You just knew he couldn’t keep his nose out of this…

New Orleans expert gives advice on Haiti

Dr. Edward Blakely, former Executive Directory for Recovery Management for New Orleans, lectured on urban disaster recovery strategies and crisis leadership to about 20 people in a discussion hosted by the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Blakely used examples from Hurricane Katrina to demonstrate how a society should recover from such disastrous occurrences, now including the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, if they want to be prepared for and alleviate future consequences.

Blakely first emphasized the importance of engineering. He said political figures often make promises of rebuilding without really understanding how the rebuilding process works.

“We need to delay building in the present in order to obtain long-term goals for the future,” he said. “Recovery is very different from emergency assistance.”

And if anyone knows about delaying building….

Blakely said the main goal should be to start with the future, not the past. He suggested that Haiti take its time coming up with a long-term plan, instead of just a quick fix that is likely to fail in the short term and cause future issues.

Why, Blakely, why? What did Haiti ever do to you? If you can’t help those poor people, can’t you just leave them alone?

It takes some doing to kerfuffle both the readers of the Daily Kos and, say, Michelle Malkin, but Audi managed to do it during last night’s Super Bowl with its “Green Police” commercial. Here it is:

In precis: Cheap Trick sing a version of their insanely catchy “Dream Police” retitled “Green Police,” in which Americans are busted for using incandescent lights, requesting plastic bags at the grocery store, not composting orange parings and a host of other infractions. At the end, an Audi driver sails past a Green Police checkpoint while a title card appears: “Green has never felt so right.”

The problem is that in our black-and-white, liberal-and-conservative, spell-it-all-out world, no one seems to know whether Audi was making fun of the eco-conscious, or cheering for the eco-conscious — and without that spelled out plainly in Big Capital Letters, those on both sides of the issue could agree on one thing: They didn’t like it. (For similar suspicious, puzzled reactions from polar opposite ends of the eco-spectrum, go here and here. Bonus points if you can count the number of people who say some sort of variation on “I’ve got as much of a sense of humor as anyone, but…)

So what was the intent of the commercial? To get people talking about Audi, of course. And by that standard, it was a success. Did it make me want to buy one? No, but it did make me want to get a copy of Cheap Trick’s greatest hits.

Edited to add: Now CBS News is weighing in on the puzzlement:

Environmentalists weren’t sure whether to celebrate or denigrate the spot. Grist magazine’s David Roberts writes that at first blush it seemed like an appeal “to angry white men with the same old stereotype of environmentalists as meddling do-gooders obsessed with picayune behavioral sins.”

“The more I’ve thought about it, though, the more [that] interpretation just doesn’t quite fit,” he goes on to say. “The thrill at the end, when they guy gets to accelerate away from the crowd, turns on satisfying the green police — not rejecting or circumventing them, but satisfying their strict standards. The authority of the green police is taken for granted, never questioned. If you’re looking to appeal to mooks who think the green police are full of it and have no authority, moral or otherwise, why would you make a commercial like that?”

Conservatives also seem to be split: While Newsbusters writes, seemingly approvingly, of the spot’s “futurist vision of environmentalism running amok,” Bob Ellis called it an “downright offensive” and “presented with too much seriousness to be taken any other way than as approval of such Gestapo tactics.”

And sometimes a car commercial is just a car commercial.

It would be nice to think you might get these shoes at the Muses parade on Thursday. Terence Blanchard and Robin Burgess already have the shoe on the right, which they received yesterday, before second-lining on St. Charles Avenue after the Super Bowl. The original picture of Fats Domino and Drew Brees from last year’s Domino Effect concert is after the jump. Photos and shoes by Erika Goldring.

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If you didn’t have fun last night, well then you are just a sorry human being (or a Colts fan, which is about the same). Oh and guess what? It’s Mardi Gras. Boom.

I’ve been trying to get my head around the fact that the Saints actually won the Super Bowl ever since the on-sides kick heard ’round the world and Tracy Porter’s immortal pick six. It’s as if everything that happened has been repeating itself on a video loop in slow motion in my mind — and also right in front of me at the same time. It just hasn’t sunk in yet.

THE SAINTS HAVE WON THE S-U-P-E-R B-O-W-L!

No matter how many times I say it or hear it, I just can’t grasp the enormity of it. Tears won’t do it justice, no matter how long and often they flow. And words? Well, fuggetaboutit.

Then I started thinking about other great comebacks, other great but unlikely heroes, and I immediately thought of Seabiscuit, the unlikeliest thoroughbred champion of all time — and, fittingly, “the people’s champion.” Seabiscuit was small, knobby-kneed and had a funny (i.e. defective) gait, but the little bay colt was all heart — much like our Saints, and very much like our QB, Drew Brees.

The Saints’ victory last night over the Colts was, in so many ways, the NFL equivalent of Seabiscuit’s 1938 match-race victory over War Admiral. The imposing War Admiral had won the Triple Crown a year earlier and came from one of America’s most prestigious racing stables. Seabiscuit was a cast-off, the scorn of racing’s cognoscenti, hobbled by adversity and injuries, trained by an unorthodox nobody, and ridden by a half-crippled, washed-up, too-tall-to-ride and blind-in-one-eye jockey. Like the Saints and New Orleans, Seabiscuit and his teammates leaned on each other. Like the Saints have become America’s team, Seabiscuit became America’s horse. Both are perfect symbols of the triumph of the underdog.

Fittingly, Seabiscuit’s match race against War Admiral occurred on November 1, which, as all Saints fans know, is also the birthday of our beloved team. Seabiscuit defied all the odds and won that race by dint of old-fashioned hard work, preparation, and grit. Likewise, Drew Brees out-performed our beloved native son Payton Manning (of whom I am a devoted, lifelong fan) through hard work, preparation, and grit. And one more thing: Like Seabiscuit, Drew Brees is ALL HEART. We Saints fans saw it all season long, and the world saw it in the glow of victory last night, as he held up his son while his eyes glistened over with tears and he dedicated the victory to the people of New Orleans.

New Orleans, that most un-American of cities, has given the nation America’s Team. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to shake Drew Brees’ hand, but if I do, I’m just gonna say, “Thanks, Seabiscuit.”

Wow, what a night! The 2010 citywide elections could signal a turning point in New Orleans politics, much like the 1969 elections. Interestingly, the ’69 race gave us Mayor Moon Landrieu and the ascendency of black political power in New Orleans. This time we’re getting Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the beginning — many hope — of post-racial politics in our city. It’s too early to tell for sure if that’s the case, but the early signs are encouraging.

Here are my observations after sleeping off a hangover and going to Mass to pray for Da Saints:

• It was not about race. What Mitch Landrieu did was amazing enough — winning an “open” mayoral race (i.e., one without an incumbent running) in the primary — but HOW he did it was even more amazing. He is not only the first mayor in modern history to capture a majority of the votes in an open primary, but he’s also the first mayor in all of New Orleans history to win any race with solid majorities among white and black voters. In the past, winning mayors got a huge majority of the votes among one race and enough of a minority among the other to win — but never a big majority among BOTH. Landrieu did that last night, and it portends (I hope) a seismic shift in New Orleans’ political paradigm. That shift is a movement away from racial voting patterns and toward post-racial politics, very much akin to what President Barack Obama did on the national scene. Does it mean race will never matter? No. But hopefully it means that race won’t matter so much. Consider the next point along with this one …

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Take a minute away from your Who Dat preparations and check out this map, compiled by NolaStat’s Brian Denzer — it breaks down last night’s mayoral race precinct by precinct. Denzer writes:

The election of Mitch as mayor with 66% of the vote was a landslide. In the election map completed for NolaStat (3 MB PDF), it’s clear that Mitch won every precinct except for one near Lake Catherine where Georges picked up 12 votes to get the majority. The attached map clearly shows that Mitch won support from a broad base of voters, who sent a signal that we won’t allow our diversity to be turned against us as a weapon to destroy our dreams. We are stronger when we work together toward shared goals.

The map is a large download, and really comprehensive. Thanks to Brian and NolaStat for compiling it.

If you STILL haven’t decided where to watch the game…

OR if the mere suggestion of crunk-azz brass band music before during and after the victory of the Saints Superbowl win is enough to curl your toes and make you chuck all other ill-plotted plans…

OR if you live downtown and wanna catch the the game close to home but not in the home and are looking to keep it hood simple…

OR all of the above…

Then the Goody’s on St. Claude at Louisa is what’s popping today, tonight and every Sunday night.

Opened last Thanksgiving weekend, Goody’s is the new jumping spot downtown. The restaurant bar, launched by Stooges Brass Band trombonist Garfield Bogan, features weekly performances by the Stooges and is home to the second line and brass band community as well and Bogan’s motorcycle club the Tru Riders’. The club also hosts regular poetry nights and has plans in the works to bring in other music acts such as the Baby Boys Brass Band. “New Orleans don’t really have live music on the strip,” says Bogan. “We’re about to bust the strip wide open.”

For the colossal WHO DAT! game today, Goody’s is serving free red beans and rice and fried chicken and featuring a Saint’s themed Black and Gold rum cocktail and music sets by the Stooges. The kitchen is also serving its full menu of creole soul food which has been characterized by regulars as “off the chain” (the crawfish pasta and the onion rings are the items customers were making the most noise over).

Above is a clip from a weekly set (now moved from Thursdays to Sundays at 9pm) by the house band known known for creating the most fun performances on the second line parade route. Stooges got the good good - now on the regular, stationed at Goody’s Restaurant and Bar 3200 St. Claude Ave. (504) 470-9000. Kitchen open 11am-9pm daily except for Tuesdays

…with numbers larger than any pundits predicted. Official numbers soon.