July 2007 Archives

I'm taking a couple of weeks off from blogging. From everything, really. Email too, unless you're special.

Pictures and stories, possibly, if I come back.

Laters.

Karen gadflied this out of somebody, so just in case you haven't seen it in email yet, here's a PDF of the Lee Brown Strategic Plan of Action for the NOPD:

Download file

You've probably already read all the gory details about the wrecking party at Lisa's house at her blog, Irks and Delights, and seen Clay's FOB nonsense about his so-called superior design skills at noladishu (let the record show that his ramp design was the same design as the one Ashley and I built around the corner on the front steps, and in the true spirit of the Army Corp of Engineers, he tested the ability of his own ramp to withstand large bags of plaster being dropped on it from a second story window by...just standing on it...which means all that stuff about "32 feet per second per second" he muttered about our first chute was just so much hoodoo nonsense when it came to his design...but I digress...)

We got tons done, as the pictures suggest. Ashley, Candice, Clay, Lisa, Brandy, Ruffit, and Alan doled out destruction, while Morwen and Betts showed up at the perfect time with chicken and biscuits.

I'd been on the fence about whether all this plaster really needed to come out, other than a few clearly-damaged walls. You hate to tear out historic plaster if you can save it. But all of her contractors have been telling her to replace it, and once we got into taking it down we discovered that the plaster really was wrecked everywhere. Every wall we took out, once you got a crowbar into it the plaster would come off the wall in great sheets because it was no longer attached to the lath. Getting the plaster off the walls was pretty easy going, for the most part. Getting it to the curb was a bitch.

There's still more work to be done. The Corps will stop providing free debris removal on August 29, so Lisa needs to get all this stuff to the curb well before then. I'll try to do another group work day in early August when I get back from vacation, but in the meantime, Lisa is over there working several days a week so get in touch with her if you want to drop by for a few hours some evening to help out.

And more pictures here.

Voices of New Orleans links to this National Geographic article about the risks of rebuilding New Orleans.

It's a worthy read, with plenty of things to get pissed of about and plenty more food for thought. Also several factual inaccuracies (the "$110 billion for New Orleans reconstruction" bogosity rears its head), but overall it's a fair treatment.

Here's the money quote:

Torbjörn Törnqvist, a Dutch coastal geologist now at Tulane, is a rare scientist who is bullish about the future, seeing New Orleans' struggles with rising seas and stronger storms as a preview of what other coastal cities will soon face. He envisions a new urban landscape perfectly adapted to climate change, with restored wetlands, high-tech floodgates similar to those in the Netherlands, and a cleaner, greener, denser city. The entire pre-Katrina population, he contends, could live quite comfortably in the parts of the city that did not flood, transforming warehouses and blighted districts into new walkable, sustainable neighborhoods on the high ground.

"The situation here is a huge opportunity for the city and the nation," says Törnqvist, who says he can't imagine Holland turning its back on Amsterdam, or Italy giving up on Venice. "If we walk away, we'll miss a fantastic opportunity to learn things that will be useful in Miami, or Boston, or New York in 50 years." That kind of revival, however, would require a massive infusion of federal help, better engineering than ever before, and more social and urban planning than regulation-loathing Louisianans have ever stomached.

Because in the end, the executive summary is not "Climate change means New Orleans is toast", it's "Climate change means your city is next, and if you don't figure out how to save New Orleans you're not going to know how to keep your own ass dry in 50 years."

We've owned this house for almost two months and have lived in it for a month, and we just now finally got the two halves of the double connected. So Cass can get to her bedroom and I can get to my office without having to go outside, down the driveway, and in the other door.

See? My office, as viewed from my house:

And we walled off part of the other side. My mother-in-law is on the other side of this, with a cask of what I have been told is a very fine amontillado:

On WWL: Vitter declares scandal over, says you can all stop bothering him now.

The best part of last night's viewing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is that I had popcorn for dinner.

The movie was an accurate representation of the book in that it was a long and tedious something that has to be slogged through to get to the more exciting stuff in chapters 6 and 7.

I'm tired of the "everybody thinks Harry is a liar" plot device. I'm tired of random strangers wandering in off the streets every year to claim the most prestigious faculty position teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm tired of Dumbledore stumbling through each chapter oblivious to what is going on around him.

Next time, more Tonks, please. I mean, woof!

K-Ville premiers on Fox this September.

You just can't make this shit up:

From writer and executive producer Jonathan Lisco (“NYPD Blue,” “The District”) comes a heroic police drama set in New Orleans. Two years after Katrina, the city is still in chaos. Criminals roam the streets with AK-47s, many cops have quit, and the jails, police stations and crime labs still haven’t been properly rebuilt. But the cops who remain have courage to burn and a passion to reclaim and rebuild their city.

MARLIN BOULET (Anthony Anderson, “The Departed,” “The Shield”) is a brash, funny, in-your-face veteran of the NOPD’s Felony Action Squad, the specialized unit that targets the most-wanted criminals. Even when his partner deserted him during the storm, Boulet held his post, spending days in the water saving lives and keeping order. Now, two years later, he’s unapologetic about bending the rules when it comes to collaring bad guys. The stakes are too high, and the city too lawless, for him to do things by the book.

Boulet’s new partner, TREVOR COBB (Cole Hauser, “The Break-Up,” “ER”), was a soldier in Afghanistan before joining the NOPD. He’s tough and committed, but if he’s less than comfortable with Boulet’s methods, it’s because he’s harboring a dark secret. Cobb has come to New Orleans seeking redemption, but redemption can be dangerous. Will Boulet be able to trust him? Will Cobb’s past endanger them both?

Rounding out the crew of cops are hotheaded BILLY “K-9” FAUST (Maximiliano Hernández, “Law & Order,” “Shark”), who often speaks before thinking; wisecracking JEFF “GLUE BOY” GOODEN (Blake Shields, “Sleeper Cell,” “Veronica Mars”), the team’s comic relief; tough-as-nails GINGER “LOVE TAP” LeBEAU (Tawny Cypress, “Heroes”), the only female on the squad, who gives as good as she gets; and CAPTAIN JAMES EMBRY (John Carroll Lynch, “Zodiac,” “The Drew Carey Show”), who wrangles the eclectic personalities of his squad with equal parts humor and tenacity.

Through its no-holds-barred crime stories and dramatic personal stories, this intriguing series from 20th Century Fox Television and director Deran Sarafian (“House,” “CSI”) will take viewers from the Victorian mansions of the Garden District to the rubble of the Lower 9th Ward. In the aftermath of Katrina, with the future of New Orleans hanging in the balance ... the stakes could not be higher in K-VILLE.

Sorry, this is unacceptable.

If it happens, though, he should be required to grow dreadlocks. Maybe he can get a Damon wig from Locks of Love to tide him over in the meantime.

Ann and Molly.

And now Lady Bird is gone.

Are there any grand dames of Texas politics still living, other than Liz Carpenter? Willie don't count.

(Yes, I'm in Austin this week. No, I had nothing to do with this.)

Sexy time.

Lisa of Irks and Delights has documented her difficulties with evil insurance companies and crooked and incompetent contractors. She's finally got her money, and she's got what seems like a good contractor lined up, but she needs to finish the job of gutting her house before construction can start. If we can get a big enough group together, we can make a big dent in the project in just an afternoon.

We're looking for volunteers for this Saturday, July 7, starting around 4:00pm. The advantage to starting late is that the hottest part of the day has passed, and it keeps getting cooler as work progresses. Lisa has electricity so light won't be a problem.

The good news is that the flood water never got into the house, so there's no mold to speak of, and all of the furniture is gone so we're just gutting out damaged walls and ceilings. The bad news: Two story. All plaster. Wood lath. 12 foot ceilings. Some of the walls will be staying, but the hurricane and subsequent foundation releveling racked the house in such a way that most walls have broken plaster pulling away from the lath, so we're tearing all of that out and hauling it to the curb.

If you want to help out, you need to bring your own respirator (or at least a dust mask), gloves, and goggles, and if you have any other tools (especially pry bars, flat bars, wheel barrows, and scoop shovels), please bring those as well. Wear sturdy closed-toe shoes, and bring a clean shirt to change into at the end of the day because you are not going to want to get back in your car with your gutting shirt on.

The location is 8238 Cohn St., in Carrollton at the corner of Cohn and Dante.

Please RSVP by leaving a comment here or by emailing ragicali at yahoo dot com. I'll be there, along with Lisa and rollergirl Little Miss Ruffit.