The first episode of Treme was a little too impressionistic for me.

This second episode hit home on two points for me. And I want to contact David Simon in some way for so perfectly portraying the New Orleans tourist. Because all of us that were not born here but ended up here for one reason or another began as tourists. Unless you were lucky enough to have friends quickly show you the way or brave enough to ride your fixed-gear bike around, forget about showering for a couple days, and end up in the Marigny, then you were like those kids from Wisconsin.

I certainly was. I was a serious, shy, and completely green kid from Houston -- a big city with so little personality that to move to a big-ish city with a personality that eclipsed its size a million-fold was shocking. And so I started as a tourist. I only went places I could ride the street car too. I went to only a couple Mardi Gras parades. I went to the college bar and drank only amaretto sours. And for someone so serious-minded and interested in scholarly pursuits, I hated New Orleans my first year here.

But then I found my way, found my couple bars in the Quarter where I could drink underage and feel comfortable. This was my authentic experiences. And I think that's what's amazing. There's no one way to have an authentic experience here. I'm glad that's what David Simon played with in this last episode. Disdainfully calling "The Saints Go Marching In" an authentic song is laughable now because after the Saints victory, there is no more authentic song to portray joy and the spirit of New Orleans.

I expected that David Simon wanted us to feel disdain for those kids from Wisconsin. But actually I felt more disdain for the street musicians who poked fun at them. They tried to have fun the right way. They really wanted to know New Orleans. And they tried. Just as David Simon and the rest of us are probably hoping viewers outside New Orleans will feel while watching Treme, those Wisconsinites caught a glimpse and loved it. And if you love New Orleans, there's no wrong way to do it.

However, I feel like it's too cheese-tastic for me to want to go to to Bullet's bar now. Chris has been once before and I have thought about going before, but I don't want people there to look at me like, "You just came here because you saw it on Treme." But I shouldn't care.

Then of course there was the mention of cutting programs at Tulane. Chris and I actually wondered if they would cover this since Tulane no longer has an English graduate program and John Goodman's character is an English professor. And I couldn't believe that this happened to be one of his only scenes in the episode. The noise I made at the viewing party was one of anguish and laughter and sorrow. If Tulane had their fucking English PhD program, where do you think I would want to go? Where do you think I'd want to stay for my entire life? I would never leave.

My one complaint was the way the bar reacted when the Chief beat up (killed?) the kid who stole his tools. As he began punching him, the crowd was cheering and definitely on the side of the old man. I, on the other hand, rarely have this reaction. Violent revenge is never as cathartic for me; in fact, I was almost disappointed that the Chief even threw one punch. I was shocked how long it took those that were cheering to realize, "Oh, shit, he's gonna kill that guy." Then we lost our love-letter to New Orleans, noble old man who does no wrong, and can build a house from the ground up... and then the show got a lot more serious and a lot more complex and a lot... better.