A colleague of mine was telling me that China has been invaded so many times by so many people and yet each conquerer was incapable of changing the culture. The culture of a people cannot be extinguished, it will fight subversion and fight outright assimilation. I think New Orleans proved that in spades when the diaspora of the Federal Flood brought a taste of New Orleans to locales near and far, and when we reconvened…
Throughout the entire Tennessee Williams Festival that I am now sad is over, one person or another quoted Flannery O’Connor’s character: “She would of been a good woman,” said The Misfit, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” A long time ago and four therapists ago I learned that I had been raised in a high pitch because of a rage-a-holic father and an alcoholic mother, betwixt the…
A young guy was telling me about his dating adventures and I told him I don’t have many to talk about as I never dated, I married. I told him when I was young it was a hiccup away from the 60s and dating was all about sex, drugs and rock n roll. He said almost patronizingly, the times haven’t changed. Really? Well I told him they do change, not the times, but age does…
The other night I went to a neighborhood meeting that addressed the rash of burglaries on Moss and Carrollton. The burglar is described as an older black man with dreds working with a young black man (the composite photo of which is now taped to my front door) along with a possible woman accomplice. One of the neighbors said after everyone was swept up into a huffy fury, “I saw a young black man running…
When I was summoned to jury duty in February the case I got assigned to was about three New York investment bankers who scrappily put together a “construction company” to come down and repair houses post the Federal Flood. The attorneys asked if anyone in the jury had a problem with this – HA HA HA HA. Really? Are you kidding me? I’ve been railing at Carpet Baggers pre-Katrina/Federal Flood and now this? Meanwhile last…
It’s threatening to clean us up but thus far we’ve been dry and the lagoon at City Park is getting pretty stinky, which makes me also wonder how they can have a fishing rodeo if the fish are about to have no habitat. Meanwhile Louisiana Irises are blooming everywhere – there is one that is magenta near the Dumaine Bridge. I had a mammogram today and the woman talked nonstop about my Newtons – she…
I signed up for District NOPD reports in real time and now I’m scratching my head. This right here reads like something out of the Wire which makes me wonder why they bothered to make Treme, when they could have just made Wire New Orleans: On March 27, 2011, at approximately 3:50 pm officers were dispatched to the 300 block of South Rocheblave Street to investigate an aggravated battery. Upon arrival the victim had been placed into an…
Monday started with this missive: LITANY AGAINST FEAR I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Here I am in the city where my Boston friend said you could marry a donut and no one would notice and I’m typing at the dining table while looking out at the bayou. This morning we woke early, early enough that the sun was only just peeking behind the houses on the other side of the bayou, and early enough to see across a little blonde toddler running and realizing it was our friend’s…
I went to a panel discussion yesterday on writing about family as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival and must say I think I learned more about writing about family from Tom and Rose, the play we saw last night that was a mash up of Williams’ intertwined relations with his disturbed sister and his use of her as character after character in his work. Williams called New Orleans the first city where the spirit…