GUESS WHO FOUND OUT YESTERDAY THAT CONTRARY TO WHAT HE INITIALLY ASSUMED THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ALCOHOL AND HIS MEDS AND HE CAN DRINK (socially) NOW?! THIS GUY! :D
I'm actually really stoked about this because I couldn't have anything on my 21st this past summer... and I also had an opportunity to try a mimosa on Sunday but it was THE DAY before my appointment with my psychiatrist where I asked if my assumptions were wrong. Now I can though, which is awesome
Please ask me on October 1st if they woke me up. I've literally never heard it before and I'm definitely not tired of it.
For those who watched Sopranos and had not yet seen that (apparently) well-known essay giving a fantastic theory on the ending, I found this..... condensing, if you will, of that theory and it's just freaking BRILLIANT. If you haven't seen that essay give this a read. I can't believe how well it works
Spoiler
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Tony sits in his booth, looking resigned and lethargic. He's less the vigilant mob boss and more just another regular Joe; one of a million over-weight, middle-class, middle-aged men sitting in diners up and down the country waiting for the twin comforts of onion rings and family. There are pictures arranged on the wall behind Tony that serve as a sly wink to the audience, particularly the one of the old mansion house that looks eerily similar to the one from his own near-death coma dreams. Tony selects Journey's Don't Stop Believing from the jukebox.
Here's where Chase starts to get clever. Each time the diner's door opens, its bell rings and we see Tony looking up in the direction of the noise. In the following shot we see whomever's coming through the door from Tony's point of view - or through his eyes, if you like. The bell establishes a pattern of shots and elicits from us a Pavlovian response. We learn to anticipate the sequence: the bell rings, Tony looks up, and we know that whatever immediately follows those raised, expectant eyebrows is whatever Tony is seeing at that exact second. Ding, raised brows, eyes, ding, raised brows, eyes.
Carmela arrives first, followed by AJ, and all around them, as they sit at their booth, dance the phantoms of Tony's past: guys who look like guys who've tried to kill Tony; guys who look like guys Tony has killed. We know something's wrong, but we don't know what. The entire scene is a rising, silent scream of tension. Every moment and movement is pregnant with dread. We know - we just know - that something big - something bad - is going to happen. These are, after all, the dying minutes of the final scene, of the final episode, of the final season. This is it... Tick, tick, tick. Ding, raised brows, eyes. Tick tick tick.
Another man enters the diner at the same time as AJ; a rather twitchy guy in a Members' Only jacket, of the kind favoured by the late Eugene Pontecorvo. He perches himself at the bar, and steals a shifty glance back and sideways in Tony's direction, obviously taking a keen interest in the don's seating arrangements. The man then gets up from the bar and walks past Tony's table towards the bathroom, and as he does so the camera follows him with a tracking shot - the only such shot in the scene. This is Chase's way of saying: 'Watch this guy. I wouldn't be imbuing him with this much significance if he was just going for a piss.' Besides, The Godfather has taught us how dangerous it can be when a connected man visits the bathroom in a diner.
Meadow's botched attempts at parallel parking outside the diner are also significant by virtue of their very inclusion in the scene. I don't believe David Chase wanted to use his show's closing seconds to comment on how shit women are at parking. "The Sopranos final scene was great, wasn't it? Hey, remember when that guy went for a piss, and then the chick couldn't park her car properly, and then Tony fell asleep at the table?" I think not.
Even though I didn't 'get' the ending at first - and mistakenly believed in the 'life goes on' interpretation - Meadow's lateness always played on my mind. I knew there was something more to it. And, boy, there was. Take a look back at that tracking shot, and notice where Meadow would have been sitting had she arrived at the diner on time. Also bear in mind Tony's words to Carmela in the previous episode: "Families don't get touched, you know that." Think about the line of sight the Members' Only guy will have upon returning from the bathroom, with Meadow out of the picture.
Meadow finishes parking, and we see her dashing towards the diner. Any second now we know she's going to push through that door, and the ding, raised brow, eyes sequence is going to repeat itself. So when that bell dings - or perhaps tolls - for the final time, and we see Tony's eyebrows and then... nothing... nothing... we're forced to conclude that this 'nothing' is what Tony is seeing at that exact moment. And under what circumstances other than death would a man's point of view change so swiftly and unexpectedly to nothing? To blackness?
Tony is dead, my friends: as surely as is the great man who played him.
I've been trying to watch Breaking Bad on netflix. I'm on season 3 and it's getting super good but it buffers like every 2 minutes and it's annoying the crap out of me!!
Some days it's good, but that seems rare lately...
Just started watching on the drive to and from vacation and netflix has been ok on my phone. Loving the show btw.
A lesson without pain is meaningless. That's because no one can gain without sacrificing something. But by enduring that pain and overcoming it, he shall obtain a powerful, unmatched heart. A fullmetal heart.
Played my first flag football game today (on the Varsity team's field) under the bright lights - fucking epic.
We played the best team from last year (The Phys. Ed Department, so all athletes) and we held our own. We did lost 20-6, but their touchdowns all came on broken plays (two missed assignments on D and a kickoff return)
Threw a 40 yard TD pass myself ;D and no interceptions against a team who always gets them left and right! We lost but we played good.
We all caused this by using Google instead of Ask Jeeves.
I loved Ask Jeeves! I always used to do it when I was a child because I thought I was really asking a miniature man a question no one else could answer.
I've been trying to watch Breaking Bad on netflix. I'm on season 3 and it's getting super good but it buffers like every 2 minutes and it's annoying the crap out of me!!
Some days it's good, but that seems rare lately...
Just started watching on the drive to and from vacation and netflix has been ok on my phone. Loving the show btw.
Yeah, I started back up and I guess my net has been doing better or something.
I'm halfway through season three and it's getting so intense! It's great!! I've been planning to go to bed every night around 10 because I'm exhausted and have been getting like 5-6 hours of sleep each night, but I get glued to the show and I always say to myself "I don't even care, this is too good!!" and I keep watching. Needless to say, I still get about 5-6 hours of sleep each night regardless.
There needs to be some sort of re-entry program after a two week vacation.... -_- No formal dinners, bartender to serve whatever I want, maid service..what the heck!
A lesson without pain is meaningless. That's because no one can gain without sacrificing something. But by enduring that pain and overcoming it, he shall obtain a powerful, unmatched heart. A fullmetal heart.
