frank | 
09 9th, 2009| 
There are those times in life when you set out to do something with a crystal clear idea, with the attitude that you’ll see exactly what you set out to see. Then the thing happens. The horizon widens, and suddenly you realize that everything was so easy to see because you had blinders on.
We’ve been back one month from our southern excursion to Houston, Galveston, Austin and New Orleans shooting interviews for New Land, and it’s taken me this long to get my brain around enough of it to write this.
First the facts. We’ve got over 40 interviews and 25 hours of footage. We toured every inch of Houston, New Orleans, Galveston, and had a quick jaunt through Austin (too bad, it’s a great city). We logged a good 2,000 miles in the car. Not bad when you’re spending the majority of your time city driving. We happily got to know more about those cities through their people then we could ever have imagined. By the time we left (fully knowing that we only scratched the surface and had to return), we could attach faces to the Wards of New Orleans (and Houston) as well as Sugar Land, Metarie, New Orleans East, Chalmette, Galleria, Sea Wall Boulevard, Bastrop, Austin…and yes, the French Quarter. (All work and no play….)
We got fed like nobody’s business. Walking into complete strangers’ houses, the greeting often went like this: “Hi. I made jambalaya/gumbo/eggs/pancakes and brownies, and we have plenty of beer. You’re staying to eat, right!?” We stayed and left something richer for the company, and we were definitely no longer complete strangers. Thank you Grenier’s, LaVigne’s and Galatoire’s.
We talked with white collar, blue collar, scholars, sociologists, community activists, enthusiasts, musicians, politicians, painters, poets, priests, parents, and children. The list goes on. No alliterative joke. These were people who had lost everything and had gotten shaken to their cores. Now they were gracious enough to open themselves up to us, and the strength of this seemingly simple action was not lost. It broadened our vision to encompass the science behind change and the greater meaning that lies in the conflict of sharing.
Now it’s time to regroup, revisit the trip digitally and plan the next leg (probably back down to New Orleans) to follow up.
David Fountain, New Orleans, Musician's Village Enthusiast
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