News and information clippings from New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
New Orleans is most associated with the world-renowned French Quarter when tourists think of the city. Also popular are the Saints NFL Football Team, Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The nola411 website is here to roll up information from around the web that locals ad visitors will hopefully find as a useful tool and check back frequently for the latest news.
New Orleans Jazz Fest 2011 is a hunting ground for Times-Picayune fashion writer Susan Langenhennig and art writer Doug MacCash, who search for the oddest hand-made headwear.
A plane was dragging one of the many advertising banners flown over Jazz Fest when the banner fell and tangled in power lines at Esplanade Avenue and Moss Street...
Have you ever been stuck debating with co-workers about where to go for lunch or for happy hour, or looking for a new place for the family to go for Sunday brunch? Fear not, because below are nine of the area’s best places for such occasions. Each location offers delicious food, atmosphere and spirits, so start planning and enjoy...
Hancock Holding Co.'s proposed acquisition of Gulf Coast banking rival Whitney Holding Corp. was approved Friday by shareholders of both companies. In a joint statement, the two companies said the deal was backed by 98.4 percent of Hancock's shareholders and 98.7 percent of Whitney's common shareholders.
Join NOLA.com live from Liuzza's by the Track both weekends of the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Or, if you're out at the Fest, stop by Liuzza's for a drink and a bite to eat where you can stand in front of cam and wave hello to the folk back home!
California defensive end Cameron Jordan holds up a jersey after he was selected as the 24th overall pick by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the NFL football draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, April 28, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Imagine my surprise as I sat through the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft at Saints Headquarters. As the Saints made their moves, it dawned on me Team President and GM Mickey Loomis had been telling us media types the truth. Not necessarily the whole truth, mind you. He did leave some details out...
As the New Orleans Jazz Fest prepares for the world's largest presentation of Haitian music since last year's earthquake, it will also be preparing for what might be best called political royalty. "It's a fascinating time for Haitian music," said Ned Sublette, author of "The World that Made New Orleans." "Haitians voted for the music ticket. You cannot deny the importance of communication through music in Haiti. And this is something New Orleanians know well." …
The 42nd annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival kicks off today with a typically eclectic lineup featuring Arcade Fire, Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band, the Neville Brothers, Wilco, Jeff Beck and Allen Toussaint, among many others. If you can't make it down this year, you're in luck -- Rolling Stone will be broadcasting performances from the show online on May 7th and 8th...
One month before Katrina ravaged the city, Raymond Robair showed up to work on her house. It was early on a Saturday and Kimble was still asleep, so Raymond sat down to eat. The 48-year-old roofer knew this Treme neighborhood well - some of his handiwork down the street would survive the storm. Robair, however, wouldn't make it past breakfast.
After opting last month not to sell a trio of antique Pullman railcars at the fire-sale price offered by a single bidder, board members of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad on Monday agreed to try to lease out at least two of the cars, which became a symbol of profligate spending at the quasi-city agency...
By Freddi Williams Evans (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, $20)
"The bloodlines of all important modern American music can be traced to Congo Square, " Wynton Marsalis says of the legendary place where African slaves and free people of color spent their Sundays for more than 100 years. "The defining history of this national landmark, " according to Marsalis, the book covers the music, dances, religious customs and marketing traditions followed here as well as in similar gathering places in the West Indies, "reflecting New Orleans' relationship with Caribbean countries and shedding light on its role in extending and perpetuating African music and dance in North America." Freddi Williams Evanswill sign the book, with teaching resources including a timeline, maps and extensive endnotes and bibliography, Saturday, 4-5 p.m., Jazz Fest Book Tent. A reading at Octavia Books is May 3, 6 p.m.
The Haitian Pavilion is between the Congo Square Stage and Congo Food area. Through both weekends, it will be the site of drumming and Vodou ceremonies, craft demonstrations and art and cultural exhibits. There is a replica of a Vodou temple where Mama Lola, Mambo Florence Jean Joseph and Mambo Marie-Lourdes Simeon will lead ceremonies...
In Over the River: The Future of the Crescent City Connection Bridge & Ferries, BGR examines the implications of allowing bridge tolls to expire and options for funding the bridge and ferries in the future.
The EPA is proposing stronger air emissions standards for polyvinyl chloride or PVC production facilities. There are 17 PVC production facilities in the U.S., with most of them in Texas and Louisiana...
New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas suspended the NOPD's troubled canine unit after U.S. Justice Department officials reviewed the operation and found serious problems last October. They found handlers unable to control their police dogs, with one dog even biting its handler...
Lehva via Flickr Kirk Joseph of Dirty Dozen Brass Band on sousaphone.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival begins Friday, and music fans from all over the world will flock to the city's racetrack for seven days of music. A lot of things make New Orleans a one-of-a-kind music town, but one is the tuba, the monstrous brass instrument worn like a python squeezing its victim...
Nowhere is the strength of local musical muscle more evident than at this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, unfolding on 12 stages Friday through Sunday and May 5-8. Much of the region's talent lies in the fest's 50 gospel groups, 35 traditional jazz acts and scores of Cajun and zydeco bands...
A year after the BP oil spill, the Gulf Coast oyster -- and the oyster po-boy -- are back. Though maybe not like you remember. The Justice Department says BP has agreed to put $1 billion into coastal restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico. Projects like rebuilding marshes and barrier islands...
Read AL.com's tips so you won't look like a rookie when you get your big ol' plate of boiled mudbugs aka crawdaddies aka crawfish at this year's Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil...
With the 2011 New Orleans Jazz Fest set to open at the New Orleans Fairgrounds on Friday, April 29, City officials issued a reminder regarding the procedures and requirements for permitting for public parking in the festival's vicinity as well as businesses selling goods. This year's Festival dates are April 29 - May 1 and May 5 - 8...
It is a favorite place for residents like Edna Klein and her son Gaitlin. But as of July 1st, the public may not have access to the Lakefront or its park spaces on weekends. The Non Flood Protection Asset Management Authority says unless it receives money to pay for police patrols and maintenance, it can't afford to keep the Lakefront area open seven days a week...
On a coastal marsh south of New Orleans, oil still saturates a 30-foot-wide stretch. Where hip-high grass should be, the oil has formed a hard, dark mat. If you dig though that crust, you find a thick, oozy layer of oil. "It hasn't weathered or degraded much since it came ashore in early June," says scientist Scott Zengel, a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is overseeing the marsh survey crews...
The annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or simply Jazz Fest, is a massive springtime music and cultural festival that takes place over two consecutive weekends in late April and early May. Many music lovers of all ilk consider it the country's premier music festival and return year after year. Others have called it the best party in America...
The recipe for Mango Freeze was created in the early 1990s by Tracy Westin, who worked in the kitchen at Bayona during the early years of Susan's Spicer's restaurant. Westin offered to create a mango sorbet product that the station could sell to raise funds. Mango Freeze was first sold at Jazz Fest in 1994. At that time, WWOZ was just launching its live broadcasts, and the entire staff consisted of only five people. 'OZ was at that time, in the words of General Manager David Freedman, “boiling, messy, nascent.”
Today marks the one-year anniversary of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster. For 153 days, Gulf communities suffered as their economic, environmental and health care realities were shaken. Many of the area's residents are still left with questions of when their lives will be restored. While BP's efforts, under government supervision, have made some strides with some residents, many people in the Gulf are still greatly suffering...
Playing For Change are heading to New Orleans to perform at the renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 8 and for two performances at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville on May 6 and May 7. PFC2: Songs Around The World is a continuation of filmmaker Mark Johnson's journey to blend diverse styles of music from around the globe into powerful performances. The album features an incredible range of nearly 150 musicians from 15 countries including Baaba Maal, Keb Mo, Tinariwen, Stephen Marley and the now legendary Grandpa Elliott to name just a few...
Meredith Birkett writes:Last year, Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert covered the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its aftermath. This month, he returned to see how one impacted area off the coast of Louisiana, Cat Island, is faring a year after the environmental disaster. He discovered a changed ecosystem where land is eroding and vegetation is dead or dying. Biologists from the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife say Cat Island is struggling to recover because the island was completely washed by oil, in part because of poorly maintained oil booms.
Read more and see compelling images from the oil spill one year ago via photoblog.msnbc.msn.com
visit nola411.com for New Orleans and Gulf Coast news clippings.
The BP oil spill leaked over 200 million gallons of oil in to Gulf of Mexico. With the one-year anniversary of the disaster approaching, questions remain about what became of it all. Mark Strassmann returned to the Gulf for answers.
With much fanfare ground was broken Monday for the $1.2 Billion LSU teaching and research hospital in Mid City.
It is to be called the "University Medical Center," and is touted as the linchpin for the emerging "Bio Medical District," in New Orleans. But some people in the area believe the project is hurting their business...
The DVD box of "If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise," Spike Lee's Peabody Award-winning followup to his 2006 Hurricane Katrina HBO documentary "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," will be released Tuesday (April 19). "If God is Willing" premiered on HBO August 23-24. Lee does a commentary track for the film, and a bonus featurette -- "Pickin' Up Da Pieces" -- contains outtake interviews...
In conjunction with the Contemporary Arts Center’s exhibit “Then and Now,” which looks at earlier and later work from Louisiana artists, the New Orleans film society presents a showcase of four short films representing two decades of Louisiana filmmaking Tuesday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m. at the CAC with several of the filmmakers in attendance. Tickets are $5 for NOFS / CAC members, $7 general admission.
n the small brick church across the road from the chocolate waters of Bayou Lafourche, the Rev. Joseph Anthony Pereira unbuttons his collar as the last parishioners pull out of the lot. Tonight, nearly a year after the BP oil spill began, he's asked his congregation of shrimpers and oil industry workers to think about lessons learned when survival is in jeopardy...
A celebration of the cuisine and culture of Louisiana, the Fishermen of the Gulf, the Farmers of Louisiana, our Creole and Cajun Chefs and home cooks, the American Culinary Federation visiting chefs and everyone who has ever tasted the gumbo, danced to the rhythm and loved the French Market!
April 18 - 20, 2011 at the historic French Market
Seminar speakers will represent the finest of Louisiana's chefs, cooks, food authorities, farmers and fishermen.
Restaurateurs John Harris, James Eustis and Evan Hayes have all had their hunger denied. It might have been too late for a family dinner, sure, but it was puritanically early by the standards of a city famously reluctant to let the clock be its master...
After being arrested on one count of domestic abuse and one count of disturbing the peace, Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage was reportedly bailed out by reality television star Dog the Bounty Hunter.
Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, a division of AFC Enterprises, Inc. announced the Popeyes restaurant system achieved a supply chain cost savings of approximately $16 million in 2010. The benefit to franchisees was estimated at one full percentage point improvement in restaurant operating profit margins before rent, compared with the prior year...
The producers of HBO’s Treme backed preservationists' call to save some blighted houses. But, the city went ahead with the planned demolition of the seven houses in the Hoffman Triangle neighborhood of Central City.
We're almost upon the one year anniversary of the BP Gulf spill. And though much of the nation seems ready to forget about the devastation wrought on the region, Gulf residents are still coping with the impacts from the spill even today...
Before getting into "Go DJ," Wayne called out to DJ 45, "We in my hometown! You got some bounce for me?" And later, in his homage to fallen hip-hop icons, Wayne called out, "And if you from New Orleans, put your hands up for Soulja Slim," paying his respect to the late rap star.
"It's good to be home, New Orleans," hometown hero Lil Wayne told the audience after taking the stage at Hornets Arena in the Crescent City. And the sold-out crowd of his birthplace loved him for it...
New Orleans is often described as a large village with many folksy traditions and a somewhat country atmosphere, especially in its swampy outer areas. Keeping chickens in backyards as a means to improving mealtimes was far from unheard of before Hurricane Katrina. Once the storm came and destroyed many of the fences that contained them, few residents had the time or energy to even contemplate the fate of the farm animals...
"It's humiliating! They treated us like we were criminals," said Tracy Kuhns, who had traveled from Barataria Bay, La. to attend BP's annual shareholder meeting in London on Thursday. She and her husband, Michael Roberts, had made the long trip with three other Gulf Coast residents hoping to address BP shareholders about their ongoing plight almost one year after the catastrophic oil spill began on April 20, 2010. But even with their proxy cards in hand, which they believed would allow their participation in the shareholders meeting, all five Gulf Coasters were denied entry...
New Orleans gets closer to its first curbside recycling effort since Hurricane Katrina. It's the last day in New Orleans to register for recycling containers, if you want it delivered on time for next month's start date for curbside pick-up.
New Orleans police have arrested two people, including a city inspector and a top executive at one of the city's biggest cab companies. This is the culmination of a nearly two year long investigation involving inspection stickers issued twice a year to all cabs in New Orleans...
A new video on YouTube is causing an uproar, as critics question why Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at the New Orleans airport gave an intense pat-down to a 6-year-old girl.
Despite criminal justice reforms, the city's jail population has not yet dropped below 1,438 inmates. To bring the inmate numbers down further, the working group is examining reforms that would address racial disparities in pretrial jail stays, set bonds more uniformly and help former state prisoners from New Orleans better re-enter mainstream society.
The Radiators have been one of the preeminent acts on the New Orleans rock scene for more than 30 years and a major influence on numerous bands that came and went since the late 1970s. A longtime fan and friend of the band, Mazza offers a collection of essays and articles that chronicle the arc of the Radiators' musical trajectory while commenting on the changing city that serves as their home and inspiration. The book is titled after the band's own description of their sound as "fishhead music," a comment that led fans to proudly dub themselves fishheads.
"From the very first time I saw the Radiators, I was hooked," Mazza says. "Over the course of the next 30 years, I saw the Radiators play hundreds of shows. I became obsessed in a way I had never been before and I loved it. They moved me and aroused a new passion for music that became a part of my spirit."
Intended for fans of New Orleans music and culture, the book is as much a cultural commentary on the city and its music scene as it is a musical tribute. Filled with distinctive characters that passed through the bars and clubs where the Radiators played, the book is a retrospective of the New Orleans scene as told by someone who was there at almost every important juncture of the last 30 years.
"I Got the Fish in the Head: A Radiators Retrospective" is available for sale online at Amazon.com and other channels.
visit nola411.com for New Orleans and Gulf Coast news clippings.
The Rebirth Brass Band finishing up its set at Brooklyn
Bowl on Thursday night amid energized fans.
The Rebirth Brass Band ended its full-throttle show at Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday night more or less swarmed, yielding the stage to an eager throng. This of course was a handy bit of showmanship, timed to coincide with several of the band’s best-loved New Orleans anthems (“Feel Like Funkin’ It Up,” “Cassanova,” “Do Whatcha Wanna”) and with the climax of accumulated energies in the room...
Ricco Rideaux works on some pieces he sells at Jackson Square.
(Photo by Frank Aymami)
In 90 days, the war over the sale of prints in Jackson Square most likely will come to an end, attorney Brian Begue said. That’s the time he expects it to take the city to come to its senses and rework a 2005 ordinance that banned artists from selling reproductions of their original work in the historic artist colony...
The polymath Harry Shearer -- comic, vocal actor, musician, radio host, author and more -- adds ‘documentarian’ to his resume with “The Big Uneasy,” a damning but somewhat meandering look at some of the myths surrounding the flooding of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina...
The groundbreaking for the new University Medical Center hospital in New Orleans is April 18. There has been talk that the hospital would be scaled down. But today we got an answer to that question...
As a New Orleans resident and a Hurricane Katrina survivor, I appreciate the article about the museum exhibit very much [“Remembering Hurricane Katrina at New Orleans museum,” NWTraveler, April 3]. A good description was given, however, a misconception was stated. Reporter Mary Foster wrote, “the monster hurricane that battered New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,600 people.”
At any of Kermit Ruffins' barroom gigs in his hometown of New Orleans, you can bet that there's someone in the audience who's tapping a new visitor on the shoulder, saying, "That's the guy from 'Treme.'"
Basin Street Records president Mark Samuels, whose label has released Ruffins' music for 13 years, says he sees it happening with growing frequency at the vocalist/trumpeter's weekly set at Vaughan's Lounge, and at other performances in the city...
BP PLC could be just a few months away from resuming drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico after reportedly asking to strike a deal with U.S. regulators less than a year following the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 and triggered the worst oil spill in American history. BP company officials, the New York Times reported on its website Sunday, said that the oil major hoped to restart drilling at 10 existing development and production wells in the Gulf in July, but that no new drilling would be undertaken in the region.
TypeCon2011 will take place between July 5-10, 2011, at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, New Orleans.
TypeCon is an annual conference presented by the non-profit Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA), an international organization dedicated to the promotion, study, and support of typography and related arts.
A heart valve replacement technique developed by Edwards LifeSciences Corp that spares patients open-heart surgery had a slightly lower death rate at one year, outweighing a higher risk of major stroke. One year after implantation using the Edwards valve called Sapien, 24.2 percent of patients died -- compared with 26.8 percent of those who underwent open-heart surgery in the highly anticipated 699-patient study...
Every one of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center's 10 halls is occupied this weekend. Both the American College of Cardiology and the Boat Show are occupying space in the facility. On Friday, the cardiology group put the finishing touches on its setup.
Included in this year's figures are two citywide conferences. In addition to the The American College of Cardiology, which will be the city's largest meeting this year, is the American Institute of Architects. That group, which is expected to attract 24,000 guests, will fill the center in mid-May.
K Hotels is expanding its southern family with the collaboration with New Orleans Hotel Collection - Dauphine Orleans Hotel, The Bourbon Orleans Hotel , Hotel Le Marais, and The St. Louis Hotel.
The finished product, which the students ate with relish. nola.com
In her demonstration, New Orleans Chef Dione Duhon delved into the historical origins of the Louisiana delicacy, and discussed nutritional values of Southern foods at the International School of New Orleans. And of course, taste-testing followed, much to the delight of the students...
A group of people make their way off of a boat to
the new outdoor deck at Middendorf's restaurant in Akers.
It's been really nice outside for a while now, so much so that spending virtually any time inside counts as a bad play. Here's a short list of restaurants to sit down to a meal under the sun or stars. The season in which it's ideal to do so is upon us, and it always is shorter than you think...
New Orleans announced last week the results of an initial investigation of lead on painted surfaces and in surface soil at 13 playgrounds throughout the city...
The Freret Street Festival is the Kick-off to Festival Season
Over 200 Local Vendors Including Vega, Martinique, Shabby Chic
Slightly Used Dogs and Cats For Adoption
Live Music On 4 Stages Including Big Sams Funky Nation, Tin Men, Debauche, Free Agents Brass Band
Kid Zone with Six Inflatables and a Petting Zoo
Plus a Live, Free Outdoor Rollerderby Bout with the Big Easy Rollergirls after the Festival
Free parking in two nearby lots: 1) On Napoleon Avenue at S Robertson Street & 2) On the corner of Magnolia and Cadiz Streets
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." "Haitians voted for the music ticket. You cannot deny the importance of communication through music in Haiti. And this is something New Orleanians know well." …
, Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band
, the Neville Brothers
, Wilco
, Jeff Beck
and Allen Toussaint
, among many others. If you can't make it down this year, you're in luck -- Rolling Stone will be broadcasting performances from the show online on May 7th and 8th... 
The annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or simply Jazz Fest, is a massive springtime music and cultural festival that takes place over two consecutive weekends in late April and early May. Many music lovers of all ilk consider it the country's premier music festival and return year after year. Others have called it the best party in America...
, Keb Mo
, Tinariwen
, Stephen Marley
and the now legendary Grandpa Elliott
to name just a few...
," Spike Lee's Peabody Award-winning followup to his 2006 Hurricane Katrina HBO documentary "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
," will be released Tuesday (April 19). "If God is Willing" premiered on HBO August 23-24. Lee does a commentary track for the film, and a bonus featurette -- "Pickin' Up Da Pieces" -- contains outtake interviews... 
" by Jay Mazza is a collection of new and previously published essays on one of New Orleans' longest-running and best-known rock bands.
,” “Cassanova
,” “Do Whatcha Wanna
”) and with the climax of accumulated energies in the room...
, Tin Men, Debauche, Free Agents Brass Band
