What better way to mark my triumphant return to the 'sphere after a hiatus shooting big game in the jungles of Tanzania than with this shocking tale: I was on a train from DC yesterday (Acela, coz that's how I roll) and we stopped in Baltimore. Who should get on but fockin McNulty! I swear to God. He sat down on the other side of the aisle, one row in front of me, and just started reading the international section of the New York Times, as if there weren't an ongoing epidemic of gang-related drug crimes and political corruption in the city, crying out for his hard-charging no-bullshit approach to police work. As the train left Baltimore, we could see the derelict backyards of those row houses in the ghetto, with like trash and car parts strewn everywhere, like where they left Omar's boyfriend after shooting him the eye or whatever. And McNulty didn't even look up!
Eventually the guy next to him got off the train, so I came over and was like "McNulty!" and he kind of smiled shyly. So I asked him if I could sit down and talk to him and promised it'd just be for a couple minutes, since I didn't want to be like the guy in Zuckerman or whatever, and he said sure, in a not unfriendly way. Of course I had to start off asking him questions premised on the fact that I was talking to "Dominic West", but I soon realized I didn't really care much about "Dominic West", so the conversation was a bit stilted (he was less impressed than I had hoped, for instance, by my revelation that I, like him, am from England). But once I just started assuming he was McNulty things went better. He said he's not in season 5 very much (which they're filming in Baltimore right now, hence him being there) but it's the best one yet. It'll be out in January. SPOILER ALERT - SKIP TO THE END OF THE PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO AVOID LEARNING EVEN THE MOST BANAL TWO PIECES OF INFO THAT I WAS ABLE TO GET OUT OF HIM ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS IN SEASON 5: He ends up with that nice Beadie Russell but they "have problems". Bubbles does not die.
I got him to flash that roguish McNulty grin a few times, to my immense gratification (though I am no coblogger.) One time I think was when I told him that my Mom liked Stringer Bell best, and he said alot of the ladies like Stringer Bell best, and then he said "Bastard!"
6/8/07
