Gambit Digital Edition: December 11, 2023

December 11-17 2023 Volume 44 Number 50

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Wishing You A Joyful Holiday Season!

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This magical time of year is filled with twinkling lights, festive decorations and the joyful laughter of children. But amidst the excitement of gift-giving and celebrations, there’s a valuable lesson that often gets overshadowed—teaching children about gratitude. Expressing gratitude seems easy enough but instilling this concept in young children can be challenging, especially during the holiday season!

Research has shown that practicing gratitude can lead to increased happiness, improved relationships, and better physical health. As we experience this holiday season, it’s essential to recognize the power of simple acts in building connections with our children.

Amidst the flurry of preparations, there are opportunities to deepen our bond with them, creating lasting memories and nurturing their sense of gratitude.

The act of cooking together is more than just preparing a meal. Give your kids a part of the meal to help prepare or if they are old enough, let them prepare a dish for the meal. Use this time to talk about topics that

are important to them. If you have a teen preparing the vegetables, ask them about what they are looking forward to eating and why. For little ones, simply talking about what they are doing is a great way to build connections.

When the meal you’ve prepared together is ready, savor it as a family. These moments of togetherness, whether through games, new creations, or simply relaxing, are the essence of the holiday spirit.

Wrapping presents together might seem like a chaotic endeavor, but it can be really fun when you let things happen organically.

Helping your child wrap gifts to give to others can help build selflessness, which is a great gift to give to your child. It may not be the prettiest wrapped gift, but it is all about the journey to the finished product that matters.

If your child receives a gift, teach them how to write a thank you note. Go past a simple “thank you for the book” message and encourage them to express how the gift impacts them. The thank you note might read “Thank you for the book. It will help grow my library at home.”

“During this holiday season, parents should show gratitude. Telling their children why they are grateful for them is a great place to start,” says X. Patrice Wright, Manager at The Parenting Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans.

Incorporate gratitude into your everyday routine, even after the holiday season has

passed. Telling our family members thank you for the simple acts they perform every day and acknowledging things that you are grateful for on a daily basis sets the tone for children to mimic our behavior.

Remember, amidst the chaos lies opportunities to nurture connections and create cherished memories. Embrace these moments, for they gift our children not just with joy-filled holidays but with enduring bonds and a deep-rooted sense of gratitude that will accompany them throughout their lives. Here’s to building unforgettable connections and fostering gratitude this holiday season!

chnola.org

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Simple ways for children to foster gratitude this holiday season

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DEC. 11 — DEC. 17, 2023 VOLUME 44 || NUMBER 50

CONTENTS

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NEWS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Opening Gambit................ 6

Corinne Robin Fox

Commentary.................... 7

REALTOR

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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Project Censored 2023

Corporate Abuse and Environmental Harm Dominate Project Censored Top Stories This Year

S TA F F

Bring the fun of a

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EDITORIAL

Editor | JOHN STANTON Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS Arts & Entertainment Editor | WILL COVIELLO

Staff Writers | JAKE CLAPP,

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Behind the ‘Lens’

LPO with Dawn Richard

‘Louisiana Lens’ highlights PhotoNOLA events and expos across New Orleans | by Will Coviello WHILE SELECTING IMAGES FOR THE BOOK “LOUISIANA LENS,” JOHN H. LAWRENCE,

the now retired curator of photography for the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC), had more than a million photos to draw form, including historic, art, documentary and photojournalistic holdings. But some photos were always going to make the cut.

“I have always said that if the museum is burning down, the picture I am going to walk out with is a tintype of a person only identified as Shakespeare,” he says.

“It’s an incredibly elegant photograph of an African-American man. It’s beautifully lit. It’s so optimistic. It makes you ask, ‘What is this subject thinking?’ That picture also is unique. It was made in the camera. There were no negatives.”

Lawrence will discuss the book with Jeff L Rosenheim of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art at the HNOC on Wednesday, Dec. 13. The annual lecture event is a highlight of the PhotoNOLA festival, which features photography shows, films, portfolio reviews, workshops and more Dec. 13-17.

There are many photographers and subjects one would expect to be represented in a Louisiana photography book. “Louisiana Lens” includes an EJ Bellocq Storyville portrait of a reclining nude woman looking at the camera.

There’s a self-portrait by George Dureau, as well as one of his heroically framed portraits of a man with amputated legs. There are Carnival photos of both old-line krewe royalty and floats, as well as costumed revelers on the streets, from the early 1900s to the 1950s. Among the Hurricane Katrina-related photos is the interior of a flood-damaged home by Robert Polidori, known for his large-scale photos of architecture and environmental subjects.

The book draws exclusively from the HNOC archives, so some things aren’t there.

“Someone might ask why aren’t any of Lee Friedlander’s jazz photographs in here?” Lawrence says. “It’s because we don’t have any.”

But the book is full of gems, some of them chosen for their artistry and many for the uniqueness of their documentation. The HNOC has a large collection of files from the Times-Picayune, and one shot features an encounter between former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, former Gov. Edwin Edwards and the late Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee at the Superdome.

The photo is presented along with the sleeve of negatives from the shoot, marked up with a grease pencil. Lawrence wanted to shed some light on the photojournalistic process.

There also are juxtaposed images of former District Attorney Jim Garrison and Clay Shaw. The two men were linked by events following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That’s not apparent in the images, but they were taken by the same commercial studio.

Other enigmatic photos include an image by Leonard Freed of several white women confined in a segregated ward of Orleans Parish Prison in 1963.

“It’s a photograph that can pose some issues,” Lawrence says. “Is it making light of incarceration?”

It also helps make another point. “The picture doesn’t change,” Lawrence says. “How we use it or choose to view it is what changes.”

There’s also a photo of a 1967 New Orleans Saints halftime show in which a man is flying with a jet pack, but he’s hard to see at first.

“It’s interesting because of the compression of the near and far, and he’s almost invisible until you start looking for it.”

Another surprise is the lone inclusion

by Richard Sexton, known for his lush color photographs of New Orleans’ historic architecture. This black and white image juxtaposes a lone fisherman in the foreground with massive bulk carrying ships moored in the Bonnet Carre Spillway in the background. It’s from his Enigmatic Stream project, which the HNOC sponsored.

There also are some photos by Black portrait photographers Arthur Bedou and Florestine Perrault Collins, whose images recently were featured in the NOMA show “Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers.”

Included are one of Bedou’s portraits of Booker T. Washington giving a speech in Louisiana in 1915 and a Collins image of a beaming child in a band uniform.

The HNOC and the book also have satellite photos from NASA, FEMA documentation of Katrina flooding and more. The book is organized by time period and technology, from the earliest era when daguerreotypes were popular for portraits to the current digital age.

‘Little Theodore in Soldier Suit in Graduation Play, 1940’ by Florestine Perrault Collins PHOTO BY FFLORESTINE PERRAULT COLLINS / COURTESY HNOC

Lawrence also notes that it highlights that the holdings are accessible to the public, unlike most museum pieces not currently on display.

Lawrence will discuss some of the photos and why he chose them in the lecture. He’ll also sign copies on Saturday, Dec. 16, at the PhotoBOOK Fair at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s Taylor Library.

Other PhotoNOLA events include workshops and seminars on Saturday at the Ogden Museum. There’s a day of film screenings at The Broad Theater on Thursday. Among them is “On a Wing and Prayer,” a short work following Ben Depp in his quest to document coastal erosion in Louisiana. He mechanized a paraglider and flew solo over barrier islands photographing the receding land. Depp also won the festival’s 2022 review prize. His show featuring images from his recent book “Tide Lines” is on display at the New Orleans Photo Alliance gallery during PhotoNOLA. There are 30 PhotoNOLA shows from museums and galleries to breweries and restaurants. Subjects range from food photography and odd portraits to images of Havana and historical photos from Palestine. Most shows are on display through December and beyond.

For information about PhotoNOLA events, visit photonola.org.

Last year, New Orleans electro-pop artist Dawn Richard collaborated with neoclassicial composer and multi-instrumentalist Spencer Zahn for the fantastic contemporary work “Pigments.” Lush and compelling, “Pigments” saw Richard brilliantly step into a new field. She now joins the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for a live performance of the album as part of LPO’s Music at the Museum program. Matthew Kraemer conducts, and the program also includes Julius Eastman’s “Stay On It.” At 6 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 14, at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Tickets are $38 general, $10 for students at lpomusic.com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

BY ALEXANDER LE’JO

Caroling in Jackson Square

Carolers convene in Jackson Square to sing traditional carols, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and more, with local dignitaries and clergy leading some tunes. Singing is from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17. Sponsor Patio Planters will have volunteers on hand to distribute free songbooks and candles.

There’s more information and a downloadable songbook at patioplanters.net.

Russell Batiste celebration

The late New Orleans drum titan Russell Batiste would have turned 58 on Dec. 12. To mark the occasion and to celebrate Batiste, who died in September, members of his family, former bandmates and special guests will throw a birthday jam on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the Maple Leaf at 8 p.m. Find tickets and more information at mapleleafbar.com.

Samara Joy: A Joyful Holiday

It may not have been a surprise early this year when singer Samara Joy won the Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for “Linger Awhile,” but she also took home the trophy for Best New PAGE 33

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A R T S + E N T E R TA I N M E N T

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OPENING GAMBIT

NEW ORLEANS NEWS + VIEWS

All we want for Christmas is a pump system that doesn’t fall apart when somebody sneezes too hard

# TC OH EU N T

T H U M B S U P/ THUMBS DOWN

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Gulf Coast Bank is building its new Elmwood branch to operate off the grid. The building, which is expected to be finished by summer 2024, will use solar panels and backup battery storage to power the building and geothermal energy for heating and cooling. If successful, the local bank hopes to use environmentally friendly measures at its other branches.

THE NUMBER, IN MILLIONS, OF U.S. HOUSEHOLDS WITH A PET, ACCORDING TO FORBES ADVISOR. Lords of Leather’s 2022 ball, themed “The Oddball.”

PHOTO BY G DOUGLAS ADAMS

Gay Mardi Gras krewe Lords of Leather reveal 2024 Carnival royalty, ball theme THE LORDS OF LEATHER, NEW ORLEANS’ ONLY LEATHER CARNIVAL KREWE,

Joy Banner, co-founder and co-director of The Descendants Project, has been awarded an Emerging Leaders in Historic Preservation Award by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. With The Descendants Project, Banner uses history and community engagement to fight environmental racism in St. John the Baptist Parish.

New Orleans police recruitment continues to lag despite pay increases and bonuses, remote national testing, a Civil Service exam with higher passage rates and a new police chief, The Times-Picayune reported.

The pace of applicants has fallen by almost half since the beginning of the year, which can be attributed to declining interest in working for the NOPD from outside Louisiana.

announced their 2024 royalty Dec. 3 at The AllWays Lounge & Cabaret.

The krewe named Brock Andersen, its president, as Lord King Elect XLI, and Trey Woodside as Lord Consort Elect XLI. Both men will be coronated at the krewe’s ball on Sunday, Feb. 11.

The theme is “Down the Poisoned Path,” and costumes will be based on poisonous items. That could be plants, animals or ideas, according to Ball Captain Joey Landry.

Lords of Leather formed in 1983 as a gay krewe for people in the leather subculture, associated with bondage and other kinks. Landry told Gambit there are currently about 24 full members and 20 affiliate members in the krewe, with upward of 750 people attending the last ball.

Costumes for members “presenting” at the ball — showcasing their costumes on stage — go well beyond leather to include large backpieces with sequins, feathers and the same flashy materials any other krewe would have in their costumes.

Landry says the krewe used to require every costume to have some aspect of leather in it but that they’ve since relaxed that rule given that the spotlight tends to favor sparkly and showy costumes rather than dark leather. Still, most find a way to incorporate leather into their final looks.

“We are a leather krewe, basically based on the leather and kink community, as opposed to our costumes are leather,” Landry says. “I think that’s a misconception some people might have.”

The New Iberia native became ball captain in 2019 because as a creative — he owns Arbor House Floral — he loved the thought of coming up with concepts for ball themes and costumes.

“It’s just a matter of wanting to see all these weird ideas I had in my head come to life,” Landry says. “I love to draw these ideas for costumes out and then just seeing them come to life and see how much they look like the sketch that we did and what was in my brain.”

Unlike many of the gay krewes, the Lords of Leather don’t crown a queen at their ball. That dates back to the leather community’s emphasis on masculinity and rejection of “effeminate” stereotypes of gay men. The krewe originally debated even letting women attend their first ball but ultimately decided to invite them. To this day, the krewe only has a handful of women members.

That’s why it was such a big deal when the krewe named Christina Sailors, a bisexual woman, as its 2023 lord consort on its 40th anniversary.

She was the first woman to be Lords of Leather royalty.

“That’s something we’re pretty proud of,” Landry says.

— Kaylee Poche

That is roughly 66% of American households.

Dogs are the most popular pet, followed by cats and freshwater fish. Millennials make up the largest percentage of pet owners.

The percentage of pet owners has spiked over the past 35 years.

C’EST W H AT

?

How much longer does Dennis Allen have with the Saints?

52%

HE’LL BE GONE AT THE END OF THIS SEASON

17%

I DON’T CARE. I’M ALREADY WATCHING THE PELICANS

17%

SOMEHOW, HE’LL BE AROUND ANOTHER FIVE SEASONS

14% THE SAINTS WILL GIVE HIM ONE MORE YEAR

Vote on “C’est What?” at www.bestofneworleans.com

7

Two more years of this?

IN A BIT OF SADLY IRONIC TIMING, MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL BASKED ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE IN DUBAI last week to trumpet her administration’s

“record” on climate change — just as a brief downpour overwhelmed New Orleans’ crumbling drainage system, flooding much of the city.

We can’t make this up.

On one level, this incident captures Cantrell’s penchant for self-inflicted wounds, thanks in no small measure to her frequent travels on the city’s dime. If the damage were limited to political optics, it could easily be written (or laughed) off.

Unfortunately, her latest junket is more than just another ill-timed trip. It raises serious questions about her administration’s efforts to combat and adapt to climate change, and underscores just how detached she is from what is happening in New Orleans halfway through her second and final term as mayor.

Cantrell justifies this and other trips to attend climate change conferences around the globe as opportunities for her to show the world New Orleans is a leader in the fight against climate change — and to highlight her policy successes.

She adds that such trips enhance the city’s prestige and spur private investment in the city. Of course, for that to happen the city actually needs to be a leader

in the fight against climate change, and her administration needs to have a demonstrated record of success.

Unfortunately, neither of those things is true, as demonstrated by last week’s flood. Moreover, who’s going to invest in a city that can’t handle a typical downpour without significant flooding and economic disruption?

This problem isn’t confined to New Orleans’ history of flooding. On the topic of climate change, Cantrell often makes promises and proclamations that don’t pan out. Take the “Clean Fleet” ordinance the City Council passed last year. That law required the city to buy low-emission vehicles beginning this year. Cantrell’s administration ignored that law, opting instead to spend $50 million in federal aid on gas guzzlers.

As Alliance for Affordable Energy Executive Director Logan Burke told Verite News this summer, “It is vital that they follow their own rules … otherwise policies wind up as performance and handwaving, and that’s

Water rises on Banks Street in New Orleans on Saturday, Dec. 2.

PHOTO BY KASEY BUBNASH / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

how people lose confidence in their government.”

In the days after the flood, Cantrell and her team demonstrated a remarkable level of tone deafness. Her office issued a statement after the storm, then followed up with a series of photo ops from Dubai and daily debriefs about panel discussions she attended.

Adding a touch of the comically bizarre, Cantrell took time out to promote New Orleans being ranked as the sixth most fun city in America, according to a “study” conducted by a marketing firm known for churning out dubious surveys. Presumably, the study was completed before news broke about the “fun” that New Orleanians had cleaning out their flooded homes and vehicles last week.

If this is where the mayor’s head is at now, we’re loathe to imagine where it (and the mayor herself) will be in the next two years.

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Edwards’ legacy includes fiscal responsibility, Medicaid expansion

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IT’S UNWISE TO ATTEMPT TO DEFINE A POLITICIAN’S LEGACY too soon. But as Gov.

John Bel Edwards enters the final month of his two terms in office, some aspects of his tenure already stand out in stark relief.

Fiscally, Edwards will rank as Louisiana’s most successful — and responsible — governor in the last half-century, possibly ever. He also has done more to improve public health care than any governor since Huey Long built the Charity Hospital System nearly a century ago.

The numbers easily bear this out.

On the fiscal front, Edwards inherited a $2 billion budget shortfall when he took office in January 2016.

His predecessor, Republican Bobby Jindal, was arguably the most fiscally irresponsible Louisiana governor ever, though he shares that disgrace with lawmakers in both parties.

Jindal promoted tax cuts for the rich and big business while starving higher education and public health care. He simultaneously used one-time funds to pay for recurring expenses even though that’s supposed to be constitutionally prohibited.

Eight years later, Edwards boasts a record of zero deficits, $3.2 billion in a pair of constitutionally protected funds that provide budget stability, more than $460 million in recurring reinvestments in higher education, and the largest state investment ever in early childhood education.

That’s a remarkable achievement, but it didn’t happen easily. When Edwards took office, he faced both the largest deficit in state history and a hostile Republican-majority legislature.

He initially tried to convince lawmakers to use personal and corporate income taxes to stabilize state revenues. GOP lawmakers balked, but enough of them ultimately agreed to a sales tax hike.

“I didn’t want to do it via a sales tax increase,” Edwards said. “But we have the least regressive sales tax in the country. It doesn’t apply to groceries” and other basic necessities.

Edwards adds with justifiable pride that Louisiana’s fiscal about-face required bipartisan legislative support.

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Governor John Bel Edwards.

PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

His expansion of Medicaid fulfilled a campaign promise and didn’t require legislative approval.

It came soon after he took office, and it has had a dramatic impact across Louisiana’s health care and economic landscape.

It made affordable health insurance available to more than 700,000 Louisianans who didn’t have it, and it helped keep rural hospitals open.

Neighboring Texas, which has not expanded Medicaid, saw 26 rural hospitals close since 2010; ditto for Mississippi, which lost five hospitals in that same span of time.

Health care outcomes also improved significantly for Louisiana’s working poor, who previously didn’t qualify for Medicaid but also couldn’t afford private health insurance.

Nearly 2,300 newly insured women have since learned they had breast cancer because they were able to get screening in time to treat it, and more than 33,000 patients either had colon polyps removed or received colon cancer treatment because they received timely screenings.

All of them were newly covered

by Medicaid.

Best of all, Medicaid expansion is so popular that every candidate to succeed Edwards vowed not to undo his decision.

Will Gov.-elect Jeff Landry stay Edwards’ fiscally responsible course?

Time will tell.

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BL AKE PONTCHARTR AIN™

Hey Blake,

I am thrilled with the move by my favorite radio station, WWOZ, to the Jax Brewery. Other than Jax, were any other beers produced there? When was it in operation as a brewery?

Dear reader,

FOR NEARLY 85 YEARS, FROM 1890 UNTIL 1974, the Jackson Brewing Company,

which produced Jax Beer at its brewery on Decatur Street, was considered the largest brewery in the South. The company was led by Lawrence Fabacher and members of his family.

The castle-like Romanesque Revival brewery was designed by architect Dietrich Einsidel. According to the book “New Orleans Beer: A Hoppy History of Big Easy Brewing” by Jeremy Labadie and Argyle Wolf-Knapp, the brands Fabacher, Bohemian Hof-Brau, Tex, 4-X and Sabana beers were also produced at the brewery by the Jackson Brewing Company.

In 1970, the Jax Brewery was sold to Meister Brau Inc. of Chicago. The local operation closed for good in 1974.

The Jax recipe was purchased by Pearl Brewing Company, which later merged with the Pabst Brewing Company. Pearl continued to produce Jax Beer for about a decade. According to a 1984 Times-Picayune article, the demand for it in Louisiana was much less than in Texas and Mississippi, however.

The 22-acre Jax site, including the former brewery and several warehouses, was purchased for $5.5 million in 1982. A group led by developers

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Darryl Berger, David Burrus and Wayne Ducote spent $8 million to transform the brewery into a 65,000 squarefoot retail, entertainment, office and residential development which opened in Oct. 1984. That was the first stage of a plan totaling $150 million, which sparked a second phase called the Millhouse, which opened next door in 1986, doubling the amount of Jax’s retail and restaurant space.

In addition to specialty shops, early Jax tenants included the New Orleans School of Cooking and restaurants called Visko’s and Guste’s, along with a Jaxfest food court on the third floor.

Now called the Shops at Jax Brewery, the complex also features both the Jaxon and the Riverview rooms, special event venues overlooking the Mississippi River. WWOZ is currently broadcasting out of temporary studios on the building’s third floor while the entire fifth floor is prepared for its permanent home.

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Her Christmas decorations, which were featured on the light standards dotting the street, first graced Canal Street in 1939. “Before this year, Christmas was just a flat celebration as far as the city itself went,” Finnin told The Times-Picayune. “The stores decorated, of course, but that’s about all.” Finnin changed that, by adding life-sized Santa Claus figures, real Christmas trees, neon stars and other decorations over the years.

“Miss Betty Finnin, city decorator, has added a bit of cheer to accent the various special events that happen so often in the Crescent City,” boasted a 1965 city advertisement in The Times-Picayune. “For example, Canal Street light standard became a tall chimney for Santa Claus to bring his goodies at Christmas time.”

Finnin, who also decorated Canal Street for Mardi Gras, also helped design the Krewe of Mid-City and children’s parades at Christmas and Mardi Gras.

City budget cuts eliminated Finnin’s position in 1970. She died in 1988.

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Dominate

Project Censored’s Top Stories This Year PAUL ROSENBERG, SENIOR EDITOR PROJECT CENSORED

This story has been edited for length. To see all the stories on Project Censored’s 2023 list, visit gambitweekly.com.

“WE HAVE MADE THE PLANET INHOSPITABLE TO HUMAN LIFE.” That’s what the lead researcher in Project Censored’s No. 1 story this year said. He wasn’t talking about the climate catastrophe. He was talking about so-called “forever chemicals,” per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer and additional health risks, and the study he led found unsafe levels in rainwater worldwide.

Even though this story received some corporate media attention — in USA Today and the Discovery Channel — the starkly shocking bottom line clearly didn’t come through to the general public.

Have you heard it before? Has it been the subject of any conversation you’ve had? No? Well, that, my friend, is the very essence of what Project Censored’s signature “top 10” list is all about: exposing the suppression (active or passive) of vitally important information from the public, which renders the public unable to act in the way that a healthy democratic public is supposed to.

They’ve been doing it since Carl Jensen began it with a single college class in 1976, inspired in part by the way the Watergate story got this same sort of treatment until well after the election cycle it was part of.

But there’s a second story intertwined with the “forever chemicals” pervasive presence: the revelation that companies responsible for them have known about their dangers for decades, but kept those dangers hidden — just like fossil fuel companies and climate catastrophe. The intersection of environmental/ public health and corporate criminality is typical of how certain long-standing patterns of censored news weave together across the years, even decades, and how the spotlight Project Censored shines on them helps to make sense of much more than the individual stories it highlights, as vitally important as they are in themselves.

Illustration by Anson Stevens-Bollen

In previous years, I’ve highlighted the multiplicity of patterns of censorship that can be seen. In their introduction to the larger 25-story list in their annual book, ”State of the Free Press,“ Andy Lee Roth and Steve Macek describe these patterns at two levels. First, invoking the metaphor that “exemplary reporting is praised for ‘shining light’ on a subject or ‘bringing to light’ crucial facts and original perspectives.”

They say, “The news reports featured ... are rays of light shining through a heavily slatted window. Each of these independent news reports highlights a social issue that has otherwise been dimly lit or altogether

obscured by corporate news outlets. The shading slates are built from the corporate media’s concentrated ownership, reliance on advertising, relationship to political power and narrow definitions of who and what count as ‘newsworthy.’ Censorship, whether overt or subtle, establishes the angle of the slates, admitting more or less light from outside.”

But in addition, they say, it’s important to see the “list as the latest installment in an ongoing effort to identify systemic gaps in so-called ‘mainstream’ (i.e., corporate) news coverage.” They go on to say, “Examining public issues that independent

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Corporate Abuse and Environmental Harm

PROJECT CENSORED

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journalists and outlets have reported but which fall outside the scope of corporate news coverage makes it possible to document in specific detail how corporate news media leave the public in the dark by marginalizing or blockading crucial issues, limiting political debate, and promoting corporate views and interests.”

On the one hand, all that is as true as it’s ever been. But on the other hand, the two-story themes in the number one story — environmental harm and corporate abuse — so dominate the top ten story list that they send another message as well, a message about the fundamental mismatch between our needs as a species living on a finite planet and a rapacious economic system conceived in ignorance of that fact. The climate catastrophe is just the most extreme symptom of this mismatch — but it’s far from the only one. Corporate abuse figures into every story in the list — though sometimes deep in the background, as with their decades-long efforts to destroy unions in story No. 6. Environmental harms ”only” show up in seven of the 10 stories.

There are still other patterns here, to be sure — and I encourage you to look for them yourself because seeing those patterns enriches your understanding of the world as it is, and as it’s being hidden from you. But this dominant pattern touches us all.

The evidence is right there, in the stories themselves.

“Forever Chemicals” in Rainwater a Global Threat to Human Health RAINWATER IS “NO LONGER SAFE TO DRINK anywhere on Earth,” Morgan McFall-Johnsen

reported in Insider in August 2022, summing up the results of a global study of so-called “forever chemicals,” polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), published in the journal “Environmental Science & Technology”. Researchers from Stockholm University and the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics at ETH Zurich concluded that “in many areas inhabited by humans,” PFAS contamination levels in rainwater, surface water and soil “often greatly exceed” the strictest international guidelines for acceptable levels of perfluoroalkyl acids.

They’re called “forever chemicals” because they take so long to break down, “allowing them to build up in people, animals, and environments,” Insider reported. Project Censored notes, “Prior research has linked these chemicals to prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer and additional health risks, including developmental delays in children, decreased fertility in women and men, reduced vaccine efficacy, and high cholesterol.”

“PFAS were now ‘so persistent’ and ubiquitous that they will never disappear from the planet,” Lead researcher Ian Cousins told Agence France-Presse. “We have made the planet inhospitable to human life by irreversibly contaminating it now so that nothing is clean anymore. And to the point that it’s not clean enough to be safe,” he said, adding that “We have crossed a planetary boundary,” a paradigm for evaluating Earth’s capacity to absorb harmful impacts of human activity.

The “good news” is that PFAS levels aren’t increasing in the environment.

“What’s changed is the guidelines,” he said. “They’ve gone down millions of times since the early 2000s, because we’ve learned more about the toxicity of these substances.”

All the more reason the second strand of this story is important: “The same month,” Project Censored writes, “researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, published a

study in the Annals of Global Health using internal industry documents to show that the companies responsible for ‘forever chemicals’ have known for decades that these substances pose significant threats to human health and the environment.”

There’s been limited corporate media coverage that rainwater isn’t safe to drink — specifically from USA Today, the Discovery Channel and Medical News Today. But the general public clearly hasn’t heard the news.

However, there’s been more coverage of the series of lawsuits developing in response to PFAS. But the big-picture story surrounding them remains shockingly missing.

Hiring of Former CIA Employees and ExIsraeli Agents “Blurs Line” Between Big Tech and Big Brother “GOOGLE – ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS in the modern world – is filled with ex-CIA agents,” Alan MacLeod reported for MintPress News in July 2022. “An inordinate number of these recruits work in highly politically sensitive fields, wielding considerable control over how its products work and what the world sees on its screens and in its search results.”

“Chief amongst these is the trust and safety department, whose staff, in the words of the Google trust and safety vice president Kristie Canegallo, ‘decide what content is allowed on our platform’ – in other words, setting the rules of the internet, determining what billions see and what they do not see.”

And more broadly, “a former CIA employee is working in almost every

department at Google,” Project Censored noted.

But Google isn’t alone. Nor is the CIA. “Former employees of U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies now hold senior positions at Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other tech giants,” Project Censored wrote. A second report focused on employees from Israel’s Unit 8200, its equivalent of the CIA, which is “infamous for surveilling the indigenous Palestinian population,” MacLeod wrote. Using LinkedIn, he identified hundreds of such individuals from both agencies, providing specific information about dozens of them.

“The problem with former CIA agents becoming the arbiters of what is true and what is false and what should be promoted and what should be deleted is that they cut their teeth at a notorious organization whose job it was to inject lies and false information into the public discourse to further the goals of the national security state,” MacLeod wrote, citing the 1983 testimony of former CIA task force head John Stockwell, author of “In Search of Enemies”, in which he described the dissemination of propaganda as a “major function” of the agency.

“I had propagandists all over the world,” Stockwell wrote, adding: “We pumped dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists [to the media] … We ran [faked] photographs that made almost every newspaper in the country … We didn’t know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists eating babies for breakfast.”

“None of this means that all or even any of the individuals are moles – or even anything but model employees today,” MacLeod noted later. But the sheer number of them “certainly causes concern.”

Reinforcing that concern is big tech’s history. “As journalist Nafeez Ahmed’s investigation found, the CIA and the NSA were bankrolling Stanford Ph.D.

THE UNITED STATES IS “a global laggard in chemical regulation,” ProPublica reported in December 2022, a result of chemical industry influence and acquiescence by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a period of decades, according to reporters Neil Bedi, Sharon Lerner and Kathleen McGrory. A headline example: Asbestos, one of the most widely-recognized toxic substances, is still legal in the US, more than 30 years after the EPA tried to have it banned.

“Through interviews with environmental experts and analysis of a half century’s worth of legislation, lawsuits, EPA documents, oral histories, chemi-

Photo by Chris Granger / The Times-Picayune cal databases, and regulatory records, ProPublica uncovered the longstanding institutional failure to protect Americans from toxic chemicals,” Project Censored reported. ProPublica identified five main reasons for failure: 1. The Chemical Industry Helped Write the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). A top EPA official “joked the law was ‘written by industry’ and should have been named after the DuPont executive who went over the text line by line,” ProPublica reported. The law “allowed more than 60,000 chemicals to stay on the market without a review of their health risks” and required the EPA to always choose the “least burdensome” regulations. “These two words would doom American chemical regulation for decades.”

2. Following Early Failures, the EPA Lost Its Resolve. In 1989, after 10 years of work, the EPA was banning asbestos. But companies that used asbestos sued and won in 1991, based on a court ruling they’d failed to prove it was the “least burdensome” option.

However, “the judge did provide a road map for future bans, which would require the agency to do an analysis of other regulatory options … to prove they wouldn’t be adequate,” but rather than follow through, the EPA simply gave up.

3. Chemicals Are Considered Innocent Until Proven Guilty.

For decades, the U.S. and EU used a “risk-based” approach to regulation, requiring the government to prove a chemical poses unreasonable health risks before restricting it — which can take years. In 2007, the EU switched to a “hazard-based” approach, putting the burden on companies when there’s evidence of significant harm. As a result, ProPublica explained, “the EU has successfully banned or restricted more than a thousand chemicals.”

A similar approach was proposed in the U.S. in 2005 by New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, but it was soundly defeated.

4. The EPA Mostly Regulates Chemicals One by One. In 2016,

a new law amended the TSCA to cut the “least burdensome” language and created a schedule “where a small list of high-priority chemicals would be reviewed every few years; in 2016, the first 10 were selected, including asbestos,” ProPublica reported. “The EPA would then have about three years to assess the chemicals and another two years to finalize regulations on them.”

But six years later, “the agency is behind on all such rules. So far, it has only proposed one ban, on asbestos, and the agency told ProPublica it would still be almost a year before that is finalized.” Industry fights the process at every step. “Meanwhile, the EU has authored a new plan to regulate chemicals even faster by targeting large groups of dangerous substances,” which “would lead to bans of another 5,000 chemicals by 2030.”

5. The EPA Employs Industry-Friendly Scientists as Regulators. “The EPA has a long history of hiring scientists and top officials from the companies they are supposed to

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Toxic Chemicals Continue to Go Unregulated in the United States

PROJECT CENSORED

student Sergey Brin’s research – work that would later produce Google,” MacLeod wrote. “Not only that but, in Ahmed’s words, ‘senior U.S. intelligence representatives, including a CIA official, oversaw the evolution of Google in this pre-launch phase, all the way until the company was ready to be officially founded.’ ” This fits neatly within the larger framework of Silicon Valley’s origin as a supplier of defense department technology.

“A May 2022 review found no major newspaper coverage of Big Tech companies hiring former U.S. or Israeli intelligence officers as employees,” Project Censored noted. “The most prominent U.S. newspapers have not covered Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other Big Tech companies hiring former US and Israeli intelligence officers.” Individual cases may make the news. But the overall systemic pattern remains a story censored by mainstream silence.

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regulate, allowing industry to sway the agency’s science from the inside,” ProPublica wrote. A prime example is Todd Stedeford. “A lawyer and toxicologist, Stedeford has been hired by the EPA on three separate occasions,” ProPublica noted.

“During his two most recent periods of employment at the agency — from 2011 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2021 — he was hired by corporate employers who use or manufacture chemicals the EPA regulates.”

“A handful of corporate outlets have reported on the EPA’s slowness to regulate certain toxic chemicals,” Project Censored noted, citing stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times. “However, none have highlighted the systemic failures wrought by the EPA and the chemical industry.”

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STALKERWARE — CONSISTING OF UP TO 200 SURVEILLANCE APPS and services that provide secret access to people’s phones for a monthly fee — “could become a significant legal threat to people seeking abortions, according to a pair of articles published in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion,” Project Censored reports.

“Abortion medication is safe. But now that Roe is overturned, your data isn’t,” Rae Hodge wrote for the tech news site CNET just two days after the Dobbs decision. “Already, the digital trails of abortion seekers can become criminal evidence against them in some states where abortion[s] were previously prosecuted. And the legal dangers may extend to abortion seekers in even more states.” The next month, writing for Slate, University of Virginia law professor Danielle Keats Citron warned that “surveillance accomplished by individual privacy invaders will be a gold mine for prosecutors targeting both medical workers and pregnant people seeking abortions.”

Invaders only need a few minutes to access phones and passwords.

“Once installed, cyberstalking apps silently record and upload phones’ activities to their servers,” Citron explained. “They enable privacy invaders to see our photos, videos, texts, calls, voice mails, searches, social media activities, locations — nothing is out of reach. From anywhere, individuals can activate a phone’s mic to listen to conversations within 15 feet of the phone,” even “conversations that pregnant people have with their health care providers — nurses, doctors, and insurance company employees,” she warned. As a result, Hodge cautioned, “Those who aid abortion seekers could be charged as accomplices in some cases,” under some state laws.

It’s not just abortion, she explained, “Your phone’s data, your

“TWO EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES, from 2021 and 2022, provide new evidence that living near oil and gas extraction sites is hazardous to human health,” Project Censored reports, “especially for pregnant mothers and children, as reported by Nick Cunningham for DeSmog and Tom Perkins for the Guardian.”

Based on 1996–2009 data for more than 2.8 million pregnant women in Texas, researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) found that “for those pregnant women within one kilometer of drilling there’s about a 5% increase in odds of gestational hypertension, and 26% increase odds of eclampsia,” researcher Mary Willis told DeSmog. “So, it’s this really close range where we are seeing a potential impact right on women’s health.” Eclampsia is a rare but serious condition where high blood pressure results in seizures during pregnancy.

“Notably, the data in the OSU study predate the widespread development of ‘fracking,’ or hydraulic fracturing, the process of extracting gas and oil from shale beds by injecting fluids at high pressure,” Project Censored pointed out, going to note “previous coverage by Project Censored, including Rayne Madison et al., “Fracking Our Food Supply,” story No. 18, and Lyndsey Casey and Peter Phillips, “Pennsylvania Law Gags Doctors to Protect Big Oil’s ‘Proprietary Secrets,’ ” story No. 22, from 2012-2013; and Carolina de Mello et al., “Oil Industry Illegally Dumps Fracking Wastewater,” story No. 2 from 2014-2015.”

The second study, from Yale, did study fracking. It found that “Young children living near fracking wells at birth [less than two kilometers (approximately 1.2 miles)] are up to three times more likely to later develop leukemia,” according to an August 2022 Guardian story. “Hundreds of chemicals linked to cancer and other health issues may be used in the [fracking] process, including heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, benzene and radioactive material,” they explained.

The study, based on 2009-2017 data from Pennsylvania, compared 405 children aged 2–7 diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

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PROJECT CENSORED

social media accounts, your browsing and geolocation history, and your ISP’s detailed records of your internet activity may all be used as evidence if you face state criminal or civil charges for a miscarriage.”

“Often marketed as a tool to monitor children’s online safety or as device trackers, stalkerware is technically illegal to sell for the purpose of monitoring adults,” Project Censored noted, but that’s hardly a deterrent.

“Stalkerware and other forms of electronic surveillance have been closely associated with domestic violence and sexual assault, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence,” Citron noted.

In addition, Hodge explained, “third-party data brokers sell sensitive geolocation data — culled through a vast web of personal tracking tech found in apps, browsers, and devices — to law enforcement without oversight.” And “abortion bounty hunter” provisions adopted by states like Texas and Oklahoma add a financial incentive.

“Given the inexpensive cost of readily available stores of personal data and how easily they can be de-anonymized, savvy informants could use the information to identify abortion seekers and turn a profit,” she noted.

“The law’s response to intimate privacy violations is inadequate, lacking a clear conception of what intimate privacy is, why its violation is wrongful, and how it inflicts serious harm upon individuals, groups, and society,” Citron explained. “Until federal regulations and legislation establish a set of digital privacy laws, abortion seekers are caught in the position of having to create their own patchwork of digital defenses, from often complicated and expensive privacy tools,” Hodge warned. While the bipartisan American Data Privacy and Protection Act is still “slowly inching through Congress” it “is widely thought toothless,” she wrote.

The Joe Biden administration has proposed a new rule protecting “certain health data from being used to prosecute both clinicians and patients,” STAT reported in May 2023, but the current draft only applies “in states where abortion is legal.”

“Corporate news outlets have paid some attention to the use of digital data in abortion-related prosecutions,” Project Censored reports.

While there have been stories about post-Roe digital privacy, “none have focused specifically on how stalkerware could potentially be used in criminal investigations of suspected abortions.”

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Corporate Profits Hit Record High as Top 0.1% Earnings and Wall Street Bonuses Skyrocket

Groundwork Collaborative’s chief economist, Rakeen Mabud, said.

This followed Johnson’s reporting in March that the average bonus for Wall Street employees rose an astounding 1,743% between 1985 and 2021, according to an analysis by Inequality. org of New York State Comptroller data. Then, in December 2022, he reported that “earnings inequality in the United States has risen dramatically over the past four decades and continues to accelerate, with the top 0.1% seeing wage growth of 465% between 1979 and 2021 while the bottom 90% experienced just 29% growth during that same period,” according to research by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). As a result, the average incomes of the top 0.1% rose from 20 times that of the bottom 90% in 1979 to more than 90 times as much in 2021.

“The fossil fuel industry has enjoyed especially lavish profits,” Project Censored notes, citing Jessica Corbett’s July 2022 reporting for Common Dreams that the eight largest oil companies’ profits spiked a whopping 235% from the second quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022, for a combined $52 billion profit, according to an analysis by Accountable.US. “Make no mistake; these profits mark a large transfer of wealth from working- and middle-class people to wealthy oil executives and shareholders,” Jordan Schreiber of Accountable.US told Corbett. “While many consumers were feeling the heavy burden of a life necessity suddenly doubling in price, oil executives were keeping prices high to maximize their profits.”

“ExxonMobil profited $17.85 billion; Chevron, $11.62 billion; and Shell, $11.47 billion,” Project Censored notes. “Notably, in 2021-2022, the oil and gas industry spent more than $200 million lobbying Congress to oppose climate action.”

Coverage of all this was scant. “The establishment media have reported intermittently on record corporate profits, but this coverage has tended to downplay corporate use of inflation as a pretext for hiking prices,” Project Censored sums up, citing examples from Bloomberg, ABC News and New York Times where the role of “greedflation” was debated. “The Times quoted experts from EPI and Groundwork Collaborative but refused to draw any firm conclusions,” they note.

In addition, “The EPI study on the accelerating incomes of the ultrarich was virtually ignored” while the massive Wall Street bonuses got some coverage, they report: “Reuters ran a story on it, as did the New York Post.

CNN Business noted that ‘high bonuses are also good news for Gotham’s tax coffers.’ ” ©Random Lengths News 2023

PROJECT CENSORED

with an additional 2,080 children, matched on birth year, who didn’t have leukemia.

The findings aligned with others, as DeSmog discussed. “One consistent takeaway from so many health studies related to fracking is that proximity is key,” they reported. “The allowable setback in Pennsylvania, where our study was conducted, is 500 feet,” Yale researcher Cassandra Clark told them. “Our findings … in conjunction with evidence from numerous other studies, suggest that existing setback distances are insufficiently protective of children’s health.”

State and local governments have tried to create health buffer zones, but “The oil industry has consistently fought hard to block setback distance requirements,” DeSmog reported. For example, “In 2018, the oil industry spent upwards of $40 million to defeat a Colorado ballot measure that would have imposed 2,500-foot setback requirements for drillers.”

Regulations are so weak that “In Texas, drilling sites can be as close as 45 meters from residences,” Willis told them.

“Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced new proposed rules that would require 3,200-foot setbacks on new oil and gas drilling, which would be the strongest in the nation and aligns with the distance where Willis’s studies find the most serious risks for pregnancies,” DeSmog reported. “But those rules would not affect existing wells.”

No major U.S. newspapers appear to have covered either the OSU or the Yale study at the time of Project Censored’s publication, although “Smithsonian magazine, The Hill, and WHYY, an NPR affiliate serving the Philadelphia region, covered the fracking study.”

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Marching to a different beat

FORK + CENTER

The DiIonno family offers an eclectic menu in the Lower Garden District | by Beth D’Addono JUDGING FROM THE NAME OF THE FAMILY-OWNED RESTAURANT Beggars

Banquet, somebody in the kitchen is a Rolling Stones fan.

That somebody is chef Mike DiIonno, the family patriarch and a 50-year kitchen veteran with six restaurants.

The New Jersey-born chef, his wife Patty and their daughter Kat in July opened their 70-seat restaurant in the space that used to house Seed in the Lower Garden District.

The restaurant was named in homage to DiIonno’s first Jersey restaurant, when his fandom was newly minted. He sold his Ludwig drum set to get the cash he and his brother needed to buy a luncheonette, which they called Beggars Banquet.

“The idea is he’s come full circle,” says Kat, who landed in New Orleans to study fine arts at Loyola University.

“We’re hoping this is his last stop. He’s 68 but isn’t interested in retiring.”

After falling in love with the city, Kat worked in the art scene for a few years before opening Tough Love Tattoos with her partner Jason Ryan in 2020. She kept after her parents to leave the Garden State and join her, which they did in March, opening their first restaurant south of the Mason-Dixon line in the middle of a scorching summer.

“It gave us a chance to get our legs under us before we got busy,” Kat says.

Kat manages the bar side of Beggars Banquet, drawing from time spent in her family’s restaurants.

“I grew up in restaurants,” she says.

“My highchair would be behind the line when my parents couldn’t find a babysitter. I was checking coats when I was 8. I knew if they opened a place here, I’d be part of it.”

The restaurant is funky and inviting, with original art from Vivian Hava, bathrooms covered in Rolling Stones lyrics and irreverent plates hung as homespun collections.

“I gave them to my mom for Mother’s Day over the years,” she says.

Kat’s partner designed the top-hatted, martini-drinking alligator logo.

It’s all a very personal reflection of her

family’s passion for food and hospitality.

Kat describes her dad’s cuisine as New American.

While this is the chef’s first restaurant in the South, it’s not Southern.

“We’re not from here,” Kat says.

“We’ll leave it to other places to specialize in New Orleans cooking. That’s just not what we grew up with. My dad’s been cooking seafood East Coast style for a long time. A lot of the dishes have been on all his menus over the years.”

Seafood dishes include his Firecracker calamari, for which flash-fried rings are served with sliced garlic, hot peppers, olives and capers. The chef’s scallop dish is another personal classic — pan seared and served with crab hash and Old Bay aioli. For brunch, the popular Crabby Benny is traditional eggs Benedict topped with Gulf crabmeat and remoulade.

Pork belly is prepared in the Chinese char siu style and served with spicy Kewpie mayo and cilantro. The sliced steak sandwich is a grown-up Philly steak, accented with herb-truffle aioli and caramelized onions and served with hand-cut fries on the side.

Boneless short ribs are served with a red wine sauce, crispy onions and whipped potatoes.

There are a few Southern-esque dishes, tweaked by the chef, such as the fried green tomatoes served with burrata and a balsamic reduction.

The Gulf fish of the day is potato crusted and served with a white wine garlic sauce.

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Drinks on Oak

OAK WINE BAR AND ALE ON OAK TOOK SHAPE AS NEIGHBORING BARS con-

nected by a patio and common ownership. That’s still the case, though now they have new owners drawing the wine bar and beer bar closer together. They also have big plans for more shared outdoor space here.

If that sounds just a little bit like the connection between Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden in MidCity, you’re on the right track.

In November, Oak Wine Bar and Ale on Oak changed hands. The new owners are David Demarest, a partner in Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden, and Morgan Scalco and Jillian Arena, managers from those Mid-City spots who are now partners in this new business.

The wine bar and the beer bar are now united under one name, Oak & Ale. This new Oak & Ale is a distinct business from Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden, but the partners are bringing lessons from their experience there to Oak Street.

Beggar’s Banquet co-owner Kat DiIonno with scallop crudo and char siu pork belly PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER / GAMBIT

Local accents sometimes flare up in a weekly special, like a recent pan-seared halibut served with seared corn maque choux and bacon tarragon beurre blanc.

And there’s bananas Foster French toast on the brunch menu.

“The idea behind our menu was to give people options in a range of dishes and price points,” Kat says.

The cocktail list delivers creative takes on standards along with an enticing non-alcoholic option, a carrot Dreamsicle made with fresh carrot and orange juice, Earl Grey tea, cardamon and oat milk. The wine list leans towards natural and organic options.

“This is a place to try something you’ve never tried before,” Kat says.

?

WHAT

WHERE

WHEN

HOW

CHECK IT OUT

Beggars Banquet

1330 Prytania St., (504) 766-6711; beggarsbanquetneworleans.com

brunch and dinner Wed.-Sun.

Dine-in

New American cooking with some local accents in the Lower Garden District

At Oak & Ale, partners (from left) Morgan Scalco, David Demarest and Jillian Arena bring experience from successful Mid-City bars.

STAFF PHOTO BY IAN MCNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

The same staff as before remain, as does the same general approach, though changes are coming across the board.

The big, open room at 8118 Oak St. has a full bar with a clear emphasis on its wine collection, by the glass or bottle.

The smaller, more snug room next door at 8124 Oak St. has a full bar with a clear emphasis on beer, from its 30 taps and extensive bottle and can collection.

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E AT + D R I N K

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Breakfast & Lunch Served All Day

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They’re still connected by a patio with outdoor seats and TVs, now with a new gate so people can enter the common outdoor space from the street, or enter each specific room by its own door.

“What we found in Mid-City, and I think will be true here, is that whether they’re beer people or wine people, most people will hang out at either, and most people like going between the amenities of both,” Demarest says.

Behind the scenes, the Oak Street bars’ systems are coordinated between the two adjoining properties, meaning your tab at one can carry over to the other. Both rooms draw from the same menu, still overseen by chef Mike Hinkhouse.

This is a bar food menu that goes beyond the standards and is anchored by quality. The smoked bratwurst on the charcuterie plate is made in house (likewise the sauerkraut with it), and so are the toasty, char-marked tortillas for tacos with chopped steak and a righteously hot salsa verde.

The wine bar is expanding its wine list, with an aim to offer 300 by the bottle and about 20 by the glass.

That will include some wines on tap, which have proven popular at Bayou Wine Garden, as well as vermouth and Spanish hard cider.

At Oak & Ale, one of the tasks ahead is to make the current patio more verdant with more plants, and later to expand it. A small parking lot behind the wine bar will be turned into a garden-like space with tables, TVs and sun sails. It will be a place for pop-up crawfish boils in season, which are a fixture at Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden.

That new space should be ready by the spring, Demarest says. There’s also a new game room in the works for the beer bar side of the property, behind a

TAKEOUT and DELIVERY

set of roll-up garage doors.

The new partners bought the bars from founders Katie Winters, Patrick Winters and Shawn Haddad. Patrick had been the most hands-on in management, and when he decided to enroll in law school this year it was clearly time for a change, says Katie, his sister. They contacted Demarest, who is a family friend.

“I love what he’s done with Bayou Beer Garden, and we wanted to put this in good hands,” she says. “It’s bittersweet for us, but we’re so excited and happy to pass the baton on to them.”

Staff at the bars are making their own changes along the way too.

Sean McFaul was general manager before the change and remains so today. He’s working to broaden the beer selection, with a mix from local breweries and others across the globe, including large format bottles.

“I want to tap into the beer nerd world and grow that here,” he says.

Patrons can expect an expanded cocktail program across the two bars as well.

In addition to being one of the partners in Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden, Demarest also is a partner in Holy Ground, the nearby

27

Mid-City pub they bought in 2018.

The two “gardens” were developed individually in separate but adjacent shotgun houses, with their respective open spaces merged into a contiguous series of patios.

Both of Demarest’s new partners come to Oak & Ale after working their way up at the Mid-City spots. For them, the new venture is a new chapter in their hospitality careers.

“It’s huge for us, it’s a chance to take what we’ve learned and do fun and exciting stuff here,” Scalco says.

A patio connects the wine bar and beer bar at Oak & Ale, where more greenery is planned.

PHOTO BY IAN MCNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Arena started at Bayou Beer Garden almost a decade ago on the cleaning crew, then became a bartender before moving into management. This move makes her part owner in an established place where she can help guide its future.

“David showed us the ropes, and now here we are to make our mark,” she says. — Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune

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3 COURSE INTERVIEW

Miracle Maker

by Will Coviello JOANN SPIEGEL MOVED FROM IRELAND TO NEW YORK, where she’s built a

career in the bar business, bartending at top cocktail spots like The Dead Rabbit. She got involved with the Miracle holiday season pop-up in 2015, a year after its founding. She now creates the Miracle menu, which is available in New Orleans at Barrel Proof and more than 200 bars across the globe. At Miracle, she also works with Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, whose Sippin’ Santa menu is available at his Latitude 29 in New Orleans, and bars across the globe. For more information, visit miraclepopup.com, latitude29nola. com and barrelproofnola.com.

How did you get into the craft cocktail movement?

JOANN SPIEGEL: I credit New Orleans for having an influence on my career. A lot of bartenders who attended Tales of the Cocktail could say the same thing. It gave my career more of a trajectory and purpose. Tales of the Cocktail helped me see globally.

It’s such a robust community.

I have visited yearly since 2010. I was managing a sports bar at the time.

Especially being Irish in America, we do tend to stick to our own and go from Irish bar to Irish bar. I had been seeing America through the Irish bar lens, which was fantastic, but that blew up when I found myself in New Orleans.

I wasn’t technically savvy. I had never heard of Tales. I didn’t know there was a history and hundreds of years of artistry and craft. It was a defining moment. I looked around and realized I don’t know anything, and this was a great feeling. There’s so much to learn and so many people doing things. It was like a kid in a candy store going, “This is huge.”

How did you get involved with Miracle pop-up?

S: I can’t take any credit for the initial idea. That goes to my boss and partner in Miracle, Greg Boehm, the owner of Cocktail Kingdom and a few other enterprises. Credit really goes to his mother. In 2014, I was still with The Dead Rabbit. But Greg, Jeanette (Kaczorowski) and Nico (de Soto) were partners in a bar that would be Mace when it opened in 2015. They were looking at the raw space and were disappointed at not being able to capitalize on the holiday season in New

Tell us about the holiday drinks.

S: There is a crossover with the baking spices and the seasonality of the winter months. I try to not go into Jeff Berry’s territory, but you can’t miss the correlation of the spices that tiki is built on. But the spices themselves are the inspiration. It’s the flavor of the holidays, but we’re coming from a global community that celebrates the holidays in different ways. Maybe what they do in Ireland is different than what they are doing in France or the Philippines. As we’ve grown, we’ve built a rich tapestry of cultures and flavors. The menu is balanced in flavor varieties and spirit types.

There’s whimsy on there as well, like with the Marshmallow & Unicorns. I made a syrup with marshmallow fluff, black pepper and cardamom. A lot of my Miracle drinks are different than I approached other menus, where you take a spirit and make it the hero of the story and add contrasting elements.

WINE OF THE

WEEK

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MIRACLE / COCKTAIL KINGDOM

Mumm Napa That’s challenging on a global menu because someone may not be able to get a spirit. (For Miracle) I usually get my syrup component down first.

That is the foundation that I want to amplify in the cocktail. Then I choose a spirit that is globally available or easily switched out. The flavor could be an oatmeal cookie or peppermint bark.

I was in Paris for a few days. I had a handful of roasted chestnuts sold on the street corners and mulled wine sold at the Christmas markets. You can’t not walk through a Christmas scene and not be hit with inspiration.

Mulled wine is a very European thing, but each country has its own version of hot wine. It’s more a feeling than a taste. The mulled wine with the spices feels like a warm hug at Christmas.

The Carol Barrel is one inspired by the tiki side. The Irish ties to the Caribbean are layered. It gave me some inspiration. I am always messing around with Guinness, but there’s this drink in the Caribbean, a Jamaican Guinness punch.

They drink it seasonally. The punch wasn’t viable for the menu as is. But I made a syrup of it and combine it with Irish whiskey, the banana liqueur and funky Jamaican rum. There is a tropical inspiration, but it works magically at every location I go to.

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York, with their staff standing by. There were just cosmetic things that needed to be finished. His mom said, “Why sit it out? If it’s just cosmetic, just hide it. Cover everything floor to ceiling in Christmas.” That’s what they did. They rallied and opened the door.

The concept of extended popups was not yet a thing in 2014. But when they opened, it was to a lot of fanfare and lines blocks long. It was exceptionally well received. Being the businessman that he is, Greg knew that he wanted to be able to share this.

I started working with Cocktail Kingdom in the aftermath of that season as a director of operations.

The conversation was starting about turning Christmas Miracle into a business opportunity. It was lucrative for the staff and house.

Our greatest ambition was that we’d get a couple of years out of it. But it caught on quickly, and this is a 100year brand. It’s season 10.

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C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S AT W W W. B E S T O F N E W O R L E A N S . C O M

Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are for New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: Email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

8 Fresh Food Assassin — 1900 N. Claiborne Ave., (504) 224-2628; Instagram, @8freshfoodassassin — Chef Manny January’s serves lamb chops, T-bone steaks, salmon, crab cakes, deep fried ribs, fried chicken and seafood-loaded oysters. No reservations.

Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Acorn — Louisiana Children’s Museum, 12 Henry Thomas Drive, (504) 218-5413; acornnola.com — Blackened shrimp tacos are topped with arugula, radish, pineapple-mango salsa and cilantro-lime sauce.

No reservations. Breakfast and lunch Wed.-Sun. $$ Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream. com — This sweet shop serves its own gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, biscotti, fig cookies, tiramisu, macaroons and more.

Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant.com — Gulf Drum Yvonne is served with brown butter sauce with mushrooms and artichoke hearts. Reservations recommended. Dinner Thu.-Mon. $$$ Banana Blossom — 500 9th St., Gretna, (504) 500-0997; 504bananablossom.com — Jimmy Cho’s Thai dishes include smoked pork belly and pork meatballs in lemon grass broth with egg, green onion, cilantro and garlic.

Reservations accepted for large parties except weekends. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Bamboula’s — 514 Frenchmen St.; bamboulasmusic.com — The live music venue’s kitchen offers a menu of traditional and creative Creole dishes, such as Creole crawfish crepes with a goat cheese and chardonnay cream sauce. Reservations accepted. Lunch, dinner and late-night daily. $$ The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 118 Harbor View Court, Slidell, (985) 315-7001; 7900 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 284-2898; thebluecrabnola.com — Basin barbecue shrimp are served over cheese grits with a cheese biscuit. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lakeview: Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. Slidell: Lunch Wed.-Fri., dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$ Broussard’s — 819 Conti St., (504) 581-3866; broussards.com — Rainbow trout amandine is served with tasso and corn macque choux and Creole meuniere sauce. Reservations recommended. Outdoor seating available.

Dinner Wed.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$ Cafe Normandie — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The menu combines classic French dishes and Louisiana items like crab beignets with herb aioli. No reservations. Breakfast and lunch daily. $$ The Commissary — 634 Orange St., (504) 274-1850; thecommissarynola.com — The central kitchen for Dickie Brennan restaurants has a dine-in menu with a smoked turkey sandwich with bacon, tomato jam, herbed cream cheese, arugula and herb vinaigrette on honey oat bread. No reservations. Outdoor seating available. Lunch Tue.-Sat. $$

$ — average dinner entrée under $10 $$ — $11-$20 $$$ — $20-up Curio — 301 Royal St., (504) 717-4198; curionola.com — The creative Creole menu includes blackened Gulf shrimp served with chicken and andouille jambalaya. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — A menu full of Gulf seafood includes char-grilled oysters topped with Parmesan and herbs.

Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House — 144 Bourbon St., (504) 522-0111; bourbonhouse.com — There’s a seafood raw bar and dishes like redfish with lemon buerre blanc.

Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse — 716 Iberville St., (504) 522-2467; dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com — A 6-ounce filet mignon is served with fried oysters, creamed spinach, potatoes and bearnaise. Reservations recommended. Dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$ Down the Hatch — 817 St. Louis St., (504) 766-6007; 1921 Sophie Wright Place, (504) 220-7071; downthehatchnola.com — The Texan burger features a half-pound patty topped with caramelized onions, smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and a fried egg.

No reservations. Lunch, dinner and latenight daily. $$ Dragonfly Cafe — 530 Jackson Ave., (504) 544-9530; dragonflynola.com — The casual cafe offers breakfast plates, waffles, salads, coffee drinks and more. Delivery available.

Reservations accepted. Breakfast and lunch Wed.-Sat. $$ El Pavo Real — 4401 S. Broad Ave., (504) 266-2022; elpavorealnola.com — Sauteed Gulf fish is topped with tomatoes, olives, onion and capers and served with rice and string beans.

The menu includes tacos, enchiladas and more. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and early dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar — 739 Iberville St., (504) 522-4440; 7400 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 304-4125; felixs.com — The menu includes raw and char-grilled oysters, seafood platters, po-boys and more.

No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Frey Smoked Meat Co. — 4141 Bienville St., Suite 110, (504) 488-7427; freysmokedmeat. com — The barbecue spot serves pulled pork, ribs, brisket, sausages and and items like fried pork belly tossed in pepperjelly glaze. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Froot Orleans — 2438 Bell St., Suite B, (504) 233-3346; frootorleans.com — There are fresh fruit platters and smoothie bowls such as a strawberry shortcake and more using pineapple, berries, citrus and more. No reservations. Outdoor seating available.

Breakfast and lunch daily. $$ Juan’s Flying Burrito — 515 Baronne St., (504) 529-5825; 2018 Magazine St., (504) 569-0000; 4724 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-9950; 8140 Oak St., (504) 897-4800; juansflyingburrito.com — The Flying Burrito includes steak, shrimp, chicken, cheddar jack cheese, black beans, rice, guacamole and salsa. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$

Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — The eclectic menu includes a Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, ham, cheese and pickles. Delivery available. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Kilroy’s Bar — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The bar menu includes sandwiches, salads and flatbreads, including one topped with peach, prosciutto, stracciatella cheese, arugula and pecans. No reservations. Dinner Wed.-Sat. $$ Legacy Kitchen’s Craft Tavern — 700 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 613-2350; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes oysters, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, salads and a NOLA Style Grits Bowl topped with bacon, cheddar and a poached egg. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Legacy Kitchen Steak & Chop — 91 Westbank Expressway, Gretna, (504) 513-2606; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes filets mignons and bone-in rib-eyes, as well as burgers, salads and seafood dishes.

Reservations accepted. Outdoor seating available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$ Luzianne Cafe — 481 Girod St., (504) 2651972; luziannecafe.com — Cajun Sunshine Beignets are stuffed with eggs, bacon, cheese and hot sauce. No reservations. Delivery available. Breakfast and lunch Wed.-Sun. $$ Martin Wine & Spirits — 714 Elmeer Ave., Metairie, (504) 896-7350; 3827 Baronne St., (504) 894-7444; martinwine.com — The deli serves sandwiches and salads such as the Sena, with chicken, raisins, blue cheese, pecans and Tabasco pepperjelly vinaigrette.

No reservations. Lunch daily. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. The menu also has noodle dishes, teriyaki and more. Reservations accepted. Delivery available. Lunch Sun.Fri., dinner daily. $$ Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves Italian dishes and specialties including chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Mother’s Restaurant — 401 Poydras St., (504) 523-9656; mothersrestaurant.net — This counter-service spot serves po-boys, jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and more. Delivery available. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes red beans with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as seafood platters, po-boys, grilled oysters, salads and more. No reservations. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Nice Guys Bar & Grill — 7910 Earhart Blvd., (504) 302-2404; niceguysbarandgrillnola. com — Char-grilled oysters are topped with cheese. The menu also includes wings, quesadillas, burgers, salads, seafood pasta and more. No reservations. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$ The Original Italian Pie — 3629 Prytania St., (504) 766-8912; theoriginalitalianpieuptown. com — The Italian Pie combo includes pepperoni, Italian sausage, ground beef, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, black olives, mozzarella and house-made tomato sauce. No reservations. Dinner and late-night Tue.-Sat. $$

Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar & Bistro — 720 Orleans Ave., (504) 523-1930; orleansgrapevine.com — The wine bar’s menu includes Creole pasta with shrimp and andouille in tomato cream sauce. Reservations accepted for large parties. Outdoor seating available.

Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$ Palace Cafe — 605 Canal St., (504) 523-1661; palacecafe.com — The contemporary Creole menu includes crabmeat cheesecake with mushrooms and Creole meuniere sauce.

Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Breakfast and lunch Wed.-Fri., dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$$ Peacock Room — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 324-3073; peacockroomnola.com — Black lentil vadouvan curry comes with roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and basmati rice. Reservations accepted.

Dinner Wed.-Mon., brunch Sun. $$ PrimoHoagies — 8228 Oak St., (504) 3151335; primohoagies.com — The menu of hot and cold sandwiches includes a classic Italian hoagie with prosciutto, salami, hot capicola, provolone, lettuce, tomato and onion.

Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Rosie’s on the Roof — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The rooftop bar has a menu of sandwiches, burgers and small plates.

No reservations. Dinner daily. $$ Tableau — 616 St. Peter St., (504) 934-3463; tableaufrenchquarter.com — Pasta bouillabaisse features squid ink mafaldine, littleneck clams, Gulf shrimp, squid, seafood broth, rouille and herbed breadcrumbs. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended.

Dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Thu.-Sun. $$$ Tacklebox — 817 Common St., (504) 8271651; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes oysters, and dishes like redfish St. Charles with garlic-herb butter, asparagus, mushrooms and crawfish cornbread. Reservations accepted.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 733-3803; 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 5104282; 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — A Marilynn Pota Supreme pie is topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. There also are salads, sandwiches and more. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $ Tito’s Ceviche & Pisco — 1433 St. Charles Ave., (504) 354-1342; 5015 Magazine St., (504) 267-7612; titoscevichepisco.com — Peruvian lomo saltado features beef sauteed with onions, tomatoes, cilantro, soy sauce and pisco, served with fried potatoes and rice.

Outdoor seating available on Magazine Street.

Delivery available. Reservations accepted.

Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$ The Vintage — 3121 Magazine St., (504) 324-7144; thevintagenola.com — The menu includes beignets, flatbreads and a veggie sandwich with avocado, onions, arugula, red pepper and pepper jack cheese. No reservations. Delivery and outdoor seating available.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Zhang Bistro — 1141 Decatur St., (504) 8268888; zhangbistronola.com — The menu of Chinese and Thai dishes includes a Szechuan Hot Wok with a choice of chicken, beef, shrimp or tofu with onions, bell peppers, cauliflower, jalapenos and spicy sauce.

Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$

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Artist. At 24, her albums have shown a polished handle on jazz standards, but she also has a musical family, including grandparents who were members of the Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes. Joy recently released a holiday album, and for this performance, she’s joined by family members to celebrate the season. At 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, at Orpheum Theater. Tickets start at $35 via orpheumnola.net.

Yussef Dayes

Drummer and producer Yussef Dayes emerged in London’s jazz scene, performing with his brothers Ahmad and Kareem in United Vibrations.

After a string of notable collaborations, he released the solo studio album “Black Classical Music” in September, on which he reaches well beyond post-bop into hypnotic grooves, R&B, post-rock and ambient explorations.

Dayes performs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, at Tipitina’s. Tickets $27.50 via tipitinas.com.

Mike Cooley

Mike Cooley co-founded the Southern rock stalwarts the Drive-By Truckers with Patterson Hood, and the two sometimes perform as the Dimmer Twins. Cooley also performs solo, and in 2012 released the album “The Fool on Every Corner.” He’s in town for a two-night stand at Chickie Wah Wah. At 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, and Saturday, Dec. 16. Tickets $35 via chickiewahwah.com.

Imani Winds

The New York-based chamber music group presents a program featuring composers of color, including Damien Geter’s “I Said What I Said,” Wayne Shorter’s “Terra Incognita,” “Kites”

by Paquito D’Rivera and more.

Friends of Music presents the show at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall. Tickets $10$35 via friendsofmusic.org.

Tunes for Toys

Mardi Gras Indian funk band The Rumble, fresh off a Grammy nomination, headlines this year’s Tunes for Toys concert on Friday, Dec. 15, at Warren Easton Charter High School’s Legacy Field. Presented by The Trombone Shorty Foundation and the Gia Maione Prima Foundation, Tunes for Toys collects new toys, which will be given out to local kids Saturday, Dec. 16, at Warren Easton. Friday’s concert also features DJ Raj Smoove, Trombone Shorty Academy students, Warren Easton bands and Le Bon Ton

Babydolls. Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews will perform. Doors open at 6 p.m. and admission is an unopened toy. Find more info at tromboneshortyfoundation.org.

Biennial Merry Songwriter Revue

Since 2015, Kelcy Mae Wilburn, the singer-guitarist for Americana band Ever More Nest, has hosted an every-two-years songwriter revue, where New Orleans songwriters share their music and stories in an intimate setting. This year’s 5th Biennial Merry Songwriter Revue will feature Wilburn, Lilli Lewis, Ted Hefko, Mia Borders, Bruisey Peets, Shawn Williams, Sarah Quintana, Sam Doores and Sabine McCalla at 7 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 14, at BJ’s Lounge.

Happy Dumplings will be selling food.

Admission is $15 at the door. Find more info on Instagram, @bjslounge.

Holidays with the Bouttés

John Boutte and his family celebrate the holidays with a special concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the Dodwell House, 1519 Esplanade Ave. Find tickets and more information at annasplacenola.org.

1818 Veterans Blvd., Metairie LA | 504.888.2300 | nordickitchens.com

Kate Fagan’s Ho Ho Ho party

Post-punk and ska singer Kate Fagan’s 1980 single “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool” was for years a crate-digger’s prize. It was re-released in 2016, and early this year, Captured Tracks issued an expanded version on an album with B-side “Waiting for the Crisis” and other tunes. Fagan’s annual holiday party features songs from her sassy 2021 holiday album, with tracks like “Santa Claus Got Stuck in My Chimney” and “What Do Bad Girls Get?” Fagan is joined by Tom Hook, Jeremy Joyce, Sam Albright and Rich Collins for this show at Chickie Wah Wah at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 13. Tickets $15 in advance, or $22.50 on the day of the show via chickiewahwah.com.

Melvin Funkenstein’s Hannukah Funkstravaganza

Guitarist Ari Teitel leads the annual musical celebration along with fellow Rumble members Aurelien Barnes and Andriu Yanovski, plus Tony Hall, Brad Walker and Alvin Field. There also are latkes from pop-up @imabynatalie. At 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15. Tickets $20 in advance via mapleleafbar.com or $25 at the door.

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MUSIC FO R CO M P L E T E M U S I C L I ST I N G S A N D M O RE E V E N T S TA K I N G P L A CE I N T H E N E W O R L E A N S A RE A , V I S I T C A L E N D A R . G A M B I T W E E K LY. C O M

To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com

MONDAY 11 DIXON CONCERT HALL — Imani Winds, 7:30 pm FIRST ENGLISH LUTHERAN CHURCH — A Christmas Concert, 7 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Matinee All Star Band, 1:30 pm; Lee Floyd And Thunderbolt Trio, 5 pm; Richard Scott and Friends, 8 pm ST. LOUIS CATHEDRAL — Irma Thomas, 6 pm

TUESDAY 12 FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 1 pm; Colin Myers Band, 5 pm; Fritzels All Star Band w/Jamil Sharif, 8 pm HOUSE OF BLUES — Lil Darkie, 7 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Javier Olondo & Asheson, 8 pm SMOOTHIE KING CENTER — Rod Wave, 8 pm THE RABBIT HOLE — Rebirth Brass Band, 5 & 10 pm

WEDNESDAY 13 CAFE NEGRIL — Colin Davis and Night People, 6 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard "Piano" Scott, 1 pm; Bourbon Street Stars, 5 pm; Fritzels All Star Band W/Kevin Ray Clark, 8 pm MARIGNY OPERA HOUSE — Anna Moss, Sari Jordan, 7 pm SMOOTHIE KING CENTER — Trans-Siberian Orchestra, 7 pm ST. LOUIS CATHEDRAL — Charlie Gabriel & Friends: Holidays New Orleans Style Concert Series, 6 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Big Sam , 7:30 pm

THURSDAY 14 ASHÉ POWERHOUSE THEATER — Alexey Marti & AfroGumbo, 6 pm BLUE NILE — Where Y'at Brass Band, 9 pm CAFE NEGRIL — Sierra Green and the Soul Machine, 10 pm FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH — Share the Season with Shades of Praise, 7 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Fritzels All Star Band W/Kevin Ray Clark, 8 pm

Sunpie Barnes plays BJ’s Sunday, Dec. 17 FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 12:30 pm; Doyle Cooper Band, 2:30 pm; John Saavedra Band, 6 pm OGDEN MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART — Rahim Glaspy, 6 pm PEACOCK ROOM, HOTEL FONTENOT — Da Lovebirds with Robin Barnes and Pat Casey , 8 pm SANTOS — Urban Heat with Rare DM, 9 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Brass-AHolics, 7:30 pm

FRIDAY 15 BLUE NILE — Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers, 11 pm BOURBON STREET HONKY TONK — The Bad Sandys, 8 pm BULLET'S SPORTS BAR — New Groove Brass Band, 9 pm BYWATER BREW PUB — Freddie Blue & the Friendship Circle Band , 6 pm CAFE NEGRIL — Higher Heights Reggae Band, 10 pm CARROLLTON STATION — Renée Gros and Sweet Magnolia Brass Band, 9 pm DIVINE MERCY CATHOLIC PARISH — "Light of the Stable", 6:30 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott , 12:30 pm; Sam Friend, 2:30 pm; Lee Floyd and Thunderbolt Trio, 6 pm; Fritzels All Star Band W/Kevin Ray Clark, 9 pm

PIROGUE’S WHISKEY BAYOU — Davis Rogan Band, 8 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — The Mixed Nuts, 8:30 pm SAZERAC HOUSE — Delachaise Ensemble, 6:30 & 9 pm THE JOY THEATER — Stephen Sanchez, 7 pm THE RABBIT HOLE — Sean Hobbes w/ Mickey Hayes, werenotbrothers, 8 pm THE RABBIT HOLE — Crystallmess, 11:45 pm TOULOUSE THEATRE — Leyla McCalla, 7 pm

SATURDAY 16 BLUE NILE — George Brown Band, 8 pm CAFE NEGRIL — Sierra Green and the Soul Machine, 10 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott , 12:30 pm; Steve Detroy Band, 2:30 pm; Lee Floyd and Thunderbolt Trio, 6 pm; Fritzels All Star Band w/Jamil Sharif, 9 pm KERRY IRISH PUB — Crescent & Clover, 5 pm PIROGUE’S WHISKEY BAYOU — Tiffany Pollack & Co., 8 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Neutral Snap , 8:30 pm SANTOS — Thelma and the Sleaze with VOLK and Swamp Hunny, 9 pm THE RABBIT HOLE — Miss Claudia

PHOTO BY SHAWN FINK / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

and Gone Country, 5 pm; The Tanglers BlueGrass Band, The True Believers , 8 pm

SUNDAY 17 BJ'S LOUNGE BYWATER — Sunpie Barnes, 8 pm BLUE NILE — The Baked Potatoes, 8 pm; Street Legends Brass Band, 10:30 pm BOURBON STREET HONKY TONK — The Bad Sandys, 8 pm BULLET'S SPORTS BAR — 24/7 Band, 7 pm CAFE NEGRIL — Vegas Cola, 9 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Lee Doyle Cooper Band, 1:30 pm; Floyd & Thunderbolt Trio, 5 pm; Fritzels All Star Band w/Mike Fulton, 8 pm JAEGER'S SEAFOOD AND OYSTER HOUSE — Benny Grunch & The Bunch, 5 pm NEW ORLEANS JAZZ MUSEUM — Kanako Fuwa , 9 am THE RABBIT HOLE — Bass Church 13 Year feat. Truth, 9 pm

SCAN FOR THE COMPLETE GAMBIT CALENDAR

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D EC E M B E R MOVI E:

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50

CHARLIE VAUGHN ON VISUAL ART, ERC AND THE NEED FOR GOOD ENERGY

BY JAKE CLAPP

CHARLIE VAUGHN, AK A UPTOWNZ ILLEST, GREW UP IN HOLLYGROVE and

became an artist at a young age. As hip-hop took hold of New Orleans in the ’80s, Vaughn became immersed in the culture and allowed it to influence his visual art and lead him to become an emcee, dancer, graffiti artist and spoken word poet over the years. Today, Vaughn is an educator and continues to work in a variety of mediums. Find more about him at uptownartwerx.com.

This Q&A is part of a series of interviews about New Orleans as hip-hop celebrates its 50th anniversary. Read more at gambitweekly.com.

What was your introduction to hip-hop?

Charlie Vaughn: I think it goes [back to] before the actual commercialized version of what hip-hop is.

I always reference the skeleton or the backbone of hip-hop. I would always go with James Brown first.

The Meters, especially because The Meters came from New Orleans.

Anything that had a type of driving rhythm causing a person to want to dance or making you feel a certain way. P-Funk. Bar-Kays. Isaac Hayes.

Sly Stone.

What would be known as the essential break beats for hip-hop was basically my thing. I always took a special liking, even when I was a toddler, to just the idea of funky music. Before I heard the actual rapping part, I was like, “Something about this song gives a certain energy to want to dance like James Brown.”

So it would be that energy first.

And that’s the thing I have to remind young people about hip-hop: Hip-hop is a feeling. Before you get to how it looks and what it sounds like, it’s a feeling that came from people who don’t have much. That’s where the improvisation comes in.

As far as the verbal stuff, I would hear the guys around the neighborhood, like the old slick dudes, the old hustler dudes, when they’d say something like, “Man, what’s happenin’?”

“Oh, it ain’t no thing but a chicken wing. I’m just doin’ my thing.” You start hearing this super slick, super cool, little short bursts of rhymes.

I like that. I’d hear stuff like that from hustlers, family members. Some people call it “prison toast,” stuff that you’d hear from Rudy Ray Moore — “Dolemite is my name, and rappin’ and tappin’ is my game.”

That is a precursor to rap, because not only are they saying stuff that’s kind of syncopated, they’re choosing the colloquialism. They’re using certain slang. They’re saying stuff that’s neighborhood based and personal.

And then you get into The Last Poets, of course, you get into Gil Scott-Heron and [poets] speaking on world affairs or militant stuff or “Whitey on the Moon” (by ScottHeron). They’re speaking about when the revolution comes, and what they’re saying in these poems and rhymes is like, “When the revolution comes, we won’t be ready because we’ll be busy trying to party and bullshit.” And I’m like, “Wow, that’s some real shit. That’s still relevant.”

So all of that is a precursor to hip-hop. That’s why I tend to take it differently than a kid that’s born in ’98 or 2005 or 2015. They hear hip-hop different because they don’t hear it from the top. It’s common knowledge [for them.] But if you catch it from the very beginning, it has a different energy.

Who was the first New Orleans hip-hop artist you admired?

Vaughn: My first real emcee was one

of my homies, Lavelis Fountain, aka ERC. So he’s from the neighborhood, back in Hollygrove. He almost had a style of rap that sounded like The Sugarhill Gang, like Big Bank Hank.

That kind of old-school voice, but he would just do his thing. ERC was short for Excellent Rhyme Creator.

Him and Gregory D. A lot of folks would go to [Gregory D] as one of the first official, well-known emcees in the city. I would say ERC because I knew him well, and Gregory D because there was this kind of folklore: It would be like, “Man, you heard this dude? He rapped in Spanish. He rapped in English. He sounds like a car salesman.” Those were the top two guys that I remember.

What has been New Orleans’ most significant contribution to hip-hop?

Vaughn: Mannie Fresh. Simply for the LL Cool J move by stretching across the timeline. If you’re looking at ’83-’84, Mannie was there. If you go to the early-to-mid-‘90s, Mannie was there. Get into the height of Cash

Charlie Vaughn, aka Uptownz Illest, dances at DJ Soul Sister’s 11th annual Birthday Jam with DJ Jazzy Jeff at Tipitina’s.

PROVIDED PHOTO BY JOSH BRASTED / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Money, and Mannie was there. Even afterward, when Cash Money started losing their footing, Mannie was there.

Working with T.I. and these different groups, he was there.

He is one of the architects of a particular style. Whether we’re talking bounce, whether we’re talking gangsta rap, whether we’re talking hip-hop, he took those sensibilities from the groups that he was inspired by [and pushed it forward].

Mannie Fresh, KLC, DJ Precise, Ice Mike, those were the guys that were driving the sound overall during [the ’90s and 2000s]. That’s 30 years. By the time we get to ’92 or ’93, all four of those guys were starting to knock out a major chunk of the rap music that came out of New Orleans that actually hit.

And it wasn’t just them making songs, they did songs that actually did something and got numbers and were on the radio.

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Who do you feel have been some of the important New Orleans visual artists working in the culture?

Vaughn: One of the first names that comes to mind would be Lionel Milton.

He was one of those kids that came from YAYA (Young Aspirations | Young Artists). He came out after me, but he was able to marry New York graffiti-inspired characters into his work. He had an audience for it, and he took off.

Jamar Pierre. Ija Man. Buckwild. And my man, Otis Spears. He used to come in the record store back in the day, and he would have these shirts on, and I’d be like “Man, who did that?” He was dope.

And then you had the cats from the graffiti [scene], the local graffiti kids.

Certain artist named Harsh. You’d see their stuff in Metairie, parts of MidCity. You definitely had a graffiti scene from the ‘80s, the mid- and late-‘80s.

It was also mashed in with the skateboard scene.

The hip-hop wave coming across the country, we were no exception. I started doing spray painting in ’83, ’84.

I did a big joint in the canal by Xavier [University], and that was like 15-20 feet wide. I did a breakin’ character with a cat like doing a freeze and it had the word “breakin’ ” on it. And I had another character that looked like a cross between Thor and a wizard. He had white eyes and big wings on his helmet. Some old shit, but it was cool.

But shout out to my crew for shoplifting the spray cans. [Laughs] That was the ‘80s.

I had got the graffiti bug after watching “Beat Street” and “Breakin’.” And ever before that I was always intrigued by New York sub-cultures. I used to see stuff by The Clash, Blondie, Talking Heads — I was a kid that came through that MTV era, and every free chance I got to see a video, it always would have a touch of New York in it, and it always had hip-hop or graffiti or b-boy dancers in it to some degree.

A lot of the kids here, some did straight artwork, and some did more graffiti style. There definitely was a presence here in the ‘80s and into the ‘90s and early 2000s. But like right now, post-Katrina, oh my gosh, it’s a whole other thing. We got people out here just doing sacrilegious shit. They’re spray painting on old houses and doing too much. It was a different energy [back then] as opposed to what it is now.

You’ve got great artists, but we have some kids — they call them toys. Toys are kids who are not good at this. They’re just playin’. “You’re not for real, you’re just bullshittin’.” But I think that’s irrelevant.

Charlie Vaughn works as an arts educator and regularly uses his love for street art and hip-hop in the classroom.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL DEMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Again, we have great artists. Things have definitely evolved since the ‘80s.

They’re doing some incredible things that even I can’t do. There’s a girl, you see her doing a whole 50-foot-long joint, and I’m like “damn!” And she’s getting paid. It ain’t like they’re just out there; they’re getting commissioned. So big ups to everybody just doing them.

What has hip-hop come to mean to you today?

Vaughn: The meaning for me is showing that anybody — Black, white, male, female, gay, straight, whatever your orientation is — you could overcome a situation or adversity through improvisation. It’s just like somebody saying, “Hey, we have a table for you, but you have to build it. We lost the instruction, and you have to put it together.” Hip-hop basically is based on that idea.

Before we had the high-end machines, before we had the Auto-Tune, before we had the management companies and all this other shit, people just had records and the dance floor. People had time on their hands to come up with a rhyme.

It’s the one-upmanship of “I’m better than you. I’m smarter than you. I dress better than you. My girl looks better. I’m cooler.” That schoolyard mentality that has grown financially, but mentally it’s still in that.

Hip-hop has grown businesswise, but it also has a split personality. The part of hip-hop that I love is that it’s inclusive: It brings people in and brings people together, and it helps people make money. It helps people actually have a voice. The part that I’m not too happy about is that the higher-ups turn this thing into a negative killing machine, disaster-making [idea], perpetuating “I’m a thug. I’m a this. I’m a that.” It’s like, wait a minute, y’all know hip-hop started from people who came from that, but they were better than that.

That’s what I’m so disappointed in: If you turn on the radio, it’s programmed to show how everybody’s taking somebody’s girl, they’re taking pills while they got the girl, they got the drink, they got the car, they got so much money — but then when they press the stop button on the record, they broke as shit. Yeah, you got Balenciaga shoes on and all the designer shit, yes, you’re making tour

money and have millions of streams, but the reality is you’re a pawn. A lot of [rappers] don’t give a fuck they’re a pawn as long as they can show off in front of their friends and attract the opposite sex and say, “I’m the baddest.”

That’s the part I don’t get. It’s like, “Wait a minute. You have money, but does your grandkids have money? Do you have a business set up for [the future]?”

Again, the good part is, we came a long way for people to be able to get paid to feed their families. Hip-hop gives some voiceless people a voice and a platform.

It gives them something to build on. But the balance is needed.

I’m proud to say I’ve been around and have seen many folks before me and many cats after me make money and make a difference. And hopefully another 50 (years) to see this do something more positive than [damaging].

Sonically it’s changed. Verbally it’s changed. The players changed. The cats are younger, and they’re getting killed faster than they’re coming out. That’s scary. But hip-hop is gonna continue to go on as long as there’s a young person who has dreams or aspirations.

Remember at one time, everybody wanted to be a ball player? Some of them wanted to be singers, but then once the world of hip-hop opened up, it was, “I wanna be a DJ. I wanna be a producer. I wanna be a rapper.” So that’s three lanes that are now available. Now they can say, “I wanna own a company. I wanna do merchandise. I wanna have an empire like 50 Cent.”

Hip-hop went from culture to currency to hopefully cultivating family businesses and generational wealth. It’s a hell of an illusion. Hip-hop is one of those things people can talk into existence for better or for worse.

Is there anything you want to talk about before I let you go?

Vaughn: Really, just like I said, hiphop needs good energy back.

I’m one of those people who say, “Do it for the culture.” I do it for the culture, but it’s so embedded in me. I don’t have to have a record deal to be hip-hop. I don’t have to be still dancing. I’m 55 — damn, that sounds crazy to say out loud. [Laughs] Hip-hop is an industry now. But at its core, hip-hop is where a person could lose but still shake back. That’s the thing: You’re born with so much shit stacked against you, but the catch is, can you survive this bullshit, this neighborhood, your parents fighting? Can you survive inside your house, inside this fucked-up school, inside this fucked-up city and still manage to be all right?

To me, that’s hip-hop as fuck.

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PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE UNTHEMED NO. 7: SUPER CENTER

By Frank A. Longo

27 Hands-on program for law students 30 Highest point 31 Vowel sound in “tent” or “peg” 33 Made efforts to come from behind 36 Bieber who co-hosted “Drop the Mic” 39 Put on a musical staff 40 Measure of temperature plus humidity 44 Exaggerated tales 49 Passing reference 50 Get nude 51 Cargo weight units 52 Heartbeat frequency

53 ALF et al.

56 Tahitian wrap 57 Alabama speedway city 58 “I Am —” (reality show starring Jenner) 59 Bluish form of oxygen 60 People plundering 61 After a while 62 Frilly fabric 63 Tightrope walkers, e.g.

64 Kind of chimpanzee 65 Mork’s planet 66 1955 doubled die pennies, e.g.

67 16th-century Spanish ship

68 Restoration to factory 35 PC key abbr.

37 Vows heard at defaults weddings 69 “Yes, I’m 100% for it!”

38 “Mexico Set” novelist 70 They may follow Deighton right jabs 40 Boba Fett 73 Deterrents to captured him auto thefts 74 Balcony cry from Juliet 41 Aaron’s son, in the Bible 75 “The Scarlet Letter” 42 Genre for Beck and protagonist Hester Nirvana, in brief 76 Early 1940s, politically 43 Tommy — (power pop 82 Draws a bead on band) 87 Part of i.e.

44 Mistaken beliefs 88 Bulbs controlled with 45 Official doing taxing phone apps work 91 Acronym comparable 46 Sowing machines to “carpe diem” 47 They fill job positions 92 Irritated 48 Does’ mates 95 Storm into 50 Rounded edge, as on 96 Dog food brand a stairstep 98 Each 52 Royal homes 99 Less original 53 Dine at a friend’s 100 Full of life house, say 101 John of farm 54 Transverse rafter-joinequipment ing timber 102 Esteems 55 Easy walks 103 Some pastries 57 Many bathroom floor installers DOWN 58 Locale of Hudson Bay 1 Indian rulers 60 Don of TV announcing 2 Cain’s eldest son 3 Pro at transcription 4 Rome’s river 5 Yellowfin 90-Down, in Hawaii 6 Apt to vote Republican 7 It has limbs 8 Aria, e.g.

9 Like sheep 10 Writer Jong 11 Actress Meg or Jennifer 12 Mrs. Eisenhower 13 Nonstop 14 Fail to stay calm 15 Salary ceiling 16 Eggs, formally 17 Asian noodle dish with peanuts 18 On the way 19 Central Asian plains 28 Highest point 29 Many a Bach choral work 32 The thing right here 34 Actor Peter O’—

ABR, CRS, GRI, SFR, SRS

61 Legendary Rhine siren 63 Single-wheel load carriers 64 Peel that changes from green to yellow 66 Sprinted, e.g.

67 Polenta grain 68 WWW page code 69 Calendar box 70 Decreased 71 Tending to cause wear 72 New Jersey city opposite Manhattan 73 Jagged cliff 75 Meddling sorts 77 Sect in “Witness” 78 Made a dash for 79 1991 Daytona 500 winner Ernie 80 Novelist Calvino 81 Earlier-born 83 Avian mimics 84 Part of ESE 85 “The Sandbox” dramatist Edward 86 Some tadpoles, in time 89 Hat’s place 90 Sushi staple 93 Drop the ball 94 Coloring stuff 97 Buddy, in Burgundy

ANSWERS FOR LAST ISSUE’S PUZZLE: P 2

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ACROSS 1 Boots up again 9 Spill-cleaning implement 15 Manages OK 20 Nontraditional protagonist 21 “Interview With History” author Fallaci 22 — -garde 23 Kamala Harris is his veep 24 Guys in the petroleum industry 25 San Diego major leaguer 26 Clearasil may clear it up

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