"Luxury Lounge"

 

In the Sopranos episode titled "Luxury Lounge," in Season 6, Christopher goes to Los Angeles with Little Carmine to try to make a movie deal.

To say that Christopher gets distracted from his  main purpose would be an understatement.  Partying, and free luxury goods kind of lead him astray from his goal, and pretty soon the trip is over, with no deal made.

Lauren Bacall, iconic actress from Hollywood's Golden Age, is a guest in this episode, as is Ben Kingsley.  Bacall would have been about 80 years old at the time this was filmed.

        Little Carmine and Christopher meet informally with Ben Kingsley and "pitch" him a movie idea for him to start in.  Kingsley says, "As ever, it would be script-dependent."

        He has an appointment, so they walk with him, continuing their pitch, and the destination is the Luxury Lounge, where there is all this "swag" - expensive items being offered for free, to the stars.

Christopher starts getting really envious, as it dawns on him that all these expensive, prestigious things are being given free to movie stars who can well afford to buy it if they want it.

        The "unfairness" and irony of this situation just starts driving Christopher a bit crazy - partly because he is so in love with the luxury items - watches, sunglasses, weird underwear...  it just kills him that rich people are getting it for free.

He is driven to intimidate Ben Kingsley in an elevator, and to actually "mug" Lauren Bacall as she is carrying her big gift basket outside after dark.

        (Surely they had a stunt double for that scene....)

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Classic films with Lauren Bacall, which you might want to catch:

Key Largo

To Have And Have Not

The Big Sleep

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later

         Googling information about alligators and crocodiles, I learned that besides living mostly in water, they both can come out of the water and travel around, on land.

They "motorate" two ways:  they can crawl, and also stand up on four legs and walk, or run.

I guess I thought about it because I remembered a guy at my work, several years ago, told me he was leaving and moving back to Florida, where he was from.

Some time later, he showed up at work again, I asked him about returning to the Midwest from Florida, and he said he was working there in landscaping, and one day he turned around, and there was one of these things, walking on land, coming toward him.

        I can't remember, now, if he said it was an alligator or a crocodile - it was one of the two.

        He said that's when he decided to move back here and work with us, again.

Reading up, I learned that as a rule, anyplace you find alligators, there will be no crocodiles, & anyplace where there are crocodiles, there won't be any alligators.

With one exception.

Florida.

Florida has both.

Reading Viewer Comments, some Floridians wrote in and said a lot of people who live there think there are no crocodiles or alligators except in zoos or animal parks, where they are imported, but it isn't so - both alligators and crocodiles live in the wild, in Florida.

        A video on You Tube shows an alligator climbing over a fence - after a strenuous struggle, he gets over, lands on pavement face-first, gets up and walks away. ...

        Another video, probably filmed with a phone, showed a crocodile and alligator sort of - fighting - circling one another, and taking menacing stances... one Comment said, "They are quarreling about whether it's later, or after a while.

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"whodunnits"

 

I listen to mystery stories sometimes - even many years ago when I was in elementary school I got interested in mysteries.

We used to get a sort of paperback catalog of books we could buy, I think it was from Weekly Reader.  My mom would let me buy a book or two, sometimes.  One of the first ones I got was Adventure At Black Rock Cave, by Patricia Lauber.

        I loved AABRC.

I read almost all of the Nancy Drew books that existed at that time.

I read Sherlock Holmes stories, which I received - a huge, thick book - one Christmas, under the tree....

Murder, She Wrote and other TV shows and movies - and "true crime" shows, about a million of them, on You Tube.

These stories seem to draw your mind in close to them, and you notice things, and start to speculate, in a casual way.

It's exercise - kind of like fast-walking for your mind.

    

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"you'd think I was Hannibal Lecture or something"

 

On the last post here, I typed in the title, "Law & Order, the SUV" - of course the correct name of the TV show is "Law & Order, SVU" (special victims unit).  

        What I typed referred to a moment in The Sopranos where Christopher and, I think, one of his New Jersey associates are in Hollywood, trying to get Christopher's career as a screenwriter started.

        I believe it was the other character who says, "I'm a big fan of your show, Law and Order the SUV!"

Eehhhh - funny.

An hilarious element of The Sopranos is the periodical inclusion of a moment like this, where they kind of know what they are talking about, but they misspeak.  It adds texture to the atmosphere of the show:  like, this is who these people are.

        They know some stuff, but they don't know other stuff.

"He's the hair apparent."

The term is heir apparent, and heir is pronounced "air." - it's the person who is going to inherit.

Christopher says "hair", pronouncing the "h," like the hair on your head. ...

In a way, it's off-putting, and in another way, it draws you in, because you come to know these characters better and better, one little layer at a time.

        (Now, whether these are people you would want to know...that's another question...)

The misnomers and malapropisms of these crass, wily, murderous North Jersey Mafiosi just make me laugh, every time.

"the sacred and the propane"

"Law and Order the SUV"

"you know - Quasimodo predicted all this"

        L-l-l- to the o-l

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"Law And Order, The SUV"

         Sometimes when I am listening to videos on You Tube and reading the Comments under them, I come across a comment where I read it and think, "I agree with this!" and then I see the screen name and realize, 'Oh, that Comment was typed by me, two years ago...'

Usually, I see comments and they have a number of "Likes" under them - like, 49, or 250, or 17, or 2 K.

        Any comments typed in by me mostly have no "Likes," or 3, or 11.

This evening, watching Law and Order clip compilations, I saw a comment written by me two years ago, with 591 Likes clicked on it.

Goodness.  That was unexpected.

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Law & Order is similar to The Sopranos in that the guest stars who show up - Yowie.

Hal Holbrook, and Lauren Bacall on The Sopranos. ...

Jane Alexander (All The President's Men) on Law & Order - (and that's only the tip of the iceberg...)

  

(Lauren Bacall, 60 years before her appearance on The Sopranos)

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Tucson is a weird place

 It's a hundred days since Nancy Guthrie disappeared, in Tucson, Arizona.

The investigation continues.

(The reason this case receives a lot of attention is because the missing woman is the mother of Savannah Guthrie, a television personality on a daytime talk show.)

Notes:

    * An independent journalist named Brian Entin has followed this story, he puts up videos - I see them on You Tube - they get broadcast in various places - for example, it sounds like he did a show on this topic which appeared on CW.

    * The investigation was massively fumbled by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.  Pretty shocking.  Latest news says he committed some kind of perjury.  Citizens are collecting signatures on petitions to recall him.

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                Podcasts on You Tube discuss the Nancy Guthrie case on an ongoing basis - they have these guests - retired detectives, retired policemen, retired FBI agents, local experts, etc.

        Listening to one from four days ago on the channel Surviving The Survivor, I heard a commentator finish off his thought / description with the sentence, "Tucson is a weird place."

Okay . ...

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that ol' black magic

 

The movie Green Book, currently available to stream on Netflix, is based on a true story.

        The movie opens outside the Copacabana nightclub in New York City - cars pulling up, people hurrying across the street to go in.

        Inside, an orchestra plays and an actor portraying Bobby Rydell sings an upbeat rendition of a song called "That Old Black Magic," which was a hit for Frank Sinatra. 

 

(Written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, in 1942, "That Old Black Magic" has been recorded by other artists, including Bob Dylan.)

        ([Harold Arlen also wrote the songs for The Wizard Of Oz, along with lyricist Yip Harburg.])

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On You Tube, there are two different videos with the Green Book version of "That Old Black Magic."

Green Book Movie Clip - Opening Scene (2019)

uploader / channel:  Fandango at Home

        8 minutes, 41 seconds

        you hear part of the song, then some scenes with people talking, then back to the song - then going forward into the movie with scenes after the nightclub part

 Green Book Soundtrack - "Old Black Magic" - Green Book Copacabana Orchestra

uploader / channel:  Milan Records USA

        2 minutes, 13 seconds

        you just hear the song, straight through

    

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