You woke up this morning, got yourself a gun
With just three weeks left until the sixth season of The Sopranos, TV Squad reports that HBO is turning to viral marketing to help promote the long-awaited event.
The idea is brilliant and obvious at the same time: The network is paying Google to use its Google Maps to pinpoint locations in New Jersey where key events of The Sopranos have taken place. Beginning Feb. 27, all you'll have to do is type "Sopranos map" into Google.
Maybe Christopher and Paulie will finally be able to find the Russian they lost in the Pine Barrens way back in Season 3.
HBO also has a really good trailer for Season 6.
The Mafia Encyclopedia
I have a decent-sized collection of crime and forensics books I use as reference for Bad Elements and other projects. But on a whim a couple of weeks ago, I ordered the third edition of Carl Sifakis' The Mafia Encyclopedia. After all, you can never have too much research material, can you?
It's by no means a comprehensive look at organized crime, but man, is it a treasure trove of story ideas and character quirks. I'm barely two-thirds of the way through the book and I've already flagged more than a dozen entries with Post-It notes.
Drug traffickers in Indian Country
This is one of those times when I'm reminded how much I love The New York Times. Today's edition has a lengthy, riveting article about drug lords who use Indian reservations as a base for their trafficking and crime operations.
"Some traffickers have given away drugs to Indians as a way of luring them into the trade," journalist Sarah Kershaw writes. "The recently convicted leader of a Mexican drug ring had a chilling strategy on five reservations in Wyoming and the Midwest, the authorities said: targeting tribes with high alcohol addiction rates and handing out free methamphetamine, recruiting the newly addicted Indians as dealers and orchestrating romantic relationships between gang members and Indian women."
It's as fascinating as it is troubling -- and, like The Mafia Encyclopedia, it contains a wealth of story material.
I'm such a scavenger.
Sopranos rocks. It's the only reason I have a HBO subscription.
Posted by eDuke | 11:24 PM
Yeah, I'm so looking forward to the new season (and, later, the new seasons of Deadwood and The Wire).
I've been reading some fun/interesting discussions about the Season 6 poster, and what can be interpreted from the characters' body language and positioning, the winter/fall setting, etc. I love that shit.
Posted by Kevin Melrose | 2:12 PM
I can honestly say I've never seen an episode of the Sopranos (for that matter, I've never seen an episode of Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, The Wire, Six Feet Under, .....all that stuff). We don't have cable in my home, although we do have rabbit ears! We get are 4 channels.... and not very clearly, either.
One day I may rent some dvd's of these shows, just to see what all the fuss is. :)
Posted by Jason Copland | 1:43 AM