It's a small world

So much to tell. We are driving back from a somewhat succesful day trip to Venice, LA. The scenery is much different than anything we've seen so far. Stagnant bayous, steele colored industrial plants, and large marinas filled with swaying fishing boats. We arrived in Venice around 1 pm and immedietly sought out somewhere to eat. We arrived at the riverside restaraunt my first catfish. It was better than I thought it would be. Soon after I sat down and started looking at the seafood filled menu,, I noticed a dark haired lady standing next to me taking a photo of the hand written fisherman relief posters that were fastened beside the door. A man stood stood next to her, busy paying for their meal. I was instantly intrigued and knew they were from a news agency, or at least someone from out of the area who was interested in the oil spill. After a moment I decided I would introduce myself.
"Hi I'm Jared carlson. Were from colorado and we're trying to film a documentary around the oil spill. Where are you from?"
The man says, "I'm graham smith and this is mellisa block."
The lady, who I now knew as Melissa block, tells me they are from NPR.
hmm, that seems to ring a bell. Something clicks, oh yea, I listen to her radio program "all things considered" sometimes when I'm drive home from school. It was a pretty cool experience meeting a famous national news reporter. I was inspired by the fact that we were both out here doing the same thing. After they left and we were still waiting for our food, another man entered the restaraunt. He was carrying a MacBook and sat down near us. I glanced over and saw that he was doing video editing and I decided to introduce myself to him as well. I quickly found out that his name is Scott lehmann and that he is a photographer/videographer for the U.S. coast guard. We talked for a while and he gave us a few leads to follow down in Venice. He was eager to help. We payed our bill and we were on our way down to big buds boat rental, driving over inudated roads and through marshy bayous.

None of our leads turned out... No one we found had much to say to us. However, I am still hopeful for some good interviews. Afterall, we havn't followed all of our leads.

Anyhow, We're back in n.o. and we've got to go off to film our first interview!
Wish us luck.

"It kinda feels like were in the house from fight club"- Luke

We're slowly dying in the house from fight club. In other words, it's really hot and the house we are staying in looks like it was part of the set for the movie fight club. Faded mirrors, stained sheet covered furniture, hardwood floors... Everything says that Marla might show up any minute. For those of you who don't know who Marla is, you should go watch fight club. Today was our second day working for habitat. We were at a different project site with a 15 person group from The University of Portland, Oregon. They have been in the south on a civil rights tour for one of their classes. They are finishing off their trip with a week of working at Habitat. They are outrageous and awesome; I'm glad to be working with them again tomorrow. Now a little bit about yesterday. Seeing as we didn't really do much other than eat and have siesta, the biggest event that sticks out is going to the dog park with our next door neighbor, Holly. It was a lot of fun watching all the different dogs from my shade covered chair. There was a little dog that i remember in particular; he was swinging around in a circle, clutching a tennis ball held by his owner. There was also a very weird person at the park. He had his shirt off and was constantly talking to himself or his two dogs. He said that he was homeless, and then, as he was leaving, he said that he was going to go send some emails at his house. I can't really do him justice describing him, but as Holly says, "Crazy comes in all shapes and sizes". Were off to have dinner with our friend Patti. Should be fun and delicious.
Stay Posted.
JC

Grandpa Elliot

Alligators, beignets, and grandpa Elliot.

Things that come to mind when I think about yesterday. Seeing alligators, a 6ft python, and a hammerhead shark. We saw all of this when we went to the auduban Aquarium; a worldclass aquariam near our house in new orleans. After we left the aquarium we went to a little Beignet store down on Bourbon street. Aside from being extremely delicious, a beignet is a fried dough pastry and the official state doughnut of louisiana. After our desert we decided to go eat some dinner. We went to a Cajun food restraint and had seafood gumbo, fried shrimp and jumbalaya. This was all pretty good although I do think that there is some better Cajun food somewhere else in n'awrlins. We will gave to discover it. We met grandpa Elliot at the corner of royal and Toulouse, one black away from bourbon street. For those of you who don't know who grandpa elliot is, he is a famous new Orleans street musician who has appeared in the YouTube video "stand by me". Check it out below. It was a shock to recognize him as we walked by. He wore glasses so we were even more shocked to find out that he was nearly blind. He told us that he had lost his vision right after hurricane. We stayed and talked for a while, he sang a love song for a young couple and then proceeded on our way. Right now Luke and I are taking a little siesta, hiding from the heat of the Louisiana day. Stay classy San Diego.

Good morning rainy afternoon

We woke up early and, after a quick bowl of cereal, arrived at the job site around 7:45. The experience was very similar as to how I imagined it would be. It was hot, humid, and (thank god) relatively few mosquitoes. I worked closely with many interesting people. For example, david, who wanted me to take action photos of himself working on the construction site. We ended up getting rained out at about 2:40 or so. The rain was a pleasant change from the hot weather. Anyhow, I'm sitting on our host's porch right now looking out at the rain pouring down on the narrow streets of n'arwlins. The porch is the only place that we can get internet here. The house we are living in is in a pretty good location and it's about a twenty minute walk from the french quarter. We plan on going there to get some Cajun food later... maybe some gumbo and some jambalaya.

I'll let you know how our time in the french quarter goes. We might go to check out bourbon street just for the kick of it although i've heard it is pretty cheesy.

P.s. if you are reading my blog but not following it you should follow it! I would like to see who you are!

until next time,

Jared

Derrick, my brother, presley and avery, my two nieces, and myself

Luke working at Habitat

Rained out. Hanging out under the project site.

Optimal conditions to build houses.

Hey everyone. We made it to new orleans! We had a relatively short day of driving today and arrived around 6 pm. It's very humid! And apparently tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day this year. This weather of course is the optimal condition to build houses in. Hot, sticky, with lots of mesquitos. Sounds great! We will be up early, heading off to work for habitat. I don't have Internet where i'm staying so I'm blogging everything from my Iphone. I'll tell you all how it goes tomorrow, later.

Post Independant Face Time

Check out the article about me and Luke in the post independent.

http://www.postindependent.com/article/2010100519920

Day of driving, Day of rest

17 hours, 1,050 miles of driving, For those of you who want a comparison, mainly jeff leahy, that is like driving from CRMS to city market and back 625 times. We woke up early in Littleton CO and we stopped for breakfast in Raton NM. I have never had such big pancakes for breakfast. They were about 1.5" thick and A Highlight of the trip so far has been finding a black Ibanez guitar in the middle of the road. It's a bit beat up but plays great! That's a lie it doesn't actually play that great, but it plays...

We knew we were in texas when we found a Mcdonald's inside of walmart. It's surprisingly tropical and the humidity reminds me of the time i've spent in Costa Rica. We've spent the first half of today resting at my brother's house. It's been nice to just relax after a long and hectic day of driving. I say hectic because navigating through concrete 6 lane super highways is a big change from driving on a two lane highway back in Colorado. Anyhow, tomorrow we drive 5 hours east to New Orleans.



Luke rocking out on the new guitar.

On the open (snowy) road

I'm sitting in the passenger's seat next to my buddy Luke doin some blogging as we drive to the first waypoint in the trip, Littleton colorado. We are planning on spending the night at luke's aunts house. Were planning on getting an early start tomorrow, probably around 5 am. From there we will head south to Houston where we will stay with my half brother Derrick and his family. We will probably end up sleeping in our car next to the road before we get there. I havn't seen my two nieces for a few years so I'm definetally looking forward to it. And from what I've heard they're excited to see their uncle.
It's snowing! Just some typical may weather in CO... We just passed through the Eisenhower tunnel going towards Denver. All the camera gear is tucked away in the back of the van. We've got tunes, a radar detector, and GPS. I would say that were set. Now all we have to do is do the remaining 1650 miles of driving!
Luke's blog will be up and running soon at neworleansthrowdown.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Pre-Trip, First Post

My buddy Luke Newbury and I are heading down to Louisiana for our senior project at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. We have work set up with Habitat for Humanity and we are planning on filming a documentary on the youth of Louisiana. In the past years Louisiana has been hit by two of the worst environmental disasters of our time. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the recent oil rig explosion on April 20th which threatens to be the worst environmental disaster of the century. We hope to report on what it's like to be a kid growing up in this area that has suffered so much. We hope to give them a voice so that they can tell their story to people who might not otherwise hear about it. We depart this coming Tuesday and all that stands in the way of our adventure and us is an AP environment studies class and 1,750 miles of driving! Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts throughout our trip.