Tributes

(Image credit: Loki at Humid City)

There is so much sadness in the NOLA blogosphere today yet so many have found words to pay tribute to  Ashley Morris who passed yesterday. If you were to go to any blog listed in our NOLA blogroll in our right hand sidebar you will likely find such a tribute. And that would only be a beginning. We wanted to highlight some of what is being expressed today from our friends in the NOLA blogoshpere. We have all lost a powerful and unique voice in the blogosphere and they have lost one of their family. Our hearts go out to them and to Ashley's wife and children. So in tribute:

From Loki at Humid City:

We have lost our excitable boy. His unrelenting passion for our city and his community will be missed as much as his unflinching and cuss-ridden dissections of the federal, state and local incompetence that has brought our city to its present state.

From Greg at Suspect Device:

Ashley was fire. Ashley was the furnace where the rage was forged, where the steam pressure built, where raw anger began its conversion to power and motion.

From Jeffrey:

Ashley was a remarkable human being with an awe-inspiring wealth of experience, an amazing sense of humor, and the kind of anger that is only born of a deep deep sense of humanity.

From AnimaMundi:

I can't begin to tell you the amazement I felt whenever you recounted your exploits in life. I would need a few lifetimes to do some of the things that you did in your brief life. You lived, Professor. "Better to die a devil in the fire, than an angel in the wings." Ah man, amen, you were never in the wings. You were always on the frontline. You made me laugh a lot. I thank you for that and salute your soul. I'll be in that second line to send you off.

From Maitri at VatulBlog:

It is needless to say that Ashley’s death is a huge blow to the New Orleans blogger community, but this is also where our community can be at its best. By helping its own. What Ashley would want is that we are there for his wife and three small children. Let us be at their service.

From  Varg at The Chicory

He detested all things snooty or uppity. He conducted a boisterous love of local peoples and cultures. He had the intelligence and repertoire to engage even the most critical thinkers. He possessed a vibrant joie de vivre. He was a pirate, a trickster, a madman. He was profound and profane; he was an intellectual and a fanatic. He was a bull in a china shop and if shit was going down, you wanted him on your side.

Much at Dangerblond but the title says it all of he who gave "Sinn Fein" to the NOLA blogosphere --"Ourselves, a little more alone"

From Oyster:

New Orleans Patriot, professor, musician, cigar aficionado, blogger, husband, father, Saints fan, techie, polymath... truly a generous, original, vital soul...and jesus napoleon bonaparte christ he could make you laugh.

Oyster gives us that laugh from Ashley with this short recording of him

Adrastos has wonderful pictures

Toulouse Street has a poem in remembrance

From Ray in New Orleans:

I miss you, old man.  More than you can ever know.

Ashley loved The Wire and had many great posts at The New Package blog.  Nancy Nall, who also writes at that blog, has a wonderfully written tribute at her site.  And today the creator of The Wire, David Simon, left this comment at the New Package blog and with that I cried...

Just heard.

I never met Ashley, but communicated with him only recently about his effort to have me speak at the DePaul commencement. As it happens, I was to be in the UK that weekend editing Generation Kill, and so sent regrets, but I feel for some weird reason that it is important for me to do the last thing that this fellow asked me to do.

Ashley understood the dynamics of addiction exactly and there wasn’t a subtext to any of Bubbles or Gary McCullough that eluded him. His voice was honest and blunt and full-throated. And rooted as he was in New Orleans, I felt that there was a possibility I was going to get to know him a lot better.

This is all very sad and sudden and upsetting.

I’m gonna call DePaul today and say that if they still want me to do it and they have not moved on to another speaker, I’m going to fly black and forth from London to do it. Might be too late, but Ashley worked hard to get them to extend the invite when they were of course wondering what the hell The Wire is, so…

Damn, damn, damn….

Ashley Morris --1963-2008-- beloved in the NOLA blogosphere and beyond......

Video from Greg  

UPDATE: Ray in New Orleans has the transcript of a speech, which honored the life and passing of Ashley, given by New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura at today's New Orleans  city council meeting.

Comments

[Grandmère Mimi]

Ashley and I met a only couple of times at the Rising Tide conference, and the gatherings afterwards, but I knew that he was a force. He was larger than life in so many ways.

At the conference, I picture him at the sound system, adjusting a wire, working with a plug, tweaking a knob, moving, moving, moving. What a shock to learn of his sudden passing.

My prayers and sympathy go to his family and to all who loved him - and they are many. Rest in peace, Ashley. Much love to Hana and the children.

[virgotex]

Scout, Nancy Nall also has a wonderful tribute up. She and Ashley went way back.

nancynall.com » Blog Archive » Excitable boy.

[scout]

virgo...I just finished reading it and added it above. Just a wonderfully written tribute from Nancy

[roger kiep]

Look, I am very sorry to hear about the death of impressive individual, but instead of saying "he passed," could you please just say that the man died? The man didn't "pass," he has died.

[Sinfonian]

scout, I don't know if I had the privilege of meeting Ashley last year during the Krewe trip to NOLA, but I certainly wish I had. I'm so sorry to hear of his death.

I mentnioned this at dangerblond's place, too, but I understand Ashley died while visiting south Florida, so since I live in south Florida, if I can be of any assistance to the family from here in terms of logistics or whatever, I'm glad to help. Please pass that along as appropriate. Thanks.

My condolences to Ashley's family - his spouse and children, of course, but also his NOLA blog-family.

[Tim Tagaris]

I remember when I carpetblogged into NOLA for the Karen Carter election at the end of 2006. A lot of you all gave me a pretty hard time before the plane even touched down!

But, eventually, you gave me a shot, and no one more so than Oyster, Ashley, Peter and Maitri who took me out to lunch at Liuzza's (and wouldn't let me pay!), explained to me the lay of the land in the district and took me on the "misery tour."

Here's Ashley's post, accompanied by some video from the road.

Fwiw, I will carry the memory of that day with me forever. It was terribly special and really endeared me to the city in a way I never would have thought was possible before arriving.

So welcoming, so nice, so smart. Ashley, you'll be missed in this corner of the world,

Tim Tagaris

[Tim Tagaris]

Link for the video. -- Tim

[Ray Radlein]

I gotta admit, that David Simon thing is impressive.

Since we don't get HBO, I haven't seen The Wire (though Homicide rocked, of course), but that's the sort of thing that any dedicated capital-F Fan could appreciate.




I hereby request a brief moratorium on good people dying too young.

[Mark Folse]

Roger, down here we pass. It's not just euphemism. It is also the remnants of the French and Creole languages. (Creole being, fairly, a dialect of French). Some old folks down here still pass the vacuum and make groceries.

Ashley would probably not say pass. He would be like the crotchety old woman on the Night Court show I remember from long time ago: "A drunken circus bear on a unicycle is physically challenged. I'm blind*!".

[Richard McRae]

For those interested in supporting Ashley's family, Cumberland Cigar Co. is offering up a raffle with 100% of the proceeds going to his family. (Carrie, the shop owner has been friends with Ashley and his family forever now. Their kids have grown up together and right now she is in NOLA doing everything she can to support Hanna.)

Here's the link:
http://www.essence-eternal.com/cigar/ashleymorris/