Attention, people at the National Hurricane Center:

I know it’s a little late for this, but my partner, Jonno, and I have some suggestions for future storm names. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ones you’ve chosen but…oh, who are we kidding? They totally suck.

Seriously: Gustav? You’re trying to get people interested, to make them pay attention, and you’re going with Gustav? Do we really need to tell you that NO ONE KNOWS Flaubert? He’s like someone you’re supposed to read in French class, but you slink by with the Cliffs Notes summary, and Madame Washington is none the wiser. And of the (maybe) 12 people who remember him, NO ONE remembers his first name.

That said, we have some great suggestions that ought to liven things up. They appeal to a broad demographic, including literary types, pop culture junkies, and ‘tards. Check out these babies:

• Hurricane Ignatius P. Reilly (A storm any bookworm would love!)

• Hurricane Jan Brady (They still run that show in syndication, you know.)

• Hurricane Kenickie (Everybody remembers Grease!)

• Hurricane Linda Lavin (It’s alliterative!)

• Hurricane Marcelle Marceau (Also alliterative!)

• Hurricane Nanette Fabray (I lobbied for Nana Mouskouri, but no dice. Sad face.)

• Hurricane Otis Spunkmeyer (But only if he sponsors it.)

• Hurricane Pussy Terwilliger (A celebrity, but only in in my mind.)

That’s all we’ve come up with so far, but we can totally go all the way to Z if necessary. Just give us the word.

I was honored to be invited to help a team of local preservation minded people to review properties for the Louisiana Landmarks Society’s New Orlean’s Nine list last year in order to raise public awareness about historical properties in the city which are/were at risk of being lost forever. It was a rocky year for the Louisiana Landmarks Society and all of New Orleans Preservation organizations in the post-Katrina environment and the list never really got the public notice it deserved. The New Orlean’s Nine selection process is long and complicated. It’s a very formal process which, due to staffing, wasn’t able to be properly unveiled at the time. Interestingly,  the list does appear on their website today, though the 2008 list does not. New Orleans Nine 2007.

As is often the case in the world of non-profit/volunteer work, you never know where things will lead. I was so happy to see this lead story tonight in the Times Picayune regarding one of the final Nine properties that made the 2007 list.
Clear for Takeoff. It relays the current work underway to restore the historic New Orleans Lakefront Airport.

I take the consideration of historic properties seriously and am compelled to see them ‘in person’ to really have a solid opinion of their historic value. Thus, I have this great set of Photos of Shushan Airport from my visit to Shushan last year with Karen Gadbois as part of my research for the New Orleans Nine list committee.

It was rather spooky going in there last year and I am so glad Karen was game to accompany me, we marvelled at the murals and art-deco metalwork which is finally getting the recoginition it deserves. 

Many people worked hard to review the 2007 list of 40 properties to narrow them down to only nine. I  learned a lot in the process and even though it was not officially able to be published at the time, I am so glad to see some good news on this one and so glad I went to see it for myself, despite the risk of getting busted for trespassing.

In case you might be interested and because I did it, here is my own rather pedestrian write-up of the property as well:

The Shushan terminal building was designed by the architectural firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth, it compliments their other significant work, the Louisiana State Capitol.  Their design was used as a model for other art deco airport terminals throughout the country between 1934 and 1940. The building is home to significant murals by WPA-era artist Xavier Gonzales.  The Shushan terminal was prominent in several major events in the U.S. and aviation history.  Amelia Earhart spent the night at the terminal’s hotel facility prior to her final global flight.  When it was completed, Shushan Field was the largest airport in the United States, strategically located on a man-made peninsula in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain.  New York and Washington, D.C., were in the process of developing similar airfields but New Orleans accomplished this engineering feat first and over 10,000 spectators applauded the feat at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.  It served served nearly one million visitors during the “Golden Age” of air travel.

In 1964, Shushan underwent a major renovation.  Gonzales’ “Wonders of Flight” murals were covered by paneling and the airport eventually was renamed the New Orleans Lakefront Airport.  During this renovation, three of the eight original murals were covered or obstructed from public view as the atrium, a signature element of the building, was modified to create office space.  One mural, “Rio de Janeiro” was removed and sent to the Louisiana State Museum where it remains today.

The Shushan Terminal was punished because of the political backlash of its corrupt namesake.  The airport was named after Abe Shushan, the Orleans Levee Board President who oversaw its construction.  After he was convicted on a variety of corruption related charges, the airport was renamed.  However, Abe had attempted to immortalize himself by adorning every possible surface with his name or initial, which renovators felt compelled to remove, sometimes disregarding the larger impact of this superficial problem.

Shushan’s unique artisanship and its Depression Era craftsmanship is an example of elegance and efficiency that modern construction cost can no longer accommodate.  Though the building suffered some damage from hurricane Katrina, the structure was used by National Guard troops immediately after the storm, it is very sound and worthy of restoration as one of our unique modern architectural gems.

I haven’t been able to read anymore books about Post Katrina New Orleans. Period. As much as I want to. One symptom of Post Traumatic Stress disorder is continually reliving the traumatic experience and I have done enough of that just working with Karen on Squandered Heritage and my continual work on the Neighborhood Conservation District Committeee brings it all back without any artistic flourish. However, Ian McNulty is one of the city’s finest writers.

I have pestered Ian more than once about relegating his talent to the not-at-all challenging work of restaurant reviews, where his adjectives seem to go to waste.  I was so happy to see he’s actually completed a book that will zero in on a new feeling about our experience.  Why do I think this?  Because a few months ago I posted my recommended ”One Dead in Attic” through Good Reads and my youngest sister Kate picked it up and read it.

We discovered that her reading it helped her understand the magnitude of what I/we’ve gone through and are still going through here in New Orleans. She was very understanding when I explained why I have to bring my cats to Illinois when I visit her while on vacation next month. It made sense to her and made her miss New Orleans more. Since she’s visited me here, we have had a great amount to talk about as a result. 

“Season of Night”, promises to bring a new perspective to our lives post-Katrina. I am sure it will pack more bravado than all other books on New Orleans lately.  I am sure Kate and I will read it and compare notes. 

Ian is a very charming man and I love so much of what he does even beyond his writing. He encompasses that superior sense of whimsy that is New Orleans. Ian doesn’t need to ’sell it’. He’s the opposite of Chris Rose, he’s not a-social at all. For example, I love his Tour de Pants event, a bike ride / pub crawl through the neighborhoods of New Orleans which is hosted in conjunction with the final day of the Tour de France.   Ian’s Coolers and Candlight Party also speaks to his higher level of connectedness and ability to discuss this whole big experience in a its real context. Ian has a larger-than-life wit that I am sure will make reading about Katrina related events and emotions adventurous again and breath new perspective into our healing. I know that Ian can deliver us from darkness.

You can come see Ian at The Garden District Bookshop in The Rink at Prytania and Washington on Thursday, July 10th from 5:30-7:30. Having been in the bookselling business for many years, I must say that hearing an author talk about his work is always very enlightening! Hearing Ian speak will be a great treat.

Just in case you miss it elsewhere, here is the official publisher write up on the book:
In A Season of Night: New Orleans Life after Katrina, author and New Orleans journalist Ian McNulty offers an intimate account of that homecoming and the battle between hope and despair in a surreal landscape.
McNulty moved back to his wrecked New Orleans house soon after the floodwaters drained, living on the second floor and writing this book on a laptop by candlelight.
By turns haunting, inspiring, and darkly comic, this memoir offers a behind-the-headlines story of resilience and renewal for a neighborhood and a city. From bittersweet camaraderie in the ruined streets to the first flickers of cultural revival and the explosive joy of a post-Katrina Mardi Gras, A Season of Night delivers an unprecedented tale from the wounded but always enthralling Crescent City.

ps: Being a literary dork, this title reminds me of Celine’s “Journey To The End of the Night”. But that’s pretty French.

pps: Ian, I am really fucking proud of you! Thanks !  

Asked whether she could forgive her husband after an extramarital affair…Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: “I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary [Clinton]. If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

–ABC News, July 2007

Sadly, Wendy had to eat those words. Maybe she was worried about finding the right knife. Or perhaps she was concerned about the legal ramifications of conducting an unauthorized penectomy. Or maybe she underwent a great sexual awakening and found herself more titillated by her husband’s peccadilloes than she’d imagined. Whatever: her bloodthirsty moment passed.

But now girlfriend may get another chance. Because just as the “DC Madam” case is going to trial, the Louisiana senate has passed a bill that paves the way for legalized castration. Which is not quite the same thing as a penectomy, of course, but it’s in the ballpark.

Back in 2006, some folks in our fair city voted to re-elect William Jefferson even though they didn’t like him. Even though he was (and is) self-absorbed and ineffective. Even though his habit of keeping $90k stashed in frozen Tupperware seemed (and seems) a tad suspicious.

Why would sane, sensible voters do such a thing? Because they assumed that the pending federal investigation of Jefferson would lead to an indictment, which would lead to his resignation, which would lead to another election in which they could elect someone, like, really good.

Those voters, btw, are now officially idiots:

The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that the F.B.I. went too far in searching the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat accused of using his position to promote business deals in Africa.

Without comment, the justices declined to review a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which concluded last August that agents had violated the Constitution by the methods it used in the May 2006 search.

The appeals court did not find that the raid itself was unconstitutional; rather, it found that the F.B.I. violated constitutional separation of powers by allowing agents to look freely through Congressional files for incriminating evidence….

New York Times

So basically, instead of voting for a nice, normal candidate the first time around, a bunch of smartasses who simply didn’t care for Karen Carter have allowed Louisiana’s reputation to languish (note: understatement is the new black). That’s pretty unfortunate, because, you know, given all the senatorial whoremongering and the gubernatorial buck-passing and the mayoral spouting-off, we could’ve used an “in” with somebody in DC.

P.S. Coincidentally, Jefferson illustrates my favorite Obscure Word of the Week: throttlebottom. It works on so many levels.

Noladishu sent me a photo of the corner where the shooting happened. He says, “The crime camera is clearly visible about 8 feet above the street sign. It is active (or at least it moves around inside the bubble).”

As I drove back from a quick but delectable lunch today Janita’s, Craig’s place, I ran across a shooting in the Irish Channel at Washington and Constance Streets around 2:45 pm. The little yellow cones marking the presence of shell casings at the corner alerted me to the fact that there was a crime scene investigation going on. The whole blocked was shut down by NOPD.
Read more

Click the photos to see more photos of CJ Peete, taken in 2006.

After the fiasco at City Council this week when this group disrupted the proceedings and were met by stiff security, the affordable housing folks are trying to get a bit more organized going into next week. At a meeting yesterday led by housing advocate, Bill Quigley, a plan was outlined for next week’s strategy as they fight to stop the demolition of The Big 4 housing projects in New Orleans.

Sunday, Dec. 9th: March to Ray Nagin’s House . . . all the way to Texas?

Monday, Dec. 10th: 9 am : Press Conference Protest at City Hall.
10 am: Stagger (not storm) into the Housing Conservation District Review Committee (in Safety & Permits) which is scheduled to hear the case of residents and give final consideration before issuing the necessary permits for demolition for Peete, Cooper and Lafitte.

This room, where the HCDRC is held, is very small. It’s going to be ugly. Knowing the sketchy background of the HCDRC, these public housing advocates ought to go see if these buildings haven’t already been demolished. The group plans to ask for denial and/or deferral of the matter. At best, they are hoping for a no action or lack of a quorum.

Having attended too many of these train wrecks, I wonder how Super Mario, the Chair of the Committee, (Nelson Savoie) plans to get out of this mess. Maybe they will kidnap Nelson. Someone at the meeting today called the HCDRC, “a rubber stamp committee”. I am thinking they may pull it from the agenda on a technicality.

Tuesday, Dec. 11th: Preparation and training for a larger mobilization organized by Defend New Orleans Public Housing.Org. The AFL-CIO plans to go into the D.C. Court to stop demolition of St. Bernard. Look for a press conference.

Wednesday, Dec. 12th: Barbara Jackson is in charge of galvanizing people at River Gardens to get them to show up at the protests later in the week. Barbara’s going to have to promise that they will make it home in time for their soaps. Apparently, the insurgents need to inflate their numbers by gathering up people who already have some pretty nice public housing. You would think that these residents would actually support the demolition of the gulags.

Thursday, Dec. 13th: Day of Action: Mass mobilization of protesters at Lafitte. The plan is to deliberately block the I-10 exit ramp.

Friday, Dec. 14th: Catholic Charities Day. After a busy few days of insurrection, this must be the day the group talks about genocide. Inevitably, it comes up in all their discussion. They equate the demolition of public housing and building new ones as a violation of Human Rights. Are they saying that thousands of people have been systematically murdered by the government by keeping the projects closed?

Saturday, Dec. 15th: Whomever is not yet in jail, protest at St. Bernard.

Jump in Front of Bulldozers: Some cursory thought was given to Plan B. If the HCDRC approves the demolitions, these folks plan to send a message to those contracted to do the demolitions that they will be met with the same level of hysteria. They plan to stand in front of the bulldozers.

The rest of this post is more detailed background information for the serious reader . . .
Read more

I was at a meeting at Starbucks on Magazine St. at Washington Ave. this weekend. Sitting in front of the cafe, I looked up from my budget balance sheets to see this huge wall of realtor boxes outside on the sidewalk. I wondered how I had not noticed them before.

This isn’t a hard-core issue but out of curiosity I took a casual survey of a loop beginning at Washington Ave. along Magazine to Napoleon and up to St. Charles Ave. back to Louisiana Ave. I modestly counted 40 Realtor boxes in that area. Many were empty. All of them look like shit. None of them are secured, of course, so they are a potential liability during tropical weather season. Some cities in Florida are moving toward eliminating all of these boxes, newspapers included. Business owners got on board with a plan to only distribute this material from inside the business. It’s just one of those things you don’t really see . . . you know, until you do. And you sort of go, “wtf?”

For all those who believe that Louisiana is behind the times, that we’re three–maybe four–steps behind every other state in the country, please note:

St. Bernard Parish Councilman Joey DiFatta, who on Thursday withdrew from the 1st Senate District campaign, has been stopped twice since 1996 for suspicion of engaging in lewd behavior in public restrooms in Jefferson Parish, records obtained by The Times-Picayune show.

– more at NOLA.com

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen: we’ve got ourselves a toe-tapping tearoom scandal just like the one on the evening news. There is, however, a difference between the two: unlike Senator Craig (who’d probably be very comfortable among the non-homosexuals of Iran), DiFatta plainly admits he likes to get down with the mens. In other words, the issue isn’t his penchant for knobgobbling, but rather DiFatta’s particular fetish:

DiFatta also said he has a problem with such behavior and had sought counseling for the addiction in the past, the report states.

Which is remarkable language for the Picayune to use, since…well, it’s the Picayune fer chrissakes! I don’t even think they’ll print the word “ass”, yet here they are, talking about public sex between men as an outgrowth of sexual addiction–which is awfully 70116 for such a 70118 newspaper.

This is a subject I’ve written about before — nearly a year ago as I remember (I’d go back and look but, frankly, I’m just too lazy this Sunday morning). The Washington Post has a very good look at the city’s continuing battle with depression.

The story is, of course, nothing new to those of us who have chosen to return and stay and work to rebuild. This has always been a city of extreme personalities and it’s one of the reasons we had to come back. But, too often, the more mundane of us have become extreme and the usual extremes have rounded the bend and fallen off into the Just Plain Bizarre. Social drinkers have become alcoholics, Loud party folks have become bar-fightin’ nutjobs and the nearby eccentric (every block in this city has at least one) turns into a Confederate flag-waving recluse, shouting at passers-by from inside his still unrepaired house. Or something.
Read more