Paper Paper

Doggone

2011-03-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Jay O. Bee
??? - 2011
He was always happy to follow though no one fully knew the life he had lead.

Nobody Does

2011-01-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

Ice Blizzard

2011-01-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

Blackbeard

2011-01-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

My favorite Wikileak...

2011!

2011-01-03T23:05:00.001-08:00

Panoramas for the new year!

Weeping willows!

2011-01-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

Remember how I was telling you about the water that stays so low?

Well, it just still stays so low!
Look for yourself

Normally this tree is its own island, standing about 10 yards out in the water.

These roots were just about the craziest thing I'd come across since I laid on eyes on this guy this guy's dreads.

Presents!

2011-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

My dog got me a mouse My grandmother got me a train

My parents got me a paper with a poster inside and a pet raccoon.
(But I kept the receipt and returned the raccoon)The blades I got for myself and the can was given to me for free by the man behind the counter.

!!thefutureisnow!

2011-01-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

Last minute Rips.

2011-01-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

Classic Graphic

2010-12-15T16:15:00.001-08:00

This Place!

2010-11-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

What goes on there?

This guy!

2010-11-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

Check Yourself. Ray wants you to do more than to try and eat just one.

Rise above that. "Rejecting wrong desires and doing what is right."

I bought these on sale somewhere in Alabama and I can truthfully say my life has not been the same since.

Strange Animals # 2

2010-11-08T15:20:00.001-08:00

sticky situations

Strange Animals

2010-11-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

in a strange land.

Semi-Live Reporting (UpTown Drama):

2010-10-17T19:42:00.001-07:00

not but moments ago
I SCARED A POSSUM

The drama to get these shots of possum, omigato! So much.

These young high school girls ran out thinking I was some creep. Nofault of thereown I guess.

But they were really flippin out trying to pin me like a bad guy. You wanna see the pics? I asked. "Ay PahSuMMM"I had to shout at them. They were frightened (and excited) to believe I had wanted to take there picture from the sidewalk, through the window, thru a curtain. I didn't see you when I first snapped at the pouch man. But the flash frightened them. 1nce again, noFaultOftheirOwn eye guess.

THe possum had froze up in a calm frightent way (pos?) emboldening me to get closer and snap more at his face with the flash.

And the thing that had stopped me? the thing that had stopped me and made me reach for the camera in my bag? That turned me towards the bush that made the rat stir? and made me look up and wonder if that was a giant rat in climbing up that bush and flash in this marsupial's face? That picture?

I turned back and grabbed that flick as the girls from the window were coming out to confront me (because now I was frightnt and wanted to be out there)

But forgot the Zoom was out.

Putting the Bare Bones Together

2010-10-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

2006 may have been the last time I really tried for Halloween. I did it right that year and the credit goes to my friends who turned to me for help with making their own costumes. Together we ended up designing 3 that year, a personal best. Personally I knew I wanted be a skulleton and had it in my mind to make a boneface mask for myself. My first attempt at making this was fashioned out of an aluminum tray used for catering that I found in the trash. It was really gross when I found it but I cleaned it out well since it was such a prime sheet of material. Basically I tried just wrapping the metal around my head and banging in the parts where I could feel my features. I would blindly pound my face thru the aluminum then take it off and try to sculpt it a little more into what looked like a proper visage. Progress was slow and unsatisfactory on account of the metal being less malleable than I'd hoped so I abandoned this first attempt sometime after I'd cut out the eye holes but before I'd managed to figure out a good way to wear it.

Next I turned to tar paper and some spray paint. This was much easier and since I had a whole roll of the stuff allowed for a lot more trial and error until I came across the proper design: 2 eye holes, triangle for the nasalnous, and toothy grin just over the top lip with a string in the back. Duh.

AFter this I cut a two color heart stencil (red and blue). Put it on a black long-sleeve teeh and sprayed white ribs all about it with shoulder blades and spine in the back. White spray paint really doesn't show up like you'd want it to on colored teehs (not like black spray on white does per se). Even after multiple coats, it just soaks thru and still appears pretty faded looking. But it still sufficed. All of that plus some other accoutrement from the local thrift store (BloomingDeals on Freret St.) and I felt pretty hip.

Next Ned came to me with the idea of being a Ninja Turtle, Micaelangelo specifically. He needed help with the shell so we scavenged up some cardboard boxes and began hacking away at it. We cut it diagonally down the side so the box would jut out form his back instead of just being the flat bottom. Then we cut the corners off so it wasn't so cube like, cut a collar out where his neck would go and cut some curls into the sides that could rest on his shoulders like straps of a backpack almost. I remember it still looking kinda bulky but he wore it well. Finally we painted it all green and put some brown turtle shell patterns on there with some yellow stenciled highlights. I was especially proud of Ned's get-up and he provided the orange bandana mask himself.

Now as the countdown to the 31st began getting closer and more costume plans came to fruition, some of our other friends must've felt the heat to get there own disguises in order. You see this every year on Magazine street: there's a costume shop that quietly sits there all year round ignored by most of the pedestrian shoppers. But come October 29th, 30th, and 31st there's a line that wraps around the block of noobs who waited too long to decide what they wanted to be that year. I imagine when they finally do get inside they just grab the nearest mask from whatever picked-over bin they can and pay whatever inflated rate the shopkeeper demands for it, all the while just relieved they won't have to show up to their friends party's unconcealed ('acognito' as it were) a blaring red flag of somebody who clearly couldn't give enough of a shit to try and make something.

So Mikey RiebelDiebles saw all this activity going around him and vowed not to be that guy at the party. But still he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to be, the arts and crafts weren't his specialty anyway after all. He just sat there in my room and watched as Ned and I carried on oblivious to his plight, perhaps a little bored and touch bummed. Not knowing what to do with himself he just poked around until the spark of inspiration was struck: he had stumbled upon my pile of trash and discarded goods. Scraps of cardboard and empty spray cans with flecks of cutout stencil parts lay scattered about in a heap covering the prize piece of his just born idea.

Doom.

"Are you gonna use this, Bud?" Hmm... I looked up from putting the polish on the turtle shell. In his hand was the aluminum shell.
"No, that's trash to me, Mike. It's all yours if you want it. What are you thinking about?"

"Doom," he said. " I wanna go as MF Doom this year." And there it was. A sight unseen to me. An idea born of the trash but already almost fully formed. We immediately began reshaping it to Mikey's face and found it fit nicely. Where I had struggled to come up with a good solution for the boney teeth, three snips of the shear removed the jaw piece entirely and left two menacing fangs in its place. I believe it was Mike's idea to have the metal band wrap around the back of his head like it did and that allowed for him to pop it up off his face if he felt it or even wear it backwards like a true 2-faced impostor. Undoubtedly it was the mask he was meant to wear that night and he wore it well.

Yes?

2010-10-16T12:22:00.001-07:00

Down by the River

2010-10-16T10:24:00.001-07:00

What's the one thing New Orleans was missing compared to all the other tropical tourist destinations? A beach!
But now that the water is so low, part of the river bed has been exposed and created just that.
Its a fun place to go and romp around.

Things on my wall

2010-10-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

= Things on the mind.

Eyes open at all times

Even while I'm sleepin.

Reoccurring dreams and things,

Means I'm stuck in multiple fantasies.

Erector Set

2010-10-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

What's cooking

2010-10-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is the format for the next zine. Brag books from the Family dollar.

Not Paper per se. Picture Pictures.

There are so many shots now that are too good to post online. Its cheap to print them up and only a dollar to bind them.

Papr*Papr #5

Onward&Upward: I'll send 10 Chinese niggers

2010-10-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

I know why I like this but it doesn't have to do with any high faluten opinion about the status of hiphop.

Halloween is coming up; Its time to be proactive about a costume. What a special feeling to put on a mask and to have control over a story.

Memories:

2010-08-31T21:42:00.001-07:00

Shared with good company. Not always fond.

Chill, Money...

2010-08-31T21:24:00.000-07:00

...you can't always be moving it forward.

In Other News.....

2010-08-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

Back to this paper, Paper. Recently Acquired.

My dog is my keeper

2010-08-31T21:05:00.001-07:00

The other day...

My dog killed a mouse that looked like my dog.

Don't tell me I need to catch up

2010-08-31T20:51:00.000-07:00

I woke up early this morning

Its been a shitty a summer

Lord hadn't even given me time enough to tell you all the half of it.

The New Recruit

2010-07-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'll fill you in on the details later. But for now just know that he's real happy to be on the team and the feelings are mutual.

Flyer # 3: BNA

2010-07-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

Flyer # 2 and an old favorite theme

2010-07-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

To start, I found this old flyer recently. Not in the trash but while salvaging some other goods
With all that's been going on, I've neglected reporting on one of the PP's favorite topics: "Christmas in the Spring", the Shop-til-you-drop-inside-a-metal-box Extravaganza, the Annual Free Ninety-Nine Giveaway. That's right! End of the school year Dumpsterrr Divinginging!!!

Two things changed the game for me this year. For starters, my roommate and I were moving out in May and the idea of taking in more stuff seemed out of the question (especially as I sorted through all the stuff we salvaged last year that only ever gathered dust). Use it or lose it. Secondly, further downsizing in my life lead me to get rid of my car. It wasn't exactly a planned action but since the city is small, I can get by on my bike and I like it that way. One of the drawbacks of course is that I could no longer just roll up on the spot, put the junk in the trunk, and speed off like a true trash bandit. So I'm off my furniture hoarding game these days.

But did this really mean the end of Christmas in May? Did I just have to accept the new circumstances as the end of my dumpster binges? Is this part of growing up and leaving the college scene behind? Friends still texted me with the location of plentiful looking piles uptown that they passed by with me in mind. But being across town with not enough horse power I would just sigh and close my phone, wipe the tear from my eye and tell myself to buck up. "You're growing up now, boy. You must leave that trash be..." Aww, alas. But there really were bigger piles of shit to worry about. This years harvest would have to go ungleaned and I decided to accept it as fate.

Until the day of the Big Score. It came upon me as surprise, like landing the monster catfish just have you've decided to hang up yer reels. This was late June: my friend and roommate of ye ol' ex-girl called me up to come over and hang out. Or at least that was the laid back impression I had about how we would pass the time. When I arrived I found in the midst of trying to sweep out the mess that remained from her other vacated roomies in a frenzied attempt to get her security deposit back. The other girls had left her with a sinking ship and a whole lot of ballast she needed to jettison. The situation looked hopeless but I didn't let that on to her.

I began cooking myself lunch out of the pile of pantry goods and spoke to her in a calming voice telling her things she needed to hear. "Yeah, I'm sure you can get your deposit back... Don't worry about that now... just focus on the task at hand...let it go, its going in the trash...blah blah." Having just moved out a few weeks before I understood her panic and certainly did not envy the situation. Roommates that move out before each other often delude themselves into thinking they're being generous by leaving behind cool stuff that they couldn't make room for. These unwanted gifts turn into only more deadweight when it comes down to crunch time and the roommates (who think of themselves as being so generous for leaving behind there nice heavy speakers for someone else) are actually cursed loudly for leaving early and leaving behind all that shit in there place.

My own roommate left a week or two before our lease was up and didn't even bother to take his posters off the wall, much less sweep out his room or even touch the kitchen filled with all his dishes and utensils. Wiping out the fridge isn't something you think to do with days to spare before leaving. But when there's 12 hours left on the lease and you remember the $500 your landlord has, you realize its just one of many tasks that must be reckoned with before you go.

Such was the situation I found my friend Reeni in. We worked on the kitchen, scrubbing surfaces and pitching perfectly good condiments that no longer had a place of their own. It pained Reeni to toss that special jar of terayaki but I played the bad guy with her and assured her she had to do it. It truly is a goddam shame about all the perfectly good stuff that gets thrown out during a move but what options do you have when time is short? Such is the dilemma many have faced and really the whole reason "dumpster diving" season is so plentiful. Often times (when its not put into an actual dumpster) people aren't callously throwing away there formerly-prized possessions. Things put out on the curb are placed with high hopes that they will be picked up before the trashman comes and can find a new, more loving home. That's what I found myself doing at the end of the month at least. You wait until after the daily rain shower and you keep the good stuff out of black bags where it would be hidden and overlooked.

As I took bag after bag to the curb, I started to hone in on what real treasures remained. Reeni and the girls are a crafty bunch and they had amassed a good amount of hardware that I had my eye on. The real X-factor in the whole clean up operation though were the clan of kittens in the house recently born to the stray the girls had adopted. "Tiny Cat," who begat 5 even tinier cats, had showed up some months earlier and only gotten out once since then, just long enough to get mysteriously knocked up and burden the girls with 5 more adorable beings. But now they all fell to Reeni and they shat through out her empty rooms a little too dumb and tiny to figure out how to climb into the litter boxes strategically placed throughout the vacant house. I tried to convince her that with a brick and a burlap sack, Old Man River would be just the right guy to take them in but Reeni wasn't swayed. I shrugged and continued to gather up the loot I'd been eying, preparing to make my final exit.

One of the last things I grabbed off the wall was this black and white flyer that made me think of an old party and the ol' girl who drew it. I used it later to catalog all the stuff I made out with from Reeni's Ol' Housey Poo. Then with another shrug and a hug I thanked Reeni and washed my hands of the spot, not looking back with a basket full of crap! (Dunno if she ever got her deposit back)

DAmn. Not a bad day at all. And if I could get only one this year, not a bad haul either. Christmas in June! Hope you got to celebrate it.

Flyer # 1

2010-07-15T11:02:00.001-07:00

I'm kind of hungry and more than a little curious. I dare you to call.

Seriously??

2010-07-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

Are people seriously sleeping on this awesome Mermaid story I posted??
Its the best short story I've ever read! Just try to find one wasted sentence, you can't. Look fer one paragraph without beautiful haunting imagery, there isn't one!
I've gotten reports that some people are turned off by the idea of reading scanned script on screens and have thus neglected checking it ou. But I'm confident that you will find there is no need to strain your eyeballs if you click on the image once to open it and then click on it a second time to enlarge it. This makes the letters plenty big. Please read it; I implore you.
This pics come from another lovely little seafaring tale I picked up yesterday at the comic book shop. *ASIDE: I tell you there's no place like the comic book shop for me! When I go in that place it's feels like entering a cathedral on Easter Sunday: all my fears fall off of me and I just want to rejoice. I mean it, that place is better than a therapy session **(TrueStory about Me&Therapy, abridged from a couple of weeks ago- "Me: Well Doc, I've been feeling a little anxious about all the current events lately
Mz.Therapist: Oh I know, you're telling me! Get this: Yesterday I could smell the oil in the air!!
M: (yikes!)
T: But you think that's bad?! Let me tell you about my Katrina story...Ok looks like that's it. Do you want to come back next week?" !RealTalk:P)
But check this out and then go back and check out that shorty story by Gina Oschner (originally published in the Black Warrior Review, a great litereay mag from the Univ. of Alabama) This is from Abe Sapien: the Abyssal Plain, a dope comic book. Mind the shuffled up order of the pages.
Totally Fuccckkiinnggg Disgusting, right!!?!

The Man was Right...

2010-07-01T15:23:00.001-07:00

Earlier this year before the fans completely submerged into the shit, the soon to be mayor, Mitch Landrieu had this to say about Haiti.

His predictions about our historic bonds with the Haitian Natian once again converging seem to becoming closer to a reality. We'll see, surely more to come...

What we at the Paper*Paper say:

2010-07-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time coming butwe still keep it moving in the NO.
And no matter what the surprises down hereknow that we still keep the fire burning fer you all.While Fortuna keeps it spinning and in spite of all the nightmares we stay documenting these strange times.With no big shots to answer to,we write what we want
and celebrate our small successes.
We're proud of our diligent staff here at the Papre*Papre. Putting in the long hard hours at our HQ. So don't worry about us... we're always gonna be hangin' in there.:)

somethig to laugh about

2010-06-22T12:26:00.001-07:00

The New Orleans Levee, a fine (free) publication. Always coming with plenty of topical news to skewer.
^Ripping on the NFL and they're trying to claim Whodat! as an official trademark once the Saints were in the Superbowl.

wow!

2010-06-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

shitscrazyain'tit?!

the 'Mix pt. 2: 'who'd ever bother reading them?'

2010-06-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

Punny. Cheesy. Stupid. Simple. Throw away jokes in a disposable media. Pretty crude. They are simply something to meditate on.

I read them over looking for something funny. If nothing comes up I survey them again for looking for a single panel of good graphics: the implied cityscape of Curtis' urban habitat, balloon letters that spell out the sound of a cake hitting the ground, the shift in light that causes the characters to turn to silhouettes for just a single panel. There's always something.

I don't know what the word 'Zen' means but that may be the closest thing I can come up with to describe it. A world of wisdom contained within a 2.5 sq/in frame. Tucked inside the least important section of the daily newspaper. And that day's edition itself will be obsolete and out-dated by tomorrows printing. Throw it away and onto the next one.

It's easy to overlook them. A lot of them are stupid and the punchlines are lame. But that's only if you read them as quickly as possible, left to right, bottom to top and then onto the next page. Look them over again though, look over them until you find something to laugh at. I truly believe we must laugh to keep from crying. How else can we be expected to endure the rest of this world?

The blog Garfield minus Garfield (.net, check it out) was so successful it spawned an entire retrospective book of revised Garfield panels. In the introduction Jim Davis admits what has been so obvious all these years but somehow hidden in plain sight: Garfield's owner John is a sad, lonely man. He also happens to own a cat.

Take out one element in an already tiny composition and everything changes. Remove the unnecessary punchline and things turn from cheesy to surreal. Just imagine how beautiful the woods are before Hagar and Eddie emerge into the first frame. I could get lost all day inside there.

This came in the mail today

2010-06-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

Today was a red letter day. So much good stuff going on today that I didn't get around to writing as about it as I would like. Good thing I've got tomorrow off too. Aw yes...

PS: On the back of the photo it says "you and me at prom '72"

The 'mix pt. 1

2010-06-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Comix are an important part of a balanced media meal. I've always been a fan but I find myslef turning to them with even more anticipation these days, ever hopeful they can balance out the black news of the front section. Somedays they come thru for me and it makes me want to scan and praise them. more to come soon

Dustin is all about a dude named Dustin, sort of like Zits is all about a dude named Jeremy Duncan. The two families might as well live in the same exact suburb in the same city in a different state. Dustin's mom has a good job for a radio station where she dispenses advice. Dustin's dad is just well-off in that vague, white way that you just assume by looking at him. Dustin is 23 and can't get a job. This is a continuous theme each day and continues to be funny to me too.

History: What it is

2010-06-16T17:31:00.001-07:00

James Carville...

&$^#%!!??*#! Keeping the Faith ^^^^^^^

2010-06-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

Now for some selections selected most randomously to be said in Prayer with true faith

Fire Blazing- Not to be Qunched- Provided with Flames, Far-Reaching of Hand

May I walk thru the house of darkness
O ye Gods who hear speech, Ye Chiefs who are among the followers of Osiris O Gods: Speaketh the God with me.
He heareth right and true what I speak to him,
Speak for me then Osiris;
Grant thou the revolution coming forth from thy mouth.

May I see your forms, May I understand your soul.

He hath made an end of disasters
He hath removed the injury of the souls

May I gain power over it,
may I know it.

I have sailed in its waters
so that I may come forth in its towns...

Lets start it off like this

2010-06-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

Running on 'E'

2010-06-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

Big time and bankysesque in Knoxville, Tennessee

this time last year

2010-06-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Special guest Postor John Frum who took all of these

sayHuh?

2010-05-27T13:18:00.001-07:00

bringin' shame to the name. I wonder how many Boudreauxs there are over in China?
I worked in the kitchen of the restaurant where this package came from for only a minute before I moved on up to something a little better. I appreciated that they let me snack on fried green tomatoes at will and (really and truly) the fact that they warmed up Sysco food all day and served cheaper Chinese crawdads to their customers didn't trouble me too much. The real reason I had to leave?

They didn't allow a radio to be played in the kitchen! Pshh, how do you expect me to wash the dishes like that?

Also in the News

2010-05-27T12:59:00.001-07:00

"Mr. Brown says he has become an expert, an expert on botched responses..."

The Gambit Weekly 5/18/10
Times Picayune 5/25/10"They should be fighting to fix this, but everybody's fighting against one another, and pretty soon there's not going to be anything to fight for. It's just going to be covered in oil." -Patricia Diaz Meyer

Chris Rose in the Gambit Weekly

2010-05-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Revenge of the Dinosaurs: This is one of the best critiques of the whole situation I have read yet. Chris Rose is an editorializer who wrote weekly columns for the Times Picayune in the years surrounding Katrina. For reasons unknown to me, he recently switched to the local weekly alternative magazine, The Gambit (which is to NO what The Scene is to Nashville).

The frustration and infuriation here is palpable as I'm lead to believe it is all over the rest of the country. Tuesdays headline of the Times Pic read : WITH OIL WELL STILL GUSHING, OBAMA NOW TARGET OF ANGER. That surprised me and I said as much to a friend who told me he agreed, that he was angry with the president and felt like he wasn't present enough in the region. Hmm...

Maybe its because of naive bias and the way I still unabashedly heart Barry-O, but I don't blame him for the handling of this catastrophe. There is a hole a mile beneath the sea spewing fossil fuels (that are themselves 3.5 more miles beneath the crust of the earth). Those are the hard facts. Barack was not hired for his engineering skills so back off on that. As Mr. Rose points out, if you dig up the dead and reanimate some monstrously powerful forces for the sake of seeking a profit, then you had better have a contingency plan for shit hitting fans. Spare BO the blame and save the drama for BP.

(Disclosure: that frontpage is also where the pic of the oil-slicked pelican came from)

Paid Advertisement

2010-05-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

'Hope Everything is Alright'

2010-05-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Brief History: the Prom

2010-05-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I didn't know we had levees. Are they in Bordeaux? I heard about the water treatment plants getting swamped but I know nothing about levees in Tennessee. Of course, I assume most rivers have natural ones build up from sediment like what I see down here in New Orleans. But even those ones here didn't begin to leak back in 2005. They're strong

It was so frustrating talking to people down here about what was going on up there because I knew nothing but still more than most people down here. One girl brought it up at work. We walked in the boutique shop while she faced, the computer screen and she asked us two boys from Tennessee completely honest and earnestly: "Have you guys heard about the flooding in Nashville?"

Oh....ffffuuuu......[[[[[no shit sherlock]]]] Nashville is flooding??!!?!!1! was how my tone of voice began.

But fortunately I remembered to back off; at least she was concerned I reminded myangryself. Here's the site she was looking at: one of the best slideshows I saw online. Big up Boston.com for giving a shit. TIME still didn't own up to being two weeks late to the story..

O yeah but anyway (the library's closing, time to wrap this up) she asked me after I reminded her I'm from TN:

"what happened there ? did the pumps fail..."

Naw sweetheart...they don't live with pumps there.
But seriously do we have leveeees back home?

Owe it 2 my Sista

2010-05-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

*from an old sketch book

Another Excerpt!!

2010-05-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

This book is what historians refer to as a "primary document," that is to say 'straight from the source.' Its 400 pages of crazy stories from back in the day and bombastic mass transit paintings in original color shot on 126 & 110 cameras starting in the year 1970 when the author was only 8 years old. An awesome memoir. From Bronx to Brookyn, Fuzz1 wrote it all down.

Rough dAy

2010-05-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Tourists...
Open your cab door on the sidewalk side next time

Close to dead broke during the second of Jazzfest, I went down to the Race track to see if I couldn't move some piggy Teehs to the masses waiting in line. It was my sign I was waving ["Official BP in Louisiana Shirts"] that attracted the first officers attention. After only 30 minutes on the grind and only one sale they pulled me aside to talk and wait for their superior to see what he wanted to do with me.

"Gotdammm," I squealed to myself after they let me go and I headed back to my apartment. I spent the rest of the day inside, licking my wounds, cursing the flood of people that had suddenly appeared in my quiet neighborhood and the cops that had been kind enough to correct my hustle ("You gotta say they're FREE, kid, but that you're excepting donations") but still hit me with a ticket for pedaling without a permit. That they CONFISCATED the rest of the shirts before sending me away was what really stung.

"But Fuck it," I said. I still had some dough from the single sale I made and the one on my back and surely some better place to be in the company of friends. So I left MidCity and started on back outside towards downtown. But no sooner had I gotten out the door did I realize the whole neighborhood was swamped with fest-goers. All my usual routes were flooded with people. I made it to the river downtown but only found out my people were all somewhere else. An invitation later for dinner with a cutie-pie uptown was all I needed to hear to get it moving in a new direction.

So I took off down St. Charles Ave the most direct route to anywhere else and felt like I was finally catching my stride this night after so many false starts in the day.

Fortunately I saw the cab door open far away enough to pump the brakes without flying over the handle bars. But there still wasn't space enough to come to a complete stop. I swerved around it in the tiny wedge of space left between lanes and the two cars. It was an impossibly small space but somehow I just squeezed through in the nick of time it seemed... except for that keychain carabiner in my pocket. The door caught me on that tiny piece of metal I had clipped inside my pocket and SHHHHRT ripped my pocket right out of my pants with a tear that left my whole right thigh exposed. "Praise god and I'm glad i wore underwear today," I thought as I assessed the damage on the sidewalk.

I was halfway to the dinner house and so I left the dazed cabby and his dumbass clietele and kept moving. I showed up looking like a Raggedy Andy, hungry and happy I arrived in one piece. What a day. You can try to keep it moving in the city but some days you'll just have to struggle with the currents against you all day.

Don't Get Caught Sleeping, parts 1 & 2

2010-05-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

"awwww...I know I'm drunk now"

somebody at the party kept singing this
.

Let Em Roll pt.2

2010-05-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

The good times that is.

Dishwasher: An Excerpt

2010-05-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here is one man's account of living and working in the Gulf of Mexico on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. This is one of my favorite books and this brief chapter has one of the funniest lines in an altogether hilarious book. Read Up!

wow.2

2010-05-11T17:29:00.001-07:00

Back before the flood, when I still had the energy for righteous indignation I was going to post this. The fucking nerve, wow.

Some year

2010-05-11T17:25:00.001-07:00

one year

2010-05-08T02:24:00.000-07:00

2010-05-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wow.

2010-05-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1HZC1YkzCk

A Creek in Nashville. Look for the columns.

This creek.

OShhhit!

2010-04-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

Friday's Front Page

The Next Day's

Stayin Afloat

2010-04-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Some Advice in white my grandma passed onto me

Comissioned

2010-04-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

New Murals At the Half Moon patio

Graffiti

2010-04-15T20:41:00.001-07:00

These speak for themselves

A couple of notes though...
*Despite what the media might tell you about New Orleans, know that this is city is still good for the looting. I striped these off a classroom wall flooded out and abandoned.
*The chalkboard still had the date written on it (the 26th) and the teachers name (they were still doing beginning of the year introductions)

Far Out Apples

2010-04-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

My sister has had me thinking about stuff like this for more than a minute now and this apple juice ingredients list is a perfect example of the kind of bullshit she enjoys busting.

Its cools that 'Ocean Spray' is actually 100% juice but its got me scratching my head why it takes no less than 10 countries to come up with the concentrate. Its naive these days to assume that the food we eat in the US would actually come solely from the United States. But this list of countries on here encompasses 3 continents and a big swath of the globe. Its like a whose-who of industrialized nations and WWII players. I'm sort of wondering how come Japan didn't make the list? (No Fujis in the O-Spray?)

But back to a more local level. I think the absurdity of this list is the kind of thing Katie hopes to help remedy with her various community projects in Knoxville. you can get a good rundown of what a tour-de-plants looks like and what it means to glean on her site, Who Shares Win.

The buzz is building for her current project the Urban Land Scouts. I can't quite divulge what its all about just yet but suffice to say I would dig getting the chance to collect a few of these cool patches (The ball of earthworms and the eyeball caught my eye as well as the B-log.)

In Praise of College Radio

2010-04-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

I used to work with this here DJ D-Train some months ago over at the Grease Trap they call the Dough Bowl. He was always one of the best to schlep thru a shift with. This picture was so good I couldn't help but upload it for you guys (the dude in the Anubis headpiece also deserves an honorable mention)

This came from the VOX, the semi-annual newsprint-published zine from WTUL, the local college radio station. A free radio station that prints a free magazine? That's some compounded media-on-media action. Alright!

Other highlights from this rag include a big long essay in praise of City Park by my pal Chris H, the weird images they subtely put behind every article (see: t-rex feet behind Darryl's "best-of" for instance), and this barcode on the cover
WooHoo! 91.5!!

Makes sense to me

2010-03-30T13:35:00.001-07:00

Also listen to this

P.D #2

2010-03-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

They just called me up to cook up flyer #3. Something must be working because business is good. Last two weeks they've sold out the dough. Last Sunday it happened in the first hour! New hours this week: opening at 4pm (to midnightish)

PAPrpapR #4

2010-03-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Now fer some trains

2010-03-30T12:36:00.001-07:00

Such a shame that this ZEPH/Hense Freight didn't get developed right.

Old Rusty Hardcore Barge Action!!! xxx

2010-03-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

Zine # 3

2010-03-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

...its been about a year now and the presses are starting to roll on #4. So here's the full (and partially revised) ish numero TRE3 for your online pleasure. The original impetus for this one was in fact for a school assignement, one of the very last assignments I completed before graduating if not THE very last. My cool Natural History of Louisiana teacher, Mz. D Henry, let us create our own final exam projects and when i suggested I would publish a zine about the Mississippi, she eagerly agreed it would be a great chocie.

In reality, a "zine" can be any and all sorts of self-published pamphlet you can imagine, ranging anywhere from an independent textbook professionally bound and distributed to schizophrenic scribblings on toilet paper barely stapled together. Admittedly I used the "zine" label as an excuse not to properly cite my sources and you can see where DH calls me out on that. She also points out a potentially plagiarized doomsday scenario reminiscent of what Bill Streever wrote about in Saving Louisiana (or was it Mark Tidwell in Bayou Farewell?)

Maybe someday I 'll go back and give this zine the old scholarly polish it deserves. Or maybe I'll just put it online and say to hell with it. But about the passage in question I really do believe now that its almost a moot point anyways. The catastrophes he (& I) described are overblown themselves. I read the some of the same sources he researched and in a report that preceded his the aftermath was broken down much more rationally and calmly. It read something like: 'Yes. Disaster will occur but its nothing our resilient human spirit can't overcome. Life may never be the same but solutions will still be found.' But that doesn't make for good copy. So Streever sexed it up, amped up the damages and inability to respond in his book, and then I took that and upped it a little more just for shits and wriggles.

If (or really When) this big switch occurs (who knows how many years from now) it will probably be an event we (god willing) have some sort of control over and can anticipate a little. That's not to say it still wouldn't pose a shit ton of problems. It would. And it will someday. Its a troubling scenario to imagine. It troubled me when DH first explained it to me in class. And it troubled me to write about it last year. And it troubled me up until the point I stopped letting it trouble me, that is, when I stopped thinking about it sometime last summer.

The dinosaurs didn't wake up each day worrying about the an asteroid coming to hit the earth just as the residents of Louisiana don't live there lives filled with fear about the next time mother nature decides to settle the score again. (But then again: if you know about a problem you should hope for the best and plan for the worst.) Hell though, even Memphis is set for a big earthquake one of these days. Reelfoot Lake, look it up) and how are they preparing for it in 2010?

It is hard to get on with your life if your filled with fear imagining everything that can happen to you. We just have to accept the challenges that come our way each day and decide which ones we actually have some control over. The Mississippi River and the fate of 2 cities is bigger than anybody reading this, so don't sweat it too much.

Really though, I still don't know how to make up my mind on this issue. Maybe that's why I only distributed 36 copies originally (12 for my class and 24 in the 2nd ed.). Read this now and tell me if it makes any sense. Tell me what you think.

Thanks.

B

A tale of 2 cities: Look here and compare if you can the different depths of the river channels. On the left we have Uptown New Orleans by the Zoo where the river is approximately 2000 feet wide and 163 feet deep at its lowest. Compare that to Downtown Morgan City on the right where the Atchafalaya is about 1500 feet wide and only 50 feet deep. Do the physics; them pipes don't match up.

This roller

2010-03-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

My dad sent this to me and it deserves to be seen again. 200 points for the piece + 15 bonus points for the picture and the punchline. OBAMABABY!

Sunday Mourning

2010-03-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

Woke up not so early this morning but in time enough to catch my family up in the cabildo by the cathedral. I got up in there too and it felt a little funny, but it was good to be back in the folds of my kin, yea like something you've felt before. yeah so we roamed round the cabildo and finally the younger ones, these visiting cousins just busted out of there and we were free to roam around da plaza. The two bigyoung cousins ran this way and de other two stayed on the wings. One older cousin showed up with his camera and you just know I did my thing. Rode a bike ate a burrito and sent texts to foreign places, all that cocked underneath my boston red cap (yes I rep that).

Things we still have to discuss

2010-03-13T02:04:00.000-08:00

1. Granny's new hip?
2. Bone Doctors convening in town!
3. Evacuation Routes (lord willing)
4. The Clipse?
5. How Not to Talk to Strangers (in the big city)
6. How to work at the Convention Center (parts 1 & now 2!)
7. PaprPapr # 3: NO FLOW
8. Guest Interviews
9. Bryce McCloud
10.The Summertime! (o shit its practically here!!!)
11.Last Summertime
12.New York City
13.Chicago
14.Smok
15.Philadelphia & San Francisco
16.Free roaming chickens (specifically roosters)
17.These Things {å∫ç∂´ƒ©˙ˆ∆˚¬µ˜øπœ®ß†¨√∑≈¥Ω (specifically ßø&®∂)
18.These Ones as well {ÅıÇÎ´Ï©ÓˆÔ˚ÒÂ˜Ø∏Œ®Í†¨√∑≈ÁΩ¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº
19.Coffee and other socially permissable stimulants
20.Summer Reading 2010 (?¢?¢?)
21.Knoxville
22.Not Atlanta
23.my love for you/sleeping well

Buypizza in the Bywater

2010-03-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Three weeks of success! Here's the scene, taken live from Pizza Delicious. Everyone agrees their pizza is delicious, their kitchen is righteous, and their cause is just.

That's the man Mike right there in the hat working the dough and sauce. Greg, the other half of the incredible duo that is NOPD, sweated it out in the oven room making sure the crusts came out ever-so crispy, away from where I could capture his portrait. The two are a sight to behold and most every customer lingered around to talk shop with the guys for a few minutes before taking their fresh pies back to their hungry crews waiting throughout the city.

"A late night pizza place in the Bywater??? These guys should make a killing!" I overheard one surprised first time customers say that as she walked up to the spot. But it takes more than the munchies and some start up dough to make an operation like this successful. There is substance to their style; they use quality ingredients on all four of their pie options. I watched as Mike tore off big hunks of fresh mozzarella to deck the Margarita pizza and tasty slices of real fine spicy sausage and mushrooms cover their meat option (no pepperoni pies here). Your choices are classic Cheese, the Margarita, Spicy Sausage, and fresh Arugula with roasted red pepper (yea...that one is boss). They blessed me with a pie with all four toppings neatly divided up so I could taste them all. Whichever you choose you can't go wrong. Nothing tastes as good as fresh does.

Catch-and-Release

2010-03-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

This little four legged guy just shot is way right thru the library lobby one sunny day back in January. My friend here scooped him up in a hustle and deposited him back outside where he gladly ran off in another direction. Just like that- it was over in a flash but not before I got to snap their picture.

Isn't this funny?

2010-03-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

From an old Playboy. For some reason it struck a nerve with me today. I like that shot out the door.

NOPD

2010-02-18T22:29:00.000-08:00

Here's something to check out if you're in the right place at the right time... I'm not sure if the blogspot is getting any local traffic from the Upper Ninth Ward but if you do happen to live over there, go check out Mike and Greg's new buisness in the neighborhood. Its an experiment on my friends part just to see how long they can pull this off and see how many pies they can sell before something gets in the way of there budding buisness dreams. No ones quit there jobs just yet for the PD but they are investing a lot of time and passion into this to get it off the ground. I was given a cold slice to comepnsate me for this flyer and I *can* attest to the product's tastiness. Right now I'm feeling realistic and excited about this project. Come by and see for yourself before the dough runs out and they close up the shop.

{*I feel like a big jerk right about now: for weeks now that "can" has read "cant." Let the record stand (my own effing record for god's sake) that Pizza Delicious is in fact very tasty and I've enjoyed it ever since Mike came thru with that very first cold slice.}

Come With Me

2010-02-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

Let me guide you
This may or may not be what it looks like

On top of the world thanks to our patrons and sponsors above and beyond
Stay Reading With Love.

O? New Orleans is back now?! Wow!

2010-02-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

ThePAPeR*PapER {proudly published in LouisYAnna}
From the bottom to the top (andoftenbackoundagain)
Top-shelf media for those that no-how to find it In Print [always pressing]

Currently seeking experienced delieverypersons to get the good word out

2810

2010-02-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Maybe the Best job Ever?

2010-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

The Isle

2010-02-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Pick the Time

2010-02-03T11:32:00.000-08:00

Good newsOld news
Not news because it never happenedthat came from this paper. My job is to go door-to-door each day. Last week after knocking on one door, I noticed this paper sitting on the stoop just like this. It looked like it had been delivered on Sunday, sitting there unread and unopened ever since. After checking the date, I asked the woman who came to the door what the deal was; surely that wasn't really the last Pre-Katrina paper printed just sitting there like that. She said "O, that? I was just about to throw it out..." I told her I could do that for her, thanked her for her time and scooted off with that bundle under my arm where it firmly stayed for the next 4 hours until my shift was up. Here are the headlines.
Too weird. Too many questions. For the record, I've worked many jobs here and there since graduating and the one at the Convention Center was definitely the worst. It should be pointed out it looked nothing like that architect's rendering. Here's another little 2005 gem for the Nolacentrists out there.

Last Night

2010-01-25T19:26:00.001-08:00

Last Week

2010-01-25T19:17:00.000-08:00

Marching Orders pt. 1

2010-01-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the delayed postage. Google was sweating me and my password on the comp at home. But thats past now...
Celebrations amidst devastation. One stat I heard Mitch Landrieu drop the other night was this: 1,800 people lost their lives to Hurricane Katrina. Now from a recent news report I am lead to believe Haiti has already buried 10 times that number. Its hard to forget about the Island right now considering how its fate has been historically linked to Louisiana's. There probably are already thousands of Haitians living in New Orleans right now, it only makes sense that there will be a another great diaspora of survivors to land in the city soon too.

Calendar of events to catch you up:
Mardi Gras is 3 weeks away, the election and Big Bowl are only 2 weeks away.
Feb. 6 Mayoral Elections
Feb. 7 Supaball
Feb. 16 Fat Tuesday, end of Mardi Gras

There are 6 canidates for Mayor:

Rob Couhig- The only republican in the race. I heard him speak and his plan for reform was this "All we have to do is change the culture of this City..." good luck with that one. Next!

Nadine Ramsey- Only female in the race. Gave up a judge position to run. That was an appointed, not elected seat. So-so speaker, late to announce & last in polls.

James Perry- Looks like Biggie Smalls, Speaks like Barack Obama. Definitely a good dude. Smart honest canidate but its rather clear he's not gonna win if only because he's far behind these 3 people.

Mitch Landrieu- Current Lt. Gov, lost to Ray Nagin 52/48% in last election. Brother of US Sen. Mary and son of former Mayor Moon (fyi: the last white mayor of NO, 1970-78). 22 years in Government, career politician.

John Georges- Former Republican, millionaire who made his money from installing poker machines in bars. Should be disqualified for general clownishness after saying this about the internet. Great Clip.

Troy Henry- CEO of Henry Consulting, Inc. Pitching the idea that a successful businessman (rather than an experienced politician) will make for a good government man. This hypothesis has been clearly disproved over the past 8 years by Ray 'Dubya' Nagin (The W is included only because of similar parallels of lying and covering it up like certain former prezidentes). Henry is currently being sued by two groups, one of which is his former business partner. He is the leading black candidate.

Disclosure time: why am I getting paid by Mitch Landrieu? Because I'm broke and need the work, duh (10 bucks an hour and somehow untaxed? yes please!). But this is also how the LA/USA/TOdoMuNdo political system works and he's definitely not the worst candidate. At first I thought if they're going to pay me to canvas, I can just roam the streets unsupervised and spout off about how I think James Perry is really the man. And he is the man, but I also believe now that Mitch is the man for this job. This is not a Barack-Obama-election moment with one stellar candidate out to reform history. You know what they say about politics and sausage, right? I believe Mitch Landrieu is the best sausage maker around and the butcher with the cleanest hands. That's all.

Here's how the race works: general election is on Saturday the 6th of February, the same day that the streets of St. Charles and Canal will be blocked off for Mardi Gras parades (Dubya-Tee-Eff, Nola?!). If no candidate gets a 50% majority that day, the top 2 will go into a runoff. This is usually a black guy and a white guy and that generally becomes the racially divisive and decisive issue. When I went out canvassing for Mitch in the wealthy Garden District, I either ran into to his supporters or the supporters of John Georges, nowhere was the Troy Henry contingent present. My concern is not that a black guy will be elected Mayor, my concern is that another nicompoop, former CEO will be. The goal is to get Mitch elected with 50+ percent the first time and avoid the runoff altogether. That's all.

Stay tuned, well get around to that other good news real soon...

Days 2 & 3

2010-01-15T17:20:00.000-08:00

The comeback Kid

2010-01-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Its a New year, New Orleans; I'm holding out hope that everyday back can be as good as this first one.

Done cooling off

2010-01-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

Goodbye TN

Two Top bummers of the year in Fiction

2010-01-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

I just remembered two pieces of fiction about New Orleans I encountered in 2009 that offered up such ugly and totally believable portraits of the city that I've tried to block them out ever since. For the most part they both fall into the genre of "Whitefolk in NOLA Acting Batshit Crazy."

Seeing as they both left me trembling on the floor in a pool of my own piss& tears questioning the fiber of my being, I would certainly NOT recommend that you... read Ellen Gilchrist's disturbing book of short stories where every other male psychopathic character (and there were a few!) seem to be from Nashville, TN

"But most of all they just wouldn't allow themselves to believe that a man would do such thing a to $3,000 dollar labrador retriever." -The Land of Dreamy Dreams, last line of the first story

NOR

watch Nicholas Cage in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call- New Orleans spiral frighteningly out of control and never totally lose control as only a person in a position of too much power can pull off.

"I also wish I could tell you — sort of embarrassingly so — that in Orleans Parish I had a police department that I could point to with a lot of pride, and say, you know, we’re doing a good job with that department. I wish I could say that they were as effective or efficient as the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, or that they were able to investigate cases as effectively as the FBI. But in all honesty I can’t tell you that either.

I have to tell you that when I took office, roughly 50 percent of the cases that were brought to my office by the police department were outright refused.

Think about that, just for one second. If I’m a D.A., and I don’t get a case to court without a police officer, and I’m telling my team mate or my partner that 50 percent of the work you bring to me isn’t even acceptable to go to court, then we’ve got a gigantic problem...

We have some serious problems. And to complicate those problems, ladies and gentlemen, we have unfortunately a population — no fault of theirs — that doesn’t have any respect, or any confidence, in the criminal justice system. They not only have a lack of respect or confidence in the police department, they have a lack of confidence and respect for the judges that work in the criminal court, and they have no confidence or respect for the district attorney." -Leon Cannizzaro, the District Attorney of LA, real life
:(

Something to keep in mind

2010-01-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

VaKay2N.O.

2009-12-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the best of 2009 category, here are two of my favorite pictures of friends who came to visit me this last year (NOTE: anyone reading this is welcome to come test my hospitality with a visit to New Orleans in 2010. All I ask is that you let me snap your picture when the moment is right)The best part of having peeps come thru is their desire to go out and see as much as possible. Sometimes that makes me a tour guide and sometimes that means I just tag along and try to keep up. The Other Tempest herself blew thru from Chi Town for mardi gras this year and showed me around Mid City long before I ever thought to settle down there. Here she is going under an end-to-end by GAMBLE and the bridges that divide the two parts of City Park. Beyond this lies the feral overgrown side of the park, much more wild than the side where the guests of VooDooFest revel. Next we have Sam, a man of most prodigious talents. By good fortune alone I ran into my friend again this year when he saw called me out along a busy street corner in Chelsea (he had recognized the YeeHaw label on the back of my shirt, giving me away as a 10ACN amongst NewYorkers.) Before my trip was over I was able to drop in on Sam at his apartment in the County of Kings where he revealed to me three rare zines of utmost mystery and choice typography (published in New Orleans in fact). Sam recently came down to Louisiana (right before I myself left) and made a quick and prolific investigation of some of the best spots around town. (The locale here is Gentilly) That's a camera bag slung over his shoulder because he likes photographing walls as well. (Although Sam seems to prefer when the paint is peeling off of them) That's not to say he doesn't have an eye for good works and the Good Word that is graff. I like his opinion so I asked him what he thought of this guy right before we left. He surprised me with a shrug and said: "Eh..I like it just so-so." Oh? The camera went SNAP, the guy's name is TASK.

Leer Los Libros!

2009-12-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Here are the 2 most memorable books I read in 2009. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN in keeping with my city-crush with King's County, NY. This copy I spray painted and embellished with some sharpie to give as a gift to my first girlfriend. The main character reminded me of her (and every other cool girl I know). The OldGirl also turned me onto Love in the Time of Cholera back in the day which is reminiscent of ATGNBrooklyn in terms of the plot's epic span across the course of the main characters lives and the touching, dreamy portrayal of those events as they unfold. I really like this book. I told some of my friends after I finished it that its the best book I've read. Superlatives like that don't usually last long but I was being truthful when I said it.DISHWASHER: one man's quest to wash dishes in all 50 states. As recommended to me by the cool staff of Quimby's bookstore in Chicago, the byline pretty much tells you all you need to know about this one. A self-professed slacker, Pete Jordan left the school system looking for work with the least amount of responsibility. He found cleaning plates as the lowlest man in the restaurant totem pole to be straightforward enough for him and fulfilling, for just as long as he needed it be. The moment a manager or an uppity coworker or customer tried to give him any kind of shit, he would say 'fuck you' and split leaving with money in his pockets to hit the road and a sink full of dishes behind him for somebody else to fuss with. Such is the freedom of working a job that is available most everywhere. 'Don't piss off the little man because he's making it run' is one of the messages that comes across in this book. Another is the freedom in not being tied down to a career. With no qualms for getting his hands wet he manages to travel from Alaska to New Orleans to New York and a hundred places in between. This book actually started as a little zine when Pete began writing down his different experiences busting suds across the country. It grew more and more popular over time to the point that he was printing several thousand copies, getting invited to come work by his readers, and even appear on the David Letterman Show (he had his friend take his place secretly). Pretty cool for a guy with no ambition working a seemingly shitty job. Just goes to show you its all about attitude. I highly recommend this for all people graduating school, filled with fear about how to get by in the "real work world". Pete Jordan blazes a bright path for slackers everywhere.

Let 'em Roll

2009-12-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

Natural Instincts

2009-12-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

Where I live

2009-12-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

Its interesting to note that if we were to turn around and walk the dog in the other direction we could follow this creek all the way back to New Orleans. No Joke - Real talk - How cool.

Also noteworthy is the stone trestle in the background which used to support the old tracks. On this day 5 months & 91 years ago the no. 1 train from Memphis and the no. 4 train from Nashville collided along that bridge killing 101 people. It remains the deadliest train wreck in American history. (Don't tell me you didn't know! It was the subject of my very first book!)