New Orleans’ Ninth Ward: Nine Years After Hurricane Katrina

Posted on January 24, 2015 by McPhedran

Images of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans dominated the news after Hurricane Katrina hit in September 2005. Many people fled the area and never came back and it was feared that the Ninth Ward might become an abandoned neighborhood.

Ninth Ward, New Orleans, January 2015

The area no longer is awash in detritus, although the jungle of tall grass and debris remain.

Ninth Ward, New Orleans, January 2015

There are signs of a renewal, and not just in the much-publicized Make it Right enclave where prominent architects and builders helped rebuild on Brad Pitt’s investment.

Make it Right homes in New Orleans Ninth Ward

The construction at Martin Luther King Charter School nears completion. As does the work at the Andrew Sanchez Community Center. Once these open, the hope is people will really begin to return, the roads be fixed and the empty lots transformed. And come the next hurricane, the new retaining wall just might hold.

New Orleans’ Prospect 3: “Guns in the Hands of Artists”

Posted on January 23, 2015 by McPhedran

This is the final weekend for the New Orleans Art Show: Prospect 3, and one of the most interesting exhibitions would have to be Guns in the Hands of Artists at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. The images and texts speak for themselves.Jonathan Ferrara’s statement regarding his own work Excalibur No More is most telling: “I have never owned a gun and thought it would be a difficult and cumbersome process. It actually took about five minutes.” “After finding the gun online, the seller brought it to the gallery and I gave him the money and he gave me the gun. That was it, no paperwork, no receipt, no record, totally legal. It blew my mind. Of course, I had to engage in a fifteen minute conversation about the 2nd Amendment with the seller.”

Wood is Good: Aosta Valley, Italy

Posted on January 1, 2015 by McPhedran

Wood is good. In the right measure. Wood is good. Wherever you look. Wood is good.(Pictures from Hotellerie de Mascognaz and St. Jacques in Aosta Valley, Northern Italy)

First Class Dog on Delta

Posted on December 1, 2014 by McPhedran

He tried to stay low key. But he was hungry. And he needed a walk.

My Holiday Malaise

Posted on November 25, 2014 by McPhedran

A certain malaise descends on me at this time of year. It is not so much the growing dark – although I am sure that plays a part – so much as the descent into the ‘holiday’ season, a time of year synonymous not for giving and family but for greed and accumulation. Human nature does not have a positive connotation for a reason; it just isn’t good. We take and hoard until we can almost forget what we really are, even if is for just the briefest of moments. We say things and make promises, actually believing some of the profundities we claim…. but there is nothing of substance, just the shell of something half-built, the world always the same as before. The slogans and liquor wear off and we are as we started, creatures who want more.

Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Saramago have had a few things to write about this, but in the end they’re just words, like these, read and discarded on the road to the next thing, the next electronic gadget.

Solar-bikini-powered ipod

And so, yeah, I can feel a little low – as Black Friday et. al. approach – and dream about the darkness in Greenland, being alone with the aurora borealis and nobody else.

Down and Out in The Early Hours of Las Vegas

Posted on October 27, 2014 by McPhedran

I did not heed the advice of my drunk friend from Santa Barbara and continued on to another table, the first one in range, and watched myself lurch, hoping, grasping at nothing but air.

“I’ve built my house on you guys.” The dealer was not one to mince words.

I took that as a challenge, brashly proclaiming, “I’m building my house now,” after the occasional win. And then my money was gone, all of it, and I had to return to the machine, stickered in warnings against gambling ills.I sat down with a trio of Turks and battled on. We won a little and then lost, won a little and then lost, and I was at the ATM again.

And then I was alone; it was just me and the dealer and the pit boss, and they almost seemed to be cheering me on. “Got to get a little something something.”

I didn’t know what she meant, but then I was up a few hundred – losses aside – and she gave me an orange, a $500 chip. I would keep that, no matter what. No matter what.I watched my little stacks deplete and then, sadly, had to throw back the orange; and then it was gone too. I only had $25 left and placed it firmly down. I got a 19. I would build back from that; that’s what I thought.

The dealer had Blackjack. “Sorry.”

“Time to go to bed.”

“Get some sleep. We’ll see you soon!”

She could bet on that.

Down and Up in Blackjack

Posted on October 25, 2014 by McPhedran

I folded out three hundred dollar-bills, and the dealer slid me two stacks of red. I was in. The dealer got a succession of Blackjacks and was unsmiling about it.

I studied his name tag – Ji-Young – as he changed another $200 into reds. “How do you pronounce your name?”

“Guess.”

I tried.

“20% right.”

I tried again.

“60%.” He continued to deal.

I continued to lose. “Yi-juan?”

“50%.”

And then I had a small run going, almost two hundred of money back, but slid again. A new dealer arrived, Dan from Chicago, a fan of the Blackhawks, and I started to win again until Ji-Young returned and with him, my bad luck; I had to buy more chips. It was late, 3 am; the shift changed arrived. My new dealer, Rebecca, was from Korea. I broke even with her and then started to lose again until an affably drunk guy from Santa Barbara sat down. “How you doing?”

“Not so great.”

“I’m drunk.” He looked at his cards; he had a 3 and a 2.

“Should I hit that, Rebecca?”

“What?”

“Should I hit?”

“You have a 5.”

“Should I hit that?”

She stared at him, irritated her shift had to start with this trouble-maker. “It’s a 5.”

“You from China?”

“Korea.”

“Would you hit that in Korea?”

“You want a card?”

He tapped the table. “Hit it.”

It was a 4.

“What should I do now?”

“You have a 9.” She was curt.

“A 9? Huh.” He looked at me. “Should I hit it?”

“That’s what the book says.” I always said that.

“Okay.” He tapped the table again.

Rebecca delivered a 6.

He looked up at her, considered it for a moment and then waved his hand. “Stick.”

Rebecca flipped her cards, revealing a 16 and went bust. And It continued like that, the Santa Barbara Drunk giving Rebecca a hard time, only after long deliberation, hitting his 7s and 8s, and Rebecca then going bust. Things began to turn; I was getting my money back.

Getting Rid of the Edge

Posted on October 24, 2014 by McPhedran

I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t do anything except stare at the back of the seat in front and wait. I wanted to drink. I needed a drink. I had waited this long, almost four hours, and the plane would be landing soon. I found the stewardess in the back. “Jameson and Budweiser.”

“All right, honey.” The woman folded her magazine and lurched into the tall metal compartment. ”

I offered her a $20.

She shrugged. “I don’t have my machine.”

“I can pay you later.”

“It’s on me, honey.” She went back to her magazine.

I went back to my seat and read and drank. I was finished both in 15 minutes. “Excuse me.” I waved to the stewardess as she passed.

“You want another?” She already had it out for me. “It’s on me.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.” She continued down the aisle, leaning forward, like she had had a drink or two herself.

The city appeared out of the dark just as we landed. I had thought about taking the shuttle in but then took the first cab I found. “You mind if I smoke in here?”

“Suit yourself.”

The casino was quiet, as quiet as could be with all the lights on and sounds ringing out. And then I was alone in my room, standing there with my can of beer. I waited in the middle, looking out through the sheers at the lights and then the desert. And then I turned and went down. It was time to gamble.

The Need to Believe

Posted on October 19, 2014 by McPhedran

No matter what we know, where we come from, the background we are blessed or damned with, we need to believe, to find a greater truth. We know that what we have is precious; it is what sustains our hope. No matter how we may hide and pretend, that sense of awareness hovers inside, the moment upon waking, lying still, unsure of where we are, that moment in the music, hands suddenly in the air, released. And sadly, that same thing that is bastardized, used against itself, and drives us relentlessly, blindly on.

Vegas Vocabulary

Posted on October 17, 2014 by McPhedran

Inordinate (adj.) Unusually or disproportionately large; excessive.Compulsion (n.) An irresistible urge to behave in a certain way, especially against one’s conscious wishes. Fortune (n.) Chance or luck as an external, arbitrary force affecting human affairs.

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