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.

Read the rest of this entry »



8:30-11:30am: ‘Bravery, Strength, Resilience’
Memorial Celebration Will begin at The Lower Nine Monument, Tennessee St. at N. Claiborne.  United States Congresswoman Maxine Waters to serve as keynote speaker.

10:00am-6:00pm: 5th Annual Katrina Commemoration March
Healing Ceremony located at Jourdan Road and North Galvez at the levee breach in the Lower 9th Ward. March starts immediately after reading of names, going down Claiborne Ave ending at Hunter’s Field (St. Bernard Ave. at Claiborne Ave).

* video courtesy of Lisa Palumbo

Don’t you worry your little heads, we absolutely haven’t. There are big plans afoot for the upcoming season and rest assured that we will be back with our unique take on all things Black and Gold. Take for instance this little nugget:

-

-

Jagerbomb wireless in the Superdome…only in New Orleans. And it’s fitting, too, seeing as how the new press box is so high up you need a couple of jagerbombs to avoid the vertigo (aggressive drinking is what you do when you have vertigo, right?).

-

-

Ooo-eee that’s high. The fact that fans make this hike for every game after a morning (or afternoon) of tailgating is total dedication.

-

In any case, we were going to do a write-up on tonight’s game but then we remembered it’s the preseason and it only counts if someone gets hurt (/knocks on wood). Just 13 more days, people, then the fun really begins.

-

Also, Drew Brees continues to be a Golden God.

Photo courtesy of HBO

On a weekend full of Hurricane Katrina anniversary events and memorials, NOMA hosts screenings of the entire first season of Treme. Episode 1 begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and the day’s final installment is episode 7 at 4:30 p.m. The final three episodes run on Sunday morning from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Admission to NOMA is free this weekend, and also featured is “Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast]: Photographs by Richard Misrach.” The show runs through Oct. 24.