Not a lot of time for blogging today. I watched the final episode of The Sopranos last night. It stunk. This blogger (widely considered one of the most insightful of Soprano experts) liked it, but I thought it was a tremendous let down:
Chase has to do what he loves to do more than any other man in show business: completely mess with his viewers' expectations (and their heads). I don't consider it a cliffhanger, something to set up a movie, as I doubt there will ever be a movie (and if there is, it'll be set in the past). He did it because he hates the conventions of TV series narrative in general, and putting a bow on things in particular.
That's fine: mess with viewers' heads. But that way? Simply stopping the show and going to a black screen? It was lazy. The final episode resolved nearly nothing. Chase could've messed with viewers' heads just as creatively by announcing at the beginning of the show: "There will be no Sopranos tonight. Thanks for a great run."
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Active weekend. Here are a few pictures from the Tigers/Mets game on Saturday:
Marie and children getting ready to ride the Comerica Park ferris wheel:
Pigeons invaded the outfield early in the game. I'm guessing there were 15-30 at any one time. This picture isn't very good, but the dots (pigeons) convey the situation:
The beer drinker's bane:
I took Tess to the playground Friday afternoon:
I also took Max out to look for biker babes Friday:
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Where on Earth was Middle Earth? This guy thinks he has it figured out. Excerpt:
Ӣ The Shire is in the South-West of England, which further north is also home to the Old Forest (Yorkshire?), the Barrow Downs (north of England), the city of Bree (at or near Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and Amon Sul (Scottish Highlands).
Ӣ The Grey Havens are situated in Ireland.
Ӣ Eriador corresponds with Brittany.
Ӣ Helm's Deep is near the Franco-German-Swiss border tripoint, close to the city of Basel.
Ӣ The mountain chain of Ered Nimrais is the Alps.
Ӣ Gondor corresponds with the northern Italian plains, extended towards the unsubmerged Adriatic Sea.
Ӣ Mordor is situated in Transylvania, with Mount Doom in Romania (probably), Minas Morgul in Hungary (approximately) and Minas Tirith in Austria (sort of).
Ӣ Rohan is in southern Germany, with Edoras at the foot of the Bavarian Alps. Also in Germany, but to the north, near present-day Hamburg, is Isengard. Close by is the forest of Fangorn.
”¢ To the north is Mirkwood, further east are Rhovanion and the wastes of Rhûn, close to the Ural mountains.
”¢ The Sea of Rhûn corresponds to the Black Sea.
Ӣ Khand is Turkey
Ӣ Haradwaith is the eastern part of North Africa, Umbar corresponds with the Maghreb, the western part of North Africa.
Ӣ The Bay of Belfalas is the western part of the Mediterranean.
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A shot-fun approach to the history of dirty words (very incomplete account, but entertaining). Warning: Lots of dirty f'in words. Excerpt: "F___ and s___ account for half the swearing that goes on in public."
