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A really good article was posted today on ABCNews.go.com related to the season finale of Lost and what is in store for the series over the next 3 years. The story also contains some good commentary from Damon and Carlton related to who they would want on a deserted island with them from the cast and their thoughts about how the Internet has affected the series.

After three years and countless viewer questions, the executive producers of “Lost” have promised fans what they want most from the May 23 season finale: answers.

“We sort of see each season as a book, and we’re going to be concluding this book of ‘Lost,’” co-executive producer Carlton Cuse said during a break from editing the third season’s final episode. “The finale promises a showdown between our guys and the Others, and we really deliver on that.”

Notwithstanding the obvious libido-driven answers, if you could only choose 3 Losties to have on the Island with you, who would you choose?

SyFy Portal reports that the Lost Weekend 2007 party took place last weekend. I had completely forgotten about Lost Weekend, but I’m glad that someone covered the event!

Sam Anderson (Bernard) and Byron Chung (Mr. Paik, Sun’s father) were the first VIPs to arrive. Later, Maggie Grace (Shannon Rutherford), whose locks are now dark brown, joined the party wearing one of the most casual outfits there — a red fitted T-shirt and blue jeans.

Andrea Gabriel (Nadia, Sayid’s love) was quite the party girl. Dressed in a little, beige silky dress, she spoke with almost everyone in attendance.

From the beginning, Anderson held a rapt crowd about him, each fan taking their turn to have their photo taken with Bernard. However, once Daniel Roebuck (Leslie Arzt, the high school teacher who got blown up) showed up, however, the crowd that surrounded the lovably annoying scientist was equally large.

Much like the characters he’s played on Lost and Nash Bridges, Roebuck is an animated talker with an easy smile.

Rose and Bernard reunited when L. Scott Caldwell (Rose), dressed nicely in flowing black pants and blouse, arrived.

Also in attendance were executive producer and Lost co-creator Jeffrey Lieber and writer Craig Wright. They got up on stage and thanked the fans for being so supportive of the show.

“When we were creating the pilot, we didn’t think it would get on TV,” said Lieber. “When it got on TV, we didn’t think it would last more than one or two episodes. And now we’re starting our fourth season. It has been amazing.”

Read more over at SyFy Portal

Here is your chance to own an exclusive piece of television history and help Artists for a new South Africa at the same time.

Charityfolks.com are auctioning a piece of the plane from the infamously doomed Oceanic Flight 815 from Lost signed by show creators J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof. This is the first piece of the wreckage ever to be privately owned.

The proceeds of the auction will go to Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA), which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the African AIDS pandemic and advancing democracy and equality in South Africa. ANSA also works to further civil rights and safeguard voting rights in the U.S.

It should be noted that the part of the wreckage that is auctioned is not the one in the picture above. A photo of the auctioned piece of Lost plane wreckage can be seen here.

My friend Jon from The Tailsection, who also writes for BuddyTV, was lucky enough to get an interview with Lost writers and exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse a few days ago.

I really like the interview since Jon asks some questions that I know many fans have been wanting answers to for quite some time. Among the things discussed is the importance of The Lost Experience:

BuddyTV: Is there enough information given on the show that someone could put together a fact-based theory that more or less explains what’s going on, on the island?

Carlton Cuse: I don’t think so, I mean, the story is not yet complete. I don’t think there’s enough that we’ve put out there that would allow someone to draw a conclusive theory about the island and the show.

Damon Lindelof: I think that there are bits and pieces that someone could put together. Recently Carlton and I put out to the Yahoo community all over the world, what do you think the monster is? And some people came alarmingly close to what its origins were, how it functions, what its purpose is, but they weren’t able to go the next level as Carlton says, deeper into saying, “That’s what it is but what does that mean in the grander scheme of what the island is.” It doesn’t mean that someone couldn’t accidentally back into it and anticipate something that they haven’t seen yet. But sort of the real hardcore intel about the island is going to start to reveal itself towards the end of the season as we learn more about the others.

BuddyTV: One thing that’s a bit of controversy in the fan community is whether or not any of the information from The Lost Experience game is actually a factor in the universe of the show. Is that something you could clear up for us?

Carlton Cuse: I think that for us, yeah, I mean, all of Alvar Hanso and his relationship with funding the Dharma Initiative is part of the mythology. The details of the Hanso Foundation’s demise…it’s tangential to the show but it’s not unrelated to the show. We sort of felt like the Internet Experience was a way for us to get out mythologies that we would never get to I wain the show. I mean, because this is mythology that doesn’t have an effect on the character’s lives or existence on the island. We created it for purposes of understanding the world of the show but it was something that was always going to be sort of below the water, sort of the iceberg metaphor, and the Internet Experience sort of gave us a chance to reveal it.

Damon Lindelof: I would say in terms of all the… background that we did, in terms of the Valenzetti equation and explaining the formation of the Hanso Foundation and doing the other films…we’d consider that stuff cannon to the show. Where there’d have to be wiggle room is the Rachel Blake story where she’s in the real world, in the outside world as we define it, the show Lost might be defined in an entirely different outside world so we can’t vouch for the overall fit ability and veracity of everything that Rachel was doing. But we can say that all the factoids that she was uncovering were vetted, in fact many of them were written by us personally so they are cannon.

Read the entire interview at BuddyTV

Today, actors Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim, Henry Ian Cusick and Michael Emerson will be reading plays in order to fundraise for a local children’s theater called Tenney Theater. Read more about it in the Honolulu Advertiser

This would be an interesting event for any local fans interested in stargazing, though I’d imagine it’s probably sold out at this point. It’s great that even with their busy production schedule, these actors find time to donate to good causes, using their considerable talents. I know that at least Henry Ian Cusick and Michael Emerson have long and distinguished backgrounds in live theater.

-Cecilia

Lostpedia is now hosting a rather unique feature in their Lost chat room, which is IRC-based (but also Java-accessible), located on channel #lostpedia of gamesurge. It now features a timed online trivia game (started with command “!trivia“) that allows users to play singly or in teams with a total database of close to 2,000 Lost-related questions, from easy (”In episode “Deus Ex Machina”, in what type of company was Locke working?”) to esoteric/tough (”Michael M. ____ is the stunt coordinator who appears on the DVD extras for S1 and S2, and also guest starred as “trucker”). Additional chat features include a ‘random theory generator’, a talking “artificially intelligent” HurleyBird bot, various Lost-related “triggers” and other games.

-Cecilia

Besides the cameo by Spider-man creator Stan Lee as a bus driver, the latest episode of Heroes had a few funny nods to Lost that I just couldn’t ignore.

First, when Mohinder and Sylar were entering the motel, it was briefly visible that Mohinder was staying in room 23. 23 being one of Hurley’s numbers and according to some, the most important number in the cursed series.

Later in the episode, Simone confronts Nathan and asks him to go public with the powers he and Peter have mysteriously gained. Nathan’s reply is the last in a line of friendly nods toward Lost:

Nathan: If people knew what we were capable of, they would drop a collective brick.

Simone: Do you think they would burn you at the stake?

Nathan: Yeah, pretty much. Because that’s what I would do. I’d round us all up, stick us in a lab, or on some island in the middle of the ocean.

Should we make it a regular feature to spot connections between Lost and Heroes? Would anyone be interested in a separate site focusing on Heroes?

Jon at The Tailsection has written a good article on the way the press is reporting on Lost’s recent “drop in ratings”.

Here we go again. There is a huge contingent of writers in the media that keep a fork and knife ready just waiting for LOST to slip up… so naturally the two-million viewer drop this Wednesday was ample fodder for the naysayers to come out with their coy ‘Is LOST ‘Losing’ it’ lingo, and their twisted world-view of a fan-base backing away from the show in droves, pissed off at its inability to solve the mysteries.

Sure, Lost was viewed by two-million less viewers last Wednesday, but all shows lost viewers. Last Wednesday was Valentine’s day, and if those two million couldn’t watch their favorite show because they were on a romantic date I’m just happy for them!

In the current world of TiVo’s and digital downloads people have the possibility to watch their favorite shows whenever they want to. I don’t think Lost “lost” viewers, they probably just watched the recorded or download episode the next day. Maybe it’s time to start counting viewers in a modern way that takes our current ways of watching “television” into consideration?

Jon also discusses our impact, as fans, on what is written about Lost:

This smear, uses us to back its point. And that is wrong. Any article that cites ‘Message boards overflowing with frustrated fans’ is an article the LOST web community brought into being. It’s time to ask ourselves, are we fans of LOST or not? And if we are, why aren’t we acting like it? Why are we the catalyst for countless articles bashing our show into the ground… and what can we do to turn the tide. It’s easy… get a grip…

I have to agree. We fans need to speak up and let the world know that we love the show. That doesn’t mean that we can’t complain when we dislike something, but we shouldn’t be quiet when we like something either. Personally I really love Lost at the moment. The last two episodes have been top notch so I’m certainly not complaining.

What really bothers me though is that these articles about how Lost has “lost it” almost always contain phrases like “on the popular fansites and forums, those who previously loved the show are complaining about…”. If I’m not mistaken, the popular Lost sites are Lost-Media, The Tailsection, 4815162342.com, DarkUFO, Lostpedia, this site, and maybe a few others.

I keep an eye on most of the larger sites in the community and I haven’t really seen that many complaints. Certainly not compared to the amount of positive comments about Lost, so it would be interesting to hear where all these “complaining fans” are?

My point is, don’t worry about these articles on how “Lost is losing it”. There are a lot of us who really enjoy the show and it won’t be canceled any time soon. Just enjoy the ride!

While waiting for the premiere of “Not in Portland”, Lost Blog reader Josh and his friends felt creative and created their own Dharma Initiative rations:

While waiting for tonight’s LOST party, we realized that normal food wasn’t gonna cut it tonight. We wanted to eat like Hurley and drink like Desmond, and thus was born the Lost Label Project - an effort to make our pantry look way more like this.

A few hours later, we’re proud to present to you the fruits of our labors - the Dharma Initiative Rations. We’ve got Beer (did you spot the Dharma-brand Merlot in last seasons finale?) Cola (just in case Walt comes back), Crisps (to consume alongside aforementioned beer), and Peanut Butter (It’s delicious). Not a bad lineup.

Over at Josh’s site you can look at more photos and best of all, download a PDF to create your own Dharma initiative rations.

Update: Bonnie got in touch with me and explained that it’s just a coincidence. About.com are also linking to my original article so the issue has been resolved.

I spend way too much time maintaining this site, doing research and writing articles. On an average day I’m happy if I make four bucks from the advertising. I think it’s needless to say that my major motivation to run The Lost Blog is my passion for reading and writing great ideas about Lost. That’s why it makes me really sad to see another site re-write one of my articles without even mentioning this site.

Alright, let’s be fair, Bonnie Covel’s article at lost.about.com entitled “You’re Wrong About Lost” isn’t an exact copy of my recent post “The Critics are Wrong“, but the fact that her article was published the day after I published mine and that her article contains and even seems to be based on the arguments in my article is what I would call a bit unethical.

Let’s examine the evidence

I wrote:

To address the first part about Lost needing to answer more questions and mysteries, any fan of the show knows that questions are being answered and the producers have promised to answer even more questions.

Bonnie wrote:

Complaint 1 - Lost Doesn’t Answer Enough Questions
Uh, if all the questions were answered there wouldn’t be a show. Lost has a nice way of answering one question while creating a whole slew of others (pun intended). For example, we found out what was in the hatch, a man, a computer, living quarters. But we didn’t know why there was a man, what the computer really meant, and why there were living quarters.

Why is Locke in a wheelchair? We’ll find out this season.
What do Jack’s tattoos mean? We’ll find out this season.
Why is Juliet on the island? We’ll find out in tomorrow’s episode.

No, we haven’t gotten the answers to all of our questions, but that’s what makes the show so good.

I wrote:

To address the second issue with critics assuming that they speak for all of us when they write things like “Lost fans have gotten tired of the show”, they seem to be forgetting that Lost is still one of the most popular shows on television. When you have more viewers than the population of several European countries (and let’s not forget, Lost is very popular in the entire world, not just in the states) I don’t really think it’s justified to complain about a lack of viewer interest.

The fact is that Lost is very popular, but I don’t think anyone really thought that Lost would be THE cool show forever. At the moment Heroes gets all the free champagne and VIP-passes, but like with anything else, fame doesn’t last forever. Next year another show will be new and amazing but Heroes, like Lost, will still be a great show.

Bonnie wrote:

While it’s true that Lost has lost some of it’s audience, it just means that it’s not the number one show anymore. So what? It’s still in the top ten. Heroes is currently doing great, and next season another show will be in the top spot. That’s the way it goes, but it doesn’t mean that Lost has lost it’s popularity. In fact, the die-hard fans are going to remain die-hard fans until the end.

I’m not saying that my ideas are the most original in the world, and sure, it might be a coincidence, but the day after and using the same arguments?

I’m glad that people enjoy the things I write, but just like we always attribute our sources and quote them, it would be nice if other sites wrote that they had found a cool article and linked to us instead of just using my ideas.