back on the blog: classic 'pranos

Wow...I don't think I've ever gone over a month without a post. I'll give you an update on what's been goin down, soon...until then, check this email I sent to some Sopranos Friends yesterday...I have a followup theory/confession/quandry, but I'm trying to gather a few thoughts (and work) before I start stream-typing...Anyways, I'm back.

People:

I really wanted to send out an email Sunday night, right after I
checked the West Coast 'Pranos...but didnt wanna spoil it for others
that hadnt caught it yet...i'm assuming everyone is caught up now.

It was a doozy. Vito Jr's shower action was disgusting, but a
relief...I thought the kids were gonna sexually assault the young
dude, like shove the stick of soap up his keister or something
deviant. Tony showed again how cold and selfish he is (gambled away
that dough then conned Marie into letting Vito Jr go to that school
for delinquents). That hot latina number from She Hate Me dumped AJ
who still communicates in teenspeak like he did 3 or 4 seasons
ago...Let me cut to the chaste, though...

One of the opening scenes has\d Tony, at Satriali's engaged in a
sitdown with to Marie, Gay Vito's widow. She's whining about her
son's recent degenerate behavior...something about a neighbor's cat.
She's fed up. Tony seeks to provide a little logic by saying: "Well,
in a way, that's to be expected, ya know, with Vito's passing and all
that entRails." Of all his english gaffes ("Why can't we all get
along like the great Reverend Dr. Rodney King Jr.?")...I think this
was the most comical. And that's saying a lot since five minutes
later, when describing Phil's recent swag and semi-disrespect he said
"It could be the hoobras when they become boss." That's the first
time I ever heard someone pronounce "hubris" as "hoobras"...I'm hoping
hoobras is some Italian slang I'm not up on, though I doubt it, since
Chase and the writers insist on giving us moments where these men seem
past ignorant.

And speaking of Phil...a few days after refering to Vito Jr as a "turd
that didn't fall far from the faggot's a$$", he sat down with young
Vito to see if he could talk some sense into him. As he's looking at
his nephew rockin all black, black lipstic, black nailpolish, he says
in disgust: "What the hell is wrong with you? You look like a Puerto
Rican whore! You make me sick." The "Puerto Rican whore" comment just
about ended my night, it was too much...I couldn't contain myself
(yall know how much idiotic bigotry entertains me). The writers
outdid themselves with that. There was no reason to qualify "whore"
with "puerto Rican", except, there actually was a reason, because it
cut that much deeper -- I definitely would've prefaced "whore" with a
low-grade ethnicity like afro american or mexican.

I have a couple Italian friends that cautioned me against getting too
many cultural identifiers from the Pranos, but isn't it basic fact
that a good deal of them hold (specifically) hispanics, blacks and
gays in below-human contempt? Phil's comment was classic and
indicative.

Ironically (but undoubtedly on purpose) Tony visited Hesh Rabkin, who
is always characterized as a stingy money-grubbing Jew, and said about
Cleaver (the film Chrissy made) "It's a very unflattering portrait of
Italian Americans." Ha.