Something you can do to help...

Alright AZ readers....I know how generous many of you have been in the past, especially when I put out a plea to help pay for Joshua's funeral expenses last Fall.  Not only did we come to Jonathan's (Joshua's brother) aid, we ended up covering the entire funeral expense.  (Thanks to all and especially to you, MA)

Now, I ask all of you to help again.  Deborah Cotton, writer and editor of recently launched New Orleans entertainment based website, New Orleans Good Good, was one of the most severely affected victims in the Mother's Day second line shooting last Sunday.  She's been through hell in the past five days and she has no easy path to recovery ahead of her.  Luckily, the storm clouds are beginning to break for her but she needs as much help as this community can give her.  She is a true champion of New Orleans culture and she has given her heart and soul to this city and its community.  Here's your chance to give back to her.

This is Deb's donation site:

http://www.gofundme.com/2xmcaw

Please visit and give whatever you can...and NOLA bloggers....please share the link far and wide...that's mandatory, peeps.  Thank you!

Ashe'

Blood Drive and Love and Support Drive - Deb Cotton

Folks as most of you know, writer and editor of recently launched New Orleans entertainment based website, New Orleans Good Good, Deb Cotton, was one of the shooting victims last Sunday.  I don't want to go into detail but Deb is still in the hospital and she needs all the help, love and support we can give her.  Deb is a dear friend of mine and in the coming weeks I will be posting information on how you can help her directly.

In the meantime, there is a blood drive being held for her and the other victims of the Mother's Day shooting:

Friends and supporters of Deborah Cotton! We are trying to organize a blood drive for her and the other shooting victims next Wednesday, May 22 from 2 - 7 pm. In order to get the "blood bus" to come, we have to supply the Blood Center with at least 25 names of people who will donate. If you can donate, *please* email me privately (meglousteau@gmail.com) with "blood drive" in the subject line, and include your name, full address, phone number, and preferred donation time. Thank you!!!

Breaking: Steven Newhouse to join The Advocate

Zombie Editorial Staff
March 14, 2013 

After what can only be described as an ongoing mass exodus of reporters, editorialists, and editors announcing their departure from the Times Picayne/NOLA.com to join John Georges newly acquired publication, The Advocate, a member of the Newhouse family has announced his plans to follow suit.

Chairman of Newhouse Publications, Steven Newhouse, was interviewed informally last night at an Irish bar in Queens by a guy who is friends with a guy who works in the advertising department for the New York Daily News.  After several black and tans and couple of Jamison shots, Newhouse blurted out, "Sweet Jesus...we fuck'snu'ed the Times Picayune so bad.....what were we thinking?"

After being goaded into a third Jamison shot, Steven came clean on his future plans, "Alright..fuck yes!  I admit it!  I'm going over to the dark side...I'm gonna work for King Georges....I mean, shit...I don't wanna be the only asshole left standing at the TP do I?!?"  The guy who knows the guy who works for the NY Daily replied, "Well Varney will still be there."  Newhouse leaned over in the guy's face and saliva sprayed him with, "You'ze makin' my fuckin' point, Geeee...!!!"

After Newhouse ordered another round of pints for the house, an unidentified, older woman sitting at the bar and eavesdropping on the conversation butted in, "What were you thinking?  You gutted the entire paper, you culled its talent, you stopped publishing daily, claiming it was too expensive.  Now you're printing a whole new publication to fill in those days you eliminated?  What the hell?"  Newhouse replied, "First of all...fuck you!  Secondly...me and Ricky...we had it all figured out, ya see.  I wrote the whole thing down with a Sharpie on a bar napkin in Mobile, it was a beautiful plan, man....visionary, I tell ya!"  When pressed further as to what the plan was, Newhouse became increasingly agitated and finally replied, "...alright, bitches....alright....I left the napkin and the Sharpie in my shirt pocket and ran it through the washer....you happy, now?!?  Huh!?!  Inked the whole frikkin' load...looked like an octopus spooged....flippin' Brooks Brothers' oxford to boot!"

When asked why he was machine washing a Brooks Brothers' oxford and not dry cleaning it, Steven replied, "Who the hell has time for the dry cleaners?"  The anonymous woman replied, "See there, Steven, that's your problem...cutting corners will cost you every time."  Newhouse snapped back, "You should know, hooker!  Ha!"

It was as that point Newhouse remembered he was drinking with his aunt.  He lowered his head and apologized for the hooker comment.

King Georges was contacted to verify the Newhouse hire but would neither confirm or deny it.  He replied, "Right now we're looking at a number of TP guns, including Ryan Berni...we're trying to convince him that The Advocate will actually pay him to reprint his press releases instead of just reprinting them without a byline or proper compensation like NOLA.com does."

Ok...I kid...I kid...I needed to make myself laugh.  Don't sue me powerful Newhouse dude, I'm just pokin' fun...      

This is who we are

NOPD names 19-year-old Akein Scott suspect in Mother's Day shooting

There was a time when I would have looked at this young man's face and felt nothing but anger and hate.  The truth is, now, I just feel hopeless.  It's a forlorn inevitability that a tragedy such as this will happen again in this city...I don't know what to do about it or how we can bring it to an end.  I know the problem starts with adolescence and education but I don't have specific answers and I don't think anyone in this city is coming up with effective answers.  Maybe it's because we're not listening, maybe we're not seeing the issues for what they really are.  I truly don't know.

I feel beaten, lost and even worse, I'm afraid I'm becoming numb.

Maybe there are people out there, smarter than I, smarter than the leaders in this city, that do have answers.  If they are out there, I wish they would help us because we're obviously not capable of helping ourselves.  Yes..that is a desperate plea.

Mayor Landrieu stated today that "This is not who we are as a community".  That may be true in the sense that the majority of this city abhors this epidemic of violence from which we suffer but the truth is, this is exactly who we are.  We built this...through sins of omission or sins of commission...we are responsible for what we've become.  Preaching the gospel of peace to the choir is going to have little effect on the lost souls outside the chapel walls.

We are a community living in fear of our own children, our own young men.  That's your fault, that's my fault, that's our fault....and of course it's the individual's fault, but not solely.  We are all products of our culture, when children are brought up in a culture that doesn't value human life the adults in that community must share the blame of the child's future actions.  We, as a community, are obviously not getting through to our children.  Truth be told, we are failing...miserably.

As a student of anthropology, I believe this problem, at it's core, is cultural.  And I want to stress, vehemently...I don't mean race when I say culture...I mean the culture and environment inside this city, New Orleans, that has honed these young men into violent sociopaths.

Children aren't born murderers (with possible clinical exceptions), the environment they grow up in shapes them as such.

I don't think we can legislate ourselves out of this.  I don't think we can police our way out of this.  I don't think we can imprison our way out of this.  I don't think we can pray our way out of this.  I don't think we can publicize our way out of this.

I think, perhaps, the best way to address our problem is to change how we are approaching it.  Perhaps we need to understand the culture that is creating the violence, first.  Perhaps we should start by listening...as painful as it may be...perhaps we should start by listening to these individuals who are perpetuating this cycle of violence.  If we don't understand what the mindset is, what the circumstances are...I think we will have little to no chance of changing it.

As much as I am sickened by this young man, Akein Scott's, actions right now, more than anything, I want to listen to him....I want to know why.  Until I understand why, I know I can't help.      

Yo, Anonymous.....

...Is this really yours?



If it's not, I'd be happy to tell you where it came from :)

Please let me extend the rope....just keep on....oh, the cleverness of you!

We could be heroes...if just for one day...

The winds are carrying random whisperings regarding King G's next move in his efforts to create the Van Helsing of Louisiana media entities....a divine "Advocate"....one that will drive a stake through the vampiric heart of the sanguineness "Newhouse" interloper.

Oh boy...holy hell...that may have been the most pretentious sentence I've ever contrived.

When you recover from that... the rumors abound that Georges is pulling not just Carr and Russell from the Brave Newhouse World but, in fact, the whole talent pool....Rainey, Broach, Torres... and think about this name...wait for it....Gill?  Holy schnizzel, right?

And right now I just want to pause for a moment and express my unabashed man-crush for James Gill.  I think he is the true shcnizzel in New Orleans' whizzel.  I can't think of anyone I'd rather have dinner with or shoot the shitz.   I know I'll never get that opportunity but much love and respect to Mr. Gill.   

I mean Christ on a crutch...what if "His Grace" raids WWL-TV and gets Hammer and McCarthy...even Perlstein?  What if he resurrects Chris Rose?  What if he seduces David Meeks and Brian Thevenot back into the fray?  What if he recreates the post-K journalistic powerhouse that was the pinnacle of the Time-Picayune (as defined by Pulitzer)?

Sweet Buddha...what is this man, if he truly is a man, capable of?

Is he merely a man?  Or is he a Greek demi-god in the lineage of Perseus?  Gorgon Medusa be warned...you nasty snake-headed bitch!

I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow to a press conference with King G and hear him announce....."I am Iron Man."  Philanthropist, billionaire playboy by day...vigilante, terrorist, crime-fighting newspaper publisher by.....uh....day?

Sorry, I fucked that up.  I've been drinking (it's all alcohol driven fantasy here on AZ ;) ) and I've been dumping a lot of my cash in video poker machines lately...I'm not really up to speed on my pop culture-hero-metaphors.  Forgive me.

Anyway...uh...yeah.  Everyone seems to be nipply and erect.  I admit I'm semi-erect.  But let's not get all hot and bothered lest we end up alone at 3 am with nothing but the internet and Nola.com.

What truly turns me on about this situation is that there is some amazing journalistic talent that will be unbridled, to a certain extent, in this new media landscape.  That's great news....figuratively and literally.  It's going to be a well needed enema for our city and, perhaps, our state.  And King G deserves some kudos for making that happen.  That's a sincere thank you, King G....it really is.

But...what strikes wood with me....is the independent, underfunded, local entities that are slowly and methodically holding the line.  The Lens, the blogs (us...I won't even link but you know us if you're reading this), the independent sites like the Uptown Messenger and Nola Defender....these are things that you should really be excited about...but maybe you aren't.

By the way, did I mention that Bob Marshall is writing for The Lens?  

If you haven't been following The Lens and the other sites I mentioned...you should start immediately.  I said this last year at the Rising Tide panel and I don't mean to sound arrogant but I think I was spot-on-fucking-right when everyone else was going Cassandra.  While everyone was lamenting the demise of the Times-Picayune, I just saw this wonderful palingenesis that was taking place in its wake.  I think, now, if you look at what the N.O. media landscape is becoming....it's rather amazing.

This city...this wonderful, fucked up city....just celebrated its birthday.  And as dystopian as it is, the one thing it is not...is stagnant.  It moves...it never stops moving.  It's a port, it's ancient in regards to American culture...it's mysterious...it's...dangerous.  Very dangerous.  But at the same time it's a community.  We do know how to communicate.  I've never been worried about this city's ability to communicate...we do it better than any city in this country.

I think King G's purchase and resurrection of The Advocate is a testament to the....I don't have a word here...I will invent one..."chaosawesomness"....of this city.  I don't like him...but I'm glad he's there and I salute him.

Ashe'

   

  





   

King G strikes

Pulitzer winners leave Times-Picayune for The Advocate

Russell jumps ship....wow.  I told you King G doesn't half-ass do anything....homey don't play.  

Comment Bump, May 7, 2013

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Happy trails": 

NOLA.COM now censoring all comments for Mitch Landrieu generated stories. 

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/mayor_landrieu_will_give_state_1.html#incart_river_default


Mayor Landrieu will give 'State of the City' address Tuesday


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