"Who dat " Not since the 60's have I seen an explosion of youth in such creative form Katrina did its damage and washed out whole neighborhoods of people who by and large had no stomach for either moving back or fixing up Thus began one of the great urban Youth movements of artists and young pioneers who express themselves in wood plaster brick and paint pouring into washed out neighborhoods of teetering WW2 former blue collar neighborhoods made of rickety wood and old single story stucco infra structure and began by osmosis creating street corner collectives of Black white Latino Gay Lesbian Bohemian barrios taking on dilapidated front stores on dilapidated streets pioneering in the rubble and dust of post Katrina New Orleans. This is "who dat nation " a nation of forward thinking youth who says we can do it and the good news is the big money can't corner the market; just when you think you have defined the boundaries on the new Castro Street or the new east village; another collective pops up and springs to life out flanking any of the real estate speculators who thought they had it made . Unknown to the rest of America this is a phenomena to watch .The architecture is collectic New age old age and green .Perma culture next to therma block next to a bungalow this burst of artistic creativity goes far beyond the French quarter the garden district and the known areas of magazine street .They exist in Marginy Gentilly Caroltown and Jefferson and along the river at lower Chap This movement is taking New Orleans by storm and is slowly changing the whole urban landscape into burst of young entrepreneurial risk taking and homesteading Anyone who ever experienced the transformation of an industrial zone into artists lofts and good little restaurants knows what I am talking about ... but this is times TEN....and its not just white bread moving in . First there seems is always a bar; followed by Artisan coffee shops and bakery's .and restaurants .; then little busy collectives of hard at work; stain glass ; painters and craftemen of every sort living cheek by jowl in cheap storefronts doing yoga; dance and all the you name it workshops at night you could ever imagine ... Now don't get me wrong; the streets are awful with pot holes the politics Byzantine and corrupt and there is pockets of terrible crime woven in and out of bombed out zones of humanity with god awful poverty ...but this is a city .. a rebirth of a city ... "who dat nation " extends far beyond New Orleans; but here its a eubonic Creole mass of transformed young Americans who like the bohemians of 1840 Paris and early 20 Th. cent Greenwich village declared themselves free and independent of the mother state and father tongue and thumbs their nose at bible belt America;corperate America and the egos ot the west and east coasts who say "who dat?" and look at this rag tag struggling mass of humanity without a pot to pee in and ask "who dat " as if startled to discover they aren't the only ones responsible for the the birth of the cool . Simply put "who dat nation " is creating villages within a city ; and it dosen't look like the rest of the face of america They are free and united yet not under the flag of the red white and blue; but under a flag that is Black and Gold with a Fleur Des Lillie at its center . This is the flag of their unity and strength this is the banner that is breaking down the racial barriers; this is the symbol that unites all the people of "who dat nation " to where they stand united ready to do what it takes to win ; just as they have done with thier city This is bigger than cheese heads; Pin stripes or helmets with horns and not since the blue collar multi cultural fans of "Dem Bums" the Old Brooklyn Dodgers has there been witnessed such alligance of such cross cultural urban madness and pride for a city that stuggles back daily from the brink of the abyss , It all comes to a crowning head next super bowl Sunday where the whole city will explode into a "Who dat " parade of nation that will be bigger than any mardis Gras parade of all time and win loose or draw I wouldn't miss it for the world / Go saints /Py -- **Please remember to trim posts, as requested in the Terms of Service** To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to: <http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>