Refreshed

Back from New Orleans trip #6 and it feels refreshed this time. As in previous posts, I was there to hang out with a smart, thoughtful, committed group of musicians about activism for a few days culminating in a fantastic rock show at One Eyed Jacks.

Our opening night party at Mother-in-Law Lounge had the best pick-up band of all time with George Porter, Jr. from The Meters, Terrence Higgins from Rebirth Brass Band, three members of Bonerama, keyboardist Brian Coogan, a crawfish boil, and lots of dancing.

Other highlights: meeting David Montana, the Second Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas tribe (read more - my photos were taken with permission), visiting Ronald Lewis and a Mardi Gras Indian and Social Aid & Pleasure Club Museum called The House of Dance & Feathers and po-boys. Leah Chase made the best dinner I've ever had at the legendary Dooky Chase restaurant. From there the night segued into wild dancing to the Stooges Brass Band (listen here) at the Hi-Ho Lounge and a nightcap of beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde.

I know it's easy to forget about New Orleans when it's been nearly five years since Hurricane Katrina and there have been earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Iran, Pakistan, and China, a tsunami in Southeast Asia, not to mention all the smaller and man-made disasters that don't inspire telethons. But New Orleans is ours - the music community's and America's. It's the birthplace of so much American music and we stand to lose a part of what makes us unique if we let it slip away for lack of effort.

Just over a year post-storm, my first trip was so devastating it was hard to imagine that the sky was ever bright over that city. I'm sure it was sunny but my memories of that trip look like this.

This time around I could see progress. Brad Pitt's and Global Green's houses don't look as lonely as they did last time. There is, of course, still plenty to do and there's plenty of anger that it's still undone. There are still people living in Houston and elsewhere. The economic downturn has no doubt slowed down the recovery process. Still, there were also fewer houses with spray paint on them, more traffic, more people out, the sounds of construction, and a feeling of normalcy and hope all around.

Resilience

There's a terrible statistic that the population of New Orleans passed away at a far greater rate in the years immediately following Katrina than they had previously. It makes sense: your neighbors are missing, your home's in shambles, your doctor's still out of town, you have nothing but the clothes on your back - so many of the things that made your neighborhood into a community are missing. All that and then your government humiliates you and your city by making you beg to be treated humanely. Even nearly five years later, note all the empty space around Brad Pitt's eco-friendly homes in the lower 9th ward. It didn't use to be that way.

And yet.

The hope and devastation bus tour on my fifth trip to New Orleans had more hope than devastation but it's because of people like Doc and Annabelle Watson who are in their seventies. They've just finished rebuilding their home for the fourth time in 40 years and were practically more interested in telling us about their grandchildren. And it's because of Big Chief Ironhorse of the Black Seminoles who spends four hours a day beading his outfit for next year's Mardi Gras parade because he knows that his city and his tribe are still going to be there to appreciate that outfit.

I had a fantastic time as I always do in New Orleans - lots of great food, a rockin' show, a chance to catch up with friends new and old, my very first crawfish boil, photographic evidence here and here - but I also feel like I owe it to the people who I've met there to use my corner of cyberspace to talk about the New Orleans that's been forgotten because the world has moved on.

So watch the Spike Lee documentary, get pissed off all over again, tell your friends and then go visit (and leave Bourbon Street).

On the Mend

I'm happy to say that my fourth trip to New Orleans in two years revealed a city rebuilding. There's still way too much to do to be conscionable, but what our government neglected, the residents of the city have stepped in to do with grace and class (with a little bit of help from Brad Pitt).

If you ever make it to New Orleans, I highly recommend you visit the Mother-in-Law Lounge, the former home of and now tribute to Ernie K-Doe. Ernie's widow Antoinette K-Doe tells the story of how she waited out Katrina for days in the second floor of the lounge before she got airlifted out of the building still flooded in six feet of water, but you wouldn't know it from seeing the new tiki bar in the back and the Christmas decorations alight.

That first night at the Mother-in-Law cascaded into a day of meetings about musicians engaging in activism, which segued beautifully into a thoroughly entertaining benefit concert for Sweet Home New Orleans, an organization that helps bring New Orleans musicians back to New Orleans post-Katrina and helps keep the city's musical traditions alive. See the nice Rolling Stone write-up and lots of photos here.

[Update: I've been cross-posted on the FMC blog, too...multi-tasking!]

Super Tuesday & Fat Tuesday

A sizable portion of my week was spent working on a benefit concert on Saturday, February 2 at the 930 Club by OK Go and New Orleans funk brass band Bonerama. Together the two bands are releasing a digital-only EP on Tuesday, which is appropriately enough both Super and Fat Tuesday. Proceeds from the EP will support the building of a new home (here's what left of the old one) for legendary New Orleans musician Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, who's still living in Houston since Hurricane Katrina, and Sweet Home New Orleans, an organization that helps New Orleans musicians return to and stay in New Orleans. Saturday's concert was sold out, a ton of fun to work on, great music from some of the nicest musicians you could hope to meet and all in support of great causes. Added bonus that my night ended with a chili half-smoked during my first trip to Ben's Chili Bowl.

EP is available on iTunes. Here's the Washington Post review. Photos are forthcoming.

As to Super Tuesday...I love watching election returns. Yup, I'm a geek, a political junkie, whatever. Washington, DC often gives me reasons to move someplace else, but one of the great reasons to stay is the unending political theater and the way that DC residents lap it up. It's better than sports...'cuz it's real! So, yeah, me and CNN are going to get cozy Tuesday night.

Speaking of elections, I've never made a political contribution in my life. But I'm about to make my first for Barack Obama. I'll support Hillary in November if she gets the nomination, but it's a refreshing feeling to truly vote for someone rather than against the other guy. Interesting quote from Hillary (quoting Mario Cuomo) that I read a while back: "You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose." Obama certainly has the poetry down; I hope and believe he's capable of prose if the time comes.

Hey boys and girls, sorry for the late notice, but did you know that you essentially kissed the person at your Superbowl party that double-dipped into the bowl of dip? This bit of popular science comes to you courtesy of the same guy that explored the validity of the 5-second rule last year.

I hate badly done Flash with a passion, but I'm passing this easy online Flash editor along in the hopes you'll only make the good kind. Pretty please?

My hometown of Boston got lit up, both literally and figuratively, last week in remembrance of the day a year ago when city officials were unable to tell ad campaign from terrorist threat.

Mishead lyrics by LCD Soundsystem this week: "we're all hi-hi-high on lemon zest". Still not sure what they're actually saying.