Rising Tide 6 Blogging

I'll have more later, since I got here yesterday and have decided to just sleep when I get home, but my first impression is that this is such a different place from four years ago, the energy and joy are incandescent, and seeing it makes me happy the way you are when you see a friend succeed at something: Way to fucking go, man, that's awesome.

Liveblogging updates within.

All right, guys, I'm gonna knock this off. More later, or tomorrow, depending on how long the afterparty goes on.

4:35: The 2011 Ashley Morris award winner, who embodies Ashley's passionate defense of NOLA and its people, is G Bitch.

And she slugs back a shot from a flask and announces, "To Ashley." Crowd goes NUTS.

4:15 (Sorry for the gap, went out to shake Simon's hand and turn into an idiot, which is usually what happens when I meet people whose work I like) Food panel, panelists discussing last meals, "It's whatever your mom used to make."

Questioners asking about food trucks and municipal policies that helped or hurt the business. Talking about restrictions not only on building but on operating hours and locations.

3:00 Simon, "The argument is what matters, not the man." And now we're back to me loving him again.

2:56: And Simon just has to throw something out there about newspapers needing to charge online. Because "journalists cost money" and okay, yes. They do. You know who stopped paying them in the first place, and created the precedent? MAJOR NEWSPAPER CORPORATIONS. Jesus Christmas.

I mean, if we hadn't seen layoff after buyout after layoff after buyout, maybe I'd listen to this, but not now. Don't tell me I don't value good journalism. Tell Dennis FitzSimons.

2:40 Simon's now taking questions about storytelling, about fiction vs. reporting and those goals. "If you're wearing the journalist hat and you're making shit up, take that hat off."

2:25 Simon "Go tell your story." In other words, what do we say out here? You throw stuff out in the world and you can't determine where it lands because that's not your job. Your job is the output.

2:20 Simon: Going to make an argument that standing is the lamest way of reducing genuine debate and argument in our political culture and our culture in general and in society. THIS IS THIS LIKE WRITER, LIKE STORY BULLSHIT. To cover something well you have to work hard at understanding that thing. Yes, certain things help or don't help, but that's not the same thing as saying they're necessary.

"Any standing is its own liability. You get some things right because you're an outsider, and you get some things wrong because you're an outsider."

2:12 Simon talking about New Orleanians who "had just gone through this incredible trauma" and was very up front about being an outsider coming in to tell a story, but made no promises things would be perfect. "It's always effrontery when someone decides to stand up at any campfire and tell a story. Why him? I've got these guys at HBO to give me the money."

2:08 Simon: You walked into every story as a curious person who didn't know anything, and that's the beginning. That's all I require for someone to tell a story. In other words, don't argue whether someone has the right to tell a story or not. People who want to tell a story have the right to tell it. If they do it well or don't do it well, that's another question.

2:05 Talking about ad hominem, arguing against the man or woman, in order to "reduce someone's voice." Beginning as a rewrite man, "when our job is to catch up to whatever we got beat on two hours earlier." Said lots of reporters would "rather die than ask a question they didn't know the answer to." This is true, sincere curiousity is very rare and also very effective. If you actually do want to learn, people generally want to teach you.

2:03 Simon thanking NOLA for word-of-mouth about Treme. Room is packed now. "I am at my best as an argumentative son of a bitch when I know I'm wrong." Simon quoting his wife, talking about standing and logical fallacies and ad hominem.

2:02 p.m. Adrastos introduces David Simon, thanks him for killing off Creighton so he no longer had to answer questions, "Did Ashley really do that?"

12:25 Rolfes discussing how if people are fighting each other over who got what, they weren't fighting BP. This is the entire corporate strategy, right? Keep the proles fighting each other. Jesus, that applies to so much.

12:20 Discussing payments, and what people are owed for having their lives take that hit. And look, this is what we talk about all the time: It's not okay to say, "some people are just going to get screwed." That is NOT OKAY. It may be the reality, but we only ever accept that reality when it's happening to other people.

12:05 Panelists connecting the oil spill response and the Katrina response, where the danger was known but the scope of the disaster exposed how the pursuit of profit had taken precedence over everything. Risks were disregarded because "there's danger in walking across the street. Well, but if I get hit, I'm the only one who suffers."

11:50 Panelist Anne Rolfes, pointing out that oil industry has huge accident problem, so spill was illustrative of what is happening on a small scale all the time. "The oil industry has incredibly strong protectors ... As long as our politicians are the oil companies' spokesmen, that dynamic isn't going to change."

11:45 Oil spill panel, discussing how this whole thing hasn't gone away just because Anderson Cooper left.

11 a.m.: Stephen Ostertag discussing how news organizations create routines in order to structure their workdays, basically, and so since officials have routines and procedures the news becomes the news of officialdom. "Media doesn't tell you what to think but it tells you what to think about." I AM STEALING THAT.

10:50 Journalist Jordan Flaherty talking about black journalists, said, "If you ask most of them can name the riot after which they were hired, like, oh, we didn't see that coming." However, does break down barriers in terms of what is of concern to different communities. This is a thing I could write a whole series of posts about, the "like writer, like story" idea that diversity in your newsroom translates into diversity in your coverage.

10:30 Can't tell you how critical a point that is. I get calls at work from all kinds of scam artists that talk about "putting your organization on the social media map." What the fuck FOR, guys? If you don't know what you want to say, it doesn't really matter how you say it.

I mean, I work on the fucking Internet and I think we overrate the Internet a lot.

10:15 Social Media, Social Justice panel: discussing tools, panelist Mary Joyce talks about beginning with goals rather than "I"d really like to use YouTube." PAY ATTENTION, NEWSPAPERS. "You start offline, because at least now our institutions of power are offline."

9:55 What's interesting about this presentation is learning how far back these differences go. We sort of act like neighborhoods were imposed (Campanella's word) arbitrarily yesterday, when they go back to pre-plantation days. Preservationists reintroduced old terms which had largely gone out of use.

9:45 Campanella: People don't move here to live in a ranch house in the suburbs, they move here to live in a neat old house in a historic neighborhood, which as a higher-ground area was less likely to flood. Louisiana natives suffered more flooding during Katrina than transplants.

9:40 Campanella describing how immigrants settled and where, and segregation lines in some areas but not in others. Lower 9th & Bernard very hard segregation line. But "nativity," who was born in Louisiana, creates a different picture: Majority in people in both places were born here.

9:30 Campanella talking about terms for various places. Gentilly being a suburb of Paris, becoming a "faubourg" here. All kinds of words I see around here make sense to me now.

9:20 a.m. Campanella discussing the way land was subdivided along the river. Wish I could drag everyone who was all "why would anyone build that there" to this presentation. Land parcelled out to make sure people all had access to productive land and shared in the unproductive space.

9:15 a.m. Richard Campanella, featured speaker, showing a map of New Orleans drawn by a young student who lived in the 9th Ward. "The French Quarter isn't on there. Uptown doesn't exist" on it. Speaking about geographical perception of places and how you see where you are.

9 a.m. Sister Monica Loughlin of Xavier University welcoming conference participants, and talking about the university's founder, Sister Katherine Drexel, and her stand against racism and in favor of education."I believe she would be following your blogs and seeing how she could contribute to your efforts." Nuns, man. Why so awesome?

There are about 150 people in this auditorium, and more in the tech blogging area one room over.

 A.

Comments

[Elspeth Ravenwind]

A!!! :) I saw you in the audience on the webcast! :) Holla!

[jeffrey]

Regarding Simon's paywall uber ales comments, he made them just as the Times-Picayune was announcing a new round of buyouts.