New Orleans
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Song of the Day: “Shoo Fly Marches On”
The distinctive drum beat behind The Meters’ funky classic “Hey Pocky A-Way” did not originate there. In fact, their influential drummer, Joseph “Ziggy” Modeliste, first came up with the beat when he recorded “Shoo Fly Marches On” for Dr. John’s…
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Song of the Day: “Hey Pocky A-Way”
The loose and infectious melody of “Hey Pocky A-Way” has been covered and re-recorded many times since its first release in 1974 by New Orleans funk heavyweights The Meters. The highly recognizable chorus–which reputedly stems from early Native American dialects…
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Song of the Day: “Mickey Mouse Boarding House”
Mardi Gras may have been last week, but the good times keep on rolling. New Orleans-based soul artist Walter “Wolfman” Washington knows a thing or two about good times—in his good-humored single “Mickey Mouse Boarding House,” the silky R&B crooner complains…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
In the latest “The Last Book I Loved,” S. Hope Mills tackles the thriller-esque 1959 novel, The Haunting of Hill House. Shirley Jackson’s talents are strong enough to spook even the avowedly un-spookable—that woman, Mills admits, “knew what it meant to…
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: American Horror in New Orleans
I came home from work the other day and found a notice taped to my front door. It had the logo for the FX television series American Horror Story on it and announced they would be filming on my block…
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New Orleans Decoded
Tempted to move to New Orleans? It seems as though more and more writers are heading there these days. At the New York Review of Books, Nathaniel Rich—who moved to the city in 2010—explores the history and culture of New Orleans through books…
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Towards a Fight
The future is coming, it is coming for everyone in this story. Someday that cop will turn on his TV and see the first black president, the first president who looks like he does, say that he thinks couples like…
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The Rumpus Book Club Interviews Hilton Als
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Hilton Als about his new collection White Girls, an intriguing amalgam of fiction, essay, and memoir.
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The Atlas
I wanted to be a part of New Orleans. For months, I thought that meant drinking, eating, buying, taking pictures.
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HURRICANE (FINALLY) ISAAC
AUGUST 30, 2012 The New Orleans streets are a mess with shredded branches and other debris – roof tiles, broken signs, errant gutters – but the city, I think, so far, came through fine. People know how to handle hurricanes…
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With Words and With Pretty: Super Sunday 2011
With the exception of sporadic documentaries, books and a small but dedicated scholarly following, Mardi Gras Indians have remained comparatively unknown to much of the world outside New Orleans.
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Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #6
The final dispatch from Benjamin Morris, who covered New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011 for The Rumpus: The problem of Mardi Gras—of the day itself, Fat Tuesday—is that you only have one body. Consider the map of the day. Uptown, you…