It is time to catch up with the last season of the Sopranos after a brisk walk into the centre of town and a bacon roll and coffee on the way home at the Wetherspoon’s. I was feeling good when I woke after being able to use the Sleep Apnea machine for over a couple of hours during my first overnight sleep. The trick as I worked out from previous attempts is to use the machine for half an hour to an hour before going to bed both to adjust to the contrivance and check the breathing through the nose with the mouth closed. I was able to achieve two overnights sleeps using the machine on Thursday. An open mouth, a blocked nose, indigestion, overtiredness or anxiety, mental alertness are all indicators that going to sleep with the mask unit operative is unlikely.
The consequence of having a good sleep and feeling good, together with the weather pleasant I decided to delay breakfast and completing to transformation into set volumes of work overnight: The Blogs on Sleep Apnea and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the paper cuttings from the Daily Mail and the Journal and other materials. It proved warmer than anticipated even with a cooling breeze as I set off. The main purpose was to get some shaving gel and tooth paste before my next trip. This turned out expensive as the Gel which I thought was marked up as £1.70 turned to cost £4. Oops. There have been no sprats for a couple of months.
My next shop was for a small narrow baguette of cheese and pickle for my second meal of the day on Thursday evening with chicken pieces for lunch with tomato and beans. I had intended to cut through the access to the Metro station for a copy of the free morning newspaper the Metro from the bus station only to find the entrance shuttered. The day strike had gone ahead which poses a great problem for the Cold play concert at the Stadium of Light this evening. Fortunately the newsagent by the station entrance had a pile of Metro’s outside the shop on the pavement. Having noted the inexpensive Sunday Roasts offers on the walk yesterday this time I noted the reduction in two main courses deals with three establishments offering selections for under £7 and at Wetherspoons the offer is £6.
The price of a bacon roll and small coffee is now 50 pence more than a couple of years ago and increase of about a third. The place is decked out is English flags for the football as well as The Union flags for the Jubilee. Wetherspoon’s have produced a guide to their establishments in central London associated with the Olympic games. I enjoyed the breakfast and read the Metro. It was nicely warm on the way back home. This contrasts with the weather in the midlands where concentrated rain is delaying the start of the third Test. instead I will listen to the Durham game at Chester le Street. I am tempted to go as Durham have made a goodish start getting over 250 runs for 2 batting points and then getting out Warwickshire for 170 and now they are 120 ahead with 8 wickets in hand. I believe if they can set 250 to win then their first win is a good possibility weather permitting as heavy showers are forecast. Although some wickets were given away Durham were in sight of that 250 when bad light stopped play early n as the skies darkened and reports came in of heavy rains and tropical storms destined for the south and spreading northwards but not as far as here. The Test Match has its first two days washed out.
I speculated if the weather elsewhere meant rain would affect the first amphitheatre concert of the season although from previous experience the concert would continue under the raised walkway enabling musicians to perform in the dry and spectators to enjoy under cover but standing and sheltered from the wind if it was blowing into the shore. I had planned to walk at least from the bottom of the hill but as the evening progressed the skies grew dark and wind strengthened so that it was unpleasant to walk even if well wrapped up. I decided not to risk the elements and took the car parking on the grass across from the playing area with the far side window opened I could watch and listen with the car sheltering me from the winds which appeared to be coming from the south west. The first act of the evening was a tall young man in a white polar necked sweater who played the guitar and had a very pleasant voice similar to that of Ned Sherran who appeared at the Jubilee concert. He had several friends who parked in their car by the roadside just beyond the stop lane and retreated as soon as his set was over.
I am against intrusion into the lives of others, even at a distance but I will mention one happy ending drama. A young woman was dropped off by her dad, I assume, and disappeared into the crowd of some 50 to 100 people attending during the time I was present. Soon after she came back to the roadside, looked to the distance with her phone in hand. She returned to the listening area for a short while and then returned and phoned. Then a young man came and from the greeting it was evident they were a close couple. Then her father returned again to pick her up. The boyfriend appeared to explain why he was late and the father drove off again. The couple went off arms around each other to listen. I hoped all such situations ended happy on what was becoming a dreadful night weatherwise. It spitted with rain and then commenced to pour. I did wait five to ten minutes but with the next act, a band, waiting until their contracted time. I also assumed but not appearing I returned to the comfort of home.
The last season of the Sopranos is divided into two performance showings and the first part of the first part has Tony shot by uncle (Junior) in a near death coma and having a prolonged dream in which in finds himself being someone else., a salesman using the credit cards of the other person else. The first programmes also concentrate on the rest of his crime family and other crime families, on Uncle Junior and in particular the impact on his wife, daughter and son.
Uncle Junior escaped prison because of the tactics employed in the previous season. However the Feds continue in their determination to bring him and rest the family down. Prior to the court hearing Junior had attempted to demonstrate mental incapacity and in order to get out of the house arrest he had used the device of attending funerals, often of those with whom he had only a flimsy connection however these visits had a depressing effect on him. How far these developments are contributory factors in the deterioration of his mental health which becomes apparent during the first episode of the last season Members Only (66) is not clear.
Tony is asked to baby sit his uncle when his sister and her husband cry off unaware that Junior is hallucinating and paranoid convinced that he is about to be attacked by one of his former adversaries Little Pussie Malanga who he had planned to kill in the restaurant of Tony’s friend which had led to the burning down of the establishment to prevent the planned attack and where the insurance money led to the creation of the establishment used by Tony and this colleagues for special events as well as outings as couples and families. Convinced that Tony is Malanga Junior shoots Tony in the stomach.
In the next episode Join the Club, Junior has been arrested and there is debate if this is another example of his pretending to be ill or his condition is genuine. Uncle Junior argues that any wound Tony has will have been self inflicted because the man had become depressed. It is not until the fifth episode of the season Mr and Mrs John Sacrimino Requests that the judgement is made that Junior is mentally disturbed and he is sectioned to a hospital for treatment and will be held there in secure conditions until he is considered fit to plead. He is very distressed by all of this.
Since deciding to allow Tony back into her life, and bed Carmela. She has appeared back to her former self in terms of her relations with him. He has bought her the latest powerful and expensive car which she shows off to her friends. Tony has also funded her enterprise of building a home by a lake as a development project but the man she hires does not follow the local building regulations as the building inspector was a bought man. However there is a change in personnel and the new man refuses to accepts what has been done and places a stop work notice. Carmela presses Tony to act for her but he is initially reluctant. At one point she dismisses the builder for his incompetence in not using the right materials. I cannot remember what happens to the property and if is completed and sold for profit.
Understandably this and her troubles with their son A J become of little significance when Tony is shot, something which they have all lived with the possibility since his emergence as a prominent member and then de facto head of the crime family. What they did not anticipate is the circumstances of the shooting although it has to be remembered that Uncle Junior incited Tony’s mother to make an attempt on his life.
A J had managed to get a place in a college but continued not to take education seriously more interested in other activities and without a sense of a direction in his life. He is angered by the death of his father and attempts to get hold of a gun to take the life of his father’s uncle. His first reaction had been to show no interest which worried Carmela and she is very angry with him when his lack of interest in college work leads to such a low sets of grades that he is told it is not worth his while to continue.
A J breaks the code of the Family by talking to TV about the anger he feels over the shooting of his father and in the third last season episode Mayhem Carmela berates the young man for putting the family on national TV. Previously she had met Dr Melfi in the Supermarket who expresses sympathy and offers counselling help. After the incident with her son she accepts the offer, talks about her attraction to Tony but great rgeret at having brought children into a crime family situation. In a previous episode A J and another friend at High School had made money arranging a party and indicated an interest in pursuing event organising as his future work interest. Both parents do not want him to become involved in crime. In the fifth episode Mr and John Sacrimoni requests the parents remind A J of his interest when attending the wedding of the daughter of Johnny Sacks.
Their daughter Meadow continues to mature, in part through her relationship with the young man from a wealthy but straight family. She is genuinely distressed by the shooting of Tony and shares his bedside vigil with her mother. Following his recovering and the arrival of the wedding invitation Tony expresses to her his change in values and wish to be able to hold her children. He finds out that the wedding costs over $400000 and is especially touched when Johnny and his daughter dance together, a traditional act at weddings which Johnny has taken to elaborate length with a Master of Ceremonies and professional singers and musicians who include Frankie Valli.
All then episodes graphically show the the injury to Tony from his struggle to survive the shooting, to open wound treatment when there are problems and to the scar which remains and which he shows off as Christopher shows his in the fifth episode.
Two days after the shooting Tony regains consciousness and rips off his breathing tube in panic (I know that feeling now) and he is placed in an induced coma to enable treatment to proceed while his condition remains critical. The family are warned not to expect his survival and Christopher (the chosen one) joins the family in their round the clock watch at the hospital.
The captains, the made men of the family and associates from neighbouring families attend the hospital to pay their respects. A levy is raised to ensure that Carmela and her family are able to function in the expectation of the death of Tony. There are loyal to Tony and at the funeral of an associate they ban all contact with Uncle Junior and decide to make Tony the official boss of the DIMeo Crime Family instead of Junior. This means they will do nothing to help him now that he is back in the hands of the Feds.
The greater part of Join the Club episode is concerned with Tony’s dream like experience during the coma. He wakes in a hotel room in California as a mild mannered salesman without his Jersey accent. He goes to attend a convention and on being asked for his ID he realises he has the particulars of one Kevin Finnerty from Arizona and where the photo shows similarity to his self. He believes there has been am unintentional switch in papers. He gets into dicussion with the bartender at the hotel and asks what the place is like and is told, “Around here the place is dead.
He joins a number of other convention visitors for the evening meal. In the bar there is a TV with an advert stating “Are sin, disease and death real?” He makes a pass at one fo the female members of the group who points out he has just had aloving telephone conversation with his wife( not Carmela) The Room is lit up by the lights of a police helicopter coinciding with Tony taking off the breathing masks while saying “Who am I? Where am I going?” Something he had said to the dinner group.
On returning to the coma, we see Tony arriving at another hotel continuing to use the charge card of Kevin Finnerty who he is now trying to find. He is overheard by two Buddhist monks who approach him excitedly to claim that the heating system he sold them had failed to function over the winter and they had been unable to get repairs. He explains he is not Kevin Finnerty.
He then has a fall in the hotel requiring hospital treatment for concussion and the CT scan reveals that he is likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Tony says that he is lost. He receives a debt summons on behalf of the Monks and he begins to question that he is really Finnerty approaching the bartender and the Monks for reassurance which he does not receive.
In the briefcase with him he finds the invitation to a reunion of the Finnerty family at his home and decides to settle his questioning by attending. He finds a large well lit house and is met outside by someone resembling one his crime crew who says everyone is here and waiting for you. He sees someone similar to his mother at the door. The man says that before entering the house he must give up the briefcase but Tony clings to it saying that all his life is contained within. He then sees a little girl coming towards him pleasing not to go while in the hospital Meadow is calling to him. He wakes from the coma and asks “Am I dead?”
However this is only the beginning of Tony’s recovery and he remains with the open wound until it is ready to be sealed. Tony makes friends with a Rapper who who has also been shot and who acknowledges Tony at the the original G( gangster) and they watch a prize fight in the hospital and they are joined by Paulie who comments how alone they are while another patient, a scientist comments on the interconnectivity of life arguing that no single event can be explained without understanding the links to everything else. This accords with my own philosophy as opposed to see everything as random and chaotic. Tony confides that he believes that we are part of something bigger than our individual lives. When Tony leaves the hospital he comments that from now on every day is a gift. Tony hires a body guard,a young man who has a toned strong body. When there is concern as to whether Tony is up to his job after what has happened, he beats up the bodyguard without pretext to demonstrate his position after being unintentionally spurred on to do so during a visit to Dr Melfi who tries to get him to talk about post traumatic stress. Tony is violently sick afterwards alone in the toilet having found the demonstration of his authority emotionally as well as physically challenging. The wisdom of his actions is underlined however after what happens at rhe wedding of the daughter of Johnny Sacks, full name John Sacrimoni.
It will be remembered that Johnny was arrested when Tony went to make peace and later discovers that a member of the New York family had betrayed the leadership. It was also be remembered that the extra large wife of Johnny has been the cause of jokes and problems between the two crime families. One of his daughters is on her way to being the same size as her mother while the other appears as thin as the proverbial rake and dislike any talk of food.
Johnny is allowed out of jail for the wedding on the basis that he is accompanied by two marshals, does not drink alcohol and his whole absence is no less than six hours which he assume is the time allowed at the wedding. As mentioned it is an elaborate affair with many brides maids and young men of honour, an elaborately decorated home with a mulititude of guest, fine wines and food and professional entertainers. It is also an occasion when Johnny persuades Tony to arrange a killing for him, Tony having previously rejected the request for help.
When the marshals order Johnny to leave sooner than he anticipated and is taken off before his daughter is able to leave on her honeymoon and he breaks down in tears at the humiliation and this leads to adverse comments about the show of weakness and spurs Tony into re-establishing his authority.
Christopher is not the only member of the crew who has started to question some of Tony’s decisions, especially agreeing to making the hit for Sachs. He also disapproved of the idea of having the hit man come from Italy and return after the job is done.
Before being shot Tony is approached by one of his crew Eugene Pontecorvo who had pressure from his wife wants “early retirement” to Florida having inherited two million dollars from an aunt. Tony is resentful and despite Eugene voluntarily giving Tony a share of his good fortune says he will give the request consideration. Tony reminds that as a Made Man he took an oath of allegiance and participation which cannot be changed. In order to help Tony make up his mind in his favour Eugene agrees to make a hit on a man who is in debt to Christopher but is then informed that Tony has turned down his request. At this point we also learn that Eugene has also been forced to cooperate with the Feds who put him under greater pressure when their best informant dies from a stoke. Eugene’s wife is desperate to leave having found that their son has become a drug addict. Depressed by the corner in which he finds himself Eugene takes his own life.
There are also problems between Tony and the New York family with Johnny in prison. There are disputes over territory over the “cut” from a building site project. There is a sit down meeting to resolve the problems between representatives of the two families.
Christopher following the killing of his girl friend after her admission she had become an informer for the Feds, has become unsettled. He asks Tony for support on a film project which combines horror and gangsterism but his attempt to gain funding from the crime families ends in farce.
There is also farcical moments when another crew member suggests to the Rapper friend visiting the colleague shot in hospital that the shooting has done no end of good to the career and offers to arrange shooting in The Fleshy Part of the Thigh but when the man does no come up with the full fee requested he is shot in the buttocks.
There is also a shock for Pauli Gualtiers who likes to have a streak of white in his overall dyed black hair. When he visits his dying aunt, a nun, she announces that she is in fact his mother who did not want to shame her family and therefore her married sister had brought him up. Pauli is so shocked at the news that he disowns the woman who brought him up.
When a son sells his father’s Sanitation business without consulting Tony who receevd a consultancy fee and when the son is advised not to proceed he discovers he is too far committed to back out. The problem is that the firm is being bought by associates of Johnny Sacks and Tony agrees to allow the sale to go through after reaching an accommodation with Sachs.
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