ATL 11/26/07 - New Orleans

Christmas 1979 - We all pitched in stringing popcorn, but it was Mom's job to put the tinsel on the tree - piece-by-piece (which she removed, piece-by-piece, to save for the next Christmas). For good or bad, that bathrobe (and those light-sensitive eyeglasses) have met their maker, but we still have the same stockings! (...and I wish we still had that ceramic cat!)
The Pat O's pic is for Mom...the place she had her first sip of alcohol...on her Honeymoon! And look at those rockstars crossing in front of "Cafe du Monde"!

NEW ORLEANS/MOVIE/ART/LOCAL/WEB/WEB NEWS

Had a terrific Thanksgiving with S's family in New Orleans - from happy wanderings through the French Quarter to a sad tour of the neighborhood nearest the 17th Street Canal levee breach.

The last pic is the most poignant; it is in front of Aunt S' elementary school, announcing the beginning of the school year that never happened. More than two years later, the letters are still there and the school is still boarded up; no one ever came back.

NEW ORLEANS NEWS - Fashion - It's not T-day in N.O. without someone wearing a Saints baseball cap to the table.

Disaster tour - Every city has its blighted areas; in some of the less Katrina-affected neighborhoods, I was afraid to say anything like 'oh, how awful', only to be told 'that house wasn't flooded...'

Renovation - There is one bathroom in Aunt S's post-Katrina, rebuilt home that hasn't been renovated; it still has a pre-fabricated plastic shower/tub with seashell shelves molded into it. Climbing in was like being in the Little Mermaid's FEMA trailer...

Cajun Food - We ate shrimp-stuffed mirliton for Thanksgiving. They kept making fun of me for calling it "melatonin", but it's really a "Vegetable Pear." The insides are cooked like squash, mixed with shrimp and spices, and stuffed back into the vegetable.

Weather Report - The newspaper reported Miss. River level changes along with the temperature. The river was up .64" at St Louis, up 1.0" in Memphis, & up .38" in N.O.

The "K" Word - Everyone spoke of events on a timeline of before or after 'the storm'.

Exercise - We went running on top of the levee around Lake Pochartrain.

Nightlife - Question: 'When do bars close?' Matter-of-fact answer: 'After everyone goes home...'

Family videos - We watched the most recent wedding & the video of the first day back at the house after Katrina. (The house we stayed in was flooded with 2 ft of water; they weren't allowed back in the neighborhood until 6 weeks after "the storm").

Local thinking - In a Letter to the Editor re: sending a thank you to Congress for relief funding - '...we're supposed to thank the people who work for us for sending us our money to fix something they caused?'

Side affects - Uncle J described having 'Katrina Cough' for a year following the mold clean-up.

MOVIE NEWS - Not much new coming out in theaters this weekend following the big Thanksgiving releases of "Enchanted", "This Christmas", and "The Mist". I'll be heading out to catch up and see "No Country for Old Men".

ART NEWS - "Curvy Widow" - Cybill Shepherd stars in comedy about love, sex and online dating thru 12/16 at the Alliance Theater.

LOCAL NEWS - For those folks who think nothing goes better with drinking than "Toys", the annual "Toy Party" folks throw a great fundraiser for anyone donating a new toy or $15. All joking aside, they are expecting 4,000 eager Santa-wanna-bes at this annual Atlanta event.

The 'New Oxford America Dictionary's word of 2007 is 'locavore'. In honor of trying to eat only food grown within 100 miles of where you live, here are some tips:

Here is an online listing of where to pick your own vegetables.

Your Dekalb Farmer's Market labels bins of fruits and vegetables with their country or state of origin. Last week, I found collards, yellow squash, and habinero peppers from Georgia.

The State Farmer's Market has fewer local growers represented than I thought; the stalls were mostly reselling a mix of local and wholesale produce. I got a personalized tour of the whole market from Martin, who told me that the local farmer's drive their truckloads in at 3:00 AM on Fridays and sell to restaurants and the resellers (and Martin).

NATIONAL NEWS - NPR reports that the CDC figures $1 of every 10 spent on health care in the U.S. is to combat the effects of obesity. I don't care if you are going to sit there on your fat ass and eat doughnuts all day - in fact, I'll just go by Krispy Kreme stock - but when I have to pay for your coronary bypass because of it, that really pisses me off!

FRENCH NEWS - Because of the weakness of the dollar against the Euro, part of Airbus' aircraft production could be moved to those parts of the world using the dollar as the currency standard. The worldwide airplane market is based on the dollar.

DROUGHT NEWS - Local businesses have different reactions to the drought. Home Depot sells rain barrels. Pike Family Nursery declares bankruptcy.

WEB NEWS -This show must have been terrible, cuz I don't remember it at all...and I loved the live action show...Partridge Family AD 2200

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ATL 10/1/07 - Oregon, SF

ART/OREGON NEWS

ART NEWS - Looking forward to "Jacques Brel" at the Alliance. "Dark Play..." at Actor's Express was excellent. The last Improv in the Park is this Wednesday in Piedmont Park.

OREGON NEWS - The Oregonian intends to replace 'Peanuts' reruns in its funny pages. Every two weeks, it runs a new cartoon and then has readers vote for either Peanuts or the new 'toon. Peanuts has never lost one of these comic smackdowns. (Charles Schulz died on February 12, 2000).

The hybrid Vietnamese/ American wedding that I attended included the groom's side of the wedding party forming a procession and walking 1/4 mile to the ceremony, bearing gifts of fruit, rice wine, & tea.

Portland's annual Breast Cancer walk drew over 47,000 supporters, raising nearly $3,000,000.

Mt. St. Helens has been continuously erupting for the past 3 years, pushing lava into its crater - it would still take 200 years at that rate to recreate the mountain's former size. (Mt. St. Helens' first big eruption in recent history was May 18, 1980; I was a sophomore in high school and got out of mowing the lawn for a week or two for fear the newly fallen ash would dull the reel mower blades.)

I went to a going away party for Jacob; a funny, engaging high school kid who made me feel welcome at his shindig & who just happens to be in a wheelchair; when most kids his age are heading off to college, he is 'going away' to a clinic of sorts in CA for OT and tendon replacement. He has an amazingly upbeat attitude and makes any reason I might feel sorry for myself for extremely insignificant.

Roslyn Lake Park had a going away party, too. An impending $17 million project to tear down the hydroelectric dam that creates the lake is cheaper than modifying it to meet new salmon protection regulations. No one mentioned how the electricity it 'currently' generates is going to be replaced.

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ATL 9/24/07 - Oregon

No time for news after returning from my trip to my homeland...but after all that childhood reminiscing, I thought it was a good time for a tribute to the most beautiful woman in my life.

Thanks for everything, mom!


ART/LOCAL/OREGON/WEB NEWS

ART NEWS - At the AllianceTheater - "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris"

'The Hertz Stage transforms into a chic bohemian Paris nightclub for a theatrical event like you’ve never before experienced at the Alliance.'

LOCAL NEWS - MARTA and the Woodruff Arts Center are in talks about a possible expansion of the arts campus over the top of the transportation site. This could include the relocation of the Calatrava-designed symphony hall, but that project has only attracted 1/3 of the $300 million required to make it a reality. (Don't get me wrong - I love Starchitects - and I'm gonna get flamed for this, but I think the proposed building looks like a mosquito emerging from a starched, men's shirt collar.)

OREGON NEWS - Here are a couple of pics of my trip - view from the tent, sunset, and the Vietnamese wedding gate. It's after midnight, so only time for one story...

...I was in Oregon for my annual backpacking trip, my friend's fantastically fun Tie-Dye Anniversary party, and another friend's wedding to a delightful Vietnamese woman. Their original introduction 5 years ago was arranged by Auntie Lucy, so, during a slow moment of the reception, I asked to meet Auntie Lucy.

1st thing out of Auntie Lucy's mouth - "Where are you from?" "Atlanta, ma'am."

2nd thing out of Auntie Lucy's mouth - "Where's your wife?"

Always plotting, that Aunt Lucy is. I just said I was "traveling alone." Sorry, S.

OTHER OREGON NEWS - The "Fish of the Week" in Monday's Sports Section was a 15 lb. catfish caught by an 8 year old boy using worms for bait. No joke.

WEB NEWS - I like the wallcoverings, fabrics, and customized lamps at inhabit.

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Paris - Marche des Fiertés

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