The Cajun Boy

This guy loves rainbows more than you or me or anyone else in the history of the universe...

2010-07-03T15:07:00.001-04:00

I'll have what he's having...

"Ponies and balloons"

2010-06-25T14:56:00.004-04:00

God bless Kindra Arnesen. What she says below is passionate, poignant and, if 100% accurate (and I no doubt that it isn't) entirely fucking disturbing. A must watch...

On last night's premiere of 'Entourage'

2010-06-28T12:52:00.002-04:00

(Repeating a rant I posted to Tumblr earlier...)

Disgusted and tired of having my wee intelligence insulted, I boycotted watching the last season of Entourage, but somehow got sucked into watching last night’s premiere. Absolutely nothing has changed. Vince is still an impossibly shitty actor working with insane directors who is somehow an A-list movie star, Ari spends every episode yelling at everyone, Drama needs an acting gig, Turtle is hustlin’ some bullshit, E is an annoying, whiny little twat and a bevy of underdressed, painfully LA-ish broads run around everywhere, presumably looking for clothing. It’s like a lump of shit preserved forever inside a jar of television formaldehyde, and yet we keep coming back to gaze into the jar to see if the shit lump has somehow managed to morph into a colorful flower.

Why can’t this thing just fucking die for the love of God?!

Quote of the day

2010-06-13T10:53:00.000-04:00

Much has been made of my outburst toward the Obama administration on May 26 on “Good Morning America” when I exclaimed, “Man, you got to get down here and take control of this! Put somebody in charge of this thing and get this moving. We’re about to die down here!” But those emotions had been percolating below the surface like the crude that threatens our way of life today.

But while it is important to note that the tepid response to this catastrophe is unacceptable, it is also essential that the rest of the country understand that this feeling of neglect has festered amongst South Louisianians for generations. It’s just one damned thing after another, so the anger rising out of the Gulf is not new.

For too long, the federal government and industry alike has simultaneously abused and neglected, patronized and plundered, and now polluted the people of Louisiana. And our plight is now a national emergency

…

We’ve been abused, neglected and exploited for too long.

And to be brutally honest, part of my frustration is a sense of personal shame that I have known this was going on for a long time and I was ineffective in making Louisiana’s case in my years in Washington.

But let me say that it’s now time to draw a line in the alluvial mud. We want our fair share of oil revenues now so that we can protect ourselves. And we want to be treated like we matter.

We’re not whiners. We produce oil and gas and produce seafood and allow goods to flow freely to the heartland. We assume the risks with little reward.

In the end, whatever past transgressions by the country towards us or whatever our failures to articulate our plight have been, we should be reminded of the words of Admiral Lord Nelson just before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, “England expects that every man will do his duty.” And in this, the most critical hour in our region’s long, tortured, and yet glorious history, let’s remind ourselves that Louisiana expects every person to do their duty.

This is a struggle for the preservation of our culture, way of life and the land we love.

-Well said James Carville. Well said. Something is in the works. What exactly, I'm not sure of, but something big is coming. And it's long overdue.

Sometimes, when life just seems so impossibly shitty, you just have to laugh at it

2010-06-10T16:54:00.001-04:00

In such...

There truly are no words...

2010-06-03T20:17:00.003-04:00

This is a bird btw...

Quote of the day

2010-05-29T12:47:00.003-04:00

“The way people feel about New Orleans is so tender. I have fallen in love, and I completely understand not ever wanting to let go of life here. I’m from New York. I can relate (the post-Katrina experience) to my experience after 9/11. I just wanted to be in New York. I wanted to be home. I wanted to go home. It’s even more personal here. In the way David (Simon) is portraying New Orleans as a character in the show, it truly is a character in real life. It’s hard to tell people this, but when you’re here, you (see that) this city lives and breathes on its own…It happens to me almost every single day. I’ll be walking back from the gym and someone will literally come over and start talking to me, and the next thing I know I’m either in their kitchen or I’m sitting in a restaurant. People will literally take me by the arm, I’m not kidding, and just take me somewhere, and I find myself just going. Every single day this happens to me. It’s to the point where if I just need to be alone and study lines, I have to stay in my apartment, because if I go out, someone’s taking me somewhere. That’s just what’s going down. I’ve been in so many people’s homes and kitchens and restaurants. I will have an agenda for a day and then it’s just blown. I feel so at home here, and it’s very important to me that I get it right. I want people to know that I want to get it right for them. It’s not an ego-driven situation here for me. It’s more a deep respect for everyone here and what they’ve gone through. It’s respect here…Talk about how I walk to the gym and people take me places. Before they went to the Super Bowl, that last game when we knew they were going, the ‘Oh my God, we’re going to the Super Bowl!’ game, I had to work, so I was tired. I was watching some of it. I had to lay down. I laid down and the next thing I knew I just heard screaming, cause I’m staying here in the French Quarter. I went downstairs, and, right outside my door, a crowd of people came rushing down the street, and the next thing I knew, I was standing at the river. They literally just took me. The entire crowd just lifted me off my feet. It is so magical…That Lombardi Trophy coming out of the sunroof of that car was so gangsta. Nothing will top that. You couldn’t make that up. That was so gangsta. That was a beautiful thing right there.”

-Treme’s Khandi Alexander — who plays LaDonna on the show — has fallen in love with New Orleans.

Presented without comment...

2010-05-24T14:42:00.000-04:00

WGNO's Michael Hill: "So she's enjoying penis a little bit more, is she?"

2010-05-13T16:08:00.003-04:00

Long live New Orleans local news anchors like Michael Hill...

And here's the full segment featuring the report on the "G-shot" that led to Hill's comment...

Crawfish Fest 2010 is just around the corner!

2010-05-09T20:15:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again!

(click to enlarge)

So what's Crawfish Fest? As I wrote last year...Since I've moved to New York, this is something I look forward to each year. It's like a mini-Jazz Fest, filled with great musicians and bands from Louisiana, not to mention all the restaurants from back home that make the trek up to serve their gumbo, boudin, etoufee, jambalaya, fried alligator, pralines...I could on and on and on...and, oh yeah, thousands of pounds of succulent BOILED CRAWFISH!

The festival was started by a Louisiana native named Michael Arnone as an annual crawfish boil in New Jersey for his family and a few friends, and has since grown into this huge celebration of Louisiana food and music. If you're interested in going, there are buses that run from Port Authority of the festival and back each day. For further info, visit the festival's website and/or its Facebook page. And here's a video that gives a glimpse of what it's all about...

See y'all there!

Here's how to clean up that fucking oil spill...

2010-05-09T19:41:00.003-04:00

Hay! Who knew?! Pretty amazing...

"Introducing Palace Players" by Mew

2010-04-25T02:00:00.001-04:00

Okay, this is way overdue.

Fuck, I love this band. As any longtime reader of this blog knows, I'm a huge fan of the Swedish band Kent, and have often lamented the fact that they only recorded two English versions of their albums. And then, three of four years ago, I discovered the Danish band Mew and fell hard for their stuff. I remember thinking at the time how much the sounds and moods of their music reminded me of Kent, and their existence made me feel better about Kent's refusal to record albums in English. So last year Mew released a new album, "No More Stories," and my love for it seems to grow each time I listen to it.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels that way. Curious, I took a peek at the Amazon reviews for the album and found others who felt the same way: "After twenty-five listens, layer after layer of complexly interwoven melody, instrumentation, composition and general aural magic have begun to reveal themselves." ... "While the record might take more than one listen at a glance, it quickly grows and becomes like a flourishing flower, exposing moods, tempos, and rhythms that only MEW could give us."

With all of that said, back when I was posting every day on this here blog, I'd often make music recommendations. If that were still the case, I would've lauded this album a long time ago, but alas, I haven't. So I was walking around downtown tonight in the rain listening to "No More Stories" and it hit me...I had to come home and profess my love for Mew publicly. I should have a long time ago and I feel like I've robbed all of you people of the joy that their music could potentially bring you by having not done so.

So, like I said, this was way overdue. Enjoy...

PS...More songs from "No More Stories" here and here.

And here's a bonus: a live performance of "Comforting Sounds," the powerful song that made me fall for their music. I'm dying to see them perform a live show.

Buy it!

Today is a dark day for Hitler fans

2010-04-20T22:56:00.003-04:00

The fucking Germans ruin EVERYTHING! To wit:

Many of the Hitler Downfall parody videos on YouTube that have besieged the site in recent years have been taken down after complaints by the German production company that owns the right to the 2004 film.

The Open Video Alliance reported Constantin films, owners of the rights to the film Der Untergang (Downfall), upon which the parody videos are based, filed the copyright claim.

The parodies, which have become a popular viral meme on the internet, all focus on a single scene from the movie when Hitler screams at his generals upon learning that Germany is about to lose the war.

As the character playing Hitler lashes out in German, the subtitles in English from the original movie are replaced to indicate a completely different reason for the Fuhrer’s rage.

What next Germany? Why don't you do the world a favor and take away your shitty version of chocolate cake?! That's the least you can do after this horror.

Just in case you forgot...

2010-04-13T20:59:00.001-04:00

That the Saints won the Super Bowl.

LOL John McCain

2010-04-12T17:00:00.001-04:00

Hats off to the McCain campaign in Arizona. What say you J.D. Hayworth?

THIS IS WHY YOU PEOPLE NEED TO LISTEN TO ME!

2010-04-12T11:28:00.003-04:00

Almost three years ago, in the infancy stages of this here blog, I wrote the following about my plan to survive a potential terror attack on the New York City subway system:

i always ride in the last car of the train. i've done so as long as i can remember, since my inception of being a new yorker i suppose. my thinking is this...if i were a terrorist and i was going to board a train with a bomb or some other instrument of death and destruction, i would want to get maximum impact for my buck so to speak. where that would be, the honey spot so to speak, would be in the middle to the front of the train because those cars are the most populated.

the last car of the train is, with few exceptions, always going to be the least populated. it's also the quickest exit out of the train and the tunnel should something awful happen, and who are we kidding, it's going to happen at some point. if you're in the last car of the train, you can just pop out of the emergency exit and you'll be down on the tracks and hopefully on your way to safety. if you're in the middle you'll have to go from car to car, more than likely in complete darkness with chaos swirling all around you, until you reach either the front or the back of the train in order to exit.

Now, fast forward to today, where I ran across this nugget in a NY Daily News writeup on Najibullah Zazi's foiled plot to attack the subway sytem with suicide bombers:

Zazi and his two Queens friends allegedly planned to strap explosives to their bodies and split up, heading for the Grand Central and Times Square stations - the two busiest subway stations in New York City.

They would board trains on the 1, 2, 3 and 6 lines at rush hour and planned to position themselves in the middle of the packed trains to ensure the maximum carnage when they blew themselves up, sources said.

SEE! I TOLD YOU!

About "Treme," Episode 1

2010-04-12T00:27:00.004-04:00

Whew.

I should've known to just trust David Simon. Mr. Simon, I'm sorry for doubting you, if only for a brief moment in time. I genuflect at your altar.

Treme is, beyond all else, a beautiful work of art. I feel like I know each and every character on the show. They all seem familiar to me. It was genuine and real, almost scarily so. I mean, does it get more New Orleans than the following dialogue exchange?

Davis: "All you want to do is get high, play some trumpet and barbecue in New Orleans your whole damn life?"

Kermit Ruffins: "That'll work."

I think not!

Here are a list of things I loved about the show, in no particular order.

-A bag of Zapps on the kitchen counter.

-The disdain expressed for Chinese crawfish.

-Everything about the characters played by Wendell Pierce and John Goodman (whose character, as previously noted, is based on Ashley Morris). Pierce especially nails it, but he is a New Orleans-born musician himself, so that's to be expected.

-The Mardi Gras Indian.

-A reference to Hubig's pies.

-Davis, the character played by Steve Zahn (whose bare ass I could have gone without seeing), working at WWOZ and blasting Mystikal to piss off his neighbors.

-John Goodman's character trying to toss the British TV guy's camera into the canal.

Did I miss any highlights?

Also, I watched the show at home, alone. I was invited to a couple of viewing parties but decided that I didn't want anything to distract me from soaking it all in. I'm glad I did that. My only regret is not flooding my apartment and hanging a model airplane from the ceiling with a George W. Bush action figure in it to, you know, set the right mood. But I got by okay.

So far this year the Saints have won the Super Bowl, the city elected a new mayor and it's recovery is now being serialized by television's preeminent genius. 2010 looks like it'll be a good year for New Orleans.

(Also, the Times Picayune's Dave Walker put together a handy guide to explain some of the show's more obscure references to non-locals.)

Quote of the day

2010-04-11T12:49:00.002-04:00

Last week, Virginia’s governor, Robert McDonnell, jumped backward when he issued a proclamation recognizing April as Confederate History Month. In it he celebrated those “who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth” and wrote of the importance of understanding “the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.”

The governor originally chose not to mention slavery in the proclamation, saying he “focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.” It seems to follow that, at least for Mr. McDonnell, the plight of Virginia’s slaves does not rank among the most significant aspects of the war.

Advertently or not, Mr. McDonnell is working in a long and dispiriting tradition. Efforts to rehabilitate the Southern rebellion frequently come at moments of racial and social stress, and it is revealing that Virginia’s neo-Confederates are refighting the Civil War in 2010. Whitewashing the war is one way for the right — alienated, anxious and angry about the president, health care reform and all manner of threats, mostly imaginary — to express its unease with the Age of Obama, disguising hate as heritage.

-Jon Meacham

Sarah Palin's botched attempt to show solidarity with/pander to New Orleans results in "Who Dah!"

2010-04-10T18:45:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I watched Sarah Palin's speech from the SRLC in New Orleans. At the onset of her address, in an attempt to show the locals some of her unique Wasilla love, she attempted to say "Who Dat...Go Saints." She left off the "T."

Also, why can't prominent Republicans pronounce "nuclear?" Oh, and what's with all the hate for being a "community organizer?" DOESN'T SHE KNOW THAT JESUS WAS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER?

David Simon talks about "Treme" on the Colbert Report, gives a shout out to Ashley Morris

2010-04-08T21:54:00.000-04:00

From last night's Colbert Report. Simon talks about the show and in the process mentions the influence of the dearly departed Ashley Morris, blogger, ferocious defender of New Orleans, and frequent commenter to this here blog...

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Bristol Palin got boned and knocked up by Levi Johnston for your sins

2010-04-07T23:45:00.004-04:00

You know, I just...I can't...oh nevermind. This actually makes me yearn for Derek Dye the Abstinence Clown.

Quote of the day

2010-03-31T00:26:00.002-04:00

One of the few areas where I agreed with George Bush was in the notion that a country providing safe haven to terrorists should itself be treated as a terrorist organization. Morally this isn’t a difficult one to figure out; a country that keeps house for a bin Laden and doesn’t assist other countries in trying to catch him is a rogue state, one that should be booted out of the community of nations.

We don’t permit countries that harbor terrorists to participate in international society, but the Catholic Church — an organization that has been proven over and over again to systematically enable child molesters, right up now to the level of the Pope — is given a free pass. In fact the Church is not only not sanctioned in any serious way, it gets to retain its outrageous tax-exempt status, which makes its systematic child abuse, in this country at least, a government-subsidized activity.

Somewhere underneath all of this there is a root story that has to do with celibacy. The celibate status of its priests is basically the Catholic church’s last market advantage in the Christian religion racket, but human beings are not designed to be celibate and so problems naturally arise among the population of priests forced to live that terrible lifestyle. Just as it refuses to change its insane and criminal stance on birth control and condoms, the church refuses to change its horrifically cruel policy about priestly celibacy. That’s because it quite correctly perceives that should it begin to dispense with the irrational precepts of its belief system, it would lose its appeal as an ancient purveyor of magical-mystery bullshit and become just a bigger, better-financed, and infinitely more depressing version of a Tony Robbins self-help program.

-Matt Taibbi

The Scarface school play the world's been waiting for is finally here

2010-03-30T20:09:00.001-04:00

In case you're one of the few who haven't seen this yet...

Thanks for sending it over David!

The Tao of Victoria Jackson

2010-03-26T22:22:00.001-04:00

This pretty much speaks for itself...

The NY Observer on "Cajun Expats"

2010-03-24T17:59:00.004-04:00

Almost two years ago, in a post titled "Could New Orleans become the new New York?" I wrote:

I've been thinking a bunch of late about how much New York has changed just in the few years that I've been here. I think about how many of the artists, the creative types, the people who historically have given New York its color and flair, are being priced further and further out. I wonder when the tipping point will be reached. When will it become no longer feasible for wannabe artists, writers, musicians, to come to New York to chase all of their crazy dreams, to let their art flourish in an environment that welcomes and appreciates it? I wonder what place they will turn to as an alternative when the welcome mat is finally pulled from New York's front door.

New Orleans?

Fast forward to today, which saw the New York Observer published a piece titled, "The Cajun Expats." An excerpt:

Before Katrina hit, (Jordan) Friedman, who now co-owns a local PR firm, was a frequent visitor to the city. “What was really funny was that during the dot-com and bull market boom, I’d fly down to New Orleans for weekends because even with airfare, it was cheaper to spend time here than to stay in my own hometown. In a way, it was like coming home. People here knew I was one of them. And I am one of them. New Orleans was, to me, the closest you could come to expat living, while still being in the United States.”

He now lives in an historic apartment building, called the Orphanage, and pays $1,085 a month—“which is a little pricey by New Orleans standards”—for a 1,000-square-foot space with its own backyard.

“You’re either a New Orleans person or not. People here have a very different way of thinking than folks in other parts of the country, particularly New York,” he said.

But, he cautioned, “don’t let the simplicity of this calculus fool you. People here are not unsophisticated. In New York, I grew up among the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. And I can tell you, without equivocation, that a large percentage of them are miserable and hate their lives.”

And another...

“It’s the most un-American of American cities,” said Bill Doyle by telephone on a recent weekend.

Mr. Doyle came to New Orleans two years ago as the location manager for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a job which entailed finding sitting rooms, bars, houses and shops for the $165 million, man-child movie starring Brad Pitt, who now keeps a residence in the French Quarter.

Mr. Doyle, who is 45, had been living in Chelsea, in an apartment where “you could almost touch the walls on both sides if you spread out your arms.” For that, he paid $2,000 a month.

Now he is working on Green Lantern, the comic-book movie, starring Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, which is shooting exclusively in the parishes within New Orleans city limits. His sublet apartment in the French Quarter has a Mardi Gras–beads–encrusted, street-front balcony and a rooftop terrace, where he entertains the cast and crew.

...

Meanwhile, Mr. Doyle spends his early mornings cruising along the scenic old waterfront of the French Quarter, along Esplanade Wharf. He wears a U.S. Navy T-shirt to please the Harbor Police, who navigate the heavily marked, no-trespassing-signed stretch that joggers and Mr. Doyle pretend not to notice. “The celebration of food, music, living here … It’s not fake, or put on for the weekend. It’s in the people’s blood.”

This is the rare trend piece I actually like. Go read it.