Collected prose, links and occasional venting from David Simon
What follows was published two weeks after October 7, 2023. It was almost immediately pinned to the top of the feed there, and it has remained there atop the dormant husk of that account ever since. At some point this week, I encountered a couple shitheels on the social media site to which I have [ ]
A year ago today, we took to the streets and celebrated the life of Laura Schweigman in that way that New Orleanians do. A native Baltimorean, she was captured by the Crescent City during our years filming Treme, and, in her own way, she captured it right back. If you watched anything from The Wire [ ]
This is the full text of a letter written on behalf of one of the defendants charged with narcotics violations in conjunction with the death of my friend and collaborator Michael K. Williams. It was written at the request of Mr. Macci s defense attorney, but what follows will make fully clear why I felt compelled [ ]
There will be better and more substantive testimonials and remembrances of this great, great man published this week. I met him briefly, on limited terms, but on news of his death, I found myself reliving the entire encounter. The worst of it left me dazed, shaking my head at myself, incredulous that it happened as [ ]
Leaving this up for a week as a pinned tweet before locking the account. It’s been a lovely little war, folks, and some good fun was had, But until this platform gets better and more honorable management, fuck it, no. D.S. A long decade ago, my assistant, a millennial of course, explained to me that there [ ]
Years ago, when saddled with the task of scripting a specific historical moment, I was confronted by the reality that film narrative is not the medium for open debate, that the camera must in the end be in one place at one time, that the actors must say their lines, and that a singular version [ ]
Dorothy Simon, a homemaker who returned to her college studies after 30 years to graduate with highest honors and undertake a late career as a crisis counselor and therapist, died Sept. 21 of natural causes at her Silver Spring home. She was 97. “I had the unusual pleasure of attending the University of Maryland campus [ ]
Just over a quarter century ago, when I was a young scribbler traipsing around the metro desk of the Baltimore Sun, I had an early opportunity to learn a lesson about money, about ethics, about capitalism and, in particular, about the American entertainment industry. And Dorothy Simon, she raised no fools. I only needed to learn [ ]
With regard to this week s miserable performance by the New York Times in its gotcha-til-we-squee, front-page, lead-column scoopfest on Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein s supposed Trumphunting, I think the whole mess requires something a little more detailed than the generalized contempt I ve already offered on Twitter. So here we go: Dear men and women of the [ ]
Hey, @jack. I thought, Mr. Dorsey, that we had an understanding. I would not ever concede that telling you or anyone else they ought to die of boils was unjustifiable after their own rhetoric lapsed into abject slander, dishonesty or dishonor, and you pretending that I had somehow threatened the actual well-being of another [ ]
Producers and cast after last shot.
Fifteen years as a newspaperman taught me a few select things. One is this: It is the god-given right of every American to resent or even hate his local newspaper. Indeed, it is our birthright to hate any and every news organization, print or broadcast. It is not certain that you will avail yourself of [ ]
Once again and this time with some expectation I find myself banned from Twitter by virtue of an algorithm that protects, whether by willful intent or by incandescent stupidity, all manner of slander and brutality while policing only deserved insult. On this, perhaps my final go-round with the platform, the offense is as [ ]
I was still on the sofa at four in the afternoon, still half-dressed, when I decided that my life could not be complete if I did not somehow become friends with Anthony Bourdain. My son, then a young teenager, also in his underwear, was as inert and transfixed as I was. We were both locked [ ]
I am trying to find words for my friend. I will post something here later if they ever come. For now, just know how much Tony Bourdain for all his wit and sharp edges, for all his grandiose and larger-than-life persona was a genuinely good man and careful colleague. And that doesn t begin [ ]
Asked some questions by Spanish journalist Toni Garcia, I replied in writing. Some respondents have replied to me with various translations of my answers that do not entirely comport with the language that I used or the facts I intended to convey. I m not suggesting any willful intent by Mr. Garcia to simplify or deconstruct [ ]
Here is a letter written in support of leniency for Marc Henry Johnson, a fellow producer on The Deuce who was involved in the tragic overdose death of a woman in New York last year. The letter was written to the sentencing judge and is part of the court record, and I post it here [ ]
Forty years ago this week, my father was taken hostage when the Hanafi Muslims, a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam, took over the District Building, the Islamic Center and the B nai B rith headquarters in Washington D.C. As the 56-year-old public relations director for B nai B rith, a Jewish service organization, my father was selected [ ]
I had the distinct honor of being asked to give my union s award for lifetime achievement to fellow Baltimorean and film legend John Waters. These were my remarks, or those that were in the teleprompter, anyway. I may have veered at points: John Waters, who began an improbable career of deep cultural relevance with the [ ]