Ah Lawrence. I lived in East Lawrence (10th and Rhode Island, 11th and New York) through most of my time there minus the two regrettable years at 14th and Tennessee. (yes RIGHT next to Bullwinkles - I was wicked poor).

You have no idea how hard I'm laughing right now--I live at 14th and Tennessee. Southeast corner, across from Bullwinkle's. Lived right by 10th and Rhode Island previous to this. Bullwinkle's isn't so bad now since they lost their liquor license. They can only be open until midnight.

Your description of Winfield intrigues me. If my friends are still going, I may be sold on it myself.

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I live at 14th and Tennessee. Southeast corner, across from Bullwinkle's.

That's CRAZY - I lived at 1409 Tenn (which in my mind is the southeast corner but I could be wrong) from 2001-2003. People don't understand when I say Chicago seems SO quiet in comparison. Until you've heard 45 frat boys doing the rock chalk chant directly outside your window at full drunken volume w/random fireworks accompanying you don't really know what loud is.

Lived right by 10th and Rhode Island previous to this

I was at 1001 Rhode Island (red brick house right on the corner) from 1994-1997ish. Long before your time I'm sure (when I first moved in the Replay wasn't even there!) - great great neighborhood.

If my friends are still going, I may be sold on it myself.

Well - if you manage to get there and feel like taking a hike to meet a buffista: I camp at the FAR east end of the Pecan grove. Basically you follow 14th Ave. until you get to electric station (where it says "off limits" on this map, take a right, walk a ways and go down a small embankment and we are THE LAST campsite along the train tracks (or actually the levee - the tracks are on the other side of the levee). If you go and manage to walk down there and ask for Tina people should know who you are talking about. But more importantly if you do go don't miss the Wilders - they are at Stage 1 (the really big one) at 10:30 on Sat. night and they are amazing. After that it's all about Stage 5 which is in the campground - leave the official fairgrounds area out of the east exit and follow the crowd until you see all the giant parachutes in the trees and find a spot - stage 5 on Sat. night is not to be missed.

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1409 would have to be on the other side of the Sunflower House, the third house from the corner. I'm 1400 (oh noes my address on teh intarweb), on the corner proper. Next time I walk by I'll have to have a look. And you're so very right about the damn fraternity brahs--they get up to some serious volume out there. I actually hope we don't make the Final Four this year, which statement would get you beheaded in many parts of this town.

Anyone other'n the Wilders you'd recommend I bone up on prior to the show? I like to do my research. It's how I got into Okkervil River before they opened for the Decemberists, which decision I applaud myself for daily. Easily one of the greatest "new" bands I've heard this year.

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1409 would have to be on the other side of the Sunflower House, the third house from the corner.

That was a typo. I lived in 1400 Tenn. Seriously - apt. # 4 on the second floor. Holy shit - if you are in #4 I am going to have to freak out a little. If that is your apt., and the cabinets are still blue - that was me! They were a hideous checkerboard black and white (to match the tile) when I moved in. No matter what apt. you have in that bldg. I can tell you some unsavory story about it I'm sure (we all kind of got to know each other what with the abnormally thin walls).

Anyone other'n the Wilders you'd recommend I bone up on prior to the show?

Not really. The mainstages at Winfield are not why you go, in fact I would recommend not really spending a ton of time at stages 1-4 - it's outside the fairgrounds at stages 5-8 in the Pecan grove you want to check out and that could be just about anyone. Jeff & Vida are always good. Last year there was a young band called Pagosa Hotstrings that was amazing. But it's kind of all about the surprises at Winfield.

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I'm #2, so no go there. Haven't met the ladies who live upstairs yet, though they seem nice enough. Though the possibility that the walls are that thin makes me feel a bit... insecure.

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Gatemouth Brown, RIP. I took a toke of wacky tobaccy from the man's pipe once, but he was a taciturn man, and we exchanged no words. He was a gentleman and a scholar, though, as well as a fine example of the mish-mash of Southern blues-funk-hillbilly-R&B-soul-rock.

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I bought my first CD that's marked "content protected" today. Am I wrong, or am I not able to get these tracks onto my iPod at all?

It let me copy the tracks onto my computer as .wma files, but they're protected and will not go onto the Pod. This well and truly sucks. I bought the CD and am now being punished for it by not allowing me to listen to it the way I want to.

Screw that noise.

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On top of the massive human tragedy, there's also the cultural loss. Trying to save one of the great record libraries at WWOZ.

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September 11, 2005
WWOZ Update Three: Saving The Record Library

Hole_in_roofHere's another update from David Freedman from the streets of New Orleans. David is General Manager of WWOZ, the great community station of New Orleans. WWOZ's studios and record library were spared severe damage in Katrina and only suffered moderate flooding and no looting. But in recent days, David's been struggling to protect WWOZ's record library and equipment from being destroyed by subsequent rains - Katrina left OZ's studios and library exposed to the elements.

David also discovered that the WWOZ broadcast tower was in fact severely damaged, contrary to their first observations from a distance. In the course of dealing with these issues, David observed pockets of normalcy in New Orleans next to armed checkpoints, and he also reports on the non-state of forced evacuations.

First, a recent story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, followed by David's update.

Times-Picayune - Saturday, September 10, 2005

Roof damage threatens priceless WWOZ record collection

By Dave Walker
TV columnist

The studio equipment and irreplaceable record and CD collection at noncommercial WWOZ 90.7 FM, the public radio outlet that beamed New Orleans music and culture to the region and, via the Internet, the world - survived Hurricane Katrina but might not survive the city's current lockdown.

David Freedman, the station's general manger, surveyed the station's Armstrong Park headquarters on Thursday and discovered significant damage to the roof.

Freedman attempted to return later with a roofer, but was turned away on the city's outskirts.

Friday afternoon, he was looking for someone in authority to approve access to the city long enough to preserve the volunteer-run station, which was knocked off the air by the storm and which operates on a listener-supported shoestring in best of times.

"I just don't know who to call," he said.

Freedman can be contacted at wwozdavid@yahoo.com or (504) 782-0933.

So here's how I experienced it:

When we went into the city Wednesday night and the better part of Thursday to inspect the damages from Katrina (see my second update here), we had passes from the State Troopers' office, and so the checkpoints were uneventful. What we found when we got to the studio was that our wonderful record collection and all the electronics were intact. However, the roof had been shorn of a large patch of tiling, and all that was left was tarpaper. In order to protect that record collection it was imperative to do something about the roof before the next tropical rain storm.

First thing Friday (September 9th) morning, I found a roofer. His name is John Dinger. My Administrative Assistant's husband, Mike Wadsworth, is a huge WWOZ fan and he also happens to be a premier tile and floor man. So he has contacts.

And then when Councilman Jay Batt called me out of the blue Thursday to ask for "airtime" on WWOZ-in-Exile, I was delighted to schedule him -- I think he wanted to report to all his constituents far and wide what he had been up to during the post-huricane debacle. Anyway, here was a New Orleans official calling me just when I needed to talk to someone at City Hall. I asked him if he could help me get a roofer into the city, since the Mayor had just announced a mandatory evacuation.

He said he'd be happy to. He called me again Friday morning to confirm the interview, and again he said: "Just call me back when you've got your roofer." I had 2 phone numbers. But when I called back, there was no answer.

I then called the State Troopers, in the person of Major Genny May. She is a delightful person, and was quite ready to issue me another passepartout, but had just received a directive from the City of New Orleans to issue no more authorizations for entry into the city unless it was for relief workers.

I (continued...)

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( continues...) gave her Councilman Batt's phone numbers and she said that as soon as she talked with him, she would get back to me. Apparently she never could get him at his numbers. Nor could I. I tried all afternoon, left messages and tried some more.

Later on in the afternoon, I received a call from Dave Walker of the Times-Picayune. He wanted to interview me regarding WWOZ in Exile. I mentioned my troubles to him. He said he'd try to help. Very shortly thereafter I received a call from a WWL reporter who gave me the number of the Mayor's Press Secretary, Tammy Frazier. He was sure she would want the city to enable us to protect that collection of recordings. He was sure that some of the other City staffers involved with cultural affairs would also manifest their concern to the decision makers. He mentioned Ernest Collins, the Music Business Director on the Mayor's staff as someone who surely would want to get involved in such an important cause by facilitating the authorization process.

When I called Ms. Frazier, she was clear about our not getting any passes. She said that only the Mayor and the CEO, Brenda Hatfield, could issue such authorizations. When I asked her if she would pass the request along, she did not exactly hang up on me. She just laid the phone down until if eventually went dead. But before that, I could hear her saying in a rather forceful voice to someone on another line, "That's the third time you've repeated yourself, and no matter how many times you say it, the answer is going to be the same." In all fairness, she was probably pretty fried. And there were certainly other calamities that could claim higher priority than our own. Even so, that record collection WAS still in jeopardy, not because of the hurricane, but because we couldn't get the machine to work right. In one of those many serendipiddities that confront us throughout this saga, my Chief Engineer happened to mention to me, that on his way back to Dallas from New Orleans (see my second update here) he ran into the City's Music Business Director, Ernest Collins, sitting in a restaurant in Jackson, MS. Mr. Collins it seemed (as he told Damond) had plans to head to Kansas for the next 2 or 3 months.

Later in the afternoon, I received a call from a station supporter in Mykonos, Greece. I mentioned our problem. He said, "Not to worry," I'll call my friend who is here with me in Mykonos, and he'll call his brother who has evacuated to Aspen. This man is very close to the mayor and we'll get this thing solved." We lauged at having to Greece the wheels of the machine from 4,000 miles away.

Somewhere in there, I got a call from Rolling Stone, saying that they wanted to send a photographer to cover us broadcasting from our temporary studios in Baton Rouge. (Had Councilman Batt been talking to the Rolling Stone, too?) After I disabused her of that fantasy (what we ARE doing, of couse, is stream from New Jersey by grace of WFMU-FM and pre-recorded MP3 files sent to us by WWOZ show hosts and listeners alike)-- I offered her something perhaps even more photogenic -- the possibility of getting the first photos of our studio and office since the hurricane. Sonya (RS photo editor) thought it might not be a bad angle. All we needed now were the blooming passes to get into the city.

By 8PM I was pretty despondent about hearing from ANYone who could get us those passes. I had told the roofer I would call him when we got the greenlight. By now he probably had taken another job down the road.

I phoned Damond to tell him not to worry about overnighting the key to the studio (he had the only one, and he was in Dallas) since it didn't look like we'd be needing it. But he suggested I call the head of Lousiaina Public Broadcasting. He had met her Thursday (on that same trip back from New Orleans to Dallas!) and he thought she was a real person who could really understand the importance of the record collection.

Chuck Miller, the new General Manager at WWNO-FM (hired 7 WEEKS before Katrina!), had been kind enough to give me Beth's (continued...)

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( continues...) numbers, including a home phone. Around 8 PM, and in desperation, I used that home phone number. When she heard the story, Beth said, "No problem, we'll just ride in with WWL tommorrow. They won't have any trouble getting into the city. Just meet me at Louisiana Public Broadcasting at 9 AM."

I excitedly called the roofer back. He in fact had taken another job, but allowed that it might not pan out, and agreed to meet me in LaPlace at the Home Depot 10 AM. We were on!

I then called the RS photographer, Kerry Maloney, and we arranged for her to meet up with us at LPB. She was excited about the shoot, I was ecstatic.

I then called Damond back. He reminded me that Dwayne Breashears, our Program Director, had just moved to Baton Rouge (Dwayne and I had both just arrived here 2 days ago) and HE had a set of keys to the studio.

So late Friday night I searched out Dwayne in the southrern reaches of Baton Rouge, got the keys and was all set for the trip.

The next morning, we assembled as plan. Well almost as planned. Damond was right. Beth IS a real person. I liked the way she just saw past the manmade obstacles and went for it. And she really understood why it was so important to protect all those recordings.

She introduced me to Frank Kleinpeter, an LPB engineer, and informed me that there would be a WWL crew going in at 10 AM and we could ride in with them. However, it turned out that Beth wasn't going with us. And the plan seemed to be getting wobbly. "Just how is it," I wondered aloud, "that we are going to explain a guy with an extension ladder and a roll of visqueen needing a press pass! I don't think those guys at checkpoint charlie are going to buy him covering the story with visqueen."

And now Kerry was saying that she would have to take her own car, since Rolling Stone had her assigned to another story in Plaquemines Parish later that day.

How were we going to get a caravan of 4 cars and a truck with a trailer into the city, posing as a news team!

But Beth was up to the situation. She produced a very official letter on LPB stationery, indicating that I was being sent to New Orleans to do damage assessment and, where possible, repair public broadcasting equipment and towers (I guess that took care of the extension ladder anyway) in New Orleans. She also handed me a WWL Logo for my dashboard. Then she gave me an impromptu tour of LPB's facilities, handed me a DVD that LPB had produced called, "Radio Waves," in which, she told me, WWOZ had been prominently featured.

I was profoundly moved but ever so distracted wondering how this thing was going to work. But she was very upbeat about it all as she left to do something with her daughter. Frank and I waited until 10 AM. He then introduced me to the WWL team (three people in two rental cars with no station logos on them).

Only, these guys weren't going by way of LaPlace. They were taking another route. They were going in from the north over the causeway. I called my roofer. He surprised me, said, "No problem, I'll just meet you at the Lakeside Shopping Center at the causeway exit. I don't have any trouble getting into Jefferson Parish. Just Orleans."

So Kerry and I tucked our cars into the WWL convoy and off we went. After about an hour, in very thick traffic, we pulled up to the causeway entrance. Our first checkpoint. Fatigues. They were friendly and waved us in.

Another 26 miles, across the very lake which is now in my living room, we were at the Shopping Center. We drove all around the rendezvous spot. No roofer anywhere. The WWL team was anxious to keep moving, in fact they pulled out. I went scrambling behind them and called the roofer. He was on his way. I told him to forget about it. Turn around and meet us further down the road. "No problem."

And sure enough, when we got to River Road, he was there. He joined the parade and now the 5 1/2 of us (the 1/2 is for his trailer) pulled up to the REAL check point: Orleans Parish.

The New Orleans Police Department was back. As I listened to the radio on the (continued...)

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