I’ll be doing two performances at the Metro Gallery this weekend as part of Videopolis, a totally free extracurricular activity presented in conjunction with, though not related to, the Maryland Film Festival. Stop by Friday night at 10 p.m. or Sunday afternoon beginning at 2:30 p.m. and say hello.
Readers of SLN know that I’m an obsessive fan of The Wire. I actually kind of stumbled upon the series in a hotel room somewhere while I was on tour when it first came out —I’ve never had HBO at home. The first thing I noticed was, “Hey, I know that block! That’s right around the corner from my apartment!” That realization came in the very first episode when Wee-Bey stops the truck in front of the New York Fried Chicken—at the corner of S Carey and Baltimore Streets; I lived right around the block on Hollins and Carey—to rebuke D’Andelo for speaking so specifically about the Barksdale crew’s intimidation of a witness in his trial. Then I remembered that I had seen camera crews in the neighborhood and its environs many months earlier, wondering what they could possibly be filming in a west side neighborhood that was more or less the border between gentrification and poverty. Now it made sense.
There’s really not much more to say than has already been said about the show. The Wire started by focusing on one thing—the drug trade—and then with each successive season, the camera panned out, expanding the view and revealing another piece of the puzzle, brilliantly crafting a world in which, to quote Lester Freamon, “all the pieces matter.” I’m seriously going to miss the show, but at least it remained great until the very end. I’ve decided to put together a post of lists for The Wire—some of my favs and not-so-favs. I’m sure when I go back and watch the entire series again starting with Episode One, I’ll remember plenty of other things that I wished I would have included on this list. But for now, here’s what I’ve come up with off the top of my head.
My 15 Favorite Scenes
1) Stringer’s “product” meeting. Shamrock trying to enforce Robert’s Rules of Order is priceless.
2) Bunny Colvin at Comstat after Hamsterdam. Rawls: “Jesus Christ, Ervin, don’t you see what he’s done? He’s legalized drugs!”
3) Omar testifying against Bird and catching Levy off guard: “I got the shotgun; you got the briefcase.”
4) Frank Sobotka driving to his death.
5) Snoop buys the nail gun. “Man said you wanna shoot nails this here the Cadillac, man. He meant Lexus but he ain’t know it.”
6) Stinger tells Avon he had D’Angelo killed.
8 ) Stringer and Avon’s talk while overlooking the harbor.
9) Bodie talking to McNulty in the park before he’s murdered on the corner.
10) McNulty tells Templeton he knows he’s full of shit.
11) D’Angelo going to Wee-Bey’s house thinking he’s going to be murdered, only to learn how to feed Wee-Bey’s fish.
12) Kima gets shot.
13) Cutty tells Avon he wants out. “The game ain’t in me no more. None of it.”
14) Clay Davis mentions “bleeding Bell dry” in passing during Lester’s blackmail session.
15) McNulty finds The Wealth of Nations in Stringer’s apartment after Stringer’s death.
Seasons
1) 3
2) 1
3) 4
4) 2
5) 5
This was hard. The fifth season is definitely fifth, but the previous four are really so close that a one through four ranking doesn’t really seem fair to me. However, I feel obligated to say that although Season Two is often written off and given short shrift, I never thought it was the weakest. Admittedly, I didn’t like it the first time I watched it. I was so drawn into the world created in Season One that I was a bit angry when the west side drug trade wasn’t the focal point of Season Two as well. But after a few more viewings, I really grew fond of Season Two, except for Ziggy and his duck (see below).
10 Favorite Characters (In Random Order, Except for No. 1)
1) Bunk
2) Bodie
3) Norman Wilson
4) Snoop
5) Lester
6) Stringer Bell
7) Daniels
8 ) Wee-Bey
9) Slim Charles
10) Spiros Vondopoulos
5 Characters I Wanted to Kill (In Order)
1) Templeton
2) Ziggy
3) Cheese
4) Orlando
5) Colicchio
Favorite “Way Down in the Hole” Versions
1) Tom Waits (Season 2)
2) DoMaJe (Season 4)
3) Blind Boys of Alabama (Season 1)
4) The Neville Brothers (Season 3)
5) Steve Earle (Season 5)
Favorite Tracks From The Wire
1) “The Fall” by Blake Leyh
2) “Oh My God” by Michael Franti
3) “That’s da Sound” by Dirty Hartz (feat. Verb)
Best Line From a Baltimore Track From The Wire
1) “All the hate in the air make it harder to breathe and all the cameras in the ‘hood make it hard to Believe.” Ogun feat. Phathead, “What You Know About Baltimore?”.
Favorite Cedric Daniels Quotes
1) To Prez after he, Herc, and Carver conducted late night “field interviews” at the Terrace highrises, which ended with Prez assaulting a kid with the handle of his pistol, resulting in the boy losing sight in one of his eyes: “Now tell me, who cold-cocked the kid? [Prez: Me.] Why? [Prez: He pissed me off.] No, Officer Pryzbylewski, he did not piss you off. He made you fear for your safety and that of your fellow officers. I’m guessin’ now, but maybe he was seen to pick up a bottle and menace Officers Hauk and Carver, both of whom had already sustained injury from flying projectiles. Rather than use deadly force in such a situation, maybe you elected to approach the youth, ordering him to drop the bottle. Maybe when he raised the bottle in a threatening manner you used a Kel light, not the handle of your service weapon, to incapacitate the suspect. Go practice.”
2) To Carver after he passes the sargent’s test: “A couple of weeks from now, you’re gonna be in some district somewhere with eleven to twelve uniforms looking to you for everything. And some of them gonna be good police, some of them gonna be young and stupid, a few are gonna be pieces of shit. But all of them will take their cue from you. You show them loyalty, they learn loyalty. You show them it’s about the work, it’ll be about the work. You show them some other kind of game, then that’s the game they’ll play.”
Funniest Things
1) Fuzzy Dunlop
2) Moving the desk
3) Donut
4) Brother Muzone’s “back door” comment to Omar before they set up to ambush Stringer.
4) McNulty tails Stringer to economics class
5) Kennard being carried by the seat of his pants after a jump out: “Put me down, bitch!”
6) Rawls putting on “Flight of the Valkyries” as the police descend upon Hamsterdam.
Stupidest Things
1) Ziggy’s duck
2) Serial killer plotline
Saddest Things
1) Dukie
2) Wallace
Wire Actors I’ve Seen Around Baltimore
1) Sonja Sohn at the Common Ground on the Avenue in Hampden.
2) Clarke Peters at Penn Station—he was the first one off the train.
3) Jermaine Crawford with his mom at a Dunkin’ Donuts on Security Blvd.
Coincidence I Always Wondered About But Was Afraid To Ask
1) Cheese and Randy have the same last name—Wagstaff.
I’ll need something to fill the void. Thoughts to come.
Beginning March 16th, Baltimore explores the art of cartography by hosting the Baltimore Festival of Maps, a venture that includes over 20 cultural and artistic organizations throughout the city. I’m sure there’ll be maps of all types to view, from the requisite old brown deteriorating kind to the Baltimore-of-the-future varietal. When I think of a map, I generally think of it as a tool—something to help me get to where I want to go. And a map isn’t supposed to throw me any curve balls when I’m using it. In other words, the map confirms that I’m going in the right direction, that what I’m seeing in front of me is actually in front of me, and is supposed to be in front of me. No surprises.
A few months ago, Irene Hofmann, the executive director of the Contemporary Museum, introduced Erik and I to Boston-based artist Kianga Ford, who was commissioned by the Contemporary to produce one of its offerings to the map fest. For the past few years, Kianga has been creating projects called “The Story of This Place,†using maps to generate fictional, imaginary landscapes. The end product is a 40-minute walking tour—”a portable piece of cinema”—that through her immersion into the fabric of the city’s life, evokes its history, character, people, and their unique stories.
Also central to Kianga’s exploration of a city in her pieces is the inclusion of local musicians, which is where Hybrid Groove Project comes in. We were tapped to create the soundtrack to “Charm City Remix,” the name of Kianga’s Baltimore project. Samples of old BSO recordings, Baltimore club music, old-timey Maryland-themed tunes, and aspiring middle school MCs mingle with turntables, saxophone, melodica and theremin in newly composed music by Erik and HGP—disparate sonic elements tied together by their connection to the Greatest City in America. So stop by the Contemporary, pick up an iPod, and take a tour.
The reviews are in! And by all accounts, Mobtown Modern’s launch last night at the Contemporary Museum was a spectacular success:
We’re extremely grateful to all of our commited musicians and to Art Jones for making the trek down from NYC to add some inventive video imagery to the performance. A very speical thank you goes to Irene Hofmann, the executive director of the Contemporary, for embracing the series so energetically and giving us a (really, really cool) home. And of course, many, many thanks to all who came out to the show to support new music in Baltimore. We hope to see everyone on May 9th for our next concert.
Today, the day of Mobtown Modern’s maiden voyage, State of the Union makes headlines in the Sun with a nice preview article by Tim Smith.
Mobtown Modern launches Tuesday (today, or tomorrow, depending on when you’re reading). All indicators are pointing to an exciting event. We’ve got some great coverage leading up to the show, including a CityPaper Critics Pick, 300 words in last Sunday’s Sun, and a Top-5 calendar pick from MetroMix. The politically-inspired program includes a Rzewski remix, Andriessen’s Workers Union, and Tim Feeney beating himself up. Art Jones will remix video from President Bush’s final State of the Union address as the music churns. Woof.
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Unsilent Nighters may have noticed a mysterious man giving a play-by-play of the evening’s activities into a small handheld recording device. It turns out that our interloper was none other than Ed Schrader, whose Feedback article appears in this week’s CityPaper.
Baltimore’s 2nd annual performance of Phil Kline’s amibient Christmas masterpiece Unsilent Night took place last night and was by all accounts a smashing success. We had a record crowd of nearly 100 totally awesome participants. New for the 2007 edition of Unsilent Night in Baltimore was the summoning of aliens as we gathered in a circle around the infamous Male/Femal sculpture in front of Penn Station; convincing the Amtrak police that we were the “carolers” they were expecting and we did indeed know where to stage—after sharing the joy with everyone in the train station; and making our way in and then out of the lobby of the Charles Theater. Many thanks again to all the folks who helped out and spread the word about this year’s event. We’ll see everyone again next year!
P.s. Some photos of the event can be had here. And, by the way, if you came out last night and took some photos and would like to share them, that would be great. Just send me an email!
The batteries were all placed in the boombox with care . . . It’s the day before Unsilent Night in Baltimore and we’re ready to go. The press has been rolling in:
Though it won’t be as cold as last year, it’s still going to be a bit chilly. Those who brave the cold can look forward to warming up with some grog at Joe Squared at the Unsilent After Party following the event, where Hybrid Groove Project and DJ Dubble8 will warm things up as well. (We tried to get this guy on the bill, but he was booked already.)
Update: And many thanks to Baltimore bloggers Charissa, Box89e, and Broadsheet for helping to spread the word. Though I’m not sure what to make of this. At least the hipsters know that December 21 is Friday, not Saturday. Ahem.
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