November 5

Well stuff kind of looks the same. No change yet.

That's not strictly true. There's definitely a strange (technical political term coming up) buzzy atmosphere in the streets. You hear snippets of fidgety, disbelieving conversations. Homeboys are driving around playing My President by Young Jeezy at full volume with their windows down. It feels like everyone under 30 is especially loved-up right now. Usually I might instinctively kick against all this positivity but like Scrooge before the window at Bob Cratchit's Christmas I have suffered a collapse of reason and of judgement.

Do you know why it's hard for me to remember how significant and how important the Obama victory is? The American media. The American media is a garish trash-compactor which will open its maw to anything that can be commodified. Regardless of how interesting or edifying the subject was originally, it all ends up as sugary garbage. It is an effort to retain a sense of how historic this moment is when the television, radio and magazine industries are so intent on battering their audiences with a shitstorm of banality - a shitstorm which right now has Barack Obama's huge face at its eye. I'm used to rejecting someone or something if the media is intent on pushing them or it into my face. Sienna Miller. Banksy. The pop and rock music of the kids today. Now Barack Obama is entering into the same orbit. Fight it Joe. Remember this.

By the by we've met some interesting characters while in New Orleans. Here are a few:

Papa Boogie: an old man sat outside a seafood restaurant on Oak Street. He's lectured "all over the world" on the subjects of metaphysics and mysticism. He also makes elaborate wood carvings.

Papa Lino: a skeletal, barely ambulatory East African-looking guy in dark shades, a fedora, a sharp suit and lots of gold jewellery. Everyone knows him and seems to love him. He says he's a drummer. Hard to imagine.

Doc Brown: a trumpet player who asks "gospel, blues, jazz or soul?" to random passers-by. Claims to have been James Brown's bandleader for two decades. Told me that he understands funk music on a different level to all other humans.