Noteworthy in Nola

Yesterday Travis & Coheed were in town to work on a Habitat house with the guys from Linkin Park. Turns out LP started a charity after the tsunami called Music for Relief, and they’ve since branched out into different projects. Coheed’s been on the road with Linkin Park and were happy to get involved.

It was a damn cold day, and I know Travis was itching to get his hands on a nail gun and really go to town, but they kept warm swinging hammers, putting down floors and putting up walls.

They kept the location quiet so they could work in peace, but the Times-Pic did show up for a few minutes, shot some photos and videos and were off.

Times-Picayune story with link to their gallery

Times-Pic video

We took a few pics when we picked him up, but weren’t allowed up on the staging area without wavers, etc. The studs (boards that is, not bands) were sort of in the way, but they were only going to be working for a few more minutes, so we opted to stay grounded.

Since they were winding down we chatted up the Habitat rep instead and found that that pre-K they did an average of 4 houses a year in New Orleans- post-K it’s about 170, and it’s only through the generosity of groups like Music for Relief that they have the funding to keep going.

When we took off, she was rounding everybody up for the Death & Destruction tour through the Lower 9- something she gets to do a couple of times a week.

The photos after the jump: Read More…

After the crazy night before, it was off to Amelia Street, where Alison works as a sitter over Mardi Gras. Most of her charges were riding in Tucks (which follows Iris), so she had some free time to hang out with her cousins.

The twins are 8- Marisa is dark haired and normally the shy one, Nadia the lighter haired and bold as brass tacks.

Marisa held her own, though- she really loved it, and loved that hat with all the balls. Lots of compliments came her way, as they did for Alison when she first wore the hat a couple of years ago. She tried out the ladder, being up at eye level worked out well, and gave her dad and my brother’s shoulders a rest.

Nadia opted for the freedom of the street, picking out her target, waving and jumping, and both girls made out like bandits.

Muses was a little rough this year- the parade was put off because of bad weather on Thursday. Tacked onto the end of Friday, they got going late and suffered a bunch of delays.

We packed it in around 11:30 so the little ones would have some rest before getting up for Tucks in the morning. If you would’ve told me I was going to leave before the last shoe passed, I’d have called you a liar.

But add a gallon of Charlie’s pomegranate margaritas over several hours with no dinner beforehand, add some tired kids, and sometimes you do the previously unimaginable.

Always political, always biting, always hysterical, D’Etat is high on the list of favorites.

The parade starts with the guys in skeleton costumes handing out their newspaper, detailing the floats and the meanings behind them- a fantastic idea because between how quickly they go by and jumping around for beads you can miss a lot of detail, and this is one parade where the genius is in the details.

Whew.

A strange and wonderful Carnival has come and gone, and it’s taken me a full 2 days to recover. The last guest left on Wednesday afternoon, so I guess really it only counts as one day on our own, but whatever.

Friday was the first day we went out, and it was a doozy. 4 parades- Hermes, D’Etat, Morpheus and finally Muses.

The always sensual Hermes was the first to step off, and the girls were thrilled. It resulted in a little more oversight than usually required- their blinky krewe bead featured bare breasts everywhere…lol.

We actually have one Krewe that’s gone to the dogs.

The only two groups that can parade through the French Quarter are Krewe du Vieux and Barkus- neither have massive floats, though both have huge followings.

I’d never gone to Barkus, but Alison and I went down yesterday to catch the goings on. Unfortunately we were pressed for time, so we went to the pre-party, checked some of the hundreds of dogs and had to head back home before the actual parade started.

Their theme for the year is “Raiders of the Lost Bark.” They always use some kind of godforsaken (dogforsaken?) pun, and although any doggie costume is welcome, they encourage going with the theme.

Slideshow after the jump: Read More…

A few days ago I travelled down to the Lower 9th for the first time in a long, looong time, but I wanted to see these pink blocks, and the holidays seemed an appropriate time to look back and reflect.

You can see how close this is to the bridge over into the 9th, and to the hard right is the levee that broke. The city’s business district can be seen in the distance.

Our friend Anthony lived here, in these streets right by the levees. He and his family are gone now, to El Paso. They’re happy, but miss home. They’ve held onto their lot, and hope, in a few years, when the boys are older, to come back and rebuild. But they worry about the safety of the levees, and they know that this terrible homesickness isn’t exactly rational.

They’re fairly typical of the area-these were primarily middle class, owner-occupied homes which took a double hit- the force of the water breeching and then the flood itself. The area was a mix of urban and suburban, but houses stood shoulder to shoulder- now it’s primarily field, with houses dotted here and there.

It’s almost as eerie as it was right after the levee break, only then it seemed the bodies were still lying about in plain site. Now it’s haunted by what used to be.

And if Brad Pitt and his group have their way, what will be again. They’re trying to fund 150 eco-friendly houses here. As they get the donations to cover each one, they assemble the pink blocks into a house.

They mean well, and I hope they’re right. I hope this bet they’re making- that the levees will hold, that people will be safe, that the middle class will return- I hope that bet pays off.

Mostly I look at the concrete walls so close to those blocks and hope that the families each pink pile represents will be safe.

A slideshow after the jump-
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In a bout of holiday spirit, I headed out to City Park yesterday to visit their Celebration in the Oaks- the annual event that winds through the Botanical Gardens and Storyland, and uses over 1 million lights. The 2 mile driving tour is still closed, but may be back next year.

It was peaceful, and seasonally chilly, which made it all the stranger that they were giving away free Blue Bell ice cream to celebrate their 100th anniversary. Excited little ones running and begging for the treat while horrified parents gave in.

I got there early, and wandered around the park for a while before it got dark. There aren’t as many trees as there once were, but City Park’s still looking good.

Hit More for a slideshow: Read More…

Sorry it’s been a quiet week around here. The office was crazy with last minute Halloween orders, plus getting ready for our big party PLUS the KaBoom! build.

On top of which the new blog has some issues I’ve spent the whole day trying to figure out. I’m not sure if it’s something about the template I started with, or a modification I made, or one of the bazillion wordpress updates or what, but somewhere along the line I’ve got major Feedburner/rss issues.

As in, they don’t think I exist and no amount of jumping around and shouting, “Hey! OVER HERE!” is making a difference.

Well, whatever. I’m kicking off for now, gonna go have myself the relaxing adult beverage of my choice and promise proper posts tomorrow- good stuff, I promise. Charlie went with me and now my stock of inappropriate beads is massive, and lots of other interesting weirdness.

I had to go out to Slidell once again, and Charlie came along for the ride this time. The original plan was to see about going for a wander through Six Flags. More on that later, but since we were goofing off already, I asked if he’d mind a little detour.

Silly question. Charlie’s nearly always up for the long way around in the name of a little extra scenery.

I’ve driven by Irish Bayou on I-10 dozens of times and every time I went by I made a point to look for this odd white castle-house. From the highway, hundreds of feet away and on the other side of the Bayou, it was hard to tell just how far the fantasy had been taken.

It turns out they went all the way, and what a day we picked, the white of the building gleaming against the gorgeous blue sky:

We braved brambles and stickers to investigate, and just as we were about to leave, we noticed a few very odd things…as well as a wee old woman walking her blind dog. It was a complete fairy tale setup.
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