Tony used everyone--- he had no redeeming human qualities whatsoever and his end (and he was killed) was fitting. Dying either in front of his family or with his family... either way. Soprano I think was way worse of a character than Tommy in Goodfellas.

Only thing that didn't make sense in the story to me was why Gus Fring would risk making himself personally known and connected to the pair of low level street dealers whom Jesse ended up having the beef with? Guys like that in Fring's position would NEVER be dealing with low level management issues--- too risky. You send Tyrus or Victor to handle that stuff. Now Walt and Jesse is a little different as they were knowledgeable about the lab and essential to the operation. Put street dealers get arrested all the time, so you would always want to be double and triple insulated from a potential case of a guy getting busted and making a deal with the police. That was the one part where I think the show creator dropped the ball. Fring was otherwise waaaaaay too cautious for that part to have been in the story.

All I am saying is that HBO wanted the excessive T&A because it sells subscriptions. It wasn't so much about telling the DeCavalcante story at that point--- it was about the "eye candy". The STORY is a good one without the gratuitous sex. I'm not being a prude, some of it is fine. But at some point it was too much.

The Ringer (2002) one of my favorite B movies

Here is an interesting article from the CDC website about the H1N1 virus (Spanish flu pandemic) and the scientific efforts over half a century to find and reconstruct the virus's (RNA) structure in the laboratory to study it. The article details going to Alaska in the '50s and then again in the '90s to unearth flu victims to retrieve lung tissue to compare the current H1N1 strains to what caused the 1918 pandemic. A fascinating read. "The Deadliest Flu: The Complete Story of the Discovery and Reconstruction of the 1918 Pandemic Virus" By Douglas Jordan with contributions from Dr. Terrence Tumpey and Barbara Jester https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html

***thread bump**** interesting topic in light of current events

hot enough to fry bacon on your head today here in SoCal

Yum....

I wonder why "What's Up Doc?" never gets mentioned. One of the funniest car chases in a SF film. Oh, and that poor VW bus!!!! Today a fully restored "21 window" VW bus can go for some righteous bucks man!

Great album cover..... HORRIBLE band...

I like watching old movies seeing what SF used to look like before it was full of yuppies and homeless people. Used to be a nice place... same as Los Angeles used to be nice. LOS ANGELES

Damn it was HOT today. I think it was close to 90 or more.

HB has changed a whole lot over the decades--- even the last two decades. Long gone is small town beach community charm there once was back in the '60s and '70s. HB is actually a pretty big town for a beach city with miles of inland areas which when I was a kid was all farmland. You would drive for miles through the farm areas to get to the beach area. All those farms and/or oil fields are million dollar homes. For my money Seal Beach just north of Huntington is still got that small town feeling--- especially on their main street which terminates at the Seal Beach pier. Lots of small shops and restaurants. You may remember Seal Beach from the Tom Laughlin biker movie "Born Losers". This was the Billy Jack movie (character) which preceded the Billy Jack film.

Japan is currently in a process of encouraging their businesses to bring manufacturing back to Japan from China. SAJ may know more about that trend. Fine with me. Then I won't have to shop for older REAL Nikon lenses on ebay instead of the more hit and miss stuff Nikon had made in China now. Fuck China.