Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 97

Beware of Periwinkles

I just finished tearing out the periwinkles I planted around my big mint bed last spring. I chose them because I thought they were one of the few flowers that might be able to hold their own amongst the rampant mint. They did more than hold their own; they nearly choked my poor mint to death, making it necessary for me to plant three small supplementary patches in order to keep supplying the Green Goddess. When I pulled up the periwinkles just now, they had gone from innocent-looking little p...

Inventory

As the seasons pass, we are increasingly able to eat from the garden as well as having it supply The Green Goddess with herbs. Food I'm currently growing includes eggplants, okra, lemongrass, five kinds of basil, four kinds of mint, tepin peppers, pumpkins, chives, parsley, thyme, dill, and curry leaves. There may be some oregano tucked in there too. Tonight I'm making a pizza with roasted eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, and pesto.

Fairy Queen

In last night's dream, I was to perform the part of the evil fairy queen in a radio play Neil had written. Neil's producer hated me and didn't want me in the show, so since we were doing it before a live audience, she decreed that the fairy queen must wear a hideous wig. She thought I'd refuse and walk out. I showed her by wearing the hideous wig without comment and playing the part to the best of my ability, though I hadn't had a chance to read the script in advance and I wasn't very good...

Save Yourselves

Now that they print the text of Obama's school speech in the paper, I see he is offering pernicious advice to America's youth after all:

"Maybe you could be a good writer -- maybe even good enough to write a book ... "

Don't do it, kiddies. Save yourselves now, while you still can.

In all seriousness, love of Obama, and approval of kids staying in school, I do have to say that if you're going to be a writer, you'll probably have started to figure it out long before you write any paper for an...

Unity

I tried to post an entry from my iPhone over the weekend, but it got hung up and, I see, never posted. May try to recreate it later. For now, something else.

I don't know of anything that captures how long some New Orleanians have waited to be back in their homes, and how grateful they are for that return, than this: "'And listen!' said [Earnest:] Hammond as he reached into his bathroom and flushed the toilet, successfully." (I wish you could see the picture of Mr. Hammond embracing the directo...

A.D.

Finally read A.D.: After the Deluge, Josh Neufield's graphic novel about the storm, the failure of the federal levees, and the aftermath, last night. Neufield has drawn many issues of Harvey Pekar's great comic American Splendor, and his artwork also seems to have pleasant echoes of the Hernandez Bros. A.D. is wonderful, terrible, powerful, and true. Yet reading it didn't undo me like I feared (and almost assumed) it would. It's a very important book, but I realized no single book can ever comp

Geaux Saints

I'm just as glad I didn't do anything "commemorative" today. It was nice to have lunch with Chris at Liuzza's on Bienville, then just lie here with the cats and listen to the Saints kick the Raiders' ass in preseason. (I did buy a bottle of Wild Turkey, but probably won't even crack it tonight.)

Laughing

marquisdd's 8/29 entry makes me remember writing the last paragraphs of Soul Kitchen days before we evacuated: "How the hell did we ever end up with so much good luck? Rickey wondered. What if something bad happened to balance it out? Then he thought of everything that had happened over the last few months, and he began to laugh. If the balancing hadn't already happened, the world was a crueler place than he was willing to believe."

It sure was, Rickey (I miss you like a brother). One of my silly

... & So It Goes

This anniversary of the federal levee failure is hitting me harder than either of the previous two. Last year I was hunkering down for Gustav, and I guess kind of in shock that it was coming. In '07 I was lying sick in bed from the pills I was addicted to. And of course the first anniversary, '06, was beautiful, then horrible: we went out to the dedication of the St. Bernard Parish memorial in Shell Beach that morning, and that afternoon one of our most beloved cats, Nathan, suddenly collapsed f

4 Years Ago The Federal Levees Failed