North Carolina's Green Narrows is one of the finest pieces of white water in the U.S. So why would anyone want to run it in a kayak? With apologies to George Mallory, because it's there. Recently pro kayaker David Fusilli did just that, taking his long and more ponderous boat into a stretch of the river that is meant for something short, fast and agile. The results can be seen below.

Demshitz sea kayaking the Green River narrows from David Fusilli on Vimeo.

Just when you though that the Floyd Landis case couldn't get any stranger, things took a turn for the worse today. You can read all the sordid details over at ESPN.com.

In a nutshell, the doping committee asked former three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond to testify regarding a conversation that he and Landis had last August in which LeMond alleges that Landis all but admitted that he doped. Those allegations alone would probably draw a few headlines, but then the story takes a turn for the worse, as it was revealed in court that Landis' former teammate and close friend Will Geoghegan, who had been helping him with his defense, called LeMond the night before and made a threatening phone call. The tale continues to spiral down from there with the threat involving hints at sexual abuse that occured in LeMonds past, and Landis distancing himself from Geoghegan personally and professionally.

This story comes on the heels of Landis claiming that officials tried to cut a deal if he would provide information against Lance Armstrong that would implicate his use of performance enhancing drugs during his string of seven Tour wins. Add to that the stories of impropriety in the testing labs in France, months of "did he or didn't he" speculation, and a bitter rivarly between LeMond and Armstrong, and you've got one crazy story.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out. The question is, should I just wait for the ABC Movie of the Week version?

Stewart Anderson is a doctor, who also just so happens to have have hiked the length of thePacific Crest Trail. Along the way, he began to think about all the injuries that can occur on such a hike and came up with the idea of creating the The Thru-Hiker's Medical Guide.

This helpful site has all kinds of great stuff to think about before you set out this Summer on the PCT or the AT. He covers things as simple as blisters on your feet (all too common on these hikes) to fractured bones, tendentious, and the dreaded "Hiker's Belly". This is definitely a good read for anyone planning a multi-day hike. There are some good tips and information that may make your trip a lot better.

Thanks to this one goes out to The Goat.

Well, it seems like it's been awhile since I posted on a new episode of The Rest of Everest but Jon is back to work on new regular episodes, and as a result Episode 42: A Day In The Life is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Ok, so it was ready on Wednesday at it's regular time, but I was out of town, had no Internet, and was expected to actually do real work for a change. Anyway, in this episode you'll get to learn far more than you ever wanted to about the toilet situation on Everest. You'll get the scoop on toilet tents, Sherpa ingenuity, and the incredible view of the mountain you'll have while "doing your business."

As always, you can get the episodes from the Rest of Everest website or subscribe to it directly in iTunes. I for one am glad to see a return to the regular program, even while I can't wait to see the Tibet 2007 videos. Patience is a virtue, good things come to those who wait, blah blah blah...

This is what I ended up with when I tried to pick up some local items from the hotel's breakfast spread this morning. That glob in the foreground was actually the best of them all. The sign said that it was a "Beijing pancake," or a jian bing, and was basically a griddle-fried mishmash of both crunchy and soft dough. I need to remember to wear my dirty clothes down to the dining room tomorrow though; I came back smelling like grease and had to take another shower before heading out for meetings later in the day.

I'm not intentionally trying to go back to places in Austin from a long time ago. This just happened to be the venue for dinner tonight. And the funny thing was that I had pretty much the same thoughts tonight as I did the last time that I was here: the place was in the same genre as Morton's, the lighting was very dark, and it was darned cold in there. It is an appropriate place for a business dinner though.

Now that the majority of the teams have hit the ice down in Antarctica, things are starting to get very busy indeed. Weather continues to be an issue of course, but most of explorers are now trying to find a groove and get into a rhythm that involves skiing (and in some cases biking!) on the frozen expanse of the coldest, highest and driest desert in the world.

One of the biggest stories of the day is Richard Parks restarting his attempt at the speed record for skiing from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole. You may recall that parks set out on that quest last week only to find that the high winds and copious amounts of soft powder were making it impossible for him to make good time. In just a few days he was already falling off the pace, so he elected to return to Hercules and wait for a better weather window to relaunch. That window is now open apparently, as he'll start his second attempt today. Parks arrived back at his starting point on Tuesday, then took a rest day yesterday, ahead of his restart this morning. He now has 23 days to try to reach the South Pole and the clock is ticking.

The other story that came out yesterday was the evacuation of Eric Phillips, who was a the polar guide for one of the teams taking part in the 2013 South Pole Allied Challenge. Phillips was apparently suffering from altitude sickness after the teams were flown to the 87th degree prior to the start of their race to the Pole. Apparently he had fluid in his lungs, so they made the wise choice to fly him back to camp for an assessment. If he responds well to treatment and shows signs of improvement, he may rejoin the team in a day or two.

Elsewhere, Daniel Burton celebrated his 50th birthday out on the ice yesterday. He is attempting to ride his bike to the South Pole and so far things aren't going particularly well. He spent 10.5 hours on the move but covered just 6.5 miles (10.4 km), well below what he had hoped for. He does say that the slope he has been climbing since leaving Hercules Inlet is starting to get less severe and the snow is getting harder, both of which bode well for his plans. Hopefully he'll be able to pick up speed soon, because at his current pace he's traveling about half the speed of the skiers. That means he'll have a very long trip to the Pole, if he can reach it at all. I give him high marks for determination however, as he has refused to put his bike on his sled and ski any distance, which is in contrast to another explorer who is attempting to bike to the South Pole as well.

Australian kite skier Geoff Wilson managed to catch the wind today and made good progress in the process. He says that by late afternoon he had knocked of about 40 km (24 miles) before the breezes dissipated once again. The forecasts call for better winds in the next few days, so he hopes to capitalize on them and cover more ground.

Chris and Marty Fagan seem to have developed a good rhythm and are already making great progress on their attempt to ski to the South Pole. The husband and wife team are already just 540 miles (870 km) from the Pole, which sounds like a lot but is actually a good number considering the number of days they've been skiing. They're knocking off a steady 11-12 miles (17-19 km) per day as they make solid progress toward their goal.

Finally, the Willis Resilience team has actually reached the South Pole, although not on foot. This expedition started with a driving tour of the Antarctic that allows them to conduct scientific research of the impact of climate change on the continent. They're also collecting ice core samples as they go, so that they can be examined by researchers back home after the expedition wraps up. After being out on the ice for about a week, the team has already driven 1790 km (1112 miles) as they cross Antarctica. In a few weeks however, Parker Liautaud and Doug Stoup will return to the Pole on skis as well.

That's all for today. More to come soon I'm sure.

Chongqing: bring a gas mask

The first time I was in Delhi, in 1970, the air was so unbelievably filthy that I got out of town as fast as I could. Like many cities-- Los Angeles and Bangkok being two good examples-- Delhi is a lot cleaner now. But not so much, apparently, as I thought it was when I was there last year. According to the World Bank in 2004 it still had the second worst air pollution of any city in the world. Numero uno was Cairo. Here's the list of the 20 most polluted:

Cairo
Delhi
Calcutta
Tianjin
Chongqing
Lucknow
Kanpur
Jakarta
Shenyang
Zhengzhou
Jinan
Lanzhou
Beijing
Taiyuan
Chengdu
Ahmadabad
Anshan
Wuhan
Bangkok
Nanchang

Twelve are in China and five are in India. I'm finishing up on Robyn Meredith's NY Times best selling book on the economic changes in India and China in the last two decades, The Elephant And The Dragon and she has a lot to say about the overwhelming pollution in both countries.

Nothing can prepare visitors for the pollution in China... One of the worst places to breathe on the planet is the world's biggest city: Chongqing, China, with a population of 30 million people counting the exurbs, about the same number of people as live in the entire state of California. There the New China coexists with the Old China: skyscrapers and construction sites decorate downtown, but scrawny bong-bong men wait for work on street corners. Bong-bong men are paid sixty cents an hour to ferry heavy loads-- from building materials to groceries-- up and down the city's hilly streets using bamboo poles slung over their shoulders. They must have powerful lungs, not just strong legs: the city is half dark most days. Sunlight barely reaches the ground, dimmed by thick, gray smog. Skyscrapers just three blocks away are mere outlines because of air pollution. Emerging from the inside of a building onto the streets prompts one's eyes to water. The air is filthy but that is not all. The raw sewage produced by 30 million people-- 30 million-- is dumped straight into the Yangtze River as it flows past. The countryside nearby is not the place to go for fresh air: there you notice that the leaves of trees-- along with everything else-- are coated with black dust from the coal mines and factories in the region. More acid rain falls on Chongqing than anywhere else on earth.

...Nearly a third of China's rivers are so polluted that they aren't even fit for agriculture or industrial use, according to Chinese government statistics. Village doctors have documented increased cancer rates near polluting factories and chemical plants. Untreated waste water dumped into China's famed Yangtse River is killing marine life and turning its water "cancerous," according to Xinhua, the state-controlled media outlet.

...Lack of enforcement of environmental laws is also a big problem in India. Its capital city, Delhi, used to have pollution levels ten times higher than the nation's legal limit, mostly because of the high-pollution taxis, trucks and buses on its roads. Delhi has the world's worst air pollution in 2002, but managed to clean up its filthy air after being taken to task by India's Supreme Court. The overhaul began in 1997. Some steps were long overdue: the city finally banned lead gas. However belatedly, the city reduced pollution from Delhi's power plants by installing scrubber to clean up smokestack emissions and requiring them to burn cleaner coal. It banished motorized rickshaws and buses built before 1990 from the roads. In 1998, the court required all city buses to run on compressed natural gas (CNG)-- a cleaner fuel than gasoline-- by 2001... Just 10 percent of sewage is treated in India, with the rest dumped into waterways, along with industrial pollution. India's rivers-- even the holy Ganges-- have become sewers.

I still remember leaving a restaurant in one town after dinner and seeing some kids behind it filling up the "bottled water" from a garden hose.

This was a completely random find. We were out of dinner options, and were actually on our way to getting some Teochew porridge down the street. But then we came across this place, and figured that we might as well give it a try (22A Havelock Road #01-14, 8247-0444). I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, especially since their prawns were super fresh, and the sauces worked for me. Now, it wasn't anything spectacular either (and I don't eat this stuff enough to know the difference between the many other shops around town these days), but I'm still glad that we ate here. One of these days, someone is going to have to teach me the tricks behind mastering that slippery inverted grill.

Photo © Ashley Gilbertson-All Rights Reserved
The announcement that the VII Photo Agency launched VII The Magazine has already been reported and blogged about for a few days already. The magazine is a syndicated online publication with photo stories and interviews with VII photographers.

The beta version of VII The Magazine is presented in the Herald Scotland newspaper, and in Lens Culture.

The first issue of the magazine features multimedia slideshows of projects by several VII photographers, as well as interviews with Jessica Dimmock and Ashley Gilbertson about their projects featured on the site.

I was particularly interested in Ashley Gilbertson's interview, and struck by one of his statements:

"If you show me one more picture of a soldier kicking in a door, I'm going to blow my head off."

I sense Ashley speaks for, not only war photographers, but for many of the sentient public who's been subjected to repetitive and unimaginative visual (and intellectual) presentations of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who's had (if they're anything like me) enough of the same stereotypical coverage which passes for cutting edge reporting in our media. I call it the stagnation of war photography...the same scenes over and over, perhaps from different angles...and with no back story. In fact, if I didn't read the captions beneath these images, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was in Iraq or in Afghanistan...or whether they'd been made yesterday or a year ago. Stagnation.

Ashley's powerful and poignant photo essay The Shrine Down The Hall, which shows some of the empty bedrooms of the over 5000 U.S. military personnel killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, rammed home the horrors of war much more effectively than seeing (and hearing) yet another photo essay by a gung-ho war photographer following US soldiers in an Afghani village, rounding up "Taliban" members (or whatever the caption writer decides they are), covering their heads with potato sacks while pointing guns at terrified women.

We need to see more work like Ashley Gilbertson's and much less of the kicking of Afghan or Iraqi doors....please.

This weekend I paid my first visit to The Wonderful Barn near Lexlip in County Kildare, and as you can see from the image the name does do it justice! This bizzare construction was built in 1743. The work was commissioned by Katherine Connolly, widow of William 'Speaker' Connolly. He had made his fortune from land transfers, following the confiscations by the Crown of lands belonging to supporters of James II after the Williamite War ended. He had the first Palladian Mansion built in Ireland - Castletown House near Celbridge in County Kildare.

William Connolly died in 1729 and was said to be the wealthiest man in Ireland at the time of his death, leaving Katherine as his widow. She had The Wonderful Barn constructed in 1743 not only as a functional grain store, but as an unusual architectural feature which undoubtedly catches the eye. It is said that she also had philanthropic motivations for constructing this complex building. 


There had been a severe famine in Ireland in 1740-41, she kept the local people employed working on projects like The Wonderful Barn and the 42 metre tall Connolly Folly which she had constructed in 1741. 

The Wonderful Barn itself stands approximately 22 metres in height, and has a tapering cone, circled by a cantilevered staircase with a crow’s nest viewing gallery.
The Wonderful Barn is certainly worth a trip out, and is a fine (and unusual) setting for a stroll. There are a number of allotments on the lands today, the site itself is reasonably easy to access with paths running around the main features. To get there follow the Celbridge Road out of Lexlip, when you pass a large housing estate on the outskirts of Lexlip called Elton Court on your right hand side drive on around 50m and the gate leading  into The Wonderful Barn will be on your right.

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath
 

  

 

There are few places on Earth as remote and challenging as the Karakorum. Much of the area is so far away from civilization that is largely remains unexplored even today. Which is why I found this article over at K2Climb.net so interesting. It tells the tale of Michael Beek, a German trekker, who has spent the better part of 35 years exploring the Karakorum. During that time, he has come to know the people that inhabit the area and much of it's landscape.

However, last July Michael decided to get off the well worn trekking paths and head into areas that were far less traveled. Along the way he claims to have viewed K2's North West face from a location that no other westerner has ever seen it, and had the honor to name three mountains and two mountain passes.

At times, he was in such remote areas that border's between countries became indistinct and he had to rely less on the sketchy maps that he had with him and more on satellite images and the help of Pakistani guides.

Beeks sems to exhibit the spirit of adventure. He looks for and finds all kinds of challenges in his exploration, and certainly isn't afraid to get out into some remote areas, isolated from human contact. It sounds like a great adventure to me, and I'd love to hear more about his expedition.

BackPackingLight.com is a great resource for ideas and tips on how to travel lightly in the backcountry, and I'd say that it's easier now then ever to "go light". New, higher quality equipment, focuses on taking the weight off our packs while still providing us with the true backpacking experience. This especially holds true in Spring, Summer, and Fall, the time when most of us get out and camp. But what about Winter?

Well, you can use many of the same techniques int he Winter as well, but obviously the need to stay warm and dry chaneges things dramatically. That's why Backpacking Light has put together this helpful article as well as an accompanying podcast with lots of great tips to for camping in the colder months.

The focus is on such topics as "Keep Warm Without Getting Wet" and "Keep Your Stuff Dry". But my personal favorite is "Eat, Eat, Eat, Drink, Drink, Drink." Words to live by throughout all four seasons I say. The podcast/mp3 file is found at the top of the page and can be downloaded or listened to directly on the page.

I thought I'd post this advert for the National Geographic camera bags because it was entirely shot with a Canon 7D. Johnnie Behiri is the photographer who produced it.

By the way, I just read that the producers of the Dr. House television series have shot a soon to be aired episode with the Canon 5D Mark II. Incredible!

Another gem I found on Gizmodo is a $6 do-it-yourself thingamajig that allows rack focus (aka follow focus). I'll drop by Home Depot and see if I can make one for my 5D Mark II. A video of a similar project is also here.

With a ATR6250 microphone affixed on my camera's hot shoe, and this home-made follow focus ring, I'll be schelpping quite a contraption.

The Canon's EOS 7D can be considered as an entry-level "professional" DSLR, positioned between the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II, and I'm tempted by it because of its many still photography interesting features; one of which is its speed reaching 8 fps (for the first 16 frames) and an average 7.1 fps for 144 frames. This almost compares with the speed of the Canon 1D series dSLRs. More to follow on this topic.

For some reason, I was craving this place for lunch today. And to my surprise, they were serving five grain rice, complete with a rich and punchy curry. Now, those shrimp weren't as exciting as I would have hoped, but nonetheless I still like the quality of the ingredients that they use here, particularly that dou miao.

Lately I've been stuck. I know I have more to write about Bali and, of course, I need to get going on Thailand. And I've got a yen to write about Egypt and Cappadocia... but every time I sit down at the computer Down With Tyranny beckons louder and I wind up doing the Paul Revere thing and writing about encroaching fascism under George W. Bush. But I'm not writing at a computer terminal right now. I'm writing on the back of a corporate executive summary for a board of directors meeting I'm on my way to. I'm at the Burbank Airport at the Southwest Airlines terminal on my way to Oakland, about an hour away, as the (big) bird flies. My meeting, in San Francisco, starts in about 3 hours. To me, Bali and Thailand and Abu Simbel sound a helluva lot more exotic and interesting-- as least as tour destinations-- but I know San Francisco is one of the most popular travel destinations on earth. So I'm not going to let the fact that I lived there for the whole of the 80s stand in the way of me dealing with this short trip as a kind of travelogue.

Preparations were easy. Southwest has lots of flights between Burbank (convenient and less hideously encumbered with hassles than LAX) and Oakland (almost as hideously encumbered as SFO but still a bit more convenient, especially for arrivals. Leaving... well I'm convinced that whichever bureaucrat who runs security there either is bucking to be the most gratuitously obnoxious security czar of any secondary airport in the country-- or is just the reincarnation of some concentration camp kapitan with some unfinished issues to work out.) And the fares are cheap and the airline amenable to discounts for early bookings.

And the hotel... well, when I was president of Reprise Records and TimeWarner was picking up the tabs, I got used to staying at suites in the Ritz-Carlton. Now I'm either traveling on my own dime or, as today, on the dime of a much (much) smaller company and their corporate discount is with a boutiquey hotel owned by Kimpton, The Triton. The location is great-- downtown, a couple of hops and skips from the Chinatown dragon gate-- and I was able to walk to every meal and every meeting and to the Museum of Modern Art. Besides which-- its a pretty good hotel. Rooms start at $149 and work their way up depending on things like supply and demand and room size. (I'm jumpin' ahead a little but they have these cool, cool suites-- starting at $239-- each designed by the celebrity for which it is named: Jerry Garcia, Santana, Woody Harrelson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Graham Nash...) It's a rock'n'roll hotel and it feels very comfortable in a pleasantly eco-friendly, artsy, odd-ball kind of way. There's great music in the lobby and elevator (sounds like my iPod), very friendly, down-to-earth service, bold, vibrant colors and fabrics and loopy furniture everywhere, bizarre art, a masseuse and a tarot card reader in the lobby and a wine hour every evening... very San Francisco contemporary. Sumptuous luxury like the Ritz? No. Comfortable, efficient and friendly? BIG TIME!

Friday night after the meeting that was the raison d'etre of the trip, 2 old pals, Sandy Pearlman, who I know since 1965, and Michael Snyder who I first met in the late 70s when we were co-writers on the BERKELEY BARB, joined me for dinner at Piperade a Basque restaurant at 1015 Battery. None of us had been there before although the chef-owner, Gerard Hirigoyen, is an old friend and has founded an old fave of all of ours, Fringale. Piperade is much better. Gerard has always been a sublime chef but years and years of perfecting it has culminated in one of San Francisco's great foodie havens. The menu is mind-blowing and unique (but only hints at what your palate is about to experience. (A few weeks ago I wrote about a Basque superstar restaurant in Madrid, el Amparo, widely acclaimed one of Europe's best. Piperade was far better-- and far more healthful (and far better priced).

All 3 of us were completely sold when our 3 tipiak (small plates) arrived: dungeness crab salad "Txangurru" with basil, roasted pepper and mango; piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese, pine nuts and golden raisins; and grande white beans with chopped egg salad and boquerones (sort of like anchovies). The flavors were distinct and vibrant and I kept thinking how I should have just made a dinner of an assortment of these incredible appetizers (about $10 each). I stopped thinking that when the handiak or big plates, came. Michael has filet of monk fish with braised fennel, carrots and lemon-cumin relish. Sandy and I each ordered braised seafood and shellfish stew in red pepper sauce. Let me just say that I do not remember the last time I took up a spoon to scarf down the last of any sauce left after I had eaten my meal! So did I really, really like Piperade? I brought 2 other friends, Jimmy and Maureen there for dinner the next night!

Today I'm featuring the work of Darren Ornitz, who as a freelance photographer, traveled for 14 months in Africa and Asia including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen and Oman.

Quite a number of photographs in Darren's East Africa gallery are of Lalibela, one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. The population of Lalibela is almost completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, and having spent a few days there photographing during the Epiphany celebrations, I can only describe it as "Biblical".

Part of the East Africa portfolio are some photographs of Zanzibar, and more specifically Stone Town. A UNESCO listed old city, Stone Town was David Livingstone's base when preparing for his final expedition in 1866. The above photograph is of Stone Town.

Darren studied at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse until transferring to Fordham.

Michael Snyder is an old friend of mine from San Francisco-- as well as a talented writer, discerning critic and celebrated raconteur. He's the Around The World Blog go-to person for all things New Orleans. And he just returned from there and wrote up a report anyone interested in visiting post-Katrina New Orleans will want to read.

New Orleans Lives!

Make no mistake.
 
It's more than a bit broken. But New Orleans and its people are unbowed, and I had a tremendous time there this past weekend.
 
Yep, I'm back in San Francisco after my usual early-Carnival sojourn to the Big Easy. It was exhilarating, exhausting and left me feeling a little melancholy. And I wouldn't have missed it for anything.
 
The areas of town that are geared to entertainment -- the French Quarter, the Marigny and the Garden District -- are fine, although you can see evidence of repairs in progress, and some places (such as the Acme Oyster Bar) have yet to reopen due to personnel shortages. The first parades ran (albeit a little scaled-back) with a slew of cuttingly satirical, and brutally-topical floats, and beads and doubloons a-flying; the parties rocked, especially the annual all-night bash at Jamie's warehouse (a wild menagerie of fun-loving, incredibly creative people in beautiful, sexy and/or hilarious costumes); the food was exquisite (i.e. dinners at Irene's, Adolfo's and NOLA; beignets at the Cafe Du Monde; and some libations to delight: Restoration Ale and Carnival Bock from Abita, and the Chocolate City Stout from Crescent City Brewhouse); the Krewe of Barkus doggie parade went off without a hitch on Sunday afternoon as canines and their owners, done up in hilarious fashion to reflect this year's theme "The Wizard of Paws," strolled the Quarter to appreciative crowds; and my friends -- those who stayed or returned, and those I only just met -- were as gracious, warm and welcoming as ever.

I don't want to forget the music and clubbing I did: There was some eloquent small-combo chamber jazz from pianist Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the musical Marsalis clan, at Snug Harbor; techno-house dancing at Oz; the Bob French & Friends jam session Monday night at Donna's with the great Kermit Ruffins -- the Satchmo of the modern era -- sitting in on trumpet and vocals, and the brilliant humorist and comic actor Harry Shearer kicking back at the bar; and an ass-whuppin' midnight show by Nashville Pussy (X-rated, trailer-trashy Deep South metal-punk) at the best rock club in the Quarter, One-Eyed Jacks.

A mordant sense of humor was in evidence, no matter where you went. The Krewe of Carrollton dubbed its parade "Blue Roof Blues," in reference to the omnipresent blue tarps that FEMA used to cover houses left open to the elements by the storm; they recycled old floats to fit the "blue" theme. So, to pay tribute to the Blue Man Group, they took a float that was previously used as a tribute to Gandhi, completely spray-painted the bald figure at the front of the vehicle in a rich shade of blue and -- Voila! Hairless spiritual sari-wearing pacifist becomes freaky, post-modern performance artist!

And the novelty T-shirts, at souvenir shops from Bourbon to Decatur, were particularly prickly: a "Girls Gone Wild" shirt with the meteorological symbol that represents a hurricane duplicated under the names "Katrina" and "Rita"; a FEMA shirt that spelled the acronym "Federal Employees Missing Again"; a New Orleans Police Department shirt that said "Not Our Problem, Dude"; New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard depicted as the Three Stooges; and my favorite, which takes the poster art for the recent film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," and replaces star Johnny Depp's face with Ray Nagin's, alters the background to a post-Katrina NOLA skyline, and the title to "Willy Nagin & the Chocolate City -- Semi-Sweet & a Little Bit Nuts." Anger transformed to humor.

This is not to diminish the tragedy. Parts of the city are devastated. For instance, I made it over to the periphery of the Ninth Ward, and even now, it looks like a bomb went off and laid waste to everything. Although it will take years (and a much better series of levees) before those neighborhoods are back to something approaching they're previous condition (or hopefully, something better), there are clean-up crews and builders who are toiling every day with the determination to resurrect and improve upon that which was destroyed.
 
New Orleans will survive, and it's ready to accommodate those who love it, or will love it if they visit. It's a national treasure, and it needs us. I encourage any and all of you to go there and support the most unique, exotic and seductive metropolitan area in North America.

 There are a few more days left until Mardi Gras. And how about Jazz Fest in April? It's coming up, and it's a music-lover's dream. I'm just sayin'...

Photo © Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved
Here's another lovely audio slideshow by Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

The title of this audio slideshow is The Angel.

This time, Chico documents the spiritual side of Flamenco, whose mystical, almost religious origins, are almost forgotten by the admirers of this genre of music and dance. Chico is well placed to do so...he's a native Andalucian, a musician and was involved in flamenco himself.

I would have loved to see a flip book effect in Chico's work...various shots of a dancer (or singer for that matter)...and arranged in such a way that playing the slideshow would have animated these almost-identical stills.

The well-known flamenco style of music and dance is emblematic to the culture of Spain, although it is actually native to only one region: Andalusia.

Gypsy, Sephardic, and especially Arabic musical influences are found in flamenco. For me, one of the best flamenco singers is Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar, known as El Cigala, whose album Lagrima Negas fusing Cuban rhythms and flamenco vocals, made it an international success.

ThePoles.com has posted a new Polar Update with some news on the still ongoing arctic expeditions.

Rosie Stancer continues to make progress in her bid to go solo to the North Pole. She spent much of the day yesterday in white-out conditions, gaining 8 nautical miles in the process. After 13 hours of trekking though, the conditions began to improve and the clouds lifted. Hopefully conditions are much clearer for her today. Her last reported position was at 86 54 00N 56 21 22W, which means she still has some work ahead of her.

Meanwhile, Thomas Ulrich and Børge Ousland continue their epic voyage as well, but have reportedly run into a polar bear already. The pair of arctic explorers were surprised to see a bear so far North, and it has prompted them to set up a fence around their camp at night to keep hungry bears away. They've made steady progress as well, despite their own whiteout conditions, having notched 17km over the weekend.

The Polar First Team has made it into Iqaluit on Baffin Island, where they bumped into Will Steger's Global warming 101 Team who happened to have British Adventurer (and Billionaire) Richard Branson along for the ride. Jennifer Murray reports that the record weather delay in Iqaluit is 42 days, a record they don't really want to break.

Finally, the results for the Polar Race are in and you can check to see how your favorite team did. I don't know about you personally, but I was rooting for "The Blue Tits".