I went to vote today with my OBAMA tee shirt and two OBAMA buttons on my hat. I worried they might say something at the voter booth. Mom called when I was returning and said she had just voted and I told her I did too. “Did you wear your tee shirt?” she asked. I said yes. She said, “They didn’t kick you out?” I said no, the woman taking my name had a sweatshirt on that said “I CAN SEE RUSSIA FROM THE FRENCH QUARTER.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE AMERICA NEEDS A CHANGE? THAT WE HAVE BEEN ON A COURSE OF WRECK AND RUIN? THAT WE HAVE LEFT BEHIND CHILDREN UNLIKE BUSH’S NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND PROMISE. THAT WE HAVE LAID TO WASTE COUNTRIES AND CULTURES FOR SELFISH PURSUITS. THAT WE HAVE A DEPLORABLE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. THAT THERE ARE CHILDREN IN AMERICA WITH NO CLOTHES AND NO HOT MEALS IN THEIR BELLIES WHILE CEO’S OF MAJOR CORPORATIONS MAKE IN EXCESS OF MILLIONS.
WANT A CHANGE?
VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA AND HELP GET THIS COUNTRY ON THE RIGHT TRACK AGAIN.
Obama – go vote tomorrow! Make History! Obamanos.
Meanwhile, we pause for a local issue:
The opposition to the Master Plan has been successful in confusing the public as to what is being voted on. You are not voting on the Master Plan tomorrow. What you are voting on is the authorization and the mandate to have the master plan and the new comprehensive zoning ordinance be created after much public meetings and vetting. It will then go before the City Council for final approval. Right now there is no master plan and a broken comprehensive zoning ordinance. In order for the master plan to have meaning, it must have the force of law and not subject to weekly changes by the city council. Without the charter change tomorrow, the chances of a master
plan and comprehensive zoning ordinance being implemented are greatly decreased. The opposition, led by Sherman Copelin, knows that and is willing to confuse the public into thinking that it is approving something that does not yet exist. There are developers that have gotten fat on the broken system. There are many others, that resent the unlevel playing field and are supporting a plan that has the force of law so all are treated fairly. [C.A.]
I brought Whole Food blue corn tortillas to the ducks and swans and geese this morning. Loca and I went to a point in the lagoon where we could throw pieces of the tortillas which are made from organic blue corn meal, water, and a trace of lime. The foul spread their wings, honked and quacked, and flew in for a feast and then turned their beaks up.
We didn’t like them either.
I wore my Obama tee shirt again and my Obama buttons pinned to my hat as I walked Loca this morning. Obama, Obama, Obama kept running through my mind as if I had turrets syndrome. I’m nervous, let’s just say. I was walking head down, mumbling almost to myself and suddenly I looked up and a Great Blue Heron flew gracefully overhead creating a shadow on the water.
Hope.
Went last night to see Clint Eastwood’s The Changeling – wow, incredibly powerful film. I couldn’t catch my breath during the entire film and we left feeling overwhelmed with a two hit punch of how debased some humans can be and how good others are. I got on the elevator and my mind drifted back to Unforgiven when Munny says:
You boys better bury old Ned
right… and you better not carve
up nor otherwise harm no
whores… or I will come back an’
kill more sonsabitches, hear?
Look at Eastwood’s roster as a director – Mystic River, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, The Changeling. Incredible. All have this overwhelming thump on the chest feeling that is unrelenting. We left the movie and went to a party with a group of Brazilians and Spaniards; we needed a little levity to transition to our dreams.
At the Ace Hardware yesterday, the cashier had 10 one dollar bills pinned to her chest. Most people outside of New Orleans may not know what to do or say about that, but I took a dollar bill out of my wallet and said Happy Birthday.
Since we are all getting recession minded, thrifty and thinking more about austerity measures than all out spending, I wanted to highlight the FREE things that occurred in just one day in the life of a Bayou St. John resident.
1) Morning coffee on the front porch with dog.
2) Walk through City Park with lover, dog, and dog-friend.
3) Canoe ride:
4) International Biennial– Musical PaddleBoat Installation:
5) Prospect .1 – Alligator Installation
6) Lunch of spicy sauteed drum on muffelata bread on back screen porch with lovely dappled fall light and good friends.
7) Hula Hooping on bayou.
8) The sudden appearance at dark of a second line band of 35 marchers circling Bayou St. John playing a dirge for the dying light of summer:
9) …
A chance to costume? To dance? To drink in the streets? To have a parade? You’re kidding me right? New Orleans wrote the book on this behavior. Below witness our friends performing Thriller in the Marigny. They paraded through the Quarter and Marigny stopping every hour to do this:
Remember at the Vagina Monologues when Eve wanted us to take back our language, take back the word “cunt”
Well, last night, on Halloween we did. Here is a good shot of Cunt Dracula and her victim du jour:
