Tuesday, July 28, 2009

27 again

Two grand things came out of turning twenty-seven, aside from getting to celebrate for a full weekend. I now own the full set of DVDs of the Wire, and part of my identity moved cross-country to West LA.

Owning the Wire means I can not only open my eyes wide and earnestly preach its virtues to folks, but I can also push boxes of proof into their hands. This brings me great joy. Left up to themselves maybe people would follow my advice to shining towers of pop cultural brilliance, or maybe they would wander unguided into thickets of bad taste, from which they eventually emerge whining about how there's nothing good on television.

And I can re-watch it, either with the folks to whom I'm preaching or by myself just because. Though an exciting prospect, this marathon will have to wait. I've been dosing myself with intense art lately: reading literature about war and its aftermath (City of God, City of Thieves, Away, A Canticle for Leibowitz), watching shows about violence and what happens when you cleave to a morality system of your own making (Sopranos, Weeds). Too often, my dreams have been disturbing, even horrifying. Last night it was all rape and pillage, rape and pillage, with random murder on the side.

It seemed wise to put myself on a diet of family friendly fare, like the Gilmore Girls, until my subconscious adjusts.

Meanwhile, to help with the distraction, I have an iPhone with a super new West LA phone number! If you didn't enjoy Pt 1, below, you definitely won't enjoy the second installment, so I'll skip it. In short, after much haggling and some help from my brother, I have the most exciting new toy I've ever had. I hope 27 makes me worthy of it.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Your opinion on 5th season?

ester said...

I was a fan! Though it went a little overboard, stretching plausibility, I was still engrossed from start to finish. The very end, especially, really got to me. Did you not like it (as much)?

Unknown said...

I sheepishly cop to not yet having watched the last season, and even more sheepishly cop to having exposed myself to all the Not-As-Good criticism (In my defense: It's not like I can just not read Slate.)

I spread things out, though. Mad Men, Deadwood, Netflix, whatever. That way everything always feels like a treat, a reunion. My girlfriend just watched all 5 seasons of Six Feet Under in the space of a month, and frankly... I don't think I'd want the company of those people for that long and with such intensity.

The Wire is different though, I know. I gotta get on that.

Also, City of Thieves and Away are soon to be read! Hooray.

herding tapeworms said...

I'll take one of those boxes of proof when we get back from this weekend.