Protest to stop the use of Corexit oil dispersant off our coast.  Nice visual.

David Simon’s new HBO series ‘Treme’ debuted last Sunday, and I got to watch it recently.  It’s always tough to see New Orleans portrayed by the outside world, but Treme does so relatively well.   Gorgeous cinematography, great music and vibe – so we’ll try to forgive the heavy-handed cultural name dropping and awkward references.  All in all, I’m gratified to see our story being told by such a capable team.  Looking forward to episode two.

Anything but Silver. I hear the Mercury is toxic and will make you crazy.

According to the McCain campaign, the event was canceled over weather concerns.

However, that explanation is not sitting well with Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who claims McCain canceled the event because of a nearby oil spill that dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Mississippi.

“Look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary and you will find a description of this turn of events. Having to cancel your big oil drilling photo op because of a massive oil spill is like canceling a crime safety photo op because the house next door just got robbed,” said Menendez.

“In selling his absurd coastline drilling plan to the American people, Sen. McCain has time and again pointed to advanced technology that would supposedly eliminate the threat of massive oil spills. As he can now personally attest, even with the most modern technology, we can’t prevent massive oil spills like the one currently devastating the Mississippi, just as we couldn’t prevent 7.7 million gallons of oil spills after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This is the type of straight talk about oil drilling the American people deserve to hear.”

On Wednesday, a 600-foot tanker and a barge loaded with fuel oil collided near New Orleans, breaking the barge in half. While there were injuries, more than 419,000 gallons of thick oil spilled from the barge, forming a slick 12 miles long.

McCain’s critics also pointed to the forecast, which according to weather.com called for scattered showers with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms in the New Orleans area.

Menendez has authored legislation to permanently ban drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, however, McCain has come out in favor of expanding offshore drilling.

Check out the killer Geauxbama shirts & stickers from hipster haberdashers Dirty Coast!

A Rainbow In Marrero from ballzack on Vimeo.

BarCampNOLA Conference Set to Gather Gulf Coast Technology Experts for a Good Cause

BarCampNOLA, a technology conference that aspires to bring Gulf Coast digerati, entrepreneurs and those interested in them together in order to connect with the local community, socialize and learn, will be held on February 16th and 17th at the Voodoo Ventures, LLC offices at 757 St. Charles Avenue, Suite 301 in New Orleans.

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences that was born from the desire of people to share and learn in an open, participatory environment. BarCamp conference content is provided by participants and often focuses on early-stage web applications and other open source technologies. Participants interact in the form of discussion, demos, and collaborative projects. The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California in 2005. Since then, the BarCamp movement has gained momentum as hundreds of BarCamp conferences have been held in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Australia and Asia over the past few years. BarCampNOLA is one of over 30 BarCamp conferences that have already been scheduled to take place in the United States this year.

The main focus of BarCampNOLA organizers is to help a struggling Gulf Coast-based small business or nonprofit by participating in a “hack day” style project over the course of the conference in order to produce or modify a needed technological service such as a new website or enhanced Web services. Organizers anticipate the attendance of participants with expertise in relation to code, design, creative concept production, and a variety other technology-related specializations.

BarCampNOLA is free to attend, and active participation is all that is asked of attendees. Wireless internet access will be provided by the conference. Also, individuals who attend are simply asked to share information regarding knowledge gained and overall experiences of the event via public web channels such as blogging, photo sharing and wiki-ing.

Like previous BarCamp conferences, BarCampNOLA will rely on securing sponsorship and donations ranging from food, beverages, and media advertising to monetary contributions of $250 to $400. BarCampNOLA organizers are actively soliciting sponsorship from local businesses interested in supporting the local tech community. Sponsors will have their organization’s logo printed on the back of the official BarCampNOLA T-shirt and are more than welcome to participate in the conference itself.

Local press will also be invited to the event, and are encouraged to assist in the promotion of BarCampNOLA. New Orleans-based organizations and groups that are able to spread the word about BarCampNOLA to their membership are greatly encouraged to do so.

For more information regarding attendance or sponsorship of BarCampNOLA, please contact Chris Schutz, CEO of Voodoo Ventures, LLC by phone at (504)581-6446 or via e-mail at cschultz@voodooventures.com. Also, visit BarCampNOLA’s official website at http://www.barcamp.org/BarCampNOLA.

These crazy bastards are too funny. The NSFW Dirty Coast jingle reminds me a little of one of my favorite local NOLA commercial jingles, for Broad Warehouse furniture.

This is a great story on how Larry Flynt’s investigators tracked down (married) Louisiana Republican senator David Vitter on phone database records, showing that he frequented a D.C.-area escort service while vilifying adulterers and those not espousing “family values”…

When the neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced Roy Pearson’s pants, he took action. He complained. He demanded compensation. And then he sued. Man, did he sue.

Two years, thousands of pages of legal documents and many hundreds of hours of investigative work later, Pearson is seeking to make Custom Cleaners pay — would you believe more than the payroll of the entire Washington Nationals roster?

He says he deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort,” for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit, for leasing a car every weekend for 10 years and for a replacement suit, according to court papers.

Pearson is demanding $65,462,500. The original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50.

By the way, Pearson is a lawyer. Okay, you probably figured that. But get this: He’s a judge, too — an administrative law judge for the District of Columbia.

What a prize. If you would like to leave a message expressing your outrage you can snail mail to:

Pearson, Roy L Jr
3012 Pineview Ct NE
Washington, DC 20018-1617

Or leave a message on his answering machine (he doesn’t answer his phone directly anymore): (202) 269-1191

Or send him an email: roypearsonjr@verizon.net