I am finally back from New Orleans, after a long weekend and a couple of days of meetings, tours, and even a trip by Lil’ Wayne’s old apartment. (No, not on purpose). This was my first year attending Rising Tide, an annual conference of New Orleans area bloggers, and I am pleased to report that RT IV was an absolute blast.
Harry Shearer was both insightful and hilarious (we were even treated to Montgomery Burns), and he is, undoubtedly, a true champion of the City of New Orleans.
Hopefully, I was only underwhelming as a panelist on the politics panel, but I learned a great lesson: If you’re ever on a panel with John Slade, don’t share a microphone. In all seriousness, Mr. Slade was great, as were Clancy DuBos and Ethan Brown (whose new book looks chillingly awesome). I hadn’t done much homework on the New Orleans Mayor’s race, which was the most popular item on the agenda, but it definitely appears as if this race will soon be on hyperspeed.
And I would recount the other topics we discussed, but I’m really not in the mood for a protracted debate.
That said, it was a real pleasure to finally meet, in person, Adrastos, Clancy DuBos, Oyster, E., Loki, Mominem, Jeffrey, Liprap, Karen Gadbois, Greg, sophmom, Tim, Michael, Blake, Maitri, and the rest of the gang, some of whom shall remain anonymous.
I second Eli: A Rising Tide IV.5 (or at least another blogger’s roundtable) is an awesome idea.
CenLamar 
It was great to finally meet you, Lamar. More big things are in the works, if everyone’s current level of enthusiasm is any indicator.
Excellent, Jeffrey. Again, it was great to meet you too, even though I feel like we never did quite get to the bottom of the Benson deal.
Hi Lamar, this is Steve the “flyer guy”. I grew up in Pineville but lived in NOLA about 8 years pre-K. I was in Alexandria for 3 years post-K, in Shreveport for 1 year now. Hope you remember me. I’m hoping also that you had a chance to meet my friend and all-around great guy Bart Everson, who blogs at b.rox.com Finally, up river, you may be interested in checking in at abettershreveport.org as there really seems to be quite a groundswell movement around here swirling around mostly smart urban planning issues. b.rox, Better Shreveport & CenLamar are my 3 bookmarked blogs. Has been great to see such reasoned, brilliant, sometimes perfectly humorous insights revolving around Alexandria issues and beyond. I think it’s pretty holy work, extremely well done. Shine on!
Steve,
Of course I remember you, and please tell your friend Bart that I am a big fan of b.rox.
Thanks for the comment, and best of luck in Shreveport.
Such a kick it was to meet you. And that baseball book by Mike Sowell, “One Pitch Away”, is a winner if you ever get the chance to pick it up.
Perhaps next time we’ll schlep on up to your neck of the woods! 😉
Be well and howdy to D.S.
Thanks Liprap.
We are one of National Geographic Magazine’s “Top Ten Wilderness Towns.” If the NOLA bloggers ever want to retreat to the wilderness, we would be honored.
It was great to finally meet you! We should definitely hang out the next time you and I are both in NOLA!