rhetoric, defined Saturday, Sep 27 2008
Newsworthy and Teaching 9:34 pm
I can’t think of a better way to introduce rhetoric to my class next semester.
the storm of the century Saturday, Aug 30 2008
Newsworthy and NOLA and Social Software 10:20 pm
Things have escalated beyond imagination:
“The footprint of Katrina was about 400 miles when it hit. Gustav currently has a footprint of 900 miles and continues to grow.”
Video of the mayor’s official press conference is here.
My parents are staying in Picayune, Mississippi, for the time being. I’ve gotten in touch with nearly all my NOLA friends and they’re all leaving or have already left. Not sure about the few who just flew into town for Southern Decadence, but it looks like the rest of those scheduled events have been canceled so I would think that if they’ve got their plane ticket, they should be getting out asap.
Several NOLAbloggers have turned to twitter to set up their alerts so we [at least the people already following them, I’m not sure how many will use hashtags] know how to find out how they are and where they will be for the next few days. What’s most fascinating to me is that here’s even a GustavAlerts twitterstream to follow now as well as an all-encompassing Gustav Information Center & Social Network.
View my page on Gustav Information Center
I hate that I’m watching this from afar again because I feel so helpless, but all I can do is pray. Everyone’s much more prepared this time, which is great, but I really hope that this storm doesn’t ruin all the rebuilding efforts I’ve seen my friends spend so much time, money, and energy on over the past couple years.
More updates as they come.
Katrina Media Friday, Aug 29 2008
Metablogging and Newsworthy and NOLA 10:31 am
As today is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I’m honored to have been asked to reflect on my own experiences over at the Open Society Institute’s Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster blog.
Some information about the site is as follows:
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster was named the best nonprofit website of the year in the 12th Annual Webby Awards. OSI was chosen from nearly 10,000 entries from across the United States and more than 60 countries.
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster features the Katrina Media Fellows’ investigative reporting on the Hurricane’s continuing devastation across the Gulf Coast. The site combines never-before-seen video, photography, print, and radio with previously published work to spark a national discussion on race, poverty, and government neglect.
So far just my biographical post is up, but a longer narrative should go up today.
I hope you explore other parts of the site too because there is a lot of informative and revealing text and video.
Hillary Wednesday, Jan 9 2008
Newsworthy 10:32 pm
Like Rebecca Traister, the author of this Salon piece on Hillary v Chris Matthews, I too am not a Hillary supporter. But last night I was glad she proved the pundits wrong. I don’t have cable but, surprise surprise, I read the play-by-plays on what they were saying about her on Twitter.
As a woman wants to be taken seriously, I was annoyed at how the final word on Hillary the other night at the debate was about her wardrobe. But I also didn’t like her girly response to the likability question, “Well, that hurts my feelings…” I haven’t seen the video of her tearing up, but that’s no reason why people, even her fellow opponents, should gang up on her.
The Salon essay is great, so I won’t blather on anymore. Go read it and let me know what you think.
See also the links Jill points us to in her post on the matter.
insomnia + victory Tuesday, Sep 26 2006
Newsworthy and NOLA 7:47 am
I’ve been wide awake since 4am and thought about blogging the whole time but wanted to will myself back to sleep. For the past week I have barely gotten more than 5 hours of sleep each night and when I took something for my headache, it just made me a”medicine head” all yesterday. Now that I’ve had to call in to school to cancel my Expository Writing class, I thought I’d put a post up before I take a Benadryl and really try to get rid of this sinus pressure, slight fever, AND SOME SLEEP!
So here’s just to say GEAUX NEW ORLEANS SAINTS AND MINNESOTA TWINS! You’ve made mine a very happy household, despite the lack of sleep. Too out of it to link properly, just go to ESPN.com to see what I’m talking about!
p.s. Here is a great story on the Superdome.
translator needed Thursday, Sep 14 2006
Newsworthy 8:57 pm
I love this commercial anyway and can’t imagine being the actor or so-called “real person” who had to sit at the same table as Little Richard and keep a straight face! However, it is all the more funny with W superimposed. Thank you Jon Stewart!
newsworthy rant Wednesday, Aug 9 2006
Newsworthy 9:25 pm
OK I know that the Today Show is hardly the place to turn for hard news, but I’ve often listened to the first 15 minutes or so to get the headlines since I don’t have cable. Sometimes when I sleep late, I turn it on only to find that last hour of fluff (concerts, cookouts, etc) and no news at all. So imagine my surprise this morning when I saw in the first fifteen minutes of “top stories” a report on Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn being engaged. And the key source of this news: an editor or reporter from US Weekly. What the hell?????? Sure, I can see why some might find that story to be vital to the start of one’s day, and I love me some Vince, but since when are gossip rags called in as credible sources? I even read something the other day on MSNBC that referenced another gossip site TMZ.com. Sad sad sad…
I’m going back to my academic reading and pretend none of this happened…
Xavier Rebuilds Wednesday, May 31 2006
Newsworthy 9:12 pm
You have to check out this PDF which is a photo essay of soon after Katrina and the most recent return to campus. I’ve walked through or taught in several of those buildings and it is amazing to see the devastation and renovation both on the same page.
Amazing…
9 months later on video Wednesday, May 31 2006
Newsworthy 9:00 pm
Found this blog via Metroblogging New Orleans and find its video post to be yet another wonderful example of the truth: what people in NOLA are facing as well as what the places look like, even those places nearby folks who have started rebuilding. Everything is so scattered and the binary that exists nowadays is optimism and harsh reality.
death toll still rising Friday, May 19 2006
Newsworthy and Trauma theory 12:30 pm
Nola.com reports the latest numbers of Katrina-related deaths. Here’s a passage I find most interesting:
…weeks after it made landfall Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina kept claiming Louisiana victims, often in more subtle fashion and often in other states: elderly and ill evacuees too fragile for grueling trips on gridlocked highways, infants stillborn to mothers who were shuttled to other cities when they should have been on bed rest and residents overcome with anxiety by 24-hour television broadcasts of the devastation back home.
The last part of this is fascinating and links to the work I’ve read of Bessel van der Kolk [see page 5 of the PDF “The Limits of Talk”]. Being left helpless in a strange city and separated from where the trauma occured can be more mentally devastating than being there, evacuees want nothing more than to physically do something. They don’t want to talk or reflect; they want to move on, check on their homes, rebuild, save pets, find tangible memories…unfortunately, as this article reports, many lives were lost to such anxiety.
As you know, my focus of study is, what about those who went online to try and do something? How did that inform the traditional media’s reporting of the hurricane? How can trauma theory be used to articulate and analyze those moves?
I can’t wait to start writing! I ordered several more items from Amazon today to keep my work up-to-date and comprehensive: Anderson Cooper’s Dispatches from the Edge : A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival and the 2005 Complete Guide to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster – Federal Reports, Government Response, Science Reports, Devastation to Louisiana, New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama dvd. It’s been pretty difficult to read about the goings on of that week in late-August, but I have to make sure that I contribute something, even if it is in dissertation form rather than physical labor.
the sad news Wednesday, Apr 5 2006
Newsworthy and Razzle Dazzle 10:12 pm
David Cuthbert
Theater writer
Gavin Mahlie, one of New Orleans’ most active and popular actors, died in his sleep Tuesday morning. He was 42.
The only actor to have appeared in all 12 seasons of The Shakespeare Festival at Tulane, he had acted in more than 60 local theater productions at virtually every stage in town. His “Richard III ” and Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” were but two of a gallery of his celebrated Shakespearean portrayals. He was also a regular in the political plays of local playwright Jim Fitzmorris.
His last performance was in the title role of “Uncle Vanya” for the Red Noses theater company, which he helped found. He was to have reprised his baggy-pants comic version of Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for school audiences this month and was set to star in “Kimberly Akimbo” next month in Southern Rep’s first post-Katrina staging.
I think tomorrow’s paper in New Orleans is to have more information. EDITED TO INCLUDE LINK TO OBITUARY HERE.
I am still finding out information and have spent all day remembering Gavin’s performances and quirky personality. I’d never have thought he would be a fan of the Black Eyed Peas, but he was. That still makes me smile.
I swear I am related to Bob Schieffer Sunday, Apr 2 2006
Newsworthy 11:52 am
Although people who are related generally disagree….
Here’s the deal: I had the same thoughts as Bob years ago when I heard about the money being spent on a Mars mission. I have nothing against NASA or other scientific powers that be. My father made pieces of the external tank of the Space Shuttle at Martin Marietta for 30 years. But I cannot understand why the government would fund space exploration at a time when, as Bob Schieffer puts it, “We can’t figure out how to get those thousands of trailers standing empty in Arkansas down to New Orleans down to house the people who lost their homes during Katrina, but we’re designing housing for the moon?”
Winona State wins NCAA Division II title Sunday, Mar 26 2006
Newsworthy 5:49 pm
While I am not a basketball fan, you can’t help but watch a few seconds of March Madness while channel surfing. Yesterday we watched a full game though, that being the NCAA Division II championship game. The winners, Winona State! Just a hop, skip, and jump away from AC’s alma mater, St. Mary’s. Here’s a link to the Winona Daily News story, although I think the headline should read “Reaction in Winona huge” rather than “hug.” You tell me…although they are a friendly people!
We’re gonna call AC’s friends to see if there was crazy partying in the streets last night. When we go this summer, first round of cheese curds is on me! 
More links to Katrina Tuesday, Mar 21 2006
Newsworthy 1:15 pm
I had visited CBSNews.com looking for the text of the interview I saw on Anne Rice this past Sunday, but instead came across these two: Unearthing Pompeii which discusses natural disasters, and “New Orleans Mayor: Rebuild Anywhere.” The latter doesn’t restore my faith in the current mayor, but the Bring New Orleans Back Commission report looks hopeful. I want to help them achieve their recommendations, “from revamping schools to consolidating some city offices. The wish-list of projects included new light-rail systems, more farmers’ markets, new riverfront development, job-training sites and better flood protection.”
Lessons Learned Thursday, Feb 23 2006
Newsworthy 12:17 pm
I have to keep working on a presentation for tonight so I’m just including the link to the CNN story about the White House report released today.
Nola.com has a link to the full report here [PDF].
I still haven’t found the PDF for the House committee report that came out last week. Anyone know where to look?
Meet the Press Monday, Feb 20 2006
Newsworthy 12:40 am
the power of webcams: ME-OW! Friday, Feb 17 2006
Newsworthy 2:56 pm
One summer in the late-90s, I spent a lot of time at Cats Meow–but I NEVER sang and never will! 
Here’s the story of its reopening and the last image its popular webcams took the day Katrina hit.
busy bee/Mardi Gras on the brain/blue dogs Friday, Feb 17 2006
It's all about me! and Newsworthy 10:36 am
I haven’t been blogging much this week because of English dept. duties, deadlines and the amount of work I need to accomplish before flying to NOLA next Saturday for Mardi Gras. I CANNOT wait! After some friends read my emotional dream analysis, even ones who lost much more than I did, they told me to stop being so sad and to just come and see what is left, so that’s what I am gonna do!
The NYTimes has a wonderful piece that you should go read: “Mardi Gras Set for City Stripped of All but Pride.”
And when I visited NOLA.com this morning I came across the latest Rodrigue! I love it!
deer in headlights Tuesday, Feb 14 2006
Newsworthy 11:43 am
“Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare. At every level — individual, corporate, philanthropic and governmental — we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina. In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw.”
Hmmmm. As long as the pigs mentioned are the government and not the victims, I’m OK with this statement. Read the CNN full story here.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the report, “Failure of Initiative,” this week.
This story on Brown as a scapegoat is also sure to be helpful in my work this semester too.
fly tomato fly Sunday, Feb 12 2006
Newsworthy 8:46 pm
Like The Flexible Generalist, I thought it strange that the Olympic athletes marched in at the Opening Ceremonies to 70s dance music. From the many folk dance festivals I’ve attended, it’s always made blatantly clear that other countries have their own unique sound, so why this random disco mix? And if Torino is a club-hopping Italian paradise, why not some electronic, wordless, techno?
I doubt I will have much time to watch the Olympic coverage every night, even though I’m a huge fan, but with Michelle out, I guess the most entertaining American there will be The Flying Tomato.
To me, he [aka Shaun White] looks a little more like the flying orange, or even a mini-Ronald McDonald, but oh well…
A Comarda in Time Sunday, Feb 12 2006
Newsworthy 3:33 pm
I blogged about this way back when, and came across the Time Magazine that the story appeared in, but at that time it was for subscribers only. I planned to go to the library to peruse a hard copy, and still will to see the pictures, but now looking for it again I see that the entire piece is available online now.
With that much of a set up, go read “The Displaced: Which Way Is Home?” which features the Comarda’s, and focuses on Julie, who I used to tutor. I cannot wait for her high school graduation in June!
the blame game continues Sunday, Feb 12 2006
Newsworthy 12:39 pm
Grrrrrrrrrrr that Brownie…Friday’s Senate hearings were a waste of time
Bob Schieffer’s got it right:
By now we know this was a failure of government at every level and that the Department of Homeland Security is a monumental flop, a bureaucracy so huge it is unable to move in spite of itself.
FEMA, the disaster relief agency that Brownie ran should be removed from Homeland Security, and its chief should report directly to the White House.
olympic loss Sunday, Feb 12 2006
Newsworthy 12:33 pm
Go here for a tribute to figure skating written by fellow blogger Julie a few weeks ago. It’s so wonderful and comprehensive!
