Here's a High Hat idea: The Wire and Kanye West:selfconsciousness, the twin pressures of the street and academia, preppie thugs, crack dealing as social protest...

I haven't watched much Deadwood, both cos Penny hates Westerns and cos I just can't get my head round the reinvention of McShane. Did Lovejoy ever show in the States? It was huge at the turn of the '90s, the BBC's top cosy Sunday night drama, with McShane as a lovable rogue antiques dealer. I can't think of an exact equivalent, but it's on a par with...Bill Cosby turning up as a foulmouthed killer.

I enjoyed Lovejoy quite a lot, but Deadwood is a real tour de force with McShane at the centre of things like a big malevolent spider. It's wonderful. And, uh, the music over the closing credits is usually appropos and interesting. (whew)

I haven't watched much Deadwood, both cos Penny hates Westerns and cos I just can't get my head round the reinvention of McShane. Did Lovejoy ever show in the States? It was huge at the turn of the '90s, the BBC's top cosy Sunday night drama, with McShane as a lovable rogue antiques dealer.

Huh, that used to show over here on A&E, before it devolved to the war channel. MST3K had a field day with a bad American made for TV movie with McShane as the bad guy, who they kept referring to as "Lovejoy".

I can't think of an exact equivalent, but it's on a par with...Bill Cosby turning up as a foulmouthed killer.

SEXY BEAST must have been quite the head turner, too, what with both McShane and Ben Kingsley in that kind of role, and McShane seducing James Fox at one point.

Ray Davies recalls getting shot in New Orleans: [link]

Jim, I would love to read and(dare I say write for?) such an endeavor. Even though that was not meant for me, but for the face of "High Hat" himself.

I have another Wire-related pitch which I can't write myself - about how complex the relationship between fact and fiction is in Simon's work (for example Jay Landesman: he's a real cop, was fictionalised as Munch in H:LOTS, then his name was given to an entirely different character in The Wire, but half the dialogue Bunk says in The Wire is stuff lifted from the real Jay Landesman). The way stuff intertwines is really odd - and I haven't even read/seen The Corner - and someone who has access to all of Homicide should explore it.

"Cutty" in "The Wire" couldn't exist without some of the stories in "The Corner" in fact, as far as I could tell, all of Season 3 owes it a major debt.(I'm not sure if you've seen it over there Jim, and I suck at the whitefont, or I'd go on, at some probably tiresome length.) Gary D' Addario(the sometimes model for Giardello) appears in many H:LOTS as, if I recall correctly, the leader of the Quick Response Team.

If that Perfect Pop Songs mix ever gets made, I'd love a copy, or at least just the tracklisting. My suggestion is Matthew Sweet's "I've Been Waiting."

Good choice, Alicia.

I hate to disagree with hec,

No you don't!

but Smell of Female is the one Cramps record you should buy - "Live from the Peppermint Lounge!".

It's the first record I bought (at Newbury Comics) when I moved to Boston in 1983. I don't even know if that's my favorite live Cramps. I've got a fantastic 10" bootleg of a show in Germany with amazing sound. And one of the shows included on How To Make A Monster is supposed to be mind blistering. And that's not even including the Live at Napa State Mental Hospital video and all of its indelible imagery.

It's up there with Weld, Rank and Live at San Quentin in the history of live albums.

My favorite live album is probably Patti Smith's bootleg Teenage Perversity and Ships in the Night. Live in LA, January 1976. Fantastic sound and the band (and Patti) were absolutely riveting that night. Iggy was in the house and John Cale came up onstage to do "My Generation" with them (and played the bass solo too).

Oooh, good choice Alicia. Matthew Sweet put out some songs that you'd expect to find at Tiffany's, they're so well-crafted.

Should we compile a Perfect Pop Song mix?