Here's a video of a beautiful morning in New Orleans circa the Summer of '05. It stars my friend Clint, was directed by my friend Henry, and features a bicycling horde of other friends of mine. I'm even in it, though I can't be seen for the cute girl on my handlebars. We laughed and chatted and ate free fried chicken and drank before noon between takes. It was a grand day for all involved. It was the kind of day most people don't think can be had here anymore. They are wrong. Despite the changes, the problems, the deaths and departures, we endure, as do the freedoms, alien to most of this country, that allow such days to occur. It is a music video of Clint Maedgen & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band covering The Kinks song "Complicated Life". And it goes a little something like this...
It's not the video or the song that I want you to think about, though both are good. What it represents, however, is the kind of thing we're fighting for.