The story told by images of the Katrina devastation comes not from what is shown, but from what is missing. Mile after mile, neighborhood upon neighborhood, scene after scene - all devoid of people - these pictures reveal the stillness of a moment that never changes, no matter how long we look, the antonym of […]
Citizens – be aware: beginning tomorrow, a battle will be fought in Arabi, the results of which will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the reconstruction of New Orleans, and could affect the shape of city planning in this country for generations. Unlike the military battle fought almost two hundred years ago – […]
A city is defined by activity. That is, after all, what differentiates one group of buildings from others we call monuments. More so than any other American city, movement defined New Orleans – a place so imbued with a beat that it gave birth not only to Jazz, but also to an entire […]
Let us now consider what is, and what is not happening in New Orleans in a different light - not as destruction in a dimension we can see, touch, smell, or feel, but in the context of time.
John Barth, in The End of the Road, makes this observation:
“In life…there are essentially no major […]
A Horror story from mid October
Approaching New Orleans from the Louis Armstrong Airport, shortly after the point where the road crosses the boundary between Jefferson and Orleans Parish, the I-10 takes a sharp right turn south, dips under a railroad crossing, and then rises on a long gradual incline to an overpass – a straightaway […]
Click on this URL for pictures of New Orleans I took in mid September and mid October.
http://www.diversity-nyc.com/katrina/katrina-images
It has taken me longer than anticipated to write this next installment. My sister Lauren and I went to Louisiana last weekend to join Dad & Marianne for their first return to the house. This is what we saw, what happened over the course of those several days, and a bit of what […]
The index of this morning’s NYTimes listed the obituaries to be on page C15, the penultimate page of the Business Section, but in fact, the first Obituary appeared on page 1 of that section. There, below the fold, is an article titled, “Ruth Built the Steakhouse. Katrina Intervened.” In print, this is the […]
In 1848, a seventeen year old German Jew named Jacob Farrnbacher packed his bags, left his home and family in Bavaria, crossed the ocean, and entered the United States - we know not where - searching for a place to begin a new life for himself and for the family he planned. After four […]
The destruction of New Orleans is an event that is without historical precedent - unless one accepts the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorah, or the Flood. 9/11 pales in comparison. Nonetheless, the failure of the news media and the federal government to treat this accordingly gives one pause. When the World […]