We're very proud to be part of an exhibit opening on September 5 called Way Down in New Orleans. The exhibition is presented by Civilian Art Projects and curated by Aubrey Edwards. It looks to be an interesting, edgy show. Our part in the show is small — our book Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? will be on display (and on sale) during the exhibit. We held back one box of first edition copies for the exhibition because today — 8/15/08 — is the day when the first edition is officially listed as out of print. You can find a few copies here and there (I think I have five in our garage), but for the most part, the first editions are gone. If you want a copy this fall, head to the exhibition at Civilian Art Projects in DC.

Just caught The Order of Myths, a documentary by Margaret Brown about the oldest Mardi Gras in the US, which is in Mobile, Alabama and dates to 1703. Brown brings to light the Mardi Gras that most of us are not privvy to: the balls and coronations of Mardi Gras "royalty," the elaborate preparations of the costumes and floats, and the staggering amounts of money middle-class people are willing to spend on all this. No women flashing breasts for beads here — this is Old World Mardi Gras.

It's a fascinating look inside a centuries-old tradition, but as Brown subtly points out, the racial divide that these traditions are based on is still alive. It's not as deep as before, and there are those working to heal that divide, but it colors (no pun intended) the way people look at their world. In Mobile, there are two Mardi Gras — one for the whites and one for the blacks. I lost count how many times white people told the camera that there is no reason to integrate because the black people want to keep their own traditions. But I never heard a black person say that.

It's odd for a northerner (I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio) who spent fifteen years in Japan and now lives in the very secular Pacific Northwest to watch this movie and remind himself that this is the same country he lives in. I don't mean that in a high-minded way at all. In many ways, the people in Mobile are on the front lines of our racial divide and they're dealing with it in sometimes horrible and sometimes very noble ways. Out here in the Pacific Northwest, we aren't really forced to deal with it in the same way, and so it's easy to get all snobbish toward attitudes in the South (I've had my moments, believe me). But The Order of Myths shows us what's wrong with our race relations while also showing how the divide is getting smaller. It's easy to laugh at the fact that the one integrated krewe in the carnival, a fairly recent addition, has just one white member. But at least there's an integrated krewe, or society, as they call them. I wish Brown had interviewed that one white guy.

It's a fascinating film. Being a godless northerner, if I ever make it to Mardi Gras, I'd probably end up drunk as a skunk, but it's interesting to see the traditions and prep work that go into this celebration. And I find the statements of the black and white Mardi Gras kings and queens somewhat hopeful.

Brown ends the movie with one final nod to just how deep this divide goes and just how many secrets are left to be revealed. As Obama runs for president, this is an excellent time to start giving our dirty laundry the air it desperately needs. Thumbs up.

New Orleans' Walter Cronkite, Garland Robinette of WWL, has weighed in on Barack Obama's recent speech and his "controversial" pastor. Here's a snippet:

-A few weeks ago I was for Obama.

My thoughts are different than most I’ve heard following the Obama speech. My decision (thus far) is grounded in the Arab oil embargo of the United States in 1973. Picture the long lines at the gas pumps. Filling a tank could take hours. Much of the time the gas ran out before the line did. Picture the fistfights that broke out between those jockeying to get to the pumps first. Now, (stay with me, I know I think a lot differently than most) imagine going up to ANYone in line and saying…”hey, how you doin’, man--I can’t believe what they doing with this stem-cell research thing. Plus, how about
abortion--man that’s murder…and don’t even get me started with the racist minorities!” (Truthfully now!) What do you think the driver’s response would be --at best-- I think they would think you were nuts. You would be totally oblivious to the problem that is threatening them and their family’s lifestyle…right now!. What does this have to do with Obama, McCain, Hillary and us? Everything!

So where's he going with this? Read on at the WWL website.

I obviously have far less patience for McCain than Robinette does, and I find much of this pastor controversy more than tinged with racism. We live in a country where it's OK for a president to rub elbows with Pat Robertson or (the late) Jerry Falwell even after they blamed 9/11 on the liberal lifestyle, but it's not OK to be seen with a pastor who is hellatiously angry about oppression and the killing of innocents.

Here's Falwell after 9/11:

Throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

Here's Pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.

But you're not voting for either of them. Turn off the TV, listen to Obama's speech (behind for the cut) and decide for yourself.

Two years after Katrina and Rita, and Gulf Coast schools, hospitals, police stations, roads and flood protection still lie in ruins, keeping displaced residents from returning and communities from recovering. Will you support H.R. 4048, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, as president to rebuild community infrastructure and create job and training opportunities for residents?

Think the presidential candidates in both parties should have to answer this question as part of the California debates coming up on January 30-31? If you do, then go here to make the Gulf Coast's fate part of the national debate. And if you want to know more about the bill, go here.

Congratulations to Toni McGee Causey on the publication of her first novel, Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day from St. Martin's Press. From the looks of the videos promoting the book on Toni's site, this novel will be a hoot.

Toni was instrumental in helping us put together Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans last year. Colleen Mondor introduced me to her, and I spent the first few days after the levee broke riveted to her blog as she wrote heart-wrenching accounts of happenings at the LSU triage center. Those writings ended up as "Where Grace Lives" in Do You Know.

We at Chin Music wish Toni and Bobbie a lot of luck. Can't wait to read about this "bat shit crazy" heroine from Baton Rouge.

Check out this public service announcement for levees.org from actor John Goodman. It's simple, straightforward and reminds us in a powerful way that the failure of our government to provide adequate levees is by no means just New Orleans' problem.

Behind the cut, John Goodman on why we all should care about those broken levees.

Readers, sorry to say that the blog spam has become such an issue that we decided to shut off the comments. We hope this is a temporary thing because we like getting your feedback. In the meantime, if you want to comment on anything you see on the site or on life in New Orleans, send us an email at speak-atmark-chinmusicpress.com and we'll make sure to publish your words periodically.

Go Saints.

I was in New Orleans at the end of March and again at the end of October. I don't claim to be an expert on the city, but I wanted to share some observations about the difference six months makes (and for NOLA residents, I apologize if this is all too obvious):

New life in the Upper Ninth — In February, we held a fundraiser and book-signing at the Saturn Bar in the Upper Ninth Ward. The neighborhood felt like a ghost town then. In late October, we went back to the Saturn for a few beers, and I was immediately struck by how the neighborhood has sprung back to life. There were people everywhere. At the same time, the National Guard patrols the streets in military vehicles, helping out the police. This gave the neighborhood a very Third World feel, like a coup had just taken place.

Bourbon bounces back — There was something sad about walking down Bourbon Street in February. It was like people were trying too hard to have a good time. Now, that part of the Quarter seems back to normal — after about five minutes on it, my brother and I fled a few blocks for the comfort of a neighborhood bar.

The exodus is not over — Many people in the city are still on the fence, not sure how long they will stay. And who can blame them? I found even strangers very willing to talk about how they might move to Dallas or Atlanta or somewhere else if a job comes through or if they can find a place to stay. People are open about how stressful life in NOLA is and how they wish they could live somewhere more stable. This is the true "Katrina fatigue."

The pioneers — In the words of the NOLAfugees folks, "faith is optional," but some young couples and families are moving into shotgun homes, fixing them up and trying to start anew in the city. I saw this in the Upper Ninth and Marigny especially. These are people who are scraping by with several jobs in some cases, but for one reason or another have decided to stay and stick it out.

So no, New Orleans is not alright. It needs a lot of help. Traveling outside of New Orleans, I found plenty of people with goodwill toward the city, but I also ran across more than a few conservative types who see the city as a den of inquity that needs blotting out. A fellow at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge greeted us with, "New Orleans ... you can have it." That attitude is all too apparent. And so, we'll just have to take it and fix it and let the folks who would prefer to live downwind of an oil refinery do just that.

Tomorrow is a very big day for books in southern Louisiana. First, there's the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. I'll be hosting a panel on Do You Know at 10 am with Sarah Inman and Jason Berry. Brother Dave will be there too. We'll also be signing the book after the event.

Jason will also be on two separate panels to talk about 1) the environment and 2) his new novel, Last of the Red Hot Poppas. And Sarah will be reading from her novel, Finishing Skills. The event is free, so come on down.

In New Orleans, the 5th annual New Orleans Book Fair will take place. Our peeps at Nolafugees will be hawking Chin Music books along with their own latest creation, Chris Rose is Dead 2 Me. We're hoping to be able to get there after our Baton Rouge appearance, so see you all at one or the other of these book fests.

If you're in the Baton Rouge area, drop by LSU's Manship School of Communication this evening at 7 pm for a good read and a great cause. Jason Berry will be talking about and reading from Last of the Red Hot Poppas, and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network will be selling his book. We've teamed up with LEAN to help them raise money and to highlight the fact that Poppas, at its core, is a novel about environmental degradation that precedes and directly connects to the broken levees.

LEAN is on the front lines of the fight for the environment in Louisiana — and it is hard to imagine a state with more glaring environmental problems. Here's how LEAN describes itself:

"LEAN was founded to help Louisiana citizens change the balance of power and challenge the insanity of continued economic and ecological suicide as practiced Lousiana-style."

That's LEAN's style. Up front and in your face. From what I can tell from my little corner of the Pacific Northwest, LEAN is doing some amazing work. Talking to LEAN's MaryLee Orr on the phone, you get a sense of how dedicated and hardworking these folks are. They are on a mission, and so are we. I called to see if they'd want to join us at the LSU event, and it took MaryLee a millisecond to say yes.

I'm hoping we can do more with LEAN and use Poppas to raise awareness about how deep-seated the state's environmental problems are. Today is just the beginning.

Back in February, I met Amy Cyrex Sins in the lobby of the Windsor Court to chat about her book project. I hear pitches all the time, but since we've only published two books (with our third, Last of the Red Hot Poppas, coming next month), I'm by no means a jaded publisher. I enjoy hearing the book ideas of others, and so I listened closely as Amy showed me piles of photographs and talked about her vision for a cookbook that would mix family recipes with stories of survival and rebuilding. It sounded like a great idea, considering how many family recipes were lost in the floodwaters, but after I talked about it with the rest of the Chin Music gang, we decided that we couldn't publish the book because we had committed to Poppas and we didn't have the resources to get two books out by August.

Well, five months later, a big, beautiful cookbook filled with four-color photography arrived at my door. Amy decided that if we couldn't help her, she'd just do it herself. The result is a unique book called Ruby Slippers Cookbook that is one part delicious recipes, another part sumptuous photographs of New Orleans dishes and a third part uplifting stories and photos of Amy's family, friends, neighbors and others surviving and rebuilding after Katrina.

Amy is donating a portion of the proceeds to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. If you like cookbooks, this is a one-of-a-kind collector's item. For those of you outside of New Orleans, I think the only place to buy the book is at Amy's website.

Several of the contributors to Do You Know will be at BookWoman in Austin, Texas, this Saturday at 8 pm for the first reading outside of Louisiana. I'll be there with brother Dave, Ray Shea and Juliette Kernion. So come join us as we celebrate New Orleans with an eclectic reading from the book the Times-Picayune called "an inspired riff on the Armstrong tune."

The store is at 12th & Lamar and the event is free.

Michael Brown has tried hard. He has worked long hours on this, and I'm sure he must be tired. He took the calculated risk of criticizing the Bush administration and his boss, Michael Chertoff, accusing them of not paying attention to his messages on Katrina; he lambasted the Department of Homeland Security; and to his credit, he created an opening for himself to appear on any talk show that would have him. He worked very, very hard at resurrecting his image, but, alas, somethings are just not meant to be, Brownie.

Even before The Center for Public Integrity released its in-depth expose of Brown's obsession with his media image in the meanest days of Katrina, I knew the former Federal Emergency Management Agency boss was not going to succeed in his desperate attempt at a makeover. He had worked so hard at it, and yet the respect just wasn't following. He was being shuttled into that room in Animal House where Mohammed and Jughead await, only Brownie gets to spend eternity with Kenny Boy Lay and Scooter Libby.

If Mr. Brown took time out of his busy schedule to rest this Sunday and catch up on the Sopranos, his heart must have fallen when Tony told Paulie, a capo who had botched a certain assignment, that "you're doing a heckuva job, Brownie." Now you can't just pad your resume to make that go away.

Our country is run by this type — entitled white boys. And for the rest of us, our victories are few and far between. But when victory does come, it is sweet. No amount of mousse can remake Brownie after the Center's report. ("Sitting in the chair, putting mousse in my hair...." reads one of his emails sent on August 29; there are 928 pages of his corrrespondences in this report, a 55MB pdf.)

Mr. Brown is Brownie forever now. And the others will get their turn. When they do, let's enjoy every moment ... like this one, Stephen Colbert's keynote speech at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner. Enjoy our president's body language as he squirms in his seat while listening to an employee of Comedy Central. Our fearless leader.

I'm back in Seattle after several days in southern Louisiana promoting our book. The readings were a success. Thanks to all who turned out. What follows are a few impressions, observations and random gossip.

When I was last in New Orleans in February to launch our book, I felt hope and excitement amid the devastation. I think that was partly because of my own expectations for our book, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?, but also because Mardi Gras was around the corner. This time, although my expectations for our book have grown since February, I felt the post-traumatic stress that is on everyone's minds. It is hard to live in New Orleans right now.

But it is still easy to blow off steam and have fun in the French Quarter. At Harry's, my brother's local bar (it's featured in chapter one of our book), we were greeted by one of the locals with threats of a "class action suit." He claimed — loudly and drunkenly — that he did not like the way he was portrayed in the book. My brother's response? "You don't even know what a class action suit is, do you?" This is where being big comes in handy. Everyone calls him "professor" at the bar but I think it was his size and not his doctoral degree that helped him avert a fistfight after that comment. Instead, the would-be plaintiff started laughing, and that was the end of it.

Random gossip: Ray Shea (pictured above at our Baton Rouge reading — and that's Jette Kernion of Celluloid Eyes next to him) was talking about moving from Austin back to New Orleans. It's not a done deal by a longshot, but he's interested if he can get his kids in the right schools. I'm sure he'll be keeping us posted on his blog. Also, Sarah Inman and her husband Joe have bought a house in the Ninth Ward. Hopeful news.

Six months after the disaster of Katrina, what are New Orleanians reading? The best-selling books for the week through March 19 paint a picture of a city still making sense of what has happened to it. Here are the top 10 best-sellers, with the number of copies sold during the week in parentheses, according to BookScan (and yes, you bet I'm stoked that Do You Know is No. 6!):

No. 1: 1 dead in attic by Chris Rose (1,443 copies)
No. 2: Hurricane Katrina: An American Tragedy and Its Aftermath by the editors of Time (287 copies)
No. 3: Hurricane Katrina: CNN Presents: State of Emergency (250)
No. 4: Living Prayers Rev. Basil Senger (200)
No. 5: Missing New Orleans Philip Collier (166)
No. 6: Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? (156)
No. 7: The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown (132)
No. 8: Why New Orleans Matters Tom Piazza (130)
No. 9: Covenant with Black America Tavis Smiley (126)
No. 10: Katrina Clarion Ledger and others (106)

Michael Lato, a Hammond, Louisiana native and a business development guy for Fotolog, has come up with an innovative new site called thinklouisiana.com to help spark ideas for reviving the southern part of the state. "Ideas spark ideas," Lato told me in a phone interview last week. "Louisiana's problems are multilayered ... You peel back one layer of one issue, and it becomes infinitely more complicated. It is going to take a lot of thinking and leadership. So tell people that we want to hear from them, whatever idea they have."

Consider yourself told.

Lato's site borrows on the technology of Meetup and Fotolog to allow people to post ideas and vote on them. Lato launched the site in January. "I sent an email to 100 people in my address book, and we had about 5,000 hits over the next four days," he said. "We had people offering ideas from New York, Brazil, Chile."

The problem is that the traffic has slowed a bit. So he hired a PR firm and started getting the word out to people like us to draw people to his site. The wide range of ideas offered so far is indicative of the overwhelming task ahead. Everything from closing the ports in protest (Rex Noone, anyone?) to hosting the 2008 Republican Convention has been suggested.

Lato adds that part of his plan is to print out all the ideas from time to time and take them to the offices of lawmakers. "Let me get back to you once we see what the response is from (Senator Mary) Landrieu's office," he said.

OK, we'll be waiting to hear.

The Times Picayune's Susan Larson has written a beautiful review of Do You Know ... today.

Here's a snippet:

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? not only captures the valued and unique facets of our culture; it provides a kind of emotional prism, ways of looking at this time of love and rage, fear and anger, despair and fierce — and I mean fierce — hope.

Hell yeah! See you at The Saturn this Thursday at 6 pm.

Boxes and boxes of our book, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?, arrived yesterday. They look great. As you can see, we immediately put our three- and five-year-old publicists to work.

The Saturn Bar in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward is regularly talked about as one of America's great dive bars. A quick Google search will tell you that. Recently, it has been through some hard times. The long-time owner, O'Neil Broyard, died in December. He had sat in front of his bar with a shotgun in his lap after Katrina, according to the Times-Picayune, and only evacuated to Illinois with his two dogs when state troopers forced him out.

Today, his nephew is trying to revive the bar. Eric, his wife and their kids have been cleaning like crazy to get ready for this Saturday. The family will have a celebration there from 11 am in honor of O'Neil.

The Saturn's next big event is hosting us and the launch of Do You Know on Feb. 16 from 6 to 9 pm. We are very excited to be able to launch our book in this fabled New Orleans watering hole. And once Eric sees how much beer the Rutledge brothers can down, he'll be very excited too.

The Press Street Organization is largely responsible for making this happen. As far as I can tell, this is a group of people in New Orleans who are passionate about rebuilding their city and its culture. I talked with one of the members, Anne Gisleson, today and she said they haven't had time to worry about building a website and that sort of thing. They are just too busy fixing their city. We're very lucky to be connected to them, and of course, to Rebuilding Together.

So folks, come to The Saturn (3067 St.Claude Avenue) on Feb. 16. We hope to see you there.

Cross-posted on Adventures in Publishing

Back in December, we kicked off the Christmas season by pledging to donate the profit from all early orders of Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? to a relief organization in the city. Well, that campaign has just one week left to go, and today, that relief organization has a name: Rebuilding Together New Orleans.

Rebuilding Together helps low-income disabled and elderly people rebuild their homes. The New Orleans chapter is part of a national network that operates in 865 cities and all 50 states. Rebuilding Together New Orleans has a daunting task and needs money badly to keep its operations running smoothly, considering the overwhelming demand for its services. Our donation is a drop in the bucket, but we hope that you'll consider donating directly to the organization and help New Orleans residents rebuild their lives.

We've raised more than $700 for Rebuilding Together so far. If you'd like to see a breakdown of our costs, check out today's entry on our Adventures in Publishing blog. And even though our campaign ends this month, we'll be down in New Orleans on Feb. 16 to read from our book, raise more money for Rebuilding Together and welcome The Saturn Bar back. More on that in a later post.