While my husband David was out of town, I had a chance to get caught up on a few shows that were spooled up in TiVo, ready to watch. One of these was HBO’s Treme, and I had the chance to watch the first three episodes all at once.
When I came up for air, I felt like I’d been dunked in the floodwaters and come up a new person. Treme is densely layered, and cultural associations are thrown out offhandedly in practially every line, every scene. What did the comments about the different kinds of music mean? What was the deep significance of a grown man dressing up in a wildly colored feathered suit? What’s the big deal about clapping on 2 and 4? And hadn’t I vaguely heard something before about a rant with “Fuck you, you fucking fucks?” at about the time that it became clear in 2005 that the US government wasn’t doing a very good job in rescuing the people of one of its great cities? Wasn’t it something to do with white Republicans not being terribly interested in helping a historically black and Democratic Party-dominated city?
Yeah, all of that and more. I’ve had to bone up on the ‘bone, I’ve had to jazz up my knowledge of jazz, I’ve had to spice up my view of Creole cuisine, I’ve had to learn to parse the nuances of the “YAT dialect” all over again (it helps to have read “A Confederacy of Dunces, but that book is pretty outdated).
I’ve had to discover a wonderful blogger, only to find that he died a few years ago and had to miss the adulation that he deserves; fortunately the series literally calls him out and puts him on display (although if you blinked, you missed it).
I had the day off yesterday and re-watched last Sunday’s episode after reading some of the excellent backgrounders that NPR and the New Orleans Times-Picayune have been running, along with some of the liveliest and most personal comments sections I’ve encountered in a while.
If you’ve been watching and not really getting Treme, other than enjoying the music and the ensemble cast, here are a few places that you really need to spend some time reading.
- NPR’s A Blog Supreme “Treme” category – READ from Episode 1, with comments
- Times-Picayune “Treme” coverage – READ the episode open threads for true local flavor
- Ashley Morris: a blog – the real “Fuck you, you fucking fucks” blogger. Read the whole damn thing, bitches.
- FYYFF T-shirt – links to Ashley Morris’ original blog post. Also some great anti-BP shirts there
- How to tawk rite – a pronunciation guide that may help if you go to New Orleans
Some of the most helpful posts, from a musical standpoint, are at the NPR “A Blog Supreme” site. Not only is every cameo appearance by a musician (whether playing a musical part or a theatrical part) explained, but every song playing on the radio in the background is named, its musicians noted, and sometimes they’re on the show. There are plenty of other great cameos, too, like Tim Reid as the judge, and Elizabeth Ashley as the inestimable Aunt Mimi.
Lotsa good stuff to watch, lotsa good stuff to hear, lotsa good stuff to eat.
All my adult life I’ve heard about New Orleans and what a party town it is – one of my college acquaintances was from there, and she used to give THE most epic parties I’d ever seen. Most college parties in the Northwest tended to be of the “hey, those guys have a keg, let’s follow ’em and see where the party is” variety. This woman (sadly, I’ve forgotten her name) used to have actual themes, epic amounts of food in that theme, and of course epic amounts of drink in that theme. She used to tell a story about how they celebrated Christmas where she was from: decorate a tree beautifully, or better yet pay someone else to decorate it beautifully, set it up in the living room, then attatch a rope to the bottom and haul it upside-down up to a hook in the ceiling, where it should be nailed in place.
She said the best part was when all the garlands (which she pronounced GAW-linds) and glass balls and tinsel “and shit” fell in a glorious, glittering heap to the floor, with strands of Christmas lights hanging off and the whole thing swaying and tinkling merrily. That was the moment to break out the cocktails in her household.
I’d love to know if she’s still in New Orleans, or whatever happened to her. She struck me then (in the 70’s) as a young Aunt Mimi-to-be: awesome, a little devastating, a little wrecked but still proudly flying the freak flag.
Check out the many videos at YouTube tagged Mardi Gras Indians…. these are some serious damn Indians, and they’re very very VERY fiercely pretty. New Orleans is the kind of town that threw a funeral dirge march for a favorite local music joint that closed down recently… sadly, it’s one that was mentioned in the series, and the real Treme brass band plays this sad, yet heartening lament.
There’s an awful lot to this series – much of it culled from real people’s lives and experiences. Even the title, an offhand comment about a trombone teacher that I saw in a comment from years ago, became a line in the show and a title of the latest episode.
If you just read pretty much all of Ashley Morris’ site, starting from the very beginning until, well, the end really, after he died and his wife Hana carried on with updates, you’ll start to “get it” about New Orleans, and what “Treme” is trying to depict.
Go on, now. Read. Watch. Inhale. Imbibe. I’m going to figure out when we might be able to get down to New Orleans f’sho.
You’ve done it once again! Incredible read!