Scatter Brained

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Period:
 1940s–1960s
Major Artists:
 Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Lee Krasner, 
Helen Frankenthaler
Hallmarks:
 massively abstracted images, spontaneity, un-
usual techniques (Pollock’s drips and splatters, for instance)
What It Depicts:
 Heck if we know.
TV  Show  It  Calls  to  Mind:
 Like, maybe if the color bars 
started dancing and fell in love with one another and re-
vealed something about the subconscious? Of course, trying 
to defi ne abstract expressionism in television terms is almost 
criminal,
 bringing us to . . .
C H A P T E R   8

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194
S C A T T E R B R A I N E D
02
  Criminal Organizations Around 
the World
SICILY/AMERICA
Name:
 Th
 e Mafi a (a.k.a. La Cosa Nostra, or “Our Th
 ing”)
Famous Faces:
  Th
 e fi ve families are Bonanno, Colombo, 
Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese.
Basics:
  Emerging  out  of  Sicily  in  the  mid-19th  century,  the 
Mafi a spread to the U.S. East Coast in the early 20th century 
when a number of mafi osi fl ed there.
Fields of Operation:
 the protection racket, loan sharking, 
and old-fashioned grand theft
Current Level of Scariness:
 Still powerful in Sicily, but in 
America, the Sopranos make a lot more money than the Gam-
binos.
Media Saturation Level:
 extremely high. From brilliant 
movies like 
Th
 e Godfather
 to horrible movies like 
Th
 e Godfa-
ther, Part III,
 the Mafi a’s appealing mix of ethical conundrums 
and violent action scenes make it perfect for pop culture.
How to Say “Your little friend, he sleeps with the fishes”:
 
“Il tuo amico piccolo, dorme con i pesci.”
JAPAN
Name:
 Yakuza
Famous Faces:
 Yoshio Kodama, who united several Yakuza 
in the 1950s; Hisayuki Machii, the Korean founder of Japan’s 
“Voice of the East” gang
Basics:
 As Japanese feudalism changed in the 17th and 18th 

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195
centuries, many Samurai found themselves without a job. 
Th
  ey became roving protectors and/or criminals, which even-
tually morphed into gangs of Yakuza.
Fields of Operation:
  semilegal  real  estate  companies,  loan 
sharking, gambling
Current Level of Scariness:
 still kinda scary. For instance, 
when a Yakuza member’s been naughty, he has to commit yu-
bitsume—i.e., cut off  his fi ngertip and give it to his master. (For 
this reason, studio executives considered adding a fi fth fi nger 
to Bob the Builder’s hand for the Japanese version of the epony-
mous cartoon, lest kids mistake Bob for a Yakuza member.)
Media Saturation Level:
 moderate. Although certainly no 
media juggernaut, like their Italian brethren, the Yakuza have 
inspired at least two good American movies—Ridley Scott’s 
Black Rain
 and Sydney Pollack’s 
Th
 e Yakuza
—and some great 
Japanese ones (Kitano’s
 Fireworks
 and 
Sonatine
) as well.
How to Say “Your little friend, he sleeps with the fishes”:
 
“Anata no tomodachi, osakana to tomoni nemuru.”
COLOMBIA
Name:
 Cali Cartel
Famous Faces:
 Founded by Gilberto “Th
  e Chess Player” Rod-
ríguez Orejuela and José Santacruz Londoño
Basics:
 Once described by the DEA as “the most sophisticated 
organized crime syndicate in history,” the Cali cartel con-
trolled some 80 percent of the cocaine imported into America 
in the 1970s and ’80s.
Fields of Operation:
 cocaine. Occasionally, to mix things up, 
murder.