| Proof that dogs actually say stuff |
[Jan. 8th, 2009|06:19 pm] |
The beagle that lives on my corner is always in the front yard and is kind of an alarmist. He barks at cars, bicycles, foot traffic, the mailman, cats and of course other dogs being walked. Whenever I walked Pepperoni past him when we first moved in, he would face down the beagle predictably, growling, barking back, getting his hackles up and pushing up against the fence.
Now, two months later, I noticed that Pep has begun roundly ignoring the beagle. He'll stroll right by the furor of howling and woofing without even looking. The beagle continues on, of course, in exactly the same way. I saw another neighborhood dog being walked past the fence and having the same non-response as Pepperoni did today, which made me think - maybe the beagle is just saying the exact same thing every time, and they're over it? Pep still gets up in the face of and talks back to other familiar yard dogs on the block who yell at him as we pass by, yet the beagle - nothing. As if he's saying, "Yeah, yeah - you're talking loud, but you ain't saying nothing." |
|
|
| Partial survey of the dogs of the Northwestern quadrant of Bywater |
[Nov. 20th, 2008|04:58 pm] |
Pauline and Burgundy St.: Large black dog, pointy ears guarding Bywater Art Lofts. Named "Jack."
Independence and N. Rampart St.: Stout beagle, bad temper, always in yard.
Independence and N. Rampart St. (other corner): Mystery dog, spends lots of time under house. White snout often poked out of cracks in the brick.
Independence and Dauphine St.: One rust-colored chow mix with a mean face, one large grayish dog, one smaller black dog.
Independence and Burgundy St.: Two dogs who look like huskies, bark a lot but wind up wrestling with each other in the excitement and ignore Pepperoni.
Congress and Dauphine St.: Three large dogs, one brown-and-white spotted, very loud, always out in the garden. |
|
|
| Pointless observation |
[Nov. 11th, 2008|12:58 pm] |
We have a tiny postage-stamp yard in the new house that is part not ours (double shotgun), so Pepperoni the-smartest-dog-in-the-world is back on a schedule of walks. (In the old house he had full, all-day run of a giant yard in which he was the only animal.)
In only a week of walking him every morning on different routes throughout the new 'hood, I've realized that this is the doggiest neighborhood I've ever lived in... we now know every dog on a twelve-square-block area or so, from the fat beagle on rampart and Independence to the weird dog who only sticks his nose out from under the house on Gallier and Rampart and doesn't bark. There are at least four or five dogs on every block. I should draw a map: canines of the Northeastern Quadrant of the Bywater. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 8th, 2008|03:18 pm] |
I underuse this blog horribly and mostly use it to be nosy, but this is what I did on my summer evacucation (copied from the email I sent to the family, so it's breezy and brief... but here includes special bonus picture of the dog in his evacuation spot, wearing a sweatshirt like I like him to do.)
Dear all,
Since the weather has been so exciting here on the Gulf Coast for the last week and apparently has more action in store for us, I thought I'd do a quick friends-and-family update and let everyone know how our household fared.
Lefty, Pepperoni and I took the opportunity to visit our friends Jay and Stephanie Thomas at their new house in Memphis, where they moved after Katrina. We took everything off the floor and low shelves and put it in the upstairs part of the house, and packed up Lefty's van and parked it in a friend's offstreet parking spot on high ground in the Marigny. We left Sunday afternoon in my car. After we saw the now-famous parking lot that was the I-59 contraflow, we escaped to the (very scenic) Mississippi two-lane state highway and got to Memphis adding only an hour to the normal travel time (feeling guilty the whole way while we listened to callers on AM radio talking about their 20-hour ordeals on the highway). Since our apartment on Poland Avenue is only two blocks from the Industrial Canal, the first two days of evacuation were pretty nerve-wracking, as we watched the canal splash into the street, but luckily it held. Our roommate Robert Starnes, who was in the middle of moving during the storm, kept us updated on the state of the neighborhood and reportedly dined like a king on the abandoned contents of all our friends' refrigerators.
As it turned out, the Memphis trip was pretty efficient and productive, all things considered. I blogged for Gambit Weekly all week and filed stories for the new issue. We also got to get some interviews taped with Memphis musicians for the Ponderosa Stomp's archive and new radio program... I got to meet the only member of Otis Redding's band to survive the 1967 plane crash, plus Al Green's guitar player. I also finished recording for a podcast and an NPR piece over the phone with my editor at Paste magazine. We visited the Stax Records museum and saw the famous ducks in the fountain at the Peabody.
Our power wasn't on yet when we left Memphis on Friday, so we took our time and went down Highway 61 and visited some Mississippi Delta blues landmarks. I've never been in that part of the south, and it's strange and beautiful country... we saw the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, and lots of kudzu and cotton. We spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi, visited Eudora Welty's house, and got home Saturday night about four hours after the power came back on.
All in all, we were surprised and happy about New Orleans' hurricane response this time around. The levees held, the city evacuated almost 20,000 residents efficiently on buses (and they seem to be coming back promptly too - we saw a bus dropping off evacuees on our block yesterday), cell phones worked, and power and sewage were up and running pretty fast. The mail is backed up, but coming. The West Bank of the river was hit pretty badly, but it really looked like most things worked as well as possible.
The pool and yard at the house are a pretty horrible mess of branches, debris and weird algae growth, and we spent Sunday tidying up, although there's no trash pickup in our neighborhood yet and we're still waiting for Ike to make its intentions known. We'll have a solid idea by Tuesday. Most of you know that I had plans to be in New York working for the CMJ music conference at the end of the month anyway, so if it looks like the new storm will be a problem, I'll fly out early and probably have Lefty evacuate my car to somewhere dry.
Thankfully, this time around, the ducks at the Peabody Hotel (see attached) got wetter than the house... so cross your fingers that that'll hold true this time.
love,
Alison
 |
|
|
| I am so conflicted |
[Apr. 3rd, 2008|12:22 am] |
Woody Allen is suing American Apparel. I love Woody Allen, because everything he says is brilliant. I love American Apparel, because all their clothes feel like pajamas yet make me look dressed.
Ye gods, what to do????
In other news, Mariah Carey now has more #1s than Elvis, and Tom Waits is touring again. This is the universe's natural equilibrium kicking in. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Mar. 17th, 2008|07:45 pm] |
|
The only argument for iPods over CDs and records that I fully get behind is being able to find everything immediately. |
|
|
| Million-dollar idea |
[Mar. 3rd, 2008|12:23 pm] |
|
A fast-food restaurant that only serves fast-food breakfast, twenty-four hours a day. Awesome. |
|
|
| Creepy |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|01:13 pm] |
I opened a Philip Roth novel (The Professor of Desire, extra creepy) and a note fell out of it. The note was written on sky-blue stationery with teddy bears on it and was a thank-you to an uncle for a First Communion gift.
Ewww. |
|
|
| More bloggery |
[Oct. 1st, 2007|01:56 am] |
Gambit Weekly has finally decided to do like all the other alt-weeklies and start a blog. I will be one of the bloggerists. It launches tomorrow, so if you're interested, check it at www.blogofneworleans.com.
I don't guarantee any coolness. I saw the test post and it's basically an ad, and I'm not sure if anyone but my editor, Will, gets the idea that the blog voice is kind of supposed to be more casual and irreverent. But, y'know. We'll see how it goes. |
|
|
| Ooh! Meme! |
[Sep. 17th, 2007|04:55 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Fats Domino tribute record | ] |
I never do these! How exciting. I'm worried that I'm going to do it wrong. But here goes.
Concerts:
Here is how it works. Copy this list. Leave in the bands you've seen perform live. Delete the ones you haven't and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list.
1. Nine Inch Nails**
2. X**
3. The Reverend Horton Heat*
4. Jonathan Richman**
5. The Cramps**
6. Ozomatli*
7. The New Orleans Bingo! Show**
8. The Happy Talk Band*
9. Elvis Costello*
10. Sonic Youth*
11. White Stripes**
12. Rebirth Brass Band**
13. Iggy & The Stooges
14. The Go-Go's
15. The Gossip
16. Allen Toussaint
17. Jerry Lee Lewis
18. Mr. Quintron and Miss Pussycat
19. The Grateful Dead
20. The Rolling Stones
21. The "New York Dolls"
22. Billy Bragg
23. Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger
24. The Buzzcocks
25. Fear
Bonus Addition: What was the first rock concert you ever attended?
The Rolling Stones' 1989 Steel Wheels tour, with my dad. I was twelve. Probably my first on my own steam was Ani DiFranco, about two years later, in some coffeehouse in the East Village.
Now, you do it. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 14th, 2007|03:04 pm] |
No, I don't want to download iTunes 7.4.3. I just downloaded iTunes 7.4.2 not three weeks ago, I think. And as far as I could tell, there were no discernible differences from iTunes 7.4.1.
What is the point of this? I mean, sometimes I'll wear the same pants for three days and not care. I certainly don't need minute shifts in my music software every month to keep me entertained.
I know this is kind of unexciting for my first post in almost a year. |
|
|
| procrastination doesn't pay |
[Nov. 13th, 2006|01:42 pm] |
Do you know how many crime novels I can read in four days while I'm busy not working? The answer is four and a half.
I also watched the entire four-hour VH1's 100 top hard rock acts. The number one act was Led Zeppelin, but should have been AC/DC. |
|
|
| Squirrel |
[Sep. 10th, 2006|07:44 pm] |
I made this song.
Keep on rockin' in the tree, squirrel.
 |
|
|
| I DJ'd on WWOZ! Whee! |
[Sep. 7th, 2006|06:56 pm] |
1) Baby Change Your Mind – Blind Boy Fuller
“Baby if you think I’m wild about you, you got to change your mind.” Yep. The ones who think I am wild about them are usually wrong; the ones I’m wild about either don’t know, or aren’t wild about me back.
2) We’ll Meet Again – Palmetto Bug Stompers.
I love the original WW2 anthem by Vera Lynn. And I am not embarrassed to say I found out about it from Pink Floyd The Wall.
3) Dupree Shake Dance – Champion Jack Dupree
4) Bloodstains – Lazy Lester
This song is creepy. How did bloodstains get on the WALL? Forensic scientists will tell you that doesn’t happen easily.
5) Shake ‘Em On Down – Mississippi Fred McDowell
6) That’s All Right – Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
7) Shake Your Hips – Slim Harpo
8) .44 Blues – Howlin’ Wolf
9) TV Mama – Big Joe Turner
“I love my TV Maama… the one with the big wide screen.”
10) Look At Little Sister – Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
11) Beating Like A Tom Tom – Willy DeVille
12) Eternity – Ernest Kador
I played this to follow a K-Doe cover with a real K-Doe song. I love Willy DeVille but I wonder how NOLA music traditionalists think of his New Orleans album. I think it’s great. He’s a creepy Puerto Rican junkie.
13) You Don’t Move Me – Big Mama Thornton
14) Ride On Josephine – Bo Diddley
15) Forty Days – Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks
I watched “The Last Waltz” last night.
16) Carol – Chuck Berry
17) Dew Drop Inn – Esquerita
18) Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin’) – Rolling Stones version
19) Agent Double-O-Soul – Little Bob & The Lollipops
20) Ride Your Pony – Rufus Thomas
21) Walkin’ The Dog – Rufus Thomas
A two-for-one because I didn’t jump on the CD fast enough and it went right into the next track.
22) You Got What It Takes – Joe Tex
23) Polk Salad Annie – Tony Joe White
24) I’d Rather Be An Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than A Young Man’s Fool) – Candi Staton
25) Tell Mama – Etta James
26) Home In Your Heart – Solomon Burke
27) Down In The Valley – Solomon Burke
Another not-quick-on-the-draw moment.
28) Cry Baby – Garnet Mimms
This prompted a nice guy to call in from Philadelphia to say that Garnet was alive and well living there, but only singing gospel now.
29) Soul On Fire – LaVern Baker
30) Sweet Breeze – Wiley & The Checkmates
31) Hell – Nina Simone
32) Cherokee Dance – Bob Sanders with Willie Joe and His Unitar
I asked anyone who knew what a Unitar was to call in and tell me and someone did. It’s a guitar with all the strings tuned to the same pitch.
33) All Night Long – Jerry Lee Lewis
34) Mojo Mama – Don Varner
35) Short Stopping – Veda Brown
In this song, short-stopping is a bad thing a man does to his girlfriend, but it’s not apparent exactly what it is.
36) I Found Out – Nathaniel Mayer
This is when I ran out of my own songs from the plan I made and was recycling CDs and pulling stuff from the stacks.
37) Sweet Breeze – Vernon Green and the Phantoms
Not the same as the Checkmates “Sweet Breeze.” This song is creepy.
38) You Better Get It – Joe Tex
I decided to play more Joe Tex in the spirit of education. I was learning how to be a DJ, and almost every Joe Tex song contains a little lesson.
39) Pass The Hatchet – Roger & The Gypsies
40) I’ll Take Her – Eddie Floyd
41) Crackin’ Up – Bo Diddley |
|
|
| housewarming party |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|05:56 pm] |
I moved in with Robert starnes and Ariella Reiss in Bywater and our house is great. Come see it.
Sunday (tomorrow) after 2pm
911 Poland Ave, downstairs
pool
BBQ
hot tub
etc.
By all means feel free to come later if you, like me, think 2 is early for a NOLA weekend party. We'll be hanging out into the night. |
|
|
| my car, and gay porn |
[Aug. 16th, 2006|11:53 pm] |
Have I divulged here that I have use of the ex-boyfriend's car until he returns the the NO, probably in September, hopefully later (not because of animosity, but because of newfound joy in mobility)? Well, I have. And as a die hard NYC native, bicycler and lazy person, I only got a license in December of '05. My driving skills aren't great. But I'm already learning how to rationalize with myself about how much I can drink and still drive.
Well. I made it home OK on either 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 beers. So there. Next I just need to get brake tags.
But, funnier than drunk driving is the fact that to retaliate for the dead bird I found in the glove box after he handed the car over (oh... long story) I put a very vividly sordid gay porno film in there for him to find. Then I hit a bump driving in rush hour traffic in the CBD, the box popped open, the dick-emblazoned movie box popped out onto the passenger seat and I held up traffic and endured honking and horrified looks for a full minute until I got it back in there.
I can't get away with anything. |
|
|
| Wishful moving |
[Aug. 10th, 2006|01:01 pm] |
I think it's funny that I posted a Myspace bulletin about my kinda-sorta moving party on Sunday (move stuff, barbecue, pool) and a ton of people I know from out of town responded saying they wished they could be there... but only three people from in town emailed to say they maybe could be there. And those were people I don't know very well.
Sure you wish you could help me move. You wish it so bad. |
|
|
| Cheap/free furniture - please take it away |
[Aug. 9th, 2006|02:04 pm] |
I'm moving this week and have some items that are a little worse for the wear but still cool that somebody might want. The only thing is that you must come take the item you want away by Saturday. I have:
PINK VINTAGE VINYL ARMCHAIR - a little discolored on the seat, but very cool. $40 OBO.
YELLOW 50'S DINETTE CHAIRS - The vinyl seat is cracked on both with stuffing coming through. A crafty person could fix this. $20 OBO
BORING BLACK SWIVEL OFFICE CHAIR - Comfortable. Adjustable. Swivels. FREE
NICE WOODEN COFFEE TABLE - Five years old with attendant wear, but basically a nice piece. Amber wood top with dark finished wood bottom. Big shelf for magazines. From Storehouse Furniture on St. Charles in, oh, 1999. $20 OBO
I'll send pictures if you e-me via my LJ. Please take my stuff. Thanks! |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
annette66's journal
