Charting the Events of ‘Treme’

By Lolis Eric Elie

On the wall of the writers’ office, we have a timeline, a month-by-month chart of what happened in New Orleans from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2007. We group these events into categories: music/culture, crime, police, land use/planning, environment, education and mental health. The writers consult these notes in order to include references to major events and allusions to minor ones in the script.  This will give you some idea of the issues we’ve considered in putting together Season 2. I’ll go a step further. In case you can’t read them, here are some of the notes on those cards:

• October 2006: Zachary Bowen commits suicide by jumping off the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel roof; policefind the body of his girlfriend, Addie Hall, dismembered and partially cooked. He had strangled her 2 weeks earlier and embarked on a bender.

• November 2006: Food writer Alan Richman dumps on N.O. culinary scene in GQ article, inciting local wrath.

• November 2006: Murder-suicide of middle-aged couple in their FEMA trailer: cops say 47-year-old husband had sought psych help but couldn’t find a hospital bed.

• December 2006: New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin announces the appointment of Ed Blakely as “recovery czar.”

• December 2006: “Dollar Bill” Jefferson gets re-elected to the U.S. House, despite a federal investigation into bribery/extortion. Wins against Dem. Karin Carter with 61% of the vote.

• January 2007: Saints win divisional round playoff game vs. Philly Eagles in Superdome.

• February 2007: Mardi Gras.

• March 2007: City Planning Commission solicits public comments re: the completed Unified New Orleans Plan.

• April 2007: A Times-Picayune article exposes the Recovery School District’s lenient grading policy, in which high school students can still pass their classes even if their quarterly grades average F for the year; outrage ensues.

• May 2007: ACLU wins lawsuit on behalf of Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, reducing permit fees from $3,790 to $1,985.

David Simon's List of Neglected New Orleans Songs

By Lolis Eric Elie

One of the joys of being in the 'Treme' writers’ room is hearing David Simon, Eric Overmyer and Tom Piazza discuss old New Orleans rhythm and blues records. Choosing the right music for the show is a very important part of the writing process. Much of that deliberation might more profitably take place once the scene is written and the details filled in, but since music is the backbone of the show, it is not entirely illegitimate for us occasionally digress about who played what when, and which version of what song might be best for Antoine Batiste to cover in a particular episode. 

All three men are experts. (Last season, George Pelecanos and the late David Mills also brought music expertise to the writers’ room. But they were funkateers from the Clintonian school. George Clinton, that is. Different religion altogether.)  At first, I thought my New Orleans birth certificate entitled me to get a word in edgewise but it seems that the moment I open my mouth, they move the discussion to another level of esoterica, and I am left behind.

I’ve asked Eric, David and Tom to create lists of New Orleans music and musicians that they particularly like. There will be more such posts in the future. But for now, let’s begin with some songs from David Simon’s roster of forgotten or neglected New Orleans songs.

• "The Monkey," Dave Bartholomew
•  "Los Hombres de Fiasco," All That
•  "Here Come the Girls," Ernie K-Doe
•  "Sacred Ground," John Mooney
•  "Lillie Mae," Smiley Lewis
•  "Chicken Shack Boogie," Amos Milburn
• "Just to Hold My Hand," Big Boy Myles
• "Junker Blues," Champion Jack Dupree
• "Second Line on Monday," Chuck Carbo
• "Hard River to Cross," Earl King

Coffee Break With Melissa Leo

By Lolis Eric Elie

What made you want to do this role?

It was less about the role in this particular instance because I didn't know that much about [Toni Bernette] except she would be an attorney. Everybody says civil rights -- I don't call her a civil rights attorney myself. Bleeding heart, maybe. But mostly it was David Simon. I had worked with him years ago on 'Homicide,'' and I wanted back on television. He called and proposed what making an ensemble once a week television show might look like, with the writers driving the carriage. And that sounded really interesting. He sent me some pages. I thought, "There's no way in hell I'm dressing up like a sperm come Mardi Gras." And then you cut to several months later and I've been down here awhile and I've seen the goings-on in the street and I would have been a fool not to dress like a sperm come Mardi Gras.

In preparing to play Toni Bernette, what did you have to do?

Preparing to work is a continual process, especially playing someone who is a small part of a larger whole with a great huge arc to get through -- not only this show but also this season and in all good hope, five years of quality television. So what you are calling a preparation, what you're asking about, it is far too complicated an answer for this actor to even begin. But basically, first there's the script. And then there're the writers to go to, as a sounding board. Then I have wonderful Mary Howell [the public interest lawyer who is the inspiration for the Toni Bernette character], whom I am not "playing," but who has lived a parallel life to Toni Bernette. I would not go to Mary to access how something should be played in the script. I'd go to Mary for larger strokes.

Then there's a costume department that always helps me find who the woman is by the kinds of clothing she wears and how she wears them.

When you look at television you assume, "That's what the character would wear. How difficult could it have been?" But in fact, a lot of thought goes into that.

Yeah. Usually, too little, in television. We all have closets -- you, me, Toni Bernette. And sometimes you might play someone who never wears the same thing twice. I'm a person like that. I have a bunch of clothes in my closet, but I rarely put them together in the same way. But I've begged them to keep Toni's closet small and familiar to the audience. I think a major misstep in a lot of television is new clothing every episode. It is in the specificity that we make this pretending we do seem real. Every detail matters. The broader strokes don't even matter as much.

You have spoken out about ageism in Hollywood.

People say I've spoken out about ageism. I'm just recounting facts that I know. I'm anti-ageist. I'm anti anything that limits and constricts human beings. I see a vast similarity between a black male actor and a white lady actor. We both get cut from the sh**ty end of the cloth. They get the white guy first. And that's just how it's always been. I don't have an ageism problem. I got a problem with generally accepted norms for casting throughout the entire industry. And they cast the wrong people in the wrong parts and that's a shame. It's a much bigger, more general, more encompassing thought than, "Oh, us poor old ladies."

How does it feel to be an Oscar winner?

I was presented with an Oscar by Kirk Douglass. You then walk backstage and are put through a series of interviews. And all the interviewers want to know how you feel. I don't know because I am standing here talking to you. I don't know how I feel. I have a camera in my face, and I have to worry about how I look because of that, and now you're asking me how I feel? It's wonderful. It's awesome.