tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post1967883226336396137..comments2024-03-26T16:03:42.608-06:00Comments on Flares into Darkness: End of Story.ambisinistralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03836786826294202405noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-42500084310073128012007-06-11T22:44:00.000-06:002007-06-11T22:44:00.000-06:00One detail about the final scene that he'll discus...<I>One detail about the final scene that he'll discuss, however tentatively: the selection of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the song on the jukebox.</I> <BR/><BR/><I>"It didn't take much time at all to pick it, but there was a lot of conversation after the fact. I did something I'd never done before: in the location van, with the crew, I was saying, 'What do you think?' When I said, 'Don't Stop Believin',' people went, 'What? Oh my god!' I said, 'I know, I know, just give a listen,' and little by little, people started coming around."</I><BR/><BR/>Yep. There are the important things and then there are all the <I>you can't please everyone, so you might as well please yourself</I> things. The music was the important thing.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the link, MHA.lonerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13329414340481290010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-10965778042232428552007-06-11T22:02:00.000-06:002007-06-11T22:02:00.000-06:00Sopranos lovers might enjoy Everything I Know Abou...Sopranos lovers might enjoy <A HREF="http://www.designobserver.com/archives/025896.html#more" REL="nofollow">Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos</A>.MeaninglessHotAirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11767916621253839341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-30093432549868314652007-06-11T00:07:00.000-06:002007-06-11T00:07:00.000-06:00...or the screen could just go to black on Steve P......or the screen could just go to black on Steve Perry singing <I>Don't stop</I> and then the credits could roll in silence.<BR/><BR/>David Chase did it his way. I liked it. My wife—not so much.<BR/><BR/>As to <I>The Economist</I> quote: I hope that never changes and I think it's because of how this country is governed that soft power is generally the more reliable, if not always more effective, of the two options. Someday, if history is any guide, there will be a crisis because of which someone will be able to concentrate power to such an extent that he or she can enforce his or her will for a sufficient period of time to fatally weaken governance under the Constitution, but, thus far, no crisis has come close to making that possible despite all the overblown and useful rhetoric to the contrary.<BR/><BR/><I>In Europe harmony must reign between the crown and the legislature, because a collision between them may prove serious; in America this harmony is not indispensable, because such a collision is impossible.</I><BR/><BR/>—Alexis de Tocqueville, <I>Democracy In America, Volume 1</I>, 1835<BR/><BR/>Is this a great country or what. <I>Don't stop believing...</I> Damn that David Chase! Now I'm going to have that so-so song sung by that rotten singer playing in my head until...<BR/><BR/><I>I'm the all night drug-prowling wolf who looks so sick in the sun.<BR/>I'm the white man in the Palais just lookin' for fun.<BR/>I'm only looking for fun .</I><BR/><BR/>Nevermind.lonerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13329414340481290010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-79502405560115549242007-06-10T14:02:00.000-06:002007-06-10T14:02:00.000-06:00Nice review. I'm glad you went ahead and decided t...Nice review. I'm glad you went ahead and decided to publish. :-) I was just thinking not five minutes ago that the end of The Sopranos definitely deserved a post but I wouldn't have time to do it.<BR/><BR/>Quote of the day, from Lexington in <I>The Economist</I><BR/><BR/>"Foreign-policy commentators like to draw a distinction between soft power and hard power. The argument is that America has more to gain by spreading its ideas and values than through exercising its military muscles. They also often seek to make a clear distinction between pro- and anti-Americanism. But a little time with Tony, Big Pussy and Paulie Walnuts shows that things are a little bit more complicated.<BR/><BR/>Many people mistrust America not so much because they have not been wooed by its soft power but because they believe that they and their children are over-entangled in it. And many people are up in arms not simply because they are anti-American but because they are bipolar about America—simultaneously attracted and repulsed by what they see going on in the Bada Bing."MeaninglessHotAirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11767916621253839341noreply@blogger.com