1 DEAD IN ATTIC

This is the title of a book by Chris Rose.  Mr. Rose is a reporter for the Times-Picayune.  Before Katrina he was the entertainment writer for the paper.  Since the storm I'm not sure what his exact title would be, or if he has one.  During the storm he continued to write, but the comings and goings of the current hot movie star were not his scribblings, instead he wrote of his life in the post Katrina city.   This small book is a collection of his articles from the paper.  This book made me smile at some of the images he wrote about, thinking about it, remembering it from six months later.  It also brought tears to my eyes too many times, just in the simple acts he describes of life in the city.   There's a picture in the book, of his kids standing in front of a huge cardboard stand that welcomes them home...I dare anyone to look at that picture and not feel tears welling up in his or her eyes. This book is a true testmentant to those times as we'll get.  Read it and you'll get some idea of what the people of this city have went through.  

Sam's Story

Not much more I can say about this:

http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Sams_story/jeph.html

READ THIS BOOK

WHY NEW ORLEANS MATTERS by Tom Piazza.

 Read this book.  Not much more I can say about it.  

BURGER KING ADS

I just saw the newest Burger King ad where women dressed as parts of the burger come down this big slide and become part of a giant burger, done like a Las Vegas chorus show.  This has to be one of the worst, stupidest commericals I have ever seen, but what should I expect from Burger King?  They have some of the worst commericals ever.  Any commerical with their "King" goes beyond stupid into creepy.  I can't believe they keep him as their spokesman.

I NEED HELP

Ok, no jokes, I don't need that type of help.  I have a question about this blog.  Is there a way to check on previous posts?  The only way I know now is to click on the previous month, but that only shows me some of the posts.  Is there any way to see how many posts I've made so far and to go back and check on certain ones?  Any help will be greatly apprecited.

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

Actually I think it was yesterday that marked the one year point, but I forgot about it.  Not quite as catchy as "It was twenty years ago...", you know, by the Beatles.  But nevertheless it's been a year of blogging on here.  For most of the year I have enjoyed it, recently I went through a spell where I wasn't quite sure if I was going to continue this, but in the end decided to.   I've meet some good people on here and hopefully made a few new friends.  Here's to many more years....

A brief glance...

I saw someone today that I haven't seen in a long time. What once was a special friendship ended very badly. Neither of us spoke, I know she saw me and I watched as she walked by. Than I left.

One final Grammy comment

Just about to leave when Mariah Carey came on. This is another person that I have never understood what the big deal is about.

Grammy Comments

I have to go to work tonight before the Grammys are over, but I thought I'd just make some comments here as they occur.

I wasn't that impessed with the opening, the duet between Gorillaz and Madonna. Basically it was Gorillaz doing their song, a minute or so with Madonna and than her doing her thing. I actually liked the Gorillaz part, not the Madonna part. I'm not that big a Madonna fan. When did dancing become twisting and crawling across the floor?

The first prestentation made me realize what I watch shows like this for. Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder presented the Best Female Performance. They led the auidence into an accapalla version of Wonder's Higher Ground. Just listening to these two sing, using nothing but their voices, this was good. And boy, does Alicia Keys look beautiful. I was kind of surprised by Kelly Clarkson winning this one. She was going against some pretty heavy weighs, Gwen Stefanni, Sheryl Crow, Mariah Carey. From her reaction I don't think she was expecting to win it either.

I have never figured out what the fuss about Coldplay is.

John Legend is an interesting singer. More of an old style R&B singer.

Sugarland is just more proof to me that a lot of country acts are just pop acts with cowboy hats.

Merle Haggard wins a lifetime Grammy and he isn't there to accept it. Who screwed that one up?

Best Country album wen to Alison Kraus who I like, but Faith Hill who I am in love with lost. One day Faith will realize that she is married to the wrong person and leave Tim McGraw and come find me. Truthfully her new album was not her best. The best part of her new cd was the fact that it introduced new listeners to the music of Lori McKenna, who is one of the most deserving singers of a much wider auidence out there.

Speaking of Merle as we were a few lines ago. He sure has changed from being the hippie bashing right winger to now criticizing the President on his new music.

I wonder how many times New Orleans will be mentioned during the show? Alicia Keys started it early with comments about the city. I wonder if there will be any Kayne West type statements? Sometimes I'd like to see some of these musicians veer from the script and say something wild.

U2 is coming up now. How many super groups that have continued for as long as they have kept their original members? R.E.M. was one of the few until Bill Berry left the group. Their new cd was good, but I like All That You Can't Leave Behind better. After Vertigo they went into One, their duet with Mary J Bilge. Not much I can say abou this song, it's one of their best songs in a long line of great songs.

David Bowie won a lifetime award and he wasn't there either. What gives with this?

Best rap album is up now. Not much I can say here, I'm not that familar with rap, but I would be surprised if Kayne West didn't win. And he did.

I just realized that the awards go to best album....but they're not albums anymore. They're cds. Shouldn't the award be best cd of whatever?

I've never been a fan of American Idol. I think it's pretty mean spirited and I'm not talking about Simon. Actually I think he's the most honest one of the show, but this is a different rant for another time. So I really haven't paid much attention to the winners. You can't completely escape them, they're everywhere after they win. But I've never really thought much of them. But I have to admit, Kelly Clarkson is starting to grow on me.

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day is up with Gwen Stefani to give the Best Rock Album award. Billie Joe, the punk rocker, mentions Les Paul being in the hospital. I just find it kind of strange, that's all. This catergory has some pretty bad choices, but the best won...U2. How did the Rolling Stones get in here except for their past laurels?

Edge didn't mention New Orleans but he was wearing a Music Rising shirt, which is his organization to help the city's musicans to get instruments so they can continue to play.

Paul McCartney is starting to look old. But than again, he is getting old. I can listen to his music anytime, even if it isn't what I would consider his best. He knows how to write a good song almost without fail, maybe just a great one anymore.

Wow, just one I thought I had it pegged, a nice, normal moment from Sir Paul and than he does a second song...Helter Skelter. And a joke for those off us in the audience sligthly older than some, you have to remember the Let It Be sessions and John's qoute at the end of Get Back. The screen behind Sir Paul during this song showed a roller coaster...I wonder how many people know that Helter Skelter is the name of a roller coaster in England.

Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records won the Trustee Award. And no appearance. You'd think for these big awards they would want the person there. Or maybe not, a lot of today's audience probably isn't that familar with these people, so maybe they werent even wanted at the awards.

Best Male R&B performance goes to John Legend. He is nominated for more awards than anyone else tonight, I think tying Norah Jones and Lauryn Hill's list of nominations.

Ok, I gotta go work now, so the rest of the show will have to go on without me.

UPDATE

Driving along the interstate through New Orleans East I felt like I had stepped into a photograph fromWorld War II. Along the sides of the road, where once grew thousands of green trees now stood only brown, bare shattered remains of that once had been there. For miles there is no sight of anything but this desolate starkness. It reminded me of photos I have seen of parts of Europe during World War II where firebombs had been dropped.. Crossing the lake now was easier. Both sides of the Twin Spans are now open. One side had been being used for traffic coming and going across the lake. This bridge is vital to New Orleans, prehaps even more so now with the added people living in Slidell and surrounding areas that still need to travel into the city. This is the type of rebuilding and rebirth that the city needs. Both sides of the Twin Spans were up and running by the first of the year. See what can be done. Driving along the interstate at points it easy to forget what has happened to the city. Everything looks fairly normal, until you turn a corner and see a row of billboards torn apart. Or a business sign still on its side, half crushed through the business it used to advertise for. The Sam's in New Orleans East was torn down to the framework. They tore the walls and everything down to start over.

SMALLVILLE

Somehow I've never really watched this on tevlevsion.  I know, I know, the comic book geek not watching a comic book show, what is the world coming to?  I remember watching one, which I'll henceforth refer to as the Bug show, and not liking it.  I've caught lit bits and pieces over the last few years, but I never saw anything to grab hold of me and make me want to watch it.  Still I have friends that swear by this show.

So I decided to take a chance.  Sams had all four seasons of the DVD on sale for $23.00 a season.  I decided to take a chance and bought them.  I sat down and watched the first two episodes of Season 1.  The second episode was the aforementioned bug episdoe.  I hated it.  The rest of Season 1 sat around for months, I just couldn't get excited about going back to watching the rest of the season.  I finally decided to give it another shot.

I'm glad that I did.  Once I got started I couldn't stop.  I've now finished watching all four seasons of Smallville.  I have to say that I love it.  In some ways it reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in terms of creating a believable world for the characters.  And we all know how much I like Buffy...can anyone remember the name of my dog?  

I think my favorite character is Lex Luther.  (Well except for Clark of course.)   One of the main themes of the show is the tragedy of Lex.  He doesn't start off as a bad guy.  He is a tormented young man that wants to do good, but so much seems to be against that side of his nature.  The friendship between Lex and Clark is geniune and will mean that much the worse when the break occurs.  

I managed to catch the 100th episode of tv the other night, the one where someone dies.  At first they made it look like it was going to be Lana, which I thought a very brave choice.  It would have meant a completely different show, but perhaps it would have given the chance for Clark and Lois to start moving towards each other.  But they ended up pulling a time traveling rabbit out of their hat and saving Lana and in the end it was Clark's Dad that died.  Which was the safe choice.  

 

THIS IS JUST A TEST...

This is a test of a new program I just bought.  It's mainly for making web pages, but it's supposed to be able to work for blogs too.  For a hundred dollars it should do both.  I mainly bought it for web pages.  I'm hoping to get back to creating my web page for my comic book work.  I've made two serious efforts at it before but somehow never quite manage to finish it.  Part of the problem has always been the programs I was using, they just never seemed to work right.  Or maybe it was me, computer savy I'm not.  

How Much Profit Is Too Much?

Need I say it? 36 Billion dollars profit. That's how much Exxon made last year. This was the year that they had to jack up the price on gas because of the hurricane. When they said that the three or four dollars depending on where you lived was necassary to cover the costs of doing business due to the hurricane. This is a company that gets tax benefits from the government so they can make a profit. How much more profit do they have to make before we as consumers wake up and realize that we are being taken for a ride?

Sophisticated Footwear

Doesn't She Look Comfortable?

Movie of the Week: Death and Life

I think we've been so overwhelmed with television and movies, and for the few that still read even books, and the hyper cool way they talk and act and behave that we think that is what real life is like. I love William Goldman, I think he is one of the smartest writers out there, but I don't know many people that talk like his characters do. The West Wing is one of the smartest shows on television, it's characters show intelligence when they speak. But they don't sound like my friends and the people I met on the street.

I've been thinking about this for awhile now. It's actually slowed me down in blogging. If anyone reads these posts they may have noticed that I haven't been blogging as much as I used to. During the Katrina when I was in Tennessee and couldn't get to an internet connection I continued to write posts almost everyday, to post them when I finally got the ability to connect to the internet. I enjoy this form of communication, but lately I found that whenenver I wanted to post my mind would go to other things, and I would think I should write this post first, but never did.

Whenever someone in a movie or tv has a near death experience it always changes them. It ususally makes them a better person. They have conversations about how much it means, how much more life means to them. That everyday is more precious than the last. You all know it, I'm sure you've seen the act in a thousand movies or tv shows.

But is it really like that?

I can't claim that my near death experience was anything very exciting. Lying on a hospital bed with your appendics turned poisionous isn't going to make a movie of the week. I felt sick going in the hospital, sicker than I have ever felt. But I never really thought I was going to die. The doctors and the nurses, everyone that was present at the surgery all told me that they've never seen an appendics that bad, it had turned gangrene. The next day I most of had a steady stream of hospital personnel come by my bed to tell me how bad it was. The doctors told me that another day and it would have been too late. I got in to the hospital just in time.

But it still didn't feel like I was almost at death's door. I was glad that I got in to the hospital in time. I was glad that everything went so well. But I didn't feel this life changing event.

The only time I really thought I might die was about three days after the surgery. I was still sick. I couldn't eat. I was throwing up, what I don't know, cause I wasn't eating anything to put in my stomach. I would feel ok for a little while, than I would feel as bad as I've ever felt. This was still continuing about three days after the surgery. I thought that I should be getting better. And I asked my doctor was everything all right? Was I getting better? He explained that the poision from the bad appendics had gotten so into my system that it was just taking longer to get them out. And the next day I actually started to feel better.

Still there was no conversion. I wasn't signing my life over to Jesus for saving me. I wasn't going out to help the homeless and the hungry. I wasn't devoting my life to chairty. I'm not trying to be flip here and make it sound like I'm making fun of this. I"m really not. It's just that part of me feels like there should be more to all this. My life was saved so I should be out there on a soup line now.

I'm not even sure if any of this makes any sense. But it has been nagging at me for a long time now. Whenever I would think about posting I would think I should write this first, but never got around to it. Mainly cause I'm not sure if I'm not just completley babbling away here and not making any sense.

I'm sure that there are people out there that do re invent their lives after a life threatening situtaion. Maybe because I never really felt like my life was in jeopardy (save for that one brief moment). In some ways I guess I feel quilty that I'm not doing my part to save the world now. Guilty that my life was spared and I'm not doing anything to make the world a better place. If this was a movie of the week I would have quit my job and be working in a shelter trying to help the homeless. But than this isn't a movie of the week so all I can really do is try and live my life the best I can and if along the way I can help a few people and make a difference in a few lives than that should be enough.