Better get right with God, BP…
The 11th Commandment
15 08 2010Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: BP, Gulf Coast, New Orleans, oil spill, photography, photos, pictures
Categories : photos
Kindra Arnesen. Badass.
29 07 2010Kindra Arnesen, of Venice, Louisiana, is what you might call an accidental activist. That’s not to say she’s not wired for the job or not good at it, but I think it’s safe to say it’s not a role she cherishes or ever expected to be thrust into. She’s the wife of a Gulf fisherman and mother to two little children she evacuated from Venice for health reasons, no longer wanting to expose them to the toxic dispersants used by BP, not to mention the, you know, oil. She’s also an inspirational and fearless leader, a voice for the so-called “small people” of South Louisiana’s fishing communities. She’s feisty, sharp, and strong-willed, and I wouldn’t want to go up against her. However, knowing she’s out there, speaking truth to power without any hesitation, makes me feel better.
All of us down here and across the Coast — and, shoot, across this country — owe her a big thank you. So, Kindra, on the off-chance you ever see this, thank you, and please, I know the fight is long and tiring, but we need you. Keep it up.
Here are two videos that can better illustrate Kindra’s strength than I can with words:
Spilling Over (The Washington Post – a powerful video about the possibility that Venice, LA will cease to exist altogether)
Venice, Louisiana Needs to Evacuate (YouTube — this is a speech Kindra gave back in June and was the first thing I saw about her)
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: BP, Gulf Coast, Kindra Arnesen, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill
Categories : inspiration, thoughts
For all the Gulf critters
20 07 2010
I happily picked up my new Mignon Faget pelican pendant today, which benefits the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. If you’re not familiar with Mignon Faget’s work, she is local jeweler (and fifth generation New Orleanian!) who has been making beautiful pieces in sterling silver and gold for over 40 years. Her “Gulf Coast” collection contains gorgeous renderings of oysters, pelicans, redfish, speckled trout, and yellowfin tuna, all benefitting the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. This won’t stop my heartache for the animals, but hopefully I’ve helped them just a bit, and I’ll wear my pelican with pride.
Here’s a link to her online site and this specific collection, if you’re interested: http://www.mignonfaget.com/shop/category/gulf-coast.html
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: Gulf Coast, jewelry, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil spill, pelicans, photography, photos
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
Krewe of Dead Pelicans
6 06 2010Down here, when you pass on to the other side (wherever and whatever that may be), we send you off with style, music, and dancing. Jazz funerals are one of my most favorite traditions here, a bit of culture that is truly and uniquely New Orleans. They are both a mourning for the person’s passing, and a celebration of his or her life. I hope like hell someone sees to it that I get one when I go.
So, then, it’s only right that we have a jazz funeral and “second line” parade for the dearly departed wildlife from the oil spill. It happened yesterday and a handful of photos are below.
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Tags: BP, dolphins, Gulf Coast, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill, parade, pelicans, photography, photos, turtles, wildlife
Categories : photos
No oyster poboys!
3 06 2010Damn you, BP. Not only are you contaminating the Gulf, coating the wildlife with sludge, and putting fishermen out of business, but now you’ve gone and robbed New Orleanians of the best oyster poboys in the city. I’m talking about the ones from Parkway, of course. There’s nary an oyster to be found in the place, thanks to volatile and rising prices on the little bivalves. So, I had to make do with shrimp. Not the worst compromise in the world, but still, not oyster!
(I like how those three shrimp off to the side seem to be making a break for it. Not so fast, lil buddies…)
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Tags: BP, food, Gulf Coast, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill, photography, photos, poboy, shrimp
Categories : food, photos
Here is the church. Here is the steeple.
30 05 2010On this rainy, somber Sunday in New Orleans, I thought I’d share a few photos of St. Augustine Church, right by me here in the Treme. I took these earlier in the week, after a summer afternoon rain, when the sky was nearing dusk and was streaked and beautiful. St. Augustine’s the oldest African-American Catholic church in the country, and is worth checking out if you haven’t before.
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Tags: art, Gulf Coast, New Orleans, oil spill, photography, photos, St. Augustine, Treme
Categories : photos
The wildlife weeps. And so do I.
26 05 2010Today, for some reason, I finally let myself watch the streaming live video of the oil currently pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. I’d been avoiding it, only because I knew how it would break my heart. And this whole mess is already so damn heartbreaking, who needs to pile on more?
Apparently I do.
Because after watching the oil, billowing, black and horrible, I then let myself read this well-written, heart-wrenching Washington Post article — In Louisiana, wildlife show effects of gulf oil spill – and it about did me in. The tears started from pretty much the article’s sad and compelling opening paragraph:
“GRAND ISLE, LA. — In the Louisiana marsh, oil-coated pelicans flap their wings in a futile attempt to dry them. A shorebird repeatedly dunks its face in a puddle, unable to wash off. Lines of dead jellyfish float in the gulf, traces of oil visible in their clear “bells.”
I am sad for everyone involved and affected– the families of the dead oil rig workers, the fishermen wondering what’s to come of their livelihoods… But it’s the animals that are making it hard for me not to cry, making it hard for me to breathe on this gorgeous sunny Wednesday in this beautiful place. The animals, they must be so confused.
Thinking about that one bird repeatedly trying to clean his head in a puddle… How many more birds are going to feel that very thing and not understand? How many more sea turtles will wash up dead? How many more dolphins will fall victim to swimming in — to LIVING in — that hazy mess out there?
They can’t escape it. And they can’t comprehend it. And they didn’t do anything to deserve it. And to me, that makes this whole situation so sad I can hardly bear it. My eyes just keep filling with tears again and again thinking about it.
Lest you label me some rabid, silly, over-the-top environmentalist, I’m not (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course). I’m just an empathetic human being who hates to see suffering in others, be they human or otherwise. Those animals out there, just trying to eat and breed and fly and swim and exist… in the middle of this maelstrom… Well, I am praying for them. I don’t quite know what else to do. I am praying for them and hoping against hope they make it through this violence, this assault on them, as best they can.
“One thing, all things;
move among and intermingle,
without distinction.”
– from Verses on the Faith Mind, by Seng-Tsan, the third Zen patriarch
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Tags: dolphins, Gulf Coast, Louisiana, New Orleans, oil, oil spill, pelicans, turtles, wildlife
Categories : thoughts
