Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mar 28 2010

folly in red stick begins tomorrow

I enjoy reading my Sunday paper – I am one of those that actually looks at the ads floating around on the inner pages, those entities hawking their goods. One particular ad caught my eye this morning – a small ad at the bottom of page A-22 beginning NULLIFY Obama Care, and below requesting a joint resolution [that the] Louisiana Legislature MUST pass now. Then underneath was the “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden flag, which I’ll bet whose creators would be appalled that today’s tea baggers have adopted as their standard bearer.

Here is the ad

So I then checked out the website and was pretty shocked at the fringe group promoting this. I went on to read the Bios and concluded that the ad is probably financed by a couple of pretty wealthy individuals, not to mention the silent supporters fueling their money train. One can only imagine what sort of freaks this would attract: just take one look at the home page and all the stars and bars floating across the page and draw your own conclusions.

Two things scary about this: Folks reading this ad, without internet connections to see what these two yahoos are all about, would contact their Louisiana legislators and demand a resolution for Louisiana to repeal health care reform. Our play-along attorney general has begun the process, but all it would take would be for a large group of constituents to contact their lawmakers demanding Louisiana opt out of healthcare. Second is that the Times Picayune is allowing entities such as this to purchase ad space – are they THAT desperate for dollars?

This is just one example of the subterfuge we are in store for over the next few months, until Baton Rouge empties on June 21 and we can take a breath from the required vigil over the lunacy that seems to transpire 65 miles upriver. Watch your newspaper and televisions closely. Write down the numbers of bills that seem completely out of whack and don’t hesitate to call, write or e-mail your representative to voice your opinion on any bill filed, easily found and tracked here.

Mar 25 2010

Crescent City Classic Raises Funds for Nonprofit PreSchool

I’m doing a 10K in 10 days.

If you know me well, I suspect you may have just fallen out of your chair. I apologize. Let me clarify: I’ve been training for a 10K which will happen in 10 days.

If you’ve known me for a few years, you’ll not be surprised at why I’m doing this. I’m signed up for the Crescent City Classic, a run/walk through the streets of New Orleans, to support Abeona House — the much-loved non-profit Reggio Emilia-inspired early childhood education center that my husband, Paul, and I helped open almost 4 years ago.

When our childcare center did not open after Katrina-related damages and weeks of closure forced it to fold, together, with other working parents, we founded a pre-school.  Opening in September 2006, Abeona House was the first new school to open after Katrina.


I tried to go through my old blog posts and find some to mention here to show how special Abeona is — not only to us, and not only to all of the families, teachers, and children within — but to the community around it.

I had volumes to choose from… you could start at the beginning and read some of the logistics of opening and sustaining.  Like about that darn ramp we had to build (written by Paul) or when we finally got the 501c3 or the day we got the sign or teacher appreciation or about walks to the levee.

You could find the letter that we put in our holiday cards in 2007 or the article in the local paper.  You could see how we came together in tragedy.  And then how excited we were when Starbucks employees flew in from Seattle to lead a hand.


You could watch the fun in the kids’ exploration of Oak Street through tricks-or-treats or a visiting a senior center or riding the streetcar to the zoo.  You could see how Abeona teaches kids to give back.  And sets the example.

You could laugh at pictures from our first annual Krewe of Abeona Mardi Gras parade down Oak Street — or the second annual parade when our son was king.

You could go elsewhere, too.  Founding families wrote about their experiences here and here.  (Both are wonderfully written.)  A new family writes about Abeona here.

But no matter where you learn about our school, I hope that you’ll support us.

I’m asking everyone I know for $5.

I’m at about $300 right now in my fundraising (enough to send a teacher to a professional development training!) and I’d like to see this grow.  It’s as easy as can be… just visit the Abeona House website and click on the “donate” button.  Sure, we’d love you to give whatever you can, but I know times are tight so I’m asking for 5.

Abeona House is a wonderful organization worthy of donation — but even so, I consider your donations to be equally supportive of me, personally.

If you do, please let me know so that I can send a personal thank-you.  (You can make a note that it’s to support me — Holly — in the Reggio Run when you donate online!)  THANK YOU!!

VISIT ABEONA HOUSE HERE.

Mar 22 2010

Now It’s The Woman’s Turn

This image is on the RNC’s brand-spanking new website, firenancypelosi.com. I’m surprised it doesn’t say “Jezebel” or some such inflammatory slogan underneath considering the hell-fire and brimstone background.

“It’s personal for women. After we pass this bill, being a woman will no longer be a pre-existing medical condition.” — Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 21, 2010

Nancy has my hearty congratulations for her perseverance in getting the National Healthcare Reform bill passed last night.
Here is what we can expect to happen this year as a result:

*Insurance companies will be barred from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Lifetime coverage limits will be eliminated and annual limits are to be restricted.

*Insurers will be barred from excluding children for coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

*Young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ health plans until the age of 26. Many health plans currently drop dependents from coverage when they turn 19 or finish college.

*Uninsured adults with a pre-existing conditions will be able to obtain health coverage through a new program that will expire once new insurance exchanges begin operating in 2014.

*A temporary reinsurance program is created to help companies maintain health coverage for early retirees between the ages of 55 and 64. This also expires in 2014.

*Medicare drug beneficiaries who fall into the “doughnut hole” coverage gap will get a $250 rebate. The bill eventually closes that gap which currently begins after $2,700 is spent on drugs. Coverage starts again after $6,154 is spent.

*A tax credit becomes available for some small businesses to help provide coverage for workers.

*A 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services that use ultraviolet lamps goes into effect on July 1.

Read this article on Factbox for more factual info about what we can expect. No fire and brimstone required.

Mar 18 2010

Femme Fatale Friday: Fiona Robyn

“I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I’m giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don’t think I’m alone in wondering whether it’s all worth it. I’ve seen the look in people’s eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I’ve heard the weary grief in my dad’s voice.”

This is from Chapter 1 of Fiona Robyn’s novel, Thaw, which she is blogging daily over the next several months.  I was turned on to the blog five days into the story by a  friend  and I am utterly and completely hooked. Fiona’s portrayal of the main character, Ruth, is elegantly nuanced as she slowly allows the layers of a life to curl outward and fall, giving us insight into the very private life of a woman on the edge of suicide. Despite the subject, the story isn’t at all morbid or depressing – so far – and the reviews I’ve read (see links on the blog) all praise Fiona’s insight and skill as a storyteller, perhaps particularly so with a subject that can so easily get mired in muck.

I knew virtually nothing about Fiona Robyn before I stumbled on this blog but, after a bit of research, found she has had several  books published.  She also has three blogs – one of which I am familiar with,  A Handful of Stones,  although I didn’t realize it was hers.  I contacted Fiona to let her know how much I’m enjoying  Thaw (a fan letter!) and to ask for an online interview to which she graciously agreed.

Fiona Robyn

So here we go:

Is writing your full-time occupation?

Not yet! I make my living as a therapist, working with clients in private practice in the afternoons and evenings. This means my mornings are free for writing.


What is your earliest recollection of writing as a passion?

I used to make my own ‘books’ from folded paper when I was quite young, and was very excited when I started the story but I don’t think I ever got to the end! Luckily I’ve learnt to finish stories since then.

Tell us a bit about your creative process. Do you start a project with a beginning, middle and ending in  mind or does it evolve as you go?

I always start at the beginning. My character arrives first, and the story emerges as I get to know my character better. I write a whole draft from the beginning to the end, which is always terrible, and then I start re-drafting.
Who’s work has inspired yours?

I like a lot of American writers – Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Lorrie Moore, and also non-fiction – Annie Dillard, and lots of Buddhist writers.

What do you do to get out of a creative funk?

When I’m working on a novel, I’ll do anything to try and get out of my daily writing. All I can do is force myself to sit down and get started. Most days I succeed – some days I don’t.

Why or how did you decide to publish “Thaw” online in diary form?

I’m still at the beginning of my career as a writer, and so I’d like to find as many new readers as possible. The novel fitted so perfectly into blog format, I thought it was an opportunity to share the book with a wider audience. I’m also hoping that some readers might buy my previous novels, or a hard copy of Thaw, but we’ll see!

Is Ruth based on someone in your life, is she a composite of people or is she purely a character of your imagination?

She’s completely fictional. All my characters will be influenced by my own experience of life, but they’re not me or anyone else I know.

Where do you see yourself and your work in 5 years?

I’d love to be doing what I’m doing now – writing and enjoying life. It’d be a bonus if more readers were reading and enjoying my books, and it would be great to be able to make a living from writing. That’s not essential though – writing is the most important thing.

~~~

“I’ve always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I’ll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say, ‘It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for,’ before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It’ll all be here. I’m using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I’m striping the paper. I’m near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I’m allowed to make my decision. That’s it for today. It’s begun.”

Don’t let this novel pass you by.
Go. Read. Now.

Mar 16 2010

singing the pothole blues

I don’t know if its a sign of progress, or just a big fat F-YoU from C Ray to everyone that drives in New Orleans, but I swear it seems like every damn street in the city is gouged up, pocked up or completely uneven. Every road I traveled today – Elysian Fields, France Road, Poland Avenue, the Judge Seeber Bridge, St. Claude Avenue, Orleans Avenue, and various stretches of Claiborne is just completely tore up. Last week while tooling, or rather crawling around, I picked up a big bolt in my truck tire that wound up costing $13 bucks to patch.

I can’t imagine where the money came from to fix every single street in town all at once. Maybe its a last ditch effort to drain the city funds dry by Nagin. I don’t claim to know how the dept. of streets works, but maybe someone over there would think that tearing up all the routes at once could result in gridlock around town. Or maybe not…

If anyone knows of any streets that aren’t tore up, I’m all ears. Perhaps we can all forget about it tomorrow while drowning in green beer.

Mar 8 2010

March 8 ~ International Women’s Day

I knew this day was coming but still it’s crept up on me, procrastinator that I am. Since I haven’t prepared a post specific to this theme, I hope this blog will stand on it’s own merit as a site that promotes, educates, entertains and celebrates women. I am grateful to have a wonderful panel of women who have taken time out of their busy lives to share their thoughts with you on this forum ~ this is a good time to tell you how much I appreciate you all. Thank you Morwen, Holly, NolaNotes, Nikki, Amy and SwampWoman for sharing yourselves  and being great team-members!  Thank you to Michelle and Gina, two of my original members who are no longer with us. I miss you. And thank you to the guest postesses and the women I’ve interviewed who’ve tolerated my rather amateurish efforts. I love you all.

This might be a good time also to announce that Nikki Page Sothern will no longer be posting on NOLAFemmes. To say I am devastated is not an exaggeration. I’ve known Nikki for a few years now having first found her through her personal blog, Nola Nik, where we became “chatters” through comments there and on my own blog. I wish you well in your new endeavors and your new life as a mother, Nikki. You will be missed!

So, if anyone out there is interested in being a contributor here, shoot me an email. I’m always on the look-out for new voices.

Today especially, I want to give a shout-out to a blog that I highly respect as a strident voice for women – one that I read regularly and always, always learn from. Please visit Gender Across Borders today for their thoughts about IWD and for live-blogging of participants of Blog For International Women’s Day.

Please take the time today  to tell at least one woman and/or girl in your life what she means to you. Happy International Women’s Day!

Mar 5 2010

Can You Name 5 Female Artists?

That’s the question posed in the beginning of the trailer for Who Does She Think She Is?, a documentary film by Academy Award Winning filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll, the co-executive producer of  Born Into Brothels.

Watching and listening to the trailer for this film really brought home for me the  gender-specific issues women face in the artistic community in terms of the devaluation and lack of recognition for their work. Take the following statistics from the film’s press kit for instance:

Source: Guerrilla Girls
• The number of professionally trained artists and art historians in the U.S. – Males 52%, Females
48%
• Percentage of artists at major institutions:
o National Gallery of Art — 98% male, 99.9% white
o National Portrait Gallery — 93% male, 99% white
o Hirshhorn Museum – modern and contemporary art — 95% male, 94% white
• Exhibition opportunities: Juried (artists unknown to juror) – Males 52%, Females 48%
• Exhibitions opportunities: Invited (artists known to juror) – Males 80%, Females 20%
• Gender distribution of visual artists in art texts – Males 90%, Females 10%
• Of the over 100 Tonys awarded since 1947 for theater direction, only 2-5% have been to women
Directors; only 2-6% to African American Directors.

Source: A Room of Her Own: A Foundation For Women Writers and Artists
• Only 9 out of 52 winners of the National Book Award for Fiction are women.
• Only 11 out of 48 winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction have been women.
• Women writers won 63% of the awards but less than 30% of the money in awards reported by
Poets & Writers. (Jan/Feb ‘03 issue).
• 94% of all the writing awards at the Oscars have gone to men.
• A recent study by the Coalition of Women’s Arts Organizations showed that in all 1-person shows
for living artists in American museums, only 2% of the featured artists are women.
• 51% of all visual artists are female and women hold 53% of art degrees, but 80% of college faculty
members are male.

~~~

The film follows the lives of 5 women and their struggle to balance family and art.

“Through their lives, we explore some of the most problematic intersections of our time: mothering and creativity, partnering and independence, economics and art. The film invites us to consider both ancient legacies of women worshipped as cultural muses and more modern times where most people can’t even name a handful of female artists.”

I do believe the value disparity between men and women artists isn’t as wide in New Orleans as in the rest of the country. We’re lucky to live in a city where art, music, food, theatre and, indeed, all genres of the creative are valued and celebrated. If only the rest of the country and the world shared our views.

This looks to be a very important and thought-provoking film and oh, how I wish it would be screened here. According to the website, the closest it will come is Atlanta. Here are the particulars:
ArtMamas Atlanta
Saturday, March 27, 2010 @ 4:30pm
The Grounds Coffee House
898 Oak Street SW Suite F
Atlanta, GA 30310
Free Admission

Update: Read Liprap’s beautiful post here about the art of Jay DeFeo.

Mar 4 2010

fugue

I have yet to jump start after the New Year > Superbowl > Mardi Gras combined blowout. Toss in 2 weeks of Olympics drama (curling, of all things sucked me in big time) and where are we now? March…

I feel like I am in a fugue state – trying to get a breath before the Saints (Patrick and Joseph, not the black and gold) of March descend, then the festivals of April get rolling. I am not ready – I want to remain in a state of suspended animation for a little while longer. I feel like I got gipped out of winter hibernation this year, the time to turn off hunker down and refuel. But the trade off was superb, a Super Bowl victory!

I know one thing – I am not complaining in the least about the cold winter we’ve had, because right around the corner the humidity will return along with the scorching temperatures. I’ll take 50 and sunny anytime…

Let me finish by offering something for your fugue state, check out this cool blog I found about urban farming, Pluck and Feather