Moonbot Gumbo in Shreveport
. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011) by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, was produced by Moonbot Studios in Shreveport. It won the 2012 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. With an opening scene in New Orleans, the 15-minute film references Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, Jules Verne and more. Moonbot's future projects appear to be equally imaginative.
A Valentine for Gypsy Lou
. Click for huge enlargement of orange/yellow-clad Gypsy Lou Webb in the French Quarter during the early 1960s with her artwork on wall at St. Peter and Royal Street. She was not identified in this c. 1960-61 postcard published by New Orleans' Post Card Specialties. Instead, the caption reads: "Street scene typical in the Vieux Carre, French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The iron lace balconies of the buildings on left are famous for their intricate design, in an area where wrought and cast iron work is the commonplace."
Behind one of the balconies, at 618 Rue Ursulines, was Loujon Press where Gypsy Lou and Jon Webb published such writers as Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac and Colin Wilson. Go to Edwin Hunter's Chicken Fat to see a photo of Gypsy Lou that Hunter took in January 1965. As he explains, she also sold Harvey Kurtzman's Trump alongside the poetry publications.
We covered Josh Neufeld's webcomics graphic novel, A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge, about Katrina a year ago. To read all chapters, go here. The print version arrives this summer, published by Pantheon. While you're waiting, read Sarah Jaffe's interview with Josh Neufeld. In his blog Four-Eyes, Neufeld comments:
The Pantheon version of A.D. will be greatly expanded from the online version, with lots of new material covering the Convention Center and the characters' lives since the hurricane. In total, there are 65 new pieces of art out of a total of 290. The reason I call them "pieces of art" instead of "pages" was because of the format I drew A.D. for the web, where each "page" of the web version became in essence half a page of the book version. Forget it, it's too complicated. The simplest thing is to say that the book will have nearly 25% more original art — as well as major revisions, text changes, and re-colorizations of the previous work. The whole thing is gonna weigh in at just about 200 pages.
.................SurgeAfter the Deluge Here is a panel from Josh Neufeld's graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. To read the serialized chapters from the beginning, go here or here.
In October 2005, shortly after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Neufeld spent three weeks as a Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi and later did a book, Katrina Came Calling, about his experiences. Smith magazine wanted to tell the story of Katrina from the POV of people who lived through it. After reading Neufeld's book, editor Larry Smith contacted Neufeld, and the two traveled to the Gulf Coast to do the audio/video interviews that became the research for the graphic novel. The characters are real people with dialogue taken from direct quotes. Many panels have links beneath to relevant sites.
The wall of water that destroyed Biloxi, leaving a devastated landscape resembling Hiroshima, did not wash away my memories of staying in the White House Hotel at 1230 Beach Boulevard where my family vacationed during the 1940s. Fans whirred in the heat, while footsteps echoed down the hall. In the gaming room near the lobby my brother struck it rich with a cascade of coins, as he recalled, "Slot machines were in a small room off the lobby. I put some nickels in and won. All these nickels came falling out. I filled up all my pockets in my short pants. I ran by the front desk and told the desk clerk, 'I hit the jackpot.' He or she said, 'You weren't supposed to play those.' I kept on going toward our room."
Smells of oysters and the sea drifted through the open window in our first floor room overlooking the shade of the hotel's rocking-chair front porch, the towering white Corinthian columns, the manicured sunlit lawn, the shimmering ocean. I could cross Highway 90, run the length of the wooden pier and gaze over the Gulf of Mexico (which Tennessee Williams renamed the Gulf of Misunderstanding in Sweet Bird of Youth). On grey rainy days one could see far distant lightning over water. The history of the hotel is captured in the pre-Katrina website, White House on the Gulf. The site details the $23 million restoration that was underway when Katrina struck.
The Beau Rivage video (10:22): Storm surge engulfs Biloxi during Katrina as shot 30 August 2005 by an unknown person inside the Beau Rivage Casino parking area.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICAZCZC MIATCPAT2 ALL TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM BULLETIN HURRICANE KATRINA ADVISORY NUMBER 24 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 4 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA HEADED FOR THE NORTHERN GULF COAST...
A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF COAST FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS EVENING.
A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE IN EFFECT FROM EAST OF THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER TO DESTIN FLORIDA...AND FROM WEST OF MORGAN CITY TO INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA.
A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS ALSO IN EFFECT FROM DESTIN FLORIDA EASTWARD TO INDIAN PASS FLORIDA...AND FROM INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA WESTWARD TO CAMERON LOUISIANA.
FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.
AT 4 PM CDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE KATRINA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 26.9 NORTH... LONGITUDE 89.0 WEST OR ABOUT 150 MILES SOUTH OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
KATRINA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH...AND A GRADUAL TURN TO THE NORTH IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS TRACK THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE WILL BE NEAR THE NORTHERN GULF COAST EARLY MONDAY. HOWEVER...CONDITIONS ARE ALREADY BEGINNING TO DETERIORATE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF COAST...AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORSEN THROUGH THE NIGHT.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE LIKELY UNTIL LANDFALL. KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT CATEGORY FOUR OR FIVE INTENSITY. WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR GROUND LEVEL.
KATRINA IS A LARGE HURRICANE. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 105 MILES FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 230 MILES. SUSTAINED TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS ARE OCCURRING OVER THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA COAST. SOUTHWEST PASS...NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER...RECENTLY REPORTED SUSTAINED WINDS OF 48 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 53 MPH.
A NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE REPORTED A MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE OF 902 MB...26.64 INCHES.
COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED. SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.