Trouble the Water the Movie

Wow, what a powerful movie. I watched this last night and I was so amazed, not just by the fact that it's a true story, with actual first person video of the entire storm (Hurricane Katrina), but what really struck me was that it was from the point of view of a poor couple from the 9th ward who were struggling to survive before the storm but had the foresight to document the event and to seek out documentarians to get their story out there, never victims, but always strong and caring.

If I taught high school in the city, I would show this to my students in a heartbeat because it really gives voice to the voiceless and shows their experience is a shared experience and a valid experience, wherever you come from, you can be in charge of your choices and your future, no matter what life throws at you. The woman filmmaker, Kimberly Rivers Roberts decides to record her neighborhood and the storm, keeping her caring, sunny disposition throughout, later revealing a powerful rap persona, Black Kold Medina and we learn she has had a life no one would envy but has not let this keep her down.

New Year, New Fabulous Cookbook!

For the last couple of years I've treated myself to a new cookbook every year and this year I'm so excited by "My New Orleans" by John Besh. It's a huge beautiful coffeetable book with fantasticphotographs, but what impresses me the most is his mission to save the rituals, incomperable local ingredients, and what makes New Orleans different from getting muddied by post-Katrina influx and disorganization. With sections on celebrations like the Feast of St. Joseph and Revillion, features on strawberries (from the North Shore strawberry festivals), creole tomatoes, figs, seafood and odd items like mirlitons you'll find out alot about New Orleans you didn't even know. The writing is beautiful. Besh grew up in Slidell, LA and trained in restaurants there and in Europe, fought in Desert Storm and returned to the area to settle with his family where he runs several restaurants, so the stories are personal and the photos feature family and people he knows from the city.

I was most impressed with the section on the Vietnamese community and the new Urban Farm Besh is supporting, a 28 acre farm being developed by the community to allow locals to farm, hold a market and sell to local restaurants. Besh also raises his own hogs and cattle in town for use in his recipes. His comittment to local food is a huge asset to rebuilding a sustainable local economy that benefits the residents of New Orleans.

Last year I picked up these two cookbooks at the Big Blue Marble bookstore next to Weaver's Way co-op in Mt. Airy

2009 Art Car Photo Calendar IS HERE!

Just in time for calendar sales for 2009!
The ART CAR CALENDAR. I photographed all of
these cars and trucks in New Orleans and Houston
over several years. Most were in my neighborhood
in the garden district or lower garden district
(yeah Camp St.!) and some I shot at Art Car Day at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

I'm selling them for $30 each since landscape printing something 40" long is pricey, but really, that's not much to pay for a one of a kind colorful calendar unlike any other out there! They are for sale now on my etsy site:
allisonostertag.etsy.com

I could only find the names of some of the artists through Art Car websites or "Art Cars" a book by Harrod Blank, the art car king, so if you know any of these people, please contact me! (I'll be happy to cut the artists in on the proceeds or send them a free calendar)

This calendar took me years to finally complete
and I am so psyched it's finally designed, printed and assembled!

Why Being Broke Makes You More Creative: ART CARS!

I was scanning old pictures of art cars into my computer today and wondering why you don't ever see them, at least here in Philly now a days. When I was broke and living in New Orleans, I made alot of really creative stuff, and creating your own art car is all about making your own fun. I spied a volvo on the way home that would make a great base for an art car. I was trying to think what my art car could be and I thought I could do a skeeball ramp on the back of the car and have parts of arcade games and foosball guys attached to the top of the car. I'm not a huge arcade fan, but I love skeeball.

What would your art car be?

I'm putting these into a calendar for the Books, Paper Scissors sale next saturday at the free library, main branch.

Next weekend (Nov. 8th) I'll be at the The Philadelphia Independent Craft Market with these new items: