Gordon Mott
 |
How "The Sopranos" Begins
Posted: Mar 29, 2007 3:05am ET
The cigar appears quickly. First, there’s the pulsing beat of “Woke Up This Morning,” the Alabama 3 song that will forever be known as the Sopranos’ theme song. It’s less than 25 seconds into the intro, as the car zooms past the slightly fuzzy images of New Jersey’s most infamous landscapes—the highway tunnels, the brick warehouses, and the smokestacks of the industrial zones that seem to line the northern end of the New Jersey Turnpike. As the car pulls into a tollbooth, a thick, stubby fingered hand reaches out for a ticket, and there in the unmistakable mouth of Tony Soprano, there is a lit cigar.The small theater filled quickly last week, the seats taken by New York’s media elite, at least the ones with a shared fascination of HBO’s breakout hit, "The Sopranos." The distinctive bold red letters spelled out the show’s name against the black screen in the front of the sloping hall. Then, the hissing of HBO’s snowy logo, a quick fade to black, and the pulsing sound of Woke Up This Morning pounded out from the wall speakers.
Like every one of the six seasons, the final episodes of The Sopranos begin with the same theme song, and the same scenes of New Jersey. And, like we have come to expect, the first two episodes that I saw last week have cigars being smoked by more than one character, whether its Tony himself, or one of the other players in the long-running television mega-hit. I won’t ruin any of the story lines for you—suffice it to say that no one dies in the first two episodes that you care about, or at least that you should care about
But hasn’t this show been a showcase for cigar lovers? Nearly every major character has had a cigar in his mouth at one time or another. James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano is almost never without one. Steve Schirippa as Bobby Bacala. Frank Vincent as Phil Leotardo. There have been a few characters who’ve come and gone, too: Joey Pantoliano as Ralph. Vincent Pastore as Big Pussy. All cigar smokers at one point or another in the past seasons.
A Memorable Cigar
Posted: Mar 20, 2007 3:45pm ET
I’m sure it’s happened to you driving down the road with the radio on. A song comes on, and you reach for the volume knob, turning it up to ear-drum splitting levels. You are reminded of a summer day in high school, however many years ago it was, driving with the windows down, the sweet smells of freshly mown grass streaming in, and the hair of your girlfriend blowing across her face as she looked out into the countryside singing along with radio. You can probably still sing the words to that favorite song, and I know you can remember the incredible freedom you felt at that moment.When I lit up a Montecristo Especial #1 recently for one of the magazine’s Connoisseur Corner’s contributions, I had an identical sensation. I remembered the first “Monte” Especial I ever smoked. It was in Paris in 1985, and my wife, bless her heart, had responded to my request for a box of cigars by picking up the Montes on her way through a duty free shop as she returned home from a business trip.
I didn’t know much about cigars then. I was fresh out of Mexico and Central America, trying to make a go of it as a freelancer in Paris while she labored away for Citibank in their corporate offices in Paris. Given the fact that every young American freelancer with dreams of Ernest Hemingway or making it as foreign correspondent in Europe, seemed to be there ahead of me, I had opted for the former dream and was working on a novel. My humidor was a plastic bag with dampened paper towels inside. I’d smoked during my days in Central America, but cigars were still a largely unexplored universe for me.
My writing room wasn’t exactly a garret with a window, but it was a classic Parisian apartment with floor to ceiling windows and a roll-up steel window shutter. I could sit there facing my old IBM PC decked out with the newest version of WordPerfect, writing away the morning, and turning sideways occasionally to gaze out across the rooftops of nearby apartment buildings, the round tile chimneys framing the usually cloudy sky. At some point, almost every morning, I would light a cigar.
The Real World
Posted: Mar 15, 2007 10:15am ET
Cigar Aficionado's blog world may have been a long time in coming. But now it is here.
I will be writing about everything from unexpected surprises in our tastings, to a wonderful cigar on the back porch my house in the suburbs, or out on the golf course. I won't limit my thoughts to just cigars either. You'll be getting my thoughts on a lot of my passions, not all of them mind you, but everything from golf, to a great meal to that 15 year old bottle of Burgundy out of my cellar.
The goal is pretty clear to me. For 15 years, Cigar Aficionado has tried to open up the world of the Good Life to our readers. Now, we have the means to let you in our research, and the amazing things that we get to do as part of our jobs here. After a few months of this, I may have to hire a bodyguard to keep our envy-crazed readers at bay.
RSS