Shook the Spot

Apropos Pie-O-My . . .

Crippled horse photo panned by some readers

A score or more readers found Tom Reel's photograph on Page 1 of the Sunday Express-News troubling. Among the terms used to describe the photo were "shocking," "horrendous," "pathetic" and "in poor taste."

Patricia Quintanilla, sobbing, left a telephone message Sunday saying she was "devastated" by the photo. Others, obviously looking at the photo as they spoke into the phone, threatened to cancel subscriptions, urge friends who are animal lovers to also call and questioned the newspaper's sanity in putting a photo of a crippled horse on the front page "where children can see it."

While the photo drew lots of brickbats from readers, just one call criticized reporter John Tedesco's report, "Racehorses risk fatal finish in a life-and-death gamble." The story accompanied Reel's photo of Miss Pretty Promises, kneeling, her nose in the dirt of the Retama Park track, her front legs broken, moments before the quarter horse was euthanized.

Express-News editors defended the decision to run the story and photo, a decision that was fortified when Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro fractured a rear ankle Saturday in the Preakness in Baltimore. That story also appeared on Page 1 of later editions of the Sunday Express-News.

"We knew this was a provocative photo that could spark reaction, but the decision to run it as the dominant art on 1A was not made lightly — nor is it on a daily basis when we weigh the context and news value of images of death, destruction or suffering," Managing Editor Brett Thacker said.

"We were leaning against such prominent play until Barbaro's injury at the Preakness thrust the issue of racing injuries to the forefront of the news. Is it a painful photo? Absolutely. Does it illustrate the point of the story? Nothing could have said it better."

David Sheppard, the newspaper's special projects editor, said Tedesco had been working on the story for weeks.

"I would agree the photo is graphic and disturbing," Sheppard said. "We take no particular pride in showing the racehorse struggling in the final moments before she was euthanized. But the picture reflects the reality of what happened to Miss Pretty Promises, and to hundreds of other racehorses that break down on the track.

"Tedesco and ... Reel witnessed that awful moment and captured it in words and pictures. We are not in the business of suppressing the news and felt strongly that the photo belonged on the front page to let readers see for themselves what happens to some of these beautiful animals."

And it goes on . . .

"I LOVED HIM LIKE A BROTHER-IN-LAW" . . . THE SOPRANOS — SEASON 6, EPISODE 11 . . . "COLD STONES" . . . POUR A LITTLE OUT FOR VITO . . . CARMELLA IN THE CITY OF LIGHT . . . AJ ENTERS CONSTRUCTION AT THE GROUND LEVEL . . . NEW YORK: IT'S ON

Barbaro, the stalion everyone had picked for the Triple Crown this year, suffered a life-threatening injury at the start of the Preakness on Saturday, ending his bid and disappointing a nation. The Times has a nice piece on why we care so much about horses . . . 'cause admit it, you do . . . and what we have invested in the colt's survival . . .

In victory and defeat, and every day in between, horses remain wordless creatures. To those in the sport who spend their days caring for them, these thousand-pound thoroughbreds are like children — not in any sentimental sense, but in the sense that they cannot take care of themselves. They need people to provide them with water, food, shelter, exercise. The good ones are treated the way every child should be treated — with the mixture of care and discipline best suited for that particular individual.

Reading that tonight, Shook was reminded of the classic Sopranos episode, in season four, when Tony's horse Pie-O-My falls ill and has to be put down. Those scenes proved the show's genius and demonstrated, for those who ever doubted it, that character acting was as critical an element of The Sopranos as anything else. Season five, with its flowing dream sequences and heavy symbolism that featured the writers as much as the cast, departed from the acting emphasis, but this season has reclaimed the stage. Carmella . . . AJ . . . Sil . . . Vito . . . Artie . . . and, gradually, Tony. In the time we have left . . . perhaps Paulie . . . Phil, even . . . and surely Christopher. With only nine episodes to go, each character must take his final bow.

Tonight was Vito's. Those of us who got to the television early, hoping to catch two episodes of Entourage as an appetizer, were instead subjected to HBO's fiercely graphic documentary Baghdad ER. That shit was too intense to watch for more than a minute . . . by which time we'd already seen a military doctor carrying a soldier's severed arm . . . so we hit up On Demand for the hour. (We oppose that fucking war, anyway.) But during the main event at 9, the murder of poor Vito seemed just as brutal as anything on Baghdad ER. Though neither heaven nor hell exists (Shook sounds like AJ at his Confirmation), Vito is definitely in the great Cosa Nostra in the sky. As Phil's wife — or, rather, her priest — observed, "There's nothing gay about hell." What were we supposed to think . . . other than, hilarious! . . . when Phil came out of the closet to kill Vito? Probably the same thing we're supposed to think of Phil summoning Tony (twice) to meet him under a statue of Lou Costello.

The Carmella sequences in Paris were pretty unbelievable and thick with ominous foreshadowing. The wide shot of Carmella and Roe in the pit of that archealogical site said nothing short of they're all gonna die in the end. It was hard, also, not to compare the Paris getaway to Carrie's City of Light soul-searching in the series finale of Sex and the City. HBO and The Sopranos have a long history of riffing off the network's other shows, so Shook doesn't think the comparison is unwarranted. What it might mean . . . that Carmella Soprano would make a better love columnist than Carrie Bradshaw? . . . Shook can't say.

The question all season, of course, has been, how is this all going to end? It's been complicated, unfortunately, by those pesky bonus episodes that may or may not constitute an extra season. (The coming attractions for episode twelve dealt with that so awk-ward-ly . . . "It's Time To Say Goodbye . . . For Now.") All indications in tonight's episode pointed to an escalation in the long-brewing war with New York. We might end up watching Baghdad ER after all.

How meta is today's Vows column?

Well, the bride is Cara Nussbaum of The Real World: Chicago. Before graduating to the featured profile on the Times' Weddings & Celebrations page, Cara's romantic life was previously chronicled on MTV.com's Hookup Report.

The Vows piece includes this sentence: "As summer approached, Ms. Nussbaum planned to go to New York to chill, hoping MTV would call." If that hasn't been a scene in a Delillo novel yet . . . Great Jones Street, perhaps? . . . then someday it will.

The groom, Scott Fudemberg, cut things off with Cara as she prepared to go on the show because of his "discomfort with the cameras that would chronicle her every move." Cara's on-screen trists, which were pretty much the entire plotline of that Real World season, led to still further strain on their relationship.

"Everyone has a past," Scott tells the Times. "But that's not something you necessarily want to review with them on national television." A national newspaper? Well, that's totally different.

Clink . . .

Afterward, 261 guests dined and danced at Westwood Country Club in Westwood, Mo. Among them was Kyle Brandt, who appeared on "The Real World" with the bride and who now plays Philip Kiriakis on "Days of Our Lives."

Mr. Brandt said: "Others in Cara's position would have abandoned their relationships just as quickly as they abandoned their educations or career ambitions to revel in the spoils of pseudo-fame. Cara chose wisely to remain who she was, to resume her pursuit of what was most valuable to her, and ultimately, most rewarding — and Scott was there to hold her hand."

That reunion episode's gonna be so dope.

A black cast just crossed Shook's path, while out taking a stroll on the streets of Fenway in the heart of Boston University's south campus . . . an area one Journal reporter referred to yesterday as "the BU ghetto" — Shook lives in the ghetto (word) . . . punctuation!!

Anyways, as you might have surmised . . . sewey-mised, if you will . . . Shook had a joint in hand on this stroll . . . thanks to an after-work stop yesterday to the dopest head shop in town — it's called Sugar Daddies!! . . . punctuation,

And . . . notice how every paragraph so far has begun with

A?

You wanna know why You Can't Get Kyle Minogue Out of Your Head? 'Cause she's on the radio like all the fucking time. There, Shook said it.

Yo wanna liveblog the action on the Weeks footbridge Saturday night?

You've noticed, I'm sure, that our paragraphs are starting with Y now.

YMCA!

It's fun to stay at the YMCA!

"LET'S JUST SAY, DICK CHENEY FOR PRESIDENT — OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING UNIVERSE" . . . THE SOPRANOS — SEASON 6, EPISODE 10 . . . "MOE N' JOE" . . . VITO'S A BOTTOM, BUT WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LIVE FREE . . . TONY WANTS TO FUCK JANICE, BUT NABS HER GINNY'S HOUSE INSTEAD . . . JOHNNY SACK PLEADS TO 15 YEARS, BUT MIGHT AS WELL STAY IN FOR LIFE

Having recently unshook the spot, moved into my apartment, and started a new job, Shook is way behind on this blogging business. (Come to think of it, the whole fwavlosphere has been sluggish of late, save for the persistently prolific fellow-ette and MC MommaVoz . . . would that make her son Lil' Voz?) But all the recent action wasn't enough to keep Shook from a television with HBO on Sunday night . . . although the peanut gallery surrounding this particular TV can go fuck itself. Anyways, that shit was too long ago for me to offer any meaningful commentary, but consider this an open thread for anyone with thoughts. All Shook has to say is, poor Johnny Cakes . . .

Elsewhere, don't miss Ian McKellen telling Matt Lauer "the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction" and CNN inadvertently running a live clip of Bush rehearsing his immigration address. And since Shook is feeling a little shaken these days, remember the first post in this piece?

Rupert Murdoch gets top billing in New York's list of "The Influentials" in media . . . the fwavlosphere, inexplicably, goes unmentioned . . . but an accompanying piece explicating Murdoch's influence is not convincing. As follows, the second-person blurb annotated with Shook's actual reality . . .

You get up early and switch on Fox News for Your World With Neil Cavuto [NBC for the Today show] and catch the end of an O’Reilly Factor repeat [a new Ellen]; he’s hawking “The Spin Stops Here” golf balls [American Express]. Flip to Good Day New York [Today in New York], then grab the Post [the Daily News] for the subway—check out that “Page Six” ["Lowdown"] item on The Simple Life [okay, well, probably Murdoch]. At work, update your MySpace page [Facebook], search for a better job at SimplyHired.com [huh?], then pop to the newsstand for the Times of London [nope!], the Sun (National Rugby League scores—sweet!) [nope!], and the Weekly Standard (to see what Tony Snow’s White House pals are thinking) [nope!]. Your FoxSports.com Fantasy Football draft is coming up—study the prospects at Scout.com [nope!]. Then chat with the cute sales rep from HarperCollins about How I Met Your Mother (using flirting tips from AskMen.com; so much better than The Game) [nope, nope, and nope!]. Say, maybe she wants to catch a film: How about The Sentinel [didn't even think about seeing it]? Meh—RottenTomatoes.com [A.O. Scott of The New York Times] says it’s a poor man’s 24 [David Blaine: Drowned Alive]. So you head home alone—you need to catch up on The Shield [something better's probably on HBO]. Too bad your DirectTV’s [actually, yeah, but TiVo does recording, not DirectTV] been acting up—it didn’t record M*A*S*H [didn't that go off the air last century?] or Boston Legal [Conviction]. Your buddies in England and India never have problems with BSkyB Or Star [what buddies in England and India?]. You could always rent a flick: Napoleon Dynamite [okay, fair enough] or Alien [nope!]? Though you should finish Freakonomics [actually, opted for the briefly recurring column in The New York Times Magazine], and Mom’s been pushing The Purpose-Driven Life [nope!]. But you can’t put down Nicole Richie’s The Truth About Diamonds [nope!]! Finish it, then surf IGN.com [IGWhat?] for dirt on next summer’s Halo movie [Shook would sooner spend a weekend in hell than watch anything related to a videogame about killing people]. Whoa, there’s a Website that lets you do karaoke online [?]! Then check the TV Guide Channel [tv.yahoo.com]: Hey, a Buffy [West Wing] rerun on Channel 9 [Bravo]! Wait: Isn’t tonight a new episode of American Idol [The Office]? D’oh! [Your Moment of Zen . . . ]

So it seems Shook is more of a Jeff Zucker and Les Moonves kind of guy . . .

"YOU NEVER HEARD OF PULLING OUT?" . . . THE SOPRANOS — SEASON 6, EPISODE 9 . . . "THE RIDE" . . . CHRISSY DONS A ROCK, HITS THE ROCK, AND ROCKS OUT WITH THE DON . . . PAULIE CONFRONTS MORTALITY, HIS ADOPTED MOTHER, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND LAWRENCE WELK . . . FLASHBACK!

In the bathroom of Vesuvio's, Tony confronts a rattled Paulie and delivers what Shook is ready to declare, unequivocally, the best line of the season . . . "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie." Next episode, the congressional hearings.

Skip's Michael Brown allusion was just the latest example of very current events seeping into a Sopranos script. Remember Chrissy, in defending the two Arabs in his crew, noting that one of them had denounced the Mohammed cartoon riots? And there have been several other such moments that escape my mind right now. (Hit up the comments if you got any.) It's tricky adding current humor to a television script, since you run the risk of missing the window of relevance and appearing outdated instead of with it. But since Brownie was on the late-night TV circuit less than two months ago and the Mohammed controversy still rages in some circles, both topics felt fresh when they got mentions from the Sopranos cast.

HBO, more than most networks, embraces time stamps on its shows, which may have something to do with their lack of interest in future syndication. (Two HBO shows that been syndicated on basic cable, Arliss and Sex and the City, were notably less tied to any particular year, though they certainly speak to the present era.) Six Feet Under began every episode with the current year, in the form of a newly dead person's lifespan, and the Fishers' conversations often focused on current events. Entourage is full of timely Hollywood allusions, and who could forget Ari referencing Edgar Ray Killen, though not by name, in the epic steam room scene where he tries to convince E that he shouldn't fess up to cheating on his girlfriend? (Speaking of which, anyone else giddy with excitement for the Entourage premiere next June?) The time-pegged allusions in HBO scripts tend to work, add a little pop to the dialogue, and enhance the network's "It's Not TV" image. And on The Sopranos, the references to current events are key to humanizing the characters, which is itself key to the series. So . . . word.

Well, that's all Shook has to say about last night's episode, which was otherwise uninspiring for me in the blogging department. A question, though . . . has the show ever done a flashback to an earlier season like the one last night in which Chrissy told Tony about Adrianna? They've flashed back to points before the series began, like Tony's father cutting off that dude's finger, but Shook can't recall a gap-filler like that one. It didn't really seem to work . . . were new viewers just getting background to prepare for Carmella's confrontation with Liz LaCerva? . . . and kind of screamed West Wing, season two, to me.

Wish there were more with the Catholic Church and that badass priest who's not afraid to take on the mob. Can anyone read anything into the significance of St. Elzear?

The landlord for New York's premiere hip-hop radio station Hot 97 began eviction proceedings this week after yet another shooting broke out in front of the station's studios. As follows, the top ten reasons Hot 97 should and must be allowed to stay, many of which are the same reasons they are being evicted . . .

10. "The Tsunami Song" — The most offensive track of this millennium ("You could hear god laughing, 'Swim, you bitches, swim!'") is also the most hilarious. The song generated waves across the country, from official political denunciations to the epic, on-air battle between Miss Jones and Miss Info ("I know you think you're superior probably because you're Asian, but you're not") that's included in the cut linked here. (And that would be Todd Lynn in the background who says, "I'm gonna start shooting Asians.") Miss Jones and her crew got kicked off the air, but only long enough for most people to forget about the song. Now she's back and, as Shook can attest from listening in the shower every morning, better than ever.

9. Miss Jones vs. Star and Buc Wild — On the topic of a.m. jocks, where would the New York metropolitan area be without the ongoing feud between Hot 97's Miss Jones in the Morning and rival Power 105's Star and Buc Wild Morning Show? It all started back in August 2001, when the dj's shared the same show on Hot 97. Star, announcing the news of Aaliyah's tragic death, played a clip of a plane crash with demonic glee. Miss Jones would have none of it, called Star a "fucking asshole" before the censors could bleep it, and stormed out of the studio. Star and Buc Wild got suspended, jumped to Power 105, and listeners have been able to enjoy the rivalry ever since.

8. Fatman Scoop — Hot 97's unheralded midday dj doesn't take shit from nobody. Case in point, yesterday afternoon, after playing Lil' Kim's "Whoa" ("Stand behind Martin Luther King, but I'm more like Malcolm X"), Fatman laid it down . . . "You can't compare yourself to Malcolm X if you wear a nipple ring." Also, his name is Scoop.

7. Lil' Kim: Countdown to Lockdown — Speaking of the Queen Bee, her one-year sentence for perjury, stemming from a 2001 shooting outside the Hot 97 studios, spawned the best (and highest-rated) show on BET this year, chronicling her last two weeks of freedom before heading to jail. Also, The Naked Truth, released from behind bars, is possibly the best album of her career. So bottom line is, more artists should get involved in shootings at Hot 97.

6. Gravy — Shook had never heard of Brooklyn rapper Gravy before he got shot in the ass outside the Hot 97 building last week. But he's clearly the man, because instead of calling for an ambulance like some pussy, the heavyweight Gravy calmly walked upstairs and conducted an interview on the air with the bullet in his ass. Damn.

5. 50 Cent vs. The Game — The best rivalry in hip hop was christened on the Hot 97 airwaves when 50 kicked Game out of G-Unit during an interview with Funkmaster Flex last year. A member of The Game's crew ended up taking one in the leg outside the station's offices.

4. Funkmaster Flex — Not only the Funkmaster but also the Flex, he's the top dj in hip hop, the genre's kingmaker, the star of two television shows (on Spike and ESPN), a custom car maestro, and the dopest shoe spokesman since Julius Erving.

3. Kiss 98.7 and CD 101.9 — Shook has never listened to these R&B and smooth jazz stations, respectively, but the airwaves should be a smorgasbord of democracy . . . or something. In any event, it's not fair that these sister stations, which share office and studio space with 97.1, might be evicted just because Hot 97 is too hott for the radio.

2. Smackfest '05 — Remember when Hot 97 held two dozen on-air bouts in which female contestants smacked each other as hard as they could for a grand prize of $5,000? As a pacifist, Shook was more horrified than amused by Smackfest '05, but New York State had no right to slap the station with a $300,000 fine for it. Hot 97 put videos online, but had to take them down as part of Eliot Spitzer's lawsuit. Luckily, for the sake of free expression at least, one of the videos is still available here.

1. Power 105 — Blows.

 #  hustle hard on the block (0) 8:31 AM