WE LIVED OUR LIVES AT NIGHT ON THEM BACKSTREETS

- Last night's Lost was pretty good. I still have the complaint that it seemed, in some ways, like an info dump more than a story (Elouise is Daniel's mom! Charlotte lived on the Island! Here's how Roussaeu's team died!), at least what we learned was interesting and the episode was decently anchored by the Sun/Jin relationship (which I've always enjoyed watching). I'm suspicious of the mechanics of the Island flashes, though. If it only affects outsiders, why wasn't Rousseau flashing through time as well? For that matter, why is Charlotte having the flashes, given that she was born on the Island? Hopefully, at least some of this will be explained next week (and I look foreword to the giant swinging pendulum I saw in the preview). Also, Sayid had, like, one line in the entire episode, he may as well have shown up and been like "I'm Arabic!" and left; that would've been preferable.

- Those thunderstorm warnings are really friggin' annoying when they pop up during TV shows.

- We had really interesting discussion about the concept of the Tabula Rasa in Theory of Knowledge class today. Basically, as science is learning more and more about the human mind, we're seeing that the concept of being born as a "blank slate" for ideas and teaching and experiences to impress upon is more and more false. Yet, our institutions are still clinging to the ideals of a Tabula Rasa system. Of course, the obvious question is how do we apply this knowledge? The concept of certain people being born inherently "better" or different than others has been used to justify some abhorrent shit in the past (the Nazi party, racism, misogyny) but I don't think that the science should be ignored just because of the bad taste it leaves in our mouths. If the scale is reduced to person-to-person (versus group-to-group) and actual science (as opposed to religious codes or bullshit like phrenology) is applied, I think that a lot could be learned.

- Working On A Dream is a good Bruce Springsteen album, but not a great one. There are a few too many unmemorable tracks and the lyrics are shoddy at times. Also, Springsteen's lost some of his vocal range over the years, so when he tries to go all howling, Born To Run-style, he sometimes strains himself for notes really bad; he should stick to being all gruff and mumbly nowadays.

However, there's some seriously awesome stuff on this record and these are probably his most grandly layered songs since Born To Run. "My Lucky Day" is propulsive and fun, "Outlaw Pete" is grandly melodramatic, "Good Eye" is an effective Chess Records rip-off, "Surprise, Surprise" is exuberant power-pop (though the lyrics could use some work) and "The Last Carnival" is an affecting, somber tribute to one of Springsteen's dead bandmates. Also, I would be remiss in not giving special mention to "Queen of the Supermarket", which is a grandly silly (but played totally straight-faced) ode to a crush on a supermarket checkout lady, it's awesome.

In a lot of ways, this feels like the brighter flip-side to Springsteen's 2007 album Magic, which was grand in terms of sonics but also dour in lyrical tone. Not to make this too political, but if Magic was the sound of the bitter, beaten end days of Bush, the chipper Working On A Dream just might be the sound of a new dawn in Obama's America. This may be great for Springsteen (who campaigned for Obama), at least on a personal level, but, to me, Bruce always sounds best when he's mad at something and doesn't find a whole lot to get angry at on this album.