Note to Brinnainne: I lied again. I said I was offline for the holidays, but came to work this AM and scanned the NYT (interesting article there about FBI investigating liberal/progressive groups with dubious connections to “crime”)and then scanned BT and came across Blksista’s excellent diary on Cyril Neville’s decision to permanently leave New Orleans for Austin.
New Orleans deserves to shrink if not die out completely. I dont say this in haste. I spent 2 and 1/2 years there living with a native who taught me all about the city the tourists never see. I fell in love with the city but also came to many of the same conclusions as Neville. There is no music scene. There is no real chance of success for 75% of the population.
There is a partying scene for tourists, which is fueled more by cover versions of Memphis R&B than any type of jazz, New Orleans-based or otherwise.
Jazz was born here but the music moved out as soon as it could to the east coast, never to return in any new or exciting variant. Louis Armstrong died in Queens. That some bar owners still make a living off this brief period of creativity in the early 20th Century only confirms how steeped in the past with no future exists this rotting hulk by the Mississippi.
The Neville Brothers are a local institution, but they have been around forever, since the 60s. Dr. John is another. Oh yeah, the Marsalis family, who function more as a living history of jazz, not as creative forces. Fats Domino? Lee Dorsey?
Anne Rice?
The economy was as sunken as the land, even before the hurricane blew away all the mythology. The city is as divisive and divided as any in the world. The juxtaposition is all the more startling because magnificent mansions exist basically down the block from some pretty horrorific slums.
No one really feels safe walking the streets there. More murders per capita than any (peaceful)place on earth, year in and year out. A surprisingly large number are senseless murders by persons unknown to the victims.
Education? More kids go to Catholic schools than public schools. What does that make public education like in NO? Oh, just about the worst in the civilized world, is all, with no support from the upper and middle classes.
Public Health? Ditto.
Of course, there is always a strong attraction to home, no matter how miserable our existence there. Its mythological, too. I once possessed the same strong attraction to LA even though I grew up in a blue collar white trash suburb without hope. That white trash suburb is now a colony of Mexico, for all intents and purposes. Only the buildings remain the same, albeit more aged and more shambling.
When I was 19 I held my breath and went for it. I escaped. It was hard. For years I traveled the country, living in various locations on the east coast and midwest, carrying within me a lump of nostalgic longing for LA, my friends and family, and a regret which ate at my psyche for years.
Today I am in my 50s. Guess what? The regret is gone. Evaporated. The pain will leave you in time.
What you cant do is go home again, to paraphrase Thomas Wolfe.
America is a country where everyone is free to escape the past. Its both our blessing and our curse. But it is the only way for many of us who start at the bottom of the ladder to escape the lower rungs. Don’t wait for the next revolution. Its not going to come. And even if it does, there is no guarantee things will get any better. Meet the new boss, as the song says.
The hurricane has given many an opportunity to start over in new places. Surely, it left many with immense suffering.
May God bless the displaced one and all, as they attempt to sort out the meaning of their lives and the great events which are inescapably pushing us all toward a new and different future.
Wherever you are, here is to a new start in a new year.
Truth and courage to all.
