HumidCity

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.

Humid city is putting out the call for New Orleans creators of all stripes. If you are a local actor, band, painter, printmaker, etc. and have a MySpace site (or want help setting one up) look up our  MySpace site and friend us. The comments area of that site will be a bulletin board for your announcemnts and shows, all other comments not related to the scene will be blocked. We will be doing a short feature every friday here on the main site on one of the bands, and every tuesday on one of the other artists.

Troy Andrews, aka Trombone Shorty, has been a fixture for years. I remember seeing him play in Jackson Square when he was a young high school kid of 16 and even then he was impressive. Now that he is an adult he has truly proved himself a local treasure! Check out his site, or visit his MySpace and groove on the sounds. A true New Orleans Original and an example of what growing up steeped in the sound of this city can produce.

Friday Music Blast brought to you by Humid City on MySpace

I would like to announce the launch of two companion or annex sites as part of the Humid City project:

• Humid City on MySpace - Networked heavily into the New Orleans art and music scenes, this space will probably be the center of our work with helping revive the scene here. Those of you who remember the Silver Machine will feel right at home there, those who do not should check it out!
• Humid City on LiveJournal -  Bloggers write to people, LiveJournal people intereact and discuss things. This community will try to bridge the gap and provide a “sitting around the coffeeshop/bar,” atmosphere for conversations relevant to New Orleanians both here in the Forbidden Zone and beyond.

It is my hope to use the combination of these three platforms to create unity and a free flow of pertinent information while enhancing our sense of community.

Come by and see us. Get involved. New Orleans is important.