Comments on: Notes From New Orleans

By: January O'Neil

January O'Neil — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:00:57 +0000

I’m just catching up with your podcasts but I wanted you to know how much this story tocuhed me. My husband and I met in New Orleans so watching the city struggle is unbearable. Hope stories like this remind the government that the residents need more than financial aid.

Excellent!

By: maitri

maitri — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 05:07:33 +0000

erin: You can most definitely buy icecream and gelato in New Orleans (pretty close to City Park) and the bathrooms work now. Yes, there are small and LARGE things here that irritate often, but where else in the States can you find such cultural uniqueness? What other city boasts so much in this nation? Wait until your new city rebuilds and you will find that icecream and public restrooms are way down on the priority list. hurley: Harry Shearer is a regular blogger at Huffington Post and spends most of his writing and advocacy time there. Here's the link. loki above not to be confused with local blogger Loki.

By: Beau Ross

Beau Ross — Mon, 28 May 2007 23:45:13 +0000

Dan Baum is a really cool cat, he was very accessible and put on no airs. He made a lot of friends here in Nawlins and he will be missed. And that pink hat of his was the shit! reminded me of Tom Wolfes white suit and I hope it becomes a trademark of his wherever he goes. I’m looking forward to his book. Please gang at open source, do more shows on my city, there are so many stories to tell. How about a show about people who have moved to New Orleans Post-katrina and still have fallen in love with the city–like Dan Baum.

By: mr. closets

mr. closets — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:08:59 +0000

New Orleans is the poorest per capita of America’s large cities, in one of the poorest regions in the nation. This despite a thriving tourism industry and a major port facility. I suspect the real problem with New Orleans is in it’s culture of poverty and a corrupt local political machine. No amount of reconstruction is going to make those problems go away.

By: Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:50:43 +0000

A friend from Rhode Island sent me the link to this site and it looks very interesting. I look forward to reading more about Mr. Baum and his book. I live in New Orleans and have stong ties to the city. I was born and raised here so I’ve got deep roots in this city. You may have heard the story about a Katrina survivor named “Rockey” who towed his FEMA trailer to the White House and invited President Bush to dinner so he could deliver his message of “Thanks, but the job is not done.” I am the guy behind the story and I made a feature length documentary film about Rockey and his misson to the White House. The film is called “Forgotten on the Bayou: Rockey’s Mission to the White House” and it’s represented for distribution by David Garber of Lantern Lane Entertainment out of Los Angeles. This film will make a positive impact on the world and particularly New Orleans because this is a story about the little guy getting his message to the big guy. It’s a story about hope and it’s the only story that has anything to do with Katrina that will make you laugh. It’s what we truly need in New Orleans right now…a little bit of HOPE. Check out the website http://www.forgottenonthebayou.com for more info about the film.

Sincerely,

Steven Scaffidi

Producer/Director

http://www.ghostriderpictures.com

By: Potter

Potter — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:42:03 +0000

This is a great listen.

By: plnelson

plnelson — Thu, 24 May 2007 21:04:58 +0000

Here’s another vote for Shearer. (Public radio listeners in the Boston area have no idea who he is unless they use the Internet . . . )

Should we focus on the progress the city has made? Or on the escalating violence?

This is off-topic but I have long advocated that ROS do a show about violence. You’ve touched on it in many shows but I’d like a show with serious scientists who can explain WHY humans are that way.

If you’re poor and in distress and (being poor in a broken city or country) have limited access to healthcare, then violence would seem to be a particularly irrational response to poverty and social distress. And yet from New Orleans to Iraq to Palestine to Boston to Africa to plenty of other places, violence is the response. Given all the different possible ways one MIGHT respond to poverty and distress – political organizing, social activism, self-education, getting together with other poor unemployed people to build or repair something, etc, why is violence such a popular option?

By: RobertPeel

RobertPeel — Thu, 24 May 2007 19:52:53 +0000

Another Great Lousiana write is James Lee Burke. He evokes New Iberia. But I can feel New Orleans on a steamy, humid, summer day. I speant a week at Dillard University.

Great Literature has been written there Walker Percy, John Kennedy O’Toule even Ann Rice-and ah the music!

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Thu, 24 May 2007 19:37:00 +0000

Hurley,

Harry Shearer is a great idea. We’re going to give this entire hour over to Baum but Part II with Shearer would be a memorable show.

By: hurley

hurley — Thu, 24 May 2007 18:22:58 +0000

…the apple the pedlar gave me, stolen by my step-mother to spike with cloves and season my father’s underwear, sweeping up the remnants from the corn-barges on the Mississippi to feed to the chickens, the restaurant down by the levee where the divers gathered, eating cheap spaghetti and washing it down with what was it?, etc. You open a nice vein of memory on a stricken place. I look forward to the show.