Phlog

Bald bears baffle Bavarians*

Boston Phoenix — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:53:00 GMT

^{*OK, it's not really Bavaria}

Really, what's more pitiful than a bear robbed of its fur (and dignity) by unexplained forces, put on display for the rubbernecking public's amusement? But there'll be no mercy in Leipzig, where crowds of voyeuristic Germans are flocking to the zoo to observe the plight of spectacled bear Dolores and her fellow female ursine inmates, all of whom are suffering from the same rash of inexplicable baldness. Ordinarily at this time of year, the bears (who originally hail from South America) would be bulking up their dark brown coats as winter insulation. Vets are mystified about the cause of the sudden hair loss; no word as to whether they've tried Rogaine yet. Check out the rest of the photos if you dare, but be warned: these bears look like they murdered elephants and made coats out of their hides. In other words, they're gray, wrinkly, and sad. You'll come away feeling just a little bit worse about the world.

--Emily Cataneo

Tall Tails: How To Shoot an Allston Rat

Boston Phoenix — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:04:00 GMT

Soon after we decided to have Chris Faraone write about Boston's rat problem for this week's cover story, we realized that we would need a picture of some Boston rats. Sure, we could just have someone draw a rat, or dip into the vast depths of clip-art hell, but ultimately, we wanted to someone to snap a photo of a Boston rat in the wild.

There was only one man for the job.

Photographer DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN is the guy we call with the tough assignments. We sent him off. He came back with rat photos. And then we had to ask: Derek, how'd you shoot those rats?

The story was . . . well, it wouldn't make as much sense on the page as it would coming out of Derek's mouth, so we decided to let him tell you. Click below to listen to the story. "Let me just tell you," he begins, "Photographing rats is hell." He also says, "Rats are like cops: when you want one they're just not gonna be there."

LISTEN: Derek Kouyoumjian on How To Shoot An Allston Rat (mp3)

(Also, we promise: no more tail puns after this. Cross our hearts.)

PODCAST: John Irving at the Coolidge [MP3]

Boston Phoenix — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:02:00 GMT

^{Last Night in Twisted River promo video feat. John Irving interview}

John Irving writes overwrought, Dickensian novels, and he’s damned proud of it. The New England-born author spent much of his reading at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Tuesday night defending himself against imaginary criticisms of his work — criticisms that were remarkably similar to the New York Times’ review of Irving’s new book, Last Night in Twisted River. In the write-up, reviewer Michiko Kakutani mentioned Irving’s love for “grotesque deaths and grisly accidents.” Coincidentally, perhaps, Irving stated at the reading that while unnamed book reviewers might call his work grotesque, macabre, and violent, they fail to understand that he purposely includes these violent elements in his books.

Kakutani also accused Irving of designing a “tricked-up, gimmicky plot” and of employing “19th-century novelistic devices.” But Irving declared that he doesn’t care that "plot" is now a derogatory term — 19-century-style plots are what attracted him to writing in the first place. After giving a dizzying synopsis of his perennial favorite Great Expectations, he said that “a modern critic would call that a convoluted story, or would complain about the devices of his plot.” That’s right — those modern critics might sniff at Irving’s expositions and scoff at his denouements, but they’d say the same thing about Charles Dickens. So there.

Besides this eyebrow-raising defensiveness, other highlights included:

• A scant five minutes of reading. Irving doesn’t like to read from books after they’ve been published, so he read us a short logging accident scene from Twisted River, a book that spans 50 years in the lives of cook Dominic Baciagalupo and his son Danny, who are on the run from an obsessive policeman.

• A peek into Irving’s writing process. Irving doesn’t start a book until he knows the last sentence, which is why Twisted River percolated in his brain for 20 years before he wrote it. The elusive last sentence of Irving’s 12th novel: “He felt that the great adventure of his life was just beginning-- as his father must have felt in the throes and dire circumstances of his last night in Twisted River.”

• A terse smackdown of the Modernists. “I always felt that Hemingway wrote as though he were writing advertising copy,” Irving grumped.

• Musings on the importance about writing about his fears and phobias. Irving said that his novels aren’t about his experiences — they're about what he hopes he never experiences.

• Irving's admission that he keeps his characters at arm's length — because he doesn't want to get too close to them when he’s planning to mutilate or murder them. Two characters that he does feel special affection for are ether-addicted abortionist Dr. Larch from The Cider House Rules and Indian-turned-Canadian orthopedic surgeon Dr. Daruwalla from A Son of the Circus. Would Kakutani classify these two doctors as the “usual Irving-esque assortment of oddball characters”? Perhaps, but we bet that Irving would stubbornly take it as a compliment.

--Emily Cataneo

DOWNLOAD: John Irving reads from Last Night in Twisted River [MP3]

Recorded live at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (reading organized by the Brookline Booksmith). To subscribe to this podcast, paste this RSS feed into your feed-reader of choice, or bookmark the Boston Phoenix podcast blog.

Rat Tales (if this week's cover story ain't nasty enough for ya)

Boston Phoenix — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:16:00 GMT

In his unparalleled exposé on the plight of urban vermin and those of us who live among them, Rats author Robert Sullivan describes one scene in which a woman is viciously attacked by rodents during the 1979 New York City garbage strike. The Phoenix also collected some revolting rat tales.

KENMORE SQUARE, FALL 2007 A local marijuana advocate reports that his girlfriend’s car has had its battery cables chewed by furry critters.

CAMBRIDGE, JUNE 2008 A seven-year-old Cambridge girl suffers a rat bite on her pinky while throwing away garbage in a Clement Morgan Park trash can near Central Square.

ALLSTON, JANUARY 2009 In an unusually warm week, an Allston blogger writes that she had the unpleasant experience of watching dead rats thaw from the snow banks outside of her window.

DOWNTOWN CROSSING, AUGUST 2009 A Dorchester blogger riding the train sees a rat transfer from the Orange Line to the Red Line at the Downtown Crossing T station.

NORTH END, SEPTEMBER 2009 A North End resident tells us that he accidentally stepped on a chubby dead rat that was lying on a side street after dark.

Click Here for Boston Rat Rampage

Art Opening in Jamaica Plain Tomorrow with Dmitri Valone and Others (Thursday, 11/5)

Boston Phoenix — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:14:00 GMT

“From studying astrophysics, listening to my wise father, or from problem solving in my own artwork, for every question answered several more questions arise. This is an exciting motivator, not a deterrent, when pursuing my artistic objectives. I continually seek a deeper understanding of the creative process and the implication it has to my work.” - Dmitri Valone, Artist

So I'm walking down South Street a few weeks ago when I noticed the most active corridor in all of Jamaica Plain. There were people sipping wine and chatting, and a jazz duo setting the mood. And that was just part of the surprise; it turns out this was all happening in my neighborhood's newest gallery.

While I'm hardly the Phoenix art critic, I do spend more money than I should supporting other piss broke artists. So no doubt I'll be hitting up the Hallway tomorrow night to check out JP painter Dmitri Valone's glass and oil works. If you think the joint above is fresh, then check his web site, and, better yet, be sure to swing through his show. Runs through November.

What: Artists Dmitri Valone, Jessie Lee Klein, and John Biebel - Gallery Opening

Where: The Hallway Gallery, 66a South Street, Jamaica Plain (617-818-5996)

When: Thursday, November 5 from 6-9pm

PODCAST: Scout Tufankjian on Making History with Barack Obama; Ken Burns on the Art of Documentary

Boston Phoenix — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:05:00 GMT

VIDEO: Scout Tufankjian on Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign

It's been a year since that night in Chicago, which for photographer SCOUT TUFANKJIAN was the end of a two-year journey that had started with a New Hampshire book tour by the then-junior Senator from Illinois, who had not yet declared his intention to run for the nation's highest office. Tufankjian's photos of the campaign, compiled in her 2008 book Yes We Can: Barack Obama's History-Making Presidential Campaign, are an unmatched visual record -- not just of the candidate and his entourage, but also of the people who elected him. (You can see more of her images in HBO's new documentary By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, which premieres tonight.) Turning the camera away from the podium and the principals, Tufankjian captures the indelible and all-too-evenescent spirit of those days. At last month's BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL, she weaved together stories and images to give us a look back, from inside and outside the bubble.

There was also some other guy on the panel named KEN BURNS, whom you may have heard of. Ostensibly in town to commiserate about the art of documentary and to talk up his latest film, National Parks: America's Best Idea, Burns went on to speak at length about Tufankjian's photos, Obama, and the links to his own work. Burns can sometimes provoke less ambitious people to root against him, but it's difficult to argue with his grace, intelligence, and prodigious work ethic: he mentioned he's currently at work on six projects, including an update of Baseball (a "10th inning" to include a segment on the post-curse Red Sox), a film about Prohibition, and -- eliciting a swirl of "ooooohhhhs" from the sold-out crowd -- a film about Vietnam.

Tufankjian's presentation needed more than just audio, so we've given you the video of her talk, incorporating a selection of her photos. For the full panel, including Burns's presentation -- to see video clips from the series, check out PBS's extensive online portal for the series -- click on the mp3 below, or right-click and save-as to download the file for your iPod.

PODCAST: Documenting History with Scout Tufankjian and Ken Burns (mp3)

Recorded live at the Boston Public Library during the 2009 Boston Book Festival. To subscribe to this podcast, paste this RSS feed into your feed-reader of choice, or bookmark the Boston Phoenix podcast blog.

Dispatch from an Election Night Pub Crawl

Boston Phoenix — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:26:00 GMT

Photo Credit:Melissa Ostrow

The angry spirits that supervise Boston politics tried to silence this election coverage. Between a T-Mobile outage that put me behind every writer in this city (or at least those who are smart enough to distrust Catherine Zeta-Jones) – and the several hours I spent waiting for inadequate trains and buses – this mission was hobbled from the get-go.

Divine sabotage ensued as I crashed the election party for Chuck Turner’s challenger, Carlos “Tony” Henriquez, in Roxbury, where, at 8:15pm, there were just a few supporters in the lobby outside Rudi’s bar and grill. The meager showing was understandable since field operatives were still scattered, but that’s no excuse for club management not having election coverage playing on any of the restaurant’s three screens.

From there I hit the new Jamaica Plain Milky Way to see Tomas Gonzalez, who wound up finishing second-to-last in the councilor-at-large race. Festivities were sweet – with lots of nice people plus beer and grub – but I was once again unable to secure a tube for the returns. One ignoramus (not with the Gonzalez camp) in particular insisted that we watch the Celtics game – even though Boston led by 21 points, while the mayoral race (at the moment) was neck-and-neck.

Sick of spot-watching results between jump shots, I left Gonzalez to hang with old pros and longtime Councilor-at-Large Steve Murphy at Doyle’s on Washington Street. I’m sure there were hometown hoops fans in that house, too, but BNN coverage was front and center on the back room television so folks could get the information that they needed.

Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway) – Murphy supporters were excited, jolly, unsurprised, and, in a few cases, red-faced. Despite my skepticism of his seemingly eternal incumbency, I was impressed by the relative diversity at Murphy’s celebration. Sure – there were old guys wearing suits with white sneakers, but there were also young women, one requisite postal worker, and even some black volunteers.

By the time I left Murphy, Tom Menino had been re-elected for his unprecedented 148th term as Boston’s mayor. I knew this not just from actual results, but from several text messages that I received from friends who were concerned that (and/or laughing because) my editors and I had favored his opponent, City Councilor-at-Large Michael Flaherty.

In regard to the mayoral outcome, my response is threefold: 1 – I’m a human being first, which affords me the right to an opinion; 2 – I’m a journalist second, which means I instinctually support those rivaling officials who tend to strategically guard information that reporters need (the Boston Globe, apparently, feels differently). And finally – I don’t really give a damn; I used to work campaigns for hopeless long-shot Dems, so my heart is hardly susceptible to strain.

That said – I did need to witness some joy, which I found upon entering James’s Gate on South Street just as at-large winner Felix G. Arroyo delivered his victory speech. It’s been no secret throughout this campaign that I think Arroyo has adequate potential to become a remarkable elected leader, and he affirmed that faith during his afterparty performance (which, it should be noted, included appropriate encore bangers from New Edition and Tony! Toni! Tone!).

Whether or not Arroyo truly believes that “winning is great [while] gloating is not,” he had no choice but to act humble in his special moment. When the fresh elect’s father, former City Councilor-at-Large Felix D. Arroyo, entered the room, young Felix cracked the widest grin political observers have seen since young Bush got to hang the man who tried to hurt his daddy.

I considered naming this dispatch “How Could 63,123 People Be So Dumb?” – in tribute to both the mayoral results and the legendary Daily Mirror (UK) headline regarding the 2004 US presidential election. But in a city that is so politically (a)pathetic, all active voters deserve respect – even if they tapped Hizzoner on the sole merit of incumbency. As I was reminded by Lou Ureneck’s poignant op-ed this past Monday, civic duty is an afterthought these days, and not just because morons prefer to watch grown men play with balls than to engage in processes that affect lives.

But how can I complain? At least this is not New Jersey or Virginia, where so many fools pulled for Republican scumbags in gubernatorial races. And at least I no longer live in New York City, where several million dolts were confused enough to reelect an out-of-touch billionaire. It would have been exciting if more Bostonians had the courage to support significant change, but it’s slightly comforting that the alternative – at least this time – was another four years from a dedicated public servant whose power trip is not merely an exercise in egomania.

Tweet Beat: What Are Folks Saying About Boston’s City Council Races?

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:08:00 GMT

beantownsgift Menino gets my vote, who is this TITO cat leaving flyers on my wheelz? tah!

bhalpin For Boston City Council, voting Pressley, Arroyo, and Jackson. How could I possibly not vote for Tito Jackson?

splourdesimard Voting for Felix Arroyo, Tito Jackson and FLAHOON.

johnnyblazes Just voted. Hell yeah FELIX ARROYO!!!

jilliancyork It cracks me up to no end that there's someone named Tito Jackson running for Boston City Council.

jessemermell Been at polls for almost 5 hours. Schwag so far: Mark Ciommo sponge and Steve Murphy nail file.

bhalpin Also live in Chuck Turner's district. Still running on the "Bold, Bald, Bright" slogan. "Bold, Bald, Corrupt" harder to fit on signs.

Tweet Beat: What Are Folks Saying About Boston’s Mayoral Race?

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:04:00 GMT

E_Flash Word, I don't think I believe in good politicians but VOTE for Mayor Menino cause if anything... He's for the HOOD!

zackcerza Boston residents: Think Menino should have yet another term as mayor? Don't tell me, just go vote.

WillieMoe I mean I would've voted for Flaherty/ Yoon, but I couldn't find Yoon's name anywhere on the ballot?

imcwissyc Just got a pre-recorded call asking me to vote for Mayor Menino tomorrow. Got very confused & had to double check that election is today

makeminemanda Regarding the Boston mayor race: One old white dude is pretty much the same as another to me.

BrianGoodBeat I just voted for the brutish, italian, incumbent mayor of Boston, and I wasn't even coerced! #electionday

rachelcaved Karmaloop sent me an email about the Boston mayoral election. I'm not registered in Mass., but now I'm mad as shit about these issues.

DonnieBoston Menino camp orders a Vietnamese-speaking election worker out of Dorchester polls for telling voters to back Flaherty.

PODCAST: David Gergen, Lani Guinier, Jack Beatty, and Michael E. Porter on Obama's First Year

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:01:00 GMT

A year ago tomorrow we woke up and elected the first-ever black President. A couple of weeks ago at the Boston Book Festival, a panel of pundits kicked off what is sure to be an avalanche of first-year retrospectives on the Obama presidency. Surprise: nobody's happy. And this, folks, is the loyal opposition.

LANI GUINIER says the first year of Obama has been marked by the "dis-involvement of all the people who helped make him president in the first place," adding that if he sticks to his current course, it will be "very dificult to accomplish the change he promised and that we need."

DAVID GERGEN checks "all of the above" next to 10 phrases that describe Obama during his first 12 months in office, including "extremely talented," "inspirational," and "persistent," but also "naive," "inexperienced," and "sometimes weak and vaccilating."

JACK BEATTY, senior editor at The Atlantic, laments that an Obama who campaigned as an outsider has been running a relentlessly "inside game" from the Oval Office, attempting to work within Washington's entrenched power structure. "People haven't quite seen him as a leader, it's very hard to see his imprint on things," Beatty says. "It's not really what I expected." As an example of what Beatty did expect, he mentions that when Obama took on Wall Street, he should've given a speech like the one John F. Kennedy gave to smack down steel barons back in 1962. (It's a devastating speech. You can listen to Kennedy give it here.)

It was left to MICHAEL E PORTER, a Massachusetts Republican from Harvard Business School, to offer something approaching praise: Obama has restored the "moral authority to lead," he says . . . and then complains that Obama has not been inclusive of American business leaders in solving the puzzle of an economy that, we might have pointed out had we been on the panel, went belly-up thanks to a previous administration listening to an awful lot of business leaders.

And that's just the beginning. For the rest, we'll leave you to moderator TOM ASHBROOK, of NPR fame, and the rest of this hour-long kneecapping of the President of the United States. Happy anniversary!

PODCAST: David Gergen, Lani Guinier, Michael Porter, and Jack Beatty: The Obama Year (mp3)

Recorded live at Boston Public Library during the 2009 Boston Book Festival. To subscribe to this podcast, paste this RSS feed into your feed-reader of choice, or bookmark the Boston Phoenix Podcast blog.

Earth's wildlife in peril

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:57:00 GMT

Giant Jewel (Chlorocypha centripunctata. Photo by Kai Schuette

The latest update of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species™ shows that 17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed species are threatened with extinction. Those threatened are 21 percent of ALL known mammal, 30 percent of ALL known amphibians, 12 percent of ALL known birds, 28 percent of reptiles, 37 percent of freshwater fishes, 70 percent of plants, 35 percent of invertebrates. Is this the apocalypse?! Why are so many animals/plants dying?

Habitat loss seems to be a key factor, as well as the introduction of invasive species like insects and fungus to foreign soils where they disturb the ecosystem. This should be nothing new to us New Englanders. The hemlock trees have been under attack from the insect adelgid and could be completely decimated off the face of New England by the end of this century, researchers predict. The mighty oak trees of Martha's Vineyard have also suffered huge losses after being eaten alive by catepillars.

Also on the list of reasons is climate change. Whether you want to argue that we are doing it or not (not getting into that debate here), the climate change is showing effects on nature already, says the IUCN.

What can you do? Recycle, talk to your representatives about more nature conservation and green energy acts, like Gov. Patrick's Wind Energy in MA plan. Also check out the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts and the Audobon Society to see how you can help.

VIEW this short, but still amazing BBC slideshow of threatened species.

Ten Morning Observations from Polling Stations around Boston

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:28:00 GMT

1 - I was barely out my door when an SUV rolled by broadcasting for Flaherty. To his credit, the aspiring bilingual Irish guy from Southie recorded his own announcement in both English and Spanish.

2 - Incumbent Councilor-at-Large John Connolly appears to have a family-fronted field organization to be reckoned with. In the seven polling stations I visited this morning, he had volunteers at six. Friendly folks, too.

3 - By 10:30am - at which time Flaherty made an appearance at English High School - the turnout there had been relatively low. One poll worker estimated that only 300 voters had come through.

4 - The oak tag-clad Flaherty-Yoon caravan is the goofiest fleet of campaign vehicles I’ve ever seen - something out of Hill Valley in Back to the Future. If it’s a people-run, scrap-together-whatever-resources-you-can-gather campaign you were looking for, then Floon is your ticket.

5 - I spoke with English High and Madison Park students who are of voting age, and, while most are registered, they remain undecided. Their question for me (that I had no good answer for): Why can’t they vote in school instead of all the way across the city where they live?

6 - According to Flaherty’s internal polling, about 9 percent of voters remain undecided. Of those confused souls, many live in Jamaica Plain, where Yoonity will spend much time until the polls close. “JP is a battleground,” Flaherty tells me.

7 - Campaign workers for all candidates seem to have a problem with text messaging instead of courting voters. If you’re a field operative, and you’re reading this on your iPhone, then you’re equally guilty. Get back to work.

8 - If the yard signs around Hyde Park are any indication, the southern part of this city will look like Flint, Michigan if Flaherty and Yoon win today.

9 - Things looked quiet at the Boston Public Library near Copley, where Flaherty’s people outnumbered his opponent’s two to zero. Note to Emerson journalism students: stop interviewing people in Back Bay and head to Charlestown, JP, and Roxbury where the real action is.

10 - There were two female Boston University students near Kenmore Square wearing Flaherty shirts and passing out literature. They told me that they’re trying to reach voters on their lunch breaks.

And one bonus leftover observation: By endorsing Menino, the Boston Globe managed to outdo the disservice that editors already perpetrated against readers by repeatedly mentioning the results of their dated, haphazardly conducted mayoral poll. Clearly someone doesn't read their own newspaper.

Catholic Church officially opposes healthcare reform

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:02:00 GMT

The Colorado Independent has the story: the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has instructed pastors nationwide to distribute anti-healthcare-reform literature in church and to preach against it from the pulpit.

I'm no Catholic, but with the Church's opposition to same-sex marriage (in an unholy alliance with Mormons and evangelical Protestants) and now the basic human right of healthcare for all, I'm not sure what being Catholic is anymore.

Another Schism, anyone?

DOWNLOAD: Augusten Burroughs Q&A and audio excerpt [MP3]

Boston Phoenix — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:43:00 GMT

Author Augusten Burroughs is all too familiar with the disastrous and absurd — to the point that all six of his memoirs (starting with the hugely successful Running with Scissors in 2002) have veered so far from the conventional that critics have questioned whether they’re even true.

Apparently, Burroughs has a knack for attracting chaos even post-youth. After surviving a childhood raised by his eccentric mother, abusive father, and his mom’s crazy shrink; after years of rampant alcoholism and eventual rehab; and after the painful experience of losing a former lover to AIDS, Burroughs has taken a slightly different direction in his new collection of Christmas stories, You Better Not Cry.

“Here I am in the ‘after’ portion of my life, the after-disaster, and disasters are still happening!” Burroughs announced to a jam-packed house at the Coolidge Corner Theatre last Thursday, his fans gathered for his Brookline Booksmith-sponsored reading of his new book. Of course, the master of chaos and absurdity would not regale readers with tinsel-trimmed holiday anecdotes unless there were some seriously disturbed elements involved. Like the time he chewed off a plastic Santa’s face as a kid. Or when he woke up in bed next to a dirty French Santa in NYC. But as the stories follow Bourroughs into adulthood, his crisp and vivid prose reveals a more serious side to the author. In this Macmillan-supplied reading selection from You Better Not Cry, Burroughs tells how -- during one especially dismal, drunken Yule -- he's visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future, who takes the form of a mysterious opera-singing bag lady.

DOWNLOAD: Excerpt from You Better Not Cry [MP3]

While many find it hard to believe that so much bizarreness can fit into a single lifetime, Burroughs insists that his memoirs are anything but exaggerated. Moreover, he wonders why anyone would question his sincerity in the first place. When we interviewed him at the Booksmith last Thursday, Burroughs talked about a sensory disorder that allows him to recall intricate detail, his disdain for school, and his plans for the future, including two new television series.

So what made you decide to do a Christmas collection?
Well, the last story in it takes place pretty recently — a few years ago. I had a little disaster at home. … I thought it was funny — curious — that I’ve never written about Christmas … yet that’s such a big part of my past.

Your writing has always been highly personal. Is it weird for you to know that all of America is reading your most personal confessions?
It seems like it would be, but it’s not. It was weird once when I had just published it. I had given one reading at an Upper East Side bookstore. … There were celebrities in the audience and I was nervous. ... I felt really just like I made a huge mistake and now I can never take it back. I got out there on that stage… and everyone had read it already. And one after another, they said, "I had the same childhood." … I remember being amazed that someone would tell me that. … Like sex things, being raped, and all these things. People who looked like they had no problems. And then I was never afraid again.

Your writing is tremendously vivid.
I’ve written a lot of memoirs — and I’ve had a lot of articles and people say to me, "This all happened?" And it’s hard for me to believe that they would even think it’s a lie. But when I asked how I’d know, I never had a good answer for people. … But it happens that a while ago my doctor said to me, "I think you need to go see a psychiatrist." And I said, "Why?" He said, ‘Let’s be honest here. You kind of lost the parent lotto, genetically. So it’d be a good idea." ... So I went to a psychiatrist and he asked, "Do the tags on the back of your T-shirts bother you?" And I said, "Yeah!" And as I said it, I had a hole in my T-shirt, because I ripped the tag out. [He asked me] all these weird questions I’d never been asked … and he went on about this sensory-disorder-processing thing. … He said, "As very young children, when we leave the crib, we forget about it, because we don’t need [that information] anymore. … But a few people will remember in great detail, forever, all of these little things that extend deep into childhood." Now when he said that I thought, well that just explains a lot.

Ever since you published your first novel, Sellevision, back in 2000, you’ve been writing only memoirs. Do you ever plan on returning to fiction?
Yeah. I’ve written other ones but I haven’t published them. But I will write more. I love fiction. It’s very much, for me, like remembering things. When I’m remembering things I’m starting off from a place where I don’t remember a thing … it’s like floating in a rowboat. Kick back, aim my head in a direction and see what images happen and then write them. … And with fiction I don’t outline, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen from page to page. If I did, I’d be bored and wouldn’t be able to do it.

You didn’t finish high school or go to college.
I didn’t really go to high school for long. … I absolutely hated school. … They gave me a series of psychological tests and an IQ test. My IQ was in the 80s, which is in the level of someone who’s retarded. So they put me in a class -- I don’t think I’ve written about this -- with kids with Down syndrome, which I loved. It was the first time I ever liked being in school. … Then I went back to [my psychologist] and said, "I like those kids; it’s great, but no. Do I seem to you to be retarded?" And she mumble-mumble-mumbled. And I said, "You are a terrible, terrible psychologist." And she burst into tears and she said, "I never wanted to be a psychologist! I never wanted to; I wanted to be a photographer!" And I said, "You know what? I don’t need to know that. That’s inappropriate behavior for you to take." And I walked out of school and never came back.

Do you think that, had you gone to school, you would’ve still become a writer?
It’s hard to ever know those things. I hated it because of all those people … and I was weird and I wasn’t yet in a place where I could just be weird and not care. … If I could do it again, I would probably go to school, because I don’t think I’d be a writer. … I would probably study or practice theoretical physics and the study of the universe. I’ve been interested in that since I was a kid, and when I was a kid, I didn’t pursue it because I didn’t go to school.

What are your plans for the future?
Well I’m doing two TV series. One of them is for Showtime — that’s Dry, my book. It’s a weekly series. The other one is for CBS, and it’s an original one that I made up for them. It has nothing to do with me. … It’s what’s called a procedural, where stuff happens every week. … Mine is going to be a lot more psychological. The people are going to be much more important than they usually are; the thoughts and relationships. So in that sense it’s kind of me, and I like it.

Anything else you’d like to add?
Well, I know what my next book is going to be. I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s going to be good. It’s going to be a departure, sort of. But at the same time, inevitable. I’m really excited by it. It’s a good thing to do. And then we’ll see. But you never know. I could also just decide to stop one day and not write another word and then become a dentist.

--Samantha Shokin

PODCAST: The Wire's Kima, Bubbles, and Omar at Harvard

Boston Phoenix — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:05:00 GMT

Photo via the Harvard Crimson

As the audience was filing into last night's "The Wire at Harvard" panel, Professor Lawrence Bobo leaned over and spoke to Bubbles.

"You saved it for me," Bobo said.

"I saved it for you?"

"In the last show, when poor Duquan went down," said Bobo. "I said, 'At least I got Bubbles.' "

"In the last season," Bubbles said, looking down the table to where Omar sat, "I thought, 'Somebody is gonna go.' You know how David Simon thinks. It's either gonna be you or me. I was hangin' myself. My character -- my real-life character -- passed away of AIDS. I thought I was gonna go."

Omar, remembering the first time he saw the series's closing montage -- one of the great final phrases in American visual syntax -- said, "I could not talk, bro. I had to take off my hat, I had my hat over my face."

"How about when you got popped?" Bubbles said. "The hate mail. It was like -- people was mad. More than sad. It was: 'How you gon' do Omar like that?' "

And that was before the panel started. For fans of The Wire -- and the biggest Wire fans in the house may well have been the tenured guys at the podium -- Thursday night's mini-cast-reunion was like Oscar night. On stage: Sonja Sohn (Kima), Andre Royo (Bubbles), and Michael K. Williams, who may never again walk down a street without someone shouting, "Omar's comin'." From Harvard: Larry Bobo, William Julius Wilson (who, it was announced, will be teaching The Wire for credit at Harvard next year), and Yale scholar (and Huffington Post contributor) Brandon Terry.

In the wings: Donnie Andrews, introduced as the "real-life" Omar and inspiration behind the character, now working with troubled youths in Baltimore. Wikipedia tells us there were four real-life Omars, but Andrews looks the part. (Wire fans will also recognize Andrews from the series; he was one of the two brothers who strapped Omar with a phone-book flak jacket in prison.) Also in a supporting role: the Rev. Eugene Rivers, who, like Andrews, came off the bench to drop some wisdom from time to time.

The topic: how to turn The Wire -- a text that Professor Wilson has said outstrips sociology itself in its reflection of urban poverty and the cultural forces that shape it -- into a tool for education and public policy. The subtext: a reason to talk deeply about how awesome The Wire is. Brandon Terry brought both together in a five-minute sermon about Bodie as "a metaphor for the wider breaking of an American promise," and framed Marlo Stanfield's immortal line "You want it to be one way, but it's the other way" as the drug corner's ultimate challenge to a broken social contract.

All three Wire vets were greeted with rock-star applause, though the loudest surely went to Omar -- and to Andrews, his real-life counterpart. Nick Balkin, a Wire fan and publicist for Berklee College of Music who was in the audience, said he was struck by "how close the actors' personalities were to their characters. Bubbles was self-deprecating and funny. Omar was fiery and serious." Sohn started out quiet -- but once she started talking about her work with inner-city youth (including a program here in Boston at the Ella J. Baker House), her voice rose into the familiar crusading cadences of Kima Greggs. (Sohn said she founded her non-profit, Rewired For Change, after a group of Wire cast members reunited to canvass for Barack Obama during the presidential campaign.) When Williams read a stark, terrifying letter from one of Sohn's troubled kids, he could've been reciting Omar's back-story.

It was a conversation, in short, that any serious fan of The Wire would want to hear. And since the panel sold out quickly -- with ticketless fans lining up hours early in the hopes of securing a seat -- we thought we'd bring you the panel in its entirety, for posterity. Click on the file below to stream, or right-click and save-as to grab it for your iPod.

PODCAST: Kima, Bubbles, and Omar: The Wire at Harvard (mp3)