Banksy’s Gifts to the Ninth Ward …

Posted: September 11, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: New Orleans | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

If you’ve followed any of my New Orleans-related posts, you know i live in the ninth ward and you’ve read about NOLA rising, the Grey Ghost, and urban art.  Well, in honor of the third anniversary of Katrina, infamous British grafitti artist Banksy blessed us with his incredible art.    He even took on the Grey Ghost!!!  Here’s a sampling of his work and links to give you some more information.  Folks in the neighborhood are scrambling to ensure these whimsical marvels become permanent installations.

 

 

 

Banksy’s website:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

Times Picayune on the works here by British Grafitti artist Banksy:

http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2008/09/banksy_i_presume.html

http://blog.nola.com/living/2008/09/graffiti_art_update.html

More On Banksy and the New Orleans Installations:

http://gawker.com/tag/banksy/

 

One of the works  (the marching band shown at the bottom of this this thread) was already painted over by the custodian of the abandoned building. Say good bye to a great piece of art, let alone the price that original Banksy’s can fetch! Not only did it beautifully capture some of the best of New Orleans Culture, it was probably worth hundereds of thousands of dollars.  The “National Looters” shown above was recently covered by plywood yesterday.  Driving by it today, the plywood is down.  My understanding is that the owner of the building is trying to protect this piece.  (Smart and savvy person that one!) They are still searching out locations of several of the works seen on Banksy’s website–including a helmet morphed into a turtle and a little girl screaming from atop a chair at the trademark Banksy rat.  This rat uses a crack in plaster exposing the bricks for its body.  One of the Banksy’s has also been damaged.  The link above to gawker talks about that senseless act.

Banksy’s sense of humor is in full play here.  He obviously has used the Grey Ghost (Fred Radtke) for the basis of this statement on the anti-grafitti artists block out of grafitti in New Orleans with gray swaths of paint.

Here he comes …

Posted: August 30, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: New Orleans | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Well, I have my trusty drill out and I’m currently boarding up the little kathouse windows.  I’ll make the decision to leave some time tomorrow.  I’m thinking, hmmmm, Florida Beaches, drinks with umbrellas, and the dance of the cabana boys.  (And yes, that is Hanna right there coming in next!)  Hate to wish this on any one else, but have to say, any one hit by Rita and Katrina deserve a break from mother nature.  Unfortunately, I know there’s no cosmic teapot coming to the rescue … so, let’s hope the laws of nature and physics are working in manner that brings the least amount of harm to critters and people.

Hurricane Obama vears away from New Orleans!

Posted: August 7, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: New Orleans, No Obama | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

There’s a big anniversary coming up in my life.  It was about three years ago a little low pressure wave left the coast of Africa that later would change my life and my neighbor’s lives for ever.  Hurricane Katrina was an experience I wouldn’t wish on any one.  Most levels of government have been trying to make nice to us to make up for the horrid response we got following the disaster.  While the kat house didn’t flood and sustained minor wind damage, I can tell you I will NEVER be the same person after that experience.

So, here’s some news from the ninth ward home front.

First, New Orleans put in a pitch to hold the presidential debates and we were rejected because the deciders on the committee said we weren’t ready for prime time yet.  So, Google and New Orleans got together to sponsor a town hall meeting here to highlight New Orleans three years after Katrina nearly wiped us off the face of the map.  We still need exposure and tourist dollars.  So, it would make a nice gesture to do something here, right?  So first, local item is hot off the Greta Wire:

August 7th, 2008 12:43 PM Eastern

The New Orleans Snub By One Presidential Candidate???

by Greta Van Susteren

Just in: I was just tipped off that New Orleans (yes, the unfortunate home of Hurricane Katrina…) invited Senator McCain and Senator Obama to do a town hall meeting co-sponsored by New Orleans and Google. As you might imagine, with all that has happened with Katrina, New Orleans is doing all that it can to attract Presidential candidates, commerce etc to help rebuild and revitalize the area.

Senator McCain accepted the New Orleans / Google town hall meeting 6 weeks ago…and Senator Obama? Well..he just answered yesterday and he declined ….the reason? his campaign says he will agree only to do the Commission on Presidential debates….

If  Louisiana is considered by the DNC to be a swing state right now, and New Orleans is the epicenter of Democrats in the state, this is not getting off on the right foot.  This will come right after the snub to visit us for Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union during the primary.  I’m not sure if he’s just taking the AA community down here for granted but I’m going to be interested in reading local responses to this.

The next interesting thing was Senator Landrieu’s huge move to disassociate herself from the Obama campaign as reported by Marc Ambinder.  Landrieu stayed neutral for a very long time in the national race.  She knows how much she owes to Hillary Clinton and depends heavily on Clinton-type voters around the state for her seat. She also depends heavily on AA voters.  Her opponent saw an opportunity to link her to the campaign and readied some negative ads.  He’s been running some doozies on her.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/landreiu_keeping_some_distance.php

Landrieu Keeping Some Distance From Obama

06 Aug 2008 01:43 pm

Heartbroken Bush campaign ex-officio Matthew Dowd wrote on ABC News.com recently that Barack Obama was running behind his party nationally and therefore that the party’s congressional candidates ought to be wary about running with him.

Sen. Mary Landrieu is keeping her distance.

l1.JPG

Last Thursday, an automated Google search for “Mary Landrieu,” produced a link to a page on Obama;’s website touting an upcoming Washington, D.C fundraiser for Obama. An aide to John Kennedy, Landrieu’s Republican challenger, sent it to reporters. Just two hours later, the link went down, only to reappear with Landrieu’s name removed without notice.

Co-hosting presidential fundraisers are among the most vetted events on any politician’s calendars – sitting senators don’t “accidentally” let themselves get listed as a co-host  for a presidential fundraiser. So far as I am aware, Landrieu has not attended a political event with Obama.

l2.JPG

A Landrieu spokesman e-mails:

The Obama event is part of a day-long series of DNC events focused on women’s political involvement.  Sen. Landrieu is scheduled to attend the event as part of the day-long series of events, but is not hosting.  She was never scheduled to host, so we imagine that somebody made an error and accidently listed her as a host.

If Obama is counting on Lousiana for its electoral votes, I’d say this is a development that should give him pause.

Meanwhile, here’s some of my Katrina Pictures to remind you of the pain we’ve been through down here.

Lower Ninth Ward.
More Lower Ninth Ward

More Lower Ninth Ward--Fats Domino's House

These are from the Lower Ninth Ward which is right across the Canal from me.  My 18 year old daughter –then 15 took these pictures.  Emily put together a montage to take to Nebraska to share with folks up there.  Just about every thing you see here is now gone.  The ninth ward is basically weeds and cement slabs with a few stairs to no where.
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