HumidCity

I’m tired and still have work to do tonight, but I just came across this and thought I should share it:

David Bonds, the 19-year-old acquitted last month of the 2006 killing of a popular New Orleans musician, is wanted for a shooting early Sunday morning, a police spokeswoman said Monday. Bonds got into an argument with another man at around 5:00 a.m., and as the fight escalated Bonds shot the man in the torso, according to police. The shooting victim is in critical but stable condition at a local hospital, said Officer Jonette Williams, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department.

Two eyewitnesses saw the shooting, which occurred in the 700 block of Canal Street, at the corner of Canal and St. Charles Avenue, according to a police news release. Detectives have obtained an attempted murder arrest warrant for Bonds.

After an emotional trial, Bonds was acquitted in April of shooting Hot 8 Brass Band drummer Dinerral Shavers. Bonds was accused of shooting into Shavers’ car as he drove away from a heated confrontation between the musician’s stepson and a friend and other teenagers on Dumaine Street.

It just doesn’t seem to end. Comments?
- Bigezbear

The Lump (our 11-1/2-year-old spawn) reads during Jazz Fest. I have found this humiliating and/or embarrassing over the years, and make pains to point out her bobbing or tapping foot. This year, though, people were quite charmed. One man talked to me at length about her liking to read, about that keeping her “mind off all that mess” and away from too much TV. He was also charmed at how I “took care of her”–adjusting the umbrella and her circle of shade, spraying cold water on her legs to cool her off, checking in with her every song or break or so. She’s my child. That’s what I’m supposed to do. It’s just not that common to see. One day, she will be grown and gone. And I want her to miss the loving care she got from us.

Every child, especially the toddlers, reminded me of my Lump back in the day, the days of “Jazz Fest braids,” red shorts, no shirt, one quick diaper change, lots of mango freeze, jama jama, snowballs, lemonade and herbal tea and a 3-wheeled stroller that parted the crowds.

But I have gotten old. It took 3 days to get my Jazz Fest legs. And now, I am done for a week even though Monday is tomorrow and the race begins.

Happy Fucking Jazz Fest, y’all. See you next year.

G Bitch (still down!)

NOLA

First off, no, I do not understand the finer points of funding and producing Jazz Fest. But I do know that $50 tickets price out a fair amount of locals and takes an iconic season away from many of us who grew up on that change in the air. And the extra work/cash on hand.

Part of the justification for the doubling of ticket prices in the past 5 years seems to be the addition of big, headlining, head-turning acts–Bruce Springsteen, Widespread Panic (I had no idea who they were until Friday), etc. (I rarely see them)–acts that are great but have little to do with jazz or heritage. And that seem to justify pricing out locals. Solution–Local Thursday. I don’t care which Thursday, 1st, 2nd, just a damn Thursday. All local acts, all tents and stages, one Thursday, reduced prices. Don’t even open the Acura stage that day. Open the grandstand so you can get your grandmama out of the sun for a little while. Focus on the tents, crafts, food and smaller stages and paying musicians. I don’t need Elvis Costello. And I can go on a $50 day to see Al Green if I really want to.

I’m happy musicians are getting paid more, happy with the increase in quality of the French Quarter, Freret and Satchmo Fests and the work of the Foundation year-round but does all that have to come at the price of Jazz Fest to locals?

G Bitch (site still down)

NOLA

all pics by dsbnola

I got a long Jazz Fest tradition, one of those who went as a child and carts her spawn there each year. Every year of my daughter’s life, we’ve gone to Jazz Fest. She never complains or begs off–going to Jazz Fest is what we do. Some people have dinner together at 6 every night, we go to Jazz Fest every year.

We used to spend most of our time in Economy Hall but the brass band groove has moved to the Jazz & Heritage Stage and we even see some of our Economy Hall family, people who watched our daughter grow up on the dance floor, over there now, people I know by hats, shoes, bandannas, umbrellas, and usual outfits. Names, no.

I love Jazz Fest Thursdays. It’s mellower and less crowded in general, though I can’t say for the big stages because we rarely go to the headlining, packed-in-with-the-masses acts. Or maybe we just think it is because we have no kid, also known as The Lump, in tow. I especially love seeing school kids there, packs of 5, 10, 20 in their matching shirts–my favorite today was Langston Hughes’ “Dream it. Be it. Do it.”–and uniform pants and shorts, eating snowballs and getting close to the Indians on the Jazz and Heritage Stage, being watched and directed by their teachers in matching t-shirts. They were all just so damn cute.

The best band today was the New Orleans Nightcrawlers–tight, full brass sound and traditional boogie. Panorama Jazz Band earlier was good, too, but for this granddaughter of a sax player in a traditional NO brass band, the Panorama is light on brass and kind of quiet.

I was glad to see some variety in the free-Harrah’s-drink and Hustler-Club airplane banners: Rouse’s–Buy Local.

My site is down again. Look for me here until further hysteria.

G Bitch

NOLA

“DC Madam” Kills Herself, Police Say … Vitty Cent can rest in peace tonight.

- Bigezbear

High school kids have it hard enough without having to answer to a principal like this one in Memphis.

A public high school principal who posted the names of two boys on a list of students believed to be couples, revealing their relationship to their parents as well as other students and teachers, violated the students’ constitutional right to freedom of association, the American Civil Liberties Union charged Tuesday. …

In September of 2007, the principal at Hollis F. Price Middle College High told teachers she wanted the names of all student couples, “hetero and homo,” because she wanted to monitor them personally to prevent students from engaging in public displays of affection.

The two students now represented by the ACLU, Andrew and Nicholas (who have asked that their last names not be revealed), were two A students who had been seeing each other for a short time and were attempting to keep their relationship quiet and private.

The principal heard about them through another student, then wrote their names on a list she posted next to her desk, in full view of anyone who entered her office. …

Although the boys had never been observed by any school staff engaging in any sort of display of affection, the principal called Nicholas’s mother Nichole.

According to Nichole, the principal said things like “Did you know your son is gay?” repeatedly and went on to say that she didn’t like gay people and wouldn’t tolerate homosexuality at her school.

Both students say they’ve had to deal with verbal harassment from both teachers and students since word got out around the school about their principal’s actions.

Now if this weren’t bad enough, there’s more - and it concerns us:

According to Nicholas, he also suffered another consequence of the principal’s discrimination. He had submitted extensive paperwork and several recommendations from teachers for a school trip to New Orleans to assist in rebuilding efforts.

Having a long history of community service, he was considered a shoo-in to be selected to go before the incident, but then a teacher told Nicholas some faculty were afraid he might “embarrass the school” or engage in “inappropriate behavior.”

A few days later, another student who hadn’t even applied to go on the trip was selected in his place.

What the hell do they think this high school kid was going to do in this evil city? I can imagine. And I have to wonder about the kind of people who think up this stuff. Besides, aren’t these kids chaperoned on their treks down south to help us rebuild? Pathetic.

- Bigezbear

I got there 30 minutes late so I cannot tell you anything about Scott Cowen’s opening remarks or Paul Pastorek’s keynote address. I can tell you that nothing is clearer about the future of schools to me. Like many meetings, many hopes were voiced, many opinions told and held, and questions not answered and I can’t say that I have any new understanding of what’s happening. Here are some of my scattered notes, direct words in quotation marks, others paraphrased, my comments in italics:

• The earlier you hold a school meeting, the whiter the audience seems to be. This audience was about 80+% white. Not a complaint but an observation, an interesting one for a school system that is overwhelmingly black. And, Karen pointed out, the meeting was on a college campus with limited parking and no way of knowing where exactly to go unless you are familiar with the Tulane, or any, college campus.

• Barbara MacPhee, former principal of NO Science and Math HS: in the past, kids were not first, teachers were not developed, we now have “gap kids” (those who are 1+ years below grade level), we had an “adults problem” not a student/child problem. She got lots of applause for that one.

• about accountability–Matt Candler, CEO of New Schools for New Orleans: “open a great school where a failed school has been.” So what’s the difference between a struggling school and a developing school? Who decides? How?

• Tony Recasner, principal of Green Charter School: if schools are better but still economically and racially segregated, we’ve still failed. Amen.

• Charlotte Matthew, principal of Ben Franklin Elementary: find what’s working in schools and communicate that to other schools, teachers, etc.; do a better job of dividing the education funding that there is and coordinate resources. Great idea. But we have to realize that not all good ideas work with all kids and that we have some populations, not just at the bottom but in the middle and the top, who need attention, best practices, and facilities.

• Flozell Daniels, chair, Urban League of NO: we as a community need to understand what “quality education” means and have community-wide expectations, need to define “success” and “achievement,” and have the discussion on “how much does it take to educate a child in NO?” and need fiscal reform to sustain the potential changes. We also need to define “accountability.” Who’s accountable for what and when and what are the consequences? And does that “accountablitly” come with support, financial, professional and otherwise?

• The panel consensus seemed to be that the biggest worry or fear is returning all the schools to the Orleans Parish School Board. That got lots of applause. Remember the demographics of the crowd. And as Karen pointed out, there is a blanket condemnation of everything and everyone associated with Orleans schools. That fosters a lot of tension and hostility. And more racial misunderstanding. And dismisses and washes away the good that was being done, the ones who were working hard. I’ve complained before and will again about the distinctly racial tenor of condemnations of Orleans parish schools, children and, especially, teachers. And not from people whose kids went to any public school.

• When Charlotte Matthew said that NOPS got its first clean audit this year, as a sign that NOPS/OPSB is making changes, there was a lot of grumbling and some polite applause.

• Matt Candler: the shift or change to charter schools is about governance, not student achievement; if you have enough good schools, the city will change; historically, people have bought their way out of the public schools in NO and if middle class people “don’t make bets with their children” by enrolling them in the public schools, the reforms will fail and “for far too long we have been okay” with crappy public schools being about “other people’s kids.” That was the most pointed statement on the socioeconomic and racial problems that made the old system what it was, exacerbated the weaknesses and that make the majority of public schools now still in need of a lot of help.

• Did you know the state department of education never had a research division or researchers? You do now. And now there are 2–either 2 research groups or 2 researchers, I didn’t hear the whole answer. Now that the experiment has gone on for 2 years, there will be research.

• What’s the solution for segregation here in our schools? Tony Recasner said high-quality schools. And hoped that would be enough.

I’ve read the report. I am not encouraged. More on that soon. There has been progress but it is hard to measure and, for the RSD, the bar was abysmally low to begin with.

Also see Liprap’s first impressions.
G Bitch

NOLA

cross-posted

Just a quick note to prepare us all a little better for Hurricane Season this year;

Lee Zurik, of WWLTV New Orleans, reveals flood walls in St. Bernard Parish were repaired by stuffing news paper in to cracks, over two years ago. The paper repair remains to this day. The Army Corp of Engineers, “stands by it’s work”. Read it here.

-Lord David

So I’m doing a little publicity for Someone Bought the House on the Island, and I send three photographs to the local Fourth Estate. I break them down into three emails because the pictures are large. My first email reads:

Dear [Name Withheld], Timm Holt has asked me to submit some photos to you from the Saints and Sinners Festival production of Someone Bought the House on the Island. Because of their size, I will send them individually. There are three for the time being.

This first shot features So-and-So and So-and-So.

Thanks for all your help.

My second email reads:

This second photo again features So-and-So and So-and-So.

I get a response to this second note that says:

Who are these people?

And I think to myself, Well, I don’t really know. I can’t say that I have any personal knowledge of them, or insight about them, beyond their names (which I found on Stageclick.com - and you can, too).

I don’t know if they are good people or if they are bad people or if, like most of us, they are somewhere in between. Perhaps they are fathers with children they love and adore or maybe they are fugitives on the run from some local, state, or Federal governmental agency. I just don’t know. Existentially, perhaps I can never, may never, ever know.

It might be that the older man experienced certain difficulties in his youth, some heartache perhaps, a lost love. It may be that the younger man is headed for some disaster, his bloated, bullet-ridden body to be found someday floating in the river. But I can’t be sure. I’m sorry. I feel so inadequate. Forgive me.

I soon get a response from my third email in which I had written:

This final photo includes, clockwise from the left:

• This One
• That One
• The Other One
• Another One, and
• The Final One

Now I’m done. Thanks again.

The response asks me:

I assume the names are list, (sic) left to right.

Well, no, they weren’t (aren’t?), but I wrote back, changing the order to meet her needs.

This person I am corresponding with is a person who works as an editor on a daily newspaper in a kind of major city (well, it once was), and she expects me to take her into my arms, feed, and burp her.

Come to think of it, this pretty much explains the state of the American media today, doesn’t it? Just spoon feed them what you want them to eat, and they’ll spit it up or poop it right back out while you sit over them, cooing about what good boys and girls they are.

- Bigezbear

A certain professor is riding high these days by skimming along on the jet stream left in the wake of a particular local entertainer.

It seems he is missing the point of New Orleans’ love affairs with ladies who could never exist in real life. Women like Chris Owens, Becky Allen, and Varla Jean Merman are not real. They are constructs built from various New Orleans elements we love about ourselves. So we respond. We’re helpless not to.

Chris Owens’ real gift is for entertaining people in a way that empowers them to entertain themselves. Some years back, when I was younger and knew so much more than I do today, I looked down on her as a joke. Then this one time, my older brother and his wife came to town to visit and spontaneously dragged me into her joint on Bourbon Street. Oh, how I tried to maintain my dignity, but I didn’t stand a chance. I didn’t have what it takes to resist her. By the time she pulled my brother onstage with her to sing a duet, I was laughing, clapping, and jiggin’ in my chair.

I realized then all you have to do is just sit back, relax, and let her do her job. She’ll soon have you feeling all good about yourself (like this little guy).

I ask you, what’s wrong with that?

- Bigezbear

Hi All -

We are rocking and rolling getting plans for the benefit in solid order for this Saturday. Below is the current information for the benefit. We hope to have posters and fliers available later on today!

We are still looking for - volunteers to help with various aspects of the fundraiser (stage help, bartending, raffle ticket sellers, silent auction helpers and more), tables and tents for the silent auction and other outdoor booths, more donations (big & small) for the silent auction and the raffle, a roll of raffle tickets if anyone has one to spare, possibly a PA system (we may have one lined up already, but it isn’t 100% confirmed), folks interesting in performing short acts while bands load on and off the stage, set up and clean up help, donations of liquor/wine/food….

Please contact Andrea via email at andrea@lartnoirneworleans.com or via phone at 504.324.2489 (home) or 254.640.8441 (cell).

Visit http://www.ChrisandOtter.com for more info and links to all the wonderful bands, artists, etc. participating in the benefit!

Thanks!

- Andrea Garland

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!
- A Festival to Benefit Chris & Otter -

Saturday, April 19th, 2008 • 2pm - Midnight
4537 N. Robertson (corner of N. Robertson & Kentucky)

(more…)

sure the city is known for potholes. which city isn’t? well, the new orleans pothole is a genus onto itself, and our pothole epidemic is a growing, or should I say sinking, one. because of katrina, it appears the earth is sucking in and exploding pockets of its flesh like a pimple faced teen after a popeye’s binge. the holes seem to be more epic, more grand. the tales of their exploration and dangers rival homer, columbus, ishmael, and gilgamesh. perhaps strange beasts and beautiful sirens dwell within them. the ones that surround my home are a strange gathering of holes akin to the louis sacher’s hand-dug variety sans the scorpions, the spotted “leapin” lizards, and the catchy disney soundtrack. they began like all others, but their growth was soon expedited by the de-railroading of my street, a process which left a uneven gutter that would drive any true lebowski or achiever nuts (and that was pre-k). immediately after the storm another don carter-esque gutter was dug by the phone company as it tried to reestablish services. unfortunately, like her friends at the railroad, ma bell did not fill in the open grave and the (now) two gutters began to grow and merge with the potholes between and betwixt. the asphalt crackled, cracked, and bristled. the amount of road became less and less… and the not-so-rhetorical question became, “is this a road with potholes or a pothole with a road in it?” the minimal road became an isthmus too thin to drive on– more likely a better flytrap, mousetrap, roach motel on the airline highway of my so-called life. everyday there was another victim, the road not prejudiced against vehicles neighbors contemplated the thought of buying a chain to haul out the helpless motorists which now number one or two per day… $50 times 2 times 365 plus holiday pay. you do the math. my once quiet street, if you can call gunfire quiet, was now the burial ground of abandoned cars and dying blinkers like a diorama of pangaea writ large and transposed straight out of the last ACT, complete with three dimensional plate tectonics and physics equations.

my ire grew daily especially when the rains came. a puddle? a lake? never quite sure where to step… never knowing how deep i stepped. cursing the mayors (past, present, and future), i was certain that nothing could or would assuage me. then i heard the family that had taken up residence in my potholes — a family of ducks. perhaps it was no longer a hole, now rather a pond, perhaps even a lake in the making. briefly I was content. now i knew how noah felt when the dove flew back to the ship.

at least I can pretend…

BLOG THIS!

phfred@notthat.com

OTTER IS OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!!

As Chris put it to me, they sprang her this morning… She will be
holding court at BJ’s Lounge (corner of Lesseps and Burgundy in the
Bywater) later this afternoon if anyone would like to swing by and
see her.

Chris would again like to say thanks to everyone who has been helping
out, contributing, etc. Thanks to the monetary donations that have
been coming in, they have been able to start covering some more
urgent personal bills, which is a huge help and relief for them.

Keep spreading the word!
ChrisAndOtter.com

- Andrea (aka NOGoddess)

Please come out and enjoy these great upcoming events and help support Chris & Otter at the same time! And please help spread the word…

Thanks to all - and especially to the folks at HumidCity for bringing me on board, very glad to be here!

Andrea Garland (aka NOGoddess)

Artisan Cheese & Wine Tasting
Featuring Hand Made Cheeses
by Chef Sheana Davis of The Epicurean Connection (sheanadavis.com)
and Wines From Wines Unlimited

- A Benefit for Chris & Otter -

$18.00 per person, includes cheeses and a glass of wine.
Additional wine for sale by the glass or bottle.
Proceeds go to help pay Chris & Otter’s medical debt.
At Bacchanal Wine Shop • Thursday, April 17th, 7:30pM
600 Poland Avenue • BacchanalWine.com • Tel: 504.942.9111
For more info, please visit ChrisAndOtter.com

(more…)

First and most importantly here is the link to Remember Ashley Morris, where you can doante to the fund for his wife and children.

Here is the link to the funeral info.

And here is a tribute from the Big Easy Rollergirls. For those not in the know it is the BERG’s own Soviet Block who has been widowed. Sports fans, show your love.

And over here, at Your Right Hand Thief, the Bivalve has stopped blogging until his demands are met.

Today the New Orleans Blogosphere, and the Blogosphere in general, lost one of its most profane and wonderful voices.

It is my sad duty to let you know that Dr. Ashley Morris, the man most likely to call Ray Nagin a fuckmook to his face, passed away today. We have lost our excitable boy. His unrelenting passion for our city and his community will be missed as much as his unflinching and cuss-ridden dissections of the federal, state and local incompetence that has brought our city to its present state.

Hana, his wife, left a post on his blog. Go by, leave a comment, read his old posts if you haven’t. Let them know there are people out there who care. He leaves three young children.

My friend you shall be missed, and that by many more than just myself. I will have more to say later when I am able to compose myself.

You go on plodding along from day to day when - bam! - another award thingy comes along, and you find yourself back in the last car of another roller coaster ride all over again. The Storer Boone Awards.

This one is special, though. The people who nominate and then select the winners are all part of the New Orleans theatre community.

And, man, did our little troop of downtown strolling players rack up. To Do Productions garnered a total of 12 nominations, and Valhalla is all over the place with five of our six actors getting nods and our beloved Donnie Jay being recognized for producing and designing the quick-change costumes. Nice.

Even the dick sow - I mean “show” - got a handful of nominations. To Do done good.

There was also a cherry on top of all this whipped cream: Louie Crowder copped a nomination for Cobalt Blue as Best Original Play for 2007.

- Bigezbear

From the T-P:

The Jindal administration’s plans to reassess the details of a proposed $1.2 billion, 484-bed teaching hospital in downtown New Orleans are raising some concerns about the future of the facility designed to replace the city’s hurricane-damaged Charity Hospital.

Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said this week that he wants to hire outside experts to “challenge the assumptions” in a business model developed last year that said the new hospital would be financially viable.
Levine, who is Gov. Bobby Jindal’s point man on the project that Louisiana State University would build in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said he is worried that the hospital’s current configuration is too expensive and might not qualify for bond financing.

He did not identify which consultant he plans to use, nor did he lay out a time frame for when the review might be finished. He said the money to pay the consultants would likely come from a $74.5 million financing pool that the Legislature approved last year for land acquisition and design of the hospital.

“I don’t think it’s a lot to ask to make sure that the project makes sense financially,” Levine said, adding that he wants to make sure there is enough money to not just build the hospital, but also to cover its operational expenses over the long haul.

“You’re talking about 1.2 billion dollars. You’re talking about effectively encumbering our state’s safety-net money for 30 years. So I don’t think it’s inappropriate to ask,” Levine said.

But some lawmakers, noting that the original report was commissioned by the state and touted as an independent assessment by a major consulting group, said another review raises questions about the Jindal administration’s commitment to the project.

“There are rumors that this is a delaying tactic,” Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, said Friday. “We know that LSU is now solidly behind the project, but after the session the governor will be able to make new appointees to the LSU Board (of Supervisors).”

Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, said he didn’t know the details of Levine’s plans for a review, “but I don’t know how you go against the findings of a reputable consultant.”

Who stands to gain? Just follow the money.

- Bigezbear

HumidCity would like to wish Big Easy Rollergirl Julie Jawbreaker Happy Birthday, and luck in the upcoming Championships on April 19th!

HumidCity is proud to support the Big Easy Rollergirls in their upcoming championship bout! See you at Mardi Gras World!