the humid haney rant

Ouch.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1944027/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Shock-of-the-Savage-Reviews.html

N'Sync

ht ben hirsch May 10, 2008 in Video | Permalink | Comments (5)

Geauxbama!!! New Dirty Coast shirt in the store. Online soon.

Come on baby! Momma needs a new pair of . . . streetlights?

If this is true we should all go down there and win some taxes back.

Nagin owns a Casino?

The Levee

The latest issues is by far the best yet. The writing is very sharp and very funny. Well done Rudy and gang on raising the bar.

Beware the terrible simplifiers and celebrate the media who report with reason and intelligence.

May 2, 2008

BILL MOYERS:Welcome to the Journal.

I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, "Who's telling the truth over there?" "Everyone," he said. "Everyone sees what's happening through the lens of their own experience." That's how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: "Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical," one viewer wrote. A "nut case," said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.

Many of you have asked for some rational explanation for Wright's transition from reasonable conversation to shocking anger at the National Press Club. A psychologist might pull back some of the layers and see this complicated man more clearly, but I'm not a psychologist. Many black preachers I've known — scholarly, smart, and gentle in person — uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I've known many white preachers like that, too.

But where I grew up in the south, before the civil rights movement, the pulpit was a safe place for black men to express anger for which they would have been punished anywhere else; a safe place for the fierce thunder of dignity denied, justice delayed. I think I would have been angry if my ancestors had been transported thousands of miles in the hellish hole of a slave ship, then sold at auction, humiliated, whipped, and lynched. Or if my great-great grandfather had been but three-fifths of a person in a constitution that proclaimed, "We the people." Or if my own parents had been subjected to the racial vitriol of Jim Crow, Strom Thurmond, Bull Connor, and Jesse Helms. Even so, the anger of black preachers I've known and heard about and reported on was, for them, very personal and cathartic.

That's not how Jeremiah Wright came across in those sound bites or in his defiant performances this week. What white America is hearing in his most inflammatory words is an attack on the America they cherish and that many of their sons have died for in battle ? forgetting that black Americans have fought and bled beside them, and that Wright himself has a record of honored service in the Navy. Hardly anyone took the "chickens come home to roost" remark to convey the message that intervention in the political battles of other nations is sure to bring retaliation in some form, which is not to justify the particular savagery of 9/11 but to understand that actions have consequences. My friend Bernard Weisberger, the historian, says, yes, people are understandably seething with indignation over Wright's absurd charge that the United States deliberately brought an HIV epidemic into being. But it is a fact, he says, that within living memory the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study that deliberately deceived black men with syphilis into believing that they were being treated, while actually letting them die for the sake of a scientific test. Does this excuse Wright's anger? His exaggerations or distortions? You'll have to decide or yourself. At least it helps me to understand the why of them.

But in this multimedia age the pulpit isn't only available on Sunday mornings. There's round the clock media — the beast whose hunger is never satisfied, especially for the fast food with emotional content. So the preacher starts with rational discussion and after much prodding throws more and more gasoline on the fire that will eventually consume everything it touches. He had help — people who for their own reasons set out to conflate the man in the pulpit who wasn't running for president with the man in the pew who was.

Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering Catholic-bashing Texas preacher who said the people of New Orleans got what they deserved for their sins. But no one suggests McCain shares Hagee's delusions, or thinks AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of a foreign head of state and asked God to remove Supreme Court justices, yet he remains a force in the Republican religious right. After 9/11 Jerry Falwell said the attack was God's judgment on America for having been driven out of our schools and the public square, but when McCain goes after the endorsement of the preacher he once condemned as an agent of intolerance, the press gives him a pass.

Jon Stewart recently played a tape from the Nixon White House in which Billy Graham talks in the oval office about how he has friends who are Jewish, but he knows in his heart that they are undermining America. This is crazy; this is wrong -- white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren't.

Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettle some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. We are often exposed us to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this ? this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner before our very eyes. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves. All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers".

IRON MAN 2 (Spoiler Alert)

So I went to see Iron Man again last night to give it the critical eye. And yes it is still a great movie.

But I had another motive. I wanted to see the Iron Man 2 teaser trailer at the very end of the credits.

Prepare for the Marvel Studios brilliant move of linking The Hulk to Thor to Iron Man to Captain America, etc. etc. via The Avengers.

From Wikipedia:

The first reference to the Avengers is in the 2008 film Iron Man, when the Ultimate version of Nick FurySamuel L. Jackson) appears in a post credits scene and speaks with Tony Stark about the "Avenger Initiative."

Flight

I have not been this excited to see a theatrical production in some time. I am close to some of those involved but more importantly I am drawn to the concept. There is a great piece in the latest AntiGravity about the show. Check it out.

Conceived and designed by Jeff Becker
With Lisa D'Amour, Courtney Egan, Bruce France, Susan Gisleson, J Hammons, Kathy Randels, Lisa Shattuck, Nick Slie and Ashley Sparks.

May 15 - June 1, 2008
Thursdays - Sunday at 8pm

Post show talks after each show each night

St. Mark's Theater
1130 N Rampart, New Orleans, LA

Tickets $15 ($10 Artists, Students and Seniors)

artspotproductions.org
mondobizarro.org

More reasons to vote for Big Business

Jazz Fest 2008 Re-Cap

Best Food:

The Crab Meat Po-Boy was pretty good. The crawfish and meat pies were great to carry around with you. Crawfish bread is a heart attack, a really cheesy heart attack. The Caribbean Fish dish and Plantains are really good. Also the crawfish and shrimp Rice cake was interesting.

Best Music:

I loved the shows at Blue Nile. The Dr. Lonnie Smith shows were great and soulful. The Megalomaniacs ball was impressive. I really dug The Bad Off. But MIA took the cake for being the most interesting and craziest gig I went to during Fest.

Worst Experiences:

Waiting in line for an hour to get into the Trombone Shorty show at 3:30am to not see Stevie Wonder was pretty irritating.  I am fairly sure 80% of that crowd would never have waited as long as we did and packed into Tips (who oversold I am sure) for Orleans Avenue.

The logistics of the MIA show at the new 619 Frenchmen venue were so screwed up it was worse than trying to get through security at the NYC airport on Thanksgiving.  It was so screwed up it almost seemed intentional. I kept looking for the cameras and Ashton as we were being PUNK'D.

Your Best and Worst of Fest?

IRON MAN

Well if you have not seen it yet go do it. It is an excellent action film. My favorite of the comic book films. Just above the last Bat Man film. But I loved it mainly because I am a man, who used to be a boy, who used to collect comic books. Why does that matter? Because Iron Man is the story of a wealthy playboy genius with every gadget you could think of who women love even though he is an alcoholic.

Iron Man 2 is already slated to come out April 30, 2010.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The X Marks the Nola Design:

The Voodoo Fest 10th Anniversary Brand:

Guess the country

http://www.eyje.com/pictures/world_and_people/Guess_This_Country_30_PICS_

GOGO Jewelry Saves Lives

Hit in the arm by a rocket on New Years Eve in Mid City.

Health Official: “Irony” Outbreak Contained Near Audubon Zoo

From The Creole Tomato

April 24th, 2008 | Breaking News

MAGAZINE STREET — In response to the CDC Health Advisory issued April 3 on recent irony outbreaks in the United States, The Creole-Tomato has developed a special page on its Web site here for local citizens to learn more about the condition.

Irony, or as it as known to those already infected, “Irony,” is a highly contagious disease that is transmitted by respiratory droplets, neighborhood choice, and fashionable T-shirts.

Although “Irony” was never an endemic disease in the Europe, it remains epidemic in many cities of the country’s regions, including but not limited to the Silverlake neighborhood in Los Angeles, the University of Texas campus in Austin, and the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle.

CDC Scientists believe that the Williamsburg, Brooklyn “hipster” may be the original source or “Patient Zero” of this outbreak. Other outbreaks in several parts of the country have been linked to importation from the endemic Brooklyn neighborhood.

Shockingly, the same faction of CDC scientists has stated large outbreaks currently are occurring in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Only six blocks from Perlis and their racks of shotgun shell belts, Dirty Coast issued the following statement from their shop:

“We had the idea for Dirty Coast when we realized that there were very few well designed and interesting shirts that dealt with New Orleans. Go figure a city with 2-million t-shirt shops in the French Quarter and none of them were worth wearing.

”According to CDC Press Secretary Herman Zweibel, the above announcement is without equivocation, “ironic.”

During an “Irony” outbreak, additional vaccine recommendations should be considered. Health-care facilities will strongly recommend that the infected return the “Edwins 2012” T-shirt and proceed to Perlis to purchase a collared polo embroidered with the requisite crawfish and a pair of sensible khakis.

Those who do not have serologic evidence of immunity or physician documentation of “Irony” can protect themselves with Fleur-De-Lis paraphernalia, jewelry or house wares.

What the hell was the deal with all the helicopters last night over the city?

No seriously. I thought I was dreaming. I felt like I was living in Los Angeles.

Good Times with the Klezmers

Stacy Head doesn't want you to save your seat.

From the comments on a previous post that can be read here.

//

Please let me share a story that my fiance sent to the editor of the local paper. It tells about a recent encounter we had with Stacy Head:

My family and I just returned from a wonderful visit to 2008 New Orleans and Jazz Fest. I have attended every Jazz Fest since 1983. My 11 and 9 year old daughters have attended every Jazz Fest since their respective births. My fiancé has enjoyed the region and its offerings on no less than five separate occasions since we met a year and a half ago. Despite the rainy weather we loved the first weekend, as always, and will be back for weekend 2. While we have not lived the post-Katrina challenges directly, we certainly empathize with the challenges. It has been encouraging to see the improvement during our many post-Katrina visits. We joined the Audubon Zoo last year knowing it was unlikely we would get a chance to visit regularly, but hoping the funds would be put to good use. I have lived and worked in New Orleans and in Baton Rouge for years and someday we hope to be able to return to the area to live. I guess I know enough about the area’s culture to realize that the foregoing “credentials” are helpful to what I am now going to say.

Unfortunately, our Jazz Fest experience was marred by a dispute over seating in the blues tent on Friday. I left to take my daughters to the porta-potties. My fiancé held our three seats. When we returned 15 minutes later, she was in deep discussion with several women. It turns out that they asked if our seats were available. The response, “no, but you can sit in them until the rest of the party returns”. As we returned, the women refused to get up, demanded we move down to use an open seat—not a bad idea, but we were still short a seat--etc. Our group, including young children, had to witness a less than kind interaction which included my fiancé being called a “Yankee bitch”--she from Kentucky with as strong a Southern heritage (and accent) as it comes. When the group of aggressors finally left, one of the women came behind my fiancé and proceeded to verbally dress her down at length. While perturbed by the incident, we attempted to enjoy the rest of the set. Of note, several seats opened up around us within two or three minutes (it was early in the day).

What happened next amazed us. A pleasant middle aged gentleman came up and apologized to us noting that he was embarrassed because the “leader of the pack” was Councilwoman Stacy S. Head. He indicated that he had introduced himself to her a few minutes before the altercation as she represented his district. He “couldn’t believe” how she and her group had acted. Sure enough when we checked the internet that evening it was Ms. Head who led the altercation. While her web-site boasts, stated credentials, church membership, etc. are all very interesting; I would submit that New Orleans deserves to be represented by better. As long as interactions are led with hostility and followed by put-downs such as that chosen by Ms. Head (Yankee bitch) New Orleans will not move forward. I have always been bemused by endless editorials about “outsiders who do not understand, have proper appreciation, etc.” The fact is the region has rich cultural and tourist offerings-perhaps better than any other in the nation. That said attitudes like those displayed by Ms. Head can deter all but the most committed from wanting to visit. We will be back because of our love for the area, but had Ms. Head randomly abused a first time visitor I can imagine a different result. A city that prides itself on tourism and is reliant upon tourist trade needs to rethink its approach beginning with what its elected leaders convey. Something is fundamentally wrong when people who visit have to do so “in spite of…”

Jazz Fest 1st Weekend

Good Enough 4Good Times

Dr. Lonnie Smith

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux

Klezmer AllStars

Rob Wagner, Hamid Drake, Nobu Ozaki

Dr. John, George Porter, John Boutte, Anders Osborne

Dr. Lonnie Smith (again)

The Grey Ghost just keeps pissing folks off.

http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/viewFeature.cfm?recid=1053

John McCain: Let Them Eat Cake

What are you going to try and see during Jazz Fest this year?

Encroach

ENCROACH from Mondo Bizarro on Vimeo.

Pretty Awesome. Nails them.

Hillary can still win.

Nola Learning Inquiry: How and Why Community Change Efforts Succeed

Internationally known speaker, facilitator, and author of the award-winning book, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World.

Learn more and register for a talk by Barbara Wheatley

June 12-15 2008

Who should attend this important event?

Community leaders and developers
Managers in for-profit and nonprofit organizations that are looking for ways to develop leadership that will work in today’s world
Disaster planners and those who study better ways to cope with disaster
Anyone who wishes to participate in a rich inquiry into ways to build the kind of world we want and need in the 21st century

The goals of the Learning Inquiry are:

To explore common patterns of leadership and community change,
To learn how community change efforts succeed,
To deepen personal insights into one’s strengths and imagination for leadership,
To explore which learnings might have wider application in “back home” settings,
To connect with New Orleans efforts for recovery and widen the network of community sharing and development.

Living the Dream (Sleep Deprivation)

Feedback on this new shirt design appreciated:

Yup.

America’s inability to inspire the peoples of the Middle East, all ruled by US-backed autocracies, is not exactly stunning news. What is news is that American power might also be losing its ability to intimidate them.

Read on.

Guy irons clothes at coffee shop.

RUSH puts on one of the best live shows you will ever see.