Topic: Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

[Pilsner Panther]

Apparently, the hurricane didn't. But the rest of us just might miss it, after the waters recede and several thousand people there have died of hepatitis, dysintery, and other microbe-related diseases from all the polluted water.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/31/LOCALS.TMP

New Orleans is the very cradle of American blues and jazz, and it would be a terrible shame if no one helped its people in this time of total disaster for them.

Think of:

Jelly Roll Morton

King Oliver

Bunk Johnson

Sidney Bechet

Louis Armstrong

Kid Ory

Johnny Dodds

Baby Dodds

Bessie Smith

Johnny St. Cyr

Red Allen

Fats Domino

Professor Longhair

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band

The DeParis Brothers

Billie and DeDe Pierce

Eddie Blackwell

Dr. John

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

The Marsalis Family

...and so many other immortal musicians.

We owe that city something because it's been so basic to American musical culture— and if we didn't help out, that would be like the Italians letting Venice go under the waves.

 

Donations can be sent to:

www.redcross.org

The Red Cross prefers monetary donations to shipments of food or clothing or other goods. Please do what you can to help, even if it's only sending along five bucks.

I'm asking ThreeStooges.net members, personally, to help out here, which is something I've never done before. After all, what would Pilsner's Picks be without the music of New Orleans?

"Lord, Let Me In The Lifeboat!"

...Indeed.


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[alwaysastooge]

Sure is sad.  I remember going there a few years ago, but now most of the places I went won't exist anymore.  Hopefully the city will eventually recover.

[Pilsner Panther]

I haven't been there since the late 80's, and I've never gone to Mardi Gras because mob scenes aren't my cup of borscht. For the music and the food, though, there's absolutely no place else like it. Or there wasn't. Every time I listen to another news report, it sounds worse down there. I'm sure the city will recover— we Americans are nothing if not resilient, as New York's response to 9/11 demonstrated. But it's bound to be a long, hard, climb back.

It's saddening that there's looting going on. I was in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, and there was no looting then, even though most of the city's power was knocked out and the quake hit when it was just getting dark (5:17 p.m.). So a looting spree might have been expected, but, thankfully, it didn't happen. I don't know what gets into people sometimes, but what I do know is that human beings are capable of any kind of behavior, sadly.

After the 1906 S.F. earthquake, the soldiers who were guarding the city were given a standing order that looters would be shot... not such a bad idea, really.

[BeAStooge]

New Orleans is the very cradle of American blues and jazz, and it would be a terrible shame if no one helped its people in this time of total disaster for them.

Think of:

... Fats Domino

"Fats Domino Missing in New Orleans Floods"
(AP) 9/1/05

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-09-01-domino-missing_x.htm

[Pilsner Panther]

New Orleans is the very cradle of American blues and jazz, and it would be a terrible shame if no one helped its people in this time of total disaster for them.

Think of:

... Fats Domino

"Fats Domino Missing in New Orleans Floods"
(AP) 9/1/05

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-09-01-domino-missing_x.htm

Oh, jeez... 77 years old, apparently not in good health, and no one knows where he is; that doesn't look good. I wasn't having a premonition when I put together that list of New Orleans musicians, I just came up with a list of the all-time greats, off the top of my head. A majority of them are the real old-timers who aren't around anymore, and haven't been for a long time.

It's getting so that I don't even want to listen to or read the news, because every time you do, you find out something worse about the devastation. The latest (ABC Radio news, 2:00 p.m. Pacific time) is "New Orleans will never be what it was, and it may not even be rebuilt in the same spot." Which is actually a good idea, but it also tells you how little of the city must be left.

[Genius In the Lamp]

Also reported missing:  Irma Thomas, the Sweet Soul Queen of New Orleans.

BTW, I've got Papa Celestin on the Discman on the train back from work tomorrow night.

[Genius In the Lamp]

An update on earlier posts:

Both Fats Domino & Irma Thomas are alive and accounted for.  Domino has been rescued from his 9th Ward home, while Thomas was staying at an aunt's home in Baton Rouge.

[Dunrobin]

This disaster should teach people - once again - how utterly useless the government is for either protecting you or helping you.  Unfortunately, most people seem to be pretty dense these days, and will probably still fail to comprehend the obvious.

Here is a horrific report on what is actually going on down there in New Orleans.
Thursday, September 1st, 2005  10:46 pm
The Real News
by The Interdictor

The following is the result of an interview I just conducted via cell phone with a New Orleans citizen stranded at the Convention Center. I don't know what you're hearing in the mainstream media or in the press conferences from the city and state officials, but here is the truth:

"Bigfoot" is a bar manager and DJ on Bourbon Street, and is a local personality and icon in the city. He is a lifelong resident of the city, born and raised. He rode out the storm itself in the Iberville Projects because he knew he would be above any flood waters. Here is his story as told to me moments ago. I took notes while he talked and then I asked some questions:

Three days ago, police and national guard troops told citizens to head toward the Crescent City Connection Bridge to await transportation out of the area. The citizens trekked over to the Convention Center and waited for the buses which they were told would take them to Houston or Alabama or somewhere else, out of this area.

It's been 3 days, and the buses have yet to appear.

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like -- all of them in dire straights.

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

He reports that the conditions are horrendous. Heat, mosquitoes and utter misery. The smell, he says, is "horrific."

He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.

I have "Bigfoot"'s phone number and will gladly give it to any city or state official who would like to tell him how everything is under control.

Addendum: Bigfoot just called to report that "they" (the authorities) are cleaning up the dead bodies at the Convention Center right now.

SOURCE:  http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/