watch the wire. be someone you're not.

the wire is a great show. it's one of those things. you know, that you hear about for a long time, and everybody keeps saying that this great show/band/whatever is going on, and you need to check it out... but what do you (i) do? watch the same reruns of law and order svu and iron chef and listen to the same garbage you've been listening to for the last three years.

i'm not comfortable with change.

that's not entirely true. i'm just a big fan of routine. some call this boring. some like a life of more spontaneous action and constant change and excitement around every corner. i like to come home each night and eat dinner with my wife, watch jeopardy, take a walk around the neighborhood, and get to bed early enough that i can get up from the bed the next morning and strap on some sneakers and go for a jog (or run... controversy still unsettled regarding the difference and/or definition of these two acts - or is it one act - with two names?).

but this is about the wire. if you don't know... it just finished it's five year run on HBO, and was seasonally touted as "the greatest show that nobody is watching" by all the critics. i don't really read the critics, but i have my ear to the pop culture landscape, and have been hearing about this show for some time. most notably from my good friend bill simmons, who writes my favorite column for my favorite website, espn. (i don't know bill simmons, but i wish i did.)

sidenote, i always have a list of "guys who live a life i am jealous of." this isn't the superstar athelete or the top-of-the-world movie star. i'm not into that much fame (only moderate fame) and i'm really not that into ridiculous wealth (again, moderate wealth would be fine). but here's my list of guys that live a life i think is pretty sweet:

bill simmons. he's funny as hell and gets paid to write about his greatest love in life - sports. he's married with a couple kids and lives in LA, and he has great stories about epic times with friends. i listen to his podcast each week just to hear him argue and banter back and forth with his friends about their favortie teams and politics, and tv shows and anything else. this is a good life.

jack johnson. this is the 2000-01 version of jack johnson. when he was this laid-back professional surfer who also just happened to be pretty natural with a guitar and simple lyrics about summer and girls. this is a guy who surfs, makes surfing movies, plays music, and doesn't really seem to get caught up in all of it. he just seemed like a laid-back and happy guy. that is pretty sweet to me (i haven't liked a single one of his albums since brushfire fairytales, but that is another story)

matt chandler. i don't know much about chandler, but he is a young, super-successful pastor of a huge church in dallas, tx. matt started there just a few years ago when the church was nothing, and now it is 5000+. he makes me laugh and think hard on the big quesitons... you know, life, God, right and wrong, sin, Jesus Christ and all that stuff that i like to think hard about. but matt's another one of those guys, that i see/hear him a few times a week, and i just think, "this guy is fascinating and seemingly fun. i'd like to hang out with that guy, and spend some time with him."

other candidates include: justin timberlake, brad pitt, tom brady and conan o'brien, but all of them have to big a star above their head and therefore, don't qualify. i think there are more, but i didn't expect to write this list, so i haven't done the necessary searching the archives of my mind to pull up the files. feel free to make your own suggestions.

and i guess that's the point of this list. i really like my life. it's not a list put together out of displeasure with what i've got. i love what i got. wouldn't trade it for the world. no way in hell that heidi isn't a part of my life. she's the best. the list is just guys that i would love to hang out with. i only know about them because, obviously they are famous, and i guess that makes them more important than you or i. but when it comes down to it, i really respect the guys who get the money and the fame and all the attention, and just remain "one of the guys" or so it seems. i don't know. they might be jerks in real life... but i don't deal in real life.

back to the wire. in the third season. watching it as much as possible. heidi and i both love it. i get to remind her repeatedly who is who and she has to wake me up repeatedly (i have this disease where i fall asleep if i watch television for longer than 35 minutes. there is no cure). it's good. and not in a way i expected it to be good. it's the drug war in baltimore. a place i've never been. it's a cop show. and it's a crime show. my favorite character is a drug-stealing homosexual thug named omar, who, for whatever reason, makes me really happy and has this humility and conscience to him that is rather endearing (that and he weilds a shotgun to heist other drug dealers' stashes and while whistling "the cheese stands alone."

so watch the wire. break out of your routine and break into another one. that's the beauty of new things. it's scary to take that leap. to try that new food, or band, or show, or way of wearing your hair (what?), but if you like it, then you get to adopt it as a new routine, a new comfort, and then it's good.