prytaniawaterline.com Blog

Does New Orleans City Council member Stacy Head need to develop some manners? Get the poop from Humid Haney,

Stacy Head Doesn’t want you to save your seat.

I took a day trip to the Gulf Coast today to soothe my soul a little bit. The last time I was on Hwy 90 was in June of 2006. A lot of it still looks the same, major development such as Casinos and some Hotels seem to be popping up but there are still a lot of vacant lots over there. The Highway is being repaved and the beaches are being worked on.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has never had the prettiest beaches but they have looked better than they do now.

There are still quite a few reminders of Katrina around, the Oak trees are still struggling to recover.

A little further down the road I stopped and hiked the few miles of trails called the David Bayou Trail which is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

The Visitor Center is currently in a temporary building the new Visitor Center is still being built. Since it has been two years since I have been here I thought I would see more progress along the beach front. I shouldn’t be surprised, it looks like parts of New Orleans, and those of us who live here know how slow the progress is going in certain areas of town.

While I managed to have a great time at the Fest this weekend, not everyone was a happy camper.

The Mosquito Coast has a different take on things. Is the Jazz Fest no longer for locals?

Saturday’s trip to the Jazz Fest was a great time. I started the morning early, parking near a friends house on Ursuline St. The plan was to have a light breakfast and mimosas with some old friends. The mimosas turned into Champagne without orange juice and I wasn’t in the mood to eat at the time. Four glasses of champagne, on an empty stomach, and an hour of delightful conversation later I was ready to head to the Fairgrounds.

I was prepared for the $50 gate priced ticket when a man walking next to me asked if I wanted to purchase a ticket from him for $43 dollars. People were looking at him suspiciously as if he were some kind of ticket hustler, I saw the ticket and knew it was for real. I bought the ticket at $43 thinking thats good for a beer or a Cochon De Lait po-boy. Talking with the man and his wife we exchanged our Katrina story and made small talk. It turns out that we had a common friend someone who used to work with me but now worked at the same place he did. I thought to myself “what a small town”. I would run into the couple later in the SOCO Blues tent and watch Carol Fran. It’s amazing how easy it is to make friends in this town.

So I’m inside the gate for headed for the food, I needed some crawfish bread to wash down the champagne. Before I get get there someone shout Chris, it’s been a long time. Already I connected with someone I know. I had not seen A. since before the storm, we spent a few minutes catching up, she told me they were camped in their usual place near the Acura stage, you know where we always are. I told her I would try to find them a little later. Easier said than done in spite of my efforts I did not see them again that day. It’s easy to lose people out there, I remember some years when I couldn’t even find the people that I rode with.

Got the crawfish bread it soaked up the champagne and I was ready for a beer and some music. Started out at the Fais Do Do stage listening to Jeremy and the Hot Boyz. I had never seen them before, they were pretty good, they have there own little twist to Zydeco music. They are also young I would not be surprised it they get a lot better in the years to come.

Other acts I caught were John Cleary, he put on a great show, Walter Wolfman Washington, and of course Dr. John. Wolfman Washington put on a good show, I had to laugh when he started playing his guitar with his teeth, I remember Wolfman when he had no teeth. The rain was steady at two o’clock, by three it was pouring. I almost missed the first song of Dr. John’s set they started his act a little bit early. Dr. John was good, between the first and second song of his set he proclaimed, “I know yall’s wet” and he was right. The rain didn’t seem to send anyone home early the crowd was still thick. After Dr. J. I headed out thoroughly satisfied that my $43 dollars had been well worth it. Sorry B.J. I just didn’t care to stick around for your show, for the most part I stuck with the local acts.

JudyB of Thanks Katrina has something to say about The Grey Ghost

There is a story that goes along with these pictures but I am too tired to write it at the moment. Needless to say I had a great day,even if the afternoon was a little on the wet side.

I missed this on the news, apparently a contractor has been filling gaps in levee walls with Newspaper. I wonder if it is the Times Picayune. I first saw this at Thanks Katrina there is also more at First Draft.

Well they started without me, I have to work, but I will be at the Fairgrounds early on Saturday and spend the day there rain or shine. It was interesting to note that the weather reporters for wwlTV and WDSU were asking people not to shoot the messenger, it looks like we might see some rain this weekend.

Hanna at Ashley Morris the blog found something that made me laugh. Check out Bunny Suicides.

John McCain was politicing in the city this week, you can tell it’s election time the city and the Katrina/Federal Flood are getting a little bit of attention.

In an effort to distance himself from a signature failure of the Bush administration, Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain on Thursday called the initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina “disgraceful” and endorsed more federal intervention to restore affordable housing, health care and wetlands in southeast Louisiana.

Of course this is the kind of lip service we get from national politicians when they are campaigning or looking for a good Photo Op.

Then the candidate, who was visiting a church in the Lower 9th Ward, added that Congress shared part of the blame by spending money wastefully on pork barrel projects after the storm, when it could have dedicated that money to Louisiana’s recovery

A trip to the lower 9th is almost as effective as kissing babies.