My flight was delayed out of Los Angeles last night and I arrived in New Orleans around 3AM. When I walked out of the plane I smelled the familiar smell of the Louis Armstrong International Airport and then beyond. I got in the truck and WWOZ was playing back to back Johnny Adams – our native son singing his guts out as I made my way home to the bayou in the wee hours of…
I’m trying now to use the Force to navigate me through these troubled yet awesome times. Has BP created the end of the world as we know it? Hard to say but don’t give into what is going on right at the moment as this too shall pass is something that I’ve learned after 51 revolutions around the sun. Short-term thinking has never served anyone. I keep looking out at the Pacific Ocean here in…
Okay so Toyota made the headlines as not being the safe company that everyone perceived them to be and worse, hiding the information rather than addressing it head on. Evil company. The pope turns out to have had a long history in turning a blind eye to pediophiles within the church and to sheltering these predatory priests by shipping them into new areas rather than owning up to the problem. Evil church. BP let’s loose…
I’ve been Skyping with Tin every day while I’m in Los Angeles working and when I look at him on this computer screen he just radiates love. How can so much love be wrapped up in that little 22 pounds? It’s nutty! One thing my friend finally made clear to me the other day is the need to get off the bottle. I find that most of the transitions that Tin has to make –…
I watched Ben Stiller in Greenberg the other night. I’m still trying to sort the movie out in my mind. Was there a character arc or wasn’t there? Ben Stiller did a perfect and nuanced character profile of a man who nobody could be comfortable around, not even his own mother (had she been alive in this movie). Very disturbing in an undefinable way. But Bravo Ben nonetheless.
A long time ago when I was an undergraduate studying English Literature, I happened upon a quote from Flannery O’Connor where she described the importance of establishing the habit of art. I was thinking about that today when the question of creativity came up in a discussion about other things. In a world where there is no time – you make the time for what sings and who sings to you. You start discerning and…
In his opening statement, Barton, the top Republican on the committee overseeing the oil spill and its aftermath, delivered a personal apology to the oil giant, BP. He said the $20 billion fund that President Obama directed BP to establish to provide relief to the victims of the oil disaster was a “tragedy in the first proportion.” Shame on you, you stupid son of a bitch.
I was describing all the areas of my life yesterday as great big bubbles of uncertainty and someone said, “Well your love for Tin is certain.” And that of course is true. A friend’s son hit a home run yesterday to win a tied baseball game and you would have thought that he had won a Pulitzer – it brought proud tears to my eyes too. Love your children – that is a fact. I…
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the levee failure in New Orleans and you know what someone asked me yesterday? “Is New Orleans doing okay? Is it coming back?” I was a little surprised because I got these questions a lot in the first couple of years and my response was pretty standard – “You can come to New Orleans as a tourist and not even know that something big happened.” So when people…
Sitting outside with tea this morning watching the seagreen foam of Pacific ocean roiling while scores of pelicans pass in flight to somewhere, I’m reminded of my pelicans at home slogging through oil slicks dead or dying. I received a distress email last night, a female Shepherd at the LASPCA about to be put down today. Emails, phone calls, and lots of hand wringing and someone to take the lead might save this one. This…