We had immense amounts of fun today. Here's both of us in the Quarter.
We got up relatively early and made it all the way down to the Quarter before noon (quite an accomplishment!). Saw lots of wonderful costumes. We saw the Mefferts, Brett Favre, Jesus, a platoon of green army men, Col. Mustard and the rest of the gang from Clue, and a bunch of other flying pigs.
Pigs have flown! Hell has frozen over! The Saints are on their way to the Super Bowl!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Lombardi Gras 2010
Wow, it was cold, cold, cold last night. Lots of wind and I got hungry waiting on the parade. All that being said, I watched the Lombardi trophy go past New Orleanians packed shoulder to shoulder packed 15-20 deep the entire route. The traffic snarl was epic and almost none of my photos came out well, but here's a few.
This is 3 hours before the parade arrives at Poydras and St. Charles
Hargrove adjusting his boot
One of the coolest ideas was to grab the Muses shoe for Morstead, Hartley and Jason Kyle (? Long snapper):
Ticker Tape and NOLA at Night
One final thought: Someone was carrying around a sign calling for renaming Lee Circle "Brees Circle". I like that idea.
This is 3 hours before the parade arrives at Poydras and St. Charles
Hargrove adjusting his boot
One of the coolest ideas was to grab the Muses shoe for Morstead, Hartley and Jason Kyle (? Long snapper):
Ticker Tape and NOLA at Night
One final thought: Someone was carrying around a sign calling for renaming Lee Circle "Brees Circle". I like that idea.
Monday, February 8, 2010
...I want to be in that number
Saints Superbowl Victory Celebration from Cottage Films on Vimeo.
I caught video of these guys passing by on Magazine:
We stayed out on Magazine Street and had a HELL of a time.
Some cops started playing with their siren so it played "Whoop There It Is":
Absolutely the coolest thing last night (other than the TV's that said "SAINTS WIN SUPER BOWL") was a brass band that just showed up outside the Rendevous.
In New Orleans, a brass band is liable to show up at any time. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Men, Women, all joined in celebration. There were all of the above making out in every combination possible. It was pretty much Pat Robertson's nightmare. Fun times.
UPDATE- And I made Gambit:
5 Words That Will Never Get Old
Do whatchu wanna!
Originally uploaded by Noladishu
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Saints, Race, and Moon
One of the hardest things to do when going through history is coming up with a complete, accurate portrayal of relatively recent history. History that's too old to easily get newspaper articles, TV reports, and your own memory, but not old enough for good history books to be published. James Lowen referred to this as the "disappearance of the recent past."
During the Rachael "Madeaux" Show, she interviewed Dr. Norman Francis.
Dr. Francis talking about the founding of the Saints, which he was a party to.
Throughout the 50's and 60's, many in the New Orleans business community desperately wanted an NFL franchise to prove that New Orleans was a big city that could rank beside Houston and Atlanta. Momentum slowly built, but there were constant threats to derail the efforts.
One of the worst incidents happened after New Orleans hosted a Pro-Bowl. There's a brief mention at the end of this Google Timeline article from the St. Petersburg Times.
I've never heard a really thorough explanation of what happened, but it's something along the lines of what happened when Louis Armstrong was king of Zulu. Out of town black football players, used to at least some level of equal service and integrated facilities, were horribly offended by segregated public spaces, especially the hotels and bars. If anyone knows of a good account of what happened, I'd love to read it.
Keep in mind, other cities were struggling with what to do with the "Integration Question." New Orleans was way behind the curve. Atlanta was selling itself as "The City too Busy to Hate" (aside- if you weren't so greedy, you'd love to hate? Is that it?). New Orleans businesses were being hit due to the city's "racist" reputation.
It took some locals sticking their neck out to placate the players union enough for the league to give the OK for a New Orleans franchise. For example, Moon Landrieu battled as one of the only members of the Louisiana Legislature to vote against the infamous "hate laws" of the early 60's. During the LEH lecture series, one person said that Moon, at the time, "looked into his political grave every time he voted against those measures."* He was reviled by whites at the time for being a traitor to his race. As a city councilman, he fought to remove the Confederate flag from Council Chambers (put there as a symbol against integration, not any Grandiose delusions of history). He also passed the "Public Accommodations Act" in 1965, referred to by Dr. Francis in the interview as one of the keys to bringing the franchise to the city.
Finally, New Orleans got the nod. Here's the Google Timeline article of New Orleans being awarded the franchise that would soon be known as the Saints on Halloween.
New Orleanians have every right to enjoy this game without intrusion of politics, but before the game, let's recognize the political history of franchise. Without integration and the heroes that championed it (like Moon Landrieu, but he was only one of many), there would be no New Orleans Saints. Thank God for them and thank God for our New Orleans Saints.
_________________________
* Video here. I highly recommend all of the LEH lectures. All are biased towards the mayors, but do a good job of filling in the "memory hole" of the recent past.
During the Rachael "Madeaux" Show, she interviewed Dr. Norman Francis.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Dr. Francis talking about the founding of the Saints, which he was a party to.
Throughout the 50's and 60's, many in the New Orleans business community desperately wanted an NFL franchise to prove that New Orleans was a big city that could rank beside Houston and Atlanta. Momentum slowly built, but there were constant threats to derail the efforts.
One of the worst incidents happened after New Orleans hosted a Pro-Bowl. There's a brief mention at the end of this Google Timeline article from the St. Petersburg Times.
"The American League would love to have New Orleans, but the city does not want A.F.L. resentment over the walkout staged by some of the league's Negro players prior to the All Star Game held here last January. Their grievances were slight, but the league moved the game to Houston, causing a furor in the rejected city.
I've never heard a really thorough explanation of what happened, but it's something along the lines of what happened when Louis Armstrong was king of Zulu. Out of town black football players, used to at least some level of equal service and integrated facilities, were horribly offended by segregated public spaces, especially the hotels and bars. If anyone knows of a good account of what happened, I'd love to read it.
Keep in mind, other cities were struggling with what to do with the "Integration Question." New Orleans was way behind the curve. Atlanta was selling itself as "The City too Busy to Hate" (aside- if you weren't so greedy, you'd love to hate? Is that it?). New Orleans businesses were being hit due to the city's "racist" reputation.
It took some locals sticking their neck out to placate the players union enough for the league to give the OK for a New Orleans franchise. For example, Moon Landrieu battled as one of the only members of the Louisiana Legislature to vote against the infamous "hate laws" of the early 60's. During the LEH lecture series, one person said that Moon, at the time, "looked into his political grave every time he voted against those measures."* He was reviled by whites at the time for being a traitor to his race. As a city councilman, he fought to remove the Confederate flag from Council Chambers (put there as a symbol against integration, not any Grandiose delusions of history). He also passed the "Public Accommodations Act" in 1965, referred to by Dr. Francis in the interview as one of the keys to bringing the franchise to the city.
Finally, New Orleans got the nod. Here's the Google Timeline article of New Orleans being awarded the franchise that would soon be known as the Saints on Halloween.
New Orleanians have every right to enjoy this game without intrusion of politics, but before the game, let's recognize the political history of franchise. Without integration and the heroes that championed it (like Moon Landrieu, but he was only one of many), there would be no New Orleans Saints. Thank God for them and thank God for our New Orleans Saints.
_________________________
* Video here. I highly recommend all of the LEH lectures. All are biased towards the mayors, but do a good job of filling in the "memory hole" of the recent past.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Congratulations, Mitch!
We'll see how the down-ballot votes go, but so far, congratulations Mr. Landrieu.
You won outright majorities every way you break it down: black, white, male, female, Uptown, Downtown. You're the only thing other than the Saints that the entire city has gotten behind.
Good job, Mitch and good job, New Orleans.
UPDATE- NY Times writeup. With a nice little jab at Jefferson Parish in there.
UPDATE 2- The Mitch-mentum came through in a total repudiation of everything Nagin.
My favorite quote:
So the Mayor's race is decided. New Orleans is a predominantly black city with a white mayor-elect, a Vietnamese-American U.S. Representative, and a state governor of Indian descent. Gumbo coalitions, baby.
You won outright majorities every way you break it down: black, white, male, female, Uptown, Downtown. You're the only thing other than the Saints that the entire city has gotten behind.
Good job, Mitch and good job, New Orleans.
UPDATE- NY Times writeup. With a nice little jab at Jefferson Parish in there.
UPDATE 2- The Mitch-mentum came through in a total repudiation of everything Nagin.
My favorite quote:
So the Mayor's race is decided. New Orleans is a predominantly black city with a white mayor-elect, a Vietnamese-American U.S. Representative, and a state governor of Indian descent. Gumbo coalitions, baby.
GO VOTE!
Voting is today. Polling places and sample ballots can be found here.
Jeffery's slate of predictions is here.
The Oyster Ticket is here. Also, who knew that Marcello was in on the Canal Street Brothel? It makes a lot of other things make sense...
Dambala provides a motivational poster.
UPDATE- Forgot some. Eli's endorsements.
Adrastos weigs in.
Friday, February 5, 2010
It was Mauberret, but Janis fights back
Click to see fullsize
Well, it looks like the dirty fliers were Mauberret after all. New mailer by the Maubarret campaign uses the same graphics as the "Citizens for Fair Assessments."
On the bright side, instead of just sitting around whining about it, Janis Lemle's campaign has hit back with a great mailer of her own that arrived the same day as Mauberret's.
If you want real change, instead of just voting for the lesser of two evils, that's what you have to do. You have to get a ticket, like the I.Q. ticket, organized, raise some money, hit the established politico's across the board. Despite the fact that only one I.Q. candidate won (there were a lot of close losses), that one candidate was able to enact enough real change to lower millage rates citywide. All she had to do was assess a few grossly undervalued properties up to what they should have been and boom, lower taxes for the rest of the city. Nowhere else could one of the I.Q. candidates have done more good than Uptown.
Now, the I.Q. movement is still going strong behind Lemle and pushing the last of the old dogs out. It's not enough to just run a superior candidate and just sit on your hands while they lose. You've got to kick the incumbents in the teeth over and over until they cry for mercy. Then, piss on the ashes of their campaign so they never think about screwing the citizens again.
Clancy DuBos likes to say, "politics is a full contact sport." Real Reform is too.
Cross Promotion?
A bunch of these popped out around the neighborhood:
Here's what it looks like inside (just the top two, the rest is the pile of political mail):
John Georges and Shaw Enterprises LLC bundled together and stuffed in a bunch of mailboxes and gates. Is that legal? Some sort of political/commercial tie-in? Lazy/double-dipping campaign workers?
Just curious. Also, from all the fliers Georges has printed and littered town with, I think he's lost the recycling vote.
Here's what it looks like inside (just the top two, the rest is the pile of political mail):
John Georges and Shaw Enterprises LLC bundled together and stuffed in a bunch of mailboxes and gates. Is that legal? Some sort of political/commercial tie-in? Lazy/double-dipping campaign workers?
Just curious. Also, from all the fliers Georges has printed and littered town with, I think he's lost the recycling vote.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A Wild Weekend
So, tomorrow I turn 26 and we have the first day of parades. Saturday is the election (we get a new mayor! Yay!) and more parades. Sunday is even more parades and the Saints in the Superbowl.
It's going to be a hell of a weekend. For now, we're headed to Cochon to celebrate my birthday before the parades and the crowds and the madness start to envelop us.
It's going to be a hell of a weekend. For now, we're headed to Cochon to celebrate my birthday before the parades and the crowds and the madness start to envelop us.
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