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There's an excerpt from David Chase's new book (or an excerpt from an interview about the book… I'm not entirely sure which) in last week's Entertainment Weekly. In it, he talks about how surprised he was at the reaction to The Soprano's finale ("I knew they'd be angry, but I didn't realize they'd be THAT angry) and his contempt for those who, after following and cheering Tony Soprano for seven seasons, all suddenly wanted to see him punished for his "sins". And all I've got to say to that is bullshit. The problem with the Sopranos finale isn't simply that it's one of those seemingly ubiquitous non-endings that directors are so fond of lately. I think he's right that there's a certain number of fans that would be dissatisfied with whatever ending he came up with for the series, since everyone has their own idea of how these stories should end. But what he's done here is to build up the tension in the closing scene,...

I've been acting again since the Spring. Just wrapped a weekend of Twelfth Night in Las Vegas, followed by a Halloween themed night of Edgar Allen Poe and Edward Gorey scenes at the Huntington Library. I don't know what's coming next… gonna have to start looking at audition notices, I guess, and maybe get a subscription to Backstage West again. But I've written next to nothing ABOUT the experience. I've started several posts… but often that's little more than a title and a brief sentence to remind myself what I intended to talk about. But I haven't finished one of them. (Admittedly, acting and writing use different sorts of creative "muscles" — but it's all creative, right?) I've got a degree in Theatre. I love acting, and I've had more fun doing these shows this year than I've had in ages. But the blog has lain here fallow, waiting for me to say anything about anything , for nearly a month. But not a word. About movies, or books, o...