February 10, 2015: I Love David Simon’s Perspective

[For each of the last couple years, I’ve dedicated my Valentine’s week series to highlighting some American loves of mine. I wanted to do the same this week, leading up to a special weekend post on a new love. I’d love for you to share your own Valentine’s loves and thoughts in comments!]

Two obvious reasons and a less famous one why I can’t get enough of David Simon’s take on America.

1)      The Wire: ‘Cause duh. Also duh. And—nah, if you haven’t seen the greatest TV show in history yet, I don’t want to waste more of your time reading! Finish this post (if you would), then go find yourself a way to start watching The Wire (which was recently re-released in HD for HBO Go; I have mixed feelings about the change, but it does mean that it’s readily available for viewing in various ways). You’ll thank me!

2)      New Orleans: When it comes to what I just wrote in item 1, I have to admit that I’m a hypocrite—lots of friends and colleagues have insisted over the last few years that I watch Simon’s show Treme, and yet I haven’t gotten around to doing so. I will, I promise (and I imagine there’ll be an update here when I do)—but even before I do so, I can note how much I agree with Simon about the amazing, unique, profound Americanness of the Big Easy. I don’t know another city or place like it, and I know we wouldn’t be the same nation without it. Nice to see it get some love from one of our greatest storytellers!

3)      The Blog: This one might come as a bit of a surprise, since I’m a self-confessed optimist and Simon named his website/blog “The Audacity of Despair.” I’m not sure I quite believe him—The Wire, for example, is consistently dark but (I would argue) defined at least as much by the possibility of hope (difficult and uncertain and rare as it may be). But in any case, Simon’s blog is one of the most consistently intelligent, funny, pointed, moving, and just so damn well-written things out there, in any medium and form, and one that every American should be reading. What’s not to love?!

Next love tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Loves of yours you’d share?
PPS. Since I wrote this post, I've started watching season one of Treme--and yup, it's as good as I had hoped!