Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Trip home - 6 years Post-K
Here are photos of where we graduated; where i took one of my entrance exams for Franklin; and where my step-brother attended high school. A very thorough demolition of JFK.
Made me wonder if there's some web page that lists the notable entities in New Orleans that have been torn down plus those that did not re-open. I know that wikipedia has a list of schools that did not reopen, but it does not list which ones have been demolished. My other step-brother has a brick from Jean Gordon, and he showed me his archaeological investigation: the outer layer is painted blue, but below that you could still see the beige paint from his era. I know that Charity Hospital and the Municipal Auditorium have not re-opened and will not for the foreseeable future, but the Performing Arts center has been back for a couple of years.
Actually i stumbled across JFK's rubble after I spent most of the day visiting Bywater - I was unsuccessfully trying to cross the Florida Avenue bridge, and noticed a new housing development to the west of Poland Avenue. I knew that Desire Projects had been torn down, but had no idea that they had been replaced by a Metarie looking housing development.
in large part because my first cousin once removed had an art showing at The Front. Unfortunately the front is only open from noon to five on weekends, and the establishment is so arty that it posts neither days nor hours that it is open. Even the website itself does not make it easy to find its hours - thankfully there's always Gambit.
Still I would recommend the journey to bywater, if for no other reason than to visit the Healing Center: a combination art gallery, Maple Leaf Book store (guess once Franklin moved they had to branch out), yoga studio, green business, and Mediterranean restaurant (can highly recommend Fatoush).
As an example of their art, here's their exhibit for the one million bones collaborative art installation - installed on the roof.
Of course no trip home is complete without the obligatory drive through ravaged areas to see how they are recovering. Obviously no surprise to see still abandoned houses in the Upper 9th,
but it is surprising to see an obviously unlived in though still wanted (?) house in Gentilly - this is from Mirabeau Avenue near the London Avenue canal.
Of course no trip home is complete without the obligatory drive through ravaged areas to see how they are recovering. Obviously no surprise to see still abandoned houses in the Upper 9th,
and lower 9th
but it is surprising to see an obviously unlived in though still wanted (?) house in Gentilly - this is from Mirabeau Avenue near the London Avenue canal.
On the brighter side, City Park itself is doing well, especially NOMA's sculpture garden.
Labels: Trips home
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Trip to china impressions
work sent me on a very anti-climactic trip to china, so did not get to see any of the famous sites - will have to go back for them - instead experienced outsourcing and mall ratting china style.
We (co-worker & I) went searching for some nasal spray - was just not to be found, but did stumble across a UCLA store. Wasn't sure if it was legit or just another faux Apple store (they do name it iPhone to avoid a strict violation). Turns out it was real - had no idea especially since very little of the clothing had Bruin logos.
their Starbucks are actually more expensive than ours and do not accept the gold Starbucks cards "USA only" was the manager's comment.
Otherwise, my dominant impression was the 50 minute ride to go 20-25 kilometers.
Fortunately we could take ferry from Shenzhen to Hong Kong airport - you do not have to cross customs so never actually (legally?) enter Hong Kong as the ferry drops you off right at the airport (the only US airport that i know of with ferry service is laguardia and that's just on weekdays....just ran a google search and it appears that ferry is defunct, so do not know any ferry to airport services in the US).
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
HWM - out of the country posting
HMW - a trio never to be topped
Saturday, October 01, 2011
HMW - Hummel trumpet concerto
Believe that Wynton is more suited to classical music than jazz, but would not have become as famous playing Hummel nor would he have won the Pulitzer prize.
Bonus feature - trumpet instruction for the same piece
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
HMW - Trombone Shorty...playing the trombone no less
Oddly, i've never actually seen video of him play the trombone. On Tremé, he just sang his grandfather's song & the first youtube i saw of him was his trumpet duet vs. Wynton (hat tip League of Ordinary Gentlemen). Oh, there is also trombone duel that frankly isn't as good as the trumpet duel.)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
HWM - first posting attempt
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
It could never have been as good as 'The Wire'
Part of the issue of course is that Simon was born in DC, raised in Maryland & worked Baltimore for decades and had such a fine feel for the city.
By contrast, Tremé comes off too much of a cliche too often. Our main characters are:
- two street musicians
- wanna be musician & girlfriend who owns a restaurant
- Indian chief & son who is a trumpet player in New York
- trombonist & ex-wife who owns a bar
- Tulane professor & pro bono lawyer wife
Yes, i understand why having an ophthalmologist from Lakeview whose house had to be gutted or a clinical psychologist living in Lakeshore west whose house had minimal damage would not have been a compelling story, but are 80% of Tremé residents really musicians or restaurant/bar owners?
And why not give more jobs to locals? Of the 10 major characters (six of whom are supposed to be New Orleans natives), only Bunk is a native, and while it's nice to see another Franklin grad do well, when three of the major actors from Simon's previous two shows the impression is that Bunk was hired because he was part of Simon's posse & not because he was a New Orleans native. I mean couldn't they at least find a local 10 year old girl to play the daughter instead of a young actress from New York? At least the Dutch & Alabama characters are actually from Holland and Huntsville.
Given that season 4 of the wire covered schools, perhaps next season, they'll introduce a teacher from Jean Gordon or JFK wondering if their school will re-open - hey, that would be a good New Orleans story. A teacher returning to be part of the charter school movement improvement.
Labels: new orleans
