"The Wire" on HBO

this sounds like a dope idea, i'm excited to hear it's being well-received.

i smell a blog-to-book deal brewin'!
"On The Wire: Teenagers at Risk Explore the World of THE WIRE"

if it helps then maybe me and shakey mo could come by and talk to them about the show and living in tough neighborhoods.

lolololol

sounds awesome Erica, very curious to hear how this goes

also I would just like to say it sounds like you are doing good valuable work, good on ya

<3 slim charles

where are you at w/it so far, dyao?

Aw hey Shakey thanks - that's really sweet of you to say. I have to admit that it's the first job I've ever had that I actually care about and I really love it so far. It's really challenging (cried for the first time @ work this week, got called a white cunt which was bound to happen eventually and had my first participant get arrested and locked up) but also really fun and interesting. Part of that is the nature of the place/population we deal with but also the fact that both they and I know that our backgrounds are wildly different. That is the part that's proving the most interesting. Most of the am extremely skeptical of me at first (unsurprisingly) but the more we learn about one another and the closer we get the more trusting they become.

Watching this all unfold is really interesting. One thing that I should have anticipated but didn't is that the guys have been so much easier to bond and interact with than the girls so far. Because I'm used to working with teen girls I kind of expected the opposite but that hasn't been the case so far. I think it's partly because a lot of them have a sense of ownership over the joint and the male participants and for them it's like - Who the hell is this non-ugly white bitch coming in here all of sudden? - and also a natural sense of competition that often happens with girls.

Also, the comments so far have been pretty amazing. The other day I got told that I look like a "white Halle Berry with a dorky smile". That was pretty awesome. One of them also told me that he thought I was a lesbian at first because of my hair but that that was ok because he loves lesbians and is sure I get hit on plenty. lol. They also all think I'm 23-25 which is pretty awesome tbh but I'm making a point to tell them my actually age because that does bring some sort of weight in terms of authority which is def needed at times. Also got told that I looked like "a punk rock" and blew their minds when they realized that I actually knew some shit about music other than rock. lol.

Sorry to hijack Wire thread. I come home every day with like a million stories and since it's all still very new for me I'm really excited about it all.

oh shit - I didn't realize that I'd written quite that much. ack. sorry!!!!

i think i know exactly what dyao just watched!
xposts!

the "day of the jackal shit" episode?

i think he's talking about Slim's speech in the last episode. about going to war over Sringer's death - "if it's a lie then we fight on that lie. but we gotta fight." etc

No, tell your stories Erica - it's all great stuff

^ i second that

yeah - Erica - go for it!

^

Hmmm. Maybe I will start a 77 thread later tonight. It seems really self-indulgent but if ppl like hearing about it then maybe I should just go for it. Plus there's a lot of stuff I'm still working through in regards to the whole thing so it would be interesting to hear ppls thought.

^^^ would bookmark

Why not make it an ILE thread? (I.e. I'm not cool enough for 77.)

Or hell, a book.

and I'm clearly not cool enough to know about 77 - what's going on?

would also bookmark

That thread would make me finally beg for a 77 invite tbh.

Oh sry I honestly thought that most regulars were on 77 by this point. Hmmmm. I could make it an ILE thread but since it's my job and all I would feel more comfortable on 77 since it's a little more private. I don't know. I mean, I would never post anything seriously personal or confidential about my participants so maybe it doesn't matter?

Let me in on this 77 secret. Is it the sort of thing Dan Brown would write about?

Ismael, if you have to ask...

I feel like I've lost what little credibility I ever had now.

I've been subtitling season two for deaf viewers the last few weeks, and God, Ziggy is 100% more annoying when you have to stop and type out every single thing he says. But obv I have the by far less interesting work-related Wire stories in this thread. Like: ep 4 was the first time I ever had to subtitle someone pissing.

having it on 77 would suck since i'm not internet cool enough :(

77 is, AFAIK, the bathroom where the ILX burnouts go to smoke cigarettes.

Ziggy's in some new upcoming HBO show about young artists trying to make it in NYC. THough I may have gotten some promos mixed up.

somebody just invite them already

dudes 77 isnt 'exclusive' aside from the first month or so anyone on ilx can get in by asking

a mod

i want to join 77 if that thread is going there.

i'd like to be over there (77) also
season 3 re-watch is killing it

would also like 77 invite.

sarahel, just finished season three. you guys were right, it definitely did pick up! loved that godfather II scene at avon's harbourview place (but damned if they didn't telegraph that from a mile away).

thinwall, actually I was talking about slim charles laying into his guys for shooting at omar's grandma on a sunday! but his speech in the last episode was good too. looking forward to seeing more of him + marlo in season 4

slim charles laying into his guys for shooting at omar's grandma on a sunday!

yesssssss

I hate to spoil it for you, dyao, but Mr. 40-degree-day doesn't reappear in later seasons.

Recently re-watched Season 4 and most of the things that bothered me the first time didn't this time, while the stuff that was powerful stayed that way, and a lot of subtle stuff came to the fore. (Only real complaint besides the dubbed-sounding "Are you going to look out for me?" scene in the hospital: The subtitles are absurdly inaccurate. Oh, and felons can vote in Maryland now, though I'm not sure they could when this aired.)

There were scenes I'd sworn were long by how much of an impression they made, and took maybe 30 seconds, like Colvin walking through the school looking into different classrooms, some effective, some depressing. And the politics-education themes seemed to speak to each other more emphatically the second time around, our candidate learning from his teachers as he goes, and finally learning that he has to screw the schools to be a successful politician, with Colvin's project falling by the wayside. The last scene, with an older-looking Donut still a little small for the vehicle he's stolen blowing the stop sign and then the camera resting on the neighborhood, is as beautiful as anything the show ever did.

the second time I watched season 4 the whole failed fathers and sons - that I guess could be extrapolated as teachers and students - theme became a lot more salient.

I'm waiting for Lester to be implicated/fall on his face on something, he seems way too perfect for the show

Or just learning in general: From the nail gun scene to Michael learning how to kill to Carcetti learning how to be "mayoral." And the teachers learning how to teach, or failing to. The whole arc of Cutty trying to reach Michael, picking up on Michael's uneasiness about adult male affection, misreading it somewhat (as just homophobia), overcompensating and coming off fake, and finally losing him but at least reaching some kind of understanding--that whole thread is so subtle, it's easy to forget the first time.

dyao - i don't want to give anything away. but - season 5 - you are on to something.

I would very much like to see this ENBB job thread but I am against the very concept of the 77 board

er x-posts

I assume she's not willing to post it on the public internet, so it's there or nowhere.

deindex it

still on the public internet if you're being cautious (which is probably justified if you're liveblogging your job (lol me))

was gonna say (also hi dere I will doctor on America soonish yokes)

I'd like to join 77 to read this too. i really like the freakanomics blog about watching the wire with gangsters, would be interesting to see how it resonates with kids.