Best Laid Plans…

June 1, 2011 in Treme by Pontchartrain Girl | 7 comments

Sorry CitE, dmf, and whomever else may be reading. I didn’t mean to get so behind, but there it is. I’m still watching Treme, though I’ve not seen the latest, aired on May 20. I don’t have the time to go episode by episode these days, but here are some general thoughts so far:

Steady, folks: As much as I dug it, the first season seemed uneven. From episode to episode, you never knew if you were in for viewing gold or pyrite, and that seems to have carried over to the second season as well. The second episode felt particularly torpid, followed by a couple that, for me, were riveting and frightening, and even quite funny in places. But then we returned to torpor with “Slip Away,” which seems to have done just that. I realize art can be uneven, but the low and slow episodes this season have really sapped my enthusiasm for the whole. I don’t have time to waste.

Exile vs. Refugee: As an exile, I’ve been totally glued to the stories unfolding in NYC this season–even if the rarefied worlds of Dizzy’s and LeBernadin are beyond my natural orbit. That said, I wish the show might also look at New Orleans refugees, those flung to Atlanta, Dallas, and Kansas City, who did not choose to leave and “make it” in the big city. This group has found they cannot afford to come home, and have perhaps realized that because of work opportunities, solid public schools, or whatever, they might as well stay put.

LaDonna: I was totally annoyed that LaDonna occupied so little air time in the first two episodes this season. And then, wham, episode 3 hit. Suddenly there she was, and agonizingly so. I’m still unnerved by what happened and am not sure what to think beyond that.

The bludgeoning: Every episode there are at least a few bludgeonings to the viewer: “Don’t forget–THIS IS NEW ORLEANS, THIS IS NEW ORLEANS!” As much as I love the city and am sticking it out with the show, it is nevertheless annoying. Wouldn’t it be fine to let the city breathe in the background a bit? I can’t imagine people without a connection to the place or to the music or to David Simon would continue watching otherwise. I’m not sure I would. So I fear for it’s future, even while I’m not sure it deserves one.

A Last Note: Antoine Batiste and the Soul Apostles have been one of the more entertaining threads this season. It’s hard to escape a band practice scene without a few chuckles. And I do enjoy seeing so many characters struggling to create new music all at once now. I’ll keep watching, if only to see where their divergent musical adventures lead.

TREME!

May 2, 2011 in Treme by Pontchartrain Girl | 8 comments

It’s back! And I am too, sort of.

Simon and everything else keep me running too much these days, but I am definitely watching Treme and I’ll be posting on the show weekly.

The first post should be up later today, God and baby willing, but till then I must say that I got my usual goose bumps watching the trailer for the second season and then felt brim-full of tears during the opening credits. How does Treme do it to me?

More soon, promise.

Introducing Simon Louis

October 20, 2010 in Personal History by Pontchartrain Girl | 16 comments

Forgive the silence, friends, but I’ve been sucked into the new mom-newborn vortex of late. On Oct. 8, I gave birth to a baby boy, Simon Louis. He’s super healthy and super cute. Dad and I are super pooped but overjoyed.

This feeding-diapering-attempting-to-sleep cycle is pretty intense so I’ll be temporarily on hiatus here. I hope to be back online, posting and chatting, as soon as I can manage it all.

Till then, all best to you and yours! PG

Mortification of the Flesh

October 7, 2010 in Energy, Environment, Politics by Pontchartrain Girl | 7 comments

We know that Congress is about deal-making and that it may be at its most functional when lawmakers are freely allowed to barter and trade priorities for votes. And yet what a shocker was Ryan Lizza’s latest piece in The New Yorker. It really exposed the legislative process at the dirt-level, in this case via the quixotic adventures of John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsay Graham to pass a substantive, imperfect, sprawling, deal-ridden energy and climate bill. Most of the characters don’t come off so well. McCain for instance. We’ve all witnessed his cynical about-face on everything from DADT to immigration reform, but the nitty-gritty details show just how baldly he reversed course–and then had the overblown sense of ego to get pissed off when Graham “stole” his Maverick cloak. The piece also confirmed, for me, that Kerry is rather a push-over, who likely has no flair for sophisticated negotiations no matter his intelligence. As much as I wanted regime change in 2004, part of me is glad he lost. And glad he was passed over for Secretary of State.

But Lizza also exposed weaknesses in Obama’s house. It doesn’t seem, despite the campaign rhetoric, that the president’s heart was in this battle, though he apparently understands the gravity of unchecked climate change intellectually. So there was never any concerted pressure or resources delivered from on high. And then the communication within and without the White House only tripped up–sabotaged really–the Three Amigos’ efforts. Obama and his helpers come off as incredibly un-savvy and ineffectual.

That seems to be a theme this week, what with the reports from the commission reviewing the response to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. Again, this was a kind of confirmation of what we could all see happening as the physical disaster devolved into something more heinous:

“By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the gulf,” one of the reports stated, “the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem.”

Sadly, we’re accustomed to our government fudging information of both lesser and greater import. For me the surprising thing about this commission and its report is that it was Obama who ordered them. I’m not sure what to think about this act of public self-flagellation. Was it an accident? A cynical charade to be “straight” with the American people that maybe went too far? Or a sincere effort to understand what went wrong? One thing is for certain, Bush never showed the chutzpah or masochism (whichever it is) to order such a review following Katrina, much less any of the other national disasters he oversaw. I’m not sure where all of this examination of faults will go for Obama. Personally, I’m left with an uneasy sense of disappointment and begrudging respect.

Facebooking is Hard Work

October 6, 2010 in Far Flung, Politics by Pontchartrain Girl | 2 comments

This is way off topic for this blog, but I can’t help myself.

Here’s an email from Todd Palin to Joe Miller, picked up and posted at Mudflats (currently overwhelmed by traffic, but you can read it here and here):

“Joe and Tim,

Hold off on any letter for Joe. Sarah put her ass on the line for Joe and yet he can’t answer a simple question ‘ Is Sarah Palin Qualified to be President’. I DON’T KNOW IF SHE IS.

Joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works, is it to be completely one sided.

Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for Joe, she won’t use it, not now.

Put yourself in her shoe’s Joe for one day.

Todd”

Most news reports seem focused on the “Palin-Miller rift,” which is definitely intriguing drama after Alaska’s primary surprise. What I found really entertaining though is that “Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book (sic) post….” Really? I hope it was in iambic pentameter.

Orleans Parish Limits

October 1, 2010 in Personal History by Pontchartrain Girl | 3 comments

Some time ago dmf asked if I’d write more about why I left New Orleans in the first place. I’m not sure why I’ve put off finishing this post, except that it required a certain level of self-reflection and time, which I’ve felt short on these last couple of months as I scramble to make my home and work worlds ready for Pontchartrain Baby. Another issue is that this story isn’t particularly original. It could be recounted a thousand different ways by the flocks of young people who’ve left New Orleans, or Anytown, USA. But here’s my rendition:

In 2002, I left New Orleans. It was not for lack of love for the city or the lifestyle, which for me was not about an eternal devil-may-care party. Instead I relished the time and relaxed space for all of the quietly quotidian things that bring pleasure–gardening with my cat, walks in Audubon Park, beers at The Fly, yoga, reading…. These days were a kind of transition back to life in the States after having spent a few intense years in Mali. I’d been blessed with many enduring friendships over there, but was also circumscribed by the mores of a small, conservative community and the geographic isolation of the Sahel. My new life stateside felt very free by comparison, and yet I couldn’t escape the reality that socially and professionally it was incredibly narrow. And this was all because of what New Orleans was at the time.

In the recent past, most young people with ambition and elastic family ties left New Orleans once free of high school. This was not limited to people with money necessarily. It was a simple fact that there were far more and better opportunities elsewhere–just down the road in Houston or as far away as Boston. Since 1960, the city has bled people. My situation was a little different in that my parents had already taken that step and fled the city. I grew up all over, without a firm sense of home-place except in the way a refugee might through food, stories, and whatever inherited culture passed from my parents and grandparents.

So after college, after Mali, I moved back to New Orleans in search of a home-place, as cliché as that sounds. The work opportunities were pitiful since I wasn’t interested in hospitality, oil or fishing (and really those last two industries had reached their nadir decades before). I took for granted that I’d meet outward-looking young people just like me and I did find a handful who were passing through grad school on their way to somewhere else. The vast and small majority of my generation, however, could be roughly divided between delinquents and early homemakers. As much as I loved the laissez-faire-ness that made it okay to be a delinquent and the powerful traditions that wrapped others so tightly in family life, I thought I might risk endless drifting or early suffocation if I stayed.

I left for New York and graduate school. I never anticipated staying here this long. I figured I’d eventually move back to New Orleans, if anywhere. Then Katrina knocked my home-place off its foundations. And I felt for the first time that I could not go home.

I started this blog because I had a change of heart last year. This crude summer has qualified that hopefulness, which I’ll tackle in a later post.

Anyhow, if you’ve made it this far, you deserve a treat:

The Big Freeze

September 27, 2010 in Saints by Pontchartrain Girl | 3 comments

The Saints have more or less fallen apart every game this season and last night karma finally caught up with them. They now have one mark in the L column and it is completely deserved, I’m very sad to say.

I’ve been frustrated all season long–(ok, all three games so far!)–with what seems like, from my pixel-lated view-hole, a lack of cohesion and focus. The Saints’ defense pretty much escorted the Falcons’ O up the field yesterday. This isn’t so out of character for them. What is is the fact that the offense either cannot connect or follow through on the whole, despite some occasional glorious drives. Add this to the pathetic running game and a field goal kicker who freezes on a 25-yarder, and it spells calamity. (Re Hartley, I’m tempted to boast that I could’ve kicked that ball in yesterday, 37+ weeks pregnant and all, but I really can’t at the moment.)

My other beef with last night’s righteous fiasco was the play calling. Who kicks a field goal on a first down so close to the goal line? Even with such a sad running game, it seemed overly cautious and cynical–and not the kind of call that’d come from the same coaches who surprised everyone with a gutsy (and successful) onside kick last year.

I can only hope that this loss will spark some soul searching and productive panic that wakes these guys up in time for the rest of the season. There doesn’t seem to be much passion or hustle among the Saints these days and that may be the most crucial hole in their game.

Colbert Goes to Washington Redux

September 24, 2010 in Funny, Politics by Pontchartrain Girl | 2 comments

I’m not sure what Stephen Colbert accomplished today beyond making a few staffers and reporters chuckle. I don’t condemn him for unloading his satirical zingers in the hallowed halls of Congress, nor do I think he’s merely a jokester. There’s a wrenchingly serious undercurrent to a lot of what he (and Jon Stewart) do under the shellac of comedy. The problem was the audience. Seeing his performance, mostly in character, reminded me of that infamous White House Correspondence dinner in 2006. It was a riot for us Washington outsiders to watch him roast President Bush, and a fawning press corps. But it fell on hopelessly flat ears, just like today’s testimony did.

So what good will come of it? At the most, people will be aware that Congress is actually holding hearings on migrant workers. At the least, we’ll have a cathartic laugh at our reps.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Colbert Goes to Washington

September 24, 2010 in Funny, Politics by Pontchartrain Girl | 1 comment

I had no idea Elmo testified before Congress in 2002.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Fallback Position – Migrant Worker Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

The Shield is Down!

September 20, 2010 in Mississippi by Pontchartrain Girl | 2 comments

Col Reb is officially retiring (or being retired) and this is nothing but a good thing.

As with so much else today, this change is (anecdotally) most accepted among current students, who I’d guess are less swayed by nostalgia and more sensitive to creeping racism. All hail Adm. Ackbar!

« Older entries