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I write the first draft of this feature every Thursday morning. It was an unusual day in New Orleans: We had a major weather event Wednesday night that just brushed my neighborhood but smacked some other areas upside the head. The storm was briefly Tropical Storm Arthur but it’s nameless as it peters out; pun intended; it always is. The storm brought chaos and three tornados to the broader metro area but not confusion: If you live here long enough you get used to this shit.<\/p>\n
The featured image is of a Bourbon Street barber shop circa 1935. Walker Evans did some of his best WPA photography in New Orleans. Imagine getting a haircut for a quarter. That translates to a shade over six bucks in today’s money. A helluva deal.<\/p>\n
In other news, I’m an avid app Scrabble player. Its dictionary has expanded to include some profanity. I played fucker and shit the other day, which gave me some perverse satisfaction. Why, I’ll never know.<\/p>\n
The selection of this week’s theme song was inspired by last Sunday’s movie post about New York Confidential<\/em><\/a>. It’s set in New Orleans, not New York although most of us were rooting for the Knicks to win the championship. Their shitbag owner plans to celebrate at the White House with his dirtbag pal Donald. It’s unclear how many on the team will join Mr. Dolan in sucking up to the Kaiser of Chaos.<\/p>\n Confidential<\/em> was written by Ed Volker and landed on the Radiators’ 1989 album, Zig-Zaggin’ Through Ghostland<\/em>. I do my share of zigzagging to avoid potholes and oak tree roots whilst cruising the city on foot.<\/p>\n We have two versions of Confidential<\/em> for your listening pleasure: the studio OG and the Rads live in 2023.<\/p>\n