Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 9, 2012, 8:19 pm
I was getting ready to leave Iggy's, on Rampart Street, when the phone rang.  Someone had left their keys behind, and Lyle, the bartender had found them.  He asked if anyone was leaving, otherwise he would have sent the keys in a cab to the Bywater neighborhood to deliver them to their owner.  I ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 9, 2012, 1:09 am
There are no double decker buses in New Orleans.  If there were, the rides would be much like this.. Every day and every night is an adventure in New Orleans, Louisiana, a world with rules all its own.
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 9, 2012, 12:59 am
Every story is a devil's circus.  Here is how to tell a story.  The piano that shows up briefly right after eight minutes, and also just after nine minutes makes this brilliantly self-aware. It never hurts to be obvious when you have something to say.
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 7, 2012, 11:54 pm
I don't want to repost videos, but when it's Big Freedia (pronounced Bid Frida) there is nowhere to go but up.  Pure New Orleans. It may not be your style of dancing, but you have to admit, they exercise their muscles.  Big Freedia can sing.  All the way from New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 7, 2012, 11:25 pm
If you can't see Big Freedia (pronounced Big Frida) live, this will give you a taste of what you are missing.  Big Freedia is biologically male, but everyone refers to her as female.  Artists have their privileges.  No one can usurp their right to primacy of definition. Heaven held me...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 7, 2012, 8:17 pm
If New Orleans was in the desert, instead of being a city built on a swamp, a day in New Orleans would look much like this.  Everyone needs a hero, no matter which side of the right they are on. I can walk a mile anywhere in New Orleans and have an adventure.  I don't have to walk eve...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 6, 2012, 8:08 pm
Consider the mustard seed... My introduction to Capitalism.Everybody loves the best credit cards.  Open your eyes.  Reasonable rates, at good terms, with incredible reward options, are available to qualified individuals.  You know what you need.  You need the best credit cards for which you are ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 5, 2012, 12:46 am
Where is Eunice, Louisiana?"Visit Eunice, Louisiana," the fiddle player said as he bowed his head.  "You can't taste salt without biting on meat," he added. I have been to Eunice, Louisiana.  I have walked its streets, but I cannot say I have taken its pulse.  Like a woman, Eunice, Louisian...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Feb 1, 2012, 6:49 pm
Someday, your dreams will come true.Zippety-doo-dah!  All the live long day.  Then night comes.   What are you going to do when the sun goes down?  If I were you, I would plant myself in front of the Winsome Dark Espresso Hailey 3-Piece Modular Media Center.  Zowie!  Look at that fine piece o...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jan 28, 2012, 10:19 pm
Joan of Arc had a heart.Sometimes, you just have to be what you are.  If it isn't beef or ham, you can bet it tastes like chicken. Have I mentioned I'm a big Big Freedia fan?  Someone is listening to "Rumpshakerz" in their car at the traffic light in front of my house.  I am doing what come...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jan 25, 2012, 10:41 pm
I'm told Big Freedia (pronounced Frida) is going to be on the Jimmy Kimmel Show tonight.  I won't be able to catch it.  If you aren't able to either, here is a Big Freedia video.  The skyline is New Orleans.  If you've been here long enough, you know where the exterior shots were shot. &#...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jan 24, 2012, 11:04 pm
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us!From Hollygrove to Holy Cross, New Orleans glows.  The city radiates a magical aura from the bend in the river to Pontchartrain Park.  The sun rises in the east, a flower blossoming.  The sun sets in the west, locked away in a tomb.  If you can get fr...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jan 22, 2012, 6:46 pm
Our Lady of Prompt Succor.  Sweetheart statue.As we like to say in New Orleans, "Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us." If ever there was a city that could help itself, it is New Orleans.  The ties that bind a community together are tight.  Superhuman vision, and a finely attuned ea...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jan 21, 2012, 6:17 pm
Burger King Home Delivery. According to USA Today, the nation's thinly entertaining paper of record,  Burger King is attempting a bid to capture the home delivery segment of the hamburger market.
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Oct 23, 2011, 7:48 pm
People walk down Esplanade Avenue every day.New Orleans: a living, breathing city in which miracles only seem to blossom spontaneously.  The brass band marching down Barracks Street this evening has prepared for months for this unscheduled parade.  Only the uninformed are caught unexpected.  Only...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Oct 9, 2011, 4:37 pm
I know.  I haven't been posting as regularly as I should.  Busy days at the Odditarium trying to get everything up and running.  Deadlines change daily, as do goals.  It is the nature of the beast. It could be worse.  I could be living on a planet made only for Texans.  I find Loui...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Oct 4, 2011, 2:54 pm
Saint Ursula.I've spent my share of time on Ursulines Avenue, riverside of North Claiborne Avenue.  It is a magnificent street, majestic in what it promises.  From North Claiborne to Bayou Saint John, it is a pleasant thoroughfare to traverse.  It is wide, and, relatively, pothole-free. Man...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 26, 2011, 12:38 am
A rowdy Taoist tourist.A few minutes after midnight, there's a pleasant ruckus coming up the street.  No sight is more cheerful than a group of chums, stumbling arm-in-arm, singing boisterous Taoist drinking songs.  They usually don't head home this early, so it's doubly nice that everyone on the ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 25, 2011, 12:11 am
"You can't go wrong with the best burley raised in lucky Kentucky."  This should be a slogan.  For what, I don't know.  It came to me while I was thinking about Prince Albert in a can, but I don't think the good prince restricts himself to bluegrass burley, or if he contracts with only the ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 19, 2011, 6:50 pm
The imposing skyline of Tyler, TXTyler is a city with the profile of a busted kidney in the heart of Smith County, Texas.  Tylerites call their city the “Rose Capital of the Nation.”  Their claim is justified.As the capitol of Smith County, Tyler serves as a hub for surrounding cities many peo...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 16, 2011, 1:36 am
Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.“I need to have a car,” she says.I ask why.“I need to pick my granddaughter up from school” she says, “then I need to pick up my son from his school.  Then I need to pick up my daughter when she gets off work.  Then I need to take her to babysit her boyfrie...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 11, 2011, 1:49 am
Copyright DC Comics, and probably the estate of Bob Kane.I've had the opportunity to perform a similar feat twice in my life, before slipping out to the open sea.  I have always lived close to Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, or Boston Harbor.  Given the necessity that I may have to startle th...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 6, 2011, 11:10 pm
Walking back to my office, a bicycle built for two passed.  Then a bicycle built for four.  Then more.  It was a parade of people propelling themselves forward in tandem, all their muscles working together in concert on a frame.  The wheels turned on their spokes.  The pedals circled in humid ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 3, 2011, 8:26 am
  The Contessa asked me if I had heard she is pregnant.  I hadn’t, and I admitted as much.  “I’m pregnant!” she told me.  I offered my congratulations. The proud father works as a bus driver at the Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner.  Kenner is the fourth-largest city in ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Sep 2, 2011, 4:11 am
I posit that this may be the first published mention of DeLille Street as actually existing.  I'm just waiting for the city to change the signs. Who names a baby Anthracite?  I would think no one, but there it was, plain as the day, in the Times-Picayune obituaries.  Francis Lemulet, recent...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 31, 2011, 7:17 pm
O Mighty Isis!There is a temple to Isis in New Orleans.  Isis.  The Egyptian goddess.  The one who brings floods to the Nile every year when she weeps over the death of her husband, Osiris, Lord of the Underworld.   Egyptians will be happy to tell you that they are not Arabs.  They are Egypti...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 30, 2011, 8:49 pm
City Park eels.An excerpted preview from a profile I'm writing after spending a lot of time in City Park on assignment... How does one eel man let another know that trouble may be afoot?   Marcel explains. “We’ve got a system for ourselves.  See this here?  This ain’t no dog whistle.  I...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 29, 2011, 7:59 pm
New London's Poetry War Continues Halfheartedly.Regular readers may recall that I published a "poem" about New London recently.  A passenger pigeon arrived on my porch with a slip of paper tied around its left leg.  "WK- We have to talk." I dialed up a certain, reserved frequency on the shor...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 28, 2011, 10:30 pm
An actual children's menu from the French Quarter.  I forget where we were: Children's MenuFried Shrimp with Creamy Pasta 14 Paneed Gulf Fish with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat Served with Brabant Potatoes and Jalapeno Hollandaise 14 Chicken Breast Served with Truffle Mashed Potatoes, Fresh Veget...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 26, 2011, 12:03 am
A Drinking Town.  12 x 24.[Ed.: What appears below is a revision, made after professional advisement regarding what constitutes the "official" New London State of Mind.  An old orca still has teeth.  WK will continue to abide by the rulings of higher authority until the next succession.] New Lon...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 24, 2011, 1:37 am
A Drinking Town. 2011.“I know a secret,” the girl under the streetlight on North Rampart Street said.  She asked me if I wanted to learn it.  My curiosity was aroused. Stopped in my tracks by this spontaneous, feminine apparition, I felt a fertile animal magnetism that made me think twice and ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 23, 2011, 10:43 pm
Hubig's Pie.  Apple.Concerned over the state of fried pastry consumption one hundred years from now, I thought I would do my bit for history.  When people go to the gas station or the corner grocery, or just stop somewhere to pick up a pack of smokes, what kind of pies will they be able to purchas...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 22, 2011, 11:25 pm
New Orleans wants you, but you need New Orleans.I've been thinking of slogans and mascots.  This is an abstract Pikachu in traditional colors.
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 19, 2011, 9:05 pm
Saint Expedite.I was talking to Dickey the Cock last night.  Don’t get any smirk-inducing ideas.  Richard’s totem animal is a rooster.  He has one tattooed onto each of this chiseled deltoids.  The are inked in a strutting position.  When he wants to impress a certain kind of lady, Dickey m...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 19, 2011, 2:19 am
Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.The doc gave me the diagnosis.  I am invisible to x-rays.  As if I didn't have enough enough hereditary quirks to escape notoriety.  His office is in a boarded up shotgun off North Robertson Street downwtown of Elysian Fields.  I had to crawl through a window to ge...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 18, 2011, 4:03 am
I received a call from the Coroner's office today.  I told them they had the wrong number. The Odditarium continues to fill with knickknacks, gimcrackery, and bookkeeping, as well as beekeeping, anthropological specimens, and a rather humdrum collection of curios.  What would an Oddita...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 17, 2011, 1:21 am
The Louis Armstrong Airport Logo. Only a curmudgeon would begrudge anything being named after New Orleans' favorite son.  I spent a lot of time at the airport today, and intend to spend a few more days there on bivouac.  What leads WK to explore the ins and outs of Crescent City aviation?  A...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 15, 2011, 9:42 pm
A thrilling mystery unfolded today, one worthy of the history books, if only the details were not matters of international security.  Some people see a dapper gentleman on a little, 250cc Ninja motorcycle, one that has 27,000 miles on it in five years, and they see milquetoast.  Please, click belo...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 7, 2011, 8:42 pm

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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 6, 2011, 8:44 pm
I am running a test page for the Odditarium to see how it looks.  Nothing is for sale at this point. My Heart Is In My Breast.My Heart Is In My Breast. Whalehead King.  2011.She is not a lonely woman.  She has a golden touch.  She has cultivated a stable of admirers from afar, but she rare...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 6, 2011, 12:56 pm
Whalehead King (Fig. 1)I had to wear a suit today, which always makes me happy.  Since I need some photos as president of the Odditarium, I took advantage of my wardrobe.  I rather like the picture at the top.  It is almost statesmanlike. This second one is almost too corporate, though I su...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 4, 2011, 12:12 pm
Portrait of a Drinking Town. 12x24.  Oil on canvas.Unbeknownst to the wider world, your man in the field, Whalehead King, has been hard at work recreating and reviving his Odditarium.  The canvas above is one of the first products of it. What is the Odditarium?  It is part cabinet of ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 2, 2011, 8:25 pm
A day spent swimming in Lake Pontchartrain.As if the freshwater octopi weren't enough.
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Aug 1, 2011, 4:42 pm
Planter's Grove, New Orleans, LA.Who is that seated in the park where Euterpe Street meets Simon Bolivar Avenue? Let's take a closer look shall we? The Planter's Grove sign inset on the boardwalk with authentic New Orleans' tile. Mr. Peanut.  New Orleans.Well hello, Mr. Peanut.  What are you doing...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jul 25, 2011, 8:55 pm
G-8 and his Battle Aces vs. the Reich's purple aces.I've read this book.  I don't know why the events it describes were not covered in my "History of Warfare" class in college, or any formal education I've ever taken.  This is why I am an autodidact. If this isn't true, it should be.  How m...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jul 24, 2011, 3:38 pm
Under the Claiborne Avenue Overpass,  New Orleans.A drear and gloomy day today found me trapped under the Claiborne Avenue Overpass seeking shelter from the rain.  I was only a quarter mile from home, but it was pouring down, and I was in no rush.   Claiborne Avenue used to have a remarkably wide...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jul 21, 2011, 1:29 pm
President Martin Van Buren. Why Martin Van Buren?  Because I am fond of the Little Magician from Kinderhook, NY. I have all sorts of photos to upload onto the blog, but I can't find the little device to connect the card to the computer.  It used to be much easier when I just had a shoebox fu...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jul 20, 2011, 3:31 pm
A Mardi Gras Indian, Super Sunday, 2011.While I have rarely lived in a big city over the course of my life, I am a city person.  The raison d'etre of urban living is wired into my DNA.  I grew up in a smallish town, small by some standards, but larger than many cities in Oklahoma.  I lived close ...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jul 11, 2011, 2:56 pm
Crescent City ConnectorI took the ferry to Algiers the other day.  I could have taken the bridge (pictured above) but it's so darned windy up there on my little motorcycle, and there is nothing really to see.  I prefer the ferry, which costs the same.  The toll to get to the West Bank of the Miss...
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Whalehead K. posted an article on The Dot Matrix - Jul 10, 2011, 12:19 pm
The following images and designations were taken from the New Orleans City Council website, this morning.  Its address is .com vs. .gov for some reason. City Council President (according to the website)City Council Vice President (according to the website) District A District BDistrict CDistrict D...
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