LOSTblog: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear: Water-Cooler Moments (Frames 1-5)

Followers of Damon Carlton and a Polar Bear’s fan-appreciation ARG have been “treated” to a series of fifteen limited addition, signed and numbered screen prints from world renown artists. Each print reflects a LOST water-cooler moment and were available for purchase ($50, plus shipping fee). Saturday, November 28th, I attended the URL reveal for Frame 15 at 44th Ward Dinner Party, Chicago, IL. Frame 15 is the last in what is called the ‘regular’ series. There is a 16th frame. A bit of mystery surrounds this ‘print’ and we will have to do a little detective work to ‘find’ it. Here is a look at prints revealed in Frames 1 - 5, links to the artists, and some first impressions by LOST fans.

Let’s roll back the clock to August 16, 2009, and the first time we see Frame 1 Tim Doyle for The Numbers. Mr. Doyle is known for his use of black-light paint and this poster simply glows with the angst of Hugo’s cursed numbers, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. They surround his caricature, Camaro, a police car, Hummer, falling accountant, dead uncle and sainted mother, Mr. Cluck’s 12-piece bucket and meteorite-destroyed Chicken Shack. The numbers are first revealed to us in a Hugo Reyes’ flashback as his picks to win the Mega Lotto Jackpot. (Season 1, The Numbers) The numbers follow Hurley to the island where he sees them in Danielle’s notes, as the serial number of the Swan Station hatch, and, of course, the key strokes necessary to save the world. Their iterations will continue to be heard long past the end of LOST, and remain one of its most mysterious recurring themes.

Inspired by legendary 1950’s graphic designer Saul Bass, Olly Moss welded pen to paper and brought us Frame 2 Locke’s Secret. Virtual handsprings were being turned by LOST fans. Locke’s Secret bills Terry O’Quinn as John Locke, featuring “a terrible sacrifice” among other themes as side characters. You have to read the fine print to see references to LOST, Oceanic Airlines, and Dharma. Walkabout gave us the back story for hapless John Locke. Mr. Moss captures the essentials in this retro-styles print - an empty wheelchair, foot prints, an impaled knife in a wave of expanding circles, and the a statement of fact “Just don’t tell him what he can’t do . . .” all on a lime green backdrop .

From his fan-based website, we get this reaction from uber-LOST fan ReverendMilo to Frame 3, The Dharma Van, “Methane Studios, as far as I can tell, is two self taught bad-asses that explore a large spectrum of design techniques, and like to include subtle skulls… The print is wicked cool, and I am not sure why it has not sold out. It is the first print released on jet black paper, and also the first print released oriented landscape.” Not long after ReverendMilo wrote those words The Dharma Van did sell out, and for good reason. Images of the psychedelic, swinging-60s love bus posted by fans expressed a deeper and more haunting vibe especially under black light. So what water-cooler moment does the van symbolize when it is first discovered in Tricia Tanaka Is Dead? Was the discovery of skeletal remains enough to get you talking? Personally, I found Sawyer drinking the 20+ year old Dharma beer rather shocking, a scene that still gives me chills to this day.

Where were you on September 22, 2004? I would suspect that most of you answered that question quickly and with some gusto. The eye opens to swaying palms. A man is injured. He hears screams and runs to help through a dense jungle. We watch through Jack’s eye the chaos on the beach. From that perspective, Eric Tan has captured the most iconic images from the episode Pilot 1 - the remains of Flight 815, Dr. Christian Shepard, Claire, and Jack (one fist open, one closed, tie flying), Kate and Sawyer back to back, armed and disarming, and the face of John Locke. The title to this print is “The Crash” released for purchase as Frame 4. Not just a water-cooler moment, but a one-hour, water-cooler event. Businesses around the world posted plunging productivity numbers September 23.

And then something a little unexpected, Frame 5 The Love Triangle by Leia Bell. We are asked to observe, to watch, as voyeurs, the vignettes offered on TV monitors via Dharma security cameras. Kate and Sawyer are on monitor 2. Jack is watching in Ms. Bell’s interpretation. But we know from I Do that it’s Ben who did the watching that day. We started picking sides - Kate and Jack, Kate and Sawyer, Jack and Sawyer - we wagered and sworn allegiance. But subconsciously, we realized events on the island were being observed, even the most intimate of actions.

Thank you ReverendMilo for permission to use your photographs for this article. Next up: Water-Cooler Moments Frames 6-10.

NamARTe!

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Tags: ARG, Damon Carlton and a Polar Bear, DamonCarltonandapolarbear, Photos & Scans

Polar Bears Oh! My - Part 1 (5)

Yunjin Kim Photoshoot In July 2008 Issue Of Harpers Bazaar (5)

Yunjin Kim Photoshoot (7)

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Help select which Lost inspired T-Shirts get made

A while ago I was contacted by Jamie from http://www.wakeuptimetodie.co.uk/ who are planning to produce a series of Lost inspired T-Shirts. Being fans of DarkUFO they decided that they would let DarkUFO readers decide which of the T-Shirts to make.

Below is a poll that allows you to pick up to 4 T-shirts that you would like to see designed. Pick the ones you think would be cool and then later in December we will announce which 4 T-Shirts they will be making.

Once the t-shirts have been designed and made we will showcase them here as well as providing links for you to purchase the t-shirts. We will also be holding an exclusive giveaway to a number of our readers via a competition to win some of these great t-shirts. There will be 3 of each to be won.

So for now vote for the ones that you would like to see designed and let us know in the comments which ones you picked and what you would like to see on the designs for the ones you've picked.

Here is a little blurb from Jamie directly.

well we're just massive geeks really. Love all our old school retro movies, sci-fi, etc. but at the same time nothing comes close to how awesome LOST is, so the decision was taken by myself to add some LOST inspired shirts to the range. One of us doesn't even like the show, and he says he's "watched the first two episodes and couldn't be bothered after that". I mean.....what the f**k? How?! I've tried my best to tell him what an idiot he's being, but there's just no swaying the bloke. He's missing out on the greatest TV of all time and doesn't even know it. Such a shame. Anyway, I get the final say, so that's what we're doing. We might even make the shirts accessible through punching in the numbers and hitting 'execute' if I get my way! The shirts will be available in Small to XL sizes in men's sizes, unless there is a call for ladyfit and XXL sizes too. We'll make them in either full colour or one colour, depending on what works best for each design.