Hey Butchie. The less you have to say now, the less you have to take back.

"John from Cincinnati" is an odd piece of art. It would be an odd play in an experimental space in Southeast DC. It would be an odd book from Coover or Barth. It would be one of those exhibits at the Guggenheim or the Hirshhorn that couples sit in front of for a few minutes, shrug their shoulders, and then wander down to the gift shop to by a Calder mobile.


The fact that it is on HBO, and is the putative replacement for "The Sopranos," is breathtaking. This was a network that cancelled David Milch's "Deadwood" -- the brilliant, profane, heart-stopping Western with a small but rabid fan base -- and decided to let him run with a show about, well, let's see:

• surfing
• levitating
• God
• Ed O'Neill, the "Married with Children" Dad, taking instructions from a pet bird

• half the characters actors from "Deadwood" in supporting roles in a Southern California noir
• Rebecca De Mornay as a grandmother (I agree with James Wolcott that De Mornay is about the same age as her "Risky Business" paramour Tom Cruise, and if Cruise were in this show, he would never agree to be cast as the grandfather (I am not on-board with the rest of Wolcott's thoughts about "John from Cincinnati," but, as always, he is fun to read on the arts and politics even when I do not come to the same conclusions)
• coming back from the dead
• Luke Perry ("90210" in the house)
  
• the great LUIS GUZMAN, for about three minutes an episode. From PA Anderson and Steven Soderbergh to David Milch -- well played, Mr. Guzman.
  
• Willie Garson, Stanford from "Sex & the City," for a few minutes an episode
• Mexican wrestling
• illegal immigration
• drug addiction
• Vietnam vets with post-traumatic stress disorders
• oh, and a guy who might be an alien, or an apparition, or Jesus, or a charlatan

I can't even tell if the show is any good right now, though I suspect that it is turning into something magical. I haven't looked, but I can't imagine that many are watching. But it has David Milch's crazy genius at work, and for me, that's enough. He is working out his obsessions on a weekly series. It's part Tom Stoppard, part Thomas Pynchon, part James Joyce, and part the crazy guy who wanders up 19th Street NW on weekdays yelling angrily at the people lined up in 95-degree heat at the passport office who are waiting in vain for government documents allowing them to travel.

I'm not telling you to watch it. I don't want to have to defend how much I am enjoying it. But I'm going to hint that it is one hell of a fascinating mashup.

It's not tv. It's "John from Cincinnati."

(Oh, I will tell you to watch the opening credits. The Clash's great Joe Strummer sings "Johnny Appleseed" with his band The Mescaleros over the washed-out California images.)