My time here at BloggingNewOrleans has unfortunately been the shortest. I only joined the team and started blogging here back at the end of February. I've enjoyed my brief time writing here, and it's been nice to have this as an extra outlet in which to write about the city I love (even when it does drive me insane).
I'll still continue to write regularly at my own blog, MissMalaprop.com, and I will still try to feature local artists, designers and businesses whenever possible. (So if that describes you, feel free to get in touch and let me know about your work!) I've also got a monthly column at Antigravity Magazine, and locals can pick up a free copy when you're out and about -- out of towners and expatriates can always download a PDF copy of the magazine for free at the website.
I'm continuing to work with other area artists on building a thriving craft scene here, and to that extent much of my time over the next couple of months will be taken up by organizing a new holiday art & craft event on the Mississippi Coast at my mom's flea market. Dubbed Handmade Invasion, I'm hoping this event will help give many local artists an affordable new venue in which to sell and showcase their work, and hopefully it will give shoppers from all over the Gulf South a new alternative for their holiday shopping. I'll also still be working with the New Orleans Craft Mafia and the Louisiana Etsy Street Team to get the word out about local artists and crafters.
I'm said to see BloggingNewOrleans closing its doors (although really it just means no new posts, all the old posts will remain archived here forever). I have had the tendency to overextend myself over the past year or so though, so maybe it's good that I'll have one less project going on in my life. C'est la vie.
I hope you'll all keep in touch, and remember that there are plenty of other great bloggers all around NOLA. There's a fantastic (and huge!) list over at Think NOLA that I highly recommend checking out.
Well, I let you know about the sad news of our site's retirement last week I said I'd tell you more about the future and then... well I dropped off the face of the planet. Before I tell you about the future one last story... Tuesday afternoon(September 11th, ugh) the a rain the dusted the city was the final staw for the roof of the building my apartment is in and water started to pour (and I do me pour) into my bedroom. My poor extremely pregnant better half was home and managed to move the last of our future offspring's future out of the room before the ceiling started to come down around her. So now I'm in a bad situation with an apartment that needs to be emptied and a new one that needs to be found (and now you know why the podcast was late). I have some options and the help of our families is going to help a lot, but I had to cut off my blogging for the week and only just now could get to you... so on to the future... I think my future includes a break for blogging. I loved being able to post my thoughts on the state of the city in this space, but I think I need to take a step back. The tracking of some of the underbelly of the recovery can be really upsetting and I am finding the stress of the country looking at us as the ugly step-sisters of the nation extremely hard. Sometimes you just want to be a techwriter who fauns over the latest websites instead of dealing with hard realities of the recovery.
Maybe I'm just a little tired (as are many in the city). Maybe I'm just a little to angry. Maybe I just need a break.
Wow, that was a little depressing. On a high note, we must end. Thanks for reading my rants. Thanks for commenting on my podcasts. Thanks for sending in your ideas. Thanks for saying hey. Thanks for everything.
I loved covering Jazz Fest for you. I loved getting to know my city again for you. I loved getting politically angry for you. I loved posting for you.
Dirty Coast is one of the most recognizable local t-shirt companies around town. Infamous for their New Orleans inspired tees, such as "Be a New Orleanian. Wherever you are." and "Where's Nagin?", the company got started shortly before Katrina, but things really took off as displaced New Orleanians began snatching up these tshirts as a way of showing hometown pride.
Dirty Coast is hosting an End of Summer Party tonight at Tipitina's uptown. Rotary Downs and The Other Planets will be playing and doors open at 9pm. It's only 8 bucks to get in and sounds like it will be a lot of fun. (The Dirty Coast folks usually know how to throw a pretty good party.) Dirty Coast also recently opened their new retail location at 5704 Magazine Street. I haven't had a chance to drop by and check it out, as I'm rarely uptown these days, but I'll have to make a special visit soon.
Well, Matt let the sad news slip a little early and I don't want to leave you hanging (that's really unfair to all of our loyal readers), so let me start to explain and tell you about the next week. Very soon, your beloved Blogging New Orleans will be entering retirement. Each blogger here will be posting a final goodbye on September 14, 2007 (so stick around, we still have lots to say). We will continue to post normally in the coming days. We will continue to discuss with you our thoughts on happenings around the city until then. We will continue to tell you about politics and football and recovery over the next week (you could say this is a site fade of sorts).
Unfortunately AOL and Weblogs, Inc have decided to go in a new direction and are leaving the local blog market (you may remember the retirement a while back of our sister site Blogging Ohio). They will be leaving the site up after the retirement and after we finish posting next week. All of us at Blogging New Orleans would like to thank AOL and Weblogs, Inc for starting the site before the 2006 Jazz Fest and for helping it grow and develop into a full New Orleans site filled with locals who truly love and care for our Crescent City. Many of us will be scattering to other sites around the Weblogs, Inc network (be sure to check back for full details in each member of the Blogging New Orleans team's goodbye post) and will continue to blog about all sorts of stuff. Thanks again to all of you for reading our posts and commenting on our thoughts. You have made this all worth while.
Earlier this year I wrote up the outstanding webcomic A.D. (New Orleans After the Deluge). I wanted to give them another ping and say how great their story and their format is. You should definitely read the entire thing when you get the chance. The creators of the comic wrote up their Katrina-nniversary remembrance today and offered thanks to all who agreed to have their story told in this format. Just so you know, the story is not over yet and you can definitely get back into it via RSS and more. The comic also features some semi regular audio postings with interviews of the main characters and news about the current state of the recovery.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
Following this past weekend's local blogger conference, Rising Tide 2, many in the New Orleans Blogosphere went home with a need to post what they are thinking out the state of the recovery. I gathered a number of the memorial posts here in a linkdump. Please read each and pass around the links to your friends and relatives.
The Chicory has an open letter to the world asking everyone to remember us and continue to help First Draft has a remembrance of 2 years ago with pictures of the devastation of the city and a plea to never forget. B.Rox speaks of a lack of government and the current level of violence in the city of a still displaced population. Metroblogging gives his simple reasons why we are still here. New Orleans Habitat for Humanity has a run down of all the housing projects in the area and a reminder that we are still recovering. Shelley Midura posts to the DailyKos an extended version of her open letter to the President. Your Right Hand Thief has a round up his remembrances. N'awlins has a photo dump of the state of housing projects in New Orleans. Humid Haney wants to know where you were two years ago. About-neworleansla.com has a story of sadness for what looks to be a now former home. Daily Kingfish wants all the suffering to not be in vain and to force our governor's race to include our rebuilding. Squandered Heritage has a reminder of the TP's front page and a call to action. Suspect Device has an image of the state of recovery and a number of songs about Katrina. The Katrinacrat has a reminder of the failures of the federal government and a day long blogathon of their own.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
Although it seems like most of the rest of the country is more preoccupied with the scandals of our celebrity starlets, the New York Times has kept an ongoing, if quiet conversation with its readers about the devastation of New Orleans and the recovery efforts since the hurricane.
In honor of Hurricane Katrina's two year anniversary the Times is offering anyone who's interested a look at New Orleans now by parish. The site, located here, is interactive, which makes the reporting seem more "of the moment."
Some parishes have audio components and others have video rather than just words, words, words on a page. I hate to say it but anything in print (including these blogs!) barely scratches the surface of what is STILL going on in New Orleans as her fate hangs in the balance.
If nothing else, maybe a few folks who see this interactive feature will realize once and for all just how big Nola is, and that it's more than just the French Quarter.
Since I don't live in Nola I'm clearly no judge as to the accuracy of the reporting in the Times piece. Take a look and let me know what you think.
With a title like that, you would think this was a podcast, but alas I will not be uploading a podcast today. The Blogathon schedule and a baby prep class last night kept me from finishing the recording, so I'm delaying for a day or so. FYI, I recorded every lecture at the Rising Tide 2 conference and I hope to edit down my recordings to something cool. In the mean time, to tide you over til tomorrow I've gone through the old episodes of the podcast and picked out a couple of good one for you to head back to nostalgically.
Podcast 16 featured an interview with a friend of mine, Troy Grzych. Troy is a professional Graphic Designer who returned to the city right after the storm for his family, job and his wife's job (she is my hero, a teacher in Jefferson Parish at a Title 1 public school). The podcast is a real normal New Orleanian discusses why he came back.
Podcast 14 features an interview with MattVaughn Black and Robert Starnes. The interview includes music from the New Orleans BINGO! Show and joking around about the state of music and the recovery. Lots of cool stuff in this one.
Podcast 4 is one of my best interviews so far (and the first). I sat down with the President... of Basin Street Records and talked about Katrina's effect on the New Orleans music industry and listened to some of his label's music. Plus I got to hear the real story behind the music tent at Jazz Fest in 2006.
Well, enjoy all the old podcasts. If you would like to be interviewed on a podcast (and talk to me about New Orleans and more) feel free to contact me with the tips page on the right.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
Local literary lion Joshua Clark, publisher of French Quarter Fiction and author of recently released Heart Like Water, emailed Yours Truly and asked if I'd put up a link to his website http://www.hurricanekatrinanews.org So I went to check it out, and its motto of "everything you need and need to know is right here" seems pretty apt. At least, it's got everything you need and need to know about Katrina and New Orleans' recovery from it.
The site opens with "The Latest News," linking to numerous articles, including the infamous August 2007 National Geographic article which I hear - haven't read it as I've got enough depression in my life - pretty much states that New Orleans is a big waste in a dirty bowl and we should all move to Kansas. Or at least, that's how my sources have summed it up for me. But note: when I tried the link to the NG article on Clark's site, it came up as "File Not Found." Is my computer screening content for me? Keeping me from ugly depictions of our wonderful city?
At any rate, if you're under the age of two or have been under a rock for the last 24 months, the site also has basic Katrina information, such as the storm's path and timeline. This is also good for all you stoners out there, who've self-medicated so much since The Event that you might need a refresher on what the hell happened.
There's a bunch of other useful stuff on there, too, such as emergency phone numbers and links to resources, charities, and info. about our vanishing wetlands. The site's most intriguing section carries the title "Lessons Learned," which I doubt can be summed up with a few weblinks, but it's a good start.
NPR has devoted an entire page of their website to stories about Katrina and recovery. Clicking through yields links to radio stories and interviews with current, displaced, and former New Orleanians who tell their stories to the world in a way that cannot help but move a listener. I found out about their powerful coverage by listening to Morning Edition on the way into work over the last year, but Tuesday's interview with the Bordelons of Chalmette was almost to much for a drive into the office. The Bordelons' thick St. Bernard accent and hopeful enthusiasm will encourage everyone here that there is a light at the end of the recovery. They (as many of us do) walk out in the morning to a mostly empty street of homes in various states of repair and abandonment, but they go on.
Their hope is almost enough to help you get through the sadness of the stuck and suicidal working poor in the trailers of southern Mississippi. This story includes an explanation of the housing boom on our eastern neighbor's Gulf Coast and how it is trapping service industry and working poor in trailers and despair.
And this depression helps you understand why some are leaving New Orleans for good and why reporters wander our chaos in search of hope. Please pass on this NPR page to any who still need help understanding.
If you're reading this in a feed reader, then not right now, click through past the jump and watch the full episode right here. AOL Video is carrying the video online and has it set up for blogging purposes and since AOL is our parent, I figured I grab that puppy and paste it in this post for you to watch. Remember K-Ville was filmed on location in New Orleans and has quite a few locals as extras. Hopefully Fox will be giving this cop drama a chance instead of killing it way to soon, but I guess that's why the pilot is available online. Once you watch it, tell me what you think in the comments below.
Lolis Elie was interviewed by On The Media on NPR this past weekend and he had a lot to say about the national media coverage of Katrina. In part he thinks the story needs to be made important by a paper in order to become important to another paper or other media outlet. It the catch 22 of the main stream media, unless someone else is covering a story, I don't need to cover it. Luckily the Times Picayune (for all the faults some in the blogosphere have seen with it) has been able to stay consistent with its coverage of Katrina, rebuilding and New Orleans in such a way that the national media can only hope to hold a candle to them. In fact many members of the main stream media must turn to our local media 'elite' to get 'the rest of the story' as the locals know it. There is no other media group in the nation that is closer to a story right now than the New Orleans mass media. Gambit, the TP, and others are intertwined with the best ongoing national story since Edwin Edwards got into a runoff with an ex-grand wizard of the KKK. The rest of the interview going on the explain the difference between the percieved natural disaster and the actual federal flood. Very interesting stuff and definitely something to pass on to your contacts outside of the Katrina area to add to your argument for staying in a city that has the same right to exist that mudslide and blizzard prone Denver does and Earthquake filled San Francisco does and flood prone New York city does.
Throughout our recovery a number of people have started to find ways to rise up through the hardships of rebuilding and the sadness of devastation. Michael Dingler is doing this via a public art project he started last year that he is recording via his blog and Flickr. I found out about his project via my daily 'New Orleans' tag search on Flickr and an invite to our Blogging New Orleans Flickr pool (you too can join). He says he began this project as:
[An] idea [that] was spawned from two different ideas that I have opted to merge. The first was a photo I had taken last year of a building that was on the corner of Tchoupitoulas and Napoleon. Someone, presumably the owner or tenant, spray-painted "NOLA RISING" on the building. The photo ended up being great and has become a maxim of mine (if a thought behind an idea can imply the totality of a maxim). Second was a group of paintings that someone had strung up in the Marigny on a huge electrical pole.
Dingler started creating his own simple works of art and posting them in public places around the city. Each image is recorded and uploaded for the world to share and the slogan in all the pieces serves as a sort of 'New Orleans Power' fist. We are rising up and rebuilding and finding personal strength in our power. Now if this project could just spread around the country and the world a little... I would love to see a hand drawn NOLA Rising crayon written image on the steps of the Capitol or chalked into the streets of New York or attached to an electronic sign in Boston...
Brian Schwaner of the Louisiana News section of the Associated Press has written a long editorial that has been distributed across the world. The editorial carries a stern warning in the name of our recovering city. He says "People should pay attention. The next time, it could be your town." In other words, if you are in another of our historic cities or towns or anywhere in this strangely selfish (and yet not) country you should remember the saying, "But by the grace of Gawd, there go I." His article talks about the broken process of our recovery and how we feel the federal crunch. How we worry that the promised aid with not be the same as the delivered aid and how even two years later we are not anywhere near finished recovering. He writes about the anger of city sitting amongst abandoned buildings, fema trailers and Political Photo-Ops. He says what we are all thinking, "This could be you down here in the muck. Hope you never have something this bad happen to you."
Is this what the country and the world wants for our city, our state, our coast? Is this how they leave us? Or are we too close to this? Yes we are down in the dirt, but I think the real story here is how we have been forced to bring ourselves forward and to ignore the pain in order to survive. Sure the country should have been there for us and many have been, but we should not have expected to much from an executive branch that picked a guy to head FEMA with no experience and then refused to visit the most effected part of disaster area until over a week after the devastation. Maybe we are putting to much faith in a party who would rather listen to our phone calls then listen to our needs. Or are we just a cautionary tale?
For someone like me who reads news stories about New Orleans from around the world daily, it's going to be a long week. I've decided that in a move for self preservation, I'm only going to read every third article. This way I figure I'll cry two-thirds less when the world announces that we're a lost cause two years after Katrina. Here are some of the articles that I have found to be worth reading and only tear jerking if you are hopped up on pregnancy hormones:
Douglas Brinkley, author and New Orleans native writes, "If we want New Orleans to die, we should say so," for the Washington Post. It's a brief read and he addresses our bi-polar disorder, i.e. "Come on down! We are ready to serve your every need!" and "Send us money. We are dying here."
The other day I pulled off of I-10 onto North Claiborne and noted that the Church's Chicken was still closed yet there were billboards up for a new Mexican restaurant. In a neighborhood once full of African Americans, the first five faces I saw when I turned off the ramp were Hispanic. This happens a lot and reflects the changing population of the city. "The New Latin Quarter," discusses New Orleans' newest residents.
"We're Rebuilding what didn't work in New Orleans," by Chuck Sweeny told me that I'm not smart for returning and that my house is below sea level. I'd like to let Chuck know he's wrong on both counts. Where is Chuck from? Illinois. Again with the Mid-West! Seriously, do these folks have nothing better to do than to pour salt in our wounds? Seriously though, Chuck's right about one thing, repairing the levees to pre-K levels is not enough.
My time here at BloggingNewOrleans has unfortunately been the shortest. I only joined the team and started blogging here back at the end of February. I've enjoyed my brief time writing here, and it's been nice to have this as an extra outlet in which to write about the city I love (even when it does drive me insane).
Well, I let you know about the 
Earlier this year I 
With a title like that, you would think this was a podcast, but alas I will not be uploading a podcast today. The Blogathon schedule and a baby prep class last night kept me from finishing the recording, so I'm delaying for a day or so. FYI, I recorded every lecture at the Rising Tide 2 conference and I hope to edit down my recordings to something cool. In the mean time, to tide you over til tomorrow I've gone through the old episodes of the podcast and picked out a couple of good one for you to head back to nostalgically. 
Local literary lion Joshua Clark, publisher of French Quarter Fiction and author of recently released Heart Like Water, emailed Yours Truly and asked if I'd put up a link to his website 
NPR has devoted an entire page of their website to stories about Katrina and recovery. Clicking through yields links to radio stories and interviews with current, displaced, and former New Orleanians who tell their stories to the world in a way that cannot help but move a listener. I found out about their powerful coverage by listening to Morning Edition on the way into work over the last year, but Tuesday's interview with the 
If you're reading this in a feed reader, then not right now, click through past the jump and watch the full episode right here. 
Lolis Elie was interviewed by 
Throughout our recovery a number of people have started to find ways to rise up through the hardships of rebuilding and the sadness of devastation. Michael Dingler is doing this via a public art project he started last year that he is recording via 
Brian Schwaner of the Louisiana News section of the Associated Press has written a 
For someone like me who reads news stories about New Orleans from around the world daily, it's going to be a long week. I've decided that in a move for self preservation, I'm only going to read every third article. This way I figure I'll cry two-thirds less when the world announces that we're a lost cause two years after Katrina. Here are some of the articles that I have found to be worth reading and only tear jerking if you are hopped up on pregnancy hormones: 
