Saturday Reading

Does anyone else watch Spiderman 2 every time it's on HBO? Definitely one of my favorite movies from the last couple of years. I can't wait for Spidey 3. Internet rumors are that there will be up to 4 villains, including Sandman, Venom and the return of the Green Goblin in the person of James Franco, the son of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. According to Rotten Tomatoes, some of the action scenes were filmed in Cleveland at the end of April.

*****

The trailer for the upcoming Bond movie, Casino Royale, can also be found at Rotten Tomatoes. Daniel Craig, from the British crime flick Layer Cake, is the new 007. If you haven't seen Layer Cake, youi should definitely check it out. Understated when compared to the Guy Ritchie flicks that made Jason Statham famous, but very cool.

Here's his watch, an Omega Seamaster special edition. Only 10,000 will be manufactured.

*****

The 15 People You Meet Listening to DVD Audio Commentaries, courtesy of The Onion's AV Club.

This is from 8 years ago. Only 10-12% of the country can still be unfamous at this point... and I'm one of them, even after graduating in the top 6.5% of my high school. What injustice! If only I could have been an octuplet or something.


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The good shit's all on vinyl anyway

I am often guilty of not taking recommendations seriously... movies, music, books, everything. Is it because I'm afraid that it will be good and I didn't find it myself and that will hurt my ego? Is it because I'm predisposed to think it will be a waste of my time? Is it because I've already got "my thing" and don't want to pollute what I know I like with something that will require me engaging a foreign subject matter? I don't know. Strangely enough, though, the people I surround myself with usually have a pretty good idea what I will like or dislike. I guess that's what a friend is.

So... what the hell am I rambling about? Well, I watched High Fidelity tonight, one of Nathan's recommendations from years ago. I had already seen it once but didn't really give it much of a chance because my singular focus at that time was Chinese film. On rewatch, though, it is a great flick. I can completely identify with the record store music snobs and the way they define people by the music they listen to. At one point in the movie, Cusack's character says, "What really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films, call me shallow but these things matter!" I agree (to a certain extent). There's not much more exciting than meeting a perfect stranger and discovering you have a favorite artist or movie or book in common... it's like a shorthand for compatibility.

*****

Speaking of High Fidelity, Hammacher Schlemmer has a really cool vinyl-to-cd recording component by TEAC. Kinda makes me want to buy some LPs ... aaaaaaaand then rip them to my iPod.


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Kung Fu Panda

Been browsing IMDb a lot lately looking for something to be excited about, and found this last night:

A CG-animated comedy about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, Po (Voiced by Jack Black), who must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace from a villainous snow leopard, Tai Lung. Set in the legendary world of ancient China, this is the story of Po, our unlikely hero, who enters the rigid world of Kung Fu and turning it upside down. Po ultimately becomes a Kung Fu hero by learning that if he believes in himself, he can do anything.

Jables, Dreamworks animation AND kung fu? This has real potential. Hopefully it will be more like Shrek than Shrek 2: Retread Boogaloo.

Also, there are apparently 2 Beowulf movies in our future (both of which, hopefully, will be better than the sci-fi disaster with Christopher Lambert... even Rhona Mitra in a metal bikini couldn't salvage that one). One has been released in Canada, Iceland and the UK and is on its way to NY on July 7 of this year. Only recognized two names on the IMDb cast list, Stellan Skarsgard (as King Hrothgar) and Sarah Polley (as Selma, who I don't remember from the poem), but the rest of the names make me think that there will be an authenticity factor at play here. So much for the idea that every actor in a movie based on an epic poem, or any classic literature really, has to have a British accent.

The other is an American production due out in 2007 with Anthony Hopkins (King Hrothgar), Angelina Jolie, Brendan Gleason, Crispin Glover and John Malkovich. Star power notwithstanding, my hopes aren't as high for this one. Perhaps I'm just preparing myself for the Hollywood-ization of another epic. I'm guessing the Icelandic Beowulf is going to be the grim, realistic-feeling version where the Geats don't know kung-fu, and this one is going to be over-produced, CGI'd and slick. Plus there's very little chance of seeing Agelina nude as she's only credited with a voice part. Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical. IMDb shows the movie to be in post-production and that Robert Zemeckis directed. If he incorporated special effects judiciously, this one could be worthwhile... but King Hrothgar will have a British accent. Ahhhh, compromise.

*****

I am still spending a good bit of time going over Season Six of The Sopranos in my mind and have come up with several fond memories, some of which I have written about here. Most of what occurs to me, though, is more missed opportunities for good storylines. Remember the Hasidic Jew with the hotel who didn't want to honor his agreement with Tony in Season One? That was a good plot point for several reasons. First, Tony's human side was explored in his conversations with Melfi about being called a "monster." Yes, there was extortion, torture and plenty of situational comedy involved, but the predominant theme was that the actions of a mobster weren't perpetrated by a cardboard cutout... Tony had feelings. Same with the Davey Scatino bust out in Season Three. It showed that not only did Tony have feelings but also that his actions had repercussions unrelated to possibly being caught by the Feds. These arcs, and others like them, lasted for several episodes each, endearing Tony to us as a human, not just as the mysterious oath-taking, Saint-burning, finger-pricking, gregarious guy who could spend his nights in a strip joint conducting bee-za-nees, sleep through lunch, eat cold cuts in his terry robe and then dish out vigilante justice to those who disrespected him or his "thing." My subconscious pieced all these Sopranos memories together today while I was driving home from work and I also remembered Tony's meeting with the Cajuns this season. That could have been a gold mine for writers and fans alike. Being Katrina-based it was topical; it gave Tony a chance to "send a message" in some creative way that would allow the writers to show they aren't recycling Goodfellas and the Godfather as so many before them have, and might have even given Cagney, Jr., a chance to take out some of his frustrations from this season with a ball peen hammer. Did we get to see any of that? Of course not.

Why do I torture myself this way?

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And now, we wait... again.

EPISODE 12: Kaisha

After feeding us Johnnycakes for more than half of this season, the cupboard was bare in last week's Sopranos finale. We knew it was coming, though, didn't we? Truthfully, I have re-watched the finale several times this past week mining for something, anything (aside from AJ's Rican's sweaty shoulder blades), I might have missed that would change my mind... no such luck. In fact, I can't remember an entire episode from this entire season, other than Mayham, that would even enter a discussion of my Top 10 favorite episodes of the series. Mayham, in case you're wondering, would probably be in my Top 5, and is, in my opinion, the only truly great episode of this entire season. So, yeah... I've got some negative feelings toward The Sopranos right now. I'm tired of saying that bad Sopranos is better than almost any other good TV. I shouldn't have to justify Chase's indulgences just to retain my "True Sopranos fan" badge of honor.

*****

Federico Castellucio (Furio) apparently agrees that Chase has overestimated the goodwill he has banked with fans of the show.

*****

NOT LIKELY TO BE WHACKED SOON UPDATE:

Chrissy and Johnny Sack have signed on to appear in all 8 episodes next season.

*****

On a positive HBO note, Entourage returns tonight... It's waiting for me on Tivo while I watch the Mavs punish the Heat. Is anyone else hoping to see more of Ari and Lloyd rubbing shoulders in the Fast and the Furious prop car? The "Ari McGuire" episode where he got fired last season was a riot!

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And he wonders why he has hip problems?!

EPISODE 10: Moe 'N Joe

Only two things happened this week to further the narrative of Season Six of the Sopranos: Johnny Sack entered a guilty plea and Vito returned to Jersey. I will freely and voluntarily admit that the Janice = Livia sidecar was worthwhile, but it can't be said to have taken us into uncharted territory. It's more of a continuation of Chase's attempt to make Janice, now that Livia is no longer with us, the person currently on TV most likely to make me punch myself in the nuts. Point taken... painfully.

As for Johnny Sack's allocution, it set the dominos in motion for what I hope is a more action-driven final two episodes. Honestly, the same can be said for Vito's returning to Jersey. No way that ends well for him... it almost feels like he's looking for suicide by cop. He wasn't happy at home, so he did what he did (ad nauseum) and now he CAN'T go home. So what does he do? Go back to Tony or Sil with hat in hand or just hole up in a rat-infested motel and kill himself? It doesn't look like even he knows yet, but if he drives by Satriale's too many more times, that decision is going to be made for him. Hopefully it happens soon, so we can get on with the war with New York and Jersey.

*****

Something strikes me as I write "hopefully something happens SOON" for the 1000th time... Chase and co. used a cinematographic device they almost never use in "Mr. and Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request": the explicit leap forward in time. After three episodes centered around Tony in the hospital, "Request" begins with Rusty Milio receiving an invitation to Allegra's wedding... fade to black... and then "SIX WEEKS LATER." This was a conceit that I questioned somewhat on our podcast (which can now be subscribed to on iTunes, by the way). It felt amateurish, unnecessary and could have been accomplished with the already existing dialogue in the episode where Tony told Melfi he had been in a hospital bed at home for a month and a half. But, it served a purpose that pleased most viewers, judging from the internet uprising against dream sequences, which was getting Tony out of the hospital and away from the coma-induced dreams. Now, my question is this: Why was this potentially lengthy but interesting storyline (and all the power-struggle/crisis at home side-stories it could have produced) truncated in this way in favor of six weeks of Johnnycakes? WTF?!?!? I would much rather have seen the fallout from Sil's failure under pressure, internal strife with a leadership vacuum while Tony rehabbed and moped (which he does well), and a horse head in Sir Ben's bed than six weeks of Vito and Morgan Spurlock shacked up in New Hampshire. The writers seem not only to have squandered an opportunity from a narrative perspective but have also done so... ahem... with no viable exit strategy.

Vito getting caught by Finn at the construction site was water cooler fodder at its finest. It produced weeks' worth of "Holy Shit! That's going to be an interesting problem to have to resolve!" But after six weeks of Vito getting his hips displaced, I really don't care how it is resolved anymore... I just want it resolved. As I've said before, my main problem with it is not that Vito is gay, but that Gannascoli is not an actor who can carry six weeks worth of primary storyline. In inimitable Chase fashion, he has left untouched Bacala's shooting the rapper to boost album sales and AJ's bungled assasination attempt on Jun, not to mention we still don't know where the Russian interior decorator is... but we get half an already short season dedicated to THIS?! At this point, I don't even want an explanation of why the writers thought this was a good idea... I just want it overwith.

*****

Johnny Sack's plea dredged up the "I can talk about by Family but them's fightin' words if you do" scenario. Just as Phil trashed Johhny at the wedding for breaking down and then toed the party line when comments were made by an outsider, this episode showed Tony and Sil doing the same thing. They renounced Johnny as a friend and man of honor, but when Sal Vitro referred to him as "guilty" the stonewalling commenced.

Nice Fila track suit on Tone, by the way. I gotta get one of those. Or I could just start a Sopranos Fila Track Suit Counter, like the guy who does the Sopranos F-Bomb Counter.

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Live from the Pine Barrens is a Go

Finally, after much weeping, rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, my boy Nate D-O-Double has come through with a great new site where we will post our podcasts... Check it out.

LIVE FROM THE PINE BARRENS

Also, found a comprehensive history of the DiMeo (Soprano) Crime Family on Wikipedia. Nicely done.

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Link: Mel Kiper's NFL Draft Drinking Game

How pissed am I that I didn't find this before the draft?

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This isn't Gwyneth Paltrow's head is it?

EPISODE 8: Johnnycakes

Skipped last week for time reasons and was tempted to skip this week based on not being able to remove my head from the commode after seeing Vito's "afternoon delight" with Morgan Spurlock. However, watching AJ pretend to be Frank White with everyone acting like his best friend until the tab came (or until they needed to break an apartment lease and still get their deposit back) revived another Sopranos memory for me... Tony's image of the "dancing bear."

AJ got a taste of what it's like to be on display this week, just as Tony did when Cusamano and his band of Merry Boardroom Dipshits pretended, in the massively genius episode "A Hit is a Hit," that the books of their Country Club were going to be opened soon just to get Tony on the golf course and jack him up with questions about John Gotti and the realism of The Godfather trilogy.

Other analogous situations are Christopher's forays into the movie business, Artie's attempt to invest in the French liquer that probably never existed and Paulie's being completely out of sorts in Italy in the episode "Commendatori." In short, when a Sopranos character tries to operate outside the area into which he has compartmentalized himself, the consequences are simultaneously funny and revealing. Chase's point seems to be that, even though these characters are, for the most part, big fish, New Jersey is a relatively small pond, and none of them are above looking lost or being treated with a lack of respect. Even the Eighth Wonder of the World, who could wreck shop on 3 T. Rexes while swinging from huge vines and juggling Ann Darrow between his hands and feet, had no chance once he was taken out of his natural habitat.

Tony may be the Boss of Jersey, but "the mayonnaises" are more interested in John Gotti, a preening, high profile former Boss from New York, who talked his way into prison for the rest of his life. AJ may be the son of the Boss of Jersey, but the idiots he surrounds himself with just want him around to get them into places that wouldn't lift the velvet rope otherwise and, once they ride his coattails in, they show their gratitude by letting him pick up the tab. Christopher may be a Captain and be like God to the dopeheads and degenerate gamblers in Jersey, but Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley give two shits about Jersey. Even Paulie, when the guys go to Italy on bee-za-nees, can't find any friends in the old country other than putan's.

It really plays out as an illustrative sub-theme of Chase's primary theme, which is that people's personal lives can be so complex that mob life may actually easier to manage, and that, while the characters are in a line of business that most of us are unfamiliar with, their lives consist of the same bullshit we all have to deal with on a daily basis. Very cool, and an arguably more powerfully delivered message since, if you look close enough, Chase is preaching the opposite of what the Italian anti-def people and detractors of The Godfather harp on. This is not a glorification of Italian mafiosi, actually quite the opposite. These are real people, who just happen to have a very different job/lifestyle than the rest of us, but who also have shitty cell service, wives and kids who bust their balls and co-workers they can't stand. They too do dumb things for love or to hurt those they love. They too stereotype Middle Easterners as Al-Qaeda, eat cold cuts out of the fridge and are momentarily paralyzed with a knee to the nuts... and then they go slice people up in the back room of a butcher shop and feed them to junkyard dogs.

*****

On a related note, good news for gamers! The Sopranos video game was announced today and is slated for an October release on XBox and PS2. Obviously they hope to buy us off for the next decade while Chase and Co. tinker with the final season, but I'm not even going to pretend like I won't buy it.

*****

Favorite line from the past 2 weeks? "Enjoy ya success!" Little Carmine "The Belt Buckle" Lupertazzi, not knowing what else to say to Lauren Bacall, but knowing she's important enough to be respectful to.

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11th Hour Draft Shakeup: Bush to Ain'ts

Damn! Although the Houston Texans aren't my favorite NFL team, I was selfishly hoping they would take Reggie Bush with the 1st pick of this year's draft so that I might be able to catch him in person a time or two this season. And, although I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, the armchair GM in me still wonders why they didn't trade down to stockpile another pick or two. The demand for Reggie must not have been as high as most people thought in a pick-for-pick(s) trade. Makes sense with the Saints representing that they were not actively looking for a RB (although they must have had their fingers crossed pretty tight to have Reggie fall into their lap) and the Titans in dire need of a QB if they want to be able to continue to mistreat McNair, but I was very surprised the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets didn't move up to get Reggie and let the Texans move down for Mario or D'Brick. Mario may have gone to the Saints in a move-down scenario, but D'Brick would have still been there at 4, and H-town could have helped their big picture by increasing their number of picks. According to the Pick Value Chart, the difference between the 1st and 4th pick is 1200 points. So the Jets would have had to give up their other 1st Rounder (29th pick) and their first 2nd Rounder (35th pick) to get to 1190 points. The Texans probably wanted something else thrown in for the price of poker, but the Jets still would have had a 3rd, two 4ths, a 5th and a 7th left, so I'm thinking they screwed the pooch on this one but, like I said, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. The only effect it has on me is that my boys have to play Reggie twice a year, but I'm thinking Monte Kiffin can handle it.

Speaking of the Bucs, they picked up some much needed help on the O-line, some youth on the D-line and a monster receiver in former Nittany Lion Maurice Stovall, who fell to the third round. Mo was somewhat overshadowed by the Great White Hope, Jeff Samardzija, last year, but managed nearly a 17 yard per catch average and has great size (6'4"/220). On top of that, he played against some real competition last year, including Michigan, USC, Tennessee and The Ohio State University, and while strength of college schedule is not something that gets a lot of PT from "Pompadour" Mel Kiper, it is a decent predictor of the amount of time it will take a player to acclimate to the speed, skill and ferocity of the NFL game.

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What's a guy gotta do ta get some Johnnycakes over here?

EPISODE 6: Live Free or Die

Been extra busy this week so this entry is definitely in arrears (not in a Vito kind of way). A few quick hits:

• I forgot how hard Chrissy's "important bidness" walk makes me laugh. Check out the way he hoofs it into the Bing to tell Tony about meeting Sal's cousin from Yonkers at AA.

• Another Chris classic in this episode comes when he's talking to the "third party" who's going to outfit the Neapolitan "tailors" with some "scissors." Chrissy laughs off the talk about Vito at first, but then admits that there could be some truth to the rumor. He says, "Some guys went down to the Shore to see him; he was with his goomar... As soon as he saw 'em he took off like a bat on a hill." A bat on a hill?! Nice. On a side note, the Episode Guide on the official website calls the third party "heroin addict Corky Caporale." And it looks like he will be more than a bit player as IMDB suggests his role will be protracted over at least 2 more episodes. I don't know about Corky, he may fold under questioning.
  

• Hadn't heard of Johnnycakes before, but then again I've never been to New Hampshire. They could have been fictionalized just to add to the gay theme by having Vito say, "Give me the Johnnycakes," to Morgan Spurlock. Who knows? Who cares? I'm ready for the decision on Vito to be made one way or the other. Joseph Gannascoli got on my nerves WAY before they made him a leering, Finn-harassing, construction worker-blowing Village Person.

• Finally, and most importantly, Tony really has found his Ojibwe roots if he thinks he can just say "I'm the boss and I say he gets a pass," and have his whole Family toe the party line on Vito. No chance in hell. Not saying he's wrong, but that whole world revolves around the perception of respect, and Jersey is already being pushed around by New York. First rule of holes? Stop digging.

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