Tony Soprano

I can identify with Tony Soprano of the long running Mafia soap 'The Sopranos'. This isn't really all that surprising, since he has been written so that a sizable chunk of the media-consuming public can identify with him, hence the popularity and longevity of the programme.

I relate to Tony partly because The Sopranos is such a post-modern text. Before you yawn, let me explain what I mean by this:

Modernist texts contain clear fault lines, for example between good and evil. Even when a 'good guy' does something 'bad', this is rationalised or excused. John Wayne movies are, to an extent, classic examples of such modern texts - goodies and baddies on the big screen. In terms of TV drama, the smaltz-fest 'Band of Brothers' is an outstanding example of an updated version of modernist text - yeah there is more gore, but the Americans are the good guys and the Germans the baddies.

Postmodernism is about recognising that such simplistic ways of looking at the world are not only inadequate, they are childlike, tiresome and even dangerous. Postmodernism is Western society in its twilight years; mature but cynical and tired.

So, the Sopranos is postmodern because it contains likeable characters who have some fine qualities but are also very bad people, living in a world where there is some meaning, some love, but is also systemically cruel and injust.

If Tony and his crew caren't be written off as 'bad', then can anyone in the programme be characterised as 'good'? Well, there is no shortage of victims in the Sopranos, but you would be hard pressed to see the FBI as being 'good'. Agent Harris is pretty likeable, but this is despite his being an FBI agent rather than because of it; he has a stoic humanism about him in that he works to take Tony Soprano down but at the same time likes him and behaves in a decent way that some of the other cold, faceless, FBI agents don't.

So, why do I relate to Tony? Firstly, the show is about Tony Soprano, so we know him better than any of the other characters; we literally get inside his head. Secondly, I think that many of us can relate to being in a relatively comfortable position in life but being both insecure and disatisfied. More personally, I can intimately relate to Tony's eruptions of otherwise contained rage, and perhaps his ability to recognise and feel ambivilant about that rage on reflection; I can see myself in Tony as he rages about the world to Dr. Melfi.

As someone who recognises himself as at least a partly failed person, and who works to try to mitigate this reality while accepting that it will always be the case, I suppose I like Tony because I see something of myself in extremisis in this volatile, flawed man. Perhaps its also because he has a soft spot for ducks and animals in general!

You can now buy the complete box-set of all 6 seasons of The Sopranos here at Amazon.co.uk

Nokia 5800 v iPhone 3G v Nokia e71

For me, weighing up all the variables, out of the Nokia 5800, Nokia E71 and Apple iPhone the clear loser is the Nokia 5800. The clear winner is less clear.

Dealing with the Nokia 5800 first, it loses hands down on build quality alone. I couldn't believe that the live product I had in my hand is a Nokia flagship - it felt plastic, cheap and just generally pretty crap - the back cover presses on and pulls off through brute force, which is quite easy since the whole thing is so flimsy.

The touchscreen interface of the 5800 is a relatively late, and belated, departure for Nokia but if it's a touchscreen phone you are after then the 5800 just isn't it - the screen's aesthetics or functionality doesn't come close to the iPhone although it does give the impression of being an poor impersonation of it.

Sticking to the point about build quality, both the iPhone and the Nokia e71 feel like serious pieces of kit. The iPhone is well known in this regard so I won't say anymore than, aesthetically, it is worth the hype.

With the Nokia e71, a lesser known business handset currently being pushed hard on the consumer market by Hutchinson's UK '3' network, the handset oozes quality in the same league as the iPhone. Its casing is mostly built from precision tooled metal and at £20 a month all in, it's also a lot cheaper than the iPhone, currently retailing solely with 02 at £99 up front and £35 a month thereafter (a saving of £369 for the e71, or around half the net price of the iPhone).

The e71 does everything that the iPhone does other than be an iPod, which I don't see as much of a problem since itunes is a rip off compared to Napster or Spotify. If you do want to use the phone as a music devive then the SD memory slot on the side means that you can store as much music on the e71 as you like, although its 2.5mm mini headphone jack is a pain in the arse.

However, whereas the iPhone is a consumer gadget that has branched out into business, the e71 is a business phone that one operator is pushing as a consumer item.

While the e71 does all the fun and interesting things that the iPhone does (gmail, maps, various applications etc), it just doesn't do it as well as the iPhone does, primarily because it is a qwerty keyboard device with a relatively small screen.

On the other hand, the qwerty keyboard is essential for typing any length of email and the phone works really well with email and mobile internet browsing.

So, as a consumer who doesn't intend to do much typing but consumes a lot of online media, the iPhone is aesthetically better despite annoyances such as not having a replaceable battery and generally being a pretty shit phone as opposed to a swish pocket computer. But how much are you willing to pay for that aesthetic edge?

I went for the e71 in the end and, while I sometimes regret it, overall I think I did the right thing; the £350 odd quid that I have saved, at zero loss of utility, can be better spent than lining the pockets of Steve Jobbs (Apple's smug CEO). As for the 5800, just don't bother - it's a poor man's iPhone and a pretty shit one at that.