Anderson Cooper Has A Crush On Ray Nagin

Posted on October 10, 2006 by Varg

Originally posted Jan. 17, 2006
Just when I thought there was no way I could ever bestow my sympathy on Ray Nagin again, CNN turns around and shows that, in the parlance of our times, it is truly the media that always proves to be the most tactless party in any given scenario. I’m writing about what happened on CNN tonight.

Normally, I try to avoid the 24-hour news networks. I only tuned in to CNN tonight because they were hyping an appearance by our honorable potty-mouthed Mayor, he of foot-in-mouth disease. Come to find out Nagin cancelled at the last minute due to an “emergency.” Anchor Anderson Cooper didn’t to a good job hiding his disappointment. He quickly mentioned the several times Nagin had cancelled at the last minute in the past then posted a correspondent in front of Bourbon House where Nagin was having dinner with members of Bring Back New Orleans. In a smarmy manner, he asked his correspondent, “Does it look like there are any emergencies going on in there?”

Actually, as a citizen of New Orleans, I consider Mayor Nagin’s appearance at a dinner with a group dedicated to rebuilding the city about a thousand times more important than him appearing on a cable news show. The entire city is in a state of emergency these days.

Nagin’s comment on MLK Day were troubling and insensitive. But watching CNN tonight just made me realize how out of touch mainstream media is about what is going on down here.

Why are the words “chocolate city” more of a talking point than words like “category-5 levees” or “coastal restoration?” I hate what Nagin said. I think it set us back. But to hear CNN try attempt to grind their axe about Nagin canceling on them and postulating that somehow Nagin breaking away from Bring Back New Orleans to talk about a political gaffe he made the day before is even more insulting.

The show seemed to be a hatchet job. Very little positive was said about Nagin and there really wasn’t much as far as well-rounded reporting. I’m not sticking up for Nagin, I just would rather him be meeting with Bring Back New Orleans than getting lambasted by Anderson Cooper.

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.