As we get ready for the premiere of Tremé (Sun. Apr. 11, 9 pm, HBO), we’ll probably have more and more to write about the show, so we’ll make a fresh new “Tremé” tag for the Blog of New Orleans. Some news on the show today:

1. Here’s the official synopsis from HBO:

TREME begins in fall 2005, three months after Hurricane Katrina and the massive engineering failure in which flood control failed throughout New Orleans, flooding 80 percent of the city and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents. Fictional events depicted in the series will honor the actual chronology of political, economic and cultural events following the storm.

The drama unfolds with Antoine Batiste, a smooth-talking trombonist who is struggling to make ends meet, earning cash with any gig he can get, including playing in funeral processions for his former neighbors. His ex-wife, LaDonna Batiste-Williams, owns a bar in the Central City neighborhood and splits her time between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where her children and new husband have relocated. Concerned over the disappearance of her younger brother David, or Daymo, unseen since the storm, LaDonna has turned to a local civil rights attorney, the overburdened and underpaid Toni Bernette, for help. The government’s inconsistent and ineffectual response to the devastation has spurred Bernette’s husband Creighton, a university professor of English literature and an expert on local history, to become an increasingly outspoken critic of the institutional response.

Tremé resident Davis McAlary, a rebellious radio disc jockey, itinerant musician and general gadfly, is both chronicler of and participant in the city’s vibrant and varied musical culture, which simply refuses to be silent, even in the early months after the storm. His occasional partner, popular chef Janette Desautel, hopes to regain momentum for her small, newly re-opened neighborhood restaurant. Elsewhere in the city, displaced Mardi Gras Indian chief Albert Lambreaux returns to find his home destroyed and his tribe, the Guardians of the Flame, scattered, but Lambreaux is determined to rebuild. His son Delmond, an exile in New York playing modern jazz and looking beyond New Orleans for his future, is less sure of his native city’s future, while violinist Annie and her boyfriend Sonny, young street musicians living hand-to-mouth, seem wholly committed to the battered city.

The ensemble cast of TREME includes Wendell Pierce (”The Wire,” HBO’s documentary “When the Levees Broke”) as Antoine Batiste; Khandi Alexander (”CSI: Miami,” HBO’s Emmy®-winning “The Corner”) as LaDonna Batiste-Williams; Clarke Peters (”Damages,” HBO’s “The Wire” and “The Corner”) as Albert Lambreaux; Rob Brown (”Stop-Loss,” “Finding Forrester”) as Delmond Lambreaux; Steve Zahn (”A Perfect Getaway,” “Sunshine Cleaning”) as Davis McAlary; Kim Dickens (HBO’s “Deadwood”) as Janette Desautel; Melissa Leo (”Homicide: Life on the Street”; Oscar® nominee for “Frozen River”) as Toni Bernette; John Goodman (”The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) as Creighton Bernette; Michiel Huisman (”The Young Victoria”) as Sonny; and classical violinist Lucia Micarelli as Annie.

HBO publicity shot of Khandi Alexander, photographed by the great Skip Bolen.

2. Maitri Erwin — passionate Krewe du Vieux member and blogger — has set up a new blog called Back of Town, where fans (and, I suppose, detractors) of the show can hash it out on a weekly or daily basis:

When good television, often the only modern link to other human intelligence, gives us the opportunity to think, discuss, debate and cry, it’s foolish not to take it, especially when this technology equally as fast as, if not faster than, television exists. (And, New Orleanians are nothing if not opinionated, especially if you’re making a teevee show about their town.)

Check it out, and contribute if you like…

…and, finally, 3. Since this is the Internet, and since we are talking about New Orleans, there are going to be people who HATE Tremé before they see a single frame of film. Exhibit A is right here, and it’s a gallimaufry, a ragout, a virtual “Where’s Waldo?” word salad of D-U-M-B:

People really don’t want these depressing shows about New Orleans. We get it, there was a hurricane, a lot of people died because of political incompetence and their own personal ignorance but do we need a hundred shows on television to talk about it? Not at all.

There is no city I hate more than New Orleans. Its police department is corrupt, the people there are rude and racist, the major “tourism” it gets is from a bunch of alcohol fueled frat boys and sorority girls looking for a few nights of exhibitionism and stupidity, and to be honest…the food isn’t great either (I’ll give that there were a few nice restaurants there but most serve substandard Cajun cuisine).

For the love of God, cancel this series and put money into television that actually entertains and provokes thinking (i.e. “Rome”, “Deadwood”, the future “A Game of Thrones”) instead of these “Sex in the City” wannabes.

CAJUN cuisine in New Orleans??? Those are fighting words, SIR.

I said GOOD DAY.

Erik Proseus, the clever weatherman at MemphisWeather.net, worked up this forecast for the weekend:

NOAA – 01 Feb 2010 1035 EST

Outlook for the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico

Hurricane Whodat is predicted to make landfall on the South Florida coast in the vicinity of Miami on 7 Feb 2010 at approximately 2200Z (5:00 PM EST). This extremely powerful hurricane is expected to produce damaging Shockey waves and Category 5 Brees. Reports from shipping indicate that this unstoppable storm has blown a huge flock of Cardinals all the way to Arizona, and that it has sunk a replica Viking longboat, the Brettigfǻvren. Livestock, in particular young horses, will be in severe danger of being decimated….

It goes on from there. Read it all.

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Screen grab taken from NOLA.com

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You know, I’ve had my fun taking jabs at NOLA.com and their (lack of) diverse online content, but I must say they are doing a bang-up job covering all things Super Bowl so far. Well, at least I thought as much until I saw them use a four-month-old photo taken by Jonathan Bachman on their front page (thumbnail on the bottom left-hand corner). That is, how you say?, bullshit.

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Of course, upon further examination it becomes apparent that the photo they stole from us is really a screen grab from a Saints tribute video that stole the photo from us first. Yes, that totally absolves a major metropolitan newspaper’s Web site from running an unaccredited photo from a credentialed photographer on their front page. Totally.

Through his blog Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green instigated a betting match between the Superbowl-bound teams’ hometown museums: the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art. What followed is the nerdiest trash talking seen this side of Spock vs. Skywalker.

IMA director Maxwell Anderson agreed, should the New Orleans Saints win the Superbowl, to loan this to NOMA for three months. Anderson didn’t think too much on the bet. (”We’re already spackling the wall where the NOMA loan will hang,” he tweeted.)

NOMA’s E. John Bullard raised the stakes — with a $4 million Renoir:

Max Anderson must not really believe the Colts can beat the Saints in the Super Bowl. Otherwise why would he bet such an insignificant work as the Ingrid Calame painting? Let’s up the ante. The New Orleans Museum of Art will bet the three-month loan of its $4 million Renoir painting, Seamstress at Window, circa 1908, which is currently in the big Renoir exhibition in Paris. What will Max wager of equal importance? Go Saints!

Anderson fired back, offering a Jean-Valentine Morel jeweled cup. Then Bullard hit back with this:

I am amused that Renoir is too sweet for Indianapolis. Does this mean that those Indiana corn farmers have simpler tastes? If so why would Max offer us that gaudy Chalice — just looks like another over-elaborate Victorian tchotchke. Let’s get serious. Each museum needs to offer an art work that they would really miss for three months. What would you like Max? A Monet, a Cassatt, a Picasso, a Miro? Sorry but we have no farm scenes or portraits of football players to send you.

OH SNAP.

Anderson’s latest wager? This guy.

Stay tuned to Green’s blog for any updates, though if Anderson goes any deeper, NOMA may as well occupy IMA’s entire collection.

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Screenshot lifted from WallStreetJournal.com

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I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the Wall Street Journals’ core readership is not made up of NFL football fans. Or, at least, not fans of teams that play in New York, Minnesota or Indianapolis. How else to explain this ridiculous Jason Gay column?

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May I root against the New Orleans Saints?

No, you may not. Rooting against the Saints is like rooting against Elin Nordegren. They’re the Sentimental Team of the Century; if Dick Enberg were calling the NFC championship game, he’d need a trailer truck of Kleenex. Even if you forget everything that New Orleans endured during Hurricane Katrina—and how could you?—they’re the Saints, the former Aints, one of the most hard-luck franchises in the history of hard luck. Not long ago, newborns came into the world in New Orleans hospitals with tiny grocery bags on their heads.

If the Saints win this weekend, we expect the Louisiana Superdome to levitate off the ground, stop at Parkway Bakery & Tavern for a roast beef po’boy and fly straight to Miami for the Super Bowl.

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Yes, the Saints are indeed a feel-good story (especially for every Who Dat in the country) and this franchise has come a long way since it genetically altered newborn babies some years ago (or that’s how the story tells it, anyway), but have the Saints really reached a point where non-Who Dats would be remiss to root against them? A little competition never hurt anybody.

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Oh, and I get that the point of this article is to be funny. But it’s not. Also, it begs the question: why is the Wall Street Journal trying to be funny at all? They don’t have a dedicated sports or comedy section (sports is found under Life&Style) and they cater to people looking for serious news. Don’t they have way more important things to write about?

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Picture lifted from WWL.com

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Just when you thought this whole Saints mania was bringing nothing but positive energy and news to the Crescent City, someone had to go and ruin it all. It turns out that someone in New Orleans is yelling “Go Saints!” and when people respond with a “Yea! Who Dat!” he pulls out a gun and robs the Who Dats. I’m not sure what’s more depressing, this story or the police sketch on the WWL Web site (above).

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No, I know: that Deadspin has already picked up this story. Yea, that’s the most depressing part.

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In all seriousness, though, we hope all Who Dats out there have a merry and safe Christmas and holiday season. Oh, and let’s see if we can’t bring this scumbag to justice now, eh?

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I’m not sure what it is about perfectly excellent journalists producing questionable online videos, but NOLA.com seems like a breeding ground for it. Last week (and many before that, actually), it was the otherwise-commendable David Hammer’s Madden 10 highlights gracing the front page, and now we have Doug MacCash presenting us with Bill Harris a.k.a. “The Unknown Who Dat.“

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The video, which runs just under two minutes, shows Harris arriving…well, somewhere. Close inspection reveals that it’s Louis Armstrong airport, but the viewer not informed of this, nor why he or she should care that Harris is arriving. He shouts and people take pictures and he screams about the Saints and “waiting 43 years” for this and when it’s all over we know nothing more than the name of a loud, incoherent Saints fan. Somehow, the news hook is lost on me.

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A news hook, for the uninitiated, is what makes a story compelling or worthy for publication. I first learned of this concept on, and this is no joke, the Nickelodeon program “Nick News W5“. It simplified what all news should contain: a who, what, where, why, and when. Anyone who reads MacCash’s pieces in the Times-Picayune can tell he has a mastery for answering those five basic questions in every story, many times in compelling ways. “The Unknown Who Dat”, though, leaves many questions unanswered.

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Aside from his name, what do we know about him? Who is he? A Saints fan. OK, what makes him unique? He wears Saints apparel and waves a Saints blanket? Where is he coming? Where is he going now that he’s here? When did he get here? When did he first leave? Most importantly: Who the hell cares?

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Perhaps these are all to be answered by a companion article in Saturday morning’s paper. That’d be a clever device, though there’s no mention of that anywhere. The only apparent companion article is the one that runs to the left of the video on NOLA.com’s front page. The one about the old Miami Dolphins players not minding if the Colts or Saints have a perfect season (NOTE: Before I finished this post, the new lead article was this one about NFL Network and WGNO having extended pre-game broadcasts. No mention of the “Unknown Who Dat”). The one that has nothing to do with “The Unknown Who Dat” other than NOLA.com decided to run a picture of the man next to an article he has nothing to do with.

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Truly astounding journalism.

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Screengrab from NOLA.com at 5:00 p.m. Saturday

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So I head over to NOLA.com today to read up on Drew Brees being named King Bacchus (preemptive move to more easily turn Bacchus into a championship parade? I think so) and I come across another headline that catches my eye: “Madden 10: Turner burns the Saints again”. Curious, I click on the video and am treated, nay, exposed (like a flasher exposes people) to a silent, 14-second video of Michael Turner’s digital avatar burning the Saints defense in the video game “Madden 10″. I then find out that NOLA.com has been running these videos regularly this season.

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There are no words - but I’ll sure as hell try.

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What, exactly, is the NOLA.com/Times-Picayune thinking in this scenario? What service are they providing their readers by posting silent clips of video-game simulations that have no real context? The practice of having video games predicting the outcomes of real-life games is nothing new, but here NOLA.com went in another direction and decided that they would just show just one arbitrary highlight without showing the result.

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Now, I could go off the rails on how this can be interpreted as a pathetic ploy for NOLA.com to lure readers thinking they’ve found some sort of game highlight or even some sort of well-balanced analysis of upcoming Saints games. I could also rant about how this is yet another example of how traditional print media really still has no idea what it’s doing when it comes to providing fresh, original multi-media content on their Web sites.

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But I’m not going to do any of that. I’m just going to question the validity of a paid, professional journalist playing video games and presenting highlights of said games online as news. I’ll also question the editorial decision to post these videos on the FRONT PAGE of the Web site even though the 20 most recent videos posted have garnered a grand total of four comments and zero recommendations. Judging by how nearly every NOLA.com video has a different introduction (or none at all) it’s clear they have no apparent production standard for their videos. A major metropolitan news Web site should hold itself to a higher standard.

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Photo lifted from Last Angry Fan

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Chris “The Mayor” Paul won’t be playing in tonight’s Hornets game against the Atlanta Hawks. But that won’t stop him from rocking out his Hornets sports blazer, surfer-dude haircut and awesome combo moves.

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Wait, what?

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Yea, that up there is a picture of a Japanese game cards featuring Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Ron Ahhh!Test! and others (check them all out here). My favorite has to be the Kevin Garnett (excuse me, KG, “The Rabid Wolverine”) because I can’t believe anyone would think being dressed like that is intimidating (I’m talking about the people that photoshopped Garnett into those clothing, not Garnett himself, who probably has no idea this is going on). Oh, and double points for turning Larry Bird into Conan the Barbarian.

While you’re waiting for President Barack Obama to arrive (Air Force One touches down at MSY at 11:20, unless he pulls a switcheroo and comes in on JetBlue), here’s some background reading…

• The New York Times and The Washington Post both report on the duration of the visit and the contretemps over whether it’s long enough….

• Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao is still disappointed in Gov. Bobby Jindal for not getting in on the funding for the proposed high-speed rail line between here and Baton Rouge….

• On the HuffPo, Harry Shearer examines Obama’s to-do list, and weighs in on what’s been checked off and what’s overdue….

• Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle interviews Leah Chase, who will be packing up a takeout lunch for the president today. (Hail to the chef!) Then the topic of another president arose:

In another photo, President George W. Bush was seated at a table with other dignitaries, and he was grasping her hand as she posed behind him.

At the end of the meal I asked about Obama and her eyes took on a joyous sheen as she practically sang his praises in her deep, rich voice.

I couldn’t resist: “So you seem to be an equal opportunity cook,” I said, as I drew attention to the other President. Her twinkle shifted a bit.

“He’s a lovely man,” she said. “He’s invited me to the White House twice and he’s such a gentleman.” After a short pause she said: “However some men just find themselves in the wrong job.”

That ought to keep you occupied. Meanwhile, Clancy DuBos will be on CNN at some point this morning, and we have reporters at both the UNO town hall and the Crescent City Recovery protest on the river. We’ll also be Twittering Obama’s speech, as well as all the bloviating from the punditocracy. Later.