Sudan Dancin' in New Orleans - Sudan Social & Pleasure Club parade Nov. 12, 2006

Different Day...Same Old....or ... .Are Things Really Changing??

Went to a meeting a few weeks back....geez, we're all getting really meetinged out around here these days, but how else except through civic engagement are we to effect any chang????
Anyway, back to the meeting. It was a 3rd District planning meeting and our esteemed mayor C. Ray was there......
He announced one of his bright new ideas, one which came about as a result of his Labor Day economic development trip to NYC - "We're gonna bring Broadway to New Orleans!!!"

That's just plain backwards! What we need to do is bring New Orleans to Broadway.
I see more incredible dancers out on the street on a usual Sunday secondline than I ever saw on Broadway. Sorry New York...hard as y'all try ya can't dance - at least not like New Orleans can.........and lots of music biz in NYC, but the music itself is here, everywhere! The singers, songwriters, arrangers, horn players, guitar players, bass players, percussionists........All here.
Mardi Gras Indians, social aid & pleasure clubs, brass bands..........all here. New York needs us.........we need to bring New Orleans to Broadway.......C. Ray got it backward again.........but at least he's considering the issue, but also likely considering it, as so many so-called leaders aournd here usually do when it comes to developing the cultural economy - from the point of view of the tourism industry and importing audiences, as opposed to exporting our music and culture.
We're all pretty tired of waiting on these guys to get their acts together. Might help them to talk with some actual artists and musicians instead of tourism honchos. Course cats like Ray aren't interested in talking to the little people...the person on the street or the secondline........cuz they ain't the big money people. Ray ain't interested, despite appearances....like his psuedo folksy 'down' routine.
And where did the 28 million the Louisiana Recovery Authority have for marketing the state go?????
Yeah You Right! The usual places- for the usual lame television and newspaper ads - the New Orleans Tourism & Convention Bureau and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation - None for the musicians out on the road, the touring musicians, who have always been the most effective marketers - yeah, they're still doin' it on their own dime, and still better than either of organizations mentioned above. It ain't right the way that the musicians are soooo underappreciated here.
When's the payday for the musicians????? Like the payday Wynton Marasalis received back in April????
Hey Mitch Landrieu!!!! Hey Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism! Ya can't be just about tourism and not culture.....! When y'all gonna come through for some tour support for the city's musicians?
When are we gonna export our culture. Where are those strategies??????? Instead of these lambrained ideas for bring NYC/Broadway culture to New Orleans???? Or Lincoln Center productions. They have plenty of private capital to tap into - musicians here don't.....so let's not waste scarce public money and resources on propping-up New York culture as if we didn't have any of our own!
I'm working on some projects though that might, hopefully change some of that, which I'll begin writing on here soon.....
Thanks for reading, Sneakin' Sal