GA Russell

This, from the Times-Picayune: Friday, September 09, 2005 Jazz Fest will go on 8:12 p.m., Friday The 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will go on. “There will be a Jazzfest. We are committed to putting on the 2006 Jazz and Heritage Festival, whatever that may take,” said Quint Davis, producer/director of the springtime musical extravaganza and president of Festival Productions Inc.-New Orleans, which produces the festival with AEG Live, the nation’s second highest-grossing concert promoter. Details are sketchy at this point. “We don’t know when, we don’t know where, we don’t know what format,” Davis said. “There will be a Jazzfest in 2006. It will be in Louisiana. It will be as close to New Orleans as we can get it.” The producers would like to hold the event at its customary site at the Fair Grounds Race Course, but if that’s not possible they are committed to holding it in Louisiana. “We’ll be starting from the Fair Grounds and working our way out” in determining a location, Davis said. This commitment comes from all of the major stakeholders in the festival, Davis said.

My next pick shipped yesterday: Stephen Bishop - On and On: The Hits of Stephen Bishop I decided to forgo hard bop one more month. I still haven't listened to the Sam Cooke from last month. I always like Bishop. I wonder what he has been doing for the past twenty years.

I haven't read all 19 pages of this thread, so forgive me if this was posted before. A friend sent me a jpeg of a gas station price sign. The jpeg is too big to bring over here, so I'll just type what it said, and you can imagine how it looks. LOL 9/10 unleaded OMG 9/10 plus WTF 9/10 premium

Sean Jones is a young trumpeter who is a member of the Duquesne faculty in Pittsburgh. A year ago I got his first album Eternal Journey. I thought it was OK at first, but not all that great. I put it aside for a while, and recently I have begun to like it more. So last week I got his second album called Gemini, and I really like it. I think you could fairly call it hard bop, but the songs are more contemporary, not sounding like they were written forty years ago for a Blue Note date. Some time on Gemini is devoted to the electric bass groove, which is one reason why I think calling it hard bop is not entirely accurate. To my knowledge, Jones' only other recording was as a member of Gerald Wilson's Orchestra on the hit New York New Sound album. I think the guy has a real future. Is anybody else familiar with him? If you're interested in trying some new talent, I can recommend Gemini.

By the way, what is the CMJ jazz chart?

USA Today had an article about the Nano this morning. It made a couple of points I found interesting. Because it is static, it is less likely to break if it is dropped. That would seem to me to be a big selling point. It replaces the Mini, which has been discontinued although the Mini is the world's best selling mp3 player. That strikes me as an extraordinarily bold move. Why discontinue the world's #1 seller?

Here's an op ed piece from the Wall Street Journal by a former state rep who thinks that the state and local govts have the duty to act first, before FEMA comes into play. Blame Amid the Tragedy Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed their constituents. BY BOB WILLIAMS Wednesday, September 7, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response? As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property. Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible--local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin. The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his emergency operations center. The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved. In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved. A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected. The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored. Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His Office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation. The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done. The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure. Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed, in these facilities. Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans. Now he wants to blame Gov. Blanco and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an emergency the first requirement is for the city's emergency center to be linked to the state emergency operations center. This was not done. The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid. In addition, unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. The plan clearly gives the governor the authority for declaring an emergency, sending in state resources to the disaster area and requesting necessary federal assistance. State legislators and governors nationwide need to update their contingency plans and the operation procedures for state emergency centers. Hurricane Katrina had been forecast for days, but that will not always be the case with a disaster (think of terrorist attacks). It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response." I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response. Congress and the president need to take corrective action there, also. However, if citizens expect FEMA to be a first responder to terrorist attacks or other local emergencies (earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes), they will be disappointed. The federal government's role is to offer aid upon request. The Louisiana Legislature should conduct an immediate investigation into the failures of state and local officials to implement the written emergency plans. The tragedy is not over, and real leadership in the state and local government are essential in the months to come. More importantly, the hurricane season is still upon us, and local and state officials must stay focused on the jobs for which they were elected--and not on the deadly game of passing the emergency buck.

So good it's hard to believe! Is CDBaby the only place to buy the CD? What if someone listening wants to buy it?

How can that be? Doesn't it have a hard drive?

Do you iPod users find this appealing? I thought that most people find the regular iPod small and light enough, and that the desire among consumers is for greater capacity, not smaller size.

Here's Sonny Rollins' new website, which started today: http://www.sonnyrollins.com/

Here's an editorial from today's New York Daily News: Let's take a break from the joy of Bush bashing to reveal the dirty little secret of New Orleans: Its local government deserves an F for its planning and response to Katrina. And one other thing: The New Orleans police force would be a joke if it weren't a disgrace. Yes, I know it's impolitic to say such things while the suffering in the Big Easy is fresh and many cops risked their lives to save others. But now is the time to blow the whistle on the story line being repeated by rote across America: That the federal government ignored New Orleans because most of its residents are black and poor. That narrative has all the accuracy of a historic novel: it takes two undisputed facts - the feds were slow and New Orleans is largely black and poor - and weaves in pure fiction to make the desired link. The charge of racism-inspired foot-dragging isn't just nonsense. It's pernicious nonsense, as in destructive and malicious. You know that's a fact because loony Howard Dean, the Democratic Party boss, is now peddling it. He's joined by Jesse Jackson, who said the squalor in New Orleans "looks like the hull of a slave ship." Oh, please. If even a smidgen of the racism charges are true, President Bush should be shot. But before we give him his blindfold, let's look at New Orleans before Katrina. Start with crime. That looters ran unchecked after the hurricane isn't surprising when you consider that criminals have had the run of the city for years. It is a perennial contender for Murder Capital. The 264 homicides last year were a drop of only 11 from 2003 - and the first decline in five years. New Orleans, with fewer than 500,000 people, had almost half the murders of New York, which had 570 homicides last year in a city of more than 8 million. Put another way, if New York had New Orleans' murder rate, we would have more than 4,200 murders a year. That the New Orleans police are hardly the Finest was proven by a shocking report yesterday: Nearly a third of New Orleans cops - some 500 of the 1,600 - are now unaccounted for. The department says some quit, but it doesn't know where most of them are. The top cop, Eddie Compass, has responded by offering all officers paid vacations to Las Vegas and Atlanta. Yes, that's right - he is pulling all cops off the street, even while bodies lie in the open. Never in New York. Then there's Mayor Ray Nagin, a Democrat, who has blamed everybody but himself. Maybe he has forgotten his plans for dealing with Katrina. Last July, his office prepared DVDs warning that, if the city ever had to be evacuated, residents were on their own. According toa July 24 article in The Times-Picayune (spotted by the Web's Drudge Report), "Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation." "You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you," one official said of the message. And how's this for preparation? Cops were told not to work on the day Katrina hit, one officer told The New York Times, but "to come in the next day, to save money on their budget." By all means, let's investigate what went wrong in New Orleans. Let's start in City Hall.

Happy Birthday AK!

Yesterday's (Sept. 6) USA Today had an article about TV shows on DVD. It made these points: - TV shows are the fastest-growing segment of the DVD business. - TV DVD accounts for nearly 25% of the entire DVD business. - TV DVD accounts for 13% of Netflix's volume, up from 10% last year.

Hooray! I should find one of my Pete Fountain records to play, to celebrate this.

I'm very sorry to see this. You rang? Oh, it's only you, Maynard.

Jim, you raise a good point. First let me say that to me the question is not whether it will be rebuilt, only to what extent and who will pay for it. If somebody wants to take his insurance money and build a new home on his property, it's perfectly OK with me. I wonder what the Louisiana law is regarding condemnation. Will we see the govt condemn the flooded homes for public health reasons, and allow the property owners to retain ownership? I have no problem with that. I am reminded of the Louisiana politics regarding the casino when you mention a land grab. In that case there was a divison between the state govt and the city govt. I can imagine that not only will those with state and city govt connections vie over a land grab, but also those with federal connections. I can foresee the recent case of Kelo v. New London coming into play here. That was the case whish said that a local govt can use eminent domain when its purpose is to garner more taxes. I can foresee the govt taking people's property against their wishes, and redeveloping New Orleans to the profit of those with political connections.

Congrats!

I have spoken with two high school classmates tonight, and they agree with me that many, perhaps all, of the homes in the flooded areas will have to be razed. We believe that the sewage in the water will permanently damage, perhaps infect with disease, these homes. I don't think the govt should rebuild New Orleans to the extent that it was a week ago. The country needs the port, and I expect the French Quarter will continue to be a tourist attraction. But I see the move of the past week of the population to Baton Rouge to become permanent. I believe that Baton Rouge will become the business as well as the political capital of Louisiana. In answer to your question, if New Orleans were not below sea level and not in the path of hurricanes, I would have a positive attitude toward the govt helping in rebuilding the city. But as it is, I think it would be a mistake to spend the taxpayers' money this way.

Thanks Guy. I just want to point out that my issue with the people of New Orleans does not concern who left and who stayed for Katrina. My opinion is about choosing to live there in the first place. Everyone regardless of economic class, except the children and (I suppose) the disabled and the very elderly, has had the opportunity ever since Hurricane Camille in '69 to do what I did - leave and not look back. That they chose not to move to a safer location (and I imagine almost everywhere in the US is safer than a below-sea level bowl in the path of hurricanes every year) suggests to me that they were not victims in the same way that the World Trade Center deceased were victims. By the way, I don't see the Politics Board, so I don't know what you people have been talking about over there. But my views about my hometown New Orleans have nothing to do with either race or the Bush administration.

OK, I have learned of this site, which may answer my question: http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/

I would like to see the conditions of my old home and those of friends in New Orleans. Would someone please give me a link? My understanding is that you can go somewhere in Google and type in an address, and see that address from the sky. But I haven't found it.

Thanks, Vibes.

Wholeheartedly agree, Soul Stream!

Happy Birthday Sidewinder!