Yep. I admit it. I can be clueless.

Last night I was perusing the Nola Live Journal community when I ran upon a commenter mentioning that she/he had read a piece about a certain blogger in the Times-Picayune. Whereupon I asked said blogger whaaaaaa?????

Turns out my friend and fellow blogger Yatpundit was interviewed for the featured story about Nola streetcar history in the Living section of the paper on Tuesday. He’s the author of “New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line” and is considered the city’s most knowledgeable historian of streetcar history. You can read this verrry interesting story here. It’s a great story, great interview and great photo and it underscores another reason why we love living in New Orleans!. Uh huh!

Yes, I was clueless about this - mainly because I rarely read the paper anymore - but I”m also peeved. I talk to Mr.Streetcar practically every day and he never once mentioned this or I would most certainly have blogged it before now. Well, I’m sure someone in the Nola blogosphere posted it….I just don’t read the blogs like I used to so I must have missed it.

Which brings me to the second part of my title. Attitude Adjustment.
I said I don’t read the paper or the blogs like I used to and that’s because my work has been consuming me. I have allowed that to happen. Lots of changes and a heavier load has made me decidedly un-serene. I have, in fact, developed an “attitude”. I’ve thrown temper tantrums. I’ve silently screamed “FYYFF!” I’ve announced that I’ve reached a stage in my life where I won’t put up with bullsh*t and I’m gonna tell it like it is. I’ve been negative, upset, blunt, over-reactive and overwhelmed and I’m tired of it. I’ve been like Screamin’ Millie:

Millie McDeevit screamed a scream,
So loud it made her eyebrows steam.
She screamed so loud her jawbone broke,
Her tongue caught fire, her nostrils smoked,
Her eyeballs boiled and then they popped out,
Her ears flew north, her nose went south,
Over the hillside, ‘cross the stream,
Into the skies it chased the scream.
And that’s what happened to Millie McDeevit,
(At least I hope all you screamers believe it).
~~Screamin’ Millie by Shel Silverstein

Yep, that’s how I’ve been feeling lately.
After a particularly stressful event today I went outside to think and I came to this conclusion: only I can make myself miserable. Only I can allow a situation that’s out of my control drive me crazy. And only I can change my attitude. And so I will.

So I’m thinking about a plan of action to reach this goal and I would appreciate any suggestions.

First baby step: enjoyed a trumpet solo of “Do You Know What It Means” on Steppin’ Out played by Clive Wilson. Just beautiful.

The PoliticalCat is a true friend of New Orleans who consistently posts stories of our struggle for recovery. Today she posted a truly amazing Katrina animal survival story. Even if you’re not an “animal person” you will be inspired by this horse’s resiliency.

If you live here and find yourself still suffering from the depression, anxiety and just plain grinding struggle of life here, read this story. I believe it will give you a little lift and a smile.

If you’re a normal, well-balanced happy person — still read this story!

Dead Ringer, designer of fine & funky custom made skull rings, dragon rings and Celtica, sent out their e-letter this week announcing a price increase effective Friday, June 13th and the opportunity to score a one-of-a-kind piece while the prices are still at 2005 levels. Skull ring aficionados must visit the website - their skulls are many, varied and awesome, ya hear me? Examples:

Mark and Steve designed a dragon ring for me last year that I still LUV and wear every day. The style I had chosen was too bulky for my ring size so they came up with this:

Notice the beautiful hand-made wooden box the ring came in. The mermaid was free-hand burned into the wood by Steve specially as a happy surprise for me. I was Traveling Mermaid at the time. Click that link to see more pix of the ring and a post about New Zealand, where DR is located.

I’ve been seriously jonesing for their Celtic cross for about a year now. Maybe now’s the time to scratch that itch.

Photograph by me - reflections in a window of my uncle’s barn, Forrest, MS, May 2008

Why is it? Because:
All phenomna are like a dream, an illusion,
a bubble, a shadow,
like dew and lightning.
~~~The Diamond Sutra

Here are a few pix I’ve taken while up here in Mississippi by my mamma’n'em. Click a pix for a single view, then again for a larger view.
It’s a beautiful, sunny (if quite windy) Mother’s Day and the only sounds I’m hearing right now are the sound of the wind blowing through the poplar trees, the tinkling of wind chimes and an occaisional moo.

The pix on the left is of my MaMaw’s red rose that my daddy dug up when my grandparent’s house was sold. I have a photo somewhere of a 16 year old me standing on the front porch of MaMaw’s house next to this rose.

In the middle is spiderwort, commonly known as blue-eyed grass, but we’ve always called it bluebells. This herb/wildflower has always grown in my mamm’s garden and is also found growing wild in the woods and fields of Mississippi. I often see a pink version along the roadsides of Louisiana. The purple is so beautifully vivid and it makes me think of that line from The Color Purple that goes: “I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.” Yes, indeed!

The pix on the right is my daddy’s vegetable garden. He has tomatoes, peppers, squash, mustard greens, string beans and Irish potatoes. I’m sure other vegetables will be growing there soon. Back in the day little Charlotte spent many an hour picking, snapping and shelling veggies from the garden and mamma would sort and put them up (freeze or can) in the evenings after working all day.

My mamma was (is) a hard worker. She raised three girls while working 8-9 hours a day at an outside job ( when women usually didn’t) then came home and cooked, cleaned, put up vegetables in the summer, oversaw homework, baths and bedtimes during the school year and about a zillion other things I could list.

Today is Mother’s Day and I want to tell my mamma this one thing I’ve come to know as I’ve gotten older and wiser. She is more of a woman than I will ever hope to be and mamma, I’m sorry for all the eye-rollin’ I did atcha!
I love you, mamma!

I’m blowin’ town for a few days……..like Steve McQueen underneath the radar screen…..

Charlotte sez:

Varg — I’m holdin’ ya to that promise!
Y’all go visit Varg Saturday at The Freret Street Art Market. I’ll be there for sure next month.

ReX — Feel better soon, bruh!
Before or after Freret on Sattidy, y’all sashay on over to the NoLA Rising Paint Party. Details here on NoLA Rising Blog.

And check out my man Editilla’s new song below. He’ll be performing here in NoLA (currently a Katrina exilee in Florida) at Neutral Grounds on May 27th at 7 PM. Carve it in stone, people! More on this in a week or so.
Y’all have a great week-end. I’ll try to check in with my Twitter posse while I’m away. You may hear from me here or you may not.

Local musician and my friend LisaPal’s sig other has released a new CD exclusively on da web. 4U/4 ME can be sampled and purchased here. You *must* go and sample Renard’s jazzy funkalicious sounds. His track “We Are The People” is featured on Nation for Change, a site in support of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

“We are the people, we make the world go ’round and ’round and ’round….”

NOLA ARTISTS ROCK!

Recently I was watching Ellie Krieger on the Food Channel and she was making Greek Stuffed Peppers. Well! Greek? Stuffed? and, well, anyway….they looked so good I decided to try them. They were super easy to make (check), looked pretty (check) and tasted really good (check)! I really like Ellie’s recipies because they’re healthy but actually taste good too. Here’s the recipe:

Stuffed Greek Peppers

1 pound lean ground beef
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated (about 2 cups) zucchini haters: you don’t really taste it
1 small onion, minced (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup bulghur I substituted rice
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, cores and ribs removed I used green
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans low-sodium stewed tomatoes, finely chopped
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese more if you’re a cheese lover

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine the beef, spinach, zucchini, onion, bulghur or rice, egg, oregano, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined. I used dried oregano but will use fresh next time. Squishing the mixture all together is the fun part - tip: wear surgical gloves to keep the goo from getting under your nails.

Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Use bigger peppers than I did - these were what I had on hand.

Pour the tomatoes over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the meat mixture is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 25 minutes longer. Next time I’ll add some of the cheese into the mixture too. Getting a bite with the cheese was esp delish.

This is out of the oven.

Serve on your favorite yellow rose dinnerware with a side salad.

The mixture freezes well too. One more thing I would add to the mix is Tabasco–obviously this is a Yankee recipe as the seasoning is not quite up to N’awlins standards! Enjoy!

TN Chick has chosen “Time” for todays Photo Hunt. I have chosen to interpret the subject as SPRINGTIME! I took this photo of pear blossoms a couple of months ago. Flowering fruit trees are the essence of springtime, doncha think?

When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!” O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.
~~~Song, from Act V, Scene 2 of Love’s Labors Lost by William Shakespeare

IT’S FRIDAY, IT’S FRIDAY, IT’S FRIDAY, UH HUH!

I’m looking forward to the week-end but right now I’m gonna look back at the past week in the (my) blogosphere and share some of the blog posts that grabbed my attention. They made me laugh, made me think, made me thirsty and made me dance like those cats up there….’ceptin’ I dance better.

So here are my picks for THE BEST BLOGGERS IN THE WOOOOOOORRRRRLLLLLDDDD!

Fond of Snape posts funny pix and becomes famous as the world’s first “Steak Ho”.

My Friend the Big Brown Bear by A Packful of Candy Cigarettes. If only I had a smidgen of her creative writing ability. *sigh*

Ponchartrain Pete finds luv in a brewery. Now on quest to keep the luv flowing….down his throat. Heh.

2 Millionth Web Log insults Jed and Jethro but it’s wicked funny!

And my favorite story of all The Reverend Al Green at Jazz Fest. No one can touch this man — he is an evolved human being on a higher plane than most of us mere mortals - an opinion I’ve held for a long time. Take a minute to read this story - it’ll make ya feel so good!
I’ve been a huge Al Green fan since way back in the day when he was badass Al Green singing luuuuv songs (as opposed to love songs) and through his conversion to The Reverend that sings the gospel - Amen, brother!
So for Flashback Friday I give you a live performance of my favorite Al Green *gospel * song, “People Get Ready”. This is an amazing and uplifting video - enjoy! (And if you’re into gospel, visit Holy Ghost, Red Kelly’s gospel music blog.
Happy Week-end, y’all!

Witness my shoe fetish. There are few girly things more satisfying than scoring spring shoes on the cheap and I’ve sooo got that lovin’ feelin’ for my two new pair!

Snagging these Sketchers for only $12.99 rocked my world. How cute will they be with jeans or city shorts. I think they make the perfect fashion statement with YatPundit’s blue skin, don’t you?

Luv, luv, luv these hemp macrame-ish espradrilles that only cost me $19.99! You can’t tell but a bonus is that they have 3 inch wedge heels. Being only 5′2″, I really like finding cute shoes that make me taller!
These will look so good with the flippy, flirty skirts and dresses I like to wear in the summer. That reminds me….time to start the self-tanning goo on my legs. I do this for you, the public, to keep the glare out of your eyes. Yeah, I’m an extreme white girl, yo.

Next fetish to be satisfied: Handbags.

New Orleanians.
Mark your calendars for these upcoming community events.

Free Twitter training by writer, and social media industry veteran, Evelyn Rodriguez, who says, “We’ll explore this new genre leaning toward the angle of self-expression over self-promotion. The training will be tailored towards the objectives of the attendees each week.”

May 1st, noon-1:11 pm
and every Twesday and Twursday in May/June
on lawn at Press St. & Dauphine St., New Orleans, LA
Details here.

Also be sure and visit Evelyn’s awesomely upbeat and inspirational blog, Crossroads Dispatches.

~AND~

NoLA Rising Paint Party
Sat May 10 11am – 6pm
(Timezone: Central Time)
2833 Dauphine in the Marigny at corner of Press Street
NoLA Rising presents it’s fourth ever PAINT PARTY. In association with the St. Claude Arts District, we’ll be out in the Marigny at 2833 Dauphine on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. painting our happy little booties off. (Allright!)

Afterwards, while some of us scruffy, paint people clean up, there will be a cocktail viewing of the pieces made that day from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at XO STUDIOS… conveniently next door to the park. Ranger Dave is making sure there will be other events surrounding the studio for those too timid to paint and would prefer to art watch. Afterwards, go out into the St. Claude Art world and enjoy the blossoming art scene at so many of the other nearby galleries, for more information, go to http://www.scadnola.com.

Also visit the uber cool Nola Rising blog for Nola arts info.

Well. I am bummed. Can’t make the Twitter fun because I. have. to. work.
Can’t make the paint party because I’ll be out of town. Dayum.

Tonight I was showering and thinking….thinking about someone in particular. How we get along so well and how I’m glad we’re friends. I have no idea why, but this song popped into my head. I haven’t heard or thought of this song in a gazillion years. But,ya know what? I’m gonna go with it. I believe when thoughts occur for seemingly no reason, there IS a reason. So this is dedicated to the friend I was thinking of.

This is Melanie singing Candles in the Rain……the video has images of Woodstock. I was way too young to go to Woodstock but Oh! how I wished I was old enough to go back then. Woodstock was the Grandmere of outdoor music festivals highlighting (what is now) considered classic rock music and musicians.

This song is Vietnam War era but it’s apropos for this generation’s war.

Here is a live version.

“We were so close, there was no room
We bled inside each other’s wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace
Some came to sing, some came to pray
Some came to keep, the dark away”

in between bouts of pouring rain, Munchkin (aka Doodlefish) ventures out of his safe, warm bed and into the jungle.

And a quick shot this morning of my blooming Angel Trumpet before it gets battered by predicted afternoon storms. My area of the city got 8 inches yesterday….reminiscent of hurricane weather.

Have a great Sunday, y’all!

TN Chick has chosen “signs” for this weeks hunt.
The photos I’ve chosen are from my files but all three signs are still right where they were two years ago. All were taken here in the city.

This is one of my favorite photos because I love the quote and I love how well the composition turned out - strictly a fluke! It was taken at the labyrinth in Audubon Park in the fall of 2006 and I wrote a bit about it on my old blog. I used to walk it 2 or 3 times a week in the mornings before work but, now that I go in for 7:00, it’s a practice that has fallen by the wayside. I miss it.

The sign on the left of the state bird, the Pelican, is on the bridge over the Mississippi River that connects the east bank (New Orleans proper) to the westbank (suburbs).

The sign on the right is a street in the city that runs parallel to and a block off the river.
It’s pronounced……………how? Anyone?
I drive up and down Tchoup every work day before/after crossing the bridge to/from the westbank where I live. (I even have a Flickr set of photos I’ve taken on the street.) We have many streets with unique names - or uniquely pronounced names - but that’s a whole other post! Pistolette has a recent post about the pronounciation of the streets nanamed after the five muses here. Check out the comments.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the pix and commentary on these photos of my city, New Orleans.

Red Kelly time for Casa de Charlotte. You MUST visit Red Kelly’s most excellent post today about Alan Toussaint, complete with music.
“I like it like dat!”

So the movie meme was a success and lots of fun. Thanks to all that guessed - you all have GREAT taste in movies! My list just confirmed to me once again — I luv period films in or about exotic lands.

The only movie that no one guessed is #14 - Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Perez. This movie will transport you to another time and place and is perfect for a grey, rainy day - you’ll get lost in it. I would love for y’all to rent it and let me know what you think. Here are 3 clips from YouTube to tease you and there’s a story synopsis at the end of this post.

Opium scene

Tango scene

Love scene

From Wikipedia: (because I’m too lazy to write my own synopsis)

Indochine is an 1992 Academy Award winning French film that tells the story of a young Indochinese woman named Camille. The title refers to the colony of French Indochina, of which modern Vietnam was once a part. The screenplay was written by novelist Erik Orsenna, script writers Louis Gardel, Catherine Cohen and director Régis Wargnier. It was directed by Wargnier. It stars Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham, Jean Yanne and Dominique Blanc.

Synopsis

The movie begins as Camille, a young girl from an Annamese aristocratic family, is adopted by Éliane Devries after her parents die in a plane crash. Perhaps as a consequence of the adoption, Madame Devries owns and runs a large rubber plantation that employs indentured laborers, and where she raises Camille as her daughter. Madame Devries meets and has an affair with a French Navy officer Jean-Baptiste. In an accident, a French police officer almost kills Camille, and she is rescued by Jean-Baptiste and she too falls in love with him. Madame Devries has Jean-Baptiste sent away to protect Camille from being hurt.

Camille goes through with an arranged marriage to Tanh, a young man who was studying in France and supports the Communists. After one day of marriage, Tanh allows Camille to leave and look for Jean-Baptiste up north. Camille travels with a Vietnamese family, and reaches the island where Jean-Baptiste is. The island is being used as a slave market, and Camille ends up shooting a French officer when Jean-Baptiste tries to take her away.

Camille and Jean-Baptiste sail away to a secret cave and are rescued by the Communists. Tanh arranges to smuggle the two lovers into China with a Communist theatre troupe. One day when baptizing their new son Étienne alone, Jean-Baptiste and Etienne are captured by the French. Madame Devries takes Étienne, but Jean-Baptiste is murdered by French agents because he knows too much.

Camille is captured and sent to prison. She is later released but, rather than return home to her mother and son, she resolves to fight for her country’s independence.

Years later Madame Devries and Étienne return to France. Étienne, now grown up, gets a chance to meet his natural mother, Camille, who is part of the Geneva Conference which will bring about Vietnamese independence. However, Étienne does not meet Camille because he sees Madame Devries as his mother since she raised him.

Update: Additional hints added to 7, 9, 11, 13,14, 15…..unguessed movies will be revealed Thursday night. Good Luck!

A few weeks ago Ms Syl posted a movie trivia meme on her blog and it was fun to watch as commenters made their guesses. I didn’t guess because I wasn’t familiar with most of her movies but I sure compiled a “must see” list from hers. Actually, I first saw the meme on Karl Elvis’s blog and wandered over to Ms Syl’s from there. It’s interesting to see which movies are a blogger’s faves and if they match the image you have of them in your mind. Very interesting.

The rules are:
Post a quote from 15 of your favorite movies. If your memory is as bad as mine, go to IMDB for a little help. Then post the quotes on your blog, filling in the film title when it’s guessed or when it’s evident no one can guess it.
Guessers leave your answers in the comments. No cheating with Google or any other search engine or entertainment website!

Let the games begin!

1.-I am a star. I’m a star, I’m a star, I’m a star. I am a big, bright, shining star. That’s right.
Boogie Nights guessed correctly by Holly Da ’70’s were bad, yo.

2.-I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people’s misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way.
Emmy says: I’m a friend of Holly’s…followed her blogpost to you.
#2: Joy Luck Club. One of my favs. Yes! This movie is so interesting and absorbing - I recommend it to anyone interested in Chinese culture. It explores the lives of four Chinese-American women and the lives of their mothers growing up in China and, ya know, why they are the way they are. Here is a link to some clips on YouTube.

3.-Forget it. This water lives in Mombassa anyway.
Holly says “Out of Africa. (*sigh*)” - correct! Yes, hon, I know *exactly* the scene your sighing about and I second that!

4.-Isn’t that just the weirdest? I bet they haven’t had snow in New Orleans for a million years.
Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s–guessed correctly by Nola Notes. Who doesn’t luv this film?

5.Sometimes when I think of how good my book is going to be, I can’t breathe.
5. Truman Capote (P.S. Hoffman) in Capote.- guessed correctly by the always entertaining Ponchartrain Pete Hoffman had to be channeling Capote in this movie - he WAS Capote.

6.-Well here I am- anonymous all right, with the guys nobody really care about- they come from the end of the line, most of ‘em, small towns you never heard of- Pulaski, Tennessee, Brandon, Mississippi, Pork Bend, Utah, Wampum, Pennsylvania. Two years’ high school’s about it, maybe if they’re lucky a job waiting for ‘em back in a factory, but most of ‘em got nothing, they’re poor, they’re the unwanted of our society, yet they’re fighting for our society and our freedom and what we call America, they’re the bottom of the barrel- and they know it, mayb e that’s why they call themselves ‘grunts’ cause a ‘grunt’ can take it, can take anything. They’re the backbone of the country, grandma, the best I’ve ever seen, the heart and soul.
6. Platoon - Charlie Sheen’s character writing in his diary, says Sophmom and is right, of course! Mom’s know EVERYTHING!

7.-Never take it seriously, you never get hurt. Never get hurt, you can always have fun. And if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends.
Ms Sylguessed High Fidelity on this but that’s not correct.
Another hint: “And you can tell Rolling Stone magazine that my last words were… I’m on drugs! “
Celcus asks Is #7 “Almost Famous”? Yes indeed.

8.-Don’t toot your horn honey, you’re not that good.
On this one Holly says
“Michelle Pfeiffer says it… but I’m totally blocking the movie. Made in the early 80s… damn.” Right actress but who knows the movie?? Another hint: “Say hello to my little friend.”
YatPundit, renaissance man, guessed correctly with the second clue: “#8 is scarface, based on your additional hint. the rest must be chick flicks, because i’m clueless” Of the unguessed left, I’d only catagorize #15 as a chick flick. Stay tuned….

9.-Larry, just between you and me, we got a very serious problem with the people taking care of the place. They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes.
Another hint: “Heeeeeerrrre’s Johnny!”
#9 is The Shining (guessed before hint) says Hiromi. Good on ya, H. Most people can get the heeeere’s johnny quote but I like Scatman’s “unreliable assholes” quote best.

10.-You know, I’ve been good all my adult life. I’ve been a decent wife, a dutiful mother coping with Ben. This voice inside me kept saying “why shouldn’t you be bad, why shouldn’t you transgress? I mean, you’ve earned the right.”
Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal guessed correctly once again by Holly, movie buff extraordinaire.

11.-Don’t you just take the past and put it in a room in a basement and lock the door and never go in there? That’s what I do, And then you meet someone special and all you want to do is to toss them the key and say; open up, step inside, but you can’t, because it’s dark, There’s demons and if anybody saw how ugly it is….
Another hint: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
Celcus says, I think #11 is “The Talented Mr. Ripply” from the hint Correct! Matt Damon is the perfect sociopath and Jude Law the perfect handsome playboy.

12.-I will bring home anyone or anything I choose including a one-eyed Episcopalian kangaroo if that’s my kinky inclination.
Ms Syl gets this one right: “OMG! #12 is “The Goodbye Girl!” I *looooved* that movie as a kid.” Me too! I just watched it for the gazillionth time last week-end. Never get tired of this one.

13.-Who do I have to f**k to get off this planet?
Another hint: Bill Murray said it.
Celcus says, #13 is “Lost in Translation Yeppers. I’m surprised this is the last one guessed. I thought it would be one of the first.

14.-The truth is nobody here likes you. Even the trees wouldn’t grow if they had a choice!
Another hint: Foreign film starring Catherine Deneuve

15.-I knew when I married you that you were selfish and spoiled. But I loved you. I knew you only married me to get as far away from your mother as possible. And I hoped that one day… there’d be something more. I was wrong. You don’t have it in you.
Another hint: Spoiled rich girl gets exposed to real life.
Katie said #15- The Painted Veil, said by Walter Fane, played by Edward Norton! Great movie….English doctor and spoiled wife fight cholera in 1920’s China - from the novel by W. Somerset Maugham.

Heart and soul in the right place. Empathy over ego every time. He knows what’s important in this life and what’s not. And he would *never* ridicule those who live or think differently than he.
I’ve seen and heard “Lord David the Artist Pirate” spewed with sarcastic venom until I’m ready to puke green and rotate my head 360 degrees. And, no, I will not link to the fool in question.

And I quote from Lord David’s latest:

“One of the symptoms of Blogger Society appears to be Blog Wars, feuds of words, wherein various bloggers attack each other with what they believe is biting sarcasm, cutting edge one-up-manship, taunting and slander. What a huge waste of human potential.

Is this who we are?
Really?
At our fingertips is the greatest tool ever known to humanity, a conduit where we can come together, learn each others ways, circulate information…and we get adolescent ego tripping, like a bad rap movie?”

Come together? Learn each others ways?
I wish.

But as long as certain Nola bloggers believe there is an “A” list and a “B” list of Nola bloggers, this is an idea that’s not likely to happen. (The “A” and “B” list comment was originally on the Rising Tide Conference Blog last August but seems to have mysteriously disappeared.)
Ashley noted the comment and abhorred it even while being a driving force in the creation of RT. I know because we discussed that comment.
Ashley was truly a man of the people, without an inflated ego or attitude of entitlement.

Lord David, be yourself. Keep up the good works for Chris, Otter, Hanna and Silence is Violence and ignore the trolls. *Unity*

I’ve been extremely busy this week but I want to share some great posts with y’all that I did get to read. If I haven’t visited you lately it’s not because I don’t wanna. I will.
Meanwhile, I highly recommend the following to which I’ve assigned their own unique award:

New Orleans News Ladder — Best daily round-up of NoLA news and goings-on. (The editor’s a cutie too.)
Blake Makes - Coolest NoLA blog new to moi — and it’s all about FOOD!
The Political Cat — Best Hillary smack-down
Gentilly Girl — Best “I am woman, hear me roar!” post.
Nola Notes — Most original addiction.
Decadent Tranquility — Coolest on-going, original Sci-Fi tale with awesome artwork. Don’t worry, you can catch up with the story by clicking “Reading the Story (A Primer)” and “Story Stuff” in the sidebar. You can also watch the story on YouTube with the added bonus of watching Trée tell it. Oh, and it’s on audio also.
New Orleans Daily Photo — Best photo of N’awlins kulcha, dawlin’! A consistently awesome photo blog - highly recommended.

This week-end:
I’m reading all the mags that I haven’t gotten to this month…..Dr.Weil’s Self Healing Newsletter, Real Simple, New Orleans Magazine, Barron’s, Stage. Also will be reading Historic Photo’s of New Orleans by Melissa Lee Smith — review coming up in the near future.
My netflix movie for this week-end is Atonement. Has anyone seen it?
And my music obsession lately is Linkin Park — here’s a great live vid of them doing Shadow of the Day. Luv that song.
HAPPY WEEK-END, Y’ALL!