In the first spring following the federal levee failures, a group of Mid-City neighbors took time away from rebuilding their ruined homes and damaged small businesses to create a new music and art festival called the Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo on Bayou St. John.

The free festival proved a huge success, and doubled in size when it was hosted for a second time this past spring, drawing an estimated 12,000 people, according to Read the rest of this entry »

The mental health crisis continues. LSU’s Health Sciences Center recently conducted a survey of 1,638 school children, grades 4-12, and found that 54 percent of them met the criteria for either Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression. The New Orleans Coroner’s Office has data that shows the suicide rate in New Orleans has tripled since the storm. Read the rest of this entry »

The 3rd annual “Magazine Street Retail Relief” event will take place this Saturday, Nov. 3rd.

Get in Shape: Put on your walking shoes and walk the 5 mile stretch in and out of Magazine St. shops. (Calories Burned: 500) Read the rest of this entry »

 by Sam Winston
Forget about Poydras Street, the Dome Foam and the “Who Dat” chant. Next year we’re 2nd-lining down the Champs Elysees in our black and gold sipping bordeaux, munching on a baguette with brie and shouting with disdain “Qui est la!” Err, what?

With the NFL’s Giants/Dolphins game officially deemed a “success” in London this past Sunday, there is the very real possibility that the Saints could go to play a game in Europe in the coming years. What more logical place for the Fleur De Lis toting New Orleans Saints than Paris? Read the rest of this entry »

A statement which once would have received blank stares is now my reality.

This weekend I am really going shopping in Baton Rouge, not Houston– Baton Rouge.

Z Gallerie, one of my favorite furniture and accessories store which I discovered two years ago in West Palm Beach, and have been visiting their website ever since, opened in Baton Rouge’s new Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking rocks in the hot sun isn’t something most people usually want to do, but considering what fellow New Orleanian Monique Pilie did to get 47 volunteers out planting trees this past Saturday, a couple of hours with shovels and pickaxes is nothing.

Pilie’s family has lived in New Orleans since the 1700s and when Hurricane Katrina hit, Pilie felt a deep sense of loss like most of us did. Not discounting the enormous tragedy of lost lives and homes, Pilie also mourned Read the rest of this entry »

The common theme of the 9 playlets that comprise Root [Cel.lar] seems to be “the basement”, that is, 7 of the playlets are set in a basement, 1 in Hell, and 1 by Rob Tsarov is just plain dark, like a cellar. I like these thematic presentations of short plays by local playwrights, like the recent Beignet Plays at Le Chat Noir. Even if 1 or 2 suck, you’re bound to see something good. And there was good work to see Read the rest of this entry »

Please click here for all Voodoo Music Fest posts.

by Sam Winston

The soap opera that is New Orleans continued last week with more than enough backstabbing, heartbreak, and double plot twists to boot. President Bush started it all off by shucking Kathleen Blanco in a string of nauseating Katrina comparisons during the wildfires in southern California. The gulf coast was quick to shout them down but it was a Los Angeles Times columnist that set the record straight and called out the fluff being tossed about.

The drama, however, was just getting started as Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston

Just in case you can’t hear so well, that collective shouting coming from the nola blogosphere is against District Attorney Eddie Jordan, most often calling for him to resign. Responding to the news that Jordan’s discriminatory firing of white employees could cost the city $3.7 million, one blogger posted a letter to his councilmember Stacy Head proposing the city pay the tab only on the condition that Read the rest of this entry »