Best Of New Orleans Blog

by Alejandro de los Rios

So the good folks over at ESPN the Magazine just can’t seem to give the Crescent City enough love. First their was the Tyson Chandler/Jannero Pargo video (/cough/shamless plug!/cough/) and now there’s two completely (?) unrelated rankings that put New Orleans in the top three of U.S. cities and pro sports teams.

The first, TheMag.com’s All-World Power Rankings put up yesterday puts New Orleans in first place above angry bears and referee morality, which is always nice.

The second is from the print edition of the Magazine (on newsstands now!) which features the New Orleans Hornets as No. 3 in its annual “Ultimate Standings: Fan Satisfaction Rankings.” From the Web site:

Budding star Chris Paul and his ‘mates sure help. And so do promotions like Guys Night Out Wednesdays ($44 for two tix, two beers, postgame photo with a pair of Honeybees) and Friends and Family Weekend Packs ($77 for four tix, four hot dogs, four chips, four 7-Ups). And while New Orleans Arena has a blah color scheme and mediocre amenities, management makes up for it with bobbleheads, free jerseys and the occasional $1 brewski. “The people of New Orleans don’t really need an excuse to party so you know we get into it,” says Hitley.

And yes, that Hitley they quote is none other than Ron Hitley over at Hornets247.com, making this all the more sweeter. Now if the Hornets would only give Hitley and other bloggers (that don’t contribute for ESPN the Magazine) a press pass, it might catapult them to No. 1 in next year’s rankings.

by Alejandro de los Rios

Working with ESPNtheMag.com I had the opportunity to conduct this piece with Tyson Chandler, Jannero Pargo and Tyson’s wife, Kimberly. I highly encourage you to check it out and, if you are so inclined, to comment on both ESPN’s Web site and here.

FYI, the video was actually shot a month or two ago. In fact, it was originally meant to feature Tyson, Kimberly and Bobby Jackson. Jackson, as you all know, was traded at the deadline in a deal that brought over Mike James and Bonzi Wells from Houston. Luckily, Tyson thought of a replacement. (more…)

by Sam Winston

John McCain in his “It’s Time For Action Tour” is set to visit New Orleans’ 9th Ward.

Can New Orleans food compete with Salmon Rushdie and the Dalai Lama? That’s what Tulane is banking on in its competition with Emory over incoming students.

Also, six UPenn grads are headed to New Orleans continuing the “brain gain”

The LA Times draws a comparison between the mismanagement of Katrina and an outbreak of Dengue Fever in Brazil, saying lawmakers and public officials are keen to point fingers at one another.

Hornets coach Byron Scott gets soaring praise in a New York Times profile about him and the team. A must read for Hornets fans.

Fitting (hopefully) for the what ESPN writer John Hollinger calls the beginning of the “chess match” between Scott and Mavericks coach Avery Johnson.

Gambit Contributor and New Orleans writer Jason Berry is quoted in the latest national story on the Pope and the papacy’s challenge on the abuse scandal.

by Sam Winston

The Pope’s upcoming visit to the U.S. is even more highly anticipated by several Catholic parishes that are going through “a time of pain and uncertainty”

Louisiana prosecutors spur review of the 8th amendment with Child Rape punishment.

Time for panic at the Hive? Chris Paul is 16-for-48 in the last four games, in which the Hornets won only once, and the top seed appeared to be slipping away (as well as the MVP for Paul?). (more…)

by Sam Winston

According to several local blogs, NOLA blogger Ashley Morris has passed away. Judging by the reactions, he was certainly loved and admired.

I never met him personally but I’ve definitely read his blog as did many others. He was critical at times of blogofneworleans and I can honestly say we were better for it.

His most famous post probably captured Post-K frustration better than anywhere.

Most of the local blogosphere that knew him better has this covered, but just wanted to let everyone know that we are very sorry to hear about his passing.

by Sam Winston

A double standard when it comes to covering the Republicans and their association with the religious right?

Barack Obama was questioned at Tuesday night’s debate by Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton about repudiating Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement — which Obama said was unsolicited — in the strongest terms possible. He was repeatedly badgered by Russert, and was forced to disown Farrakhan over and over again.

The very next day, John McCain appeared onstage in Texas with Pastor John Hagee, an influential activist in the Christian Zionist movement. Hagee’s comments about world affairs can make Farrakhan seem pedestrian at times: He eagerly awaits the Armageddon, considers the Catholic Church to be the Anti-Christ, and has said that Jews brought their own persecution upon themselves.” - TPM

The book on John Hagee goes way deeper in terms of racially-charged, radical statements. Here’s what John Hagee had to say about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. (more…)

by Sam Winston

I guess it makes sense but I honestly didn’t know they came from San Francisco either.

See Ian McNulty for more on the difference between Chinese-American and Chinese- Chinese in New Orleans.

Local blogger Kevin Allman has more on Nagingate, the developing, mysterious disappearance from the Times-Picayune’s pages of first editorial criticisms directed at our (de)famed mayor’s new pictorialized gun policy and, now, letters to the editor about said incident.

“After scrubbing its editorial page criticism of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin — first in the print edition(s), and then in its online edition — the Times-Picayune seems to have removed two letters to the editor about the incident from its website, replacing them with two different letters that did not appear on the main editorial page of today’s edition.”

Read the vanished letters on Allman’s blog.

by Sam Winston

The latest from the New York Post

“It’s disaster housing capable of sheltering entire neighborhoods in a hurry if a major hurricane or other catastrophe strikes…

One entry that didn’t make the cut would certainly qualify for thinking outside the box: it consisted of a “Cloud City” where residents would live in inflatable floating homes high above their old neighborhoods and tethered by lengthy cables.

by Sam Winston

And let those joints burn down. All because it’s Carnival Time.

Al Johnson(song) certainly didn’t mean Carnival time in Ludwishafen (which it was) but prophetic none the less. This photo of a baby being thrown four stories from a burning building to policemen and firemen standing below is almost unbelievable.

While the English language coverage focused on the nine-month-old baby girl and the police officer who caught her, the German papers focused on the possibility of yet another Turkish immigrant filled building becoming victim to arson.

 by Sam Winston

And his broadcast enemy Keith Olbermann on MSNBC gives him the smackdown for it.

“Get your sorry ass to Claiborne at Canal and put your money where your bottomless pit of a mouth is and we’ll be waiting,” said Olbermann.

That was in response to O’Reilly questioning the Edwards campaign and its discovery of the homeless under the overpass. O’Reilly said he wanted to find the homeless so he could help them but said Edwards either couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him where they were.

Olbermann then slammed him for the implication and nominated him “the worst person of the world”.

To hear original rap songs by my young ‘Music Writing’ students, watch videos of their live performances, and to read their hilariously mean album reviews of local artists (as published in Gambit Weekly) visit myspace.com/mrmichaelsclass.

This week, my brilliant 2^nd graders at Behrman Elementary on the West Bank completed their second song of the semester (the first being their Christmas rap, which you can read about HERE). Or, almost finished it… My fault, definitely. As I’ve stated before, these kids are the best, most with-it I’ve yet taught. Many New Orleans kids I’ve worked with, even if the activity is fun, they initially project skepticism, doubt and stubbornness. I have to fight them, drag them kicking and whining toward the fun. But these Behrman kids, when we’re sitting in the cafeteria before class completing homework, they ask me “what we doin in rap class today?” and by the time we line up to walk to my room, their new verses are already half written. So different. Truly amazing.

This new song is called “Our New Year”. Because the Christmas song went so well, every time I’ve since asked them to choose a new song topic, they’ve listed the next holiday: “A Mardi Gras song!” they cheer now. (more…)

by Sam Winston

Is it surprising that Lil Wayne got arrested again? That there’s a lack of healthy food choices in New Orleans? That new inspector general Robert Cerasoli is having problems with the city bureaucracy? No, no and uh, no. Not even a little bit.

Unmanned aircraft to take on weather missions off our coast. Now that is surprising. Especially since they were NOT allowed during Katrina rescue missions. The unmanned aircrafts the military use are so precise they can redirect missiles in mid-flight to hit a certain person and not another standing next to him or her. Now they’ll be used for collecting hurricane data off our coasts.

by Sam Winston

1) The various scenarios in which the Hornets will leave New Orleans and how it is likely to happen. What a shame considering how well Chris Paul and the crew have been playing.

2) The mainstream media’s new approach to covering New Orleans. The overriding theme is that New Orleans is officially out of the spotlight but there are of course still stories to be told

3) Matt Smith of the Real World New Orleans is expecting his first child with his wife Candyce. I’m not really sure why this is number 3 but I’m waiting for someone to bash my credibility for listing it or to chime in with D-level celebrity gossip about the Real World.

once upon an online purchase my email address was sold, and I began receiving weekly emails from an amusing and shock-worthy site called Pocket Change NYC that highlights the “most expensive” goods and services that New York and Los Angeles have to offer…want a $1000 bagel to nosh on while bringing Poochie to a $500 Pet Grooming in the Big Apple, or grab a $175 hot dog before checking in to rehab in LA Passages Addiction Cure Center for $67,550 a week.

I always muse at how much people in high power competitive cities are willing to spend for such common items and practical services. Of course New Orleanians would never be so extravagant…. but again bagels are a very important staple to a New Yorker diet, and in LA, are you really anyone until you’ve been to rehab? And I began to think, what types of good and services do we value locally that would stun people in other parts of the world…. (more…)

by Sam Winston

Thanks Oyster for the link, after watching the video footage of NOPD pepper spraying rowdy protesters, tasering two women, and Arnie Fielkow asking for calm and then “security, enforce our rules,” this first hand blog account is really what you need to see. It’s what makes blogs great. It puts us right there, unfiltered, to see what was happening inside the building from a first person account.

The comments are also worth reading. On a personal note, watching people get tasered and pepper sprayed made me sick to me my stomach, no matter who was right and who was wrong. There have been consistent calls for finding the middle ground but obviously that didn’t matter today. I also wonder since I wasn’t there and you can’t tell from any of the video, is it true what the media has been reporting all week that the protesters were only about 100 people?

On a sidenote, give the nolablogosphere credit on an issue that they could have easily just taken the anti-establishment nature of the protests’ position (blogs being a bit anti-estab in nature), this whole past week they in large part spoke out about how the issue was not so cut and dry and how the agitators on both sides, including the media, were missing key points.