b.rox

I just wanted to take a quick minute to salute my parents. They just finished another week of volunteer work, helping to rebuild New Orleans. As per usual they stayed at Camp Restore and kept busy, but I did manage to visit with them a couple times. This time they brought some friends with them [...]

This sculpture mysteriously appeared on the Lafitte Corridor last week, just in time for the Urban Pathways conference tour. I was surprised and touched. It’s worth nothing that Friends of Lafitte Corridor did not solicit or commission this sculpture, though in retrospect I’m pretty sure I know who made it. It is, quite simply, yet [...]

BanksyBroomRatA by Infrogmation of New Orleans / CC BY-SA 2.0
Carnival and preparations for Mardi Gras are keeping me too busy to write, so instead I thought I’d highlight some comments I received a few days ago.
Cast your memory back. Long-time readers will remember my letter to Paul Curcuru which I posted in 2006, regarding a [...]

New Orleans Saints Fans High-Five Each Other by Aisha Turner/PBS Newshour / CC BY-NC 2.0
Today I’m offering a rare guest post by my friend David. Take it away, man.

B, I agree with all your points, but as someone who grew up here, the win means even more.
We all know that historically the Saints were [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derek_b/ / CC BY 2.0
This passage in a news story caught my eye. Mary Rickard for Reuters:

Along with a championship team, New Orleans has a new mayor in Mitch Landrieu, who won election on Saturday by a wide margin. Landrieu, the city’s first white mayor in more than 30 years, pledged to bridge racial divides [...]

A number of friends have remarked recently at how surprised they are to see me writing about sports, and about football in particular, since they remember when I didn’t know anything about the game except that the ball’s shaped funny.
It was not that long ago, really.
One thing I should perhaps clarify: I am not a [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/therefore/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Yes, that’s right, New Orleans is having an election tomorrow, right in the midst of Superbowl mania and Carnival madness.
I’m a little shy this time around about voicing my own opinion, but others are not so afflicted. Here’s a roundup of what some other bloggers think.

Adrastos
The Huck Upchuck
NOLA-Dishu on the assessor [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravages/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Yesterday everyone on campus was wearing black and gold — except for our administrative assistant. A Colts fan from way back, she was defiant in a blue and white dress which she’d been saving for the occasion. She’ll be rooting for the Colts in the Superbowl. But even she was happy [...]

Just when I thought the whole sequence of events couldn’t get any stranger, in the midst of unpacking I was summoned via text message to Ashley’s grave where I partook in a bizarre quasi-religious sports ritual.

It was funny but also deadly serious. And it struck me:
It’s not just a game.
Meanwhile, up north, Aunt Karen [...]

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the playground on the Jeff Davis neutral ground with my daughter. We approached Serpent Mound at the same time as a trio of kids in elementary school uniforms.
I noticed the youngest child, a girl with a withered arm, was crying. I asked if she was OK. One of the other [...]

If I haven’t written here as much lately, perhaps it’s because I feel constrained from public discussion of many of the topics which are currently preoccupying me.

There’s an election coming up, and I’ve got opinions, but I’m afraid to express them. Whoever wins, FOLC will have to work with them. It won’t help FOLC’s cause [...]

There was a little frost outside this morning, but our cold snap seems to be coming to an end. The morning bike ride was chilly but not bone-chilling. It looks as though we won’t see freezing temperatures for the rest of the week. Hopefully the rest of the season! Personally I’d be happy if I [...]

WWOZ will be airing a “Street Talk” segment on the Lafitte Corridor greenway project today (Tues 1/12/10) at 2pm sharp. Listen on 90.7 FM in New Orleans or on the web at wwoz.org or just use the handy player on the FOLC website.

By strange coincidence, I found myself watching The Big Chill Friday night. It’s one of those super-famous movies that I’ve just somehow never seen.
Alas, when the flick was over and I turned in for the evening, I neglected to leave a trickle of water running, as I’d done Thursday night. This, despite the fact I [...]

We are experiencing the coldest damn weather since we moved here to New Orleans ten years ago. In fact it may break records going back much further than that.
Our new house is raised and has no subfloor. I’d been told a cold wind can whip under the floor something fierce, and sure enough over [...]

I wasn’t feeling quite right. When Xy offered to take our daughter with her on a shopping expedition I assented. It was just starting to rain so I urged her to drive carefully. Off she went.
We’d heard the weather reports the night before talking about a possibly severe “rain event” but I thought that was [...]

Overnight New Orleans got pounded by heavy, heavy rain for several hours. Also some serious gusts. We lost power for a while during the night and there was of course some street flooding throughout the city.
The weather has caused our fumigation to be postponed. They were set to tent the house this morning, but during [...]

We’re having our house tented for fumigation to kill off some drywood termites. It’s kind of a pain, because we have to relocate three cats, a rabbit, and a fish, not to mention a baby girl and our own damn selves and our food.
We became aware of the drywood infestation when we inspected. The seller [...]

I was listening to WWL and WBOK yesterday. These two talk-radio stations could not be more different in so many ways. And yet the theme was the same on both — the Saints as a metaphor for this city. Not a metaphor for what we actually are, but a metaphor for what we could be. [...]

I got a call from L— H— this morning. At least I think it was L— H—. In any event it was a man claiming to be L— H— and I have no reason to believe otherwise. Contrary to some comments posted here a couple months ago, he is alive and living in Ohio. He [...]