I’ve had a leasehold on davidsimon.com for years now. People smarter than I am told me that even if I had no sense of its use at present, I should throw a few shekels down in case. But until recently, I saw no reason to do much of anything with the site. My ambivalence rests on a couple basic ideas: I’m a writer, and while I’m overpaid to write television at present, the truth is that the prose world from which I crawled — newsprint and books — is beset by a new economic model in which the value of content is being reduced in direct proportion to the availability of free stuff on the web. In short, for newspapers and book publishers, it has lately been an e-race to the bottom, and I have no desire to contribute to that new economy by writing for free in any format. Not that what is posted here has much prolonged value -— or in the case of previously published prose, hasn’t soured some beyond its expiration — but the principle, in which I genuinely believe...
Reposted from X: A rant to be preserved.
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 migrated who proved entirely capable of characterizing my views as singularly Zionist — supportive of Netanyahu, his government, his policies or his or his coalition’s role in the horror show that has engulfed the Levant. False. Rather, the criticism that I am “both-sidesing” this disaster would be precise. Simplistic and empty, but precise. If ever there was a century-old tragedy that encouraged — no, demanded — that civilized human beings refuse to sign up for the bloodletting of Hamas or the brutalities of Netanyahu, it’s this one. There is a singular, shared and grievous history here and if you know it in full, you know that both sides have...
Laura
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 to Show Me A Hero to Generation Kill to Treme, you reveled in some of her fine television work, and if you were along for the ride as she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for everyone from Baltimore school children and recovering addicts to New Orleans musicians and culture-bearers, you knew she was the best of us. Her memory is a blessing always. Mighty kootie fiyo, Laura Schweigman (1979-2024). Share this: Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Print (Opens in new window) Print
A letter for leniency
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 to undertake the task in no small part to honor Michael’s memory. The Honorable Judge Ronnie Abrams Your Honor: I write to you in regard to the sentencing of Carlos Macci, who has entered a plea of guilty to narcotics offenses in conjunction with the overdose death of Michael K. Williams. And as a close friend and professional colleague of Mr. Williams, I write to urge you to consider leniency. Specifically, I met Michael in 2002 as a writer and producer, when I first cast him in a role in an HBO Production that broadcast for five seasons and chronicled the tragic American diaspora that is the drug war. From that moment, I came to know and love Michael...