Liens du Moment: 3/18

Posted on March 17, 2008 by Varg

I love, love, love Chicago Public Radio’s show This American Life. How pleased I was to hear this week’s show about the tale of Bobby Dunbar, a little boy from Opelousas who in was lost and found and lost again. Download it while you have the chance, only a few days left. If you are bored at work and have an hour to kill at your desk, download it, it is quite worth it. Then come back and tell me what you thought.
The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar
Chicago Public Radio

I was enjoying the time change by getting an afternoon bike ride yesterday and noticed the river had crept right up to the levee. I was wondering if it was unusually high right now and found this great site where you can check river levels by district and basin…
River Gauges
US Army Corps of Engineers

I just found out there is an observatory in Gretna where supposedly there are viewings on Mondays and Wednesdays if you are into that sort of thing…
Observatory in Google maps

2 thoughts on “Liens du Moment: 3/18”

New Orleans News Ladder says:

March 18, 2008 at 10:59 am

Noble Mon,
you are so full of it and I am so the winnah! T’anks for this great inforoolery. I had heard of that observatory but thought it perchance urban myth or worse. You have such a great blog.
Bruce
editilla~NO News Ladder
Rachel J says:

March 26, 2008 at 1:14 pm

Sorry to leave this on your blog – I couldn’t find an email address.

I’m going around to all the NOLA area bloggers/freelancers to let them know about our new book by a local author, the Historic Photos of New Orleans by Melissa Lee Smith. We’d love to send you a complimentary copy for possible review consideration on your blog of this book. This title is done in a large 10×10 format and all images used are culled from several archives that represent rare or never before seen photos of the Crescent City. We’re trying to get the word out to local folks, so I hope you don’t mind me dropping you a line to let you know about our books!

You can find the author locally on a panel at the French Quarter Fest on April 12th and at Jazz Fest on May 2nd from 2-3pm in the Jazz Fest Book Tent.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best,
Rachel Joiner
Marketing Manager
http://www.turnerpublishing.com

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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.