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Thank God the French got here first.Can you imagine what New Orleans might have been had the Pilgrims gotten off at Pilottown instead of Plymouth?

It’s frightening… We might have been burning witches instead of café brûlot; or preaching to the quadroon beauties instead of dancing with them; or spending eons eating boiled beef and potatoes, instead of Écrevisse Cardinal, or pompano en papillote, or gumbo.

But the French, ah the French! They came here full blown with life and love, not refugees. God-centered and narrow; but adventurers, gamblers, fat with a culture that made living a love affair of the senses, and secure in the knowledge that while sin was the work of the devil, its nearest occasions were the particular art of the French.

– Phil Johnson
News director, editorial writer
WWL-TV, New Orleans

I LOVE the Backstreet Cultural Museum. If you’re going to Jazzfest, make sure you drop by and say “hi.”

Here’s the info:

THE BACKSTREEET CULTURAL MUSEUM

AT

THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL

April 27-29 and May 4-6, 2007

New Orleans Fair Grounds’ Grandstand

West Wing – Ground Floor (same spot as last year)

EXHIBITS, WEEKEND ONE

Sylvester Francis
Big Chief Darryl Montana
Ashton T. Ramsey
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux

EXHIBITS, WEEKEND TWO

Sylvester Francis
Ronald W. Lewis
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes
Big Chief Victor Harris, Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors

A free program highlighting all of the appearances of the Mardi Gras Indians and social aid and pleasure clubs on stage and parading at the festival will be available at the exhibit.

Harry Shearer does a weekly news, commentary and satire show on NPR called Le Show. He broadcasts it out of New Orleans.

Harry’s been a volunteer for Levees.org and has been using his show to tell the truth about why New Orleans flooded catastrophically in 2005. It was Army Corps of Engineers fraud and malfeasance.

The April 15, 2007 show and today’s show April 22, 2007 devotes a lot of time to the issue. This public radio station makes it easy to download his shows: KCRW.com podcasts

OLE & NU STYLE FELLAS PARADE

APRIL 22, 2007 – 1 P.M.

Alpha: Mickey’s Playhouse (formerly Jackie & George’s), 919 N. Claiborne Ave. Proceed out N. Claiborne to Orleans Ave. Right on Orleans. Proceed on Orleans
Ave. to N. Broad St. Right on N. Broad.

Stop: Zulu S&P Club (732 N. Broad St). Continue out N. Broad to St. Bernard Ave. Right on St. Bernard to N. Galvez. Left on N. Galvez to Aubry.

Stop: Seal’s Class Act (2169 Aubry St.). Continue out Aubry to N. Miro St. Left onto St. Bernard Ave. Continue down St. Bernard Ave.

Stop: Sassy’s Next Stop. Continue out St. Bernard Ave. to N. Rampart. Right on N. Rampart to Barracks St. Right on Barracks.

Stop: Little People Place (Diamonte Ladies). Continue on Barracks to Treme St. Right onto Treme to Esplanade Ave. Out Esplanade to N. Roberson. Left on N.
Robertson. Continue on N. Robertson,

Stop: Candlelight Bar (Dumaine Street Gang). “We’re Almost Home! Continue out N. Robertson to Dumaine St. Right on Dumaine to N. Derbigny. Right on N.Derbigny to St. Phillip. Up St. Phillip to N. Claiborne. Right onto N. Claiborne.

Omega: Mickey’s Playhouse. We’re Home!

BIG CHIEF TYRONE CASBY AND THE MOHAWK HUNTERS

PRESENT THE WEST FEST INDIAN PARADE

SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2006 – 1 p.m.

Starting at L.B. Landry Blvd. and Ptolemy near L.B. Landry High School and taking a circular route.

Backstreet Cultural Museum
1116 St. Claude Ave.
NOLA 70116
504-522-4806

I confess. I missed Earth Day. Too preoccupied with personal matters.

I just came across this essay about Earth Day as seen through a New Orleans prism.

Click here for good reading from Cathartic Prose, another Hudson Valley based writer who visits and contributes to New Orleans rebuilding.

Interesting historic note:

Did you know that the Louisiana Purchase and the funding the invention of the steamboat, two things that made New Orleans possible, were both accomplished by the same person, a Hudson Valley resident named Robert R. Livingston, Jr?

His ancestral home is just two miles from where I live.

First, it was a rumor, then it became a “conspiracy theory,” now the story appears documented in State Farms own internal e-mails.

The insurer shopped around and then pressured engineers to get reports that would reduce their liabilities in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after the 2005 hurricanes and levee failures.

Some engineers were asked in writing to “change the wording” of their reports and local engineers were avoided as contractors altogether because they were deemed “too emotional.”

I imagine I’d be emotional too if one of the US’s biggest insurance companies which has collected billions of dollars in premiums over the years was engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast out of the money they’re entitled to to rebuild.

Here’s a case where I think capital punishment for the people involved - right up to the CEO - might be have a moral justification.

Details from the Washington Post

This year the Louisiana Weekly celebrates its 80th anniversary serving Louisiana’s African-American community

It’s one of the local papers I read to keep up with what’s going on in New Orleans and the state.

Louisiana Weekly

Great idea. A TV travel series devoted to the wonders of Post-Katrina New Orleans. It’s called “A Whole New Orleans.”

New Orleans still is one of the greatest cities in the world to visit and live in. Glad to see someone using the power of produced TV to tell the story.
Details: http://www.wholeneworleans.com

Good news…

Thanks to the public outcry, the New Orleans Police Department lowered the security charges for the Pigeon Town Steppters Social and Pleasure Club Easter Parade from $7,000+ to just $2,500.

Rosie Ledet rocks. If you have to put her in a category, she’s a Zydeco performer, but in terms of energy she feels like a female version of Prince or Jimi Hendrix - to me at least.

Here’s some video of a performance she gave at Mid-City Rock ‘n Bowl in New Orleans that I shot several months ago.