Last night I watched the third episode of the new HBO series Treme. My original objections were premature, I admit. Sadly, I must stay with my original negative feelings about the show but now for totally different reasons. If you have never lived in New Orleans and if you don’t know the culture of the city, you are missing the meaning of half the dialogue and to know and understand it, is what makes this series exciting.
The music is killer and when I heard A Certain Girl by Ernie K-doe, a song I grew up with, I got excited. To see Dr. John perform was great and even to watch the Mardi Gras Indians due their rap was interesting. If a producer of the show happens to read this, please let us hear some Benny Spellman, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, The Meters, “Who Shot the La La “ Morgan, some Irma Thomas and oh yes, much more Ernie K-doe!
The thing is…you have or had to have lived there. The New Orleans culture is so different than any place else: not to mention, and very important… the innuendo is being lost on anyone not from there, as well as the reference to songs, musicians, politicians, visuals. You must be aware of these things to fully understand what these people are going through and why this disaster has affected them in the manner in which they act and think. By the way, I did not miss the class distinction in the diatribe between Davis and his neighbors.
Excluding those who have an association with the city, in my opinion the storyline does not have enough action to keep a general viewer tuned in week after week. And with the addition of not having a clue what the characters are referring, to, TREME doesn’t have a shot.
I realize it was renewed for a second season after only one episode, which is unheard of. The numbers it pulled were huge after its first showing. I figure it was because every person who either lives there or who has had any association with the city, ever, is watching it….me included!
I have been wrong before. Maybe the music will be enough. Time will tell………
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
HBO Series TREME-Follow up Review
A couple of days ago I wrote a passionate but negative review of the new HBO series TREME. Since that time the feedback I have received did not agree at all with my opinions of the show. In fact I was referred to as an elitist, unfair and narrow minded. No matter how I have tried to justify my thinking, my detractors have been very vocal. In fact my own children, all now adults, all born in New Orleans made our weekly Friday night dinner quite lively, expounding their views on the show and telling me I was way off base!
Comments from readers stated everything from: I may have employed blacks, but certainly never lived among them, so how could I possibly understand their dialogue….to the Mardi Gras Indians are part of the fabric of New Orleans. I say go back and reread my review. At no time did I say anything condescending about the Indians or for that matter anything about the blacks, other than I did not understand the dialogue of the show during the first five minutes..
I was told to get off my high horse! The basic premise of my review was that the show was narrow in scope and that it did not portray other segments of the population that experienced the catastrophe of Katrina in many of the same ways. I think one of my comments sums it up, and I quote, “I think if there is anything to be agreed upon, it’s that the show affects people on a personal level, especially if they know New Orleans on a personal level.”
I cry “UNCLE!” I will give it another look see. After all, as I have been told numerous times, it was only the first. I can only hope the show producers portray the others I speak about at some point, so that its viewers can get a broader accounting of what the inhabitants of this great city went through and for some, are still.
Comments from readers stated everything from: I may have employed blacks, but certainly never lived among them, so how could I possibly understand their dialogue….to the Mardi Gras Indians are part of the fabric of New Orleans. I say go back and reread my review. At no time did I say anything condescending about the Indians or for that matter anything about the blacks, other than I did not understand the dialogue of the show during the first five minutes..
I was told to get off my high horse! The basic premise of my review was that the show was narrow in scope and that it did not portray other segments of the population that experienced the catastrophe of Katrina in many of the same ways. I think one of my comments sums it up, and I quote, “I think if there is anything to be agreed upon, it’s that the show affects people on a personal level, especially if they know New Orleans on a personal level.”
I cry “UNCLE!” I will give it another look see. After all, as I have been told numerous times, it was only the first. I can only hope the show producers portray the others I speak about at some point, so that its viewers can get a broader accounting of what the inhabitants of this great city went through and for some, are still.
Monday, April 12, 2010
New HBO Series-TREME--Very Dissapointing!
As a former New Orleanian, I really was anxious to watch it and looked forward to viewing with much anticipation. Unfortunately, unless the coming episodes change dramatically, I will not be watching it too many more times.
I understand the premise. I also understand that the main purpose of a TV show is to entertain and the focus of TREME is to show how the catastrophe of Katrina changed peoples’ lives showcasing a cross section of the population. In my opinion, the focus is way too narrow and in some cases focuses on some, way too much.
During the first five minutes of the episode, which normally would attract the viewers attention, to continue watching…..I couldn’t even understand what the actors were saying.
Although, a large majority of those affected during Katrina were black, it seems you are discounting the fact that there are thousands that lost everything in every racial and socio economic group across the board. Additionally, if I am not wrong, to me you are trying to portray only your definition of the middle classes through the entire theme. The character who ran a bar and is trying to resurrect his Mardi Gras Indian group, to give and take him back to some semblance of a normal life: the John Goodman character who really tells it like it is with no pretentiousness, , as they say in New Orleans” is where it’s at!” But the black musician, who may be a fine actor, is a boring and a useless character to the theme. How does a character like the disc jockey, which is a dope smoking, thief degenerate, garner such a prominent role?
Spike Lee only showed the degenerate of the New Orleans population. The New Orleans population is much more then you deem the middle class to be. What about the lawyer friend of mine in his forties who shot himself in his devastated home because after Katrina he had no more clients? How did his wife and children cope? Lots of stories like that. What about the men and women who started groups like the Horizon Initiative to work with big business and city officials to help build the city? What about the fact that that alcohol sales went through the roof for years after, cause so many couldn’t deal at all with losing everything.
A friend lived on one of the two million dollar streets in the city lost her house. How did people like these cope? Don’t you think those people should be represented in your story as well?
TREME is only one small area of the city. What a disservice you are doing to the city but most of all to your viewers to lead them to believe that what you are putting out there is what it is all about…is where it’s at……because it isn’t!
I understand the premise. I also understand that the main purpose of a TV show is to entertain and the focus of TREME is to show how the catastrophe of Katrina changed peoples’ lives showcasing a cross section of the population. In my opinion, the focus is way too narrow and in some cases focuses on some, way too much.
During the first five minutes of the episode, which normally would attract the viewers attention, to continue watching…..I couldn’t even understand what the actors were saying.
Although, a large majority of those affected during Katrina were black, it seems you are discounting the fact that there are thousands that lost everything in every racial and socio economic group across the board. Additionally, if I am not wrong, to me you are trying to portray only your definition of the middle classes through the entire theme. The character who ran a bar and is trying to resurrect his Mardi Gras Indian group, to give and take him back to some semblance of a normal life: the John Goodman character who really tells it like it is with no pretentiousness, , as they say in New Orleans” is where it’s at!” But the black musician, who may be a fine actor, is a boring and a useless character to the theme. How does a character like the disc jockey, which is a dope smoking, thief degenerate, garner such a prominent role?
Spike Lee only showed the degenerate of the New Orleans population. The New Orleans population is much more then you deem the middle class to be. What about the lawyer friend of mine in his forties who shot himself in his devastated home because after Katrina he had no more clients? How did his wife and children cope? Lots of stories like that. What about the men and women who started groups like the Horizon Initiative to work with big business and city officials to help build the city? What about the fact that that alcohol sales went through the roof for years after, cause so many couldn’t deal at all with losing everything.
A friend lived on one of the two million dollar streets in the city lost her house. How did people like these cope? Don’t you think those people should be represented in your story as well?
TREME is only one small area of the city. What a disservice you are doing to the city but most of all to your viewers to lead them to believe that what you are putting out there is what it is all about…is where it’s at……because it isn’t!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
New Orleans Saints Fans
Today I received a great email from a very close friend in New Orleans. I am positive she would not mind if I shared her words with you. Just as it is so very hard to describe the culture of New Orleans to someone, it is just as hard to explain a New Orleans Saints fan. Her email is pretty right on!
Hi Lynda,
Tommy checks Facebook and showed me your menu for the game tomorrow. You and your guests will feast.
I have not heard one negative thing about this glorious ride that the Saints’ success has given New Orleans and all of the Saints fans. The games are so much fun and you hug and kiss all the people you sit with. You do high fives and jump and strut and yell. I don’t know how any people will be at work Monday.
One of my coworkers lives on Minnesota Ave in Kenner. A news team was knocking on doors to see if there were any Minnesota fans living on Minnesota Ave. Her neighbor said that could not find any.
It’s a great time! I think about my daddy and yours. I’m sure the Saints fans are marching in heaven!
Go Saints!
Love,
Joe Ann
Hi Lynda,
Tommy checks Facebook and showed me your menu for the game tomorrow. You and your guests will feast.
I have not heard one negative thing about this glorious ride that the Saints’ success has given New Orleans and all of the Saints fans. The games are so much fun and you hug and kiss all the people you sit with. You do high fives and jump and strut and yell. I don’t know how any people will be at work Monday.
One of my coworkers lives on Minnesota Ave in Kenner. A news team was knocking on doors to see if there were any Minnesota fans living on Minnesota Ave. Her neighbor said that could not find any.
It’s a great time! I think about my daddy and yours. I’m sure the Saints fans are marching in heaven!
Go Saints!
Love,
Joe Ann
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesdays with Mahjong
I look forward to Wednesdays. I go to one of four of my friends houses each Wednesday and I am assured of fun and laughter… friendship…and very good food!
I first began playing Mahjong in my twenties. The girls I played with were some of my closest friends and with their husbands and mine, often socialized on the weekends.
I have started playing again forty years later and I am enjoying it immensely. We start at eleven and end at three. We stop for lunch and all the girls are very good cooks. I would recommend this game to you no matter what your age and for those who live close, I would love to teach you how to play. I think you would love it.
Mahjong is a game for four players that originated in China. As explained by Wikipedia, the game was imported to the U.S.in the 1920s. The first mahjong sets sold in the U.S. were sold by Abercrombie & Fitch starting in 1920. It became a success in New York, and the owner of the company, Ezra Fitch, sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy every set of mahjong they could find. Abercrombie & Fitch sold a total of 12,000 sets.
Also in 1920, Joseph Babcock published his book Rules of Mah-Jongg, also known as the "red book". This was the earliest version of mahjong known in America. Babcock had learned mahjong while living in China. Babcock's rules simplified the game to make it easier for Americans to take up, and his version was common through the mahjong fad of the 1920s. Later, when the 1920s fad died out, many of Babcock's simplifications were abandoned.
While mahjong was accepted by U.S. players of all ethnic backgrounds during the Babcock era, many consider the modern American version a Jewish game, as many American mahjong players are of Jewish descent. The National Mahjong League was founded by Jewish players and is considered a Jewish organization. In addition, players usually use the American game as a family-friendly social activity, not as gambling.
In recent years, a second organization has formed, the American Mah Jongg Association. The AMJA currently hosts tournaments all across North America, with their signature event being at the Trump Casino Resort in Atlantic City.
I first began playing Mahjong in my twenties. The girls I played with were some of my closest friends and with their husbands and mine, often socialized on the weekends.
I have started playing again forty years later and I am enjoying it immensely. We start at eleven and end at three. We stop for lunch and all the girls are very good cooks. I would recommend this game to you no matter what your age and for those who live close, I would love to teach you how to play. I think you would love it.
Mahjong is a game for four players that originated in China. As explained by Wikipedia, the game was imported to the U.S.in the 1920s. The first mahjong sets sold in the U.S. were sold by Abercrombie & Fitch starting in 1920. It became a success in New York, and the owner of the company, Ezra Fitch, sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy every set of mahjong they could find. Abercrombie & Fitch sold a total of 12,000 sets.
Also in 1920, Joseph Babcock published his book Rules of Mah-Jongg, also known as the "red book". This was the earliest version of mahjong known in America. Babcock had learned mahjong while living in China. Babcock's rules simplified the game to make it easier for Americans to take up, and his version was common through the mahjong fad of the 1920s. Later, when the 1920s fad died out, many of Babcock's simplifications were abandoned.
While mahjong was accepted by U.S. players of all ethnic backgrounds during the Babcock era, many consider the modern American version a Jewish game, as many American mahjong players are of Jewish descent. The National Mahjong League was founded by Jewish players and is considered a Jewish organization. In addition, players usually use the American game as a family-friendly social activity, not as gambling.
In recent years, a second organization has formed, the American Mah Jongg Association. The AMJA currently hosts tournaments all across North America, with their signature event being at the Trump Casino Resort in Atlantic City.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Who Dat?
Who dat says they gunna beat them Saints? Nobody, absolutely nobody!
Saints fans, of which I am one, have been waiting since 1967, the year New Orleans was awarded the Saints franchise, to go to the Super Bowl. For forty two years fans have been as loyal as possible to a team that continually disappointed. But hopefully, that thought is in the past and they are positioned to now be a contender.
Yesterday was a very fun day! My husband and I spent the day with our family at a sports bar, drinking beer and eating wings and watching the Saints beat the Washington Redskins to add one more victory to their 12 and 0 record.
I have friends who have already booked their airline tickets to go and watch the Saints in the Super Bowl. If it is going to happen, it looks like this is their year to shine.
Yesterday I reminisced about the first few years of the franchise. My father had box seats on the 45 yard line, two boxes away from Al Hirt’s box. He was on the 50 yard line and with his band entertained the crowd every week. New Orleans is “the party town” and a Saints game was the biggest party of the week. Eighty thousand people filled Tulane stadium where the first year’s games were played. The Superdome was not built until 1975.
I remember one Sunday when two brothers got into a fist fight in the box across from us. I knew those people very well and they were scratching each other’s eyes out, enough to draw blood. The game was stopped and all eyes in the stadium were on that box. It was totally wild!
Even if you are not a Saints fan or even a football fan, please say a little prayer for a team that has been a big part of the New Orleans culture for a long time. They need the win!
Geaux Saints!
Saints fans, of which I am one, have been waiting since 1967, the year New Orleans was awarded the Saints franchise, to go to the Super Bowl. For forty two years fans have been as loyal as possible to a team that continually disappointed. But hopefully, that thought is in the past and they are positioned to now be a contender.
Yesterday was a very fun day! My husband and I spent the day with our family at a sports bar, drinking beer and eating wings and watching the Saints beat the Washington Redskins to add one more victory to their 12 and 0 record.
I have friends who have already booked their airline tickets to go and watch the Saints in the Super Bowl. If it is going to happen, it looks like this is their year to shine.
Yesterday I reminisced about the first few years of the franchise. My father had box seats on the 45 yard line, two boxes away from Al Hirt’s box. He was on the 50 yard line and with his band entertained the crowd every week. New Orleans is “the party town” and a Saints game was the biggest party of the week. Eighty thousand people filled Tulane stadium where the first year’s games were played. The Superdome was not built until 1975.
I remember one Sunday when two brothers got into a fist fight in the box across from us. I knew those people very well and they were scratching each other’s eyes out, enough to draw blood. The game was stopped and all eyes in the stadium were on that box. It was totally wild!
Even if you are not a Saints fan or even a football fan, please say a little prayer for a team that has been a big part of the New Orleans culture for a long time. They need the win!
Geaux Saints!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Pandora's Box
I have looked into Pandora’s Box and found a place of immense pleasure….Pandora.com! You type in the artist or song you want to listen to and voilla, there it is. Streaming through my computer, I am enjoying a world I like to live in. A world where everything is possible! My mind can drift to all its hidden recesses, from the past to the future, to the pleasures that the grind of everyday do not allow. For those who know me, music, is where it’s at! Music is my catatylist for dance.
I can get up and dance… by myself and I am happy as a lark! I liken the pleasure to that I arrive from looking into my children’s faces or that intimate moment with my husband. Music and dance is that physical, spiritual and emotional extra in our lives that I personally can’t get enough of.
I can get up and dance… by myself and I am happy as a lark! I liken the pleasure to that I arrive from looking into my children’s faces or that intimate moment with my husband. Music and dance is that physical, spiritual and emotional extra in our lives that I personally can’t get enough of.
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