travel plans

[rubato]

First of all we're going to New Orleans for the last weekend of Jazz Fest plus a few days. ACOG rotates their annual meeting through NO periodically and this year opportunity and impulse coincided for us to go. 1 airfare and the hotel is paid up by medical education leave so it's a cheap trip.

One of my favorite places on earth and it has shaped a lot of my life. I grew up in a house full of 78 rpm records of Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney DeParis, Muggsy Spanier &c and many piano rolls of Morton, Cow Cow Davenport, Steven J. Lewis and others. Later on I heard the great James Booker, Professor Longhair, Mac Rebennac, Neville Brothers, Meters, Radiators, Irma Thomas, and even heard Clifton Chenier at the old Club Zayante. Musically, it is the richest place on earth, by far.

We'll probably go to the Audubon Zoo, Jean Lafitte national park (in Barataria), the aquarium (It's new so I haven't seen it) and we're staying in or near the Vieux Carre so there will be a lot of walking around in addition to the Jazz Fest at the racetrack. Restaurants on our list are Commander's Palace, (my BIL worked his way through college as a waiter there), Brennan's, K-Pauls, Antones, Pascal Menalis but there is a long list of others.

It will feel strange flying instead of driving there. Somehow the journey and effort made the arrival more interesting before. Every year I would vary the route through the colorado plateau, either there or back, or detour through Death Valley. There was a decent separation between ordinary reality and being in New Orleans.


Secondly we are torn between returning to France or doing a combined Spain-France trip in the fall. It is it France-only we'll fly to Paris for a few days and then take the TGV (which means really fast train in French) to the coast around Bayonne for part of a week. If it is Spain-France we'll fly to Barcelona and then drive from there. The weight of opinion is currently on the France-only trip.

yrs,
rubato

[Jarlaxle]

Here's a penny, call someone who gives a shit.

[dales]

....or detour through Death Valley. There was a decent separation between ordinary reality....

Go up thru Goler Wash and head to Barker Ranch. That was Charles Manson's last stand before his capture in October 1969 by Inyo County Sherriffs Dept. There's your seperation between ordinary reality and the "other".

Oh, Barker was torched in May 2010 by persons unknown so it's just a shell now.

[rubato]

Flights and hotel booked for the week.

Just starting to work on reservations at restaurants.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Have they finished fixing up New Orleans yet?

Last time Clarkson visited he was appalled at how badly the rebuild was going, and how little care for the people there was on offer. "Insects are better at looking after their own than this," was his notable comment/quote.

[rubato]

Who the fuck is Clarkson and why should anyone give a rat's ass what he/she thinks?


For that matter you've never been to the US and didn't even know how many native cultures and languages are here. Piss off, boy.


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

So I'll take that as a; "No we haven't rebuilt the place," then, shall I?

[rubato]

So I'll take that as a; "No we haven't rebuilt the place," then, shall I?

No, you can take as a "if you're such a shitheel that your only information about New Orleans comes from a television auto-show comedian who was there seven years ago (+/-) then no one gives a crap what you think".


Clear enough?


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

So they haven't? Shame.

[rubato]

So they haven't? Shame.

You are ignorant of anything about us you have never been here, you believe uncritically, reports which are 7 years old as if they are current, you are a moron..


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

It's still happening?

[rubato]

It's still happening?

Your mental defect? Yes, it is still happening.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

No joy on the rebuild? Shame.

[dales]

Flights and hotel booked for the week.

Just starting to work on reservations at restaurants.

yrs,
rubato

Wear a clean shirt.

[Sean]

You absolute arse Strop!

Coming on here, asking your reasonable questions...
You deserve everything you get!

Sic him Rooby! Good boy.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I have no idea what the "shape" of NO at this late date after Katrina. My duaghter was there for Mardi GRas last year and she said the city looked fine. But there is "fine" and there is "not fine" Go outside of the city to the poorer neighborhoods and I am sure disaster still is seen. Who's fault? I doubt it is/was the need for money. I would imagine that many houses were that of renters and the landlord/owner might have rather taken the money and left what was left as is (or razed) and is now waiting for values to go up and just sell it and get out.

I'm sure a lot of that will happen here on LI as places like Mastic and Mastic beach are lower income areas which have a lot of rentals rather than owner occupied. A guy I know just bought a house down in Mastic for $30,000. Needs a lot of work but he is doing much himself and perhaps he'll make $100k when all is said and done. In the mean time, it is still livable and the way rents are on LI, $30k is about a years worth for a house.

Parts are fixed, Parts are going to be fixed and some parts will never be fixed, in NO and here on LI.

[dales]

Have they got the power turned on yet?

[oldr_n_wsr]

Have they got the power turned on yet?

Mostly, although there are more than a few houses who may never get their power turned on nor might not be houses much longer.
Biggest problem now is getting money released either from the go, the insurance people or the banks. With the insurance, a lot of the money goes to the banks (who hold the mortgages) who then have to check and see if the work is done, then they will pay the contractor/homeowner. If the homeowner cannot lay out at least some of the cost, many contractors will not take the job.
Still a lot of people in FEMA hotels. Glad FEMA has all those trailers they were going to bring in.
I heard they are still stuck somewhere in Pa.

[dales]

Yeah, I remember all the grief that George Bush caught during the FEMA fiasco in Now Orleans.

Nary a peep out of the media for FEMA fustercluck after SuperStorm Sandy.

Why is that?

[Crackpot]

Because
A it hasn't been nearly as long
B there hasn't (as of yet) been any complaints of the trailers giving off toxic gasses