ten good things (after considerable delay)

[danschank]

it's been a fairly dismal few weeks, folks. haven't been able to muster the energy to put one of these together for a while. i'd like to get back into the habit though. hopefully the SHEER LENGTH of this will help compensate...

10.

Comments

[mistercreepy]

i love your room and hope to have my own similar room someday that is as much me as that one is you.

PLEASE NOTE PLASTIC TIGER TAXIDERMY ABOVE DOOR

[danschank]

seriously though, i kinda see what you mean. the room's a little small, but it definitely feels more specific to me than any other room i've lived in, certainly...

[bluebellrock]

Just downloaded both the dolly mixture songs, with thanks. Anyone who's a cross between x-ray spex and the shangri-las is all right by me. I'll listen to 'em soon. Just wanted to say that I love your posts.

thanks

[danschank]

yeah, definitely check those songs out! dolly mixture has a great double album called demonstration tapes that'll keep you busy if you like what you hear.

[chocolatebark]

I really need to see THE WIRE, I think. What's David Simon going to do now that the show is over, any ideas?

i don't think i live in a universe where you will not like "the wire"

[danschank]

(or a moment of innocence, for that matter)

as mrwaggish says below, he's working on two more HBO projects-- a mini series about soldiers in iraq, and a new show about musicians in new orleans. i'm hoping for the best.

Re: i don't think i live in a universe where you will not like "the wire"

[chocolatebark]

I hope Andre Braugher's in at least one of 'em!

[sadboyq]

As a fan of many great TV shows I agree that the Wire is quite possibly the best one I've ever seen, and I haven't even started season 3.
Have you watched Homicide?

[danschank]

i haven't. i tried to watch the first episode of the corner, but all the herion shooting made me squeamish (i have a hysterical fear of tourniquets, bulging veins and stuff like that... one of my few film-phobias). i really want to read the book now! you know the real jay landsman (subject of the book) is on the show, right? it's not the character jay landsman (the fat guy), he's one of the second tier police officers-- a middle-aged white guy with a moustache. and along with valchek, one of the few characters with a legit baltimore accent.

I forgot to mention

[sadboyq]

JP is doing a seminar on the Wire in the Spring quarter.

hahaha

[danschank]

each time he refers to bill rawls as a "stupeeed fahkkkkur", i hope you'll think of me...

[mrwaggish]

Dolly Mixture are great! (And I hate twee.) "How Come You're Such a Hit with the Boys Jane" sounds exactly like a female Undertones (= good). And "Will He Kiss Me Tonight?" is just perfect.

Simon has two projects up...one about New Orleans musicians (?) and one about the Iraq War, and how the military bureaucracy screws over the soldiers on the ground...sound familiar?

I came away from the Wire with a more Hegelian take, that systems throw up their own rebels--people like McNulty and Omar (and now Sydnor and Michael) emerge from them inevitably in response to the flaws in the system. Usually they get destroyed by the system's self-preservation devices, but they're occasionally capable of small victories and change.

"will he kiss me tonight?" was option #3 for posted dolly mixture song

[danschank]

in total agreement about the hegelian side of it (note above mention of "dialectical hall of mirrors" :P)...

i hope the follow-up projects are as good. i'm a little worried about the musicians one, b/c some of the music choices in the wire are kinda sub-par...