Center Ring In The International Lit Circus !

Zadie Smith Proves Herself To Be Rather High Maintenance After All And Embraces The Dickensesque (And Utterly Unpopular On Her Side Of The Pond) Symbol Of England As Complete Hell-Hole

or

"Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est La Meme Chose"

or

"Inna Gadda Da Vida" Isn't On Her Latest Mix Tape

and

(As Expected Michiko at The Times (No, Not London!) Loves On Beauty, Her Latest)

and

(Another Species Of Writer PR Hype Is Noted By Darwinian Literatis: The "I Hate My Native Land" Gambit)

(My Two Cents On Lit Fame To Follow)  ¶ 11:27 PM 0 comments

 
(Caption: Rescuers help Fats Domino off a boat after he was rescued Monday from his New Orleans home.)



Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die

That "The Fat Man" is safe and sound in N'awlins is a ray of hope amidst the dark sadness.


(CNN) -- Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino was among the thousands of New Orleans residents plucked from rising floodwaters, his daughter said Thursday.

Karen Domino White, who lives in New Jersey, identified her father in a picture taken Monday night by a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer.

The photograph shows Domino -- the singer behind the 1950s hits "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill" -- being helped off a boat near his home in the city's Lower 9th Ward.

His whereabouts since the rescue were not immediately known. Nor was there any information about his wife, Rosemary, friends said.

The neighborhood was heavily flooded when a levee failed as Katrina slammed into southeastern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Thousands are feared dead in the storm, Louisiana's governor and the mayor of New Orleans have said, though no official tally has been compiled.

White said she last heard from her father August 23, four days before the storm hit, and was unable to contact him Sunday.

"I didn't have any information. I was just praying," she said.

Writer Charles Amann said he last spoke to Domino on Sunday, and the singer refused to join the evacuation that was then under way.

"He said to me, in that wonderful Southern accent of his, that no, he was staying on -- that he had gone through the last one and he could go through this one," said Amann, who is working on a book on the early days of the "American Bandstand" television program.

Many of those evacuated from the Lower 9th Ward were taken to the Louisiana Superdome and are being transferred to the Astrodome sports stadium in Houston, Texas.

Alan Warner, an EMI Music executive, also saw the photograph of Domino's rescue. But he said he did not know where the 77-year-old singer, born Antoine Domino, was taken afterward.

"But the fact that he actually was rescued is just so gratifying," Warner said.  ¶ 2:16 AM 0 comments