Gandolfini, bearish and balding at 37, New Jersey has found an unlikely sex symbol. The Great Falls of Paterson is both a beautiful and menacing backdrop for the mob goings-on. Each episode is peppered with references to pastry shops in Nutley, psychiatrists' offices in Montclair or formal wear places in Paramus. It's as much about New Jersey as it is about the mob. If that cult show was a Pacific Northwest riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, ''The Sopranos'' is a suburban comedy wrapped in a mob drama inside a cannoli. In its 13 weeks, it has touched off the kind of enthusiasm among hip audiences that ''Twin Peaks'' did nine years ago. The series, which is shot on location in areas well known to its creator, David Chase, and its star, James Gandolfini, both from New Jersey, is the highest-rated drama on cable. Concluding its first season with tonight's operatic finale, the show tells the story of a Prozac-popping Mafia don and his two families - his blood relatives and his bloodthirsty cohorts. But more than anything, what has put New Jersey on top lately is the HBO series ''The Sopranos,'' which has taken off like a Trans Am down the parkway. It is about two middle-aged buddies who never sought to leave the New Jersey town where they grew up, which has struck it nouveau riche as the Dow cracks 10,000.Īll this from a state that ranks the Shop Rite ''Can-Can'' sale among its cultural traditions. Meanwhile, James Kaplan has written ''Two Guys From Verona,'' subtitled ''A Novel of Suburbia,'' which is just out in paperback. ''But that's just because they don't get it. ''None of my friends can actually believe I live here,'' says a character in ''Happiness,'' a writer played by Lara Flynn Boyle. Kevin Smith has lovingly explored slacker culture in his New Jersey movie trilogy, ''Clerks,'' ''Mallrats'' and ''Chasing Amy.'' Todd Solondz, whose production company is based in Red Bank, has made two films of suburban life, ''Welcome to the Dollhouse'' and ''Happiness,'' in which few characters may be enjoying the American Dream, but none believe that Manhattan has a lock on cool. ''New Jersey has gone from a private shame to a juggernaut,'' said the playwright Paul Rudnick, who grew up in Piscataway. These works recast New Jersey's little towns as Peyton Places with secrets in every cupboard, and they raise the question: If the suburbs are so boring, why is this stuff so fascinating? It has captured the attention of moviegoers, readers and couch potatoes alike - a post-Springsteen school that has rethought the suburbs as a place of humor, color and intrigue. Hill just the hip-hop tip of the iceberg. In recent years, an entire New Jersey oeuvre has emerged in popular culture, with Ms. A lot of creativity is rising from the tomato patches and the tacky strip malls, the Pine Barrens and the parking lots to the immediate west of New York. The words ''New Jersey'' conjure up sights and smells for many nonresidents of the northern stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike - tank farm after pipeline after brewery.īut these days there is the whiff of something sweeter in the air. New Jersey didn't become a national punch line - ridiculed as a repository of industrial waste and bad taste - without reason. Could it be that she is making it cool to be from New Jersey? After all, ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,'' her first solo CD, has sold five million copies and won the Grammy for album of the year. As the singer, who was wearing rimless glasses and a stone-colored parka, mingled with her well-dressed well-wishers (Armani Fragrances sponsored the party), one had to ask what impact her status as an out-of-the-closet Jerseyan might be having on her home state's reputation. She added, ''It's a great place to raise kids,'' of which she has two. ''It's close enough to New York, but you still have a backyard and some trees.'' Hill declared at a party after the concert. ''New Jersey is the greatest place in the world,'' Ms. Her fondness is evident in her onstage patter and in the childhood recollections of her song ''Every Ghetto, Every City.'' Born and raised (and still happily residing) in that part of northern New Jersey called the Oranges, Ms. Hill, 23, beckon her Garden audience to the Garden State without a trace of irony or condescension. Indiana Jones had come to see Lauryn Hill that night, as did Starr Jones (no relation), Natalie Portman, Casey Affleck and a screaming throng. It was an invitation Harrison Ford doesn't hear every day. NEW YORK, let me take you out to New Jersey and bring New Jersey back,'' the most popular woman in hip-hop shouted to the sold-out Madison Square Garden theater on March 24.
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