The Downtown Arcade 4 - I'm Still Here Edition
Now where was I?
Oh yeah, I was getting ready for a hurricane. That was, uh, Aug. 29, the last time I wrote you, my wonderful Downtown Arcade subscribers.
I started the newsletter because I deleted my social media accounts but I wanted to stay in touch. I figured writing a newsletter would be like posting to social media: 1) Have an idea. 2) Post it. 3) Move on.
Turns out newsletters don't work that way. I have fewer ideas, maybe because I don't have the seductive instant feedback of social media, those likes and comments that bring us back, back, back and make social media companies money, money, money.
But a number of you have asked: So what's up with the Downtown Arcade? And I want to keep writing it. Here we go. As always, just reply to this email if you want to say howdy.
Some news
There's been a big change since August. In November I left my job advising a college newspaper, radio station and yearbook. The reasons are complex and they're best discussed over cups of tea. Suffice it to say I had a growing sense the job wasn't a good fit. So I quit.
I'll say this. As a Louisiana state employee in charge of an operation -- a budget unit head, in the parlance -- I did a lot of paperwork. A LOT OF PAPERWORK. Oceans of paperwork. I don't miss it.
Anyway, now I'm freelancing again and looking for opportunities. Reporting and writing are my forte. Copy editing is appealing, too. In fact, I'm really good at copy editing. Need a copy editor?
In business
You may not turn to the Downtown Arcade for the latest in industrial development. However! I'm pleased Alliance Compressors is expanding its Natchitoches factory operations and will create 78 new jobs. This is exactly what our little city needs.
Don't get me wrong. The tourism economy here is great. I'm so happy the tourists come. But if I learned anything as a journalist covering the tourism mecca of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, it's that there are better jobs than tourism jobs.
I'm not sure how much Natchitoches Mayor Ronnie Williams had to do with Alliance Compressors' plans, but regardless the news is a credit to his administration. He said Natchitoches needs good jobs. Here are some.
Good word
"I suppose the argument for Kiss is that they are a rock band for the forlorn and slightly confused."
-- Bill Wyman
So long to an icon
I want to mark the death of Nashville's Beegie Adair, whose wondrous piano jazz was a staple of my teen years. I remember a time in the late 1980s when you couldn't go anywhere in the Music City without hearing some live Beegie Adair.
She was a big influence. I love jazz and I love piano jazz most of all. Thelonious Monk. Bill Evans. Oscar Peterson. Beegie Adair.
I even play a little piano jazz, and here's a related news item. We bought a piano! For years I have wanted an acoustic instrument, but good ones are pricey and there is research and then shopping and then maintenance and, well, we never did get one.
We didn't love the aesthetics of digital pianos, though. Until I found this beauty! It plays great, it sounds great, and someday you gotta hear my "Ain't Misbehavin'."
Here's Adair playing "Chattanooga Choo Choo," a lovely Tennessee song by a treasured Tennessee artist. I am so grateful.
