Richard Price, Chad L. Coleman and Jamie Hector to speak in Brooklyn Thursday night

Richard Price (Wire writer), Chad L. Coleman (Cutty) and Jamie Hector (Marlo) will speak tomorrow night (Feb. 1) at 7 p.m. at the Brooklyn Information and Culture Center's Rotunda Gallery. The series is part of the STOOP series.

Richard Price is also speaking in San Francisco on March 27 as part of the City Arts and Lecture series at the Herbst Theater. Not sure what the occasion is but I'm definitely going. You'd think he'd be promoting a new book but I couldn't find anything on Amazon.

Fifth Season to Begin Filming in March

That's what it says in this article in the LA Daily News via Michael K. Williams (Omar). Williams plays a detective in Ben Affleck's directorial debut, "Gone, Baby Gone" due out later this year.

Also, if you live in the DC-Philly nexus, you might want to check out David Simon speaking in public on February 6 at Loyola College. From the "Towson Times:"

"On the Wire: An Evening with David Simon," creator, writer and producer of HBO's Baltimore-set series "The Wire," 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 in Loyola College's McGuire Hall, 4501 N. Charles St. Free.

I would LOVE to go to this.

In other miscellaneous Wire news....

Gbenga Akinnagbe appears in this "Out of Charcter" video via HBO talking about his acting. It's a bit campy if you ask me. If you would like to preserve the evil mystique of his character in your mind's eye, you might not want to watch it.

Oh yes, and watching the NFL playoffs not long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see Isiah Whitlock Jr. (aka Clay Sheeeeeeet Davis) make a cameo in a Verizon Wireless commercial. He was dressed in a bath robe and holding a mug and acting much more wholesome than his counterpart at City Hall.

Also, in personal news, I just bought a small neighborhood monthly newspaper in San Francisco. I'll disclose the URL and more info once the ball gets moving and there's actually content to show...

Two quick bits of info:

This week is "Wire Week" on allhiphop.com (I'm guessing to coincide with the BET premiere). There's been interviews with Wood Harris, Snoop and Michael K. Williams (Hat tip to zilla roc). They're good interviews. It seems as if every single actor on this show is also a rapper. Interesting to read about all their side projects.

Secondly, a source at HBO tells me that ratings for Season Four were up 17% from Season Three. Including On Demand and repeat viewings, each episode was seen by 6 million viewers. All the good press had an influence after all....

And lastly, the Sopranos shows on A&E, as a full page ad in the New York Times this morning not so subtly informed me. So I was wrong about not many HBO shows breaking out into normal cable.

BET to broadcast the first two seasons


BET will be showing the first two seasons of "The Wire" starting this Thursday at 9 p.m. After a special "3 day premiere event" (whatever that means when you're showing repeats) BET will show weekly episodes.

It looks like all the momentum from the critically-adored Season Four has given this show some new legs. I think it's great that the show is receiving more recognition and will have the chance to be seen by a wider audience. As far as I know, "Sex in the City" is the only other HBO show to get broadcast outside of HBO (I bet it's only a matter of time till "Entourage" busts out as well).

I'm a little concerned about how much of the language and swearing will be edited out. It seems like a better time for the show on cable would be 10 p.m. I believe that shows shown after that time can show more "adult content" (a la "Nip/Tuck"). Language is such an important part of the show and it would be a shame to see that compromised. But I suppose that's the price you pay when you want to reach a wider audience. Nonetheless, I don't think it will impact it a whole lot - just as long as they don't do any awful overdubbing. God forbid!

Here's a shot from the third episode of Season One which should speak volumes to anybody who just watched the past season.

I'll post more info here on anything "Wire" related as it becomes available.

Feel free to email me at asywak@gmail.com.