The Eighth but Not Enough Installment of Zack's Newsletter
Sopranos! Segways! Falconry! Ursula K. LeGuin!
You know, I should really find a better way to edit these things.
Welcome to my latest newsletter! Here are some things I’ve done and found recently, at least the ones I didn’t copy/paste to the draft of a future newsletter to save space!
SOMETHING SOMETHING FALCON CREST JOKE:
I haven’t written many articles the last couple years, but I did one with a couple of Emmy-winning documentary filmmakers about their new documentary, OVERLAND, a look at falconry that keeps getting delayed thanks to Covid World. Here’s a trailer!
Later, I went to the local premiere at the art museum of the film, which GREATLY benefits from being on the big screen! They’re still figuring out a release, so I’m glad I had this opportunity. They brought out a Golden Eagle for the premiere, and I got a few shots of this magnificent creature! Here’s one.
AND NOW, SOME VERY RANDOM LINKS I AM TOO TIRED TO ORGANIZE BY ANY PARTICULAR THEME:
The excellent writer Will Harris just shared an interview with Ricou Browning, the original Creature from the Black Lagoon, co-creator of FLIPPER, and a genuinely extraordinary person, who is not in very good health at the moment. Read this and appreciate his long and eclectic career while the Creature Walks Among Us.
…that was a pun. If it was in poor taste, sorry. I meant it with affection.
On Twitter, I read an extraordinary tale of fraud in a TV writer’s room, and it’s crazier than most real TV plots! I saved the thread here, and you really need to read the whole thing.
RELATED: I found the screenwriting blog Bitter Script Reader has an archive of the sample scripts many current TV writers used to break into the industry (donated by said writers). It’s an excellent look at HOW to write a self-contained episode of many of the very involved shows out there.
I love long and involved articles that show how some half-forgotten bit of popular culture was relevant, and this tale of the enormous mystery behind, hype for, and complete failure of the Segway made me laugh and cringe in equal measure. At least they’re still used for city tours.
And here’s the tale of why Red Delicious Apples are no longer, well, delicious.
If you really really really REALLY love 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, the company Super7 is doing some limited-run made-on-demand toys at $55 a pop. I’ve enjoyed many of their products, but I’m trying to get RID of stuff at the moment. That said, if anyone wants to get me a Moon Watcher and Monolith pack…
An absolutely beautiful video: Neil Gaiman reading Leonard Cohen’s “Democracy,” with music by Amanda Palmer and illustrations by David Mack.
OH! A WHOLE BUNCH OF SOPRANOS STUFF! THAT LUMPS TOGETHER WELL:
With the film THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK coming out, I decided to FINALLY watch through all of THE SOPRANOS after several aborted previous efforts and actually reading a few entire books about the show.
I can appreciate it better now that I’m older, and also now that I understand the show deliberately deals with anti-climax and emotional complexity vs. heavy serialization. Also, it helps that I use closed captions. It makes all the Italian slang and deliberate malapropisms easier to follow.
It’s not my FAVORITE show ever, but I understand its influence and impact better now, and the way it builds themes and ideas from seemingly throwaway plotlines, bits of dialogue, etc. is very well done. And of course, James Gandolfini!
Anyway, the NY Times had a long and excellent article about the continued popularity and relevance of the show that explains many of the themes and concepts better than I could. But I wanted to grab a few rarities here and there:
Here’s one of James Gandolfini’s appearances on SNL, this one on “Weekend Update” as a “New Jersey Businessman” (wink, wink). He’s absolutely himself here. You can tell he’s a little shy and uncomfortable with live TV, but that kind of makes it better — there’s a gentle, self-effacing quality to him that makes him loveable even as he spits out some Archie Bunker-esque ignorance.
For that matter, here he is on SESAME STREET, talking about the kind of emotions even Tony wouldn’t reveal to Dr. Melfi. Again, such a sweet dude. I wish he’d gotten to show that in more roles.
To bring myself back into this, there was an episode where Janice swiped Carmela’s lasagna to ingratiate herself to Bobby Bacala, and Junior recognized it — “sweet sausage mixed with the beef? And little leaves of basil tucked under the mozzarell’?” Well, that sounded delicious, so I decided to see if there was an in-real-life recipe online. And sure enough, “Binging with Babish,” which makes recipes seen on movies and TV, had one!
It was only after I’d ordered the ingredients at the grocery store and picked them up that I realized this damn thing was MASSIVE.
But it turned out well! I had a few pieces, and a friend took some home to his family and they all liked it, and I STILL had about half left and froze that. It’s so dense with all the cheese that one small slice is easily a meal unto itself.
One last bit: Found an interview with SOPRANOS creator David Chase and HOMICIDE/OZ mastermind Tom Fontana in an old Writers Guild magazine. Some genuinely insightful stuff, and a bit where it seems Chase might owe Fontana a little credit for inspiring THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK:
(They also talk about a little bit the first show Chase created, ALMOST GROWN, which I really want to see! The 1988 series starred Tim Daly, who Chase would later use as TV writer J.T. Dolan on THE SOPRANOS, as half of a divorced middle-aged couple who would flashback to different moments from their lives each episode, triggered by a particular classic rock song. From what I can tell, it was THIS IS US a few decades early, only a little more SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE [or possibly THIRTYSOMETHING meets THE WONDER YEARS, tho doubt Chase intended to mimic either show], and I’ll be damned if I can find anything more than a couple of promos and part of an episode called “Jersey Blues” online. If anyone has any bootlegs, email me…)
Still need to watch THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK because I’m not done with THE SOPRANOS yet. Finished S5 today, so one to go! Yes, I’m aware that the last scene might be a mite frustrating.
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM:
Found a very cool interview with Ursula K. LeGuin talking about her classic “Dreams that reshape the world” novel THE LATHE OF HEAVEN with Bill Moyers, he who did those great interviews with Joseph Campbell and many others.
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN was famously adapted to a low-budget but highly-effective TV-movie for PBS in 1980. It’s a little hard to find, but YouTube is a blessing. There was another adaptation for A&E in the early 2000s I haven’t seen.
AND FINALLY:
Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles BETRAYED their classic “Manic Monday” on Twitter with this revelation:
To be fair (to be faaaaiiiirrr….) Prince wrote that song, not her.
She more than made up for her hypocrisy with this lovely number a few days later:
OH SORRY, ONE MORE THING:
Okay, I’m calling this done! I only had to move seven other links to another draft. Methinks I’ll be posting again this week.
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