It has been announced that Harvard University sociology professor William J. Wilson will be teaching a course on HBO’s series The Wire.  One of the most respected History teachers in the country is also apparently a big fan of the show.  Although probably the most prestigious, Harvard is definitely not the first school to offer a course on the subject. Duke University and Middlebury College have already beaten Harvard to the punch.

Now young rich whites can learn the ins-and-outs of how to truly run a proper business with proper direction from the boys on the block.  It’s only a matter of time before the narcos start to find “bodies” in those vacant dorms.  Word on the street is that Mr. Omar will be running the school’s financial aid collections department.  McNulty will also be hosting a weekly beer-pong tournament off campus.  Kima will be offering a LGBT awareness course, while Stringer Bell is on board for a real estate Masters program.  Bubbles is working on his syllabus for a “shopping cart economics”  class.

Rumor also has it that Frank Sobatka is forming new teachers Unions.

pasque c’est un truc qui m’a toujours titillé.
faire des correspondances stupides entre la fiction & la réalité.
en plus entre le temps que je me mette en route, les ricains m’avaient déjà piqué l’idée (http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2009/02/if-rappers-were-characters-from-the-wire), alors comme on aime pas trop recycler les merdes ici, on a fait la même mais en français. y’en a dans la caboche du blavog quand même.
si y’a des trucs qui vous paraissent incohérents, si vous avez de meilleures idées pour les parallèles à faire, et ben j’en ai rien à foutre mettez les en commentaires, soyez pas timides.
et ce sera en 2 parties, pasque les images & wordpress c’est relou, surtout quand on fait aucun effort et pis comme ça vous aurez l’impression d’être gâtés 2 fois plus bande de ptits canaillous.

Avon Barksdale

Passi
le mec arrivé quoi. installé, il a fait son biff, même en dehors du game il continue d’être une figure de poids et de mailler.

Stringer-Bell

Kenzy
bizness man dans l’âme jusqu’au bout, un poil trop sans doute, ses pairs ne l’ont pas toujours compris. il a contribué à construire un empire mais il s’est écroulé juste au moment où il touchait au but : la respectabilité.

Prop’ Joe

Driver
pasqu’il est gros et qu’il a une bonne tête, et bien qu’un peu roublard, il reste sympa quand même. en plus il est là depuis longtemps et toujours de la bonne came. un mec cool, quoi.
http://www.dubcnn.com/media/audio/driver-meccool/

wallace

Disiz la Peste
la gentillesse n’est pas faiblesse, sauf quand elle l’est. trop naïf pour ce monde de brutes, fallait qu’il parte.

Chris Partlow
Mala
“tu m’connais pas, moi…“
il est sale, il exécute sans poser de questions, on ne comprend que très rarement ce qu’il pense, et encore ça c’est quand il parle.

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson

Casey
“perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear (in a television series).” c’est pas moi qui le dit, c’est Stephen King.
bah oui. forcément. ça tombe sous le sens. Zec to zec.

marlo

booba
des glaçons dans les veines, les canines qui rayent le parquet, il ne s’arrête jamais avant d’obtenir ce qu’il veut, et ce qu’il veut c’est souvent beaucoup trop. et il pète plus haut que son cul desfois, aussi.

Brother Mouzone

ILL
aucune ressemblance dans le caractère, mais c’est le tueur que sa réputation précède, en plus il disparaît quand tu t’y attends pas et réapparaît quand tu l’attends plus, donc on est obligés.

Cheese

Kennedy
tu sais pas trop pourquoi mais quelque chose te dit qu’il bouffera à tous les râteliers, et malgré ça on le déteste pas non plus, même si “this boy has been nuthing but a deception”.

Michael

Escobar Macson
jeune prodige du quartier, précoce, doué en tout, pris en charge par les mauvaises personnes ce qui ne lui rendra pas service, maintenant il veut sa part.

Dukie

Nubi
même situation que michael, mais avec encore moins de chance, et beaucoup moins débrouillard apparemment.

Nick Sobotka

seth gueko
représente les ouvriers, flirte avec la rue et, livré à lui-même, finit par se ramasser la gueule comme on le sentait depuis un moment.

Ziggy Sobotka

orelsan
un brave petit gars à la base, mais le manque de confiance en soi ça mène à des tragédies.

Sergei “Serge” Malatov

sefyu molotov
pas seulement pour le nom et l’accent, mais aussi pour ça : “he had a head ? he had arms ? so it wasn’t us” —> quand t’entends boucher, y’a lui qui va avec.

Bodie

Salif
trop rue pour gravir les échelons, il finit par foutre un chassé dans la fourmilière pour se faire entendre, ghetto soldier style. en général ça réussit moyen niveau plan de carrière.

Cutty
Fabe
repenti, il a fait le tour du game, maintenant il observe de loin sans trop d’illusion, même si les plus jeunes le calculent plus, son nom est encore respecté des connaisseurs.

Since the election cycle started, I don’t think I’m the only one who slowly tuned out the heavy satire of Colbert, and switched back over to The Daily Show for my dose of fake news. Things have gotten pretty easy for the editors of TDS, who’ve just been splicing together the best of the McCain campaign’s schizophrenia for the better part of two months. There was a time though, somewhere in the middle of Bush’s second term, when Colbert was outwitting Stewart regularly. The climax had to be Colbert deadpanning to a DC audience, a baffled Bush just ten feet away (“This administration isn’t sinking! It’s soaring. The President isn’t rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, he’s reshuffling deck chairs on the Hindenburg!”) The lefties, the liberals, and the other 70% of disgruntled Amrikans were so beside themselves, that Democracy Now, rather than doling out the news, just replayed that speech over and over for a day. It was the one small thing we had. Ever since the Kerry KO, the Republicans had been spending their political capital to roll back the welfare state, keep the war alive, and clown the opposition as a bunch of whinging pantywaists. Jon Stewart’s face was frozen into a permanent WTF. But Colbert was swimming into the belly of the whale, sharp as a squid beak. He was the master of the immanent critique, outbushing Bush, out-riling O’reilly, and for the coagulating funk of American disillusionment, he provided a small poot of relief.

Since the primaries ended, though, things have been different. The Hope Caravan is outpacing the Straight Talk Express. Stewart and gang are the ones hobnobbing with the heads of state – Clinton, Obama*, even Blair, in probably the most cringeworthy Daily Show appearance ever. Meanwhile, Colbert’s muse is hiding somewhere, cutting brush. Cheney is elusive as ever. Condi Rice is interviewing for the Niners. In fact, tonight, after watching a pretty stilted interview with Obama on TDS, I only stuck around for the Report when hearing that The Wire’s David Simon was gonna be on air.

Homeboy still has it. TV’s greatest tragedian seemed positively awed by Colbert’s off-the-cuff abuse. And the night ended, with not only the best use of The Wire to illustrate a political analogy since this, but the best dig on Limbaugh’s dumbass “Obama Hood” metaphor. “So, Omar Little is sort of like Robin Hood, taking from the rich giving to the poor. Stealing from ‘Joe the Drug Dealer.’ Shouldn’t Joe the Drug Dealer get to spread his wealth however he chooses?” That dude is so quick, I’m not sure who he’s satirizing anymore.

Isn't that the basic tenet of socialism, though, O?

I woke up in a panic this morning.

You know all that hype last spring about the end of HBO’s The Wire?

It was real.

It’s over.

The characters are gone.

Omar, Rawls, Bunk, Rhonda, Valchek, Beadie, Jimmy, Carver, Herc, Kima, Daniels, Freamon, Prop Joe, Marlo, Stringer Bell, Butchie, Brother Mouzone, Avon, Cutty, Levy, Bubbs, Snoop, D’Angelo, Tommy, Mayor Royce, Clay Davis, Frank Sobotka, The Greek, Namond, Michael, Randy, Prez, Bunny Colvin, Duquan.

Gone.

This is horrible.

Why “The Wire” will remain relevant:

I’m not talking about the fact that the show ended in a way that could later produce a movie or a sixth season (not necessarily a good idea, but that’s not the point). The Wire will remain relevant because each episode was so enormously dense. One of the staples of the show was that nothing substantial happened for 80% of each season, and then in the last two episodes all hell would break loose. Well, in that first 80% there were so many references to Baltimore, to crime and drug policy topics, and to historical facts long forgotten by anyone else that unless you were taking notes, you’d completely miss a significant portion of the show’s intricacies.

For example, a few years ago I took a class with Professor Mark Kleiman at UCLA, where we learned about a number of policy ideas that were eventually paralleled by Bunny Colvin on the show. Kleiman, who grew up in Baltimore, once happened to mention that there was a ‘daily number’ racket run through the local paper. A mobster whose name I have long forgotten would publish the daily number, which people all over the city would bet on. If they got the number right, they’d be paid out by their bookies, and if not, the mobster would get a nice little kickback from the bookies.

In an offhand remark that I can barely remember, the architect of the ‘daily number’ racket was mentioned during an episode in Season 3. The point of the conversation was that there was a way to make money in Baltimore without getting caught (a favorite point of Prop Joe). This is one of the few Baltimore references that I actually picked up on and I can imagine that there were countless others that simply fell on deaf ears. As I was writing this piece, I tried to google the reference but its so obscure that I couldn’t find it.

The point of this all is simply to say that The Wire will remain relevant because on the first watch, you can only pick up so much beyond the plot. There were so many things in Season 5 that were foreshadowed (Kenard) or returned to (the detective who tried to throw himself down the stairs in Season 1) that without a second watch, there’s hardly a way to grasp the show’s true depth. A second or third watch will reveal those intricacies as well as the vast number of Baltimore references that undoubtedly permeate the dialogue. As far as I can tell, there’s not good way to figure out the name of that numbers racket mobster without either looking up my old professor, or re-watching the relevant episodes. So when a TV show becomes a valuable repository for a city’s history, one can only hope that the show will remain a valuable and respected resource for years to come.

We’re back again today with another fantastic interview for you.  Last week Marc sat down with Robert Chew, the Baltimore native who has portrayed the east Baltimore drug lord Proposition Joe for the past several years on the hit HBO series The Wire.  Prop Joe, as he came to be known, was an iconic figure that represented a time in Baltimore where the drug trade was less violent and bloody, when word was bond, and “The Game” was something very different than what it is today.

Click here to steam that interview.  Or, right click here and choose “Save Target As.”  Running time is 34 minutes.  You can read the transcript here.

Click read more for interviews and resources.

• Robert Chew on the Internet Movie Database
• The Arena Players Youtheatre
• An Interview with Prop Joeon The FADER
• Back to School from Baltimore City Paper-this article goes in-depth regarding the coaching Chew provided to the four young men who starred in season four.
• The TV Club talks about Prop Joe’s fate (spoiler alert!) on Slate.com
• Wire Watch from Time Magazine (spoiler alert!)

Just to clear up some confusion in the comments…Marlo did not own up to killing Prop Joe.  He said “I know what you’re thinking, so let me put it out there…I did it” (as in “I know you’re thinking I did it.”).  He then went on to blame Omar for Hungry and Joe’s murder, and upped the bounty on Omar’s head. Going into the meeting, Rick and one other guy said “you’ll know who got the connect, that’s the one that did Joe”, and in the meeting, Marlo says he’s got the connect taken care of, and Rick and pal trade glances.

Later, after Omar sticks up Rick with a beer bottle, Rick asks him if he did Hungry and Joe, and Omar just laughs.  Rick responds “didn’t think so”.

Marlo still publicly maintains that Omar killed Joe and Hungry to get at Marlo, and that’s what he led the co-op believe.  He ain’t admitted shit.   He’s playing the game of kings, of dictators, of Hitler and Stalin.  Dissolved the Reichstag, had his own men burn it down and then blamed outside agitators for it to consolidate loyalty under himself.

Can’t wait until the premiere! I’ve been watching the first 4 seasons religiously On Demand for the past couple months in anticipation of season 5. David Simon and the rest of the writers will no doubt throw down on the last 10 episodes. I’m a bit in denial about it coming to an end. Critics weren’t lying in saying it is one of the most important shows ever created. Click the poster to check out the trailer.

That’s right, more posts about The Wire’s final season. I got word that HBO will be running three short films; that that explore the back stories of Omar, Proposition Joe, and McNulty + Bunk. They will each air after an episode in Season 5 (starting with the third). But you know how Shake rolls … check after the jump for each film…

Proposition Joe

Omar

McNulty & Bunk