Tragic Death

In a cruel example of life imitating art, the younger brother of Ralph Anwan Glover (Slim Charles) was gunned down two blocks south of the Columbia Heights Metro stop in Washington D.C. last Thursday. Tayon Glover, 29, was killed in the area he and his brother grew up in.

According to the article in the Washington Post about the shooting, Tayon had had several brushes with the law but was trying to get his life straight when the shooting happened.
Like many of the actors on the show, the elder Glover and his brother had taken a hands-on role in empowering their community and it's incredibly tragic to see this happen.

One thing that's fascinating about "The Wire" is how so many of the actors on the show are from areas similar to the one portrayed on the show. Simon and Burns, by and large, did not take a bunch of gleaming, eager young actors with head shots waiting tables in New York and Los Angeles and take them to Baltimore, teach them the slang and the accent in the hopes that they'd gel - they went into the communities they knew and found people who lived and understood the life they wanted to portray. Brutal events like this eerily underscore the connections this show and its cast have to the real happenings that unfold in the type of community they portray on-screen.

- In more upbeat news, Lance Reddick (Lt. Daniels), will be joining the cast of "Lost" this season. "Lost" has a good crew of writers - they've been able to do a lot with the premise - so I'll be curious to see how he fits in.

- If you haven't been watching "Mad Men" you should. It's terrific. The brainchild of one of the executive producers of "The Sopranos," it has great dialogue and an attention to detail that makes every scene come alive - "Wire"-esqe qualities if you ask me.

The DVD art for Season Four has been unveiled. Not bad huh? However, there is no release date yet. Nice cover, if nothing surprising - that was the main poster HBO used for Season Four the whole way through. It should be out before Christmas which would mean that the fifth season would probably start airing in January of '08. That would be my guess at this point though no one has told me anything definitive.

The Model for Omar?

That's what this article on the front page of the NY Times yesterday claims about one Donnie Andrews who is now getting married to former addict Fran Boyd who was in turn the protagonist on "The Corner." Both knew Burns and Simon when they were a homicide detective and a reporter (respectively) and are the subject of this article which shines a light on how information was gleamed for both "The Wire" and "The Corner."

Interestingly enough, according to the article, "Starting in 1998, Ms. Boyd, Mr. Simon and Mr. Burns began lobbying for Mr. Andrews and in subsequent years attended his parole hearings." This was to get him out of prison (he admitted to murdering a drug dealer) where he had turned himself around. He is now the antigang outreach worker for the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore.

However, if you listen to the long interview on the HBO podcast with David Simon, I believe that he says that Omar is a composite of a number of stick-up men, not just Andrews. So, the NY Times writer jumped the gun a little. Nonetheless, if you're a "Wire" fan, you'll like the article.

- Also, the UK paper, the Guardian is streaming the first season of "The Wire" from its website. Read this for more info.