БЪЛГАРИЯ

I'm spending a few days in Sofia, Bulgaria, and I love it. Understanding the menu at the restaurant is another matter...

time travel

Last saturday I saw My Bloody Valentine live in Madrid. One of my favourite bands ever, they notoriously lazy and unproductive: their last record was out in 1991, and the rumours that they are preparing a comeback haven't ceased ever since. (They took so much time recording their excellent Loveless that they almost bankrupted their label, Creation Records).

The concert was amazing, like being into a cloud of noise, the music I knew by heart only barely recognizable. The feeling was like being transported to England in the early nineties, to that Glastonbury festival I never went to. The light effects were very, very 1992, and the only thing missing were seeing people shoegazing...after all, the crowd was old, but maybe not enough.

  

This is what made Virginia run away from the stage...it went on for 10 minutes

Even though I would have happily paid the ticket price just to see them, I could also enjoy seeing Morrissey for the first time, and he didn't disappoint. Hot Chip were surprisingly good, one of these bands that give 250% of themselves on stage, and Mika, which was like being in a party: confetti, puppets, a circus background, and everybody dancing, jumping and having a good time.

Este va dedicado a tí, Pablo. Sorry man, I missed your birthday...

Lisboa

I just spent four days in Lisbon with my rubita. It's been great: amazing food, a relaxed atmosphere and a city that has become one of the most beautiful in Europe. Every historic building has been restored and cleaned, and you just feel great walking up and down its clobbered streets in Alfama or Graça, watch the sunset from a miradouro, have a beer or browse the ultra-cool Barrio Alto shops...and of course, the seafood. That alone justifies a visit. And the delicious pastéis de Belém. And Os Jerónimos, of course. And the Elevador de Santa Justa. And...

Checking in

During 2007 I've been to the UK (twice), France, Vietnam, the US, Belgium, Switzerland and Morocco: I'm quite happy. I've been lucky to have some of these trips paid for by my bosses, even though in some cases the leisure part of the trip didn't come out as expected. I experienced again a transatlantic trip in Business Class and again lived in a hotel for longer than I would have chosen.
Where do I want to go in 2008: a long holiday in Mexico and Japan, a long weekend in Rome,the compusolry yearly visit to Paris, London and Brussels and (provided we still have time and money) Brazil to kiss the year goodbye.

Jailbroken

Sorry for the crappy photo. It's late and I took it with my mobile phone. Yes, I am that lazy.
Pablo, this one is for you, I think you'll like it: All thhe applications you saw on the iPhone (Google maps, a decent e-mail client, Weather and about a hundred more you have never seen) all in your iPod Touch. Now I really love this little thing.

We had to be family

From the opening sequence of Bender's Big Score, Futurama's feature film

Derechos de Autor

6A

Libertad de Expresión

Más viñetas aquí.

Lake Leman

I´m in Switzerland again, this time in a town called Morges, for a two-day training seminar. It´s an incredibly quiet place, and the view from my room is amazing:
The seminar itself has so far being useful and interesting. Nice colleagues and good speakers, including people at very high level (I´ve just had dinner with three people just below the CEO). The best of all is the confirmation that there is a rigurous appraisal process, something I have never had for some reason or other, which means that if everuthing goes well, I only depend on the quality of my work to move up in this organization. I like that.

Gadgets

iPod Touch and jealous cat

People who know me a little bit know I'm crazy about electronics. I love having the latest technology, especially if it mixes good design with new ideas. I'vve never wrote anything about my shiny new toys, even tough I often though about it, especially whan I bought my digital SLR, later when I replaced my old SonyEricsson T610 with the excellent W810 (and missed, I lost it a mere six months later, and the one that replaced it in my pocket, despite being skinnier than a model on a diet, is not à la hauteur) and finally, when I finally persuaded my girlfriend to accept a new TV at home. But now I just can't resist it anymore. (Don't panic, I'm not going to review it, for that you can read better blogs than this one)

The Touch is a true Apple product: beautiful, easy to use and with features that every other Personal Media Player (MP3 player is so yesterday) will have in the near future. This one has a gorgeous 3.5" screesn that is good enough to watch movies, an amazin interface that lets you flick through your albums as if you were in a record store looking for that vinyl, a full-featured web browser that turns mobile internet into something that is actually useful and wi-fi capabilities tha let you donwload your misuc directly from iTunes without having your computer next to you. Now, if it also had a camera and a mobile phone it would be perfect, the fulfilment of my dream of integrating all the gadgets I use into a single one. But that would be the iPhone, which is not available yet here. Ok, I know I could get hold of one in the US, but for that one I think I'll wait until an updated version is lauched.

Regrets only

A collection of apologies, read here.

I want to make it clear that everything you've heard and read is true.(1) I can also no longer deny to myself that there are issues I obviously need to examine within my own soul, and I've asked for help.(2) So if you're so thin-skinned that you took offense to a slip of the tongue that I had, then I offer my apology. I am, am sorry that you were offended.(3)

We admit that several members of our organization allowed an internal power struggle to cloud good judgment.(4) We should have done better.(5) I sincerely apologize and hope people realize that conversations can be easily manipulated in print.(6) And I don't care that he's black or green or purple or whatever.(7)

I failed.(8) I acknowledge that mistakes were made here.(9) I'm not a bad person. I'm a good person, but I said a bad thing.(10) I am not a bigot.(11) I never want to be portrayed as a guy who loses his cool.(12) That was a very intemperate remark made in the heat of the day yesterday in a very misguided attempt to defend my boss.(13) When I called him "Pruneface," it was campaign rhetoric.(14) I certainly would never intend to use the offensive word in its technical sense, and I would not and could not under any circumstances question the parentage of your son, our current governor.(15) Our trust has been broken, and only love can rebuild it.(16)

I probably should have waited a while before I scratch myself and spit.(17) I apologize, but I don't think I had the gay vote, anyway.(18) I certainly hope that no one was harmed or died.(19)

It is a shame that the metaphor I used was taken so radically out of context and slung about irresponsibly by the media.(20) I regret if my comment was misconstrued.(21) He didn't deserve to be whacked around like that, and I'll be the first to apologize to him for that. But he doesn't deserve to be a folk hero either.(22) If there were occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me.(23) Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling.(24) It is with a heavy heart that I apologize this morning to Aunt Jemima.(25)

I did not view it as racial.(26) It's not an ethnic slur. You don't make an ethnic slur before several hundred people.(27) I grew up side by side with black people. Many are my dear friends.(28) As a Latino, I myself am offended.(29)

I can flap my lips all I want. Talk is cheap.(30) If we are deemed responsible for the accidents, that is another matter. However, there are maybe outside causes that had caused the accidents.(31)

There were a lot of human factors.(32) I grew up in a different era, and people said things then that are not acceptable today.(33) I suffered from an illness and I was sick.(34) I wanted to win so bad for my kids and my family, and I apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced.(35) I've lived in a state of constant fear and anxiety.(36) Dealing with being gay, while continuing to meet my public obligations, created tremendous internal pressures.(37) My days are incredible, you know: work, politics, troubles, moving around, public exams that never end, a life under constant pressure.(38) I have become so numb to the horrific things that happen in this world that I sometimes forget that there are still people who feel.(39) I shouldn't have labeled Mike as a "gay prostitute" or "male prostitute."(40)

We're sorry if this joke, which got a lot of laughs, offended anyone.(41) We have listened.(42) As you all know, I'm a satirical person.(43) In the course of the show, split-second judgment is made over ad libs.(44) Unfortunately, the need to babble as often as I do sometimes leads to unintended and unfortunate results.(45) It's three in the morning and the caffeine gets to us.(46) We've never had any type of complaint.(47)

I apologize to whoever I need to apologize to.(48) I apologize that some people don't have a sense of humor like I do.(49) I was trying to be the bigger man, but he was acting childish.(50) I said I'm sorry. What else can I say? I've lied and I admitted it. Life goes on.(51) I'm sure that I'm supposed to act all sorry or sad or guilty now that I've accepted that I've done something wrong. But you see, I'm just not built that way.(52) What do you want me to do? Go over and kiss the camera? What do you want me to do?(53)

FOOTNOTES

1. Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco re his affair with the wife of his former campaign manager, 2007.

2. Isaiah Washington, a star of "Grey's Anatomy," re an anti-gay slur about his co-star T.R. Knight 2007.

3. Scott James, a Fox News Radio 600 KCOL host, re his on-air remarks equating homosexuals with child molesters, 2007.

4. The president of the Fayetteville (N.C.) Woman's Club re its rejection of a woman who would have been its first black member, 2007.

5. David Neeleman, the chief executive and founder of Jet Blue re the hundreds of passengers stranded at Kennedy Airport during an ice storm, 2007.

6. The actress Sienna Miller re anti-Pittsburgh remarks she made in Rolling Stone, 2006.

7. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, re accusing Barry Bonds of using steroids and cheating on his wife and taxes, 2007.

8. Major General George W. Weightman re the uncleanliness of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 2007.

9. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales re the dismissal of United States attorneys, 2007.

10. Don Imus re racist comments he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team, 2007.

11. Mel Gibson re his anti-Semitic remarks to a law enforcement officer, 2007.

12. Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones re an outburst during a game, 2006.

13. Representative Daniel Crane's press secretary, William Mencarow, re saying, "If they required the resignation of all congressmen who have slept with young ladies, you wouldn't have a Congress," 1983.

14. Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit re Ronald Reagan, 1980.

15. Justin Dart, a Republican Party donor, to Pat Brown, the former California governor and father of Gov. Jerry Brown, 1982.

16. The president of Wikia re a Wikipedia editor who lied about his credentials, 2007.

17. Roseanne Barr, after singing the national anthem at a San Diego Padres game, 1990.

18. Louie Welch, a Houston mayoral candidate, re saying that one way to stop AIDS is to "shoot all the queers," 1985.

19. Mary Ann Thode, the president of Kaiser's Northern California region, re patients' complaints about Kaiser's kidney transplant program, 2006.

20. Johnny Depp re saying in Stern magazine that America is "a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you," 2003.

21. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., the White House budget director, re inflammatory remarks made about Sept. 11 victim compensation, 2002.

22. Daryl Gates, the Los Angeles police chief, re the beating of Rodney King, 1991.

23. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, to the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, re comments about Jews, 1984.

24. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, admitting to having used escort services, 2007.

25. John Sylvester, a radio host in Madison, Wisconsin, re his comparing of Condoleezza Rice to Aunt Jemima, 2004.

26. Mary Horning, an Atglen, Pennsylvania, teacher, re having the two black students in her first-grade class portray slaves on an auction block, 1993.

27. Governor Guy Hunt of Alabama re saying he'd "never tried to Jew" a peach farmer, 1987.

28. Bob Crumpler, a Newport News, Virginia, car dealer, re being videotaped calling a black worker a "nigger," 1996.

29. Peter Dolara, an American Airlines senior vice president, re the airline's insensitive pilot training guide for Latin America, 1997.

30. Neeleman of Jet Blue.

31. Masatoshi Ono, Bridgestone/Firestone chief executive, re accidents attributed to his company's faulty automobile tires, 2000.

32. Former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall re his $326 million worth of financial misdeeds, 1997.

33. Dan Peavy, a Dallas school board member, re his repeated use of racial epithets, 1995.

34. Francis X. Vitale, a former executive of the Englehard Corp., re-embezzling $12.5 million from his company, 1998.

35. Elecia Battle of Cleveland re claiming to have lost her $162 million winning lottery ticket, 2004.

36. Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer, re traveling on a plane when he knew he was tubercular, 2007.

37. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, re Stephen L. Gobie, who ran a prostitution business out of Frank's Washington apartment, 1989.

38. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy to his wife re his flirtations with other women, 2007.

39. Marconi, a radio host in Portland, Oregon, re playing a tape of a beheading in Iraq and laughing about it, 2004.

40. Karen Booth, a leader of the Transforming Congregations ministry, re Mike Jones, who outed Ted Haggard, 2007.

41. David Young, the re-election campaign manager for Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, re the senator's comment that his competitor "looks like one of Saddam Hussein's sons," 2004.

42. Mars re using animal whey instead of vegetable whey in its candy bars, 2007.

43. Howard Stern re making jokes about the singer Selena, 1995.

44. Doug Tracht, a Washington radio host, re a joke he made on air about James Byrd Jr., who was dragged behind a car in Texas, 1999.

45. The Chicago Tribune's Mike Royko re a column on the unusual names of some black children, 1996.

46. Ryan Owens, an anchor for ABC's "World News Now" re his and his colleagues' laughter being overheard during the announcement of the actor Owen Wilson's suicide attempt, 2007.

47. The maker of the video Madden NFL '07 after a 14-year-old found pornography on his copy, 2007.

48. Herbert Miller, the vice president of sales for Merit Industries, re a plaque to be presented to James Earl Jones, but inscribed to James Earl Ray, 2002.

49. Shaquille O'Neal re having said, "Tell Yao Ming, 'Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh,"' 2003.

50. Tommy Lee for having gotten into a fight with a fellow musician, Kid Rock, during Alicia Keys' performance during the Video Music Awards, 2007.

51. The Olympic runner Ben Johnson re having falsely denied taking steroids, 1990.

52. Pete Rose re his betting on baseball, 2004.

53. Bill O'Reilly, who'd said that if no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, "I will apologize to the nation and I will not trust the Bush administration again," 2004.

Execution

I just love this painting by Chinese artist Yue Minjun, whose styled is defined as " cynical realism". Execution was inspired by the 1989 protests in Tiannanmen Square,and was sold a couple of weeks ago in Sotheby's for a cool £2.9m, a record for a Chinese artist.

Copyright

Forget "making available" some songs on a P2P network—in the UK, blaring your radio too loud might make you a target for a multi-hundred-thousand-pound lawsuit for copyright infringement. The UK-based Performing Rights Society—a group that collects royalties for publishers, songwriters, and composers—has accused a car repair chain named Kwik-Fit of copyright infringement because mechanics were regularly found to play their radios loud enough for others to overhear the music
The PRS claims that it has logged over 250 incidents of Kwik-Fit employees audibly playing music since 2005. "The key point to note, it was said, was that the findings on each occasion were the same with music audibly 'blaring' from employee's radios in such circumstances that the defenders' [Kwik-Fit] local and central management could not have failed to be aware of what was going on," the judge in the case, Lord Emslie, told the BBC. "The allegations are of a widespread and consistent picture emerging over many years whereby routine copyright infringement in the workplace was, or inferentially must have been, known to and 'authorised' or 'permitted' by local and central management."

The PRS insists that the fact that the music can be heard by others amounts to a "performance" of the music in public—something that is not allowed unless the business has the proper licenses to do so. Such a license would cost Kwik-Fit roughly £30,000 per year, the PRS told The Scotsman in June. When multiplied by the number of years that the business has allegedly been violating copyrights, the PRS says that £200,000 would make a reasonable sum.

In the UK, any business that broadcasts music—even if it's commercial, publicly-accessible radio—must obtain a license to do so, according to the MCPS-PRS web site. Of course, customers who accidentally overhear the radio being played by a Kwik-Fit mechanic could just as easily go home and turn on the same radio station within the bounds of British copyright laws. Conversely, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers allows businesses to play publicly-accessible radio or TV as long as the transmission is being received by a single unit (and not broadcast from room-to-room) and there is no admission charge to enter the establishment. In other words, the mechanics' actions would be permissible in the US, but not in the UK.

But what's at stake is not just Kwik-Fit's official policy on broadcasting music (in fact, the company says that it has a 10-year policy outlawing radios at the workplace), but whether employees at any company can play music aloud. What about office employees that play music in a shared office or a cubicle farm? Even at relatively low volumes, someone is inevitably going to hear what is being played in a close working environment. At what point is it no longer acceptable for an individual to play music out loud, with the fear that someone else might hear it in passing?

Kwik-Fit asked the court to dismiss the suit at a procedural hearing last week, citing its official, anti-radio policy. The judge refused to dismiss the £200,000 claim, however, saying that there was at least enough evidence such that the case should be heard. He made clear, however, that his allowance of the suit did not necessarily mean that he felt the PRS would succeed.

Caótico Médem

Yesterday I went to the cinema. Julio Médem is probably my favourite Spanish director, and I had been waiting to see his latest movie, Caótica Ana, for a long time. The only thing I knew about it is that part of it had been shot in NYC and that it was in some way a homage to his sister Ana, who had recently died in a car crash.

This is what the director had said about his film:
Chaotic Ana is the story-journey of Ana over four years of her life, from 18 to 22. A countdown from 10 to 0, as in hypnosis, through which Ana comes to see that she doesn’t alone. Her existence seems to be the continuation of the lives of other young women who died tragically, all of them at 22, and who live in the abyss of her unconscious memory. That is her chaos. In words of the director and scriptwriter of the movie: Ana is the princess and the monster of this fable feminist against the tyranny of the white man.

OMFG. The film, though beautifully shot and well-acted, was a real mess: a very loosely-knit story about the suffering of women through the ages, in which hypnosis, an artists' commune, people living in a cave, the plight of the Sahrawi people and even a Donald Rumsfeld lookalike all play an important part.

All of these issues are interesting, well worth being filmed and publicised. A fiction film - and a Medem one the least of all- is not the place to raise awareness. That role is reserved to documentaries.

I miss Julio Médem. He's gone through a terrible time after the release of La Pelota Vasca and his sister's death, and I hope he gets its act together and starts making brilliant movies again. Unfortunately this is not one of them.

New Job

After all these years, I finally have my own cubicle.

Vietnam

100 movies and 300 records to choose from in the plane, 37°C at 6:30 AM in Doha, a million motorbikes, heat, rain, people cookingeatingsleepingpeeingspitting on the streets, peaceful temples, beautiful rivers, the best food I've ever tasted, paradise beaches, crooked taxi drivers, 15 hours on a train, sunburnt, on a bike across the bridge in Hue, ancient palaces, atmospheric old Hanoi, amazing water puppets, 9 more hours on a train, breathtaking mountain landscape, the smell of rice paddies, children begging everywhere, refreshing cold beer, Halong Bay, 2 hours walking under the rain and knee-deep in mud, a relaxing massage at a five-star hotel, fighting with a taxi driver, fighting with the hotel staff, tired of bargaining for a bottle of water, rats at Hanoi airport, the best coffee in the world, crazy Cholon market, fresh beer at 9 cents a glass, incredibly beautiful girls...

On the pleasure of reading

I am more of a novel reader, but lately I have been reading two essays, one on reading and the other on music. What took me to these two books was more the authors than the subject. This is not to say that I don't enjoy music or books ( I couldn't live without either), but I wasn't searching for a particular essay. Hornby is a good writer, he will make you laugh and you'll love his books (and the films made of them), especially if you enjoy football and music his two passions. He'll never win a Nobel (and he's ok with that) but he's a honest author that knows how to entertain without writing books made to sell.
This takes me to the first one. It's called Comme un roman, by Daniel Pennac, author of Au Bonheur des Ogres, probably one of the books in French I have enjoyed the most. This one asks why we read, what can we do to get our children to read and what are the rules that every reader should abide to (answer: none). And then someone asks him whether there is such thing as a bad novel:

Pour être bref, taillons très large: disons qu'il existe ce que j'appelerai une "litterature industrielle" qui se contente de réproduire à l'infini les mêmes types de récits, débite du stéréotype à la chaîne, fait commerce des bons sentiments et des sensations fortes, saute tous les prétextes offerts par l'actualité pour pondre une fiction de circonstance, se livre à des "études de marché" pour fourguer, selon la "conjoncture" tel type de "produit" censé enflammer telle catégorie de lecteurs.
Voilá, à coup sûr, des mauvais romans.
Pourquoi? Parce qu'ils ne relèvent pas de la création mais de la réproduction des "formes" préétablies, parce qu'ils sont une entreprise de simplification (c'est-à-dire de mensonge), quand le roman est art de vérité (c'est-à-dire de complexité), parce qu'à flatter nos automatismes ils endorment notre curiosité, enfin et surtout parce que l'auteur ne s'y trouve pas, ni la réalité qu'il prétend nous décrire.

Tridimensional sound

Connect your headphones and close your eyes.

Bada Bing!

The Economist: American society through the eyes of Tony Soprano.

Saying goodbye to Tony Soprano

THE day of mourning is at hand. On June 10th, after eight years, 86 episodes and innumerable garrottings, gougings, beatings, decapitations and chain-assisted drownings, “The Sopranos” comes to an end, and with it arguably the best hour on American television.

Tabloid journalists are speculating about the final episode. Will Tony Soprano survive or splatter? Commentators are competing to heap praise on the series and its creator, David Chase. David Remnick uses his oracular position as editor of the New Yorker to pronounce it “the richest achievement in the history of television”. And others are grappling with the most pressing cultural questions of the day: what made the series so good? And what does it say about America?

There are lots of little things that made it so good. The sharp-eyed observation of dozens of different worlds, not just the mob-land of north-eastern New Jersey but also the smug little worlds of Columbia University, bohemian New York and psychiatrists' dinner parties. The extraordinary characters like “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, with his weird wings of hair, who hover in the no-man's-land between cartoons and nightmares. The willingness to break with television conventions, not least the convention that everything has to be neatly tied up.

The most important reason, however, was the central conceit: that gangsters are human beings just like the rest of us. Mr Soprano is a mob boss who makes his living skimming city contracts, hijacking lorries full of booze and cigarettes, running illicit gambling. His office is in the backroom of a strip club, the Bada Bing; he enforces his business deals with beatings and murder. But Mr Soprano is also a regular McMansion-dwelling guy. His money never quite goes far enough. He worries about his children's upbringing. Above all, he has what Americans call “issues”. His mother was a monster, the black dog follows him wherever he goes and he sees a shrink.

It is hardly original for artists to try to blur the boundaries between the normal and the deviant. Hollywood has been in that game since at least the 1960s. But “The Sopranos” does it superlatively well. Mr Soprano's depression is rooted in family dynamics. True of many. But one of his earliest memories of those family dynamics is his father shooting a bullet through his mother's beehive hairdo.

The blurring of normal and abnormal is also the blurring of good and evil. Mr Chase makes no bones about the fact that his hero is evil. He carefully eschews the glamorising of gangster life characteristic of Quentin Tarantino and his ilk. Mr Soprano murders anybody who is a threat to him, including his nephew and his best friend, Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero. He breaks bones with a stomach-turning crack. He commits adultery in a thoroughly animalistic manner, at one point with a one-legged Russian woman. Yet Mr Chase also portrays him as a devoted family man. “I'm a good guy, basically,” he tells his psychiatrist, not long after he has murdered a close relation. The result is complicated. Viewers hope for Mr Soprano's redemption. They also—let's be honest—take guilty pleasure in his freedom from middle-class hang-ups. In Tony Soprano Mr Chase reveals the banality of evil and its glamour.

Which leads on to the second question. “The Sopranos” says a lot of positive things about America—that it can pour out remarkably gripping and innovative drama and can elevate pop culture to the level of art. But it also says something worrying: that American culture is always likely to set people's teeth on edge, particularly in the world's more conservative corners; not just because it is so full of animal spirits, but also because it revels in overturning moral certitudes.

Love is hate

Foreign-policy commentators like to draw a distinction between soft power and hard power. The argument is that America has more to gain by spreading its ideas and values than through exercising its military muscles. They also often seek to make a clear distinction between pro- and anti-Americanism. But a little time with Tony, Big Pussy and Paulie Walnuts shows that things are a little bit more complicated.

Many people mistrust America not so much because they have not been wooed by its soft power but because they believe that they and their children are over-entangled in it. And many people are up in arms not simply because they are anti-American but because they are bipolar about America—simultaneously attracted and repulsed by what they see going on in the Bada Bing.

This is not to endorse Dinesh D'Souza, a writer who calls for an alliance between American conservatives and Islamists against Western liberalism. The cultural excesses of liberalism are a small price to pay for its benefits. And, besides, Sayyid Qutb, the intellectual godfather of al-Qaeda, fashioned his hatred of America while watching church dances in rural Colorado. Still, it is one thing for Western sophisticates, with a life-time's immersion in pop culture, to watch Mr Soprano at work; quite another for people in more traditional places.

American culture has always had a weakness for sex and violence. But since the 1960s it has gleefully eliminated conventional distinctions between good and bad, and since the 1990s it has been supercharged by the dramatic increase in the power of mass communications that are bringing America's cultural offerings to every corner of the world. The success of “The Sopranos”, both commercially and critically, can only serve to reinforce this trend. The tensions created by the growing global reach of shows like “The Sopranos” may prove far more difficult to manage in the long run than the tensions created by the passing neoconservative moment.