Digital Wilderness

Take a trip down memory lane. TVSquad looks into where the TGIF stars from such shows as Full House, Boy Meets World and Family Matters are now:
TGIF Stars: Where Are They Now

You may have seen, or maybe heard about, the contestant who bid the exact correct value on the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right. If you haven’t, watch below.

Never in the 38 years of the show had any contestant gotten the price exactly right – until Terry came along. There have been many conspiracy theories about how this happened. Many people think it was fixed due to Drew Carey’s lack of reaction when he announces the actual price of the showcase.

Chris Jones over at Esquire looks into how the perfect bid came to be. It’s a very interesting write up, well worth the read.

The article not only gives a glimpse behind the scenes of the show and explains how Terry studied and prepared for the moment, but also how luck came into play…and the changes that were made to the show so the chances of this happening again are incredibly slim.

The producers no longer rely on Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup; now they have different soups. They have different everything. They’ve built more luck into the games, dumb luck, and they’ve started doing sneaky things like changing the options on the cars — adding floor mats, taking away the stereo system — to mess with the prices. And they’ve started adding more luxury items, like Burberry coats, the sorts of things for which ordinary people who have lived their ordinary lives would never have clipped a coupon.

Haven’t done a Music Monday in a quite a while…I really like this new song from Matt Maher, so I resurrected the series for this week. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Matt Maher – Hold Us Together

Listen:

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VERSE ONE:
It don’t have a job
Don’t pay your bills
Won’t buy you a home
In Beverly Hills

VERSE TWO:
Won’t fix your life
In five easy steps
Ain’t the law of the land
Or the government

PRE CHORUS:
But it’s all you need..

CHORUS:
Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I’ll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we’re not alone

VERSE THREE:
It’s waiting for you
Knockin’ at your door!
Every moment of truth
When your heart hits the floor

PRE CHORUS TWO:
When you’re on your knees then…

CHORUS:
Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I’ll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we’re not alone

BRIDGE:
This is the first, day of the rest of your life
This is the first, day of the rest of your life
‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light
It’s gonna be alright, s’gonna be alright

This is the first, day of the rest of your life
This is the first, day of the rest of your life
‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light
It’s gonna be alright, s’gonna be alright

CHORUS:
Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I’ll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we’re not alone

It’s about time!

Hobbit filming to begin in New Zealand in July

Shooting of the long-awaited film version of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is set to begin in New Zealand in July.

Actor Sir Ian McKellen, who reprises his Lord of the Rings role as Gandalf the Grey, revealed casting is taking place in LA, London and New York.

Mexican-born film-maker Guillermo del Toro will direct the film and its proposed sequel.

Love this new song from Needtobreathe – Something Beautiful

Listen:

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In your ocean I’m ankle deep
I feel the waves crashing on my feet
It’s like I know where I need to be
I can’t figure out
No, I can’t figure out
Just how much air I will need to breathe
When your wave crashes over me
There’s only one way to figure out
Will you let me drown
Will you let me drown

Hey now, this is my desire
Consume me like a fire
Cause I just want
Something beautiful to touch me
I know that I’m in reach
I am down on my knees
And waiting for
Something beautiful

And the water is rising quick
And for years I was scared of it
We can’t be sure when it will subside
So I won’t leave your side
No I can’t leave your side

Hey now, this is my desire
Consume me like a fire
Cause I just want
Something beautiful to touch me
I know that I’m in reach
I am down on my knees
And waiting for
Something beautiful

I’ve seen some pretty elaborate and cool Rube Goldberg machines, but OK Go takes the cake with this massive, two story machine done in time with their song This Too Shall Pass! I don’t even want to begin thinking how long it took to build this and how many takes it took to get it right…

Some quick thoughts on the first episode of the final season of LOST…

• Great first episode of the final season! Didn’t get many questions answered, and many more were introduced, but still an action-packed and intense episode!
• I really like the dual threads/alternate reality, a.k.a. flash sideways. Brilliant!
• I wonder if, at the end of the show, the two storylines will collide and each person will have to choose which one they want to stay in.
• No Shannon on the plane. Boone says she said stayed behind in Australia. Turns out that in real life, her busy schedule didn’t allow her to film any scenes and they had to re-write the back story. I thought Boone’s was a lame explanation, though, and didn’t fit with everything else that has happened in the LOST universe, such as certain people needing to be on flights to recreate conditions. The writers could simply have said Shannon was sitting elsewhere, in the bathroom or otherwise led us to believe she was on the plane, even if we didn’t see her.
• Where were Michael and Walt?
• There were several other things that were different with the “rebooted” storyline on Oceanic 815, e.g. Hurley being luckiest man alive, Desmond on the plane, Jack and Rose’s exchange. Were these butterfly effects from the explosion? Wonder what significance, if any, these particular differences have…
• I guess Juliet had to die at the Swan site since there are parallel worlds and she would still be alive back at Dharma land? Couldn’t have Juliet A run into Juliet B… And the Others/Dharma folks still on the island?
• Did Jacob’s last gasp of “They’re coming,” to which Fake Locke (a.k.a Flocke a.k.a the Man in Black a.k.a. Jacob’s Nemesis) seemed worried, reference Jacob’s bodyguards – Illana, Bran and crew? I hope not, because
  that wasn’t a challenge for Flocke at all.
• LOST probably has one of the largest casts on TV. We have the group from the fuselage, the tail section, the Dharma folks, the Others, the French, the freighter, the Ajira flight, all the folks from the flashbacks/forwards and now the temple dwellers (and those are just what I can think of off the
  top of my head).
• Seems we now know what kept Richard (and the temple dwellers?) young and what healed young Ben – the spring in the temple.
• Was Jacob the source/influence of the spring’s power, or did he use the spring to keep himself young? Did Flocke kick him into the fire so we couldn’t be brought to the spring to heal?
• Were the risks mentioned by Dagon concerning putting Sayid into the “dirty” spring related to Sayid’s state (almost dead) or the state of the spring (dirty)? If it was the spring, seems that the temple dwellers have experienced this before, or how else would they know the risks?
• Is Jacob now in Sayid’s body?
• Hmm, thinking about Jacob’s conversation with the MiB, and some other factors, there’s a hint of The Matrix in LOST (In The Matrixm, The One keeps appearing over and over until he really is the one and can make changes. In LOST, Jacob keeps bringing people to the island – to make progress – waiting
  for them to succeed.)
• Richard was in chains…on the Black Rock?? Is there a story of redemption here?
• Where exactly is “home” for Flocke/monster and what’s keeping him from going home? (Jacob can get off the island apparently…)
• Very interesting that in the alternate reality – on the plane – Charlie shouts “I was supposed to die!” He said the same thing on the island.
• What’s the deal with the blood on Jack’s neck in the plane bathroom?

Series finale is scheduled for Sunday, May 23rd. Mark your calendars!

Love this new song by Leeland – Follow You (with Brandon Heath)

Listen:

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You lived among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away

All my needs you have supplied
When I was dead you gave me life
How could I not give it away so freely?

And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow you into the world

Use my hands, use my feet
To make your kingdom come
Through the corners of the earth
Until your work is done
‘Cause faith without works is dead
And on the cross your blood was shed
So how could I not give it away so freely?

And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow you into the world

I give all myself
I give all myself
I give all myself…to you

And I give all myself
Yes, I give all myself
And I give all myself…to you

And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow you into the World

Here’s the official video:

My friends Lori, Dan and Kristi went to a taping of The Price is Right – and Lori made it on the show! You can also see Dan (going nuts) and Kristi in some of the audience shots. Watch the episode at the link below. Lori was the first contestant and made it to the showcase showdown! Yay!

The Price is Right – 10Nov2009

One of my all-time favorite clips from a sitcom.

When Theo brings home a poor report card, but claims he doesn’t need good grades to get a job. So Cliff gives him an economics lesson with Monopoly money.

Some of my favorite quotes:
“The government comes for the regular people first.”
“Theo…that’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life! No wonder you get D’s in everything!”
“I am your father. I brought in this world, and I’ll take you out.”