Day 184: Happy Mawdy Gras!

Let Fat Tuesday begin! What am I doing at a computer typing this rather than out there capturing coconuts and belly-dancing to the marching bands of Krewe of St. Ann? Why I wanted to greet my readers on a great day for New Orleans. And what a fine day it is! In full defiance of the hurricane that almost closed this city down for good, the sun shines on New Orleans and residents and tourists are out and about in colorful costumes and comfortable clothes, as the display of Carnival spirit should be.

Time for food, hydration, supplies and out there again!

Here’s to the late, great Professor Longhair and the city he loved so well!

Going to New Orleans, I want to see the Mardi Gras …
Got my ticket in my hand, I want to go to New Orleans.

February 28, 2006 | carnival, culture-society-history, hurricane katrina, new orleans | 7 Comments »

Day 179: Thursday Parades – Babylon, Chaos and Muses

The gods smiled on last night’s parades and saved the rain for this afternoon. The crowds and vendors were out on St. Charles Avenue and it finally looked like Mardi Gras. It’s about time!

First came the Knights of Babylon, a traditional parade that uses and reuses floats made almost six decades ago with a mule-drawn King’s float. Walking quickly up St. Charles to meet friends, we walked against the parade and did not get a good look at this year’s King Sargon or the Queen, but managed to catch a few nice beads. Did anyone catch the theme this year?

Next up was the Knights of Chaos, one of my favorites for its artistic floats and biting satire. This year’s theme was Hades – A Dream Of Chaos. One of the trading cards D caught explains the theme best:

“… In a rainbow of satirical tableau roulants, Chaos reflects on the hell of disorder created by the hurricane called Katrina … This tableau could be called “Reconstruction II” as we look with both sadness and humor at events and individuals involved in the devastation on New Orleans and the promise for the future.”

No one was spared – not Nagin, Bush, Blanco, Brown, Chertoff, Compass, Benson, Broussard, the Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the national press, carpetbaggers or post-Katrina pork. Some good ones:

- The Headless State: “Once again this float remains decorated in “Blanco” [or white] as a tribute to the lack of state leadership in this crisis.”
- The Pigs Of Patronage: “The Orleans Levee Board in its current form has only political patronage for qualifications, not technical expertise.”
- my personal favorite, The Inferno, with Bush as an “aloof Satan [who] blithely sails his ship of state above, yet removed from, this chaotic inferno.”

Knights of Chaos - The Ship Of State

More on Muses, the only all-woman parade that rolls Uptown and at night, when this post is updated. The forecast now calls for good weather, i.e. no rain, on Hermes, Krewe d’Etat and Morpheus, some more of my beloved Uptown parades. Can’t wait to see Randy’s floats and d’Etat’s wickedness. More in my next.

February 24, 2006 | carnival, culture-society-history, hurricane katrina, new orleans | Comments Closed

Day 178: A Trip To Lakeview

There is too much to say about the state of Lakeview after the flood. Again, I don’t speak for all of this large neighborhood, simply the parts that held and still bear a lot of meaning for me. These places – dwellings, parks, restaurants, harbors, pubs, scenic drives – were where we met, talked, laughed, dined, drank, argued, played and visited with close friends and colleagues.

Too much to say, so I give you pictures from the three main stops made during our last visit there. Here are a few samples and some context:

North Lakeview By City Park: This is where some good friends and their friends lived. M and T moved to California a few months before the storm, L has moved to Houston since Katrina, and a For Sale sign sits in front of G and K’s flooded place.

Lakeview - General Diaz & Conrad Lakeview - The Corner Of Conrad & General Diaz.
The corner of Conrad & General Diaz in Lakeview: October 7, 2005 (L) and February 20, 2006 (R)

***

West End Marina & The Dock: The marina looks so much better than it did in October. The mess of stacked boats has been cleared up and there are some new ones in the harbor.

The Dock, where we met M and T for the first time, was swallowed by the waters of Pontchartrain as Katrina’s winds stirred up the lake. Wooden stumps, now comfortable perches for seabirds, are a reminder of where this local hangout used to be.

Something funny – I almost walked up to workers and cranes building something just to the west of the ruin. D ushered me away from that general vicinity by saying, “Please don’t go there. They’re working on reinforcing the 17th St Canal Levee.”

Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Carry on, guys, you’re doing a great job!

R & J visited New Orleans in July of 2005 as Hurricane Dennis raged to the east of us. R and I thought it would be fun to stand outside, take pictures and get drenched as the waves rolled and crashed in and the building quivered beneath our feet. Who’s laughing now?

Waves Crashing Into The Lakefront Lakeview - Seabirds Sit Where We Used To Stand
The Lakefront from The Dock: July 10, 2005 (L) ; The remains of Where I Stood To Take The Picture On The Left: February 20, 2006 (R)

***

The 17th St Canal Levee Breach: Someone needs to be rounded up like a lame mule and shot for this. I don’t know who, but someone does. My piddly pictures do no justice to the destruction on Bellaire Dr. and one street over, Fleur de Lis Dr. At some point, you put the trite little camera away and try your hardest to be there, to feel it. Even having lost a home and witnessing breakdown the world over, no amount of meditation at the site of the breach can make me come to terms with the destruction. Every loss is unique.

At any rate, the picture on the left below shows new sheet pilings along the levee. Technically, each of them is 50 feet tall and getting ready for the next hurricane season. I wonder how many people will move back or have moved back onto this barely-habitable street.

Lakeview - North End Of The 17th St Canal Levee Breach Lakeview - Across The Street From The Levee Breach
The north end of the 17th St canal levee breach (L) ; Cleanup and removal across the street from the breach (R)

FEMA, the great equalizer. Most remaining Lakeview and Lower Ninth Ward residents alike are still waiting for their trailers.

February 22, 2006 | hurricane katrina, new orleans, photographs | Comments Closed

Day 177: First Weekend Of Uptown Parades

Several of us predicted that the five Saturday parades would be done in less than 90 minutes, performed a quick cost-benefit and weather analysis and decided to stay in. Not many frequent those parades anyway.

Late Sunday morning saw a lot of bundling up and braving the cold to see our first Uptown Mardi Gras parades of 2006. Pictures from these parades are available in my Mardi Gras 2006 gallery.

Bards of Bohemia was cancelled for insurance reasons, so we were left with Krewe of Carrollton and Krewe of King Arthur. Carrollton’s theme of Blue Roof Blues was well-received, but not their chintzy throws. As floats named Red, White and Blue, Blue Man Group and Waterbloo with aptly-dressed riders went by, however, it was hard not to get wrapped up in laughing, jumping and screaming the chant, “Throw me something!” It worked – the captain threw me a handful of cool-blue doubloons, not to mention being beaned in the head by my friends on Float 13.

As one of the owners of Plush Appeal commented to me yesterday, “Everyone wants to stop boo-hooing and have a great party! But, we can never forget.” This Krewe of Carrollton float realizes his words for me:

Krewe of Carrollton - Save Us, FEMA!

Sadly, Steve, D and I chose not to ride in Krewe of King Arthur this year, but were nicely rewarded with throws from our friends on the Bridal float. With its theme of Katrina Blows You Away, King Arthur did not fail in the float-making department. Phil Fricano and his team outdid themselves as usual by altering some old floats and whole new paint jobs on others. I have to hand it to Phil – his love for and energy during Mardi Gras and floatmaking are amazing.

Krewe of King Arthur - King Arthur 2006 Krewe of King Arthur - Merlin & Morgana 2006
Royalty 

Krewe of King Arthur Float
“What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?”

A big round of applause for the Jesuit, MAX and Virginia Tech bands, cheerleaders, dancers and chaperones who walked the parade route with smiles on. Well, not so much with the Jesuit kids, but few of them are ever happy to be there. One day, I, too, will be high-school cheerleader and walk the route from Napoleon to Canal, pom-poms, glitter, tap shoes and all.

The Sunday parades went by very quickly, too, but it’s not entirely because of reduced numbers of floats and marching bands. The cold weather this year is daunting. Period. And, don’t forget that last year’s Carrollton and King Arthur left their gates late and were held up because of the Carrollton float accident.

More pictures tomorrow – be prepared for The Dock (or The ex-Dock) and the 17th St Canal Levee breach.

February 21, 2006 | carnival, culture-society-history, hurricane katrina, new orleans, photographs | Comments Closed

Day 175: Home Again, Home Again

Moving back into a home and a city you haven’t lived in for approximately six months affords little chance for blogging. Especially when it coincides with other’s similar moves, visiting with friends and neighbors, spending time with D and oh, that tiny little spectacle that occurs here early every year known as Mardi Gras.

The flood may not have reached the Sliver on the River, but its psychological and economic effects are everywhere. Last night, D and I, cranky and hungry, got in the car to grab some dinner at Copeland’s on St. Charles. We noticed a new orange mesh barrier with a No Parking sign on the parking lot across the street. That’s normally my overflow parking and I was mildly upset that it had been annexed by a mystery party. Is it the owners of the new coffee shop by my place which replaces the old Rue de la Course that was damaged and broken into during the storm? Is it the bed-and-breakfast guy across the street? Perhaps it is merely a Mardi Gras tourist deterrent. Courteous parking is rare in this neighborhood, and to lose more spots is slightly disturbing.

Anyway … on to food at Copeland’s. Copeland’s – still closed and all of the interior decoration gone. Trolley Stop – still closed. Igor’s Garlic Clove is now Igor’s Bar-B-Q Mama, a questionable change of genre with the better Voodoo BBQ right down the street. Copeland’s on Napoleon – gone. Rue de la Course on Carrollton – now open! We travelled all the way to Carrollton and Claiborne before settling on O’Henry, which was so packed that D and I simply nodded to one another and drove back to Juan’s Flying Burrito on Magazine St. All that driving just to end up close to home.

A city’s slow change, with one or two cherished businesses folding in a while, is inevitable. This lurch is a little too much to take at once. However, that’s how we get used to new realities.

Lesson #1: Don’t tour the city when bordering on hypoglycemia.
Lesson #2: With fewer of them in the greater New Orleans area, leave for the restaurants of your choice at least one hour before you normally get hungry.

***

The problem is not just fewer restaurants but a diminished workforce all over the city. Almost every place is hiring and the waitstaff is overworked. During dinner with a friend who works security at a major music venue in the French Quarter, he casually informed me that retail and security positions are empty, because of evacuation and the fact that these positions aren’t paid as well or get raises like servers or bartenders. Last week, every security person but him quit en masse and he was left there all by himself during a big show. One can only imagine how much post-show work my friend had and the stress that goes with it. He believes, though, and stays on.

Lesson #3: Tip your servers well. Don’t be like me who spazzed on my math last night, and would have left a mere 10% tip had D not glared at me and set me right.
Lesson #4: Leave the show after the first or second encore. The longer you stay, the harder it is on security and the cleaning people, who get home much later than you do. Such is the way of the new New Orleans.

***

The new New Orleans. Is it here to stay? I urge you to read this Popular Mechanics article – Debunking Katrina Myths and its simple lessons of science and common sense.

MYTH: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime event.”–New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, press conference, Aug. 28, 2005

REALITY: Though many accounts portray Katrina as a storm of unprecedented magnitude, it was in fact a large, but otherwise typical, hurricane … its barometric pressure was 902 millibars (mb), the sixth lowest ever recorded, but higher than Wilma (882mb) and Rita (897mb), the storms that followed it … south of New Orleans, the surge topped out at 30 ft.; in New Orleans the surge was 25 ft.–enough to overtop some of the city’s floodwalls.

NEXT TIME: … the Atlantic is in a cycle of heightened hurricane activity due to higher sea-surface temperatures and other factors. The cycle could last 40 years, during which time the United States can expect to be hit by dozens of Katrina-size storms. Policymakers–and coastal residents–need to start seeing hurricanes as routine weather events, not once-in-a-lifetime anomalies.

People coming back, Mardi Gras, Jazzfest and resurrecting homes and businesses are superb but not enough – we need better levees and a strong awareness that Katrina and its aftermath is not a one-time event. Through all of this, New Orleanians are out and about supporting this city by living, working, walking, shopping, partying, and being in it, its heart and soul. They believe in New Orleans. Being here and believing is not the end, however. It is complacence. Being here and believing enough to loudly demand better flood protection, education and coordination is the path to our future.

Being here also involves catching throws from my friends. D and I are off to breakfast and the Krewe of King Arthur parade early this afternoon, starring Sherry, John, Sadie, Louise, Michael, Katie, Pam, Charlie, Sally and many others. For those of you heading to St. Bernard Parish instead, the Knights of Nemesis roll at the same time.

February 19, 2006 | hurricane katrina, new orleans, science & technology | 8 Comments »

Day 170: Pictures From The Scene; Ingenuity vs. Cruelty

Images From Krewe du Vieux: For your pleasure, a set of pictures containing evidence of, in chronological order, the Krewe de C.R.A.P.S. Night Before party, a visit to Fahy’s, the Lower Garden District, the Parade Pre-Party, Second Line to the den with King Walter Williams, the Krewe du Vieux parade and the ball.

[Rest assured that the NSFW pictures are in a super-secret location disclosed on a need-to-know basis alone.]

That the city and the krewe can do this for each other after such a crisis amazes and inspires me.

Hail To The King! Leslie & Kerry
Music and laughter

As promised, an image of the remains of the Coliseum Theatre. It looks a lot better than I had imagined. Given the poor condition of homes wrecked by the storm that are now being rebuilt, the theatre has a good chance at a comeback as a theatre or the plans the new owner had for it: a recording studio for the film industry, with orchestra chambers, booths, the works.

Remains Of The Coliseum Theatre
500 ccs of blue tarp and a FEMA trailer stat!

—

Ingenuity vs. Cruelty: Those who know me well are aware of my penchant for the works of Neal Stephenson, who recently forayed from writing fast-paced cyberfiction to slower historical fiction. This apparent crossover is rendered moot on the realization that one of the underlying themes of all of Stephenson’s books is the marriage of computing and economy, whether set in the past alongside historical figures or in the future with completely fictional entities.

As Victor Hugo once said, “If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.” Another Stephensonian theme, one for which I endure his Tolkien-esque tomes, is universal justice and finding financial and personal value in concepts of lasting import. Last night, I slowly progressed through The System of the World, the final installment of the heavy (in volume and undertaking) Baroque Cycle trilogy. Sleep was preferable to another two pages of argumentative dialogue between protagonist Daniel Waterhouse and a minor character Mr. Threader on the merits of steam engines over the Asiento. Until the following paragraph which stunned me into wakefulness:

“Nothing about the English landscape is forever fixed”, Daniel said … “we might grow accustomed to multitudes of black slaves, or steam-engines, or both. I speculate that the character of England is more constant. And I flatter us by asserting, furthermore, that ingenuity is a more essential element of that character than cruelty. Steam-engines, being a product of the former virtue, are easier to reconcile with the English scene than slavery, which is a product of the latter vice. Accordingly, if I had money to bet, I’d bet it on steam-engines.”

Bravo, Dr. Waterhouse! Note that this statement, albeit fictional, was made in the early 1700s, when the slave trade and organized Christianity blossomed in step with one another. Piety is a great mask. Religious connotations aside, this statement’s parallels to the modern world are staggering. On the ingenuity side, we may merge the lessons of science and history to build a Gulf Coast seawall to rival that of the Netherlands as opposed to the cruelty of goverment corruption and bickering, or help our nation’s failing educational system.  On the side of cruelty, we may enslave our fellow Americans by wasting our treasury, youth and innovative energy on  losing battles abroad. Apply at will or just take the statement at face value.

This is how Neal Stephenson has me hooked, with smart easter-eggs of statements that keep on giving.

February 14, 2006 | books, carnival, hurricane katrina, new orleans, photographs | 2 Comments »
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