I’m returning to New Orleans this weekend for the Jazz Festival for the first time in six or seven years. For a while in the 90’s it was an annual affair with a lot of friends; I think we went six-years running, usually convening folks from all around the country for two or three straight days of sunshine and music.
This will be my first time to really spend time in the city since Hurricane Katrina. I finally watched Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke and am a little bit shellshocked. Given how much I enjoyed spending time in New Orleans for a few years, I feel kind of bad that I haven’t really emotionally registered the scope of the devastation.
I am also a bit amazed that the entire affair has kind of slid below the public consciousness so soon. What went wrong was a serious breach of public responsibility, and it seems to me that the public should still be demanding answers and guarantees that problems are being corrected.
The internet world had a little dust-up this week as a concerted group of folks gamed Digg to prominently display a secret key which is used to encrypt DVDs. Imagine if a concerted group of folks could push the question “what went wrong in New Orleans?” to the front like that? Obviously, that’s not the same as getting something on the front page of the New York Times, but it would still be cool.
Heavy thoughts for a festival weekend. Here are some photos from years past to lighten things up a bit… If I have some time, I will come back and try to get the size/crop better…
JazzFest ’96
JazzFest ’97