Monday, June 22, 2009

Semi-un-retirement

You know what? I kinda feel like blogging some more.

I got a big piece of writing done (more or less) and feel otherwise refreshed. So for the next couple of months – before preparations for “Treme” get too thick – I intend to pump some life back into this site.

Get ready to turn up the volume...

33 comments:

Alan Stamm said...

Bring it, David!

Best news I've heard, well, since Election Day '08.

Anonymous said...

WB. Looking forward to it!

Anonymous said...

My prayers have been answered! LOL!

Good to have more posts from you!!! :D woo hoo!

Max Reddick said...

Who do we thank for this? Black Jesus or White Jesus?

Anonymous said...

Welcome back-- as if you could have stayed away forever... Looking forward to what's been going on in your head...

Lola Gets said...

Yea!

L

John B. said...

I knew you couldn't give it up! Glad to have you back.

Undercover Black Man said...

Who do we thank for this? Black Jesus or White Jesus?

Satan the Tempter.

Max Reddick said...

Satan the Tempter! Ha! Good one. Welcome back.

Undercover Black Man said...

Thanks to all for the good vibe.

*Tanyetta* said...

yessssssssssssss!

intrepidideas said...

Ah ha! The Brotha has stepped out of the darkness and back into the light! He's Back!

KST said...

Yea!!!

And ya'll owe me $5.99 for the candles I bought at catholicsupplystore.com!

Kellybelle said...

YES!

Anonymous said...

is anyone more excited than me?

maria said...

oh, damn, just when i had finally trained myself to stop checking your page.

very happy to reverse that pattern!

Anonymous said...

So does this mean that an eighty-something jazz artist is going to have to die every day now?

--bad dad

DMG said...

Hey UBM,

I was just checking out your site, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

I have a question for you, since are in the business and have written for some of my favorite shows "The Wire" and "E.R.".

How do shows like "Grey's Anatomy" survive? I find it so technically unbelievable that it's hard to watch? Do producers even listen to technical advisers? E.R. (and even Scrubs) was believable (before during and after medical school) Chicago Hope, not as much. The Wire had me believing...

Anyway good luck on your new show, I look forward to watching! (And again, nice beatdown the other night).

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Good Doctor, welcome to the House of Love.

As a matter of storytelling, it's an open question as to how much real-world technical authenticity is necessary to make a satisfying show about doctors (or cops or lawyers).

"St. Elsewhere" is one of my all-time favorite dramas. And one of the top writer-producers on that show was known to have blank spaces in his script that said "Insert medical bullshit here."

In other words, he was more concerned with the more generic emotional content of the story.

"ER," on the other hand, placed a supremely high value on technical authenticity. Writers Neal Baer, Lance Gentile and Joe Sachs are medical doctors. And there were medical consultants available to writers... and also on set, to show the actors how to accurately mimic procedures.

Of course, that worked too.

"Hill Street Blues" is my all-time favorite drama, and the bosses of that show knew it wasn't an accurate representation of police work, technically. Again, they were focused on universal human emotions.

"NYPD Blue" was a leap forward in terms of procedural authenticity... but even that show took a lot of liberties for the sake of simplicity of storytelling.

I happen to prefer the extra energy provided by attention to real-world authenticity... but I realize it's no strictly necessary in order to entertain the peoples.

DMG said...

Thank you for the welcome.

Shows like "Scrubs" are very well received in the hospital, because it gets many of the relationships correct despite being a comedy.

I'll tell you what, if you ever have the chance to work on another hospital drama, invite a group of trauma doctors, ICU and ER nurses over for drinks and turn on a tape recorder, oh the stories they'll tell...

odocoileus said...

Grey's is like Ivory.

99 44/100% Pure Soap.

Medical details only matter to the extent they serve the plot. It's a contract Ms. Rhimes made w/ her viewers from day one. She consistently honors the contract, they keep coming back.

Strict technical accuracy in the medicine would actually hurt the show by diminishing the opportunities for juicy emotional stuff. People who really care about medicine can get all they want on the Discover channel and other documentary type programming.

@ Dave

You can't quit us!

maria said...

speaking of medical shows, i'm enjoying nurse jackie tho i can't say how much might be technically inaccurate.

Rocky Horror said...

:-)

Now where's Fisher? lol

Beth said...

That's good news - both that you're blogging again, and that you got some major writing done.

I enjoy your observations of my city, your links to good music and to interesting dialogues going out there in the world.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ I'm looking forward to returning to your city, Beth.

DMG said...

Hey Y'all,

I'm new to David's spot. Just want say hello before hopping in.

@odocoileus,

Yeah, I feel you on not being too technical, and I can understand that because the folks who liked ER are probably not her target audience. But Shonda Rimes got so much wrong, that it was actually distracting (even my wife whose only connection to medicine is me, said the same thing).

But I think I used the wrong word, because technical might imply I was talking about the surgical procedures.

I was actually talking more about the relationships among residents, (between interns and senior residents) and between residents and staff (nurses, surgeons etc.).

Also the characters were too emotional, any resident that emotional and catty IN the O.R., or yelled at an attending surgeon would be thrown out. Period. Histrioncis are for OB/Gyn ;).

Surgery is very hierarchical (think Marine fighter pilots with scalpels) but, I don't think that was ever really addressed on the show.

But for a soap opera in my opinion--and I'm biased, Rimes chose the wrong specialty. Internal Medicine would have been better (they're more fashionable and have more time to play) and more believable, to me at least.

About Nurse Jackie...I checked out the one preview online, and I thought she got the nurse attitude down pretty good, better, I think, than Jada Pinkett's character.

Anyway, that's my two-cents.

bklyn6 said...

Well, this makes up for several weeks of crappy/rainy NYC weather!

Undercover Black Man said...

^ How you been, girl?

bklyn6 said...

^been missing your musings.
:-)

I hope you're taking care of yourself, UBM.

Andrew said...

So I guess David's blogging career is going to mimic that of a boxer, retiring and unretiring like seventeen times over the course of a few years.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Knocking motherfuckers out each time.

kenn. said...

welcome back, Brother. missed you.

Undercover Black Man said...

Thanks, Kenn.