Gosh I hope my friends remember when I spot a trend before it happens.
When Borders (an old employer of mine) opened its Uptown store after Katrina, I told them it would not make it. The location was wrong, the business plan at Borders was wrong, and the local stores were well run and confident of their customer service ability, as they should have been.
That the industry would evolve to online sales for best sellers and eBooks, thereby taking the chain stores' business away from them, leaving niche markets and tactile events and special customer service for the local stores.
It's okay if they don't remember: a new store for browsing around the corner from my house is my reward. That, along with my friends at Octavia Books remaining successful and available for advice and service on my non-fiction orders.
satisfied sigh.
NOLA story
Essays, links and visuals highlighting an alternative, resilient place at the strategic crescent of one mighty river.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Review of Bookchin's Limits of the City
Limits of the City by Murray BookchinMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Feudalism vs bourgeois culture: fascinating. The evolution of the city when it is not necessarily attached to empire, also fascinating. Necessary to think about in these times, it seems.
I find Bookchin's writing amazingly clear, and at at time when he was so far ahead of his fellow thinkers/writers. I suppose inherent in accepting his viewpoint is opposing needless hierarchy; Murray and I agree on that framework wholeheartedly.
Still for me, anarchy remains my organizing principle, but only with human frailty planned for and current population issues on the table. In other words, I believe in individualism but know we gotta work together when we need to. It seems to some extent Bookchin grew to believe that too. So, Bookchin's social ecology work although yet to be named but clearly emerging, must be added to your contextual reading here.
There is so much within this book that appeals to those who think about direct democracy and proper scale. However, I can hear bits of the anger that alienated many of the activists back in the day; one of these peers even saying to me recently, "if he could have reduced the obvious venom for any idea in opposition to his, he might be more widely understood."
But there is no question in my mind he was thinking in a systemic problem and solution syntax and bringing real workman language to what had been a dry academic issue: what to do about the cities? what were cities for?
I am about to start his "Towards an Ecological Society" and also dip into "The Politics of Social Ecology" to further understand his later reach and his libertarian municipalism ideas. I hope he continues to inspire.
And for those of you who work for holistic system change, read Bookchin.
View all my reviews
Spray sparingly. Post prudently.
For anyone who enjoys going to music shows, festivals and community events, it's fun to take some time to stroll through one's city, reading posters on telephone poles and flyers taped on windows.
One can even see how future historians will comb through this paper trail for clues into the cultural underpinnings of say, a fairgrounds neighborhood society. Most of us can appreciate it since they have a transitory life and also because the number usually stays at a manageable level in most areas outside of university campuses.
However, when Quint Davis and crew arrive in March of each year to start setting up the thing that becomes JazzFest by the end of April, neighbors start to prepare for the advertising onslaught of posters, chalkers and ultimately, advertising planes flying in circles overhead for 7 or more hours. (I usually spend the day after JF at Rouse's while sipping a hand grenade from Tropical Isle for some reason.)
This is our lot. We accept it, although we also manage it by reducing the amount when too many posters are stapled on top of each other.
I watch for flyers just left on top of garbage cans or on chairs to blow around (Treme TV show, your folks were in this group this year...).
And we can appreciate it when we get timely political messages:
or a chuckle:
But sometimes the amount outweighs the use.
Sometime in the last weekend of JF, the Artspark people decided they needed a dozen ads surrounding the fairgrounds for their event to be held on May 14 in City Park. So, like many smart people they decided to get creative and bring some chalk and a stencil and spray chalk directly on the street.
Nice.
Except, they felt instead of 1 stencil per street, they would be better to leave 3, 4, 5 in a single block and then to use so much chalk that 3 weeks later when all traces of the massive JazzFest itself were neatly packed away, these flyers remain.
You might say, probably are saying, what is the big deal? They're small, they will wash away. Although with drought conditions remaining and then a hard rain 2 nights ago not altering them much, it's possible that they might not go away soon.
More importantly than that is the point that ephemeral messages should be just that. And the music shows leave enough paper to fill a large garbage can, which become our responsibility to remove. I hate to see folks start to use the street, sidewalk to advertise their production without understanding that maybe less can be more or if they mean it to have a short life, then maybe check to make sure it does.
Graffiti artists are doing something quite different when they leave a message. And when they sloppily tag a building over and over I am as annoyed as the owner. Try to be useful and purposeful. I think...
It's sort of like the folks who profit from Bayou Boogalou leaving those banners on the bridges well past the event. We get it: if no one complains than why not keep getting the coverage?
Well, okay, here I am complaining. Use my streets for your advertising, but within reason please. And make it beautiful. And take some time after to find out if you overstepped your boundaries among your neighbors.
One can even see how future historians will comb through this paper trail for clues into the cultural underpinnings of say, a fairgrounds neighborhood society. Most of us can appreciate it since they have a transitory life and also because the number usually stays at a manageable level in most areas outside of university campuses.
However, when Quint Davis and crew arrive in March of each year to start setting up the thing that becomes JazzFest by the end of April, neighbors start to prepare for the advertising onslaught of posters, chalkers and ultimately, advertising planes flying in circles overhead for 7 or more hours. (I usually spend the day after JF at Rouse's while sipping a hand grenade from Tropical Isle for some reason.)
This is our lot. We accept it, although we also manage it by reducing the amount when too many posters are stapled on top of each other.
I watch for flyers just left on top of garbage cans or on chairs to blow around (Treme TV show, your folks were in this group this year...).
And we can appreciate it when we get timely political messages:
or a chuckle:
But sometimes the amount outweighs the use.
Sometime in the last weekend of JF, the Artspark people decided they needed a dozen ads surrounding the fairgrounds for their event to be held on May 14 in City Park. So, like many smart people they decided to get creative and bring some chalk and a stencil and spray chalk directly on the street.
Nice.
Except, they felt instead of 1 stencil per street, they would be better to leave 3, 4, 5 in a single block and then to use so much chalk that 3 weeks later when all traces of the massive JazzFest itself were neatly packed away, these flyers remain.
You might say, probably are saying, what is the big deal? They're small, they will wash away. Although with drought conditions remaining and then a hard rain 2 nights ago not altering them much, it's possible that they might not go away soon.
More importantly than that is the point that ephemeral messages should be just that. And the music shows leave enough paper to fill a large garbage can, which become our responsibility to remove. I hate to see folks start to use the street, sidewalk to advertise their production without understanding that maybe less can be more or if they mean it to have a short life, then maybe check to make sure it does.
Graffiti artists are doing something quite different when they leave a message. And when they sloppily tag a building over and over I am as annoyed as the owner. Try to be useful and purposeful. I think...
It's sort of like the folks who profit from Bayou Boogalou leaving those banners on the bridges well past the event. We get it: if no one complains than why not keep getting the coverage?
Well, okay, here I am complaining. Use my streets for your advertising, but within reason please. And make it beautiful. And take some time after to find out if you overstepped your boundaries among your neighbors.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Oh those suburbs...
Mississippi update first:
Yes, water is high still but levees holding. thanks for asking. farmers and fishers not fans of Corps right now. Memphis is still wet. Vicksburg still wet. Arkansas very wet.So, we're holding up. But more storms (and unfortunately destructive tornados for our northern neighbors) means more water in the river so we ain't done yet.. Ironically, this goes on while New Orleans and the Lake Pontchartrain watershed (see blog header picture to see the watershed perimeters) remains under drought conditions.
That was your Mississippi River flooding/drought update brought to you by...no one. Because corporations and their advertising only associate with disasters through government funding.
back to our thriving conversation.
Spent the morning at Airline and Labarre. My mom asked me to do her a small favor by going to the car repair place (so they could do me a bigger favor by giving me my stepfather's older truck.) I went and was puzzled by the lack of communication and straight answers until I remembered that this was a chain.
After they gave us a estimate (90 minutes later), I decided to take my bike out of the back of the truck and ride leisurely back to the city, out of the suburbs.
To give complete disclosure, many of my mother's family live in the suburbs around New Orleans. Although I don't know any of them. I see them at funerals once in a while. They seem nice.
And I spent my early formative years in the suburbs of Cleveland. Lakewood Ohio, green, walkable and with 2 Main Streets of commercial activity. Older suburb obviously.
So, I have no right to use a holier-than-thou attitude about the suburbs. So i don't. But boy, some of these houses are too much. and others are nice, but honestly, never saw a person at all (except workmen) on the whole ride.
Huge
3 stories.
picket fence life
really cool place at tracks
17th Street Canal; why so much water in here?
and got back to Canal Street and stopped at that nice little health product/head shop/cafe at the head of Canal Street (forgive me John Boutte and Paul Sanchez).
and then to Bud's for a #9:
So not entirely bad, except no bike routes, no people and houses out of scale to their neighbors.
And I'm still waiting for the car repair chain place to call back.
Yes, water is high still but levees holding. thanks for asking. farmers and fishers not fans of Corps right now. Memphis is still wet. Vicksburg still wet. Arkansas very wet.So, we're holding up. But more storms (and unfortunately destructive tornados for our northern neighbors) means more water in the river so we ain't done yet.. Ironically, this goes on while New Orleans and the Lake Pontchartrain watershed (see blog header picture to see the watershed perimeters) remains under drought conditions.
That was your Mississippi River flooding/drought update brought to you by...no one. Because corporations and their advertising only associate with disasters through government funding.
back to our thriving conversation.
Spent the morning at Airline and Labarre. My mom asked me to do her a small favor by going to the car repair place (so they could do me a bigger favor by giving me my stepfather's older truck.) I went and was puzzled by the lack of communication and straight answers until I remembered that this was a chain.
After they gave us a estimate (90 minutes later), I decided to take my bike out of the back of the truck and ride leisurely back to the city, out of the suburbs.
To give complete disclosure, many of my mother's family live in the suburbs around New Orleans. Although I don't know any of them. I see them at funerals once in a while. They seem nice.
And I spent my early formative years in the suburbs of Cleveland. Lakewood Ohio, green, walkable and with 2 Main Streets of commercial activity. Older suburb obviously.
So, I have no right to use a holier-than-thou attitude about the suburbs. So i don't. But boy, some of these houses are too much. and others are nice, but honestly, never saw a person at all (except workmen) on the whole ride.
Huge
3 stories.
picket fence life
really cool place at tracks
17th Street Canal; why so much water in here?and got back to Canal Street and stopped at that nice little health product/head shop/cafe at the head of Canal Street (forgive me John Boutte and Paul Sanchez).
and then to Bud's for a #9:
So not entirely bad, except no bike routes, no people and houses out of scale to their neighbors.
And I'm still waiting for the car repair chain place to call back.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
We await the river's decision
Yes we now wait. Many of us have gone to the river bank this week and looked at its level and worried and wondered. We also think of our neighbors west of us who know that they will receive up to 15 feet of water in order to save Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
We also hear the river will close to traffic on Monday for the duration. How odd it will seem to not have the ships and the ferries. But all we can do is to talk and keep checking.
Last night, I went for drinks and dinner with a friend to Domenica, one of John Besh's newer restaurants. This one is in the Roosevelt Hotel, our most famous hotel since the 1920s which took almost 4 years to rebuild itself after levee destruction. Great food and drink, lovely place, good conversation. A welcome respite from a stressful few weeks.
We toasted our city and my new found freedom from employment, starting in early June. We talked about her sales at JazzFest, (www.kabukihats.com), her next show at Lincoln Center, my travels with the work that I have lined up over the summer.
Many good things may be coming to us individually but looming environmental issues also are coming closer. We now live with the knowledge that we are in an even more fragile place in a politically charged time. What will happen to the people of the Delta? To the farmers west and north? The fisheries? The small cities that surround the larger ones? What about the levee leakages some are seeing? And the pollution now added to our river where we get our drinking water? What happens to the levees when the water starts to drop?
I woke up today with a feeling of great weight in my heart: I rode to the levee and looked at the river again and silently asked it to stay in its agreed path, and to spare what it could.
And then I went home and made red beans and settled in for more wait.
We also hear the river will close to traffic on Monday for the duration. How odd it will seem to not have the ships and the ferries. But all we can do is to talk and keep checking.
Last night, I went for drinks and dinner with a friend to Domenica, one of John Besh's newer restaurants. This one is in the Roosevelt Hotel, our most famous hotel since the 1920s which took almost 4 years to rebuild itself after levee destruction. Great food and drink, lovely place, good conversation. A welcome respite from a stressful few weeks.
We toasted our city and my new found freedom from employment, starting in early June. We talked about her sales at JazzFest, (www.kabukihats.com), her next show at Lincoln Center, my travels with the work that I have lined up over the summer.
Many good things may be coming to us individually but looming environmental issues also are coming closer. We now live with the knowledge that we are in an even more fragile place in a politically charged time. What will happen to the people of the Delta? To the farmers west and north? The fisheries? The small cities that surround the larger ones? What about the levee leakages some are seeing? And the pollution now added to our river where we get our drinking water? What happens to the levees when the water starts to drop?
I woke up today with a feeling of great weight in my heart: I rode to the levee and looked at the river again and silently asked it to stay in its agreed path, and to spare what it could.
And then I went home and made red beans and settled in for more wait.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
"Control" of the Atchafalaya
The Control of Nature by John McPheeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well, if you have read my reviews, you know my middle-class connection to the New Yorker and its writers. The majority of my favorites wrote for the magazine (or currently write for it) and I assume this has to do with my teen discovery of the Algonquin Circle and its writers, and their politics and way of life.
So, no surprise that John McPhee is another favorite..
I think I have read all of his books, and this one is obviously dear to my brain and heart, as it does an admirable job explaining the relationship of the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi rivers, and the future of regions that bend nature to its control.
You'll see my review of John Barry's Rising Tide in my list which to me is the best work on the control of the Mississippi River.
So read that if you want to know what's happening in the middle of the country (and remind yourself why New Orleans must exist on one level- to maintain control and use of the river. You're welcome.)
And then take time to learn about the Atchafalaya Basin. In order to understand what the life of the Mississippi is about, you have to understand its sister, the Atchafalaya River. Our state IS more than New Orleans; it's a system of waterways and sustainable entrepreneurs that use the waterways to supply the shipping and the fisheries that sustain much of the entire U.S.
View all my reviews
Here is a direct link to the article: article in New Yorker
Here is the part that has stuck in my mind all of these years and is there again now:
“Those professors at L.S.U. say that whatever we do we’re going to lose the system,” he remarked one day at Old River, and, after a pause, added, “Maybe they’re right.” His voice had the sound of water over rock. In pitch, it was lower than a helicon tuba. Better to hear him indoors, in his operations office, away from the structure’s competing thunders. “Maybe they’re right,” he repeated. “We feel that we can hold the river. We’re going to try. Whenever you try to control nature, you’ve got one strike against you.”
Rising Tide
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. BarryMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well, well here we are again. Another hot summer has started and water is rising down South. At least this time we're not at the mercy of the Army Corps-oh wait. Hmmm. (Pack your paperwork, I beseech you my neighbors.)
Well it is true that the earthen levee system of the Mississippi is more substantial and a SYSTEM rather than the concrete pieces that were built on peat moss and sand along the canals of our Lake Pontchartrain and Industrial Canal here in New Orleans. We can be reasonably sure that the Corps will not kill thousands of people this month, mostly because this is a 100 year project and it is not dependent entirely on the current political system or money spent in post-capitalist America.
If you want to understand the breadth of this system I can most surely recommend this book to you. It's a page turner too, full of characters and politics and yes rising tides.
I'll tell you the best way for me to tell you how good the book is. I bought a second copy for my seafarin' stepfather who politely took all books on the Mississippi he was gifted and put them on his side table, never to be read. For this one, 2 weeks later I got a sideways, gruffly offered:
"hey that book? Not bad. not bad at all."
View all my reviews
Monday, May 09, 2011
The Emperor
I love this video- love the audience and their expressions and general joie de vie.
and because it features the Emperor of the Universe, The Charity hospital baby that became our New Orleans icon, Ernie K-Doe.
We thrive on many different levels.
and because it features the Emperor of the Universe, The Charity hospital baby that became our New Orleans icon, Ernie K-Doe.
We thrive on many different levels.
Spilling our way
"Downriver in Louisiana, the Army Corps of Engineers began opening the first floodgates at the Bonnet Carre spillway about 30 miles northwest of New Orleans. Workers pulled restraining devices off 28 of the spillway's 350 gates, and the corps said it will monitor river levels before deciding to open more.
It's the 10th time the spillway has opened since the structure was completed in 1931.
The corps also has asked for permission to open the key Morganza spillway north of Baton Rouge. Officials warned residents that even if it were opened, residents could expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.
Later on Monday, state officials planned to begin moving some prisoners from the Angola state penitentiary, north of Baton Rouge.
Peak flows are not expected to reach the New Orleans area for more than two weeks.
Engineers say it is unlikely any major metropolitan areas will be inundated as the water pushes downstream over the next week or two. Nonetheless, officials are cautious.
# Bonnet Carre Spillway. In Louisiana, the Corps on Monday opened some of the spillway's gates, diverting some of the Mississippi into Lake Pontchartrain to ease pressure on New Orleans' levees. Built about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans in response to the 1927 flood, it was last opened in 2008. Monday marked the 10th time it has been opened. From the lake, the water flows east into the fertile fishing and oyster grounds of Lake Borgne and the Mississippi Sound, and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.
# Morganza Spillway. The Corps has asked for permission to open some of the gates on this spillway, located 35 miles north of Baton Rouge, for the first time since 1973. Officials warned residents that even if it is opened, they can expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated and towns like Houma and Morgan City would have to be evacuated. Already, communities are sandbagging as a precaution.
# West Atchafalaya Floodway. This last line of defense for New Orleans was built to take half of the Mississippi's highest flows and divert that to the Gulf. So far the Corps has not said it is considering opening this system."
More at www.msnbc.com
It's the 10th time the spillway has opened since the structure was completed in 1931.
The corps also has asked for permission to open the key Morganza spillway north of Baton Rouge. Officials warned residents that even if it were opened, residents could expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.
Later on Monday, state officials planned to begin moving some prisoners from the Angola state penitentiary, north of Baton Rouge.
Peak flows are not expected to reach the New Orleans area for more than two weeks.
Engineers say it is unlikely any major metropolitan areas will be inundated as the water pushes downstream over the next week or two. Nonetheless, officials are cautious.
# Bonnet Carre Spillway. In Louisiana, the Corps on Monday opened some of the spillway's gates, diverting some of the Mississippi into Lake Pontchartrain to ease pressure on New Orleans' levees. Built about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans in response to the 1927 flood, it was last opened in 2008. Monday marked the 10th time it has been opened. From the lake, the water flows east into the fertile fishing and oyster grounds of Lake Borgne and the Mississippi Sound, and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.
# Morganza Spillway. The Corps has asked for permission to open some of the gates on this spillway, located 35 miles north of Baton Rouge, for the first time since 1973. Officials warned residents that even if it is opened, they can expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana's most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated and towns like Houma and Morgan City would have to be evacuated. Already, communities are sandbagging as a precaution.
# West Atchafalaya Floodway. This last line of defense for New Orleans was built to take half of the Mississippi's highest flows and divert that to the Gulf. So far the Corps has not said it is considering opening this system."
More at www.msnbc.com
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