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 BECKY & KENT ALTEMUS, Shenandoah, TX, USA RON DIENER, Wendell, NC, USA DARHL STULTZ, Largo, FL, USA TIMOTHY MEADOWS, Anaheim, CA, USA MATT STOWELL, New Orleans, LA, USA TERRY TERRIAN, Sebastopol, 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 Supporting Patrons BARBARA ATWELL, Berkeley, CA, 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 X.N. IRAKI, Jackson, MS, 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: Rod Amis G21: The World's Magazine 1500 Royal Crest Drive, #156 Austin, TX 78741-2709 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. G21 at FeedBurner Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in February Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in May Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in July Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in August ENJOY WHAT ROD DOES! (From our Link Partner at Calabash Music. Merci!)

Rod Amis - Unbound

SMOKE & MIRRORS - AUSTIN, AGAIN: ROD AMIS gives a preview of this editions attractions, shares is view of what's news, and talks about taking the magazine and himself to Austin, Texas.

SMOKE

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

29 September 2006: INSIDE THE MAGAZINE this edition, we're offering you a number of wonderful new features. I'll recommend a few that I particularly enjoyed.

We feature a Special Report from G21 Alumnus KIM CARTER on the recent coup in Thailand. This article is the first of two, reporting from on the ground, on what the locals felt and feel about the military takeover in that country.

LIONEL ROLFE writes a scathing essay against freeways and car-culture for our AMERICAN DREAMS section that is very close to This Editor's heart, as Longtime Loyal Readers know. I recommend it to you as it articulates many of my own thoughts, much more eloquently than I could have, about the anti-civilization nature of the phenomenon.

CYNTHIA JELE completes her poignant story of an immigrant nanny in G21 FICTION.

The other five new features were also a joy and I hope you'll take the time to savor them. Thanks!

News To Rod

ITEM ONE: For those of you interested in foreign affairs, it is no surprise that Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister Koizumi's hand-picked successor, was elected the new Prime Minister of Japan 29 September 2006. Abe, an historical revisionist in the view from this Big Chair, prop ounds that the Korean "comfort women" never existed and advocated their mention expunged from Japanese textbooks. He's a classic hardliner in foreign policy and will likely raise tensions between North Korean and Japan and also between China and Japan.

He's wildly popular with the Japanese public, of course, because he comes from an established political dynasty in that country and feels that Japan has apologized more than enough for World War II aggression.

This choice comes at an interesting time (in the sense of the Chinese curse) because - as we learn from the most recent poll from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, Asian countries have varying views of themselves and each other as we enter the midpoint of the first decade of this century.

ITEM TWO: Mexico is right next door to the United States and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) has bound us at the wrists and ankles and devastated the working people of both countries. My friends at Artesinas Campesinas tell me that their little village has been drained of men coming to El Norte for ephemeral jobs. Meanwhile, people on this side of the border talk about putting up fences and other barriers to keep the Mexicans out because they are "stealing" American jobs.

So the fact that the Mouthpiece Media are not reporting on the electoral crisis that is tearing Mexico apart strikes This Interlocutor as an extreme abrogation of our mission to inform and illuminate the public.

Thus, I was gratified to read the well-written and thoughtful article over at CounterPunch.org by Laura Carlsen on the meaning and depths of the Mexican political malaise. I recommend it to you highly.

HERE'S A SECOND RECOMMENDATION FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Freelancer Jonathan Cook is an independent journalist reporting from Nazareth. He has set himself the mission of debunking much of the slanted reporting from and on Israel and appears to be doing a good job of fulfilling that mission. You can find much of his work, which has appeared in various publications by following this link.

You are welcome.

ITEM THREE: If you are into the narcissistically self-referential world that is the "social networking" phenom being hyped on the Internet these days ("Web 2.0") then you've likely already heard about the "viral" event which was "lonelygirl15" on YouTube.

If you have a life and missed this one, as a public service Yours Unruly is providing you the 4-1-1 here. This was a wildly popular - write-ups in the New York Times, daily speculation in the Blogosphere, Web sites dedicated to deciding if this was real person or not - YouTube feature that you can view here.

It turns out, that lonelygirl15 wasn't actually 15, that the production values of the project were thanks to the three film school students who created it and that they plan to produce more projects with the assistance of their new-found fan base.

Oh "reality"! What a slippery concept in our modern American world.

The BEG

Nothing is more demeaning than having to hold out the tin cup. Nonetheless, if you're an independent publisher on the Web and you mean to maintain the viability of your enterprise, occasionally throw a writer or two a bone and continue to be able to grow and improve as the technology becomes available, fundraising is de rigueur. From TruthOut to CounterPunch, even to a number of popular Blogs, we all do our seasonal begs for donations to keep our dream(s) alive.

I've refrained from doing so much of it this year but now, once again, the time has come for me to use some of this space to ask for your support in the form of donations. Size does not matter, in this instance. $5.00 USD is better than a sharp stick in the eye. If you can afford to give more, it would be vastly appreciated.

As you can see in the sidebar to your right, our address has changed. If you can't read the small print, here are the details:

1. G21 accepts donations in any amount via check, money order or Western Union.


2. Donations should be made payable to "Rod Amis".


3. Please send your donations to:
   G21: The World's Magazine
   Attn: Rod Amis
   1500 Royal Crest Drive, #156
   Austin, TX 78741-2709
   USA

Thanks in advance for your continued support and encouragement!

MIRRORS

28 September 2006: Been to Austin twice this week. Went down on Sunday with Becky and Kent to visit, Becky's mother ("Memaw") who took me in when we were teenagers and I had been living in the woods after my father tried to kill me. Bill and Gloria Williams became my surrogate parents during my last year of high school and my first years of college. They always treated me like I was their own child.

I hadn't seen Memaw for nearly twenty-four years. I was touched when I learned that she still carries a picture of my ex-wife, Debbie, Ric and me in her purse from when Debbie and I were first engaged and the three of us crowded into one of those cheesy photo booths.

We all - Memaw, Becky, Kent, April (their daughter,) Marshall (their son-in-law,) Ric and his wife Christy and their children, Katy and Ramona, and myself - went for lunch to the Threadgill's that is now near where the old Armadillo World HQ used to be when I lived in Texas last. It was odd moving around this city I had once known so well and seeing how strange and large it is today.

One topic of discussion was where I would live next. The idea of Austin was in the air. Austin, again.

I write this after my second trip to Austin, yesterday and today, this time going around with a guy billed in the Austin Chronicle as "Ron Jon the Apartment Mon," an apartment locator who damn-near guarantees he can find a place that's right for you. He's a great guy and ferried me around, advised me on the application process and gave me more than a few laughs. Austin, again.

After my hard landing in New Orleans this last time, after the series of little (and not so little) betrayals by my so-called friends there, Texas has been a time of comfort and respite. After the cold friendship(s) afforded by California, Texas has been like a warm bath of caring.

Seeing Town Lake (the Colorado River, actually) once again, brought back a stream of memories: the Saturday afternoon volleyball games with Deb and my friends, the full moon parties we would throw every month when I worked at the Austin American-Statesman, what it was like to be young and in love... If one thing is true, it is that - as we get older - we lose the capacity for that kind of uncomplicated and flexible way of loving. I am certainly living proof of that axiom. At some juncture (yes, I know when) I lost the ability to trust anyone as completely as I did then and, thus, lost the ability to uncynically believe in love.

I'd always been dubious about the concept, truth be told, but The Old Wound eventually sapped my ability to believe romantic love, an intimate relationship was something either needed or desirable.

I'm aware of waxing a bit Augustinean here but it goes with the territory.

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1 October 2006: Now that I have finally stopped fluttering by and have settled on the next place to live for a while, I'm painfully aware that the year is slipping away and I quickly must begin work in earnest on putting out the two books slated to be released by the new G21 book imprint this year.

I have a wealth of fiction, either published or in queue, for the next G21 Africa anthology but the non-fiction title is still up in the air. BRAD BALFOUR had begun work on a series of film essays, many taken from his published work here but also, on the drawing board, were a series of new works. Sadly, Brad's mother passed away this year and the effort went on hold. I'm still hoping we can publish it in 2006 but it may have to remain in the concept stage until next year.

The other non-fiction project under consideration was the long-promised "My Glass House" book, a project that seems to have become the never-ending story for me over the last three years. I'm not sure it's ready yet - then again, after three re-writes now, I may never be sure.

I've put out calls for manuscripts for another prospective non-fiction title butä

Meanwhile, all this travel has just about tapped to me out and simultaneously the new project I was working on and employed by, the start-up out of California, faces its impending demise. I was informed last month that the endeavor could no longer afford to pay for my services. I am sending in my final invoice today or tomorrow.

So, I'm once again trawling for new freelance writing gigs, pitching stories and need to go into high-gear with both efforts as soon as I settle into my new digs in Austin, Texas, this week.

[NOTE: If you live in or near Austin, I'm floating the idea of having a House-warming Party on Friday the 13th. Drop me an e-mail if you'd like to attend and I'll supply all the details.]

Here's one of the shouldah-couldah-wouldah moments: IF I hadn't squandered so much money on the abortive move to California, I wouldn't have had to write the humiliating Beg above. Hindsight is wonderful, isn't it? Oh well.

Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.

Thanks for coming back this week.

THINGS ROD HOPES FOR THIS WEEK

1 - Getting my freelance writing career back in high gear so I can earn the ducats to survive.

2 - Developing a rewarding social life in Austin.

3 - Getting the G21 Books projects out of the "drawing board" stage.

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

Love,
Rod

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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.

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 and NewsForge, business columns for Enterprise Leadership and Slashdot. Rust never sleeps.

Our Resident Philosopher has decided to return to Austin, Texas, after over two decades away. Wish him luck..

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.

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© 2006, GENERATOR 21.

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