Saturday, May 2, 2009

MORE GIANT THAN THE REST: The blogosphere is saddened today -- well, I am -- that our colleague in the online world David Mills has closed down his Undercover Black Man blog to focus on his tv writing career, which already has included creating Kingpin and serving as a writer for NYPD Blue, The Wire, The Corner, Homicide: Life on the Streets and creating the character of Rocket Romano on ER.

Among the best aspects of his blog were his pieces on race and society, whether his series on Giant Negroes in the Media or Misidentified Black People or his from-back-in-the-day interviews with Chris Rock, Oprah Winfrey, Elvis Mitchell and others. [Thing I didn't know until looking at his Wiki page: David did the interview with Sister Souljah that brought her to Bill Clinton's attention.] The Giant Negroes series was typical of the solid cultural/historical understanding he brought to the table -- see The Vice President and His Mulatto, or his roundtable on the N-word, for example.

[His Vox blog is a remarkable resource, including the Dratch-Fey "Wicked" skit from their Second City days.]

Alan Sepinwall has more. David has commented here in the past, and he will always be welcome. In the meantime, we all look forward to Treme, the New Orleans-based series he and David Simon are hoping to present on HBO in 2010 ...