This past November, in New Orleans, streetcars returned to St. Charles Avenue. OK, they are back partially. The route stops at Napoleon Avenue intersection. Repairs are still being made on the rest of the route which includes Tulane University,  Loyola University, the river bend, and Carrollton Avenue up to Claiborne Avenue. Riding the streetcar is an easy way to do a self history tour of the city. $1.25 each way.

The street car goes to Carondolet Street at Canal Street. (one way streets put the streetcar on Carondolet Street at Lee Circle and Howard) The French Quarter is right across the street. Now it is at this stop you have to get off and pay again if you're going full circle. Apparently that's unusual by the reaction of the driver. Folks Uptown can take the streetcar down to the New Orleans Central Business District (or CBD). 

When I was a kid, birthday parties on the street car were big deal. In college I went to a party on street car as well. On Twelth Night, which kicks off carnival in New Orleans, the The Phunny Phorty Phellows (Yes, that is the spelling) travel on streetcar to party and announce the arrival of Mardi Gras. There's another organization called Twelth Night which has its formal ball that night too.

 

 

Here's another game. Let's see if this is easier.

You are offered a choice of two items. You choose one and then offer the next sifter a choice of two items.

1st sifter:     Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?

2nd sifter:    Jon Stewart.

                    Cat or Dog?

3rd sifter:     Dog.

                    Music Video or Live Music?

 

OK, your turn! :D

OK sifters, I saw this game on another site . . . So here’s how you play.

The first sifter will write a sentence starting with “A.” The next one will write a sentence with the letter “B.” The next sifter will follow with the letter “C” and so on . . . . . . until “Z” and then again “A” . . . for instance :

1st sifter: All of y'all ready to play???

2nd sifter: Back off . .

3rd sifter: Cmon ya . .

4th sifter: Dont feel like . . .  . . . . and so on . . . .

Reply . . .

This game will be more interesting on this forum since comments can receive “up” or “down” votes.

So what is Art Scuttlebutt? Art Scuttlebutt is Art Calendar’s (the business magazine for visual artists) version of MySpace for artists (inclusive of architects, arts writers, teachers, professors, web designers and the gamut of artisans). An artist friend invited me to register for my free profile page. Anyway, I’ve set it up now. So I’ve got another page out there. Well, back to maintaining my other pages, blogs, etc., etc.

Today on Mashable I noticed an article about a new site clled Don't Censor Me. It is live as of today. The site solicits horror stories from folks who feel abused by forum moderators. The site also has a section featuring most buried comments on Digg.

The rules are listed on the front page, HOME. I wonder how long it will take for the rules to grow . . .

 

Also, Mashable is again hosting a troll contest. The site tried to have a Troll Week previously and did not get enough particiapation. So here's your chance to show your skills.

Slide the ornament to the right to decorate the house. The further you go, the more decorations appear. Add snow and music. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas from Power Presentations

Today, The Times-Picayune had this, on the front page, concerning the levees.

Critic: Corps tried to thwart inquiry

Levees.org has a list of levees maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Are you at risk?

Mike Reed describes different categories of "Flame Warriors." He provides a description for each type he identifies. If there is a natural enemy or  ally, he'll also include each in a description. As time goes on, he adds to his category list.

The newest flame warrior additions:

•  Capitalista

•  Necromancer 

•  Typhoid Mary

  

Flame Warriors

Last Thursday night I conducted a dot art workshop. I showed my students my dot art painting process. Then they were given canvases to paint. They had fun creating their own dot paintings.

My sister has her front porch ready for Thanksgiving Day. She even has a holiday flag (one of many holiday flags) flying in the wind. I'm sure she's just itchin' to put up her Christmas stuff.

 

 

Do you ever read the Sunday comics in full color? Did you realize you’re looking at pieces of the Sunday comics right now?

This collage is made up of pieces of the Sunday comics collected between September ’04 and March ’07. I recently took a break from my dot artwork to complete this piece.

 

Back in the spring of ’05 I completed two thirds of it. I used Speedball gloss polymer acrylic to adhere the cutouts. This is how it looked at the two thirds mark.

In September of ’05 I was up in Memphis antsy about whether I had a house to go home to back in Metairie. One fraternity brother living in Florida e-mailed me to see if I was all right. When I replied, I asked him who was living in Memphis that I could look up. As it turned out I found four of my fraternity brothers who were living in Memphis.

One of them, who had grown up in Memphis, is a landscape architect. He invited me to meet him on the site of an ongoing project. He and his crew were working on a basketball court with a connecting walkway to the main house. The owners of the main house bought the adjacent lot that used to have a house on it. The house had fallen apart.

When I arrived, the cement for the walkway had just been poured. A female member of the crew, with an artistic background, was sprinkling magenta and light blue pigment on the cement. She then placed a mold of sorts on top of the wet cement and stood on it. It left an imprint that gave the cement a slate-like texture. She repeated both steps for the length of the walkway. The pigments combined to make purple.

So that’s the story of this piece.

 

Is anyone out there using Flock? I can't remember what lead me to take a look, but I've been intrigued how visually oriented the browser interface has become. If you have a Flickr and a YouTube, it will display items you have in those accounts on a page called My World. It's like having a control panel with all the places you hang out as visible buttons. Version 1.0 was just released. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It is Mozilla based. (I think I phrased that right)

Mashable posted this article last night. Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins discusses Web 3.0 and Web 4.0. He talks about shorter posts and more links. He lists the different routes people take in publishing posts.

Mashable recently posted this article by Drama 2.0. It concerns the data collectd by Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg's plans for it.

What are your thoughts on the use of your personal information?

Mashable posted this article by Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins this morning. I was wondering about other sifter's take on it.

Today I took some shots at a pond inhabited by a large numbers of goldfish. I just happened to catch them battling for food - oh I'm just guessing. The water was sure rippling with this encounter. Otherwise the water was still expect for a tiny trickle at an another end of the pond. I also shot some video of the pond.

RockYou also has games. One I noted was Ant Move Game. A player helps ants move their eggs by swatting, spraying, etc. the other bugs and animals that try to attack them.

Ant Move

I would have posted it here, but the AUTO MUSIC is montonous. There are five other games on the site.

 

And you thought Halloween was just for the kiddies? As soon as the trick-or-treaters have finished making the rounds, the neighborhood adults gather for an annual Halloween Open House. This is Halloween New Orleans style with plenty of food and drink! And, there’s a whole table devoted to desserts. The adults don their orange and black to celebrate. The traffic jam is usually in the kitchen. 

Recently I attended a funeral at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 in New Orleans. Because the city is below sea level, burials are often in tombs like the one below or mausoleums. In this photo the tomb is open. A metal casket is visible. No ghosts were captured in this shot.

By the way there are so many already buried in this one tomb, there's a process to request burial in it. That includes proving lineage to the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Shadow. No, he's not a "demon dog". He's a two-year-old weimaraner. That's his favorite bunny toy. My aunt says he has more toys than her five-year-old grandaughter. Yes, he's a big puppy alright and yes he doesn't realize that he's as big as he is. "No Shadow, jumping on me is not cute."