It takes a Thief

Check out this article on a break-in to the warehouse used by "The Wire" that occurred last week. It's in Columbia, Maryland - a suburb of Baltimore. The article sheds some light on where exactly the show is shot.

Money quote:

"Most of the filming for The Wire takes place in Baltimore, but directors shoot some indoor scenes on sets at the warehouse, such as ones depicting Baltimore police headquarters and the mayor's office. Equipment also is stored there...The show moved its soundstage to Columbia after its third season. The crew had been working out of an abandoned Sam's Club on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore County, (Producer Nina Noble said."

Also, here is an great article by Mark Bowden, one of America's greatest journalists, on the East Division of Philadelphia. From Bowden's descriptions, it sounds like a place eerily similar to the West Baltimore we see on "The Wire." Bowden describes the the social breakdown of the neighborhood, the immense unemployment, the abandonment of the area by industry and commerce, the great violence. The article also mentions the show.

David Simon

As you know, David Simon spoke on February 6 at Loyola College in Maryland. A reader of this blog who knows David personally also conducted this interview with him (thanks for the alert David).

I could talk a lot about what he's said but I'll just try and briefly sum up my thoughts. While he calls himself a "social democrat" (a la the Scandinavian countries I'm assuming), I believe that the most accurate term to describe his beliefs is neo-populist.

Many of the things he talks about, bemoaning the flight of manufacturing jobs and the decline of the traditional social contract in the work place, echo themes and points that John Edwards makes from the campaign trail. Edwards and Simon both hail from areas of the country (Edwards grew up in mill towns in the Carolinas) that have been hit hard by the loss of blue collar jobs and have yet to see economic benefits arising from the post-industrial economy and its reliance on professional services conducted by highly educated workers. As David Brooks notes in a recent column in the New York Times, neo-populists are on the rise on the left. I'm not sure I agree with Brooks but I think it's worth considering that this is a "trend" on the left and that Simon's rhetoric matches this resurgence. The only difference is that Simon's rhetoric is populism with a wholly urban slant on it (there's a tendency to equate populists with agrarian areas and ideas).

I can't say that I agree with Simon's pessimistic stance on contemporary America, and I don't consider myself to be a neo-populist, but his interviews are very worth reading. His take on the world is a bit of a throwback in many ways: You don't hear many people bemoaning technology so vehemently as Simon in the days of the Internet. The guy comes off as a bit of a Luddite in his interviews, but he makes a lot of valid points.

Lastly....

Here's a good article about Idris Elba in the San Francisco Chronicle. It interviews him vis a vis his new film, "Daddy's Little Girls" which I've heard nothing about.