LOSTblog: Polar Bears Oh! My

Editor’s note: Please welcome new SL-LOST contributor Lottery Ticket!

According to his blog, damoncarltonandapolarbear.com (DCaaPB), comedian Paul Scheer confessed working six months on a black velvet painting of LOST’s executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carton Cuse with their BFF the Dharma Polar Bear and, in that regard, he represents all LOST fans who have for the past five years expressed their LOST love by creating original works of art, musical scores, dramas, parodies, podcasts, blog sites, quilts, tattoos, and bento boxes. His dream was to personally present said painting to Mr. Lindelof and Mr. Cuse at Comic-Con 2009. Mr. Scheer’s appearance at the Q & A session of the LOST panel drew cheers from his fans (see Human Giant) where he humbly expressed his feeling for the producers. The moment was captured on video and posted to YouTube by one Tyson Givens, a mysterious person to say the least.

Distracted by Lost University enrollment, re-watch mania, Comic-Con video reveals, Emmy’s, exhaustive blogs, and podcasts of the Season 5 finale, LOST fans paid little attention to the seemingly innocent and silly shenanigans at DCaaPB. When hand-written letters and reproduction prints of the velvet painting showed up in the mailboxes of Peter Sciretta (slashfilm.com), Jon Lachonis (DocArzt.com) and mungonna, a regular contributor at ABC’s LOST message board, ears perked. Mr. Scheer declares “I AM AN ARTIST” and asked these gentlemen to get the word out that his velvet paintings will be sold to LOST fans through his website. Enter Alexandra Miller, Assistant to Ronie Midfew of Ronie Midfew Arts. In a letter to Mr. Lachonis she states that Mr. Scheer does not have authorization to use the likeness of Mr. Cuse and Mr. Lindelof to his financial gain and should cease operations. Let’s just say the story gets a bit LOST-like from this point forward - Paul breaks into the ABC Studios, encounters a man-in-black, disappears, and then posts The Ultimate Lost Event declaring a collaboration of Ronie Midfew Arts and Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear for the distribution of prints based on LOST water-cooler moments. Mr. Scheer’s original website flashes away replaced by 16 gilded frames, each with a “?” and a planked HUB (hub of a wheel? hubbub?).

All three letters, subsequent Ronie Midfew Arts communications, and original Paul Scheer blog pages can be read over at the LostARGs.com blog, an offshoot of The Lost Community Blog & Podcast. Click the Timeline link for a breakdown of all the events so far. I’ll leave it to you to enjoy Mr. Scheer’s imaginative writings and story arc. Cryptic messages and puzzles are there if you look closely. The LostARGs folk have “played” all of the alternate reality games which have plagued us since Season 1. LostARGs is administered by Zort70 who runs a tight ship - steady on the tiller, decks swabbed and polished. The blog is an open forum where all opinions and suggestions are welcome. Please wander on over and tell them Lottery Ticket sent you.

On August 15 the first frame “?” was replaced by a photograph of Paul Scheer, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and a “Ronie Midfew Suit” (although we know it is Jensen Karp in real life) hands together in the spirit of cooperation. This change signals the hunt is on. But what are we hunting? The clue is an invitation from the Dharma Initiative to attend Banana Split Sundae at Bardot’s in LA the following evening. What! “Who can go?” “Take a camera!” “Do you Twitter?” tumbled off fingers onto thread boards and blog posts. Exciting times, I can attest to. The Bardot experience is a well-produced LOST event - the Dharma logo spot-lighting Bardot’s entrance, a framed painting of a masted ship at sea, the Swan Station hatch, a Dharma jumpsuit at the DJ booth, crazy techno music/dancing, and Sterling Beaumon ushered in wearing a blood-stained hoodie announcing something about ketchup! He is insistent. OK. Let’s go - “actuallyitsketchup.com” and BLAMO, there’s Tim Doyle for The Numbers. The cost is $50 plus shipping. OK, I’ll bite. Done. It’s mine. Did I make the right decision?

That was August 16, fourteen weeks ago, and my LOST life may never be the same. The Numbers holds a special place in my heart (with the exception of the Swan Station - a story for other time) not for its edgy take on the life of Hugo Reyes, or the execution of artist Tim Doyle (did I mention it glows-in-the-dark? Brilliant!) but for the real-life moments is represents - joining the ‘family’ at LostArgs, Twitter madness, and embracing the greater community of LOST fans. No toe-touch by the side of the pool to check the temperature - a straight out cannonball into the deep end. Splash!

Reveals usually begins with a single image or original design teasing the possible location or subject of the URL event. Two or three more clue are given before the final “invitation to attend” is given. You can click on the HUB link at the official DCaaPB site and scroll through all of the clues and invitations to-date.

Events have been held in cities around the world (Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, Tuscon, Dallas, Buenos Aires, Glasgow (Scotland), San Fransisco, and Toyko), the website of rap artist/producer 88-Keys, and via Attack of the Show on G4. In most cases, lucky fans who attend these events have been rewarded with LOST swag like a “I Heart My Shih Tzu” t-shirt where the URL was printed inside the collar or a glow-in-the-dark ping pong ball with the URL printed below a Dharma logo.

It took a bit of time for our organizational and communications skills to kick into high gear, but between the LostARGs, DarkUFO and ABC message boards every event has been attended and reported live from the scene. Modern forms of communication have been put to the test - MMS/SMS, Facebook and Twitter, blog and forum comments, chat rooms. You name it, we’ve given it a try. Hilarity. Failures. Translations. Oh! My.

Here’s the cast of characters we have identified. I’ll give you the Twitter names and links to their websites were possible: Damon Lindelof @TheRealDamon and Carlton Cuse @CarltonCuse (executive producers LOST), Paul Scheer @paulscheer (comedian/artist), Ms. Alexandra Miller (assistant to Ronie Midfew of Ronie Midfew Arts (anagram time), unidentified), Jensen Karp @jensenClan88 & Pete Wentz @petewentz (Clandestine Industries and Fall Out Boy), Gallery 1988 Los Angeles, and distributor Go! Merch. Keeping an eye on this bunch has led ARGers through some very interesting doors.

But that is only part of our ARG journey. We’ve been tasked with another mission in the simple phrase “15 Will be lost The 16th Will be found” first posted at Ronie Midfew Arts. So what’s behind Frame 16’s mysterious red question mark? Extra spaces, typos, grammatical errors, and erroneous letters and numbers appear in clues, letters, and posters, too numerous to be anything other than purposeful. Followers of the ARG are in the gathering, collecting, and mulling mode. Confused. You bet. Join in on the fun, but don’t wait too long as Frame 14’s first clue is up - it’s a pineapple!