Treme

[nacho]

So we're loving Treme... And I'm now exploring the world of Ashley Morris (the blogger that Goodman's character is based off of):

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2005/11/fuck_you_you_fu.html

Duh!  I totally missed that Ashley Morris had died in 2008.  I was in WTF mode when we lost Goodman's character, then dug into it a bit more.

Here's his wife's blog:

http://backoftown.wordpress.com/

[Cassander]

goddamn, that last episode was just incredible. 

[nacho]

Yeah.  It's a beautiful work...

[nacho]

So... Went to a Treme season two viewing party and we only made it 20 minutes through.

People walked out in horror. Here's this very tame telling of a group of people in a city 14 months after Katrina. What offended my fellow viewers? That New Orleans was in such bad a shape 14 months after the storm. They were shocked. I heard it all: "This is America!" and "These are Americans!" and all the what the fucks.

There's nothing in the opener that's offensive except for scenes of destruction, and the NOLA diaspora aspects. But everyone -- ten people -- were stunned.

And it hit me -- that's the problem. That's what's wrong. Everyone believed that we fixed NOLA shortly after Katrina. That, maybe, six months of problems went on but, then, it was all over. Everything was fine. It was back to beads and boobs and Bourbon St.

Now, I'm nobody. Just a loudmouthed Yankee from San Antone, right? But even my ritualistic twice yearly visit to NOLA for a good ten years now made me feel separate from these people. Yes. Something happened down there. People got hurt. It was a bad thing. And, yes, these are your brothers and sisters.

I told the story where Mrs. Cass and I were on the highway and the Blackwater guys were arresting someone. Suddenly the highway is awash with guys in camos wielding automatic weapons. Mrs. Cass and I crouch down beneath the dashboard in a panic. It's the Mid-East. It's a war zone. It's terrible. It's scary. It's three years after Katrina. Nobody believed me. Nobody believed Treme. The TV went off and everyone went upstairs to talk. Fiction. All of it. Erased.

[Reginald McGraw]

Wow.

[nacho]

Wow what? Because I wrote that after a few gin and tonics. So "wow" at how the viewing party fell apart, or "wow" that I'm obviously crazy? Probably the former, because the latter's been proven about 10,000 times throughout the forums.

Also, I don't want to go to work today. Discuss.

[Cassander]

Waiting on L to get home tonight to see the first ep, which got a mixed review from my co-workers.  But I'm really surprised these people SHUT OFF A TV SHOW which was the sole purpose of getting together (except, obviously, it wasn't).  What did these people do when they started up Season 2 of the Wire?  "Holy shit!  You mean bad guys keep having lives after they've been locked up behind bars?  You mean McNulty didn't single-handedly stop crime in Baltimore?  The cops are STILL fucked up?  I'm not watching this shit!"

Seriously?!  All the promos and interviews and press releases are about Treme being about the problems of post-K New Orleans.  How did this escape these people's grasp?  Did they think the show was going to take a hard right turn into 100% party time?  Jesus.  You know some stupid ass people.

[Reginald McGraw]

Wow what? Because I wrote that after a few gin and tonics. So "wow" at how the viewing party fell apart, or "wow" that I'm obviously crazy? Probably the former, because the latter's been proven about 10,000 times throughout the forums.

Also, I don't want to go to work today. Discuss.

Wow about the viewing party disintegration. I was thinking about writing more, but I couldn't find the words. It seems like many people are so close to the edge that they can't stand to see pain. Just holding on for another day.

[nacho]

Of course, the show's subplot sort of parallels this. The view from outside that New Orleans is an anachronism. Some empty place playing lip service to a dead culture that is just for tourists. I hear that a lot. NOLA is Bourbon St and nothing else. People don't even care to visit. Why? Frat boys and puke. Blinking out of existence the day after Mardi Gras.

[Cassander]

so, yeah.  got into it last night.  It was just another episode of Treme, just further along in time.  Like every other serious TV show out there ever.  God.  I've never heard of anything so stupid in my life as getting together to watch and celebrate a show that's about honest portrayal then getting offended by the truth and turning it off.

Anyway.  Did you notice Ziggy in there?  Hopefully he moves back to NOLA with Kim Dickinson cause I love that guy.

[nacho]

Yeah. I had an hour's worth of Ziggy flashbacks!

[Cassander]

I'm thinking about putting together a really long article about what watching Treme is like in New Orleans, touching on a lot of things I've observed apart from the show but that tie in to how excited many people in the city get about the show.  It really is hard even for me to tell where the attraction lies.  I think I'm watching this show because it's the current David Simon project.  But part of me wonders if I'm like a lot of other New Orleanians who are watching just to see how many places they can recognize or spot their friends as extras in the background.  One the one hand the show is so real that it's like seeing the lives of people I've met re-enacted (though just a bit more dramatically, obviously), but on the other the show is such NOLA concentrate that I worry citizens are content to watch it on TV rather than get out and actually experience it. 

What I hear all the time is, "yeah, the musical numbers in last night's episode were really good," almost always followed up by, "Who were those guys?"  So the TV show is educating even New Orleans own citizens about its own music, which is bizarre.  I think every musician or group featured on Treme has been playing for at least a decade, if not two or three.  It's kind of odd how people are so ready to accept something more easily because its been on TV even though it's surrounded them their whole lives.  All these experiences (and here I'm talking about things like going to see Mardi Gras Indians, heading to small clubs, eating out at restaurants that are outside of your neighborhood) are right there for the taking, but Treme has spurred this whole "oh, yeah, that was in that episode last week, let's go see it!"  mentality.  And then you get there and its overcrowded because everyone's come to see what the cameras were looking at.  Or, you hear, "Yeah, that place has character but it's, you know...there." meaning in the middle of a poor neighborhood or that you'll be one of three white people in the place.  I dunno.

Anyway, I thought the first episode was great.  Everyone is being challenged by their current situation, sort of having their will to commit to the new status quo tested.  And Delmond's argument with the other NY Jazz people was pretty interesting.  I that "I get to say that, they don't!" attitude keeps getting explored. 

[nacho]

Yes! Do the long article.

And, hey, I'm watching it for the New Orleans flavor more than anything else.

New Orleans as the last of Old America is what fascinates me. We've certainly talked about that over the years, no?  That's been my feel since the first visit. Here's a place that's still alive, and free of the homogenized, segregated attitudes of the rest of the country. For better or for worse. All the dangers and insanity of "old America" walk hand in hand with all the great things. It sort of reminds me of my childhood -- where there was this undercurrent of culture, where out of the way restaurants were queer little things, where you braved getting shot to hang out in some dungeon-like record store.

Now you can walk casually down H St. at any time, Silver Spring's a glittering paradise for DSW shoppers, new restaurants are full of yuppies and families the day before opening day...

So, yes, Delmond's argument -- and the whole theme of a dying culture that's been there since last season -- is something I enjoy seeing explored. Not only does this Brigadoon of lumpin', strange humanity need to hold on in an increasingly boring, braindead, cultureless country, but it has to survive multiple catastrophes.

The double-edged sword of tourism also struck a nerve. Especially as I battle my way through hordes of them on the increasingly broken Metro to get to work. At what point does a culture, or a place, lose it's soul to the almighty tourist dollar? DC is kind of built with that in mind, so that's expected. But (it seems to me) tourism in New Orleans is a different sort of beast. It's the come gawp at the magnificent animal behind bars sort.  No one is cruising museums or really entrenching themselves in the way the city works. Most of them are like VP, yes? Never leave the Quarter, get drunk beyond reason, steal wheelchairs and traffic cones.

Tourism of that sort forces the culture of a place to conform so that it can still make money. And that's when a place dies. You see it overseas if you're smart enough to wander off the tourist circuit and compare. Towns and even cities that simply give up and become whatever their central attraction is.

[nacho]

Describing your family as "dystopic" is awesome. I'm using that from now on.

[nacho]

So...throwing a sazarac in the face of the actual, real-life Alan Richman (http://www.gq.com/food-travel/alan-richman/200611/katrina-new-orleans-food) made the latest Treme episode for me. I just played that over and over for a few minutes.

When it comes to food... The only places in all my travels where I've fallen in love with what hits the table is in the UK, New Mexico, and New Orleans. I crave the food from those places every day. The UK is, admittedly, guilty sin. There's no style or quality there. It's Appalachian death-food done with panache.

For New Mexico, my love is largely revolving around green and red chilis.

New Orleans, I just want to consume every unhealthy 8000 calorie traditional dish they have. Constantly. Till I die 15 minutes later.

I'd add Chincoteague to that list, but catching crabs and oysters and serving them well when you're a mile from a Maryland (or Maryland-adjacent) beach is child's play.

My ideal dinner table would be toad in the hole and spotted dick, huevos rancheros served christmas style, and anything from the multitude of hole in the wall places Cass and Mrs. Cass take me to twice a year.

And...uh...lipitor.