Dixie Notes

It’s actually kinda funny to see how well the whole thing has been orchestrated. You see, there’s plenty of housing here, and no residents were even living in the projects that are being demolished. A month or so ago, all these homeless people started showing up out of nowhere from Texas and the Northeast and setting up camp in front of City Hall. New Orleans never has had a bad homeless problem like some other cities, because there’s a ton of social programs and shelters. Then, a month later, protesters started showing up protesting the demolition of the projects, saying it’s cruel to tear them down when we have all these homeless people. Most of them are people from outside the area that are just here to get their protestor bona fides.

I don’t know who’s behind all this, but they’re pretty well-organized and cynical, whoever they are. I figure there’s some political stuff going on behind the scenes, New Orleans is a pawn in some national organization’s efforts, and this is an attempt to force one side’s hand in whatever negotiation is happening. If I took the time to dig through the New Orleans blog network I could probably figure it out, but I’ll bet the people controlling it are based in DC. I wish someone in California would start chopping down some owl habitat or something so they’ll take their army with them to lay siege to some other poor town.

Look at this video. Sooner or later, one of the protestors will bait the police, who only have training handling drunk and happy crowds, into using excessive force, and we’ll have a full scale riot on our hands, just like LA.

Will we ever know the outcome of the negotiation or even the parties at the table?

He has this show, Feasting on Asphalt. They’re traveling up the Mississippi. He was in the CBD, outside of Mulate’s, looking for an authentic place, which he couldn’t find. He then made three mistakes which could only have come from a widespread lack of knowledge of New Orleans food on the part of his whole crew:

I’m glad he was in New Orleans, of course, but how can a Food Network host not know the very basics about one of America’s greatest food cultures?

Also, it’s nutria.

I have started a Flickr photo pool for the consolation of those who can’t or won’t go to JazzFest this year due to the $45 tickets. I’ve started it off with some pictures, so if you aren’t at JazzFest and you’d like to be, join up and contribute some pictures!

From Brett Anderson’s review of Sara’s of New Orleans.

“Chef Ganesh Ayyengar, who’s from Bombay, is a molecular biologist by training, a fact he uses to explain why he bristles at the confines of traditional Indian cooking. A scientist at heart, he’s temperamentally inclined to experiment.”

Oh my….I MUST meet him. I didn’t know anyone like me existed.