I'm Leaving

I'm leaving later tonight. More importantly my brother has decided to leave too. He lives on the Westbank, the area the they're predicting to get hit the hardest. He was planning on trying to ride it out. Katrina dumped a foot or so of water in his house and even though he knows there's nothing he can do to prevent more water in his house he wanted to be there, but he's decided that he needs to leave.

This is the first time that I'm actually bringing things with me. For Katrina I brought a couple change of clothes and that was it. Back than we all thought we'd be gone for a day or two and than back home. How many times had it been that way? Too many that made us complacent. I remember while I was up at my Aunts in Tennessee and watching the news. They made it sound like Slidell, the city where I live was wiped out. I honestly thought I was going home to, well, to no home. Luckily I had very little damage. But while I was thinking this my thoughts went to some of the things I would have lost. Not the computer, the tv, the stero...all that can be replaced. But what about my pictures from Alaska? From Europe? My friends that I haven't seen in years, but back when we inseparable? So this time I decided, even thought my area isn't supposed to get hit that bad, but who knows, that I'm going to take some things with me.

But what do I take? All my pictures of course? That goes without saying. My Jazz Fest posters. All my concert posters that represent a certain concert, a certain time for me. But what else?

As anyone that reads this blog knows, I'm a huge pack rat and collect lots of books and comics and records and cds. One good thing with my Ipod is that I've transfered a lot of music to it, just over 12,000 songs so far. But it still isn't everything. I still have cds to transfer, vinyl records I want to put on it. I was just getting to put the Minutemen's "Double Nickles on the Dime" on my Ipod and now I don't have the time. I'm actually putting some cds on it now, the cds load a lot quicker.

But what about my collection of Harlan Ellison? His books are out of print now and I have everything he's written, some books dating back to the sixties.

What about my comic strip collections? "Terry and the Pirates," "Popeye," "Krazy Kat"...do I leave without them?

Most of my books can be replaced so I'm not as worried, but there is just so much that I can probably never find again. It's taken me a lifetime of collecting to amass some of these books, so how do I leave them behind.

My car only holds so much, and I have to leave room for me and Buffy.

I know these questions don't matter as far as people's lives, but they're hard to answer, the decisions of what to take and what not to take pull me in so many directions.

Whatever I decide I have to be done with it in a few hours. My brother plans on meeting me at my house and than we're going to try and head up to Moms in Tennessee. Some of the highways are already bumper to bumper but we plan on traveling some of the smaller roads to get us there.

Hopefully I'll be back sometime next week and things will be ok with everyone.

Now They Realize It

One thing I'm noticing in all the talk of evacuation from Gustav is all the work that hasn't been finished, all the hurricane protections still from Katrina that are still in need of work, all the supposed protection that isn't up to the task. Now they realize this? What's been going on for the last three years? They can cite time lines and whatever they want, but this country has been able to get the job done and on time when it mattered before and they could do it again....but they need their leaders to recognize this and treat it accordingly. So now how many more people are going to die because we weren't prepared for this storm?

Some Good News

With all the gloom and doom about Gustav I thought I'd post Barrack Obama's acceptance speech. I wasn't able to watch it, I had to work Thursday.

If I'm Missing....

If I suddenly disappear from the blogosphere it's because I might have to high tail it up to my Moms. I haven't decided if I'm going to evacuate or not, it depends on where and how powerful this storm gets. It hits Cat 4 and I'm out of here. It's not even just the danger of the wind and rain, but I was telling someone today, if the storm comes it's going to knock out the power for who knows how long and than I'm stuck home in the dark, with no lights, no power, I can't read, can't get on the computer, can't listen to music, can't go anywhere...why put up with that. But if I do go to my Moms she doesn't have an internet connection, so depending on how long I'm there I might be AWOL for awhile. And even if I come back, after Katrina it was weeks before the internet was back up and running, so who knows?

I'll keep posting until I can't. So if I'm gone keep me in your thoughts, I feel like a lot of you people that I've only "met" online are some good friends and I'll miss your words. Here's hoping it won't be for long.

Old School Fridays: Neo Soul

This was a category I had to think about, as I have to admit it's not one that I'm as familiar with as some others, but in the end I had to go with Lauryn Hill. Plus I almost forgot today was Friday, a few other things being on my mind, namely Gustav. Her first album was such a masterpiece to have her basically not record anything (I know she's done a little, but not much outside some live stuff) since is a crying shame. So here is "Doo Woop" by Lauryn Hill.



This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participantsIf you want to join in on the fun

Thoughs On The Coming Storm

Yesterday you could feel it in the air. The tension, yes, even the fear, that here we go again, almost to the day of Katrina and here comes another storm. People were out buying gas cans, water, flashlights, batteries, whatever they thought they might need. The shelves at the local Wal Mart were getting bare, shoppers were loading up buggies of food and bringing them to the check out counters. It's still too soon to know if we're going to be hit, but New Orleans is in the cone and at one point the track lead it straight to our door.

As customers came in the store yesterday the topic of conversation was of course the upcoming storm. No one was in panic mode yet, we still are four or five days out, so there's time. One woman came in and filled her cart up with water and than was wandering around, wondering what else she should buy. I suggested the little five inch tv/radios we sell for ten dollars. I've had one since I worked at Service Merchandise over six years ago. I remember after Katrina that little tv was worth its weight in gold. It works off batteries and during those nights of no power and when the darkness seemed to be engulfing it was nice to be able to turn that tv on and watch WWL talk about what was going on.

One couple came in and bought three big dog kennels. They were telling me that like all of us at Katrina, we thought we'd leave and be back the next day, they left their dogs home, expecting to be home the next day. Sadly their dogs didn't make it, so this time they were making sure their dogs went with them.

Another older woman came in and needed help with getting a cot to her car. Standing in line we were talking. She has taken on the care of an elderly lady with Alhemeizers. If they evacuated she wanted to be able to put the cot next to her bed so she could make sure the woman was ok.

The man buying a shotgun and looking for shotgun shells for personal protection. He wanted to make sure there was no looting going around his home this time. God, the amount of guns, handguns we have sold in the last three days. Everyone is arming themselves and to tell you the truth it scares me. I don't begrudge people protecting what's rightfully theirs, but so many guns are going out in so many hands that know nothing of how to operate a gun, and worse are basically scared of the gun, it's a frightening concept.

Going out for lunch and the person working the other side asking me if we sold gas cans and I said yes, but had to tell her that we were unfortunately out of them. Gas cans are one of the fastest going things right now. But I told her we were getting two "hurricane" trucks tonight and there was going to be four or five pallets of gas cans on them. Stopping in the store today, to go to a parish meeting on the hurricane, I saw that all of the five pallets of gas cans have already been sold, none left and wondering if she got her gas can.

Traffic is starting to get heavier. The news showed some scenes of bumper to bumper on the interstate as some are not waiting to be told to leave and getting ahead of the curve. From my meeting we were told they were going to start contra flow tomorrow at six. Contra flow is when they turn the interstates into one way highways, out of the city, to get as many people flowing out as quickly as possible.

The parish, the mayors are all waiting before they call for a mandatory evacuation, waiting to see what the storm does, where it goes. They have to call one at least 48 hours in advance, so it's a hard guess to make. Right now they're calling for landfall around Tuesday morning. But will it continue to turn west, or who knows, skip the wrong way for us. Unfortunately the right way for us is the wrong way for someone else. No one gets away untouched.

3 Years Ago...

3 Years Ago...the local IHOP still isn't open 24 hours.

3 Years Ago...there still isn't a grocery store in New Orleans East.

3 Years Ago...you can drive down the interstate and still see stores and apartments on the side, abandoned and falling down.

3 Years Ago...they just finally buried the last body from the storm.

3 Years Ago...people are still waiting for their checks from the Road Home program to help finish repairing their houses

3 Years Ago...people are still fighting with their insurance companies over whether it was "flood" or "wind" damage to their homes

3 Years Ago...people are still living in their FEMA trailers

3 Years Ago...

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby would have been 91 years old today. He died in 1994. I'm not going to try and list the characters Jack had a hand in creating, it would read like a list of modern comic books pretty much. Jack helped create comic books. No one working today in comics doesn't owe something to the King.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Music Biographies

This week I'm going to list 13 biographies of musical artists. I tried to pick a varied list. I could probably make a 13 just of books on Bob Dylan I have. Some of the same writers appear more than once, and a few names were on my list of music books from last week.

1) Down The Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes
2) Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who by Dave Marsh
3) The Beatles: The Biography by Hunter Davies (This was one of the first music bios I ever read, I remember checking it out of the library when I was still in school. At the time there weren't a lot of bios on rock and roll acts.)
4) Everything I'm Cracked Up To Be: A Rock and Roll Fairy Tale by Jen Trynin (Jen was basically a one hit wonder from Boston and this book is fascinating in her tale of her life as the next "Big" thing for a brief moment.)
5) Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zepplin Saga by Stephen Davis
6) Buddy Holly by Ellis Amburn
7) Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by Jimmy McDonough
8) Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock N Roll by Rick Coleman
9) Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s by Dave Marsh
10) Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick
11) Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick
12) I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon by Crystal Zevon
13) Clapton by Eric Clapton (Eric doesn't white wash his life, he comes out as a complete jerk at times.)

Three Years Ago

Three years ago we watched this storm:



Now almost three years to the day we have this storm tracking this path:

Ted Kennedy at Democratic Convention

He was supposed to make a taped message for the Convention and if possible show up Thursday, but Senator Edward Kennedy was at the convention tonight.

Rain

After he made this video he got so much heat that he's pulled this video from just about anywhere it's been posted, so I don't know how long it will be on here. Isn't it nice that someone like this can weasel his way out if it doesn't rain. Pray for rain on Obama thursday, but if it doesn't rain that doesn't mean God supports him, it just means God didn't want it to rain.

Obama and his Vice Presidental Choice

Barrack Obama and Joe Biden.

Those That Don't Learn From History....

From USA Today:

Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten what happened after the last hurricane, four decades ago, that caused catastrophic flooding and again believe the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind.

Go here to read the rest of it.

Want to go Crazy?

Try to change the color on the ball.

Found this over at Janey's blog.

Thanks a lot Janey...

Old School Fridays: Favorite Male Singer

This one caused me more than a few minutes of thinking. But in the end I have to go with the one male singer I never tire of. Bob Dyaln.

This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participants If you want to join in on the fun

Will Hoge In Accident

One of my favorite singers Will Hoge was injured in a traffic accident today. He was riding his scooter home after a recording session when a van failed to yield to a traffic stop and hit him. His is in Vanderbilt University Medical Center in critical condition but the doctors say they expect him to recover. Will puts out some of the best music out there and live he is in the top five of performers I have ever seen. The song is a live clip of him performing "Ain't No Sunshine."

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Music Books

Last week my plan was to list 13 musical biographies in this week's Thursday Thirteen. Well, that's the plan for next week. As I started to look for the books I realized I had a lot of books on the subject of music, so decided this week to feature some of them. I didn't include any information on the book, because most of them are pretty evident from their sub titles. A wide range of musical genres are featured in these books, from the blues, to rock to country. Any of these books are worth reading.

1) The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-On Collison of Rock and Commerce by Fred Goodman
2) Romancing The Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music by Benjamin Fidene
3) Are You Ready For The Country? Elvis, Dylan and the Roots of Country Rock by Peter Doggett
4) Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From The American Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad
5) Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
6) Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues by Elijah Wald
7) Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood by Michael Walker
8) Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The work of a Legendary Critic: Rock n Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock n Roll by Lester Bangs, edited by Greil Marcus
9) Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians by Peter Guralnick
10) Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll 1947-1977 by James Millers
11) Waiting For The Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes and the Sound of Los Angeles by Barney Hoskyns
12) South by Southwest: A Road Map to Alternative Country by Brian Hinton
13) Fortunate Son: The Best of Dave Marsh by Dave Marsh

Fonz Statue

Milwaukee unveiled a statue of the Fonz from Happy Days. When I was a kid this was one of my favorite shows. The Fonz is Cooool.

Backups

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most computer literate person in the world. I end up getting things done, but sometimes I'm not sure how I got where I wanted to go. I decided I needed to get something to back up my computer. Yesterday I updated my I Tunes and when I went to open the I Tunes to download some more music to my Ipod it vanished for a second and than came back. But for a brief second there I was afraid that I had somehow lost my I Tunes library....over 11,000 songs. Besides the amount of time it would take to download all these songs again, some of them I have no farther access to in order to download, buying them from others sites and such. So I decided that an external back up was in order. And today when visiting my brother he wanted to go to Circuit City and while there they had this particular Back Up on sale for $99.00. Normally it's $140.00 so I decided that this was a message to me, buy it now.

This is the one I purchased:

My Book® Home Edition™
External Hard Drives
500 GB, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, eSATA

Isaac Hayes

I know this is late, I was at my Moms when I heard that Isaac Hayes died, so there's not much I can say here, but I wanted to acknowledge it and leave a video.

Old School Fridays: Social/Political Songs

I discovered this meme over at Malcolm's page. The rules are as follows:

This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participants.

This week's theme is Social/Political Songs.

Ok, so what song did I chose? This actually required some serious thought. I am a big fan of social/political songs. I am one of those people that still believe that music can change the world. There were the obvious ones, such as John Lennon's "Imagine" or Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" or Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind." But one of my favorite songs is one that was the brain child of Little Steven. Little Steven was better known as Miami Steve from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. When he decided to go solo he became Little Steven. He decided to release a song about the problems in South Africa and decided that instead of putting it out under his name he would ask his friends to perform on it. At the time his friends included some of the biggest names in the music business. So here it is, "Sun City" by Artists United Against Apartheid.

The Ducks at the Peabody

The Peabody Hotel and the ducks.

Beale Street

Beale Street was a lot of fun, I wished we had more time to look around, but the rain chases us away. The first two pictures, after the Beale Street road sign, are not actually on Beale Street, but close by. The Rock n Soul Museum was pretty interesting. I have only one question: Beale Street is closed to traffic (except for traffic crossing over it) but no one walked in the street, everyone walked on the sidewalks. In New Orleans French Quarter where the streets are closed everyone walks on the street. (And in some parts of the city where the streets are closed some people still walk on the street.) Why doesn't anyone walk in the street?

Bambi

Driving through Shiloh Park look we what we saw. I was able to stop and roll down my window and take a picture before the deer decided that it had seen enough of us and bounded away. It was a magical day.

Shiloh Military Park

More than 3,500 Americans died on these grounds. There were so many that many of the soldiers were buried without identifying them. Many of the graves have only a number to identify them. As we drove through Park Bruce Springsteen came on my Ipod playing through the car stero singing "My Beautiful Reward." It was a moment I'm not likely to forget soon.

Pickwick State Park and Dam

This was a beautiful area, right off the Tennessee River.

The Mayor of Mandeville

This is local news, so I doubt many of you have heard of it. Mandeville is a city on the northshore of New Orleans. A state audit revealed that the Mayor of the city has made thousands of dollars in personal charges on the city's credit cards. He accepted golf trips to other cities from companies that do business with the city.

Earlier this year the Mayor was driving home across the Causeway, the bridge that connects the Northshore to the Southshore, crashed through a toll booth barrier after having too much to drink. The police officers that stopped him let him go with only a warning. Later these four police officers were fired for giving him special treatment. Did anything happen to him? No.

And than at Christmas he accepted Wal Mart gift cards and presents paid for by a Christmas Toy Fund.

So I have a simple question: why is this man still in office?

Shame on John Edwards

This is somewhat old news now, but John Edwards has admitted to an affair. I used to have a lot of respect for John Edwards and was hoping he had a shot at the VP slot with Obama. Besides his lying there's this.

I'm at a loss to what these politicians are thinking. Yes, I know it's partly the power, they think they can get away with it. But really how many of them do? I don't think having an affair quite ranks up there with sending young men and women to die in order to support your lies, but it doesn't rank too high in the honesty meter.

New Book On Obama

A new book on Barack Obama recently came out. It's called "Obama Nation" and is by the same writer that wrote the book that smeared John Kerry four years ago. The writer throws charges out there that are patently untrue. The most telling thing I can say about this writer is that he writes for the World Net Daily, which recently had this headline:

Bigfoot hunters claim others of species live

Yep, they're the ones that claim that some guy has a Bigfoot in his refrigerator. I think that kind of says everything about the journalistic integrity of this writer.

Jerry Wexler Dies

Jerry Wexler, famed producer of such greats as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, died at the age of 91. He coined the term "rhythm and blues" and was one of the founders of Atlantic Records. One of the many records he produced was Dusty Springfield's "Dusty In Memphis."

We Interrupt For An Important Message

John McCain has been making fun of Barrack Obama's comment about saving energy by keeping your tires inflated. Funny I was told that by my Dad years ago. Of course that wasn't the sum total of Obama's energy plan, as much as McCain tries to make it look like it was.

But what I find interesting, in this ad that aired in Ohio the McCain camp uses Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" in the background. Now Mr. Browne, a lifelong liberal and Democrat didn't take too kindly to that. He's suing McCain. And McCain's camp is claiming that they had nothing to do with the ad, it was made by the Republican party in the state. Doesn't Mr. McCain make a comment at the end of all his ads about endorsing this ad? So how can he play dumb now?

Can't Forget The Dogs

Sadie and of course Buffy.

Wild Animals at the Zoo

My Mom (Ignoring me as usual)
My Aunt and Mom
My Sister and Mom
My Aunt, Mom and Uncle

My Sister and Aunt

At the Zoo