Let Me Think About It

Yea, yea, I know it's been almost 6 months since my last post, but I've been too busy with my Yelp, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and Y! 360 pages. Anyway, I'm back for some not-so-quick bites.

After what seemed like an interminable 2 yr wait, The Sopranos is finally back. Sunday nights are once again Sunday nights. There was a pretty steep drop off in ratings compared to the last season premiere, but that's to be expected especially with the almost 2 yr hiatus and the availability of on-demand programming. The critics are also quick to point out that Sunday nights are now filled with soapy episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. Not sure I agree, though, that there's much crossover between DH and The Sopranos audiences, but perhaps that's just me being optimistic/wishful.

In any event, L started a debate late last week that Lost is starting to "bug" him. You can't just throw out a comment like that and expect it to go away like a fart in the wind.

J weighed in with "I wholly disagree with L. The Sopranos last coupla episodes were great, but I feel they are trying to be too cute. Lost, at least, gives you something to hang your hat on. The Sopranos spend too much time building up. I think this sums it up... When we were watching Lost, when I fast forwarded through the commercials, I was surprised and bummed that the end was coming up so fast. When I was watching The Sopranos, I had to check to see how much left was left in the episode cuz it seemed to drag."

As much as I've gotten into Lost over the past 3 months, I'm afraid that I'll have to side with L on this one. After seeing this week's episode, they're just using soap opera tactics at this point and stringing us along. Last season offered up a lot more plot development/revelation than this year ... so far, that is. Could be the writers having brain farts or could be just the nature of basic tv drama. There have been flashes of writing brilliance for sure, but it's tapered off just a bit.

Speaking of brilliant writing, The Sopranos is king of that court. They might not hit you over the head with the underlying themes, but I think there's more depth here ... the dream episode last week being case in point. I don't think we can expect every episode to be like the first one, where there was a ton of hard hitting action, but it's still smarter TV.

Of course, the debate wouldn't have been complete without what it all comes down to:

"Carmela, Janice and Dr. Melfi vs. Freckles, Claire and Sun. Enough said. Any show that has Aida Turturro getting it bent over a couch will loose to Kate tongueing some dude down and then shooting him."

So, I officially hate Apple, Incorporated. I'm now on my 5th iPod. Yes, 1-2-3-4-5. Mind you , I didn't pay for any of them, but that's not the point. Starting with the first one (11 months after purchase), I've encountered problems including, but not limited to super short batter life, hard drive melts and firmware errors. They've been close to "winning" on many occasion, where I've almost just thrown my hands up in frustration and bought the iPod video. The "Genius Bar", as they ironically call it at your friendly local Apple Store, attempts to fix/troubleshoot the issue and then issues you a new (where new = refurb) iPod (same model; sigh). It's a racket! Pitch perfect brand building that will no doubt be the subject of many a biz school case study ... but what should really be *studied* is the actual product! Anywayz.

What a season for Carolina basketball. After losing their top 7 scorers, not one "expert" picked them to finish higher than 7th in the ACC. So much for the experts. The Heels finished up the season 2nd in the league and 11th in the nation. Given the fact that they have the top incoming recruiting class in the country combined with the 4+ starting freshman they had this past season, it wouldn't surprise any hoop fan if they appear at the top of the 2006-07 pre-season national polls. Arguably the biggest win of the season came in Durham on the Dookie's Senior Night ... last game of the season. The late season stretch solidified Williams as coach of the year and Hansborough as rookie of the year. Amazing what little to no expectations will do to a team, especially from a school that isn't used to being in that position. Sadly, they lost to George Mason in the 2nd round of the NCAAs. The good news is that Mason is now in the Final Four. Yep, the first 11 seed to ever make the Final Four. Unreal. An incredibly athletic, confident, scrappy team that seems all too comfortable wearing Cinderella's slipper in late March.

TomKat visited our offices this past Tuesday. Yep, Tom Cruise. Katie Holmes. A very pregnant Katie Holmes. Tom's visit was part of our Influential Speaker Series, which has included folks like Tom Brokaw, Ahhhnold and Thomas Friedman. Go ahead and argue/laugh at the merits of Cruise being *influential*, but really, who gives a fuck if he is or isn't. It was pretty damn cool seeing him on campus ... arguably, the biggest star in the world. He flew in on his vintage P51 jet ... 1.5 hrs late. The ruckus he created was ridiculous and, in what was most likely a slow news week, well-covered by the likes of CNN, Inside Edition, ET and pretty much every other gossip blog you can think of. Seems like a slew of girls forgot that they were actually in the "workplace" ... the unprofessionalism was mindboggling. Unfortunately, that was the main clip picked up by the news outlets. Nope, no mention of any Scientology bidness, but he did poke fun of the himself/the Oprah incident by hopping up and down on the couch after being asked about Katie and his impending role of father. Millions in lost productivity that day, for sure, but this is the kinda cool shit that makes our place of employment an ok place to spend your waking hours from time to time. Things did take an irrelevant and surreal turn as our CEO and Tom started talking about the days when they used to vacation together on a yacht in the Mediterranean. How's that for *influential*? Uh-huh.

Ila turned one last month. Scary how fast the last year has passed us by. There's something new everyday ... hard to keep up these days. Apparently, she's fallen in love with the pool ... can't get enough of it ... can't leave her alone for a second or else she's diving in the deep end. We're talkin 2024 Summer Olympics. Not such a big fan of the sand at the beach yet, though. She doesn't know what to do with it, which might be a sign of her developing some early signs of her mother's anal retentiveness. Ila should be out here next month ... stay tuned.

Saw Jeff Tweedy last month at The Fillmore sans the rest of the Wilco crew. Acoustic show. Incredibly engaging, smart, demanding and funny. Between the years and years of touring, band drame and rehab, Tweedy's got tons of stories that could fill albums for years to come. Wilco is without a doubt my favorite band today and has been since I saw them in Berkelely in June 2005. I've made this plea before, but here it is again ... if you don't already know their music, let me know and I'll burn you a CD.

Just heard an acoustic version of "Who Can it be Now?" on KFOG's Acoustic Sunset. If anyone comes across this MP3, please send my way, por favor.

I know it was you comma Santa Monica comma you broke my heart.

And in closing, a big west coast shout out to Shalel Lounge on the Upper Vest! Bring the magic!