Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Andy Holloway and Adam both carry guitar picks in their wallets,…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Andy Holloway and Adam both carry guitar picks in their wallets, as I found out today.
["The Wire" is] sort of a visual novel. We knew exactly what we wanted to say about the bureaucratic aspects of the drug war. It is about what happens in this land of ours when product ceases to matter, when the institutions themselves become predominant over their purpose. Pick up the paper: You take a job, you go down to Houston, you move your family there, you find out they gutted the company and stole your pension. It's like whatever you believe in, whatever you commit to that's larger than you or your family, will somehow find a way to f--- you.
As the maker of "The Wire" knows, it's not that institutions inevitably turn malevolent. But in a way, I'm hesitant to believe in things larger than myself for the same reason that I'm hesitant to make long-term commitments, buy a house or propose marriage or choose a job. Anything that's not me can turn on me, or die. Heck, even I could.
