Hi Chrissygirl. Welcome to Chase Lounge. Thanks for sharing some of your thoughts and character preferences.

The Movie Never Ends (http://thechaselounge.net/forumdisplay.php?f=105 ) is the forum for fan fiction. Feel free to share anything there you like, although things are pretty slow around here these days, so don't expect a big audience.

Hi all,

Been a "read only" member for a while but felt the need to post in these sad days.
I live in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Obviously I'm bigtime into Sopranos, but it will from now on never be the same.
I watched a lot of the episodes when they were on television here in Holland and bought the box afterwards, then me and the missus were hooked. We do "all episodes in a month-marathons" every couple of years.

We visit "the old country" often for holidays . The north of Italy is a good 12 hours driving just outside the speedlimits. The food, the Barolo, multipulciano, the art, the cars....visit if you can

Further slightly related facts: my Dad had a butchershop (where he actually did sell meat )
Oh, and I'm married to a psychotherapist......

Best regards

Jos

Hi Jos,

Thanks for your introduction, and welcome to the forum. I saw your post in the thread on JG's death. I'm sorry to "meet" you under these circumstances, but, as I said in that thread, coming forward now is a great tribute to him in itself.

You sound either like someone raised in an English-speaking country who later moved to the Netherlands or else you have a stunningly great command of English as a second language. In either case, it's wonderful you avail yourself of the cultural eclecticism of Europe and specifically go to Italy often. I've had a growing desire in the last 10 years to make at least one trip to Italy, Germany, England, Ireland, France, Spain, etc. before I wind things up in this life. And my nephews, who are 18 and 22, are ironically in Italy right now as part of a school trip for the younger one. Since I indoctrinated them both, but especially the older one, into the Sopranos, I'm sure they will have something to say to me when they return about the timing of JG's death in Italy with their own trip there.

I assume you never saw a "client" of your dad's chop off his pinky with a cleaver. And it's very cool you have a psychotherapist in the house to weigh in on all the Melfi scenes. As you might guess from my screen name, Tony's inner world was always the most powerful aspect of the show for me.

Hi Fly,

Or should I say "boss"...?

Thank you for the kind words. Regarding my English; I did linguistics at uni before I became a welder. Talk about change, uh. After 15 years of hardcore welding I now teach, and most of that is in English too, as it is an international school. So, I do my best, and I appreciate your compliments, but I am born and raised here in Holland.

I enjoyed reading lots of your postings and conversations with ObservingEgo regarding the therapeutic sessions. They are much discussed at our house as my wife is of the same "analytical school" of therapists. I'm a bit of an interested dilletant in these matters and sometimes struggled with the jargon. The book by Gabbard helped me appreciating some of the finer nuances of the Melfi-scenes, but I'm still on the learningcurve.
Anyways, hope to contribute something worthy of the bandwidth here sometime.

Best regards,
Jos

That is very impressive about your language skills. I took one year of German in college a zillion years ago and can hardly remember anything about it. But perhaps when I prepare for my European trip, I'll get a "Rosetta Stone" for one or two languages to see if I can at least competently order dinner and ask for directions. Of course now we have the great benefit of handheld computers called "phones", and I suspect by now there are apps that will give you instant, audible translations in one language of something spoken into the phone in another, giving you your own personal, portable translator.

My brother in law was a welder for many years doing large building construction. He still welds smaller projects now, mostly repairs of equipment for friends (he welded my bicycle rack back together after a hit and run driver mangled it in a parking lot.) So I have great respect for what a person with skill and a torch can do with metal.

I loved those conversations with Observing Ego, and later another psychologist named jtod came along. I learned a lot from both of them as I am in no way trained in that field, just very, very interested in the human psyche and why people wind up being the way they are. I feel the Sopranos showed that as well as any work of art I've ever come across.

Good to learn a little about you, and whatever you wish to share in the main threads will be much appreciated.

The rosetta stone......, I remember the smarter cookies in the late '80s at uni working on these incredibly complicated alghoritms to build a universal translatormachine. Now we have Googletranslator with some results varying from the hilarious to the downright stupid.
Now imagine a Rosetta stone in dr Melfi's office ! You know how difficult it is to give meaning to a therapeutic sessions in ones own language, let alone a foreign one. The hidden meanings, bodylanguage, references to literature, the "between the lines" , repeated patterns or inverted ones. I'm afraid the Rosetta-project has yet a very long road ahead.
But in Italy, for ordering a meal or asking directions it will probably be just fine.
Then again; all the food is good there so it does'nt really matter what you order, and the traffic will be chaos anyways.....

Cheers,

Jos

Hello all! New here, I got into the Sopranos in 2007 after hearing my mom talk about it so much while I was stationed in Japan. I bought the first season but sat on it I think for months! Finally started it and I was hooked!

I am 26 (27 in Sept) a former Marine, who is married to a marine. We have 2 boys, one who is almost 2 and the other is 8 months.

I am a fan of Dr. Melfi, hence the name! I am not sure what made me like her character the most, but I've been in and out of therapy for years ( I Have OCD I take Prozac and attend therapy), and maybe that was the attraction. I also think Lorraine Bracco's depression story is inspiring that even those who are famous can beat it, after hitting rock bottom. I would like to see Rizzoli and Isles, never seen it before heard she was in it as a main character been wanting to check it out. Hope to have fun here!

I also love Paulie!! So funny! Kind of surprised he wasn't whacked.

My biological mother who is also adopted had an Italian adopted mother so she grew up speaking Italian but wasn't very good at it, and she even had a "connected" uncle. My adopted dad spoke highly of him, except said he wore suits a lot, had dogs in his yard, and wouldn't let you take anything home. Figured i'd add that interesting tidbit. Ironically the family didn't know she was adopted despite being a redhead then again her dad's mother was an Irish red head.

Decided to post here because I just got my husband in the show, we started watching it a few weeks ago already on Season 4. He likes Junior and Paulie. My mom liked Paulie but hated Dr. Melfi
Renee

FOMW, my husband is a welder btw!

Welcome to the forum, Renee Melfi Fan, and thanks for sharing a little about your life (and thanks also for your and your husband's service to our country).

The first 3 seasons of the show especially depended upon the Melfi-Tony dynamic as much as anything. I especially enjoyed Melfi as a character in the first two seasons when more attention was given her as an independent character, and you'd get to hear her battling with her pretentious ex or subtly defending Tony from ugly jokes to Dr. Cusamano one minute while standing on a toilet trying to spy on Tony's house the next. I found her pre-session drinks in season 2 darkly comical, and Lorraine Bracco put just the right touch of "relaxed" speech into Melfi's demeanor afterward. And, of course, Employee of the Month remains easily among my top 5 all time Sopranos episodes.

Neat that your husband and Jos are both welders and that you and Jos are the latest members to post in this thread. The closest I've ever gotten to welding is soldering some electrical connections.

"Baciamo le mani."

Hi, mobsters . I'm from Italy and I love The Sopranos. I'm 21 years old. David Chase is a genius. I've got the complete DVD collection:icon_smile: . Forgive me about the macaronic English.

"Con te... Partirò ♫"