It’s pushing 90′ here in Hull along heavy humidity. Just like home!

The folks here went thru this drill during the great floods of 1993.
Which brings us to yet another similarity. That year Corps of
Engineers waited too long to blow the levees down river, allowing much
greater damage than could have been avoided.

Sandbagging is a bit of an art. A team of five is ideal: one shoveler,
two baggers and two to tie the bags. Two shovels full makes for a
perfect bag. Once our pile has hit critical mass, a flock of National
Guardsmen descends to fill up the front loader. Then it’s off to the
levee for reinforcing.

The presence of New Orleanians here is quite the spectacle. Most
everyone has recognised us from last night’s newscast. The folks here
are delighted - really taken aback - that we’ve pulled away from our
own issues to come up river and lend a hand during their time of need.

The Annunciation-Broadmoor team managed some sleep, then up at 6a to
start our day. We were led to the Quincy Civic Center which is the
epicenter of sandbagging. Last week this mostly volunteer operation
loaded and shiped 1,000,000+ sandbags.

I was struck immediately by the mayor being on hand to greet the
volunteers and help lead them to their assignments. Part of my
assignment here is to observe differences between Quincy and New
Orleans. Major difference number one: their mayor is present, engaged
and appears to know what’s going on. And … he skipped a meeting
Florida to be here for this crisis.

Some things, however, are the same. When one of our team asked, “How
is FEMA doing here?” the response was “We haven’t seen them yet.”

The sandbagging operation is a fascinating sight. There are convicts,
Mennonites, the elderly, police and firemen, kids of all ages and on
it goes all pitching in. A group of Mennonites from Iowa who lost
everything in the floods are down here helping try to save others.
Yesterday the convicts had a race with the National Guard to see who
could fill the most bags. Convicts won going away.

They still have their infrastructure in tact so it’s all amazingly
smooth and efficient. The New Orleanians forgot to sign in so we
screwed up their entire intake process. Big surprise.

We’ve just learned that a critical levee in the
town of Hull is in jeopardy so we’re racing there to lend a hand with
the reinforcement efforts which are going on 24/7. More later.

Editor’s note: Father Jerry Kramer is the pastor at the Free Church of the Annunciation, an Episcopal church in Broadmoor. Since the levee failures, Kramer’s church has ran one of the Gulf Coast’s largest Katrina relief centers, serving more than 85,000 people to date. Kramer would be the first to admit that this assistance wouldn’t have been possible without the thousands of volunteers that have come to New Orleans rescue.

One of the biggest contributor’s to Annunciation’s efforts has been the Diocese of Quincy, Illinois, which made more than 20 trips with volunteers to the New Orleans area. The volunteers brought much-needed supplies, rehabilitated homes and have donated 10,000 books to Broadmoor’s Rosa Keller Library. Last week, Quincy suffered its own disaster when the Mississippi River overflowed its banks and flooded the town. Yesterday, Kramer and three others from the church left New Orleans to travel to Quincy. This will be the first of many trips for Kramer to Quincy as he and flock return a favor and lend a hand to those in need.

The following is Kramer’s journal of the trip. For more information about Annunciation’s mission to Quincy and New Orleans programs, please visit www.annunciationbroadmoor.org

Wednesday, June 25

Arrived in Quincy, Illinois at 10:30 p.m. after fourteen hours on the road. With me are Sonya, Mark and Mike. But I feel as though the entire community is with and behind us on this journey. It feels like it’s part pilgrimage, part mission trip, part doing what Louisianans do and part adventure into a piece of our own past.

Signs of high water began to appear as we approached St. Louis; ballparks under water, could see just the tops of the backstops. Some of my church members wanted to make the trip but feared their PTSD might flare up when seeing high water; they may well have been right. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to handle all of what might lie ahead. Nearly three years post Katrina I still often dream at night of crying.

We’re staying in the home of a delightful senior couple. The spry woman told us not to make our beds in the morning, her job was to “wait on us.” Sandbagging starts at 6a in these parts.

While the area floods, people are taking a break from filling sandbags to fill the corner bars. We’ve been promised beer and music Friday night when our work is done. This would appear to be the perfect fit and sister city for us.

Coming to the Saturn Bar tonight are a pair of bands from the Siltbreeze label, a Philadelphia-based indie outfit which specializes in acts that stir a little sand into the vaseline of psychedelia. Ohio’s Psychedelic Horseshits - who were noted in this month’s Spin for the dubious distinction of coining the phrase “shitgaze” to distinguish their sound from its sonic cousin from the ’90s - add a gratingly lo-fi screech and grind to the textured hum and whirr of shoegaze pop. It’s the flip side of sunny, lulling psych-rock: these guys have gleefully eaten the brown acid. They’re joined by the chanting, impressionistic trippy-techno merchants Fabulous Diamonds, whose trebly, repetitive drone is hypnotic in a way cult leaders might utilize for mass brainwashing. If you like music that’s vaguely disturbing, this is an evening of entertainment made just for you.

Opening up is the surrealistic puppet show “The Haunted Art Gallery,” (above) courtesy of Ninth Ward puppet mistress Miss Pussycat. 10 p.m. at the Saturn Bar, 3067 St. Claude Ave.

To Do Productions brings Gertrude Stein and a Companion to the Marigny Theatre beginning with a special preview on Thursday, June 26. Win Wells’ play is a touching and poingnant portrait of Gertrude Stein, the Lost Generation writer, and her companion Alice B. Toklas. Stein was an American who spent most of her life in France and counted Ernest Hemingway as well as avant garde artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse among her circle of friends. Her Saturday night salons gained acclaim as a meeting place for intellectuals and artists. The play begins at the time of Stein’s death and tells her story through a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, looking at the development of her relationship with Toklas and the Parisian expatriate community of the 1920s. The opening performance is a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, an appropriate choice since Stein died from cancer in 1946. The Crescent City Outlaws sponsors the fundraiser. Mention the group when reserving tickets for subsequent shows and a donation will be made to the foundation. Glenn Meche directs Karen Shields as Gertrude and Lisa Davis as Toklas. The production runs at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays through July 13. Tickets are $25 general admission, $15 seniors/students. Call 948-9608 for more information and for reservations. — Allison Good

 While a growing number of people and media outlets, Gambit Weekly included, want Gov. Jindal to veto the proposed legislative pay raise, that’s not the only bill that should be struck down. Jindal’s pen is getting rusty, and if he wants to warm it up for the squashing of the Legislature’s windfall, then SB 733, Louisiana Science Education Act (aka “Sneaking the Bible into Biology Class”) would be a great place to start

As previously noted, this legislation is a veiled attempt to bring Creationism’s latest incarnation, Intelligent Design, into Louisiana’s classrooms. Just as the Legislature left the pay raise question up to Jindal, they’re leaving the question of science up to the man who majored in biology at Brown University and graduated with honors. In case Gov. Jindal doesn’t know how other states have dealt with this issue, he could always consult with Pennsylvania’s U.S. District and find out why the Discovery Institute’s idea of science belongs in comic books and not text books. And if that’s not enough evidence for our governor, he could look at this, this and this, and, most of all, remember this. 

Quick question: If Jindal doesn’t veto this bill, should he return his degree to Brown? 

The gravel path leading to the entrance was decorated with candles, and white Christmas lights strung along the wooden stairs lit the main entrance to the evening’s event. Outside, participants and spectators arrived by the dozens, car tires crunching the rocky broken parking lot pavement as they pulled up and stopped alongside the railroad tracks. A few renegade models stood off to the side of the building smoking pre-show cigarettes, half dressed in an array of colorful thrift store plumage — offering a glimpse of what was yet to come.

Read the rest of this entry »

By: Jeremy Alford

After more than a month of waiting, the House last week overwhelmingly refused to renew a series of fees on shrimpers. The Legislature first established the fees in 2005 at the industry’s request to help pay for Louisiana’s share of an international trade petition filed by the Southern Shrimp Alliance. The move was intended to address illegal “dumping” of foreign shrimp below the cost of production. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sam Winston

I will say this straight up. I am not a Lil Wayne fan. Ever since the Hot Boys days, I’ve always found him kind of annoying. Needless to say I’m not the only one that’s shocked he is tearing up the music industry right now having sold a million copies of his latest album Tha Carter III in just one week.

What happened between him being the little kid gimmick of the Cash Money crew to the latest guilty pleasure of every ITunes listener who buys less than three rap albums a year?

I remember an And1 Mixtape Tour at the New Orleans Arena where Lil Wayne, Cash Money record label owner Brian “Baby” or “Birdman” Williams, and producer extraordinaire Manny Fresh performed at halftime about four years ago. They were booed off the floor. Read the rest of this entry »

By: Jeremy Alford

Voters may soon decide whether the state should triple the amount of money each parish receives for producing oil and natural gas. Read the rest of this entry »