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?

My suggestion is Matthew Sweet's "I've Been Waiting."

I swear I was going to suggest the same thing!

OK, how 'bout: "Million Miles Away" by the Plimsouls.

just loaded Girlfriend into my iPod. How did I live so long without it in there? just a burden I had to bear. Most of my S-Z disks are not in yet. tis sad.

"Girlfriend" and "Superdeformed" are on my wife's iPod. Sadly, she has reclaimed it today.

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...

Send it in, man. I'm actually planning to write about The Wire and Deadwood this time around, too, but I was planning to focus on their images of government corruption. Haven't seen The Corner, but I plan to do so within the month.

Can someone send me the info on how to log into buffistarawk? I've lost the password. Profile address is good, thanks!