HumidCity

Turkey, not just a fowl on the table to consume over the holidays, not just a pejorative piece of 70’s slang, turkey is the spirit of the day. Literally.

In my not so humble opinion the Times PIcayune is the biggest turkey of the season. You see they, or rather Doug McCash, ran an art review recently. An art review in which the name of the artwork in question was not printed. You see, as local New Orleanians know from experience the Times PIc tries its best to pretend that The Gambit does not exist, even now after two decades. This must have posed quite a quandary for them in reviewing an art installation entitled “Gambit.” As a matter of fact it was made of torn up pieces of our own Gambit Magazine.

The tradition of not ever mentioning Gambit’s title anywhere in the paper reared its head in one of the stupidist things I have seen since the last time I was at City Hall: gratuitously renaming the exhibit. That’s right, they just renamed it “Surreal Wallpaper”. Not only is it a stupid name, bt they also have no right to do so. I bring this up because it is indicative of the state of reporting in the city recently. With the exception of a few intrepid souls like Lee Zurich (our own Mr. Eyebrows) this is the level of journalism we have to work with most of the time.

I wonder, would they have so easily renamed a feature film? They’d better think about it, one is opening under that title in mere months.

There’s a great scan (with highlighting) on the Gambit Blog here.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Undecided,

The schedule of events and speakers for Rising Tide III is now available! In this third year of our “blogger conference” there is much of interest, as can be seen below. More details and online registration are available at the Rising Tide Conference Blog. Come on down and get the skinny on Year 3K, from levee failure to living in the aftermath this one has it all. Even better, if you wish to levy abuse upon yours truly then you can do so at the Conference as I will be liveblogging the proceedings for HumidCity and Katrina: An UnNatural Disaster.

-Loki, HumidCity Founder

Friday night, 8/22, 7:30 PM - Meet and Greet at Buffa’s Lounge, 1001 Esplanade Avenue. Pick up your badges, grab some refreshments, and chat with other bloggers. Drinks are not included in the conference fee.

Saturday, 8/23, 9:00 - Conference begins at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd - coffee and pastries are served.

The following presentations include 15-minute Question and Answer sessions:

9:30- 10:30 - Keynote speaker: John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America and commissioner for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East

10:45 - 12:00 - The Past, Present, and Future of Elementary and Secondary Education in New Orleans.

Panelists:

· Dedra Johnson – author, professor and blogger, author of Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow

· Jeffrey Berman - teacher, Booker T. Washington High School and Schwarz Alternative School

· Grayling Evans - teacher, Coghill Elementary School

· Leigh Dingerson - Education team leader of the Center for Community Change, editor and contributor to Keeping The Promise?: The Debate Over Charter Schools

· Clifton Harris - concerned parent and blogger

· Christian Roselund - UTNO Communications, blogging at Dirty South Bureau

Moderator: Patrick Armstrong, former Recovery School District teacher and blogger

12:00 - 1:00 - Lunch provided by J’anita’s

1:00 - 2:15 - Journalism and Blogging: Intersections and Digressions

Panelists:

· Lee Zurik: WWL-TV investigative reporter

· Kevin Allman: author, journalist, and blogger, frequent guest blogger at Gambit’s Blog of New Orleans

· David Winkler-Schmit: journalist and frequent contributor to Gambit Weekly and the Blog of New Orleans

· Eli Ackerman: blogger at We Could Be Famous

Moderator: Jeffrey Bostick

2:30 - 3:45 - Local Politics Panel - Panelists and Moderator TBA

Refreshments can be purchased at the Zeitgeist concession stand for the duration of the conference.

Sunday, 8-24: Community Service Activity TBA

California Appeals court has now overturned that ruling, clearly saying that web publications are covered under the same protections as offline publications. Hah! So there!