It was looking bleak for the Saints today in the third quarter. Mighty bleak. But what could be done? They were in D.C. and we were all here: powerless and faraway in our own little faubourgs and wards.
The only remedy I could think of was to [...]
Unless you’re a complete punk and a lousy dirtbag, you’ve heard about Gambit’s viewing party for the next episode of A&E’s new hit show Steven Seagal Lawman (”The Finest Program in the History of American Television™” — Gambit).
Our party is this Wednesday, Dec. 9, 8:30-10 pm at Theo’s [...]
“You can look at me like a movie star. Or you can wipe that shit out of your head and say ‘Steven Seagal can save my life.” — Steven Seagal, in the premiere of Lawman
If you didn’t catch last night’s premiere of Steven Seagal: Lawman on [...]
I saw this last night during the 10 pm news and was thoroughly confused (of course, it could’ve just been the video hangover from an hour of Steven Seagal: Lawman, and crank up the Emmys for that, by the way). Anyway, behold the new commercial from the John Georges for [...]
Rob Couhig, who has been aggressively running for mayor without actually declaring his intention to run, made it official tonight with a “Tele-Town Hall” conference call and an official announcement on his newly minted Facebook page, where he laid out his platform:
I will use these four conservative guidelines to make [...]
Lolis Eric Elie, former Metro columnist and current reporter for The Times-Picayune, has joined the wave of employees who have chosen to take the paper’s buyout offer. Elie, who has worked at the T-P since 1995, will be leaving at the end of this week.
“I’m [...]
After months of waiting, it’s finally coming tonight at 9 pm: Steven Seagal: Lawman, the reality show featuring the martial-arts star as a Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputy (he’s been doing it for 20 years!) debuts on A&E. Here’s a review from the Chicago Sun-Times, and here’s the extended [...]
After a sleepy start to the mayor’s race (was it really last January when we started writing about it?), things got off to a $*#ing bang this week with a certain TV spot that captured the city’s attention. That, and more, is in the [...]
The New York Times‘ Deborah Solomon (who’s drawn her own questions for her questioning style), sits down for a Q&A with Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao in this Sunday’s Times Magazine. Naturally, his health-care vote is top of the agenda. A couple (actually, three) highlights:
A first-term congressman from New [...]
Who’s your mayor? Who’s your next mayor? Right now you probably have no idea. So go ahead, bookmark their campaign Web sites and watch their positions develop … or follow them on Twitter where you can ask them important (or impertinent) questions. The list:
Web sites:
Rob Couhig: none
John Georges: http://georgesformayor.com
Watch it. Then read as the Times-Pic’s Frank Donze explains mayoral candidate James Perry’s new campaign ad. Take it away, Mr. Donze:
“Political insiders and career politicians…” an offscreen narrator intones as silhouettes of men and women appear on screen, depicting the announced mayoral contenders. “Lining up to be our [...]
Six declared New Orleans mayoral candidates – John Georges, Troy Henry, Leslie Jacobs, Ed Murray, James Perry, and Nadine Ramsey – and one undeclared candidate, Rob Couhig, spoke this morning at a forum hosted by the Afterschool Partnership, a group dedicated to providing services to local children during the [...]
Anthony Bourdain, role model for a generation of bad-boy (and wannabe bad-boy) chefs. Garrison Keillor, the rumpled personification of folksy humor. And David Sedaris, one of the funniest people on earth. They’re all coming to the Mahalia Jackson Theater next year as the inaugural wordsmiths of the New Orleans [...]
BY ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR.
“If you are coming to steal, there will be no deal!” promises mayoral candidate and former state judge Nadine Ramsey in her campaign literature, promising a “no tolerance attitude for corruption” if she is elected mayor of New Orleans. So how does Ramsey respond to [...]
Sources within and outside The Times-Picayune told Gambit today that the paper’s most visible columnist, Chris Rose, intends to take the paper’s latest round of buyouts, but may continue as a contributor to the paper’s Living section.
Reached by phone, Rose would neither confirm nor deny the reports, nor would he [...]
Lee Zurik, the investigative reporter who departed WWL-TV Nov. 5, was introduced to his new coworkers in the WVUE-TV newsroom today, concluding what was perhaps the worst-kept secret in local media: Zurik was leaving the city’s top-rated news station for the local Fox affiliate, where the news division [...]
This week: eventful enough for you? It seems like five weeks, not five days, since the Saints played in the Superdome in a game that seemed to take seven hours and left the city drained of adrenalin … and beer. Since then, we’ve had Dr. [...]
BY ALLEN JOHNSON JR.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten today announced a 63-count indictment against Gregory Meffert, the city’s first chief technology officer — raising questions about how much has changed and how much has stayed the same at City Hall under outgoing Mayor Ray Nagin.
Inaugurated as a “reform” mayor in 2002, [...]
Whee! The first debate of the 2010 mayoral brawl was held tonight at the Ambassador Hotel in the CBD, hosted by the organization Crimefighters. Present were three of the six announced candidates (former judge Nadine Ramsey, housing advocate James Perry, and frontrunner/state Sen. Ed Murray), as [...]
Greg Meffert sounds drained. It’s been about 24 hours since a jury found the city’s former technology chief to be partially liable (along with Dell Inc. and two firms owned by city vendor Mark St. Pierre) in a civil trial filed by plaintiffs Southern Electronics Supply Inc. and Active Solutions [...]
Story to follow, but Greg Meffert has issued a statement about the crime-camera jury nearly simultaneously with the return of the guilty verdict:
Statement from Greg Meffert:
Though I am relieved that the jury saw through some of this witch hunt, I’m disappointed that a majority of the jury found that [...]
Is it the full moon? Stress? Too much newsroom coffee?
• PUNCHOUT!: Manuel Roig-Franzia, the former T-P reporter now at The Washington Post, got into a fistfight with veteran Post editor Henry Allen in the newsroom on Friday. Seems Allen threw the first punch after Roig-Franzia called him a…well, it [...]
Hello, Gambiteers. Happy Halloween! Love your costume. Brrr…scary! Very creative. Wish we’d thought of that. Hey, have you lost weight? Here, have a Bit O’Honey and an Mars Bar. Sorry, we’re all out of Hubig’s Pies.
Anyway: coming up in this week’s Gambit:
• Our cover story is [...]
Another candidate is testing the waters for the New Orleans City Council seat representing District A, which is being vacated by Councilmember Shelley Midura. Virginia Blanque, a businessowner, former vice president of the Mid-City Neighborhood Association and former director of constituent services for Councilman Arnie Fielkow, held a small [...]
BY ALLEN JOHNSON JR.
A spokesperson for City Council member at-large Jackie Clarkson today denied widespread rumors that she may roll her record of real estate experience into a race for the city’s new single assessor seat in 2010.
“Not true – we have heard that same rumor,” said Jacquelyn Cole, communications [...]
We know you’re all caught up in Halloween and the Voodoo Music Experience, but Mardi Gras looms in the distance, and the always-satirical, always-raunchy, always-thinking-ahead Krewe du Vieux has determined its king, queen, and theme.
This year’s king: Dr. John.
This year’s queen: Mother Miriam Chamani [...]
Anyone monitoring the official Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Twitter account (now defunct!) at 1 a.m. on Monday must’ve been up for a surprise … a surprise that had nothing to do with hurricane watches, tornado warnings or Black Friday at Clearview Shopping Center.
We’ll let the official JP press release [...]
• SAINTS SAINTS SAINTS: WWL-TV’s Bradley Handwerger takes a look at what the national media are saying about the 6-0 New Orleans Saints.
• BAD LIEUTENANT…GOOD MOVIE?: CinemaBlend reviews Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which recently screened at the New Orleans Film Festival:
Though the New Orleans [...]
• six and oh: six and oh six and oh six and oh ….
• POW!: Rep. Charlie Melancon, way behind in the polls for the 2010 Senate race, comes out swinging against Sen. David Vitter:
If a company wants to receive taxpayer dollars, they should not be [...]
Gambit and WWL-TV are now teaming up to bring you the best of the weekend’s activities every Thursday morning on the Eyewitness Morning News. Gambit staff writer Noah Bonaparte Pais will be on at 7:45 a.m. each week with tips on the weekend’s best concerts, screenings, art [...]
• TROUBLE: Lil Wayne pleads guilty to felony gun possession, may be spending a year in the pokey….
• HOLLYWOOD SOUTH: Production on the new Green Lantern movie moves to New Orleans….
• SPEAKING OF MOVIES: New Orleans-raised writer/actor Byron Lane will see his debut film premiere at the [...]
iPhone users who are planning to check out the Voodoo Music Experience would do well to download the official Voodoo app from the iTunes Music Store — it has schedules, biographies, and all kinds of Voodoophernalia for the music lover.
And for those who aren’t going but dig being [...]
“Barack Around the Clock.” Groan. We know, we know. It could’ve been worse (“Barack This Town”? “Barack You Like a Hurricane”?). But the title of this week’s cover story is actually accurate, as we look into the crazy week between the time President Barack Obama won [...]
(Filed by David Winkler-Schmit)
When he woke up today, 9-year-old Tyren Scott of Paulina, La., knew he was going to President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in New Orleans. He didn’t know he would be meeting the president, nor that he would be going home a celebrity of [...]
David Winkler-Schmit is at the UNO town hall awaiting President Barack Obama’s arrival, where he met New Orleanian Karen Mason and her daughter Christina, who is a student at Tulane.
Karen applied online for the tickets and was excited when she got the email telling her [...]
David Winkler-Schmit is at UNO for the president’s town hall, where he met Aretha Etienne, who has come with a message for President Barack Obama.
Etienne, 40, who is from Plaquemines Parish, lost her home in Hurricane Katrina. Unable to get an LRA loan, she took out a [...]
While you’re waiting for President Barack Obama to arrive (Air Force One touches down at MSY at 11:20, unless he pulls a switcheroo and comes in on JetBlue), here’s some background reading…
• The New York Times and The Washington Post both report on the duration of the visit [...]
Guess those reports earlier this week were wrong. Robin Winchell, press secretary to Rep. Charlie Melancon, says the congressman will indeed be in New Orleans tomorrow for President Barack Obama’s visit. Winchell says Melancon will be along to meet with Obama, but says the scheduling hasn’t been worked out yet.
“We [...]
While most of our readers have been Twittering their frustration at not getting an r.s.v.p. for tomorrow’s University of New Orleans town hall meeting with President Barack Obama, Gambit reader Westley was luckier … and he sends this photo along to taunt us prove it. Congrats, Westley!
[...]
Gambit sports guy Alejandro de los Rios is in Europe, and fashion guru Kara Nelson is on maternity leave, so we have no experts to consult regarding the New Orleans Zephyrs’ new logo, which was unveiled this afternoon at a press conference at the Fox and [...]
• WET: We’re still drying out in Mid-City after last night’s mess.
• WETLANDS: More blowback about President Barack Obama’s Thursday visit to New Orleans, which will not include a tour of the coast, an inspection of the levees or a trip to the pumping stations. Read Mark Ford:
Without [...]
