Archive for the ‘About Town’ Category

I did a writeup over at Noteworthy, but wanted to highlight one particular photo from today’s parade that just killed me:

Somehow the blue tarp train just perfectly summed it up (and he was workin’ it, btw). Just as we’re past the last disaster, here we are again.

And yet, still together as a city, and still making the best of it. Still dancing, costuming, second lining. There are worse ways to cope, even as I’m sure it’ll be misinterpreted by some outside the city.

But so what? Screw that. If we give up our ability to laugh in the face of corruption, decay and governmental apathy, we’d all just have to go jump in the oil with the pelicans and have it done with. And honey, we ain’t nowhere near that yet- Satchmo Summerfest’s around the corner, and there’s always one more great event coming up after the last great thing to convince you that, screwed up or not, there ain’t no place like home, baby.

So when I heard that you could drop off hair, fur and nylon at (of all places) the Ritz Carlton, I was a little confused. It’s to help absorb the spilled oil in the Gulf, and while anything that helps is worthwhile, I couldn’t imagine how stuffing used pantyhose with cut up hair was going to help.

Here’s how, and it’s all pretty amazing:

Crossposted to NoteworthyInNola

Last week Rob was in town, and we were graciously invited to come down to One Eyed Jacks to watch him and Exodus (with GoatWhore opening. Really.). They’re out on the road with Megadeth but had an evening off and decided to make a pitstop in a more intimate venue.

A show that starts at 11:30 on a weeknight? Wow. That’s a rough night for the olds. But Rob had kindly scoped out a spot out of the fray, so Charlie and I took our Geritol and headed out, happy to see him regardless of the hour.

Backstage at the club was about what you’d expect:

Not exactly the lap of luxury, but they guys got in late afternoon and took off right after the show, so nobody really cared.

How was the show, you ask? Well, too loud for my poor camera, which in thrash metal= excellent:

The club’s small, but the audience was dedicated- still going strong at 1am on a Wednesday night. The band was impressed, but then again they hadn’t been through New Orleans since before Katrina, so I think the fans would’ve stayed all night, they were just so glad the band was here.

And with that ::poof:: they were gone, on the bus and outta there after signing a few autographs and packing up, hopefully to return soon on a longer, more social visit.

I was floored by the coverage of the last few weeks.

First off, I won’t even get into all the Manning worship because, annoying as it was, maybe it actually played in our favor:

The Colts won’t say this and Colts apologists won’t admit it, but I’m convinced the Colts believed their own pregame hype; that they were gifted this game. The arrogance started at the top of the organization with president Bill Polian blowing off media day and former coach Tony Dungy saying the Colts would win easily and all of that cocky chatter and behavior filtered all the way down to the bottom.

“I can’t say I saw this coming,” center Jeff Saturday said of the 31-17 loss.

Then he later added: “We had the team to beat.”

See what I mean. They had the team to beat? How?

Manning was caught up in such lunacy as well. Manning heard and believed too much of the talk that he would be anointed the greatest quarterback of all time if he won.
—
Then Manning said this when asked what the Saints defense did to slow the Indianapolis defense down.

“Their offense staying on the field kept us off the field,” Manning said.

It was a subtle shot at the Indianapolis defense. Subtle throwage under the busage, to me. In reality Manning did at times look greatly confused.

-Mike Freeman, CBSSports.com

But the Mannings are a real fixture here in the city- their clan’s stature as a whole took a hit here when Archie Manning said there wasn’t a single shred of himself that wished the Saints well. Okay, I get it- your boy’s playing, and you’re loyal to him. But add it to Peyton and his coach stalking off the field without shaking hands and it all seems very petty, affected, and spoiled.

Then again maybe it’s a part of an unforgiving culture that’s so much different from New Orleans that I just can’t comprehend it. Even when the Saints lost to one of the worst teams in the country thousands of fans met them at the airport to support them. Even if they’d lost the Superbowl 56-0 we would’ve been out there to welcome them back . The parade would’ve been a madhouse no matter what.

11 people met the Colts when they got back to Indiana. Eleven? Seriously? That’s… unconscionable, really. They played their hearts out, and did a hell of a job all season. Their fans clearly adored them before- they spent a crazy amount of time on the Saints’ fan boards talking trash about how weak we were… and then they just disappeared with nothing to say, and certainly no congratulations on offer.

Maybe it’s just because we’re used to losing- as a people we’re good at it. We know how to be gracious in defeat after years of practice and we know that sometimes it really is the thought that matters and the effort that counts.

When we went to see the fireworks, it was still in the 90s, and if you’d asked if I wanted to drag a tripod along I probably would have brained you with the thing. There was no way.

So, naturally, I ended up with more crappy photos of fireworks than good ones, but a few of them were kind of interesting, like this one.

Maybe this is some sort of bizarre Rorschach test, but I looked at this and thought, “Look, it’s sperm! Travelling up to the uterus, then swimming the wrong way with the egg floating above and behind!”

Okay, so maybe I’m glad no shrink’s going to analyze that one.

Alison’s had her friend Cathy down to visit for the last two weeks, and it’s been a study in contrasts.

Cathy’s a great kid, smart, funny, a little shy, and gorgeous to boot- but she’s definitely a Yankee. And I say this as a fellow Yankee who’s gotten herself into faux pas territory more than once. Intellectually, I knew they were like different species, but hadn’t given it much thought- until I had Alison, Olivia and Cathy all side by side. Every one a fantastic young woman, but wow- so different.

They still had a good time, schlepping all over the city in this miserable heat (which Cathy swore she loved because all they’ve had up north for months is chilly drizzle), even getting up to Baton Rouge for an LSU visit and out the Mississippi coast for a night.

The 4th was the night before she left, and we headed down to dinner at the Palace and the fireworks. Cathy’s a pretty brave eater, and she gamely tried every strange fried thing Alison put on her plate, loving pretty much all of it.

Other than cheesesteaks, there’s no native cuisine where she is, so it might be a little cultureshock when she gets back- although she did insist on a Crabby Jack’s stop to bring a couple of poboys home, though it wasn’t clear to me whether she intends to share with her parents or sneak them in to keep for herself.

And then it was off to the river to catch the fireworks, which usually I dread because of the crowds. For 4th of July we’ve got Essence Fest, for New Year’s fireworks we’ve got the Sugar Bowl, both of which make it ungodly crowded and unnavigable. I don’t know whether it was the concept of dealing with crowds in the heat or the economy keeping numbers of Fest goers down, it was surprisingly thin and nice down by the breezes of the Mississippi.

Then it was time for final fireworks of a different sort. The girls wanted to have a little grownup time, unsupervised on Bourbon Street. After Charlie reminded me that she’s got to learn to do these things, we bought them each one fruity drink of their choosing to take on their way, made them promise not to accept/attempt to buy any others, and set them loose, as long as they stayed directly on the police-heavy Bourbon Street and didn’t go wandering. And made sure they had cab money. And the cab’s phone number in their cell phones. And text me once an hour.

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly ‘setting them loose.’ How about ‘loose with training wheels and an airbag?’

From tonight’s Times-Pic updates:

Four streets in Kenner buckle in extreme heat
by The Times-Picayune
Monday June 22, 2009, 6:21 PM

Kenner officials said public works crews spent much of this afternoon racing to fix streets that buckled in extreme heat.

Temperatures at New Orleans International Airport hovered around 95 for much of the afternoon and were forecast to climb higher Tuesday.

Amid blistering sun, crews cut down buckled roadways at 39th Street and California Avenue, in the 4000 block of West Esplanade Avenue and at 3701 W. Loyola Ave., a City Hall statement said. On Sunday, they repaired an eruption in 2900 block of Palm Vista Drive.

Jerry Dillenkoffer, assistant director for public works, suggested that motorists drive slowly on unshaded concrete streets and report buckling by calling 911.