Day 248

Genius or Weak?: I've gotta start with the Sopranos finale. There had been a ton of speculation about how the show's eight season run would end. My prediction was way off - either Meadow or A.J. would get clipped right in front of Tony and he'd end up in jail. So you have all heard by now, the show came to an end with an edge of your seat scene with Tony waiting for his family at a diner and they come in one by one. Just as Meadow enters, the screen goes black. At the time it left me very hollow. I thought it was so weak at the time. It left us feeling hollow, but this is the genius of David Chase. He says screw the Hollywood ending and he will end the show how he wants. He left everyone talking too. With the screen going to black, what does that mean? Was it foreshadowing in the first episode when Tony and Bobby were fishing and Bobby asked Tony how he thought it all ended. Tony's answer? "It all goes to black." The last scene was powerful, yet unsatisfying. I was so nervous every time someone else entered the diner. You were just waiting for someone to walk though that door and pop Tony right in front of his family. And what was it with Meadow and her parallel parking? The more I am removed from it, the more I liked it. I watched the last 10-15 minutes again last night, it gave me more of an appreciation for the way Chase did things. He laid low during the last few months, but gave one interview Monday. Click here to read it. A major negative for me was the song playing during that last scene. "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. Those close to me know there is nothing I hate more than the sound of Steve Perry's voice. Its like fingernails across a chalkboard. And of all the Journey songs, that one rates as my most hated. Regardless, it is the end of an era for one of the greatest TV shows of all time. To me, in the Pantheon of classic shows, you have a Mount Rushmore of Dallas, Seinfeld, and The Sopranos. Then from a character standpoint, you have J.R. Ewing, Tony Soprano, and Archie Bunker as the three most infamous. All three were loathe-able and lovable at the same time. The thing about Tony Soprano is that he was a murderer, addicted gambler, cheated on his wife at will, and yet we all rooted for him. That is what you call brilliant writing. We are all used to life without the show, because they would always take crazy long hiatus' in between seasons, but it will definitely be missed. We now move on to "Big Love" on HBO which started last night.

Mark P in the House: Mark P had been trying to pick out a weekend to come here and visit and he ended up choosing this past weekend. I wanted to have him com e in when the Tribe was in town, but that didn't end up working out. We had an interesting travel experience. I was in Chicago Thursday and Friday for Gregg's 30th b-day surprise party (I'll get into that later) and P and I were going to fly back together on the 4:05 flight. I picked up P at his pad and he met me with the news that our flight was already delayed until 5:30. When we got to the airport, it was now delayed until 6:00 PM. There was an FAA problem on the East Coast that caused a ton of delays and our flight was originating in Baltimore. Another 40 minutes go by, and now our flight is delayed until 6:30. So I call Southwest and they say there are seats available on the 5:50 and it is on time, but we had to pay $54 each to get on. We decided for 40 minutes, we'd just stick on our flight. Another half hour goes by, and now our flight is delayed until 7:30. So we made the call again and got on the 5:50, which was still on time. We board our flight and were ready to go and the flight attendant announces that we will have to sit for a few extra minutes because our pilot was pulled off the flight as he was needed on another flight. We had to wait for another one. Finally we take off. We landed at 8:10. Two hours later than we were supposed to. The good news is that we were on this flight. Our original flight didn't land in Cleveland until after 11.

Because of the flight situation, we had to get Geraci's picked up instead of eating it there (where it is better). We polished off a couple bottles of wine, chilled for a little and called it a night. We wanted to give P a real taste of suburbia, so Saturday we went up to Legacy Village and walked around and had some lunch. The weather could not have been better all weekend. Then P and I walked up to the Tennis Courts in our neighborhood for the big battle. The throw-down in c-town. Mano-e-Mano. On the court next to us was a kid who was probably 12 years old. He couldn't have beaten us both 6-0, 6-0. He had the full tennis regalia on, his ground strokes were immaculate and he had a pretty killer serve. As P put it, I saw glimpses of my youth while watching him, so when we were playing, I was trying to kill everything, the way I did when I was younger. Believe it or not, I was once a pretty good player. Mom buried me Sunday morning when discussing my athletic prowess. She said I had enough skills to be good, but I never put forth the energy and effort to be great. So good enough, was good enough to win. I took offense to that, but there is definitely some truth in her rationale. But I digress. P and I battled on this sunny afternoon in Orangewood. We must have had deuce in every game. I was trying for winners, as I was prone to do as a kid, and it just wasn't working. P held a 5-4 lead. I served to tie it at 5. I broke P to take a 6-5 lead - his first serve (when it went in) was wicked. The problem for P was it went in only 10% of the time. I served out for the 7-5 win. I couldn't have played another game as I was real winded. We would re-match on Sunday morning. P broke me to go up 1-0. We had two epic games back to back where there were 5 deuces in each. I took both games followed by two more to go up 4-1 and eventually won 6-2. It definitely beats beating my 60 year old mom. The bottom line was it was a ton of fun, I forgot how much I love playing competitive sports, and we got a ton of color being in the sun.

Saturday night we went to Sushi Rock with the Bilsky's. Jeremy and P were fraternity brother at Indiana and hadn't seen each other in 6 years. Good food. Good drink. Good company. After dinner, P, Dave (in town for his grandmother's stone setting) and I went to Bar Louie for some drinks. All I can say is thank goodness I'm not single living here. Its a strange scene. Bar Louie was an eclectic group to say the least. I ran into randoms as usual (Robyn Sulzer, Kerry Danzinger, Nick Warner, the orignal Fritzer - Brian Friedman), and then you had your drunken 40/50 somethings in there as well. It was pretty funny. I think overall P had a solid time in C-Town. he got in some sun, some Andrew time, and we got to chill. It was great to see him. Made me realize how different my life is now and how much I miss my friends back in the city. As Leah put it, "I feel like we never left him."

A Grundell Surprise: As I stated earlier, I was in town Thursday night for Gregg's 30th b-day surprise party. A couple of months ago, Gregg's wife Rebecca sent out an invitation to me and said that she knows Gregg would love it if I was there. With the way my schedule works for work, I knew I could make it happen. I flew in around 4 and went to Ags' pad where I stayed. There was 19 people at Scylla Restaurant in Bucktown. We got there at 7:30. Gregg was going to show up at 7:45. As he walked in the door, he was stunned by the surprise. I stood towards the back. As he made his way hugging everyone, he saw me and gave this shocked look. He bypassed everyone else and gave me this huge bear hug and picked me up. It was all worth it right there. We drank a lot of wine and Dave, Taich, and I ended up going out and getting pretty banged up. All I know if I buried a bad burrito from Flash Taco at 2 AM. I loved being back in the city like that. There is such a great vibe in the city during the summer. I still say there is no better place to be in the summer than Chicago.

Cavs vs. Gregg, Cavs vs. Sopranos: I had quite the dilemma on my hands - it was game one of the NBA Finals and the party started at the same time. This was a very small restaurant and they didn't even have a TV. Dave and I were screwed and we knew it. The good news was the Cavs ended up playing like garbage and I didn't have to see one second of it. I figured we'd be done by halftime, but the party ran real long and the Cavs were out of it pretty much by mid-third quarter. Everyone told me "be thankful you didn't watch." Sunday night was game two. The tip time was 9 PM, same as The Sopranos. You know there was no way I couldn't watch Sopranos Sunday night because I couldn't have avoided finding out what happened. So i made the executive decision - I'd watch The Sopranos live, then start the Cavs game on Tivo when the show was over. I'd most likely be caught up by the third quarter. So I was halfway through the second quarter when Leah said "you should fast forward now, they are down 25 at the half." She was right. So I fast forwarded. Bottom line on the series - the Spurs are the better team. No two ways about it. Tonight should be electrifying in Cleveland. Game three. Everyone is excited. I will be watching from home. I think the Cavs win tonight and that is it. They had to steal one of the games in San Antonio and they were blown out in both. No big deal.

MD and Joe Tait: See the photo above. MD with his mentor and career idol, Joe Tait, play by play man for the Cavs.

Later Biatch: You know I had to weigh in on Paris Hilton. Is there anything funnier than this Paris Hilton jail saga? She's in, she's out, she has a "medical condition," she's very sad in jail and won't eat because she's so miserable. Did she think jail was going to be fun? Now she calls Barbara Walters and says she "acted dumb" all of these years and it is not funny anymore because so many young girls look up to her as a role model. She is so depressed and has a medical condition, yet is good enough to pick up the phone and call Barbara Walters? Classic. My personal favorite is that she has now "become more spiritual" and has "found God" in jail. What a joke! I still cannot believe the amount of press this story has gotten. She is famous for being famous. She's a dirty, disgusting, annoying whore and I hope she rots in there.

Song of the Day: "Behind Bars - Remix" by Slick Rick and Warren G