Beautiful

A Times Picayune article today reported the "Grey Ghost" I referred to in my last post has been hit with a bit of irony. The infamous vigilante who has campaigned since '97 against illicit street painting was charged today with ... you guessed it, illicit street painting. 

Perfection.

More of Banky's New Orleans art.

Make It Right

Almost everyone knows who Brad Pitt is. The very famous, wealthy actor has now branched out and formed this foundation called Make It Right. His foundation is committed to building 150 homes in the Lower 9th Ward. They are not just any homes though, they are environmentally friendly, sustainability homes. It is great that such a big celebrity is taking notice of New Orleans and disaster relief, bringing attention to an area that needs it. Still, there is controversy on whether he has the right to come down here and just build homes that, to a lot of locals, do not reflect the culture and history of the city. The homes have a more modern, contemporary look to them and seem to have lost the New Orleans charm. The cutting edge design of these homes may look out of place in the neighborhood, but they are still providing homes. They are being built to withstand hurricanes, floods and strong winds and are energy-efficient, allowing residents to save up to 75% on energy bills. There are both pros and cons, but the question still stands: Is the foundation really making things right? I'll let you make up your own mind.

Here are some photos of the homes:




Here is an interview Brad Pitt had with Ellen Degeneres, a supporter of his foundation:

-Noia. It's Time to Pretend.

During spring break, Shadoe and I attended a forum discussion at Tulane University. The topic was entitled, “Toward a Meaningful Educational Opportunity: Ensuring Equity in a System of Choice and Autonomy.” Yeah, the discussion itself was quite a handful of jargon also. While I couldn’t understand some of the jargon the panelists used, I did get that they were discussing New Orleans recently radicalized school system. Okay well first, let me try to recap what some of these panelists touched on. The first speaker was Dr. Warren Simmons, an executive director at some institute for school reform from Brown University. His opening statement was that he was neither a proponent, nor an opponent of choice. He felt that if we establish choice as the lever for urban school reformation, there should be more thought placed into exactly how this choice is organized. If “choice” is the answer to poor schooling, he wants to be sure that choice will in some way ameliorate the disparity in where different schools start out (i.e. their resources) with the use of autonomy and freedom…to choose. Dr. Warren firmly believes that it is crucial that some guy above the school system and who has a direct impact on the school system will think about this question of choice in order to provide a more equal distribution of resources so that all schools have an equitable starting point. An equitable starting point doesn’t necessarily have to mean all schools should be given the same thing, because most schools excel and are week in different aspects of their curriculum, resources, etc. Instead, schools should be analyzed on an individual basis and provided with the necessary equipment, tools, and resources to bring all schools to an equitable starting point. Dr. Warren suggests the community think about constructive support for schools, not necessarily to be delivered singularly…it can be a combination of local home grown providers as well as national providers. Also, he feels that this said person or entity above schools should also be the tool assessor/reformer for kids with disabilities so that they do not get lost in these charter schools.

The last thing he brings to attention is the dire need for communication. Communication is crucial in school reform discussion because choice and autonomy can mean different things to different groups of race and language. For example, the term autonomy does not exude wonderful, pleasant feelings to the blacks in the South because it was a term used to legalize black schools being separate from white schools. It is important to translate these terms cross-culturally in order to develop and establish a common meaning for common good.

You know, speaking of terms that can be twisted to associate with both positive and negative feelings….this reminds me of one of the many enlightening conversations I have had at the St. Charles Guesthouse. By the way, the St. Charles Guesthouse never ceases to impress me. Yesterday, the word “inversion” was brought to my attention. It’s a very cute word actually. One of our fellow housemates saw the book at a thrift shop and was compelled to come back the next day to buy it. According to the author, inversion is the “language of dehumanization.” Inversions happen everyday and it’s basically when a person takes something positive, twists it, and makes it negative and criticizes another person for it. For example, take a person who has absolutely no obligations, no tasks or errands that must be run all day. They are essentially free, free of restrictions, monotony and limited choice. Now another person may see this, and here comes the trick, twist this freedom and instead call them lazy. This can apply especially well for hippies. Society doesn’t think too highly of hippies, instead of being free to do as they please, they are instead viewed as a worthless group who doesn’t make “use” of their time or contribute to society. Honestly, I can’t say my own thoughts are always guilt free of inversions. I will, however, make a more conscious effort to be sensitive to these types of dehumanization through my own use of language.

Anyways, I got lost in thought. I’m sure the concept of inversions can be applied to the schooling system here but I’ll postpone that analysis for now. Finally, I’d like to mention the last speaker, Dr. Luis Miron, the Dean of College of Social Sciences at Loyola University. He used a very applicable quote that impressed me. I can’t recall it word for word, but he basically said that creating the Treme Charter School was similar to the concept of “making Creole gumbo.” He quoted someone saying that the generic ingredients will always be things like okra, seasoning and so and so forth because everyone has their own recipe…but the main ingredients of administration, teachers, students, and parents, should be held constant. This component is crucial in the quality of the “cuisine.” ‘Not everyone who has tasted gumbo before can cook it, and even then, some cook better than others. Similarly, not everyone who has attended a school before can run one.’ I think this analogy is a true one for the Louisiana school system, I hope more people adopt this point of view and that it will help for the better.

Sorry, one more thought. Ever heard of the word paranoia? Most likely. Ever heard of the stems para-, ortho-, and meta-? Maybe you have from your last organic class, or a friend annoying you about his last organic class? Well most of us know that paranoia is about excessive fear or anxiety, that others are constantly trying to sabotage you. So basically, you live your life thinking of the world as a threat to you and thus live constantly consciously aware of others. Now, have you heard of metanoia? To my understanding, which can be blatantly wrong so forgive me if I mislead, metanoia is when you constantly change your mind about everything or anything that is encompassed in life..constantly reshaping not only your own thought process, but yourself. This is a persons constant struggle with their own mind whereas paranoia is the constant struggle and worry about other people’s thoughts. Wow, I don't think I used the words "constant" and "struggle" enough to describe these meanings. Don't mind that. Moving on now, orthonoia on the other hand is living unthreatened by all, including yourself. I would have never stumbled upon these words if it wasn’t for my brother who sent me MGMT’s album and then I heard one of our Guesthouse workers repeat those words to me. Here’s a random link to the British epidemic of orthonoia. Haha. I guess their tabloids hadn’t successfully put them in a state of paranoia like America’s have…

Currently listening to: Time to Pretend, by MGMT

YEAH YOU RITE!

A collection of New Orleans accents, all of which Shadoe and I are looking out for!

I've come to test the timber of my heart

No pressing issues to write about tonight; just a couple things I've been interested in the past couple of days.

The past few days since I've discovered him, I have been listening to Joe Pug nonstop. Not only listening to him, but running a campaign as epic as Barack's for everyone I know to hear him. Apparently, Pug was a student at Chapel Hill before he, literally, one day decided to redirect his life completely. Dropping out and moving to Chicago to play his guitar seems to have been the right choice: his debut album has made a lot of noise -- The Nation of Heat -- and has been referred to as a sublime lyrical masterpiece (an understatement at best). He will be at Local 506 in Chapel Hill on May 15th, as will I.

Also on a musical note (ha, you see what I did there?). One of the Chartwell Center's employees, Mr. Richard, will be playing at JazzFest this year. Within the last couple months, he joined a band called My Name is John Michael, which is also an interesting story. John Michael, the actual John Michael, challenged himself to write, sing and record one original song every week for a year. Each week he would post these songs on his website, free for all to download and distribute. Fifty-two songs later, he amassed a respectable following and added a full band. 

There was a poll on the website, and thirteen songs were chosen to be rerecorded for a full length album. The CD release show for this album is this Saturday at One Eyed Jacks. I hope I can make it to that. Their music is actually really good. I expected it to be decent, but I was really surprised. Richard said they had been compared to Bruce Springsteen and Bright Eyes. He said he didn't hear the similarities, nor do I, haha, but nonetheless, they are good and should be checked out as well. They are also kind of folky, which is all I've been listening too as of late. There is no sound as beautiful as a pained voice and an acoustic guitar. 

Aside from music, there are other things going on in New Orleans, believe it or not. In fact, starting tomorrow (technically, it's already the 26th, but everyone knows it's not tomorrow until you wake up) is the sixth annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. At that website, you can find the schedule of events, movie trailers, and anything else you would want to know about the what's going on. Through a series of speakers, music, special programs and, of course, films--from both New Orleanians and national/international producers, the festival seeks to provide an arena for artistic expression as well as cultivating an active human rights community in New Orleans.  I hope I can make it to see a few of these screenings. There are several ones listed I want to see.

On an unrelated note, several weeks ago, walking past the Ogden Museum for Southern Art (which I still need to go to before I leave, as well as the WWII Museum, among many other things) I saw a website url spray painted on a wall. www.americanbeautysouth.com - I made a note on my phone to check it out later. I kept thinking about it all night, and wanted so badly to pull the site up when I got back. But so many times before have I seen an interesting url written somewhere and only to be disappointed when you call it up. Being such a romantic of the South and anything Southern, I didn't want this website to end up lame as so many others had. So I sat on it for several weeks, just to keep the mystery and the hope alive. Like that conspicuously wrapped Christmas present you convince your parents to let you open a night early, a name like American Beauty South can only be kept under wraps for so long. Today was Christmas Eve. I finally typed it in the url bar and hit enter. Greeted by a picture of a highway 61 sign adjacent to a pink-rose bush and an elegant American Beauty South logo and several internal links, I kept an interest. How exciting. It turns out American Beauty South is a really cool project in which artists use the streetside walls of hotels along New Orleans's Airline drive as a canvas to depict themes like American beauty, the South and Highway 61. The site also includes pictures and a map of Airline drive designating the locations of each piece, as well as links to each artist. Each link provides information on the artists, a statement about their pieces as well as additional links to their other works. This url turned out to be so much better than I could imagined. I can't wait to cruise Airline and see the pieces first hand. 

Other wall art I need to see is by an English graffiti artist named Banksy who came to New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina to make some statements around the city. I need to get out and see these tags before the "Gray Ghost, a notorious vigilante who's been systematically painting over any graffiti he can find with the same shade of gray paint since 1997" covers the work. Ironically, many of the pieces are in response to him as "He has done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurricane could ever hope to achieve." --BANSKY

Currently watching: Joe Pug Hymn 101

Currently listening to: Joe Pug Nation of Heat