Live From New Orleans, New York, and Los Angeles

Walking Through Heaven's Gate, Glen David Andrews. Incredible set of New Orleans gospel recorded live at the Zion Hill Baptist Church in the Treme neighborhood. Andrews, the Zion Hill choir, and the NOLA musicians comprising the band breath such life into chestnuts "Down By The Riverside," "Jesus On The Mainline," "Down By The Riverside," "I'll Fly Away," and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" that you'll think you're hearing them for the first time. Andrews, a belter if there ever was one, and his followers deliver these standards with enough joy and inspiration to make Madeleine Murray O'Hair reconsider atheism: If church was always like this, I'd go all the time. Featuring a new song written by Andrews and Paul Sanchez, as well as a brilliant rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Andrews and John Boutte. Available from the Louisiana Music Factory.

Live at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Dumpstaphunk. Sizzling live set by Ivan Neville's funk band gets you off your feet and dancing from the first notes right through their hard-driving cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" with guest guitarist Warren Haynes. Some of these cuts are so new that they don't have names yet. Keyboardist Neville (son of Aaron) leads a crack quintet that includes nephew Ian (son of Art) on guitar. These guys may be New Orleans musical royalty, but there's nothing staid or snobby about their approach to funk. At one point, Ivan introduces what he calls the Dumpstaphunk version of a ballad. Take my word for it: No one was slow dancing. Available as a download from www.mule.net.

Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Van Morrison. In November 1968, Van Morrison released Astral Weeks, an introspective, impressionistic recording unlike anything before it or since. Revered by critics, the enigmatic recording regularly rates high on lists of top recordings ever. But aside from "Cypress Avenue," Morrison rarely performed the material from Astral Weeks, in part because his record company at the time had been uninterested in promoting it. Last November, Morrison for the first time performed the entire suite, along with epic versions of "Listen to the Lion" and "Common One." Although the results have been well-received, critics have held back from calling this recording superior to the original release.

To these ears, the new recording offers benefits not present on the 1968 version. To be sure, an album as artistically significant as Astral Weeks can only be original once. Moreover, the '68 version benefited immensely from the contributions of jazz musicians Richard Davis and Connie Kay; they provided a lightness and etherealness rare in rock recordings. But the new version gains greatly from the directness of a live performance. Moreover, the arrangements are superb, especially the segments in which the flamenco-style guitar interacts with violin and flute. The interplay between Morrison and the band is superb: It's plain that all knew they had something special going. Moreover, Van is in top form, scatting and improvising vocals and exhorting the band onward. If you have the original release, Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a terrific companion piece. If you don't have the original, this reimagining is a perfect introduction...

Wayback Machine. In 1974, Van Morrison capped the first phase of his illustrious career with It's Too Late To Stop Now, a fine live album that combined R&B covers with highlights from his first six albums, often improving on the original versions. The string section gathered to play behind his live band enhanced the arrangements rather than making them stodgy, and Morrison reached new interpretative heights on "Listen to the Lion" (the best recorded version of this song), "Caravan," "Wild Children," and "Into the Mystic." Still arguably the best introduction to Morrison, and excellent from start to finish...

The C-Span list of presidential rankings. I'll save you the suspense: Bush is 36th, ahead of such luminaries as Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding, William Henry Harrison (who was in office a month before he died of pneumonia contraacted during his inauguration), Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan. Bush ranks lowest among presidents who served two terms.

All things considered, I'm suspicious of the criteria. For one thing, why is John Kennedy so high? He served less than three years, was timid on Civil Rights -- the signature domestic issue of his time -- and accelerated America's drift into Vietnam. In terms of accomplishing what he set out to do, I understand Reagan's high ranking. In that light, he could be higher. But whether or not his presidency was good for the country is another matter entirely, especially as his hands-off business philosophy now stands discredited...

George Will's war on science...

Buy American? Not if the U. S. Chamber of Commerce has anything to say about...

The atheist-gospel war for my immortal New Orleans soul continues. I read this (Secular humanists establish a beachhead New Orleans) but then I see this:



You get my dilemma...

Tulips...TU-lips...

The Republican Home Buying Scam

There's been a great deal of attention given Senate approval of a provision to the recovery bill that gives a $15,000 tax break to anyone who buys a home before the end of calendar year 2009. Originally proposed by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), it's the kind of legislation that Republicans and real estate developers love and that Democrats fear to oppose. Analysts expect the measure to cost about $19 billion.

At first blush, this seems like a good idea. After all, Economics 101 says that this will encourage people to buy homes, and that the increased demand will serve as a firewall against a continued decline in the value of existing homes. Thus, homeowners who aren't looking to buy will benefit as well.

However, the effect of the tax break is unlikely to be so cut-and-dried. To begin with, a large portion of the current crisis stems from too many people buying homes. One might argue that the tax break can only exacerbate the problem by encouraging people who can't afford a home to buy one anyway, thus inevitably adding to the number of foreclosures, which will in turn cause another downturn in prices.

Moreover, unemployment is now 7.6%, the highest since 1992. (As this statistic counts only the number of people actively looking for work, the real number is higher.) People who are out of work and people who are afraid of being out of work do not buy homes. So, whatever benefit the tax break provides, it's going to go the people who are economically secure and/or to bottom feeders scooping up foreclosed homes on the cheap. They are already getting a good deal; adding fifteen grand to their take is like spending money to feed a dog's fleas.

Beyond that, consider the elemental math amidst a climate of -- at best -- uncertainty. No one knows what will happen to home prices in 2009. We do know that they cratered in 2008 despite a favorable outlook at the beginning of the year. Last year, the median (average) value of a house declined 13.1% to $181,300. Thus, a home buyer considering the purchase of a median priced house (again, $181,300) must consider at this stark reality: If 2009 home prices drop 13.1% again, the house she is considering will be worth $157, 550 at the end of the year, or $23,750 less than when she bought it. Even adding in the $15,000 tax break, she's behind where she was when she started out.

It turns out that home prices can decline no more than 8.25% for the tax break to begin to look attractive to most buyers. And that might be a good bet. It might not be, either. In any case, it doesn't address the most basic question of all, which is: If you think home prices will decline any amount in 2009, why buy now? For most people, their home is their savings. They're not inclined to gamble, and who can blame them? After all, the housing market is not stable: It remains in an uproar. 

In the end, this tax break is a typical Republican dodge that benefits the affluent and the economically secure at the expense of everyone else. Even in this day and age, $19 billion goes a long way, and we can use it on much more deserving and productive expenditures...

Conservatives think that money for mass transit will not stimulate the economy. Think again....

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? The human cost of the Bush war in Iraq can now be measured:

• Number of Iraqi deaths attributable to the war: 800,000 - 1.3 million
  
• Number of displaced Iraqis: 4.5 million
• Number of war widows: 1-2 million
• Number of orphans: 5 million
• Per cent of Iraqi households with access to clean water: less than 40%
• Per cent of children in Basra who cannot attend public school: 40%
• Per cent of children in Baghdad who cannot attend public school: 70%

I don't know how anyone can argue that this portrays a people free from terror or that this somehow merits the dubious claim that Bush's war made America safer...

The GOP's nutso claim that the government doesn't create jobs...

Friday's Choice: It's the first weekend of Carnival in New Orleans, and "We Will Walk Through The Streets Of The City" with Glen David Andrews and Trombone Shorty: