The Wire Reflections
January 4th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
When I first heard of HBO’s program The Wire, I didn’t pay it much mind. The fact that it took me as long as it did to get with the program as it did is something I regret entirely. Blinders go up with critical praise it seems. The same blinders would fall around the time when I read the NYMag article where they compared Ghostface Killah to Omar, The Wire’s gay shotgun-slinger with a code of honor. That The Clipse were the equivalent of cold blooded Marlo Stanfield. These kinds of comparisons really get me, so there I was watching the first season, transfixed by what I now refer to as the greatest piece of art developed for the TV I’ve ever seen.
Now, when The Wire’s brought up, I sometimes think about how my father and I bonded over it, eagerly awaiting the next disc to come in the mail from NetFlix, like we were any of the many addicts in the foreground or background of Ed Burns and David Simons’ lens. Sure, we’ve connected over film and television in the past, but this was something utterly different, something that wasn’t big watercooler talk like X-Files at it’s peak or any episode of The Sopranos ever. This was something that even back when we started to watch it, in late 2006 and early last year, that was still enough out of the mainstream for it to feel sacred and true. Of course, me being me, I wasn’t as focused on the screen as I should have been, frequently balancing my attentions between screen and laptop. Over the past few months, I’ve been rewatching the series, with the intent of getting my roommate caught up with the show that I’d been raving about for the previous year or so.
More talk, spoilerriffic, below the cut. Do not read until you’ve caught up. Seriously, this is going to talk about who dies and who doesn’t and you really need to learn and see that for yourself.
Avoid Time Out New York’s “The Wire” review
January 3rd, 2008 § 5 Comments
Maybe I was wrong for thinking that the weeklies would be good about staying away from spoilerville.
In the “Detox” issue of TONY they reveal what one major character’s plot arc will be. I really regret reading this. New York magazine, on the other hand, did a great review that shows their publication to be not only smart to the show, but smarter than the other magazines in general. This came from their love of using literary references to discuss one David Simon.
I don’t have much time as I’m still catching Cameron up on Season 4, but here’s another YouTube video:
Kanye West with T-Pain – The Good Life
New Year’s Eve Lessons, the Henry Casey way.
January 1st, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Things I Learned from 12-31-07 and the first 5 hours of 2008 (reverse order):
- Even if you hate Apple Earbuds, like I do, you might want to pack them and your iPod in your jacket for the suppression of the less than likable fellow train-riders at 4:30am.
- If you’re waiting for food really late at night, and you’re some yuppie complaining about how much it all costs and how long it takes when you can CLEARLY afford to pay for it, you have lost your civil liberties and should shutthefuckup. Also, this should be common sense, but of all things, don’t start mocking the Latino cooking staff by calling them by names that obviously aren’t theirs, like Speedy Gonzalez or Rico. Nice quiet guys like me will get our food before you, and walk away laughing our asses off.
- Help people find cabs. Know the best intersections. Trust the people you’re handing drunk revelers off to. It will help the next steps of your night go easier.
- Screaming is necessary for two things: Cell Phone calls on the street, and getting stragglers to get the eff over to the cab you found. Just do the shouting a safe distance from the parties or persons you may or may not want to disparage over the phone.
- Carry two kinds of liquor on you, but don’t start the second until the first is gone. Jameson (flask sized bottle) and Korbel (bottle) were the draft picks last night. Take them slow, and you’ll be happy all night but never rowdy. Unless you want to be rowdy.
- Help your friends get alone time with their ladies or gents, move groups of people away at key moments. Keep the wrong people away for as much as you can, etc. This is one of the best things you as a person can do on NYE.
- Speaking of Rowdy… when your friend wants to go up on the roof, but you get stopped en route, twice, realize that your friend is going to want to start a fight. Talk him out of it by any means necessary, including not letting him convince you to throw a punch. The party is probably in too small of an apartment to have a fight with someone getting a drink spilled on them or their brand new shirt or top to be ripped. It will devolve into chaos and that means no more 90/10 alcohol/mixer drinks from their stash. Use that last bit as argument. No fights were gotten into while I was around last night, but I saw what would have happened.
- Once the ball drops, if you’re not at the second party of the night, you have a half an hour to get all like a green and white kick ball and bounce. The holiday is about running around. Getting into adventures. Maaaaybe getting into a fight as long as the other person isn’t the kind to call 5-0. But one party or one bar is not enough. On AlcoHoliday, we are not meant to be sedentary creatures.
- The LED read-out signs on the L train line are lying to you. Especially if they say 25 minutes. Last 5 times I’ve had this, it’s been no more than 8 minutes. Fuck The MTA.
- Do not let a restaurant make you wait over an hour for your food. Las Palmas on Borinquen & Hooper (nr. Grand) in Williamsburg is a shitty fucking restaurant. The food, when it got there was decent, some said good, even, but the service was unforgivable. Fuck them.
- When people are making you so pissed and uncomfortable, it’s okay to take the time to go outside and smoke the first cigarettes you’ve ever smoked. It’s okay to do this up to three times. Walk your even more amped friends around a little. Make jokes. Try and see the humor you don’t want to admit is there.
- Don’t let other restaurants string your hopes along by letting some gigantic group of people take 45 minutes to make their orders. Leave when someone from your party, without the group’s blessing, goes inside to argue with the restaurant.
- And finally: … Start. Pregaming. Early. In small moderate doses. You’ll be setting up a nice equilibrium not to be offset in any way. I didn’t believe it myself but that method kept me up from early NYE morning, until around 6 or 7 in the morning on New Year’s Day.
