Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 90

J.O.

I do not love thee, Jamie Oliver.

Another Perspective

According to the Times-Pic, Treme is holding a celebrity auction to benefit the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic. My feelings on other matters regarding the show remain negative, but I hereby and humbly acknowledge this as a Good Thing.

St. Joseph Altar

To somewhat counterbalance yesterday's vitriol, here are a couple of pictures of the gorgeous St. Joseph altar at St. Francis Xavier in Old Metairie.

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Main portion of altar (there were also two big side tables equally full of beautiful food and decorations)



Fleur-de-lis fig cookie: It was inevitable.

By the way, there seem to be rumors floating around that St. Joseph altars in private homes are a thing of the past. Not at all; we always visit a few. They're not usually as grand as the church ones...

Fuck "Treme"

Hey, look, I'm not the only wingnut who thinks the "Treme" crews are rude, intrusive assholes. They've been in our neighborhood twice, and while they weren't as disruptive as described in this story -- if they had been, I'd be in jail right now for several cases of manslaughter at least -- I found them extremely obnoxious, like the fashion photographers in Ray Bradbury's "Sun and Shadow" who invade a poor Mexican town to glom onto the "picturesque" poverty. Central City is one of the poorest ...

Brain Chemistry, Reading, & St. Joseph's Day

Have not felt much like Internetting lately. Nothing personal. I put a diary app in my brain on my iPhone to keep track of moods: OK, OK, fucking pit of despair, OK, why God why, OK ... maybe not quite that many OKs, honestly. But that's not for public consumption; that's for trying to track and fix my messed-up brain chemistry, which at this point feels somewhat like trying to regrow a leg. In lieu of all that, here's what I have read the past few days:

The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in ...

Jambalaya Recipe

Chris and I spent Tuesday evening in the Green Goddess kitchen helping my OLGC people make 300 servings of jambalaya. (Thanks again, Chris, for letting us use the kitchen!) Our Lady of Good Counsel is still closed, but the new archbishop has met with us several times, does not like what was done to us, and seems amenable to using the church in some capacity. You've heard that the wheels of justice -- I think it's justice -- grind fine but exceedingly slow? Double, triple, or quadruple that fo...

Is It Squalid Enough For Ya?

Filming in my neighborhood today, probably for Treme. Treme has squalor of its own, but it's not as ragged and run down and half-empty as Central City. So glad we were here to provide you with some really squalid squalor. Fuckers.

Must not go reread Ray Bradbury's brilliant story on the subject, "Sun and Shadow," or I'll be out there dropping my pants.

Misc.

I feel bludgeoned by recent lack of sleep. I have Trazodone for it (any day now I'll start rattling when I walk), but the 150-200 mgs needed to put me to sleep also seem to give me a hangover. I should try melatonin again, or does that only help when you're jet-lagged?

(I thought I might've misspelled "Trazodone" because spell check flagged it, but, experimenting, I see spell check doesn't recognize "Xanax" either. It knows "Prozac," though. And how is it that I never noticed "Xanax" is a pali...

Addiction/Dependence

What? Is this true?

Psychiatrists are careful to distinguish between addiction and dependence. The latter occurs in almost all people who take opioids long-term; over time, they develop a tolerance to the drug, and suffer withdrawal if the drug is abruptly stopped. The point is, they are able to stop taking it eventually. Addiction, however, is defined as the compulsive use of a substance in spite of negative consequences: addicted patients whose pain symptoms have been resolved still can't...

The Story is the Lesson

Record number of comments (for the, what? couple of months I've had open comments) on last night's entry. High school experiences resonate with almost everyone, I guess. For the couple of people who took slight issue with me for being suspicious of people with too many good memories of high school (and for those who didn't speak up but may have felt tarred by my extremely wide brush): I didn't mean I would write you off as a person for having those memories, only that it would give me a "Wow,...