HumidCity

Please pardon the blatant pimpiness of this post. I appreciate you reading this.

The release date for my New Orleans jazz novel, The Sound of Building Coffins, has been moved up to February 1^st. This is the second such move – surprising to me because I’ve always heard that your publisher moves your release date back, not up. So it’s exciting and terrifying all at once. It’s seems the publisher is excited about it, too – which is a very good thing.

Also, the book is now available for pre-order at all the major online booksellers. It’s a little cheaper if you pre-order it, and it helps to get the ball rolling, so I hope you will. (Icksnay: lowest price currently at Amazon.com)

For those of you who haven’t heard about the novel, or who would like to know more, there’s a full-blown spiel below, which includes blurbs, links to excerpts, reviews, etc.

Also, at the bottom of the “commercial,” you’ll find a little video treat to reward you for tolerating the pimpy nature of today’s post.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Gold Mine is one of those French Quarter joints where the tourists dare not tread.

It’s not so much a hole-in-the-wall as it is a smoke-filled brick cave where mysterious moisture drips randomly upon the heads of patrons and brilliantly disturbing works by obscure artists stare down from mortar-crumbling walls positioned above bluntly printed placards bearing the artist’s last name in bold print and no other information whatsoever. It’s a joint where barrels stand in place of tables, where charming degenerates merrily hit on your wife right in front of you, where the men’s room features an old-fashioned urine trough that affords anyone with a penis the opportunity to mingle his piss with that of the dangling stranger beside him in real time – a weirdly intimate thing for people to be doing in the anonymity-driven electronic 21st century if you ask me. It is a rough and tumble joint, but also a haven for poets and artists; a relative rarity in this town. Musicians have havens aplenty around here, and I’m glad of that; they have their own free medical clinic, a “musician’s village,” and more city, state and corporate-sponsored charitable causes named for them than you can shake a stick at. Meanwhile, if you’re a writer or an artist you’re mostly on your own, expected to stop fucking around with your silly hobby and get a real job – or else you can get your drunk on at the Gold Mine on a random Thursday night and meet up with a tidy mob of compatriot sorry-ass artsy motherfuckers who gather with sooty smiles and know the score.

Right in the door, our friend and good neighbor GiO the Burlesque Queen of New Orleans introduces us to the proprietor, the Poet Dave Brinks. Dave’s passion is clearly to seek out and shine a light on the ever-elusive art of the every-man – I liked him right away. Regulars ranged from the shy to the surly; an interesting cross-section of two-legged animals from all walks of the city that shared exactly one thing – the desire and need to tell their stories through the art of the written word.

The evening’s theme was to pay tribute to a fellow poet who’d recently died; a man I’d never met named Paul Chasse. Today was his birthday. From what I gathered, Paul was a biker, a jailbird, a Haunted History Tour guide, a dyed-in-the-wool Quarter rat, a gleeful troublemaker, a friend, a husband, a resistor of all things mundane, a decent man with a good heart – but mostly he was a poet. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear America,

You know I love you, but do not fuck this up.

OK?

Thanks a bunch!

Hopefully yours,

Louie Hussein Six-Pack the Plumber

*
http://louismaistros.com

…coincides with Banned Books Week.

How best can we celebrate this ironic confluence of events, aside from reading a copy of Fahrenheit 451 or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

My dad sent me this yesterday. If the economy weren’t headed down the tubes fast, I’d do it:

…if you feel you can’t support the Obama campaign, may I suggest the following fiendishly brilliant alternative?

Make a $5 minimum donation to Planned Parenthood. In honor of Sarah Palin. A Planned Parenthood donation is tax deductible, while a political donation isn’t.

And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor!

Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website.

You’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the ‘in Sarah Palin’s honor’ card. Use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters:

McCain for President/Sarah Palin
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

Then again, women’s reproductive freedoms are under threat darn near every second of every day. How can I afford NOT to donate money to PP?

The choice is yours. Have fun, and L’shanah tovah ( a happy Jewish New Year) to all!

Liprap

Read here first: Mayor Nagin Hates Neighborhoods

Then ask yourself this: if it is so easy now to get a demolition order pushed through, which building would YOU like to have go first?

I’m thinking 1300 Perdido Street.

Any other suggestions?  Put ‘em in your comments below.

Now’s the time to push this through, people.

Liprap

powered by Hipcast.com

Live From New Orleans as Gustav approaches

A “pyrate” faux pas escalates into a very interesting exchange between people who go “Aaaaarr!” HumidCity’s own Lord David leads the boarding party. (You’ve got to read the comments!)

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams

You know, um�I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.

– Marcus Cole, Babylon 5

“You know, um…I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.” – Marcus Cole, Babylon 5

WDSU TV’s piece on Michael “Rex” Dingler of NoLA Rising and Fred Radtke, The Grey Ghost. Video on YouTube.

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

HumidCity would like to wish Big Easy Rollergirl’s Referee Rev. Falls-Well Happy Birthday, and luck in the upcoming Championships on April 19th!

Go ahead, read it. It is hilarious!

http://twitter.com/HumidCity

Epictetus - “Only the educated are free.”

Mel Brooks - “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”

What is New Years Eve without a proper toast? Nothing, thats what!

In that spirit I advise you to check out this NPR story about the new Brennan’s cookbook, which is actually a cocktail book, and includes their Sazerac (the first recorded cocktail ever) recipe .

Bottoms up, we’ll see you next year!

Je n’aime pas George Bush!

Microcultures are replacing the work that brands used to do. - Umair

No, I (hopefully) do not mean a hurricane. There will be some changes here at HumidCity being unveiled over the next month or two so don’t be shocked if you surf through one day and things are different.

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

- Bertrand Russell

WWOZ PLedge Drive Photo Album (This will continually grow until the end of the Pledge Drive at 7pm on 3-28-07)

I’ve got very good relations with President Mubarak and Crown Prince Abdallah and the King of Jordan, Gulf Coast countries.
–George W. Bush Washington, DC 5/29/03