On Saturday night, on the way home from the monthly poker game (I won the first two games, then finished 4th and 3rd) I stopped by the Scrubby Duck and found 1 dime and 1 penny. I also found a Scrubby Duck Token, which is worth $1, but sadly, in the Change Race universe, worth nothing.
I also stopped by McDonald's and found 6 pennies.
Total since last post - $0.28
Total for the Race - $229.79
For those loyal readers of the blog, you remember my Survivor Updates. Marti and I still watch Survivor (We did enjoy Yau-Man this season and the whole Car/Immunity bet story line), but we have gotten into The Sopranos. I started renting the Season 1 DVD last summer, and we got hooked. So we watched all the episodes this season and the Finale tonight.
I thought the final episode was good, although I can understand people who didn't like it. What I enjoyed about the last 5-6 episodes was that, because the series was wrapping up ANYBODY could get whacked. So there was tension every time someone started their car, turned around, etc. They really messed with viewers in the last scene tonight at the diner. Marti and I were at the edge of our seats, and I said, "Either something big is going to happen, or nothing is going to happen." And then it ended.
For a second, I thought the cable had gone out. And I thought about the Andy Kauffman special from YEARS ago, when he had the screen go out of alignment for 15 seconds, so people would get up and bang on their TV, thinking it was a problem on their end. Basically a practical joke on the viewers.
I think it's kinda cool, that we are left to decide the ending, and that tension that we felt during the last diner scene, is still with us.
I have poked around some of the message boards on HBO, and it is funny to hear the anger some people have, many even going so far as to say they are going to cancel HBO. When I hear that, I like the ending even more. If David Chase gave these people what they wanted, the end of the show would be every character shooting the other in the head and everyone dies.
This ending goes along with they way the series has gone for 6 seasons. It never really gave you what you wanted, when you wanted it. There was plenty of action and death in the series, but it came when you were not expecting it. Most of the season finale's were pretty boring, in fact I think the only major character to die in a season finale was Big Pussy. All the other big deaths (Bobby, Christopher, Adrian, Richie, etc) happened in the show BEFORE the finale, or sometime in the middle of a season. (And think about it, would you rather have a show that was boring for 12 episodes and only got interesting in the finale?) So to think that the writers would break the mold now, just to make people happy, would be silly. Plus, the lives of the Sopranos, always went on without us in between seasons, so it is natural that now, they continue to go on without us.
While there is a part of me that would have liked to see a blood bath, I am still happy with the ending. I think that David Chase stayed with the normal format of the show, and had a little fun with the audience, by going to black, and keeping the suspense alive. And no, I don't think Tony got whacked, and that is why it went to black. I also don't think that Marcelles Wallace's soul came out of the back of his neck and the hole is covered by a band-aide.
3 comments:
I'll let my post stand on my blog, not revealing my feelings on the ending one way or the other. Kind of like the show, open to speculation.
I will say, though, that the show, in my opinion, was never the same after the second season. I watched, yeah, because it was the best thing on television, but it never really delivered on what I had come to expect.
Also, I think a lot of the plot points toward the end of the series run were overly contrived--just to make a point or conjure up an arc.
As for the final episode, I enjoyed Phil getting whacked in front of his wife, because it's what they deserved. Him for being a coward and she for instigating Vito's death. But I thought the whole war with NY was a contrivance, anyway.
I'll leave you with a few of my favorite scenes from the series:
- The curbing in this last season. Tony was brutal and uncontrolled, but totally in the right.
- The scene from the first season where all the mobsters clean house ahead of possible Fed indictments. The music worked really well, I thought.
- Ths smothering scene, also from that first season.
- The scene where he fended off the would-be hitmen, from that first season. I just love the weather--a cool, breezy fall day.
I just wanted to stop by and say what i think you're doing is great. You and the other found change bloggers have inspired me to start a section on my own blog about finding money.
Anyway, best of luck!
J
Brian,
I like how you are leaving your feeling open and not revealing your true feelings. Were you singing Journey while you were typing your comments? :-)
My favorite scene was the whole episode with Chris and Paulie in the truck in the woods during the winter. I also liked Chris's reaction when Aide told him that she was dealing with the FBI. His facial expressions were great.
Road to Harvard - Thanks for the nice comments. Although, the link to your blog is not working.
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