New Orleans is a very interesting place. All the graveyards have the cement coffins above ground because since the place is below sea-level it floods so often like the disaster they saw with Hurricane katrina. I was downtown near bourbon street for a week working with my mom. She publishes a trade magazine called Light Metal Age for people who work in the metal industry which is actually a huge industry. I had to be at these conferences all day long which was sort of a bummer because I only had time to explore the city at night. what an awesome place! I wish I could say I went and helped with rebuilding for katrina, but i didn't, i would have if i had had more time, and I would have liked to explore the city more than the small part I was in but the part I could see was awesome. So many little blues and jazz clubs, so many artistic people on the street. There you can walk around all day anywhere any time with a beer or a drink in your hand. The vibe is definetely more laid back. I only saw one building there that was obviously wrecked by Katrina. They seemed to have done a pretty good job at revamping that region but a bus driver told me that at the hotel I was stayiing water levels were up there to 20 feet! It is a beautiful place, all the architecture is different with most city apartments and shops all having little balconies that span the whole building with tons of plants. I actually got drenched walking under a balcony where some one decided to pour buckets of water on their plants at just that moment. I also saw a movie being filmed in the middle of the street called "12 rounds" it has some famous wrestler as the main character who I didn't know but took a picture of in hopes of getting mad cash from the national enquirer. His name was something Cena. I also was leaving my hotel one evening and happened to pass by the San Antonion Spurs who were just arriving at the hotel. Tony Parker got into the elevator right in front of me. Later that night another of the basketball players got in the elevator with me and I just had to ask if he was on the San Antonio Spurs, he said yes and it seemed much to his shagrin like he wasn't proud of his celebrity. I said, "Sorry to point that out man." He said, "Comes with the territory" and left the elevator in a huff. Every night I went out and drank alot of shitty sweet alcoholic slushies of which they have these bars on practically every block with those slushies. I wonder how different California would be if we all had the freedom to drink on the streets. I want to go back to explore more. I have pictures but they are on my camera that I just had to send to my mom so I will post them when I can.
Peace,
Me
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
San Francisco Anti-War Protest Jan.18'03
Watching the movie Berkeley in the Sixties in class was very interesting. I was very moved by the power of the human spirit in the students who all banned together for their right to the freedom of speech at berkeley. It lead to a discussion in class about why students don't all get together and protest today. An interesting thing someone brought up is that there are so many things to be upset about that it is hard to all get together and agree about one topic and fight for it. I did go to a protest in San Francisco in 2003 to protest the Iraq war though. I think there were about 200,000 or way more ppl there, but of course the media was estimating less. Everyone was perfectely peaceful and just marching down the street(I think it was Market Street) The end of the march was at city hall. They had to shut down all the streets. I took the BART into the city with hundreds of garishly dressed chanting, singing, music playing people. It was an awesome event I was lucky to be there for that moment in history.
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