Jazz Times.com has a brief report with the blog link and a picture of Jason atop a ladder here.
The front page of this week's Boston Bulletin, the June 21 issue, has on the front page a color photo of Catherine, Roya, and Rob with a caption and the URL for the blog. You can see it online here.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
TV Taping
Today I was filmed for a CBS-Boston special concerning our NOLA trip. It will air between 7pm-8pm in the Boston area on Ch. 4 on July 4th. Webcast address coming soon.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Last Day!
Yesterday after our fourth day of work we all boarded the Steamboat Natchez dinner cruise along the Mississippi River. They had a Dixie Jazz Band that I shot some footage of.
After that Jason, Brian and I went to Harrah's for some gambling. I played my first table and lost about $15 in ten seconds. I moved on to slots and won $70! After that we retreated to the hotel and I went to bed. The next morning the inevitable happened....I OVERSLEPT! Luckily I woke up on my own at 7:12am, we leave the hotel at 7:15. So I had no shower, no coffee and had to eat my bagel in the taxi. Rough start but so far another great day.
Well it's hard to believe but today was my last day on the work site. I had an absolute amazing time down here. My group and the other cross country volunteers were beyond a pleasure to work with. I gotta say my only complaint working wasn't the heat, it wasn't the workload, it was the desire to do more. Some projects required a job to be done first before we could get our hands in. Other times we were overstaffed and had people with nothing to do at times. I guess when it comes to volunteer work this is not so bad of a problem to have. We accomplished so much yet there is so much left.
After our last day on the work site I went out with one of my co-workers Rob and Jim, the New Orleans video director. Turns out he shot footage for the Imax movie we all checked out in Boston. He had me call the owner of this famous bar that was founded in 1856 called Tujagues and make reservations for our group. As Jim would say "food is a religion here." After that we plan on checking out some jazz at "Ray's Boom Boom Room." Tonight I think we all have some celebrating to do.
I will leave you all with my last set of pictures here and a good bye message I filmed at the work site this afternoon. I will never forget this experience. I'm coming home with a lifetime full of memories. Thanks for sharing them with me.
After that Jason, Brian and I went to Harrah's for some gambling. I played my first table and lost about $15 in ten seconds. I moved on to slots and won $70! After that we retreated to the hotel and I went to bed. The next morning the inevitable happened....I OVERSLEPT! Luckily I woke up on my own at 7:12am, we leave the hotel at 7:15. So I had no shower, no coffee and had to eat my bagel in the taxi. Rough start but so far another great day.
Well it's hard to believe but today was my last day on the work site. I had an absolute amazing time down here. My group and the other cross country volunteers were beyond a pleasure to work with. I gotta say my only complaint working wasn't the heat, it wasn't the workload, it was the desire to do more. Some projects required a job to be done first before we could get our hands in. Other times we were overstaffed and had people with nothing to do at times. I guess when it comes to volunteer work this is not so bad of a problem to have. We accomplished so much yet there is so much left.
After our last day on the work site I went out with one of my co-workers Rob and Jim, the New Orleans video director. Turns out he shot footage for the Imax movie we all checked out in Boston. He had me call the owner of this famous bar that was founded in 1856 called Tujagues and make reservations for our group. As Jim would say "food is a religion here." After that we plan on checking out some jazz at "Ray's Boom Boom Room." Tonight I think we all have some celebrating to do.
I will leave you all with my last set of pictures here and a good bye message I filmed at the work site this afternoon. I will never forget this experience. I'm coming home with a lifetime full of memories. Thanks for sharing them with me.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Worksite Day 4
Today was a busy day as I spent all of it installing floor beams and support blocks for a home in it's early stages. Hammering in the summer sun while James Brown is cranked on the stereo makes me feel like a kid again. I am really getting the hang of the construction life as each day gets more gratifying. I didn't get to take too many pics b/c of my workload but the few I did you can check out here. A few of these pics were taken by other members of my group, but thought they were so cool you all had to see them. One of my new friends, Roya, also shot some video footage of me working away. Hope you enjoy it!
Tonight the group will be having dinner on a Mississippi River Steamboat Cruise. I'll try to take pics if I can for tomorrow's post. In other news two members of my group did a radio interview for 90.7 WWOZ, a killer blues/jazz station here in town. We usually listen to WWOZ when eat breakfast on the balcony.
That about sums up today. I will now leave you all with a blog post that I just wrote for the Berklee page. It basically sums up my feelings of being here. Miss you all!
---
Picture this…200 workers of all ages, from all over the country working in 95 degrees of pure humidity for absolutely no compensation. There are no egos, no slackers, everyone is friendly, equally contributing to the task at hand and enjoying learning about one another. ABC News in New Orleans came today to shoot footage of this reality. It’s hard to believe amongst all of the negativity in our media that this environment really exists but believe me when I say it does. I have been cut, bruised, had fiber glass in my eye, even felt like passing out at times and I am loving every minute of it. I am beyond blessed to be here and can not believe tomorrow is our last day. I will miss the love here but hope to spread it on to all of you. Take care of one another for me.
My best always,
Matt
Tonight the group will be having dinner on a Mississippi River Steamboat Cruise. I'll try to take pics if I can for tomorrow's post. In other news two members of my group did a radio interview for 90.7 WWOZ, a killer blues/jazz station here in town. We usually listen to WWOZ when eat breakfast on the balcony.
That about sums up today. I will now leave you all with a blog post that I just wrote for the Berklee page. It basically sums up my feelings of being here. Miss you all!
---
Picture this…200 workers of all ages, from all over the country working in 95 degrees of pure humidity for absolutely no compensation. There are no egos, no slackers, everyone is friendly, equally contributing to the task at hand and enjoying learning about one another. ABC News in New Orleans came today to shoot footage of this reality. It’s hard to believe amongst all of the negativity in our media that this environment really exists but believe me when I say it does. I have been cut, bruised, had fiber glass in my eye, even felt like passing out at times and I am loving every minute of it. I am beyond blessed to be here and can not believe tomorrow is our last day. I will miss the love here but hope to spread it on to all of you. Take care of one another for me.
My best always,
Matt
Worksite Day 3
My apologies this post is so late, I literally walked in from a FULL day. It's 11:42 CT here so technically I am sticking to my promise of a new post everyday. There is so much to recap as I have been up for 18 hours now so I'll try to keep it as brief as possible.
Last night after our workday we all headed out to an African restaurant. This was another first for me and to my surprise the food was quite good. One of the group members brought an old Berklee friend who as it turns out used to work concerts with me. He told us countless stories of his Katrina experiences and how the only thing he salvaged was two Gibson guitars. After dinner we went to Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar, an old blacksmith shop from the 1700's converted to a bar. We all sat on stools around a grand piano in a dark room that was only lit by a few candles. It was one of the greatest bars I have ever been to. I took some artsy pics that you can now view in today's pics page.
This morning I had breakfast with my new buddy Rob on his balcony and then we headed off to our 3rd day of work. I was able to do work on some flooring, painting and cutting of materials to prep the siding for the house. I have a new found respect for people that work in construction. This is not easy by any stretch. Roya, our group leader also did a phone interview for NPR radio here in New Orleans. We are really getting the word out with our progress here. I was also able to shoot a quick video displaying all the hard work we are doing.
At lunch time I got a call from a big time Video Director/Producer here in NOLA named Jim Gabour. My Vice President at work put me in touch with Jim who has lived here for many years. Jim was gracious enough to pick me up at the hotel, show me more of the area and took me to his home. We drank Bourbon as he told me some hilarious stories about his life experiences. Jim then dropped me off at the "Red Fish Grille" where I attended an Alumni dinner.
On of my closest friends from Berklee, Robin Kinchen, surprised me and showed up at the dinner. It was wonderful catching up with her again as the last we saw each other was in May of 2004 in Los Angeles. Robin, her friend Clove and I walked the city and then I went back to my hotel at about 9:30pm.
Somehow, this day was not packed enough...so I knocked on my buddy Jason's door to do some more exploring. Jason's friend Brian is also here. He drove 10 hours from Florida to help us out. The three of us hit up a Hookah bar, drank some hard cider/beer and listened to this great DJ.
On a side note the group has all been contributing to a Berklee blog that you can view here. Ok, I seriously need to get some rest now so I'll be off. The sandman awaits.
Last night after our workday we all headed out to an African restaurant. This was another first for me and to my surprise the food was quite good. One of the group members brought an old Berklee friend who as it turns out used to work concerts with me. He told us countless stories of his Katrina experiences and how the only thing he salvaged was two Gibson guitars. After dinner we went to Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar, an old blacksmith shop from the 1700's converted to a bar. We all sat on stools around a grand piano in a dark room that was only lit by a few candles. It was one of the greatest bars I have ever been to. I took some artsy pics that you can now view in today's pics page.
This morning I had breakfast with my new buddy Rob on his balcony and then we headed off to our 3rd day of work. I was able to do work on some flooring, painting and cutting of materials to prep the siding for the house. I have a new found respect for people that work in construction. This is not easy by any stretch. Roya, our group leader also did a phone interview for NPR radio here in New Orleans. We are really getting the word out with our progress here. I was also able to shoot a quick video displaying all the hard work we are doing.
At lunch time I got a call from a big time Video Director/Producer here in NOLA named Jim Gabour. My Vice President at work put me in touch with Jim who has lived here for many years. Jim was gracious enough to pick me up at the hotel, show me more of the area and took me to his home. We drank Bourbon as he told me some hilarious stories about his life experiences. Jim then dropped me off at the "Red Fish Grille" where I attended an Alumni dinner.
On of my closest friends from Berklee, Robin Kinchen, surprised me and showed up at the dinner. It was wonderful catching up with her again as the last we saw each other was in May of 2004 in Los Angeles. Robin, her friend Clove and I walked the city and then I went back to my hotel at about 9:30pm.
Somehow, this day was not packed enough...so I knocked on my buddy Jason's door to do some more exploring. Jason's friend Brian is also here. He drove 10 hours from Florida to help us out. The three of us hit up a Hookah bar, drank some hard cider/beer and listened to this great DJ.
On a side note the group has all been contributing to a Berklee blog that you can view here. Ok, I seriously need to get some rest now so I'll be off. The sandman awaits.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
