We have new HBO coming tonight, y'all, and it's yummy, eagerly anticipated, David Simon-created, New Orleans-flavored HBO hour-long drama. I'm so excited. It hasn't even aired yet, and it's already great because of the writing it's inspired, the way it's lit a fire under the NOLA Blogosphere. If you want the best, most insightful, expert commentary on all things Treme, you'll find it here at the Back of Town blog, where some of the best writers in the NOLA Blogosphere shine their exceptional talents on David Simon's most recent creation. Some of Back of Town's contributors are the same bloggers who created Got That New Package, a blog dedicated to Simon's previous, critically revered series, The Wire, so they're already Simonites (Simonistas?), but now he's come to their beloved city to set his new show, and chosen one of them, the late Ashley Morris, as model for a main character, Creighton Burnette, portrayed by John Goodman (emphasis: loosely based). We can't know what Ashley would think of all this. I have to hope he'd be glad to have his words reach such an audience, to be cited as so resonating by Simon, whom he so admired, to be incorporated in such a major work. Ashley's widow, Hana, describes the painful irony here on his blog, now their blog, where she comments on The Colbert Report segment shown here (below, right). In this clip, Simon fields Colbert's provocative schtick with humor, intelligence and grace, and attributes some of Goodman's character's words to Ashley. If your intellectual curiosity wants to explore Simon's inspirational source (highly recommended), scroll down on his blog and browse Ashley's "Greatest Hits" posts.
It's not quite synchronicity, not quite causality, sharing some elements with both, but its interconnections are dizzying, so if you're watching Treme, you should follow Back of Town, 'cause the folks who've long been writing about David Simon's work and New Orleans are now writing about both subjects at the same time. Go. Now. Read. Want to join in or listen to the conversation? Then follow #treme and #backoftown on Twitter to read what folks are saying, as they say it. It's where I'll be talking about the show as it airs. Finally, a note to HBO: Your new website is a sloppy, dark, flashy, glitchy, anti-functionality, browser-crashing mess. No signatures for message board posters? No links to any social media profiles on HBO user profiles? Come on, HBO, come out of the control the message last century and into the light of a media reality in which consumers have voices. Let go, and encourage the conversation. That's all. Peace, out, y'all. |
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