It's very hot and humid. The crepe myrtles are blooming, showering parked cars with velvety pink and white blossoms. Traffic crawls along St Charles because of the roadworks that have been going on for months. Our street is quiet right now, but this afternoon the brass band summer camp at McMain will blast into action. I'm drinking iced pomegranate green tea, working on the manuscript of the new book, DARK SOULS, due at the end of the month.
This morning I parked on Jefferson while TM nipped into CCs to buy an iced coffee. Just as he arrived back, another car pulled in behind us - parking illegally, just like the cop car straddling the opposite corner. Both the driver of this car and the cop were going into CCs. We watched the driver of the car cross Magazine Street. He used a white stick to tap his way across. I'll say that again: the driver of the car needed a white stick in order to walk across the street.
My friend Mari Kornhauser just posted a story on Facebook about walking her dog in the French Quarter, where she lives. "I was assaulted, pushed, hit and spit on by a skinny inked white girl (20's-30's, blonde) when I told her that her dog might be hot in her car, which had no windows open." Mari kept calm, but stood her ground.It's 88 degrees right now but according to the weather report it already feels like 96, a little after ten in the morning. Dogs die here in hot cars. When the girl finished trying to provoke her, including spitting again, she accused Mari of the worst possible crime. "I bet you don't even live here," she said.
And in the Gulf, where oil has made landfall along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, at least 35,000 barrels of oil is gushing into the water.
Have you been watching 'Treme'? We have, and we're loving it.
Posted by: maggie@at-the-bay.com | June 18, 2010 at 02:53 AM
Yes, all of New Orleans is watching TREME! Last semester I got the opportunity to co-teach a screenwriting class at Tulane with Eric Overmyer,the co-creator of TREME. Learned so much from him, and was able to take the students along to filming one day, down in the Quarter, and to talk to him a few weeks later in class about where the edited scene deviated from the script and why.
Posted by: Paula Morris | June 18, 2010 at 07:20 PM
Lucky you, what an amazing opportunity - the music is so cool - were hooked, well and truly, although of course the politics and poverty are grim but the characters are so redemptive in a way as a result not to mention the dark and poignant humour. (Kiwi spelling of humor).
Posted by: maggie@at-the-bay.com | June 19, 2010 at 01:04 AM
I love TREME! I so want to travel to NOLA soon. Well maybe after evil BP is done killing the Gulf.. gurrrr
In Maryland it is illegal to leave a dog in the car when it is hot. The police have the right to break the windows and confiscate the dog!
Posted by: ~Linda~ | June 26, 2010 at 09:18 PM