Remembering Tony Schwartz: Master of Propaganda

Tony Schwartz died at age 84 this past weekend. He was best known for the famous or infamous "daisy ad" that Lyndon Johnson ran against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential campaign. The ad featured a little girl counting petals on a daisy, followed by a nuclear explosion (see YouTube clip below). It was designed to paint Goldwater as a war monger, who could bring the world to ruin. It was famous because it succeeded (without mentioning Goldwater by name). It was infamous because of the way it succeeded. The ad was pulled after one showing on NBC, but was replayed numerous times on evening news shows. That's where I first saw it. I and many other professors have cited this ad for years as a masterpiece of propaganda, with all the good and bad that that can entail.

But I actually knew Tony Schwartz in another, though related way. He was one of Marshall McLuhan's disciples in the 1960s. Tony Schwartz's specialty was what McLuhan would call "acoustic space" - the unique way, or very different from seeing, that sound is perceived by us and can influence us. That way is, mainly, that you don't have to look at it, as you do with an image. In fact, sound can reach us any time it likes, from anyplace in the environment, wherever we may be looking or not. Tony Schwartz put lots of insights like that into his best-known book, The Responsive Chord.

I cited and built upon that book in my doctoral dissertation (Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media) and my own much later book about McLuhan, Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium, in which I wrote about why radio survived the advent of television in the 1950s. The reason was that radio's presentations - hearing without seeing - are an entirely natural mode of communication. The world grows dark every night but not really silent, we can easily close our eyes but not ever our ears, etc. (In contrast, silent movies did not survive the introduction of talkies - there is no natural niche of seeing without hearing.)

As a Master's student at the New School for Social Research in the 1970s, I was privileged to visit Tony's studio in Manhattan, along with my class, several times. He sat at a desk surrounded by tape recorders and other pre-computer equipment. It felt like a scene out of a 1950s science fiction movie.

The history of propaganda is still being written - more so now than ever in this Presidential campaign. Tony Schwartz will have a permanent place in there, along with Leni Riefenstahl and Michael Moore - but much closer to Moore in the good that both have done for progressive causes.

Showtime's Sassy Hour of Sin

Showtime debuted its Monday night hour of sin last night - Season 4 of Weeds, and the brand new Secret Diary of A Call Girl - and it wasn't bad. Actually, it was bad in a good way. Anyway, I enjoyed both half hours.

Nancy and family are getting situated by the beach in a whole new area of California, in Judah's father's house (well played by Albert Brooks). Lots of good lines from all members of the family, especially brother-in-law Andy, as always.

Meanwhile, back in what's left of fire-ravaged Agrestic, Celia is pointing the finger at Nancy as drug lady - as she did at the end of last season - but Doug and her husband and the hilarious Indian gay guy are all telling the police otherwise, to wit, that Celia is behind it all.

A good set-up for this season.

Meanwhile, Secret Diary of A Call Girl is sassy, smart, funny, and real. Billie Piper (see the video below) is thoroughly appealing as Belle (the call-girl) / Hannah (her real-life name), giving good voice-over narration in the episode, as well as whatever her customers want, as soon as possible (as she informs us), if she is able to wheedle the deepest desires out of them.

There's even a nice character insight in the premier episode, when Belle realizes that what a customer (whom she likes) most likes about her are her Hannah's qualities - not good for someone in Belle's business.

Looking forward to more Weeds and wheedle in the weeks ahead ...

See also Weeds 4.3: Nancy by the Endless Sea ... Sitting Shiva on Weeds and Laughing: 4.4 ... Nancy Gets Spanked and Likes It: 4.8 ... Nancy Has Limits: 4.9 ... Shane and Two Girls: 4.10 ... Nancy Turns a Corner: 4.11 ... The First Bitter Fruit of Telling Till: 4.12


And Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Last Page, First Season

Another Finest Hour for Al Gore: He Endorses Barack Obama

He undoubtedly won the popular vote for President in 2000. He likely won the electoral college vote, too, but we'll never know, because the Supreme Court exceeded its authority and stopped the recount in Florida. He went on the galvanize a planet about the need to take global warming seriously.

Al Gore has had many finest hours. His endorsement of Barack Obama in Detroit tonight was surely among them. Gore hit all the right notes, including Obama's opposition to the war in Iraq before we went in (Gore expressed the same in September 2002), and the similarities in inspiration between Obama and JFK.

It was a special moment seeing Al Gore back in the political fray tonight. He couldn't have picked a better time. As Gore himself said, what's at stake has never been higher.

I would have liked to have seen Gore become President - there would have been a cosmic poetic justice in that. But I'll settle for Gore's endorsement of Obama tonight.

George's Guitar Gently Weeps Through the Ages

Apropos my Traveling Willbury's kick, I've just been listening to George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," performed when Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

There must be more than a dozen versions of this great song on YouTube, starting with George Harrison and Eric Clapton's performance at the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh and progressing through the years to the two concerts that, sadly, outlived George. One is the 2002 Memorial Concert in which Lynne also plays, but Clapton is featured, and the other the 2004 performance, which is my favorite.

Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne share the lead, and do a splendid job. Even more incredible is the two+ minute guitar solo at the end by Prince - about the finest guitar work I've ever heard.

Here it is ... rest in peace, George. Your music will live forever.

Battlestar Galactica 4.10: Earth

A stunning, satisfying, and appropriately unsatisfying mid-final-season finale of Battlestar Galactica tonight, in which:

1. Tigh (and the other three of the final five) finally reveal themselves to the Adamas and the Cylons and all concerned. Admiral Adama correctly doesn't believe it at first, asking Tigh how he lost his hair, and how he could have gone back 30 years with Adama, without revealing that he was a Cylon. Tigh has no good answer, other than that once upon a time, no one knew about the skin-jobs, and now there apparently are three rather than two kinds of Cylons (toasters, skinjobs, and skinjobs who don't know they are Cylons until some Bob Dylan music triggers them).

2. D'Anna lets us know that the 5th of the final five is not in the human fleet. Does this mean he or she is with the Cylon fleet (Baltar, Laura, etc) or somewhere else entirely?

3. A great showdown between the Cylons and the humans, in which Apollo really shows his stuff.

4. But both decide to go to Earth, the coordinates of which are now apparently revealed, rather than annihilate each other ...

But ... the Earth they find is in ruins...

Not the most original twist in the universe, but a good enough springboard for the final parts of the final season ... Why is Earth in ruins - i.e., who ruined it?

Can it be repaired?

And, how does that ruined Earth relate to ours - the one in which we are currently enjoying Battlestar Galactica?

See also ...

Battlestar Galactica's Back and Bristling! ... 4.2 Mysteries and Satisfactions ... 4.3: Deaths, Lessons, Questions ... 4.4 A Little More about Cylons ... 4.5 Mutiny on the Demetrius ... 4.6 Cylon on Cylon ... 4.9 Finally, Bill and Laura

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"jumping with ideas" - Denver Post

Edward R. Murrow to Tim Russert

The outpouring of grief over Tim Russert's untimely death today, at age 58, shows both the high esteem and affection that Americans hold for television journalists who protect our interests as untiring champions of the First Amendment.

When Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers made the press the crucial guardians of our government - the watchdogs whose job it was to report to the American people what their government was really up to - Jefferson must have the likes of Tim Russert, and his unceasing speaking of truth to power, in mind.

He was not only the moderator of Meet the Press since 1991 - by far the most memorable - but he was NBC News' Washington Bureau Chief. He was one of the few who spanned traditional network and cable news, with his CNBC/MSNBC interview show. And he made a great guest appearance on Homicide: Life On Street, playing himself as character Lt. Megan Russert's cousin.

There are less than a handful of television reporters and anchors who in their different ways defined their genre and their age. Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite (who is still with us), and Tim Russert.

Roy Orbison's Guitar

Know what I’m talking about?

The Traveling Wilburys were – in my opinion, and that of many critics and fans – the best rock supergroup to ever have existed. Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Rob Orbison recorded under that name from 1988-1990. Their best-known songs – and justifiably so – were “Handle with Care” and “End of the Line”.

Roy Orbison died at the age of 52 in December, 1988. When the time came to record a video of that song, the Wilburys put Orbison’s rocking guitar in a rocking rocking chair in the part of the song, starting at 1 minute 44 seconds, where Orbison carried the lead. You can also see the rocking guitar at the very end of “End of Line”.

You can read all about that on the Wikipedia entry on The Traveling Wilburys.

You can see the video, and this moving tribute to Orbison, any time you like on YouTube – in your home, office, or, if you have mobile device such an iPhone that connects to YouTube, from any place you like.

Here it is, right here:


That’s what I’m talking about when I say YouTube is increasingly making every part of our popular culture ever recorded in any form available to anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.

YouTube, in other words, has robbed death of some of its meaning – at least insofar as it pertains to popular culture. And that’s pretty far, indeed. The end of line for audio-visual popular culture is immortality on YouTube. Roy Orbison and his ever-rocking guitar proves it.

Obama Gives Powerhouse Economic Address in North Carolina

Barack Obama just gave a powerhouse speech on economic policy in North Carolina. The highlights of what he called for include:

-a windfall profit tax, to pay for some of the rest of his economic program (makes sense: billionaires will still be billionaires, even if they pay twice as much tax as currently, and huge corporations will still be huge)

-a new thousand dollar tax rebate for more than 90% of American wage earners, to give some immediate help with soaring gas and food costs

-universal health care, and partnering with Elizabeth Edwards to fine tune it

Obama also contrasted his program with John McCain's, which offers no catastrophic health insurance, makes it easier not more difficult for insurance companies to deny coverage, takes no position on what to about the current housing crisis, and now, incredibly, endorses Bush's tax policy of giving the most wealthy even more money (after McCain initially and wisely opposed it).

North Carolina hasn't gone Democratic in a Presidential election since Jimmy Carter won the state in 1976. Obama's decision to begin his economic tour in North Carolina signals that the general election results could well be different in this state, this year.

Given the dire economic conditions of Americans all across the country, and the eminent common sense of Obama's solutions - not to mention the continuing casualties in Iraq - I'm thinking it's by no means impossible that election results could well go Democratic in every state of the union this November.

Questions for John McCain about WMD Deceptions

As is well known, the Senate Select Committee last week issued a long-awaited report which found that President Bush and VP Cheney exaggerated and misrepresented intelligence information about WMD in Iraq, to fire up America's war on Iraq.

Some commentators have called for Bush and Cheney's impeachment.

That would indeed be justified - not only because of the deception, but the fundamental unconstitutionality of an undeclared war - but I'm wondering what John McCain's response is to all of this.

He says he opposes the way the war was waged, at first.

Does he also oppose the way the war was gotten into, via a President and Vice President deliberately misrepresenting facts to the American people?

Would McCain be in favor of Bush and Cheney's impeachment? If not, why not? Is it ok in his book to go to war based on lies?

The media should press McCain on this point.

Battlestar Galactica 4.9: Finally, Bill and Laura

I haven't had chance to review Battlestar Galactica for a few weeks - too many other pleasures, too many other obligations - but tonight's was so good, especially the ending, that I can't resist...

The ending, in fact, was better than good. It will go down as one of the classic romantic scenes in all of television, cinema, and novels.

Bill Adama has resigned his command of Galactica - given it to Tigh - and gone looking for Laura. She's not easy to find. She's on the Cylon ship with the Hybrid, who is literally jumpy and ordering of jumps, because she knows the lead Six is dead or unconscious (Sharon-Athena did this to her on Galactica, because she didn't want Six taking her hybrid child)...

All of that and more - including a great scene between Tigh and Adama - happened on previous episodes. Tonight, at the end, Bill finds Laura. "Missed you," he says to her. "Did you," she replies. They hug. "I love you," Laura tells him. "About time," Adama replies. And there was one of the most satisfying scenes in this or any series or movie. Call me an old softie romantic, but there you have it. You'll agree when you see it.

Meanwhile ... The Resurrection Ship has been nuked. Cylons are now as mortal as humans. That's good, as a Sharon model tells D'anna, who has just been resurrected. It's good, because now Cylons are ever more like humans.

D'anna definitely has another human quality - she fakes Laura out, has her (but not really us - it's too soon) going for a second when she tells Laura that she (Laura) is one of the Final Five. But, apparently not, and we'll have to wait for the revelation of that, as the Cylons and humans draw ever closer...

See also ...

Battlestar Galactica's Back and Bristling! ... 4.2 Mysteries and Satisfactions ... 4.3: Deaths, Lessons, Questions ... 4.4 A Little More about Cylons ... 4.5 Mutiny on the Demetrius ... 4.6 Cylon on Cylon ... 4.10: Earth

And So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival, vol. 9

---

"jumping with ideas" - Denver Post

MSNBC Had Best Coverage of the Primary Campaigns

This is not a statistical analysis, but the impressions of one viewer - me - who happens to be a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City, and author of a whole bunch of books about the media.

I'm thinking MSNBC had far and away the best coverage of the primary campaigns - far better than its CNN and Fox competition.

Here's why:

1. Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, and Tim Russert commenting on the nights when the votes are counted: No other cable station or network has that kind of fire power - the current network news anchor (Williams), the previous network news anchor (Brokaw), and, just for good measure the host of Meet the Press (Russert). CNN and Fox have no parent network such as NBC to draw upon.

2. The coverage of MSNBC during the day is top-notch, even extraordinary. Andrea Mitchell interviews movers and shakers whenever she is on, which is often. (Her interview with Manhattan Congressman Charlie Rangel yesterday broke new ground in what was happening with Hillary Clinton, to give just one example.) Meanwhile, Nora O'Donnell and David Shuster, who also have shows on MSNBC during the day, are first-class political reporters. At best, CNN and Fox's day people may be as good as Contessa Brewer and Monica Novotny on MSNBC - but usually not.

3. Chuck Todd is outstanding as a political and statistical analyst on MSNBC. CNN makes a good showing with John King at the magic board, and Bill Schneider's political analysis - call that a draw, maybe. Frank Luntz on Fox is a distant third.

4. The prime-time lineups are about the most equal. Larry King on CNN is in a (good) class by himself. Britt Hume and Bill O'Reilly on Fox are certainly powerful commentators, and Hannity & Colmes are ok. (I'm not taking political positions here, just assessing power on television.) But Chris Matthews on MSNBC is right up there, too. And Keith Olbermann right after Matthews is an imposing presence, too. And for politics, David Gregory and Dan Abrams on MSNBC are a lot better than Greta Van Susteren on Fox, and, for my money, better than Anderson Cooper on CNN, one of its stars.

5. All three cable operations get good guests for regular political commentary. David Gergen on CNN is probably the best - adviser to umpteen Presidents - but Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC hold their own, and Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove on Fox News are nothing to sneeze at.

All in all: MSNBC is well ahead in two of the five categories above, and close to equal and sometimes better on the other three.

Prediction: If MSNBC keeps this up during the ensuing General Election campaign, it will be the #1 cable news network.

Advice: MSNBC has wisely moved its "Doc Block" to the midnight hour. I'd recommend removing it completely.

Obama's Gracious, Inspiring Speech; Hillary Clinton Should Have Endorsed Him Tonight

Barack Obama gave a masterful speech tonight in St. Paul, Minnesota. Now, at last, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Obama was gracious, inspiring, and powerful in contrasting the differences between his candidacy and John McCain's.

Universal health care, a military policy that goes after real not concocted threats to America, a political process that brings in young Americans - these are just a few of the many crucial differences between Obama and McCain.

This was a great evening for America, and its position in the world. No other Western nation has ever had a person of African descent as President or Prime Minister. The candidacy of Obama, based just on who he is, makes a revolutionary statement to the world. This would be the case even if his policies were not as sensible as they are.

Obama was also and especially gracious to Hillary Clinton. She ran a superb campaign, which also inspired millions of voters. I think she would make a great Vice Presidential candidate.

But I was disappointed that she did not endorse Obama tonight. She came in second, not first. Nothing can change that (even though, yes, technically, no delegate is required by law to vote for any particular candidate). I would have liked to have seen her acknowledge that, and give a dynamic speech supporting Obama, rather than saying she needed to hear from her supporters before deciding what to do.

But there's still time for that.

In the meantime, Americans can celebrate one of the most enlightened and inspiring nights in its history. I expect it will be just the beginning of a great Obama Presidency and the end of the benighted Republican party.

Graceless McCain: Obama Victorious Because of "Pundits and Party Elders"?

McCain is now speaking in Kenner, Louisiana. His view of Obama's victory tonight is that "Pundits and party elders have declared that Senator Obama will be my opponent."

Really? Last time I checked, it sure looked to me as if the American people decided, with their votes in the primary season just concluded.

McCain likely hopes he will pick up some of Hillary Clinton's supporters. Not likely - indeed, I don't see any of Hillary Clinton's supporters going for McCain, given his opposition to a woman's right to choose, not to mention his fervent view that the war in Iraq must be continued.

But it's good to see the Republicans starting their general election campaign against Obama with misstatement and misunderstanding. They will be that much easier to beat.

I'll be here with more very soon.

Ice is Nice on Mars

See also Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet...

Obama Fired Up and Ready to Go to the White House

Barack Obama just gave a great speech in Mitchell, South Dakota, on the day that Hillary Clinton won handily in Puerto Rico, but the day after the Democratic National Committee finally settled the crisis of how to count the votes of Florida and Michigan, and settled this in a way which was both fair to Hillary Clinton but brought Obama to less than 50 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

It could not have been settled any other way. As I've been saying since January, before either primary, the DNC initial decision to not count any of the votes was inane and destructive. But with that decision in effect on the days of the voting, there was no way those elections could be considered fair and reflective of the popular will. In Michigan, where only Clinton's name was on the ballot, who can say or assess how many people would have voted differently had Obama's name been on the ballot, too.

Whatever happens in the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday, Obama will only need a small number of uncommitted superdelegates to go over the top. He spoke with humor and style and humility today in South Dakota. He spoke again of how he had acquired the "fired up" and "ready to go" chant from a woman in South Carolina, a small-town political leader. That's because, more than most politicians, he listens rather than dictates to America.

Obama spoke today like a President.

Lost Season 4 Finale: Six or More Thoughts Plus One

Some initial thoughts about the Season 4 two-hour finale of Lost (and a brief note about the very significant bit of extra footage in the replay of Lost 4.12) - with more surely to follow...

1. I had been thinking Ben was most likely in the coffin for most of this season before this evening ... with Locke, and, to a lesser extent, Michael, as possibilities. But Ben seemed too obvious as tonight's story unfolded - everything that he did made us want to hate him more, and we already knew he was off the island. So I began thinking Locke again. Still and all, I can't quite see why Kate would have such disdain for Locke (in contrast to Ben). On yet another hand, there's Jeremy Bentham and John Locke both being names of philosophers.

2. Where did the island move? No need to think it moved in space. Much more intriguing to think it moved in time - maybe to somewhere in the near future, where it will reappear in Season 5 or 6. (Time travel is becoming increasingly central to Lost - with Desmond's mental projection through time, the island and the ship being in different times this season, and now perhaps the island moving into the future.)

3. I'm thinking Jin survived the massive explosion on the boat. He was on the deck, and could have jumped into the water. (Unlike Michael, whose time had clearly come, as indicated by Christian.) Jin could have survived in the water, until some other boat picked him up.

4. It was great to see Desmond and Penny together. Their happiness is by no means assured, however, with Ben out to kill Penny.

5. Is Sun really going to be working with Widmore? I doubt it - I'd say she's infiltrating his organization.

6. Back to Locke in the coffin: If he's taken back the island, he will likely end up not dead. Indeed, dying - if he did commit suicide - may have been part of his plan to help get the Oceanic Six back home...

We'll see next year...

And presumably, Boone, Libby, and Charlie will have some role ... They were mentioned as three who survived the crash of Oceanic 815, but didn't make it, in the expanded press conference with Jack talking tonight. Charlie makes sense - he recently died, and his body might be floating somewhere. But why Boone and Libby?

1. Lost's Back Full Paradoxical Blast 4.1 ... 4.2: Five Flashbacks and Three Rational Explanations ... 4.3: Thirty Minutes and Big Ben ... 4.4: Kate and ... ... 4.5 Desmond 1 and Desmond 2 ... 4.6 The True Nature of Ben ... 4.7 Flash Both Ways ... 4.8 Michael and Alex ... 4.9 Daughters, Rules, and Some Truth about Ben ... 4.10 Almost a Dream Come True ... 4.11 Unlocking Locke ... 4.12 Hurley's Numbers on the Dashboard

and

2. More Thoughts On Lost 4.1: Those Who Went with Hurley and Those Who Stayed with Jack and Two More Points about Lost 4.1


additional discussion of the Season 4 finale of Lost in 10-minute podcast

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates and its time travel ...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior) at Sopranos Conference at Fordham University

Paul Levinson, Dominic Chianese, and David Lavery at the high point of The Sopranos: A Wake, a scholarly consideration of The Sopranos, at Fordham University, May 22-24, with more than fifty scholarly papers. (Photo by Kim Akass)

Read the complete transcript of the Dominic Chianese interview!

Complete conference program, with links to reviews and articles about the conference in the media...

And here's another photograph of Dominic Chianese and me at The Sopranos Conference, by Ken Rivers.

The Tudors Concludes and America Begins

America began in response to what we see in the final two episodes of The Tudors' second - and thank goodness, not final - season.

Torture to get confessions, executions for no good reason other than the whim of the government - in this case, a psychotic King Henry VIII - these are the things that Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers tried to make sure would never happen in America, by insisting on a Bill of Rights for our Constitution.

And the torture and the beheadings were searingly portrayed on The Tudors. The execution of Anne was more harrowing and indelible than any I've seen in any movie.

How could reasonable people allow this to happen? The answer, clearly, was that in the 1500s we were less removed from sheer barbarism that we might assume or suppose.

George Boleyn beheaded on the strength of a hug or two he gave his sister Anne. Henry Norris executed on no evidence at all. A Jesuit assassin lies to bring Anne down - he says he slept with Anne - and he's beheaded. Mark Smeaton the musician denies any carnal knowledge of Anne - because he had none - until torture makes him falsely confess it. He's beheaded, too.

But nothing compares in sheer power - in acting and rendering for the screen - of the beheading of Anne. Natalie Dormier's performance was as memorable as it gets. I'll certainly never forget it.

And Nick Dunning as Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, was extraordinary, as well. He's thrilled not go to the grim reaper, even as his son has just gone there, and his daughter soon will. Charles Brandon expresses our outrage at Thomas, who soon proceeds to leave the tower, freed. He looks back up an Anne's window. She smiles at him, still loving her father, happy to see that he, at least, will live. He turns his back on her, and just walks on. He set much of this game in motion, and he walks away when the stakes turn deadly. (I wonder how much of this Thomas Boleyn of The Tudors really lived in the real Thomas Boleyn of history.)

Yes, this is the depravity that America was born as an action against, less than two centuries later. We have done a fair job of keeping to the better road - though torture apparently has not been beyond the tools of the current administration.

But that's a story for another blog post, when I review Recount, on HBO. For now, I'll just say the juxtaposition of The Tudors and our election in American is no coincidence in this cosmos.

Bravo to a great cast and a great second season. My only regret was not seeing more of Peter O'Toole as Pope in the last few episodes - but I hope to see that corrected next season.

See also ...

Tooling Up for The Tudors and The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins ... John Adams Concludes, The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides ... The Tudors and the Printing Press ...

and my reviews of all of last season's episodes, beginning here ...

and more on the printing press and the Protestant Reformation in my book, The Soft Edge ...

and ...



The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Obama Comes Back Tough and Eloquent Today on Bush/McCain

Barack Obama came out swinging today in a South Dakotan town hall meeting and subsequent press conference - tough, eloquent, intelligent response to Bush and McCain's slurs about Democratic "appeasement".

Among the highlights of what Obama said -

.The Bush administration, supported by McCain, is responsible for the strengthening of Iran - a consequence of the U.S. destruction of Iran's enemy, Iraq, and on the basis of weapons of mass destruction which were never found.

.American Presidents ranging from Kennedy to Nixon to Reagan were unafraid to sit down and talk with our enemies, because they understood that talk is not at all the same as appeasement.

.Hamas was strengthened by the Bush administration's pushing of elections in the Palestinian territories before those places were ready. And - it was McCain, not Obama, who called for talks with Hamas several years ago, before McCain adopted the Bush agenda.

.Obama also made a good, clarifying statement about the Second Amendment: he supports it, but also supports regulation of guns, which he sees as not in conflict with the Second Amendment. (I agree. Unlike the First Amendment, which says "Congress shall make no law" restricting press and speech, the Second Amendment says "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". This means that regulation of guns is permissible under the Second Amendment, as long as that regulation does not infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms. In contrast, the First Amendment permits "no law" regulating speech of press. Obama didn't say all of this, but his position on the Second Amendment is consistent with it.)

.Obama challenged McCain to debate him about foreign policy, any time.

Such a debate will go a long way towards insuring Obama's substantial victory in November. Some parts of the world may indeed not yet be ready for Jeffersonian democracy, as Obama said today. But the United States surely is. Indeed, the time has never been better for presentation of rational arguments to counter the propaganda that has washed over our nation for nearly eight years - presentation of reason in response to distortion and misrepresentation, in response to McCain and Bush, as Obama did today.

Lost 4.12: Hurley's Numbers on the Dashboard

The single most astonishing, reassuring image in tonight's thrilling episode 4.12 of Lost was Hurley's sequence numbers on the odometer of his red car, in his part of the ensemble Oceanic Six flashforward shortly after they are back into some kind of semblance of a normal life...

Lost has been making a fabulous attempt this season to give rational explanations - or, at least explanations not totally beyond the pale of understanding - for some of the major puzzles and mysteries of the past few years. We got an inkling of why Locke is the way he is, a little more about what makes Ben and the island tick, some powerful insights into Desmond's capacity to see the future ...

But those numbers. They never made sense in the past, and seeing them again tonight, at Hurley's birthday party in the flashfoward, brings home how stubbornly they defy any rational explanation. Why do they keeping coming up in Hurley's life? It's tempting to think they are just part of Hurley's delusion - but others have seen them earlier in the series. Tonight, Hurley's father apparently sees them, but we can't be 100% sure what he's seeing. All that we can be sure of is the numbers are reminding us that there's a deep, fascinating part of Lost that is as yet totally inexplicable - part of what makes this series so great. The inexplicable coincidence.

Otherwise, we see Sun establishing control over her father's company back in Korea in the future, before she will have her baby. Will this be a third quasi-corporate force, to play some role in the battle between Widmore and Ben?

We see Sayid happy with Nadia ... heartbreaking, because we know what will soon happen to her.

And we see Jack learning that Claire was his sister. This is why he has so much trouble being near Aaron - who reminds Jack that he didn't come through for his sister back on the island ...

Where a lot is converging on the Orchid ... Jack and Sawyer, Kate and Sayid and Richard's Others, Locke and Ben and Hurley ... and Keamy's killers ...

And back on the boat ... well, something's on the verge of exploding it out of existence ... and separating Sun and Jin, and who knows about Michael (who wants desperately to die), and Desmond (who wants desperately to live, now that he's in contact with Penny)...

All the players are still in process of being shaken up and together and apart and back together - to form the Oceanic Six and those left on the island and who knows where else...

But we'll have to wait two, too long weeks to find out.

See also... A Theory of How the Oceanic Six Were Chosen

and


Further Questions about Lost 4.4: Jack and Aaron, Kate and Sawyer and More about Season Four: Baby Aaron and the Oceanic Six and More About Lost 4: (ii) Michael and Ben, Good and Evil, Alias Echo

1. Lost's Back Full Paradoxical Blast 4.1 ... 4.2: Five Flashbacks and Three Rational Explanations ... 4.3: Thirty Minutes and Big Ben ... 4.4: Kate and ... ... 4.5 Desmond 1 and Desmond 2 ... 4.6 The True Nature of Ben ... 4.7 Flash Both Ways ... 4.8 Michael and Alex ... 4.9 Daughters, Rules, and Some Truth about Ben ... 4.10 Almost a Dream Come True ... 4.11 Unlocking Locke

and

2. More Thoughts On Lost 4.1: Those Who Went with Hurley and Those Who Stayed with Jack and Two More Points about Lost 4.1


additional discussion of this episode of Lost in 7-minute podcast

---

The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates and its time travel ...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Chris Matthews Lambastes Bush Apologist for Bush Comparison of Obama to Nazi Appeasers

Chris Matthews was at his best on Hardball tonight, taking talk-show host Kevin James apart on his inability to say what Neville Chamberlain did wrong in his appeasement of Adolf Hitler before World War II. The correct answer, of course, is that Chamberlain allowed Hitler to carve up Czechoslovakia - which emboldened rather than satisfied the Nazis, and led directly into World War II.

The wrong answer is that Chamberlain talked to Hitler. Talking wasn't the problem - giving away a piece of a sovereign country, in the hope that it could be bring peace, was the problem.

Matthews made all of that very clear.

It's especially helpful to keep that in mind, today, in the aftermath of Bush's comment in his address to the Israeli parliament, comparing Americans who want to talk to Iranian leaders to appeasers of the Nazis.

Barack Obama wasn't mentioned by name, but he was clearly the main target. Unsurprisingly, McCain issued a statement that agreed with Bush. (Click here for McCain's statement, and links to Obama's response.)

I've got to say that I never bought the idea that Bush's stumbling speech somehow was an unfortunate connection to a generous mind and soul. In contrast, Bush's words are carefully considered, and express a dangerous, almost paranoid mind. This was the mindset that got us into Iraq in search of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. It was the mindset that led Bush to even indirectly compare Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain before the Israeli parliament. And it's the mindset that McCain buys into.

But it's not the mindset of Barack Obama, who believes we can do better than saber-ratting, who wants to talk to our adversaries, as we keep America strong.

Hillary Clinton and other Democrats were quick to jump on Bush for his inapt analogy.

I'm heartened to see the media jumping on it, too.

The battle lines are being drawn.

Travis Childers - Democrat - Wins Special Election in Republican Mississippi

The most significant election result tonight was not Hillary Clinton's big win over Barack Obama in West Virginia, but Democrat Travis Childers' win over Republican Greg Davis in the 1st Congressional district in northern Mississippi.

Why is Childers' victory so important? In addition to having a name that seems to come right out of some great work of Southern fiction or an early rock 'n' roller, Childers was stridently opposed by Republicans who sought to link him to Barack Obama.

The technique not only failed, but showed the kind of coattails Obama will have in the general election this Fall. Americans are tired of the Republicans, plain and simple. In Mississippi, the failure of the Bush administration in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath is all too close at hand. In Mississippi and everywhere around the country, Americans are fed up with high gas prices, the flagging economy, and the war in Iraq.

Hillary Clinton's victory speech in West Virginia tonight - one of her best - in fact spoke of those things. The fact is the Republicans have done such a poor job these past eight years that any Democrat can win.

But Hillary Clinton's win in West Virginia won't have any effect on Obama's getting the Democratic nomination - the state is far too small, and the win far too late in the process.

She would make a fine Vice Presidential candidate, in what I'm expecting to be a landslide for Obama and the Democrats in the general election this November.

Sopranos Symposium at Fordham University, Final Program, May 22-24, 2008

The Sopranos: A Wake

Fordham University, New York
Lincoln Center Campus– Lowenstein Hall
60th Street and Columbus Avenue

May 22nd-24th, 2008

Conveners:

Paul Levinson and Al Auster (Fordham University)
David Lavery (Brunel University, London)
Douglas Howard (Suffolk Community College)

->with special guest Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Uncle Junior" Soprano)<- Read the transcript of Dominic Chianese's interview! 
... See the video!

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

for up-to-date conference information, requests for interviews, etc. - email levinson.paul@gmail.com or call Paul Levinson at 718-817-4863


IMPORTANT ADVISORY: Some of the language in the following program, quoted from episodes of The Sopranos, may be offensive to some people. Please know that we intend no offense to anyone with any of the language. Indeed, to the contrary, we are endeavoring in this conference to discuss, in a scholarly forum, the use of this language in a multiple-Emmy-award-winning television series, and its impact on our culture. Similarly, we expressly do not endorse, and in fact disagree with, any ethnic or gender stereotyping that any individual or group may derive from any of the conference presentations, or this conference as a whole. Again, to the contrary, one of the very purposes of this conference is to assess and analyze ethnic and gender stereotyping on television.
====================================================================

The Sopranos: A Wake
Program at a Glance

All events at Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Lowenstein Hall, at 60th Street and Columbus Avenue

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

7:00 pm: Opening Session [Lincoln Center 816]
Housekeeping (Doug Howard)
Welcome (Paul Levinson, Fordham University)
Session 1: Opening Panel (Gary Edgerton, David Lavery)


-------

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track A: 9:00am-10:00am
Session 2a-Featured Speaker: Jason Jacobs [LL 310]
Session 2b—Featured Speakers: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe [LL 311]

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track B: 10:30am-12:15pm
Session 3—Film Form and Filmmaking [LL 305]
Session 4—Therapy [LL 307]
Session 5— Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question [LL 310]
Session 6—Women and Gender I [LL 311]

12:15pm-1:45pm - Lunch Break

Track C: 1:45pm-3:30pm [Pope Auditorium]
Session 6a-A Conversation with Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Uncle Junior" Soprano) Read the transcript!

3:30pm-4:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]

Track D: 4:30pm-6:00pm
Session 10— Images of Justice and The Sopranos [Pope Auditorium]

Track C2: 6:15pm-8:00pm
Session 7—Dreams [LL 305]
Session 8—Journalism, Poetry, and Silence in The Sopranos [LL 307]


-------

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track E: 9:00am-10:00am
Session 11—Featured Speaker: Robin Nelson [LL 310]
Session 12—Featured Speaker: Martha Nochimson [LL 311]

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track F: 10:30am-12:15pm
Session 13—Creating Narratives [LL 305]
Session 14—Intertextuality I [LL 307]
Session 15—Healthcare and Food [LL 310]
Session 16—Women and Gender II [LL 311]

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

Track G: 1:45pm-3:30pm
Session 17—Intertexuality II [LL 305]
Session 18—Whiteness and Cultural Privilege [LL 307]
Session 19—Masculinity and Gender [LL 310]
Session 20—Role-Playing and Negotiating [LL 311]

3:30pm-4:00pm: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track H: 4:00pm-5:00pm
Session 22—Featured Speaker: George De Stefano [LL 307]
Session 23—Featured Speaker: Jimmie Reeves [LL 311]

5:00pm-5:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]

Conclusion: 5:30pm-7:00pm
Session 24—Fade to Black: The Finale and The Sopranos Legacy [Pope Auditorium]
Featured Speakers: Maurice Yacowar, Doug Howard, Paul Levinson
Chair: David Bianculli



===============================================================

Detailed Program

The Sopranos: A Wake: Sessions
Fordham University, New York (May 22-24, 2008)

All events at Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Lowenstein Hall
60th Street and Columbus Avenue


Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

7:00pm: Opening Session [Lincoln Center 816]
Housekeeping: Doug Howard (Suffolk Community College)
Welcome: Paul Levinson (Fordham University)
Session 1
Featured Speakers:
Gary Edgerton (Old Dominion U), “The Sopranos as Tipping Point in the Second Coming of HBO”
David Lavery (Brunel University), “Made Men to Mad Men: What Matthew Weiner Learned from David Chase”

-----

Friday, May 24, 2008
8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

9:00am-10:00am Track A

Session 2a [LL 310]—Featured Speaker: Jason Jacobs (U Queensland), “Christopher, Osama and AJ: Contemporary Narcissism and Terrorism in The Sopranos”

Session 2b [LL 311]—Featured Speakers: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan U), “ ‘Blabbermouth Cunts’: The Sopranos and the Feminist Dilemma”

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

10:30am-12:15pm: Track B
Session 3 [LL 305]—Film Form and Filmmaking
Chair: Cameron Golden
Jody Malcolm (U West Florida), “The Final Analysis: Epiphany and the Possibility for Redemption in The Sopranos and ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’”
Cameron Golden (Independent Scholar), “The Producers: The Dangers of Filmmaking in The Sopranos”
William Siska (U of Utah), “The Sopranos as Art Cinema”

Session 4 [LL 307]—Therapy
Chair: David Pattie
Matthew Leporati (Fordham U), “ ‘Sometimes what happens in here is like taking a shit’: Confession and Identity in ‘The Test Dream’”
Bruce Plourde (Rowan U), “Tony and Dora: Mastering the Art of Counter-Transferrance”
David Pattie (U Chester), “ ‘Whatever happened to stop & smell the roses?’: The Sopranos as Anti-Therapeutic Narrative”

Session 5 [LL 310]—“Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question”
Chair: Frank Tomasulo
Jonathan J. Cavallero (Penn State U), “Honoring Our Ancestors: Using The Sopranos to Mobilize Italian/American Ethnic Identity”
Laura Cook Kenna (George Washington U), “ ‘I can’t turn the other cheek on this . . . My father was a Knight of Columbus’: ‘Christopher’ and the Contested Construction of Italian American Identity”
Frank Tomasulo (Florida State U), “The Gangster as Guinea Hero: The Complex Representation of Italian Americans in David Chase’s The Sopranos”

Session 6 [LL 311]—Women and Gender I
Chair: Joseph Walker
Andrée Betancourt (Louisiana State U), “The Rise and Shine of Claire Fisher and Meadow Soprano: Good Mourning Daughters”
Marisa Carroll (Independent Scholar), “ ‘When it comes to daughters, all bets are off’: Meadow Soprano and the Question of Familial Determinism in The Sopranos”
Joseph Walker (Independent Scholar), “ ‘What’s Different Between You and Me’: Carmela, the Audience, and the End”

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

1:45pm-3:30pm: Track C
Session 6a [Pope Auditorium]
A Conversation with Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Uncle Junior" Soprano) with Paul Levinson and David Lavery

3:30pm-4:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]—Akass, Bianculli, Creeber, De Stefano, Edgerton, Jacobs, Lavery, Levinson, McCabe, Nelson, Nochimson, Peacock, Yacowar

4:30pm-6:00pm: Track D
Session 10 [Pope Auditorium]—Images of Justice and The Sopranos
Chair: Barbara Villez (U of Paris 8)
Antonio Ingroia (Prosecutor Palermo, Italy)
Fabio Licata (Prosecutor Palermo, Italy)
James Keneally (Criminal Lawyer, New York)
special presentation: Phil Scala (retired FBI organized crime squad supervisor): “The Real-Life Sopranos: The Crime Family in New Jersey upon which The Sopranos Was Based”

6:15pm-8:00pm: Track C2
Session 7 [LL 305]—Dreams
Chair: Cynthia Burkhead
Terry Carney (Butler U), “From Mafioso to Kevin Finnerty: The American Way”
Sven Weber (Independent Scholar), “The Sopranos: Asleep—The Dream Sequences and Their Reflection on Television Structure and Complexity”
Cynthia Burkhead (U North Alabama), “Fishes and Football Coaches, Oh My! The Narrative Necessity of Dreams in The Sopranos”

Session 8[LL 307]—Journalism, Poetry, and Silence in The Sopranos
Chair: Steven Peacock
Bastiaan Vanacker (Loyola U, Chicago), “Journalism in The Sopranos: Don’t Shoot the Messenger”
Rebecca Bobbitt (Middle Tennessee State U), “Slouching Toward Jersey: The Sopranos and Yeats”
Steven Peacock (U of Hertfordshire), “Silence in The Sopranos”


-----

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

9:00am-10:00am: Track E
Session 11 [LL 310]—Featured Speaker: Robin Nelson (Manchester Metropolitan U) “Author(iz)ing Chase: Questions of Worth in Valorizing The Sopranos”
Session 12 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Martha Nochimson (Cineaste), “The Sopranos, Relatively Speaking”

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

10:30am-12:15pm: Track F
Session 13 [LL 305]—Creating Narratives in The Sopranos
Chair: Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Piluso (California State U Fullerton), “ ‘Funny about God, and fate, and shit like that’: The Imminent Unexpected in David Chase’s The Sopranos”
Ilaria Bisteghi (U of Bologna), “The New Serial Television: The Sopranos and The Relay Race-Like Text Structure”
Sean O’Sullivan (Ohio State U), “Episode Five, or When Does a Narrative Become What It Is?”

Session 14 [LL 307]—Intertexuality I
Chair: Al Auster
Lindsay Coleman (U Melbourne), “ ‘Echoes in Eternity’: Gladiator and The Sopranos”
Kenneth T. Rivers (Lamar U), “Carmela in Paris: Culture Shock and Architecture in the ‘Cold Stones’ Episode of The Sopranos
Al Auster (Fordham U), “The Sopranos and History”

Session 15 [LL 310]—Healthcare and Food
Chair: Michael Grynbaum
Dianna Lipp Rivers (Lamar U), “Hospital Scenes, Nursing, and Healthcare in The Sopranos”
Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College), “A Family That Eats Together, Kills Together: Food as Metaphor in The Sopranos”
Michael Grynbaum (Harvard U), “Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos”


Session 16 [LL 311]—Women and Gender II
Chair: Nancy Roche
Elizabeth Mauldin (Oglethorpe U), “Carmela Soprano as Emma Bovary: European Culture, Taste, and Class in The Sopranos”
Lyndsey Lefebvre (California State U Fullerton), “Carmela Soprano: Fighting Our Battle?”
Nancy Roche (Middle Tennessee State University), “The Last Temptation of Melfi”

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

1:45pm-3:30pm: Track G
Session 17 [LL 305]—Intertextuality II
Chair: Paul Wright
Paul Wright (Cabrini College), “Half a Wise Guy: Paulie Walnuts, Meet Tom Stoppard”
Carl Wilson (Brunel U), “ ‘Even Brendan Filone’s got an identity and he’s dead’: Christopher Moltisanti and the Reflexive Subjectivity of the Constructed Self”
Glen Creeber (U Wales Aberystwyth), “Comfortably Numb? The Sopranos, New Brutalism and the Last Temptation of Chris”

Session 18[LL 307]—Whiteness and Cultural Privilege
Chair: Christopher Kocela
Renee Curry (California State U, Monterey Bay), “ ‘Bianca isn’t black; she’s pretty tan’: Desire, Repulsion, and Whiteness in The Sopranos”
Andrea Dottolo (Worcester State College), “Wops and WASPS: Using The Sopranos to Teach about Race and Racism”
Christopher Kocela (Georgia State U), “ ‘All Caucasians Look Alike’: Dreams of Whiteness at the End of The Sopranos”

Session 19 [LL 310]—Masculinity and Gender
Chair: Paul Lumsden
Paul Lumsden (Grant MacEwan College), “Tony and the Bear”
Melinda Di Condio and David Thierring (Independent Scholars), “Christopher’s Arc: The Existential Search of the Generation Y Gangster”

Session 20 [LL 311]—Role-Playing and Negotiating
Chair: Sarah Swan
Frieda Pattenden (University of Munich), “Role-play Reading The Sopranos: “ ‘You are all white professional males between 25 and 45’”
Sharon Sutherland (U of British Columbia Faculty of Law) and Sarah Swan (Independent Scholar), “ ‘It’s not a negotiation’: Getting to Yes with Tony Soprano”

3:30pm-4:00pm: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

4:00pm-5:00pm: Track H
Session 22 [LL 307]—Featured Speaker: George De Stefano (Independent Scholar), “A ‘Finook’ in the Crew: Vito Spatafore, The Sopranos, and the Queering of the Mob Genre”
Session 23 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Jimmie Reeves (Texas Tech U), “Tony Soprano as Feral Father: Patriarchy in the Age of Hybridity”

5:00pm-5:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]—Akass, Bianculli, Creeber, De Stefano, Edgerton, Jacobs, Lavery, Levinson, McCabe, Nelson, Nochimson, Peacock, Yacowar

5:30pm-7:00pm: Conclusion
Session 24 [Pope Auditorium]—Fade to Black: The Finale and The Sopranos Legacy
Chair: David Bianculli (tvworthwatching.com)
Featured Speakers: Maurice Yacowar (U Calgary), “Unpredictable but Inevitable: That Last Shot”
Douglas Howard (Suffolk County Community College), “No Justice for All: The FBI, Cut to Black, and David Chase’s Final Hit”
Paul Levinson (Fordham U), “The Sopranos and the Closure Junkies”

-----


===============================================================

Presenters by Session


Akass, Kim—2b, signings
Auster, Al—14
Betancourt, Andrée E. C.—6
Bianculli , David—24, signings
Bisteghi, Ilaria—13
Bobbitt, Rebecca—8
Burkhead, Cynthia—7
Carney, Terry—7
Carroll, Marisa—6
Cavallero, Jonathan J.—5
Chianese, Dominic, 6a
Coleman, Lindsay—14
Creeber, Glen—7, signings
Curry, Renee—18
De Stefano, George—22, signings
DiCondio, Melinda—19
Dottolo, Andrea—18
Edgerton, Gary—1, signings
Golden, Cameron—3
Grynbaum, Michael—15
Howard, Douglas—24
Ingroia, Antonio—10
Jacobs, Jason—2a, signings
Kenna, Laura Cook—5
Kenneally, James—10
Kocela, Christopher—18
Lavery, David—1, 6a, signings
LeBesco, Kathleen—15
Lefebvre, Lyndsey—16
Leporati, Matthew—4
Levinson, Paul—6a, 24, signings
Licata, Fabio—10
Lumsden, Paul—19
Malcolm, Jody—3
Mauldin, Elizabeth—16
McCabe, Janet—2b, signings
Naccarato, Peter—15
Nelson, Robin—11, signings
Nochimson, Martha P.—12, signings
O’Sullivan, Sean—13
Pattenden, Frieda—20
Pattie, David—4
Peacock, Steven—8, signings
Piluso, Robert—13
Plourde, Bruce—4
Reeves, Jimmie—23
Rivers, Dianna Lipp—15
Rivers, Kenneth T.—14
Roche, Nancy—16
Scala, Phil-10
Siska, William—3
Sutherland, Sharon—20
Swan, Sarah—20
Thiering, David—19
Tomasulo, Frank—5
Vanacker, Bastiaan—8
Villez, Barbara—10
Walker, Joseph—6
Weber, Sven—7
Wilson, Carl—17
Wright, Paul—17
Yacowar, Maurice—24, signings

Useful links:

The Sopranos' End and the Closure-Junkies

The Sopranos and Hamlet

The Sopranos, or the Tiger?

The Sopranos Ninth of Nine Finale: The Anti-Ending Ending

The Sopranos as a Nuts-and-Bolts Triumph of Non-Network TV

and Sopranos podcasts....

the conference widely anticipated in the press:

Andrew Sullivan's blog ... New York Magazine blog ... Sports Illustrated blog ... CollegeOTR ... widely quoted article in the New York Post, in which I compare The Sopranos to Shakespeare and the Beatles ... American Bar Association Journal ... Alan Sepinwall in the Newark Star Ledger ...

the conference attended and reported by the press:

AP story carried in hundreds of newspapers and news reports on television and radio ... Joan Acocella's article in The New Yorker ...


controversies about the conference reported in the press:

Bianculli's Blog ... Courier Mail (Australia) ... response by Queensland Univ. professor to Courier Mail story


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

And coming in Summer 2011: The Essential Sopranos Reader  (University of Kentucky Press) ... papers and essays from the May 2008 Sopranos Symposium at Fordham University

Battlestar Galactica 4.6: Cylon on Cylon

More good revelatory Cylon on Cylon interactions in 4.6 of Battlestar Galactica - or, more specifically, Cylons killing Cylons, not in the civil war, but one on one...

The most significant was Six killing a sister Six. The angel of death Six was my favorite Six - the one who is in a life-and-death political struggle with Brother Cavil (Dean Stockwell). Her sister was a platinum blonde Six, much like the one who is cosmically intertwined with Baltar, and is currently under lock-and-key on the Galactica. The blonde Six on the Cylon ship kills someone from Starbuck's party - a woman who as part of the resistance had killed this Six back on new Caprica - and everyone with Starbuck, especially Anders (a secret four Cylon himself), takes umbrage. Anders, in fact, wants to kill this Six, and the lead Six takes it upon herself, as a way of keeping peace, to kill her sister. Since there's no Resurrection ship around, these deaths really count.

One of the Sharons also gets blasted - in this case, by a toaster, who is trying to protect the Hybrid Oracle from being unplugged. There is also an excellent scene of a whole group Sharons talking to each other.

Meanwhile, the Oracle reveals some mostly inexplicable clues to Starbuck. But one thing is crystal clear - D'Anna (Lucy Lawless) is coming back, and she will play a crucial role, since she has seen the final five Cylons (in contrast to the viewers, who have so far seen only four).

With each episode, the difference between the "good" Cylons and humans recedes...

See also ...

Battlestar Galactica's Back and Bristling! ... 4.2 Mysteries and Satisfactions ... 4.3: Deaths, Lessons, Questions ... 4.4 A Little More about Cylons ... 4.5 Mutiny on the Demetrius ... 4.9: Finally, Bill and Laura ... 4.10: Earth

and So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival, vol. 6

---

"jumping with ideas" - Denver Post

The Tudors and the Printing Press

Some wonderful, decisive moments in history have been brilliantly portrayed in the past few episodes of The Tudors on Showtime. I've currently seen 8 of the new season, thanks to Showtime On Demand.

My single favorite moment, being the media historian that I am, was Thomas Cromwell's introduction - to us as well as Archbishop Cranmer and George Boleyn - of a great "new weapon" for the Protestant reformers, in Episode 6: the printing press. This scene was right on in its portrayal of how monarchs such as Henry were able to harness the advantages of the press in their campaign to break free of Rome, and establish their national identities. (And James Frain superbly played Thomas Cromwell, as he does in every episode.)

As media historians such as Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis explained back in the 1950s, and I elaborated upon in my 1997 The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, books printed in English and other national vernaculars in Europe helped crystallize a powerful sense of nationhood. Those few who were able to read were able to see words in their own languages rather than Latin. Public education arose primarily to teach children how to read. More and more people became literate, the Church weakened, and the rise of national states was off and running.

That, however, was only Part I of the story of monarchs and printers. In Part II, which we will not likely see this season, printers begin to break free of the monarchs, and print tracts and pamphlets that were critical of the monarchies. This led to crackdowns by the monarchs, and informed Thomas Jefferson and his insistence on a free press, and a First Amendment insuring it, in America.

Back on The Tudors, the other great moment of historical drama is the Pope's gradual declaration of cultural war on Henry VIII. You couldn't ask for a better actor than Peter O'Toole to play Pope Paul III, and his every word rings with resonance and almost cosmic authority. It won't be enough to overthrow Henry in England, but it's a pleasure to see on TV.


The Tudors continues to be a feast for the historical intellect - and hey, the sex and romance and heartbreak are pretty good, too.

See also ...

Tooling Up for The Tudors and The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins ... John Adams Concludes, The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides ... The Tudors Concludes and America Begins ...

and my reviews of all of last season's episodes, beginning here ...

and more on the printing press and the Protestant Reformation in my book, The Soft Edge ...

and ...



The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!