The business of blogs is big business.

Then there are moments which reaffirm that blogs are not about selling, but for CONNECTING.  It’s about putting it all out there unfiltered, getting into disagreements, not afraid to look like a tool.  It’s the honesty that grabs you.

Kurt Sutter is about dishing up honesty and plays the new media game where the rules are being made up as we go.   People follow him because he is so provocative, so interesting that they want to tune in.  You may know him as the writer/producer of the FX television series called Sons of Anarchy.  He is an Academy Award-winning writer, actor and is well known for his work on The Shield.

He recently did an interview HERE about blogging and provided some insight on the TV show.  He also provides a shout-out about this blog as one his favorite motorcycle blogs.  Huh?  Sure, I’ve posted on the series, but I’ve certainly not been slobbering all over myself about the show.  In fact, I’ve been somewhat critical due to a number of episodes that I feel go beyond developing characters (Gemma’s rape; Tig bites the nose off a guys face) for the purpose of “goosing up” ratings with violence.   So where does that leave us?  Did Mr. Sutter “work” me?  I’ve been worked before.  I recognize it when I see it.  I’m not sure this time as Kurt is not some backwoods uneducated nit-wit who is clueless about the new media business.

Blind Faith once sang, it’s time to come down off your throne.  Mr. Sutter does that and for a split-second I felt like the blog mattered.  That’s the power of blogs.  You are momentarily CONNECTED.

Sutter is on Facebook, Twitter and blogs at sutterink.

Photo courtesy of FX and SOA.

All Rights Reserved © Northwest Harley Blog

Yeah, I skipped College today. There was 2 reasons for it.

1) I am skint and my bus pass ran out yesterday, so physically can’t afford college, unless I chance it with an out of date bus pass. Which I don’t want to do, cause they may just take the pass off me, including my college card. Which they have done before.

2) I was very, very upset yesterday. Im hoping I am just ‘dipping’ because my meds have been changed, but I dont think thats it. I was so close to phoning the Samartians because I just wanted to throw myself of something and end it all. Pretty severe, when you think that the medication is supposed to stop me feeling like that. But after I blogged, I went to the toilets and had a cry.

*sigh*
Anyways. I lay in bed this morning reading Death Note, and feeling sorry for myself. When I am like that, I am better just lying, locked away from everyone, cause I’ll just say something stupid.

I still haven’t done any work, although I sat and drew at my work last night. I say I draw, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was all I could do from walking out of my work last night, and never going back. Whats bugging me, is that how am I supposed to make sure I am doing everything for a customer, when the call center manager is on my back telling me to hurry up and get on the next call. If I need to email another department, I can’t. And that is not helping me at all, when I am feeling this stressed.

Just focusing on Saturday, where I’ll be up in Aberdeen with two of my oldest friends, Sharon and Gemma. Its Gemma’s birthday night out. I’m just looking to clear my head, so am really looking forward to it. Its kind of like the light at the end of the tunnel. Reminds me, I need to get Gemma and Sharon bday things on Friday, when I get paid.

Tonight I held my sleeping newborn son while I watched Sons of Anarchy.  It doesn’t get any better than that now does it.  Tonight’s episode of Sons of Anarchy, The Culling just blew me away.  It was so amazing.  I know the finale is going to be great, but I don’t know if it could get much better than it did tonight. Lots of stuff happened tonight to move the story along so bear with me in this recap.  I normally don’t go into this much depth, but it was so good I don’t want to leave anything out.

Looks like the Sons of Anarchy are getting ready for war.  SAMCRO has gotten everyone important to them into the clubhouse and put it on lock down.  They don’t want any of their families or friends hurt in what’s about to happen.  They’ve also brought in some outside charters to help them out.  In the chapel they run down the plan to get their guns, clear Chibs with Jimmy O, and turn Weston and others against Zobele.  They are organized and they are ready.  They briefly discuss Half-Sac after they find out that his body rejected the implant.  It’s good to see Clay with such a clear head all of a sudden.

Jax, Opie, and Juice go to tell Weston about Zobele’s dealings with the Mayans.  Of course Weston is pissed about Jax busting in his house and messing with his sons.  He also has no idea that Jax and the Sons know about what he did to Gemma.

Chibs meets his wife Fiona at a park and he tells her that he wants to get her out since the ATF is aware of Jimmy O and they are planning to take him down.  Clay has arranged for the Belfast charter of SOA to watch out for Chibs daughter.  While the two share a brief moment in the bathroom at the park, she doesn’t seem sure about leaving.  Clay and Bobby meet with Jimmy O and tell him that it’s really the Hayes’ who’ve turned on the Irish, they give him photos that Unser took from the ATF as proof.

Back at the clubhouse Gemma and Tara are sitting at the bar when a “croweater” offers Tara some coffee.  At first she refuses, but Gemma insists that she needs to take advantage of it.  She tells her that people need to show her respect in Charming, since she’s Jax Teller’s old lady.

Clay and Jax meet with the Niners and the Asians.  They explain that they have a common enemy, Zobele.  They hatch a plan to wipe out Zobele and the Mayans wich is good business for all.

Weston finds Zobele’s drug house and busts in killing the two workers and Ule after he tells Weston that the guns went to the Mexicans, corroborating what Jax told him.  Back at the club house Chuckie has resurfaced with burns from the Cara Cara fire.  He agrees to file a report that Weston torched the studio and is sent outside while the grown-up talk shop.

Over at the IRA safe house Polly is leaving and Agent Stahl heads in to talk to Edward.  She warns him that if he doesn’t give up Jimmy O she will “bury him.”

Polly arrives at the cigar shop and Weston bust in with some of his Aryan Brotherhood goons and pulls a gun on Zobele for betraying the cause.  Polly pulls a gun on Weston and Zobele is able to calm them all down enough to at least put down the guns.  Weston is pissed and is starting to get a little irrational.  He’s playing right into SAMCRO’s hands.  Zobele tells his daughter to call Hale and get some cops over to watch her and the store while he goes for more new protection.  Weston arrives at the Charming PD as his sons are being taken away by social services since he left them alone in a house with loaded firearms.  Jax, Opie and Juice show up and set up a time for a fight between the ten best of Weston’s crew and the ten best of Jax’s, no weapons.

Inside the police department Hale tells Chief Unser about the killings that Weston committed and he thinks it’s SAMCRO’s work.  Unser tells him that it isn’t, and it doesn’t matter anyway since it didn’t take place in their jurisdiction.  At that pint Hale notices Chuckie and asks why he’s there.  Unser informs him that he witnessed who burned down CaraCara.  Hale has a tail put on Jax and Clay.

Gemma and Tara are out running errands and have a little heart to heart about their roles in life.  Tara’s role is healing and Gemma’s is to be a fierce mother. 

Over at the safe house Jimmy O shows up to pick up the guns, at least that’s what Edward and the ATF watching the house think.  Jimmy and SAMCRO trick both of them into leaving and get their guns.  After the guns are loaded up in the van Clay, Jax, Tig, Bobby and a few others head to the Army-Nay surplus store to continue the ruse.  Of course Jimmy O isn’t there, and neither are the guns.  When Stahl asks where Jimmy O is the Sons plead ignorance of who he is, and Stahl hits Chibs.  They open the create that is supposed to have the guns in them  but contains only two dead rats, meant as a message for the Hayes’.

Over at the hospital Tara is catching up on her charts when Margret Murphy, the administrator who suspended Tara walks in.  Murphy starts to bully Tara, and Tara turns on her.  Telling her just how much she pity’s her.  When Murphy calls Gemma a whore Tara goes after her and assaults her, warning her that if she does anything about it that she will be in big trouble.  Oh and while Murphy is keeping quiet she should drop the claim against Tara.  Murphy is scared, and it looks like she’s done bullying anyone.  Way to go Tara, looks like she’s embraced being an old lady after all.

The crew heads off to meet Weston, and  Gemma consoles both Tara and Lyla as the guys ride off being tailed by the cops that Hale put on them.  The Sons wait on Weston to show up, and when he does his guys are armed to the teeth.  At that point Both LaRoy and Lin show up with their crews tilting the scales in SAMCRO’s favor.  After Weston’s guys put down the guns, they fight goes as planned until the cops show up.  When Hale gets there it’s only the Sons and Weston left.  Hale arrests Weston for burning down the studio, and Clay and the crew call Unser and head over to Zobele’s cigar store.

Unser send the cops watching the store away and waits for Clay to show up.  When Clay shows up he tells Polly to call her dad.  At that point Zobele walks in.  Clay tries to get him outside so he can take him outside of Charming to kill him.  At that point Hale and the two cops that Unser sent away come back in and see what’s going on.  Unser tells them all to leave since he’s the ranking officer there.  As Hale and the other two cops begin to leave Zobele tells them that he and his daughter are in possession of some heroin and it’s under the counter.  Smart move.  He realizes that they will last longer in jail than they will on the street with SAMCRO after them.  As he’s being arrested Jax tells Zobele that they are still going to kill him.

Thoughts and Observations:

• Wow, I mean WOW.  Sutter and crew really out did themselves.  I loved season one, but man this season has blown it out of the water.  No sophomore slump here.
• I was a little creeped out when Zobele left Polly at the cigar shop.  That kiss he gave her was a little more than a father should give a daughter.
• Zobele left to find new protection.  I can only assume that he was going to enlist the Mayans.
• With Weston and Zobele behind bars I guess the attention turns to clearing out the Mayans.  SAMCRO made a promise to the Lin and LaRoy to help clear them out.  Wonder how long it will take before the Asians and the Niners turn on each other?
• Looks like Half-Sac is going to get his top rocker.  I’ve been waiting for this.  He sure as hell has earned it.
• Tara’s turn in this episode was AWESOME!  “No THIS is assault!”
• What was that whole thing with the guy from the Tacoma charter and Tig?  There is some sort of beef there, I hope it get’s explained in the finale.
• Jax is responsible to Weston’s kids being taken away.  “At least I didn’t gang rape them.”
• During the fight Tig bit one of Weston’s guys ear off.  This is why Tig is so great.
• I’m not making any predictions for the finale, but I do think that Unser will step down at the end of the episode, and next season will be all about Hale vs. SAMCRO.
• I can’t wait for next week.  FX isn’t sending out the preview screeners until the day it airs, so don’t ask me what happens.  I don’t know any more than you do.

I’ve finally finished re-designing my website and have launched it tonight. There’s still a few more images to add… but I’m so happy – it’s finally live!

http://www.embellishedmakeup.com.au/

Primer vam anar a Bellús a vore el paratge on està la Cova Negra. El riu albaida creua la zona on es pot pràcticar l’escalada, el ciclisme de muntanya i el senderisme. Aquests dies, amb la pròxima vinguda del fred, els arbres es preparen per passar l’hivern i les fulles grogues ocupen les copes dels caducifolis.

Després d’haver fet gana se n’anàrem a Quatretonda. Allí està l’Heretat de Pere. Casa Rural, mini granja i restaurant on ens havíen dit, amics de la Vall d’Albaida, que es menjava bé. Vam anar a comprovar-ho. I, realment, és un encert total. Érem 10 adults i 8 xiquets/es i vam estar en dues taules amb l’arròs al forn per als més menuts i, per als adults,  no sé quants entrants sabrosíssims i dos perols de fang plens de carn de cabridet amb alls. Impressionant. Vam menjar el que podíem i més. I vam compartir taula amb els amics i les amigues en un racó acollidor i ple de gent dels pobles del voltant. Un lloc casolà però que no et deixarà indiferent.

Episodio 11 gustato per bene!!
I nostri amici sempre più ciulotti, il vero manico è la Gemma, lei è il vero cuore pulsante di Samcro…

Subisce e gestisce tutti i SoA

Un consiglio: non fatevi più vedere al club senza la toppa

Sons of Anarchy has come a long way in two years. Don’t get me wrong, the first season was good, but its focus was incredibly narrow, and the plot line was fairly simple. Last night’s episode, “Service,” however, has as much going on in one hour of television as any episode since The Wire ended. It would be hard to address everything without breaking it down story by story, so here goes:

Jax Going Nomad: Nope. This was sewn up pretty quickly, as was to be expected after Gemma revealed her secret to her family. Jax tells Clay in the first scene of “Service” that he isn’t going anywhere. Just when we begin to wonder if their beef is truly over, though, Jax starts talking hostile takeover with Opie, which leads me to believe that the feud will continue once this matter is resolved.

Revenge for Gemma’s rape: We get a great scene in the beginning where Jax – while holding his infant son – explains his plan for Zobelle’s crew: Kill ‘em all. Unfortunately, with so many eyes on SAMCRO, a bloodbath isn’t exactly plausible. They decide that they need to find a weakness to exploit. In a plot turn that seemed a little rushed, Jax spies Zobelle working with the Mayans without Westin’s knowledge. The Sons decide the best way to split up LOAN may be to inform the hard core separatists of their leader’s dealings with other races.

Gemma: Gemma really sinks into some self-loathing after telling the boys about her incident. She tells Tara her fear that Clay won’t want her anymore. She makes an almost successful pass at a drunken Tig. She chats up a cigarette-bumming priest outside of a support group meeting. She works away her sorrows in the office of the body shop, until the final scene when Clay, on the advice of  (a still drunken?) Tig, comes to take her home. She refuses, saying she has work to do. Clay says “fine,” and heads for the door. Just when all seems lost, he slams the door, staying inside, sweeps the desk clean and props her up on it. “I want my wife.”

Tig: What a great Tig episode. Who would have ever thought the guy who talked about fucking corpses in the first few episodes would be such a great character? First, he is driven to drink by the news of Gemma’s rape. When he goes to collect the guns from her house, she makes a pass at him, and they go at it in the hallway. He starts to notice the family photos that they have broken, and calls it off. Driven by booze and guilt, he confesses to Opie that he murdered Donna. This was bound to happen. In TV, the other shoe always drops, but rarely does it happen so suddenly. Tig understandably tried to pass the buck to Agent Stahl, but still took a savage beating from Ope. In the end, he gives Clay the best advice he could possibly give regarding Gemma, saying: “The thing that hurts her the most is thinking you don’t want her anymore.”

Opie: Is there any doubt left that Opie is the moral standout of SAMCRO? He handles the news of Donna’s murder by Tig and Clay with more poise than Jax did. He gives Stahl a fucking earful at gunpoint, but lets her live. “The Outlaw had mercy.” He remains in the club, even doing Clay a favor by requesting that nobody else learn the truth. As if this isn’t enough, he mends fences after the Piney situation, which I’ll explain later. I wonder about possible character shifts now that Opie has read John Teller’s manifesto. One thing’s for sure; if Jax takes over SAMCRO and becomes the flip-side of Clay, Opie will be the flip side of Tig – his unofficial right hand.

Piney: This was a bit odd. Piney has known for a while that Clay was responsible for Donna’s death, so why did he wait until Opie found out to take a shot at the Prez? Was he trying to save face with his son? Did seeing Ope’s reaction set him off? I’m not sure. I even thought he was on a suicide path until they showed him outside of the club during the last meeting. Good thing he’s a terrible shot, or shot would have really hit the fan. He walks out of the clubhouse telling Clay to let him know how things will be handled. Clay says “don’t ever come in this clubhouse,” then pauses for what seemed like forever. On second viewing, though, there is no pause at all, just “… without your cut.” Piney: “It won’t happen again.”

Chibs: The Chibs-the-rat story-line took one episode to materialize, and one to dissipate. Hopefully they can put this on the back-burner for a while, as the season’s final two episodes are shaping up to be pretty busy.

Scenes from the next episode: Holy hell, shit’s going down! SAMCRO appears to be teaming up with the Niners and the Asians to battle the League. Should be pretty damn good, as the second-to-last episodes usually have the climaxes of the seasons.

Sons: B+

Rarely Used list of Girls (2005) only 3 have entered the top 100. Are names really slow to enter and creep or do they suddenly appear at like 600?

Aeron, Aine, Allegra, Amity, Arabella, Ariadne, Artemisia, Aviva, Avril, Beatrix, Britt, Calla, Caprice, Cassia, Cecily, Daria, Dimitra, Donatella, Eleni, Ellery, Elodie, Emeline, Emlyn, Esme, Fifi, Finola, Gaia, Gemma, Hadassah,Hermione, Hollis, Honor, Isadora, Jemima, Junia, Kateri, Kiki, Lark, Lavender, Lilias, Linden, Lyra, Maisie, Mattea, Mehitabel, Melia, Mercy, Niamh, Olympia, Orly, Pippa, Romy, Shenandoah, Shoshana, Stefania, Tamsin, Tayla, Thomasina, Tilda, Topaz, Tova, Vashti, Venice, Verity, Zilla.

Arabella 2005- 795, 2006- 649, 2007- 648 2009-657

Gemma 2008- 888

Hadassah 2007- 996, 2008-988

and the SSA website has gone down for me so I can’t find the rankings for Tayla for the last 5 years?

Dissabte 07/11 ens van fer el comiat de solters. Estàvem a casa tan tranquils quan, de cop i volta, sentim des del balcó una colla de bojos que comencen a cridar, xiular i cantar: “Visca Hong Kong, visca Sabadell!”.

Treiem el cap i, morts de vergonya, ens adonem que hi ha tots els nostres amics a baix al carrer, vestits amb samarretes carabassa amb la nostra foto impresa.

Anteriorment ens havien donat una llista d’elements que havíem de portar.  Agafem els patracols, ens autodesitgem sort, i baixem al carrer.

El primer que van fer va ser donar-nos una samarreta temàtica a cadascú i dir-nos que ens poséssim els antifaços. Ens van repartir a cadascú a un cotxe diferent i apa, som-hi.

Però a on?

Aaaah, sorpresaaaa! Ja us ho trobareu!!!

Al final vam arribar al Tibidabo.

Va ser súper guai!

Un cop a dins, ens van començar a fer tot de proves. La cosa va començar malament, perquè la primera prova va ser: demaneu-li a algú de l’altre sexe que us descordi el primer botó dels pantalons i la primera senyora a qui ho vaig demanar va fugir corrents amb cara de “socorrs, un maníac”! Per sot una parella jove amb un fill es van prestar més a la conya.

Ens van fer un test de preguntes generals (resulta que jo sóc més bon hongkonguès que la Dawn catalana) o un altre tipus Su Media Naranja (us en recordeu?) amb pissarreta inclosa amb preguntes com ara “al llit quina és la teva postura preferida?”. Per sort vam acertar.

Però sens dubte el més espectacular va ser passar-nos tot el dia disfressat de princesa (jo) i d’Abeja Maya (la Dawn, que estava guapíssima!). Vam ser l’atracció de tots els nens. Per allà on anàvem, tothom començava a cantar: “En un país multicolooor”.

(Aquest foto ens encanta, ens l’hem impresa i emmarcada a casa!)

Va ser boníssim que, tot dinant, dos nens d’uns sis o set anys se li acosten a la Dawn i tots seriosos li pregunten:

- Com és que les abelles també veuen cocacola?

El Tibidabo va ser molt bonic. Ens ho vam passar molt bé. No hi havia estat des que l’havien reobert i trobo que l’han deixat molt bé: les vistes són espectaculars i l’han fet rotllo vintage, amb un toc antic que queda molt agradable, ja sigui per passejar-hi o per muntar a les atraccions. Val la pena!

Del Tibidabo vam passar un moment per casa i, ja canviats, vam anar a sopar. Teníem taula reservada a Eterna, un restaurant d’espectacle amb drag queens. Va ser molt divertit, cantaven cançons i es ficaven amb el públic. Això sí, la Dawn i jo ens vam passar tota la nit pregant que, sisplau, ens ignoressin. I per sort no se’ns van acostar!

El Dani i el Lucas es van partir el cul (ups!) de tant de riure!!!

Finalment vam acabar la nit cantant karaoke, on vam riure molt. Tant del que cantàvem nosaltres, com el que cantava la resta de públic. Hi havia molt de friki suelto! Un pavo que es pensava que estava a Operación Triunfo, i una senyora sudamericana que portava 10 copes de mes, no s’aguantava dreta, no veia la lletra de les cançons que cantava i tot i així va atemptar una vegada i una altra cançons d’aquestes súper karaokils de “me has herido, me ha robado el corazón y se ha ido con otra”.

La nostra colla vam cantar Entre dos tierras, Isla bonita, Mamma mia, Eternal Flame (la Dawn i jo), etc

La Irene i jo cantant al ritme de la Madonna a Isla Bonita: “él dihow te amow” amb accent americà hua hua hua!

Vam arribar a casa cap a les 5, reventats, però mlt contents. Els nostres amics s’havien currat un dia esplèndid!

Moltes gràcies a tots:

- Als que per sort hi vau poder assistir: Àlex, Irene, Ester, Laura, Jordi, Edu, Gemma, Marga, Jordi, Rosa, Jordi, Núria, Jordi, Lucas, Dani, Sara i Helena

- Als que per desgràcia no hi vau poder assistir

I ara, dissabte que ve, la mega Wedding Celebration!!!!

Dappy from N-Dubz has been complaining about The Xfactor taking over the UK Charts. The dynamic urban group featured on The Xtra Factor last night where Dappy listed the only 4 artists to beat their single ‘I Need You’ this week in the charts; 1) The Black Eyed Peas 2) Leona Lewis 3) JLS 4) Cheryl Cole.

He has a point though, as those 4 acts have all performed on Xfactor in the last few weeks.

On the 1Xtra breakfast show with Trevor & Gemma this morning, Tulisa said ”We know that if we performed infront of 16million viewers we would be #1”.

In related news, Fazer has been banned from driving for 6 months for driving without insurance.

The group’s album, ‘Against All Odds’, comes out today!

New image in the natural orange photography contest

its not common to have a ginger female. …
Gemma photography picture

Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya sempat menulis The Language of The Season di blog saya yang lain (http://indahpratiwiputri.wordpress.com/). Puisi itu menceritakan sedikit cerita tentang perubahan pikiran saya terhadap hujan. Dulu, saya tidak terlalu menyukai hujan. Pemikiran saya terlalu sempit untuk mengartikan indahnya hujan.

Macet, becek, basah, kotor, lumpur, susah kemana – kemana, dingin, penyakitan dan seribu satu alasan negatif lainnya.

Sekarang? Beda lagi ceritanya. Semua permasalahan diatas minimal bisa saya nikmati. Gerutu, muka cemberut, kesel sampai cacian sudah berhenti menjadi efek samping!

Yang ada akhirnya, senyum dan khayalan tingkat tinggi.

No, its not about the negative fantasy but the good one.

Nari – nari ditengah hujan ala Ally Mcbeal sambil ditemenin lagu Feist atau Regina Spektor bersama sahabat dan “special one” adalah salah satu khayalan saya.

 We do some crazy things, the-hoola-hoola-dance and laughing together, taking our self-photograph then running freely. We do in an extraordinary time and place. We celebrate nothing but happiness.Then, we discover something in between that is the unforgettable moment in our life ever.

Serukan sepertinya? Mengingat usia saya sekarang bukan hitungan jari lagi, mandi hujan adalah hal yang cukup susah dilakukan. Apalagi jika dihimpit kegiatan rutinitas, terdesak waktu dan tempat yang menjadikan hal tersebut : Tidak Mungkin Dilakukan.

Thanks to Rumi yang suka mencuci otak saya dengan pernyataan bahwa dia sangat menyukai hujan dan punya seribu rasa senang dengan adanya hujan. Diam – diam, kalimat – kalimatnya mengabrasi rasa suka saya dengan musim semi.

Diam – diam saya mulai menyukai panggilan “the rainbow” dari seseorang kurang lebih 5 tahun silam. Wew… definisi panggilan itu dulu tak pernah saya gubris. Sekarang, bersyukur pernah dipanggil itu karena setelah hujan pasti akan ada pelangi.

Tapi rasa syukur terbesar saya tentunya adalah pada Allah SWT. Kuasanya hebat. Tahukah Science People bahwa berdoa ketika hujan adalah satu dari sekian doa yang besar kemungkinannya dijabah oleh Allah SWT?

Oia, sedikit tambahan… Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam mengajarkan kita untuk membaca doa :

“Allaahumma shayyiban naafi’an” (HR. Al-Bukhari)
yang artinya : “Ya Allah, turunkanlah hujan yang bermanfaat (untuk manusia, tanaman dan binatang)”

High five for dancing in the rain, Science People!!

Kemang, 13 November 2009 (sambil dengerin Feist – We’re All in The Dance)

Oia, welcome to the world baby Gemma (a first daughter from qky and dhani)…wohooo… i cant really wait to see you, love… wait for aunty come ya… smooches!

“Balm”

November 10th, 2009

I don’t need to tell you that “Balm” was an exceptional hour plus of television: for about two weeks, critics have been waxing poetic about how this could be the show’s defining moment, and how this is the episode that raises Sons of Anarchy from the upper echelon of television drama to the upper upper echelon of television drama. The result is that Sepinwall, Fienberg, Ryan, Poniewozik and every other critic under the sun have already made their position extremely clear, to the point where I don’t really have much to add in terms of singing its praises.

However, that’s never particularly stopped me before, so I still want to talk about how great this episode is, or, more accurately, why this episode manages to be great despite some significant challenges. This is an episode which builds its tension around an action that before last week was almost entirely foreign to its audience (at least those with no deeper knowledge of MCs than what the show offers) and that creates an emotional climax you can see coming by the time the episode gets going, and yet manages to pull it off so brilliantly that it’s as if we as viewers have always known what ”going Nomad” refers to and that we could never have expected the kind of emotion the episode’s final moments bring.

It’s an episode that turns the viewer into an active participant in the lives of each and every single character, to the point where we are sitting at the dinner table with the characters in that final scene and responding as they are to the news being delivered.

And that’s some damn fine television.

The strategy of this episode is as elegant as the rest of the episode, really. After last week’s ending, the show has is forced to problematize “going Nomad” to the point where the eventual decision to allow Jax to leave the charter becomes painful for us to watch. We already know that Jax has good reason to hate Clay, and that while Jax is wrong to presume Clay was behind the warehouse attack his logic of leaving the club in order to avoid the larger blowup between the two men is not without merit. What the episode needs to establish, then, is why going Nomad is something that could tear this club apart, and more importantly something that will eventually drive Gemma to speak the truth regarding her horrific experience at the hands of the League of American Nationalists.

The episode achieves this through a calculated strategy of reintroducing characters that we haven’t seen active for a while to remind us what a charter truly means, and what Jax is giving up (or giving up on) to become a Nomad. We get his conversation with Piney, who feels as if Jax’s decision to leave the club puts any and all efforts to gain revenge on Clay and Tig for killing Donna on ice, which is followed by having to break the news to Chibbs who sees the Sons as his only family (albeit I’ll get to his story in a moment) and can’t imagine leaving it. While telling someone like Tara the news gets only confusion and uncertainty, and eventually trust in his judgment, when he tells Juice he gets an emotional plea. The Juice sequence was perhaps my favourite of these visits because of how earnest he was: he was once a prospect, and he repeats to Jax the words that he told him when he recruited him (or something of the sorts) in order to indicate that the club is what holds you together. Heck, even the dead rise to warn Jax about the consequences of going Nomad, as John Teller’s book features a passage that cites going Nomad as too uncertain for even his restless soul.

It all results in the scene where, as everyone votes around the table, it’s not entirely clear what we’re supposed to want here. What was so interesting about the sequence is that it’s preceded by Jax going to Clay and basically offering him an out: he knows that Clay didn’t burn down the warehouse, so he’s willing to stick around so long as Clay is willing to have him. However, Clay tells Jax straight to his face that he wants him gone, a decision he makes because Jax is a constant challenge to his authority and, more importantly, knows too much that could hurt him. The season has not made it a secret that Clay’s hands will at some point soon keep him off of his bike, and that the power would got to Jax who has made it his mission to get in Clay’s way isn’t something that makes the President very comfortable. Scenes like this one, and the vote which takes place afterwards, take the idea of going Nomad and turn it into a both a referendum on the club’s direction (testing whether anyone is willing to defy Jax’s wish in an effort to keep him around and truly try to fix things) and an interpersonal struggle for Jax.

However, the one person who we are to believe is most able to make a judgment on Jax’s decision is the one person who isn’t sitting in that room voting on it, but instead holds a meeting of her own. Gemma is in a unique position in this way, mother to one and wife to another, and more importantly she is someone who has read John Teller’s book and who understands its message perhaps better than even Jax does. The scene where Gemma tells Jax what she believes John Teller learned in his life is mighty complicated, including an insinuation that John took his own life (which perhaps goes against previous assumptions that Clay might have had some part in his death as well), and is as expected a great piece of acting from Katey Sagal. The message is that Jax is very much like his father, and that his death and his words should serve as a warning to Jax as much as they could serve as a manifesto. The book is of two minds, that’s always been clear, and as Jax tells Piney it’s not exactly what one would call a clear guide to success. However, Gemma points Jax to the passage about going Nomad because it indicates that John, in all of his complications, needed that sense of identity to keep himself sane, just as Jax might well need it to keep himself safe. The reason the book is so disjointed is that for all of his issues with the club, it was something he couldn’t live without, which Gemma believes ultimately tore him apart.

What Gemma ends up doing is heart-wrenching, even if it was easily choreographed from the moment that Gemma started gazing into the distance and talking to Unser about protecting her boys. The predictability should have limited its emotional impact, but Sagal was having none of that, and everything just tore down my defences. There’s a nice irony in the fact that what was supposed to tear the Sons apart has now been deployed at the very time it will bring them back together, but there’s also a tragedy in Gemma having to speak those words and seeing how hard it hits someone like Clay. Gemma realized very quickly that Jax and Clay were missing the big picture, that their squabblings within the club were keeping them from seeing how they could best protect against external threats. The same thing that killed John Teller, she believes, is the same thing that was about to kill Jax and Clay if not for something to bring them together, and as such she sacrifices and tells the tale she, to this point, has told to no one in full. Sagal was amazing in this episode, as she has been all season, but that last season was as much about Hunnam and (especially) Pearlman’s reactions, and they both nailed it.

What’s interesting is that you could argue much of the above wasn’t actually “plot,” per se, which says a lot about the confidence Kurt Sutter and Co. have in the show to be able to do an episode like this late in the season. It was possible not just because of the execution but because we got some forward momentum in Chibbs’ return into the middle of the ATF/IRA battle brewing. Titus Welliver was great as always as the newly arrived IRA bigwig Jimmy O’Flannery, but this was really more about Chibbs than it was about him. Chibbs, we learn, has reason to hold a grudge: Jimmy got him kicked out of the IRA, stole his wife, and raised his daughter as his own. The episode places a lot of discussion on the value of the charter as family, which is especially true for Chibbs since his situation meant that his actual family and his gang family were both taken away from him. However, what we see in “Balm” is Chibbs sensing that his real family has been victimized long enough (especially when Jimmy threatens to take Chibbs and Fiona’s daughter as his new sex toy once Fiona’s looks fully fade away) and turning into a rat in the process. Having Ally Walker back is always welcome, and a circumstance where Chibbs assists the ATF on busting the Irish and Zobell happening just as news of Gemma’s rape breaks is the kind of chaos that the show thrives on.

“Balm” wasn’t some sort of unexpected greatness from this show, as we critics have been praising it since the end of last season, and especially so during the past few months. However, it’s the kind of episode that has never felt quite so integral to the show: in the midst of chaos the episode switched gears to a series of conversations and confrontations that were not so much dramatic as they were emotional, leading to a conclusion that makes us teary-eyed even when we know all of the facts being stated. It’s an episode that takes us so far into this world that we imagine we’re sitting listening to Gemma speak, or sitting at a diner table as Jimmy threatens Chibbs’ daughter, and where we wanted to cast a vote in that meeting as much as some of them didn’t want to cast a vote at all. Just a really fine episode of television, and one which promises greatness yet to come.

Cultural Observations

• I loved the final montage as we panned down from each person as Gemma continued talking. It was a scene that mixed the comic (Prospect helping heal his swollen prosthetic testicle in the mud) with the dramatic (Tig breaking down under the influence of the mushrooms, signalling his inner turmoil over Donna’s death), and was just really evocative and effective. I do have to wonder, though: was the show insinuating that Piney killed himself? It was such a small moment, and without any indication as to its conclusion, that it’s left a dangling thread which could be either followed through on or ignored.
• Tara sure seems kind of uninterested in whether she keeps her job or not, although I don’t blame her for not liking that administrator.
• Speaking of that administrator, she’s effectively playing the same character as Anna Deavere Smith on Nurse Jackie but without the prop comedy.
• And since I wasn’t able to include it within the logic of my opening since he didn’t get the episode early, do check out Zack Handlen’s great review of the episode over at The A.V. Club. It’s down as I post this, but it should be fixed eventually.

Folks, I think we’ve just entered what those in showbiz call the third act.  Now that Gemma’s secret is out there on the table it’s time for some resolution.  The screener copy I was sent was only a rough cut of the episode so it was only the hour-long version of the episode.  There were lots of holes in it, and they were filled in nicely last night by this great hour and a half long version of the episode.

This show never ceases to amaze me.  I watch a lot of television for this blog, and it never fails that even the best shows have an off-week.  Sometimes it is necessary to move the plot along, and other times the episode just misses.  Throughout it’s two seasons this cannot be said about Sons of Anarchy.  Week in and week out it is consistent.  The recap is going to be a bit long since the episode itself was so long, but it was so good I don’t want to leave much out.

With Jax intent on going Nomad after the burning of Caracara the charter prepares to vote.  Before that can happen, they have to get Chibs from the hospital.  Half-Sac, Bobby, Happy and Jax show up and give him his cut back.  He rides home with Half-Sac in the van, and finds out what’s been going on with SAMCRO.  Chibs is angry when he finds out that Jax wants to go nomad, and forces Half-Sac to turn off the road and away from the rest of the guys.  Jax’s peels off to follow them.  The van pulls up to the Army/Navy Surplus store that serves as a front for the IRA.  Chibs walks in gun drawn and puts it to the head of the younger Hayes, Edward.  Chibs asks why the Irish didn’t honor their deal with SAMCRO and were selling guns to Zobele the man who blew him up.  Edwards father comes out of the back and trains his shotgun on Chibs.  Jimmy O, the IRA boss, also walks out of the back about the same time that Jax walks in gun in hand.  Jimmy O is able to calm everyone down and Jax, Hal-Sac and Chibs leave, but not before Chibs gets in some choice words to Jax about him going Nomad.  Across the street, Agent Stahl and other ATF officers are watching and listening to what when on inside with the IRA and the Sons.  They realize that Chibs might be their new connection to help with the Irish problem, but Stahl wants to give it one more shot with Jax.

Stahl is waiting for Jax when he returns home.  She offers him one more chance to rat on the Irish and keep SAMCRO off the ATF radar.  While she’s there she also spills the beans about Jax going Nomad to Tara and tells Jax that she’s pretty sure she knows what really happened to Agent Kohn.  When she leaves Jax comes clean to Tara about going Nomad and tells her it’s the only way he sees of doing things that doesn’t involve either he or Clay ending up dead.

Back at the garage, the rest of the crew comes out to great Chibs, but he’s really in no mood for a homecoming.  Opie and Half-Sac are sent to a local Indian reservation to pick up a repo vehicle, and when they return with it they find that it’s full of freshly pressed ammo.  They show Clay what they found, and he decides they need to make a trip back to the res.  As they talk Chibs gets in the van and drives off.  Chibs is stopped by the ATF and Stahl gives him her card and tells him to give her a call when he wants to talk.  We also learn a bit more of Chibs’ back story here.

Chib’s goes on to what he beleives is a meet up with his estranged wife Fiona, but it turns out he’s been set up and it’s actually a meeting with the man he hates most in the word, Jimmy O.  Jimmy O tells him that selling guys to Zobele was a mistake that the deal was made without his OK, and he wants Chibs to set up a meeting with Clay to reestablish the IRA/SOA gun connection.  At first Chibs refuses, but Jimmy O has leverage, Fiona and Chibs’ daughter.  Chibs leaves and agrees to set the meeting. The only meeting Chibs sets is one with Agent Stahl.  He demands that the Sons get full immunity from the assault charge filed by Zobele, and that they get his wife and daughter somewhere safe, in exchange he will help them.  Stahl agrees and Chibs gives them the location of the IRA safe house.  At the safe house Stahl finds Edward Hayes and while he can’t pin anything in Jimmy O he tells them  his dad can.

At the reservation Clay sees the bullet operation and agrees to bring in LaRoy not only to see the bullets, but also to check out the psychedelic mushrooms the Indians have been growing.  Tig and the prospect agree to taste test the mushrooms to see if they are all that the Indians claim them to be.  While they wait for LeRoy, Opie and Clay have a little heart to heart and Opie tells Clay how similar he and Jax are.  Clay tells Opie he can go home while Clay waits.  LeRoy is happy the product when he shows up, but tells Clay he needs guns.  Clay promises LaRoy will get his first order when the new pipeline with the Chinese starts. 

Back at home Opie and Lyla finally do the deed, but Opie can’t do it on he and Donna’s bed, choosing the floor instead.  Despite being a porn star Lyla does really seem like a good person, and good for Opie and his kids.

At the hospital Tara finds out she’s been suspended for helping Chibs stay on the critical list longer than he should have been.  She heads to the garage and breaks the news to Gemma about Jax going Nomad.  “Nomad is MC purgatory. No family, no roots … look, you don’t want Jax in a charter scattered across four states, on the road alone. The list of enemies we have? You want that phone call telling you where to pick up the body?, ” she tells Tara.  When Jax shows up later that day he and Gemma have a heart to heart about his decision and about his father John.  She tells him that he was lost towards the end and that she thinks he wanted to die.  She fesses up to stealing John’s manuscript from Jax and tells him to read a certain page

At chapel that evening the vote is unanimous to let Jax leave and go Nomad, despite not everyone thinking it’s a good idea.  After the vote Jax takes off his cut and removes the Redwood Original and the VP patches from it with his knife and gives them to Clay.  Tara meets him outside and tells him she has some time off and they agree to get out-of-town.  They are approached by Gemma and she tells them both to meet at her house.  Jax and Tara and waiting when Gemma and Clay walk in.  She recounts the story of what really happend to her the night they beleive she was in a car accident.  She revels the rape, who did it and why.  As she does we see Opie with the new family he has formed, we see Half-Sac still being effected by the mushrooms, as well as Tig feeling the same effects but in a completely different way.  When Gemma is done talking, Jax walks to her and then to Clay.  On his way out with Tara he grabs his patches that he took off his cut.  Looks like Nomad can wait.

Such an amazing episode.  With three episodes still left in the season there is a lot more that has to take place to put SAMCRO back on track, and I think that’s what Gemma realized telling her story would do, put things back on the right track.  Despite being a horrific tale, it didn’t seem to set Clay and Jax off they way I would have expected earlier in the season.  It acted as more of a balm, no coincidence that Balm was the name of the episode.  I think this might have been the reason that Gemma waited.  She hasn’t gotten to where she is by being stupid and rash.  She new that if she revealed her secret too soon it would just split the club apart even further.  Katy Sagal is just amazing as Gemma.  All the actors are great, but this seems to be the role she was born to play.

Thoughts and Observations:

• Will Stahl really leave SAMCRO alone after she gets the Irish?  What’s to stop the Irish from turning on SAMCRO after they get busted?
• Despite being a pretty rough scene I could have listened to Jimmy O and Chibs, played by Titus Welliver and Tommy Flanagan talk the whole hour and a half.
• We learned that Chibs was ex-IRA.  Jimmy O kicked him out, stole his wife and daughter, and gave him the scars on his cheeks, or his Glasgow Grin.  No winder Chibs hates Jimmy.
• We still don’t know if Darby died in the fire.  It appeared that was Weston’s intent last episode, but no mention has been made of any bodies being found inside the Caracara fire.
• The song that ended last nights episode was another example of how great the soundtrack is for this show.  Top three musical moments for me all came at the end of an episode, with “Son of a Preacher Man” sung by Katy Sagal, “Forever Young” sung by Audra Mae , and last nights “Mary” by Patty Griffin.  No surprise that they were all sung by women with amazing voices.  Glee be dammed (I actually like the show), but SOA has the best music of any show on TV right now.

I should really update my blog! So here is one. What I’m doing right now? Listening to Robbie Williams, which is my new love affair. Well, with his music of course. I never liked him before, but Bex has been watching him a lot on television in the build up to his new album, and I have fallen in love with the track Bodies (see below).

In other news, Bex and I have been invited away by another couple to spend a weekend in a cottage. What’s so special about that, you maybe asking? It’s for crossdressers and their partners. We are looking to take them up on the offer and arrange the trip for sometime next year.

Doctor Who is on Sunday! I’ve been looking forward to it ever since seeing the Doctor’s appearance in the Sarah Jane Adventures a couple of weeks back. Well, that’s a lie, as I’ve been looking forward to the Waters of Mars since Easter! Tune into BBC1 on Sunday at 7pm. It’s meant to be the scariest adventure yet!!

Gemma – Remembering those have laid down their lives for us, now and in the past.

Firandet av Guy Fawkes försök att spränga Houses of Parliament i torsdags, vilket innebär eld och fyrverkier. Catch up med Gemma i bilen på vägen till Guildford. Fnitter och trams. Regn, hot dog med lök, en runda i skräckhus. Skrek när det tutades i våra öron. Mer regn och fyrverkier. Trots hennes draman var det skönt och ha en fnittrig kväll med henne igen. Konstant problemlösning och lyssna, men massor av kärlek och gullande utan att behöva ändra sexuell orientering.

Ställde in fredagens drinkplan med killen som heter Ben. Inte särskilt sugen på att träffa honom eller att ta mig till bullriga Leicester Square. Teddington Arms hade öppnat igen. Jag och Mie gick ner för att känna in stället. Förra veckans storm mellan oss har dragit ut till  havs. Ännu en vän med drama i sitt liv, men samtidigt är hon en väldigt god flatmate. Min vän som är min fru.

Mie stack till Poole lördag morgon. Lämnade lägenheten i mina händer till söndag kväll. Shoppingrunda i Kingston och bokning av konsultation hos en tatueringsstudio, 5 december. Bestämde mig för att inte dra på husfest med Abby, att vara hemma kändes för gött och för längesen. Mat, rosévin och film. Tända ljus och sträcka ut mig på soffan. Kocken textade. Jag sa utan att tro att han skulle göra det; “Kom till Teddington”. Halv 2 ringde han och sa att han stod utanför. Lite förvånad över engagemanget släppte jag in honom och han stannade tills jag kickade ut honom följande eftermiddag när Sarah var på väg över. Vänskap som korsar gränser.

Middagsplaner med Sarah. Catch up på kärleksliv, jobb, fest…livet. Hon missar vår housewarming, hon missade min födelsedagsfest. 18 december är bokad för utgång i Richmond. En ny vänskap som sakta växer fram.

Sushi kväll med Barbara ikväll. En vän utan stora draman. En klippa som gnäller på samboproblem, lyssnar och försöker komma ihåg vilken karl som är vilken i min hiss. Vännen som innebär mysiga middagar med prat om allt.

Fem dagar, fem olika vänner.