The name says it all at Le Bon Temps Roule — GoNOLA.com
It is hard to avoid bringing up the BP Oil Disaster is any conversation, even one that is ostensibly highlighting the finer points of one of New Orleans’ hallowed music venues. In my most recent GoNola.com piece, I would have been remiss if I didn’t mention the effect that the geyser of crude in the middle of the Gulf is having on one of the city’s best traditions:
One of the greatest draws of Le Bon Temps Roule, however, is surely going to be one of the worst casualties of the BP oil disaster once all the dust settles. On Friday evenings, they host what is easily the greatest happy hour in the city, if not the country or world: the legendary Joe Krown mans the piano while oysters on the half shell are served up free of charge. If the tradition is not extinct by the time this goes to print, it certainly will be before too long. But if I’ve learned one thing about New Orleans, it is that the show must go on. Yes, the Gulf’s salty, luxurious (and all too endangered) bivalves are without rival, but the real draw on Friday nights – as it is every night, and always will be – is the music. And that is one thing that corporate malfeasance or governmental neglect simply can’t touch. They can take our oysters, but they can’t take our culture, a culture that is alive and well at Le Bon Temps Roule.
While sucking down free oysters as some dude plays the piano may seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, the absence of this weekly institution speaks volumes about the true reach of this environmental catastrophe.
Oil is dangerous? You don’t say!
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival just blew through town and, as per usual, it was incredible. The Levon Helm Band easily won the first weekend, Jeff Beck took top honors for the second, and in between musical acts of all shapes and sizes more or less totally rocked it. Far too often, however, I found that the music acted as little more than a faint sonic backdrop for my quest to consume as many oysters (and shrimp and crawfish) as humanely possible before this BP oil spill destroys the Gulf seafood industry for the next few dozen years.
But even in the midst of what could be a frightening disaster of unparalleled proportions, let’s not sit around and act like this event should be fraught with teachable moments, opportunities for introspection and massive civic action.
Even before this freak catastrophe complete fuck-up, we all knew the dangers of oil. When we import it, we line the pockets of extreme/oppressive/unstable regimes that don’t always agree with our way of life. When we try to get it ourselves, we put our coastlines and land and citizens in harm’s way. When we use it, no matter where it came from, we destroy the environment.
You don’t need a massive crude leak to make a solid case against off-shore drilling, and even in spite of one I am sure there are still some compelling arguments to be made for its expansion. And boycotting a particular company - or demanding that campaign contributions are returned, or dressing down a high level executive - does little more than show off the nauseating brand of manufactured populist outrage commonly found at Tea Party Protests and on the pages of The Huffington Post.
The enemy is not the politicians or the regulators or the corporations. Okay, I take that back. Most of those people are the enemy; but the enemy is also oil. And until everyone is ready to swear off fossil fuels, all our hooting or hollering does is shuffle the deck in a high-stakes, zero-sum game of hold ‘em.
If you think you can make it through a day without using a single petroleum based product, I would be tempted to call you crazy. While this doesn’t mean that we aren’t allowed to demand answers and action from those responsible for this disaster - quite the contrary, actually - it does mean our singular focus should be taking on the oil spill before we worry about taking on the oil industry.
