HumidCity

For anyone who may have a desire to listen to my drivel instead or reading it, here is a video interview I did with NOLA.com over the course of Jazz Fest. It’s three minutes of sleep deprived and over caffeinated Loki talking about Jazz Fest, WWOZ, and internet tech.

-Loki, Founder and Blog Wrangler, HumidCity

NEW: CALL US! 504-709-4492

Now you can call humidcity and leave us a message! All messages are subject to the same copyright policy as comments on blog posts. Our virtual switchboard can be reached at 504-708-4492. All calls are digitized and we receive an email notification. On occasion we may use them in our posts. (Recorded messages become the property of HumidCity and are immediately licensed Creative Commons share alike.)

Come on out today and join us fr the Sisth Alternative Media Expo at the Contemporary Arts Center! Look for Loki drifting between the Defend New Orleans and AuthorViews tables! See Jac form Defend New Orleans in a suit! See Leo McGovern in person and determine for your self whether he is only a cartoon character in After the Deluge!

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Step Right Up and see the most amazing array of non mainstream media ever gathered in New Orleans!

The first 150 paid attendees will receive a FREE swag bag from the New Orleans Craft Mafia!

What is the Expo? It’s an event that’s much like a trade show and set up like a comic convention–exhibitors show everything from ‘zines and comics to handmade clothing, jewelry and crafts to photography, paintings, t-shirts and films.

If you’re a fan of alternative media, you’ll love the Expo–where else can you find all these things under one roof?

If you’re a media-maker, it’s the perfect opportunity to expose an interested audience to your work, as well as a great chance to network with like-minded individuals.

Special Guests:A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge and American Splendor artist Josh Neufeld!

Notes from New Orleans author Deborah Cotton

SPONSORS:
Humid Beings, Dirty Coast, the Charitable Film Network, Static TV, the New Orleans Craft Mafia, ANTIGRAVITY and Defend New Orleans
Committed exhibitors:

AuthorViews, 504 Whatstyle, A Year At the Wheel.com, Alicia Devora, Alternatives Magazine, American New Wave Media Group, Amy Davis Photography, Antigravity Magazine, ArtVoices Magazine, Ashe’ Cultural Arts Center, AuthorViews/HumidCity, Backporch Revolution, Baretta Vendetta, Bidonville Book and Paper Collective, Bizer Law, Black Rain Press, B.L.A.K. Pearl, Bluebird-Art, Brinson Gottshalk Productions, Caesar Meadows, Chainmaille Jewelry by Draillia, Chance Cenac 3-D Acyrlic Paintings, Charitable Film Network, Christina Zendt, Circular Accessories, City Hustlers, Claverie Crafts, C.O.G., Constance, Contemporary Cowrie, Corey Sanders, Curious Tribe, Dead Squirrel Girl, Deep South Samizdat Books, Defend New Orleans, Dirty Coast, dismantled designs, Dreamer 76, El MacFearsome Comic Squares, Etsy New Orleans, Flambeaux Deigns, Goodchildren Carnival Club, greenKangaroo, Gypsy Charms Jewelry/M. Bevis, High Voltage Youth Media Camp, Hip-Hop Teen Magazine, Homegrown Designs/SimplePlay Production, Humid Beings, Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, Icon Studios, Inkwell Press, Iron Rail Book Collective, Jeff Pastorek, Jeremy the Alien, Joey Jones Productions, Josh Neufeld, Kagen Water, Katrina Warriors, Kelly Jarvis, Killers of Kind, Kody Chamberlain, Lucid SFX Development, Magazine Metals, Mana Media, Media Underground Comics, Mardi Gras Service Corps, Maria Fomich, Michelle Lance, Morcos Media, Ms. Placed, Natural Awakenings Magazine, New Orleans Craft Mafia, New Orleans Film Society, Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, Nob Glass, NOLA Fugees, NOLA Party Productions, NOLA Rising, Nueveau, Photography by Emily, R. Scott Taylor and Chris Matherne, Rising Tide Bloggers Conference, Rotten Pathway Through the Digestive Track, Seraphemera Books, Sound Café/Beth’s Books, Spike Vessels, Static TV, Terror Optics, Third World Mojo, Toby Craig, The Trumpet, Truth Universal, Unique Products, UNO Filmmakers, Vance Kelly, Voodoo Maverick, WTUL, YES! (YMCA Educational Services), Zack Smith…the list is growing!

Questions? E-mail expo@antigravitymagazine.com!

FILM LINEUP (Coordinated by Static TV):

2pm—Films by DNO Videos
3pm—Films of Jason Affolder
4pm—Films by New Orleans Xposed’s Jody Smith
5pm—Films by Terror Optics

POST-PARTY: Jock Se Bloque @ Saturn Bar

Loki
Founder, HumidCity
Digital Outreach, Defend New Orleans

According to Matt MacBride, a man my hat is always tipped towards, the head of the Corps of Engineers, Lt. General Robert Van Antwerp, has started a blog:

https://eportal.usace.army.mil/sites/Blog/default.aspx

There is only one post up so far, and it is about Iraq not the Gulf Coast. Still, I think it is damn important that we all take advantage of the opportunity to at least have our say in a new public forum

I know I will be stopping by with pointed questions, and I hope that people from around the U.S. (perhaps folks who live near those 137 levees that are not up to snuff across the country) chime in as well.

[EDIT: here is a link to the Corps Press Release and here is an alternate link if the one above does not work -loki]

Loki
Founder, HumidCity

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

The second annual Rising Tide conference will be held August 24-26, 2007, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. This is a NOLA blogger-organized and supported conference featuring speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and other dialogs on the future of the city of New Orleans.

This year’s emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. It has become clear to those of us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, as well as take the upper hand is setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach.

The keynote speaker is Dave Zirin, author of Welcome to the Terrordome, published by Haymarket Press, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, a regular contributor to the Nation Magazine, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times. Timothy Ruppert, president of the Louisiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, will give a comprehensive report on the status of our levee protection two years after the failure of the federal levees brought catastrophe to New Orleans. Matt McBride of Fix the Pumps will present via video conference. Panelists will include community activists Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, Bart Everson of b.rox, and Peter Athas of Adrastos, muckraking blogger Mark Moseley of Your Right Hand Thief, New Orleans political sage Michael Duplantier and author Joshua Clark Heart Like Water

On Friday, August 24, there will be a party at Buffa’s Lounge featuring the work of New Orleans videographers, and Sunday is reserved for a hands-on service project in aid of the NOLA school system. At the Buffa’s party, we are serving cocktail party-type food, but there will be a cash bar.The weekend’s events costs $20 per person. This includes admission to the Friday night party at Buffa’s, Saturday’s events at the New Orleans Yacht Club (including morning coffee and croissants and lunch from Dunbar’s), and participation in the Sunday service project. Please register to attend using the PayPal link on the website. If you don’t use PayPal, feel free to call or e-mail me to reserve your space at the conference and, more importantly, your lunch from Dunbar’s. We have no problem with people paying at the door, we just need to know that you are coming.

There will, f  course, be liveblogging of the event, and materials available online. If you can’t come, there is also a paypal link if you'd care to donate (this is a non-profit endeavor). Feel free to contact us through the website, or ask questions by replying to this e-mail. Rising Tide’s toll-free phone number is: 866-910-2055.

Although I am sending this e-mail to over 200 people, I’m sure I’m missing some. Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested. Unless they have a blog or have expressed interest in the past, they are probably not on my e-mail list. Also, bloggers, please spread the word on your blogs!

Jazz legends, artists and educators joined radio giant WWOZ yesterday to support a national effort to save Internet radio from a recent royalty rate increase that would bankrupt the industry.

In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, famed clarinet wizard Dr. Michael White, legendary trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, jazz phenom “Trombone Shorty”, Kidd Jordan and more than a dozen of the most influential voices in American Jazz called on Congress to take action and preserve Internet radio for the future of Jazz music.

“As working musicians who depend on Internet radio to reach our fans and to make new ones, we are extremely concerned that the recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) will close the door to what has become an essential part of our work. Internet radio is one of the precious few outlets we have to reach Jazz audiences and build new ones. If Internet radio dies, the future of Jazz could die with it,” the Jazz legends wrote in a letter addressed to Chairman Conyers.

Representatives of SaveNetRadio, a national coalition of millions of webcasters, listeners, artists and labels joined tens of thousands of Jazz fans this week at the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to spread the word and gather the support of jazz artists that depend on Internet radio for exposure and airtime.

New Orleans powerhouse radio station WWOZ’s General Manager, David Freedman said “the massive new royalty fees directly affect New Orleans artists and musicians throughout the country that depend on Internet radio for air play and to reach new fans. For WWOZ, these new rates would drastically limit our effectiveness as a streaming source, and dictate that stations can’t afford to succeed. The marginalization or complete shutdown of our streaming services, which is the emerging environment, is tantamount to choking off an important voice of New Orleans culture and rendering our volunteer powered effort irrelevant.” Read the rest of this entry »

I am repeatedly asked about what tools I use in blogging, and for advice on how to do so more easily and effectively. The following is a rundown on useful web based tools that I use on a regular basis which I offer as a semi-comprehensive answer to these questions.

Flickr - Lets start with something colorful, like pictures. I use Flickr, and wholeheartedly recommend it. The free version is useful although limited. On the good side the paid version is only $25 a year. With a paid account you have 2 GB of upload for pictures and can store a near infinite number of them. My own account has over 10,000 images. It integrates a number of useful features, but the two most important for a blogger are the ability to blog an image directly from with Flickr and the ability to instantly generate source code for inserting images into posts in your normal editor.

Picnik - This is an online image editor which can pull an image directly out of your Flickr account and allow you to edit it. Its no Photshop, but its really good for basics like brightness, contrast, sepiatone, etc. When you are done you can either overwrite your original image or add it as a new one. Picnik fully supports image tagging and Flickr sets.

Flickr Toys - Another wonderful resource that ties directly into your Flickr Photostream. Its actually a collection of image manipulation toys thta allow you to do a number of things. You can make motivational posters, magazine covers, trading cards, and more. Tons of fun and terrific for those with a satirical bent.

Flock - Flock is a new browser, built on the Firefox core (if you are still using IE check out Flock and Firefox, you will switch I promise you!). It is a beautiful tool for a blogger. It has a built in feed reader which you can load up with feeds from sites you constantly refer to using a simple drag and drop interface. It also can integrate your Flickr or Photobucket pictures, showing them in a top bar where they can easily be dragged into posts. If you use del.icio.us (a social bookmarking service), the bookmarks can be configured to post to your online bookmarks. It also has a built in blog editor (which I do not use, see the write up on Performancing below).

Performancing - this is a blog editor extension for Firefox and Flock. It can be configured to post to multiple blogs on multiple platforms ranging from Blogger and LiveJournal to WordPress (there is even a MySpace plugin for it) While you’re in your browser just hit F8 and it opens in the lower half of your browser window. Using this in Flock with the photobar and the newsreader makes it extermely easy to craft a detailed post with pictures and attributed quotes. It is the only editor I use lately.

Hopefully this will be useful to someone out there. If it is let me know. If you have something to add that I missed let me know.
Now all you need is something to say…

I would like to apologize to everyone fr the unintended downtime. There seems to have been some server issues which are hopefully at an end. I will be throwing up some posts I have had waiting in the course of the weekend.

I should have fresh and disturbing thoughts up later this afternoon.

Thank you for your patience!

my spam catcher has now caught over 25,000 spam comments since the transition to WordPress last June

The discussion generated by my Jail the Bloggers article has unearthed a number of interesting perspectives and opinions. I think the most telling are the following:

Promoted From The Comments:

Crystal :
With this I am thinking of, for example, the Oil Company lobbyists who paid the CEI company to put out pro-global-warming propaghanda commercials to be played on certain tv stations, and the 8 million dollars Exxon mobil has paid to people then went out and masqueraded as scientists to convince people there was doubt about the effects of too much carbon in the atmosphere. This could now be prosecutable if the origins of the attempt are not disclosed.

In fact, I suspect myself that the grassrootsfreedom.com website, could have been just such a set up. Lobbyists created that website as a front to misrepresent this bill and get people angry and signing petitions to take it out. They are the ones who stand to lose the most from such an amendment.

Doesn’t that scare you that no matter how good your intentions, you could be duped so easily, if that were the case?

Yes, yes it does. Very astute observations which tab nicely with this little gem of data…

Jim :

Grassrootsfreedom.com is run by Richard A. Viguerie, he owns American Target Advertising. American Target is a direct mail advertising company with a special focus on conservative candidates.

Richard has written several books on how to use the alternative media to influence politics. Wiki Richard Viguerie ( Read the wiki, you will find it very interesting -Loki)  I’d be willing to bet that Richard would have to do more reporting then he wants if this legislation passes.

This would seem, along with Nathan Morrison’s constitutional dissection of the situation, to be cause for a sigh of relief. The thing that prevents me from doing so is the one voiced here:

Maitri -
Yes, but what about a group of 100+ New Orleans-esque bloggers who actively campaign for any given change through their writing, along with some funding from a non-profit or grassroots organization?

What the unprecedented alliance of New Orleans based bloggers has done so far is impressive and unique. This bears continued watching as I am sure someone down the line might try to squelch our collective voice. Hmmm……

There are three lines of conversation on this, all with very good input from a variety of sources, ranging from constitutional analysis to pure invective.  To see all of the discussion across platforms visit the following links:

Crosspost on LJ New Orleans With Comments
Comments on the original posting (Humid City/ Powers and Morrison)

OFF TOPIC, GO SAINTS!: Let me start by saying that I am a rarity, an American male who cannot stand football. Keep that in mind. Now even I cannot miss the fact that the Saints have one more game to go in oder to make it to the SuperBowl, if they make it I will watch my first SuperBowl ever! Not only that, but I will als go so far as to state (are you listening, Ashley? Rachel G? Oyster?) that if someone provides the garb I will do so wearing a Saints Cheerleaders outfit. Something this momentus deserves some spectacle, don’t you think? If it comes to pass I will make sure that incriminating photography is arranged. Uh… (cannot believe I am saying this) Go Saints!

Where is the Earthlink WiFi in New Orleans? - Blogging New Orleans
According to The Third Battle of New Orleans, last Thursday started the official roll-out of EarthLink’s paid WiFi service for New Orleans. You probably have seen the wireless nodes attached to lightposts around some of the more populated parts of the city and thought, hey what’s that?

What indeed? Blogging New Orleans gives us a well informed, link rich rundown.

Gmail is down again. This time for the past two days. If it’s on their end they owe their users some form of update on what the situation is. (Don’t tell me its BETA, its been on the net since well before Katrina and its an ad driven service.) It could also be the side effect of some sort of selective port blocking by Cox, or basic incompetence, or the fragile and unstable infrastructure of the city. I bet its Cox, my lovely wife informs me that she had no trouble accessing it from Tulane’s connection.

Damn annoying though.

Since the Storm the internet is our main way of staying in touch with scattered friends and family. All the “social” applications have taken on a new dimension. Displaced friends in Cincinatti and I watch each other’s current reading and movie intake, trading notes and comments back and forth through LibraryThing and Netflix. We share pictures in the same way on Flickr, even sharing our bookmarks with del.icio.us. And that doesn’t even touch the subject of blogs, online journals and MySpace.

All of these applications add community to the services they offer. Each alows you to interact and communicate on a common platform. While fun, and no doubt, useful to most, these have become an important means of staying in touch with each other and home. I can see that my friend Rachel is about to rent a truly awful movie when  I’m in Netflix and leave her a note saying it’s not worth the effort.  We can also add reviews as we watch things which they will see when going to rent it. Little bits of day to day interaction that allow a sembalance of normalcy.

We are a people who crave the society of our fellow New Orleanians: loud, boisterous, eating questionable things of aquatic origin, and with drink in hand. The City of Cyber Orleans knows no geographic borders. It stretches as far as our furthest displaced has gone and is accessible from any internet connection.  For those away its not home, but it helps. For those of us here it is a link to all our misssing loved ones.

Kind of like a William Gibson novel reinterpreted by Morgus The Magnificent.

No real time to write, we leave town tomorrow at O’Dark Thirty and I have two of my staff out sick on a hard work day. I do want to impress the importance of a new site on you folks though. Check out Fix The Pumps and get a solid, picture laden, well researched view of why the Corps of Engineers needs to be held accountable. This is what is going on right now, jeopardizinng our city and citizenry. Go. Read. Now

Fix the pumps
After Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to assume full responsibility for repair of New Orleans’ drainage pumps. Over a year later, much work remains undone. I am here to push them to do that work.

Technology helps.Don’t Mourn, Link

I have posted a collection of links to all the post conference posts I can find. From Liveblogging notes on the panels to expansions on the themes we tackled, it should all be there. The blog set up for the evnt seems like it may become a new group blog, check it and my links out on the Rising Tide Blog

As expected, it is getting deep now that the Anniversary weekend is here, on top of which I have been physically ill lately. A nurse friend tells me its probably stress related. Big surprise. Anyway, since I am behind on posting (as well as everything else) I am going to collate everything into one post now. Please pardon the abbreviated format.

• Rising Tide - this is a must do! Go take a look at the guests and attendees, that should crystallize your decision. If not read Adrastos’ list of Ten Reasons To Go
• Mayor Wonka has exceeded the stupidity of his, “chocolate city,” remarks by making some pretty inflamatory statements about 9-11 Stybbie over at Nation of Morons will have to supply the vitriol, I am too worn out.
• As the Anniversary looms so does another probable hurricane in the Gulf. Joy. I miss the days when an oncoming hurricane meant having to stock the bar and buy extra candles….
• The Geek Dinner II- man it was a success, but I fear it was also what pushed my health over the edge. Many of the usual suspects were there along with a wonderful array of new faces. It was brilliant finally meeting Ernie the Attorney, who it seems knows some of my family. Likewise GBitch was a grea new face to add to our rogues galley. A majority of the NOLABloggers were there although we did miss Maitri who was having fun flying to Toronto at the time (Don’t worry she did not bring any toothpaste and as a result made it through without being incarcerated).The list of pissed off and motivated bloggers continues to grow. My pics from the dinner are here.
• The BBC did interviews with Alan from ThinkNOLA, Kalypso, and myself. To listen to the broadcast you’ll either need to listen live between 8 and 9pm Central Time on Monday OR the archive goes up the next day - click on listen link in the sidebar at http://blogs.bbc.co.uk/podsandblogs
• Rocky Vaccarella is a traitor to New Orleans. His FEMA trialer visit to DC and comments about wanting four more years of Bush we elegantly staged, but he has GOP roots and questionable motives. Gee, a photo-op as spin control from the Bush Administration? No….. See the Carpetbagger Report for more disturbing details.
• Midsummer Mardi Gras looms Saturday night. Last year we missed it because we had just crystallized our decision to flee Katrina. This year we will not miss it, bad health or not.
• On the Anniversay I will be doing radio interviews for the Mike Malloy Show on Air America as well as on Channel 4 Radio News for the UK. Details will go up as soon as they are worked out.

That is all I have the energy for this morning. I had meant to expand upon each of these points, but I am wiped out. I’m off to write some websites for a gig I have and then get some rest so I can be ready for Rising Tide (did I mention that you should go?).

Finally home after the clean up. Pics are up on Flickr here. Will write more manana, but it was quite good. Several new faces and voices added to the mix. I am exhausted but highly pleased. BBC interviews went well, will have link up as soon as they send me one.

Well the BBC has arranged to interview a few of the local bloggers this evening at the Geek Dinner. Victims will be: Alan from ThinkNOLA, Kalypso, and myself.BBC - Radio Five Live - Pods and Blogs

Saturday night is the Geek Dinner, the past two days have been spent cleaning out the site of my old apartment in Broadmoor and making ready for the arrival of the many geeks, technophiles, and web publishers who will be attending. Check out the details on the Geek Dinner page of the ThinkNOLA New Orleans Wiki.

Many thanks to my business partners Dudley and Chris as well as Esther N., and UptownGirl for helping out with the clean out/site prep! I raise my Gatorade in your honor! Additional thanks to Alan from ThinkNOLA for starting the Geek Dinners in the first place, one of the many efforts he has made to use technology for the good of New Orleans.

The Geek Dinner is sponsored by ThinkNOLA, 504Data.Com and Stormhoek Wine.

Drop in, speak up, geek out!

EDIT: *slaps forehead* Oh yeah, if you aren’t coming by check out the Antigravity Alternative Media Expo. If you do stop by and check out Oyster at the Rising Tide table, Jac at the Defend New Orleans table, and visit the DaFa Fungus table (I hear they’re packing DVDs of Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras).