As the record industry waits for Radiohead's "pay as you go" experiment to play out, New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is still plugging away at our 99 cent downloads. Within the first week someone tried to hack into the charity's song platform to steal the music, so it's a brave new world of retail indeed.

On a sunnier note, MySpace and PayPal have launched a new Impact Charity Badge program and our grass-roots New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is right up there with OxFam and One.org. With Badges! Donors' MySpace profiles will be shown in a donor tree. Within 5 minutes of posting we had a contribution from Think Swing at our MySpace NOMRF site.

Contributions start low, because it's hard enough to get .99 for a song. Just ask Radiohead. As a green charity we have never sent out glossy brochures, so this is as close as our grass-roots fund will get to a big rollout in support of the music.

After two years of doing their best to rebuild their lives, many musicians are still in Houston, Dallas or much further away. And we're losing them too soon. We just got back to Illinois and didn't have the chance to second line for New Birth Brass Band's Kerwin 'Fat' James, or see the 20 police cars that ensued.

NOMRF still rents no office space to help each donor dollar stretch further. Hundreds of grants have gone out thanks to supporters like Dr. John and REM, as well as caring individuals from around the world. The target goal, since PayPal asked for one, is $829,000 for ReDefine 8/29. Eight million seemed a little high to shoot for, but we're nothing if not optimists. The badge above is a live link to our MySpace page.

NOMRF will be back in town for NOLA.com's wonderful NOLA-Fest at Fat Harry's on Oct. 26th, so we hope to see you there as the streetcars roll by again.

They brought pots of food up from Louisiana after the planes flew into the Twin Towers because food is one way New Orleaneans show their love. There was a collection to purchase a firetruck for the first responders, and our hearts went out to them.

After 8/29, their hearts went out to us. A group of poets so esteemed it is nerve wracking even sending them an email came together this spring for a New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit in New York.

In the last two years, the support has not stopped flowing back and forth between our two cities, and I commemorate their tragic anniversary today as they have honored ours.

Two coastal, vulnerable and culturally irreplaceable cities. There is no learning curve on describing our loss to one another.

"We never felt more connected as a country," is Oprah's comment on her 9/11 Anniversary special. On 8/29, I never felt more disconnected as a person.

My husband's mother, up north for the first time in her life after two years without a permanent home, is heartbreaking to walk with through an antique store. It's a day of, "Maw had one of these." or "We lost this set at the bottom of the locker."

Just try not talking with a New Orleanean in a store. It's virtually impossible. She'll brightly wave a tapestry at a clerk and say, "I lost one of these in the city." For Miss Gloria, there is still only one city.

Oprah said she feels 9/11 should be a national holiday of remembering the tragic day that the country came together.

Not to get all Kid Rock and Tommy Lee at the Video Music Awards, but I feel that 8/29 should also eventually be officially recognized.

It's the day the country, for so many of us, split in two.

Nice news for New Orleans — in an article by Steve Hochman of the L.A. Times, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund’s ReDefine 8/29 Download track “Poor Man’s Paradise� is picked as one of the best post-Katrina songs about social change by New Orleans critic Alex Rawls.

Hochman writes that Rawls has listened to Katrina songs and finds “the vast majority well-meaning . . . but, in his view, missing the mark.� But Rawls does enjoy “"Poor Man's Paradise," the title track of a new album by local roots-rocker Johnny Sansone.

Rawls said, "The ones that don't work try to dramatize it, and it was already incomprehensible and dramatic beyond belief. Trying to frame Katrina in poetic language makes the language look poor. Trying to fit a hurricane in the rhyme scheme makes the whole experience seem small. These songs, the best of them, catch the details of how someone's life changed."

Here’s your chance to unleash your inner rock critic for $19.29 (DOWNLOADS). The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has selected 20 Katrina-related songs by local and international artists, and proceeds benefit our city’s displaced musicians.

Here's your chance to help New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund without spending a dime! REM and Wilco are putting the word out, too, so you’ll be voting like a rock star for this month’s MySpace Community Building Impact Award Go here to vote.

We’re in the final three to receive the desperately needed grant. Reposting this badge and the blurb would be a great help. Friends have helped keep the grass-roots Fund alive for almost two years, and that has helped hundreds of displaced New Orleans musicians. (Behind the cut: Click what’s left of our piano for download details)

That's right, we've got two Music Fridays this week thanks to Karen Beninato and the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

Dr. John, Ian Hunter, The Kaiser Chiefs, Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp, Mike Mills, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Craig Klein, Johnny Sansone, Susan Cowsill, Joe Topping, James Andrews, Spencer Bohren, the dB's, John Rankin, Beatin Path, Bryan Lee and Others on NOMRF Project.

In which I take name dropping to a whole new level.

These donated download tracks are guaranteed to either cheer you up or depress you in the good way.

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Inc. is honored to have a little help from our friends Dr. John, Ian Hunter, The Kaiser Chiefs, Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp, Johnny Sansone, Backyard Tire Fire, Craig Klein, Chicago Farmer, Susan Cowsill, James Andrews, The Rev. Goat Carson, the dB's, John Rankin, Beatin Path, Bryan Lee, Spencer Bohren and Joe Topping who walked here from Chicago.

Just Joe, not the rest of them.

Brand new releases, exclusive to NOMRF, are "Out of My Depth" from the Kaiser Chiefs, "Brand New Old House" from Beatin Path and "Rains around Here" by the dB's. Come hang out on Aug. 24th at Carrolton Station with Susan Cowsill, Beatin Path and We Are the Pretenders. Special guests, too. I can't say who or they'll vanish like mythical rock and roll gods.

And on 8/29 we'll be auctioning a vintage style Headstrong Amp signed by Kenny Wayne Shepard, Mike Mills and Ian Hunter. Ian, author of Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star, (written on Mott's 1972 US tour) which was subsequently acclaimed by Q magazine as "the greatest music book ever written," is signing a "How's Your House" lyric sheet for his Yep Roc Records contest, too.

He still rocks and proves it in this Grewvia YouTube video behind the cut:

Thanks to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund for this post.

Alvin Batiste, clarinet legend and patriarch of one of New Orleans' leading music families, died this morning. He was to be honored along with drumming legend Bob French, another irreplacable link in this city's musical chain.

Wardell Quezergue was honored yesterday at the Jazzfest in a living tribute. His concluding statement was "I did my best."

Many of our music legends are struggling to keep the world's focus on what their compatriots need. They are brave enough to keep up this fight.

They are hilarious and brutally honest (Bob).

They are giving. Alvin Batiste, whose family band performed for 40 years, created the Batiste Jazz Institute. David, Damon, are here to carry on his music legacy.

Last week, James Andrews and Dr. John second lined to dedicate a headstone for James' grandfather Jessie Hill. James said his grandfather's refrain was for those left behind to look after, "my children, my children." Mac agreed.

The cemetery was full of unmarked graves and it is the final resting place for many musicians who could not afford the headstone they deserved. Buddy Bolden's monument stands tall in the center, topped by a bottle of liquor for Buddy and quarters for luck.

New Orleans' volume of living music encyclopedias exist in no other city. Listen to their music while they're here. Love them while they're here.

Help them any way you can.

Yesterday I woke up to the metallic sound of a 15-year-old crashing a carjacked Jaguar just feet from our door.

The kid and his passenger sped past a nearby grade school and panicked when they saw a uniformed police captain leaving for work. Then they ricocheted into a series of cars, finally rolling into the one in front of our apartment. A neighbor friend and my husband ran outside to help as the officer waited for backup. The passenger got away, but the driver was booked on charges including driving without a license, resisting arrest, battery, hit and run, possession of a stolen car and reckless driving.

The Jaguar's owner told me that he was driving down St. Bernard Avenue when another driver blocked his car from a side street, then approached his vehicle and told him at gunpoint, "Give me your car or I'll kill you." A day later, he got the call about his car. Waiting for the tow-truck, he was visibly shaken as his mother waited with him.

Neighbors started to gather, like they do after a crisis. Some of their cars were blocked by the Jag. One man said his car had already been stolen twice and hit and run twice, so hopefully it's totaled and he can start over. A concerned parent walked down the street from the school and said he's heard about expanding violence and children being robbed near the playground. I hope that's only an urban legend.

This season, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is here as the music community puts its best festival foot forward. Crime has to be deterred so tourists will come back and fill the clubs. The clubs have to stay open so musicians who are home don't have to move away again. The music is what brings in the tourists. And that's the vicious cycle.

I last came back to town during the Uptown tornadoes, and before that it was during the explosion of violence over the holidays. One of our neighbors down here wondered aloud if we were bringing the bad luck down with us. But I'm still feeling lucky with this particular near-miss.

This 15-year-old was not carrying a gun.

In his article at the official Google blogspot, John Hanke, the director of Google Maps, has this to say about the Google imagery of New Orleans:

“This weekend, there has been a lot of discussion about our imagery of New Orleans in Google Maps and Google Earth. I thought I'd give you some background that may clear things up, and also let you know about new imagery of the region now available.�

When you click on the “a lot of discussion� link, you’re directed here

And at that site, you're told that “No related articles are found." The articles are in the ether, along with my mid-city neighborhood and the RNC email server. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and rarely wear tinfoil hats, but can't help wondering where "a lot of discussion" went.

And yes, Google has achieved an admirable mea culpa with its Darfur map, but that does not do any more to bring displaced New Orleaneans back than Oprah’s admirable act of building a school in South Africa.

Thanks to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund for allowing us to republish this post.

If "John Popper's Car" were a Jeopardy category, the topic would be "Things that would have come in handy after Hurricane Katrina."

My friend Nicky got one of the last groups across the Crescent City Connection (GNO Bridge) past Gretna, and this is the note he emailed:

"let people know that i crossed the bridge safely by walking out with a group of people. let them know to think safety. start the trip with lots of light, water, and as many people :safety in numbers. there are many tourists in a daze, grab them on the way out to swell the numbers. I did all this and walked out safely. on the other side about ten miles down the road is the location of disaster relief and it is getting closer to the bridge as help creates safer passages. who ever reads this letter, keep your head up and spirits positive, no breaks in the chain, no dissent and keep the group healthy. if you stay in new orleans, fire, disease and death is next, there is nothing possibly left to happen."

Maybe John Popper heard about the Crescent City Connection. He was stopped by State Troopers in Washington state, now home of more billionaires than anywhere else in the country. The billionaires will be fine in increasingly challenging weather, but at least one Blues Traveler wasn't taking chances
as his friend tooled along at 111 mph.

Hidden compartments, a joint, four rifles, nine handguns, night vision goggles, a taser, switchblade, siren, emergency headlights and a public address system. Popper explained to officers he was prepared for a natural disaster. His car could have barreled right through the situation Congresswoman McKinney's House Resolution 4209 describes:

The only person who's ever told me he hoped to get winged by a bullet in the French Quarter was British folk musician Joe Topping who walked from Chicago to New Orleans to raise awareness for our New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

Vice President Dick Cheney came to town and shut down Canal Street the day of Joe's second line welcome along the river, so it wasn't the media event one would hope for after a blazingly hot summer walk. The Mayor was supposed to attend — I don't know what happened with that.

So after Joe's three month trek we were taking him out to hear Bob French, but Frenchman Street was shut down when some tourists were grazed by bullets. The next day we went to visit Bob on WWOZ-FM but it was his fall fund drive day off.

"A graze — they'd HAVE to write about that. Liverpool man shot after three month walk across country in support of New Orleans musicians," Joe said. It was probably partly heat stroke and partly wanting to get the mainstream media to notice New Orleans.

They've noticed.

Thanks to Karen at the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund for this post.

Freaky Friday
Last Friday, the upscale suburb of Covington told parents they would let students make up work later if their kids stayed home out of concern for an impending campus brawl. Tonight is Covington's big carnival parade, and quoted in the Times-Picayune, Lt. Jack West called it "one of the biggest conspiracies to get out of school that I've ever seen." Kids were asking their parents to rescue them from school because shots were fired and the building was locked down, West said. Ten officers were posted, just in case.

Working at the car wash
Yesterday a teenager was accused of stealing a $70,000 BMW at a New Orleans car wash and wrapping it around a tree after an extended police chase. It was his first day on the job.

Very poor parenting
Last night 17-year-old Clarence Johnson allegedly killed another teen who had just beaten him in a fistfight. Police say Clarence's mother sent him back out to avenge himself with a gun. The victim had just returned to New Orleans after a long evacuation in Dallas.

This morning, the Times-Picayune cover was a photo of the alleged killer holding a fist full of cash in one hand and a gun in the other. The portrait had been mounted on the wall of his mother's home. His teen victim arrived in town from Dallas by bus Thursday and was murder victim number 21 by Thursday night. Clarence's mother is jailed on second-degree murder charges.

Out of an uptown New Orleans gutter today I pulled a crumpled faded note that read:

"Note to self, continue enriching u _ _ _ _ _ _. Need alternative energy source with today's Chevron Oil's maleic anhydride leak. Sure hope residents stay indoors. Murphy Oil paying $330 million for its Katrina leak"

What could U be? And who could have written the note?

With the Congressional Homeland Security Committee Susan Collins (R), Ted Stevens (R), George Voinovich (R), Norm Coleman (R), Tom Coburn (R), John Sununu (R), Pete Domenici (R), John Warner (R), Barak Obama (D), Chairman Joe Lieberman (?) and Mary Landreau (D) invited to Louisiana for 8/29 hearings, it could have been anyone.

Actually only the last three showed so that narrows it down substantially.

Could it be from Mary? Landreau has been quoted in Roll Call saying, "I often think we would have been better off if the terrorists had blown up our levees. Maybe we'd have gotten more attention."

Thanks to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund for this post.

To the New Congress:

As of tonight, "Surge, Clear and Rebuild" is the slogan for 22,000 troops and $6.8 billion for securing the city of Baghdad. If ever there was a time to break ranks, do it now and give the city of New Orleans half.

Because, as you may have heard, the killers have returned to New Orleans. Unlike in Baghdad, you have a green light to enter these neighborhoods. We don't expect your commitment to be open-ended, but please make it long term this time. We will not provide a safe haven in Central City for any outlaws. We are ready for fewer acts of brazen terror. Increasing safety in New Orleans daily life will give us the breathing space we need to make progress in other areas such as health care, electricity, schools and clean water.

Dick Durbin, since you do not love the Surge proposal, cut it in half and give us the extra. Trust us with the hard earned tax dollars you are about to spend. We dried off the French Quarter long ago and it is beautiful. It just needs to be safer, so send your Surge troops. They can call home without international rates.

And Norm Coleman, you say it is a mistake to put more troops at risk to address a problem that is not a military problem and create more targets. So spend half of those billions and that manpower to address our non-military problem. Give us taxation with representation.

This entry was posted on Jan. 6 on the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund blog. As always, thanks to Karen for allowing us to repost it here.

Yesterday a house collapsed onto another house in Central City.

So far, no one knows what caused the collapse or if anyone was living in the house at the time.

It takes a minute to absorb the fact that no one knows if anyone was living in the house, because I am now back in a midwestern town where each home is accountable to the home next to it. That has not been the case in Central City for a long time. It is what Tennessee Williams called "A House Not Meant to Stand."

Dinerral Shavers' funeral is today in Central City. One of his myspace messages from a 16-year-old is: "R.I.P shavers dude u was da coolest teacher at da skool man gone but not forgotten." The photo is either a gun or a sophisticated can opener, I hope it's the latter.

This piece originally appeared on the blog for the New Orleans Musician Relief Fund.

In a stark reminder of what it takes to come home and stay, musician Dinerral Shavers was killed yesterday while driving down Dumaine with his wife and children. A drummer, music teacher and part of the city we cannot afford to lose, he was gunned down with the senseless violence stalking New Orleans in ever-increasing statistics.

"Every time you saw him, he was the same person with a great smile," said fellow musician James Andrews. "A wonderful person with plenty of encouraging words. He was going to make it, too.

"He wasn't stingy with trying to teach the kids his stuff. He was a great drummer. And through the Hot 8 his music will live on forever. Through New Orleans," James said.

One of Dinerral's band members has been staying in the NOmrf apartment when he comes back to town to work, and he had been happy that the band's gig phone got turned back on over Christmas.

The Hot 8 was most recently known for their second line through the Ninth Ward with David Gregg Andrews in Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke. His mother's home was the one in the movie that floated across the street and landed in her neighbor's yard. Her quote from the movie was that he can't say she never gave him anything.

James is right — Dinerral was going to make it. His band was working on an album and his students are going to march for Mardi Gras — the first marching band the school has ever had, thanks to his teaching efforts.

This post first appeared on the blog for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Inc. We thank them for letting us share it with you.

As of today, I've lived in the Midwest for a year with no prospects of moving home. It must be harder still to make it back to New Orleans and know you can't stay unless something changes.

A recent survey states that out of the 40 percent who have come back to New Orleans, 30 percent are considering moving away in the next two years. That's constantly reflected in talks with musician friends. Aside from those whose name recognition and touring have increased post 8/29, they sound more worried with each call. They made it back — but for how long with tourism down and crime rampant? The Road Home is now up to 65 grants out of the billions they were given to pave the road to nowhere.

There's a chain letter circulating that says 58 percent of Americans do not think New Orleans should be rebuilt. This may be true, but it doesn't stop the draw of home. A grant recipient just wrote, "I can't tell you how much it means to me to know somebody cares. Since the price of gas heating is so high here in Ky. this will help pay my bill. I want to go home but its hard to find a place to live down there."