Tomorrow night, Tuesday, Nov. 4, beginning at 6:30 p.m., Gambit Weekly will be liveblogging the election returns from the newsroom at WWL-TV, providing up-to-the-minute information about presidential, state and local races, along with Gambit political editor and WWL election analyst Clancy DuBos.

The station will begin its schedule of national cut-ins at 6:30, and at 8 p.m., when the polls close, WWL sister station WUPL will go live with reports and analysis of all the national, state, and local elections. We’ll be liveblogging along with them from the newsroom and the election set, and giving Gambit readers a picture of how Channel 4 puts it all together.

Oh, yes, and we’ll be taking your questions — serious and silly — and answering them on the blog as time permits. You can leave ‘em in the comments below. (We’ve already had our first query about Lee Zurik’s eyebrows, and he’s been a good sport about that in the past, but we’re hoping for some new material.)

So visit www.blogofneworleans.com on election night beginning at 6:30 p.m. for live online coverage of Election Night. Suggestions for drinking games are welcome.

Newsflash to Phoenix Recycling subscribers: start digging through your recyclables and pull out the cardboard. David McDonough of Phoenix sent the following in an email to subscribers:

Effective immediately, we can no longer accept cardboard with mixed paper on residential routes.One of the first signs of economic hardship in the recycling industry is tightening paper markets and falling commodity prices. The mill that buys our paper is now saying they cannot take any type of cardboard in our mixed paper. There is much more material than there is demand right now, so they can be picky. In better markets, they take what they can get — in worse markets, they tell us what they will take. We are trying to find other options so we can start taking cardboard with mixed paper again, as soon as possible.We apologize for the inconvenience and will work to correct this as soon as possible. 

Stephen O’Connor, director of business development at Phoenix, explains that with a lack of resources to sort through cardboard and mixed paper (as well as plastic and glass), cutting out cardboard is their only solution if consumers don’t want to see higher rates.

“Some thought we’d raise our cost, we resisted,” he says. “We went against everyone’s advice (to raise rates) when the price of oil went up.”

O’Connor says the company is grateful S-P Recycling Corp. still accepts their materials despite the setback.

Thanks to Maitri Venkat Ramani for alerting the recycling ’hoods.

Experts are predicting tomorrow’s election will mean the largest voter turnout in Louisiana history, but one observer says that the only thing that really matters is race. “Louisiana is a racist state,” said Raymond D. Strother, a Maryland-based political consultant and veteran of Louisiana politics. “Races there are always about race.”

That’s quite a statement coming from a guy who tried to get Jimmie “You Are My Sunshine” Davis, a good timey singer and a segregationist, elected to a third term as governor.

But is Strother right? Does all come down to skin color and there’s no need waste any shoe leather standing in line tomorrow?

What do you think?

Currently the top story at CNN.com…and I don’t believe it for a minute:

In honor and remembrance of James Booker before the 25th year since his passing, Jazz Lunatique will put on the 2 hour 2 part documentary from 1996

James Carroll Booker III: The Life, Music, and Mystique of the Bayou Maharajah - produced by David Kunian.

Wednesday 11/5/08 at midnight - 90.7 FM New Orleans - www.wwoz.org

Tell your friends. Tell your enemies and make them your friends. Tape or burn it all you want. It’s got rare recordings and interviews with everyone from Dave Bartholomew, Earl King, Ed Frank, Red Tyler to Scott Billington and Allen Toussaint. It will make you laugh, cry, and feel like a kid again. Better than CATS!

And stay tuned for Jonathan Freilich’s Freedom Double-0 Naked Klezmer Jazz Latin Boogaloo: The Radio Documentary! coming to you November 19-21, 2008

In a season when Americans are being strenuously talked to about their politics, their future and their nation, we lost one of our greatest listeners last week.

Studs Terkel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian, died on Friday. At age 96, he lived through most of the last century, and with his books and his radio show he documented much of it. His work dealt with the perspective and experiences of people across the spectrum of modern American history, driven by his belief that everyone had something to say if they thought someone was listening. As Terkel once put it:

I’ve always felt, in all my books, that there’s a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence - providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.”

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Keith Thomson makes a convincing argument for online gambling sites as a more reliable predictor of presidential victory than cable and network news. Some prime pieces of evidence:

Michael Robb, political expert for the British bookmaking site Betfair.com, lets the record speak for itself: Halfway through Election Day in 2004, when a CNN poll showed Kerry taking the lead, Betfair had Bush with a 91% chance to win. … Betfair also had all 50 states right in 2004. As did rival site Intrade.

Currently, Betfair lists Barack Obama as an overwhelming 1-7 favorite (paying $8 for a $7 winning bet). A John McCain win would pay $6.80 for every dollar bet.

“On Election Night I’ll look at the movement on the betting sites to see what’s going on,” Strumpf says. “I watch CNN too, out of the corner of an eye, but it’s not necessary.”

A friendly reminder: Wagering on elections is illegal in America.

Not every artist at Prospect.1 is going to greet visitors with “Hey, pal, this is my show,” (in a tone more appropriate for “Why are you touching my motorcycle?”). But that’s how I was greeted by Tony Fitzpatrick in his too easy to overlook spot in the funeral home (Gaskin - Southall Mortuary, 1205 N. Rampart St.) next door to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation offices. Fitzpatrick is a Chicagoan who has considered New Orleans second home for roughly 30 years. He says in this video interview that New Orleans also was the site of his last really bad bender. And he has interesting ideas about the bohemian culture of the city. His intensely detailed collages are well worth the visit and incorporate arcane items like old matchbooks and print advertising from the Roosevelt Hotel, the Blue Room and old Creole restaurants.

Prospect.1, New Orleans’ international art biennial, opened on Saturday (Nov. 1) at venues across town. The CAC has a very impressive array of art and installations, from the painting and collage of Trenton Doyle Hancock to a painting referencing the New Orleans Saints by Gaijin Fujita to found-object sculpture by Cuban artist Luis Cruz Azeceta to the exotic “New Orleans Lab” of Chinese artist Cao Fei (who goes by China Tracy in cyberspace, and this is her YouTube channel). The CAC has a full range of approaches from more conventional painting and sculpture to more contemporary and cutting edge installations and video. It’s a good place to start exploring the expo and the wide-open approaches of international art. 

The Lower Ninth Ward is home to a cluster of installations referencing the storm. There’s Mark Bradford’s ark Mithra, classic photos of New Orleans second-line culture at the L9 Center for the Arts, Miguel Palma’s “Rescue Games Project,” which takes the form of a Higgins boat. The swamp mural (pictured) is part of a project at the Tekrema Center for the Arts in which the natural wetlands replace the walls of a home.  

Louisiana has vaulted 41 spots in the Better Government Association’s Integrity Index, making it to No. 5 in the country and behind first-place state New Jersey, then Rhode Island, Hawaii and Washington. The index, now in its second edition, ranks all 50 states on the strength of their laws that relate to transparency, ethics and accountability in government. 

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