And wrote a song about it – you must view this podcast and listen to the song – it’s terrific – E debuted it at the bridge gathering on August 29th – http://www.ernietheattorney.net/ – then go to the September 20th entry called Katrina Anniversary Podcast. Well done!
Went to the Brocato’s opening with about 100+ other people, H&T and I rode our bikes over and stood in line for an hour listening to Benny Grunch playing It Ain’t There No More and Got Mold? – no rum raisin so I had to get praline and coconut, but both were delicious and made the longing for rum raisin that much sweeter – Mr Brocato said that when they came back the place was a moldy mess but the cookies were all in vacuum seal containers that had floated through the flotsam and were delicious and fresh when they opened them jars. The streetcar went by and the conductor got off and did a dance on the tracks in front of Brocato’s. Riding our bikes back to the Can we passed the woman who is 89 years old and was sleeping on the floor of her gutted house with a FEMA trailer in the driveway that had been sitting for two months because she didn’t have keys to get in it. H asked her if everything was alright now and she said, “sure is, oh yes, I’m an old timer.” Ahhh, who says New Orleans isn’t fun anymore?
A woman in line told us that Little Tokyo – supposedly the best sushi chef in the city – is opening in the old Chateaubriand. Little by little, piece by piece, ort by ort, we are coming back better than before.
I walked the Bean this morning and went by the LaLa – the terrace is flashed and the torch down is down – so there has been progress this week when it felt like not. I was standing in the bathroom when my neighbors came out of their side door and I stood there and watched them and thought frosted glass or etched glass or something obscure, opaque, contact paper, something something, whatyougonnado?
Waved to L across the bayou, and a few feet away, TL drove up and thanked me for bringing the wine and said he was headed to take out of towners on the Misery Tour. L came over and said he got food poisoning last night – yuck – no reason to go back there.
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
– Mark Twain
Returned from Dallas in a bit of a funk over all the mundane details of my life. TL called yesterday to come to a little house warming – he started his house remodel in February of 05, four months before the LaLa began. On my way over there I ran into D, whose house in Broadmoor flooded to the rafters, she started her renovation in March and was expecting to be in last month and is disappointed – I said count yourself lucky to even think you’ll be in – then she said she had been in Lafayette suing the apartment complex she and her family evacuated to because they wouldn’t return her deposit. Yes, we can look at all the developments that benefitted from Katrina and how much they gouged all of us during that time – a lovely human touch to a tragedy.
TL’s house is great, a sunken tub with a frosted (ahem, frosted) glass window and counter tops that shine and floors that do too – all painted yet there remains blue tape over all the switches – he has no plans for a door on his outdoor shower which I agree with, his shower is less rustic with a nice stainless enclosure and teak floor and a porch that goes for miles. E and B were there with their three week old son J who was the most expressive child I’ve ever seen at that age – they live in the Monster’s old house. B asked me if I knew N, and I said, yes, as a matter of fact I do. Then K came over who is the poster girl for the Big Easy Rollergirls – who are doing great, selling out all of their events – and others were there too – L, who broke up with her live in boyfriend after Katrina and after losing their house they shared and on and on.
L called and we ended up at dinner at La Boca, which wasn’t that great – the asparagus might have been the best part. Then we passed by a friend of his in the Marigny – very much a New Orleans character that would be a fish out of water elsewhere but I liked her white kitchen with the television screen on the wall – I forget how ubiquitous the TV can be and here WS keeps trying to ring the death knell for television.
I came home orbitting another planet holding on to just a little bit of my funk but most of it has dissipated.
The Jewish New Year 5767 begins Sunday – so happy New Year!
New Orleans’ enjoyed a New Year on the anniversary of Katrina – Happy New Year and here’s to a benign hurricane season.
The calendar New Year is roughly three months away.
So many new years, so little time.
Angelo Brocatos opens at noon to fanfare – tell all your friends!
A dear friend made a big decision that a recent decision he made was the wrong decision and so he said no. It’s freeing to be an adult and have the ability to make choices. Sometimes you think you are making the right choice and your gut starts aching and you realize you have made the wrong choice and the glorious part about being an adult is you can change your mind – it’s your prerogative. I am so happy he saw the writing on the wall and got out – it now gives him the opportunity to explore his own way – which will be hands down a better way than the one being laid out for him.
Hip hip hooray to free will and making choices that make our gut feel good. And hip hip hooray to having the chance in life to not work for the man and to be the man instead.
reproach mingled with contempt – it’s so easy to decide you have been wronged and then take action, like attack then withdraw, but at the end of the day, what does this do?
G called from New York saying she doesn’t want to come home – that for the last year she has not wanted to come home – that she used to love to come home.
Well, I am happy to be home and I hope she gets over this feeling. Got in last night and had remembered it was T’s big art opening at Tulane so I changed and went and it was good to see the paintings from the private collection. I once again decided I do not like Matthew Barney – Cremaster Shitmaster. [Read this brilliant satirical art review of his work: http://www.harpers.org/OnanTheMagnificent.html.] Afterwards, I went to L’s house for dinner and was reminded that he owned several designer shoe stores at one time – is that not the perfect man – one who owns several designer shoe stores? Good lord, it’s the equivalent of him meeting a woman who owns a strip club. Because porn is to men what shopping is to women, no doubt.
The New Orleans International Airport is dead – there is no one there – you could shoot a canon through the terminal.