The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you’ll have. Anne Quindlen Tatjana and Tin were at the Orange Couch the other day with Tin wearing headphones and watching his Louis Armstrong DVD on the portable. He had his drumsticks in hand and people kept asking if he is a musician. He’s two and half people! I mean really. But today when he and I took to the streets to follow…
Today, one day before the 6th anniversary of the Federal Flood, the Healing Center opened on St. Claude Avenue. Around here nothing gets started without a second line and some music and dancing, but unlike in Treme when a guy says, “Where’s Troy?” as they were waiting on Trombone Shorty, this time it was “Where’s Chuck P?” since it was his Cafe Istanbul (and Suleyman’s) that everyone was second lining down to at the Center.…
I’m going to a conference on the West Coast on Monday and I will miss the 6th anniversary of the Federal Flood, the first day of Tin’s pre-school, and the humid, oppressive heat of New Orleans as I plunge into the land of long sleeves and overcoats. We brought Tin’s school bag with him on Friday – items like rain gear that he has to leave at school: He met most of his classmates and…
As Irene is blowing the east coast, Germany is cold and rainy, Zagreb is hot and stifling, New Orleans is hot and humid, and in San Francisco people are wearing overcoats to work. There is weather happening all around.
I left for the West Coast in 1990 determined to find myself and instead I found someone else – this person who craved security and order and needed money in order to live. That was so not the person who left New Orleans. There in San Francisco, the living ain’t easy, yes there is abundance, but that bounty comes at too dear a cost. Daily life became the ritual of survival and how to make…
Funny how life is, that the moment you think you have it all figured out, something changes. I am spending the better part of my journey to open my heart, opening my sense of humor. And this morning I laughed out loud – belly laughed. Good for the soul. But I digress, I meant to write about the fact that a few years ago a good friend of mine told me I need to learn…
Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple, he announced this yesterday to the world, and the world responded. One of the greatest innovators of our time, a leader unparalleled, a man who did his own thing and we, the people, were the beneficiaries of his vision. Don’t yet underestimate what his technological creations did to open up the world to a global dialogue that is yet to be digested and understood. I hung…
A guy I know used to write all his letters in verse, and he was an attorney. It was pretty interesting. And another friend decided to write a haiku a day for one year, also interesting. Today, a friend asked how my summer had been as she’s been gone and we were missing each other – I summed it up for her in verse/haiku: Summer wore me out Before vacation began Fall begins with hope
I just wrote Tarantino an email because he is filming a movie – a Southern spaghetti western – here in New Orleans called Django Unchained. I told him he needed to use the music and or the musician – Evan Christopher – in this movie as his band when he is traveling is Creole Django. And that would just be too cool for school.
Someone just asked me how New Orleans is and I sent them this video. On any given day, a brass band erupts, a guy gets off his bike to dance, a Lucky Dog truck strolls by and life happens.