Yeah, I did get caught up in the Sopranos rush. I’ve seen just a few of the past episodes, wasn’t blown away, but I’m a convert now after viewing this final season. Many scenes are like paintings, dark shadows that frame a table or a group of people standing together. Clips are coordinated so well even though you jump to different characters on a regular basis. The family is at a funeral and Chase shows us this through the video cameras of the FBI, a lot of listening in and watching watching on the show. Nobody’s perfect either, the FBI has trouble at home with his wife too, the agent gives him an inside tip–his ethics not so clean. Televisions are on and what do they show: Iraq, Bush, Rove dancing, old movies. What’s on TV in a sense almost characterizes what the character is feeling–a scene where someone is screaming in one movie while a character lays in a coma.
These great shows show us different view points, maybe that’s the key. Showing us things from so many different groups. Then we have the therapists, who show us both sides of certain characters. The music too is genius. Bob Dylan It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) and Journey in the final scene.
On a past episode, I loved the scene just before Tony and his nephew crash. Their eyes told so much. His nephew wanted to connect so much. Then there’s a scene where Tony is driving in Vegas, I think there was music and then a tunnel and we look up to see lights. There are a lot of scenes that are pleasurable in a collage like way, where nothing is seemingly happening–no dialogue. The combination of music, physical location, past and potential what will happen, caring about the characters. A number of tableaus that are enjoyable in and of themselves. The next question is how this affects us after we watch. We talk about the show with others–that’s a good thing.
Also read the interview with the creator of the Sopranos, David Chase.
I love the fact I can get email, watch videos, scan the news, look up book reviews, see pictures, learn, and so on via the Internet, but there’s a lot of truch to being tied too much to a computer. Online banking has made things a lot easier, but it too has eliminated the interactions that take place from going to the bank. A Vonnegut idea, he loved the day to day interactions, the lip stick that the lady at the post office put on just for him.
From the NY Times.
‘Dick died before the onset of the Internet age and never saw a BlackBerry, an iPod or a modern-day cellphone. Even so, the characters he created are routinely shackled and brought low by technological innovations that were ostensibly created to improve human existence. Dick was fully engaged in the science of cybernetics — which supposes a similarity between machine and human functioning — and deeply alarmed about what he saw as the encroachment of programmable machinery into human life.’
Read more…
Experts say that in these isolated times, people yearn to break bread with neighbors. Some are looking to make friends — and even long-term relationships — while others just want to feel a sense of community.
Restaurateurs like the tables because they’re an efficient use of space and don’t require reservations. Twelve years ago LuLu Bis in San Francisco pioneered the modern-day communal table. But it seemed that Bay Area diners weren’t ready to sit with strangers the way they are now.
Read more…
I welcome any advice anyone has about a certain problem: How is a person supposed to live without “The Sopranos”?
Last Sunday’s penultimate episode gave me a vivid nightmare. A woman I know was unable to sleep at all after watching it. God knows what watching the ultimate one will do this weekend, on what we the devoted think of as Black Sunday.
The great David Chase, who created it all, decided to pull the plug on his stately craft while her sails are still billowing, an action as rare in the world of television as a sincere compliment. Or a program as good as “The Sopranos.”
I’m glad it’s only a rumor that he has had to increase security for himself against armed fans unable to accept the reality of the long-dreaded terminus. How can we fan(atic)s of the show express our boundless gratitude to Mr. Chase? Maybe we could all sign one huge “thank you” to him — a Hallmark card the size of New Jersey. Were this Japan, Chase-san would have long since been declared a Living National Treasure.
Great stuff…read more.
Postcript: It’s nice for me to think that someday a trivia test may contain an extra-points-for-difficulty question: In what episode of “The Sopranos” was Dick Cavett seen?
The jackpot answer is: May 13, 2007. Tony and Carmela are in bed, anguishing over their problems and unable to sleep. She asks if it’s okay to turn on the TV. And there I am: Little Dickie Cavett from Nebraska being watched by two of his idols. (I blush to confess that I sort of hoped one of them would utter a favorable comment.) It’s a clip from my Katharine Hepburn shows.
This so gladdened my heart that I think — now, at least — it’s my favorite résumé item. (Do you think Miss H. would be similarly thrilled?)
One of the world’s greatest collections of historical letters – kept in a filing cabinet in a Swiss laundry room and almost forgotten – is to be auctioned in London.
The treasure of almost 1,000 documents collected over 30 years by a wealthy Austrian banker living in the western Swiss city of Lausanne, includes letters written by Winston Churchill, Peter the Great, Gandhi and Queen Elizabeth I.
The extensive collection, which is estimated to fetch about £2 million (SFr4.87 million) at Christie’s, was put together over 30 years by the late Albin Schram.
An early love letter from Napoleon to Josephine is one of only three known correspondences addressed by the French emperor to his future wife.
The letter was written one morning after a heated argument, apparently over Josephine’s wealth.
Napoleon’s touching reply admits that he had been angry and declares his love.
MORE: A letter from Indian leader Gandhi, estimated to sell for up to £12,000, was written 19 days before his assassination in 1948 and pleads for tolerance of Muslims.
Read more….
Many people use Google Trends already, but did you know Google also has Hot Trends? I like to use regular Trends as a supplement to the free overture keyword tool but if you’re looking to go an extra step in your research, you can head over to Hot Trends and see what people are searching for every few hours. That’s how often Hot Trends are updated.
From JohnChow
Not sure just yet how great this service is, compared with MarketLeap, Yahoo, Google back links, and or others, but there’s a new one on the block called Wholinked.com. What you really need is one that separates these into categories, this one does, websites, blogs and so on, but is there one where you can search and see if someone has linked back to you and or just search for terms within those who linked back to you. I’m sure you can do this with Google in a way or your backend stats interfaces but not sure…
Check it out….WhoLinked