Live blogging in the morning from the registration table

9:55 AM - Rising Tide has begun, with a bombastic intro by our emcee, George"Loki" Williams.


9:56 AM - Mark Folse introduces Susan Tucker, Bruce Raeburn, and Edward Butler, the panelists who will discuss New Orleans culture four years after the storm. The "three legs of New Orleans culture" are duly represented: food, music, and parading.


According to a recent L.A. Times article, about 60% of the population has returned, but there are fewer music gigs and the gigs that there are available are paying less, according to Raeburn. The economic viability of the musicians here is in greater question than ever before.


Caught between trying to sustain a culture in parading and dressing as an Indian with few financial resources and no support from the city and between the hardships of day-to-day living here is the current state of those in the parading culture, says Edward Butler.


Skyrocketing costs of living in New Orleans are eating into the survival of the parading clubs.


Ashley Morris' calling out of the tone-deafness of the Musicians' Village comes up in this context.


Cuisine needs discourse, Susan Tucker says. Obituaries she reads tell some stories: One tells of a deceased's recipes as"My Cookbook of Immeasurable Pleasures", hinting at "an accessible longing" through preparation of food. Another obituary mentioning a musician's studies of many religions stated he didn't eat pork unless it was on a muffuletta."


To see that the public schools have not embraced the music...to come home to find that the police department has changed the rules (clubs down to 39 from 50+)...when you centralize the residents in one place, you aren't passing on the street music, Butler says.


"The Porch is a direct part of the community dying.", a response to what is happening when the young pick up guns and have children when they are children.


In getting rid of the projects, the musicians were got rid of as well.


Tucker: Know what your neighbor cooks, find out what people are putting in their bodies and how to share it.


Raeburn: the neighborhoods will take care of themselves if they are given the resources to continue what they do, and to pass on the culture through the schools. "Reinforcing without controlling" should be the norm.


Tucker: blogging can certainly get a little beyond the one-dimensionality of cookbooks: can tell you about how well recipes worked out, share variations, tell everyone which restaurants are good and how expensive they are.

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More after our 5 minute break....

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