Voodoo Fest 2008

I can't find it on the Voodoo Fest website or anywhere on nola.com, but billboard.com reports that R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, and Stone Temple Pilots will be headlining this year.

Modern rock titans R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots will headline the 10th Voodoo Music Experience, Billbord.com can reveal. The event will be held Oct. 24-26 at New Orleans' City Park; tickets begin going on sale Friday (May 2).

Also on the bill are the Neville Brothers, making their first appearance at Voodoo Music Experience. Additional local acts set to appear include the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Irving Mayfield's New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the New Orleans Bingo! Show.

oh man...

Grey

I am FINALLY the owner of the following two t-shirts.





I kind of knew the broad story involving the grey, but not until recently did I fully understand the details of the Grey Ghost and apparently the d-bag this guy is as pointed out by several bloggers. Radtke is like that overzealous fan who thinks his team can do no wrong. How can the NOPD stand by this guy? The New Orleans Police Department, however, condones Radtke’s actions. NOPD often calls him directly to cover graffiti and spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse said they have no intention of charging Radtke with any crimes. However, after this recent Mojo incident New Orleans Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse did not respond to calls for comment.

As Craig at New Orleans MetBlogging put it: "I don’t get it. Far as I can tell, all these gray blocks do is create a new and clearer canvas to be tagged again. Good." (The comments alone in that one are worth reading even 7 months later.)

I have been noticing a new barrage of colors showing up, as displayed in the building at the corner of Washington and Annunciation:

At first I thought maybe they were going to paint that part of the building Mardi Gras colors, but then I saw the same thing popping up in other areas. Who do we chaulk this one up to?

On that note, this has always been a fav of mine, via Humid City:


RIP Crabcakes, what a good kitty.


Other interesting links on the topic that I've stumbled upon in my internet travels:
NOLA Rising Helps Rebuild on YouTube
Grey Ghost Busters on MySpace
momoshowpalace
Fred Radtke - Enemy of New Orleans
whosginnastopfredradtke and so much more to be found on flickr

It's a buyer's market right now

So many people I know are buying houses right now. In the market? How about this tent house, as seen on Craig's List. I love the romantic netting around the bed!

PENIS PANIC

This was just too funny to go without note. My first instinct is that someone should tell these guys that penis size isn't everything, but on second thought, you gentlemen readers should be thankful you don't live in the Congo.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

Penis theft panic hits city...

Tiki Party - at 8 am?!

Strange sighting on my way to work this morning outside of the Ugly Dog.

and



Apparently it's some sort of movie being filmed - there are "No Parking - Filming" signs all around the Ugly Dog. Anyone know what's being filmed?

Happy Earth Day to you!

There is so much going on today! All of the following goings-on give you no excuse to be bored tonight:


Happy Earth Day! Check out this interesting bit on how far Earth Day has come since its grassroots inception in the 1970s.



The Pennsylvania Primary is finally here! Check out the WaPo's 8 Questions About the PA Primary.



Tulane will host LSU tonight starting at 6 pm at beautiful Greer Field at the newly re-done Turchin Stadium.

And, of course, I would be heckling at the baseball game if my baller co-blogger ALTL hadn't scored us tickets to Game 2 of the Hornets vs. Mavs tonight! We'll be those drunk girls in the stands - furiously 'Berrying between plays to check the Tulane and the Pennsylvania scores!

since I wasn't at work Friday...

For Christmas this past year, ALTR gave me a daily calendar that counts down the days until our esteemed leader George W. Bush is out of office. Usually the quotes and pictures give me a little giggle, but the one below left me with an odd feeling that I can't exactly pin point.



I guess I just couldn't bring myself to laugh at the expense of Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter.

Sunday afternoon drive

My roommate and I used to often take Sunday afternoon drives. We're not born and bred here, but we love New Orleans and are always curious to see things for ourselves that we hear/read about. Sometimes they are Sunday afternoon strolls. So this morning after a filling breakfast at Betsy's, we found ourselves driving through some projects (well, what's left of them) previously unexplored by us.



The strangest part, to me, was seeing what were people's personal belongings simply piled with the bricks and other parts of the buildings as if they were nothing.




These are the sort of things my bad dreams are made of:



Of course, maybe I'm ignorant, but does all public housing come equipped with directTV?! Every operational complex had multiple satellites on the buildings.

srsly

Sometimes I wonder who these numb nuts are that work for the city government.

Dear Sir/Madam:

The City of New Orleans Parking Violations branch has received a check or money order from you. In order to apply this payment as you intended, we need more information from you.

If you still have the parking citation(s) or notice(s) that prompted you to make this payment, please return them with this letter. If these are not available, please provide as much as possible of the information requested below.

- State/Plate Number
- Ticket Number
- Amount Paid

Really? So I made a mistake in not keeping a copy of every parking ticket I paid, apparently. And seeing how I wrote two checks on the same day, I have no freaking clue what parking ticket this is for. They want to know the amount I paid? Didn't they say in the letter that they received a check or money order? I believe they should provide me with the amount paid. A month has passed since I disbursed payment on a $20 parking ticket and a $40 parking ticket. Besides, can't they read the ticket number on the memo of the check?!

I'm kind of torn, why the hell should I assist the city in giving me a fine when they aren't competent enough to keep ahold of the ticket I enclosed with my check?

I've got another parking violation sitting in my planner waiting to be contested, seeing as my friend gave me permission to block his driveway. Where the hell are the parking nazis on my street when my driveway gets blocked constantly without my permission? I've never seen such a thing, people usually just get towed.

Can I be your NOLA hag?

A Head Pelican tipster just informed ALTR that Michael Kors was seen shopping at a local artist's studio in the French Quarter about an hour ago. But apparently, that's not very out of the ordinary.

Wanna get high?

The best part was when the same guy came down a different section of windows later and he was smoking a cigarette. I guess a smoke break up 28 stories is as good as any.

"Lil Bush" features Tulane girls

No, I don't watch the show, but I found out that there was a "Tulane girl" feature on a recent episode. OMG, are they saying Tulane girls are sluts?! See below, watch until about 1:20 minutes:

[h/t JuicyCampus.com*]

* most embarrasing hat tip of my blogging career.

A sign of things to come...

Way back on August 22 2007, our friendly blogger American Zombie called it:

Word has it that LA. Senator Derrick Shepard is the next to be summoned to the gallows....execution date is set for Monday.

It took more like 7.5 months, but Senator Shepard got popped with 41-counts of indictment this afternoon.

Could he have been the next Dollar Bill? We will never know.

I think ALTR just wet herself a little...

An Evening with Anderson Cooper

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

6:00pm - 7:00pm

McAlister Auditorium

Live at Tulane University....lead CNN news anchor, world renowned journalist, author, and activist.....Anderson Cooper.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

For more info check out tucp.net.

typical Thursday

Not sure what to do with yourself this afternoon? Why don't you attend the open casting for Big Brother!! 4-7 PM at Zephyr field and get this - the first 500 people get a pair of tickets to see the Zephyrs! Don't forget to bring your noodz.

VAGINA POWER

DRAMA

This is so stupid:



I love the dramatic music. At least they have signs up now!

WTF

HOLY SHIT: Senate panel approves bill allowing castration for sex offenders

BATON ROUGE -- A Senate committee today took the first step toward giving judges the authority to order sex offenders to undergo physical or chemical castration.

The Judiciary C Committee unanimously passed Senate Bill 144 by Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Abbeville, to give a judge the option to order medroxyprogestrone acetate, or MPA, to be administered to a first time sex offender. On a repeat violation, the judge must order the treatment for a specific time if a medical expert agrees the treatment can help the offender.

The offender can opt for physical castration on a first or second offense if he agrees to the surgery and a judge concurs.

See also: Convicted Sex Offender Tells His Story as the Governor Tries to Get New Laws Passed [h/t: Dead Pelican]

Sher case decision handed down

Today the Louisiana Supreme Court handed down a decision stating that the "flood" that occurred as a result of the levee breach is not covered by homeowner's insurance:

The state high court reversed decisions by a state trial court and an appeals court that said the definition of the word "flood" was ambiguous in most all-risk homeowners policies, and by law, the policyholders' interpretation had to be followed.

The high court said the lower courts should have looked at the "plain, ordinary and generally prevailing definition" of the word flood.

"Contrary to the court of appeal's reasoning, this definition (of flood) does not change or depend on whether the event is a natural disaster or a man-made one -- in either case, a large amount of water covers an area that is usually dry," the court opinion said.

Justice Chet Traylor of Winnsboro, in writing the majority decision, went a step further, saying the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was not actually caused by man, only aided by human errors.

"The flood was caused by Hurricane Katrina, not by man," Traylor wrote. "The levees did not cause the flood, they, whether through faulty design, faulty construction, or some other reason, failed to prevent the flood."

[Times-Pic]

For some more thoughtful insight, I would direct you to keep your eyes on the Insurance Coverage Law Blog, actually based out of Oregon, but David Rossmiller has done a phenomenal job covering the insurance aspects of cases such as the Sher case. You can read the decision itself here.

The dummies on the nola.com comments section are having a field day, as usual.

strange sensation

Yesterday before leaving the office I read about the murder at Josephine and Laurel streets. This is a bit close to home, as most of these shootings near the river are. This wasn't the weird thing, though, it was when I was driving home and turning into the neighborhood that Better Than Ezra's "One More Murder" came on.

And here I was thinking that I was clever blasting "I'm a Thug" in my 'hood. My neighbors think I'm cute.

This is the only outlet for my immaturity...

Today I was notified that my BFF since high school, Kelly*, is engaged. Her fiance, Zach, is BFF with my ex-boyfriend, Slater, one of just 2 serious boyfriends in my life, and my only truly long-term relationship. I haven't seen Slater since we finally cut all ties in 2004. And while I knew deep down a reunion at this wedding was inevitable (everyone knew this wedding would happen one day) - this is so real and I've got a whole year to be nervous about it. The wedding is set for June of 2009.

I should be so happy - the first of my really good friends getting married, my first bridesmaid's dress. But why do I just know that this is the first of a lot of examples of "always a bridesmaid..."

Not that I even feel like I'm even close to being ready to get married - it's just that when I hear about people my age (first year out of college) getting married I just feel that my own immaturity is being thrown in my face. It's even more severe that it's one of my really good friends getting hitched. And it truly hurts that it's a marriage for a couple I used to go on double dates with.

* Names have been given to characters in this saga, because I'm sure our readers will get to hear me whine about this over and over again.

Rushdie to speak at Tulane tonight

Internationally famed novelist Salman Rushdie will speak at Tulane's Dixon Auditorium this evening at 7 pm as a part of Tulane's "Great Writers" series. The event is free and open to the public. [Tulane NewWave]

Word to the wise: if you plan on attending this event, get there very early (at least 45 minutes before). About a month ago, ALTL and I attempted to go see Gloria Steinem and did not actually get to see her speak because of unexpectedly high turnout. Tulane is not the best at anticipating attendance numbers.

For those Tulane students who have no idea who Rushdie is, he's that author guy who made a cameo in Bridget Jones' Diary.

Sunday giggles

GOP runoff won by Scalise

Steve Scalise won last night in the GOP runoff for the District 1 congressional elections, the seat left vacant by Bobby Jindal when he peaced out to Baton Rouge. This pretty much means that Scalise will be the next representative for District 1, which has been a Republican-held seat since 1977.

It's exciting this area again has someone to rally around now, although I don't think Scalise quite has or will ever have the cult following that Bobby had as the District 1 rep.

But one thing is for certain: Mr. Scalise is clearly possessed by the devil and will wake up to find this TERRIFYING photo of himself on NOLA.com:


Scalise has been eyeing this seat for a decade now, backing down to people that are better looking and more interesting than him (obviously, Bobby Jindal, and also David Vitter *irony implied*). But now he finally gets to go to Washington and kick it with the big boys, so I congratulate him.

Scalise beat out opponent Tim Burns, who received most of this support and votes from the conservatives in St. Tammany and Washington parishes.

Scalise will go up against Dr. Gilda Reed (Democrat), Skip Galan (Independent), and Tony Gentile (Independent American Party) in the general election set for May 3. [Times-Picayune]

It was indeed...

It was indeed a Crowded House last night at Politics With a Punch. Even though we arrived shortly after 7 PM and had our reservations, we had to stand in line for something like half an hour before anyone would even talk to us. NOOBS! (no elbows were dropped)

I think Stacy Head is like New Orleans' own Tina Fey.

I think last night's very important take home message was this: Vagina is always good for the economy.

GDI JP II

After Monday's incident you think I would learn. But this evening I got popped at the EXACT SAME intersection. There is just not a chance in hell I could stop at that yellow light without skidding into the intersection or getting rear ended. I know that Orleans Parish is all "No tickets will be issued for vehicles entering the intersection on a yellow signal" (Robert Mendoza in the T-P), but the same article claims that Jefferson Parish has a similar policy yet motorists are getting ticketed and some officials say that is correct.

In Jefferson, officials announced a similar policy, issuing a Nov. 16 news release that said drivers would get a ticket only if the light is "fully red before the car enters the intersection. Entering the intersection while the light is still yellow does not constitute a violation."

Some drivers claim, however, that they have been ticketed even when the light turned red after they had entered a Jefferson intersection.

In fact, there appears to be confusion even among top Jefferson officials about what the policy is.

Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson said his understanding is that if the light turns red while in an intersection, "you're getting a ticket." Saying the light was yellow when the motorist entered the intersection is no excuse, he said.

"Yellow means you should stop," Wilkinson said.

Bert Smith, Jefferson's deputy chief administrative officer, said the original announcement was correct. However, he said, drivers need to understand what constitutes "entering the intersection."

In Louisiana, that is defined as when a motorist crosses the "line of prolongation," an imaginary line extending across the intersection from the curbline of the cross street. It is the point at which a motorist enters the path of crossing traffic.

That line defines the start of the intersection, not the broad white lines in front of the pedestrian crosswalk, Smith said. In Jefferson Parish, a motorist who crosses the pedestrian crosswalk after the light turns red won't trigger a ticket, but if any part of the vehicle crosses the thin line of prolongation on a red light, it's a ticket, he said.

Theoretically I shouldn't get popped for these "offenses." Even I were speeding, it's only Orleans Parish that tickets you for that. However, I just don't believe that some cop is going to sit there and review every car that got busted in the intersection compared to the moment the light turned red in order to save my ass a $110 ticket.

NOLA blogosphere mourns

Please keep the family of Ashley Morris in your prayers.

F**k!

THE REASON I'M SINGLE!

Perhaps I should move back to Houston where I grew up. My Texas (married @ 23 and preggers by 26) cousins told me when I decided to stay in N.O. that I would never find a man here because all the men here are gay. We'll they're wrong - apparently there are no men here at all!

From the Creative Class Exchange [h/t The Daily Dish]