Immigration Bill / Columns / “Era Vulgaris” / “The Sopranos” / “John From Cincinnati”
1) At the grassroots level, the Republican party (and more specifically, the conservative movement) hasn’t changed much since Mr. William F. Buckley, Jr. was backhand slapping Yale into a frenzy of feminine overreaction way back there in the early 1950s. But at the federal level, the party has gone horribly astray, drifting hither and yon between watered down versions of Democratic ideals and outright socialism (that it’s trendy socialism doesn’t make it a socialism of any lesser degree).
If your political beliefs ebb and flow with whoever is president, or whichever party controls the House or Senate, then what you have aren’t political beliefs, they’re conversation starters. Consequently, when your core beliefs are exactly those, drastic measures may sometimes have to be taken when your party of choice strays too far from its first principles. So I say here that passage of the immigration bill currently being resurrected on the Senate floor will be the last sin I can stand, meaning that if it reaches President Bush’s desk, I will leave the Republican party and register as an Independent.
2) A pronounced lack of purpose has weighed upon my conscience since the Lincoln book fell apart in March, and with my new lover living so far away, I decided some other action was in order, even if it’s wrong.
Three affiliates were publishing the “In Dissent” opinion column when I drifted away from its regular production early last year; all three have agreed to carry whatever new columns leave this desk, so expect to see new columns every Wednesday beginning some time this summer. No exact date has been chosen. Further updates as they warrant. Expect only that I will flop back into the scene with my blade sharpened; and know that that sort of conditioning takes some time.
3) Queens of The Stone Age is too often accused of being a stoner band; for one example, see the July 2007 issue of Blender magazine: “… each [Queens album] relies on easy-tempo, robot-stoner rock,” and so forth. Actually, John Homme and company (whoever “company” should be from one album to the next) have, beginning with Restricted is 2000, produced albums far too musically intricate and interesting to be fairly considered stoner music (especially the band’s masterpiece 2002 album Songs for the Deaf).
But with Era Vulgaris (released 12 June), a stripped down Queens has produced … something pretty close to stoner rock, as it would be defined by most thoughtful observers. It’s a decent little record; not brilliant, not terrible – not likely to attract a ton of new fans, but also not likely to force longtime fans to swear off the band in disgust. No matter what, QOTSA is one of the better live rock bands touring today, and you’d do well to see them if they come close.
4) For the record, David Chase is overrated. He slipped in a puddle of good fortune and managed despite himself to pound out a winner with The Sopranos’ first season, but once people started paying attention, Chase found himself suffering from performance anxiety and the show floundered.
That having been said, I haven’t quite decided whether the Sopranos series finale represented the last, desperate gasp of a writer who has never been much of an A to Z plotter, or a masterstroke of creative genius. However I can tell you that if I’d been allowed to read the final nine scripts before shooting began, I’d have beaten someone about the head and face until AJ Soprano was either made butch, or forced to die a brutal, unceremonious death.
Clearly Chase had no idea what to do with him, so he turned AJ into a maudlin, whining, near child molesting, gang supporting, terrorist-leaning cunt of a boy, with the bottom line being that his downfall as a relevant character bogs down what could have otherwise been an exceptional last run for a show that desperately needed an exceptional last run.
As for the sudden, cut-to-black ending – which caused everyone in the world who saw it, myself included, to fall face first into stunned, cackling disbelief – it accomplished exactly what was intended: Everyone was talking about The Sopranos the next morning. Press attention does nothing for completists (i.e., those who become obsessed over shows like The Sopranos or Deadwood and who want nothing more for their lives than for their shows to come to clear, logical conclusions), but it helps to further present HBO and Chase as a network and an artist willing to take a chance. But to what end? Exactly what chance is honestly being taken as you’re walking out the door?
Then again, it could have been one last “fuck you” to those who have spent years complaining that David Chase isn’t much for concluding his stories in a commonsense manner. So, you know, well done, Chase – no matter what else, those critics were right.
5) Speaking of HBO, the first episode of John From Cincinnati (forevermore known as the show that killed my beloved Deadwood) was actually very, very good; David Milch and company have definitely earned my attention. My sincere hope is that my fellow Deadwood zealots will give John a fair shot.
If your political beliefs ebb and flow with whoever is president, or whichever party controls the House or Senate, then what you have aren’t political beliefs, they’re conversation starters. Consequently, when your core beliefs are exactly those, drastic measures may sometimes have to be taken when your party of choice strays too far from its first principles. So I say here that passage of the immigration bill currently being resurrected on the Senate floor will be the last sin I can stand, meaning that if it reaches President Bush’s desk, I will leave the Republican party and register as an Independent.
2) A pronounced lack of purpose has weighed upon my conscience since the Lincoln book fell apart in March, and with my new lover living so far away, I decided some other action was in order, even if it’s wrong.
Three affiliates were publishing the “In Dissent” opinion column when I drifted away from its regular production early last year; all three have agreed to carry whatever new columns leave this desk, so expect to see new columns every Wednesday beginning some time this summer. No exact date has been chosen. Further updates as they warrant. Expect only that I will flop back into the scene with my blade sharpened; and know that that sort of conditioning takes some time.
3) Queens of The Stone Age is too often accused of being a stoner band; for one example, see the July 2007 issue of Blender magazine: “… each [Queens album] relies on easy-tempo, robot-stoner rock,” and so forth. Actually, John Homme and company (whoever “company” should be from one album to the next) have, beginning with Restricted is 2000, produced albums far too musically intricate and interesting to be fairly considered stoner music (especially the band’s masterpiece 2002 album Songs for the Deaf).
But with Era Vulgaris (released 12 June), a stripped down Queens has produced … something pretty close to stoner rock, as it would be defined by most thoughtful observers. It’s a decent little record; not brilliant, not terrible – not likely to attract a ton of new fans, but also not likely to force longtime fans to swear off the band in disgust. No matter what, QOTSA is one of the better live rock bands touring today, and you’d do well to see them if they come close.
4) For the record, David Chase is overrated. He slipped in a puddle of good fortune and managed despite himself to pound out a winner with The Sopranos’ first season, but once people started paying attention, Chase found himself suffering from performance anxiety and the show floundered.
That having been said, I haven’t quite decided whether the Sopranos series finale represented the last, desperate gasp of a writer who has never been much of an A to Z plotter, or a masterstroke of creative genius. However I can tell you that if I’d been allowed to read the final nine scripts before shooting began, I’d have beaten someone about the head and face until AJ Soprano was either made butch, or forced to die a brutal, unceremonious death.
Clearly Chase had no idea what to do with him, so he turned AJ into a maudlin, whining, near child molesting, gang supporting, terrorist-leaning cunt of a boy, with the bottom line being that his downfall as a relevant character bogs down what could have otherwise been an exceptional last run for a show that desperately needed an exceptional last run.
As for the sudden, cut-to-black ending – which caused everyone in the world who saw it, myself included, to fall face first into stunned, cackling disbelief – it accomplished exactly what was intended: Everyone was talking about The Sopranos the next morning. Press attention does nothing for completists (i.e., those who become obsessed over shows like The Sopranos or Deadwood and who want nothing more for their lives than for their shows to come to clear, logical conclusions), but it helps to further present HBO and Chase as a network and an artist willing to take a chance. But to what end? Exactly what chance is honestly being taken as you’re walking out the door?
Then again, it could have been one last “fuck you” to those who have spent years complaining that David Chase isn’t much for concluding his stories in a commonsense manner. So, you know, well done, Chase – no matter what else, those critics were right.
5) Speaking of HBO, the first episode of John From Cincinnati (forevermore known as the show that killed my beloved Deadwood) was actually very, very good; David Milch and company have definitely earned my attention. My sincere hope is that my fellow Deadwood zealots will give John a fair shot.
posted by Brian S. Wise | 7:37 AM
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