Month: November 2010

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Tulane VS South Alabama Women’s Basketball Game at Fogelman Arena

I teach a lot of student athletes at Tulane–basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, football, I teach them all. Athletes get a bad rap sometimes for blowing off coursework for the culture of the game. Well, all kinds of students manage to blow off coursework, so it hardly seems fair to lay that on the athletes. And in my experience, athletes balance an incredible number of commitments, often impressively. So when the football team invited me to go behind the scenes at a game, I eagerly said yes, because I wanted to show my support for my students, and because who doesn’t want to watch the game from the field! My body was requesting a rest from the bike, so I thought I’d drive, but alas, when you leave your car idle for weeks because you’d rather ride your bike, the battery dies. So I put on the bike shoes, climbed on the Surly, and headed down to the Superdome with N. in tow. Continue reading →

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Sun and Clouds at Bienville & S. Rampart

I spent today reading and writing at home until I heard that tell-tale crash in the other room, the one that says the cats are up to something. It turned out they were teaming up on a lizard, trying to play it to death. After watching the lizard play dead and then try to scramble away, only to be caught up in so many paws, I locked myself in my bedroom and wondered what to do. N. said to just get out of the house–great advice. Continue reading →

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John A. Shaw Elementary School at Music & Law

It has been a long week, so when I was finished with work early, I took the late afternoon to ride my bike around in what continues to be absolutely ridiculously nice weather. I hadn’t ridden the new bike lane on St. Roch Avenue, so I headed there to check out our new bicycle facilities.

I spend very little time in that neighborhood, so I just rode around, checking things out. I turned on Music Street and noticed this school, seemingly abandoned, gutted by fire. I circled around it, waving to the guy standing on the corner, smelling the barbecue wafting on the air, thinking about how this is a neighborhood, but this abandoned school is rotting up the place instead of being alive with kids and playground equipment (there is some–not in usable shape by any means). Continue reading →

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Ramshackle House on Calhoun & Rocheblave

I had one of those days where work just gets the best of you, so when the day was done, I needed to go on a bike ride. I headed toward Broadmoor with no real destination when I stopped to take this picture of a dilapidated house on Calhoun, between Rocheblave and York. It looks like it’s made of weathered old cardboard, lacking the comfortable facade of its neighbor. Just a few blocks on and I was on Versailles, looking at huge and beautiful homes. Continue reading →

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Speaking Out for Education at First Grace United Methodist Church

Today I got to ride my bike in a skirt and a tank top. Thank you, New Orleans, for giving me another day of summer, in November. I pedaled down to the Bywater to meet J. for a meeting to talk about planning a bigger meeting. And then I headed over to Canal and Jeff Davis to First Grace United Methodist Church, for a the event Post-Katrina Education in New Orleans: A Human Rights Violation. There’s a lot of talk about how education in New Orleans has improved since the takeover of schools by the state and their decentralization through charter schools. There has surely been improvement for some kids, but the picture is just more complicated than that. Continue reading →

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Seafood For Sale at Louisiana & Baronne

First, it’s amazing what a day off the bike and a freshly-lubed chain can do for your ride. I was happy to get on the bike and stretch out for a surprisingly mild commute to work, but strangely, I forgot my helmet. My helmet! I know there’s a debate about helmets, but I wear one, and I felt positively naked without it. I didn’t have time to go back home to pick it up, but after almost being cut off by an errant parker on St. Charles, I stopped at home to put it on before my evening ride to the gym. Tonight riding felt like flying, and it was good. Continue reading →

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Train and I10 at the End of West End Boulevard

Yep, still cold out, which means today’s ride had to wait as I tried to figure out what sort of layering would keep me warm enough without making me look like a broke-ass Punky Brewster. I was only mildly successful on both counts, but I headed out anyway, first to the Marigny for the New Orleans Book Fair. The place was crawling with all the usual suspects–readers, writers, watchers–and I managed somehow to leave with money in my wallet (though there was one art book I’d have bought, if it had been for sale). Continue reading →

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Audience at the NOLA Book Fair Opening Event at Sound Cafe

Well, the weather has actually turned this time. It is downright cold all of a sudden. I had to wear leggings and a sweater today! Outrageous. As someone who is riding her bike, this means it’s time to get myself some layers–it only takes a few blocks of pedaling before it’s time to take off the sweater. Ugh. Am I the only one who wishes it could be hot and humid all the time? Anyway, I was still looking forward to a ride down the the Marigny for the opening night event of the New Orleans Book Fair. Continue reading →

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Train Crossing at the Uptown Levee Bike Path Entrance

I woke up early this morning and spent all day teaching and teaching and teaching and by the time it was done I really needed to just put it in high gear and pedal as hard as I could for twenty miles. So that’s what I did. I headed over to the entrance to the levee bike path behind the zoo, looking forward to just going. But just as I rode up the train gate went down, red lights flashing, and I snapped this picture just as the train was zooming by. I wasn’t in the mood to wait, and neither were the soccer moms–moms bringing their kids to soccer practice. Continue reading →

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Official Ballot at Austerlitz Street Baptist Church

Hey, hey, it’s election day! My electronical universe was full of people telling me they voted, telling me to remember to vote, telling me that voting is irrational, or pointless, or that it’s all just part of a pageant that makes it seem like we live in a democracy when actually the system is hopelessly broken. Here’s the thing. I believe in democracy. I believe ours is corrupted in lots of ways, for sure. That’s why I’m one civically engaged mofo. Voting is not the beginning and end of democratic ideals or community-building, or figuring out how to live together with people who aren’t like us. That’s a project. This is just voting. Continue reading →