"The Wire" on HBO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS9_wtekt8c

His next projects include a feature film about a true but unlikely romance between Donnie Andrews, a Baltimore holdup artist who robbed drug dealers (and inspired the character Omar Little on “The Wire”), and Fran Boyd, a crack addict who recovered with his help and married him last year (and was also a character in “The Corner”).

FEEL GOOD MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

just one Emmy nomination for the Season 5, to match the other Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series nomination it lost in '05. kind of glad it turned out this way (even better if there was no nom at all), better for the show to go down as unjustly shut out of the awards than to get thrown a bone at the last possible minute for its weakest season.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0805.carey.html

Seriously Vic: that is an important find.

that is a great article caek

yeah, it's crazy.

for those of you who can't be bothered to click through:

On November 16, 2005, Willie “Bo” Mitchell and three co-defendants—Shelton “Little Rock” Harris, Shelly “Wayne” Martin, and Shawn Earl Gardner— appeared for a hearing in the modern federal courthouse in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The four African American men were facing federal charges of racketeering, weapons possession, drug dealing, and five counts of first-degree murder. For nearly two years the prosecutors had been methodically building their case, with the aim of putting the defendants to death. In Baltimore, which has a murder rate eight times higher than that of New York City, such cases are depressingly commonplace.

A few minutes after 10 a.m., United States District Court Judge Andre M. Davis took his seat and began his introductory remarks. Suddenly, the leader of the defendants, Willie Mitchell, a short, unremarkable looking twenty-eight-yearold with close-cropped hair, leapt from his chair, grabbed a microphone, and launched into a bizarre soliloquy.

“I am not a defendant,” Mitchell declared. “I do not have attorneys.” The court “lacks territorial jurisdiction over me,” he argued, to the amazement of his lawyers. To support these contentions, he cited decades-old acts of Congress involving the abandonment of the gold standard and the creation of the Federal Reserve. Judge Davis, a Baltimore-born African American in his late fifties, tried to interrupt. “I object,” Mitchell repeated robotically. Shelly Martin and Shelton Harris followed Mitchell to the microphone, giving the same speech verbatim. Their attorneys tried to intervene, but when Harris’s lawyer leaned over to speak to him, Harris shoved him away.

if Omar voted Ron Paul

man, that's some crazy convergence. an ex-ceo was just convicted here today of tax evasion. he got deep into this radical "common law" christian identity libertarian stuff. they're gonna get him on more i think, he kept talking about god wanting him to kill the judge...

there was an episode of law and order on yesterday w/ that, it was mostly lols as sam waterston kept yelling object

heh

www.redemptionservice.com

Despite the United States Federal Reserve Bank asserting claim that "Washington, D.C." is over 8 Trillion Dollars in Debt to the Federal Reserve Bank, most Americans today fail to realize that the United States Federal Reserve "BANK" is a "PRIVATE" Bank! Fifty years ago this fact was common knowledge among many Americans. It was even taught in school as part of History class. Today, it is no longer even mentioned in school and most Americans are completely oblivious to this once common knowledge. So who owns the Federal Reserve Bank, you ask? No, NOT American Citizens! The Federal Reserve Bank was created through an Act of Congress and came into existence from the "Federal Reserve Act of December 23, 1913." Created from an Act of Congress; but more-or-less a "HYBRID" (Created through Legislation; but as a Corporation with privately held stock). Eighty-Five percent (85%) of the Stock is held entirely by European International Bankers. These foreign Shareholders/ Owners being entirely European Jewish families:

Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin

Lazard Brothers Bank of Paris

Israel Moses Sieff Banks of Italy

Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam

Lehman Brothers Bank of New York

Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York

Chase Manhattan Bank of New York

Goldman Sachs Bank of New York

Click here for chart outline of the ownership of the Federal Reserve Bank

http://bp2.blogger.com/_zD-zh2jtvZU/SIPhQsdr7DI/AAAAAAAAAlg/0jjFmxIPgU4/s400/Barksdale.JPG

http://209.85.62.26/12257/100/emo/jewmoney.gif

http://images.webster-dictionary.org/dict/110/041516-shylock.gif

lol

Soon, Shystyville CDs with titles like “Pure Shit” became evidence of not just the conspiracy but the crimes themselves, with prosecutors entering into the record lyrics like these:

I watch ya brains fly all over on the bitch next to you
Homeboy it’s up to you I could put this pup to you
Then to pumpin’ you up like a innertube
Send shots that’ll pump up the end of you
Leave you all fat and bloated you know I keep
the Mac loaded then I like ta clack rollin’
That’s why Bo and Weez on lock now and every day on lock down
Niggas getting shot down for runnin’ they mouth clown
Tell me how it feels with a gun in ya mouth now

Prosecutors alleged that the “bitch next to you” was Lisa Brown, who was sitting beside Oliver McCaffity when he was shot through the head, that a “pup” is slang for the largecaliber revolver used in the killing, that the “Bo” on “lock now” was the imprisoned Willie “Bo” Mitchell, and that the reference to “Niggas getting shot for runnin’ they mouth” amounted to witness intimidation. Faced with the prospect of an all-white jury hearing this music in the courtroom, the defense lawyers objected on the grounds that lots of songs have lyrics that “proudly refer to violent retaliation,” offering by way of example country star Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”

recently saw Clockers for the first time...not only does it feel very Wire-y (wiry?) in retrospect, but bird and wee-bay are in there.

Richard Price cribbed a good amount of dialogue for the Wire from Clockers, mostly stuff that didn't get used in the film, like "big paws on a puppy."

Not like this is official or anything, and I'm not getting my hopes up yet, but:

At the EMA (Entertainment Merchant Association) show this week, being held at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, HBO Video and Warner Home Video have announced that The Wire - The Complete Series is coming to DVD later this year.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Wire-The-Complete-Series/9915

I watched the first three episodes of Season Five (spoiler alert).

Although newsroom and City Hall politics are as well-drawn as usual, for the first time I sensed that Simon's cynicism was beginning to curdle his ideas. Bunk, the newspaper editor, McNulty – all utter some variation on the line "life sucks and we can't get shit done." And, so far, the guy who plays the executive editor is a buffoon.

if you'd been through what they'd been through wouldn't you feel basically the same?

though i don't see gus as being very cynical. he's the fire under the butt of the reporters under him and he still wants to chase down good stories - in fact he still believes good work is possible to such an extent that he goes right up against the exec editor about it

the problem w/ Gus wasn't cynicism, it was his saintliness

there are people like that, though!

Funny you mention this – not two minutes ago the interim associate dean of the journalism school left my office decrying the state of the industry and how we (Student Media) can help sharpen the kids' skills in the new world.

I don't have a problem with the conflicts – several friends have accepted buyouts or been laid off in the last two weeks as major newspaper conglomerates panic – but the obvious manner in which they've unfolded is disappointing.

Episodes 4-6 tomorrow.

"executive editor is a buffoon" = Whiting, not Haynes, right?

lol I am in a race with Alfred now to finish season 5, I just watched 1-3 myself last night

and btw y'all Regional Affairs Editor Rebecca Corbett played by Kara Quick got straight ROBBED in the wire babez poll yes i said ROBBED that woman was ROBBED

I think I'm going to like this season, it's got a lot more melodrama dominoes lining up, and nobody's learning any lessons. By the final episode I fully expect Baltimore to be razed to the ground. No spoilers please.

I like the return of McNulty The Rake myself.

there was a wire babez poll and i missed it??!!/ :(

going by some journalism people I know, Gus seems pretty realistic actually. I don't think he's saintly it's just there is a v strict code of ethics and if you take it seriously, you take it seriously. god knows what goes on in "newsrooms" for those talking heads pundit shows, though.

Will be getting the first two discs of S5 tomorrow. Excited.

WIRE BABEZ POLL
WIRE BABEZ POLL (dudes edition)

I thought all the Sun stuff was pretty OTM actually. Particularly the speech about 'doing more with less', I have been on the receiving end of the exact same speech from more than one publishing bigwig in the last few years. LOVE Gus.

What's going on in South Florida

i imagine similar backroom conversations going on in the la weekly and l.a. times offices since those papers have gone from being reasonable to just about the most dire rags i've ever read.

the Sun just did another round of buyouts a month or so back, i know some people over there that survived the cuts but are still pretty much on their toes because they know it could be them next year or the year after, etc.

I'm sure there are a lot of Guses in the newspaper industry - but there are a lot of saintly, dedicated people in all the professions the Wire covered (except for drug dealers, presumably). But they were never portrayed in the same urgent "Love This Man" way as Gus.

Except maybe Lester ('til the last season), but he was always more jaded and less earnest.

i think the compression hurt the fifth season more than the direct cynicism. cut two hours out of any other storyline and it would have seemed too broad and obvious too: mouzone vs omar, marlo's megalomania, the sobotkas and the greeks, the political campaigns, etc. streetwise old school-reporters vs. their clueless ivy-league neoliberal bosses is a bit romantic yes but not completely unreal.

hah wrong hyphen there

in his whole blog jihad a few months ago Simon aggressively argued against the perception that they had to cut anything out or shorten the storyline in season 5, that they were fine with the shorter order of episodes. it definitely feels too fast and too compressed to have 10 episodes instead of 12 or 13 like usual, though.

hmm, well, the turn towards fakery (lol no spoilers) as a solution to the budget & morale crisis is so sudden and wholly uncharacteristic, maybe we all pin that turn on the shorter series when really it's just not entirely believable.

gah i'm totally incoherent: maybe simon is being defensive, but on the other hand ppl are blaming the fifth season's problems on the "rushed pace" when really they're just problems, period.

i have totally contradicted myself in the space of half an hour, jesus

It didn't help that the last 3 or so episodes were the best of the season, so there was kind of a bitter "aww it was just getting good" feeling when it all ended quicker than it usually does.

The McNutty/bad reporter storylines are half-baked, but I basically loved everything else about S5.

and btw y'all Regional Affairs Editor Rebecca Corbett played by Kara Quick got straight ROBBED in the wire babez poll yes i said ROBBED that woman was ROBBED

Not really since TITTAYS!!! but the overall thrust of your point stands.

Almost all of S5 felt hollow in some way -- could be that the McNutty/bad reporter thing rippled out through all the different INSTITUTIONS, as is the wont of the show.

I finished S5. It ruled.
I don't understand anybody who complains about the wire except for the point that it should have lasted longer.

My only complaint about the Wire right now is that Netflix hasn't started to send me season 5 yet and tells me this instead:

IMPORTANT: Your DVD Shipments Have Likely Been Delayed
Click here to learn more

We’re sorry to report that since Tuesday we’ve been experiencing issues with our shipping system, so many of you have not received DVDs in a timely manner and many of you have not received emails letting you know we got a DVD back from you.

and btw y'all Regional Affairs Editor Rebecca Corbett played by Kara Quick got straight ROBBED in the wire babez poll yes i said ROBBED that woman was ROBBED

^^^ this is truth bomb supreme

except wait til you see the french girl who works at the bank

I got mine before the Netflix problem, joygoat.

(Possible spoilers if people are still watching the early seasons}
Can I just get something off my chest that never sat right with me, and had very far-reaching consequences? It just didn't make sense that Stringer would try to get rid of Mousone by telling Omar that he'd been responsible for torturing Brandon. Stringer is a smart man, surely he knew that Omar might check first? And why didn't he just put the word out rather than telling Omar face-to-face and thus making it really bloody easy for Mousone to find out that it was String who'd tried to set him up? It just seemed a really crass and cack-handed stunt to try to pull.