Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

Just 242 short days after the Katrina-inspired levee failures, Dickie Brennan”s Steakhouse has reopened. In just under eight months, New Orleans” (maybe the world”s?) most powerful family of restrauteurs has managed to get 7 of their 10 NOLA restaurants back up and running.

Sometime next month, Brennan”s is expected to reopen, and Commander”s Palace should be back in mid-June - not even 10 months after the disaster!

New Orleans” cultural luminaries have stepped up in the wake of the post-Katrina levee failures to help preserve the heritage of a city where heritage matters most.

Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis have spearheaded the Musicians” Village Habitat project; Wynton Marsalis gave the city “Congo Square”; honorary New Orleanian Harry Anderson has turned his French Quarter club into a political Speakeasy and a bunch of local celebrities joined the Come fall in love with Louisiana all over again campaign.

And with Jazzfest kicking off today, the musicians of New Orleans have the chance to really make the city shine. Dr. John will be there, of course. As will Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Irma Thomas and of course The Radiators. Fats Domino turned down a 2005 slot but will close the festival this year - eight months after he was rescued from his flooded 9th Ward home.

But noticeably absent this year are the Neville Brothers. Why?

And because Aaron Neville fears that post-Katrina air may aggravate his asthma, the Neville Brothers opted to skip Jazzfest entirely.

That”s right. Aaron Neville - who posed as someone who cares about the city by recording “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” after Katrina - can”t be bothered to play the city”s most important Jazzfest because he”s worried about his asthma.

I”ve never liked Aaron Neville or the Neville Brothers, but it would have been nice if they played next Sunday - since I”ll be there and they”d pull some of the crowd away from whatever stage I”d be at. But if there was ever a family, an act or a person that has built a career solely on being from New Orleans, it”s the Nevilles and specifically the amazingly thick Aaron. For him to bail on Jazzfest because of his lame asthma excuse is an insult to the city.

My apologies to Smoove D for stealing his trademarked tag (talk to my lawyer - but you”ll lose), but I think he”ll agree this guy deserves the title.

On Fox 5 news this evening, they had a story about a road-rage incident in which one of the drivers had her business phone number written on her car and the other was a moronic redneck dumb enough to call the number from his cell phone and leave this message:

Hey listen here you little n*gger fucking whore, learn how to drive your car otherwise you”re going to get your ass fucking killed. I”ll be the one doing the killing.

In today”s day and age, leaving a voice mail message with racial and sexist epithets is considered poor form at best. But to take the ambiguity away from “you”re going to get your ass fucking killed” by clarifying that it will, in fact, be you doing said killing is just not smart.

Apparently the lady was able to figure out the redneck”s cell phone number, as Fox 5 called him and was told “don”t call me no more.” Actually, the story just said the guy told them not to call him again, and I added the redneck grammar. In fact, it probably went something like “Don”t you fucking call me no more you Jew media sumbitch. I”ll kill you right after I kill that n*gger fucking whore.”

Headline on AJC.com today about a rally at the Georgia Capitol - as the paper”s own story says - “opposing illegal immigration”:

Just 14 short months after Katrina, the city expects to be back in the cruise ship business when the first fat-American sea buses set sail from NOLA”s cruise terminals this October.

See? Things aren”t all that bad down there.

It should be noted that the first cruise ships to return to New Orleans - as a destination - have been smaller, upscale European vessels, including the German Delphin Renaissance that arrived for New Year”s Eve in New Orleans.

The tornadoes that ripped through suburban Nashville Friday did some pretty bad damage - in my wife”s hometown and along a path near where just about all of her extended family lives.

That big church that was “destroyed” (note to the news media - the church wasn”t destroyed; its face was just ripped off) is just three miles south of my in-laws” house:

And as fate would have it, the wife and I had to be in Nashville this weekend, so we saw a good bit of the damage in person and a lot more of it on local TV coverage. It was bad. Just to the east in Gallatin, very nice and well-built homes were completely blown apart by the storm and in all about a dozen people were killed in Tennessee.

The sheer force of a tornado and the random and sudden nature of the destruction is truly scary. On an individual basis, there”s not much that can compare to the fear that must come from being huddled in a closet with a twister outside and the death and destruction that can arise in a day that starts and ends with beautiful blue skies.

But being around the tornado damage this weekend made me realize just how insignificant - in the global view - even a large-scale tornadic event is.

My world, of course, is colored by what I”ve seen up close and personal in coastal Mississippi and New Orleans during the last 7 months. I don”t want to diminish the personal loss of tornado victims - losing your home is losing your home; losing a friend or relative is losing a friend or relative - but what Katrina did in Mississippi and flood-protection failures did in New Orleans goes far, far beyond personal loss.

In Tennessee, they”ll haul off the splinters and bricks, re-string the power lines, bury the dead and move on. It”s a tragedy for the community, but not much will change. In Mississippi and New Orleans, at best those communities are changed forever. In most cases, a re-shaped community will arise - but some will just cease to be.

Again, this is not to discount the personal tragedy or the fear that arises during such storms - it”s tough to watch your wife try to account for all the family members after the storm or later hear their stories of hiding in closets - but in the wake of Katrina there”s just a new standard for “tragedy”.