Brilliant and painful and horribly, sadly true. When does the next show come out where the audience turns action hero and writes the Grey Hat outta the plot?
Yes, I count myself as part of the audience problem. But in some tiny 1-paragraph way, I can try to become part of the solution. It may not be enough. Probably won't be. It feels like we're already in Nero's Rome. From aqueduct to semiconductor and back to dust. But fuck writ large. If every single one of us wrote small and true it could add up to full on x-large.
JB / Matlock is perfect / hysterical. Tony and Walter have Appointments in Samarra, while this fucker gets a pierced ear. Can life be trained to imitate art, SVP?
This is all fucking true. Swerd-Mon! And to think that I was satisfied with bad-ass TV outlaw Cowboys, like Richard Boone playing Paladin in “Have Gun Will Travel”!! And he was only hunting outlaws. A bounty hunter. He wasn’t the top-notch criminal cocksucker himself.!!!
I watched the Sopranos three times - all 86 episodes of it. And I loved it! Loved every bad thing (in the Biblical sense) about it! So there may be a lot in what you say. Maybe TV series such as this one and Breaking Bad ( l loved that one too) really were a softening up process for a society with a sharp decline in moral standards and a president who is actually a gangster and an abuser of women. Yet, million of seemingly ordinary, decent people voted emphatically for him. So another 3 key questions are: Has life itself become the ultimate TV show? Can people no longer tell the difference between what is real and what isn't? Most importantly, do they care any more? This is one of your best and most insightful articles, Tommy.
I'll restack it in a while. I had the grandchildren over yesterday and Friday and they have me worn out. But in a good way!
Well, actually I've just remembered that scene from the Godfather where the don collapses while he's chasing the kids around the garden. It was kind of tranquil in a way.
I think you’re onto something, Tommy. Damn, we can imagine our way into a fucking mess. Think we can work our way back out? what kind of television would that require?
Yes, but not in the way you think. Before both Soprano and White, there was The Apprentice, a show that made more money than both. In fact, you can say it was the other way around; The Apprentice inspired HBO and AMC to fictionalize what was already in the ether. Trump was a beloved darling of Liberals. They loved the brash New Yorker who could do no wrong; everything he touched turned to gold, or at least it was portrayed that way. He was an anti-hero born with a silver spoon in his mouth, opinionated and conceited. Millions watched the show and loved him. As a New Yorker, I can’t forget what most will never know. Trump was a golden boy every liberal gravitated toward. But don’t mistake liberals for the left or progressive. Trump got tremendously wealthy under Clinton, with all of Clinton’s neoliberal tax policies no one likes to talk about. Trump is the Frankenstein monster that Clinton-era neoliberals claim escaped from a lab and wreaked havoc on their paradise. Trump, unlike Tony Soprano and Walter White, is not a criminal. Or better put, he’s as criminal as the system allows. We’re not an innocent people, despite the efforts of Disney to prove otherwise. We’re an imperialist nation with untold wealth. So who would think might make the perfect President? And here’s the best part: there’s nothing wrong with it. This is exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Biden did it behind closed doors, with allies in the media. Trump does it in your face, friend or foe be damned. You reap what you sow, btches.
Tony: I asked you a simple God damned question: where’s my 100 billion dollars?
Ralphie: Talk to Zelensky.
Tony: Talk to Zelensky! Like that’s gonna solve anything!
Ralphie: I don’t know. Everything was running smooth for the longest time—money in, money out. Nobody said boo.
Silvio: Then the Russians came in.
Tony: The Russians! Every time you open your mouth it’s the Russians! What am I gonna say to our friends in Miami Beach?!
Silvio: Let’s face it, Tone. If you wanna put a face on this, it’s your Uncle Junior. He went behind our back, started a war. Then dementia set in.
Tony: Yeah? And I got New York up my ass! You think New York gives a flying fuck about my uncle’s dementia?!
Ralphie: Tone, I don’t see what you’re gettin’ so upset about. We make a deal with the Russians, Zelensky will go along, we’ll pick up the loss on the back end. That way, we can put this whole thing to bed.
Silvio: He’s right, Tone. And I don’t wanna be the one tell you this, but now we got Canada and Mexico to deal with.
Ralphie: Not to mention China.
Tone: You think I don’t know this? This family is done being screwed the world over! These people gotta know who the boss is! Your friend with the crypto—what’s his name? Get him on the phone! I wanna sit-down!
Silvio: He took a header into the Passaic last week. He was depressed, Tone.
Tone: He was depressed! This is the problem wit’ the world ta-day! Everybody’s gotta be happy! Meanwhile we’re taking the hit! And my whole life is in the toilet!
Ralphie: Tone, I’ll go to New York to make things right. If I end up in a box, you’ll know where to bury me, that’s all I have to say.
Tony: I want my money, Ralphie! You’re supposed to be an earner! Act like one!
Wow, I think you’re on to something as awful as the consequences will be and are already
Brilliant and painful and horribly, sadly true. When does the next show come out where the audience turns action hero and writes the Grey Hat outta the plot?
I don't know. The audience writ large is the problem
Yes, I count myself as part of the audience problem. But in some tiny 1-paragraph way, I can try to become part of the solution. It may not be enough. Probably won't be. It feels like we're already in Nero's Rome. From aqueduct to semiconductor and back to dust. But fuck writ large. If every single one of us wrote small and true it could add up to full on x-large.
Brilliant analysis of our human , flawed, psychic.
Thanks. I was just riffing and I know it's more than that, but maybe that really is a flavor in the doom stew.
Well said, Jim. I couldn't have put it better.
JB / Matlock is perfect / hysterical. Tony and Walter have Appointments in Samarra, while this fucker gets a pierced ear. Can life be trained to imitate art, SVP?
What shall we Swerdlows do PF? We need Janet Malcolm to get into it.
Alas…. Malcolm ex…. She’s 4 years dead. We’re just plain fucked
This is all fucking true. Swerd-Mon! And to think that I was satisfied with bad-ass TV outlaw Cowboys, like Richard Boone playing Paladin in “Have Gun Will Travel”!! And he was only hunting outlaws. A bounty hunter. He wasn’t the top-notch criminal cocksucker himself.!!!
Exactly. Have hair will travel.
I watched the Sopranos three times - all 86 episodes of it. And I loved it! Loved every bad thing (in the Biblical sense) about it! So there may be a lot in what you say. Maybe TV series such as this one and Breaking Bad ( l loved that one too) really were a softening up process for a society with a sharp decline in moral standards and a president who is actually a gangster and an abuser of women. Yet, million of seemingly ordinary, decent people voted emphatically for him. So another 3 key questions are: Has life itself become the ultimate TV show? Can people no longer tell the difference between what is real and what isn't? Most importantly, do they care any more? This is one of your best and most insightful articles, Tommy.
I'll restack it in a while. I had the grandchildren over yesterday and Friday and they have me worn out. But in a good way!
Well, actually I've just remembered that scene from the Godfather where the don collapses while he's chasing the kids around the garden. It was kind of tranquil in a way.
Don't put any sugar cubes in your teeth Martin McBrando, I need you reading!
And as for what's real and what isn't, I think the phone has utterly obscured and already blurry line
I think you’re onto something, Tommy. Damn, we can imagine our way into a fucking mess. Think we can work our way back out? what kind of television would that require?
No television. Not even cooking shows can save us!
This is awful but I think you might be right
Yes, but not in the way you think. Before both Soprano and White, there was The Apprentice, a show that made more money than both. In fact, you can say it was the other way around; The Apprentice inspired HBO and AMC to fictionalize what was already in the ether. Trump was a beloved darling of Liberals. They loved the brash New Yorker who could do no wrong; everything he touched turned to gold, or at least it was portrayed that way. He was an anti-hero born with a silver spoon in his mouth, opinionated and conceited. Millions watched the show and loved him. As a New Yorker, I can’t forget what most will never know. Trump was a golden boy every liberal gravitated toward. But don’t mistake liberals for the left or progressive. Trump got tremendously wealthy under Clinton, with all of Clinton’s neoliberal tax policies no one likes to talk about. Trump is the Frankenstein monster that Clinton-era neoliberals claim escaped from a lab and wreaked havoc on their paradise. Trump, unlike Tony Soprano and Walter White, is not a criminal. Or better put, he’s as criminal as the system allows. We’re not an innocent people, despite the efforts of Disney to prove otherwise. We’re an imperialist nation with untold wealth. So who would think might make the perfect President? And here’s the best part: there’s nothing wrong with it. This is exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Biden did it behind closed doors, with allies in the media. Trump does it in your face, friend or foe be damned. You reap what you sow, btches.
https://michaelarturo.substack.com/p/the-picture-of-dorian-trump
Brilliant Tommy. Our reality is worse & more frightening than any horror movie or story I’ve ever seen or read.
Tony: I asked you a simple God damned question: where’s my 100 billion dollars?
Ralphie: Talk to Zelensky.
Tony: Talk to Zelensky! Like that’s gonna solve anything!
Ralphie: I don’t know. Everything was running smooth for the longest time—money in, money out. Nobody said boo.
Silvio: Then the Russians came in.
Tony: The Russians! Every time you open your mouth it’s the Russians! What am I gonna say to our friends in Miami Beach?!
Silvio: Let’s face it, Tone. If you wanna put a face on this, it’s your Uncle Junior. He went behind our back, started a war. Then dementia set in.
Tony: Yeah? And I got New York up my ass! You think New York gives a flying fuck about my uncle’s dementia?!
Ralphie: Tone, I don’t see what you’re gettin’ so upset about. We make a deal with the Russians, Zelensky will go along, we’ll pick up the loss on the back end. That way, we can put this whole thing to bed.
Silvio: He’s right, Tone. And I don’t wanna be the one tell you this, but now we got Canada and Mexico to deal with.
Ralphie: Not to mention China.
Tone: You think I don’t know this? This family is done being screwed the world over! These people gotta know who the boss is! Your friend with the crypto—what’s his name? Get him on the phone! I wanna sit-down!
Silvio: He took a header into the Passaic last week. He was depressed, Tone.
Tone: He was depressed! This is the problem wit’ the world ta-day! Everybody’s gotta be happy! Meanwhile we’re taking the hit! And my whole life is in the toilet!
Ralphie: Tone, I’ll go to New York to make things right. If I end up in a box, you’ll know where to bury me, that’s all I have to say.
Tony: I want my money, Ralphie! You’re supposed to be an earner! Act like one!
https://michaelarturo.substack.com/p/american-caligula