I don’t update this website nearly as often as I used to. Mostly, that’s because I write for other people now, which doesn’t leave much time for me to get my own thoughts down on virtual paper. Also, a lot of my thoughts are frivolous and better suited to Facebook or Twitter than a full-on blog post.
Ten years ago, it was a different story. Ten years ago, I wasn’t writing for other people. Ten years ago, we didn’t have access to Facebook or Twitter — or Tumblr, Instagram, or a bajillion other micro-photo-social-network-blogging thingamajigs that would have allowed me to Let It All Out.
But what we did have ten years ago was a hurricane. A big one.
I don’t draw or knit or paint, I don’t do well with things that require visualization of space. (Even though I loved geometry in school. Go figure.) When I need to express something, I’ve always relied on words. After Katrina, I relied on them heavily. Words helped keep me sane-ish. I could put my head down and write, and every once in a while, I’d look up, and things would be a little bit better. Blogging wasn’t just a means for venting, or a talking cure. It was a way to pass the time and get from What The Hell Just Happened to New Orleans’ New Normal.
Even so, I’m not a very good writer. But what I lack in quality, I can make up for in quantity. Ten years ago, on this here website, I posted a lot. Most of it was crap, little of it has resonance today. But two of the posts that remain readable are included in a new book called Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New Orleans After Katrina.
I’m still not sure if I want to dredge up all the muck of life post-K. But because I’m a polite Southern gentleman, I agreed to read one of my two entries next week at the book’s launch party. Fingers crossed, I’ll get through it. If you’re in New Orleans, please stop by.
Please Forward book launch
Tuesday, August 18 at 7pm
Press Street, 3718 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans
sturtle [dot] com 
hey richard. ’tis probably why after all of these years although disembodied — i still have fond feelings of a rather large circle of bloggers (primarily homo/trans) from my initial time post 09.11 while on the road/displaced from lower Manhattan. since much of this was pre-Fakebook, Twitter, Grindr, Tinder, Tumblr, Instagram, SlapShat, there were more words and less “air-kissing”. in many cases, there were many voices, none of them claiming authority but resonating and commenting on GLBT “community” and other social topics. i recognize that these people were a great help to me, or a means of comic relief with a front row seat to cracks and fissures as i visited the United States of Amnesia from Oregon to Florida and Vermont to Hawaii. peace be with you.
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