Showing posts with label hurricane sandy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hurricane sandy. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Wow$$$
That is the most money I've spent at the post office at a single crack.
But the one I picked for us to mail from wasn't too bad when it came to the line. I forced el V to get up earlier than he liked, because he is now in party mode for the first time in 12 months, and went out [i]at[/i] midnight, to hear some musicians in from Angola. So we got in ahead of the day's rush as well. We tied up one of the windows then, for nearly 25 minutes as the packages were processed.
Tonight, the Cullman Center has its annual Christmas party for all the Fellows past and present. I always love this party.
Saturday's Christmas party is the serious annual Bold Faced Names from fashion, television, music, movies and politics. I have a very nice outfit -- with lovely new boots, that I can dance in as well as walk in. This is always a dance party by a certain point.
Also tonight is the 12.12.12 benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy's victims at Madison Square Garden -- it's one heck of a line-up, including the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen. It will also live stream on a variety of television stations.
The Stones are here, having done their appearance at Barclays a couple of nights ago, already, on their current U.S. tour of a very limited number of dates in very few places. I keep imagining the negotiations and planning for the scheduling of this. As delicate, surely, as those between Israel and Hammas ....
Via a fluke, El V could probably attend. I have zip interest myself. I hate huge crowds and I loathe Madison Square Garden -- you are dead blind within 5 minutes from all the smart phone camera flashes. And everybody howls all the time so you don't hear anything anyway.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
After the Storm - Your Garden, Your Flowerbeds, Your Yard, Your Park
The surge with salt, e-coli bacteria sewage and other sludge filled with heavy metals and other toxic residue -- how do you deal with your soil in the aftermath? Especially if you grow vegetables and fruits, and if your kids play on that soil.
Other questions and problems: so many bulb plants were put in the ground, on their growing schedule, right before the Storm at the end of October. Washed away, covered with toxic sludge even. What shall we do? Can we replant bulbs now? People asking questions about what to do with their plants that spend the warmer weather on their patios -- if the apartment has one, or the fire escapes. And so on.
We have a monthly radio program about growing things in our city. The regular expert is the director of Open Space Greeing in NYC. But there are many others who come in as special guests, such as those in charge of the trees in Central Park, those who deal with the turf of the shoreline parks, the botanical gardens and other of our very many green areas. It's always really interesting. This month's is particularly so, in the wake of the Storm, the clean-up from which is barely begun.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Fixing the Wrecking
Someone somehow got a captcha of el V's access code -- it was via his card
number, not mine. It happened at two different ATMs uptown Friday night. Evidently when
disasters like Sandy hit this is very common. People use the chaos as cover. We get the money back though, and that's what matters. On our way to the bank we could see how many places
aren't open, and neither are the schools around here.
Some things aren't going to be straightened out so fast. Like our across the hall neighbor, who is a very good neighbor. She has mental problems which she deals with via therapy and prescription meds, which need a fair amount of adjusting throughout the year. She's had a double mastectomy. She alone in the world -- no family. She weathered the storm here all alone, and now has a breakdown. Her hospital isn't operating. She can't go outside. She’s suicidal. She said no one checked on her all this time, and she’s starving. She was always skinny. Now she’s just bones. Am sitting down to rest the screaming back before looking for more supplies for ML. I promised to sit and have tea with her after the next round. I do think we did get back just in time. I feel awful for her, and once again am so aware of how fortunate we are. She’s having a hard time understanding that there is no milk yet to be had, or bread. Deliveries start at the supermarket tomorrow -- I checked since it is a block below our bank branch.
Most people left our building. She wasn't able to leave this time because of various reasons, including her friends were infested with bedbugs. (OTOH, she gets these phobias about non-existant bugs and mice too, I know. This means her meds need adjusting.)
Nobody who did stay though, seems to have checked on each other, until we were able to get through to another woman who went through it alone in the building. She never contacted ML either, until then.
The storm created a medical crisis in a city already in medical crisis. There aren't enough doctors who deal with real people's problems. Hospitals had to be evacuated. Other hospitals, including the Emergency Crisis hospital, had failed generators. All the facilities downtown are damaged and mostly, on the east side, that flooded, and aren't really ready.
Beyond that, all the people who keep a hospital clean, pick up and delivery laundry and supplies, live far away and can't get in.
I am happy to report that the very fact of knocking on ML's door and asking what we could do for her this morning, has helped her enormously. She's even determined to go out and see her therapist to hand over some 'dangerous' medications that she has a prescription for -- this has to do with her suicidal feelings. But I think those have subsided enough, now that someone has demonstrated a care that she lives or dies. And somehow, today too, her therapist got in touch with her after that.
Since these days have felt at least a decade long to me who was off in lovely weather, food, friends and hot water, have left me confused and stressed -- imagine what these days must have been like for people like ML, without lights, hot water, food, transportation and all the rest. And so alone.
When I say our side of the Dark Zone was left to twist in the aftermath, I wasn't joking. Nobody thinks anyone over here needs help of any kind. We're all rich and famous. So, no, nobody checked at all.
The refrigerator-freezer are fine. This is merely a long, hard chore. The freezer’s vacuum close meant not even water dripped out of it to the refrigerator. So almonds, granola, the three lbs. of coffee I had just bought and so on are fine. Only a bit of not tightly enough sealed parmesean has a couple of spots of mold. Also I caught the building’s removal people just in time to hand over lbs. of tightly wrapped refrozen meat, vegetables and stock. And a lonely half-carton of mango sorbet, just before the building's pick-up for this stuff showed up.
Some things aren't going to be straightened out so fast. Like our across the hall neighbor, who is a very good neighbor. She has mental problems which she deals with via therapy and prescription meds, which need a fair amount of adjusting throughout the year. She's had a double mastectomy. She alone in the world -- no family. She weathered the storm here all alone, and now has a breakdown. Her hospital isn't operating. She can't go outside. She’s suicidal. She said no one checked on her all this time, and she’s starving. She was always skinny. Now she’s just bones. Am sitting down to rest the screaming back before looking for more supplies for ML. I promised to sit and have tea with her after the next round. I do think we did get back just in time. I feel awful for her, and once again am so aware of how fortunate we are. She’s having a hard time understanding that there is no milk yet to be had, or bread. Deliveries start at the supermarket tomorrow -- I checked since it is a block below our bank branch.
Most people left our building. She wasn't able to leave this time because of various reasons, including her friends were infested with bedbugs. (OTOH, she gets these phobias about non-existant bugs and mice too, I know. This means her meds need adjusting.)
Nobody who did stay though, seems to have checked on each other, until we were able to get through to another woman who went through it alone in the building. She never contacted ML either, until then.
The storm created a medical crisis in a city already in medical crisis. There aren't enough doctors who deal with real people's problems. Hospitals had to be evacuated. Other hospitals, including the Emergency Crisis hospital, had failed generators. All the facilities downtown are damaged and mostly, on the east side, that flooded, and aren't really ready.
Beyond that, all the people who keep a hospital clean, pick up and delivery laundry and supplies, live far away and can't get in.
I am happy to report that the very fact of knocking on ML's door and asking what we could do for her this morning, has helped her enormously. She's even determined to go out and see her therapist to hand over some 'dangerous' medications that she has a prescription for -- this has to do with her suicidal feelings. But I think those have subsided enough, now that someone has demonstrated a care that she lives or dies. And somehow, today too, her therapist got in touch with her after that.
Since these days have felt at least a decade long to me who was off in lovely weather, food, friends and hot water, have left me confused and stressed -- imagine what these days must have been like for people like ML, without lights, hot water, food, transportation and all the rest. And so alone.
When I say our side of the Dark Zone was left to twist in the aftermath, I wasn't joking. Nobody thinks anyone over here needs help of any kind. We're all rich and famous. So, no, nobody checked at all.
The refrigerator-freezer are fine. This is merely a long, hard chore. The freezer’s vacuum close meant not even water dripped out of it to the refrigerator. So almonds, granola, the three lbs. of coffee I had just bought and so on are fine. Only a bit of not tightly enough sealed parmesean has a couple of spots of mold. Also I caught the building’s removal people just in time to hand over lbs. of tightly wrapped refrozen meat, vegetables and stock. And a lonely half-carton of mango sorbet, just before the building's pick-up for this stuff showed up.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
New Orleans Is Beautiful
Yesterday, a lot of it, was pretty bad. I hit that crash wall.
It had been over a week of constant teeth grinding and clenched body, running constant interference between Ned and the world, as he prepared for his gigs -- kept working the whole time, which brought in income, worked to deal with whatever we needed to deal with at home and getting back home -- without a moment to myself, unable to work out -- my back is screaming. The real problem is I'm used to a huge amount of solitude and it takes a while before I re-adjust. I.e. the problem was all in me, not with other people.
We were at the conference and the keynote speech. I couldn't makes sense out of anything I was hearing. The chairs were cutting off my circulation and killing my back. I had to leave. So we did. Which was not cool, but I really couldn't handle it in any way, physically or nervously. I had hit that wall.
For about two hours after that I was in bad shape. Simultaneously wanted to lie down and sleep for 10 hours, while jumpy as a trapped feral cat.
We walked by the levee, had an iced cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, walked some more, went to Jackson Square and saluted Andy Jackson and his horse, which made me laugh. I found a twenty dollar bill our first day here while walking the dog. A Jackson in the parlence of some. I study Jackson, the Jacksonian era, how it central to the sense of Americans' self. Sat in the Square for a while. The buskers and hucksters had broken down for now. It was quiet. The setting sun made a peach glow back light to the Cabildo side of the Square. We window shopped. And I got it back, whatever you may call it. I think it's called equilibrium.
Then we went to the Jax Brewery and had a lovely hummous and grilled pita snack with excellent beer and a friendly bartender who discussed knowledgably beer matter with Ned.
We slowly walked through the Quarter to Frenchman among the newly arrived crop of revelers. The Quarter -- such a strange place. For so many it IS New Orleans. For so many it is a place where suddenly they are attacked by a sense that they too are Artists, bohemians, that they can sit in a bar in the middle of the afternoon, hearing classic New Orleans musics, writing in a notebook, and they too will live the life of Tennessee Williams or Dr. John. For two or three days they can play this idea of a different self and an alternate life in a safe space. What happens in the Quarter stays there. Nobody knows.
But for some, they get bitten so badly they either come back to New Orleans for good, or they never leave at all. For better or worse. And for some indeed, it is for better. They find the life they want in this city, which is crackling and sizzling with young vitality and energy in every direction: entrepreneurial, artistic, musical, social, environmental, intellectual, you name it, it is happening here, a wild collision of talents and dreams.
Then on to Royal. Stopped at a place to rest my back called the R Bar. It was dark, very dark in the classic manner of a local New Orleans bar - dive. Youngish females were dressed as los muertos, flowing veils, flowers in hair: it was the second day of el Día de los Muertos, All Souls Day, of course! But it was early and quite quiet, the music an acceptable melange and no television tuned to sports. Where, the bartender handed us a complimentary bowl of the most excellent Jumbalaya. For the first time in over a week I pulled out my notebook. I was able to write about something that wasn't the Un-named. It was the first time I'd a coherent thought that wasn't related to the Un-named.
I wanted to make a note of two things I'd been seeing frequently since here. One was the groups of young women, dressed up, one member with a bridal-like veil braided into her hair. Perhaps these are the Wedding Party women on the Bride's Night out? The second was how often I saw young women wearing a surgical foot boot. I've been noticing this in NYC since the summer too. Is this from falling off the ridiculous shoes that have three inch platform soles and six inch stiletto heels?
We chatted over dogs and beer with some of the usual suspects of the R Bar, there on Royal. It came out we were evacuees. The hugs from our sisters and brothers! Another local arrived at that moment, and he goes: "You've met these people before, or at least you've seen them a lot, though not for the last year or so, you know, in the Bywater." Wow. That's where one of our usual NO hosts lives (having put up another friend who is homeless this year, there wasn't room for us this time), that's where Marky's bar is located (where we are meeting whoever feels in the mood to show up tonight, our last in New Orleans for the present -- el V, at least, will probably return in December), and close to the Piety Street recording studio.
New Orleanians have great eyes for you. Tourists, you may wish to keep this in mind!
On Frenchman we chatted with the bookstore there on the corner of the block where dba is. He carries The Books. With him was a friend who lives mostly in NY, but was visiting. "I just hang out back of the register here and pretend I'm working when I visit." He'd just finished reading The Year Before the Flood -- and called me by name. That was the fourth person who did that yesterday. The others made my nerves jangle, but this guy didn't, for some reason.
It was my first visit to Frenchman since Coco Robicheaux left us, or as they say in the Kongo spiritual belief system, "Gone on vacation." Eyes will mist up. For no reason we stopped and had beer in dba, and just talked and looked and listened for an hour. Despite this being the Society of Ethnomusicologist and American Musicologists Society conference, and there were thousands gathered for it, and it is New Orleans, we didn't see a single SEM / AMS attendee anywhere. We did encounter a few New Orleans peeps though.
We called a cab, the driver of which is from Morocco. We had a fascinating conversation with him on the way back to Robert Street. He loves New Orleans, particularly the people, the food and the music. He loves the diversity, he loves the tolerance, but he thinks the people on Bourbon Street go way too far. Halloween night, he said, there were people entirely naked. He went home, because he didn't want to drive them, most particularly because he didn't want to have to see them.
We sat with Hostess on her porch and chatted, looked at the still huge moon that had risen. Beautiful.
So far today, we've had brunch with our hostess on her lovely, huge, screened-in front porch, in a butterfly-dancing noontime, blue sky and gold sunshine.
Doing laundry now, getting ready to visit a Haitian houngan tomorrow morning, before heading to Louis Armstrong and home.
Friday, November 2, 2012
ConEd Sent Us An E-Mail
Just got home from the conference and then hanging with friends on Frenchman.
E-mail from ConEd telling us our power has been restored.
So hopefully our neighbors in our building will be warmer tonight.
Now, do we have internet?
We're never satisfied.
This is seems to be where Mayor Billionaire is different from Romney. He heard the 99%, and canceled the Marathon, which we've also just learned. Starting that f*cker on Staten Island, which is devastated was the worst thing he could have done. And that was just for starters. People hated him for putting up these two giant generators in Central Park to minister to the Marathon, while the rest of us don't have hot water or lights. That was the move of a mayor who sees his city as a theme park for tourists not as a city that functions as a place where people live and work.
In the meantime, just like in New Orleans, the tourists are starting to tour the Dead Zone and Staten Island and New Jersey.
You can see why everybody here in New Orleawns understands everything.
Wherever I go, any little local bar, I am greeted as a sister. And then, invariably, somebody says: hey, wait -- I know you (meaning mostly Ned) -- I've talked to you a lot, in the Bywater. Haven't seen you for a while this last year. Welcome back!"
But then, that's why we are here.
And Ned never stopped working the whole time, until tonight.
Gods, I'm lovin' on New Orleans tonight. And it is gorgeous tonight, o so gorgeous.
E-mail from ConEd telling us our power has been restored.
So hopefully our neighbors in our building will be warmer tonight.
Now, do we have internet?
We're never satisfied.
This is seems to be where Mayor Billionaire is different from Romney. He heard the 99%, and canceled the Marathon, which we've also just learned. Starting that f*cker on Staten Island, which is devastated was the worst thing he could have done. And that was just for starters. People hated him for putting up these two giant generators in Central Park to minister to the Marathon, while the rest of us don't have hot water or lights. That was the move of a mayor who sees his city as a theme park for tourists not as a city that functions as a place where people live and work.
In the meantime, just like in New Orleans, the tourists are starting to tour the Dead Zone and Staten Island and New Jersey.
You can see why everybody here in New Orleawns understands everything.
Wherever I go, any little local bar, I am greeted as a sister. And then, invariably, somebody says: hey, wait -- I know you (meaning mostly Ned) -- I've talked to you a lot, in the Bywater. Haven't seen you for a while this last year. Welcome back!"
But then, that's why we are here.
And Ned never stopped working the whole time, until tonight.
Gods, I'm lovin' on New Orleans tonight. And it is gorgeous tonight, o so gorgeous.
Got to Speak With Some of Our Neighbors
No basement flooding, no windows out.
Just waiting for the power to come back. They are very cold because the thermostat that turns on and off the furnace and sets the temps is electric.
Power supposed to be back by 11 PM tomorrow.
Now we're trying to figure out how to deal with getting food.
Though my first big job will be emptying and cleaning the refrigerator.
In the meantime Mayor Billionaire seems to have gotten bit by the Romney 1% Clueless Bug: he's running the NYC Marathon on Sunday, handing out water and food, pulling cops out of elsewhere, and generating tons of trash. While big parts of his city are without food and water, need the cops and have loads of wind and storm trash.
Just waiting for the power to come back. They are very cold because the thermostat that turns on and off the furnace and sets the temps is electric.
Power supposed to be back by 11 PM tomorrow.
Now we're trying to figure out how to deal with getting food.
Though my first big job will be emptying and cleaning the refrigerator.
In the meantime Mayor Billionaire seems to have gotten bit by the Romney 1% Clueless Bug: he's running the NYC Marathon on Sunday, handing out water and food, pulling cops out of elsewhere, and generating tons of trash. While big parts of his city are without food and water, need the cops and have loads of wind and storm trash.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
&^^%$$#@@!$$$$$$ Bloomberg!!!!!!
Slagging off President Obama and the Head of FEMA -- "Go to New Jersey and represent the nation."
The humanitarian crisis in Chinatown is desperate. And getting so everywhere in the Dark Zone. I knew Ned shouldn't have booked those tickets home for Sunday.
e-mails are beginning to trickle in -- and it's awful, and getting worse, but nobody is bothering with us at all.
New Orleans knows all about a mayor who isn't helping.
Everyone is furious with the NY Times and other so-called news media, and particularly WNYC radio and Bloomberg -- who are both politicians and media.
The humanitarian crisis in Chinatown is desperate. And getting so everywhere in the Dark Zone. I knew Ned shouldn't have booked those tickets home for Sunday.
e-mails are beginning to trickle in -- and it's awful, and getting worse, but nobody is bothering with us at all.
New Orleans knows all about a mayor who isn't helping.
Everyone is furious with the NY Times and other so-called news media, and particularly WNYC radio and Bloomberg -- who are both politicians and media.
Home Again?
I got e-mail from the New York Public Library, updating as to what is going on with its online catalog and digital resources, the branches and the research facilities, what is open and available, and what is not (digital and online most not available), but branches uptown generally open, in my neighborhood, definitely not. Still it warmed my heart to have e-mail and news from my intellectual home.
For better or worse, we’ve booked tickets on Delta to LaGuardia on Sunday at 2 PM. I am hoping so hard the power is back on in our part by then. (The prices for the seats -- yikes! JetBlue would have charged us $1200.) We’re starting to see e-mails from people on our block and around our area who evacuated to uptown Manhattan or Brooklyn. They’re asking us, who are in New Orleans, if we know anything about our home area – since we’re always the people with information. This is all we got: The boyfriend of the daughter of a friend of ours drove by our building yesterday, and says from the street it looks fine.
This is what the media's got: Aquagrill, a single veddy upscale restaurant re-opened on Spring and Ave of the Americas, with a generator they rented for thousands a day, they say. People are heartbroken that they didn't get to wear their Halloween costumes and that so many Halloween parties were canceled. The fashion and style section of the NY Times checked in with a breezy piece about how well all those very wealthy bold face names in SoHo and Tribeca are faring – a vacation, doncha know, from their very important and stressful lives! So much fun! With our private generators!
And now I see this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/dumpster-divers-grab-40-000-worth-food-article-1.1195338
Nothing is going on downtown for help and assistance as far as we can learn. NOTHING. No food coming in, no water. NOTHING. Kinda 9/11 all over again, except without the military. I learn more from the UK Guardian than I do from the NY Times. WNYC, despite being located in my part of the city, is deaf and dumb about us, except for the very wealthy and connected.
Not funny: when I open the tag box for my blog(s) now, and start the tag with 'hurricane' the auto complete provides me with a whole list of hurricanes about which I've dealt with, with deep personal concern, starting with Katrina.
From Da List:
[ ... 24 people are now counted dead from the storm in new york city, and 600,000 still without power in nyc as of this morning.
i still haven't heard from most of my people downtown, and nobody in my building. my nabe is mostly absent from news reports.
it's clear that FEMA is not performing in lower manhattan. i keep hearing about their total lack of visibility downtown. there seems to be a perception that lower manhattan is the home of wealthy boldface names who can take care of themselves. that is certainly true, but there are a lot of poor people as well -- especially on the east side, by where the con ed station blew and where some serious flooding occurred. there's no question that a lot of people are having a hard time.
according to governor cuomo's tweets, they're getting ready to distribute food and water in manhattan, though he doesn't say where. i guess it's supposed to be a mystery.
meanwhile, i keep waiting for the great journalism, and i haven't seen it. if i see one more picture of that goddamn crane . . . ]
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Finally, A Report Of What It's Like Where We Are
And it is every bit as bad as our worst fears. Note this did not come from a newspaper or a city agency office. It is a private person who did a survey on foot and reported.
We're being left to twist in the wind, while uptown people are chirping the good cheer of having the day off and how they are going Christmas shopping.
What are we going to do ....
Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade Cancelled
For the first time in its 39 year history. It steps off at right where we are. On a normal Halloween by now already all kinds of ghoulies and strangeness would be starting to gather on our streets, until by 8 PM it is ruled entirely by denizens of other realms and times.
The theme for 2012 was supposed to be the end of the world as declared by the Mayan calendar.
Mayor B announced he cancelled the parade last night:
Unfortunately, we just cannot spare the manpower from the NYPD and other city agencies to host the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, so we are postponing it to a later date sometime next week," the mayor said, according to NY1. "We'll work tomorrow and figure out what date makes sense given the resources the city has."
Description of this year's theme, from their website:
“This year, as 2012 ticks away the final year of the Mayan Calendar, and visions apocalyptic or euphoric fill our imaginations; we will explore the many embodiments of Time. The sound of ticking seconds reassures us of the continuity of our universe, a mechanical heartbeat, definite yet infinite. But how well do we know Time? We think of time as immutable, yet we know it to be elastic. Some moments pass with glacial slowness, as others speed past us. It bends and stretches, like Dali's drooping watches and Einstein's speeding trains. We think of time as intangible, yet we can know it only through physical forms: swinging pendulums or orbiting celestial bodies. We think of time as infinite, yet modern physicists tell the story of its beginning, and ancient calendar-makers tell of its end. With all this in mind, this year's Parade will be lead by a host of temporal entities. Clockwork White Rabbits will keep time for the procession, as winged alarm clocks sail overhead, incarnating Virgil's adage "tempus fugit". Other manifestations and analogs will abound, from cuckoos to TARDISes, culminating in a grand horlogical dance, as Time goes by.”
It is the end of time for us, down here, looking for and finding no news for the dead zone below 25th street. All we know still is it is dark and powerless. We have no idea about going home.
el V did his two presentations yesterday. They were very good. The students in the music dept. class were sharp, interested, knowledgable and did not text, eat or sleep. At the evening Angola (long) presentation, some older women from out of town who are not connected with the university at all attended. One of them said, "You know there are so many opportunities to hear something like this. The school should do a better job of letting people know these things are going on. Not all of us come to New Orleans for the usual tourist stuff." One of them had books for Ned to sign. They bought "Kiss You Down South" too. After the reception we were taken to a wonderful dinner with wonderful people and talk at Boucherie. This all took our minds away from that about which we can doing nothing at the moment -- a most excellent thing!
Tonight he'll probably hang with Galactic at Tip's. Thursday -- conference, all day.
The theme for 2012 was supposed to be the end of the world as declared by the Mayan calendar.
Mayor B announced he cancelled the parade last night:
Unfortunately, we just cannot spare the manpower from the NYPD and other city agencies to host the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, so we are postponing it to a later date sometime next week," the mayor said, according to NY1. "We'll work tomorrow and figure out what date makes sense given the resources the city has."
Description of this year's theme, from their website:
“This year, as 2012 ticks away the final year of the Mayan Calendar, and visions apocalyptic or euphoric fill our imaginations; we will explore the many embodiments of Time. The sound of ticking seconds reassures us of the continuity of our universe, a mechanical heartbeat, definite yet infinite. But how well do we know Time? We think of time as immutable, yet we know it to be elastic. Some moments pass with glacial slowness, as others speed past us. It bends and stretches, like Dali's drooping watches and Einstein's speeding trains. We think of time as intangible, yet we can know it only through physical forms: swinging pendulums or orbiting celestial bodies. We think of time as infinite, yet modern physicists tell the story of its beginning, and ancient calendar-makers tell of its end. With all this in mind, this year's Parade will be lead by a host of temporal entities. Clockwork White Rabbits will keep time for the procession, as winged alarm clocks sail overhead, incarnating Virgil's adage "tempus fugit". Other manifestations and analogs will abound, from cuckoos to TARDISes, culminating in a grand horlogical dance, as Time goes by.”
It is the end of time for us, down here, looking for and finding no news for the dead zone below 25th street. All we know still is it is dark and powerless. We have no idea about going home.
el V did his two presentations yesterday. They were very good. The students in the music dept. class were sharp, interested, knowledgable and did not text, eat or sleep. At the evening Angola (long) presentation, some older women from out of town who are not connected with the university at all attended. One of them said, "You know there are so many opportunities to hear something like this. The school should do a better job of letting people know these things are going on. Not all of us come to New Orleans for the usual tourist stuff." One of them had books for Ned to sign. They bought "Kiss You Down South" too. After the reception we were taken to a wonderful dinner with wonderful people and talk at Boucherie. This all took our minds away from that about which we can doing nothing at the moment -- a most excellent thing!
Tonight he'll probably hang with Galactic at Tip's. Thursday -- conference, all day.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Our Manhattan Is Dead
As we know so well, it isn't the storm or the even that is the worst, but what the destruction it leaves behind, and the days afterwards. Here, we are surrounded by the love and understanding from the gut, by so many people. We're very fortunate. Though my freezer back home is stuffed with meat ... though the weather's turning colder now. And since Wall Street is down there, we know all the Powers That Be from corporate to political will do their best to get the power back as fast as possible.
The west side of lower Manhattan -- unlike the east village and below that took the brunt of it -- won't be as much physically damaged from flooding. But the power station at 14th Street blew about 9:30 PM. So there is no electricity, and no cell phone service either in our third of Manhattan.
Our Manhattan, at the very least, is dead. Flooded. No power. Haven’t heard from a soul in Manhattan. Can’t find single photo from our neighborhood. Where will the Halloween Parade go?
Harlem and Brooklyn are fine, thank goodness.
"The damage across our city is massive. It will not recover quickly.... The power grid and transit will take a long time." Mayor Bloomberg, speaking about an hour ago.
At the very earliest power won't be restored for at least three days, and likely longer than that. Buses will run sooner though the airports won't open for some while. A number of the hospitals and health care facilities are without power or even had to be evacuated. But two thirds of Manhattan are OK. I can watch the local NYC television stations via streaming on my laptop -- our local public radio station's AM band transmitter got knocked out, which is usually the best source of local information. They are located a few blocks away from our building.
Right now I'm feeling like I felt on 9/11 -- not the gut-wrenching fear and horror of Katrina down into my bones, knowing how people were suffering -- and dying. What I've got is that detatched shock of non-recognition of everything, that kind of alitude sickness because the normal anchors of reality gravity are gone. Hopefully we'll get our normal back fairly soon, though full recovery will take a very long time -- and maybe climate change won't ever allow full recovery, before another massive storm hits.
Ned has to visit a class t Tulane this afternoon, and this evening he's doing a presentation on Angola (Africa) and the spiritual and musical world of the past that impacts the culture of Louisiana.
It's unreal. This whole time I've not felt we're in New Orleans at all. My mind is up north. Just as duing that disaster of the Failure, my mind wasn't in NYC, but down here.
The Stock Exchange is opening tomorrow.
The west side of lower Manhattan -- unlike the east village and below that took the brunt of it -- won't be as much physically damaged from flooding. But the power station at 14th Street blew about 9:30 PM. So there is no electricity, and no cell phone service either in our third of Manhattan.
Our Manhattan, at the very least, is dead. Flooded. No power. Haven’t heard from a soul in Manhattan. Can’t find single photo from our neighborhood. Where will the Halloween Parade go?
Harlem and Brooklyn are fine, thank goodness.
"The damage across our city is massive. It will not recover quickly.... The power grid and transit will take a long time." Mayor Bloomberg, speaking about an hour ago.
At the very earliest power won't be restored for at least three days, and likely longer than that. Buses will run sooner though the airports won't open for some while. A number of the hospitals and health care facilities are without power or even had to be evacuated. But two thirds of Manhattan are OK. I can watch the local NYC television stations via streaming on my laptop -- our local public radio station's AM band transmitter got knocked out, which is usually the best source of local information. They are located a few blocks away from our building.
Right now I'm feeling like I felt on 9/11 -- not the gut-wrenching fear and horror of Katrina down into my bones, knowing how people were suffering -- and dying. What I've got is that detatched shock of non-recognition of everything, that kind of alitude sickness because the normal anchors of reality gravity are gone. Hopefully we'll get our normal back fairly soon, though full recovery will take a very long time -- and maybe climate change won't ever allow full recovery, before another massive storm hits.
Ned has to visit a class t Tulane this afternoon, and this evening he's doing a presentation on Angola (Africa) and the spiritual and musical world of the past that impacts the culture of Louisiana.
It's unreal. This whole time I've not felt we're in New Orleans at all. My mind is up north. Just as duing that disaster of the Failure, my mind wasn't in NYC, but down here.
The Stock Exchange is opening tomorrow.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Below 39th St. Manhattan's Dark -- That Means Us Too
Record surge, tunnels flooded. Just as ConEd was shutting down three small substations for downtown Manhattan the main station at 14th street went dark. They believe flooding was the cause.
The NYU hospital's back-up power system failed and the patients have to be transferred. This is an enormous facility -- a small city all itself.
Mayor Bloomberg isn't in a suit any more. In blue workshirt and jeans, his voice is cracking -- he's exhausted. Yet he insists the power will back down there in a few hours. Because the high tide has arrived and gone, and the record storm surge is receding, and so is the heavy rain. But the wind is still going on and the storm will go on for at least two more days.
Not to mention what it will take to get the region's many airports from JFK to Maine up and operating again.
The Outlook Is Not Looking Good
Update: ConEd just informed our friends on Kenmare Street -- east of Broadway, below Houston, just above Canal -- they are turning off the power in that part of Manhattan. That's a straight shot to our place on the west side.
It is more likely our end of town, at least, will lose power than it won't lose power, and the real thing hasn't hit yet. The chance that the basement of our building will flood is at least 50% and the real thing hasn't happened yet.
So I took Unhappy Ears Dog on a long walk -- she's a rescue and very needy. Hostess took down the boxes and so on with her winter clothes last night, and today is a work day, moveover one longer than usual. Molly was drooping ever more as the morning rolled on.
Now she's bright and undroopy. Instead of her tail being tucked, her tail wags when she does her job of following me whenever I get up from the chair. She's resting instead of hiding. She also got a treat. She's cheered me up. This is why we have pets. We can do something for them, and it makes us feel better too.
In the meantime, el V, here in New Orleans: Some people have asked, so:
When he's not doing this, he's watching the east coast on the computer. Actually, what el V's doing is working his behind off, to be ready for tomorrow's talk and making the next Afropop program in the epic of Angola.
It is more likely our end of town, at least, will lose power than it won't lose power, and the real thing hasn't hit yet. The chance that the basement of our building will flood is at least 50% and the real thing hasn't happened yet.
So I took Unhappy Ears Dog on a long walk -- she's a rescue and very needy. Hostess took down the boxes and so on with her winter clothes last night, and today is a work day, moveover one longer than usual. Molly was drooping ever more as the morning rolled on.
Now she's bright and undroopy. Instead of her tail being tucked, her tail wags when she does her job of following me whenever I get up from the chair. She's resting instead of hiding. She also got a treat. She's cheered me up. This is why we have pets. We can do something for them, and it makes us feel better too.
In the meantime, el V, here in New Orleans: Some people have asked, so:
I will be speaking in New Orleans tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 30) evening at 6:30 at Tulane's Jones Hall, room 100A, on "Kongo Belief Past and Present." On Thursday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. in the Iberville Room of the Astor Crowne Plaza, I will be part of a panel at the American Musicological Society conference titled "Moving Roots of Music: The Many Worlds within New Orleans."
When he's not doing this, he's watching the east coast on the computer. Actually, what el V's doing is working his behind off, to be ready for tomorrow's talk and making the next Afropop program in the epic of Angola.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
New Orleans
We are here. Picked up at the airport and driven to where we're staying for the first part. A lovely friend of a friend with a lovely home in the Broadmoor neighborhood, who loves New Orleans and who knows it so well. Had dinner with a mixed krewe of our Hostess, a mixed bag of Tulane academics and others. And this is among the elements that I love so much about New Orleans -- that xocial interaction stratification between formal academic experts and artists, etc. and anyone else who cares and studies and knows, is just not there. Which is what it was like in Havana.
It feels almost like I'm dreaming at the moment. I keep thinking I'm back in London (am very tired) but it is so not London. It's so great to be back again. It feels more like home than 'home,' does, i.e. where I was born and grew up.
It feels almost like I'm dreaming at the moment. I keep thinking I'm back in London (am very tired) but it is so not London. It's so great to be back again. It feels more like home than 'home,' does, i.e. where I was born and grew up.
Friday, October 26, 2012
H = Halloween or Hurricane
Three loads of laundry spin in the dryers.
I've been packing. Can't finish until the clothes are dry. But then it will be finished for the most part before we head for the airport.
Life feels as though it's gone on hold again, not in a good way. I'm accustomed to this feeling -- a perpetul clench in the abdomen, and a sense of nothing is real. I learned this feeling first on 9/11. Since then there have been so many occasions.
The streets are filled with small and even some larger ghoulies, witches, cats, robots, so many masks and made-up faces. The schools had their Halloween parties this afternoon and none of the kids were about to change out of their costumes when mom or other caretaker picked them up at the end of the school day.
The stores are packed with women looking for just the right look -- another costume of a sort -- for their weekend and the parties on Wednesday. I bet the parties will be wild, those that get held and attended. However, I got no sense from any of these shoppers they were aware of what might be happening on Wednesday. In any case they are young: invulnerable and immortal. It will merely be an adventure about which they'll tweet and fb.
So, as far as I can tell, outside of the governor and the mayor, the head of the MTA, and the radio people, nobody is concerned a bit about Sandy.
I know how fast that can turn over though ....
The rain and wind should start Sunday. But we'll have been in NO for 24 hours by then.
I don't know. But at least Himself has stopped phoning me every two minutes!
I'm tired. Neither of us got more than four hours of sleep last night.
It's nice that a friend is picking us up from Louis Armstrong tomorrow. We'll figure out what else we're doing after that.
I've been packing. Can't finish until the clothes are dry. But then it will be finished for the most part before we head for the airport.
Life feels as though it's gone on hold again, not in a good way. I'm accustomed to this feeling -- a perpetul clench in the abdomen, and a sense of nothing is real. I learned this feeling first on 9/11. Since then there have been so many occasions.
The streets are filled with small and even some larger ghoulies, witches, cats, robots, so many masks and made-up faces. The schools had their Halloween parties this afternoon and none of the kids were about to change out of their costumes when mom or other caretaker picked them up at the end of the school day.
The stores are packed with women looking for just the right look -- another costume of a sort -- for their weekend and the parties on Wednesday. I bet the parties will be wild, those that get held and attended. However, I got no sense from any of these shoppers they were aware of what might be happening on Wednesday. In any case they are young: invulnerable and immortal. It will merely be an adventure about which they'll tweet and fb.
So, as far as I can tell, outside of the governor and the mayor, the head of the MTA, and the radio people, nobody is concerned a bit about Sandy.
I know how fast that can turn over though ....
The rain and wind should start Sunday. But we'll have been in NO for 24 hours by then.
I don't know. But at least Himself has stopped phoning me every two minutes!
I'm tired. Neither of us got more than four hours of sleep last night.
It's nice that a friend is picking us up from Louis Armstrong tomorrow. We'll figure out what else we're doing after that.
Evacuating From NYC To No
I told Himself to book the damned tix already and stop calling me every second! So we’re coming in to NO tomorrow, late afternoon, if God’s willin’ and the crick don’t rise. The thing is this thing is even huger than Irene – and I can’t stand the idea of being locked in here with him for three days certain we are going to starve, go without water and die.
The city will be hit by storming for at least three days. And so will all the regions north and south and west of us. That could make it difficult to restock here for quite a few days -- flooding and snow -- because Sandy is so huge, so things could get unpleasant.
So he’ll talk! And open with a line about evacuating to New Orleans from a hurricane, doubtless!
Now -- where are we going to stay??????
I am never going to get any work done ever again.
This is going to really mess up the election, and these are the regions most likely to come out for Obama.
The city will be hit by storming for at least three days. And so will all the regions north and south and west of us. That could make it difficult to restock here for quite a few days -- flooding and snow -- because Sandy is so huge, so things could get unpleasant.
So he’ll talk! And open with a line about evacuating to New Orleans from a hurricane, doubtless!
Now -- where are we going to stay??????
I am never going to get any work done ever again.
This is going to really mess up the election, and these are the regions most likely to come out for Obama.
The Tempest - Again!
Last year it was the Halloween blizzard. After which it never snowed again.
This year it's Sandy, the Frankenstorm, rolling over us for Halloween.
Himself's really pushing us to do the JetBlue tomorrow. Because if he's going to make the talks in New Orleans he has to go tomorrow, then, because Monday will be blocked by the storm. And he's not about to leave me here while he goes off.
This would rip at the minimum $2000 out of our budget, and I'm all about the budget.
These talks don't pay. We'd have a wonderful time in NO and avoid some discomfort here -- but it's not going to be $2000 worth of discomfort. Nor are our lives in danger, which would make it all different.
What I think we're going to get here is a nasty and cruel combo of wind, rain and snow. But as usual, at this time, I think Manhattan -- unlike Long Island and New Jersey -- will mostly be fine. We may lose power for a while if the storm surge (and it is a Full Moon) floods the subways and other underground tunnels. It's unlikely we will lose the use of our gas stove and oven.
So, I'm being a meanie, and saying NO to NO.
Boston, where we were to go today, got postponed; Haiti got postponed; now New Orleans is out too.
Instead of Boston, New Orleans and Haiti it's going to wind, rain, snow, tornadoes perhaps, and hurricane.
Our lives are very unlikely to be endangered. And as it's is neither hot nor cold, if we lose power it won't be like a buggy, drowned 100 degree August mess.
There is no fooling oneself, however. It's going to one hell of one awful, expen$ive mess. And there will be people who will die, and homes will be destroyed. It's not a joke.
Not good so close to the election either. This is the region that votes solidly blue ....
This year it's Sandy, the Frankenstorm, rolling over us for Halloween.
Himself's really pushing us to do the JetBlue tomorrow. Because if he's going to make the talks in New Orleans he has to go tomorrow, then, because Monday will be blocked by the storm. And he's not about to leave me here while he goes off.
This would rip at the minimum $2000 out of our budget, and I'm all about the budget.
These talks don't pay. We'd have a wonderful time in NO and avoid some discomfort here -- but it's not going to be $2000 worth of discomfort. Nor are our lives in danger, which would make it all different.
What I think we're going to get here is a nasty and cruel combo of wind, rain and snow. But as usual, at this time, I think Manhattan -- unlike Long Island and New Jersey -- will mostly be fine. We may lose power for a while if the storm surge (and it is a Full Moon) floods the subways and other underground tunnels. It's unlikely we will lose the use of our gas stove and oven.
So, I'm being a meanie, and saying NO to NO.
Boston, where we were to go today, got postponed; Haiti got postponed; now New Orleans is out too.
Instead of Boston, New Orleans and Haiti it's going to wind, rain, snow, tornadoes perhaps, and hurricane.
Our lives are very unlikely to be endangered. And as it's is neither hot nor cold, if we lose power it won't be like a buggy, drowned 100 degree August mess.
There is no fooling oneself, however. It's going to one hell of one awful, expen$ive mess. And there will be people who will die, and homes will be destroyed. It's not a joke.
Not good so close to the election either. This is the region that votes solidly blue ....
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