Get on over to Cliff's Crib and read some "helpful hints" for attending Carnival this year. Good stuff!
Thanks, Cliff.
Mardi Gras Parade Schedule
Mardi Gras events in NOLA and surrounding parishes
A Guide from someone who does this for a living
A video depicting Fat Tuesday in the FQ ...usually attended by tourists. The somewhat sleezy side of Mardi Gras. Don't know any locals that enjoy it.
Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA (southwest Louisiana)
Mardi Gras in Mobile, AL. , where it first started.
Mardi Gras in Universal Studios in Florida
Mardi Gras photos from NOLA dot com readers
Enjoy!!!! I'll be home, where it's quiet and enjoying it!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Scuzzbucket of the week
Lam Luong
Lam Luong, 37, of Irvington confessed Tuesday night to driving to the Dauphin Island bridge, stopping and tossing the youngsters off the span, which is as high as 80 feet above the water in places
Missing and presumed dead were 4-month-old Danny Luong; 1-year-old Lindsey Luong; 2-year-old Hannah Luong; and 3-year-old Ryan Phan. Phan is not the man's biological child, but Luong raised him from infancy, authorities said
The couple lived with Phan's mother at Bayou La Batre, a fishing village with a large Southeast Asian community. Phan was in seclusion Wednesday morning in the brick home, the front porch cluttered with children's shoes.
From
al.com , background on this scum of the earth:
Looking for an opportunity for a fresh start after Katrina…. the couple left the Bayou La Batre area determined to land new jobs.
The owner of the Kobe Japanese Steak House, Lisa Tran, recalled speaking to Luong initially in English, then switching to the language of her native Vietnam when she discovered that he had been born there, too.
I didn't know he was Vietnamese because he looked like a black guy, said Tran in heavily accented English.
Tran described Luong as a model employee for about eight or nine months before he became increasingly moody. He sometimes complained about having to shuttle the children back and forth to day care and once even made a passing reference to killing them, Tran said, although she added that he said he was just kidding.
Sometimes he work hard, very hard, she said. "Sometimes he was lazy. ... I told him when cooking, you try to be nice to customers."
Tran said her husband fired Luong on Aug. 30 after he missed yet another shift.
Struggling with a crack cocaine problem and a strife-filled relationship with his common-law wife -- and without a job for 5½ weeks -- Lam Luong turned to an unusual source for help in October: the police. Luong picked up the telephone at his mobile home in Hinesville, Ga., and dialed 911, according to police.
Luong said that he wanted to turn himself in, and officers responded to the address, not knowing what he had done wrong.
Luong bonded out of the Georgia jail and at some point moved with his family back to coastal Alabama, where they had lived until Hurricane Katrina flooded their home in 2005.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Nutria at Fault
Taken from an AP article regarding Big Oil's part in the damage to the Louisiana Wetlands
Service canals dug to tap oil and natural gas dart everywhere through the black mangrove shrubs, bird rushes and golden marsh. From the air, they look like a Pac-Man maze superimposed on an estuarine landscape 10 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.
There are 10,000 miles of these oil canals. They fed America's thirst for energy, but helped bring its biggest delta to the brink of collapse. They also connect an overlooked set of dots in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath: The role that some say the oil industry played in the $135 billion disaster, the nation's costliest.
The delta, formed by the accumulation of the Mississippi River's upstream mud over thousands of years, is a shadow of what it was 100 years ago. Since the 1930s, a fifth of the 10,000-square-mile delta has turned into open water, decreasing the delta's economic and ecologic value by as much as $15 billion a year, according to Louisiana State University studies.
The rate of land loss, among the highest in the world, has exposed New Orleans and hundreds of other communities to the danger of drowning. Katrina made that painfully clear.
Oil wells also discharged about a billion gallons daily of brine, thick with naturally occurring subsurface chemicals like chlorides, calcium and magnesium, as well as acids used in drilling.
It was poured into the marshes, said Virginia Burkett, a longtime researcher of the Louisiana wetlands and the chief scientist for climate change at USGS. It contaminated soils and killed plants and animals, she said, before brine dumping was finally regulated in coastal marshes in 1985.
I remember when I was a young boy we had a camp out in the marsh," said Don Griffin, a grocer and seafood dealer in the delta town of Leeville, which became an oil-drilling center for decades.
"The same places you used to have to get around with a pirogue and a push pole now you can go with a 25-foot outboard. There's no more marsh, which is your first barrier of defense for hurricanes."
I've got duck leases out there and I remember when they were covered in grass. They're all ponds now," said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. "It's not gone because of drilling. It's because nutria ate all the grasses."
Riiiiiight.
Service canals dug to tap oil and natural gas dart everywhere through the black mangrove shrubs, bird rushes and golden marsh. From the air, they look like a Pac-Man maze superimposed on an estuarine landscape 10 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.
There are 10,000 miles of these oil canals. They fed America's thirst for energy, but helped bring its biggest delta to the brink of collapse. They also connect an overlooked set of dots in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath: The role that some say the oil industry played in the $135 billion disaster, the nation's costliest.
The delta, formed by the accumulation of the Mississippi River's upstream mud over thousands of years, is a shadow of what it was 100 years ago. Since the 1930s, a fifth of the 10,000-square-mile delta has turned into open water, decreasing the delta's economic and ecologic value by as much as $15 billion a year, according to Louisiana State University studies.
The rate of land loss, among the highest in the world, has exposed New Orleans and hundreds of other communities to the danger of drowning. Katrina made that painfully clear.
Oil wells also discharged about a billion gallons daily of brine, thick with naturally occurring subsurface chemicals like chlorides, calcium and magnesium, as well as acids used in drilling.
It was poured into the marshes, said Virginia Burkett, a longtime researcher of the Louisiana wetlands and the chief scientist for climate change at USGS. It contaminated soils and killed plants and animals, she said, before brine dumping was finally regulated in coastal marshes in 1985.
I remember when I was a young boy we had a camp out in the marsh," said Don Griffin, a grocer and seafood dealer in the delta town of Leeville, which became an oil-drilling center for decades.
"The same places you used to have to get around with a pirogue and a push pole now you can go with a 25-foot outboard. There's no more marsh, which is your first barrier of defense for hurricanes."
I've got duck leases out there and I remember when they were covered in grass. They're all ponds now," said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. "It's not gone because of drilling. It's because nutria ate all the grasses."
Riiiiiight.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Dance Back From the Grave
Songwriter Marc Cohn has a new album out with some songs inspired by Katrina
Best known for his song "Walking in Memphis", Cohn draws inspiration from Katrina several times on "Join the Parade"
From his website, here are a few of the lyrics from "Dance Back...."
Well a thousand souls crossed over
and they were greeted by an all-star band
And while the saints go marching in
there’s still hell to pay back down in Dixie Land
Yeah the storms are headed south again
and the hour’s getting pretty late
Somebody better build that levee
its already Mardi Gras at heavens gate (yeah)
Here's a video of Marc performing "Dance Back from the Grave"
Love his voice.
The album cuts are listed here , as well as samples from each song
Best known for his song "Walking in Memphis", Cohn draws inspiration from Katrina several times on "Join the Parade"
From his website, here are a few of the lyrics from "Dance Back...."
Well a thousand souls crossed over
and they were greeted by an all-star band
And while the saints go marching in
there’s still hell to pay back down in Dixie Land
Yeah the storms are headed south again
and the hour’s getting pretty late
Somebody better build that levee
its already Mardi Gras at heavens gate (yeah)
Here's a video of Marc performing "Dance Back from the Grave"
Love his voice.
The album cuts are listed here , as well as samples from each song
Krewe de Vieux
Once again it's time for the Krewe de Vieux (crew da vooo) parade
Here are the 2008 Sub Krewe Themes
RUE DU BOURBON: All You Need is Cash
COMATOSE: Comatose Goes Under The Gun
KREWE DE CRAPS: CRAPS Mutinies – Where’s That Booty
C.R.U.D.E.: When Life Gives You Shit…Grow Mushrooms
DRIPS AND DISCHARGES: "Sgt. Eddie's Only Honkies Banned"
INANE: Mystic Krewe of Inane Extends Its Tour of Booty
K.A.O.S.: You Never Give Me Your Money
KREWE OF SPACE AGE LOVE: "PAY DE BOYS ON DE WATERFRONT"
L.E.W.D: David Vitter’s Lonely Whore’s Club
MAMA ROUX: We All Live in a Jello Shot Machine
KREWE DU MISHIGAS: Krewe du mishigas wards off the evil eye.
MONDU: Mondu Raises Hell-ter Skelter
MYSTIC KREWE OF PAN: PAN Drinks the Lafcadio Kool-Aid
SEEDS OF DECLINE: Fools on the Hill
MYSTIC KREWE OF SPERMES: Spermes: The White Album
T.O.K.I.N.: TOKIN Gets Wasted
UNDERWEAR: Can Buy Me Love
Missed the parade, but thanks to Schroeder I found a link to the KdV's
periodical, Le Monde de Merde, which is hilarious:
Read you some
Here are the 2008 Sub Krewe Themes
RUE DU BOURBON: All You Need is Cash
COMATOSE: Comatose Goes Under The Gun
KREWE DE CRAPS: CRAPS Mutinies – Where’s That Booty
C.R.U.D.E.: When Life Gives You Shit…Grow Mushrooms
DRIPS AND DISCHARGES: "Sgt. Eddie's Only Honkies Banned"
INANE: Mystic Krewe of Inane Extends Its Tour of Booty
K.A.O.S.: You Never Give Me Your Money
KREWE OF SPACE AGE LOVE: "PAY DE BOYS ON DE WATERFRONT"
L.E.W.D: David Vitter’s Lonely Whore’s Club
MAMA ROUX: We All Live in a Jello Shot Machine
KREWE DU MISHIGAS: Krewe du mishigas wards off the evil eye.
MONDU: Mondu Raises Hell-ter Skelter
MYSTIC KREWE OF PAN: PAN Drinks the Lafcadio Kool-Aid
SEEDS OF DECLINE: Fools on the Hill
MYSTIC KREWE OF SPERMES: Spermes: The White Album
T.O.K.I.N.: TOKIN Gets Wasted
UNDERWEAR: Can Buy Me Love
Missed the parade, but thanks to Schroeder I found a link to the KdV's
periodical, Le Monde de Merde, which is hilarious:
Read you some
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Volunteers Moving on in
Despite the lower-than-low opinions of some people, there are many many people out there that continue to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Katrina.
From USA Today ....
Two years after Katrina, the spirit of volunteerism is stronger than ever: 600,000 people headed to the Gulf Coast in Year 2 vs. 550,000 the first year after the August 2005 storm, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that runs AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs. Most are short-termers whose sheer numbers have provided the muscle behind the rebuilding. But the brains are the long-term volunteers who have dedicated at least six months to New Orleans. They provide the expertise needed to direct volunteers to the right work sites, teaching them to drywall and varnish wood.
The exact number of long-term volunteers is unknown, but their effect on the rebuilding is not. "We've seen this as the largest volunteer response in American history. There's a huge diversity of volunteers, from retirees to people right out of college," says David Eisner, CEO of the community service agency. "The long-term people are the glue that holds volunteerism together."
Despite all its problems, New Orleans is attracting new residents.
David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, says a growing trend, dubbed "the brain-gain phenomenon," is getting traction in New Orleans. "Katrina offers a new frontier for people who care about social change," he says.
After two years of volunteering in AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), Ashley Sloan, Greg Loushine and Jackie Smith decided to start their own non-profit group, Live St. Bernard.
"Many volunteers stay because they bond with and identify with residents," he says. "It's hard for the volunteers to leave and continue with their lives after bonding with the residents." The couple have decided to make New Orleans their permanent home.
"New Orleans represents the great optimism of America," Eisner says. "We've seen people turn their experience in long-term volunteering to inform their career paths. We've seen people move to change their lives of success to lives of significance."
Things are changing ever so slowly, but they're changing for the good.
From USA Today ....
Two years after Katrina, the spirit of volunteerism is stronger than ever: 600,000 people headed to the Gulf Coast in Year 2 vs. 550,000 the first year after the August 2005 storm, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that runs AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs. Most are short-termers whose sheer numbers have provided the muscle behind the rebuilding. But the brains are the long-term volunteers who have dedicated at least six months to New Orleans. They provide the expertise needed to direct volunteers to the right work sites, teaching them to drywall and varnish wood.
The exact number of long-term volunteers is unknown, but their effect on the rebuilding is not. "We've seen this as the largest volunteer response in American history. There's a huge diversity of volunteers, from retirees to people right out of college," says David Eisner, CEO of the community service agency. "The long-term people are the glue that holds volunteerism together."
Despite all its problems, New Orleans is attracting new residents.
David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, says a growing trend, dubbed "the brain-gain phenomenon," is getting traction in New Orleans. "Katrina offers a new frontier for people who care about social change," he says.
After two years of volunteering in AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), Ashley Sloan, Greg Loushine and Jackie Smith decided to start their own non-profit group, Live St. Bernard.
"Many volunteers stay because they bond with and identify with residents," he says. "It's hard for the volunteers to leave and continue with their lives after bonding with the residents." The couple have decided to make New Orleans their permanent home.
"New Orleans represents the great optimism of America," Eisner says. "We've seen people turn their experience in long-term volunteering to inform their career paths. We've seen people move to change their lives of success to lives of significance."
Things are changing ever so slowly, but they're changing for the good.
Big Boys
Found the you tube video where those two large Houma men were kicked out of a restaurant
The video blacks out at about minute 5:30, but returns at about minute 7:03.
Good ol boys who eat too much.
Jeesh.
The video blacks out at about minute 5:30, but returns at about minute 7:03.
Good ol boys who eat too much.
Jeesh.
Trees for the wetlands
From the Times Pic, a little video showing how
Christmas trees restoring the marsh in Jefferson Parish.
For the next three Saturdays, volunteers are needed to help load the Christmas trees into the marshes. Numbers are provided at the end of the video above.
From the Jefferson Parish website
Louisiana is losing 25 - 35 square miles of coastal wetlands each year. The Barataria Basin is the fastest-eroding area of Louisiana's coast. Jefferson Parish once had 50 miles of near-solid healthy wetlands between it and the Gulf of Mexico. The wetlands protect developed areas against hurricane surges, provide natural treatment for storm water, and provide a rich nursery ground for fisheries. Now, a large percentage of these wetlands have been converted to open water, significantly reducing storm protection.
Facts from the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
The 2007 Christmas season will mark the 17th consecutive year of the PCWRP. About 40,000 linear feet or eight (8) miles of brush fences have been constructed, utilizing over 1,574,000 used Christmas trees. Fifteen coastal parishes and Southeastern Louisiana University will participate in the 2007–08 PCWRP. Most parishes will restock or refurbish existing fences. Participating parishes are Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Terrebonne, and Vermilion. Southeastern Louisiana University will participate in place of Tangipahoa parish. Trees will be picked up curbside or as advertised locally
Christmas trees restoring the marsh in Jefferson Parish.
For the next three Saturdays, volunteers are needed to help load the Christmas trees into the marshes. Numbers are provided at the end of the video above.
From the Jefferson Parish website
Louisiana is losing 25 - 35 square miles of coastal wetlands each year. The Barataria Basin is the fastest-eroding area of Louisiana's coast. Jefferson Parish once had 50 miles of near-solid healthy wetlands between it and the Gulf of Mexico. The wetlands protect developed areas against hurricane surges, provide natural treatment for storm water, and provide a rich nursery ground for fisheries. Now, a large percentage of these wetlands have been converted to open water, significantly reducing storm protection.
Facts from the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
The 2007 Christmas season will mark the 17th consecutive year of the PCWRP. About 40,000 linear feet or eight (8) miles of brush fences have been constructed, utilizing over 1,574,000 used Christmas trees. Fifteen coastal parishes and Southeastern Louisiana University will participate in the 2007–08 PCWRP. Most parishes will restock or refurbish existing fences. Participating parishes are Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Terrebonne, and Vermilion. Southeastern Louisiana University will participate in place of Tangipahoa parish. Trees will be picked up curbside or as advertised locally
Post K Mental Health blog
Some people may be familiar with Josh Norman thru the
"Eye of the Storm" blog which he co-authored from Mississippi following Katrina's landfall there.
Joshua has awarded the fellowship through the Kaiser Family Foundation to explore ways in which disasters affect people mentally, specifically the way Hurricane Katrina affected people on the Gulf Coast.
The new blog, called Post Katrina Mental Health
In one of his first posts, Josh tries to answer the question
at
What is a Katrina Victim ?. Here's a little piece of that post
There are certain story lines that many people seem to have followed, with only the details differing.
One story I keep hearing over and over again is this one: "My (parent, grandparent, elderly relative, etc.)
was doing fine before Katrina. They survived the storm. However, upon returning to their home in (the Pass, the Lower 9, the Kiln, Gentilly, etc.)
afterwards, their health started to deteriorate. They stopped (eating, sleeping, smiling, communicating, etc.) Eventually, they died.
"Eye of the Storm" blog which he co-authored from Mississippi following Katrina's landfall there.
Joshua has awarded the fellowship through the Kaiser Family Foundation to explore ways in which disasters affect people mentally, specifically the way Hurricane Katrina affected people on the Gulf Coast.
The new blog, called Post Katrina Mental Health
In one of his first posts, Josh tries to answer the question
at
What is a Katrina Victim ?. Here's a little piece of that post
There are certain story lines that many people seem to have followed, with only the details differing.
One story I keep hearing over and over again is this one: "My (parent, grandparent, elderly relative, etc.)
was doing fine before Katrina. They survived the storm. However, upon returning to their home in (the Pass, the Lower 9, the Kiln, Gentilly, etc.)
afterwards, their health started to deteriorate. They stopped (eating, sleeping, smiling, communicating, etc.) Eventually, they died.
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