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This is another in a series on Mardi Gras 2013 in New Orleans. Druids and Nyx followed the same route, one after the other and both went up Napoleon Avenue to St. Charles and on to Canal Street. They were night parades.
Druids was first organized in 1921. They now follow the satirical themes of the early days. The identity of the king is never made public. Nyx is only in its second year and is the newest parade in the New Orleans area. It also follows a satirical theme. Nyx is a female krewe.
This is another in a series on Mardi Gras 2013 in New Orleans. Pontchartrain and Choctaw followed the same route, one after the other and both went up Napoleon Avenue to St. Charles and on to Canal Street. We watched this one on St. Charles. They were day parades.
It was the 38th year for Pontchartrain and the theme was “who are you afraid of.” You were supoosed to guees the topic of fear for each float. Choctaw is almost 80 years old. The theme this year was “avenues of America.”
This is another in a series on Mardi Gras 2013 in New Orleans. This begins the big parades with Oshun and Cleopatra. It is a night parade held on January 25. One followed the other and both went up Napoleon Avenue to St. Charles and on to Canal Street. We watched this one on St. Charles. Later we moved to Napoleon or Magazine for better participation.
Oshun started in Orleans parish 17 years ago. This year’s theme was children are our future. Oshun was the goddess of love, wealth, and fountains for the African people of Brazil, Haiti, and Cuba. Cleopatra started on the West Bank in 1972 and this was the first year it did the traditional Uptown New Orleans route. It is a women’s krewe. The theme this year was Cleopatra’s 40 enchanting years.
This is the second in a series on Mardi Gras 2013 in New Orleans. The first major parade of the New Orleans carnival season is Krewe du Vieux. The theme for 2013 was Krewe du Vieux Comes Early! There web site proclaims, “The Krewe du Vieux is a non-profit organization dedicated to the historical and traditional concept of a Mardi Gras parade as a venue for individual creative expression and satirical comment. It is unique among all Mardi Gras parades in the city because it alone carries on the old traditions of Carnival celebrations, by using decorated mule-drawn floats with satirical themes, accompanied by costumed revelers dancing in the streets to the sounds of jazzy street musicians.” The Krewe du Vieux was founded in 1987 from the ashes of the storied Krewe of Clones.
Satire is the key theme here. Much of it is very sexually explicit. I will not display the more extreme floats on that topic here but know that they were great. There was also a lot of satire against the local paper, the Times Picayune, for dropping to three days a week, the NFL and Roger Goodell for penalizing the New Orleans Saints, and Governor Bobby Jindal for being a general jerk working to destroy the education system, among other things. It is also the only major parade to go through the Marigny and the French Quarter. We saw it twice. First we watched in the Marigny near its start and then on Decatur Street in the French Quarter on its return.
This begins a series of posts on Mardi Gras 2013 in New Orleans. The first event of Mardi Gras is now the street car ride of the Phunny Phorty Phellows (PPP). As their web site writes, The first version of thee group started in 1878. “The new group followed the Rex parade with their agreement. The first appearance of the PPP was a surprise to the public, and though modest in comparison with future displays, it created a sensation. Fantastic themes depicted by bizarre floats and grotesque maskers thrilled the public after the more pretentious parade headed by the King of Carnival and a live Boeuf Gras corralled on a rolling platform.”
“The modern organization was revived in 1981 by a small group of friends and Mardi Gras enthusiasts. It has continued without interruption to the present day. The PPP paraded with the Krewe of Clones from 1981 until 1986. In 1982 we also began a tradition of riding the streetcar line (in a streetcar) and proclaiming the arrival of the Carnival season on Twelfth Night.”
The PPP starts at the Willow Street streetcar barn right near my home. So we went over there to see them off. Here is what we saw. At the bottom is a painting I did based a several of the photos. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Today, Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Hope to see you there.
Flat Army: Creating a
Connected and Engaged Organization is an excellent new book by Dan Pontefract It “arms you with powerful tools for overcoming
resistance to change and creating a culture of collaboration, engagement, and
employee empowerment.” The book offers an integrated framework
integrating collaboration, open leadership, technologies, and connected
learning. It provides useful ways
to flatten your organizational pyramid and engage with your people in more collaborative and productive ways without
undermining management’s authority.
I have known Dan Pontefract and his excellent work for several years through his blog. He is the Head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS (www.telus.com). Dan is responsible for the overarching leadership development, learning and collaboration strategy for the company. Here he implemented the strategy set forth in this book to make significant changes in the 40,000 person organization.
The organization writes on its blog.
“Thanks to the remarkable efforts of Dan
and his team,
we’re moving beyond traditional models of learning and leadership
at TELUS towards more of social, informal and participatory framework.” This is
a goal that all organizations should be aiming for in today’s market conditions
and opportunities. The useful ideas in the book will help you achieve these
goals.
He explains the title as not a reference to war but to a medieval Latin term, armata, used first in 1533 to depict a fleet of things moving together. He further explains that the essence of an army is “a group of people striving, leading together to achieve a common goal.” This is what you want your company to become. For most large organizations that I have seen that would require a complete transformation. Almost every one I have observed is a group of people, each after their own agendas, even if it conflicts with the overall goals of the organization.
I really like historical contexts. Dan also offers the origins of the concept of hierarchy. The term dates back to the 14th century and it combines the Greek terms for “holy” and “ruling” or head priest. By the 17th century the terms was linked to church organizations. Now it has spread to military and business use. The origins thus provide almost all power and intelligence to top of the hierarchy.
Dan also notes that the Industrial Revolution cemented the link to the hierarchical approach to management. Fredrick Taylor called this “scientific management.” It rose to influence in the 1880s and 1890s within the manufacturing industries. Its peak of influence came in the 1910s but it often was badly received by workers. The Wikipedia reports an interesting story from that time, as well as the image of Taylor.
“Under Taylorism, workers' work effort
increased in intensity. Workers became dissatisfied
with the work environment
and became angry. During one of Taylor's own implementations, a strike at the Watertown Arsenal led to
an investigation of Taylor's methods by a U.S. House of Representatives
committee, which reported in 1912. The conclusion was that scientific
management did provide some useful techniques and offered valuable
organizational suggestions but it gave production managers a dangerously high
level of uncontrolled power. After
an attitude survey of the workers revealed a high level of resentment and
hostility towards scientific management, the Senate banned Taylor's methods at
the arsenal.”
Despite this negative reaction many aspects of hierarchical and scientific management remained in place. We have all seen them. Dan provides some interesting examples.
Now new tools open up communication up and down the different levels of the organization. This cross level communication was often consciously blocked by middle managers or just got lost in the chain of command. Now company conversations can be out in the open for anyone to take them in and join. Collaboration tools can turn Taylorism on its head so learning goes up and down the enterprise and the whole structure is flatted (image of Taylor from Wikipedia). I would certainly agree with Dan’s views here. However, precisely because of this transformative change in communication it takes a cultural change to work. This is much of the content in Dan’s very useful book.
He writes how leaders can reverse the traditional heirachical leadership model and become a connected leader. He defines open leadership as, “the act of engaging others to influence and execute a coordinated and harmonious conclusion.” If you can harness the thinking of the entire company to solve problems, you will be creating a much more effective organization. There is much value to be gained from this connection. For example, McKinsey found quantified benefits from the connected enterprise in both 2010 and 2011. Now they have doubled down on their forecasts for the business value of connectivity. See my post, McKinsey Projects Business Value of Social Business at a Trillion Annually, for a look at the bright side potential of the connected enterprise.
If you want to unlock this value for your organization, Dan’s Flat Army should be on your reading list.
I did a post last week on New Orleans Second Lines. In that post I commented on the recent Mother’s Day tragedy so I will not repeat those thoughts except to say that I am glad the Second Lines continue. On many Sunday afternoons there is a Social Aid and Pleasure Club Second Line parade. There was one scheduled the next weekend by the Divine Ladies Social Aid and Pleasure Club and the Unbreakable Men Social Aid and Pleasure Club. The parade route flyer said, “Sitting on Top of the World Overlooking All Our Haters” which is a good place to be. As WWL TV noted, “For the first time since the Mother's Day shooting, hundreds gathered in New Orleans for a second line on Sunday as a sign of New Orleans' resilience in a time of tragedy... it was dedicated to the 20 victims of the shooting at a second line on May 12.” Here are some photos of the event. You can click on any image to enlarge it.
New Orleans is a city where parades are often a participatory event. Second lines are the prime example. The Unbreakable Men went first. Below you see them getting into position coming down Jackson Ave. and reaching the corner of St. Charles Ave. Then they started down St. Charles on the way to a long route ending at Joe’s House of Blues on Dryades. They were supported by many of the same brass band members as the Pigeon Town Steppers.
The Divine Ladies Social Aid and Pleasure Club came down St. Charles on an open top bus and several limos to meet the Unbreakable Men at the corner of Jackson and St. Charles. Here they are in 2009 on Youtube. As seen below, this year they followed the Unbreakable Men down St. Charles.
I was recently interviewed for the Simplicity 2.0 blog by Sharon Fischer and Kylie Sobel of The Economist Group. The topic was knowledge management and I liked their questions. The results were posted on May 15 on the blog – see 3 Questions With Bill Ives About Knowledge Management. I will not repeat the post here and encourage to go to their site to see it.
The blog is dedicated to helping finding the right tools you need to simplify the way people work as well as more efficient and simpler work processes. This is an important task in today’s increasing complex work place. The good news is that there are new tools that can simplify work processes but they will only be effective it they are integrated with these processes
Here is a 20" x 24" acrylic painting of a shrimp poboy dressed at Felix's in New Orleans. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city.
Here is a 20" x 24" acrylic painting of a prawns and chips (fries) at an outdoor cafe based on a trip I took to Cape Town in 2010. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city but sometimes do other themes like this one.
Since I first wrote this post, there has been a terrible shooting at a Second Line on Mother's Day. Many people were injured but, so far, there are no fatalities. None appear likely. I am pleased to hear that the organizers are planning to reschedule the event. They will do it, both in honor of all mother's, as their Second Line has been on Mother's Day, and to honor the victims of the shooting. They will also dedicate it as a march against gun violence. There is no reason the act of an individual coward should stop these important cultural events in New Orleans any more that other acts of violence should stop what was occurring at the time, whether it be a politician meeting with her community or a marathon. I missed the Second Line on Mother's Day but plan to join the rescheduled event.
I am also pleased to read (see Celebrating in Spite of the Risk) that since the shooting, the New Orleans mayor and the police chief have repeatedly and emphatically divorced the shooting from the occasion that it ruined. They have called the parades a crucial part of the city’s culture and even a bulwark against its violence, an argument the article notes that marchers have been making for years. The shooter is now in custody, along with several people who harbored him after the shooting. They were found based on information provided by members of the community that is hurt the most by these acts. Below is what I first wrote. I look forward to particpating in my next Second Line.
POST SCRIPT:
I just came across an article in Gambit, Sept 5, 1995, Attacking a Tradition, by Geraldine Wyckoff, which wrote about a shooting that had just occured at a Second Line by The Original Popular Ladies. It ironically occured near the site of the recent shooting by N. Villere St. A policeman charged with escorting the parade said: the shootings, "have nothing to do with the parade. It's just idiots bring their fights to the parades." This 1995 shooting was a ways behind the front of the parade. The police advised to stay near the front where the police are located. There was one patrol car and five motorcycle officers at this one. The article noted that Kermit Ruffins was there with his family, selling drinks from the back of his pickup and also cooking BBQ. This is a tradition that is still carried on now but by others. I did see Kermit at the CTC Second Line this year. Rebirth was the brass band. The author of the article said she planned to continue to attend seocnd lines and would not let the shootings stop her from experiencing this important part of New Orleans culture. We plan to do the same.
New Orleans is a city where parades are often a participatory event. Second Lines are the prime example. The "main line" or "first line" is the main section of the parade that includes members of the club with the parading permit as well as the brass band. The club dancers are separated from the crowd by walkers holding ropes. Those who follow the band just to enjoy the music and dance or walk along are called the "Second Line." There are more formal Second Lines held by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. On many Sunday afternoons, there is a Social Aid and Pleasure Club Second Line parade. In addition, many music events will have an informal second line.
As a child in New Orleans in the 1950s I expereinced another form of Second Line, the post-burial celebration honoring a person's life. About once or twice a month in the late afternoon, a black jazz funeral procession solemnly moved on foot down the middle of Lowerline Street and passed our house, with a small brass band playing hymns on its way to the Carrolton Cemetery. On the way back, the mourners would celebrate the person’s life and the expectation they were off to a better place. The band played more lively numbers and neighbors would join in to dance or walk along. At the time, I did not know how special this was and just accepted this participation as part of our city life.
We have gone to three of the Social Aid and Pleasure Club Second Lines this year and hope to do more. Here are photos from these three. They are a great part of the city’s culture and a good way to see its neighborhoods. These parades generally last four hours or more with stops along the way. Vendors offer food and drinks at the stops. Others drag wagons with drinks to sell along the route.
The first Second Line we went to was led by The Perfect Gentlemen Social & Pleasure Club along with Men of Unity & The Original Steppers on a sunny January 19. It was downtown, starting at Canal and Rampart Street. Then it went up Rampart to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Along the way a group with maroon suits joined in. It took a right on MLK to Simon Bolivar and turned right on Simon Bolivar. The first stop was at the Hot Spot Barber Shop where a group with orange feathers joined it. We only took part in the beginning of this one but we did the complete route of the next two. You can click on any picture to enlarge it.
The next Second Line was led by the Cross the Canal Steppers (CTC) on February 24. It started on Elysian Fields Ave and went down St. Claude Avenue stopping at HiHo lounge. We picked it up just before it went across the St. Claude Ave. Bridge over Industrial Canal into the Lower Ninth Ward. The condition of Lower Ninth was improved over what I saw in '06 and '07 but there was still much work to be done. Most of the wreckage was cleared out. There were now many empty lots but some new construction of raised houses. These new houses are surrounded by empty lots, so they also seemed in the country in an area that was more densely lived in before. The CTC ended at 5119 St. Claude Ave. Mickey B's Bar. This was still in the Lower Ninth. We walked across the bridge back to our car.
The third Second Line was in our neighborhood and started on Oak Street. It was led by the Pigeon Town Steppers and supported by the Stooges Brass Band on Easter, March 31. This is their traditional day. It started at the Maple Leaf Bar, a few blocks from where I live. Then it went away from the river through the Pigeon Town neighborhood, stopping at Walter's Lounge, then on to Holly Grove, and beyond to return to Pigeon Town, ending at Sista Sista Lounge. Other stops along with way included the Broadway Lounge and the E&C Lounge. Along the way they went by Carrolton Cemetery and very near where I lived in the 1950s. The cemetery served as our primary playground and was also the destination point for the funerals I wrote about above.
I have written about NewsGator on a number of occasions (see for example: NewsGator Enhances its Social Sites 2010 Platform for SharePoint). I recently spoke with their new CEO, Daniel Kraft, as well as Stefanie Lightman who runs marketing and corporate strategy. NewsGator is a long time Microsoft partner for enterprise social on SharePoint with millions of active users of its Social Sites offering. Now it is moving beyond SharePoint to reach other work processes. To set the foundation for this new strategy they interviewed hundreds of customers and dozens of senior execs.
When asked how can NewsGator make social more useful, they were told to integrate it into work processes. This was already happening for some work with their SharePoint integration. SharePoint is not really social software but a system of record, in this case, documents. NewsGator provides a system of engagement to go with this system of record and make it really social.
Now they are expanding beyond SharePoint to other systems of record that tie in with an expanded sets of business process. NewsGator is preparing to create an even more robust social platform that taps the entire Microsoft ecosystem, as well as other enterprise-spanning applications. So they are now connected with such systems as: CRM, ERP, and HR through such products as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and MS Dynamics. This is a wise move and one I have written about before (see for example: Putting Social Media to Work and Giving Social Media a Good Job). Here is a sample Social Sites interface.
Daniel mentioned that transactions systems such
as SAP work fine as long as the answer to a process action is: yes or no. It is
the exception handling that can bring productivity to its knees. This is where
social can provide a huge productivity boast. If you take an exception into the
social space, collaboration can be more efficient. More importantly, you have a
record of the issue and the solution. This can be both reused to reduce the
pain next time. More Importantly, it also serves as a diagnostic for where
changes need to be made in work processes or peak demands anticipated. Below
you can see a sample workflow request.
Social Sites can work with the enterprise apps in two ways. First, you can bring a transaction into Social Sites and work in this environment. You can also have a Social Sites activity stream appear as a notification bar within an enterprise app such as SAP.
Social Sites also works to support the individual worker who faces the huge increase in incoming content. They offer intelligent filters to help determine what is really important. People have different personas depending on which projects they are working on or even the where they are in a business quarter. For example, as Daniel mentioned, a sales person will be taking a board view of the market for potential prospects at the beginning of the quarter and then zero in on a few highly qualified prospects as the quarter comes to a close. Here is a sample sale enablement screen.
NewsGator has also greatly expanded their mobile
offerings to bring in all the social capabilities. Now an employee can do all
their processing on their smart phone or tablet and not even have to deal with
a traditional computer. See below for a sample mobile screen shot.
Getting employees to make productive use of the social capabilities requires more than installing software. The real benefits come when it impacts work processes. This requires changes in the way work is done. NewsGator also worked with their customers to create an adoption framework that they offer on an Open Source basis. It covers people engagement, business alignment and technology enablement.
These are all great moves and I can certainly see why Social Sites is meeting new success. McKinsey has predicted huge productivity boosts from the connected enterprise. Social Sites is certainly a way to realize these projected gains.
Here is a 16 x 20 acrylic of a Mardi Gras float rider. She is holding beads lloking down at who to throw them to. You see this gesture many times. If you are lucky she is thinking of you.
I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city
Here is a 20 x 20 acrylic of a Mardi Gras float rider. He is pointing to someone indicating these beads are for that person. You see this gesture many times. If you are lucky he is pointing at you.
I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city
My last two posts provided reflections on my childhood in New Orleans in the 1950s. Starting in the late 80s, I went back to New Orleans every few years. I would bring my wife, and sometimes, friends, from Boston. The first time we went back to Bruning’s Restaurant, it was still standing on piles on the lake. I compared memories with the grandchildren of the 50s owners. We shared stories about the police gambling raids when the slot machines were dumped in the lake. On the left you can see the remains of the old Brunnigs after Hurriance Betsy but before Katrina. On the left you can see the site today.
The next time we were there after Katrina,
I was disappointed to find that the original Bruning’s building had fallen in
the lake. It re-joined its slot machines after the wooden stilts
gave way in a
big storm. The Brunning's home was just across some water from the restaurant. On the right is what it looked like just before Katrina. I was sad to see the
wreckage but also laughed to myself as I pictured the decedents of all those
shrimp I ate in the 50s swimming around the abandoned slots. After Katrina, the new Bruning’s was
lost, along with family homes, and any remnant of the robust nightlife in West
End Park. As I wrote in my last post, I am pleased to learn that the Brunning's bar has been restored.
The demise of Bruning’s was
not the only change we discovered in these visits. The boarding
house my grandmother managed on St. Charles Avenue had become an upscale
boutique hotel, The Columns, retaining its old name as een on the right. The bars we passed on our bikes on Adams were no longer there.
Across Carrollton Avenue, a few
blocks over on Oak, there was a newer
blues and rock club, the Maple Leaf Bar, near the former site of the toy store
where I spent my weekly allowance.
When I was ten, my friends and I went to the nearby Poplar Theater on
Willow Street every Saturday afternoon to see the latest western and the next
installment of Flash Gordon’s serials.
At the Maple Leaf in late
80s, I saw an aging Clifton Chenier sit in with a young zydeco band
at the Maple
Leaf. I learned from the bartender that he had just won a
Grammy. Later that
same night, Clifton tuned and offered a friendly, gold-toothed smile to my wife
as he sat next to her at the bar between sets. After the show, as we walked out to our rental car, I
thought back to entering the no longer existing toy store and spending my
entire weekly allowance on model airplanes or a toy boat for our street-side
lake on Lowerline. I also wondered if Clifton ever played
at any of those bars on Adams in my
neighborhood in the 50s. The next day I bought buy his latest tape at a record
store in the Quarter, along with a bunch of other zydeco tapes recommended by
the aging clerk.
Now I have realized a long held dream and moved back to the city of my childhood. When I was a child I took art lessons at the Delgado Museum in City Park, now known as the New Orleans Museum of Art or NOMA. I also attended the children’s programs by the symphony. New Orleans supplied culture on many levels. I was recently accepted into the Arts Council of New Orleans and participate in their monthly art market. Here is a post about the March 30 art market. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. This is another childhood dream realized.
I live near my old neighborhood just off Oak Street near the Maple Leaf and some great restaurants. The corner discount store has fine fried chicken and acceptable poboys at prices even below the local market. The levee is a block away and I can take a beer in a go cup and watch the sunset over the river with its barge traffic. Here is a post about my arrival and this experience. I can see great musicians on any night and often take advantage of this opportunity. New Orleans continues to exceed my expectations. I wonder now why I took so long to come home. Like any city, New Orleans has its issues, but it continues to supply many magical moments like those I experienced as a child. Below you can see my rental truck parked beside my new home.
The next night I walked to the top of the levee near my home and watched the sunset over the Mississippi River. I had a beer in a go cup as barges quietly passed in the red glow. I felt that I had been given early admissions to heaven.
This post continues my reflections on my childhood in New Orleans, started on Monday. Several times during the week, a woman wearing a wrap- around skirt came down Jeannette, singing, “Fresh veg-a-tables, strawberries, get your fresh veg-a-tables, strawberries” drawing out the word “straw.” She carried a basket with her produce. I followed my mother as she went out and made purchases on the street for that night’s dinner.
There were other ways to get fresh produce outside of stores. For example, every few months my mother and I, sometimes with a friend, went down to the docks on the riverfront where you could pick up, for free, all the bananas that fell off the conveyor belts leading from the boats. You just had to be careful of the tarantulas that hid in the bananas. And at the lakeside pier, we bought shrimp right from the boats returning in the late afternoon.
Shrimp was the only seafood
I liked then; I got to order the shrimp dinner on our trips to
Bruning’s
Restaurant in West End Park with out-of-town relatives (seen on the left after a hurriance damaged it but just before Katrina erased all trace on the structure). Standing on wooden stilts over Lake
Pontchartrain, the place had a screened-in side porch where we sat watching the
sunset over the lake while we ate.
My parents ordered a dozen hard shell crabs, beers, and a nutcracker for
the crab shells, all served on an old brown plastic cafeteria tray. Our dinners stretched out as my parents
and our visitors dealt with the complex process of getting meat out of the
crabs, my father demonstrating the proper technique. I am pleased to learn that the Brunning's bar has been restored.
To reward my patience, I was
allowed to go with my mother or aunt and play the “quasi-legal” slot machines
placed opposite the long bar in the broad front hall. Much later, I
learned that the local police would
occasionally decide to make a gambling raid and the slot
machines were dumped
in the lake just before they arrived.
Perhaps the police followed the same procedures as with their fireworks
enforcement. As for the shrimp, I
enjoyed them most when they were breaded, fried, and placed inside hot, flaky
loaves of fresh French bread that my father picked up on his way home. I know now these are “Poboy”
sandwiches.
Once a week I came home to the smell of fried chicken and gumbo. It was the day Viola helped my mother with the cleaning and cooking. I loved those days because we always ate the chicken that night and I usually got to sample a drumstick right away. The gumbo was best savored over several days. After some carefully guided practice, my mother did manage to learn the secrets of Viola’s chicken, as well as her gumbo. My mother also worked together with Viola on the other housework. On the left you can see fried chicken at Willie Mae's which is some of the best in the city now and similar in style to Viola's. On the right you can see the gumbo at Luizza's by Track which some of the best in the city.
At ten, I was allowed to
ride my bike anywhere inside the rectangular area in Uptown bounded by four
wide, busy streets: St. Charles Avenue,
Carrollton, Claiborne, and
Broadway.
When we wanted to go beyond my allotted rectangle, my friends and I left
our bikes home and took the St. Charles Avenue streetcar. These electric trolleys moved on train
tracks over the grassy ”neutral ground” in the middle of the wide street. Whenever a car was stopped on the
rails, hemmed in by traffic on a cross street, the conductor would frantically
ring his bell as the streetcar approached. But he always managed to stop in time. The streetcar’s
polished wooden seats could be reversed when it changed direction at the end of
a run.
The streetcars were segregated back then. A movable sign was attached to the backs of the wooden chairs indicating that blacks could not sit in front of the sign. The theory was that the signs could be moved to reflect the racial balance of the car. My parents, who were against segregation, told me I was never allowed to move the sign backward. I was fortunate to receive this guidance from my earliest days. Shamefully, it was counter culture to the times.
On February nights, I lay on my back on the grassy slope of Lee Circle and looked at the three stars arranged on a diagonal in Orion’s belt while we waited for the night parades of carnival to reach our favorite viewing spot. If you were quick, you could run around to the other side of the circle to catch the floats a second time as they made their way around General Lee’s monument.
A lasting image is the dancing flambeaux carriers (seen below), balancing their kerosene torches as they moved down the street in front of the floats. The lights they carried lit the way, providing a mystical yellow glow against the floats and an eerie under-lighting to the masked riders above. We rarely missed a night parade and scrambled for the beads thrown from the floats. I felt very fortunate to be living in this wonderful city of processions, parades, and celebrations and was sad when we left.
As I mentioned in my May 1 post, May 2013 starts the tenth year of this blog. Last November I moved back to my childhood home, New Orleans, to focus more on my painting. Here is a post on my move: Driving Through Hurricane Sandy To New Orleans. Here is another post on my more recent experiences with the Arts Council of New Orleans where I do a monthly booth to sell my paintings.
I have been presenting my paintings and my travel photos on the weekends on this blog. I am going to expand that coverage, as well as writing more about my childhood, and new hometown, New Orleans. I will still cover emerging technologies but on a more part time basis. This week marks the beginning of my expanded coverage of New Orleans. The next posts cover my childhood and some of the time before I moved here.
We lived near Tulane
University in what is called Uptown. As a city kid, my friends and I
played
baseball in front of my house, which happened to be on a corner. The intersection provided our asphalt
infield and the opposing street corners were our bases. These corners displayed the street
names, Jeannette and Lowerline, in aging blue and white
tiles, one letter per tile.
Below on the left is a picture of my old house getting fixed up after Katrina. On the right is a picture of it as it looks now. I do not know who lives there. Before the storm, it had been painted a bad green and needed repair It now looks more like it did in the 1950s when we lived there except it was white back then.
On days off from school, we
went up two blocks to the Carrolton Cemetery. The tombs were raised above the swampy New Orleans water
table, providing a child-sized village, neatly laid out in grids with miniature
“streets” mostly made of chalky, crushed, white sea shells. The only grass in our playground came
up, unwanted, through cracks in the concrete. Grey and green lichen added texture to the family names
etched in the front of tombs, Glass jars, often filled with wilted flowers and
decaying brown vegetable matter, sat watch beneath the names. Here we re-enacted battle scenes from
World War Two, our combat de jour, less than ten years over. My father lent me his Army cap for our
play, along with some of his ribbons from the re-invasion of New Guinea.
About once or twice a month in the late afternoon, a black jazz funeral procession solemnly passed on foot down the middle of Lowerline, with a small brass band playing hymns on its way to the Carrolton Cemetery. My mother and I would watch respectfully from our second
floor kitchen window.
After the person was buried, the band would strike a happier note. On the way
back the mourners would do a parade in celebration of the passed
person’s life and the expectation they were off to a better place. The band played more lively numbers. It was acceptable for neighbors to join
in the celebration and we sometimes did. At the time I did not know how special this was and just accepted this participation as part of our city
life. Now I sometimes join in a different type of parade with a brass band, second lines, with Social Aid
and Pleasure Clubs. To the right are the members of the Stooges Brass Band supporting the Pigeon Town Steppers going by the same Carrolton Cemetery this year.
On rainy days we crawled under my friend Ronnie’s house, where we built a small city in the dirt, played cars, and staged massive car wrecks. Since no adult ever went under the house, we were able to keep our city intact for days. After really big rains, my friends and I played with our toy boats by the side of Lowerline Street as the poor drainage formed a lake next to the curb. Tall monkey grass grew in the space between the curb and the sidewalk. This area functioned as our jungle alongside the boat traffic on the lake. We hid toy solders under the grassy canopy and let them attack our unsuspecting boats with the illegal firecrackers we bought without my parent’s knowledge.
One day the city decided to fix the drainage on our street. They sent a crew of seven, armed with one pickaxe, to take on the problem. Passing out coffee, the six supervisors commented on the job while they alternated between standing and sitting on the curb, smoking cigarettes and watching the work progress. After three days, they all left. Fortunately, our lake returned after the next big rain and our boats floated again. The episode provided my father with another example of the city waste that he liked to discuss. He took great pleasure in repeating the seven to one ratio.
This easy going civic approach also allowed us to buy fireworks, even though they were illegal. The dealer operated from one of the long, thin shotgun houses like the one below, placed on the line dividing Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish. Whenever the Orleans Parish police came, he moved his fireworks to the back, out of their jurisdiction. Whenever the Jefferson Parish police came, he moved them to the front. Apparently, there was never a coordinated raid; perhaps these disconnected raids were more for show than substance. This is enough for now. I will continue these reflections on Wednesday.
Here is a 16" x 20" acrylic painting of Angel Trumpet flowers at Longe Vue gardens in New Orleans. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city.
Here is a 20" x 20" acrylic painting of Jon Cleary performing at Chicki Wah Wah in New Orleans. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city including my favorite musicians such as Jon. I am enjoying many of these musicians at Jazz Fest this weekend with many more photos and some paintings to follow.
Based on some photos I took at the French Quarter Festival I am doing a series of dancers moving to Les Freres Michot. These are three 16" x 20" canvases that I will attach together so the total will be 20" x 48". I will line up the backgrounds. The first step is the drawing. Then I fill in the basic background colors. This is the top image. More color variation will be added to the background but it will stay solid colors.
The next step is filling in the basic colors on the figures. The result is a painting in the Alex Katz school as seen below. This will change a great deal before the paintings are done. I will add shadows, texture in the fabric, highlghts, etc. The man's shirt will be white but with texture and shadows. You will see their shadows on the grass which will ground them on the surface.
I plan to have them ready for the next the Arts Council of New Orleans monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. The next one is May 30.
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