SJI In The News

Two items this week.

In The Kansas City Star, John Mark Eberhart writes about Van Morrison: "Another reason for Morrison’s creative longevity may be his devotion to the arts. He has released four albums in the last five years, writing songs that draw on media ranging from films ('Just Like Greta') to folk ballads ('St. James Infirmary') to country music."

And in the Times-Picayune, Dave Walker (no relation, but a friend of ours) has a piece about two upcoming N.O. documentaries, both being promoted at a TV critics event out in Hollywood. Irvin Mayfield was there in connection with the publicity efforts for one of the projects. Walker relates:

Mayfield addressed the reluctant-evacuee question -- still baffling to a lot of nonresidents -- with a personal revelation.

"My father was a victim of drowning due to Hurricane Katrina," he said, to a suddenly airless room. "There was something like 8 to 9 feet of water in the street where he was.

"He didn't want to leave. It was a major evacuation. My mother left, and she talked to my dad and said he should leave. And he was just like a lot of people in the city (who said), 'And go where? To do what? And why?'

"I still get responses (from) people saying, 'Do you know what? I'd rather stay in my house with enough peanut butter and water, and get on my second floor and watch the water go for two months, than go back to Houston or Baton Rouge or experience what I experienced in other places.' "

Then Mayfield, who'd packed his trumpet for this trip west, closed the session with a solo rendition of "St. James Infirmary Blues."