HumidCity

HumidHaney (No relation to HumidCity, although we did work in a design studio together years ago) has done what he does best: take a meme and boil it down to a great Sticker/Tee Shirt. In this case it is something that fans of the late Ashley Morris will get instantly: FYFF stickers.

Show your support of the family Morris as well as your opinion of those who think New Orleans is dead. Purchasing info can be found on Humid Haney’s site.

In the morning I will be doing once again that which has become all too familiar in the past two years, laying a friend to his final rest. It seems like everyone has written about how Ashley Morris touched their lives, even those who only knew him from his blogging. From John Pope at the Times-Picayune to the Big Easy Rollergirls (of whom his wife was one) the tributes and goodbyes show how far his reach extended.

Huge of heart as well as frame, “The Perfesser” was a man of unbridled passion for New Orleans. He refused to allow injustice and inhumanity to go unchallenged, speaking up with conviction where others remained silent. He spoke from the heart, shot from the hip, and burned through many a cigar in the process.

In the morning people from around the country will be donning suits, Rollergirl gear, and Saints jerseys as they gather to honor the good Doctor. He would want a huge sendoff and I doubt he will be disappointed. Info on the funeral can be located here, and for those of you who wish to help his wife and children you can donate here.

What passes for eloquence on my part is out of the question now. I just know I miss my friend and want to see his children secure the way he would have wished.

You rascal, how dare you ease out the back door when we have yet to follow through on all those threats of playing guitar together over Guiness and steaks. I miss you brother.

Once the funeral is out of the way it will be time for some vicious dissection of the inadequacies of our political class. We must all pick up the torch and prevent the fuckmooks from resting easy. He is no longer here to contain his fire so we must all blaze on his behalf.
-Loki, founder HumidCity

In a surprise move this evening Soviet Block, our own Hana Morris, announced that she will be keeping Ashley’s blog open!

The fundraising efforts are going well on the internet end, something for which I would like to offer my personal thanks. There is still a long way to go, but I have faith in our community. Stop by Remember Ashley Morris and help lift them up.

More soon, I am completely exhausted and must sleep. ÂÂ

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.

A major voice in the New Orleans blogosphere has gone silent, widowing a Rollergirl and orphaning three tiny children. As
various local groups prepare a benefit we see major obstacles looming for the family including five figure expenses for the funeral. Please give what you can, even a few dollar here and there can mount up. There are needs that cannot wait on the fund raising events.

Please join the efforts of HumidCity, Defend New Orleans, NOLA Rising, WTUL, Tales of the Cocktail, The Big Easy Rollergirls, The Skull Club, L’Art Noir, and many more as we show the Morris Family what community really means!

Online Donations can be made at Remember Ashley Morris

If you wish to mail a donation make the check out to Hana Morris and send it to:

HumidCity c/o
George Williams
5500 Prytania St.
PMB #417
New Orleans, LA 70115

If you wish to become involved in the benefit events, donate art for auction, or assist in some other way please contact me directly by emailing me humidcity at gmail dot com

Ashley wants you to laugh, you fuckers!

by New Orleans City Council Member Shelly Midura syndicated, from an open email
I wanted to honor the life and passing of one of my district’s neighborhood activists, Professor Ashley Morris, who we lost to an early passing yesterday morning. He was a friend to my office and a champion of his neighborhood. More than almost anything though, he was a fierce lover of New Orleans. He spent much of his time during the week teaching at an out-of-town university, yet he had no desire to move there. He preferred to commute.

To Chicago. From New Orleans.

Why would he do that? Why do so many others in our city do such things? I believe it was because Professor Morris wanted to be able to tell people, “I’m from New Orleans.” He wanted people to know that New Orleans was his home and that this truth was not only conscious and deliberate, but perhaps also something fated. He seemed to believe that New Orleans chose him as much as he chose us, as if it were some quantum entanglement that could not be logically explained or rationalized. It was a matter of the heart and knowing in the bottom of your soul exactly where you belong. It was a deep yearning for a city he loved, cherished, and felt gratitude and appreciation towards every day, despite the challenges and the ups and downs of post-Katrina life.

On his blog only a couple months ago, he wrote about going out to lunch with his friend Ray to Willie Mae’s and grabbing take-out there and how “There on the stoop, we tore into a whole fried chicken, macaroni and cheese casserole, mixed greens, and candied yams that tasted more like bread pudding. An excellent meal, as you can see… anywhere else, we’d be having lunch. Here in New Orleans, we were having a world class meal. For lunch.” Ashley knew that any moment in New Orleans was unlike any moment anywhere else in the world, that typical days here are not typical days anywhere else on this planet, and that being a New Orleanian, especially now, comes with a special badge of honor.

And so I honor my fellow New Orleanian, Professor Ashley Morris. He will be so dearly missed by so many, of whom I am only one. New Orleans aches for him today and wishes his wife, young children, family, and loved ones its heartfelt condolences.

“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.”