paullev’s blog

reviews of Heroes, Seasons 2 and 3 .... review of 3.11 - The Lore of the Comic Book Store ... with links to reviews of other episodes...

Starting with Albert Brook's great performance as Judah's father, and moving on to Nancy & Esteban, I'm thinking this may be the best season Weeds so far...

GV Cover 3 copy

Phil D'Amato's back ... grappling with his nemesis time travel ... in a struggle for the future of the world ... with old and new friends and enemies ...

The Sopranos: A Wake
Fordham University, New York
Lincoln Center Campus– Lowenstein Hall
60th Street and Columbus Avenue

May 22nd-25th, 2008

Conveners:

Paul Levinson and Al Auster (Fordham University)
David Lavery (Brunel University, London)
Douglas Howard (Suffolk Community College)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ...MEDIA WELCOME
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The Sopranos: A Wake
Program at a Glance

All events at Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Lowenstein Hall, at 60th Street and Columbus Avenue

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

7:00 pm: Opening Session [Lincoln Center 816]
Housekeeping (Doug Howard)
Welcome (Paul Levinson, Fordham University)
Opening Panel (Gary Edgerton, David Lavery)

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Friday, May 23rd, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track A: 9:00am-10:00am
Session 1—Featured Speaker: Franco Ricci [LL 310]
Session 2—Featured Speakers: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe [LL 311]

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track B: 10:30am-12:15pm
Session 3—Film Form and Filmmaking [LL 305]
Session 4—Therapy [LL 307]
Session 5— Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question [LL 310]
Session 6—Women and Gender I [LL 311]

12:15pm-1:45pm - Lunch Break

Track C: 1:45pm-3:30pm
Session 7—Dreams [LL 305]
Session 8—Journalism, Poetry, and Silence in The Sopranos [LL 307]
Session 9— Family, Society, and the American Way [LL 310]

3:30pm-4:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]

Track D: 4:30pm-6:00pm
Session 10— Images of Justice and The Sopranos [Pope Auditorium]

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Saturday, May 24th, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track E: 9:00am-10:00am
Session 11—Featured Speaker: Robin Nelson [LL 310]
Session 12—Featured Speaker: Martha Nochimson [LL 311]

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track F: 10:30am-12:15pm
Session 13—Creating Narratives [LL 305]
Session 14—Intertextuality I [LL 307]
Session 15—Food and the Body [LL 310]
Session 16—Women and Gender II [LL 311]

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

Track G: 1:45pm-3:30pm
Session 17—Intertexuality II [LL 305]
Session 18—Whiteness and Cultural Privilege [LL 307]
Session 19—Masculinity and Gender [LL 310]
Session 20—Role-Playing and Negotiating [LL 311]

3:30pm-4:00pm: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

Track H: 4:00pm-5:00pm
Session 21—Featured Speaker: Jason Jacobs [LL 305]
Session 22—Featured Speaker: George De Stefano [LL 307]
Session 23—Featured Speaker: Jimmie Reeves [LL 311]

5:00pm-5:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]

Conclusion: 5:30pm-7:00pm
Session 24—Fade to Black: The Finale and The Sopranos Legacy [Pope Auditorium]
Featured Speakers: Maurice Yacowar, Doug Howard, Paul Levinson
Chair: David Bianculli

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Sunday May 25th, 2008
10:00 AM: Sopranos Bus Tour (meet at Fordham)

===============================================================

Detailed Program

The Sopranos: A Wake: Sessions
Fordham University, New York (May 22-25, 2008)

All events at Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Lowenstein Hall
60th Street and Columbus Avenue

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

7:00pm: Opening Session [Lincoln Center 816]
Housekeeping: Doug Howard (Suffolk Community College)
Welcome: Paul Levinson (Fordham University)
Featured Speakers:
Gary Edgerton (Old Dominion U), “The Sopranos as Tipping Point in the Second Coming of HBO”
David Lavery (Brunel University), “Made Men to Mad Men: What Matthew Weiner Learned from David Chase”

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Friday, May 24, 2008
8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

9:00am-10:00am Track A
Session 1 [LL 310]—Featured Speaker: Franco Ricci (U of Ottawa), “Word Play, Power Struggle: The use of written text in The Sopranos”
Session 2 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan U), “’Blabbermouth Cunts’: The Sopranos and the Feminist Dilemma

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

10:30am-12:15pm: Track B
Session 3 [LL 305]—Film Form and Filmmaking
Chair: Cameron Golden
Jody Malcolm (U West Florida), “The Final Analysis: Epiphany and the Possibility for Redemption in The Sopranos and “A Good Man is Hard to Find””
Cameron Golden (Independent Scholar), The Producers: The Dangers of Filmmaking in The Sopranos”
William Siska (U of Utah), “The Sopranos as Art Cinema”

Session 4 [LL 307]—Therapy
Chair: David Pattie
Matthew Leporati (Fordham U), “’Sometimes what happens in here is like taking a shit’: Confession and Identity in ‘The Test Dream’”
Bruce Plourde (Rowan U), “Tony and Dora: Mastering the Art of Counter-Transferrance”
David Pattie (U Chester), ““Whatever happened to stop & smell the roses?”: The Sopranos as Anti-Therapeutic Narrative”

Session 5 [LL 310]—Ethnic Identities and the Italian Question
Chair: Frank Tomasulo
Jonathan J. Cavallero (Penn State U), “Honoring Our Ancestors: Using The Sopranos to Mobilize Italian/American Ehtnic Identity”
Laura Cook Kenna (George Washington U), “’I can’t turn the other cheek on this . . . My father was a Knight of Columbus’: ‘Christopher’ and the Contested Construction of Italian American Identity”
Frank Tomasulo (Florida State U), “The Gangster as Guinea Hero: The Complex Representation of Italian Americans in David Chase’s The Sopranos”

Session 6 [LL 311]—Women and Gender I
Chair: Joseph Walker
Andrée Betancourt (Louisiana State U), “The Rise and Shine of Claire Fisher and Meadow Soprano: Good Mourning Daughters”
Marisa Carroll (Independent Scholar), “’When it comes to daughters, all bets are off”: Meadow Soprano and the Question of Familial Determinism in The Sopranos”
Joseph Walker (Independent Scholar), “’What’s Different Between You and Me’: Carmela, the Audience, and the End”

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

1:45pm-3:30pm: Track C
Session 7 [LL 305]—Dreams
Chair: Cynthia Burkhead
Terry Carney (Butler U), “From Mafioso to Kevin Finnerty: The American Way”
Sven Weber (Independent Scholar), “The Sopranos: Asleep—The Dream Sequences and Their Reflection on Television Structure and Complexity”
Cynthia Burkhead (U North Alabama), “Fishes and Football Coaches, Oh My! The Narrative Necessity of Dreams in The Sopranos”

Session 8[LL 307]—Journalism Poetry, and Silence in The Sopranos
Chair: Steven Peacock
Bastiaan Vanacker (Loyola U, Chicago), “Journalism in The Sopranos: Don’t Shoot the Messenger”
Rebecca Bobbitt (Middle Tennessee State U), “Slouching Toward Jersey: The Sopranos and Yeats”
Steven Peacock (U of Hertfordshire), “Silence in The Sopranos”

Session 9 [LL 310]—Family, Society, and the American Way
Chair: Al Auster
Julius S. Fackler (U Kansas), “The Sopranos, the Family, and the Postwar Imagined Community”
Dianna Lipp Rivers (Lamar U), “Hospital Scenes, Nursing, and Healthcare in The Sopranos”

3:30pm-4:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]—Akass, Bianculli, Creeber, De Stefano, Edgerton, Jacobs, Lavery, Levinson, McCabe, Nelson, Nochimson, Peacock, Yacowar

4:30pm-6:00pm: Track D
Session 10 [Pope Auditorium]—Images of Justice and The Sopranos
Chair: Barbara Villez (U of Paris 8)
Antonio Ingroia (Prosecutor Palermo, Italy)
Fabio Licata (Prosecutor Palermo, Italy)
James Keneally (Criminal Lawyer, New York)

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Saturday, May 24th, 2008

8:00am-9:00am: Registration, Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

9:00am-10:00am: Track E
Session 11 [LL 310]—Featured Speaker: Robin Nelson, Manchester Metropolitan U) “Author(iz)ing Chase: Questions of Worth in Valorizing The Sopranos”
Session 12 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Martha Nochimson (Cineaste), “The Sopranos, Relatively Speaking”

10:00am-10:30am: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

10:30am-12:15pm: Track F
Session 13 [LL 305]—Creating Narratives in The Sopranos
Chair: Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Piluso (California State U Fullerton), “'Funny about God, and fate, and shit like that': The Imminent Unexpected in David Chase’s The Sopranos”
Ilaria Bisteghi (U of Bologna), “The New Serial Television: The Sopranos and The Relay Race-Like Text Structure”
Sean O’Sullivan (Ohio State U), “Episode Five, or When Does a Narrative Become What It Is?”

Session 14 [LL 307]—Intertexuality I
Chair: Al Auster
Lindsay Coleman (U Melbourne), “’Echoes in Eternity’: Gladiator and The Sopranos”
Kenneth T. Rivers (Lamar U), “Carmela in Paris: Culture Shock and Architecture in the “Cold Stones” Episode of The Sopranos
Al Auster (Fordham U), The Sopranos and History

Session 15 [LL 310]—Food and the Body
Chair: James Francis
Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College), “A Family That Eats Together, Kills Together: Food as Metaphor in The Sopranos”
Michael Grynbaum (Harvard U), “Mangia Mafia! Food, Punishment, and Cultural Identity in The Sopranos”
James Francis (Middle Tennessee State University), “Body of Evidence: Tony Soprano’s Corporeal Battle”

Session 16 [LL 311]—Women and Gender II
Chair: Nancy Roche
Elizabeth Mauldin (Oglethorpe U), “Carmela Soprano as Emma Bovary: European Culture, Taste, and Class in The Sopranos”
Lyndsey Lefebvre (California State U Fullerton), “Carmela Soprano: Fighting Our Battle?”
Nancy Roche (Middle Tennessee State University), “The Last Temptation of Melfi”

12:15pm-1:45pm: Lunch Break

1:45pm-3:30pm: Track G
Session 17 [LL 305]—Intertextuality II
Chair: Paul Wright
Paul Wright (Cabrini College), “Half a Wise Guy: Paulie Walnuts, Meet Tom Stoppard”
Carl Wilson (Brunel U), “’Even Brendan Filone’s got an identity and he’s dead’: Christopher Moltisanti and the Reflexive Subjectivity of the Constructed Self”
Glen Creeber (U Wales Aberystwyth), “Comfortably Numb? The Sopranos, New Brutalism and the Last Temptation of Chris”

Session 18[LL 307]—Whiteness and Cultural Privilege
Chair: Christopher Kocela
Renee Curry (California State U, Monterey Bay), ““Bianca isn’t black; she’s pretty tan”: Desire, Repulsion, and Whiteness in The Sopranos”
Andrea Dottolo (Worcester State College), “Wops and WASPS: Using The Sopranos to Teach about Race and Racism”
Christopher Kocela (Georgia State U), "'All Caucasians Look Alike': Dreams of Whiteness at the End of The Sopranos"

Session 19 [LL 310]—Masculinity and Gender
Chair: Paola Ferrario
Paul Lumsden (Grant MacEwan College), “Tony and the Bear”
Melinda Di Condio and David Thierring (Independent Scholars), “Christopher’s Arc: The Existential Search of the Generation Y Gangster”
Paola Ferrario (Smith College), Maltornato: The Bitter Homecoming of Tony Soprano

Session 20 [LL 311]—Role-Playing and Negotiating
Chair: Sharon Sutherland
Frieda Pattenden (University of Munich), “Role-play Reading The Sopranos: “You are all white professional males between 25 and 45”
Sharon Sutherland (U of British Columbia Faculty of Law) and Sarah Swan (Independent Scholar), “’It’s not a negotiation’: Getting to Yes with Tony Soprano”

3:30pm-4:00pm: Coffee [Pope Auditorium]

4:00pm-5:00pm: Track H
Session 21 [LL 305]—Featured Speaker: Jason Jacobs (U Queensland), “Christopher, Osama and AJ: Contemporary Narcissism and Terrorism in The Sopranos”
Session 22 [LL 307]—Featured Speaker: George De Stefano (Independent Scholar), “A ‘Finook’ in the Crew: Vito Spatafore, The Sopranos, and the Queering of the Mob Genre”
Session 23 [LL 311]—Featured Speaker: Jimmie Reeves (Texas Tech U), “Tony Soprano as Feral Father: Patriarchy in the Age of Hybridity”

5:00pm-5:30pm: Coffee, Book Signing [Pope Auditorium]—Akass, Bianculli, Creeber, De Stefano, Edgerton, Jacobs, Lavery, Levinson, McCabe, Nelson, Nochimson, Peacock, Yacowar

5:30pm-7:00pm: Conclusion
Session 24 [Pope Auditorium]—Fade to Black: The Finale and The Sopranos Legacy
Chair: David Bianculli (tvworthwatching.com)
Featured Speakers: Maurice Yacowar (U Calgary), “Unpredictable but Inevitable: That Last Shot”
Douglas Howard (Suffolk County Community College), “No Justice for All: The FBI, Cut to Black, and David Chase’s Final Hit”
Paul Levinson (Fordham U), “The Sopranos and the Closure Junkies”

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Sunday, May 25th, 2008

10:00am: Sopranos Bus Tour (meeting point: Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus)

===============================================================

Presenters by Session

Akass, Kim—2, signings
Auster, Al—14
Betancourt, Andrée E. C.—6
Bianculli , David—24, signings
Bisteghi, Ilaria—13
Bobbitt, Rebecca—8
Burkhead, Cynthia—7
Carney, Terry—7
Carroll, Marisa—6
Cavallero, Jonathan J.—5
Coleman, Lindsay—14
Creeber, Glen—7, signings
Curry, Renee—18
De Stefano, George—22, signings
DiCondio, Melinda—19
Dottolo, Andrea—18
Edgerton, Gary—Thursday Evening Session, signings
Fackler, Julius S.—9
Ferrario, Paola—19
Francis, Jr., James—15
Golden, Cameron—3
Grynbaum, Michael—15
Howard, Douglas—24
Ingroia, Antonio—10
Jacobs, Jason—21, signings
Kenna, Laura Cook—5
Kenneally, James—10
Kocela, Christopher—18
Lavery, David—Thursday Evening Session, signings
LeBesco, Kathleen—15
Lefebvre, Lyndsey—16
Leporati, Matthew—4
Levinson, Paul—24, signings
Licata, Fabio—10
Lumsden, Paul—19
Malcolm, Jody—3
Mauldin, Elizabeth—16
McCabe, Janet—2, signings
Naccarato, Peter—15
Nelson, Robin—11, signings
Nochimson, Martha P.—12, signings
O'Sullivan, Sean—13
Pattenden, Frieda—20
Pattie, David—4
Peacock, Steven—8, signings
Piluso, Robert—13
Plourde, Bruce—4
Reeves, Jimmie—23
Ricci, Franco—1
Rivers, Dianna Lipp—9
Rivers, Kenneth T.—14
Roche, Nancy—16
Siska, William—3
Sutherland, Sharon—20
Swan, Sarah—20
Thiering, David—19
Tomasulo, Frank—5
Vanacker, Bastiaan—8
Villez, Barbara—10
Walker, Joseph—6
Weber, Sven—7
Wilson, Carl—17
Wright, Paul—17
Yacowar, Maurice—24, signings

Useful links:

The Sopranos' End and the Closure-Junkies

The Sopranos and Hamlet

The Sopranos, or the Tiger?

The Sopranos Ninth of Nine Finale: The Anti-Ending Ending

The Sopranos as a Nuts-and-Bolts Triumph of Non-Network TV

and Sopranos podcasts....

the conference widely anticipated in the press

Andrew Sullivan's blog ... New York Magazine blog ... Sports Illustrated blog ... CollegeOTR ... widely quoted article in the New York Post, in which I compare The Sopranos to Shakespeare and the Beatles ...

In honor of AMC's Mad Men, which just won the Golden Globe for Best TV drama (along with Jon Hamm for best male dramatic performance as Don Draper in Mad Men), I'm putting up this one-minute clip from Mark Molaro's recent interview with me on The Alcove, in which I talk about the time that Mad Men's Harry Crane (aka Rich Sommer) posted a comment on my InfiniteRegress.tv about a review of Mad Men I had just posted...

And here's a link to that very post ...

the complete first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates ... in irresistibly easy to read text .... FREE! ... enjoy...

here are some reviews...

"...challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"...a fun book to read" - Dallas Morning News

"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" - Brian Charles Clark, Curled Up With A Good Book at curledup.com

"a journey through time that'll make you think as it thrills ... so accessible, even those generally put off by sci-fi should enjoy the trip." - Rod Lott, bookgasm.com

"Levinson spins a fascinating tale ... An intriguing premise with believable characters and attention to period detail make this an outstanding choice... Highly recommended." - Library Journal, *starred review

"Light, engaging time-travel yarn . . . neatly satisfies the circularity inherent in time travel, whose paradoxes Levinson links to Greek philosophy." - Publishers Weekly

"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there." - SF Signal

"This is a dazzling performance. . . .History as science fiction; science fiction as history." - Barry N. Malzberg

"... quick-to-read, entertaining treatment of the problems inherent in time travel with style and flair" - Booklist

"There's a delightfully old-fashioned feel to The Plot to Save Socrates. . . . Levinson's cool, spare style reminded me of the writing of Isaac Asimov. . ." - Colin Harvey, Strange Horizons

"Paul Levinson's new novel is both very different from anything he has done before and very satisfying. . . . This, I think, is the first of Levinson's novels to deserve to be called a tour de force. Watch for it on award ballots." - Tom Easton, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact

"it's exciting to see a book as daring with both its ideas and its approach to narrative structure as this one hit the shelves . . . It's an absolute treat to sit back and be wrapped up in a story that gives a retro SF premise like time travel such a brilliant new kick, and it's doubly delightful to find the story as fun and entertaining as it is thought-provoking." - SF Reviews.net

"proves that excellent entertainment can and ought to be intellectually respectable -- a glorious example to us all." - Brian Stableford

"...readers are sure to enjoy his take on the paradoxes of time travel" - BookPage

"Intricately and intriguingly woven, lots of fun, and extremely thought provoking." - Stanley Schmidt

"Paul Levinson has outdone himself: The Plot to Save Socrates is a philosophically rich gem full of big ideas and wonderful time-travel tricks." - Robert J. Sawyer

"as happens with Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim . . . . the reader soon becomes unstuck in time . . . . Levinson presents one of the most unique books I've ever encountered. A highly recommended read." - Matt St. Amand

"Paul Levinson brings both intellectual heft and affection for his delightfully depicted characters to this highly original story of time travel . . . bringing all of its threads together in an ending that is emotionally satisfying and extremely moving. The Plot to Save Socrates will provoke thought long after readers have finished the book, at which point many may want to pick it up and read it again, to savor its twists and turns." - Pamela Sargent, SFWeekly

"Fast-paced and full of plot twists." - Davis Enterprise (California)

"an elaborately-reasoned temporal tale - a novelized thought experiment whose logic and ideas Socrates would have approved of" - John Joseph Adams, intergalacticmedicineshow.com

"a philosophically rich, engaging time travel story . . . a charming portrayal of Socrates" - Fantasybookspot.com

"a fun romp through 2500 years of Western history" - freshfiction.com

"I've never read anything like this before . . . The Plot to Save Socrates is highly, original, creative, and engaging. I enjoyed it from the first page." - Book.of.the.moment. at myspace.com/book_of_the_moment.com

"revels in the possibilities for paradoxes . . . . fresh and welcome" - Steven Silver's Reviews at sfsite

"frankly, he [Levinson] is one of my 'read on sight' authors . . . The Plot to Save Socrates is a tapestry of times and characters and philosophies, with an excellent look at history. . . ." - Jerry Wright, Bewildering Stories at bewilderingstories.com

"a very intelligently written novel . . . ." - GF Willmetts, at SFcrowsnest.com

"Paul Levinson handles a complicated plot and a multitude of characters in a manner that can only be described as masterful. . . . I highly recommend this book, and I won't be surprised if it wins several awards." - Scott M. Sandridge, specmusicmuse

"This book was a lot of fun, and surprisingly poignant at the end. (Yes, I'll admit I cried a little.) . . . I was worried this would be a fairly cold sci-fi book, where I never got to like any of the characters, but somehow by halfway through I found I really cared about them. I'm not sure how Levinson managed that . . . but somehow they all just got inside me." - Lady Amalthea, eharlequin.com

". . . a new metaphor for the literary tradition of time travel." - Robert Blechman, blogcritics.org

"Socrates has always seemed a rather dour and dull figure to me but Paul Levinson breathes new life into this time."- Debbie, ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

Hey, I just saw the first episode of the final season of The Wire, and loved it...  My non-spoiler review is here ... and my 4-min podcast review - with me singing a bar from Down in the Hole, and everything - is in this audio...

Wire-5-1

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6
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I'll be reading, live (always better than dead) from the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates - and then answering questions from the audience. Part of Adele Ward's acclaimed Meet the Author series in Second Life.

I've always regretted not being able to do a national or even international reading of my science fiction - and have, up until now, been confined to bookstores. Next Sunday will be my first truly global reading... You'll be hearing my real voice in real time (and seeing my Second Life avatar).

You do need a Second Life account to attend. You can get one, free of charge, at SecondLife.com

If you can't get to Second Life, you can also watch and hear the reading live at http://www.slcn.tv - but I'm not sure if you'll be ask to any questions.

You can "teleport" to site of the event - even before the event - any time, via http://tinyurl.com/2p4qcg - or by clicking the image below.

My Second Life name, by the way, is PaulLevinson Freenote. Make sure you wave at me, or say hello.

The event will start at 2pm Second Life time - which is the same as Pacific time - or 5pm Eastern time on Sunday. Be there - or be, one-dimensional...

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The Plot to Save Socrates

Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!