Quickies - The "Birthday" Edition

Boston Globe article on the 750 laws that Bush has decided he was above.

Saw Pinback last night. This was the second time I've seen them live and I can't help but feel underwhelmed. I love their albums but I just don't think the sound they create live matches the intricacy or tightness that the albums have.

If you haven't seen Steven Colbert's speech at the White House Press Corps dinner from last weekend you are missing out. It is hilarious and well worth the watch.

Finally, I thought yesterday's Sopranos was good even with inordinate amount of time spent on Vito's personal storyline which I am already tired of. The line uttered by Patsy after he and Burt left the faux Starbucks was hilarious and yesterday I finally got the sense that Tony is really conflicted about turning a new page in life or regressing back to his old ways which was nice. As for Vito, I don't think the interesting part of that arc is him coming to grips with being gay (this has been done a million times on other shows) but how it affects the dynamic within the family. The writers and producers have spent 5 seasons delevoping this wonderfully complex social dynamic that we, as viewers, have watched through a core set of characters. Now we are expected to get engrossed in this Vito storyline and Johnny Cakes that I could care less about. In the waning episodes of this show I want to learn more about the characters that we've been watching develop and have gotten invested in since the beginning. I want to see how the arcs of Paulie, Christopher, Silvio, Carmela, and Uncle Junior play out instead of having to deal with an extraneous storyline injected at the eleventh hour.

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