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More Reasons Why We Luv New Orleans

June 30, 2009 by Charlotte

Posted in New Orleans, Photography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Flashback Friday: Michael, of course.

June 26, 2009 by Charlotte

RIP

Posted in YouTube, music | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

We Want the Public Option!

June 24, 2009 by Charlotte

Posted in Healthcare, New Orleans | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

HB 780: The Little People VS Goliath

June 22, 2009 by Charlotte

Last week the Senate Education Committee deep-sixed House Bill 780 which would require that LSU produce a legitimate business plan to pay for the proposed $1.2 billion LSU Academic Medical Center in lower mid-city.

It’s just common sense to have a sound financial plan in place to pay for a project whether it’s a dog house or The Taj Mahal. Most especially before you kick out people who have worked and lived for years on the designated property. How would you like it if the government told you to move out of your family home/business and you had NO CHOICE, without even the assurance the project would actually be completed. Read Save Charity.com’s post today to hear what some lower mid-city property owners have to say. Whether you are for or against the proposed LSU Medical Complex, as a property owner and American citizen, you must see the sense in this bill. Please email or telephone your state senator and demand HB 780 be revived and passed before the end of the legislative session. Here is a direct link to the list of LA state senators with links to email any or all of them. Please take 5 minutes and let your voice be heard.

Posted in Charity Hospital, NOLA, New Orleans | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Flashback Friday: Pick Yer Nose

June 19, 2009 by Charlotte

I was listening to some Ani DiFranco this morning and this song just exploded in my head like roman candles – the hell with a lightbulb – and I said to myself, “This is exactly how I’m feelin.” Because I’m feelin stronger every day and I’m feelin like my life is going in the right direction and I’m finally feelin like those who did me wrong are completely irrelevant in my life. Just like the song sez.

How come I can pick my ears
but not my nose
who made up that rule anyway
how can you say that’s the way it is
that’s just the way it goes
why don’t you decide for yourself
what you can do
and what you can say

how come I can pick my friends
but not my enemies
what is it about me that offends
what is it about me
’cause you know I’m only five foot two
and I’m giggly wiggly
tell me again, what did I do
why are you scared of me
I fight with love
and I laugh with rage
you’ve gotta live light enough
to see the humour
and long enough to see some change

I think shy is boring
I think depressed is too
I think pretty is nice
but I’d rather see something new
all these plastic people
got their plastic surgery
but we got a big big beautiful
we got it for free
who you gonna be
if you can’t be yourself
you can’t get it from t.v.
you can’t force it on
anybody else

you know they come to clear cut
they come to strip mine
they come for some of my big butt
my big brain
or just a little time
they wanna take me out to dinner
think I’m a bitch if I don’t go
seems like the people who actually like me
won’t allow me to say no
your idea of a conversation
is the third degree
but I don’t really know you
and I don’t really want to talk about me

’cause I’m not going to pretend
that I don’t pick my nose
that’s just the way it is, my friends
that’s just the way it goes
this is who I am
what I do
and what I say
if you like it, let it be
if you don’t, please do the same
I fight with love
I laugh with rage
you gotta live light enough to see the humour
and long enough to see some change

Posted in New Orleans, YouTube, music | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Valentine’s New Blog

June 15, 2009 by Charlotte

Head ups, New Orleans!

One of my favorite local poets, Valentine Pierce, has begun a personal blog Poet Sense and Sensibilities. I’ve written here about her since I first discovered her poetry back in 2007 with the publishing of her book Geometry of the Heart. Here is a sample of her work and one of my favorite poems of hers:

Rivers of My Soul
by Valentine Pierce

My soul has grown deep like the rivers, he said:
Euphrates, Congo, Nile, Mississippi.
I close my eyes, repeat the words
over and over and over.

I know these waters;
my spirit has lingered in these waters.
my soul understands
even though the only river I’ve ever known
is the muddy Mississippi.

I loved my first love there and remember
the world pausing in the sweet joy of it;
shared my secret dreams with a friend
as we sat on the jagged rocks of it’s banks;
cried my life’s sorrow on it’s shoulders
as the sun rose and danced on tugboat waves;
got lost in the saxophone solos and guitar strings
of sidewalk musicians at twilight.

The muddy Mississippi —
It’s bittersweet rememberances
will linger in my soul for all eternity
and my soul, too, will grow deep like the rivers.

(Published with the author’s permission.)

Valentine participated on a writers panel at Rising Tide 2 in 2007 that discussed how their experience of Hurricane Katrina had affected their work. Maitri wrote her impressions of the writers panel here. (Speaking of Rising Tide, click here for information about this years’ conference coming in August.)

I hope you’ll visit Valentine and give her your support in the newest work from her heart.

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Valentine and me at Rising Tide 2

Posted in Nola Bloggers, Poetry, Rising Tide, Valentine Pierce | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Another Reason I Luv NoLA: The River

June 14, 2009 by Charlotte

Entrance of the Rivers
~ Pablo Neruda

Beloved of the rivers, beset
by azure water and transparent drops,
like a tree of veins your spectre
of dark goddess biting apples:
and then awakening naked
to be tattoed by the rivers,
and in the wet heights your head
filled the world with new dew.
Water rose to your waist,
You are made of wellsprings
and lakes shone on your forehead.
From your sources of density you drew
water like vital tears
and hauled the river-beds to the sand
across the planetary night,
crossing rough, dilated stone,
breaking down on the way
all the salt of geology,
cutting through forests of compact walls
dislodging the muscles of quartz.

Posted in New Orleans, Photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Yes You *CAN* Support Local Artists

June 10, 2009 by Charlotte

and partay at the same time!

JUNE 13TH 2009

Posted in Art, Community Events, New Orleans, New Orleans Artists | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

PhotoHunt 165: Advertisement

June 6, 2009 by Charlotte

photohunter7iq

St Louis Cemeteries I and II 068

Advertisement is today’s subject for PhotoHunt.
This is a scene that I found interesting because of the juxtaposition of a modern day billboard with a ’50’s flavor hovering above a centuries-old cemetery.

Posted in PhotoHunt, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

Kids Carry On Indian Tradition

June 2, 2009 by Charlotte

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I went to Super Sunday yesterday on Bayou St. John with some friends and had a most awesome experience from watching and listening to the Indians chant beneath the oaks to second lining with Rebirth Brass Band all the way down Orleans Avenue. Yeah, I hung! I took some amazing photos and a little video that can be found on my Super Sunday 2009 Flickr set.
Here I’m posting some of the photo’s I took of the kids that costumed and paraded so beautifully, continuing a long cultural tradition in their families.
For the history behind the Indians of New Orleans, go here.

Posted in New Orleans, New Orleans Culture, New Orleans History, Photography | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

PhotoHunt: Book(s)

May 30, 2009 by Charlotte

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Today’s PhotoHunt subject is Book(s) and these are the books currently residing on my dusty coffee table. Because I’d rather read than dust.

Posted in Books, New Orleans, PhotoHunt, Photography | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Holt Cemetery

May 28, 2009 by Charlotte

potters field 007.1

My most recent post can be found here, at TravelingMermaid.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Photo Hunt 163: Plastic

May 23, 2009 by Charlotte

The first thing I thought of for today’s photo hunt, plastic, was my sugar bowl.
Here for your appraisal is my circa 1976 harvest gold Tupperware sugar bowl. Oh, I’ve tried other sugar bowls over the years but I always go back to my sweet, versatile little goldie. The top stays snapped into place but has the options of spooning out sugar on one side and pouring out sugar on the other. I just don’t believe it can be improved upon. It’s served me well for 33 years.

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Posted in PhotoHunt, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments »

Charlotte *luvs* 101 Runners

May 22, 2009 by Charlotte

I just found this video of 101 Runners at The French Quarter Fest. I was in that crowd dancing, shaking and howling…..this is what I love about YouTube. ( You can see my arm holding up my drink at about 8:17 during “Let’s Go Get’em” when the Indian in blue was dancing in the crowd.)

If’n y’all don’t know about this local band you MUST watch ….. and get ready to dance to dat Indian beat.

Posted in Music Festivals, New Orleans, YouTube, music | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

The Fairy Tree

May 20, 2009 by Charlotte



Audubon Park, New Orleans, originally uploaded by TravelingMermaid.

“Always, from the remotest times, when the children joined hands and danced around the Fairy Tree they sang a song which was the Tree’s song, the song of L’Arbre Fee de Bourlemont. They sang it to a quaint sweet air — a solacing sweet air which has gone murmuring though my dreaming spirit all my life when I was weary and troubled, resting me and carrying me through night and distance home again.”
~~~Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

Posted in Books, New Orleans, Photography, Quotes | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »