A Field Guide To Trees

poetry. haikus.
French Quarter. Bill Lavender.
I approve and buy.

(Found at Crescent City Books on Chartres for a VERY limited time- based on the rumor that few copies are left, told to me by the excellent bookseller and trending author Michael Zell.)

Lavender

City withdraws anti-people ordinance

We appreciate Councilmember Palmer forwarding your email to us. If you have not heard, we have requested that the proposed ordinances affecting Jackson Square be withdrawn at this point. We have received significant input from constituents and appreciate your insights as well. We will take all of this under consideration as we work with the Council to revise any ordinance that affects Jackson Square and those who work, live and visit there.

Please feel free to reach out to me at any time.

Best regards,

Scott

C. Scott Hutcheson
Advisor to the Mayor for Cultural Economy
Office of Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu | City of New Orleans
1340 Poydras Street | Suite 1002 | New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 658-4258 office | cshutcheson@nola.gov | http://www.nola.gov

Original letter

Designs for living the New Orleans life

JUST in time for the holidays (I’m sure that’s a coincidence!) French Quarter resident Ellen Macomber’s newest creations are available. The girl of many talents has now added these gorgeous blankets to her list of artistic creations, which as many know, include her one of a kind paintings on architectural pieces (see one hanging at Mona Lisa Pizza on Royal and many hanging at Still Perkin’ uptown), her My Louisiana postcard and coloring book which is one of my favorite gifts to give when I travel, and some other fashion stuff that is beyond me but that my stylish friends tell me is “fab” (that’s an Ellen word too by the way..)
Listen, this young woman is putting some great art out there and you should too by gifting it for the holidays, whether the Santa one or as the thank you gift to your Mardi Gras parade route home away from home…

Ellen Macomber’s new Louisiana blankets are dry and ready to ship!

http://www.ellenmacomber.com

www.ellenmacomber.com.

Jazz drummer, popular WWOZ radio host Bob French dies

Bob French, drummer, bandleader and radio host – a direct link to the very beginnings of jazz, has passed away. For those of us that had the pleasure of meeting him, we will remember that cantankerous New Orleanian always, with love and respect.
Mr. French, YOU kept the groove alive. Thank you.

Jazz drummer, popular WWOZ radio host Bob French dies | wwltv.com New Orleans.

Door’s open, 24 hours a day.

Love this story and I’ll remind my friends that I predicted it would happen. Anne Rice wants to come home.
Our most prolific, successful and colorful native author had a string of incredibly bad luck in her last years in NoLa and understandably went to where she felt life might be easier and closer to  her author son. That bad luck includes a feud with ridiculous Popeyes magnate Al Copeland (go look at St. Charles-she was right ), bad health for her and the loss of her talented artist husband Stan. Enough to make anyone go to Breaux Mart for some packing boxes!
I thought she was moving too fast and worried that she would regret selling her house and belongings ( actually was biking by during one of the sales at the orphanage and bought some great black turtlenecks and if I had seen her that day, I would have put my 2 cents in and told her so but what was done was done.)
Now she is homesick and wants to come home and I say, COME ON!
We need personalities like hers to come home.
Anyone out there who has read “The Feast Of All Saints” knows she gets the Quarter.  The Mayfair books were the best historical New Orleans saga I’ve ever read-you know she gets it and makes our city sound great.

Come on back Mrs. Rice. I’ll buy you the first round of muffalettas.

Anne Rice story

Clarence John Laughlin — Indiegogo

This is an amazing, important documentary fundraiser to highlight a true French Quarter character, artist and world class collector. From the home page of the documentary:
This is a documentary about the New Orleans photographer Clarence John Laughlin, who many consider to be the father of American surrealist photography. Shot in the historic New Orleans Pontalba building where he lived for over 35 years in a garret apartment stuffed with thousands of books covering every available surface, this is the only known footage of one of our most original artists.

Clarence was a well-known eccentric with an artistic temperament. He could be both charming and difficult. He was married five times, twice to the same women. Possibly due to his strong willed personality, Clarence’s greatness was not fully recognized or appreciated during his life, though he received much acclaim and was published in major magazines and exhibited in galleries in the U.S. and Europe. There is no doubt Clarence was a photographic genius who’s life and work deserves more attention and praise. The documentary will explore Clarence the book collector and writer and how those passions influenced his life and his significant body of work.

Please support this work and pass it along to others that might also support.

Clarence John Laughlin — Indiegogo.