Monday, January 24, 2011

JUMPING JACKS IN HEAVEN

Health gurus sometimes do the honorably ironic thing & die young, but this was not the case with genial Jack LaLanne, departed four years shy of a century old. I well remember watching his TV show—not exercising along with it, alas—as a kid; there was something vaguely spooky about his silhouette doing jumping jacks alongside the credits.


The Police Commissioner of Baltimore has actually complained that the HBO series The Wire isn’t artificial & flattering, like the cop shows set in other cities! You can read his comments here, along with Wire creator David Simon’s stinging response.

2 comments:

  1. I'm re-watching "The Wire" on Direct TV's 101 channel, loving it even more than the first go round, and during the first season they would show a few minutes of Simon talking about the themes of the show and various other topics. One episode he tells the story of getting permission to shoot in Baltimore. At first, the Mayor was all for it. Of course, then he saw the show was pissed at the way the city was depicted. His initial reaction was to block them from shooting in Baltimore. Then he realized that they were going to shoot in the second season no matter if it was in Baltimore or some other city. Instead of letting the production dollars go someplace else, he reluctantly let them continue to shoot.

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  2. Though I haven't seen the whole series, from what I have seen it's clear that it's a great show. I spent some time in Baltimore in the '80s, & my memories of the town are very fond. I really must check out the later seasons.

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