Popenado

As I sit here, still hermited away at the Borgata in Atlantic City, the Pope has left Philadelphia, and the city is still wracked by the aftermath. I have nothing against the Pope, and while I kinda like the guy, I'm not exactly Catholic either. Specifically, I'm a lapsed Episcopalian, which is basically Catholic light. But this post is not about religion at all, so those of you who tightened, can loosen, if you know what I mean.

It's the crazy security measures that the city of Philadelphia went to for the Pope that I want to talk about. What the hell, I mean seriously, what the hell? They closed the Ben Franklin Bridge, closed highways, made businesses close their doors, towed residential cars for out of town parking (though how one would get there I don't know), diverted traffic patterns for miles, and in the process also closed most of South Jersey as well. We're so close to Philadelphia, we, along with most of the people we know, fled the city.

The Pope gave wonderful speeches, gave hope to thousands, perhaps millions, was on almost every channel (even today), but I wonder what it was like on the ground where the man was. The crowds looked insane. Philadelphia's plans for South Jersey included having people park in Camden, and walk across the Franklin Bridge to see the Pope. Is it pointless to mention that Camden has been voted the most dangerous city in America countless times in the last few decades, and has had its police force cut in half in the last couple years? Who thought of this idea?

Weirdly, neither our national capital, Washington DC, nor New York City had any such security measures. I find it very odd that NYC, a city that fourteen years ago survived an actual terrorist attack where buildings were bombed and burned, had very little security in place for the Pope's visit... but Philadelphia, a city that thirty years ago bombed and burned itself over women and children they thought were terrorists, is going insane with security measures for the Pope's visit.

Yeah, politics, not religion. Feel free to tighten. Rant over. And relax, I'll be back to writing about pop culture tomorrow.

The New Monopoly

You've all probably heard the news this week, Monopoly, the popular property trading game from Hasbro (or currently from Hasbro, previously from Parker Brothers, or Waddington's in the UK), is getting a new playing piece, and letting their fans decide which new piece will be replacing which old piece. It's great marketing and promotion, of course.

Monopoly is an American tradition, king of the board games, and has been around since the turn of the last century. Initially a parlor game to explain taxes to those not smart enough to understand, it first saw widespread popularity as The Landlord's Game in 1923, and finally as Monopoly in 1934. Like Scrabble, I think every household has at least one Monopoly game. At my house we didn't have any board games, and even we had Monopoly. Today, many versions of the game, based on colleges, localities other than the traditional Atlantic City, even movies and other popular genres. Monopoly is a videogame, and a sticker game at McDonald's. Currently in my household we have a Doctor Who version and a Justice League version.

I can remember back in the 1970s when the summers were so hot no one wanted to go outside, we would have marathon games of Monopoly that would last for hours, sometimes days. We'd bend the rules, and I'm not just talking about the dubious Free Parking rule - we'd use two banks, no limits on hotels or houses, we'd make deals outside of the game to keep someone in the game - "Let me use your bike and I'll spot you $500 in the game." Yeah, that kind of stuff. It's a crazy, addictive, and sometimes cutthroat game. Good, good times.

In those days there were very specific playing pieces. You had the car, which everybody wanted. If you had first choice, you always had the car. If you had second choice, it was slightly different - if you were a girl, you took the dog, and if you were a boy, you took the battleship. After that, the top hat, iron, thimble, cannon, boot, man on a horse, and wheelbarrow were up for grabs. Notably, those were the pieces in the set we played with. Even then we knew there had been other pieces.

In the 1950s, the purse, rocking horse, and lantern had been replaced by the dog, wheelbarrow, and man on horse. So there's nothing new under the sun. Similarly in later years, Monopoly has added (and apparently subtracted) a train and a money bag as tokens as well. Noatably, most of the different variations of the games have different tokens as well. My Justice League set has tiny busts of the first eight members.

The new deal, which is sure to equal sales in the old sets, as well as anticipation of the new ones, has the public voting for a new piece to replace an old one. Any of the existing (the cannon has apparently previously been jettisoned) are up for retirement. The new pieces you can vote for on the Monopoly Facebook Page include the robot, the helicopter, the cat, the diamond ring, or the guitar.

Personally I'm pulling for the robot or the helicopter. They both have the coolness factor of the car. I am wondering however, how popular would a full set of playing tokens be? I know I would buy that, all of the past and present pieces in one set would be cool for collectors and fans of the game as well. You could even throw in proposed pieces like the biplane and the piggy bank. Now, the real question is, why isn't there a playing piece of the game's mascot, Uncle Moneybags?

Boardwalk Empire

HBO does it again. Do they ever make programming that is not the best out there? No, and how can someone not like a television series that film god Martin Scorsese has his hands in? He actually directed the pilot episode, the one that got this series renewed after only one airing, if that tells you anything about its quality. It was fabulous. For me, Scorsese working on the small screen is the equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci doing a comic book - lower rent yes, but the hand of a genius on a format smaller than their mind - a spectacular effect.

"Boardwalk Empire" takes place in 1920 Atlantic City and follows the exploits of Nucky Thompson as played by Steve Buscemi. Again, Buscemi is someone suited for the big screen and therefore rules the small one. It is good to see him finally in a role that matches his abilities. His character is based loosely (or closely, depending on your perspective) of Nucky Johnson who was treasurer of Atlantic City of the time, a famously generous and equally infamously corrupt personage whose work behind the scenes has become legend.

While Nucky's name is altered to protect both the innocent and the guilty, there are other real life folks floating around "Boardwalk Empire." Stephen Graham's Al Capone and certainly Vincent Piazza as Lucky Luciano are notable for their appearances here, but the real real life tour de force is Michael K. Williams as African-American gangster Chalky White. You might remember him from his role as Omar in "The Wire."

And speaking of fantastic performances, serious props go to Kelly MacDonald, Gretchen Mol and especially to Michael Pitt as Jimmy. The latter is the real star here in my opinion, and will walk from here to much bigger and better things, if that's possible. And Michael Shannon is particularly scary as the IRS agent pursuing Thompson.

Final word, this is damn good television, right up there with other HBO alum like "The Sopranos" and the aforementioned "The Wire" as well as stuff like "Mad Men" and "Dexter." "Boardwalk Empire" is do-not-miss television.