Willis’ Bag

Confessions of a Wire-Head

“California dreaming on such a winter’s day”

Peter, Paul and Mary’s iconic ‘California Dreaming’… “on such a winter’s day was rolling across my mind” as the McDonald-Douglas S-80 broke from the clouds above San Francisco revealing a stunning sunset, but all I could think of was Baltimore.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it - even with the weekend ahead in San Francisco with the great exhibits going on there - Tutankhamun was at the de Young Museum and Cartier & America was at the nearby Legion of Honor, which also meant that I could check-out Presidio, Haight Asbury, and even scoot over to Sausalito for some great seafood.

But, the sad reality was that I really was dreaming of Baltimore over the winter - when typically the new season of The Wire on HBO starts up, I was literally going through withdrawal. The Wire was taken off HBO after 5 seasons and what was regarded and critically acclaimed as the “best show” on television. Now just like Bubbles I’m a Wire head.

Funny, I had no withdrawal symptoms in previous years or even the past year during the spring, summer, or even fall. I was OK until the weather turned cold and wintry, so I guess it must be a seasonal thing. At first I was in denial about it, and just sat there looking at the box DVD sets of The Wire seasons #1 - #3 that I had purchased years ago to supplement my cravings.

It wasn’t long afterwards that I opened The Wire season #3 and started watching the Barksdales anywhere from one to two episodes per night. This quickly escalated to the point that The Wire was the only thing that I was watching in the evening. Next, I was onto Wire season #1, and then #2 with much the same viewing habits all but consuming me.

I couldn’t seem to stop, and after a couple weeks, I soon started to realize that my Wire supply was about to run out. So, in the parlance of The Wire, I needed a re-up of seasons #4 and #5 of The Wire. But, The Wire’s DVD box sets are kinda of pricey at around $60 a piece. So, I tried to go cold turkey for the next couple of weeks and watch my usual evening fare of programming and pretend to be gratified.

Miraculously, I read about a ½ price sale that Best Buy was having on selected HBO series box sets the week before Xmas. So, I ran out like a fiend and got The Wire seasons #4 and #5. But, fearing that I would soon exhaust seasons #4 and #5 also, I also got the entire Deadwood series.

Then - every chance I got, I would sneak off and sequester myself in the bonus room and watch The Wire seasons #4 and #5. Now I can now only hope and pray that the new series by the producers of the Wire entitled Treme will have a similar effect. However, after seeing the series debut recently, the jury is still out on Treme, and until its in, I’ll be Baltimore dreaming.

Maybe I can get in a support group. Anybody else out there like me?