Fair-Weather Friends

Posted on November 29, 2006 by Varg

Making the rounds tonight is an item about a poll released by UNO that stated (with a whopping 7 percent margin of error) that 60 percent of the current population of Orleans and Jeff Parish have considered leaving the city since Hurricane Katrina.

One-third of Orleans, Jeff residents polled may leave in 2 years

That ain’t news. After all we’ve been through, who HASN’T considered leaving?

But the poll is bogus and here’s why. What’s the definition of “consider”? Do they mean looked at prices of real estate in other cities? Done it. Do they mean get so fed up with the criminal justice system you want to get as far away from it as possible? Done it. Do they mean stating that if the levees fail again I’m never coming back? Done it.

But I’m staying for now. And I don’t “consider” leaving very often. If my fiance and I leave, it won’t be a storm that drives us out. Not THAT storm anyway. Rather, it will be a decision much like any other decision. A new job. A change of pace. An offer we couldn’t refuse. Something.

But it won’t be Katrina. Fuck her.

One thing I do know for sure. All polls aside. You need to have grapefruits (and yes, ladies can have grapefruits) to live in the city right now. And you’d have to have casaba melons to honestly state you haven’t thought of leaving. So take that poll with a grain of salt.

And to anyone reading this who is still here and isn’t considering leaving (strongly or otherwise), I salute you brothers and sisters.

3 thoughts on “Fair-Weather Friends”

Mark Folse says:

December 3, 2006 at 1:15 pm

Leaving! Hell, I just got here. What’s needed are the freakin’ watermelons to stand up to the Feds and force the compensation the city is owed, and political leaders who can make that happen. Blanco and Nagin are both endowed with pistachioes, which is why we aren’t seeing any sort of forceful action to address our most critical issues.
Varg says:

December 3, 2006 at 10:38 pm

I tried to vote one out but it didn’t take. I’ll try the other next election.
Scott Harney says:

December 4, 2006 at 10:31 pm

Not only am I staying, but I just bought a new house in the city after the old one flooded. http://www.scottharney.com/2006/11/30/bought/ My sister and her husband did too, moving from Old Metairie to Esplanade Ridge. If N.O. goes down, then where else is there really to go?

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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.