Good News/Bad News

Good: WYES is broadcasting over the air again

Bad: Fucking Antiques Roadshow is on.

Lib Chron 2005: So Much Loss

So I've been reading my own blog in the hope that there would be enough material there to put together one of those gay-ass-year-in-review thingies. This result is this exercise in metablogging in which I link only to my own posts. Conclusion: In 2005 things happened. Some of those things I wrote about grunted and linked to. In reading through this I notice that mostly what happened involved loss. Loss of things, loss of people, the near loss of the city of New Orleans. So here it is. For a compilation of items found in an inane semi-literate blog like this one it's surprisingly sad.

And I'll keep a light for 'em
Hold down the fort for 'em
And wear my maroon blazer
All the time
-Pollard

January

• 2005 began with the ceremonial dropping of the kitchen ceiling.


• We lost GBV! Of course Pollard is still recording and will even tour this year. At least I finally got to see that New Year's Eve show. It's out on DVD now.


• We lost Buddy D! People are blaming this year's Saints debacle on the hurricane. I think it has to do with too few folks praying to St. Buddy. God I miss that guy.


• We discovered that dogs love Mardi Gras. Ok maybe just some dogs.

February

• In the wake of our loss of Nick Saban, LSU's new football coach Les Miles scores a major recruiting coup. As far as I'm concerned he hasn't done a whole hell of a lot right since.


• We learned that, technically, dogs aren't even allowed to be at Mardi Gras.


• Shock of the century: I correctly predict the outcome of a sporting event.


• Shock of the century II: Daisy drinks Consuela under the table.


• Something involving red beans


• Testaverde plays the Circle Bar

March

• Work starts getting to me


• Testaverde appears in both Offbeat and Antigravity


• The portentous 2005 One Book One New Orleans selection Rising Tide gets its first mention. The book is later half reviewed by me.. and more completely by Oyster. Plus I go on the lam.

April

• Testaverde plays Howlin Wolf


• We lost Timshel! We're still lost without it.


• "Awful Book of the Morning" debuts.. and is quickly forgotten.


• The new pope turns out to be a Nazi... and is quickly forgotten.


• We lost Sam Mills!


• "Nicknames of the Dead" debuts. "Seaweed-Tiggy" will never be forgotten.


• Saints draft day: I ask for and as it turns out receive a great thrill. Maybe this will still pay off for us in the form of a few laughs in '06.


• My favorite book review of the year.


• We lost Uglesich's!

May

• NOPD does something right


• The broken shower/impaled crawfish incident.


• Your Right Hand Thief (pretty much the best New Orleans blog running) celebrates its first birthday.


• That Tulane monkey issue.


• "That mule"


• Times Select Blech!


• In another unfortunate portent, this year's Summer Reading Program was themed "Splish Splash Read." The kickoff party featured noted literacy advocate Aaron Brooks as well as my final pre-Katrina visit to the Ninth Ward.


• I review three books: Rising Tide (again) What's the Matter With Kansas and Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer. That last one still makes me smile. It also introduced the term "rammerjammer" into my vocabulary for use interchangeably with mobile home. For example, currently many New Orleans residents are still waiting for their FEMA rammerjammers.


• Deep throat revealed. Twenty years later the President is still a crook.

June

• This music-related meme caused me to overuse the word fuck. Is it really possible to overuse the word fuck?


• My favorite movie review of the year


• My favorite lame-ass quiz of the year


• Testaverde plays One Eyed Jack's


• More bad portents. Bush hates New Orleans. Plus the return of the ceiling issue brings us to Louisiana landlord-tennant law; an area of great import post-Katrina.


• The fan loyalty index. Attendance divided by victories. Still my favorite Saints statistic.


• Traffic court in New Orleans


• Cruel Summer


• "Pregnated"


• Iraq war becomes more costly than Korea


• We lost Tootie Montana!

July
I hardly posted a thing in July. What the hell was going on?

• I hint at the greatest story never to make it onto this blog. I got so tired of telling it to everyone that I didn't get around to writing it. Trust me, it was something.


• If you are between the ages of 25 and 40 you really should read Planet Simpson.


• Les Miles exhibits early symptoms of moronitude.

August

• Lukewarm reviews


• "Reducement"


• A disturbing encounter with the paper guy


• We may still lose the Catholic League!


• "Children's diversity"


• Strindberg and Helium

And then I believe there were some..um.. weather related issues. I had an out of town guest when Katrina was bearing down. It seemed like an excellent opporunity to demonstrate rather than explain the annual hurricane hysteria that comes with the culture here. I didn't want to leave. Last year I spent Ivan at Igor's and, had I been alone this year, would almost certainly have spent Katrina there as well. Like everyone, I thought the evacuation would last one night maybe two. I packed a few things and set out to ride the contraflow to I thought maybe Hattiesburg or somewhere. We all know that it didn't quite work out that way. I spent the next month in Nashville nervously staring at my computer in disbelief. Here is some of what I posted.

• First reaction: shock


• I remember Nagin predicting 6-12 feet of water on St Charles Ave. This would have flooded my apartment. I went to bed thinking I had lost everything.


• Horrified to find this photo of the MLK branch of the library in the Ninth Ward. It wasn't my branch but I did fill in there quite often and was very familiar with the building and the neighborhood. A few months earlier I had helped out at the Summer Reading Club kickoff there. In October I would return to MLK with FEMA representatives to survey the damage. How many words are there for heartbreaking?


• Skookses float

September

• We all became very familliar with satellite photos


• Flood Street


• Bush starts with his bullshit


• Pat Robertson becomes an early Katrina profiteer


• Nagin blows his top


• One of the scariest things about that first week was dealing with the uncertainty. I remember spending a lot of time scrambling to locate friends and then co-workers and then just anyone who might have been affected. I remember feeling genuinely comforted each time another person was listed as accounted for. This was true for people I knew, for some people everyone knew, and even the imaginary internet people I sometimes pretend to know.


• The imagery alone was overwhelming.


• Murph's musical charity drive. One of the better ideas to come out of this. A similar act of kindness from one of the imaginary internet people provided me with a Death Cab for Cutie record.


• September 3. I find the first photos of my neighborhood. I didn't flood. I think this was the first time I felt a sense of relief. The guilt is still there, however.


• Rehnquist dies


• Do you sometimes get the feeling that we're still waiting under the Evangeline Oak?


• One thing Katrina actually improved: The Times-Pic


• Stranded and bewildered in Nashville, I begin to lash out at my backward-ass surroundings.


• It must have been about this time that Tom Benson started getting into hyper-douchebaggery.


• Brown out


• As the battle for the soul of the city begins to take shape, I begin to question the Mayor's motives. This fight is not over.


• Restoration Ale


• America's team That worked out real well didn't it?


• Nightmares. I still wonder what kind of Mardi Gras we're in for this year.


• And then came Rita


• Library Thing


• Corps of Engineers goes into CYA mode


• The vicious attack of the "noble predators"


• Delay indicted

October

• If President Bush has taught us anything it is this: When the going gets tough the tough go on vacation. Taking this message to heart, I spent the last week of my evacuation in Baltimore where I was greeted by dignitaries and shown an unbelievably good time. Reading this now, though, I can see how homesick I really was by this point.


• The layoff. Ok I've kind of skirted around this issue up to this point. The library system staff was cut by an unbelievable 90 percent. In one of those remarkable twists of fate, I ended up as one of the 19 remaining staff members. For the first few weeks after returning to work I spent most of my time crawling through the muck of our flooded branches trying to salvage what materials we thought we could save as well as whatever personal items that displaced staff requested we retrieve for them. This process was one of the saddest (not to mention grossest) things I've ever experienced. Anyone who works in a library knows the kind of physical and cultural landmark a branch library can be to its neighborhood. Visiting the flooded branches really brought home for me the severity of the damage done to the communities they once served. Photos of the damaged branches are posted on the library's website. Believe me it was that bad and more so.


• Fridge art. There is a pretty cool book of abandoned fridge photos available in New Orleans. It is called Spoiled. Check it out if you get a chance.


• Cops behaving badly


• Skooks rescued!


• Butter shortage


• When Benson attacks


• Library reopens!

November

• FEMA opens a DRC at the library bringing Blackwater security into our lives.


• City unveils wireless network. It sort-of works.


• Lakeside Mall Holiday Display

December

• Rush Limbaugh returns to NO market and immediately says something stupid.


• New celebrity emerges in Illinois


• We lost Mary Hansen!


• Mardi Gras debate. Not over yet.


• Mission Accomplished?


• It's a second line in my neighborhood!


• Curfew (finally) rescinded


• Wiretapping


• Saints return... but for how long?

Epilogue
New Year's Eve finds me looking back at the saddest year of my life thinking mostly about how unbelievably lucky I have been. I still have my things, my job, my family. While several close friends were scattered across the country, I haven't lost anyone close to me. Karmatically I deserve to be immediately struck by lightning, eaten by an aligator and possibly crushed by Skylab.

Above all else this year has taught me just how important this city is to me and that I'd be so sad if I lost it. I spent Thursday afternoon tooling around town playing with my slick new camera. Most of the oak trees on St Charles are still standing. These trees were stripped so badly by Katrina's winds that they now throw only half the shade they once did. But if one looks closely it becomes evident that there are things that still refuse to blow away.

Happy New Year

It looks like we will get to see Matt Leinart play after all

Saints to play 2006 schedule in Louisiana

I mean, you know...

TS Zeta

City Gates

Welcome to New Orleans. Don't expect much help. Don't get out of line. And for God's sake do not brandish any kitchenware in public.

Thursday Debris Blogging

Late December and this traffic light at the corner of Napoleon and St Charles is still down.

Hidden State

C'est Moi

With Bush's defense of his wiretapping, the hidden state has stepped into the open. The deeper challenge Bush has thrown down, therefore, is whether the country wants to embrace the new form of government he is creating by executive fiat or to continue with the old constitutional form. He is now in effect saying, "Yes, I am above the law--I am the law, which is nothing more than what I and my hired lawyers say it is--and if you don't like it, I dare you to do something about it."

Casting Call

Script in progress: Tom Benson's Christmas Carol

with:

Arnold Fielkow as Bob Cratchit

Michael Lewis as Tiny Tim

Paul Tagliabue as Marley

Buddy D as The Ghost of Christmas Past

Aaron Brooks as The Ghost of Christmas (almost) Present

Jim Haslett's Contract Extension as The Ghost of Christmas Future

Ok this can get really stupid if given any serious thought. Ideas anyone?

Curfew may be ending

Just in time for New Year's Eve. Boy did 2005 ever suck!

More Rebirth Pics

Crappily uploaded for your pixelated pleasure.

Make Way For the Reebirth

I dunno... maybe we ought to have a Mardi Gras this year if this keeps up. Sunday afternoon, during the fourth quarter of the latest Saints debacle I happened to stick my head out of my front door to find a second line a comming down my street. Not an unusual occurance in my Central City neighborhood but thoroughly unexpected given the state of things. I have no idea what the occasion or sponsoring organization were. Doesn't matter because they had the Rebirth Brass Band. I grabbed my camera phone and a couple of beers and tagged along for a while with a huge crowd as we made our way down Washington Avenue to Annunciation Street. The mood was joyful and somewhat purposeful (several times a fun if uncreative chant of "Fuck Bush" broke out in time to the music). People danced in the street, on porches, on top of paperboxes, even on the wall of the Lafayette Cemetery. (dancing on graves?) The procession stopped for a break at Laurel and Pleasant where I decided to separate and make my way back home. I didn't see any pictures of this in yesterday's paper. Here is what my crappy phone saw.
Note: Images obviously screwy. Sorry about that. I've tried numerous things but can't do any better than this for now. Or you can just click to enlarge.

Mayor backs scheme to bulldoze neighborhoods

In this case "letting the residents decide" means, we'll allow you to come back, but we won't support you, won't do anything to encourage services and investment in the area, and then after a year of neglecting you, come back and force you out on the grounds that your neighborhood didn't fully recover. It's like Tom Benson aruguing that he is justified in leaving New Orleans based on the Baton Rouge attendance numbers.

Encouraging rhetoric

Still not near enough money.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush will request $1.5 billion more to help rebuild the levee system in New Orleans, Donald Powell, the top federal official for reconstruction, announced Thursday.

Update: Here's why
And again:See here
Once more:And here

Rose is Wrong

I'm starting to come down on the "let's not have Mardi Gras" side of this argument... not because I'm worried about "sending the wrong message" or any such bullshit but because of reasons which I tried to outline in a comment to this metblog post but still don't have time to elaborate on until I get some actual time to write.

Post-K Data

The Brookings Institute has released "the first in a series of monthly snapshots" of the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans which will track the progress of selected economic and social indicators as the city attempts to get back on its feet. The full report is available in PDF format from the site accessed by the above link. A summary and snazzy graphic were provided to the New York Times here. Note in the graphic that 58% of public libraries are open in the metro area. At NOPL, we are only operating Main and two branches with extremely limited hours and services. The report concludes that the city is still in a "state of emergency." At the library, we couldn't agree more.

"No shortcuts to quality"

As a child, I first learned to handle standing in a long line with grace by reading that slogan as well as the assorted news clippings and pieces of memorobilia on the walls at Hansen's Sno-Bliz. How many more of these pricesless pieces of New Orleans culture can we stand to lose? I am very relieved to see that they're keeping the shop open. Seeing this story this morning, reminded me that the final T-P Laigniappe section before the storm included an piece on where to find the best snoballs in New Orleans. I remember finding the very idea of a debate over this issue to be laughable at best. Nothing ever came close to Hansen's.

Shifting, weeding, collection development

Going on in the links here. Still no time to finish the project in one day.

Bell South Sucks

Hours after New Orleans officials announced Tuesday that they would deploy a city-owned, wireless Internet network in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, regional phone giant BellSouth Corp. withdrew an offer to donate one of its damaged buildings that would have housed new police headquarters, city officials said yesterday.

link


I don't know what they're upset about seeing as how 1) State law requires the city's connection speed to suck and 2) No one who has tried to connect from the library has any evidence that the thing even works.

Jump out boys

Reason number two hundred million not to stick around during a storm: You may be suddenly abducted by soldiers and forcibly shipped to Utah while your dog gives futile chase behind the truck.

Many, including Timmons, resent that they didn't have a say in where they were sent.

"I didn't choose this at all," said Timmons, 57, who lost everything when his home in eastern New Orleans flooded. "I was forced to evacuate."

A day after the storm, Timmons said, he waded to a friend's home on Prentiss Avenue near Old Spanish Trail, where it was dry.

He ventured out daily to make sure his mother's house was secure. Petey, the family dog, would follow. A week after the storm, he was on one of his walks, Timmons said, when an Army National Guard truck pulled alongside him.

Two soldiers jumped out and told him he would have to come with them. Timmons said he refused. The soldiers forced him onto the truck and made him leave Petey behind.

"It was almost to the point that I was in tears," Timmons said. "My dog ran for miles behind me and then stopped."

The truck didn't stop until it reached the airport, Timmons said.

Inside the terminal, Timmons said he and other evacuees were poked and prodded along like cattle, an experience that further clouded his mood. "You didn't feel like a person," he said.

News that they were being flown to Utah was the final blow.

Must have been a slow news day

But then what day isn't in De Kalb, Ill?

More on the Blackwater dudes

From Loki

Glad somebody said it

I was going to post a "shame on wwl for putting this bloviating crap bag back on the air" rant but Dave Walker's column handles the issue nicely.

The point of Limbaugh reading the story: To discredit the liberal media who would concoct such a horror story to discredit the swell job George Bush's FEMA did -- and is still doing -- to save the city.

All of which begs the question: After aggregating an enormous cache of goodwill among local listeners for the past three months, has WWL blown it by reinstalling a distant and obviously misinformed syndicated star?

And what of the national impact of such just-plain-wrongness, uttered by an icon whose fans consume his pronouncements as gospel?

link

Still no help from Cox

Won't be back to heavy posting until I get internets at home. By the way, is anyone able to connect to the city's downtown free wireless network? Library staff and patrons have been unsuccessful after a week's experimentation.

Blaming the victim

The feds continue to treat our people like utter garbage.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency pulled all its workers out of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward yesterday after threats of violence and planned to request additional police or National Guard support, a FEMA spokeswoman said.

I don't have a lot of time to comment. But suffice to say any threats against FEMA staff be they real or percieved have been provoked by their treatment of disaster victims in New Orleans. I have seen this first hand. At the library, FEMA has set up a disaster recovery center where they process aid applications from the public. Now I've never been much of a customer service whiz but even I know that if you make people who have just lost their houses or their loved ones or more stand in a long line to be funneled through a metal detector and frisked by Blackwater Security and generally treated like criminals from the minute they enter the building then you might expect that they won't take it so graciously when you tell them that you can't help them because they neglected to rescue a birth certificate from their flooded attic. But here we are with our neighborhoods being more or less treated like Fallujah... except without the billions of dollars of federal rebuilding funds.