It’s the 4th day of Christmas. Where are my calling birds? Last week I noticed a front-page story on the “Express” newspaper about holiday gift giving may be postponed until after December 25th due to the economy and the anticipation of deep price cuts for consumer items. Fortunately, this all fits in perfectly if you’re [...]
In the years that followed, New Orleans could have remained a symbol of destruction and decay; of a storm that came and the inadequate response that followed. It was not hard to imagine a day when we’d tell our children that a once vibrant and wonderful city had been laid low by indifference and neglect. [...]
HBO closed out the season of “Treme” with a special tribute to producer/writer David Eugene Mills, aka “Undercover Blackman” who passed away at the end of March of this year. Hat tip Camille Mosley-Pasley. Note: “Treme” received two Emmy nominations: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Original Music and Lyric for Steve Earle [...]
SPIKE LEE’S NEXT REQUIEM After visiting New Orleans for the first time in 2007, I bought my own DVD copy of “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts,” Spike Lee’s HBO documentary about the slow emergency and recovery response to the Katrina tragedy. The documentary was one of the few voices at the [...]
New Orleans is hot again. I’m not talking about the impeding and insufferable summer heat that is about to descend in 2 or so months, or the high the city’s still riding out from the Saints superbowl win. Shortly after the pilot, HBO greenlighted a second season of Treme (from the makers of “The Wire). [...]
The Gulf Coast has been hit with the worst oil spill it has had in the region’s entire history — and event about to exceed the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. When President Obama announced that he was opening up some coastal areas to off-shore drilling, my initial reaction was “Are you kidding?” I love [...]
CAN, DO, TEACH, READ The Big Read cranks up in DC this week. Under the chairmanship of Dana Gioia, the National Endowment for the Arts decided to launch an initiative to support local efforts to present community reads and address what they sited as a declining readership among American adults. D.C.’s been hosting Big Read [...]
What better time to upload some more video from my “Church Lady Cake” project than the day before Easter. Actually, Johari Rashad is 7th Day Adventist, so she may be rising and shining today. I’m on the other calendar and will make my church appearance tomorrow. Considering the last two posts, this video segment continues [...]
The Washington Post’s Peeps Show/Contest has become one of my favorite spring traditions. And this year is no exception in terms of creativity and talent. I never thought Peeps were food in the first place. Always left them in my Easter basket. My favorites were the chocolate anything and the colored eggs. This year the [...]
[click twice on video above] Three years ago I had my first Mardi Gras experience — in New Orleans. It was part of my “Church Lady Cakes” project. Johari Roshad and I went to New Orleans with a suit case of pound cakes for her friends. It was not so much the shock and awe [...]
