childhood out in the forest and is raised by a bunch of wolves. He eventually gets reclaimed by society as a dirty, snarling, crazy-haired wild-child (the Bundle connection). He then grows up as a guinea pig in some government-sponsored research lab until his inevitable escape. Action and stuff ensue (at least for the season it was on). I’m actually startled by how much of this I’m remembering.
Lucan Attacks!
Anyway, like a lot of useless info, the tale of Lucan is permanently embedded in my brain, probably hunkered down in my hippocampus, shooing away frivolous thoughts regarding the placement of car keys, wallets, and PIN codes.
So this is why I call the kid Lucan. And the funny thing is: this kid, all of 42 months old, takes much umbrage with this label. “Stop calling me Lucan. YOU’RE LUCAN!” she’ll yell as she dashes away from the 30+ year TV show aspersion. I get a kick out of that.
Well, all good things come to an end. The last episode of Lost airs tonight. The series started way back in 2004, amazing considering it’s survived on a major network TV station all this time. In six years it’s had its share of klunker episodes, but in that time it also reached stages of flat-out genius. In fact, I can’t recall any TV show that’s left me stunned or marveling at the storytelling on such a continual basis. Just a few great things that stick out:
I remember this episode just blowing me away. For three seasons, Lost had used extensive flashbacks to flesh out characters and story lines. Flashbacks were also a good way to “get away from the island” because they took place before the crash. This episode seemed to employ the same flashback device to good effect. However, in the very last seconds of this season 3 finale, the viewer realizes that everything in this episode has not happened in the past, but in the future, post-rescue. Also, in this future, Jack wants to go back to the island. Huh? This is also the episode with Charlie’s “NOT PENNY’S BOAT” gesture. Awesome.
I love pretty much anything that has to do with time travel (I think that’s why season 5 is probably my favorite season.) This is the episode where Desmond keeps bouncing back and forth between 1996 and 2004. It’s also where we really start caring about his relationship with Penny.
Other awesome stuff: Locke’s “walkabout” (S1); how we first meet Desmond (I think. I forget when the ’stadium steps’ scene happened. I’m talking about the Season Two opener here (S2); Michael going to the dark side (S3); Jacob and The Man in Black showing up (S5); Rose and Bernard finally finding each other (S3); The Oceanic Six (S4); the ultimate fate of the real Locke (S5); Richard’s backstory (S6); stumbling upon the Dharma Initiative (S2); Faraday’s death (and how it comes about, and by who!) (S5); the adult Miles’ being able to “see” his now deceased parents on a regular basis in 1977, including how his Dad interacts with the infant Miles (S5); and a bunch of other stuff I’m just plain forgetting about right now.
I’ll have to rewatch the series someday, maybe when the kid is old enough to watch it with me. Actually, I’ve no doubt she’ll be able to explain things to me so that I better understand it! After all, this was the first TV show that had me actively seeking out discussion boards after each episode in order to better comprehend what was going on. Anyway, I’m going to miss this show.
BTW, the above illustration is one of many Lost-inspired art prints on display at http://damoncarltonandapolarbear.com. Plus, aren’t VW buses just plain cool looking? My family had one when I was 17, so I got to drive it around a lot, even taking it to concerts in SF. I appreciate it a lot more now than I did then!
We just got back from a get-together at my mom’s place. It was great getting caught up, eating (of course), and just relaxing. Lucy got a chance to play with her cousins. She gets so excited, flapping her arms and constantly moving about. Her cousins must constantly tell her to stay in one place when they play catch because Lucy can’t stand still.
February hasn’t been the best of months. A good friend had a bit of a rough month health-wise. Fortunately, though things were looking a little hairy for a while, he’s doing a lot better now.
This is a geeky TV-centric post similar to something I wrote about Battlestar Galactica back in 2008. Season 6, the last season of Lost starts on Feb 2. (Sheesh, season 5 ended in May, 2009. That’s a long time to wait!)
Anyway, Wubert and I are totally psyched for this last Lost hurrah (Jill’s a 24 fan—whatever!) Like most cats, I think Wubert’s fave character is Ben. I kind of bounce around but Faraday is my favorite character at the moment.
If anyone needs to get caught up on the series, Netflix has just about all of the seasons available to watch instantly. This is gonna be fun.
Here’s a video of Lucy playing with her NintendoWii Fit. As you can see, she doesn’t really follow the game rules, but she still has fun. Click here to see how little the kid was when she first started playing w/ the Wii.
This is kinda geeky, but I thought it was cool. On Wednesday night, on the season finaleof ‘Lost‘, one of my fave shows, there was a scene where two characters, Jin and Sun, get married at the Byodo-In Temple, the place where Jill and I got hitched. Pretty cool, eh?
Here’s a clip of the opening and closing credits to an Australian tv show from 1970 called Phoenix Five. And I thought Star Trek was cool! (Actually, all kidding aside that theme song is pretty sweet.)
I think I’m gonna call Wubert “Platonus” whenever he does something villainous (like hop on the dinner table or “forget” he has a litterbox). Yeah, and from now forward, we’ll refer to John, Laura, Omie, Izzy, and Luna as the Phoenix Five! Omie and Izzy will look so cool in their miniature star trek knockoff uniforms! Or, maybe not.
When it comes to the TV, Lucy’s favorite activities usually involve haphazardly pressing and pulling the various buttons that control the TV set. Of course, she examines the television closely as she does this, finding great humor in how her actions affect the TV’s behavior.
However, there’s one television show that actually causes the kid to forget about her TV experiments, and that show is The Flight Of The Conchords, A quick description from Wikipedia:
Lucy loves the show, and becomes transfixed whenever the duo perform her favorite songs. Here’s a list of a few of her favorites, w/ links to videos on YouTube:
“Foux De Fa Fa” (as close to a theme song as our family has—even Wubert likes this catchy tune!)
