Interview with David Simon of The Wire

Long interview over at Vice Magazine with David Simon, creator of The Wire:

Yes. Newspapers have less and less ambition and are demanding less and less of themselves as arbiters of what is actually important, of what our problems are and how we’re addressing them. The Wire was trying to say, at the end, “Look, if anything in the first four seasons struck a nerve with you, don’t think for a moment that anyone’s going to address themselves to it—least of all the watchdogs of society—because their teeth have been taken out.” They’ve done it to themselves. We had to say that last because ultimately we were saying: “This is the America you built and if you think the first alarm is ever going to go off in any sense, guess again.”

Well worth it.

Hat tip to Signal vs. Noise.

The Wire: 100 Greatest Quotes

Hat tip Wax.

Five In Five

All five seasons of The Wire rapped up in five minutes, courtesy of Mad Skillz. Who else?



Thanks to the recently-affianced 0.5 2GD - Can't believe we made it!

P.S. We need two more for tree.

Rejuvenated

I'm back after a well-deserved day of rest. Blog365 has been enjoyable thus far, although tough at times. But quality and frequency of content is what my vast readership has come to expect; how can I disappoint? I don't have time for a big entry today, but I do have a few items of note:

• Had a new biz meeting on the Cape yesterday to which I drove a Zipcar, specifically a Ford Escape. First time I've used Zipcar - a pretty awesome service! (Not a huge fan of the Escape, however - the gas/brake were a bit touchy. Then again I've driven once prior in the past 14 months.)
• I thought this week's ep. of LOST was great, but I am an unabashed fanboy at this point. They could do an entire episode of Hurley going grocery shopping and I'd be riveted. Very cool consciousness time-travel, and the way they did it was pretty effective. One thing I like about the show, which my Mom actually pointed out, was that it "felt like I was watching a different show," i.e. there are so many storylines that each week can feel like an entirely different experience. Some might say this goes too far from the main plot of the show; I like the multitudinous plot lines and loose ends.
  
• Very lucky girl
• Pics of Pickin' Tuesday unleashed in the Globe by way of She Who Was Once a Blogger; also, it's a recommended $7 donation nowadays. Inflation's a bitch.
• Hellooo Beth Lauck!
• Absolutely loving reading this
• Went home last night to recover from a fairly hectic week, do laundry, and have a delicious breakfast this morning courtesy of Mom - pancakes and bacon. And I seem to have acquired several foodstuffs for my own kitchen before I headed back to the No. End.
• The most recent episode of The Wire was just incredible. I won't go into details because I know there are several readers who would kill me if I revealed spoilers, but it was one of the tightest, most emotionally-charged eps yet. This show doesn't let up. It will be bittersweet once it's over.
• Hat tip to my Mom for sending me this link. An interesting, if not entirely surprising article (I work in marketing). What is fascinating to me is not that the brain can influence our perceptions per se, but how strong this influence can be. Pretty amazing stuff. And did that $5 bottle really taste the best? Perhaps my long-standing affinity for boxed vino is no longer just a quaint idiosyncrasy of my otherwise cosmopolitan palate.
  
• Tonight I'm off to Dr. Raven & Mr. O'Connor's luxurious abode for Rock Band and some HTFO. Looking forward to it.
• I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I cannot wait for the primaries this upcoming Tuesday. Go'Bama!
• Actually I guess this was pretty sizable, relatively.
  

Is Simon Misguided?

A bit of a counterpoint to Simon's indirect railing against the decline of the American newspaper in The Wire. More info from Simon's point of view here.

The Wire: Writing a City

Make no mistake, David Simon is doing something bold, ambitious, and remarkable in his five-season HBO drama The Wire. The show is a veritable novel onscreen; Simon is building the narrative of a city quite literally from the ground up. From the street-level war on drugs in the First Season through the loss of blue-collar livelihood in Season Two; to the political machine in Season Three; to the deplorable state of the public school system and the Baltimore youth in Season Four; to the current, final season's emphasis on the role of the media in reporting on society's moral failings. For Simon, an ex-reporter at The Baltimore Sun, this is social commentary that is also a very personal story. This post was inspired by this over at Wax Banks' humble abode, along with the following great pieces:

An excellent, lengthy New Yorker piece on the show which has several tidbits revealing just how true-to-life The Wire is.

Another fairly lengthy Columbia Journalism Review piece which does a good job providing both sides of the debate of the media's role - i.e. Simon vs. his old Sun bosses.

Simon in Esquire talking about what journalism means to him, and what is happening to ink-and-paper media in this country.

Interesting pieces all, providing some background, legitimacy, and even a bit of criticism of Simon's moral quest. I will blatantly rip off Wax here by quoting, as he does, the closing of the CJR piece, because really, it's just so damn perfect:

Simon, like [current Sun editor Tim] Franklin, wants his portrayal of Baltimore to be judged against the future, but his idea of the future is darker. The Wire, he says, is about the decline of the American empire. It might have sprung from a journalistic impulse, but he says he has moved beyond simple reportage. “Consider it a big op-ed piece,” said Simon, “and consider it to be dissent. What I saw happen with the drug war, a series of political elections, and vague attempts at reform in Baltimore….What I saw happen to the Port of Baltimore, and what I saw happen to the Baltimore Sun—I think it’s all of a piece.” Should his premonition of the American empire’s future—more gated communities and more of a police state—come to pass and were someone to say he didn’t know it was coming, Simon said, it will at least be possible to pull The Wire off the shelf and say, “‘Don’t say you didn’t know this was coming. Because they made a fucking TV show out of it.’” 

Read it all. And enjoy the remainder of The Wire.

The Wire, Like the Game, Is Real

I happened to be reading the Arts section of this Sunday's Boston Globe when I came across an article about the Season Five premiere of The Wire on Home Box Office. I didn't realize that the premiere was this Sunday! Luckily I discovered this twenty minutes beforehand, so I was all prepared to take in Marlo, McNulty, Bubbles and the rest of the crew in the gritty, bloodstained streets of doped-up Baltimore.

I won't get into big plot points, but they crammed a lot of storyline beginnings into the season premiere. Of course we're back to typical Baltimore - corrupt politicians and cops trying to maintain control over a spiking crime rate due to violent drug dealers who are sometimes little worse than the so-called "good guys." It looks like the theme for this season will be the media, appearing in the guise of the journalists at the fictional Baltimore Sun.

I'm really psyched it's back for a final season. It remains to be seen how well they do with Season Five, but The Wire could finish up its run as possibly the best TV drama ever.