Great journalism, IV

``Their drumming was drowned out by loud rock 'n' roll music blasting from what Singingtree discovered to be a loudspeaker mounted in a tree in the Smead's yard, pointed at the teepee, Singingtree said.''

This from another clip having to do with the 1996 Sally Singingtree teepee flap in Amherst, Massachusetts. I wish I had stumbled across my story in which Fred Smead, the disgruntled neighbor, went on the record -- but only after moving to Hadley. Still looking for it -- in my spare time.

Great journalism, III

The drums were loud, I understand. If I had really been doing my job, I would have driven to her house some evening to find out how loud. Just to get a feel for the situation. Eventually, the next-door neighbor whom this bothered so much moved away. Before then he wouldn't speak with me, but after he had relocated to Hadley he gave me an interview. I haven't been able to find that clip.

I doubt if her name was really Singingtree. If her teepee had caught fire, which was the great concern, she would have been singing a different tune. Wah-waah...

They weren't worried about a fire. The situation was just too weird (and loud) for them.

A New Orleans Interior

Because the New Orleans Heritage and Jazz Festival is scheduled to start Friday, April 25, I thought I'd post some photos I took in 1996 inside the
Josephine Guest House in the city's Garden District. I was fascinated by the decor and the gorgeous and exotic folk art.
I went down to Louisiana to attend Jazz Fest with my friend Susannah Pugh. She and I were reporters at the Springfield Union-News. As the driver left us off at The Josephine, he warned us that it didn't matter what part of town we were in -- they'd shoot us anywhere.
I feel as though I was spared not just bullets but a hurricane. Katrina could have happened in '96. What's nine years in the grand scheme?
I'd been listening to southern acoustic blues from the 1920s and '30s for years, but I hadn't been down south for 20 years. The culture was a shock because it was so rich and colorful and joyful. Of course this wasn't Mississippi, where most of the blues I'd been listening to began. My impression of Mississippi is that, in general, it's not as much fun as New Orleans. (Try reading `` `Worse than Slavery,' '' and you'll catch my drift. A lot of great music from a hell.)
I wish I could say who the painters are. If any of you recognize one of these painters, please let me know. If you can tell me something about the decor, please.
Before I would consider going to New Orleans again, I'd have to be assured that Katrina had not washed away the essence of the architecture and the music, leaving only germinating ground for crime, not culture. I'm sure that's not the case, but I'm still afraid that his time around my number would come up.
In 1997 I pressed my luck and went to New Orleans without incident.
The Josephine took some damage but re-opened two months after
Katrina.

Natalia Muñoz and La Prensa

To the links on this page I have added LinksLatinos Blog Zone, by Natalia Muñoz, who I used to work with in the Northampton, Mass. office of the Union-News.
Muñoz is the founder and editor of La Prensa, a newspaper for Latinos in western Massachusetts. The blog is dynamite. Read ``All Talk'' and ``Five Easy Questions for the Green Candidate,'' for starters.