NPR continues the love for New Orleans artists. Today Morning Edition did a profile of writer Julie Smith, author of two locally-based mystery series, winner of the Mystery Writers’ of America’s Edgar Award, and owner of one of the finest pads overlooking Frenchmen Street. The piece also revealed that Julie is suffering from a syndrome that’s affected more than a few locals…Katrina Writer’s Block:

The city’s most horrific flaw came to light almost three years ago, during Hurricane Katrina, when it was revealed that billions of dollars spent building levees to protect the city were for naught. The storm devastated the city — and the author. Smith’s last novel was published a week before the storm hit the city. She hasn’t published a book since.

“I’ve had people say to me: ‘I always read mysteries before I got to a city because that’s how I learn what’s really going on there,’ ” says Smith. “I feel like that’s my job, to tell what’s really going on here. And until I figure out what’s really going on here, I’m not sure how to write.”

Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Jim Bernazzani has a way of making people listen. I met him about a month ago at the bar at the Columns Hotel. Wearing blue jeans and a white pique polo shirt with an FBI patch embroidered on it, he was sitting alone having a cocktail. I knew very little about the man at the time, but from the first words he said —— he had me rapt. At first I was listening to see if I could figure out what it was about him that made me want to listen to him — maybe it was his “exotic” Boston accent or the way his words sometimes dipped into a near whisper, making you lean in to hear or ask him to repeat what he just said — but then I just gave in and let myself become engrossed in what turned out to be a memorably stimulating conversation in a small group at the end of the bar for over an hour.

Bernazzani may have a reputation for being “tough talking,” but he can also be vividly expressive. He told some amazing stories about his experiences working for the FBI in the days immediately following Katrina. He talked about the city — as it was and as it is — and about all of the places in the system where it’s all gone wrong. But since he made it clear, to me specifically, that he was speaking off the record, I cannot divulge the details of that exchange, and until now, I had no reason to write about this encounter at all.

But over the weekend, I saw him in an interview on WWL’s “Sunday Morning with Dennis Woltering.” And once again, Bernazzani got and kept my attention — this time not because of the tales he told, but because of the plans he is making.

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Families living in or nearVillage de l’Est in eastern New Orleans finally have a pediatric clinic nearbyto take care of their youngsters’ health-care needs.

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A new cable television show starring New Orleans-based chef Emeril Lagasse debuts tonight with a mini-marathon of six back-to-back episodes.
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Jambalaya, red beans, Zapp’s chips and Hubig’s pies were among the things a group of employees from East Jefferson General Hospital brought to victims of the recent floods in Iowa. Read about it here and here.

Saturday brought the 2nd annual Running of the Bulls through the streets of the French Quarter — just like the famous event at Pamplona, except with the Big Easy Roller Girls, The Krewe of the Rolling Elvi, and all the other details to transform it into something uniquely New Orleanian.

Participants got up at oh-God-o’-clock on a weekend morning to be chased through the streets by the Roller Girls, who gave them a head start before barrelling after the crowds, culling the herd by smacking stragglers with whiffle bats. (Hard.) You can see lots of pictures over at Loki’s great Humid City blog, at Fletcher Mackel’s WDSU blog, and on the Flickr group for the event.

Don’t tell anyone, but I suspect some of these people may have been drinking.