Lilyhammer

Having served as consigliere to both Tony Soprano and Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt has earned a stupendous amount of street cred, and that's without including his tireless efforts to promote garage rock through “Little Steven's Underground Garage” as heard on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. With the end of The Sopranos, he's devoted his spare time between Springsteen tours to “Lillyhammer”. The show was originally broadcast on Norwegian television but it has been optioned by Netflix as its debut for original streaming programming.

“Lilyhammer” is about Frank Tagliano, a New York gangster who goes into the Federal Witness Protection Program. Instead of picking somewhere predictable like Arizona or somewhere exotic like The Bahamas, Tagliano decides to go to.....Norway. As he explains to the dumbfounded FBI agents in charge of his case, he became fascinated with Lillehammer, Norway after seeing it on TV during the 1994 Winter Olympics.  Also, he figures that no one is going to find him there. As with his portrayal of Silvio Dante, Van Zandt's Nixonian droopy jowls do a lot of the heavy lifting acting-wise. He has one of those great character actor faces that beg to be cast in a mob drama. Unlike Silvio, Frank Tagliano has a little bit of tender charm under his dour exterior and shows a lot more compassion. Frank can develop a crush on an innocent Norwegian teacher in a way that Silvio would never dare demonstrate. He's also a little bit more selfless. It's fun to watch as Frank tries to navigate his way through a foreign setting with his old ways, teaching his new associates some different ways of conducting business. Sopranos fans need not worry- Frank can bring the heavy stuff too, including a particularly funny Olympic-themed torture incident.

Van Zandt is able to bring just enough nuance to his portrayal of Frank Tagliano to steer “Lilyhammer” away from being a by-the-numbers Sopranos spoof. I've only seen the first two episodes and am eager to race through the rest of the series. There are plans for a second season but production will have to wait for Van Zandt's other job, the upcoming Springsteen tour, to wind down. If history serves as an example, we may have to hold out for a few more years.

I Want My MTV

I just finished the absolutely riveting “I Want My MTV” by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum which documents the heyday (for those of a certain age group) of the groundbreaking music network. The story traces the arc of MTV as it rose from scrappy startup in 1981 flying by the seat of its pants to the juggernaut it soon became as it changed the face of popular music. The book's narrative ends in the mid 90s as the network began its transition away from groundbreaking cable powerhouse towards reality-show warehouse. All along the way, there is a ton of juicy gossip and decadence to sink your teeth into.

At almost 600 pages, “I Want My MTV” is a surprisingly breezy read- every time I picked it up, I fought to put it down. So many images from MTV that have been seared into my memory sprang back to life as I read the book: Larry “Bud” Melman kicking Run-DMC out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; David Lee Roth swinging across the stage on a pulley while holding a boombox to his head; Axl Rose getting off the Greyhound bus at the bus depot. "I Want My MTV" comprehensively documents all of the music movements that MTV blasted into our living rooms, from post New Wave to rap to metal to grunge. Also included are the stories and remembrances of the executives who worked behind the scenes as well as the VJs who were in front of the camera. As I turned the pages, I had a lot of “oh yeah” moments about things I hadn't thought about in a long time about like MTV Spring Break, Remote Control, and MTV Unplugged.

By them time you're done reading this book, you may find yourself saddened at the current state of MTV. As Dave Holmes says at the end of the book, no one is going to remember anything in particular about "My Super Sweet 16" as they will a Duran Duran video. Thankfully, all of the good bits are preserved forever online. When you read “I Want My MTV”, you will find yourself scrambling to YouTube to relive some of the best memories of your upbringing.