Gentilly Girl- a part of the 99%

February 19, 2010

Second Line For the “Aints” Tomorrow.

Filed under: New Orleans — Tags: , — Morwen Madrigal @ 9:34 pm

It’s been a long time coming-

HERE

May 6, 2008

Update- Second Lines Broken Up

Well it seems folks are getting more informed concerning the breaking up of a Second Line 10 days ago.

Jarvis DeBerry weighs in here. The T-P editors put this one together. Some of us on the NOLA Blogger’s e-list are trying find out more concerning this incident. Right now the opinion of most is that it was a rogue cop who just decided to break up the Second Line. As NOPD is slowly collapsing under Chief Warren Riley’s ineptitude, we still can’t get a real answer. No competency in leadership always results in chaos, and that is what Riley has done as the head of our police force.

Riley must be removed and a real leader put in place to turn this poop around. He is a true fuckmook.

Sinn Fein!

If You Miss This, Not My Prob

Filed under: Music,New Orleans — Tags: , — Morwen Madrigal @ 3:42 am

Renard Posche blew my neural pathways tonight. Funk, rap and soul babies. I can’t stop dancin’ in my chair I’m fucking groovin’!.

Alright, go here sample and then put down $9.99 for the album download. You won’t regret it.

Damn! My little tush can’t stop… this is going through my soul. Life Darlin’s… great reminders of what it’s about whilst living.Sweet Zombie Jebus, I haven’t grooved like this in decades. Five platinum stars kids!

Go get the album.

May 5, 2008

More on the House

Filed under: New Orleans,Our House — Tags: , — Morwen Madrigal @ 5:53 pm

A few new pics are up at this place. They are at the end of the list.

We were hoping to move this week, but our electrical guy hasn’t finished the last 10% he has already been paid for. Seems that his $250K contract means more to him than the folks he contracted with months ago. Lawsuit is coming.

May 3, 2008

The Second Time on the “Second Lines”…

Last Saturday, a major dissing of our Cultures and Traditions here in New Orleans went down: Da’ NOPD broke up a Second Line, a Jazz Funeral, in the Treme last Saturday. (Of course the local paper didn’t report on the event until the wee hours of the morning today.) This was as the mourners had finished and were walking to a place to share the Repast at a Community Center.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of this kind of funerary rite, here’s what it entails:`a procession heads toward the ceremonial place of passing (could be a business, a fishing hole, a certain park or the cemetery.) A brass band leads the folks playing dirges. When the selected place is reached, the words are said and the departed is ready to move on. Then the band strikes up a different beat and the mourners start to dance in order to help their friend move on to the other World. “Dancing them Home” is also a way to stop the tears and just remember our friend as we continue through day-to-day life. We are a Family. We take care of our own.
Once the Second Line is done, the folks gather in places and share food, drink and stories about the departed. Some members of the “Family” might be at one place, others at others. But this is usually how it goes down.
This is a Sacred ritual. It is rooted in Culture and Tradition, Respect and Humanity. This act is seen as essential by many of us as part of our Heritage and our City. Events such as this define us as a people and a Culture, the continuation of what has been for many, many years. As a Native I will say now: “This is part of our Birthright, our being a part of the Life that moves through the heavy damp air as it sways the Spanish Moss on the oak trees. Here is where we came from and in the fullness of time where we shall return. The muddy waters of Old Man River, the clays in the swamps… the scent of cypress trees… all of these things are also part of us. We dance the Dance of Life, knowing full well the fragility of the living, and we will not give our ancestral ways up. This is our home and these are our Traditions. This is OUR Dance.”.

This is why what happened last Saturday is an attack and an affront to the Culture of New Orleans. It is orchestrated by those of money and power. Our city is badly damaged by the Federal Flood, and they want the land for speculation, for those who would buy a condo near the French Quarter in order to “celebrate” three days once every year at Mardi Gras. To break the back of the old Cultures in order to be able to schedule and charge for every little thing we locals do as a matter of course. To make their way our way. These are the desires of malignantly evil creatures.

These are the carpetbaggers, those who swoop down when the we are hurting and gnaw on our bones even as we die. They only see New Orleans as a cash register, not the living entity that it truly is. Our Life, our city’s Life, is something they can never know. The Spirit of Place can never enter them because they cannot “feel”.

New Orleans belongs to Her people and they to Her. Native or adopted, it doesn’t really matter: we are all infected with Her elixier… the “Water of Life”. Our strange little anachronistic bastion of the Old World infused with the desire to just be ourselves in the midst of American Culture gone crazy. The reminder of what could be, if only one accepts it.

One paragraph of the above article caught my eye:

“Snuffing Saturday’s parade was an “attack on the culture,” the same culture that gave birth to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, said Wilson’s longtime friend, Jerome Smith. He found the timing ironic: At about the same time that police had scattered an authentic funeral march, near Esplanade and Claiborne avenues, Jazz and Heritage Festival-goers were lined up behind a band at the Fair Grounds, ready to follow a second-line recreated for tourists.”

Need I say more?

Senn Fein

************************************************************************************************

Perfesser Ashley Morris, a determined lover and defender of New Orleans and Her Culture passed one month ago yesterday. I can almost hear him ranting about this. He did have his Second Line, and he’d be pissed that someone else couldn’t have their’s.
We have established a fund to help his family through this rough period in time. Please donate.

April 29, 2008

The Lost Neighborhood Lives!

Today the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC), released their repopulation maps for the city. The data is based on mail deliveries to addresses, LRA Grants received and those selling their home to the Road Home.

What I found from this map is that our little neighborhood is doing far better than I had expected. There are only four sell-outs, and from the numbers of folks receiving LRA Grants, it looks to me that we should have 95% of our folks home and into their houses soon. (Can’t find my block-by-block house count currently) As our little area has been occupied since 1821 (not the houses, but the properties), this makes me very happy.

Eight more days to go and we move back into our darling home. Yard still looks like crap, but ya’s gonna do?

April 18, 2008

Street-people.com Is Here

Filed under: New Orleans — Tags: — Morwen Madrigal @ 3:52 pm

From the N.O. CityBusiness News. Read it!

I am not going to comment here at this point in time. I’m waiting to see the “results” or their “investigations”.

April 17, 2008

Mid-April House Repair Pics

Filed under: New Orleans,Our House,Rebuilding — Tags: , , — Morwen Madrigal @ 4:32 pm

Some shots from yesterday’s work and two of the house before the Flood. Most of the appliances are there, but still in boxes. (New pics are at the end of the set.)

April 11, 2008

St. Tammany population is too low, say parish officials

Filed under: Fools,New Orleans — Tags: , — Morwen Madrigal @ 7:25 pm

What? They can’ find enough racist redneck jerks?

What a freakin’ world.

April 10, 2008

And Another One Bites the Dust…

State Senator Derrick Shepard will be indicted today at 2 pm for money laundering.

These fuckmooks can’t even cover their trails.

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress