Post-Katrina new bridge construction I-10 coming into New Orleans

GONZALES, LOUISIANA - I’ve had to come up with a new cover story. In striking up conversations with people, the whole “I’m a writer and blogger” thing has been a conversation killer, people don’t know how to relate. Plus with the scruffy beard stubble, the Andy Rooney eyebrows and what the humidity does to my longish red hair--I think I’m just scaring people. Now my story is that I’m laid off (true) and having to drive across country for some interviews. Not that I want to move, but you know “whatever it takes,” this isn’t far from the truth. People can relate to that and open up better.

I’ve also realized that -- I really have no business making this trip. I’m not actually a “writer” in the professional sense, certainly not a journalist. I like the way it sounds, I like saying it, but in many ways it feels sometimes like an affectation. I have a business card that says "poet/writer" if that counts. Especially out on the road, it feels thin. I’m certainly no Hunter S. Thompson. I’m more a Kerouac wannabe, and like yeah, the world needs more of those. Also, being unemployed and with limited resources, this trip makes no sense, and though I have some leads on selling an article or two, it’s certainly not a going to help my financial situation at all. My reasons for making this trip seem to be equal parts, mid-life crisis, crisis of confidence, trying to rediscover myself, and just plain desperation.

Theoretically, if my unemployment continues for a long period, I could be facing foreclosure. I could lose everything I’ve saved up, and be facing crushing debt and bankruptcy. It’s that sort of sublimated panic I think a lot of people are facing now. I have to believe a couple of things though, panic and fear can be crippling. I also have to believe that getting yourself out there, whether it’s blogging or even poetry has to count for something.

Gambling

From Moblle, I decided to go down and take hwy 90, instead of Interstate 10. 90 takes you through Pasagoula, Biloxi, and Gulfport. I’d done it ages ago and it’s a beautiful drive with the road going right along the beach. It was nothing like I remembered it. Biloxi is now a gambling mecca, There’s a Hard Rock, and other big name casinos, lining the street now, it’s apparently big business, though I have to wonder how it fairs in hard times.

You can still see the occasional old condo highrise from when this area was just a sleepy retirement and summer beach condo area. Those days are gone.

Just what the world needs a Jimmy Buffet Margarittaville themed mega casino.

Katrina

I’d seen all the damage in New Orleans first hand, but wanted to see what was going on in the coastal areas east of there, that were actually hit much harder. It’s amazing still. Expecially between NO and Gulport. There’s still whole areas, where block after block, there’s nothing left. It’s all cleaned up, but there’s block after block in places where the only thing left, are abandoned streets and concrete pads where houses used to be. There’s occasionally a raised foundation, with grand stairs leading up to nothing, maybe a set of piers on which a house used to sit. Old strip malls are just overgown lots and empty building pads, sometimes a tall rust skeleton of the old street sign stands guard and that’s it. There are For Sale signs everywhere, but still only sporadic redevelopment.

I kept noticing these odd sort of “public art” sculptures, often quite large, 20-30”, these sort of odd twisting sculptures of schools of dolphins playing, flocks of seagulls., even a large group of Marlins breaking the wave. It finally dawned on me, that there were all dead oaks from the hurricane. I guess in an effort to make the best of things. Someone’s been busy turning dead trees into these public artworks.

The George Ohr/O’Keefe Museum heavily damaged in the hurricane is being rebuilt with a new Frank Gehry design. You can see Gehry's trademark organic metal skinned forms in the background.

The Gulf Beach along Highway 90.

Poem of the Day

Between New Orleans and Baton Rouge

Headights cut sharp into the night
barely keeping back the still,
the watching blackness
of the tall oaks and wetlands.
Eerie glows from the horizon
the trees occasionally giving way
to distant abstractly industrial
necklaces of light .
It would almost be pretty
if the fumes didn’t burn the eyes.

Americana for the Day

Here’s an old mock-up of the landing module that landed on the moon, this one was actually used to train astronauts. Now It’s a sculpture in the rest area near the NASA Stennis space center. I remember the landing in 1969 (I was 10) and what kid didn’t order this model from the back of his favorite comic book?