Last night’s “Treme” began with Antoine sharing his “bone” with a stripper from the club he’s playing at on Bourbon Street. But it’s okay, there’s “pride in Bourbon Street,” as they say on “Treme.”
Last night’s episode took us further into the characters. We’ve moved past the character introductions where we see the image they project. Now we’re getting into what’s behind each character’s façade.
Antoine doesn’t seem as complicated to figure out, but it’s still early. He’s a fuck up who cares about nothing but playing his trombone. Being a fuck up, however, makes it hard to get the good gigs because no one can depend on a fuck up. So he has to go down to Bourbon Street and play for the tourists. For Antoine, playing for a bunch of tourists who don’t know shit about New Orleans’ music is like following Dante into the lower levels of hell.
Davis is also a fuck up, but his pride is for the city of New Orleans. Sure it has everything to do with the music but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s his home. So when the national guard is still wondering around, it makes sense that he’d “motherfuck” them.
His and Antoine’s arrest in the same episode highlight the clashes between “authority” and “civilians.” Who’s right? On the one hand you understand the need for order but on the other when you treat people like criminals they’re going to eventually act like criminals, in reality or just in your mind. Not that anyone was committing any criminal acts but at what point should the civilians stop trying to see things from the point of view of those in authority and authority should start seeing things from the civilians’ point of view?
Creighton discovers YouTube and I’m pretty sure it will become his soapbox. I feel like he is going to make video after video about New Orleans, hoping to draw attention to the conditions they are living in.
Obviously there’s music throughout because that’s what “Treme” is all about. Dr. John (had to Wikipedia him) plays “Indian Red,” the Mardi Gras Indian anthem, with some boys at the studio. He prefaces the playing by saying that he wants to respect the Indian chiefs who still play the tune. He points out Albert specifically because Delmond is playing with him.
At the end of the show Albert does the “traditional Chief version” of “Indian Red” at a funeral for his Wild Man, Jesse. The episode ends with a bus of tourists pulling up to watch the performance. Through the tinted glass of the bus windows we see their camera flashes. The bus driver leans out of the window and asks, “What’s this all about?” Albert and the others are obviously offended and tell the man to take his bus away.
So the debate is what were Simon, Overmeyer and Mills trying to say? Aren’t the viewers tourists too? Should we maybe pull away? I think “Treme” distinguishing between drive by tourists and tourists who genuinely want to understand. It’s kind of like those people who show up at funerals that only met the person one or two times but act as if they knew them for years.
For us to observe the characters of “Treme” without interfering we can better understand the lives they lead. If we jump onto a bus and drive down their streets taking snapshots of them we won’t learn anything about them. It’s not physical proximity to the action that helps you to understand, it’s emotional proximity. Plus in the end it’s just a TV show and the reality of their world is that bus tours like these exist and they don’t like them. So of course they’re going to say “Fuck off.”
