KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis New Orleans is the Lost City of America. New Orleans has disappeared as surely as the lost city of Atlantis or the lost city of Pompeii, which former mayor Marc Morial and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA.) have compared us to in their statements. That New Orleans, the New Orleans I mean to tell you about, that will never, ever, exist again--that city of love, lust, death and sex--will never exist again. A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need. Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF Copy now! To order on Amazon.com, go here! A small, independent and outspoken magazine like this one can't reach you every week without the support and patronage of its readership. As our way of thanking those who have committed to keep your World's Magazine here on your desktop through their generous donations, we feature their names and cities here in our Roll of Honor. SUSTAINING PATRONS RON DIENER, Wendell, NC, USA DARHL STULTZ, Largo, FL, USA TIMOTHY MEADOWS, Anaheim, CA, USA CHERYL HILL NATION, West Fairlee, VT, USA DRAGAN & DRAGANA VICANOVIC, Belgrade, SERBIA LESZEK MICHAELWICZ, New Orleans, LA, USA MARIE SINSABAUGH, Granville, OH, USA TERRY TERRIAN, Sebastopol, CA, USA BECKY ALTEMUS, Houston, TX, USA Supporting Patrons BARBARA ATWELL, Berkeley, CA, USA MATT STOWELL, New Orleans, LA, USA LARS KEFFERSTAN, New York, NY, USA MEREDITH TUPPER, Tampa, FL, USA NGOZI RAZAK-SOYEBI, Jos, NIGERIA NICK ALLEN, New Orleans, LA, USA RIC WILLIAMS, Austin, TX, USA ROBERT PURVIS, Montclair, NJ, USA IAN CRYSTAL, Ph. D, New Orleans, LA, USA STEVE VIVIAN, New York, NY, USA STUART ALTMAN, ESQ., New York, NY, USA We encourage you to add your name to this Roll of Honor. GENERATOR 21 cannot continue and thrive without your support. Thanks in advance. To support G21, please send checks or money orders to: G21: The World's Magazine Attn: Rod Amis 1116 Crestline Road Wendell, NC 27591-9245 USA To donate by credit or debit card, please go to the Western Union website by following the highlighted link. Should you donate via Western Union, please notify us via e-mail. Please make all remittances payable to Rod Amis. Again, thanks. CURRENT MOON lunar phases G21 at FeedBurner

Rod Amis - Unbound

SMOKE & MIRRORS: ALL THAT NEWS - ROD AMIS's column provides news about the many events featuring members of The World's Magazine team around the world and shares thoughts about the flotsam from his "IN" box.

SMOKE

"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.

29 January, 2006: I'm forced do to something I very seldom have over the last few years, write this column on-the-fly. I prefer to prepare and consider what's featured in this space, if only because I know some of you appreciate the effort. But this week, Life intruded Big Time, so I'm behind on when I'd planned on getting this edition out by days already and feel the pressure to get this completed so that I can move on to the other pressing items in my queue.

Luckily, I can begin on an upbeat note. SO MUCH news, all of it impressive, from the G-Crew, as I call our team of writers and contributors, has come in since our last edition that I've spent a number of days giddy with the excitement of it all.

First of all, shortly after launching our previous edition, where NATASHA TYNES made her debut, I was chuffed to be informed that she was featured as one of the interview subjects on the Jill Carroll story on CNN's television program "Larry King Live!" I sent her my congratulations.

I commented to my housemate that I was floored that someone whose writing appears here should be on "Larry King Live!" " That's like being Mainstream," I said amazed.

"You've been publishing the magazine for ten years, Rod," Ron retorted. "You are mainstream."

My typically sardonic response: "I'll believe that when I start making Mainstream Money."

Hard on the heels of this news, NGOZI RAZAK-SOYEBI e-mailed to let me know she had been chosen for a Macmillan Prize for African Writing. I was overjoyed! Ngozi had informed me privately, week's ago, when she had made the short-list for the Prize, which is only awarded biennially, but asked me not to share that good news with anyone until it was official. That she had actually, and deservedly, won was a dream come true.

Next, I heard from MPHUTHUMI NTABENI that a series of his plays is being produced at Rhodes University, in South Africa, and that he been taken on as a reporter for the Daily Dispatch. I was happy for him, too, as I know he's been seeking both wider recognition and more stability in his life.

Finally, this past week -- only days ago, I learned that DR. BERNARD SABELLA, a frequent contributor to our G21 MIDEAST section, had won election to the Jerusalem Christian seat for the Palestinean Legislative Council as a Fatah representative.

All of this wonderful news, for so many wonderful people whose lives and thoughts and great writing we have shared here felt like a surfeit of riches to me. I have always been thankful for the opportunity to work with such a talented, thoughtful and enriching group of people here at your World's Magazine. Seeing so many of them have their achievements and gifts recognized within such a short period of time was breath-taking for me.

Join me in the multiple celebrations.

Rod's 'Three-dot Journalism'

As I've not prepared a formal essay for you this week, I've decided to indulge in what I often referred to as "three-dot journalism" here (Thanx and a tip of the hat to the late Herb Caen) and clear out of some of the flotsam that has sat in the folder from which I keep items sent in that I use for this column.

My pal Ric, in Austin, Texas, for example, sent me along a link to this article by Eliot Weinberger at the London Review of Books that I'd wanted to use as leaping-off point. Peruse at your leisure ...

I get LOTS of e-mail because of and about this magazine of yours. Some of it is not very pleasant, as you might imagine. It has been my practice to publish almost ALL of it on our VOX POPULI page. But every now and again something comes through that is so abusive, inarticulate or just plain nutty that I don't feel inclined to either share it or grace it with a response. What's the point? My pal Matt in New Orleans sent me link to a great piece by David Pogue at the New York Times which puts my feelings on the topic better than I ever could. Enjoy!

William Rivers Pitt over at Truthout.org produces some real gems every now again. I'd been meaning to share this one, that he published at the end of 2005, with you. I consider his approach the perfect means of "getting through" to your Republican friends and acquaintances ...

ON NEW ORLEANS: I've been very impressed with n + 1 magazine for a while now. I had meant to share this reflection on New Orleans by Nikil Saval there with you. Never got around to it ...

Finally, as I dictated to the writers and contributors that last year's focus would be to run a series of articles on the AIDS pandemic, I let them know recently that this year your World's Magazine would be running a series of articles on the issue of potable water. I firmly believe that water is going to be of greater concern as the years pass, should be of major concern now, and that some publication should try to put a focus on this issue.

In response to my directive e-mail, my friend and G21 Alumnus KIM CARTER sent me an e-mail part of which I have to share with you:

Water on the other hand, buddy, I know we be running out of the shit pretty quickly.

Potable water is a major issue that is not being paid much attention to by those who perhaps should be thinking about it a little more.

I guess you can drink water right from the tap where you are now, eh?

That is a luxury I have not had since living in places like Nepal, Fiji and Thailand.

We must purchase drinking water in bottles. If you are poor you must boil the tap water and take your chances.

Drinking boiled tap water here is risky. Commercial bottled water if put through many filters to remove both organic and non-organic stuffs.

Most organic polutants and vectors are removed by boiling. Most, not all.

Very few non-organic polutants or vectors are removed by boiling.

The soil and water tables in many places in Thailand are very polluted by industrial, agricultural?and domestic wastes.

Water here on Koh Samui has so much shit in it from tin mines from years back, hotels and resorts and the current out-of-control property developments?that it stains ceramic tiles in your bathroom almost the minute it touches them.

Traces of all sorts of shit like cadmium, mercury, various oxides and a bunch of other shit is persent in most tap water here.

Even taking a shower in the shit poses problems as some types of soap simply won't suds-up for you, it is like washing in very, very heavy water, you can't get a fucking lather to shave with either, I just shave dry using my own sweat as shaving lather.

Water, fuck, I just wrote about water Rod.

That's all the SMOKE I mean to blow up ... Well, you know.


MIRRORS

I had a surprise this past Friday. Robin "Roblimo" Miller of Slashdot.org (among other things) fame dropped out to Lizard Lick to visit and spend the afternoon and early evening. Robin and I hadn't seen each other f2f ("face-to-face,) as the geeks say, for nearly five years. It was good to actually be in the same room or sitting on the same deck, when we smoked cigarettes, for a change.

"Wow! You really do live way out in the country, don't you?"

"No lie," I said.

"You're not remotely close to anything. That must be hard on a guy who doesn't do car."

"Very," I responded. "People think I'm exaggerating, I guess, when they read that I'm miles from anything at all. But I'm not exaggerating. Why do you think it was such a hard transition from being a City Boy all these years?"

We talked about his plans for remodeling his house over in Bradenton, Florida, his work at Open Source Technology Group (OSTG,) his books and future plans. It was a good visit. I made the promise that one day, when I make actual Human Money, I'll try to make it over to Florida -- especially after he regaled me about his idea that Florida is the new California.

One of the hardest parts of being out here is that I don't get to see people I'd like to ... LIFE OF ROD My housemate, Ron, is going to have a hip replacement operation at the middle of February, so that's been on my mind - and his - quite a bit as the days pass. He asked me recently if I was concerned about it and that I'd have to do a lot more for him.

I responded. "Sure. But I figure it's part of life."

I'd have to be totally numb not to be concerned, of course. I'll be moving into the role of primary caregiver, one I've not occupied before. It comes at an interesting time as I've been working on dealing with the increase in my stress level this year has brought.

I'm only getting started on reinvigorating my freelance writing career and working to get to know and understand the different editors to whom I'm submitting articles. Comng up with new story ideas and developing the contacts to make them happen, or doing the necessary research, now takes up a large part of day, every day. Then there's this new thing of being a book publisher and banging my head against the wall to come up with new means and angles of promoting and selling the books, a HUGE part of a publisher's job, at which I'm green as grass. I only get more distressed when book sales go flat (read: dead) as they have recently, wondering What else should I be doing? And, of course, the job of being your World's Magazine's publisher - and hoping I'm making the right decisions, wondering if there MIGHT be a way for this endeavor to make money - never goes away.

I started feeling about a week ago that I have too many balls in the air these days ...

You'd think I guy under this much pressure would choose to back off a little, right? Just coast along on the existing projects and not put anything more on his plate, right? You'd be wrong when looking at Life of Rod.

For my next trick, and because I'm desperate to have some semblance of Human Money, on 1 February, God willing and the Creek don't rise, I'm putting up an entry in the HuffingtonPost Contagious Festival. You'll be able to find my entry at It's Only Smoke, on 1 February. Go there often and vote for me. Wish me luck, and DO drop by and vote for me. I could use the help since I'll probably be the only entrant in the contest who doesn't have the wherewithal to do some kind of embedded media presentation. "Mama needs an overcoat ... "

Thanks for coming back this week. Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.

THINGS ROD WANTS THIS WEEK

1 - To reach Friday with more items on my "Completed" list than I have on my "To Do" list.

2 - More book sales.

3 - A decent shot at the HuffPost Prize.

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

Love,
Rod

---

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 the (U.S.) Public Broadcasting System (PBS's) WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on 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 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 Internet magazine, which appeared 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, r eaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

In 2002, he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. He did stints as the Resident Philosopher at three separate gin mills in that city in the French Quarter and the Marigny, earning his stripes during two successive Mardi Gras seasons. Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. When he's not busy here, he writes technology columns for IT Manager's Journal. Rust never sleeps.

Our Resident Philosopher has exchanged his legend mobility for a means of keeping your World's Magazine. Now he must become earnest about gaining a financial underpinning for this enterprise. (Read: Buy back his freedom and then go home.}.

In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.

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

---

| HOME | THE THE PREVIOUS SMOKE & MIRRORS | THE SOMETIMES MORE DYNAMIC SMOKE & MIRRORS BLOG | THE NEXT SMOKE & MIRRORS |

CREDITS || AWARDS || SEARCH ENGINES || LINKS ||
VOX POPULI is YOUR PAGE to talk back to us. I'm glad you're not bashful. Keep those cards and e-mails comin', Kids!

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

---

Our Editor does listen!

© 2006, GENERATOR 21.

E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your kudos, brickbats and suggestions to rod@g21.net.