New Orleans

I am overwhelmed by the events that have transpired since the hurricane hit. The looters, the shootings, the rapes, violence of all kinds and the poor people who have died, waiting to be rescued. I believe that New Orleans, as a city, is gone.

As a community of kind and loving people, please join me in sending positive vibes and love to every unfortunate soul that has been affected by Katrina. This includes Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas.....I might be missing a state. Texas is going to be very impacted by taking in hurricane victims. They all need our support.

xoxoxo pat

I'm joining in too, sending my positive vibes to those in need.

May human compassion prevail.

Petunia

((((((((((((((Prayers for all)))))))))))))

I 2nd that motion, Jen

If New Orleans has to be gone, I want there to be a jazz funeral march in New Orleans style. Brass band, photos carried of the beloved city, celebration and mourning and a grand wake for what was.

"Music in New Orleans is as much a part of death as it is of life." - Sidney Bechet, Musician

i think that would be most fitting, sarahl. i've been to Preservation Hall many times. i know it's gone.

in Texas, there is an Air Force facility that will hold 10,000 people. it has no air conditioning. as we type and read, people are in there putting in air conditioning...they will work through the night to achieve this. what big hearts!! Yea, San Antonio!!

Hullo, Pat, looks like we're on the same wavelength. I just reposted my own tribute to New Orleans at its brassiest and bawdiest, on Creative Corner. I remember sitting listening to the Preservation Hall jazz band when I was there. There were no seats left, so I sprawled on the floor immediately in front of the band. I actually had to retract my long legs whenever the trombonist played, extending his instrument. What bloody heaven on Earth. Cheshire Cat

http://www.nola.com/


Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The Marsalis Family. Neville Brothers. Dr. John.

I can hear one of the parade songs "Feet don't fail me now, feet don't fail me now."

Marie Laveau. Louis Christophe Duminy de Glapion. Luisah Teish.

Jambalaya. And always lagniappe.*

So many documentaries seen. Of Black Indians preparing their Mardi Gras amazing outfits. Of Spy Boy and Flag Boy. Beads beads beads.

Saints march.

I've been told of the food and the smells, the history, the energy, the mysteries. Listened to recorded music, read books, gazed at photos, learned rootwork and hoodoo.

I never made it to New Orleans. I was gonna. Predestined that I'd wander through the Big Easy, planning to mark a red brick dust x somewhere sacred.


*
"Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, “the gift,” and ultimately from Quechua yapay, “to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean “an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.”

http://www.bartleby.com/61/80/L0018000.html

What about zydeco bars and a good, fat, filling shrimp Po' Boy? What about getting a steaming black cup of French Roast coffee and three powder-covered beignets at the Cafe du Monde and crossing the street, climbing the steps up the floodwall and sitting on that old Spanish cannon while you savored the mixture of black coffee and those sweet, powdered-sugar-covered pastries as you gazed over the dawn coming up over the chocolate-colored waters of the delta. What about browing in the bookstore in Pirate's Alley that sells first-edition Faulkners, and where Faulkner lived (it was an apartment then, in the '20s) as he wrestled his way through his first novel? There were a million places like that. A million. Cheshire Cat

Cat, you have been to all the places I've visited. Vincent Price came into the bookstore, while i was there, and was absolutely charming.and i sat on the front row at Preservation Hall. it was wonderful. the coffee, the shrimp/oyster po'boy, etc.......we are honoring her memory......

SarahL, i wish you could have gone. it was absolutely the most vibrant and exciting place to visit. i always stayed in the French Quarter and loved being up before dawn, watching the city come alive.

pat

Luisah Teish, she a New Orleans woman and writer, spoke to a group of us one day in Santa Fe. She told us about feeling -tipsy- in that mysterious city of New Orleans, two-headed, that the spirits of the city and land and water made anyone sensitive able to tune into other worlds, other ways.

When I saw Dr. John it was at an outdoor concert in Oregon. On his piano was a beautiful vodoun veve, a tapestry. Got his autograph afterwards, he drew me a crescent moon.

A man named Sagada up in Seattle taught me some about using candles and oils, he a longshoreman from New Orleans, in Seattle now doing tarot readings and candles for people. He told me that I reminded him of civil rights workers he met long ago, what a compliment eh?

My friend, Anila, returned to the NW from time spent in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. She'd done bad drugs and bad men and had seen too much of the painful streets during the frenzied celebration. She saw the naked insane ones, the beyond drunk and unsafe ones, she saw the police. Yet, she also told me about how wonderful it was to see the gracious orderly clean up afterwards, that is was near a spiritual experience, watching all the chaos be cleansed.

I never had beignets and hot coffee with a whisper of chicory at the Cafe du Monde. I never poked around to see if I could find an authentic rootworker or two. Never checked out the Catholic cathedral and all the syncretic mix of Catholicism and Afro-diasporic faiths. Never lit a candle in a cemetery.

Yet, it is clear, the City has touched me. I'm tipsy for Her, two-headed, from the muck and floods perhaps Her Phoenix shall rise. Surely playing a trumpet for all to hear.

<font color="blue">Light something.

Light a candle for New Orleans.

Light a stick of incense.

Build a campfire out under the stars, light it up, watch the flames.

Light the barbecue. The smokehouse. The grill. </font>

i'm getting candles out.......

when we took the children there, we went to Marie Laveau's grave. (don't think i spelled her last night right)...

There are children with no food and water.......................

M.

since FEMA has known that the breach of the leevees was a given, why is the government doing so little, so late? it was said yesterday that this would be a "temporary" setback. i don't see people losing everything they have as temporary. the deaths aren't temporary. the hunger and thirst (after 5 or 6 days) hasn't been temporary. now there are people who are terrorizing the citizens, the law enforcement officials and the medical personnel. my heart breaks over and over.

Hello!

These horrific disasters have been happening throughout the history of the world we live in. Let us learn from past history....do not rebuild another New Orleans.

Those folks will all have to continue their lives elsewhere. Certainly NOT in a city so vulnerable to disaster.

We cannot defy mother nature. ~Dottie

Hi.

There was a MANDATORY evacuation called for in the "BIG EASY".

Therefore all who wouldn't or couldn't leave will have to endure this.

Pray for the authorities who are trying their very best to help in the relocation of those folks. Also, pray for all the others...Doctors nurses..ect..ect..who are just inundated with this mass of humanity. They are... remember.. dealing with death...VIOLENCE...and those who would impede progress. Like the Gov. has said..over and over. The situation is untenable.

~Dottie

Prayers and warm wishes to them all....my heart is breaking

Sarah, this is a little aside to you, but I hope you pursue your writing. You create the most wonderful imagery.

Jan

January, I'm glad you mentioned Sarah's writing. I was so impressed and touched by it, and I even think it is something worth publishing...the statement above. Very eloquent!
Seeker "Patty"

Jan and Seeker, thanks for the compliments on my writing.

To us all, big hugs, may we all find our way somehow amidst this immense tragedy. Remember to take good care of yourselves out there.

On iTunes, for 99 cents, you can download a classic New Orleans funeral march done by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. 14 some minutes of amazing music. Title includes The Lost Souls (Of Southern Lousiana), on the This is Jazz CD.

Or you can buy the CD or get at library or through another music purchase site.

Lots of other songs by this great New Orleans band also available. I also highly suggest Dr. John and also The Neville Brothers as other great musicians of the region.

i was disappointed that Dr. John wasn't on the NBC special this evening. Aaron Neville sang two songs.

I am without TV for now, so missed that! Aaron Neville has an incredible voice.

Btw, thank you Pat for starting this thread!