The Big Easy

I just wanted to post a few more pics from our trip, including a few from the New Orleans Jazz Festival. The news is too depressing right now, this photo essay from The Washington Post pretty much sums it up, and all I have been thinking about is our recent stay in New Orleans. We had a blast, and I am just heartbroken for what has happened. I wish I had remembered my camera for more than just one day, and I really wish I had taken shots of the city (it was dark by the time we got downtown from the festival, but still) because it was just awesome. Now, we keep seeing shots of places we were just in three months ago and just can't believe it.

Look! Karl Denson!

This is a plaza in back of the building that holds the stands for the track at the fairgounds. Hydra was playing and we got an elevated view.

I couldn't stop focusing on these lines. They were floating above the plaza where Hydra was playing. The picture doesn't do it justice so let me just assure you, they were outtasite man.

Clearly, I didn't take this picture. It is from Jambase, Chris Goodyear.

There's was tons of late night stuff to do. We went to see the Mike Gordon and the Duo show and Trey at the Superjam show where we had dead center seats on the second balcony. We were waaaay up and felt like we were floating above the stage. It was incredible.

We had so much fun. On the last day of the festival there was a woman behind us in her late fifties who offered us some of her "reefer" and after we told her who Trey was she said, "Ooooo ya'll are phishheads! Wow, my son is one too."

Below I am calling my father for moral support after refusing the reefer (actually, it was just schwagy and I was calling Eric Barry who was having a great time, but just nowhere to be found)

I am having trouble thinking about what that city will be like in a year. Don't believe all the sensationalized overplaying of the looting on cable. Of course there is looting, some of these people have been well below the poverty line for their entire lives and now have been completely devastated. People with nothing have nothing to lose.

Plus "stuff happens," remember?

Anyway, everyone we met was incredibly nice, and now they are all homeless. That's just unreal. Every restaurant is closed. The hotel we stayed in is a mini refugee camp because it was slightly out of town and elevated. No commerce in the city for months, no taxes, no oil, no gumbo! I don't think it will ever be the same. How can it? The whole city is a germ stew right now and the foundations of every building are rotting away under water. People have lost everything, and are being shipped off to Texas and whereever they can find shelter. Why would they return? Why would they rebuild in a place where this can likely geographically happen again? Plus, we are not out of this year's hurricane season yet. Why happens if they get another one next week?

I feel so horrible for those people and all I can say is it was truly a beautiful city and I am glad I got to at least spend a weekend there before it was destroyed. It was just the best way to start off our trip out west.