B2L2
- The Church May 20, 2012Avoid the occasion of sin, that is, all persons, places and objects usually leading to sin. Be temperate in the use of intoxicants. Abstain from them entirely, if harmful to your soul, your family or others. Be fearless in the performance of all your Christian duties; fear God alone. Practice holy prayer. Receive the sacraments […]John Sheppard
- Exit Ahead May 19, 2012I'm probably 80/20 in favor of tearing down the I-10 overpass above Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans. My only reservation is how that traffic flow would be dispersed over ground level streets in the absence of that section of I-10. But there can be no denying an injustice was done to the Treme neighborhood when Team Eisenhower built that superhighway (ne […]Derek Bridges
- New Year. 2004. May 18, 2012The days have become weeks, and the weeks have counted off the months. It seems that yesterday we lived in suburban madness, commuting hours a day to satisfying but exhausting careers. Then the trip. And it’s as if the old world, the old ways never existed. It is 4:45 a.m. as I write this. New […]Bob Hate
- Displaced May 16, 2012The sky’s so vast here in the Midwest Stretching like a giant rainbow reaching Side to side across the earth. Some days I wonder if I climb up high Could I just see my home from here? But there are no tall trees in the prairie, The highest thing a dormitory. On rainy days droplets […]Kim Pereira
- The Secret Service: Sex, Lies and AAA Batteries, part I May 16, 2012Sigmund Freud would have had a field day over how sex and perversion have spilled out onto the front pages of US media: not only am I referring to Time Magazine’s foray into incest with a cover picture of a skinny-jean clad baby-mama breast feeding her three-year-old toddler, but also to the sexual antics of […]Jimmy Gabacho
Baldessari
A quick look at artist John Baldessari with the help of Tom Waits:
Rewind
“Wait! Chicken Mulatto sandwich?” Dedra grabbed the remote to the TiVo and rewound the Quiznos commercial. “Oh. Chicken Milano sandwich.”
Below is an artist’s rendering of the advertisement she thought she saw/heard:
Yes, our daughter is both white and dark meat.
Going in the Opposite Direction
I have one firmly held conviction about catching the streetcar: if you feel compelled to walk instead of simply picking a streetcar stop and sticking with it, always walk in the opposite direction you want to go. That is, you want to go right? Go left. Walk at your streetcar. All those people you'll pass at streetcar stops, you're cutting in line in front of them. You're going to get a damn seat. They may even have to wait for another streetcar. Plus, if you walk in the direction of your destination, that only means you'll be paying for the streetcar to take you a shorter distance, and you won't save any time in the process.
Ad Urgency
I'd seen it in my inbox, bold and unread. The subject line, "Some Advice about George Clooney," caught my eye like those inexplicable internet ads about about a teeth whitening formula that features a man who looks like he's standing in a wind tunnel or a woman who can lock her ankles behind her head. I didn't want to look but the combination of those words, "Advice" and "George Clooney" got me. Why on earth would I need advice about George Clooney?
Continue readingNeighborhood Encounters
1. Walking the dog down Dryades Street one evening last week a guy in a hard hat asked what kind of dog Cairo was and after I told him and we talked about that for a bit, he said, “You know what I want, brah? What I want is to cross a hyena with a pit.”
2. Walking the dog this morning at sunrise, turning up First St. for home, I couldn’t help but notice the unrelentingly loud crow up on the power line. Then on the sidewalk ahead I saw an elderly neighbor with his back to us. As we approached him I said good morning and he turned, a bit bewildered, holding a wounded pigeon in his hand. He said the crow had it in for the pigeon and he didn’t know what to do with the pigeon. He asked if I had a bush he could leave the bird under. I said we’ve got two outside cats, that won’t work. I walked away, and I left him standing there with the wounded pigeon and the waiting crow.
Pushing back
The banes piled up:
- I couldn’t get the rear view mirror to stay affixed to the windshield. I bought the mirror glue kits from Autozone et al. time and again. I cleaned the surface, I sanded the surface, I held securely. I must’ve gone through this process four or five times and gave up. We adapted to driving illegally without a rear view mirror.
- A few years ago a local volunteer agency began helping our next door neighbor rehab his house. We were happy to facilitate the work, allowing them to plug-in power tools and use our water hose. The work stopped a couple years ago and they left our chain link fence down.
- Our hot water heater stopped working. I called a repair company and they came out–four times. For a week-and-a-half we mostly took showers at the mother-in-law’s house in Gentilly. We our first worlders, we need hot water. I paid one repair bill of about $150, on the first visit. On the fourth and final visit (to install a thermocouple–even our owner’s… Continue reading
Dial Tone
I lurked around the couple in the photo above. They were arguing about the work and I wanted to report on the contours of their artistic dispute, but I think they were onto me or simply wanted to keep their private art theory talk private.
Continue reading“… But then, one afternoon, they died.”
Going through old files I found this video clip of our daughter telling a story when she was 2-3 years old. Still cracks me up:
Carnival Debrief Addendum
I've had my neutral ground battles over the years about people standing or jumping in front of my daughter (or, sometimes, on), placement of barbecue grills, perceived boundaries between encampments, passive aggressive and just plain aggressive drunks, and all around college kid jackassery.
This year, though, apparently contrary to the overall trend, the crowd around us was remarkably friendly and free of jackassery. To be more precise, we never fail to meet friendly people along the parade route. There never ceases to be a year I meet people for the first time and have wonderful interactions. But acts of jackassery can surely taint the whole experience.
Update: The Krewe of Muses and Company step up in a big way. See WWL-TV report. PCMag.com and a Washington Post blog have also picked up the story. HuffPost.
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