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"Putting out fire with gasoline..."

The Seventh Year

Rod Amis - Unbound

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NEW ORLEANS ‚ 29 March, 2002: I ride the same bus to work every morning. It doesn't come at the same time, though. The woman who normally drives this route is very efficient and speedy. Two different guys replace her on her days off. They are the kind of guys whose parents must have taken them on too many Sunday drives in the country --- or else they are just more New Orleans than she is. In any event, they are never on time and you (I) never get where you are going on time. The New Orleans Way.

The other thing I notice on my jaunt to my Day Job is that the only faces I see every day (meaning Monday through Friday) on this run are those of the drivers. It says something about this town, too, that the drivers and I are the only ones making this morning journey every day of the week. Oh wait! I forgot the two guys who speak Arabic. They ride the bus every day, too. I listen to their conversations and try to pick up familiar words, maybe a snippet in the stream I might recognize. So, on the average weekday there are we four regulars and then a sampling of diverse people going their diverse ways --- but since they are different people every day, I have to draw the conclusion they are not going to five-day-a-week "regular" jobs.

My horoscope today read: "All decisions are personal after a certain point. You may not feel lonely, but recognize that you are in this alone and unassisted." (Lord, you have a gloomy astrologer," I hear some of you saying.)

I've always made it a point to have a personal astrologer over the last ten years or so, sending me yearly, monthly, or (now) daily messages to consider. JENNIFER BLUE used to do that for me, before see stopped star-gazing. (Old-timers at the site will remember her. For the rest of you, consider it an obscure reference.) I use a syndicated astrologer now. Meanwhile, I'd recommend Frank Don for many of you. My friend Mardi turned me onto his site and he is very uplifting. Not sure of his accuracy yet.

FROM THE INTERLEAF: If you are on Bourbon Street, at the intersection of Toulouse, between 9 and 10 in the morning, you will see a young man, a street performer, who bears a striking resemblance to Michael Jackson --- though he doesn't look as anorexic. He definitely has the face, and that is what he sells. He is also an accomplished stop-motion, "statue" artist. I have the sense that he learned his trade from an old brother with whom he shares the corner. (In my judgment, the old brother is falling down in his trade. The effect of years of working on Bourbon Street and the drink that goes along with the milieu.) The older brother wears the silver make-up that is so popular among the street performers of his generation. The only make-up the Michael Jackson look-alike wears is white face. He goes to the corner of Bourbon & Toulouse every day of week and puts his white-face on between 9 and 10. The only extra touch, which varies according to his mood, I believe, is whether he puts a black star or a red heart on his high cheekbone. That's it for the make-up. The rest is a simple white shirt, black pants, and his choice of black or silver gloves. I don't know his name. Though my current job assignment requires that I work at Bourbon & Toulouse, and I see him enter our store every morning --- prior to the white-face ritual --- to get his first 24 ounce beer of the day, we have never talked.

( I try to be scenery in the store. I'm just "the computer guy," bringing the Point-of-Sale system up to speed. I don't take money. I don't interact with the customers. A month from now, I'll be working on some other project, and no one --- customers or staff --- will even remember I was there.)

JazzFest looms large in all of our minds here in the Big Easy these days. It's only weeks away. Most people I know already have their tickets. I'm waiting to find out from my boss if I'll get the days I requested off. I'm hoping to be there the day that both Bonnie Raitt and Marcia Ball will be playing. Both performers are part of my special memories. Mostly Bonnie Raitt, who I've seen in concert often over the last thirty-some years, but I still remember the privilege of seeing Marcia Ball perform free in various venues down in Austin, Texas, during the mid-70s. Great ladies of song both. And few people play a slide guitar the way Bonnie does.

Besides my JazzFest days being in the "Pending" column, vis-ý-vis my job, my raise is still circling the airport, too. When I brought it up yesterday, I got the impression my boss would bring it up at the family gatherings during this Holy Days weekend. We'll see. I sure hope so. I'm still holding on by my fingernails, and now I have the transportation costs to add to my weekly budget --- on what is considered one of t he worst bus lines in town.

BUT I am living near both City Park and New Orleans Museum of Art, right next to the Bayou, Baby, which is a bit of geographical sweetness in and of itself. Everytime I see that damned bayou I just feel good inside.

PAUSE FOR THE CAUSE: Here's more on my pal, Lionel Rolfe's, latest book adventure:

LITERARY L.A. TO GATHER AT MIDNIGHT SPECIAL BOOKSTORE IN SANTA MONICA SATURDAY, APRIL 13, AT 5 P.M.
LITERARY L.A. - Expanded From the Original Classic & Featuring the Coffeehouse Scene Then and Now
224 pages, paperback
$14.95
ISBN 1-879395-22-3
Lionel Rolfe will be reading from a new edition of his book Literary L.A. Other participants will be Fred Voss, Joan Jobe Smith, Julie Stein and John Ahouse, curator of American literature at USC's Doheny Library. Voss and Smith are San Pedro poets. Ahouse and Stein contributed chapters to the new edition. Don¼t miss this great show.
Saturday, Saturday April 13, 5 p.m.
1318 3rd St. Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401 Ý
310.393.2923

(Lionel, if we're ever in LA or London at the same time again, you're buying.)

The Seventh Year

We humans, in lots of places, have built up this mythology about seventh years. They tell us we go through a life change every seven years. And then there's the saw about the seventh son of the seventh son. We put a lock of stock in some magical quality to that number seven. So, as I begin this seventh year of having this venerable rag run continuously on the Web, I have that mythic freight looming over my decisions.

I'm sure you expected as much.

It's not only that only a small handful of us can make the claim of continuously publishing on this medium for seven straight years, though I do take that achievement and its responsibilities seriously, but also that with that kind of longevity comes a sense of danger. I would like to believe that we aren't just repeating ourselves, that we still have a significant contribution to make. I also would like to believe that we are still able to grow and contribute.

So I've devoted some time this weekend to thinking about what things I'd like to see The World's Magazine accomplish this year and in the years to come. On that list is encouraging more women writers to contribute their work. We've had women come and go, like the "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," but few have made this their long-time home. I'm hoping to change that this year.

I also find myself in a new design phase, as the cover indicates. I don't have a massive and organic change in mind this time, just a few modifications. AND, I still need to get on top of also doing the Palm/mobile version each week.

I encourage you to provide feedback as we move forward on things you want to see more (or less) here.

LIFE OF ROD THIS WEEK

1. PLANNING a better money-management regime.

2. HOPING that my Day Job approves my request for a raise so that I pay my debts off faster.

3. PRAYING for a new girlfriend.

Thanks for coming back this week.

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod

This is another Web site made on a Macintosh.

ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appears both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

This year he's working as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. (Think: The Boy.) Oh yeah, Rod's designing Web sites for other people. And he's the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. In his spare time, he chases women.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now. The new home of the magazine. He wants to live somewhere civilized when he grows up. Wish him Luck.

He continues to be committed to integrity, ~~chastity~~ and a dose of humility.

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