By Tim Fletcher of The Stills
The Stills are very, very, very, very, very into Lost.
I think it’s one of the best television dramas ever created–up there with Twin Peaks, Carnivale, The Prisoner, and all that Sopranos/Oz/Six Feet Under stuff on HBO. I actually prefer it to almost all of these aforementioned shows, with perhaps Twin Peaks equaling (but not surpassing) it.
The Stills have ‘Lost Club’ every Wednesday when we’re home. We all get together at [bassist] Oliver [Crowe’s] fifth floor apartment (The Crow’s Nest) and–using the projector the band bought for the touring of Logic Will Break Your Heart–we project highly-anticipated episodes of Lost onto the huge living room wall. We shift the couches around for maximum great-viewing potential, then turn down the lights, crack some wines, and commence the experience. We try to maintain a one-cigarette-at-a-time rule, but it’s difficult amidst the unfolding tension. Usually we open the windows and door to the balcony so it’s not too stuffy for the non-smokers. (They are few.)
There are other important rules of Lost Club. The first major one, obviously, is “do not engage in distracting conversation.” Several people have been banned from Lost Club for failing to respect this rule more than once. You get one warning–then you are simply never asked back. Another lesser rule is to avoid moving around too much in front of the projector. Everything goes black and you might miss a detail, or an Easter Egg. Of course, the benefits of prerecording an episode comes through if you need to rewind, or better yet, pause to examine interesting details which may alternately leave you fascinated, mystified, and/or totally blown away.
Sometimes we have special guests over for Lost Club, like [longtime Stills] producer Gus van Go, who always offers valued perspectives in our attempts at figuring the show out. These attempts are resumed once more after the episode, to collectively update and reform theories about the show’s universe, logic, and potential ultimate meaning.
I love that such a wonderfully strange and beautiful show brings us all together each week. None of us goes to church, synagogue, mosque or any temple of worship whatsoever, so this has become our shared place of spiritual communion. I always feel other people who haven’t watched Lost yet are so lucky, since they have the entire series to freak out over.
We only have one insane season left, and I think we’ll all be pretty depressed when it ends.
PS: Everyone from Oceanic Flight 815 is a descendant of Jacob, and Richard Alpert looks like a Mediterranean Montreal nightclubber who wears all white with the unbuttoned silk shirt thing, and who also loves VIP lounges and F-1 racing festivals in summer. Ricardus, bro!
