another beautiful guitarist from louisiana Such a wise cat he even could replace t-bone walker in a minute. Well, so he said with his enthralling voice. He was such a beautiful singer. Unique violin player. He disappeared in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. Peace.
posted on Sep 1, 2007 - View this thread

Welcome to the official home of the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival.
Sponsored by, you guessed it, Shell. [via]
posted on Aug 30, 2007 - View this thread

"How do the tacos help gumbo?" Hold the tacos, New Orleans says. In yet another pig-ignorant move in Post-Katrina New Orleans, local politicians have decided to destroy the booming taco-truck business that is feeding the workers (and plenty of the locals) who are rebuilding the city. Blame racism, blame taxes, blame immigration politics: A hundred years ago this line of reasoning would have banned the muffulettas and poor-boys that those invading hordes of Sicilians were using to corrupt our youth.
posted on Jul 16, 2007 - View this thread

Jim documented his recent trip to Louisiana, including a number of photos of places abandoned after Katrina. Some worth checking: Amoco, post office, middle school, boats, homes. and some rebirth. Via, Live Journal's abandoned places community.
posted on Jul 5, 2007 - View this thread

The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans. A new report from CREW describes FEMA's plan to respond to a hurricane of Katrina’s magnitude and its subsequent failure to implement that plan. [Via C&L.]
posted on Jun 28, 2007 - View this thread

Under the ole shade tree... Welcome to Jena, LA -- mix high school segregation, racism, nooses, fights, ineffective school administration, attempted-murder charges, shotguns, and a town in upheaval--a "racial powder keg". Much more here, including links to help.
posted on May 23, 2007 - View this thread

Last Chance. "It took the Mississippi River 6,000 years to build the Louisiana coast. It took man (and natural disasters) 75 years to destroy it. Experts agree we have 10 years to act before the problem is too big to solve." [Via First Draft.]
posted on Mar 5, 2007 - View this thread

Killings Bring New Orleans to its Bloodied Knees In the sixth New Orleans murder in less than 24 hours, Helen Hill was killed and her husband (who co-founded a sliding-scale doctors' office to serve the impoverished community) was shot in their home Thursday about 5:30 a.m., said police, who found the bleeding man kneeling at the door of the couple's Faubourg Marigny home, clutching their 2-year-old son.
posted on Jan 5, 2007 - View this thread

Louis Moreau Gottschalk - an unjustly forgotten American composer of classical music
posted on Sep 9, 2006 - View this thread

"The water, it came to your school. The gasoline, chemicals, sewage and blood came to your doorstep. It settled into the ground of this courtyard where we now gather." Chris Rose's commencement speech at Ursuline Academy in New Orleans.
posted on May 15, 2006 - View this thread

Nueva Orleans Before Katrina, Hispanics accounted for 3 percent of New Orleans’ population, with just 1,900 Mexicans showing up in the 2004 Census. No one knows for certain how many new ones have arrived, but estimates put the number between 10,000 and 50,000.
posted on May 9, 2006 - View this thread

"You know the bad thing about it? You're matchin' up to him." Richard Lee McNair, who was serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a truck driver in North Dakota, escaped from a federal penitentiary by hiding in a postal van as it left the prison grounds. McNair convinced a police officer in the tiny community of Ball, Louisiana, that he wasn't the man they were looking for. The conversation between McNair and police officer Karl Bordelon was recorded by the video camera on the dashboard of Bordelon's patrol car.
posted on Apr 8, 2006 - View this thread

Mascots helping Mascots High schools across America have witnessed the devastation brought about by several recent natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. An outpouring of sympathy and concern, and a desire to help, have come forth from high schools wanting to assist those in need. To enable schools to help other schools, the National Federation of State High School Associations has initiated a fundraising program called the Mascot Adoption Program.
posted on Mar 13, 2006 - View this thread

A strange ritual is played out in Choupic, Louisiana on Mardi Gras day. Something similar happens in Prague on Easter Monday too. [via]
posted on Mar 2, 2006 - View this thread

When the levees broke, he looked for was his camera and a boat. This Times-Picayune photographer tells his story of what happened next.
posted on Dec 13, 2005 - View this thread

INSURRECTION Why were American military sent almost instantly when Rita threatens Texas but we were told that they could not be sent to Louisiana till requested? What is the history behind Posse Comitatus? Does the president have the authority just on his say so to send troops into a "sovereign" state? Nice summary of history here.
posted on Sep 22, 2005 - View this thread

Three days after Katrina hit, on September 1st, Red Cross national president Marsha Evans 'first made the request to undertake the operation' ... 'to enter New Orleans with relief supplies', but the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness 'rebuffed' the request. As events unfolded, 'the Red Cross never launched its relief effort in the city' -- as reported by CNN. Fox News (transcription) broke this story with a slightly different perspective. Somewhere in between, I am sure, lies the truth.
posted on Sep 8, 2005 - View this thread

Louisiana Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods
In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.

[H]undreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon.
posted on Sep 8, 2005 - View this thread

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night." Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans damns FEMA on Tim Russett this morning. (WMV clip)
posted on Sep 4, 2005 - View this thread

"Little Somalia" is how The Army Times has characterized post-Katrina New Orleans. And this isn't about race?
posted on Sep 3, 2005 - View this thread

Longtime Mefi member chuq offers a tiny respite from the misery with his report on the survival of many of Louisiana's beloved musicians, including the good news that Fats Domino was rescued from his roof. More coverage here and here. (more)
posted on Sep 2, 2005 - View this thread

Some of the best still images of what remains in Hurricane Katrina's wake are up over at the Washington Post; there are a lot of compelling shots there that put into perspective the horror of the situation. If you're looking for a well-edited group of photos that convey what the Gulf coast has faced over the past few days, and will face in the coming months, this is it; I'm in awe of the photographers that continue to work hard to document the disaster.
posted on Sep 1, 2005 - View this thread

Louisiana National Guard radio [ShoutCAST MPEG]
posted on Sep 1, 2005 - View this thread

If you had any doubt, "homeland security" is not being used as an excuse to silence dissent in today's America, I submit to you the case of Willie Fontenot. A personal hero of mine and others, Willie has worked for decades, gently and with integrity, from inside Louisiana's state corporate government for the cause of environmental justice. But no more, he has been forced to resign from the state Attorney General's office for refusing to capitulate to corporate goons (literally!) harassing a group of students taking pictures of an oil refinery. [via BoingBoing]
posted on Apr 11, 2005 - View this thread

Staking out the high moral ground, a bill would punish those wearing low-riding jeans. It seems that Representative Derrick D. T. Shepherd of Louisiana, a Democrat no less, wants to outlaw low slung pants. Plumbers beware, and stock up on Butt-Crack Caulk! Really, don't they have anything better to legislate besides fashion or holidays?
posted on Apr 23, 2004 - View this thread

Streaming video documentary films about American traditional music. Great American roots music films for free! Click and watch full length documentaries about the Popovich Brothers Tamburitza band of South Bend Indiana, Louisiana creole fiddler Canray Fontenot, the last Black medicine-show performer, sacred harp singing and much more. An amazing collaboration between folklorists and indie film makers.
posted on Mar 8, 2004 - View this thread

A heartbreaking death. Police in Shreveport, Louisiana shoot an unarmed man eight times in nine seconds.
posted on Jul 30, 2003 - View this thread

Monkeys on the loose! Twenty-four Rhesus monkeys from the Tulane University National Primate Research Center escaped on Tuesday, causing chaos and mayhem in Covington, Louisiana. And as amusing as escaped monkeys can be, it's funnier because this isn't the first time. Twenty four other Rhesus monkeys escaped in October 1998 just by poking at the latch for a bit. Call me irrational, but wouldn't you change the gates back then? (I didn't do it, I wasn't there, you can't prove anything!)
posted on Mar 13, 2003 - View this thread

"Picasso of keyboard funk" - Professor Longhair would be 84 today if he were still alive. His distinctive meld of boogie woogie, blues, funk and Latin makes for piano that is quintessentially New Orleans...Tipitinas, one of the more famous local music bars, took its name from his signature song. "Fess" was a seminal influence on such musical greats as James Booker, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Art Neville, Doctor John and Marcia Ball, one of my current favorites. You can hear a few Fess samples from Crawfish Fiesta, arguably his best recording, issued just after he died in 1980. He was inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame as an early influencer in 1993. Happy birthday, Professor!
posted on Dec 19, 2002 - View this thread

Sa k a prifé? With lists of Louisianan Creole grammar and vocabulary and a few real audio files, you'll be navigating your pirogue through the swamps in no time, or, at least, ordering correctly at your favorite Cajun restaurant.
posted on Nov 15, 2002 - View this thread

festival international de louisiane - festival international is an incredibly good free, outdoor music festival held in lafayette, louisiana at the end of april. the bands are from all over the globe and generally of some french influence but not always. i make the pilgrimage back home every year, as do many of the people i know. what festival type thingys take place in your part of the world that you think are worth travelling to see? i'm just curious b/c i think this could quite possibly be one of the best overall events going on these days, but... i could be wrong.
posted on Apr 13, 2002 - View this thread

Old times there are not forgotten. From NPR: elderly white folks from Louisiana are asked to reminisce about life before the end of racial segregation. On the whole, they seem to have preferred it. Some insist that everyone was happier, and others simply claim that we should just move on. (Note that the last two links here are to brief Real Audio files.)
posted on Feb 28, 2002 - View this thread

Senator, I'd suck a dog's nose dry before I'd lend you a chicklet. Comic commentary on Lousiana politics. And you thought your own local government was bad... Suspect Device
posted on Nov 5, 2001 - View this thread

Louisiana legislation decides that Darwin was "racist." It's not just the fundamentalist right... now it's Democrats pushing for the demonization of evolution. The full text of the resolution (in PDF format) can be found here. This is a Salon article about it. And this is the full text of "Darwin's Descent of Man", so that someone can point to me where exactly is Darwin suggesting that some races are "more evolved" than others... I mean don't they read the books before they start putting stickers on them?
posted on May 21, 2001 - View this thread