Anticipating Treme

Now that parade season is over, we move into live music outside season. Why oh why don't they spread some of this stuff out?

Every week, Baton Rouge has free shows on Friday evenings and Sundays at noon. Many of the acts are very good -- our best local acts are up there with any town's. On top of that, we have a Blues Week, Fest for All, Earth Day, and Corporate Cup race downtown, all featuring free live music. New Orleans hosts French Quarter Festival (which perhaps has become my favorite), and Jazz Fest is right around the corner (which has fallen sharply in my list of favorites, because it costs $75/day, and I can see the same local bands for free at all of these others). I've never made it to Lafayette's Festival International, but that's supposed to be right up there too. I should hyperlink to all of those sites, but that would be a lot of work.

With that in mind, I'm facing this weekend's premier of Treme on HBO with nervous trepidation.

There have been many, many, many movies filmed in New Orleans, and across the board, they get it wrong. I'm sure the locals of any movie location feel that way, but the more authentic a movie tries to be about Louisiana, the more it fails. Accents are terrible, the food is wrong, or they throw Mardi Gras in the summer.

But the creators of The Wire were lauded for getting the details about Baltimore neighborhoods, projects, and shipyards right. And I spotted a slimmed down Bunk Moreland from The Wire (Wendell Pierce), who is actually from New Orleans, and of course, John Goodman, who has been a New Orleans regular and at least part time resident for many, many years. All of this gives me hope.

Writing about Bunk inspired me to go look up this scene. It might be my favorite crime scene investiation in the history of television. But don't watch if you're going to be offended by photographs of a dead naked woman or naughty words. Or if your boss is likely to happen by.