b.rox

Michael and I were walking down my street the other night after a neighborhood meeting (there are meetings every night) and we came upon three young African-American men, hanging out by a parked car with the stereo cranked.
A year ago this wouldn’t have been unusual, but very few black residents have returned to my [...]

New Orleans has been visited by a truly biblical plague of flies since the flood waters receded. You can’t eat food outside without being blanketed by a swarm.
However…

I’ve noticed the friendly little lizards around our house (mostly anoles and a few geckos) are getting fatter lately, and that makes me happy. Nature has a way [...]

It’s been abundantly clear to all of us over the last ten months that New Orleans is at extreme risk. The city is still here, but we are fighting for our lives, and the spectre of another catastrophic event looms large. We could get hit by a powerful hurricane this year while our defenses, apparently [...]

Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the premiere of the very first episode of ROX.
In honor of this august yet shameful occasion, I’m posting a song by Scott Evans, fortuitously titled “Fourteen Years” (mp3, 1.5 MB) — although to be honest the title is a sheer coincidence. This was recorded live at the Neutral Ground [...]

Sometime in the wee hours of yesterday morning my rox.com e-mail account started to choke. I’ve had the same e-mail address for ten years so I get quite a bit of spam, and when the flow of spam stops I know something’s wrong. I finally called tech support and they said that account was at [...]

I’ll be living the bachelor life this week as Xy’s in DC for a teacher conference.
I love Xy, and in these months after Katrina we’ve become closer than ever. I enjoy our life together. I also enjoy having time apart, but life has become so busy I suspect I won’t even much of an opportunity [...]

The story about our renovation in today’s Times-Picayune is actually the seventh in a series Stephanie Bruno has been writing about us. I haven’t posted some of the previous articles here because they didn’t appear on the nola.com website for some strange reason. This one did, so I copied and pasted — only to realize [...]

It’s taken a while but we’ve finally viewed all the “P” movies on our list.
I liked these a lot:

Patton — 1970. Great character study.
Persona — 1967. A serious avantgarde Swedish art film that’s perplexing and mysterious and somehow not boring. It’s actually quite gripping, beautiful and painful to watch, even though I didn’t understand it.
Picnic [...]

I do hope all of you NOLA bloggers will be there at the Geek Dinner next Friday.

Now more than ever, it’s time to remember that the Fourth of July is International Flag-Burning Day. To celebrate, I’m posting this fantastic anthem (mp3) by New Orleans’ own Troublemakers. It is truly one of my favorite songs ever.
A lot of Americans get whipped up about the notion of anyone “desecrating” the American flag. [...]

For our ten month update, I turn the helm over to Xy.

Ten Months Post-Katrina on Vimeo
Also posted to YouTube, or you can download the 5 MB QuickTime movie, but you’ll need QuickTime 7.
See also: Nine Months, Eight Months, Six Months, Five Months.

I had breakfast with Arthur Hardy this morning!

Yes, the Arthur Hardy. Michael and I met him at Betsy’s Pancake House to discuss how Mid-City Neighborhood Organization might work with the Warren Easton Charter Foundation, of which Arthur (class of ‘65) is Vice-President. I live right behind Warren Easton High School, so I’m very much interested [...]

It’s been three weeks since we last saw Lucy, and this makes us very sad.