I never met Ashley in person, but feel as if I knew him. What a loss.
My prayers go out for his wife and three small children. Greg Peters created this montage. Have a kleenex ready. The music in the background is Warren Zevon, one of Ashley's musical heroes.
Although not a native, Ashley loved New Orleans with the ferocity of a native. He was a champion of recovery and gawd help anyone who got in it's way.
Four years ago today the NOLA blogsphere lost a very strong voice. Ashley Morris passed away YEARS TOO YOUNG on a trip to Florida. At first I thought it was a late April Fools joke. Then - reading other NOLA blogs - I discovered it was true.
From the Rising Tide blog, the award is named in honor of the late Ashley Morris,. It is awarded to a NOLA blogger who passionately works to defend and improve New Orleans through their actions and blogging.
Ashley Morris' friends have worked mega hard and fast to set up a paypal account to help Ashley's wife and three kids cover the costs of his death.
From Humid City's website: A major voice in the New Orleans blogosphere has gone silent, widowing a Rollergirl and orphaning three tiny children. As various local groups prepare a benefit we see major obstacles looming for the family including five figure expenses for the funeral. Please give what you can, even a few dollar here and there can mount up. There are needs that cannot wait on the fund raising events.
Please join the efforts of HumidCity, Defend New Orleans, NOLA Rising, WTUL, Tales of the Cocktail, The Big Easy Rollergirls, The Skull Club, L’Art Noir, and many more as we show the Morris Family what community really means!
Online Donations can be made at Remember Ashley Morris
If you wish to mail a donation make the check out to Hana Morris and send it to:
HumidCity c/o George Williams 5500 Prytania St. PMB #417 New Orleans, LA 70115
Spring is here at last and to me it is the finest time to enjoy the bounty offered by the Gulf Coast area. Nearly three years post K, this area's denizens have shown the strength and determination within themselves by coming back bigger and better.
Hubby and I are rabid festival-goers and this is prime time for us. It's not just the festivals we enjoy, either.
Last Saturday we ventured down to Napoleon House for lunch. The bruschetta was mouthwatering and I could eat their muffaletta every day.
By the time we finished, it was late afternoon, which proved to be a great time to snap pictures of the classic architecture of the French Quarter.
This Sunday is dubbed "Super Sunday" in NOLA. Wish I could be there to witness the Mardi Gras Indians. Hat Tip to Ashley Truely a treasure, the Indians will strut their stuff, so bring your cameras. Their artistic costumes are like nothing you've ever seen!! My hubby works on Sunday, so I'll be one of those folks enjoying the blogger reports, like Ashley's, on Monday.
About a mile from our house is the Slidell trailhead of the Tammany Trace where bikers, walkers and horseback riders have the opportunity to experience a quiet off-the-road tour of five communities along the northshore of Lake Pontchartrain St. Tammany Parish: Covington, Abita Springs, Mandeville, Lacombe, and Slidell. It's a great way to get away from your hectic week for a few hours. You have the opportunity of biking 40 miles in a few hours. Talk about burning calories!!! We've biked from the Mandeville Trailhead to the Abita Brewpub , had lunch and burned it all off by the end of our roundtrip. Now THAT'S my kind of exercise!!
Speaking of mudbugs, April 19th is the date set for the Crawfish Cook-Off - St. Tammany's Biggest Cook-Off Event at Fritchie Park in Slidell. This is the third annual cookoff and it gets bigger and better every year. 50 Teams will compete for the title of "Best Tasting Crawfish". Live Musical Entertainment Lost Bayou Ramblers,Four Unplugged and Top Cats. Money raised benefits the Fund for "End of Life" Care. Over 45,000 lbs. of Crawfish to be boiled. Tickets may be purchased prior to the event at any Northshore Whitney Bank and at the gates the day of the event.
On the weekend of April 5th the Picayune (Mississippi) semi annual street fair happens . This is a really great fair which spans for miles through one of the city's main thoroughfares. There are always plenty of assorted vendors (approximately 250) selling Antiques, Arts & Crafts, Woodwork,Plants,Iron Work, Preserves, Jewelry,Unfinished Furniture and a variety of foods. If you're a people watcher, this is a fair for you!!
The springtime is a great time to take Highway 90 to the Gulf Coast. While driving towards Biloxi, be sure to look out for the incredible carvings done on oak trees killed by Katrina along the median. Heck, pull over to get a real good look at them. The details are incredible.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, it runs from Friday, April 11 through Sunday, April 13 the FQ Fest offers 250 hours of free entertainment, featuring more than 150 musical performances on fifteen stages throughout the French Quarter. Nearly 60 food and beverage booths located in Jackson Square, Woldenberg Riverfront Park, and elsewhere will make up the “World's Largest Jazz Brunch,” a signature event featuring authentic local cuisine from renowned area restaurants.
On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of children at a community center in Treme ran inside screaming that a lady outside had a gun.
The woman - who according to several witnesses announced that she was a New Orleans police officer - had come to the Treme Community Center to pick up a 7-year-old nephew and, for reasons unknown, became enraged at the driver of the car in front of her in the pickup line, witnesses said.
Numerous witnesses said the woman relentlessly honked her car horn. As the situation escalated, she yelled expletives at the other driver and got halfway out of her car and brandished a gun, they said. At that point one of the witnesses called 911, but several people said the responding officer spoke privately with the angry woman, then said loudly as the two walked together that she should've shot a man who told her to put her gun down because children were present, witnesses said.
On a radio talk show yesterday, the widow of an NOPD officer murdered by his partner, Antoinette Frank said that Ashley Terry's behaviour reminded her of Antoinette Frank as far as the crazed bully-like personality. Frank is on deathrow for the murders of Officer Ronald Williams and a Vietnamese family in 1995.
Robert Thorson, supposedly a Professor of Geology at the University of Connecticut.
I say "supposedly" because in this article, "Politics Aside, New Orleans is a Lost Cause", published in the Hartford Courant, he states .... I just wish that one of the Democratic contenders had been forthright, calling the Katrina tragedy a natural disaster...My plan has only one point. That we not spend another dime on U.S. properties below sea level - and use that money instead to help sea-level refugees find safer homes elsewhere.
Pistolette wrote No wonder most people in New Orleans want France to buy us back. With compatriots like you, who needs jihadis?
Ashley mused is painfully obvious is that Mr Thorson is evidently not aware that most of the city of New Orleans is above sea level. Far above. Farther than many points in Hartford, Connecticut.
Mr Thorson is suggesting that New Orleans be abandoned for all the wrong reasons. The reasons he should be most ashamed of are bad research and bad science on his part.
Maitri closes her response with
but this is a matter of life and death for New Orleans, not an intellectual plaything or the next topic for a journal paper. That America and the rest of the world understand what went on here before, during and after Katrina and the Flood is crucial. Heaven forbid that something similar should occur in Bridgeport, New Haven or Niantic, or even Hartford for that matter. In such a circumstance, it is critical that local residents and onlookers appreciate the difference between natural and unnatural, unavoidable and unjust. It is vitally important that educators and students, especially of geology, learn from this horror and use the proper information and tools to make sure it never happens again. This would be the best tribute to the 1300 New Orleanians who lost their lives in a most unnatural way.
I never met him personally, but Ashley touched everyone who read his blog or emailed him in a big way. He had a love for life and New Orleans and he'll never be forgotten.
This so-called food critic,a man who enjoys kicking people when they're down (all in the name of "fun")
Quotes from a GQ article (which has since been pulled.) thanks to Ashley who saved it. New Orleans was always a three-day stubble of a city, and now, courtesy of Katrina, it’s more like five. The situation is worse, of course, in the devastated areas, where the floodwaters and the winds did their work. I know we are supposed to salvage what’s left of the city, but what exactly is it that we’re trying to cherish and preserve? I hope it’s not the French Quarter, which has evolved into a illogical mix of characterless housing, elegant antiques stores, and scuzzy bars, a destination for tourists seeking the worst possible experience. The entertainment values are only marginally superior to those of Tijuana, Mexico. Of course, there’s the food. I’m not certain the cuisine was ever as good as its reputation, in part because the people who have consumed, evaluated, and admired it likely weren’t sober enough at the time of ingestion to know what they were eating. The food can be praised for distinctiveness and historical significance, both noteworthy, but the restaurants were going in the wrong direction before the hurricane—think, if you are old enough, of French-hotel food of the ’50s. Too many luxurious restaurants were desperately trying to attract business by serving meals that fulfilled some illusory idea of what traditional cuisine should be. A local joke says it well: New Orleans has a thousand restaurants but only one menu.
New Orleans has always been about food and music, with parades added to the mix. (In the North, where I come from, we like to think we’re about jobs and education, with sports thrown in.) Vulnerability goes along with loving the dinner table too much—think again of our old friends the French. It might sound harmless for a civilization to focus on food, but it’s enormously indulgent. Name a society that cherishes tasting menus and I’ll show you a people too portly to mount up and repel invaders.
It is time to vote these "good old boys and girls" out with finality. I am so very disappointed that Bobby Jindal apparently lacks the cojones to be a real leader.
Sure, the so called political pundits in the NOLA blogsphere have been trashing Jindal since he started running for office. I'm sure they're grinning big time now. But now is NOT the time to sit back and feel good for the fact that your "predictions" have come true.
Louisiana voters, you are being screwed once again. It's time to oust these bastards, to let them know that things have changed. Katrina did NOT happen for no reason. Katrina happened to cause change, change for the good of this gret state.
In 2005 the state of Pennsylvania was in the same boat we are that we are at this very moment. From the much beloved wikipedia article:
Anger over the raise spawned several grass-roots movements, some geared toward voting out incumbents....and some seeking support for a Constitutional Convention or a reduction in the size of the legislature.
On November 16, 2005, Governor Rendell signed a repeal of the pay raise after a near unanimous vote for repeal; only House Minority Whip Mike Veon voted against the repeal.
Despite the repeal, a total of 17 legislators were defeated in the 2006 primary elections including Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer and Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill. They were the first top-ranking Pennsylvania legislative leaders to lose a primary election since 1964.
The November 2006 General Election claimed several more members who supported the pay raise including Reps. Gene McGill, Mike Veon, Matt Wright, Tom Gannon and Matthew Good.[4] The defeats were widely attributed to anger over the pay raise.
From Cliff's Crib ...the sponsor of this bill is Senator Ann Duplessis. I heard her say on the radio today that the pay raise is needed because of all the time spent trying to open Charity Hospital and other hospitals around the city and in her district. Well, I live and drive through her district everyday. I have long given up on reading about plans for future development in the city. I judge everything by what I can see with my own two eyes because around here if you can’t see it then you can’t say it’s coming. With that in mind, I not only think Senator Duplessis shouldn’t get a pay raise. She should send everyone in her district a check for 500.00 with an apology for the lack of recovery.
Why does much of New Orleans still look as if the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina had occurred just a few weeks ago? Huge areas of New Orleans still are wastelands. New Orleans's liberal-progressive-socialist Senator Mary Landrieu has grabbed far more than her share of Congressional pork. Hundreds of millions of Federal dollars spent for rehabilitation have produced far too little beneficial result. People were without electric power for months; the police department contained more thieves than honest law enforcers; drug-dealing and prostitution remain major enterprises; and the city still retains its crown as the nation's murder capital. One of the city's few "legitimate" businesses is casino gambling. City and state administrations have yet to coordinate rebuilding plans, as politicians fight over who gets what share of the spoils. The best that the city's Mayor Nagin can do is to demand that the Democratic-socialist Party presidential candidates pledge to send even more pork to New Orleans. What accounts for this dismal record? The answer is simple. New Orleans abandoned God and personal moral responsibility, turning instead to worshipping the atheistic, secular political state. That secular god has failed miserably, notoriously so in the aftermath of Katrina.
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.
Here's a link to an editorial written by Geri Denterlein of Boston regarding her experiences and feelings from a recent volunteer visit to NOLA. Thanks to Ashley.
Monday, August 06, 2007
browsing my favorite blogs, I found some interesting things to share:
From the Dead Pelican the story of the continuation of nonexistant communication and the pain it causes. FEMA and the city of NOLA mistakenly tear down a home The last call I made yesterday, they told me FEMA did it. Then, a guy called me back from FEMA and said they're not in the business if tearing down homes,"
Ashley posted an excerpt from Michael Irvin's Hall of Fame enshrinement speech in which Irvin related his feelings about the Saints' game on September 25, 2007. He gets it.
This house in eastern Slidell has finally been torn down. Nearly two years after the storm, demolitions have at last come!
