A Night at the Wire 2007

HBO's The Wire is one of my favorite programs on television, and it's pretty cool that all production of the show take place in and around Baltimore. I was lucky last night to go to their final A Night at the Wire event thrown in support of the Ella Thompson Fund.
When we arrived, we had the chance to tour the soundstages for the fifth season shooting. We got to see the sets for the Western, City Hall and the Mayor's Office, and the new set for the Baltimore Sun news room. The props team showed us fake guns, drugs, and bodies, and in wardrobe, we looked at clothes for the Bunk, Brother Mouzone, and Marlo.
After the tour, we wandered around the silent auction items and grabbed some drinks. By far the coolest item up for sale was Omar's shank he used to castrate his would-be assassin from the last season. David Simon, the show's creator, clearly wanted this item, so I didn't have a chance in bidding.
The party was also really cool in that you could easily mingle with members of the cast. We got to see McNutty, Kima, Herc, Carver, Lester, Marlo, Snoop, Cutty, Rawls, Dukie, Rhonda, Levy. I talked to Clay Davis, Chris Partlow, and Landsman.
Clark Johnson, who was on Homicide and has directed a few Wire eps, was there as he has a role as the Baltimore Sun editor in the new season.
Some hints overheard about the new season were that Daniels will become Colonel, Sydnor is the last untouched and pure member of the unit by the end of the show, the Sun's Michael Olesker cameos, they shot some at the Washington Post recently, and Carcetti is going to make the run for Governor of Maryland.
The night ended with auctioning off of items like a speaking part on the show ($12K), Dinner with McNutty ($7K), Cookout with Kima and Bubs ($7K), Lester's doll furniture that Clarke Peters actually made, and an autographed box of Honey Nut Cheerios from Omar ($500). My friend, the Sunmonkey, got ticket to an O's game courtesy of Gov. O'Malley, right behind home plate. I hope he invites me.