{"id":846,"date":"2006-02-16T07:42:19","date_gmt":"2006-02-16T12:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/before-the-flood\/"},"modified":"2007-03-27T12:24:23","modified_gmt":"2007-03-27T17:24:23","slug":"before-the-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/before-the-flood","title":{"rendered":"Before the flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just finished reading Rob Walker’s Letters from New Orleans<\/a>, which I enjoyed much more than Tom Piazza’s Why New Orleans Matters<\/a>. I found the latter to be far too preachy, bordering on a sort of “White Man’s Burden” for why no expense must be spared in rebuilding the city. Walker’s book, on the other hand, made me care much more for the city and what it means and has meant.<\/p>\n

Maybe the big difference is that one writer was discussing NO,LA pre-Katrina, and the other post-Katrina.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it’s that one writer is a journalist, and the other is a novelist.<\/p>\n

Or maybe one guy is someone you could just chill out and have a beer with, and the other guy is a douche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just finished reading Rob Walker’s Letters from New Orleans, which I enjoyed much more than Tom Piazza’s Why New Orleans Matters. I found the latter to be far too preachy, bordering on a sort of “White Man’s Burden” for why no expense must be spared in rebuilding the city. Walker’s book, on the other hand, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Before the flood”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,8,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-new-orleans","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-dE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":779,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-orleans-pictures","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":0},"title":"New Orleans pictures","author":"Gil","date":"December 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I promised I'd post the New Orleans pix from last week, including the Katrina Ridge Christmas display, and here they are: Pictures from Katrina Ridge Pictures from the French Quarter Enjoy!","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13104,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-michael-tisserand","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":1},"title":"COVID Check-In with Michael Tisserand","author":"Gil","date":"April 8, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Michael Tisserand \"Normal is just a Martin Mull album.\" Author Michael Tisserand checks in from New Orleans. We talk about how his wife (a pediatrician) got through her recent bout with COVID-19, how the city has had to change its traditions and practices even when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidtisserandcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C491&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidtisserandcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C491&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidtisserandcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C491&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidtisserandcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C491&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidtisserandcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C491&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1366,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/no-no-nola","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":2},"title":"No-No-NO,LA","author":"Gil","date":"March 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the last few days, I've come across a pair of strange articles about New Orleans. The first contends that a collection of public-housing buildings should not be knocked down, since they're pretty nice buildings and just need \"full-scale renovations\". Oh, and the low-income residents shouldn't be brought back in.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":773,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-orleans-proud-to-swim-home","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":3},"title":"New Orleans: Proud to Swim Home","author":"Gil","date":"December 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Here we are in New Orleans! While the official VM fiancee was getting her test-run on hair and makeup, the official VM father-in-law-to-be & I took the official VM nephew-to-be to Lakeside Mall to pass the time. While there, we saw \"Katrina Ridge,\" a holiday train-set display based on post-Katrina\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":617,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/katrina-and-the-obvious-joke","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":4},"title":"Katrina and the Obvious Joke","author":"Gil","date":"August 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The official VM fiancee and I have been watching the weather reports all day long, since her family lives in the New Orleans area (they evacuated on Satuday) and we'll be having our wedding down there next spring.Our two lighthearted moments occurred when a) she said, \"We're not paying the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9832,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-181-chris-rose","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":5},"title":"Episode 181 – Chris Rose","author":"Gil","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #181: Chris Rose \"After Katrina, I looked around and saw we had reporters out covering the destruction, but ain't nobody looking around and what's left. So that's what I started to do to. I drove my car around the city until I ran out of gas. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"28616519840_08efd997a9_z","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/28616519840_08efd997a9_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}