On the 5th Anniversary of Katrina, I woke up with a mission to write something important yet positive. I wanted to vent my frustration, but also vowed to emulate the spirit of the brave New Orleans people who refused to look back and refused to feel sorry for themselves. As I struggled with a blank page, I received an email from a friend. The subject line read, "Have you seen this?"
"I must admit that the barrage of media coverage regarding the 5th anniversary of Katrina has given me serious PTSD. I have been struggling with how to commemorate the day- attend the interfaith service, lay in bed with the covers over my head until August 30th? As is so, with many of life's questions, the answers can often be found in the words of a song.
'Ain't nobody here on their knees with their heads bowed down, we all up and dancing, on the dancing ground.'"
15 years later and I will let the music do the talking.
TRACKLIST
Ode To Joyful- Jon Batiste
Ha Di Ka- Galactic
Jungle Man- The Meters
Every Night About This Time- Fats Domino
Bad Apples- Royal Fingerbowl
Fortunate Son- Ivan Neville
I'm Not Sayin'- James Booker
Get Low Down Pt. 1- Curly Moore
Backwater Blues- Irma Thomas
Salt Of The Earth- Johnny Adams
Everything I Do Gon' Be Funky- Stanton Moore & Cyril Neville
Manic Depression- Little Queenie
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down & Write Myself A Letter- Alexis & The Samurai
Lightning & Thunder- Tab Benoit
Don't Dream It's Over- Deacon John
All Good Things- Jon Cleary
West End Blues- Allen Toussaint
Just A Closer Walk With Thee- Dirty Dozen Brass Band
10 comments:
This playlist looks pretty close to perfect. Today's soundtrack for certain.
And fellow BWers, while I have your attention... this Labor Day let's salute the federal workers who, while not always perfect, lost their jobs because, uh..., I don't know why. So the Emperor can line the Oval Office in gold? So Elon can dream of Martian women? So ICE has the budget to keep us safe from construction workers and home health aides?
And special recognition to the brave CDC scientists who resigned yesterday rather than sign on to potentially lethal quackery disguised as health policy. Without them we might lost even more than a million to COVID. And now? Well, in the words of another song: "You don't miss your water 'til your well runs dry."
[Apologies for the non-music, off-topic soapbox.]
Hear Hear!
Thanks for the music and remembrance, Sal. And with the gutting of FEMA, not so off-topic, Ken D
Great list, and a fine if incomplete rant from Ken D.
Thank you for the Labor Day soundtrack. 20 years on. Hard to believe. Peace and prayers to all.
Indeed.!
Thanks Sal, nice way to observe the anniversary.
Thanks for this great mix. I have a lot of friends from New Orleans who now live in Atlanta (as I do) so I've been hearing lots of perspectives today. What a tragedy for all.
Wonderful mix -- Thanks Sal.
About Katrina ... they say "history is written by the victors" in which case I fear we'll never learn the truth of how many were so hurt.
People might be interested in this doc from Harry Shearer -- The Big Uneasy, now on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdgIjsjsfjs
As one described it "Katrina was a natural occurrence. But the flooding of NOLA was an engineering disaster. The excellent Harry Shearer on the real New Orleans story not covered by out-of-towners."
20 years later, and you think that you have finally buried what happened into the deep crevices of your brain, and then you start having nightmares about it all over again. The utter negligence of the USACE destroyed a city, a culture and thousands of people. NO ultimately got rebuilt (for the most part), but the city today is like an AI image of what it was before. From the outside, it looks the same. From the inside, that unmistakable rhythm that accompanied everything you did on a daily basis, the aromas, the purity of events being held without corporate misappropriation, are all gone. I get that things change, but that's evolution - a slow and deliberate process that also allows for those impacted to participate in the process. This was straight up fucking assault and battery - the swarm of air bnbs that disrupted and destroyed neighborhoods. The so - called do gooders who arrived to help rebuild, stayed and then started neighborhood orgs that did nothing more than to attack local bars and clubs that existed long before their arrival, under the pretense that they were too fucking noisy. Is NO still fun? Sure - to visit. To live there is a constant battle, and we succumbed and got the fuck out. My memories, all of them, the nightmares and the dreams, are preserved. The culture is whitewashed.
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