Katrina 10 year anniversary - so where you at now?

-draft-

When Katrina hit, I lived in the City of Orange, CA.  

My best friend William was visiting me at the time, and I stayed up all night, more than once (don't ask me how.  no...seriously...don't ask me that...), watching the news coverage showing the horrendous situation that was going on at the Convention Center and environs after the flooding. I sat with my jaw open, heartbroken, unbelieving that this could actually be happening in a major US city, which I had yet to come to know and love.  I was not surprised at the fact that the city was practically destroyed by flooding after an almost direct hit by a very large hurricane (I mean....come on...I grew up in Charleston, SC.. so just look where both Charleston and New Orleans are located on a map....is that really all that surprising??).

No....what I couldn't believe was how the survivors of the storm were being treated...or more accurately...were NOT being treated.  Days upon days after the storm, and people continued to die waiting for help, for water, for food, to be treated as humans, to be saved.  I mean, FUCK!  WHY IS THIS HAPPENING???  WHY IS THERE STILL NO HELP FOR THESE PEOPLE??? Things kept running around my mind...."This is what they should be doing..then this...then this should happen..." A po-dunk woman on her sofa watching TV kept

The failure of the floodwalls  (not 'levees'..as everyone wants to say, levees require a much larger footprint due the wide base tapering up to the top...as to why floodwalls were used as flood protection inside the city instead of levees which the Corps actually wanted to build...one guess as to why they weren't allowed to?....REAL ESTATE) see bottom of page 95 in "Catastrophe in the Making - the Engineering of Katrina and the Disasters of Tomorrow" - should be required reading!

-blah blah - ....more words and stuff here-

While watching George 'Doublya' Bush speak in an abandoned Jackson Square....a majestic landmark in one of the world's great cities....with floodlights powered by fucking generators...I became enraged.  I remember SCREAMING at the TV...at him speaking on the TV... watching him speak, reminded of the 'mission accomplished' banner, words saying nothing, meaning nothing.  So I took photos of the TV, adjusted them, distorted his face, and wrote what I felt at the time on each photo. (attempt to add text to orig photos in Lightroom and replace photos, below)

'House of Cards' review by a South Carolinian

I do like this series, I do.  But....a few things annoy.  First of all, a DEMOCRATIC Congressman from South Carolina?  please.  I suppose they exist but so does the white rhino, but believable?

And that accent? or.....what accent?  Depends which scene you're talking about I suppose, as it comes and goes willy-nilly.  I was just thinking about accents recently...wondering if it's just southerners that can tell how bad the accent is when a non-southern acTOR tries one on.  How unbelievably annoying it is, how it ruins everything.  Every scene is an endurance.  I'm over half way through the series at this point, so it is good, it does entertain, but when the accent appears it's hard to stay focused.

When the accent disappears during filming, does the director just not notice? Do the other actors just not notice?  Or do they just defer to the great acTOR and his judgement?  Or is it just so bad that they're secretly happy when its no longer used?  It seems to have dissipated as the series goes on, so I thought that might have been an actual decision....but nope...it rears up now and again and not just in the 'Gaffney' episode.

Why tell Russo to not put up a fight for the shipyards?  What was the point of that? If it was a done deal, what difference would at least letting him present a face-saving argument in front of the committee made?  The no-argument would have been known to piss off his base, which could have lost him the next election, which would have made him useless.  Don't get it, not yet at least.

Where has the addressing the camera gone?  That's also disappearing like the accent, not sure why. I like it when it's not ridiculously heavy-handed.  And seeing Spacey as a wolf devouring a young girl isn't so believable anymore.  Too much innuendo surrounds him.  Kind of the opposite of what a 'Jennifer Anniston' does, as her personal life overshadows every role and doesn't let her inhabit any of them.  His lack of presentation of any kind of a personal life makes him not so much of a chameleon, but a liar by omission. And that holds him, and us, back.

And speaking about innuendo, that conversation about past indiscretions at a military college between two men would not have happened by Francis.  The conversation, that is.  He would not have thought of it fondly, he would have been trying, and succeeded to forget it.  

That's it for now, besides a few recovery program inconsistencies, but no need to dwell on those at this point.  There'll be more.

.....long time since I rock and roll, hmmmm.....

I damn near almost missed the Bayou Bogaloo this year, drove by late on Sunday and caught a band playing the tail end of the 'Treme' show soundtrack.  Hopped out and got a piece of the action briefly before the end of the day....could things be picking up a bit?

New Orleans Healing Center grand opening - SECOND LINE!

embedding, what a concept!

Tuesday 1.11.11 (!!!)

Well...wouldn't you know it the first time I post in the new year and I don't have the computer with my NYE trip to the Indian Mounds on there!  Oh well, I'll pick another photo.

Ahhhhh.......better already.  Grandmommy and me in front of Marilyn's barn, years ago.   I can pinpoint my downward trajectory to shortly after her death.  But that's another story.

The trip to the LA Indian Mounds, most significantly Povery Point, was lovely.  Me and the critters, in a no-tell-mo-tell for NYE in ViDALia Louisiana (even though they didn't allow dogs, they let me stay after some cajoling).  See..THAT's the kind of hospitality I'm talking about!  'Well, how big are they?' 'Well...we really don't allow them. It's just you?  Well....ok, but it'll be an extra ten dollars." uh - OK!  Tornado warning flashes below Ryan Seacrest, cloudy sky's so no good 'sunrise' pics, really.  Then a little jaunt by myself to see some more of the mound-age in the area before picking up the pooches to continue north to Monroe.  Some mismatched couches in a circle, Kuntry accents galore, the remnants of an ancient civilization, then back home through the Kisatchie.  Mahvelous.

it's TUESDAY, dang it!

All DAY I've thought it was Wednesday, for some reason.  Then, after being completely surprised at seeing my friend at the bottom of the stairs.....she says the same thing, that she's thought it was Wed all day too!  Isn't that odd...or does it just seem odd to me?

Dr. Gabor Mate!  A WONderful find....was able to share that with SS tonight. 

After a bit of a pity-party, during that difficult day, a better day the following w AP and her boys who were having a blast.

Gratuitous,,,

....shot of hunky football player Lance Moore!