The discourse

The easiest way to shut down dissent is to fixate on the "the discourse" as the real victim. Historically speaking, though, "the discourse" is almost always a stand-in for an oppressive establishment.

To maintain its potency, vulgarity should certainly be the exception rather than the rule. And there will always be Jacobin and its kin for the more genteel set. But there are certain people to whom one must be mean, certain circumstances in which one must be crude. A politically effective propriety means knowing when to use one’s manners, and when to tell an ostrich-themed dick joke.

And of course, vulgarity isn’t inherently subversive. Even when politicized its effects are often mild and mostly cathartic. When anonymous Twitter trolls deluge establishment journalists with bon mots like “I will eat your ass like McRib,” it may not be particularly revolutionary. But it is not at all unprecedented; it’s not even particularly shocking if you know a little history.

The left will always need its journals and polemic and academic writing, but there are times when it is both right and proper to terrify the bourgeoisie with your own feralness. Reclaiming vulgarity from the Trumps of the world is imperative because if we do not embrace the profane now and again, we will find ourselves handicapped by our own civility. Vulgarity is the language of the people, and so it should be among the grammars of the left, just as it has been historically, to wield righteously against the corrupt and the powerful. We cannot cede vulgarity to the vulgarians; collegial intellectuals will always be niche, but class war need not be.

 Furthermore, the hacks who fetishize "discourse" are well aware of what they are up to. Fuck them.

Bundy Ranch Bywater

It's always Portlandia over in the downriver destination neighborhoods.

Squatters espousing allegiance to an esoteric black nationalist movement have staked a claim to a Bywater house up for sale and remain there more than a week after neighbors complained to police about the apparent trespassing.

The newcomers have posted signs claiming the property now belongs to the Washitah Mu'ur Nation. The Washitah, more commonly spelled Washitaw, are an obscure group that claim to be descended from the original inhabitants of the New World, who, according to the the group, were black Africans.

Fredrick Hines, whose name is on the tax rolls for the property and whom neighbors say is the true owner, called police after he found out a group of young people had moved into his investment property and changed the locks. Hines said he showed police the deed, which has his name on it, but they wouldn't remove the people living in the house.

Or maybe it's more like the occupied ranger station. Either way it's somewhere in Oregon,  I think we're all agreed.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has drawn parallels between the Washitaws' strange legal claims and those of the "sovereign citizen" movement, noting a similar anti-government bent. The group probably only has a few hundred hardcore members, according to the center, but many more dabble in its "cocktail of New Age vocabulary" and "pseudo-historical and -archeological gobbledygook."

Hippies or libertarian gun nuts, who the hell even knows the difference anymore. It's all pretty much the same delusion in the hipper realms anyway. Besides, aren't all these people supposed to be into the "sharing economy" anyway?  Or does that only come into play when housing stock is "shared" to the benefit of landlords operating outside of the law rather than tenants who do so?

Where's my Yellow Blog today?

Sorry. I'm busy promoting and stuff.

Back later. Stay resilient.

Nostalgia

1984. New Orleans. Warehouse District.

Twenty-five international exhibits introduced thousands to sushi (at the Japanese Pavilion) or an IMAX theater (the Canadian Pavilion). A 10-car monorail circulated overhead. A walk-though “Kid Wash” did for overheated humans what automated car washes do for cars.

There were nightly fireworks shows and dozens of places to eat and drink, with regular music-inspired silliness like the recurring mass “chicken dance” at a German beer garden.

Kinda pricey, though.

2015. New Orleans. Warehouse District.

As patios and outdoor dining areas proliferate across the downtown restaurant and bar scene, a new project taking shape will bring an indoor beer garden to the Warehouse District later this summer.

Tchoupitoulas Beer Garden is scheduled to open in mid-August at 840 Tchoupitoulas St. as a year-round, Oktoberfest-inspired drinking hall, with 22-ounce steins, brats and bar games among other features.

The address was previously the wine bar and restaurant Bouche, and the same owner, Joseph Logreco, is behind the new venture. But Tchoupitoulas Beer Garden is shaping up as a much different concept.

Modeled after traditional German beer gardens — though in this case under a roof — it will spread across some 4,400 square feet of brick-lined space, trimmed with Bavarian banners and awnings. There will be a pair of beer bars, a kitchen serving sausage, pretzels and other traditional German street food and seating at the sort of long, narrow picnic tables common to beer gardens.

I'm sure it won't be cheap either.  But you can pay in "tokens" for.. some reason.  Only thing missing is a monorail.  

QOTD part 2

TEDx gave us more than a few of these today. But since this one has been getting attention..

"Government post-Katrina has been a disruptive force for good. Yeah, I said it." Andy Kopp… http://t.co/kQtdil7fsF pic.twitter.com/71xhuwbJOi

— Chris Boyd (@chrisboyddotnet) June 9, 2015

That's some funny stuff. I put up these two tl;dr posts last week to try and make the point that local government post-Katrina has pretty much been the same "force for" increasing the wealth and power of the already wealthy and powerful that it always was.  All the Katrina event did was remove some of the obstacles.

We're just a week into the Summer of "Katrina 10."  They're going to keep congratulating themselves so get used to it.

QOTD

This is such the perfect distillation of its several elements that we really should just print and frame it. Hang it from the top of our most iconic structure and let it stand as a testament to the ages about the things that happened here.

"In the gumbo that was the rebuild of New Orleans, we knew that we were the roux" - Rod West, @Entergy #TEDxNewOrleans

— Katrina 10 (@Katrina10) June 9, 2015

Have a great day

"Taylorism within"

People pretty much sign up to be put in cages.

With all this biofeedback now available on our phones, the act of walking, living and breathing can—at least to the “datasexuals” who embrace it—be an ongoing project with limitless potential for improvement. But might such potential also lead to a kind of “Taylorism within”? Applying scientific management to twentieth century business created a workforce optimized for maximum efficiency. Likewise, life-tracking is encouraging us to internalize this dream by optimizing ourselves. Rather than a tool for liberation, we’re using the tech, in other words, to tune our lives for maximum “productivity.”

Perhaps none of this should seem surprising for a consumer society that drives on anxiety. If bad breath had to be invented as a disease mouthwash would help to cure a century ago, now the Quantified Self movement suggests we must live in permanent beta, to aim not just at maintaining ourselves but to become “better than well.” And so, Dave Allen’s Getting Things Done and websites like Lifehacker help to turn our lives into a series of sanctioned tasks and goals, where one must carry a “Surprise Journal” to find areas for self-improvement in one’s life, and sleep comes in the form of “power” naps.

Compete! Compete with your friends, compete with yourself.  Tell yourself you're becoming "better than well" if you must. But this is really all about becoming a more perfectly actualized consumer and a more easily manipulated and intimidated subject. 

We’re living in an entrepreneurial model of humanity, a vision of human beings as start-ups, where unfitness or obesity are viewed as “bugs” to be fixed rather than as products of an economy based on long hours and precarious work. Daily exercise has always been an individual responsibility, but sharing our biofeedback via social media encourages people to compete like businesses, vying for better health scores with the personal data that makes us special. (Flex boasts that it reflects “your stats, not any average Joe’s.”) Here we can all be Superman—“Join over 141,000 other people who want to discover their inner superhero,” urges website Superheroyou—while, back in the complex, unquantifiable real world, we often struggle to maintain control over the most basic facts of our finances and job prospects.

And people are agreeing to participate in this.

Blank slated

Despite the best efforts of realtors, transplants and various entrepreneurial arrivistes to re-define it to their liking,  Post-Katrina New Orleans is not a blank slate.  Although this Gambit blurb seems to celebrate that idea a little.

I guess we're slowly renaming our wards and faubourgs New York-style. New York has TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal Street), SoHo (South of Houston Street) and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). By that metric, I live in Mid-City in "CanCarr" (Canal/Carrollton), which is a term I just made up. Or maybe it's the "Jeff Bank" (Jefferson Davis and Banks). Or maybe it's "Finn's Kitchen."

Have you heard of "LoRo" or "Low Road"? And what's your New York-ish neighborhood abbreviation?

"Oooh what's your contribution to this exciting game?" that last line seems to ask.  Maybe we really are just giving up and letting the "stargazers" or whatever have it.  Their city now, I guess. 

The owners of Booty's Street Food in Bywater will open a new restaurant in downtown's South Market District next year, the latest in a string of future tenants that developers have unveiled in recent months.

The restaurant, Ursa Major, will explore international small-plates and craft cocktails "but from a stargazer's perspective," said co-owner Kevin Farrell, in a news release on Tuesday.

No, of course that can't possibly mean anything.  If you think it means something, you're part of the problem. 

But whatever. I'll play the stupid Turn New Orleans into New York game too if I must.  Pretty sure I live in SoFAB now. I know because my rent went up this month.  Somebody's going to have to go adjust the signage, though.

Emeril kicks the THANKS OBAMA up a notch

Not much else to say but, derp.

Serpassed

See usually these kinds of things are announced on Monday morning so as to minimize their impact on the news cycle... wait.. that's not right.  Are we sure this didn't actually happen two days ago and is only being publicly disclosed today?

Anyway, wow!

Ronal Serpas is out as police chief in New Orleans.

After four often-rocky years on the job, Serpas will announce his retirement as New Orleans police superintendent at a news conference today, according to a source with knowledge of his plans.
What Serpas plans to do next is unclear.

Lt. Michael Harrison, police commander of the 7th District, will serve as interim NOPD superintendent.
The announcement was sudden, but shouts for Serpas’ resignation punctuated much of his tenure. The loudest came from police officer groups embittered about several issues, including reforms to the off-duty detail system and a stiff disciplinary regime that led to the termination of scores of cops on grounds that many viewed as specious or arbitrary. Serpas, the chorus went, never had their backs.

As recently as last week, newly elected City Councilman Jason Williams suggested in a little-noticed web broadcast last week that at least five members of the council were prepared to terminate Serpas — a power bestowed by the city charter but never before exercised.

Recently elected At-Large Councilman Williams is turning out to be an interesting fellow so far.  Put a pin in that for now, though.

The bad news is, now it's likely some of these goofballs will claim credit.

Demonstrators marched two miles Sunday from the Marigny to the Saint Claude neighborhood to protest Ferguson, Mo., police shooting of Michael Brown Aug. 9.

Nearly 60 people participated in the protest that began at Washington Square Park on Frenchmen Street and ended at the New Orleans Police Department's Fifth District headquarters, nearly two miles away at North Robertson Street and North Claiborne Avenue.

The New Orleans Anarchist Bookfair organized the protest on Facebook, though no one at the protest claimed responsibility for setting it up or being a member of the Bookfair.

The first rule of Bookfair is don't talk about Bookfair.

Often the worst actors in any situation like Ferguson are the clueless white kids in other cities out for what amounts to public masturbation. I hope they had fun storming the castle.

Anyway, if you'd like to discuss any of this with the mayor, he will be available tonight at the first community budget hearing.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu kicks off his annual tour of New Orleans' City Council districts Monday, fielding questions and concerns from residents and business owners before crafting his public spending plans for 2015.

The meetings mark the first public steps in weeks-long number-crunching that must end with the council approving the city's annual budget before the end of the year.

His first stop is in District C, the city's most diverse district and marred by a rash of high-profile violence, including a deadly shooting spree on Bourbon Street and a police officer firing on and striking a suspect in Algiers during a traffic stop. Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey has hosted several town-hall style hearings on public safety, but she did not immediately return messages left with her and her staff Monday (Aug. 18) asking for details on her priorities for 2015.

If you're driving over there this evening, the good news is there very probably will not be a sobriety checkpoint in effect. So BYOB.  

Over Them Mountains

Wow. Great Super Bowl Sunday, right?  Hope you guys enjoyed that. I know we did.  We didn't really enjoy the Seahawks and Broncos all that much.  The fact that it was a remarkable "Whoopin'" was a more spot-on representation of 80s nostalgia than that one Radio Shack commercial was.  But the fact that the Seahawks were the winners made this a terrible thing to have watched.
 
Of course the Broncos winning would not have been much better.  And we knew this going in which is one reason we decided to use the occasion to settle a question once posed by a creepy old dude in a movie. 




Here's what we came up with.



That is the Vibrio Vulnificus Football Club. Assembled for a Super Bowl Sunday match to end all football matches.  Seriously, after this it was expected that people would no longer want to look at or play football ever again.

Or to put it another way, Varg and I and some other people put together a semi-serious flag football team mostly for drinking purposes. Despite the fact our team's average age sits in the upper 30s, we have, in true "Millennial" fashion, made it a point to film most of it. Varg has collected most of that work here. But don't watch that stuff. It's mostly like the above but worse.



Anyway here's what this exercise has taught us.  Football can be broken down into 4 basic elements. Those elements are.

1) Wardrobe

Few spur-of-the-moment sandlot teams have been this well outfitted. Our numbers had glitter on them and yet were still more tasteful than whatever that neon green pants stripe thing the Seahawks wear is.

@VargVargas @skooks luckily I don't iron too well when I am drunk. Also I am a crafting genius. All fixed. pic.twitter.com/UswnMacxcy
— Larry Welt (@larrywelter) January 28, 2014

BEEFTANK. For the uninitiated, it is an homage to the hero of Jon Bois's award-worthy "Breaking Madden" series of SB Nation articles from this season. Here, become initiated in that if you have not.

In case you don't feel like reading through all the video game stuff, I have to at least pull BEEFTANK's personal bio from that article for you.

Born in 1937. Parents were a rhinoceros, a Sherman oak, a wheelbarrow full of graphite, a ray of light that shone through the clouds, a fulfilled prophecy, a buried time capsule full of set-and-baited mouse traps, and a real big ol' dude.

Was encouraged to play football at age 10, when he chanced upon a mannequin at the clothing store wearing a shirt with the words "FOOTBALL GAME" and a drawing of a football on the front. He talked to it for hours, and it never told him he was too round for this world or that he shouldn't eat the plastic bologna rings.

Played college football at DeVry, where he studied poetry. He finished with a GPA of reddish-gray.

Dislikes taking the subway, not because of any particular phobia, but because whenever the car stops and nobody gets off, he feels terrible for the train operator.

Refers to liquids in plural, i.e., a glass of milk is "a glass of some milks."

Mutter-sings.

 2) Videography.

We engaged in an embarrassing amount of this.  Our work ran a gamut of themed promos, individual interviews, practice highlights, and this one Louisiana political conspiracy theory thing.



3) Pints

As in of draft beer consumed after practices and also after (as well as during) the game itself.

4) Something called "Hawt"



For the record, independent observers were unable confirm if there was any Hawt on the field Sunday.




But surely there must have been something out there lending an edge. Maybe it was the oysters.



Whatever it was it enabled the Vibrios to pull off a fairly impressive 42-21 win over the Jimmy Graham Crackers and hoist the first ever Stupor Bowl trophy.



Ironically no video exists of the actual game itself.  At least not any that I shot.  I did manage to put together some footage of things going on just before and after the game and set that to somewhat appropriate music.



Presently it is the intention of the Hungover Football League to continue accepting challengers so long as the weather stays nice and people still want to play.  Anything beyond that will depend on how big the TV contract is next year.

The "show about New Orleans for New Orleanians" that isn't actually for New Orleanians

Some of you, for whatever reason, may still actually think about the show Treme from time to time.  It's almost over now.  This means people will be slightly more likely to talk about it for a while.

Here's a short post by Brian Moore which touches on the, by now, familiar criticisms of the show; its slow pacing, its lack of a compelling narrative arc, its overwrought NOLAier-than-thou scenesterism. But this passage, I think, contains the most important point.

The final line of defense is it’s a show about New Orleans, for New Orleanians. There are all sorts of problems with that – since when is parochialism a virtue? – but based on the anecdotal evidence I see on New Orleans social media, it’s my guess Treme‘s not as popular in The Big Easy as some assume it to be. Stack it up against a Saints game and its local ratings would plummet to zero. Around 29 million households in the United States pay for HBO; with disposable income being limited in New Orleans and with all the complaints about a local “digital divide,” here’s doubting many of them are clustered in Orleans Parish. If the show is Simon’s gift to the city, then there’s a certain lack of gratitude.

Treme is not a show "for New Orleanians." It is a show for a very specific upper middle class slice of premium cable subscribers who harbor a romanticized fetish for non-threateningly exotic American vacation spots. 

Anyway Moore's post sparked a long-ish Twitter discussion the other day which caused me to go back and dig up my review of the pilot.  When I posted that a bunch of pissed off people told me to "trust the storyteller" and give the genius time to unravel his narrative or whatever.  But looking back, there's nothing in that post that isn't still true today. 

At least Benson didn't decide to call them the Tomcats

I might have gone for this idea, though.

The primarily teal color scheme of the past has been replaced by dark blue, gold and red.

While the team said the gold represents the team’s ties with the Saints, Tom O’Grady, president of Game Plan Creative, a Chicago-based branding and marketing agency, said he was surprised that black wasn’t chosen instead.

“The Saints look so good in all-black,” O’Grady said. “You would have had the look they do in Pittsburgh with the Pirates, Penguins and Steelers. That would have been a real home run.

 I'm sure O'Grady meant to say, "That would have been a real slam dunk," but the point is still a good one. Don't these ad wizzards know anything about how to brand a city?

Oh.. apparently not.

New Orleans Will Need You

You are New Orleans, and you can make a difference. It’s as simple as staying informed and supporting tourism. Spread the word to your neighbors and be welcoming to all our visitors. They bring gifts.

Last year, during Mardi Gras a tourist brought me the gift of pee on my doorstep.  I tried to spread the word to my neighbors. Not sure it helped. 

Update: I noticed the chatter about this "NEW ORLEANS WILL" campaign yesterday but didn't see this FOX 8 report on it until this afternoon.

Local tourism industry leaders' five-year goal is to increase the number of tourists from 9 million to 14 million people a year. But Schulz says the $13.5 million budget isn't enough to market the city and reach that mark.

In comparison, she says it's $4 million less than Denver's marketing budget, $6 million less than Atlanta's, and $25 million less than Orlando's.

She says one way to get more money is by having local hotels sign up to pay a new voluntary assessment fee.

"That will allow the hotels to assess a fee, and for that fee to go into marketing for the city of New Orleans," Schulz said.

They hope local support will encourage the businesses to sign up and to persuade politicians to increase funding in the future.

In other words, the NOCVB has hired a marketing firm to agitate for a revival of last year's "Ho-Zone" special taxing district to provide them with... more marketing money.  In the meantime, they're just dipping into the public money they already have far too much of while the city budget can barely afford "C" and "I" anymore.

I was just talking to someone who says this is "kind of like a NOLA 4 Life campaign but for tourism."    Could be. But I figure as long as they're spending tax money I might as well get some free swag out of it.  I signed up to receive a "WILL POWER Pak Business Kit" from their website. It includes posters and a lapel pin and many more bumper stickers than the number of cars I own.  I hope it arrives before the next major convention.

I was told there would be exploding pie

Oyster reminds us that this website turns 10 years old this month.  

I don't really keep up with Jeffrey's stuff anymore. I sort of lost interest since he moved away from play-by-plays of hijinks at our local biblioteques. Those were hilarious. I will say, though, that I recently spoke with a woman on the street and she swore that Library Chronicles was the premier "must read" blog in New Orleans. I laughed— but she seemed serious, despite being a little tipsy. Then she violently thrust an empty Cisco wine bottle into what appeared to be a fat garbage can. So who knows?

Who the hell knows what this blog is actually about? It's called "Library Chronicles" but it's hardly ever about libraries.  I just happened to be in one on the day I created it. It's just as often referred to as Yellow Blog. I probably should have called it that.  I started writing it at a time when blogs weren't expected to have dedicated subjects. I was reading some left-leaning national bloggers at the time (particularly Atrios and Tom Tomorrow and Josh Marshall) and so I'd say the general style and direction followed that model.. although the content did not always do that.

If it has subject areas worth mentioning beyond just the regular day to day news and socialism, they would be Saints football,  Mardi Gras parades, and the occasional recipe. 

For a while it was mostly about me (and Daisy) horsing around at work while learning how to do what would eventually come to be called "social media" long before it was actually called that.  Then, thanks in large part to people like "Ricky Prado" and "Oyster" and Michael it became a way for me to have some company in "yelling back at the TV" a little regarding the perpetually sorry state of local and national public affairs.

And then there was Katrina and everything after. Suddenly a whole lot more New Orleanians had ample cause to yell back at the TV too. The NOLA blogosphere reached a critical mass of diverse voices such that it became a network (again, still before "social networking" was a thing) for New Orleanians to build a narrative of the city's recovery outside of the traditional media and political hierarchy.

Did that matter?  I think it did. Different people will offer you different perspectives and examples as to where it mattered most.  Fundamentally what it did was inject the rabble directly into the process of describing what was happening to them. People like to accuse New Orleanians of civic apathy. I think this is a gross mischaracterization.  New Orleanians love to talk about New Orleans. They are fiercely opinionated about it. They are naturally irreverent and subversive and not at all afraid to act on those tendencies.

This is for the better and sometimes for the worse, of course. I'm no internet triumphalist and I've never been one to argue that post-Katrina New Orleans should be considered any sort of grand success story... or really a "success" at all.  (The football team is better, I guess.)  But I do think the interactive media dynamic causes things to happen differently than they otherwise would. Also, I think there's still time to do some good things.

Personally, I can say doing this has plugged me in to some of the things and people who make the city work in ways that nothing else could have. I've learned a great deal.  Mostly what I've learned is how many more smart and talented people are out there than my grumpy post-adolescent self would have imagined ten years ago.

Many of these people happen to also be assholes, of course, but that's fine with me too. In fact, Things You Can Learn From An Asshole might be the most descriptive title for this blog.  For now, though, we'll just have to make do with what we've done. And try not to be too ashamed.

Just blatantly trolling

I'm pretty sure Duncan is just fishing for reactions here so I'm already sorry for biting. But this whole statement beginning with simply, "Listening to (Cowherd)"is just a failure to be human.

Listening to @ESPN_Colin debunking the prevailing myth that college athletes should be & need to be paid. Great, great stuff. And spot on.
— Jeff Duncan (@JeffDuncan_) August 28, 2013

South_Park_Compares_Student_Athletes_to_Slaves by temankilla12

That Furnace Faced Letten vs Smarmy Punk O'Keefe video we've been waiting for

Fight fans will recall that last month there were reports of a nasty clash between former US Attorney (and big jerk) Jim Letten and conservative provocateur (and bigger jerk) James O'Keefe. The reports seemed like a bit of a tease, though, since no one shared any video of the event, which we knew had to exist somewhere.

O'Keefe has released his version.  It does not disappoint.

"White Noise"

The above is my humble suggestion for Bill Cassidy's campaign slogan.

Bill Cassidy Senate event in Metairie: Cassidy supporters have white noise apps to distort Pro-Landrieu camera/mikes pic.twitter.com/5OrAkgcUNM
— The Lens (@TheLensNOLA) August 13, 2013

James O'Keefe vs Jim Letten

Surely there is video of this incident. Surely we should demand to see it.

After leaving the Letten home, O’Keefe and at least five others then moved on to Tulane University, Letten’s alma mater, where Letten now serves as assistant dean for experiential learning at the law school, after resigning as U.S. Attorney in December following an online posting scandal that involved two of his top lieutenants.

Letten, a Republican, had recused himself from the Landrieu case because the father of one of the charged men was a federal prosecutor whom Letten knew. But O’Keefe was intent on confronting the former U.S. attorney anyway, tracking him down on the Tulane campus and accusing him of “ruining my life,” a source with knowledge of the incident said.

By now, Letten was aware of O’Keefe’s visit to his home. Furious, he unleashed a loud verbal tirade on O’Keefe. He also alerted various law enforcement authorities, including the FBI and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

According to a Tulane police report, O’Keefe and the others were “issued restricted presence letters” -- basically an order to clear off -- and escorted off campus. No arrests were made.

"So far"

So far, video of the altercation has not surfaced on O’Keefe’s web site or elsewhere online. Neither O’Keefe nor an associate at the web site immediately responded to questions about the incident.

Gambit did some nice things in 2012

This was not one of them.  Can't imagine anything more lame.

Welp

Ladies and gentlemen, Atlanta Falcons fans.

@angrywhodat Katrina part 2 about to hit mother fucking New Orleans Sunday bitch. Falcons about to be 9-0. #SCREWDAT

— Dustin Murch (@D_Murchandise) November 8, 2012