Addison, TX — My life and my home in quotabel form:
“We’re not even dealing with dead bodies. They’re just pushing them on the side.”
— New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
“Imagine your worst nightmare and quarruple that times 100.”
— Slidell, LA police officer Rob Callahan
“We’ve got cadaver dogs, but we’re only looking for the live people at this point.”
— Rachel Zechnelli, Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
“It’s a fucking hurricane, what are you going to do with a basketball goal?”
— A New Orleans fireman at Tchopitoulas Wal-Mart (two blocks from my house)
“It is looting times five. I’m telling you, it’s like Sodam & Gomorah.”
— New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas
“We’re using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on roof tops.”
— New Orleans Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson
“This is so fucked up.”
— me
Andrew Healan
New Orleans comedian and host of the podcast That Sounds Reasonable
Top 5 Worst Days Ever
Today makes the list. Suddenly my material possesions seem trivial. The world lost a great person today. Jennifer Renee Hartman was a queen among commoners. She had beauty, grace, intelligence, sophistication and most of all a general coolness. Some would see what I see as cool as geeky, but that is one of the things that made Jennifer great. Me and her could have an enthralling conversation about Wedge’s role in the Rebel Alliance while I stared at her chest and everyone came out a winner. I wish I could talk to her right now about my time as a prisoner of war in Addison, TX. I wish I could talk to her about how her classes are going and whether or not she’s got another 4.0 on the horizon. I wish I could talk to her in five years and have her tell me about her successful career and even more succesful marriage. I’ll never get to have these conversations. I wish I could see her in 30 years in an airport and have that conversation we said we would have 30 years from now in an airport. I wish that inside joke I just told didn’t just become exclusive. This has probably been the day that brought the most depressing events in a 24 hour period. I am tired of analogies. I am just sad. I miss my friend. FUCK A FUCKING FUCKITY FUCK!
Katrina Sucks A Crack Whore’s Dick
Addison, Texas — I Am Drunk!
But I would like to lighten the mood with a funny comment.
Katrina had winds so powerful they were able to lift Jonathan Sullivan off the ground.
To all my friends near and far — I am out of harm’s way.
To everyone stuck in southeast Louisiana — let me know your religion and I will convert and pray to your god.
Whatever you do to wish good fortune upon others, be it prayer, hoping, wishing, tossing coins in fountains or spliting aces and eights…. do it with those in Katrina’s path in mind. If the only thing I have to cry about in the morning is my personal posesions, I will.. you know….
But I Just Can’t Spend My Whole Life Just-a Waiting For You
Wow, it’s been weeks since the last hurricane post. OK, so looks like Katrina is coming. And not in that she’s gonna hit the northern Gulf coast kind of way. I think she’s gonna stroll right down Canal Street (edit, new model released two seconds ago says maybe it’s going to Gulfport). It has a projected landfall of 1:00 AM Monday. That’s only 40 hours away. They project it takes 60-72 hours to evacuate the entire New Orleans metropolitan area. Great planning guys. Three Parishes have already ordered manditory or voluntary evacuations. But we have to wait until noon for the press conference for the decissions made about Orleans Parish (edit, another Parish just went to mandatory evacuation). And with the projected path, going east is not an option. Also, going west is not an option. So, if I go, looks like I’m heading to Dallas again. Not only that, I’m supposed to work tonight through Wednesday. I don’t wanna die, but I don’t wanna lose my job either. THIS SUCKS SO MUCH!!! This has totally caught me off guard. Thursday night, Katrina wasn’t even a concern of mine. Friday afternoon, I’m kinda thinking about it and stopping by The Weather Channel more often. And Saturday morning, I’m sitting here agonizing about making this decission. Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double. FUCK ME! FUCK ME! FUCK ME!
Ignore all that stuff earlier. I’m going to Dallas. Hope everyone along the north central gulf coast is safe.
Two Word Album Review
This one is long overdue, but I was just listening to it while cleaning the house.
Electric Six — Senor Smoke
Kicks all kinds of total unconditional ass!
See it was so good I couldn’t even keep the two word review to two words.
A Class Act
I was browsing through the archives of my blog the other day and noticed how many obituaries I had written. I was kicking myself for only celebrating people I respected and admired postmortem. I started racking my brain trying to think of someone who was still alive that I had not yet told the world how much I think of them. Unfortunately, one of those names that crossed my mind was not Peter Jennings. So now, here I go again with another retrospective on a life that is no more.
He was Canadian, he was a high school drop out, he started his broadcasting career at the age of nine. These are the nice trivial facts that are fun to talk about. But what were the reasons when I chose to watch a national news broadcast I usually chose ABC (even though I didn’t watch their local news until much later in life)? I gotta think a primary reason was Peter Jennings. Those broadcast tended to focus more on international affairs (something my local news wasn’t giving in depth coverage on until the past four years or so). There seemed to be more of a world focus on ABC’s coverage, and I like to think Jennings had a major role in that. This Canadian high school dropout (look trivial facts) seemed annoyed by the coverage of the Simpson trial and the Lewinsky scandal.
But when I think back to the two major events of my adult life (the millennium and 9/11) I remember Peter Jennings. He was my major source of information, my eyes to the world, my conscience to a degree. The moment that stands out to me the most though (and I’m sure it will be replayed thousands of times in the next few days) was when he talked about calling his children on September 11, 2001. He was not concerned about their well being (he knew they were no where near any of the three crash sites) but wanted to talk to them about the turmoil the world was in. He wanted to make sure they knew that he was thinking about them and didn’t understand what had happened any more than they did.
This Creams My Twinkie
This weekend I discovered that most jukeboxes in the French Quarter contain Body Count (sans Cop Killer). Well… ther goes the neighborhood.
Fear Half A World Apart
In my head I had written this whole blog that mocked London winning their bid to host the Olympics in 2012. It made fun of NYC, Paris, Madrid and Moscow. It drew comparisons to my own experience with Atlanta being awarded the Centenial Games in 1990 and how our expectations did not equal up to reality.
I also had in my head a whole blog bitching about having to deal with two potential hurricanes in a single week. But at least I know the hurricanes are coming. No surprises there. I don’t need Bob Geldf putting on a bunch of crappy shows to raise my awareness of these storms, I’ve got The Weather Channel.
Then On My way home I heard what happend in the United Kingdom.
I am fortunate to currently not have any friends living in, or traveling to, London. This greatly reduces my fears and concerns. This is selfish, but my thoughts, hopes and wishes still go out to those across the pond.
Events like what happened in London today make me reflect on my own life and safety. I live in the second busiest port in the world. The warfs are less than a block form my home. I work in one of the top tourist destinations in the world.
So, here I sit, typing at my computer. While I live and work in a place that is ripe for terrorism and has a (currently category 2) hurricane bearing down on it. I once again feel selfish, but I have to change the channel. I want to know what is happening in London, but I need to focuse on Dennis. Not a fun weekend on the horizon.
Swing And A Miss
TS Cindy paid us a visit tonight and was a rather pleasant guest (all things considering). There was rain, there was wind, but no lasting efects. My neighborhood had its fair share of downed limbs, but I’ve got power, phone, cable, water and no flooding. This has not been a good week for service industry workers in New Orleans. Essencefest followed by a tropical strom, and coming this weekend, a hurricane. Tonight for the first time in my employment history at my current job we closed early. This has been a bad hurricane season so far. Just over a month in and four named storms. Arlene went east, Cindy went east, and here comes Dennis. Just counting the days until my flood insurance kicks in.
Grey Matters
It’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood