Apparently four hours just weren’t enough… Spike Lee is returning to New Orleans this month for a follow-up for his epic Hurricane Katrina documentary When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. The sequel will air on HBO later this summer, sometime around the five year anniversary of the disaster (which will be on August 29th).

The plan is for Lee to revisit some of the subjects who appeared in the first film, but also to expand beyond The Big Easy and look at the effects of Katrina along the Gulf Coast as well. Considering that the tragedy has probably already faded from a lot of people’s minds, it will be a good chance to remind people about what happened, and also to evaluate whether or not such a thing could potentially ever happen again.

From the Documentary Blog

A program that has served as the nemesis of some Jefferson Parish drivers for more than two years - the ticket-generating red-light cameras – halted today on orders from the Jefferson Parish Council.

The council passed a resolution by member Chris Roberts to suspend the program that has photographed thousands of license plates and issued almost $20 million in fines to drivers running red lights at 11 intersections. So far the money is frozen in escrow because of lawsuits challenging the cameras.

Roberts proposed stopping their operations after learning that the company that manages them, Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, Ariz., planned to direct 3.2 percent of the fines it collects to Bryan Wagner, a former New Orleans City Council member and lobbyist who helped Redflex get the contract in Jefferson Parish.

The parish will now study the arrangement and the possibility of allowing the public to vote on continuing the program, Roberts said.

Officials argue the cameras and the $110 tickets they issue improve safety, but critics argue their true purpose is to generate revenue.

“I’ve never been a fan of the cameras,” Roberts said. “I’m not inclined to see that the program comes back.”

From the TP

The Penske truck is loaded and parked on St. Claude Avenue, the cargo in back inventoried and packed. The only thing left for Quintron to do is sign.

The document, explains New Orleans Museum of Art curator Miranda Lash as she hands over a pen, absolves the museum of any legal responsibility for the contents of the moving truck — which now includes a good portion of the Spellcaster Lodge, the iconic Bywater nightclub that’s also the home of Quintron and partner Miss Pussycat. The Spellcaster is no stranger to crowds lingering after daybreak, but the one assembled on this morning is atypical by any measure: a contemporary art curator (Lash), a film crew (led by longtime Q&P collaborator Daryn DeLuco), and gallery hands carrying loads of instruments and recording equipment out of the club’s basement and into the frigid January air.

“I’m moving my life out of my house,” Quintron noted warily. “It’s like the walls are going to fall down.”

Today’s move is the first step in preparations for the upcoming exhibition “Parallel Universe: Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live at City Park.” Organized by Lash and conceptualized by Q&P, the three-month show is both a celebration and an encapsulation of the musicians and performers’ paranormal universe that includes: a dozen albums of dirty, funky, organ-based electronic dance rock, the latest of which will be recorded inside the museum; a spirit world, tapped into by Pussycat and inhabited wholly by puppets; and the evolution of a light-activated contraption called the Drum Buddy, created by Quintron a decade ago to speak a musical language only he could hear.

Buttoned-up NOMA, brace yourself for the naked 9th Ward.

Earlier, as Quintron directed traffic, Lash crossed items off a list. Amplifiers, check. Karaoke machine and pedal timpani, check. Interactive Drum Buddy — no, that stays for now, Quintron told a mover sitting at the machine with headphones on, furiously twisting knobs and punching buttons like a kid at an arcade.

The device, encased in glass and modeled after an old-school video game, has consumed Quintron’s life lately. “I would work on it for almost 20 hours straight, take a day off, do another,” he said. “I want it to have a backing soundtrack with my voice. You know how arcade games talk to you: ‘Aw, too bad.’ ‘Doing great!’ ‘You looose.’”

And what of the tiny chimney? “Yeah, we’re not going to talk about that,” he muttered under his breath. “Occasionally it’ll fill with smoke. I don’t think they know.”

With the heavy lifting finished, it’s time to make the transfer official. Someone fluent in legalese points out the contract’s implied small print: Everything Quintron and Pussycat hold dear is now the property of the New Orleans Museum of Art. When he looks up after putting pen to paper, Quintron is grinning.

“That,” he says, “is why I signed ‘Mickey Mouse.’”

Continue reading at Gambit