The tree-lined sidewalk outside Louis Armstrong Park, near Mahalia Jackson Theater. (Of course, there’s also trash on the ground. This is New Orleans, after all. People in this town love to litter, I swear. Sucks.)
It’s like they’re filled with so much promise
29 06 2010Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: louis armstrong park, Louisiana, mahalia jackson theater, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, trees, Treme
Categories : photos
Day 65
24 06 2010Day 65
The oil continues to flow.
The fish, the turtles, the birds, the dolphins, the crabs continue
to live, to breathe, to breed, to feed,
in the poisonous muck.
Unable to escape it
while here I sit, complaining about the heat from within my air-conditioned nest,
able to forget for just a split second that I have it so good.
That we all have it so good.
That we aren’t living, as they are, in filthy certain death
and decay.
Day 65
A charter boat operator shot himself yesterday over in Alabama
aboard his boat
which no longer shuttled men, and families, and whomever, out to fish
and have fun
on the gorgeous Gulf.
But instead, was supposed to be a sickeningly named “vessel of opportunity” for B.P.
cleaning up what was left of his prior life, what was left of what had been so beautiful.
He couldn’t take it
and he, sadly, won’t be the last.
I say a little prayer for his family.
I know a little something about suicide, but do not pretend
to know anything close to the despair
that all those whose livelihoods depend on fishing and the water
are now feeling.
Day 65
And it’s still not fair, to anyone, to any of us, to all of us.
It’s still not fixed.
It still flows, horrible, ugly, like a growing disease, a cancer, infecting the Gulf,
infecting us all.
The animals still suffer.
The fishermen still suffer.
The families of the 11 dead oil rig workers still suffer.
And now, out beyond the Gulf, far out, but still,
there sits an area of so-called “disturbed weather.”
Talk about disturbed. We are all disturbed.
We are all sick here. Watching. Waiting. Wondering. Wandering. Wishing. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
Day 65.
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Tags: alabama, BP, crabs, deepwater horizon, dolphins, fish, fishing, Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill, pelicans, Poetry, turtles, verse, wildlife
Categories : thoughts, verse
A Treme sunset
21 06 2010The sunset Saturday evening here in New Orleans was breathtaking. I braved the voracious mosquitos to try to capture it. Such beauty.
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Tags: Louisiana, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, sunset, Treme
Categories : photos
“there is no time except present time”
19 06 2010From Alan Watts, a gentle reminder:
“In fact, our present is enormously rich, and you will realize this if you understand that there is no time except present time. There is only now; there never was any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. It is all now. There is no hurry to gobble life down, and if you do you won’t be able to digest it. We can go on much longer than we suppose without eating, so it’s all right to just sit and be in the present.
But if you identify with the linear conception of yourself, with your story, and with the abstract ego, you feel inadequate, and therefore it becomes necessary to try to make up for that inadequacy by using energy to attain more in all sorts of ways.”
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Tags: Alan Watts, Buddhism, Eastern religion, meditation
Categories : books, inspiration
Grasshopper on Hibiscus
19 06 2010Saw this little fellow on one of my hibiscus blooms this morning. Not sure why the photos came out as they did — maybe my hand was shaking? Or it’s just so damn hot that the camera was swooning? Why don’t I just act like that’s “an effect” that I intended? Yeah, sure, that’s it… Still, I like ‘em, so hey.
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Tags: grasshopper, hibiscus, Louisiana, nature, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures
Categories : photos
Reflections on being a New Orleanian
18 06 2010I’m not sure I qualify yet as an official New Orleanian, having only lived here since the beginning of October, but my heart certainly feels like I do. I grew up in a small Mississippi town just two hours away from here and spent my childhood loving our family trips to New Orleans, dreaming of a day when I could live here. In high school, I wanted nothing more than a little room in New Orleans, a coffee pot, my books, and notepads to write in. To me, that was the biggest and best future I could imagine. It still is.
It took me a lot longer to get here than I thought it would, but it makes me appreciate it more, as does taking trips to other places. I just got back from several days in D.C., an area I lived in for nearly 11 years before moving here. It’s remarkable to me how different I feel in the two places. No disrespect intended to the District, and I have many lovely, talented, and wonderful friends left in the area, but I feel absolutely hollow when I am there. I feel empty, I feel nothing. I am not inspired. I am not moved. Nothing.
The second I was back in New Orleans, it was like I could breathe again, like I felt like myself. I can’t explain why my soul seems to connect with this city so much; I just know it does. I finally feel at home, and at ease, and like I belong somewhere. Sure, we may be a town of misfit, lazy, weird slowpokes, where it’s pointless to get too worked up about things running late or breaking down or just plain not working right. But I much prefer that to the East Coast uptight soulless get-ahead-at-any-cost workaholic attitude that pervades up there. I know there are many good things about the D.C. area. They just don’t fit with me. And that’s ok.
I am lucky enough to live in a place now that inspires me constantly, that makes me want to write, that presents things daily I want to take pictures of. And I am lucky to know so many who live here and feel as I do. We are all in love with our city, and with one another.
Ah, it just feels so good to be home, in every way.
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Tags: French Quarter, home, Louisiana, New Orleans, the South, Treme
Categories : thoughts
Down in the Treme
17 06 2010Love that song, love the show, love living here. Here’s a couple of shots I took on a recent walk around my neighborhood.
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Tags: architecture, beads, Louisiana, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, Treme
Categories : photos
From the French Quarter
15 06 2010A handful of photos I took around the Quarter on a recent weekday afternoon walk. I can’t walk around this city for even a couple minutes, I swear, without being inspired to take a picture of something.
I love wrought iron so much. I can’t get enough of it. Luckily, neither can anyone else in New Orleans apparently, since it’s everywhere.
A funny little colorful apartment building on Royal Street:
Looking down Royal Street, and trying not to get run over while taking this photo:
A Lucky Dog vendor at the corner of Orleans and Bourbon Street… Ignatius J. Reilly would be so proud.
A different view of St. Louis Cathedral:
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Tags: French Quarter, Louisiana, New Orleans, photography, photos, pictures, Royal Street, St. Louis Cathedral, Treme
Categories : photos
Goodbye, Louisiana oysters
11 06 2010The oldest oyster processor and distributor in the country, New Orleans’ own P&J, just announced that it’s going to have to start shipping in oysters from the West Coast. The 134 year-old company had to lay off some of its workers and is doing what it can to just hang on in the hopes that the oyster beds in the Gulf of Mexico recover. Other oyster processors around the city are experiencing the same thing, so Louisiana oysters will soon be a relic of the past here in the Big Easy, at least for a time. A horrible state of affairs, if you ask me.
So, to combat my sorrow and to fill my belly, I walked over into the Quarter today and enjoyed two dozen raw oysters, from the remaining P&J stock. I hope they aren’t my final ones ever.
Thanks, again, BP, you bastards.
Ordered a dozen, and got 18. Love that Nola generosity!
And, done!
Monster oyster!
18 just wasn’t enough, so here’s 6, er, 8 more.
A map/placemat depicting the oyster beds in the Gulf that P&J sources from. I took one home as a keepsake. The oysters we ate today were from area 7. And man, were they ever delicious.
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Tags: BP, food, French Quarter, Gulf Coast, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill, oysters, photography, photos, Treme
Categories : food, photos
