Groovymarlin.com

Well of course I subscribed.

So what are you wishing for this holiday season? I guess I already bought myself a Christmas gift, although I got it at the beginning of November - my iPhone. I love this little toy and have not regretted the purchase for a second. With the iPhone, I’m all taken care of in the Christmas present department.

(Is it sad that one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten came from…me? I’m leaning more towards it feeling “empowered,” rather than “pathetic.”)

If I had to create a “wish list” for Christmas I’d wish for lot of abstract things - at first. Stuff like perfect health for my daughter, my husband, and me; a job for my husband (now that would be a great Xmas); and the resurgence of progressive values in American society. Unfortunately you can’t fit any of that stuff under the tree, so here are the top 10 items on my Amazon wishlist, commercial and crass as they may be:

1. Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition)
2. Ray-Ban RB 2113 Wayfarers with Flex, tortoise frames/brown lenses
3. Amazon Gift Certificate <———– is that cheating?
4. BioShock for PC
5. Eye-Fi Wireless 2GB SD Memory Card
6. Any set of Justice League (or JL Unlimited) DVDs
7. Extra Pentax DL-I8 battery (for my camera)
8. My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus (Volumes 1 and 2)
10. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Alan Moore)

What’s on your wish list?

Warning: this post definitely contains spoilers. If you haven’t watched the series finale of The Sopranos, and you care about not knowing what happens, don’t read this. You have been warned.

I, like much of the TV-viewing public (at least those who subscribe to HBO), watched the series finale of The Sopranos last night. And what did I think of it? Weird. It was weird, OK? I feel like this show sort of reached its zenith in that season where Ralph owned the race horse, and then Tony whacked him, and it’s been on a downward spiral of shark-jumping (with a few exceptions) since then. Last night confirmed my suspicion that yes, the glory days are gone. It’s time for The Sopranos to be over, and for all of us to move on to something else. So far, I don’t think the something else is going to be HBO’s newest David Milch project, John from Cincinnati, but that’s another post.

Anyway, my husband and I were sitting and watching The Sopranos last night, and we were about 40 minutes into the thing. I turned to him and asked, “Is it just me, or is this the most boring, anti-climactic series finale in the history of series finales? Nothing is happening!” and right after I said that, Phil Leotardo got shot in the head. In broad daylight! In front of his twin grandchildren! And then, in one of those patented, awful Sopranos moments, his stupid wife got out of the SUV and left it in neutral, and the thing (luckily, off-camera) rolled over his damn head. First I thought “Ew!” but then I thought, “Yeah! Finally some shit will go down!”

I was wrong. That was the end of it. The rest of the show was as dreary and boring and uninspiring as the rest of it, except for those horrific few minutes of head-squashing. Maybe that’s the point, really. Is David Chase (who both wrote and directed the finale) saying to us that even though Tony is a mobster, a lot of his life is just as mundane and stifling as yours or mine? There are days when nothing much really happens? Oh sure, maybe now and then he orders a guy whacked, or attends a big funeral with a bunch of Italian-American caricatures, but for the most part, it’s a grind like any other?

I’m probably being too harsh, really. There was certainly some material for discussion going on in last night’s episode. Just the abruptness of the ending itself is grist for a long debate on the significance of it all. And there are other questions - wtf is up with Meadow? WTF is AJ’s problem? What about that slimeball Paulie? Don’t you just want to murder that selfish bitch Janice?

Rest in peace, Sopranos. Rest in peace.

Leslie Stahl’s earrings are making me crazy. Leslie (or her stylist) has apparently decided that her signature look is large, chunky stone earrings that perfectly match whatever she is wearing. Blue blazer with black turtleneck? Blue and black “quartz” looking earrings. She does this ALL THE TIME and it’s making me insane. Of course I couldn’t find any really good pictures of this on the Internets to illustrate, though here are a few (click on image to see larger):

If you watch an episode of “60 Minutes” where Leslie is doing a story, you’ll notice it immediately. These earrings are a vile offense to fashion and here’s why:

- The whole “matchy-matchy” aspect is so lame. It’s like Garanimals for jewelry. Everyone (well, everyone with taste) knows you’re never supposed to match everything.

- The earrings themselves are all incredibly ugly, like giant rocks that Wilma Flintstone might wear on a night out on the town.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Those earrings are all I can think about lately when I’m trying to fall asleep at night. Damn you, Leslie Stahl (or Leslie Stahl’s stylist)!

OK I have been way too busy to think about blogging lately. My father was visiting last weekend, I just started a new job on Monday, I’ve got freelance work this week…I’m swamped all over the place. I will update more completely this weekend.

Random observation: I have the TV on in the background and this mid-season replacement starting Jeff Goldblum (”Raines”) just started. Jeff looks like he’s had a facelift or something. Actually, he looks pretty darn good to me, but maybe I’m just tired. Also, this episode was directed by Frank Darabont. Frank Darabont who directed “The Green Mile” and one of my very favorite movies of all time, “The Shawshank Redemption.” What’s Frank doing, slumming in TV? And, oh my God, was that Tracey Walter I just saw? IMDB doesn’t say so, but I’d swear that was him.

Well based on the strength of the cast and crew alone, I almost wish I’d paid attention to this “Raines” show. I’ll catch the rerun this weekend. And speaking of TV, I did watch most of “The Riches” the other night. Eddie Izzard is amazing, as always — but that’s a post for another time.