Party Poker Blog

If only one of you picks up Season One DVD of The Wire and begins the journey, I’ll have done my duty.

Take a chance on one of the most important TV shows ever made.
And by important, I mean awesome.

Probably not what you’d expect out something titled Party Poker Blog, but that’s our Iggster.

I’ll just boil down what I said to the man, and it’s that not one single iota of what was presented to (apparently only) a rapt few is news to anyone older than 35. And I’ll throw another twist in here that I didn’t throw at my buddy, and that’s that No Country For Old Men is the prologue to this, but David Simon didn’t live it, so it didn’t make it to the Golden Hallowed Halls of HBO.

Still, I think it’s probably an important ‘thing.’ I’m purposely vague with the noun ‘thing’, because what do you call a teevee series that unfolded over five seasons on a network that charges people extra to see, and is now only available in a box-set from Amazon? It’s not an event. Maybe all this ends up at Half-Price books cheap, like I found 90% of my learning. I’d say it’s worth it, but I say that reading all of Cormac McCarthy’s books are worth it. I’d say that watching all of the Coens’ movies is worth it. Hell, to me, all of it’s worth it, really, if it’s worth it to you — it’s your time. Bottom line, I think there’s a qualitative difference between an ensemble series that requires play-actors who might not even understand the words in their mouth and unfolds over five years on pay satellite, when it’s compared to a Moby Dick or an In Cold Blood or a Blood Meridian.

But, and this is my Important Point — don’t go thinking a book or a movie or a teevee series is going to change how most of the world works.

Unless you’re American Idol, and then you can suck in lots of morons and get them to think well of those Clay and Carrie pretty people, and force them onto your NASCAR broadcasts and me out onto the deck to check the smoker.

Dang, I gotta go get a blood test tomorrow and I’ve done nothing but drink beer since 8pm. I’ve got thirty minutes before I go on my ‘fast.’ Screw ‘em. I haven’t felt as regularly bad as I feel right now with five damn prescriptions in me, in my entire life, including lying in the hospital with flesh-eating bacteria trying to kill me. I think I’ll just go on the cave-man + hayseed diet and see how far it takes me. I’ve actually grown to love the cake-bowl salad, and who couldn’t eat brisket five nights a week? I do love fresh-baked sourdough, though. Brand-new hot bread with butter is the devil’s work, I tell you.