July 22, 2008
Benefit for Ashley Morris
Posted by ray at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
July 7, 2008
Hiatus
Posting has been getting light around here, and I think I am probably going to take a break from blogging here for a while. I've got a lot going on between family, roller derby, work, and volunteering, and none of it is stuff I particularly feel like writing about.
I haven't been able to summon enough outrage to write about Gulf Coast recovery issues with anything more than a "me too" next to the fine writings of the rest of the NOLA blogosphere. I will be writing about Generation Kill over at NuPac, and about David Simon's New Orleans project when it gets off the ground. I am also taking my publishable writing a lot more seriously lately, with two short stories ready to be published just waiting for me to find the time to sit down and submit them. So I'll still be writing. I just don't have much to say here at Ray in New Orleans any more.
If we get another hurricane threatening, expect me to be back, and the archives will still be there, but unless that happens don't expect a lot from here for the foreseeable future.
Cheers.
Posted by ray at 10:39 AM | Comments (4)
June 17, 2008
Video: David Simon's Depaul address
The link a couple of posts ago (or if you want, go get it at NuPac) has the video replay of David Simon's tribute to Ashley Morris at the DePaul commencement on Sunday.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have another good cry in me that's been waiting to get out.
Posted by ray at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2008
DePaul CDM Commencement webcast
The webcast for Ashley's college, including speaker David Simon, will be broadcast tomorrow morning at 8:30am CDT at this link:
http://webcast.streamlogics.com/audience/index.asp?eventid=49097
Posted by ray at 9:19 PM | Comments (2)
June 13, 2008
David Simon on Ashley Morris in the Chicago Tribune
In an e-mail to me, Simon said he had hoped to get to know Morris if a proposed HBO project about New Orleans got off the ground. He also wrote about why he wanted to come to DePaul the ceremony to honor Morris:“The last [e-mail] conversation I had with this gentlemen, he expressed great satisfaction and pride in having worked hard to get me invited to the DePaul commencement,” Simon wrote. “In fact, I was originally scheduled to be in London doing the final sound editing on Generation Kill this coming weekend and so I regretfully declined. He e-mailed me back saying he understand and was very disappointed, but understood the scheduling conflict. Next thing, I learn that Ashley has passed away suddenly.
“So the last thing this fella did was ask me to make a commencement appearance at the school where he taught and I said, sorry, no. And then he departs this vale. Naturally, for karmatic purposes, I had to call DePaul back and say if you still need me I'm there.
“I enjoyed reading Mr. Morris's contributions to the Got That New Package website as well as his dissertations on New Orleans in its post-Katrina agonies. I have a feeling I would have gotten to know him well and enjoyed his company if he had lived long enough to be in New Orleans when we, I hope, will begin filming down there for a future HBO project.
“I admired his sense of outrage; petulance and selfish rage are useless, but rightful and righteous anger has an essential place in our times. Ashley was angry on behalf of others, which in my mind makes all the difference. From what he wrote, I am convinced that Ashley loved his city and he loved the people of his city, and he was short and to the point with people who tried to [evade] the real questions using ad hominem and decorum and false civility. He spoke his mind.
“So I never got to know him. And that is my loss. And on some weird level, I owe him a trip to Chicago and a morning spent in a funny hat and gown.”
Posted by ray at 4:51 PM | Comments (2)
May 21, 2008
Humid City, and the truth behind straight edge
Loki wants everybody to know that Humid City will be back soon.
To pass the time, please enjoy the rhythmic stylings of Mike "Dancing Around the World" Long, who I think gets Minor Threat better than anybody.
Posted by ray at 8:55 PM | Comments (3)
April 18, 2008
Ashley Morris: The Liner Notes of the Album of the Soundtrack of the Movie
Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing. -- Rob, High Fidelity
If I was an artist like Greg Peters, or a photographer like dsb or Galfreaka, or had the design aesthetic of dangerblond, or had kept up with my musical training like the Hot 8, I could have created something original for Ashley. Instead, I do what most former zine editor/rock critic/college radio DJs do...I rearrange other people's art to express my feelings.
This is the mix CD that was played during the visitation at Ashley's funeral. Probably most of you didn't get to hear it, or only heard snippets. Maybe you can take this list and turn it into your own version, or I can burn a couple copies for people to pass around if anybody wants. I kinda like it. I used to be a mix tape fanatic back in the day, and it felt good to make this. Keeping it down to one CD was the hardest part.
Many thanks to Greg Peters for the vast collection of vintage funeral jazz to dig through.
Warren Zevon "Keep Me In Your Heart" The Wind
Everybody's seen Greg's video that goes with this song. It still makes the tears flow, two weeks later. This song is going away in the vault with Sigur Ros "Staralfur" and Martin Sexton's "Wasted" as songs that are so associated with pain that I don't think I can listen to them ever again.
Treme Brass Band "The Old Rugged Cross" Gimmee My Money Back
Classic jazz funeral dirge done with modern Treme flair. Plus I think Ashley is gonna be reincarnated as Uncle Lionel. Seriously. When Uncle Lionel passes, Ash is gonna sneak into his body before anybody notices and live the life for a few years (with Lionel's blessing, I'm sure).
Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys "La Toussaint" La Toussaint
La Toussaint is the Cajun French name for All Saints Day, the day we pay respects to our ancestors who have passed on. This song is beautiful and haunting.
Queen "Love Of My Life" A Night At The Opera
Requested by Hana.
Professor Longhair "Tipitina" Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box Of New Orleans
We had to have the most classic of all New Orleans songs by the most classic of all New Orleans musicians, and this is one of the most stellar studio versions. I never went to Tip's with Ashley, although we always talked about this show or that show. Always thought there was plenty of time.
Warren Zevon "Accidentally Like A Martyr" Excitable Boy
Looking for an older Zevon song that was funeral-appropriate, I happened on this and it was such a fucking obvious winner.
Louis Armstrong "St. James Infirmary (Gambler's Blues)" Birth of Jazz
Liam's choice, a classic version by the man who made it famous.
James Booker "Over the Rainbow" Spiders on the Keys
Recorded live at the Maple Leaf, the last place I ever saw Ashley, played by another man who lived too loud and too fast and too crazy and left the world too soon without realizing how much he was truly loved.
Lyle Lovett "If I Had a Boat" Pontiac
Requested by Hana.
Kermit Ruffins "What is New Orleans?" The Barbecue Swingers Live
Ashley Morris IS New Orleans. Kermit needs to re-record this.
Flogging Molly "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" Drunken Lullabies
This song brought me to tears in the first days of April. Check the lyrics if you don't believe me.
Cheap Trick "I Want You to Want Me" Live At Budokan
Requested by Hana.
Eddie Bo "When The Saints Go Marching In" Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album
A brilliant post-Katrina mellow-sad version.
Queen "You're My Best Friend" A Night At The Opera
My choice. Nuff said.
Davell Crawford "Gather By The River" Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album
My favorite post-Katrina gospel recording that is heavy with tragedy, brotherhood, and redemption all at the same time.
George Lewis "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" Funeral Songs (Dead Man Blues)
Supplied by Greg Peters. A 1920's recording of a classic jazz funeral dirge.
New Orleans Wanderers "Perdido Street Blues" Funeral Songs (Dead Man Blues)
Another 1920's vintage recording from Greg Peters. Ashley would have wanted at least one title with a political subtext to it. Gotta get that last dig in.
Henry 'Red' Allen "Canal Street Blues" Funeral Songs (Dead Man Blues)
The third selection from the huge library of vintage jazz Greg Peters sent me. We started Ashley's journey homeward at the funeral home on Canal Street, and we definitely had the blues.
Allen Toussaint "Tipitina And Me" Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album
A post-Katrina recording that renders the Fess classic slowed down and in a minor key, taking our happiest of happiests and producing a dirge with a hint of triumph.
Posted by ray at 12:00 AM | Comments (12)
April 16, 2008
Chris Rose on Ashley
Chris Rose writes about Ashley today and gets it pretty damn close for somebody who barely met the man. He writes about Ashley the way we all wrote about Ashley, and the way Chris writes about most topics...through the lens of his own personal sense of loss.
He identified himself. Turns out, he lived across the street from me. That pain in the ass Ashley Morris was my neighbor!And it turns out I loved this guy; he gave my kids candy (and me a cigar) on Halloween, and he often invited me over to drink fresh Abita beer from the kegerator he kept plugged in on his porch.
I never accepted the invitation. I don't know why, really, other than I am generally anti-social. And I had no idea who he was.
What I loved most about this neighbor of mine was that he, like me, still has not taken down his Christmas lights. Our street shines prettier than most. That's such a New Orleans thing, the not taking down Christmas lights.
So Morris, now identified, invited me over for a beer and a smoke. "When I get back to town," he wrote to me in an e-mail dated March 29. And this time, I accepted.
Thing is, Ashley never made it back to town. He died April 2 in a hotel room.
I don't know the cause, but he was huge and he lived too large and laughed too loud and that kind of behavior can kill a man.
Exactly right. My last emails to Ashley are about plans we had, things we were going to do, "when I get back in town". And when he finally got back in town, it was by plane in a slate blue fabric-covered extra-large casket, which we later filled with cigars, drumsticks, Jameson, Abita Amber, Mardi Gras beads, a copy of Confederacy of Dunces, a muffaletta, and all the other trappings of a life cut too short which is hopefully being carried on joyfully on the Other Side, free of the bondage and weaknesses of mortal flesh and blood.
Thanks, Chris. We all needed that.
Posted by ray at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2008
What Is Ashley Morris?
I'll have more details and links to photos of Ashleys' funeral later this weekend, but people have been asking me to post the eulogy that I read at the service this morning.
For those of you who haven't heard the original, it's a take on Kermit Ruffins's song "What Is New Orleans?"
------
(My most heartfelt apologies to Kermit Ruffins for what I’m about to do here.)
What is Ashley Morris?
What IS Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is a fiery spirit who inspires and energizes anyone whose life he touches.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is a poet, a patriot, a teacher, scientist, comedian, cook, gadfly, bulldog and warrior.
What is Ashley Morris?
What IS Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is theology and geometry, never lacking in taste and decency even while strapped to Fortuna’s wheel, scribbling on the modern Big Chief pad he called his blog.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is the bass drum. Ashley Morris is the snare drum. Ashley Morris is the high hat. Ashley Morris is the tri-tom. And Ashley Morris never claps on 1 and 3 and hates anybody who does.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is smoked duck poor-boys from Crabby Jacks, shrimp poor-boys from Domilise’s, roast beef poor-boys with extra gravy from the Calhoun Superette, and any kinda poor-boy you wanna get on a lazy Sunday on a barstool with the afternoon sun shining in the window at the Parkway Bakery, y’all. What is Ashley Morris?
What IS Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is Krewe du Vieux. Ashley Morris is the Mystik Krewe of Pan. Ashley Morris is “Buy Us Back Chirac!” and “Bring Back Competent Corruption” and “The Cult of Lafcadio”.
Ashley Morris is at the top of Harry Shearer’s list of favorite mimes. (It’s a short list.)
What is Ashley Morris?
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is daddy to the beautiful Katerina, to the charming Annabel Lee, and to Big Rey d’Orleans Morris.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is the roller derby husband of the best blocker the game is likely to ever see, and woe be to the first jammer who thinks she’s gonna sneak by Soviet Block without a serious ass-whupping.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is an Abita ale, a wee dram of Jameson, a fine Cuban cigar, and an endless supply of stories and experiences both sacred and profane, enough to while away many a late night.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is the Saints 12th Man, the first to arrive and the last to leave in section 635, the Gentilly of ticket sections, reachable only by an arduous three-quarter mile journey by escalator, escorted by sherpas, where you WILL stand and you WILL cheer until the end of the fourth quarter regardless of whether Dem Boys are up by 6 or down by 17.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is he who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds New Orleans through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the saver of lost cities. And he will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy New Orleans. And you will know he is Ashley Morris when he lays his verbal vengeance upon thee. What is Ashley Morris?
What IS Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is Lenny Bruce and Bob Dylan and Bill Hicks. Ashley Morris is Che Guevara. Ashley Morris is Thomas Jefferson. Ashley Morris is Michael Collins. Ashley Morris is any separatist rebel patriot anywhere who ever said “Sinn Fein”, “Ourselves Alone”, or “Let ‘em freeze in the dark without any shrimp or coffee until we get some real levees up in here.” What is Ashley Morris?
What IS Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is the exposer of FMooks, and Ashley Morris is…(all together now) F Y Y F-ing F.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is a whole fried chicken from Dooky Chase’s with baked macaroni, collard greens, cornbread, and candied yams as sweet as bread pudding, eaten out of a box on the front steps of a condemned housing project on a cold drizzly January day saying, “This is the life. You know what they’re eating in Houston right now? Quiznos.”
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris is our voice. Ashley Morris is our rage. Ashley Morris is our laughter, our tears, our heart, our soul.
What is Ashley Morris?
Ashley Morris IS New Orleans.
And Ashley Morris is my friend. Ashley Morris will always be my friend.
And I will always miss him. Forever.
Posted by ray at 2:09 AM | Comments (17)
April 7, 2008
Ashley Morris funeral arrangements, and how you can help
Ashley's funeral will take place this Friday:
SCHOEN FUNERAL HOME, 3827 CANAL ST.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Public visitation will be from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm.
Funeral service 1:00 pm.
Interment to follow in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3
I'm told by his wife Hana that Saints-wear is an acceptable substitute for traditional funeral attire.
Also, if you could, please click below to donate to the "Remember Ashley Morris" fund.
Remember Ashley Morris and DONATE!
Ashley was the sole breadwinner in the house and leaves behind three children ages 5 and under, and they have very little in the way of extended family, so those of us who count ourselves as friends and fans must step up as surrogate aunts and uncles for Katerina, Annabel, and Rey d'Orleans. Funeral and living expenses are an immediate pressing need.
Posted by ray at 2:15 AM | Comments (4)
March 31, 2008
Movie meme
Updated: Another quote for #6.
Updated: All done. Clearly it was too easy.
I give. It's not like I've been posting anything else, and Hiromi, Karl, Syl, and DN have got me hooked on this movie quiz thingy.
Fifteen movie quotes. Guess the movie the quote is from. Answer in the comments. First one with the right answer gets fame and/or fortune and/or a cookie. (Note: being mentioned on my blog counts as fame.) For bonus points, tell me the actor and the character name.
And no cheating. Yes, Google and IMDB and anything else like it are cheating.
1. "Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids."
GlenGarry Glen Ross, guessed by ttrentham.
2. "No. It means I was drunk yesterday."
School of Rock, Jack Black, guessed by mikesmiley.
3. "Oh...you are sick."
Eraserhead, guessed by Peris.
4. "Come in through the door!"
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Barry, guessed by Chilly Bill.
5. "If you're going to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, guessed by dt.
6. "It's a mother beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there."
6. Quote #2: "Woof woof woof! That was my other dog imitation."
Kelly's Heroes guessed by Chilly Billy.
7. "I rule!"
American Beauty, Kevin Spacey guessed by fredlet.
8. "Right side. And with...intensity. OK?"
Lost in Translation, guessed by Syl.
9. "I walk into someone's place of work, they shit scared. They know I'm not a cop. Think I've come to kill 'em."
Repo Man, Lite talking to Otto, guessed by Pat.
10. "What's wrong with the way I talk? What's the big idea? Am I dumb or something?"
Singing in the Rain, guessed by Syl.
11. "That's fuckin' blasphemy. Elvis wasn't a Cajun."
The Commitments, guessed by Darkneuro.
12. "...do the right thing. Stay out of the way of the bullets. And bring your hiney home all in one piece."
Apocalypse Now, guessed by Hiromi.
13. "May the Blessings of the Bomb Almighty, and the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, descend upon us all. This day and forever more."
Beneath The Planet of the Apes, guessed by ttrentham.
14. "I'm gonna take this right foot, and I'm gonna whop you on that side of your face, and you wanna know something? There's not a damn thing you're gonna be able to do about it. "
Billy Jack, guessed by Karl Elvis.
15. "Are they slow-moving, chief?" "Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."
Night of the Living Dead, guessed by Peris.
Posted by ray at 2:37 PM | Comments (25)
March 5, 2008
New Package is peaking
The Wire finale is this Sunday, and things are heating up at our Wire blog, Got That New Package. Please do check it out.
I've got a pretty decent post up right now, just writing what I know.
Also, in case you missed it, NuPac writer Nancy Nall was the blogger who brought down a Karl Rove crony and White House staffer by outing him as a fucking plagiarist. When she's not making international headlines, she writes good stuff about the best fucking show on television.
The comments are where the real action happens...you can find out who's ahead in the series of bets between the Perfessor and I on the final outcomes of various characters. Each bet payable in either Jameson or lap dances at She-She's, depending on who wins.
Posted by ray at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2008
Why I love Miss Syl
Because Miss Syl finds things like this:
(Although ironically Ian used to literally dance himself into a seizure when he was alive, but you can't tell kids anything these days.)
Apologies for only being able to communicate by song and video lately. My real writing is going into NuPac until The Wire runs out.
Posted by ray at 2:08 PM | Comments (3)
February 19, 2008
Me neither, H
When I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't wanna grow up
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't wanna grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That's always changing things
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
When I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up
Seems like folks turn into things
That they'd never want
The only thing to live for
Is today
I'm gonna put a hole in my TV set
I don't wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don't wanna grow up
I don't wnna have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't wanna be filled with doubt
I don't wanna be a good boy scout
I don't wanna have to learn to count
I don't wanna have the biggest amount
I don't wanna grow up
Well when I see my parents fight
I don't wanna grow up
They all go out and drinking all night
And I don't wanna grow up
I'd rather stay here in my room
Nothin' out there but sad and gloom
I don't wanna live in a big old Tomb
On Grand Street
When I see the 5 o'clock news
I don't wanna grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don't wanna grow up
Stay around in my old hometown
I don't wanna put no money down
I don't wanna get me a big old loan
Work them fingers to the bone
I don't wanna float a broom
Fall in and get married then boom
How the hell did I get here so soon
I don't wanna grow up
Posted by ray at 11:39 PM | Comments (3)
January 14, 2008
Not dead. Pining.
I'm starting to get the "Ray, are you OK?" emails so figured I should post something.
Foistly, I've been in Austin for over a week working my ass off and eating too much Tex-Mex and having not much to say.
Secondly, and I think this will be true for another 11 weeks or so, all my writing efforts are going toward Got That New Package, our group blog chronicling the final season of the greatest television show in the history of the medium, The Wire. Catch me over there, I got a pretty good post up today and if you dig back in the archives you'll find Franklin yearbook photos of Wendell Pierce.
[Yeah, G Bitch, Franklin yearbooks and a scanner are a deadly combination. Be nice to me.]
Posted by ray at 1:37 PM | Comments (9)
January 5, 2008
I just sent someone running back into therapy, I guess.
Checking my sitemeter, I discover somebody who ran across my blog googling "pics of hot guys new orleans".
Apparently the #2 link for that search in Google leads to the infamous sushi pictures.
They didn't click around to read any more.
Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Posted by ray at 6:38 PM | Comments (8)
January 2, 2008
Hamsterdam
The greatest fucking show in the history of television starts its last season this Sunday night.
In honor of it going out like that, a group of blogger miscreants and fanatical followers of The Wire will be blogging throughout the entire season at a new blog called The New Package.
I'll be posting there occasionally, as soon as I get caught up re-watching the old seasons on DVD...partly research, and partly because I just really miss Wallace.
First posts from me will likely contain some surprises for Wendell scanned from the 1980 Ben Franklin yearbook.
"And I keeps one in the chamber in case you ponderin'."
Posted by ray at 10:32 PM | Comments (2)
November 15, 2007
Help a brother out
This afternoon somebody ran across my blog by googling the following search terms:
what kind of clubs do milfs go to in new orleans
Sadly, I don't have the information he's looking for, but I sure would like to. Please help us both out in the comments.
Posted by ray at 4:25 PM | Comments (10)
November 7, 2007
Tabasco flooding
For the past nine days, the Tabasco region of Mexico has been suffering a flooding disaster on the scale of Katrina. As of yesterday, 60,000 people were still trapped on their roofs awaiting rescue.
As in our own flood, you can find the best information on the blogs, most notably Root Coffee, authored by Sol Orozco Hernandez, a native of the region who now lives in California and normally blogs about coffee and pastries, but who has family living in the disaster zone.
This quote of hers hit me right where I live:
My husband means well when he tells me I should get some sleep and gather strength to keep helping tomorrow; but the anguish eats at me, I can't feel comfortable, it's my hometown, my people, the place I grew up in, I can't just let it go.
She has many links to the latest news, how you can help, where you can donate, etc.
Please spread the word and help any way you can.
Posted by ray at 3:57 PM | Comments (5)
October 26, 2007
Voyeurism
So no sooner do I mention that I once deleted some things from my archives because they hurt the feelings of a loved one, then some fucktard from San Francisco at 209.237.238.# (Alexa Internet) using Mac OS X starts digging through my archives looking for dirt using the Internet Wayback Machine.
It's not there, man. And if it was, you wouldn't even recognize it for what it was, because it doesn't concern you or anyone you know. It's not like my wife made me take down the gay porn I made with Ashley.
Now please fuck off.
Posted by ray at 8:38 AM | Comments (10)
October 24, 2007
Control
[Minor spoilers ahead for people who don't know anything at all about Joy Division.]
The other night I got to see Control, the new biopic about Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis, who took his own life in 1980 at the age of 23, thus sealing his status as an eternal rock legend.
I first learned about Joy Division from reading about his death in Creem Magazine, the summer after my 16th birthday. In fact, most of the cool music I first learned about was music that I only read about and never heard. I knew gobs about obscure bands like Joy Division and Panther Burns and Siouxsie and the Banshees and Gang of Four and the Alley Cats just because I'd read about them, because Robert Christgau had an opinion about them, and I rarely heard them because it was stuff that it was hard to hear at the time even on WTUL, and I didn't have much of a budget for buying music, especially expensive imports. But the short Creem blurb about Joy Division, their music, and Ian's death, accompanied by this haunting photo, really stuck with me. It felt like the Quadrophenia thing I talked about the other day, but taken to a much darker place, a place I hadn't been to yet but could see from here.
In college, I became one of those kids who lived in the Joy Division world a little too deeply. When I was 19 I used to say, in all seriousness, that I hoped I didn't live to see 30 and that I would make sure I didn't. I was moody, I was depressed. (And chicks dug it, at least a few of them, which was an added bonus. Mysterious moody bad boy. Until they would get sick of my morose shit and dump me, which then further fed the beast.)
Seeing Control was a big deal for me. And on the heels of last week's Quadrophenia epiphany, on the eve of my teetering sobriety anniversary, it affected me deeply.
From a pure film critic point of view, you could probably pick it apart for a lackluster ending, for the lack of depth of character of the other band members.
None of that matters to me. Greg Peters has called this, with a hint of derision, "The Passion of the Christ", but for me, in trying to newly process my memories of my life as a 19-year-old vaguely suicidal alcoholic, it really was exactly that. I needed to see inside Ian's head. I needed to understand. I needed to know why.
And why, as it turns out, was a simple garden variety love triangle. Ian got married too young, before his art and his importance had flourished, and he fell out of love with the mother of his child and in love with somebody who would have been his soulmate if only he had waited a few more years to meet her. And his epilepsy and other health problems prevented him from dealing emotionally with the complications of living in the fucked up situation he had place himself in. And one night, in a moment of great pain and pressure and confusion and weakness, he hung himself.
So when you see the movie and re-listen to the music in the context of what was going on in his life, you realize that what he did was pour his feelings and his doubts and his regrets into his songs. Literally. Literally in the extreme. When he writes in "Love Will Tear Us Apart":
When routine bites hard,
And ambitions are low,
And resentment rides high
But emotions won't grow,
And we're changing our ways,
Taking different roads,
Then love, love will tear us apart againWhy is the bedroom so cold?
Turned away on your side.
Is my timing that flawed,
Our respect run so dry?
Yet there's still this appeal
That we've kept through our lives
And love, love will tear us apart again
he is writing about his wife, and he knows his wife knows he is writing about her, and she knows that the whole world knows that he is writing about her. But he wrote and recorded it anyway.
As art, it is a profound piece of work.
As a way to treat a person you love...it seems morally questionable. Is inflicting pain like this somehow justified if great music or literature or art is the result?
Yet, if you strip out all the interpersonal relationship complications and all the regret and pain from Ian's lyrics, you're not left with fucking much else besides "dance dance dance dance dance to the radio". If all that emotional raw material was not available to him as a lyricist, then likely nobody would have ever heard of Joy Division, nobody would have ever made a movie about them, and I wouldn't be writing a blog post trying to explain why this is all so personally important.
So what the fuck does all this have to do with me?
Because I've been wrestling with these very issues for a long time. Some of you may remember that I did a big purge of some archives of my blog a year or so ago because I wrote some things there that hurt some people that I love very much, not expecting that they would ever read them. And so certain topics and certain people are no longer discussed here, because the risk is too great.
I have coworkers who have found my blog. My wife's coworkers and derby friends read it. My parents and possibly my brothers and for all I know my kids friends from school read this stuff. So my blog slowly constricts down to that which is safe, which is inoffensive, non-worrisome, and family-hour friendly. Circe said to me a few years ago, "your blog is just brochure-ware now...you post about bands you like and movies you saw and you link to funny pictures you found on the internet, but you don't actually say anything any more. Your blog is just a brochure of Ray". As if I were a hotel chain now, and this is just an inoffensive and inviting protrayal about what a fun and interesting guy Ray is. Hotel Ray is kid-friendly, serves crawfish ettoufee in the main restaurant, has Mission of Burma karaoke every Tuesday, and shows all the Red Sox games in the Sporty Sport bar on the mezzanine.
But it's just a blog, right? I mean, who cares? But the same conflict holds true for any kind of writing, and that is where I am really struggling. I want to be a writer. Published and all. I have one published work under my belt, a humorous little memoir about working as a float grunt during Mardi Gras in the 70's, which was published right after the storm by Chin Music Press. That story worked because I am pretty good at telling true stories in a funny and entertaining and only slightly embellished way. I want to write more; I've got a short story in progress, and a short speculative fiction novel taking shape in my head. But I write best when I write what I know, when I base my writing, at least loosely, on things that have actually happened to me or to people I know.
But other than a handful of humorous anecdotes, the really important, real literature-worthy things that I've experienced, are things that must remain private.
I can't do what Augusten Burroughs did in Running With Scissors or Dry. I can't just let fly on everybody I know, burn every bridge, and let the chips fall where they may. There are people involved, people I love, people I don't want to hurt. I want to write painful stories, but those stories are painful for other people too, not just me.
So I don't write anything interesting. I'm crap for making stuff up completely out of whole cloth. I can't do pure fiction the way somebody like Stephen King or William Gibson can. There has to be some of me in there or the words just don't come.
I don't know the way out of this conunudrum. I wrestle with emotional issues as significant as Ian Curtis...different ones, to be sure, but just as significant...but I am bound by duty to family and friends, and by rules of social and workplace decorum not to write about them.
I think I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll find my fiction voice one of these days. But right now it's fucking hard.
In the meantime, I am going to try, try really hard, to not let this blog be brochureware all the damn time.
[P.S. I feel I must add that if you read the above and try to infer anything about my marriage or my relationship with any of my family members or friends or any of my past relationships...if you think you know what specific people or events or experiences I am referring to...you're wrong. You just read my blog. None of you really know me. Not all of me.]
Posted by ray at 12:30 AM | Comments (12)
August 25, 2007
RT II peectures
Maitri has the first Rising Tide pictures up.
None of me; I'm sure it's as a precaution since my overwhelming manliness might short out her camera.
Posted by ray at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)
RT II: Brilliance vs. douchebaggery
Liveblogging the keynote address by Dave Zirin, author of Welcome to the Terrordome, would be about as impossible as trying to liveblog Dennis Miller (before Dennis Miller sucked). It was a fast, hilarious, informative, impassioned rant about what he calls the Athletic Industrial Complex. I bought the book; when I get a chance to read it I'll probably have more to say about his ideas. Hopefully the video will make it onto the web; Zirin's a sharp and funny guy.
The only real downside was the douchebag who stood up and said, essentially, that all New Orleans bloggers are solely focused on "crime hysteria" and trying to whip up a frenzy of threatening Eddie Jordan's job so that he'll lock up more young black men, while ignoring the root causes of crime such as housing and education. I'm wondering what kind of blog filter he sets up that only lets him see the blogs that support his thesis. Nobody talks about housing and education? Sweet Jeebus, man.
Oh well. Ideological assclowns with verbal duckshot blasts are usually pretty harmless.
Posted by ray at 2:29 PM | Comments (6)
Liveblogging 1%
Tim Ruppert of Tim's Nameless Blog (and also, incidentally, a civil engineer with the Corps, but speaking only as a private citizen) made a presentation that by itself was worth the $20 registration fee (which means now we get Dunbar's for free).
The focus was on risk management in relation to the "1% flood" (the so-called "100 year flood"). To sum up briefly (and I hope his slides make it onto the web), you have a flood risk, and then you have multiple means of reducing that risk down to a low (but non-zero) level called "residual risk". Build big-ass levees? You reduce risk. Coastal restoration? Reduce risk some more. Zoning and channeling development into less flood-prone areas? Reduce risk some more. Flood insurance? Reduces risk. Any time you want to go without one of those reduction strategies, the risk reduction needs to be picked up by some other component. Choose to not have flood insurance? Fine, but then that slice of risk becomes part of your residual risk.
He also described the flood control approaches taken to protect London from surge flooding up the Thames, and the Netherlands from storm surge from the North Sea.
We all know the Netherlands story, although the money quote he's heard from visiting Dutch engineers about our "proposed" 100 year flood protection for New Orleans is a laugh and a "we offer 1,250 year protection even for our farmland." The Dutch have decided that this is a national issue, and it's an issue with a solution, and they make sure the solution gets done.
London was even more illuminating. It's a city near the coast, not on the coast. It's on a river. It's sinking, due to tectonic shifts of the British Isles. Seven million people live there, including 1.2 million in the flood zone. But they have protection against a 1,000 storm surge coming up the Thames, and they have a plan for increasing their protection by 2030 to account for sea level change, tectonic shifts, and climate change.
In the United States, we constantly hear that it's impossible to protect New Orleans from another flood. It's not technologically feasible, it's too expensive, it's not worth it, we're stupid for living here, and even though the United States was founded as a seafaring nation, we should just give up and abandon one of the largest seaports in the world, because "that's just haaaaaard".
Meanwhile, while our pundits say it can't be done, and our dirt farmers in the heartland whine about paying for it (when they're not treading water due to their own flooding), the British and the Dutch just roll up their sleeves and get the job done.
We've only got George Bush. And right now we need Teddy Roosevelt:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Posted by ray at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)
Sucky liveblogging RT II
Faux live blogging at Rising Tide II.
Got off to the typical New Orleans late start. The comfy tables all got claimed by early risers who didn't stay out at Buffa's into the wee hours last night. Naturally I'm in the back with the cool kids: Scout, who is quite charming even when she's hungover like a dog (and was a very gracious stumbling drunk last night), and her friend Lisa. Fuck the people at the tables...we got AC power back here.
The politics forum. Governor's race: boring. Seriously, there's nothing to talk about. Jindal doesn't have it locked up yet but until he gets caught in bed with a live boy, there's just no drama there.
Local politics: Oyster regrets leaving his thick file on Derrick Sheppard dirt behind in his house and losing it to the flood. Offers the lame excuse that he had to grab his kids. We all make choices, and when it comes right down to it, Oyster would choose family over political blogging. Selfish bastard. Still, Dambala predicts Sheppard is going down Monday.
We keep coming back around to the running gag of burning down City Hall.
Chad Rogers sad "irregardless" in a non-ironic fashion. Gah!
They talked about corruption. I missed most of it, I had to pee. Sorry.
Dangerblond asks "what can we as citizens do about corruption, other than vote?" Panelists stare blankly and then go back to making political predictions about who will run for what. I mean, I think that's the crux of the issue and the point of the whole conference: taking action. But when asked about citizen action, the only response anybody has is "that's hard, let's talk about something else".
Scout whispers to me: "Which Cynthia were they talking about?"
"Cynthia who?"
"The one they were just talking about".
"Sorry, I missed that, I was typing."
Funny thing about live-blogging. You miss half of what is said because you're busy typing. Who invented this concept? It elevates the blogging of the event to a higher status than the event itself.
I'm signing off.
Posted by ray at 10:06 AM | Comments (4)
August 24, 2007
Dorophoria
One of my new favorite blogs is Dorophoria, written by Big Easy Rollergirl Anti Em. She's a brand new teacher in a post-Katrina public school in New Orleans, and her blog is a very personal look at what the teachers and the kids have to go through.
Plus, she's a math geek, and who doesn't love math geeks?
Posted by ray at 10:06 AM | Comments (2)
August 22, 2007
I'm registered
Posted by ray at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2007
Front-loading the regrettable humor
Oyster has some angst over thinking Katrina was so goddamn funny on August 24, 2005. (I mean, at the time it was, though, right?)
But he passes up Triple-Bonus 80's cred points by missing a chance to riff on Dean and the Weenies.
May I not be overwhelmed with remorse ten days from now.
Posted by ray at 1:19 PM | Comments (1)
August 12, 2007
Draft Editor B
OT is out. He was one of the good ones, in a city where that ain't saying much.
Folse says this is an opportunity for somebody with strong character and progressive values to step in.
I say draft Editor B. Yes, I am serious.
Posted by ray at 9:31 AM | Comments (3)
July 2, 2007
Wrecking party at Lisa's house
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.
Posted by ray at 2:53 PM | Comments (13)
June 1, 2007
Stuff to do this weekend
Freret Street Festival. Four stages. Plus Food. Saturday.
Help Lisa find her marbles by moving stuff out of her house and doing some light gutting. Email schroeder915 at yahoo dot com if you want to help. Sunday.
Carrollton bike ride with Recovery Czar Ed Blakely. Starts at St. Charles & Carrollton at 2:00pm Sunday. Ends at Palmer Park.
Myself, I'll try to make one or two or these, but most of the weekend I'll be packing up Napoleon getting ready for the move to Willow.
No, not this Willow:
This Willow:
Posted by ray at 11:30 AM | Comments (12)
April 4, 2007
GD III
I've been trying to muster up the energy to write a post-Geek Dinner post worthy of the fabulous party at Dangerblond's last Saturday, but as usually I waited long enough that the job has been done for me, and dB herself has collected all the links to all the words and pictures you could want.
Thanks, dB, it was the best ever.
Posted by ray at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2007
A Very First Draft Weekend
Scout Prime and the First Draft gang are coming down to New Orleans in a few weeks with a gaggle of readers in tow, to put in some volunteer time gutting houses with ACORN. They'll be here March 30 through April 1, and will be gutting on Saturday, March 31. Then that night, Dangerblond will be hosting Geek Dinner 3 at her house in Faux Metairie with the First Draftees as special guests.
Obviously, if you're geek enough to be reading this, you're geek enough to participate in either or both the work day and the party night. If you want to come out gutting with us and be sexy like these people:
(and I mean, seriously...chicks dig guys with big crowbars, and sweaty dusty girls are HOT) then get in touch with me (ragicali at yahoo dot com) and I'll get you the form you need to fill out for ACORN. No word on which neighborhood we'll be in, but work is generally from 7:30am to 2:30pm, and all equipment will be provided.
And regardless of whether you can make it out during the day, you definitely need to come to the Geek Dinner that night at Dangerblond's. You can RSVP at the Geek Dinner wiki.
Posted by ray at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2007
First Draft walks the walk
Scout and Athenae and Mr. A from First Draft are coming to New Orleans for a long weekend of gutting and investigating and a little bit of food and music and fun thrown into the mix, and they want their readers to join them.
I had the honor of meeting Scout during last summer's Rising Tide conference, where she helped clean out Ms. Cora's house in Hollygrove. She's a keeper, and I look forward to meeting the rest of the gang in March.
Posted by ray at 10:04 PM | Comments (1)
100,000
I've been hitting reload on my sitemeter for the last half hour waiting for the odometer to finally roll over.
100,000.
It took not quite three years to get here, and it's an underwhelming visitor entry, lacking in depth or any person details, but at least they had the class to click out to Ashley's place:
Domain Name (Unknown)
IP Address 71.220.119.# (Qwest Communications)
ISP Qwest Communications
Location
Continent : Unknown
Country : Unknown Country
Lat/Long : unknown
Language English (United States)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor
Resolution : 1280 x 1024
Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit Jan 22 2007 12:33:20 am
Last Page View Jan 22 2007 12:38:46 am
Visit Length 5 minutes 26 seconds
Page Views 2
Referring URL
Visit Entry Page http://www.moronosph...com/rayinneworleans/
Visit Exit Page http://www.moronosph...com/rayinneworleans/
Out Click here
http://ashleymorris....log/2007/01/ink.html
Time Zone UTC-6:00
Visitor's Time Jan 22 2007 12:33:20 am
Visit Number 100,000
Posted by ray at 12:38 AM | Comments (11)
January 17, 2007
Ink Disease
Last night I accompanied Professor Morris to Electric Ladyland for his first of hopefully many tattoos. The carnage (and resulting artistic splendiferousness) is documented here.
Later we retired next door to Cooter Brown's where we discussed the crime scene, cheese fries, the pace of rebuilding, what makes a good beer, what makes a crappy near-beer, the pros and cons of various realtors, and our shared view on our unsuitability for teaching at a Catholic girls school.
Posted by ray at 8:12 PM | Comments (8)
December 21, 2006
A Very Loki Christmas
Santa left a glorious pile of linky squee in our stockings. Go see what Loki has done.
Merry Christmas, my good man.
Posted by ray at 7:57 PM | Comments (1)
December 13, 2006
Thanks, Bookman!
The Moronosphere super installed a new comment feature to cut down on spam, so now when you comment, you gotta say the secret woid.
Let me know if you have any trouble with it. Seems to work OK so far.
Posted by ray at 9:38 AM | Comments (4)
December 11, 2006
New toy!
Jeffrey finds Radio Blog Club.
There is only one song I could possibly use to kick this off.
Posted by ray at 2:11 PM | Comments (7)
October 2, 2006
Wrecking opportunities Wednesday through Sunday
There are several opportunities to get your wreck on this week. This is short notice on all of these, complicated by the fact that the Arabi Wrecking Krewe's web site is currently down, so please pass the word as much as possible.
Wednesday, October 4: The Arabi Wrecking Krewe will be helping pianist and music historian David Bodinghouse try to salvage artifacts from his house. This job is time-critical since David is going on an extended European tour soon.
Thursday, October 5: The AWK will return to sax player, band leader, and Jazz Fest regular Al Belletto's house at 3138 Toledano.
Saturday, October 7: The AWK will be doing a full gut of Jacques Gauthier's house.
Sunday October 8: Various bloggers with AWK support will take on day two at Gentilly Girl's house, 2918 Annette St in Gentilly. We cleared all the stuff from the main house last time, so this time we'll do the stuff in the apartment, the big appliances, and start on the sheetrock and plaster. We are hoping to be able to use the Arabi Wrecking Krewe equipment like last time.
If you can help at Gentilly Girl's house, please sign up on the ThinkNOLA Wiki.
For the other AWK jobs, contact Brian da Fiyaman: west270 at netzero dot net.
Posted by ray at 9:26 PM | Comments (4)
September 24, 2006
Life is short, filled with stuff
Click the link if you're curious. I got it bad.
I got twenty things I could write about and I can't seem to make myself care enough about any of them to write interesting stuff about them. And the thought of actually creating a blog post with actual links just smacks of effort.
I helped gut Morwen's house last week. We accomplished a lot. We have a lot more to go. A metaphor for the gutting of the city. The T-P reports last week that some groups are saying that at current levels of volunteerism, it will take 2-3 years to finish gutting houses. Not rebuilding. Just gutting. And I get pissed that it even requires volunteerism at all to do something like this, and then my anger fades into exhaustion and, eh, I can't even muster the energy to link to the damn article.
Pictures in the flickr page, if you're interested. Over there, on the left.
I helped gut Kidd Jordan's house a few weeks back. Kidd told great stories, not just about the traditional jazz players he knows, but about some of the real out honkin' and squirtin' experimentalists that I used to listen to a lot...Evan Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee. Kidd saw Coltrane play to an almost empty house a few weeks before his death. Played with Sun Ra. And I didn't know this, but I went to Franklin at the same time as a bunch of the Jordan clan, and also at the same time as Wendell Pierce from The Wire.
The above paragraph should be rich with links in case you don't know who any of these people are, but...effort, man. There are pictures in the flickr page...over there on the left. No, left.
I might get to be on the field during the U2/Green Day set at the Saints game tomorrow. If I can get off work. That might be fun. If I can get off work.
I can't really blog about work because guys from work read my blog now. But y'know, these days I'd rather be smashing moldy sheet rock. The pay is lousy, though, and kids gotta eat. But I can't really blog about work.
I don't really care where Nagin is.
I'd really like to spend some quality time with some pints down at Molly's, but, well, y'know....maybe I'll just wander down to Molly's and drink some Red Bulls one of these days.
Roller derby was fun, wasn't it? Pictures...you know where to look.
I got a flat tire today. And it wasn't even a roofing nail, so I didn't lose my Katrina tire cherry. I just fucked up parallel parking and pinched the sidewall on the curb. Shit, I coulda got a flat that way back in Texas.
I can't decide which are more self-important and irritating, sex bloggers or political bloggers (locals and close friends excluded...OK, mostly I mean kos and atrios, and almost all sex bloggers).
I have a half-dozen chronic health issues of the perpetual annoyance variety that all decided to come visit in the same month. The kind of chickenshit ailments that make you wish you had a tumor, so at least they could take it out and you could actually have something worth bitching about.
I can't even be arsed to come up with a proper ending for this post.
Oh, and the new season of The Wire is quite cool.
Posted by ray at 11:19 PM | Comments (9)
September 15, 2006
Blogger wrecking
Various New Orleans bloggers, with the support of the Arabi Wrecking Krewe, will start gutting Gentilly Girl's house this Sunday at 9:00 am. More info on the ThinkNOLA wiki.
If you can join us, please do.
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
Posted by ray at 2:12 PM | Comments (3)
September 11, 2006
Volunteer project: Helping out Gentilly Girl
I would like to mobilize the volunteer spirit of the Rising Tide to help out one of our own. Morwen Madrigal, a.k.a Gentilly Girl, has found that she can't gut her house by herself, and the waiting list to get help from places like ACORN is over four months long. With the looming city deadline for gutting being a moving target, this is rather nerve-wracking for her as it is for everyone else in her situation.
By coordinating through the ThinkNOLA Wiki and pulling a crew together, I think we could make a big dent in the job in one or two days.
Here's what I want y'all to do. Sign up on the wiki if you can help out, and put down your date preferences. Then take a look at the list of equipment needed and tell us what you can loan or donate from that list. If you can donate any cash to the cause, please put that down as well.
Even if you can't be there on gutting day, let us know if you can loan us some of the rarer equipment like wheelbarrows or respirators.
The dates I'm proposing are any/all of:
* Sunday, September 17
* Saturday, September 23
* Sunday, September 24
We'll work on any of those days when we can get at least 3 or 4 volunteers. (I left Saturday the 16th off since that's the day of the Big Easy Rollergirls bout so I know everybody has a conflict that day.)
We won't be doing a lot of actual demolition, we'll mostly be moving furniture and appliances (yes, fridges...more than one of them) and belongings. Morwen will be providing lunch.
Thanks to Adrastos for planting the idea.
Please volunteer your time or your tools on the ThinkNOLA wiki:
http://thinknola.com/wiki/Post_Rising_Tide.
And please spread the word through the blogs.
Thanks!
Posted by ray at 6:54 AM | Comments (3)
September 10, 2006
Da paper
Me and Ashley and Folse got our poseur asses in the paper again, this time in the local. Another article about returning natives.
This one graces the front page of the Living section with a picture of the perfesser and the Ashlettes, so check out the paper copy if you can.
Posted by ray at 9:52 PM | Comments (2)
September 7, 2006
Deprived
I always enjoy first sitting down in the morning and checking a few of my favorite web sites to see what's transpired while I was sleeping.
But when I was up so late working the night before and then up so early in the morning that there is no news because I haven't actually been asleep more than a few hours, I feel deprived. Damn. In the entire globe of news and blogging, not a dang thing happened since I went to bed.
And when that happens two or three days in a row, I want to gnaw my own arm off to escape the keyboard shackles, and go back to bed.
I'm off to take the kids to school and get a 50-gallon drum of coffee. Y'all go make some news and post some shit before I get back, 'kay?
Posted by ray at 7:19 AM | Comments (5)
September 2, 2006
Perspective
“You always have to compare things.” --Ingemar, My Life As A Dog
I was planning to re-post something I wrote on this day last year. That was the night my family dragged me away from the TV and the computer and made me go bowling to get my mind off the storm. I've reread it a few times and I always thought it was a pretty decent piece of writing, about where my head was at on the Friday after the storm, after a week of tracking down missing family and watching the flood unfold from 500 miles away.
And then I read this.
One year ago yesterday, Professor Homan, whose daughter goes to school with my daughter, was swimming from his home to his university to check on his students. Supported by an inflatable pillow, his name and next of kin address on a piece of paper in a plastic baggy on a string around his neck just in case. Passing several bodies along the way.
It's times like this that my contribution as a "blogger", as a New Orleans "ex-pat", seems so trivial and stupid.
Posted by ray at 9:44 PM | Comments (4)
August 31, 2006
Innovative uses of blog technology for disaster response
First, the Emergency Blogcasting System is the creation of a bunch of Austin techie activists led by Chip Rosenthal:
The Emergency Blogcasting System (EBS) is an association of Austin-area weblog authors who will contribute to a regional disaster response through communication and citizen reporting enabled through blogging.The EBS is under development. Official release is planned late August 2006.
Mission
The mission of the EBS for bloggers is:
* Educate the blogging community of the role they can play in a disaster situation.
* Identify and publicize primary sources of information that may assist bloggers in their task during a disaster situation.
* Establish and encourage best practices for bloggers during a disaster situation.The mission of the EBS for the general community is:
* Publicize the constructive role that bloggers may play in a disaster situation.
* Bring attention to valuable blogging and citizen reporting during a disaster situation.
* Dissemenate information to people less connected to official and conventional channels, with particular attention to the diversity of cultures and languages in our community.
This work arose out of the experiences Austin bloggers and techies had with disseminating information during Katrina and Rita and with helping storm evacuees use the Internet while they were in Austin.
Second, Brian Oberkirch's HurricaneMind is an application of "hive mind" principles to quickly disseminate information about an upcoming storm based on patterns in large numbers of inputs:
For instance, last night I had a tough time sleeping, worrying about yet another super powerful hurricane about to enter the Gulf later this week. One thing that happens as a storm gets closer is everyone starts asking each other: What are you going to do? Ride it out? Board up? Nothing? Leave town? So I outlined a little Web app that asks people what they are planning to do. You type in your zip code and it tells you what your neighbors have in mind. Here’s a specific user behavior written large (and quickly) through the power of the Web. You have more info and can make a more educated decision based on the collected insights of the hive mind. Now, let’s take it farther and start gathering up recommended backroad evacuation routes. The main arteries pack up quickly, and long time natives know the best ways out. Let’s gather them. Mash them up with Google maps. Port in hotel availability in the cities that people typically go to — like Baton Rouge, Jackson, Birmingham, Houston, etc. Flow in the updates from the hurricane center in a pane. Suddenly, we have a little dashboard people can use to make better decisions for their families & neighbors. Much better than flipping through channels or pulling up a series of bookmarked sites, burrowing through forums, etc.
Posted by ray at 5:55 PM | Comments (1)
August 30, 2006
August 30, 2005
One year ago.
5:40am: Levee break in Lakeview
...
For perspective, the nola.com report would put almost everything on this map under still-rising water.
And while I'm reading this, somebody on MSNBC just said "As cleanup begins in New Orleans, all eyes turn to Mississippi". Christ, don't they read the fucking papers?
10:13: Baton Rouge update and family status
11:24: Times-Picayune evacuating
11:45: WWL update link
4:36pm: Some neighborhood updates and governor's news conference
5:11: Bodies
6:05: God DAMN it!
Shepherd Smith has been in New Orleans for two days now. Will somebody please tell him that Louisiana doesn't have COUNTIES, it has PARISHES.
Plaquemines PARISH.
Orleans PARISH.
Jefferson PARISH.
Not county. Parish. Say it with me. P-p-p-parish.
6:29: Thank you
Shep just said "reports coming in from Plaquemines Count...er, Plaquemines Parish...".
8:27: 17th Street: Levee repair has failed, pumps have failed
...
Right now I feel exactly the same way I felt on the afternoon of 9/11. Horror. Grief. Numbness. Completely at a loss of what to do.
The only difference is that on 9/11, the whole world felt the way I did. Tonight, I feel very alone. I drove out to get some dinner, and the radio was playing an Astros game. Conservative radio hosts were talking about Iraq. There was some financial advice show on...some guy is upside-down on his car payments. The guys at the sandwich shop were half-watching CNN and half talking about Longhorn football. It's just like TV to them. They don't care. They watch, but they don't care. Not really.
...
Tomorrow I get to go to work and hang out with people for whom the most important thing in the world is the next goddamn software release, and I am overwhelmed with grief for my city.
...
I have nothing but despair to give. I should stop blogging.
Posted by ray at 6:00 AM | Comments (9)
August 28, 2006
August 28, 2005
One year ago.
6:52 am: Katrina
The nightmare has come to pass.
9:25: Mandatory
I worry about my high school friends who are still there, and I worry about my city being gone when I wake up tomorrow. New Orleans is special like no other place. I can't imagine the French Quarter being wiped out, the trees of Audubon park being levelled. My immediate family will be out of harm's way, but you can't rescue a place. You can't pick it up and move it to safety.
11:02 Katrina Links
I worry about the people who can't leave if they wanted to. New Orleans is a town with much poverty, and your average housing project resident can't just book a hotel in Texas and scoot out of town. People without cars, people without money...where do they go? Shelters will definitely fill up.
1:37pm Katrina evacuee status of people you don't even know
I don't know why I feel compelled to blog this stuff, since y'all don't know any of these people, but it helps to talk about this.
...
Really, I'm not panicking. Just a little queasy is all.
I'm trying to imagine New Orleans as a third world country. This isn't like a flood anywhere else where the waters will recede naturally. The water there will stay put, stagnant, filled with sewage, snakes, rats and alligators, until pumping stations can be repaired to start pumping it out.
Posted by ray at 6:06 AM | Comments (1)
August 27, 2006
Rising Tide: Day 1
Other folks have thoroughly blogged the Rising Tide conference already, and I'm too wiped out to add anything intelligent to the conversation. For details, see the Rising Tide Blog, Maitri, Scout Prime, Dangerblond, Adrastos, and the usual suspects.
My own pictures are in a flickr set here. I'm a shit photographer, though, so check out some of the other sets from, uh, the usual suspects.
Today a small group of bloggers helped the Arabi Wrecking Krewe gut a house in Hollygrove. I'll have more on that tomorrow once I'm feeling a little more human. Scout Prime documented the whole day in photos and video, so keep tabs on her blog for more on that too.
Posted by ray at 8:40 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2005
On this day last year, I was getting a rare weekend off from work, and just in time because I was nursing yet-another throat infection. The past few weeks had seen the Moronosphere get wiped out in a database crash, and after Karl got things back online, I was just finishing up restoring the last of my archives from my temporary home on Blogger.
I had just met Brett and Hiromi. Hershey had just bought Sharffen-berger. Work stress was killing me.
And the saddest thing going on in my life was that Randy "Biscuit" Turner of the Big Boys had just passed away and the entire Austin music scene was in mourning.
I planned to spend the weekend recuperating and reading in bed.
There was just one vague hint of excitement in my only post of the day:
Now I'm going back to bed for a little while, to finish up Feynman and keep an eye on this hurricane thingy that's threatening the Crescent City.
Posted by ray at 6:00 AM | Comments (4)
August 17, 2006
Rising Tide
August 25-27, 2006, there will be a convention for all people who care about New Orleans.The Rising Tide Conference will be a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of the natural disasters of both Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the manmade disaster of the levee and floodwall collapses, and the incompetence of government on all levels. We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a "real life" demonstration of internet activism as the nation prepares to mark the one year anniversary of a massive natural disaster followed by governmental failures on a similar scale.
The Rising Tide Conference is hosted by New Orleans Bloggers on the weekend before the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the federal levees. We will meet at the New Orleans Yacht Club on Friday night, August 25, for registration and a chance to meet each other. Saturday at the NO Yacht Club will be a day full of informative panel discussions and presentations. The objective is to leave bloggers and other attendees with more of the real story of what is going on here one year later than they have ever heard before. Saturday night, there's a party, and Sunday is a work day for those who want participate gutting and debris crews.
The Rising Tide Conference is now taking registrations. Please visit the website, register, and contribute to the Rising Tide Blog. There is an opportunity on the registration page to opt in or out of the Sunday work day. Lunch will be provided. The fee is $20.00. Please consider donating more to help with expenses.
I would like to really plug the Sunday work day. I am coordinating with the Arabi Wrecking Krewe for any conference attendees to spend Sunday gutting a house. It's hot, sweaty, dirty, stinky work, but you get to wreck stuff, you get to do something really wonderful for somebody, and if you're not from here, you get to get up close and personal with what this disaster has really done to people's lives so that you can go home and tell the world what you saw.
You haven't lived it until you've smelled it. And the AWK is a fun loving bunch, all musicians and music lovers so a post-gutting jam session usually breaks out at some point.
Posted by ray at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
Why I Blog
Posted by ray at 2:06 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2006
Carpet-blogger origins
Last week, I posted my initial take on the Missionary Bloggers and their valiant quest for truth. Later in the day, I was IM-ing with my work colleague Keith, one of the few co-workers (I hope) who reads my blog, and he laughed and called them "carpet-bloggers". (As far as I know, Keith doesn't have a blog and has never been to New Orleans, but he instantly grokked the situation. He's shmart that way.)
Later I emailed the joke to Maitri, she blogged it, and since everybody who's everybody reads Maitri it's since become Meme of the Week.
Credit where credit is due: thanks Keith!
Posted by ray at 12:57 PM | Comments (8)
Geek Dinner II: The Wrath of Loki
Geek Dinner I at Alan's French Quarter abode was a smashing success.
Now get ready for Geek Dinner II, this Saturday night, hosted by Loki of Humid City.
When: Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 7:00 pm.
Where: 4617 S.Claiborne Ave, Broadmoor Nature Preserve, New Orleans, LA
This is by far the best party in town, and the easiest way to finally put a face on all the lovely New Orleans bloggers you've been reading all this time. Don't worry if you're geek enough; if you're reading this, you're geek enough.
Out-of-town bloggers are especially invited to attend.
RSVP at the Geek Dinner Wiki.
See you there.
Posted by ray at 9:28 AM | Comments (5)
August 8, 2006
Missionary Bloggers
I must confess when I first read about the Blog Herald's Team New Orleans effort (thanks to Mr. Melpomene for the link), I was pretty torqued.
What fucking balls. The east and west coast blogerati are finally going to bring civilization to us ig'nant natives down on the bayou. As if there aren't over a hundred local and ex-pat bloggers already down here, some of whom (including myself) have been blogging about this disaster non-stop since Katrina first entered the Gulf of Mexico.
I have taken part in many online communities during the 20+ years I have been on the internet, and I have never seen a group of people who are tighter and more focused and more passionate than the people I have met through the NOLA blogosphere since the storm.
I hope that once the Blog Herald folks really do their research and really engage with the people down here that some great things might happen. But first thing out the window has got to be the missionary approach.
Don't come down here to educate us. Don't come down here to "finally get the ground truth". Come down to help.
The event and its coverage have been happening for almost a year. We don't mind that you're a little late, and we're happy for you to join our story already in progress.
Posted by ray at 12:18 PM | Comments (13)
July 23, 2006
Wiki Rising
Thanks to Dangerblond and Maitri, the Rising Tide conference now has a wiki!
I know all the New Orleans bloggers are already all over this, but I'm gonna say again: we want visitors from out of town.
I have half a mind to add a few people out of my blogroll just to shame you into coming. (Karl, Syl, Robin, Hiromi, Fredlet, Jette, you listening? Word on the street, Karl, is that there are a few kilt fans on the list already.)
Posted by ray at 2:28 AM | Comments (5)
July 19, 2006
Rising Tide Conference
Mark your calendars: August 25-27, the New Orleans blogging community is hosting the Rising Tide Conference "for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita)".
This is open to anybody who wants to participate, not just New Orleanians, so it's a great time to come down and see the city and catch all the sexy NOLA bloggers in one room.
Flights are cheap if you book ahead, and if I kinda sorta know you, I've got lots of room. (Karl, that means you.)
To keep current on details as they develop, check out the Rising Tide site.
Posted by ray at 5:30 PM | Comments (3)
July 17, 2006
Home smells
I rolled into New Orleans on Thursday night with the dog (the wife and kids and movers having preceded me by a day). Windows up, AC cranked, in a car full of recycled air from the Atchafalaya.
I pulled into the driveway, opened the door, and the first thing that hit me was the smell.
Mold. The Katrina ick smell. I was surprised that the city could still be thick with it, and I looked around for a debris pile that might be the culprit. Nope, it was just the same old background smell of the city that's been there these last eleven months.
By later that night, I couldn't smell it any more, and I haven't smelled it since. Once something becomes natural to you, it fades into the background and you aren't really conscious of it any more.
Which got me thinking about perception versus reality for those of you who have been here all along compared to those of us who are arriving with fresh sight and unsullied noses. Over the past few weeks, as the summer doldrums have set in and the mayor's race has receded past the horizon of yesterday's news, I've noticed a steady drumbeat of frustration from the NOLA blogging community. "Nothing's happening! No progress! The rebuilding is stalled!"
I haven't walked in your shoes, but if you could see New Orleans the way I've seen it...in November, twice in February, in April, and now July, like a stop-motion animation that jumps ahead two months on every frame, you'd see the progress. It's everywhere. The difference in Broadmoor between April and now is striking. Similarly for South Claiborne and Fontainebleau. Everywhere are signs that people are coming back, that they're fighting the good fight, that they're not giving up.
I haven't had a chance to see the other parts of the city yet. Too much unpacking to do and I started back at my job today, and I know there are parts of the city like the Lower Nine and Gentilly that are probably more disheartening. I know the politics of the situation are maddening, that the frustrations of daily life are exhausting, the uncertainty terrifying, that y'all have been through hell and are still going through it. But from my outside vantage point, I see hope. Real hope that we are gonna be OK.
Thanks to Alan for hosting what felt to me like a spectacular welcome home party, where I got to meet fine folks like Sophmom and Lisa and b. rox and Schroeder and Oyster and Morwen and Karen and Loki and Dangerblond, and re-hook up with Ashley and Mark and Maitri. It was a blast, and we need to do it again soon. For those of you who missed it, the whole sultry mess is captured in flickr here and here and here and here.
(I confess to being a little embarrassed about bringing the brie after seeing what it did, until I saw Maitri and Lisa put down their cameras and start tearing into it with chunks of bread.)
Posted by ray at 10:42 PM | Comments (9)
July 7, 2006
Blogumentary or reality comix?
"And soon that ass will be mine!"
Go read the latest brilliance from Stone Cold Poetry Bitches, and give all thanks and praise to Robin.
Posted by ray at 1:41 PM | Comments (4)
July 6, 2006
Oh the shame of it all
I hate myself when I do this.
| You Are Oscar the Grouch |
 You are usually feeling: Unhappy. Unless it's rainy outside, and even then you know the foul weather won't last. You are famous for: Being mean yet loveable. And you hate the loveable part. How you life your life: As a slob. But it's not repelling as many people as you'd like! |
Posted by ray at 1:05 AM | Comments (4)
June 21, 2006
The so-called progressive blogosphere is dickless
In one swift move, kos and atrios alienate the entire liberal blogosphere of New Orleans. Boycotting is so much easier than staying and fighting, I guess.
Fuckers.
If the progressive wing of the Democratic party has abandoned New Orleans, then we really are all alone. And we've got plenty enough work to do down here that Connecticut and California and Montana and Virginia and those other "battleground" states can go fuck themselves.
Have fun with your Liebermans and your Bilbrays and your Webbs and your who-the-fuck-evers. I no longer give a shit about what goes on in that part of the world. I don't want to give you money any more, I don't want to read about you any more, and I sure as fuck don't want to see your sorry carbetbagger asses down here pimping for beads any more.
Oh, and we might keep your oil.
Sinn Fein, fuckers.
Posted by ray at 11:57 PM | Comments (7)
May 28, 2006
Comments
Miss Syl happened to mention a comment she'd made in my last post and I wondered why I hadn't seen it. I check my junk folder, and sure enough, there are weeks and weeks of perfectly lovely comments that I'd never seen.
I'm restoring them now.
All this time I though I was unloved and boring. I guess y'all thought I was a dick.
Sorry about that.
Update: I think I got them all, and I went ahead and whitelisted a buncha y'alls email addresses. Thanks, Syl.
Posted by ray at 1:06 PM | Comments (9)
May 7, 2006
Paralyzed
My life is like this right now.
Work. School. Kids. Housing. Moving. Staying.
By the end of May there will likely be clarity, but right now there is nothing but fog and nothing I can do but wait for it to dissipate. And I can't blog about any of it until it is decided because there are personal and business risks involved with doing so.
I. Fucking. Hate. This.
Posted by ray at 9:53 PM | Comments (4)
April 30, 2006
The Neil Diamond Meme
My ability to write has completely left me. Between the boundaries that I've had to put on what I can write here, and important real life events that are taking all of my energy (which, naturally, I can't write about), there's not a lot left to say.
I read Karl and Hiromi and Miss Snark and DailyKOS obsessively. I check all my New Orleans links every day. But I'm not in New Orleans, and right now I feel like a fraud writing about it when there are people there actually living in it who have much more to say than I do. I have nothing to say about Austin, so I've kind of wandered away from Austin Metblogs. I don't think they're happy with me. I still read it, though, which is more than I can say about The Austinist.
I wouldn't be posting anything at all today, except that Clint Hagen tagged me with this meme. I like his blog. Even though I don't consider myself a Christian so much as a guy raised as a Christian who still believes there is a God, I enjoy reading the sermons he posts.
Anyway, memage follows (slightly modified). Apologies to those of you who think blog memes are trivial and stupid and not something that real bloggers do. Bite me. I'm tired, and it beats silence:
I AM: stressed out over the important choices I have to make, some of which are life-and-death.
I SAID: I wanna watch cartoons!
I WANT: all my loved ones to be healthy and safe from harm.
I WISH: I was nine years old again, eating an orange sno-ball, without anything to worry about except maybe schoolwork, which is easy.
I HATE: Republicans. Yes, even you.
I MISS: New Orleans as it existed in 1982.
I FEAR: death.
I HEAR: my son playing Runescape.
I WONDER: if I am doing the right thing, or if I am just being selfish.
I REGRET: not being able to talk to anybody about what I regret.
I AM NOT: as cool as you think I am.
I DANCE: in public if it will embarrass my daughter.
I SING: in the car. I sing along with Davell Crawford's "Gather By The River" at the top of my lungs when I'm sad. I sing along with the Polyphonic Spree when I'm less sad.
I CRY: once every couple of years, for about a minute, and then I squash it again.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: err....fuck, I got nothing for this one.
I MADE: a ton of pretend money in the Internet bubble. Then I lost it all again.
I WRITE: eh. I don't. Not lately.
I CONFUSE: eh. Not even going to touch this one.
I NEED: more hugs. And more money. And more free time.
I SHOULD: take a shower. I'm taking my son and my dad to brunch at Threadgill's in a little while and it's nice to be clean.
I START: lots of things that I don't finish. Remember guitar lessons?
I FINISH: the ice cream. Seriously, don't leave ice cream in my freezer and expect it to be there in the morning.
I TAG: Karl, Hiromi, Maitri, Whirly, Darkneuro.
Posted by ray at 8:55 AM | Comments (14)
April 9, 2006
I'm back, again
Thanks to everybody who helped out or expressed concern for my well-being. You know who you are and you're the sweetest and bestest.
I had several different real life events converge on me from different directions and collide with my blog world all on the same day, all while I was on the way home from a fun but overwhelming trip to New Orleans, so I asked Karl to take the blog offline while I sorted things out in my head.
I've made some adjustments to the archives, made some apologies to loved ones who I inadvertantly hurt with some thoughtless entries, and now I think I'm back. There are certain aspects of my life that are no longer going to be discussed here. Such are the consequences of blogging non-anonymously, I guess.
So, uh...nice weather we've having, eh?
Posted by ray at 8:57 PM | Comments (20)
February 28, 2006
Wo bist du, Cluemeister?
Some days I don't know.
I just don't know.
(In other news, Mardi Gras rocked. Home tomorrow, pictures when my body has recovered.)
Posted by ray at 5:22 PM | Comments (7)
February 7, 2006
Four things
The moving and packing and moving some more, it's endless. My delicate wussy desk-job hands are raw and chapped and scarred, my legs are noodles, my back and shoulders are tired (but aren't feeling permanently damaged).
And my brain today is only capable of a blog meme. What the hell, I was tagged.
Four jobs I’ve had
1. Software engineer (at eight different companies...yeah, by now I'm kind of over it.)
2. Bartender (student pub, meaning no cocktails and no fucking tips.)
3. Oven geek at a pizza chain.
4. Mardi Gras float grunt.
Four movies I can watch over and over
1. The Godfather (I & II, not III). "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."
2. American Beauty. "Lose it? I didn't lose it. It's not like, "Whoops! Where'd my job go?" I QUIT. Someone pass me the asparagus. "
3. Casablanca. "Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade. "
4. Bladerunner. "I've done...questionable things.
Four places I have lived
1. Austin
2. San Francisco
3. Houston
4. New Orleans
Four TV shows I love
1. Daily Show
2. Colbert Report
3. Any show that has a weather forecast
4. The Sopranos
Four places I’ve vacationed
1. New York
2. Edinburgh
3. Berlin
4. Disney
Four of my favorite dishes
1. Uni
2. All you can eat steamed lobster with all you can eat melted butter.
3. Raw oysters
4. Crawfish etouffee
Four sites I visit daily
1. The Moronosphere
2. Hiromi X
3. Daily KOS
4. NOLA.com
Four places I would rather be right now
1. In New Orleans volunteering for some non-profit that rebuilds homes. Or restaurants.
2. Riding the Haunted Mansion at Disney World
3. Dublin
4. On the beach on a tiny Caribbean island off the regular tourist maps where all the locals speak either French or some kind of patois but know at least enough English that we can have long talks about nothing in particular while I make lazy doodles in my brain about that novel I want to write someday. I'm thinking Bequia. Who's with me?
And no, I'm not gonna tag anybody. I'm not in the mood to find out which people don't actually pay attention to me.
Posted by ray at 7:31 AM | Comments (4)
January 14, 2006
Life intervenes
Apologies for the lack of content lately. I'm not even able to keep up with most of my daily reading, much less write anything. Life events have intervened.
My stepfather was admitted to the hospital late Tuesday night. I'll spare you the details, but it involves internal bleeding, so every day he is supposed to get discharged, and every day they look at his blood counts and change their minds and decide he needs observation for one more day. Life-threatening diseases have all been ruled out, thankfully, but when you're approaching 70, even the less-severe stuff has its risks, and besides, it doesn't take much to wear out my mother emotionally.
And this event comes right in the middle of our other big adventure. We're selling our house. No, we're not moving to New Orleans (yet), but we've finally decided that the equity we have in this house that we bought at the peak of the tech bubble would be more useful to us in the form of cash, so we're downsizing a little bit. We've decided that financial flexibility is more important to us than sentimental attachment to a big old historic landmark in a cool old neighborhood.
Yeah, it hurts a little. Some of it is pride; every once in a while I get these twinges of feeling like I failed, like I'm being forced to retreat. Which is nonsense, when you think about it. I'm more fortunate than most of my friends, even most of my coworkers.
Anyway, my posting here will be somewhat spotty for a while, as I'm more concerned with packing and remodeling and visiting the hospital. And, y'know, job and all. When I have time.
Posted by ray at 2:09 PM | Comments (13)
January 6, 2006
Cool! Blog for sale...
My blog is worth $31,614.24.
How much is your blog worth?
Not sure I trust his algorithm, since he says that Karl's blog is worth $0.00, but hey, you can't argue with fake money.
Thanks to Carol Elaine for the linky-poo.
Posted by ray at 5:02 PM | Comments (5)
January 3, 2006
My new gig at Metroblogging Austin
A few weeks back Tim Trentham invited me to start writing for Metroblogging Austin, and as of today I'm in.
What this means is that most of my Austin related posts will now get posted over there rather than here on my M-sphere blog. I might link to them from here or something, haven't really worked out all the details yet.
Anyway, do check it out if you get a chance.
Posted by ray at