In memoriam...

A Memorial Fund has been set up to benefit the 3 children of Antonio Gilmore, the slain manager of the Blockbuster store in Waverly. Donations, which are not tax deductable, will be accepted until October 22, 2006.

Checks should be made payable to the "Antonio Gilmore Memorial Fund" and drop it off at any local Provident Bank location. Or mail the check to:

Attn: Antonio Gilmore Memorial Fund
c/o Provident Bank
Govans Branch
5234 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21212

Walking 'The Wire' ? - Life is not Art - Life is Real

The Wire is "of course" or rather was, I just discovered today, it's now been canceled, HBO's critically acclaimed yet not well watched, television show about Baltimore's "gritty" urban life. From the Chicago Tribune they note:

• “The Wire” steers clear of preaching, but it’s impossible not to see the graft and wheeling and dealing that goes on in the higher echelons of Baltimore’s power structure without also seeing parallels in the petty larceny on the street corners and the theft and betrayals among the city’s drug dealers. What we see in “The Wire” is how all of these pieces of the city fit together -- and, in a way, depend on each other to survive.
• “Every dying institution, like a dying animal, seeks to protect itself,” says Ed Burns, a cop and schoolteacher turned “Wire” writer/producer in an interview on HBO’s Web site. “The schools and [the] police department [are] unresponsive, because it’s about keeping the world as is, so you’re on top of it.”
  

That's all well and fine. But I see relatively little criticism about how, perhaps, the show exploits reality, the lives of these people "depend(ing) on each other to survive". Isn't it odd, think for a moment, that a show that purports to show reality in all its hopelessness is considered an "art form". Well then holy shit! Don't I just have the National Gallery of Hopelessness on my fucking doorstep then don't I? I've been interested in The Wire for sometime. But I can't afford to watch it. And who of Baltimore's tens of thousands of others or poor can as well.

It's all very Baudrillardian on some level - Baltimore is shown as hyperreal. It's not enough for people to see shootings and murders, drug crime and beatings in some news clip, or more high brow perhaps in a documentary. No, instead we have to have it repackaged as drama with characters and plots that are based on reality sold back to us as really realistic. So how does that de-base the local riff-raff's lives then? Well it commodifies their experiences as objects to be refigured and sold back to the highest bidder . It makes their realities into fantasies by distancing the viewer from the object and instead exoticizing their richness of the show's characters.

To their credit the show has offered some integrated support of the Baltimore communities it supposedly is so wonderfully realistic in portraying (see some of their press releases here). But let's face it - like the cop characters in Simon's show, those that are so driven by 'reality' of their own desires that they simply stay the course, often discouraged, blind and bitter along the way - they're not doing all this just out of the goodness of their hearts. If it was a) they wouldn't adverstise their good works and would quietly claim it on a tax return, or, b) they would be giving all the receipts to of EVERYTHING to community development. No, this is BUSINESS, make no mistake about it. If you're unclear then try to travel through Baltimore while they film The Wire. You're treated as intruder, not resident. And part of Greenmount Ave. has been turned into a huge empty lot where they park their production equipment with signs everywhere screaming "PRIVATE PROPERTY" and "KEEP OUT". Of course maybe the lot is better than a burned out building but my point is that the city considers The Wire like a revenue stream - and I highly doubt that the monies from that lot are going into that community: Art imitates life in this case about the inability of the City to function and in the course of doing so perpetuates the issues it supposedly wants to eviscerate and change.

David Simon is also the producer of the acclaimed mini-series (is there another word?) of The Corner (2000, HBO) and noted for producing Baltimore's other crime drama Homicide (1993-1999, NBC) which people "remember (it) fondly". I was told by my partner that the producer ought be given more slack. I don't know. Mr. Simon, previously a writter for the Baltimore Sun has his own ideas about the visual and dramatic portrayal of these worlds and he and co-worker Pelecanos waxes nostalgic about their ability to capture a visual history of Baltimore that's disappearing, bemoaning the yuppification of neighborhoods. I'm sorry but those shitty neighborhoods are hardly something to be grieving. Now, what happens to those displaced by such events - for example when a movie production company squats on land that isn't theirs in the first place and leaves it empty when they're gone, those are issues, things to ruminate on. (Hear the interview with Simon and Pelacanos on NPR's Fresh Air here: "'The Wire's' David Simon and George Pelecanos")

The Chicago Tribune says in its review: "And once you’ve seen the season’s closing image, you won’t be able to stop thinking about what it all means." Ooooooo! Gee! What does it all mean!!!! Here, let me sum it up for viewers:

It means we live in a privileged fucking society that is more interested in watching the 'reality' of the miserable moments of others' live - as long as they're held away, at arms length, or 'TV's length' if you wil, and they're not expected to do anything about it then they can indulge in others' misery and then go to work and talk about how 'fascinating' the writing is, what 'interesting' plot twists in that last episode. Try asking the Blockbuster clerk who was shot dead last week a block from my house how much 'depth of character' his assasins had, or how 'bleakly listful' they portrayed their own horrific lives before blowing him away.

Maybe Simon and others were finally successful...maybe it was so real people finally felt nauseous watching people kill, maim, screw and fuck each other over - because they know that's what O'Malley, his police department, Erhlich and so many others are doing. Betcha they never watched much in Baltimore - all we had to do was look out our window to see the 'real deal' - and save ourselves at least 78.95 a month from Comcast. Yeah, there's enough slack in The Wire - enough to hang one's self with. Good riddance.

Death doesn't take the weekend off...in fact it visited Waverly twice

It's been a particularly shitty weekend for me in Waverly. First late Thursday evening at the area Blockbuster on Homestead an irrate, would be, robber and his assistant gunned down the manager clerk because he didn't have any money for them (it says so on the door your IDIOTS).

This was a first in my life. I've never known anyone who was subsequently "murdered". That might seem like a stupid comment, since here (in the U.S.) it's such a common place occurence. But it's more telling that my grappling with this event has heard comments back like "This is the city", "This happens all the time" etc. as I try to come to grips with it. Don't get me wrong, people are supportive - but they've already acquiesed at some level to this as "business as usual".

And so it was that I was lying in bed, trying to sleep late Sat. into Sunday morning and I heard a "shot"(and I've learned to distinguish between "shot" and fireworks since i moved to the U.S. - who knew I would be such an aural connoisseur...). I jolted awake from that nether land of neither sleep now wake and cussed "Jezzuh fucking christ..." heard nothing, so lay back down. RAT...RAT! TAT! TAT! TAT! TAT! TAT! - I shot upright in bed, shaking my partner - "THEY"RE SHOOTING GUNS!" I said... he hadn't heard it (like I said above).

I ran down and dialed 911 and called in "shots fired in 3000 block of Frisby". That was it. The operator asked me nothing more - not from where, how many nothing. Blase and chilled - bored even with the constancy of death at her console.

I thought I was imagining it but about 15 minutes later, at 5:44am, the ambulance taking victims of what I would learn late Sunday night was a double shooting to the hospital (morgue?). This is the actual ambulance going to where ever they were being taken ...



This was another first - the first time I've called in something that turned out to be so bloody violent on my doorstep. Sure there've been domestic fights and craziness in my life that have required police being called to neighbors, even close to home. But none like these events. Brutal. Cold. Calculated death. Death on your doorstop.

Oh, and where are the Baltimore police in all of this? Good question. No one has canvassed our neighborhood about suspects in the Blockbuster murder - even though the suspects supposedly fled into our neighborhood. No one from BPD has called me about my emergency call to 911 to ask about when I heard what I heard, how many shots, where I was etc. It's all like - and I think it's true after being here a year - that they can't won't or don't give a shit about crime, death and decay in Baltimore. Witness instead the reaction to the "horrific" murders in Baltimore County over the weekend. Detectives shown in the news going door to door, asking people for help. Here? Not a fucking chance. And what about Frisby? Me and another neighbordhood friend had been asking for more help and presence after a highspeed chase ended up in a person shot and killed at the corner of Montpelier and Frisby - a half a block from 3033 Frisby where the double shooting happened Sunday morning (and you won't find any news about that in the press either - just another shooting, ho hum, la dee da... back to Fells Point and Whole Foods for my nutrigrain bagel....)

So I basically feel like I want to puke. Can't sleep. Can't eat. Sullen and confused with not dread, but some other feeling, like I've had the soul ripped out of me - and not by the shooters - but more by the lack of reaction by those around it (many do have a reaction but most don't. This has got to end....