My Mississippi Playlist July 17, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Life.add a comment
Certain songs seem to resonate with my time here; others just happen to be flippin’ great. Without any ado, here’s a rough draft of my Mississippi playlist:
Old Crow Medicine Show, “Wagon Wheel”
Rehab, “Sitting At A Bar”
Bruce Springsteen, “My City of Ruins”
There’s more…
Electrical Storm July 13, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Random.2 comments
Last night a heavy thunderstorm passed over us and headed out to sea. About half an hour later, I walked outside to see the southern sky filled with flashes of light. The massive electric storm was playing out almost silently over the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the most spectacular displays I have ever seen, with electricity sparking in every direction in ways I have never seen before.
I took a couple videos with my camera. This clip is a collection of all the lightning strikes over a period of two minutes, edited together and slowed down:
Electric Storm over the Gulf from Vincent on Vimeo.
Vignettes of the Coast July 11, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Life.add a comment
So there has been a lot going on lately but I haven’t been very good about taking pictures or anything. Here is basically what it all is:
Act I: Bike Tour & Homemade Wine Tasting Party
We have some new folks here at the studio: Andy and Katharine, who are architecture students from the University of Tennessee, and Chris, who is from the University of Kentucky. Well, to introduce them to the place a little bit, we went on a bike ride last Friday evening to Ocean Springs. The bridge across the Biloxi Bay is about a mile and a half, and then we rode along the beach, cut over to OS’s classy downtown, and then hit up Sweet’s to hang out with Jessie for a bit.
We biked back to Biloxi and then headed over to Ian’s place. It turns out that for the past couple months Ian and Baby Nick have been making wine, and so they decided to have a party. They made three different kinds and had a gallon or two of each: a pomegranate-Kool-Aid wine, a rice and orange juice wine, and another red. They are hard to describe; adjectives like “sweet” and “tasty” and “unusual” are kind of inadequate. Anyway, it was pretty delicious and definitely a good time all around.
Act II: Fourth of July and the Phone Drowning
(All photos borrowed from Jessie: Facebook)
I knew the Fourth of July in Biloxi was going to be a little crazy and it definitely lived up to expectations. Basically a ton of people go to the beach because the weather is good and the various fireworks shows (the cities and the casinos usually put on a couple) are done from offshore barges. We camped out on the Ocean Springs beach and enjoyed a nice long afternoon with some frisbee, some football, and some lighting off of firecrackers. Around dusk people start breaking out a pretty serious arsenal of fireworks and the whole beach lights up with (often drunk) people setting off high explosives.
The official fireworks were cool as well. After they were done, most of us headed over to Sweet’s until it was just about time to get kicked out. We went back to Kendall’s place where we set off a few more fireworks by the water. All in all it was a great way to celebrate America, except that I walked into the water with my cell phone in my pocket by accident and drowned it. Despite a rigorous rinsing and drying it’s pretty clear it’s not going to work again, so I’ve got to get another phone and re-gather numbers and everything.
Jeff and Sharece’s puppy Isabella probably ate her weight in meat:
Act III: The Bar Bike Excursion
My friend Nick from Hands On is one of the craziest people ever, in a pretty awesome way, and everybody knew his 21st birthday was going to be kind of wild. However Nick decided to step it up a notch and organize one of the best (and worst) ideas ever created: the 21st Birthday Bar Bike excursion. The plan was to start at The Pub and bar-hop to East Biloxi on bicycles, arriving at the Hard Rock after hitting about eight different places. We had a great crew of around fifteen people on a motley assortment of bicycles, including probably two with lights.
As you can imagine, things went rather spectacularly off-plan. The bars were definitely fun and everyone had a good time biking since the traffic was pretty light. After the third bar, Nick was completely incapable of riding a bike, but wouldn’t be talked out of trying. He took a couple of spectacular falls (including one right in front of a police officer, who kept driving) before careening into a telephone pole head-first. He was out for a couple of seconds and probably got a mild concussion. Suffice to say, he was done for the night, but he had definitely earned his place in history.
Anyway, those are some highlights from what is shaping up to be a pretty good summer. It’s not really wild and crazy most of the time but I guess we have our moments. Tomorrow Hands On is going canoeing on the Wolf River, which should be a blast. Happy Friday everyone and have a good weekend.
Update on Division July 11, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.Tags: 420 Division
add a comment
This isn’t my house, this is one of Jason’s, but as it’s one of the coolest projects we have going on I thought I’d let the wide world know about it. It is a house for Mr. Tran and his family and is being primarily built by Hopeforce. Today they had a contractor come in and spray bio-based (soy) foam insulation, which we also used on Patty’s house. In Mr. Tran’s they’re using a full coat of spray foam in the rafters only; this is instead of insulating the ceiling and then having to ventilate the tight attic space. The walls will be regular batt insulation because it’s a lot cheaper (the roof ran about $2800… but then it’s something like R-40).
Click below for more photos!
Update on Crawford July 9, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.Tags: 314 Crawford
add a comment
It’s been two months since I posted an update on Hung’s house, and a lot has changed since then. The house is a few days away from a finished exterior, thanks to Habitat Project Rehab and all the AmeriCorps NCCCs and volunteers who have been working with them. Check it out:
The group of volunteers working on the house last week:
The house being sheetrocked:
Everything’s going according to plan! A couple of missing closets have been added back in and the shearwalls have been more or less built. A contractor is currently finishing the drywall and the volunteers should start painting soon.
‘I just want to slap them upside the head’ July 7, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Non-profits.add a comment
This awesome quote comes from Bill Stallworth, the head of the organization where I work, in a CNN article about FEMA’s misallocation of supplies intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina. I’ve also worked with the two ladies from Coastal Women for Change who are quoted in the article.
It’s an interesting story, and one which implies three things: First, insufficient relationships with local organizations — word of the need for the supplies should have made it to FEMA much sooner. Second, dysfunctional communication within FEMA — those who did know about the need didn’t pass the message to the people in charge. And third, a shortsighted and incompetent bureaucracy — one which kept little track of the supplies and allowed the state to put saving money ahead of helping people.
‘Supplies for Katrina victims went to Mississippi agencies’
Last month, CNN revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had stored $85 million worth of household items in warehouses for two years. Instead of giving the supplies to victims of the 2005 hurricane, FEMA declared them surplus and gave them all away to federal agencies and 16 states in February.
[...]
Stallworth and other community leaders said if they had known the FEMA items were available, they would have begged for them.
“And when I hear people stand up and just beat their chest and say we’ve got everything under control, that’s when I just want to slap them upside the head and say, ‘Get a grip, get a life,’ ” said Stallworth, who is also a Biloxi city councilman. (Read more…)
