December 2010
Will Smith expected to play Katrina hero in 2011...
A movie expected to be released next year will be set in Mid City New Orleans. The script is based on the story of a Hurricane Katrina hero, a resident in an apartment building along Bayou St. John who made sure the hundreds of people inside stayed safe while floodwaters raged all around them. Dodie Smith Simmons and her husband, John, rode out Katrina in their second floor apartment at the...
Linebacker Jonathan Vilma is chosen New Orleans...
New Orleans Saints middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma has been named the 2010 Saints “Man of the Year,” the team announced Tuesday.
One of the most prestigious awards in the NFL, the honor is voted on annually by members of the media, Saints front office staff and local non-profit and business executives.
The team cited Vilma’s dedication to community service, his charitable...
12 Drinks of Christmas: Better Eggnog
The Better Eggnog by Ali Mills of Coquette “One of the servers in my restaurant refused to believe that eggnog could be delicious,” said Ali Mills, the bartender at the Garden District bistro Coquette, “and so he dared me to come up with a better nog.” Her version includes a generous slug of falernum, a Caribbean ginger and lime syrup that, thanks to the tiki trend, is now easy to find in the...
GM using oil spill boom material in Chevy Volt
Boom from the BP oil spill is getting a new charge from the maker of the Chevrolet Volt electric car.
General Motors says that instead of going to landfills, roughly 100 miles of plastic boom material will be converted into vehicle parts.
The parts deflect air around the vehicle’s radiator.
The Volt, a compact car, can go about 35 miles on battery power before a gasoline engine kicks in...
Oil-impact study may take 20 years
HOUMA — An inventory of environmental impacts from the BP oil spill may take as long as two decades to complete, a top aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal said. But with Louisiana’s deteriorating coast on the line, the state is lining up emergency restoration projects it wants BP to pay for today.
The Natural Resources Damage Assessment is a study by Louisiana, the federal government and other Gulf...
New Orleans public school construction is booming
With $1.8 billion of FEMA money in hand and construction costs at new lows, the comprehensive overhaul of New Orleans public school buildings is proceeding at an accelerated pace with groundbreakings at eight elementary schools.
In addition to the groundbreakings, about a dozen school construction projects are already under way and five more will begin by the middle of next year. Three new...
New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees fourth QB to be...
The victories continue to pile up for New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, both on and off the field.
The reigning Super Bowl MVP was selected The Associated Press’ Male Athlete of the Year on Friday, based on a vote of AP members.
Brees is the fourth quarterback to receive the honor in the past four decades, along with the Patriots’ Tom Brady in 2007, the 49ers’ Joe...
Crescent Pie & Sausage Company shines brightest...
The Crescent Pie & Sausage Company is a neighborhood restaurant that serves the kind of unaffected, not-too-expensive food that can turn first-time diners into biweekly regulars. It also is a zeitgeisty business whose menu is a conflation of ideas that raises a series of probing questions.
Is it a Cajun restaurant? A sandwich shop? A boucherie with tables? A pizza parlor? When do pizzas...
Bourbon House wins Tales of Toddy contest with...
Is New Orleans having a nutmeg shortage today? Nutmeg graters were garnishing madly all over the place as 14 bartenders served their best milk punch variations Thursday night at Tales of the Toddy, the popular holiday party put on by Tales of the Cocktail. Ballots were given to attendees to vote on their favorites.
The bartenders also served an original cocktail. The event at the Monteleone...
Oil-spill panel calls Jindal's sand berms a $220M...
The presidential commission investigating the BP Gulf of Mexico spill has concluded that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wasted $220 million building controversial sand berms that captured a “minuscule amount” of oil and proved to be “underwhelmingly effective” and “overwhelmingly expensive.”
The 36 miles of berms, constructed over the objections of many...
1st full-time culinary arts program for high...
With a strong assist from former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps, John McDonogh High School is planning to offer New Orleans’ first full-time culinary arts program for high school students.
Beginning next fall, about 100 sophomores from across the city will enroll in the program, which will begin with three weeks of mettle-testing at Cafe Reconcile to make sure students are...
Federal government sues BP, other companies in...
The Justice Department has sued BP Exploration and Production Inc. and eight other companies in the Gulf oil spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The Obama administration’s lawsuitasks that eight companies be held liable without limitation for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including...
Our Own Worst Enemy
New Orleanians are no strangers to catastrophe. In fact, it seems we are rapidly becoming seasoned pros at disaster management. We have proven to be resilient; yet one has to wonder how much more strife our bedeviled city can endure.
To the outsider, we may appear cursed. Having experienced Katrina, the largest natural disaster in American history, and the BP oil spill, the largest...
New Orleans ownership group emerging
A potential Louisiana-based ownership group for the New Orleans Hornets is emerging, as locals work to keep the NBA franchise inNew Orleans Arena despite interest from other cities.
The group could include local attoney Morris Bart and current minority owner Gary Chouest, who now says he could up his stake in the team from 35 percent to more than 50. Local politicians have been beating the...
Dr. John "surprised" by news of Rock and Roll Hall...
New Orleans music icon Dr. John could finally be in the right place at the right time, to borrow from one of his best-known songs, with media reports that he will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
The New York Times and Rolling Stone report that Dr. John, the New Orleans funk and rock pianist, guitarist and composer whose real name is Mac Rebennack, is one of the 2011...
Tailgating teams compete to represent city at...
The Cvitanoviches are going to the Super Bowl.
Two of them, in fact. Drago’s proprietor Tommy Cvitanovich, his son Josh and his brother Gerry, and their friend former LSU quarterback Jeff Wickersham, will be in Dallas for Super Bowl XLV and also to compete in the super bowl of tailgating.
Four teams of Saints fans battled it out near the Superdome on Sunday in a tailgating competition,...
Supply and demand are out of kilter in eastern New...
Every week Alicia Plummer leaves home through the landscaped entry of Fairway Estates ineastern New Orleans and shops for groceries at the nearest store that meets her needs: a Wal-Mart Supercenter on Tchoupitoulas Street, 13 miles away.
Merlin McGhee, a public school math teacher who works in Algiers, also does most of her shopping long before returning to her restored home in eastern New...
New Orleans pro basketball: The definitive history
New Orleans pro basketball history
Born in New Orleans in the 1970s, my earliest basketball memories were of the late great “Pistol” Pete Maravich and the New Orleans Jazz. But just when I became old enough to start following the Jazz seriously, they moved to Utah. Fortunately, the Hornets later moved to New Orleans and I can now watchChris Paul(notes), one of the greatest point...
New Orleans actor Anthony Mackie shines in indie...
Although he finds himself in it from time to time — such as when he ended up onstage at the Oscars with his “Hurt Locker” co-stars during March’s Best Picture presentation — actorAnthony Mackie doesn’t seem to seek the spotlight.
He’s just fine taking quieter, less-flashy roles in quieter, less-flashy films. They’re the kinds of roles that fly...
Former Coquette Bartender opens Twelve Mile Limit
At Coquette, the upscale Garden District bistro, bartender T. Cole Newton got a reputation for taking chances. He would raid the kitchen pantry for ingredients, infuse tequila with jalapeños or mix bacon-flavored bourbon with moonshine. At Twelve Mile Limit, his new Mid-City bar, the drinks aren’t that different, but the decor and vibe is decidedly downscale with prices to match. A cocktail that...
Three Muses offers a taste of the world in...
On a Tuesday night a few weeks back, Linnzi Zaorski stood hip-cocked at the edge of the stage inside Three Muses, singing about what she would do to a lover’s lips — “I’d make a million trips” — if she happened to be a bumblebee.
The scene that unfolded around the singer could appear as footage in some future documentary about Frenchmen Street culture circa...
Federal guidelines for Gulf seafood safety...
Louisiana residents have long bragged about their prodigious consumption of local seafood, but a survey by an environmental group suggests that government seafood testing programs in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill severely underestimated that rapacious appetite for fish — and may have underestimated residents’ risk as a result.
A survey of 547 coastal residents in the...
Things don't look good for Hornets staying in New...
Will there soon be an old saying about New Orleans? That it’s a great place to visit but you wouldn’t want your basketball team to live there?
Please be warned: The following isn’t an indictment of the basketball fans in New Orleans, the city itself or the league. But any city lacking a geyser of corporate dollars and a massive amount of people with disposable income becomes...
Follow Ian Hoch's flow chart to find drinks in New...
Need a drink? It’s a simple question, but in New Orleans the options can be overwhelming. To make that decision easier, actor and comedian Ian Hoch created the “Where to Get Drinks Chart.”
Follow the steps, answer the questions (“Where are you?” “Want live music?” “Want to hang out with old people?”) and you’ll end up at a place that fills your needs and fits your personality. The chart,...
The Art of Southern Film presents "Two Gates of...
Friday December 10 (08:00 PM - 10:00 PM)
The Art of Southern Film presents Two Gates of Sleep, a film by Alistair Banks Griffin – Regional Premiere! Fri. December 10
7 p.m.-8 p.m. Ogden Museum Member reception 8 p.m.-10 p.m., Ogden Museum’s Patrick F. Taylor Library
Filmmaker in attendance!
The Art of Southern Film presents Two Gates of Sleep, a film by New Orleans-raised Alistair Banks...
Camellia Grill opens in the French Quarter
It’s a little surreal to walk into the new Camellia Grill in the French Quarter (Chartres and Toulouse), because it looks just like the Riverbend Camellia Grill — happily, down to some of the same waiters. But it’s brand new; this is opening weekend, and a great time to eat there because the crowds are still small and 25 percent of proceeds from the weekend are going to...
6-year-olds, 3-year-old burglarize home
Three young boys burglarized a Covington home over the weekend, taking among other things a board game and a jar of vegetables, according to police.
The incident happened at about 11 a.m. Saturday in the 1100 block of 26th Avenue, when the homeowner returned from shopping to find the three children in his home.
Capt. Jack West, a spokesman for the Covington Police Department, said the...
NATIONAL TAILGATING CHAMPIONSHIP COMES TO NEW...
This Sunday New Orleans’ own Joe Cahn, the Commissioner of Tailgating, and Bing will host a regional competition at New Orleans’ Superdome before the Saints/Rams game, competing with previous regional competitions — Houston, Denver, NY and Phoenix. With the Bing National Tailgating Championship, tailgaters from around the country will have the opportunity to compete for the first-ever...
“In America, there is New York, San Francisco and New Orleans and everywhere else...”
– Mark Twain (via laureninneworleans)
'ArT Home New Orleans' a celebration of culture
New Orleans is inextricably linked to its art and traditions, from Bourbon Street jazz to the cuisine and architecture of the storied French Quarter.
This weekend and next, the city will celebrate its own art and culture with “ArT Home New Orleans,” a two-weekend tour of more than 50 homes, art studios and “salons” where the work of emerging artists will be sold.
Citywide tours will be 11...
Red Hot + New Orleans This Weekend in Brooklyn
Can’t make it to Mardi Gras? Spaced on attending Jazz and Heritage? Fear not. Tonight and tomorrow the Brooklyn Academy Of Music gives Brooklyn a little taste of Nawlins flavor with the world premier of the beat-blessed Red Hot + New Orleans. The concert is produced by BAM in association with The Red Hot Organization in recognition of World AIDS Day (which was Dec. 1).
As you’d expect from a...
How do you know the New Orleans Hornets will win...
Future Western Conference champions: the New Orleans Hornets
As a diehard basketball fan and lifelong resident of New Orleans, my heart was broken when Pete Maravich and the Jazz left town. Then the Minnesota Timberwolves nearly moved to New Orleans, but the NBA did not approve the sale. But it was all for the best when the Charlotte Hornets relocated to New Orleans. After an uncommonly poor...