Thursday, June 14, 2007
A “Bevy” of things
Today was a bevy good day. And by bevy, I mean I just like saying the word, “bevy.” So with a bevy of things going on, I took it upon myself to cover some bevy interesting topics.
Enjoy.
Bevy.
After over 100 straight hours of pondering just what the hell I witnessed on the Sopranos series finale on Sunday night, I am now willing to say that I’m really not that upset. I thought I’d never find myself siding with some egomaniacal, artsy-fartsy d-bag like David Chase, but I am.
You see, many people my age believe “Scarface” is the greatest film of all time for one of two reasons:
1. They saw some illiterate rapper talk about how it’s his favorite movie of all-time on MTV Cribs or
2. They saw some illiterate rapper talk about how it’s his favorite movie of all-time on MTV Cribs and then said to themselves ‘hey I can make it big now as a DJ/rapper/dancer/wigger/drug-dealer, if I can just act like Tony Montana.
And do you want to know the people that truly suffer out of all this? People like me.
People like me, who actually enjoyed the movie “Scarface” the first time they saw it until it became so overrated and all-of-the-sudden used as some sort of pseudo-motivation tool for kids that dropped out of high school and/or knocked up their girlfriend when they were 17.
But getting back to defending the Soprano’s finale and David Chase.
Our minds are so used to things ending in the predictable “Scarface” ending. Everyone wanted and thought there would be a blood bath, including myself.
But the Soprano’s was never about that sort of thing.
It was always intellect before violence and that’s what made it so great to begin with.
Sure I love watching things blow up and I loved watching Phil Leotardo get his head run over by an SUV as much as the next guy.
However, I loved the Sopranos for the million different directions that the show got your mind going towards.
When “Don’t Stop Believing” started playing I was absolutely shocked. I was convinced that the show had truly sold out.
You see, “Don’t Stop Believing” is like “Scarface.”
When I was in college, “Don’t Stop Believing” was enjoying an underground renaissance. It was a forgotten ballad that was once mildly popular but was once again discovered and someone said, “Hey, ya know what? This piece of sh** really isn’t that bad!”
Truth be told, I was on one hell of a Journey kick while I was in college. And I couldn’t be prouder of that fact.
But then I began to realize that everyone around me was on that same kick. And if everybody is drinking the Kool-Aid, well…then the Kool-Aid doesn’t taste as good as it once did now does it?
As outlined in a 2005 Family Guy episode (another great show that’s become too popular for its own good), everybody loves Journey and you don’t really have a pulse if you don’t.
However, “Don’t Stop Believing” is now as pedestrian a song as there is. And to end the greatest show of all time with “Don’t Stop Believing” would imply that the generic Hollywood/Scarface ending was coming.
Only, it didn’t.
David Chase didn’t give us the ending everyone wanted and he didn’t give our ADD society the “closure” it wanted.
When David Chase “blacked-out” the Sopranos, he ultimately took a sh** on mainstream America.
And today, for me anyways, that sh** smells like roses.
Even if he is an egomaniacal, artsy-fartsy d-bag.
........
I would also like to declare that I am still not in full baseball mode quite yet. With my first full “summer” in San Diego now here, I can’t really tell when to start caring about baseball. I mean, it’s been relatively warm for a while now (well, since I moved here) and “NBA basketball” is still being played (by the time you read this, 'The Finals' should mercifully be over with).
With the Yankees being lifeless for the first third of the season, I could have cared less when the Red Sox won or lost.
“It’s too early either way,” I would say way back in May.
But now maybe I’m feeling a bit nostalgic from my days of being a miserable Red Sox fan in 2004 B.C. (Before Championship).
The smelling salt I needed was for the Red Sox to start actually LOSING again. Now, as coincidence would have it, I’m pretty exited for Barry Bonds first Fenway at-bat this Friday night.
Will it be as entertaining as the Fenway faithful donning the infamous “blond masks?” Most likely not.
But the thought of some drunk in the stands pulling down his pants on national TV, only to reveal a giant syringe sticking out of his ass, could be just what the doctor ordered.
Bonds in Boston should be, as a young and high Drew Barrymore would say, “magical.”
Comment on this article or find your question in the next mailbag by E-Mailing: SportsGuy2.0@hotmail.com
Today was a bevy good day. And by bevy, I mean I just like saying the word, “bevy.” So with a bevy of things going on, I took it upon myself to cover some bevy interesting topics.
Enjoy.
Bevy.
After over 100 straight hours of pondering just what the hell I witnessed on the Sopranos series finale on Sunday night, I am now willing to say that I’m really not that upset. I thought I’d never find myself siding with some egomaniacal, artsy-fartsy d-bag like David Chase, but I am.
You see, many people my age believe “Scarface” is the greatest film of all time for one of two reasons:
1. They saw some illiterate rapper talk about how it’s his favorite movie of all-time on MTV Cribs or
2. They saw some illiterate rapper talk about how it’s his favorite movie of all-time on MTV Cribs and then said to themselves ‘hey I can make it big now as a DJ/rapper/dancer/wigger/drug-dealer, if I can just act like Tony Montana.
And do you want to know the people that truly suffer out of all this? People like me.
People like me, who actually enjoyed the movie “Scarface” the first time they saw it until it became so overrated and all-of-the-sudden used as some sort of pseudo-motivation tool for kids that dropped out of high school and/or knocked up their girlfriend when they were 17.
But getting back to defending the Soprano’s finale and David Chase.
Our minds are so used to things ending in the predictable “Scarface” ending. Everyone wanted and thought there would be a blood bath, including myself.
But the Soprano’s was never about that sort of thing.
It was always intellect before violence and that’s what made it so great to begin with.
Sure I love watching things blow up and I loved watching Phil Leotardo get his head run over by an SUV as much as the next guy.
However, I loved the Sopranos for the million different directions that the show got your mind going towards.
When “Don’t Stop Believing” started playing I was absolutely shocked. I was convinced that the show had truly sold out.
You see, “Don’t Stop Believing” is like “Scarface.”
When I was in college, “Don’t Stop Believing” was enjoying an underground renaissance. It was a forgotten ballad that was once mildly popular but was once again discovered and someone said, “Hey, ya know what? This piece of sh** really isn’t that bad!”
Truth be told, I was on one hell of a Journey kick while I was in college. And I couldn’t be prouder of that fact.
But then I began to realize that everyone around me was on that same kick. And if everybody is drinking the Kool-Aid, well…then the Kool-Aid doesn’t taste as good as it once did now does it?
As outlined in a 2005 Family Guy episode (another great show that’s become too popular for its own good), everybody loves Journey and you don’t really have a pulse if you don’t.
However, “Don’t Stop Believing” is now as pedestrian a song as there is. And to end the greatest show of all time with “Don’t Stop Believing” would imply that the generic Hollywood/Scarface ending was coming.
Only, it didn’t.
David Chase didn’t give us the ending everyone wanted and he didn’t give our ADD society the “closure” it wanted.
When David Chase “blacked-out” the Sopranos, he ultimately took a sh** on mainstream America.
And today, for me anyways, that sh** smells like roses.
Even if he is an egomaniacal, artsy-fartsy d-bag.
........
I would also like to declare that I am still not in full baseball mode quite yet. With my first full “summer” in San Diego now here, I can’t really tell when to start caring about baseball. I mean, it’s been relatively warm for a while now (well, since I moved here) and “NBA basketball” is still being played (by the time you read this, 'The Finals' should mercifully be over with).
With the Yankees being lifeless for the first third of the season, I could have cared less when the Red Sox won or lost.
“It’s too early either way,” I would say way back in May.
But now maybe I’m feeling a bit nostalgic from my days of being a miserable Red Sox fan in 2004 B.C. (Before Championship).
The smelling salt I needed was for the Red Sox to start actually LOSING again. Now, as coincidence would have it, I’m pretty exited for Barry Bonds first Fenway at-bat this Friday night.
Will it be as entertaining as the Fenway faithful donning the infamous “blond masks?” Most likely not. But the thought of some drunk in the stands pulling down his pants on national TV, only to reveal a giant syringe sticking out of his ass, could be just what the doctor ordered.
Bonds in Boston should be, as a young and high Drew Barrymore would say, “magical.”
Comment on this article or find your question in the next mailbag by E-Mailing: SportsGuy2.0@hotmail.com
