Mayor Nagin began his comments at the news conference by saying, “How am I gonna stand up and say, I’m a ‘vagina-friendly’ Mayor to these cameras after ‘Chocolate City’ and some of the other stuff that I’ve done. But you know what? I’m in.” In context, Nagin’s comments are welcoming the tenth anniversary of playwright Eve Ensler’s empowering tale, The Vagina Monologues. After watching the directorial debut of Mitchell Lichtenstein, Teeth, which was the prized independent film at the Sundance Film Festival of 2007, one wonders if Nagin knows of the consequences of crossing the V. Teeth had its’ theatrical release in 2007 and has been released on DVD this week. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston
When they came onto the Gentilly Stage in front of a thin crowd on what was otherwise a very packed last Sunday, I really had no idea what to expect. Then they picked up their guitars and absolutely dominated.

The Raconteurs basically put forth a hard cutting though soulful rock and roll that usually doesn’t slip past the baby-boomer funk loving talent net of the Jazz Fest. Led by Jack White of the White Stripes with Brendan Benson to his right on vocals and guitar along with the rest of the band behind them, they rocked the set so thoroughly that the leftovers from Galactic and early birds for the Radiators just looked at them and said “huh?” Read the rest of this entry »