Itchy Back

Dusk

Condensation

The Bywater can be Dark and Eerie at Night

In Sound Cafe, and on posters stapled to telephone poles around the Bywater, I read about one girl who got shot riding her bike home. She was not from New Orleans. She had come down to help with the recovery efforts. Bad form, I think...to shoot someone who is trying to help you.

I worry sometimes too...when we are riding after dark. My mother says she will not cry for me if I get shot. She has warned me this is a bad neighborhood. I try not to be self-righteous in my defiance. It's hard, though. This is the land of the free, so I should be free...

free to ride my bike...
with no thought of danger...
except that the back break doesn't work...
and the tire is all wonky.

My mother-in-law reads about murders in America. She is Swedish, and there aren't too many murders where she lives. She wants us to come "home," where there is safety and health care and snow. She doesn't want to lose us.

We are living in the wild, wild west...
where people batten down the hatches...
and angry, drunk voices scream out in the night:
"I oughtta pop a cap in your ass."

We ought not to be popping caps in each others asses.
This is the south, people.
We ought to be polite...
and say "Howdy do,"
and "pardon me,"
when we are riding our bikes
in the middle of the night.

This is who we are.

Us, Back in the Day

The Street where we Stay

Biking Home

Summer Canal

Hogshead

Chalmette Bicycle

Algiers

Biking to Algiers

Franz Kirmann Visuals

Dancing

Bowling

Mask

Toy Gun

Sno-Cone

Riding her Bike

Mandinas

A year ago today, we were living in the Rowell's Living Room. Today, we are living on Desire Street

For the past four weeks, we have been staying with Spencer and Nicola and their two children Oscar and Maud, in London. We live in their lounge, which they have cleared out for us. Most evenings, the six of us pile into Spencer and Nicola's bedroom to watch TV. Maud sometimes practises her cello and Oscar is learning Sweet Child O' Mine on the electric guitar. There is always tea and biscuits, and fresh eggs (the children are rearing two free-range chickens in the back garden).

Nicola says they get a lot out of having people stay. "It helps the children to be open-minded and prepares them for the world out there," she says. She doesn't like British attitudes towards owning property. "We are a community, we should have people coming into our houses. It creates memories and shared experiences."

Next month we are moving to New Orleans and we have already set up the first two months of surfing. There is an ideology forming here: of freedom and mobility. Less impact on the environment through shared resources. Less impact on the bank account. Helping each other. A bit hippy perhaps, but with rising living costs and a rapidly changing climate, maybe it's time for that again.

The Dog Park