Follow the White Rabbit

Until further Water news, go to Indie after school projects to see what we are up to, especially but not only, ALYCE.

The Pause Button

As we are now in the edit phase, but also resuming ALYCE, there will not be daily posts here - though we should get a few framegrabs online - keep checking back every few days and we'll keep you informed as to events and progress.
A propos of which, Shane was given a community service award by Clay laugier and CRAZY IDEA for his help editing and filming. Way to go Shane!

GUMBO STOP PRESS

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!!!! Latest news reveals (sorry) gap in below mentioned gumbo recette - it was pretty good anyway - but here's the correction:
From Barbara herself
Uhhhhh! I forgot to add a can of diced tomatoes in the recipe. Bobby informed me of that after seeing your blog. A few other little, bitty things I didn't write down were: salt, pepper, cajun seasoning, and gravy darkener. We use Tony Cachere's or Zatarine's cajun seasoning. You might not have those particular brands in NY but any brand will probably do. We use Kitchen Bouquet (a liquid gravy darkener that contains a few spices) in gumbo, soup and gravy. Sorry I didn't mention the seasoning or gravy darkener. They weren't on my recipe card and I totally forgot about them. The cajun seasoning is a must have in all cooking around here. The gravy darkener isn't really necessary, we just like our gumbo more brown colored than red (sometimes we even use coffee - brewed already, not grounds - to darken a gravy).
so there you have it. Phew!

And the Winner is...

By quasi unanimous decision, the best meal of the whole trip was Bobby's gumbo, so here, courtesy of Barbra, is the recipe:
Chicken Gumbo

3 - Tablespoons flour
3 - tablespoons cooking oil (Bobby says earl, I say oil)
2 - onions (chopped)
3 - cloves garlic (chopped)
1 - 8oz pack cut, frozen okra
1 - small can tomato sauce
1/2 - bell pepper (chopped)
2 - stalks celery (chopped)
Chicken breast - boiled & cut in pieces (strain & save the water for
broth)
Smoked sausage - (how much you want?) cut & fried to get grease out,
then drain.
Water - use the water chicken was boiled in and add more water if
needed to bring amount to 6 cups.

Brown flour in cooking oil on medium/high heat until its pretty dark, stirring continually so it doesn't burn (that's called a roux ---- sometimes you might have to add a little more cooking oil). Add seasoning & okra and fry until seasoning wilted. Add tomato sauce and mix well. Next add water/broth, chicken & fried sausage. Bring to a boil and then lower fire. Cover and let cook on low for an hour or so. Be sure to stir often so it doesn't stick or burn. Don't forget to cook some rice. Good Luck.
Your cajun buddy
Barbara

Good Morning, Good Morning

Alright, I arrive... In more ways than one, believe me. Over the days following our return, I have had little chance to reflect; life, it seems, is an unstoppable force, and no attempt on my part to stave it off for another moment proved successful. But yesterday, stumbling into the great room after another afternoon's fun with the delta lab, and was immediately accosted by images of our trip, my memories, posted life-size on the screen. Dimensions of the experience manifested themselves in the colors and forms playing across the screen, emotions unfelt washed over me, pouring out onto the floor. Everything connected and broke at the same time, I effectively re-experienced the entire journey, and man, was it a doozie. But, as they say, if it hurt, it was probably worth it. And it did hurt. Damn cockeyes. Anyway, I seem to shirking my responsibilities by droning on as I am...The five questions, I am reminded. Five questions concerning all the many facets of the trip. Righto.

Funniest moment: I have to say, there were a lot of them. Among my favorites, this one shines the brightest. Me, in shotgun, minding my own business, playing rise o' nations. Taima, driving and kvetching, as always. Robin and Russel hammering Bowie in the far back. Shane and Trevor, battling over punch buggies, cruiser bruisers, cockeyes and mustangs. Which would have been fine. If they hadn't been battling for the chance to hit me the hardest. So there I was, eyes glued to a screen, somewhere in "who the hell gives a flying crap" North Carolina, getting punched every three seconds... cause if you think about it, between all of the different cars in the games, there are very few that you can't get punched for. Every three seconds, Shane or Trevor digging their knuckles into my bicep. It started to wear on me. Quickly. But, I am a level minded man, it takes a little more than a couple of pansy punches to break me. But then, it happened. For some reason, maybe there was a special car of some sort, maybe Russel egged them on, I don't know, all I know is I was playing and happy one moment, and the next moment Trevor and Shane hit me with a super double mega-zord punch, pounding the living crap out of my already tender arm. I paused, reflecting. I put the laptop down, sighing. I slipped into the far corner of the front of the car. I settled my nerves and prepared for the battle. I faced my prey. Time slowed. They laughed, long, distorted laughs drawn out by my slowed perception. I bared my teeth. Time hummed. The air was still. I pounced. Their eyes dilated in fear, mouths drawing open in shock. The dank air of the van passed whistling by my ears, singing softly valkyries songs of victory. I made contact. So, upon reflection, it all worked out like those looney tunes fights, a big ball of dust with fists and legs and heads poking out. Taima seems to remember getting kicked in the head, by I'm not going to stake any claims about that. The only thing that mattered was my prey. They got what they deserved. Damn straight.

Most Beautiful: On the way down, we took a detour off the main road to find Zoe Ladner's college, a little highway that wound through a national park. There, i saw the mountains of my dreams, tall and broken peaked, shattered bones thrust from the tree laden flesh of the berggiests they call the smokies. The trees were a scattered water color of pale blooms and new buds, the greens and whites and soft lavender of the Carolina spring. The stones were a shining silver robed in white, marble, granite, alabaster, it seemed to me. And about their feet slid the quiet serpent songs of rivers running clear and cold. Beautiful.

Most annoying: I don't feel right talking about any one point. I mean, if I still felt annoyed, believe me, you'd hear about it, but right now, I'm at peace with everyone involved. But hey, we were all damn annoying. Just to be fair.

Best food: No contest. Barb and Bob's the gumbomancers. No f***ing contest. Excuse me. I sneezed. Good Gumbo.

Best song: On the way home, we made the choice to drive all night, a midnight run for New York. And, as it turned out, I was the choice for the graveyard shift, eleven to five. Most of it was fine, Shane rocking shotgun and navvie, The cool night rushing by at ninety miles an hour, there were some points that were harder than others, Taima getting us lost, stuff like that, bu all in all in went smoothly. Until about three. At that point my reserves were running low, fatigue dripping in from the edges of my sight. To combat it, I turned on the Cd player. I don't know what it's called, it was on one of Russel's mixes, (it was the excellent Cornershop singing 'Brimful of Aisha', Rusty) supposedly it was about some womans bust, but I loved it, and it kept me up for almost two more hours. I was sitting there, bouncing up and down in the drivers seat, chanting "everyone needs a bosom for a pillow" at the top of my lungs. It was great. Then, at about five, the signs turned into melting hands and little blue fairies started chasing the car. I thought it better to pull over. But for those glorious moments, that song rocked my socks. Sweet.

Willow Thorneater out...

The Favorite Hour

Shane's favorite moment, and his photo. As are all the ones below. Little more to add here. Over Pontchartrain.

Moon in the Hand

Trevor's hand, I think. I hope he put it back.

Feetwets

Sunset, full moon, so we had to put feet in the water, didn't we.

Rusty and Trusty GL

Thought I'd better put in at least one photo of the old fellow. He's doing OK, though cannot seem to wake up early any more.

Once Were Homes

We don't want to dwell on the devastation caused, but there are two things these next images make us think. The first is that it's not just wreckage - it's a wrecked or damaged life. the area here is the 9th ward, and it's several square miles. All like this. And these photos are not the week after the hurricane, but 8 - count 'em - EIGHT - months afterwards.
The second, more self-centered point is that neither photos nor films can reveal the meaning of the place. there was so much more. A flat picture of a damaged house doesn't even begin to be adequate. It's one reason why there aren't a lot of such images in the blog, but there are situations where media just reveal their limitations. they are mediators between us and the world, but sometimes you must get into the world, without media. most of our time in new orleans was in fact spent seeing and being... not filming.

World Gone Askew

Dixit Will: "I always associated power lines with stability, all the poles upright, and a line to every home".
Here, in the ninth ward, the 45 degree angle and dangling, dead strands of cord make their own, Pythagorean comment.

O Helios

Rather a sun worhipper, Will here reaches the goal. Camera in hand, as per Indie mode.

Bayou

Our first encounter with the swamp monster.

Southern Belles

Our hosts generously drove us down to Lake Pontchartrain to catch the sunset. While we Yankees were basking in the warm breezes, the girls were shivering.

On the black beach

Robin and Trevor somewhat surprised to find the south shores of Lake Pontchartrain covered in a gooey black mess.

Shane peaks

hey red leader here

so i guess i will answer the 5 questions first. 1) the funniest moment would have to be when will steped off the curb and sprained his ankle. 2)the most beautiful moment of the trip was when the team did one last final hands in and we knew at that moment we were great. 3) the most annoying moment would probably be the drive home because it was very long and out of the 24 hours we were on the road i slept for about a half an hour. 4) the best food we had was at barb and bobs where we had home made gumbo and it was awesome. 5) the best song i heard in new orleans was when a girl about 23 years old was singing on the street and it was an awesome song. ok well i answered the questions so now its my turn to say some stuff, i just want to say that the team we had down in new orleans was the heart and soul of indie, in my mind without this group indie wouldnt be around. i want to thank all the people we talked to and everyone we met you really treated us like family. although i am glad to be home im really gonna miss the south because our group really bonded and the south freaking rocks. well im out but here is your final quote from red leader "life is like a hurricane you cant predict what will really happen but when it happens do all you can to survive and make it better"

red leader out

Robin peeps

1 Apart from seeing my dads 21st birthday, it would probably be when Will jumped in the back of Betsy and wailed on Trevor and Shane for both punching him because they saw a cockeye.

2 Sunset over Pontchartrain , or possibly the pink trees in Carolina.

3.having to go back to Subway after leaving my dad’s coat there, otherwise it’s probably something that I did that I was unaware of , sorry about all anoyances.

4.the Texaco station, otherwise Barb and Bobby’s gumbo was amazing, real Louisiana good eatin.

5. Starman by David Bowie

-robin

Gracehoper speaks

A reminder of the QQs:

1 - the funniest moment of the trip
2 - the most beautiful moment
3 - the most annoying moment
4 - the best food
5 - the song of the trip

1 Making use of forgotten routes hidden inside of the interstate highway system in order to attain lost materials. But then again, Russel's 21st birthday party was pretty good too.


2 Finding the small jurassic park dinosaur toy on the sidewalk of the completely destroyed town in the Ninth Ward.


3 Will thinking that it would be funny to wake up shane and I by attacking us with pillows, then slipping on his way back accross the room and landing on the most vulnerable part of me. - This being the only time throughout the entire trip when I said a "bad word."


4 The Gumbo at Bobby and Barbara's. Without a doubt. All three bowls of it.


5 Although the Life Aquatic Soundtrack was obviously the most played, I say that the song of the trip was Jump Around, by house of pain. It always seemed to make everyone happy to bring our little hip hop, slice of new york down south and blast it out of the stereo while all six of us bounced uncontrollably up and down.

Open house

Due to dinosaur brain and etc etc the blog is only now open to free comment. many thanks to those of you who wrestled with the registration just to give a heads up.

Overview

You could do no better to learn about the wider issues around the New Orleans disaster than to visit the updated page Ponchartrain basin then go to our friends here for a well reasoned and 'no quick fix' solution proposal.
You've read below how visiting the sites affected our party, and the widest of possible issues were raised in everyone's mind, and in our car conversations all the way back. Point one is the obvious repeatability of the event, this summer or next... point two, generally, is that everyone down there seems very clear and determined to rebuild their life... (point two b is that all of us northerners and furriners had our concepts of 'Southerners' smashed completely. We were met so often with sincere, smart and open people that the 'good ol' boy stereotype has gone.) Point three - perhaps more ambiguous and certainly more thorny (or 'itchy' as Trevor has it) is that the city formerly known as New Orleans (how do you rename it? New New Orleans??) was split along a racial divide - and, as Will pointed out, a socio-economic divide. It is increasingly clear that those neighborhoods will be rebuilt very slowly or not at all, and that therefore the inhabitants will be reabsorbed in the same manner. We were warned about hostility from 'those people', but without exception the African Americans' we met and spoke to were articulate, welcoming, outspoken, and yes angry, but not mindlessly so. there's a clear realization that while Nature is random and indifferent to your color and religion and class... floods are not random. they inundate unprotected areas, badly built housing, overspill from the city center high ground and (all of the above) the low rent neighborhoods. Even on the north side of Pontchartrain, which is pretty ritzy in parts, those shorefront homes which had been solidly built (i.e. expensively built) were restored and inhabited. the clapboard houses and the low income homes could not afford to be rebuilt, so they are still in a pile. Waveland Mississippi has been washed away, and the parts of St Bernard we saw remind me of the bombed cities of England after the war. the rubble still visible well into the 1960s of my childhood. For New Orleans - just using what we saw on this trip first hand, and what we were told, it seems that the preferred reconstruction of the city and area could be made without 'those people', building a beautiful city free of crime, poverty and violence. Along the model of parts of the Florida coast, for example? Whether a jewelled gated community is the best future for America and the rest of the world is another question.
Yet the city has a unique beauty to it, and beauty occasionally needs to locate itself on the edge. Certainly a restricted and enforced beauty has no meaning.
So, a lot to think about, a lot to put into Shane's movie, and a lot to be talked about, then a lot more to be done.
Today i watched all our rushes, so these themes are right in the front of my head again. I hope and believe the trip was as important for us all. We start editing on Tuesday. Stay tuned.

Square seven and one again: Mission accompli

We are home after a 32 hour team drive from the upper to the lower images. Excuse us if we are a little slow over the Easter weekend, but each participant will contribute a log before next week, and on Tuesday we will load up a gallery of Shane's photos - couldn't do that on the road.
I am asking everyone in addition to answer the following trivial and not so trivial questions:
1 - the funniest moment of the trip
2 - the most beautiful moment
3 - the most annoying moment
4 - the best food
5 - the song of the trip
For the record, here are my answers: 1 - in the lift en route for the Pontchartrain basin Foundation meeting, finding our very own, unwitting 'bond company stooge', who when asked if he was going to rat us out, innocently said he would not, and joined in our ring of hands just like Bud Cort in 'Life Aquatic'; 2 - full moon and warm breeze over the Mississippi from the French Quarter levee at sunset; 3 - the @#$%^&**^ Knoxville traffic system at 2 a.m.!; 4 - late breakfast in back of a Texaco station in Toomsuba, Ms. Barbecue beef, homestyle baked beans, mashed potatoes for $4. No contest; 5 - hard choice, but 'Life On Mars?' by Bowie. All versions.This is us, back in West Hurley.