More Blogging ......

This blog has earned me a spot on Metroblogging ! It's hard doing both blogs and besides, working at the restaurant along with the volunteering stuff I have been doing, it's making
it hard to do anything regarding the house itself. Plus, we still have nothing in writing from the insurance company so it 's a war. I am not the only one. Much of the city is in limbo for this same reason.

So to keep up, here's the link: http://neworleans.metblogs.com/ It's linear, you can cruise the
articles for mine through the link on the left for the archives pertinent to the current month.
If you forget the link, just search blogs new orleans, it comes up. Don't be a retard and ask me a million times for the link...it's called a bookmark, if you can't use it yet, check into a nursing home.

I was approached by Mercy Corps to help salvage my item of desire from the home, then let them keep some wood for reuse through the Green Project here in the city. In this deal, they
would do the excavation for free. However, they can't touch the asbestos shingles. This is so ridiculous and it causing a lot of problems for many homeowners. As one person put it, "asbestos shingles are eating the lunches of a lot of contractors right now." If I could get up there I would pick them off myself. The whole thing is utterly stupid. The absurdity makes me just want to leave it. No one cares.

I did commmission my very dear friend, Jason Hawkins to do a painting of the house. He's not going to do the end result nor the blighted state, somewhere in between. He paints all kinds of
houses in New Orleans and has a degree in preservation. His work is on display all the time
at La Crepe Nanou and is for sale. Since the storm, his stuff is moving !

"Jason London Hawkins is a native of North Carolina and a New Orleanian since 1995. An ardent preservationist, Hawkins lives in the restored former residence of Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong's mentor and a leading jazzman of his day. His paintings are mostly of famous churches, whorehouses and gothic mansions. "http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-07-26/art_review.php

Uptown Askew, Uptown Anew

The building on the left is at the tipping point. It's so blighted that one small breeze is going to bring it down. This building is located on a hoppin' stretch of Magazine street, it's right across from Whole Foods. The window casings are all bent, it's a real life Michalopoulos. Check out his stuff here: http://www.michalopoulos.com/gallery.html

The photo on the right is the pocket park at Toledano and St. Charles. The neighborhood took it upon themselves to clean it up on Saturday. One man paid for a dumpster or two and everyone came out and got rid of all the tree debris and trash. It's so beautiful. We can't wait around for the city to maintain public areas here in the city so folks are doing a great job of doing things for themselves. The area was a dumping ground for the last month, this is such an enormous
improvement. I sure am glad the residents were able to come home and pitch in. It took about
10 people the whole day to get it done.