What an absolutely beautiful ballad.. This man has a gift, to be able to take you by the hand and lead you to a tender, touching moment. It’s a song that cherishes and treasures those earliest years of your love. Listen and watch this moving piece by a singer-songwriter born in Louisiana, Jesse Winchester, on The Spectacle. He brought tears to Neco Case and Elvis Costello.
Saints the Soul of America’s City by Wright Thompson
Because I need to preserve this beautiful piece by Wright Thompson, Saints the Soul of America’s City, for later reading, in its entirety:
NEW ORLEANS — The soul of New Orleans is in a trumpet and a low-ceilinged bar. It’s in the free red beans in the back. It’s in the art hanging near the food that has two dogs howling at a New Orleans Saints moon. It’s in the voice of Kermit Ruffins, two hours into his standing Thursday night gig at a packed club hidden in the neighborhood behind the French Quarter, the place weathered and peeling like the side of a workingman’s boat.
He plays a song he wrote, “All I Want for Christmas Is the Saints in the Super Bowl,” and the crowd dances and sings all the words. When he takes a break, he calls me in closer. There’s something he wants to show me. He undoes his thin black tie, and the top two buttons, then pulls both his collared shirt and T-shirt down just enough so I can see. I notice the top point first, and slowly, the entire tattoo comes into view, a month old, enormous, covering his entire chest. I start laughing, and so does he. A symbol of the city adorned with a symbol of the city. Kermit Ruffins has gotten an enormous fleur-de-lis, the Saints’ helmet logo, tattooed on his chest.
“Only in New Orleans,” he says, winking. “I’m killing ’em when I take off my shirt at the beach. Especially at the Super Bowl.”
Hello, madness
These are strange and beautiful days in New Orleans, and they must be seen to be believed. I’ve visited the city dozens of times since I was a boy, lived and worked there for a spell and last week, when I went down to experience the mania over the Saints’ undefeated season firsthand, I found myself not sure whether every street was a dream. Some moments made me laugh, and others were so full of a desperate love that I had tears in my eyes. [Read more…] about Saints the Soul of America’s City by Wright Thompson
The gestational journey ends
Thank you, everyone, for sharing advice, for the visits, calls and gifts, and all the well wishes! We’re still catching up with baby and sleep so for now, just a quick update :-)
Above is his first passport photo, taken by the hospital’s photographer at about a day old.
We flew to Bangkok at 35 weeks, since the airlines don’t let you travel any later into the pregnancy than that as a precaution against having to deal with a woman in labor on board. Other mothers in Phnom Penh have driven either down to the border at Koh Kong (via a road that goes off the grid for a solid hour, as of 2010), or else up north through Poipet into Aranyaprathet, Thailand, and then bus/train it to Bangkok. But I just didn’t think I could handle that! The road to Poipet border crossing has much improved since I’ve been through it last, but decreasing the number of uncertainties while I’m heavily pregnant is a good thing!
My first groggy thought after waking up out of anesthesia and meeting our son was a dismal, “they mixed ours up with this cross-eyed Chinese baby”, but Hubby reassured me that from the time they took him out the Chinese-looking baby hasn’t left his sight. The baby’s filling out his features now, so my mixup worries are going away :-)
We had an unplanned c-section. First contractions were at 8am and by 1030am when we arrived at the hospital I was already 6cm. Between the pelvic girdle problem I’ve been having in the last trimester and the contractions, there was no respite from the pain so I asked for an epidural. Three hours later I was fully dilated but he wasn’t coming down fast enough and his vital signs were rapidly dropping, so I was wheeled into the OR. Apparently the cord had wrapped around his neck and arm, and he was losing oxygen rapidly. WHEW!
He came with big lungs and a small stomach – they say this is normal :-\ Thankfully he doesn’t use his lung power much :-) except when he’s getting his BCG shot :-(
Here he is in his bassinet :-)
the decade in magazine covers
… by Magazine Publishers of America and the American Society of Magazine Editors
time for a new resume! infographics hmmm…
It’s that time of career again.. I think I’ll ditch the traditional format and go infographic this time, and what a timely Cool Infographics post! I’m keen on cartographic visuals, like this not-quite-but-somewhere-along-the-lines resume by Jordan Carroll:
when Asia’s per-capita income catches up to the West’s.. by Hans Rosling
Check this video out. The Asian Century has never been more real, yet it’s still surreal for those of us used to a western-centric world. Presented so compellingly by Hans Rosling, the public health infographic brains behind the Gapminder, this modeling sends home a message that isn’t new but is quite amazing even for the rapidly changing times we live in.