4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 21, 2002 OP/ED cJbe J [irbigmtt3i dI 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE' ((More American young people can tell you where an island that the Survivor TV series came from is located than can identify Afghanistan or Iraq." - John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society, on a new survey in which only 13 percent of 18-24 year olds could find Iraq on a map, as reported yesterday by The Associated Press JENNIFER GREENE JENN'S CORNER [PXN TH5 TAL. ON -1-E MA of j j M~.AAtf~FvMowa ..-. 'Kz L Jai tE1tRt+iR s ti eej.'>0o e II Pitch-perfect 'Sopranos' now tone deaf LUKE SMITH THERE IS NO I IN COLUMN BO's mecha- parison to cinema, because during the first friend hooked up with a politician and now popular "Sopra- two seasons, each episode was a tightly daddy Soprano is crying over a dead horse. nos" is just wrought 45-55 minute movie. Furio does not ever need to be seen crying. dumb enough that most However, it wasn't all good: The show's Furio kills people. It is impossible to believe he everyone enjoys it. 10th episode, "A hit is a hit," was a travesty, could actually be tricked into thinking Carmella Unfortunately for Tony with the introduction of a rapper, Massive is remotely attractive. Along the same lines of and the fam (who you Genius and Adriana's perked interest in the imagination, it is yet another wonderful coinci- know does it better!), the music interest proved to be little more than a dence that of all of the men in the N.J.-area, Iri- last two seasons of the speed bump in the show's overarching plotline. ana happens to fall into Zellman's lap. show have been just Fast forward to the third season, which Christopher managed to kill the dog last plain dumb. At its inception, David Chase put started off brilliantly, picking up perfectly week he was so cooked on smack and with together one of the best debut seasons this where the second left off. The FBI bugging him set to inherit the throne, things aren't side of "Twin Peaks." But David Lynch's Tony's house to the soft bounce of The looking good for Tony et al. But who cares? vehicle was ultimately too smart, too well Police's "Every Breath You Take" merged No one should, because of the metered directed and too intelligent for network tele- with the "Peter Gunn Theme" made this mediocrity of this season. vision and was canned prematurely. episode one of the show's best. Even the once-tight directing is slipshod. "The Sopranos" never had to worry about The third season was a season of terrible The lighting changed horribly during last being intelligent. It is effectively the WWE of coincidence and even-worse plotlines. The week's episode where Tony boffed the one- television drama, with its fair share of vio- once masterfully interwoven multi-tiered legged woman. Need I mention the Colum- lence, sex and bada boobies - which is not to plotlines that littered the first two seasons bus Day episode? These subplots make the say I don't like violence, sex or bada boobies, were replaced with trite, overblown story- James-Evelyn subplot of "Twin Peaks" sec- I'm only saying it has plenty of all three - lines out of both balance and touch. It is real ond season look absolutely fabulous. not exactly highbrow entertainment. Sure, cute how Meadow falls in love with Jackie Die-hard "Sopranos" fans are kidding them- there is the dichotomous interplay of the tan- Jr.: "That will be convenient when we kill selves if they tolerate the last two seasons of the dem families in troubled father/mob boss him later in the season," thought the brains show. Calling acrid waste "the best show on Tony Soprano's life, but after two seasons, the behind this horrid plot point. TV" shows what a nuclear dump TV actually is. plotlines ran dry and the fanboys and girls and Compounding the craptacular Jackie Jr. The multiple storylines have become con- women and men refuse to realize their (and plotline, was the Dr. Melfi rape. Again, the voluted and congruent with that, the direction America's) favorite non-network-television show's writers at the water machine, undoubt- and writing has sank with Raphine's corpse. show is slipping down the proverbial toilet. edly talking with their hands, "Through sexual Yet, we'll all tune in every week no matter During its first and second season, the violence, we'll be able to have Dr. Melfi over- how atrocious the show becomes. The main show's writing was razor sharp. The acrid come her attraction to the power of the mafia. reason "Sopranos" is so terrible now is slow burn of Big Pussy's betrayal had plenty It will be brilliant and muy dramatic." because how good it can be. We're all watch- of time to bubble and percolate (almost two This season is a travesty. More of the ing "The Sopranos" second consecutive train- seasons of build-up) until it boiled over in the same shoddy planning has driven viewers wrecked season and we're all rubbernecking season two finale. The plotlines of the devel- into plotlines like Carmella and Furio getting in HBO's general vicinity. oping "Soprano" families were interesting and misty for one another, Adrianna is being involving - not to mention well-directed. courted by the feds, Christopher's drug prob- Luke Smith can be reached The show deserved the consistent com- lem is threatening the family, Tony's ex-girl- at lukems@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 1 BCS is not broken, Horn tries to make controversy where there is none TO THE DAILY: David Horn clearly misunderstands the college football situation in his article Buck- eyes blamed for BCS Breakdown, (11/20/02). The article implies that there would be a con- troversy over whom should be in the national title game should Miami and Ohio State win out. This is not true. In fact, this would be the first situation in the BCS's history where there would be no controversy. Everyone would agree that Ohio State and Miami should play in the Fiesta Bowl. While there are serious doubts about Ohio State's ability to compete with Miami, no one has suggested that a team with a loss go in Ohio State's stead. Horn seems to be trying to cre- ate a controversy were there is none. DANIEL BAXTER LSA senior Plane ad paid for out of own pocket, Daily wrong to imply otherwise TO THE DAILY: The Michigan Daily is one of the most widely-read student newspapers in the world. I read this paper every day and I feel compelled to correct the prejudicial and stereotypical information in yesterday's editorial Just plane ridiculous. Your editorial staff raises some key issues about campaign finance reform. Stu- dents have a right to know from what source their representatives get their money and how much they have spent on their election campaigns. I have spent a total of around $350 on this election. That money came from my job at Morgan Stanley last school year and during the summer. It was highly dishonorable and unethical of you to print this article yesterday - the first day of elections. The only reason I can imagine that you waited so long to publish this article, is that you had a personal desire to help the other candidates and parties win. My father is not a "wealthy sugar daddy." He has been unemployed since the Sept. 11 attacks forced his company to less well, as your column suggests, it is money that I no longer have for a car, new clothes or other common conveniences. I decided to sacrifice my quality of life to help put myself in a position where I can affect changes at this campus. Your staff has made a valiant attempt at nullifying two weeks worth of my life. Two weeks of eight-hour campaign days. I hope students saw through the bold assertions of yester- day's editorial. I am not, in fact, a rich man. MICHAEL MASCETTI LSA freshman 'Insightful' review gives 'amazing' look into Dave Matthews Band (sarcasm) TO THE DAILY: I wanted to thank the Daily for Joel Hoard's particularly insightful review of the Dave Matthews Band latest release. In the space of about one-eighth of a page, Hoard managed to use the word "shit" three times (how many definitions does that have, anyway?) and managed to give me such amazing insight as the songs aver- age 17 minutes each (thank God Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" has not been put to Hoard's short-attention-span test, for I fear it would have been "shit" also). Of course, if Hoard's linguistic imagi- nation is any indication of his ability to appreciate artistic breadth, (and I'm assuming the former is better given his position as a "journalist"), I cannot imag- ine that bodes well for much beyond three- chord rock. JOHN BEMESDERFER Engineering senior Hoard's DMB review is waste of space; proves lack of knowledge in genre TO THE DAILY: I am upset that The Michigan Daily allowed Joel Hoard to write a review of the new Dave Matthews Band CD "Live at Fol- som Field." When I read a review, I expect some knowledge of the genre of music and then critiques, both positive and negative about the CD itself. Hoard's article does Issues, not funny slogans will make elections more valuable to students TO THE DAILY: It was inevitable. The event had been a long time coming. Someone finally created a curi- ous concoction of football Saturday and stu- dent government campaigning - commissioning a plane to hover overhead with a campaign banner trailing behind. Certainly, nearly everyone who has ever campaigned for student government in a university where the canon of football Saturday reigns supreme has dreamt of this day; but until now the costs have been prohibitive. I applaud the Daily editorial board in their promotion of comprehensive campaign finance reform. We need it. However, this demonstration reflects a greater underlying problem in student gov- ernment - where are the issues!?! Sure, your name and picture might be cute and I might recognize your last name - but why should I vote for you? What will you bring to the government and the University? What do you stand for and in opposition to? How will my academic experience be improved by your presence on government? Candidates typically dismiss these ques- tions by invoking the faulty logic that students just don't care. Very, very false. First, we are at a University lauded for civic engagement. If events in the Middle East have the propensity to polarize the campus, issues 'back home' do too - that is, if we know what those issues are. Second, history has asserted that our demo- graphic block (i.e., educated and relatively wealthy), will be the most politically active in future years. Therefore, it is not widespread apathy driving low government turnouts, it is a lacking sense of ownership and potential bene- fit. Third, as a 40,000 collective, our student status is all that unites us; and being a students constitutes the vast majority of our time, thoughts and energy. If you can convince me that your actions might put me in the driver's seat of my education, then I'm all ears. I am certainly not extolling or con- demning any particular candidate or party. Just like everyone else, I have misrepre- sented myself publicly. It was a poor choice, not a comment on character. And the candidates do not bear the entire burden - we will never see an issue oriented cam- paign until voters refuse to elect faces they've seen and names they know. So, _ .. . . ~iI