"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, June 7, 2010

Treme 1.8: Passions and Dreams

I had a tough time deciding which musical performance I liked best in Treme 1.8 on HBO last night - pretty much a tie between McAlary singing "Battle of New Orleans" at his family gathering and Janette delivering a fine version of "Iko Iko" in one of the myriad of threads to the Mardi Gras tapestry - I guess I'd give Janette the edge.    And lots of other great music, including a version of the Nevilles' "Tell It Like It Is," and a few of the Nevilles showing up for another gig.

Lots of good passion in the streets, too.   Sonny getting hot, long, deep kisses from two beauties on a float, and Antoine and Ladonna having another go at it.  This after Antoine and his current woman talk about his "perimeters" after she says he should go forth and have a good time.  She makes clear that the parameters do not including sleeping with another woman, but, hey, Antoine is irrepressible (not only with women, but in stiffing cabbies).

Ladonna is still keeping her brother's death from her family, and it's fair to say she's not completely in her right mind on this day.   None of our characters ever quite are in Treme, but, then again, is anyone really anywhere?  Annie and Sonny are still performing well together, but that's only in their music.  By the end of the episode, Annie and McAlary are talking and walking together, and they could make a pretty good couple.

The only person outright unhappy on this day is not even Albert, who's in jail, but Creighton.   In a soft, searing YouTube diatribe, he talks about the dream that was always New Orleans now being no more than a dream of a dream.

But if Treme shows us anything, it is that the people and the music and the food are as real as it gets, a joy in life that defies the most damaging catastrophe.   The parallels to the current oil spill are unavoidable, and the message is that one way or another the people in this beautiful part of the world will somehow prevail in the end once again.


5-min podcast review of Treme

See also Treme! ... Treme 1.2: "If you ain't been to heaven" ... Treme 1.3: Fine Sweet and Sour ... Treme 1.4: New Orleans, New York, Nashville ... Treme 1.5: Delicious!


                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic






The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

1 comment:

dawn said...

Hi Paul ,
New show on tonight Persons Unknown- the commercial looked reallt freaky . Try and watch it

InfiniteRegress.tv