The Wall Street Journal calls this “the neatest thing you’ll see all day,” and since the Saints game is still an hour away, the WSJ may be right. Director Chris Milk teamed up with Google and Arcade Fire to produce a music video that personalizes itself for each watcher:

“The Wilderness Downtown,” which Google calls a “musical experience made specifically for the browser,” is set to Arcade Fire’s “We Used to Wait” and takes the viewer on a journey focused on a location from childhood — provided that the user enters the address and Google Street View covers it.

Close out all your other programs (this thing will take all your computer’s processing power), go to the site, enter the address of the house where you grew up — and watch the windows start to sprout. Play with the mouse and watch the birds fly over your old backyard, or just sit back and experience the slightly eerie feeling of seeing your street injected (almost) seamlessly in videos that emerge and shrink on your computer screen.

Pre-game festivities for the NFL season opener between the Saints and the Minnesota Vikings (7:30 p.m. Thur., Sept 9) include a Mardi Gras-style parade (with floats by Blaine Kern Studios) through the French Quarter and music by the Dave Matthews Band and Taylor Swift. The Krewe of NFL parade route starts at Esplanade and North Peters Street, proceeds along North Peters, merging on to Decatur and then back to North Peters, and then it feeds on to Tchoupitoulas Street and ends at Julia Street. The concert is at Jackson Square and the stage will be on the river side of Decatur Street facing the square. The parade however, is not a parade between Dumaine and Toulouse streets, says NOPD. For those blocks, it’s an event being orchestrated by NBC for its pregame broadcast (6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.). The staging is expected to intersperse songs, floats passing by the Jackson Square on-camera set and segments with Bob Costas. People who wish to be close to the stage can apply for tickets to be in the “casted audience.” An NFL spokesperson and the ticket website say tickets are first come, first serve. Also, access to Jackson Square will be restricted to ticket holders.

Three years ago, filmmaker Spike Lee and CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien gave video cameras to several New Orleans teens to document their lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Brandon Franklin, saxophonist for To Be Continued Brass Band, was one of those children. (2:38 mark) He survived the floodwaters and went on to become a young father and a beloved and widely respected musician and teacher. He was gunned down on Mother’s Day this year at the age of 22.

Although TBC has been one of my favorite brass bands for years, I didn’t know Brandon very well and had only hung out with him a few times in the weeks just prior to his death. Yet writing an article about the loss of this young man has been one of the most difficult assignments I’ve ever faced, harder in some ways even than reporting from Ground Zero after Hurricane Katrina. Before the levee breaches, folks in New Orleans joked after every storm, somewhat morbidly, about how we dodged a bullet, ‘The Big One’ that would surely one day hit and fill our bowl-shaped city with water. Five years after surviving a near fatal wound we, the ‘resilient’ ones, have finally turned a corner in the recovery of our city. But we’re also still dodging bullets that threaten to take out what we’ve fought so vigilantly these last five years to save - a future for New Orleans. We all must commit ourselves to addressing this threat if we’re truly going to redeem this city. Brandon’s story serves as a testimony to what’s worth saving in New Orleans and a portending of darker days should we fail to heed its warning.

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The Valley Of Silent Men kick off second line season tomorrow. Small club, discreet… just what you need to ease you back into the groove.

VALLEY OF SILENT MEN S&P CLUB 25TH ANNIVERSARY PARADE
SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010 1-5pm

Start: Club S&S, 2600 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Down MLK to S. Liberty. Left on S. Liberty.

Stop: Dorothy’s Lounge, 1739 S. Liberty. Up S. Liberty to Felicity. Left on Felicity to Simon Bolivar. Right on Simon Bolivar to Jackson Ave. Left on Jackson Ave. to S. Saratoga.

Pause: Tribute to the late Ja’Shawn Powell. Don Jackson Ave. to Danneel.

Stop: Single Ladies S&PC. Up Jackson Ave. to Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Left on OCH to St. Andrew. Right on St. Andrew.

Stop: Uncle P’s Barbeque., 1718 St. Andrew (20 minutes). Right on Brainard to Philip St. Right on Philip St. to Baronne St. Up Baronne St. to Second St. Right on Second St.

Stop: Sportsman’s Lounge, 2433 Dryades St. Back on Second Street to Danneel St. Left on Danneel St.

Stop: Bean Bros Lounge, 2601 Danneel St. Up Danneel St. to Washington Ave. Back on Washington Ave. to S. Rocheblave St.

Stop: Tapp’s Lounge, 2800 S. Rocheblave St. (20 minutes). Back on Washington Ave. to S. Dorgenois St. Right on S. Dorgenois St. to Martin Luther King Blvd. Right on MLK to S. Galvez St.

Stop: Ladies of Perseverance Social & Pleasure Club. Out MLK.

Disband: Club S&S, 2600 Martin Luther King Blvd.

Spike Lee’s wife, Tonya Lewis, is hot. Let’s be quite clear: This was perhaps the biggest new story to come out of last night’s red carpet premiere of If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise at the Mahalia Jackson Theater, and yet The Times Picayune’s write-up doesn’t even mention her. Shame!

This image is a little blurry because my iPhone was shaking, but still. I’m not overblowing the hotness of Spike Lee’s wife. She is incredibly hot:

Also on the carpet, Phyllis Montana-Leblanc and Wendell Pierce, both of whom are featured in the film. “He’s a total scoundrel,” said Montana-Leblanc, of Pierce. “Don’t believe anything he says.”

“We met five years ago,” said Pierce. “And when they told me we were going to play a married couple in Treme I said, ‘This is going to be great. This is going to be easy.”

The director, dressed in a seersucker and Nikes, also hugged Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and posed for photographs alongside him with musician Terence Blanchard, and basketball star Chris Paul.

“This sends a message to the people of America,” said Landrieu. “Whether it’s Katrina or the BP oil spill or the recession, the people here are still standing.”

Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao got the biggest round of applause during the premiere, for the scene of him pulling out a knife in front of the White House, and miming committing hari kari. This, Cao feels, is the key lesson that BP executives need to learn from the disaster, and to this observer, the audience reaction may well sway Cao’s chances of reelection in the fall.