Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Walk On The Wild Side 1962


Click on the picture to go to YouTube and watch full screen.

Perhaps the author's own words describe this classic work best: "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."

This movie starts out dark but that is because it is late in the day and nightime. At around 6 minutes it gets lighter.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056671/
The above link is to the International movie database about this film.
If you go to wikipedia and look up two of the actors Don"Red" Barry and Capucine you will find they both came to a sad end.
I only like the movie because it was filmed in New Orleans and  has some nice scenes in the French Quarter and Jackson Square. Nice scene outside of Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop where Dove meets Hallie as she pulls up in an old car from the 1930s.

 The link below provides good reviews on Amazon.com of the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Wild-Side-Novel/dp/0374525323/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330716735&sr=1-1
It is a not very good movie made from a very good book titled A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE by Nelson Algren.  If you read the information below about the book you will find that the movie screen writers have totally ignored the book and made up a whole new story.
This movie really should be titled A WALK ON THE MILD SIDE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_on_the_Wild_Side_(novel)

What The 1960's Were Really Like

Click on the above drawing to enlarge it. It is by Gilbert Shelton. And those are the Furry Freak Brothers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Furry_Freak_Brothers


Monday, February 27, 2012

The Second Coming By William Butler Yeats Meets Hell's Angels

The poem above is The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats.
 "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of
passionate intensity".
Click on the photos above to enlarge them.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Swamp Women (1955) - Part One Includes Scenes From King Rex Parade Mardi Gras New Orleans 1955


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPutXZ6hHrU
You can go to Youtube and watch this entire movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048682/
The Movie includes scenes from the 1955 Mardi Gras King Rex Parade.
This scene looks like it was filmed in The Court Of Two Sisters or Pat O'Brien's.
Good scene  with a panhandler and pickpocket who asks for a dollar for coffee. Then pulls out a roll when the man and woman leave. He acts drunk and asks for coffee money from the same couple again later.

I had a young white guy pull this on me at a 7-11 recently. He asked for a dollar for coffee inside the 7-11. I told him no and watched as he walked away past the coffee and went and got a large six pack of beer and took it to the counter to pay.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Why The Mistick Krewe Of Comus Doesn't Parade Anymore During Mardi Gras In New Orleans

Click on the above picture to enlarge it.

Comus used to be the last parade of Mardi Gras held on Fat Tuesday at night. They don't parade anymore. Read all of the below article to find out why.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistick_Krewe_of_Comus

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Zulu Parade In New Orleans

Click on the above picture to enlarge it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_parade

Monday, February 20, 2012

Mardi Gras Music And Virtual Mardi Gras New Orleans 2012 Live Jackson Square Cam Bourbon St. Cam and Live Parade Cam From St. Charles Avenue


Click on the above photos to enlarge them.
Happy Mardi Gras. Let The Good Times Roll.
Live parade coverage on Mardi Gras Day on WDSU TV New Orleans. Click link below.
http://www.wdsu.com/video/17360129/detail.html

http://www.nola.com/jacksonsquarecam/

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/louisiana/neworleans/bourbonstreet/

Plus 2 hours of Mardi Gras music on American Routes. Listen online.
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/731/from-home-page

Complete Mardi Gras Parade Schedule for 2012.
http://www.mardigras.com/index.ssf?schedule

Click on the Label Mardi Gras in the Labels box below to see many more posts about New Orleans and a nice collection of Mardi Gras doubloons.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Panda Licking At A Panda Cake In Edinburgh Scotland

Click on the page above to enlarge it.
 Very cute Panda in the Edinburgh Scotland zoo.  That is a Valentine's Day cake. Is the Panda trying to lick the cake or the two baby pandas?

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Rosenbaum Residence 26th Avenue and 7th Street Meridian Mississippi Now Long Gone But Why Not Remembered?

I took the picture above sometime in the 1970s. The house is now long gone. I think it was torn down in the late 1970s.

 But finally I found an old postcard on Ebay that identified it as the Rosenbaum Residence at 26th Avenue and 7th Street in Meridian Mississippi in 1907.
    I can not understand why there is not more in the history of Meridian about this impressive house. It is not mentioned anywhere on the web except in that old postcard on Ebay.
Below is the way the house looked in 1907. Click on the postcard to enlarge it.


The link below is some history on the first Jewish families in Meridian,Ms.
According the the above it was most likely the home of either Isaac or Leopold Rosenbaum.

Click on the name Meridian Mississippi in the Labels box below to see more of my posts about Meridian Mississippi.



Sucarnochee Revue/Gumbo Man / George Cummings.mov

Sunday, February 12, 2012

In 1972 Larry Borenstein Sued MGM To Make Them Stop Filming In Front Of His Gallery On Royal Street In The French Quarter

Above photo shows Larry Borenstein on the left and Allan Jaffe on the right.
Click on these pictures to enlarge them

The movie mentioned above as The Deadly Honeymoon is also called The Nightmare Honeymoon. Here is information on it.


http://www.rightwaywrongway.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=65&page=1
The link above is a good introduction to who Larry Borenstein was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Borenstein

Below Larry Borenstein tells the story of his gallery and the creation of Preservation Hall in New Orleans.
http://www.rightwaywrongway.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=64&page=1

Below is something on Alan Jaffe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_jaffe
Click on the name Larry Borenstein to read some more posts I have done about him.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Genius of Noel Rockmore?????



Genius?  Maybe Not. Maybe he was only so so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Rockmore

More on Noel Rockmore in the link below.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/28/noel-rockmore-picasso-of-new-orleans-revisited/?print&page=all
Back in 1965 and 1966 I used to see Larry Borenstein sitting in his gallery on Royal Street and the walls were covered with paintings of local jazz musicians done by Noel Rockmore.
You can read about Larry Borenstein in the link below.
http://www.rightwaywrongway.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=65&page=1

If I remember correctly the tourists loved to buy the paintings of jazz musicians done by Rockmore. Borenstein had a good thing going with selling this splashy commerical art.
Some of these paintings are still on the walls of Preservation Hall in New Orleans.

One or two paintings reminded me of the San Francisco art gallery that sold the pictures of the little girls and boys with big eyes crying. In the sense that they were done expressly for the tourist trade.
 In 1969 there was a gallery in North Beach in San Fran that sold Walter Keane paintings and nothing else. Read in the article below that it turned out his wife Margaret did most (if not all)of the paintings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Keane

I see an effort is underway to try and promote Rockmore. I don't think they will get very far. Only 646 people have looked at the video shown above.

Read my posts about Walter Anderson of Ocean Springs, Mississippi to see what a real genius was doing at the same time. Click on the name Walter Anderson in the Label box below.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

How I Became President Of The Youth For The Unpledged Electors In 1960 Or Politics Can Be Fun If You Don't Take It Seriously

The men in the picture above are from left to right" William D. McCain (President of Mississippi Southern College which became The University of Southern Mississippi in 1962) Governor Ross Barnett and Paul B. Johnson who became Governor of Mississippi after Ross Barnett left office in 1964.

I was a sophomore in college in 1960. I really wasn't interested in politics but it seemed everyone one else was.
    I got wind there was going to be a debate between The Young Democrats and The Young Republicans sponsored by the Economics Department. I think one of the economics professors was going to moderate.
   But I had read enough to know that neither of those two parties were going to win the vote in Mississippi in the election of 1960.
    I happened to run into a fellow I had seen around campus who saw it my way when I told him we should be allowed to take part in the debate. I said we could be The Youth For The Unpledeged Electors.
   I told him this mostly as a joke but I did feel it was unfair for the debate to take place without someone representing the group which would eventually prevail in Mississippi. And so they did. They went to the 1960 Democratic Convention as Unpledged Electors with Governor Ross Barnett as their "Favorite Son". In the end they voted for Senator Harry Byrd for President and Strom Thurmond for Vice President.
    I told this guy who was really worked up over this debate to go ask if we could take part.
There really was no organization it was just the two of us.
He went and asked as was told no we could not take part.

I had thought that would be the end of it. But somehow that guy went to the campus newpaper and got the story about this affair printed and suddenly what I had said half in jest had become a reality.
His name and my name were listed as members of The Youth For The Unpledged Electors. We were listed as President and Vice President of The Youth For The Unpledged Electors.

   One of my fraternity brothers who was from New York found me walking on the campus and asked me what the hell was I up to. I told him it was a joke. He had taken it seriously. I guess when people read something in a newspaper they figure it must be true.

    Then a woman who taught in the home economy department ran me down. She was a cousin of Governor Ross Barnett. She told me what a wonderful thing it was that I was doing and that she wanted me to go with her to Jackson, Mississippi and she would have Ross make me a colonel on his staff.
  I never went with her. I had no intention of going. But it was nice of her to think of me.

In 1962 when my Air National Guard Unit was on active duty during the Berlin Crisis Governor Barnett came to Meridian to wish us all well.
So I finally did meet him. When he stuck out his hand for us to shake I remember how old he was and that his skin was so thin you could see right through it to the veins.
Ross Barnett was a colorful character. He had a way with words. Once a trustee excaped from Parchman Prison and the newspapers asked Ross Barnett about it and he said, "If you can't trust a trustee who can you trust?"

   When I went back to college to finish my degree in 1962/1963 I had a course taught by Miss Vera Barnett. It was called Marriage and Family Life. She still really liked me and gave me an A in the course.
  Below are some links about Ross Barnett and The Unpledged Electors and the election of 1960.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Barnett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unpledged_elector
Scroll down in the link above to read about the 1960 election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960#Democratic_convention

If you read the above you will see that I was right about who Mississippi was going to vote for in 1960.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Star Princess Leaving Saturday Night At 6 PM Febuary 4th From Santiago Chile Heading Around The Horn And Up To Rio


http://www.princess.com/learn/ships/tp/index.html

I know someone going on this journey. He and his wife are leaving today mid day from Dulles International Airport outside of Washington D.C.  They will fly to Dallas Texas and change planes for the 13 hour flight to Santiago Chile.

  I thought it would be interesting to follow them on their trip via the ship's webcam.
The link below is to the live web cam on The Star Princess. The month is wrong but all other info is correct.
http://www.baysider.com/Webcams/Global_Travel_By_Country/Cruise_Liner/Live_From_Bridge_Star_Princess


Click on the picture above to enlarge it.

When they get to Rio carnival will be in full swing. They plan to stay there 3 or 4 days.

In the link below you can read more about this ship and also about a fire they had on this ship in 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Princess