Inaugural show for The CANARY Gallery

Opening reception for new photographic works by Zack Smith and Blake Haney.
Inaugural show for The CANARY Gallery.

For the inaugural opening of the Canary Collective Gallery, local photographer Zack Smith has selected from a series of portraits from ongoing projects and assignments. One image, "Preservation Hall - from Holy Cross to St. Peter, 2008" is a multi-exposed Holga photograph from a recent shoot for Preservation Hall Jazz Band staged at the levee near the Holy Cross neighborhood in the 9th Ward. From the ongoing series "People I Know" series, "Candy Store Grilla, 2008" is a portrait of writer Patrick Strange at a candy store, in a gorilla suit, flanked by two lovely women and a lot of candy. Come see the rest.

Blake Haney’s work stems from his work in New Orleans and New York from 2005 to 2007 using his Holga Camera. All works are digital C-Prints with Plexi Mount Frames. Each image is the first in limited series of 10. The works presented will be Preservation 13, Don’t Walk 11 to 12 and Light 11 through 14.


When:
Saturday, August 2nd, White Linen Night. 6-10pm.

Where:
The CANARY Gallery. 329 Julia Street, corner of Commerce and Julia.

About CANARY:
A collaborative multimedia studio and event space, CANARY was founded with the intention of bringing all forms of creative expression to the Arts District. Part working studio, part gallery, part event space, 329 Julia will mine the local community and collaborate with various organizations in the New Orleans community dedicated to different facets of the arts and media.

Follow up to oil Spill

80 miles of river affected.
Wildlife refuge already affected.
Tourism affected.
Oh, and tons of cargo and other priceless commodities that the rest of the country survives on.
Affected.

Dirty Coast brands some fans!

OOO That Smell....

Basically, if you do the math...10,000 barrels is approximately 400,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil, ready to ignite. Not to mention mixing in the Mississippi forming a gumbo of harm to the environment.
A 29-mile stretch of the Mississippi River could remain closed for days after a tanker collided with a barge being pulled by a tugboat, slicing the barge in half and causing hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil to spill into the waterway.
So, thats what is going on... for a minute, I thought it was the fleets of road repair warriors slappin' (and I use that term loosely) tar and oil and all the makings of asphalt who were to blame for noxious odor. The Irish Channel has been over run with them for brief spurts of time now going on 2 months. We have new curbs and totally destroyed (worse than they were) streets. Supposedly, this "One" project will eventually restore all roads to a smooth condition as well as update the seweRage system.
For now, no one seems to really be using the curbs.....

If you are any where with in 10 blocks of the river you are inhaling it.

"State Department of Environmental Quality officials warned the unrefined, tar-like # 6 fuel oil is so thick that it could sink, complicating the cleanup efforts. Therefore, the fuel oil won't simply evaporate off the surface, which means workers will try to remove it before it starts to sink.

"This is not our first rodeo; we've seen spills before," said Roland Guidry of the Oil Spill Coordinator's Office."

Thanks Mr. Guidry, for the vote of confidence in your office's efforts.
I would like to know how the companies involved in the accident will be accountable for their actions in destroying the air I breathe.

I am thankful the rain came to wash some out of the air but the sooner I get to New Mexico, the sooner I can detox.

Metal Friar

THE ITALIAN CATHOLIC MONK RELEASES HIS SECOND HEAVY METAL ALBUM. Read more.....
Information is not knowledge,
Knowledge is not wisdom,
Wisdom is not truth,
Truth is not beauty,
Beauty is not love,
Love is not music,
Music is the best!
-Frank Zappa

Gonzo = Gonzeaux

A Little known fact about the origins of "Gonzo" I stumbled across in a search for James Booker heirs:
Gonzo is derived from Gonzeaux.
"The term "gonzo" was first used by Boston Globe editor Bill Cardoso in 1970 when he described Hunter S. Thompson's The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved, which was written for the June 1970 Scanlan's Monthly, as "pure gonzo journalism"[1]. Cardoso claimed that "gonzo" was South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after a drinking marathon[2]. Cardoso also claimed that it was a corruption of the French Canadian word "gonzeaux", which means "shining path", although this disputed[3]. The word may have been inspired by the 1960 hit song Gonzo by New Orleans R&B keyboardist James Booker."

Serious (Sesame) Street Cred

Mr. Burns, Howard Dean, and an I-Phone

Yesterday, I somehow managed to meet Mr. Burns from the Simpsons(Harry Shearer) and shake Howard Dean's hand then end my struggling 8 year relationship with Verizon (YIPEE!) as well as receive an "old" iphone from Patrick because he got his 3g.
Harry was in a photo shoot for Dirty Coast. We designed a shirt for levees.org and he agreed to make the cameo in support. Exxxxxxcellent!
There was a rally to register voters w/ an appearance by Howard Dean. I was holding a mic as close as I could towards the PA because we were filming the event as well as averting my attention from Nagin who came off of the bus first (bad move democrats). I receive a elbow nudge from the woman next to me because I am not paying attention & realize that Howard Dean is sticking his hand out towards me to shake my hand. Opps! Even greater was the fact that he pointed at my Geauxbama sticker and said Nice. I let Patrick hand him some stickers. Even Howard Dean likes stickers :)
I am so relieved and over-joyed to be done with Verizon. I mean for years they have falsely charged hundreds of dollars which I have had to pay to keep my phone on as well as illegally changed my plan so that I would incur overages amounting in the hundreds. They have NO "OFFICIAL" Verizon location in Orleans Parrish. Oh, there is the "fake" Verizon on Magazine but they can only "take" your money. They can not offer you customer assistance. And so, I can never actually speak to a human about their unscrupulous business practices. Now, I can feel justified at least a bit...knowing I managed to transfer my number to atnt without even having to speak with a Verizon rep. As soon as I transfer all of my contacts I am scheming an "office space" type scenario which will end in my tossing the Verizon phone into the Mississippi!

FYYFF event in honor of Ashley Morris

Although I barely knew him personally there are at least two monumental moments which stand out in my life recently which involve Ashley.
First is the Krewe De Vieux parade of 2006. There he was on the "Buy us back Chirac" float in all his glory.
Second, he was a subject in the first "official" production I did for Humid Beings.




For those of you who aren't familiar with Ashley Morris and his contribution to this city's Cast of Colorful Characters or of his devotion to The Saints:
Chris Rose: We'll miss the Blogger next door
The Ashely Morris Blog
Remember Ashley Morris

Dirty Coast Press, The Rising Tide and the Big Easy Roller Girls Present:
FYYFF It's Black and Gold Forever
A Fund-raiser for the Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation
Featuring:
The Big Easy Roller Girls
The Other Planets
Simon Lott, Helen Gillet, Justin Peake , Diamond Kinkade,
Fleur de Tease "Nude Is Nice" performance
Supa Saint
and emcee Andrew Ward - The Reverend Pysch Ward.
DEFEND NEW ORLEANS T-Shirts
Proceeds from the raffle and the auction as well as the T-Shirts will be donated by the Morris family to the Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation which will be used to present FYYFF Awards at later dates.
Location:
One-Eyed Jacks
Saturday July 26
Doors 8p
$10 cover

Supa Saint has Supa Baby Boy!

Welcome Supa Baxter!

Inappropriation of $

Usually this is the pavilion where Niki and I practice our katas with Dr. G once a week. Sometimes there are skaters. Other times, groups of men after work eating crawfish and drinking beer.
Always there are brides to be having their photos done.
I secretly keep looking in the paper, waiting for the day when I will see us in the background of a photo in the Nuptials Section. Who wouldn't want a Ninja in their photo?
As if the wedding photo shoots weren't enough,
they are commercializing our Ninja area.
Which really bewilders me because the area is in such better shape than other areas. And it is already utilized by many people.
So, I am confused.

"Great Lawn" project in City Park

Why can't they appropriate some funds to clean up Pontchartrain Beach? Or other areas in dire need of some grant money.
A few dollars for some trash cans at least.
It's summer it is hot. We don't have a 5 star beach but we have an area on water, cooler than the city, on the edge of the city, that looks like the dump most of the time. I guess it is too much to have trash pick-up stop there on it's way to or from UNO and so therefor there is no point in putting trash cans out there. Logical that they would use the "pick-up" dilema as the reason for not having receptacles for trash placement. And there are those of us willing to take our trash with us. But we don't count.
Whoa rant! I really wish I could have access to a close body of water with a CLEAN beach.
Why can't the funds go to anything other than a place already well taken care of and used by the public?

Nola Ninja Girl for President!

Good times @ my favorite pub, Molly's, with my friends from Nederland

Gino is the reason I had the opportunity to live in the Netherlands. He is living the dream in New Orleans now.

And then there is Karel. The infamous guy who biked me on his broken bicycle while I had to carry my bag of puke many miles in Amsterdam after I made the mistake of combining Absinthe, Alcohol and pure weit joints. He finally made it to America and this time it was I who rode him on the tandem around my city. No puke involved.

Zydepunks!

Listen Here

Attention Europe. Belgium. Nederland. Surrounding countries.
The Zydepunks, from New Orleans are touring your beautiful side of the world this summer.
Don't think of kidnapping them because I will send out my ninjas, but do make it to hear them live.... You'll thank me.

Even if Scott wasn't a friend and previous Super Star employee, I would see the greatness in their music. Or the fact that Joe (and his gal, Heidi) were two of the first people I met when I moved to New Orleans. The husband and wife duo wielding accordions, how many times have you seen that? Then there is Denise. I met her one of my only nights working for Moonlight Cafe back in Nov. 06 when times were indeed rough enough for me to accept a gig @ such a crap hole but I met one person that night, a highly intelligent violinist/fiddler who was desperately seeking a meal as were we all in those times. Unfortunately, she and the others came in only to find none of the kitchen staff had shown up that night and that beer was to be her meal too. Eventually she and Scott fell in love each other and in band with the Zydepunks.
This group is rich in soul but not the soul music soul rather the soul deep inside soul. Their music is a reflection of this.
Now, go back to the link and listen!

NOPD Targets the homeless with entrapment

MOVING TARGET

The NOPD baits the homeless and other perpetrators with beer, candy and cigarettes to net burglary arrests.

Read full article here

Dancing to your own beat

Overcoming Obstacles

Failure to be paralinguistic

Why do we continually ignore the importance of communicating our selves?
Personally, I focus on what I am linked to at all times. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. Be it the company I keep or the messages I send out into the world via my behaviors or speech.

Communication. According to dictionary.com anyway.
bulletin, call, connection, contact, conversation, directive, esp, exchange, fax, impartment, intelligence, intercommunication, intercourse, kinesics, language, letter, liaison, link, message, news, note, phatic, radiogram, report, telegram, telepathy,
telephone, telex, transmission, wavelength, wire

I set out in search of a word other than communication to try and offer a newfangled perspective on a communication issue to a friend who is constantly failing to communicate with those in her life.
Communication is and always will be the most important function of our world.
Communication is the basis for our life.
All other mammals have mastered their communication skills with each other.
Stupid humans!
The more I stop to analyze situations or people, the more I realize that most of our problems as human beings seem to all somehow boil down to a gumbo of mis-communications.
I stumbled across this link in my search:
The big issues? War, hunger, and oppression, of course. After that, questions of human communication seem pretty important to me.
Especially since the landscape we stand on is shifting. [Update: The comments on this piece are fantastic. My profound thanks to the contributors.]

Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years, more or less. Evidence suggests that human language has to be at least 50,000 years old, and there are reasonable arguments (cf. Chomsky) that it goes back about as far as we do.

For most of those years, the only way for people to use language was to be in each others’ presence. But as time has unfolded we’ve been fixing that problem. Not, however at an even pace:
Age in Years
(2007 estimate)
Homo sapiens ~200,000
Language >50,000
Writing 5,000
Telephone 131
Broadcasting 101
E-Mail 25
IRC 19
Texting 15
IM 11
Blogging 10
Twitter 1

Leading us to the marvels of Technology and the advances of communication in that respect.

However, I can't help thinking about how the advances in technology seem to enhance the lack of immediate conversation, one on one/real time call it like it is at that moment communication.

I honestly feel a strong, dare I say telepathic , connection to those I love and share my life with. I even feel this sometimes for random complete strangers who are friends of lovers of cousins of mothers.
Is this psychic ability? I am not ready to define it but it is more than chance. Is our communication being broken down by the forces that keep us in touch with the world? The more we loose touch with the world, the more we loose touch with ourselves and our inner communicative tools? I have been pondering that for a while.

My martial Arts instructor, Dr. G, gave me a book to read which after 2 weeks I finally cracked open. It is a great reinforcement to observations of the true power of communication previously in my life and with some techniques to improve the execution of this power.
In my brief study in linguistics, I truly discovered the power of the mind and it's splendor. Fascinating, really.
Words are intentions and intentions can be used to create "magic". Magic is a wish come true. I grasp these concepts because I make things happen. I see examples every day. I just need to learn to also accept the disappointment of NOT making it happen. Sour with the Sweet.
And to my friend... only by communicating your true wants and needs will you ever change your reality. It is that simple. Decide what YOU want & need and don't stop til you make it happen!

If you could make one wish
and you knew it would be granted,
what would you wish for?

Think about it.
Visualize it.

.....watch it work, real magic.