A movie set in New Orleans 20 years after a successful invasion by the Soviets in 1989. The gentleman in that photo leads the Resistance here.
Of course New Orleans would be the center of this movement. And the Saint it’s most solid stronghold.
If you’re curious to see more pictures head over to the photos page. Got pictures from The Saint and from Local 504 HQ.
here’s the teaser:
As soon as we heard about Drank, the anti-energy drink that promises to “slow your roll,” we knew we had to try it. After searching around New Orleans for a while, we were directed to a gas station in Tremé. We brought a few cans home, put on some Three 6 Mafia, and drank some Drank.
The Discount Zone where we bought the Drank seemed as excited about it as we were. They had a large poster in the front window that advised us that consuming Drank may “cause one to lean.” When we made our way to the beverage coolers, we found fake VIP passes allowing one to be part of the “official Drank crew.”
Then our excitement took a big hit: Drank costs $3 per can, plus tax. Still, we wanted to find out how it tasted and if it actually had any soporific effect, so we proceeded.
Ingredients
Drank contains several roll-slowing supplements: valerian root, melatonin, and rose hips. Oh, and lots of high-fructose corn syrup. My fiancee is getting a Pharm.D., and she helpfully went on Lexi-Comp to check these ingredients out. What follows is not medical advice, and may not be entirely accurate, as I was leaning pretty hard while I took notes on what she was saying.
Valerian Root: Used for restlessness and sleep disorders. The effect is in the same class (anxiolytic) as Xanax and Valium, but considerably weaker. Valerian root is what the doctor in Fight Club advised Tyler Durden to chew when he couldn’t sleep. Taking it with alcohol increases the “risk” of sedation. Seems pretty legitimate.
Melatonin: We release melatonin throughout the day, and supplements may help regulate deficiencies that might occur from jet lag or other sleep disorders. My fiancee says, “Some study found that melatonin gives you a rash on your junk, and it took 10 days to go away.” Apparently the proper medical term for this is “fixed drug eruption.”
Rose hips: Rose hips are pretty much worthless, but they contain a lot of vitamin C and may help prevent urinary tract infections, which is a common affliction among certified gangstas.
Taste
We did two taste tests: first we drank Drank straight, then later at night we mixed it with vodka to see if it was an acceptable anti-substitute for Red Bull (yes, we know Red Bull and vodka is disgusting, but we were curious if Vodka Drank would be just as gross or something worse). After pouring two Dranks, neat, I inhaled deeply. It had a distinctly grapey bouquet with a grapish nose tastes like grape soda. Nothing but grape soda. When you mix it with vodka, it tastes like vodka and grape soda, although it reminded me more of a Sparks than Red Bull and vodka. Anyone buying Drank for taste is probably better off spending $3 on grape soda, which would probably purchase a few liters.
Effects
After my first drink of Drank, I felt pretty sleepy. I’d only been up for three hours, but I ended up taking a sixty-minute nap. This was probably a placebo effect, and there were several confounding variables that dispel any causality, e.g., my couch is really comfortable, my dogs were already napping on the couch, and joining them looked like a good idea. So the first Drank drinking was inconclusive. When I mixed a drink of Drank with vodka and drank that Drank drink, I didn’t feel anything. Nonetheless, I went to bed almost five hours earlier than I did the night before, and was only up for about eleven hours total. I really hope that was the effect of Drank; otherwise I’m a lazy sloth.
Conclusion
It’s probably no surprise—Drank isn’t worth it. Three dollars is pretty expensive for a can of sugar water, so unless its supplements actually work, it’s a rip off. The effects are nowhere near what I’ve experienced when I’ve been prescribed opiates like Vicodin or Codeine; it’s not even comparable to doxylamine succinate, the sedative found in NyQuil and some over-the-counter sleeping pills, although there was no groggy hangover the next morning. Bottom line: if you’re looking for the taste of Drank, buy some grape soda; if you’re looking for the effects of Drank, have a glass of red wine.
Huey Lewis and the News perform for fans of Arena Bowl 2008 in the parking lot of Jax Brewery in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Saturday, July 26, 2008
An alligator that somehow got into the eastbound left lane of Interstate 10 on the Bonne Carre Spillway has been hit by a vehicle and is slowing traffic to a crawl, state police said.
The alligator is still alive and a nuisance officer from St. Charles Parish has been dispatched to try and remove the animal, a Louisiana State Police spokesman said.
A call about the alligator came in about 7:15 a.m.
Louisianians Cash In on Gas Rush
MANSFIELD, La. — They had to repeat the amazing number, $28.7 million, over and over, to make sure it was real and would not go away. Even then, the members of the De Soto Parish Police Jury — the county commission — could hardly believe it.
They laughed, rocked back in their chairs, shook their heads, stared at the ceiling and muttered oaths to each other. “We have — $28.7 million,” said the president, Bryant Yopp, to settle the matter, definitively if still incredulously. It was nearly one and a half times the parish’s entire annual budget.
A no-holds-barred, all-American gold rush for natural gas is under way in this forgotten corner of the South, and De Soto Parish, with its fat check from a large energy company this month, is only the latest and largest beneficiary. The county leaders and everyone around them, for mile after mile, over to Texas and up to Arkansas, in the down-at-heels city of Shreveport and in its struggling neighbors, suddenly find themselves sitting on what could prove to be the largest natural gas deposit in the continental United States.
Already, several dozen people who own parcels of land over the field are becoming instant millionaires as energy companies pay big money for the mineral rights to the gas, which like other energy sources is worth far more than it was last year. Jalopies are being traded in for Cadillacs, plans for swimming pools are being hatched in rusty trailers, and the old courthouse here is packed to the rafters day after day with oil company “landmen” (and -women), whose job it is to frantically search the record books for the owners of the mineral rights to land that has become like gold.
CONTINUE READING VIA NYTIMES > > >
“I’m going to get me one of these $70,000-a-month personal checks, and it’s going to change my life,” said the sheriff, Rodney Arbuckle. He did not appear to be joking.
Mayor C. Ray Nagin has submitted the city’s challenge of the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent population estimates using new data analysis from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.
The GNOCDC report, prepared over the past two months, indicates the city’s July 2007 population could have been as high as 321,000, 34 percent higher than the bureau’s estimate of 239,124.
“A higher population estimate means New Orleans will be entitled to millions of dollars more for programs in education, mental health services, law enforcement, homeless assistance, child care and services for the elderly,” Nagin said.
Newshour on PBS has a series of videos that cover the 2007-2008 school year in New Orleans, and also in Washington, DC. Both cities had notoriously poor public education, and both had new superintendents looking to make a change.
HANDSOME WILLY’S // NO COVER // SATURDAY NIGHT
