Don't cry, Darren. The show will be back on the air in no time.

By Darren Robinson of Phantom Planet/Miniature Tigers

I think Lost is the best show ever created. And of course I have a few theories and thoughts on where the writers found inspiration…The first thing that comes to my mind about the show is the electromagnetic energy force. This is very similar to Edgar Cayce’s (a famous American psychic born March 18, 1877) prediction about Atlantean technology.  His readings mentioned the existence of Atlantis, a legendary “lost” continent with an advanced technology whose refugees peopled ancient Egypt. Sound familiar? He also spoke of “The Great Crystal,” which was apparently large crystal housed in a dome that conducted electromagnetic energy for all sorts of things, including travel (time travel perhaps?), weather control, and dematerialization of matter. It has been linked to the Bermuda Triangle as a possible reason for planes and ships going missing without any evidence of crash debris. Again, sound familiar?

Aside from my theory that the island of Lost is Atlantis itself, I think it could also the Gates of Hades. Here’s why I think so (please note many of following ideas, though I have thought them myself, are taken from lostpedia.com):

• Hades was the god of the underworld. The Egyptian symbols on the 108-minute timer (when the numbers are not entered), translate to “Underworld” (hell) according to the writers of Lost.
• Cerberus has been confirmed as the name of the Black Smoke Monster. Cerberus was a mythological three-headed black dog that guarded the gates of Hades.
• An episode was called “This Place is Death.” Pretty self-explanatory.
• Huge fields on the island could be what was known as the “Elysian Fields” on Hades, where the souls of the dead finally rest. Maybe that explains the whispers that are heard occasionally…
• Tartarus was a deep pit in the underworld, similar to the pit that the Cerberus dragged a member of Rousseau’s team into in the episode “This Place is Death,” which was under the temple.
• Infertility would make sense if they were on Hades. How could new life be possible for those bound to the underworld?
• Despite modern connotations of death as evil, Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology. Hades was often portrayed as passive rather than evil; his role was often maintaining relative balance.
• Hades ruled the dead. Anyone that tried to leave the underworld enraged him, and Cerberus would makes sure no one escaped without Hades’ consent.

That’s the gist of it. Since I’ve always been a huge lover of ancient Egyptian culture, I felt inspired to recreate my own version of Anubis just a few days ago. (Anubis was the jackal-headed God associated with mummification and the afterlife, and he was shown on Lost in an old panel on the show apparently summoning Cerberus—the Smoke Monster.)

I sketched this in pencil, burned the outlines and hieroglyphics into the wood with my magnifying glass and the sun’s rays, and then painted it and varnished it. It’s the centerpiece for my new apartment…

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!

If you’re like us, withdrawal set in a few weeks ago. Not from a lack of smack, mind you; more like yet another Lost season leaving us with more questions than answers. Now, there are a few ways to cope with this:

1. Pore over the endless wiki entries at Lostpedia.com.
2. Discover the ‘why-didn’t-I-think-of-that?’ greatness that is Entertainment Weekly’s Doc Jensen.
3. Toss your theories into the ring at USA Today’s excellent Pop Candy blog, which has basically become the place to debate the show’s many metaphorical/philosophical/historical layers.

Once you’ve done all that, we’ve got another offering for obsessive viewers: the semi-coherent ramblings of music’s biggest Lost fans. The entries below scratch the surface of an open “What the hell just happened and how’s it all gonna tie together in Season 6?” call we put out to artists across every genre. Later today, we will reveal two of the most thorough, and thought-provoking, responses we received.

For now, please join us at the most rock ‘n’ roll water cooler ever…

Steve Moore (guitars/synths, Zombi):
So bummed that Locke’s actually dead. And Faraday. Kill off Kate already, or Jack.

—

Diplo (producer, Major Lazer):
I think they need to bring polar bears and Walt back, but the whole God and time traveling thing brings too much potential to just do whatever they want.

Switch (producer, Major Lazer):
Harry Potter eats the whole island…then he turns into a huge fish…then the whole show takes place in his belly under the water.

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“Five Lost Haikus,” from Annie Palmer (bass/banjo/vocals, Castanets):

i, richard alpert
pierce you with my steely gaze
it’s not eyeliner

jack shepard, M D
so much cooler this season
nuke it! O M G

jacob is burning
under the foot of the god
you found your loophole

aw, rose and bernard
retirement from excitement
never looked so sweet

“have you met before?”
“in a manner of speaking.”
it only ends once

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Charlie Brand (frontman, Miniature Tigers):
The excellent Season 5 Finale opened up a lot for Season 6. I think the biggest revelation was the introduction to Jacob and his rival. At first I thought it was a war between Ben and Charles, but now I see it goes deeper than that. Ben, Charles, and essentially everybody else, are pieces in this good vs. evil chess game between Jacob and his buddy. The season ended with the other guy finally getting Jacob into a checkmate. I think Season 6 will deal with the consequences of that and also wrap up the entire series.

I also have a bunch of theories about Richard being an ancient Egyptian and Christian Shepard being a peer to Jacob, but it’s too much to go into right now.

—

Bren Mead (drums/vocals, Still Flyin’):
Lost? Hmmm…okay.

Before the finale I decided that the only thing I really wanted was for someone to detonate the H-bomb. Up until then, I dreaded the idea—surely, I thought, they would ruin everything by setting it off! If it did work, Kate goes to jail (that’s okay, I guess), Claire’s baby get’s adopted, Hurley’s curse continues…it all sucks. And if it didn’t work, everyone dies.

So the [only] option for the writers of Lost was to blow that sucker up. My prediction would be that the bomb changes things, but not at all the way Jack was hoping for.

I can’t make any guesses on the Jacob/Locke thing or on the island’s ancient history.

—

Ivar Bjørnson (guitarist, Enslaved):
You know what? I haven’t watched the season finale yet. To be honest, I haven’t started watching Season 5 at all. For me, I have to watch Lost on my own DVD sets, and the Season 5 DVD won’t be released in Norway for some months yet. Season 4 was brilliant, so I expect 5 to be over the top. Norwegian television is airing the season finale tomorrow night, so I will have my TV set off and make sure not to hang around the water cooler Friday. Can’t wait!

As the creators have been saying, a lot of mysteries—like the smoke monster—will be explained during the final season. My expectation is to be blown away by a lot of the mysteries that have been bugging me for so long now.

I am really curious as to whether the myth ends with the tale or if will be a kind of “our friends are safe…hang on, there’s another plane on the horizon!” kind of thing, and then I will have to ponder that for the rest of my life. I am not sure if there will be another series to ever replace Lost in scientific and psycho-social weirdness.

—

Jeff Curtain (Previously On Lost):
By exploding the bomb, they created a new reality where apes rule the school, and the four-toed statue is now the Statue of Liberty in ruins. So next season it’s Zombies vs. Monkey People, led by the monkey who starred in Outbreak and Friends.

Adam Schatz (Previously On Lost):
I can’t speak for Jeff, but I know what I saw. At the end of the episode, the bomb exploded and everyone died. EVERYONE. That leaves only one possibility for Season 6….zombies.

Are you a noteworthy musician with something to say about Lost? Then E-mail us now to be a part of another roundup before Season 6’s premiere early next year.