Pic of the day

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Weekend of fun

I had a great time Saturday, it was my first carnival celebration of the year. Day started at 11:30 AM and ended Sunday morning at 2:00 AM. Was going to do it again on Sunday but with all the activity on Saturday I aggravated an injury I have been nursing for the last week. Sunday I was incapacitated not by hangover but pain. There are a couple of days before the uptown parades continue, I am going to try and heal a little and maybe not go full throttle when things resume. I have company coming this weekend and I don’t want to disappoint them by not being able to get out and about. Was Saturday worth the pain and suffering of Sunday? I would have to say yes. Had a great time with friends both old and new, one of those days that was fun throughout.

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Pic of the day

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My Favorite Target

The blogging gods are smiling down on me as my favorite person to despise is back in the news. Ray Nagin aka Ray the Cable Guy, aka The Coward of Katrina is being investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office. It’s about time. I won’t pretend to be a non biased observer on this one, I did not like the man before Katrina and I truly despised him afterwards. Not sure why it has taken so long to get the ball rolling on this one other than the fact that the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southeast District of Louisiana is very deliberate. They like to have all their t’s crossed and their i’s dotted before they proceed. In my opinion it looks like a slam dunk, information that has been uncovered through other corruption trials and newspaper articles would indicate that there will be enough evidence to return an indictment.

The examples below are just two of many that I view as public corruption.

From NOLA.com

Part of the case the government is building is well-established in the public record. Court documents and sworn testimony established long ago that Nagin and his family went to Hawaii in December 2004 on the nickel of city technology vendor Mark St. Pierre, who is now serving a 17-year prison sentence for bribing Nagin’s chief technology officer, Greg Meffert.

From NOLA.com

Likewise, it’s long been known that St. Pierre lined up a private jet and then paid for first-class airfare so the Nagins could vacation in Jamaica after Hurricane Katrina, and also provided a private yacht and plane tickets to Chicago for Nagin re-election campaign parties. And newspaper stories and court testimony showed that St. Pierre spent more than $1,000 on landscaping services at Nagin’s home in the months after Katrina.

The list of suspicious activity goes on. Does anyone remember the case of the missing email? I think they are only scratching the surface at this point, I would not be surprised to see some new examples of corruption surface from this investigation. I am really going to enjoy following this long overdue investigation.

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Pic of the day

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And so it begins

Mardi Gras will begin in earnest this weekend with a full schedule of parades in the city and surrounding area. Of course the carnival season officially starts after 12th night the beginning of Epiphany, you see the season has a religious element to it, it is the big blowout before Lent. Various activities take place during the early part of the season, but the party starts to pick up steam this weekend. One of the great satirical parades rolled last Saturday night in the French Quarter, the Krewe de Vieux, I did not make make it to the Vieux this year, I’m sure people had fun even though I wasn’t there. This years Krewe de Vieux theme was ‘Crimes Against Nature’.

This weekend the traditional uptown parades will start with the Oshun parading Friday night and three uptown parades on Saturday. Other parades will be taking place in the burbs and surrounding area. In Metairie the Family Gras will take place. A three day festival of parades and music. Not that the uptown parade route isn’t family oriented. I grew up a half a block from the uptown parade route and it is family friendly. There seems to be a misconception by some that Mardi Gras is only what they see on TV which tends to be the drunken revelry and exhibitionism on Bourbon street. With a couple of lulls during the week the intensity will build to next weekend when things will really start to get crowded and crazy. With so many big parades happening on the second weekend and the Lundi Gras celebration, Carnival day has become somewhat anti climatic. Many revelers party so much over the weekend and on Lundi Gras that they are too hungover to get out of bed on Mardi Gras day.

I have company coming to stay again this year, it is always a good thing to be able to share the experience with family and friends. That’s part of the fun of it.

Laissez les bons temps rouler

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Pic of the day

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It’s going to get messy

Uptowners should be prepared for the disruption in their lives that the Drainage canal work on Napoleon and Jefferson Ave are going to cause. When I lived a half a block from Napoleon I dreaded the day that this would happen and have even previously posted about it. This has been in the works for a long time, the work was announced as early as 1998 in Winter SELA report of that year. It’s hard to bash a drainage project but this is going to be very disruptive for a number of years. Some of the problems that will be caused by this project include, disruption of streetcar service, and who knows how they are going to re route Mardi Gras parades. Another consequence will be that Napoleon Ave will for practical purposes unusable as a road. I feel for those who are living close to this project, if it is anything like the project phase one on Napoleon Ave on the lakeside of Claiborne, traffic will only be practical as local traffic. You can expect damage to residential structures, and just an all around pain in the ass for at least the next 3 to 5 years. Sometimes the price of progress can be high.

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Pic of the day

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Waxing Poetic about the river

Most of you know I have this attraction for the Mississippi River at New Orleans. I have written about my fascination with the duality of the river as it passes our fair city. The river makes life in New Orleans possible, it will probably be the thing that someday makes life here impossible. We continue to fight it with taller and wider levees but someday the river will win. I have a romantic attraction to the Mississippi River in New Orleans. When I am near or around it I am transfixed by it. I live a block and a half from the river although I cannot see the river from my house, the Nashville Street Warf blocks my access and view. I can however see and hear the life that the river brings to the city from my house. The trains, the tops of the ships, the sound of the horns from the ships. As I travel a few blocks west I can finally see the river from the levee behind Audubon park.

The river is wide at this location, if you look at the river you can see currents moving in different directions, swirling whirlpools moving downstream. Lots of traffic passes the point in the river. It is rare that you do not see a ship or a tug anytime you are there. The levee at the Riverview is park like as you travel further down the levee the batture side of the levee is natural and can be wild at times. On the other side of the levee is the city. sometimes this creates a scary picture.

When the river is up here.

And the city is down there.

You realize that a pile of dirt keeps us from being under water.

During calmer times of year the river and it’s batture are a great escape for me. Whether I am riding my bike on top of the levee or walking on the muddy batture, the sights, the smells, the sounds, take me to another place.

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