b.rox

Google Maps for my phone. Works like a dream. Hooray.

The more I think about it, this stinks to high heaven. The location? The timing? The absence of any publicity? It’s as if they’re going out of their way to make sure the community isn’t involved in this “inclusive community-driven effort.”

“So you are tired of your life, young man! All the more reason have you to live. Anyone can die. A murderer has moral force enough to jeer at his hangman. It is very easy to draw the last breath. It can be accomplished successfully by a child or a warrior. One pang of far [...]

On May 21st of last year, with a couple friends, I hiked about three miles through New Orleans following the (mostly) abandoned Norfolk-Southern rail line. This line runs from Armstrong Park to Canal Boulevard, through the area known as the “Lafitte Corridor.”

(Click to enlarge the map.)

We thought it was an excellent candidate for a Rails-to-Trails [...]

An architect/planner from Baltimore gave me the following advice at the AIA dinner I attended last nite: “Don’t let a bunch of architects and planners tell you how to rebuild your neighborhood.”

Simon Dorfman has posted a video interview with yours truly at PeopleOfNewOrleans.com.

As they continue demolishing it, Physicians Hospital is now wide open. I walked in and took some pictures.

Man, it’s spooky in there.
Added twenty-odd pix to the continuing photoset.

Slowly, all too slowly, Mid-City restaurants are re-opening.
We went to Katie’s for a Cinco de Mayo party last Friday…

It was a one-time affair, but they’ll re-open soon, I hope.
Liuzza’s on Bienville also did a one-night stand last week, but now their bar is open. We went there yesterday afternoon with the Homan’s.

And then for lunch [...]

After about two months of inactivity, the demolition of the old Physicians Hospital on Canal Street has resumed.

Not the historic wood frame houses — those were all torn down back in February. Now they’re pulling down the big four story concrete and steel structure.
I took a bunch of pictures yesterday evening and added them to [...]

Simon Dorfman has launched PeopleOfNewOrleans.com. Check out his self-interview for an idea of what the project is about.

If you’re a paid subscriber, you can read about us in today’s Bloomington Herald-Times. If you’re not paid up, you can’t access the article, because of newspaper has adopted an overly restrictive policy, and I would never, ever do anything to violate that policy. So I’ll just tell you that it’s a very nice write-up [...]

If you wanna get a flavor of what ROX #94 might be like, check out these segments I’ve posted. These man-on-the-street interviews were conducted in the French Quarter one month before Katrina. They are just rough cuts, so they’ll be subject to further editing.
Special thanx to Erik Brewer for running camera, to Scott Brown for [...]

We’re firing up the air conditioners tonight, for the first time since Katrina shut ‘em down. It’s only 86 degrees in our living room, but Xy’s a wimp. Plus our ceiling fans are still out of commission (along with all our overhead electrical wiring). I guess Summer has begun.

Note: I was working on this miniature essay just before Katrina. I’ve only just finished now.
I fully realize that most people don’t think much about whether or not to have kids. They either know what they want and act on that instinct, or they don’t think about it at all and just do what comes [...]

At least one person understood the true purpose of my Jazz Fest heresy: whoring for free tickets. Thanks, Howie! Xy and I had a good time. We stayed for all of an hour and a half, had a good lunch, and left just before it rained.

On the way home from a science fair in Algiers, my boss and I came across a rather astonishing sight. I don’t think the camera can really capture the weirdness, but I tried.
Click for the photoset:

Ahhh… tea, just the way I like it.

(Back on the caffeine again after almost a month.)

Today (Thursday) is trash day. Waste Management didn’t pick up our trash last Thursday, or the Thursday before that. The pile is mounting. If they neglect us again today, it will be the third week in a row. I have called them eight or nine times.

I ran into Jay Batt at an MCNO meeting Tuesday, [...]

It really chapped my ass to read the story on the front page of today’s paper, about the big movie production studio which is planned to be built next to the Lafitte housing project.
I’m not opposed to the project — I see it as a hugely positive boon to the neighborhood. The inclusion of a [...]

It’s been eight months since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast. Xy and I made a little (two minute) video to mark the occasion, as we did at the five and six month marks. You can watch it here:

Eight Months Post-Katrina on Vimeo
Or, if you have Quicktime 7, you can download a higher-quality [...]