Whether you like the group or not, you can’t say the Alliance for Good Government chose a bad handle. Truth is, many members of the group play politics almost as hardball as anybody else in town. But with a name like THE ALLIANCE FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT, well, it’s got that Good Housekeeping thing going for it.

Which is why candidates spend days — even weeks — working the Alliance membership in advance of the organization’s public forums, which always precede the group’s closed-door endorsement caucuses.

In the Second Congressional District Democratic primary, state Rep. Cedric Richmond of eastern New Orleans landed the Alliance endorsement last night (Wednesday, July 23). It’s a coup for Richmond (oops! That’s another organization…and it might not even exist ay more, but that’s another story), who I figured would face some stiff competition from City Councilman James Carter of Algiers, who has been touted as a reformer by some Uptown types lately.

In a crowded field such as this one, and on a low-turnout day (which is what everyone’s expecting for the Sept. 6 primary), the Alliance endorsement could prove more significant than usual.

The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal heard oral arguments this afternoon (Thursday, July 24) in Jimmy Fahrenholtz’s appeal of a trial judge’s decision earlier this week to toss him from the Sept. 6 Second Congressional District Democratic primary. By law, the court must render a decision within 24 hours — or by a little after 5 p.m. Friday.

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I could be putting my personal safety at risk with this conversation, but what the heck. I really want to know what are the objection is to the Comprehensive Photo Traffic Safety Program (traffic cameras) around New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and
Gretna. People are really steamed about the cameras and some have even said they won’t pay the fines because their use is somehow illegal or should be challenged in court on the grounds of a violation of privacy rights or a lack of eyeball evidence by a uniformed police officer.

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My good friend Ernie the Attorney, with whom I had the extreme pleasure of practicing law more than a decade ago (we spent a lot more time talking about guitars than law) just sent in an interesting couple of “political questions.”

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Someone seems to have painted over a particularly beautiful Dr. Bob sign — a sign that was posted on private property — with some nasty smears of gray paint. Before-and-after photos; language warning ahead. (I’d post the pix here but I don’t have permission from the photographer.)

I certainly have no idea who could’ve done such a thing (and unless you were an eyewitness, neither do you, if you catch my drift), and I don’t have a legal background, so I don’t know exactly which laws may have been broken. Vandalism? Trespassing? I don’t know, but maybe Clancy does. If I see him, I’ll ask him.*

* Talk about it here if you like, but I’m asking — nicely — for everyone to restrain his/her language, because I’ll just have to take the whole thing down otherwise. I’m a guest in this pea patch, and so are you. Are we cool on that?

National Public Radio has named Dr. John’s “You Might Be Surprised” (from his new CD The City That Care Forgot) as its “Song of the Day,” praising the doctor’s “grizzled, gumbo-soaked voice” (sigh — “gumbo-soaked”? Is that like “whiskey-soaked”?).

NPR also profiled the man and his music last month, and so did Gambit’s Alison Fensterstock.

by Alejandro de los Rios

That sound you hear? Oh that’s just Marques Colston’s knee joints rubbing together since he has no cartilage, ligaments, or muscles left in his legs.

Kidding! (Seriously, could you imagine?)

Colston sat out this morning’s practice as a precautionary measure since he had his left knee scoped in the off-season.

Coach Sean Payton had this to say:

“We kept him out of the morning workout because he had some inflammation in his knee and they gave him an injection which was just a lubricant that needs 24 hours to calm down. He’ll go this afternoon and we’ll monitor him.”

Oh we’ll monitor him all right.

Other Saints injury news:

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by Alejandro de los Rios

Boy he looks hot, doesn’t he? I mean hot in the sense that he looks like he’s not enjoying the 86-degree-weather-before-noon. Not hot in the way many women may regard him. I should stop now.

All seemed to go as planned for the Saints recently acquired tight-end. He practiced with the first-team offense — though his reps were limited to protect that left tibia that he broke last season with the Giants — and he even talked to the media.

Just in case you’re wondering, no, there were no bombshells. Pretty much the most controversial thing Shockey said was saying that the New York media is just a bunch of tabloids, but he had nothing but praise for his former team.

Mostly, though, he just seemed genuinely happy to be out of the glaring New York media spotlight. He also caught pretty much every ball thrown his way in drills, much to the pleasure of the Saints fans in attendance. A couple of choice quotes fromhis almost 13-minute long press conference: Read the rest of this entry »

by Alejandro de los Rios

Ok, so maybe I’m a little too excited. After all, camp is three hours away from New Orleans in Jackson, Miss, it was 86 degrees before the sun rose (or so it seemed) and it wasn’t a madhouse of drunk fans in attendance (unlike some other training camps).

But still. Saints camp opening means that football season is that much closer from starting and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.

Just to give y’all a heads up, we here at Gambit Weekly are looking to go full tilt once the Saints season starts in terms of coverage. That means videos (with players!), podcasts (with special guests!), pictures (more players!), features (descriptions of players!) and more for your pleasure. I’d like to give y’all a taste of what is to come with a few online features in the upcoming week. So stay tuned for that.

With exception of one video piece I’m prepping for tomorrow, though, keep coming back here for updates, pictures, and off-the-wall stories of athletes being silly. Starting today.

With all the recent talk about global warming, the slow-food movement and even right on this blog-site, the local food market, the 1973 Richard Fleischer directed Sci-Fi film, Soylent Green, has a lot to say to our modern problems.

In Soylent Green, Charlton Heston, the 60’s and 70’s films’ American man, plays a detective in a starving and overpopulated 2022 New York City.  With the absence of CGI, the future does not look so bright in Fleischer’s film. The neighborhood scenes look as though they are outtakes from The Westside Story and although the apartment scenes from the more wealthy New Yorkers portray a very retro magnificence, in the year 2008, we know that architecture and design may be taking a slightly different path.   To combat the starvation problem, a corporation called Soylent Corporation has developed a food by-product called Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow and finally Soylent Green.  Triggered by the murder of a wealthy man affiliated with Soylent Corporation, Heston’s Detective Thorn is lead to the discovery of the main ingredient in the population’s food, known as Soylent Green.  Soylent Green reeks of the late 60’s and 70’s.  This is not always a bad thing.  Like other retro films, it is enjoyable to watch as the present dictates what a generation may have envisioned for their future. For instance, the opening credits and soundtrack seem to imply that we are about to watch Love Story; yet, the film does progress into a very retro funfest of Heston debauchery partnered with some 70’s pre-feminist lingo.  Charlton Heston plays a role in which he is very familiar.  We have seen him in this manly, man role in Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man.  I, for one, cannot get enough of him.  I am freakishly attracted to his dated ability to force himself upon a woman or an ape and lavish her with kisses, while in the same scene, like in Soylent Green, telling the “furniture” (women) to stay in line and mind their business.  In addition to the late, great Heston, Soylent Green, like Planet of the Apes, spawned one of the most famously quoted movie-lines of all times. 

Everyone should know what Soylent Green is…Soylent Green will be shown this Friday night at Vintage next to Savvy Gourmet as part of the Dinner and a Movie Friday Night Film Series.  The film begins at 7:30 doors open at 6 pm.  Dinner will be prepared by local produce guru, Jim Bremer  (Get it…greens for Soylent Green).  Details are on The Savvy Gourmet website or call 504-895-COOK (2665).