Ok, here’s a synopsis of last night’s LOST finale. As usual, a lot more questions were asked than answered, but I thought it was a very compelling cliffhanger. Feel free to add any of your theories! I’d love your comments:

With Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Sawyer all together, Frank started the chopper and set off for the freighter. Just one problem — the gunfight between Keamy’s guys and the Others left a bullet hole in the gas tank. The helicopter was too heavy to fly with so little fuel. Making the ultimate sacrifice, Sawyer whispered something indiscernible to Kate, kissed her and jumped out so the flight could continue. (Breathe easy, Sawyer fans — he hit the water.)

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Back on the ship, Michael sprayed the explosive device with liquid nitrogen to buy them more time, but the tank was almost empty. With only moments to spare, Desmond ran from the room and met the others as the helicopter was landing. They quickly patched and refueled the tank, and Desmond joined Jack and the gang onboard. Jin, who stayed behind to help Michael, wasn’t so lucky. He missed the chopper just as it took off. Seconds later, Christian Shephard appeared to Michael in the engine room. “You can go now, Michael.” Boom!

Back to Jacob’s island-moving business, Ben told Locke they needed to part ways. That’s what Jacob intended. Locke was to return to the surface and become the new leader of the Others. As for Ben, he crawled through a frozen tunnel until he reached a giant wheel. He chipped away the ice, then turned the wheel. A bright light and the whirring of electromagnetic energy followed.

The helicopter was in the air, but with the ship destroyed, the only option was to fly back to the island. Well, that was the only option until the land mass disappeared in a pool of ripples. Low on gas, with no landing option in site, the craft crashed into the water. Thanks to life jackets and an inflatable raft, everyone survived.

After bobbing in the raft for several hours, the Oceanic Six-plus-two spotted a light in the distance. Penny’s rescue boat was on the way. Thanks to Desmond’s call, she was able to track their location. Des and Penny shared a sweet moment together before it was back to the saving the day. Jack decided to heed Locke’s advice and lie about everything, but he did it to save the people, not the island. In order for the plan to work, Penny dropped the O6 and their raft off near a remote but populated island.

The flash forwards began just where they left off last season. After Kate and Jack shared their tense goodbye in the parking lot, Jack screamed, “We have to go back!” Kate turned the car around to give him a dose of sense. She had no intention to go back to the island, despite what “he” told her. Long story short, “he” was dead, and she didn’t care.

Hurley’s future stint in the mental institution featured a revolving door of visitors. First there was Walt, suddenly all grown up, who asked why the Oceanic Six lied about what happened. Hurley gave him the “protecting the ones left behind” story. “Like my dad?” Walt asked. Sounds like someone didn’t get the “your dad blew up” memo. Later Sayid, fresh from an assassination, told Hurley that Bentham died. “Why are we calling ‘him’ Betham?” Hurley asked. Sayid didn’t answer but did offer to take him somewhere safe. Hurley joined Sayid right after saying goodbye to an only-visible-to-him Mr. Eko

Many people online consider this to be the best episode of Lost yet. I can’t say that, but I definitely think it was a good one. I loved how so many things have been answered – even while so many more questions were brought up.

One thing I couldn’t find online anywhere was what was said to Kate in the flash forward phone call she got. It was a backwards message and I went ahead and reversed it and put the reversed clip on my audio page.

Also, if you missed the commercial for Octagon Global Recruiting, here’s a link to that website. It’s mostly just a hype up for the ComicCom coming up this summer in San Diego. But it’s worth checking out.

So when is the next new episode of Lost? Season five is scheduled to begin in January of 2009 on ABC.

It’s the return of the best reality show – The Mole!

That would be Boy George.

His clothing line is called “B-Rude” and features lots of 80’s style clothing. Recently he was spotted hanging out at a booth in a London mall selling his clothes.

But way more exciting than that, here’s the video to my favorite Culture Club song. You can’t get much more 80’s than this…

It’s Thursday night (May 29th) at 9pm on ABC.

Here’s a short video that was released before season four even started.

Now that we’ve seen a little of the Orchid station, this video makes more sense. Not a lot more sense, but definitely more than it did before.

Maybe it’ll be explained Thursday…

Have you ever dreamed of playing Tetris…..with YOU being the Tetris piece?

Now it’s possible! Fox is adapting the foreign version of the game into a new show called “Hole In The Wall”. It’ll be on their schedule sometime next season, but there’s no word on a premiere date yet.

For now, check out a clip from the Denmark version of the game show. It’s definitely interesting at first, but I can’t see the show lasting for more than a few weeks. Watching people get knocked over by a moving wall gets old fast.

Equally as strange as a human Tetris game show, here’s a human performance of Tetris.

I’m not sure what this says about humankind, but it can’t be good.

Not her personal number of course – I don’t want to give that out!

She wants suggestions on what songs you want to see her perform on her upcoming tour. And if there’s anything else you’ve ever wanted to say to Janet, here’s your chance.

The number is 323-622-8139. This is not a 900-number type scam thing. The only thing you’ll be charged is regular long distance charges.

And make sure you leave your number when you call. Her website says she MAY even call you back! Although I have a feeling you’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery than having that happen. But hey, you never know.

As for the tour, it appears the closest it’ll be to Buffalo is at the ACC in Toronto on October 13th. No word on the on-sale date yet. Keep listening to the 80’s After Work and I’ll let you know when I hear anything.

I just got back from Florida, where I witnessed first hand the sorry state of the country’s health care system.

My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and underwent major surgery for it. I flew down to Florida to be with her, and was shocked at how little care went into managing her pain. Imagine opening your chest, cutting through muscle and lung tissue, leaving tubes and pumps in place – literally gaping holes in your torso with hoses attached to let the chest cavity drain – and then not giving you adequate medication for the pain. That, in a nutshell, is how things went.

When I saw her after surgery she was being moved from ICU and could barely speak. She couldn’t move. The surgeon had told her “we got it all” shortly after surgery, and promptly left for the weekend. My mother is a strong woman with a high tolerance for pain. To see her twitching and grimacing in agony as a nurse bumped the hospital bed by accident shook my dad and me to the core.

I truly wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t been there to complain about her pain management; if they had stuck with the minimum dosage of Loritab, instead of trying different remedies? It took 4 days to finally find something that worked. One of the night nurses actually said to my mother “well, you would receive better care if you had paid for an independent care nurse.”

Excuse me?

This is 2008. I read about nerve blocks and new and different pain meds all the time, and we have to beg for morphine, so my mother can dull the pain enough to reposition herself in her bed without crying out? I almost wanted to ask for a bottle of whiskey and some strap leather for her to chew on, with Wild West medicine like this still being practiced.

This isn’t an indictment of every hospital, by any means. There are wonderful institutions everywhere that provide excellent care, and there were two nurses at this Florida hospital who actually did help get my mom’s pain finally under control. I think more than anything my mother’s case demonstrates how horrible the night and weekend staffs at this particular hospital are, and how much better off my mother indeed would have been if she was a person of means, able to pay for “independent care.”

Thankfully, by Monday her pain was manageable. Through trial and error we found Demerol injections to be effective, and she went home Tuesday with a prescription for Percocet, which was almost as good. She’s moving around now and able to walk, a far cry from the state she was in on Saturday.

What topped it all off for me was when we spoke with the surgeon’s assistant on Monday for a follow-up. When I complained about it taking 4 full days to manage my mom’s pain, she said “yeah, that smarts, huh?”

No sympathy for the torture my mother went through, no explanation for why it took so long to find something that worked.

“That smarts.”

Yes, and it’s really hot in hell, too.

–Brian

Season three of Charles In Charge came out on DVD today.

If something like that can get a DVD release, why can’t quality 80’s shows like Out Of This World be released?!

NASA (yes, the government space agency) is looking for people who will stay in bed for 90 days straight. You can’t sleep the whole time though – only 8 hours a day. But you will remain in bed.

In exchange, they’ll pay you $17,000 for your time.

To do this, you’ll have to go to Houston, TX, you’ll have to pass the Air Force physical for flight duty, and you’ll have to be willing to be bored out of your skull for three long months.

How will this help NASA? Thanks to a head down tilt bed, they’ll be able to study people as if they were in space without gravity for three months. Long term bed rest is an easy way to simulate the effects of weightlessness on the human body without actually sending people into space.

So if you want to be a guinea pig for NASA, sign up at their website.

For years, it’s kind of been like Main Place in Buffalo – a forgotten mall. Which is sad because Midtown Plaza was the first indoor downtown shopping mall in the country.

But even with more stores than Main Place and a few really cool attractions, the end has come for Midtown Plaza.

As things are dismantled, two favorites from Midtown have found new homes…

• Clock Of Nations: The clock will go to the Monroe County Airport until 2012. After that, its new home will be at the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong. Here’s a video of the clock being moved and restored.
• Totem Pole: It was just announced today that the totem pole will move to the Seneca Park Zoo.

Unfortunately, one Midtown attraction still hasn’t found a home – the Monorail. The Strong Museum Of Play considered it, but couldn’t find room. Hopefully soon, we’ll learn what’s to become of it.

This was one of my favorite malls in Rochester – I would always head straight to the Record Theatre and buy all the awesome 80’s 12″ singles that I still love today. Then I’d go to Scrantoms for some books and then just wander around the mall.

I even worked there for about five years at some of the radio stations that had studios there.

It’s sad to see this go – but at least some of best parts of the mall will survive throughout Rochester.

The National Geographic cable channel aired the Battle At Kruger last night. It’s an absolutely incredible look at nature at its most wild!

If you missed it, check out the YouTube video the show was based on. Don’t let the length scare you away – this is one of the most amazing videos of nature I’ve ever seen.

And after watching it, try to catch “Caught On Safari: Battle At Kruger” when it’s rerun.

We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge over the weekend and had an AWESOME time! The minute I walked in the lobby, with a talking tree, moose, bear, and wolf by the hearth, I knew Connor and Darcy would love it. We stayed for one night, but with every overnight stay you get 2 days at the waterpark – so we did every slide and tube ride there was Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

What amazed me about the place was how much there was for adults. Yes, there was storytime, and animatronic creatures that talked to the kids, but my wife had a wonderful experience at the Elements Spa, there were great restaurants, a bar and a fitness center, an arcade, mini golf – it’s really quite a resort. When we left, my kids were really upset.

After I put Darcy to bed Saturday night, she started crying. I went in to see what was wrong, and she was on the floor saying “I wanna go back to Great Wolf Lodge!!” So the Demays give it 4 thumbs up.

–Brian