Consider this a restart

I know this blog has been sorely lacking and I'll try to make up for it shortly. Last semester, with all the commuting back and forth to Hattiesburg, I finally had to drop off production because life was simply getting too chaotic.

But here we are--post summer, post Katrina and with each new storm that births itself in the Gulf, we collectively hold our breath until its well inland, wherever it may make landfall. I imagine we'll be doing the same thing next year, and the next, and the next--until Katrina's memory becomes faded--not forgotten--but like some distant section of a photo album stuck on the shelf for too long.

The Coast will come back--New Orleans will come back. After the strength of the anger, fear, and anguish all begin to subside, the human drive to build again--to create something from chaos--will begin again--and we will all come back.

In the meantime, there are the arts to sustain, encourage, inspire and provide creative nourishment for that part of us that yearns to get out of the splinters and pulp that the waves and winds left behind--if only for a short amount of time. The art scenes of New Orleans, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula may be on hiatus for a while, but Mobile and Pensacola are still keeping the art scene alight, for those who wish to make the jaunt over and take a respite from the recovery effort.