Random Tape

I found this recording in a box of old tapes. I think I picked it up at a thrift store in Louisiana. It appears to be role playing excercises at a beauty school.

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Nason Smith's nonfiction has appeared on NPR: Hearing Voices and his fiction has been published in The Pinch. He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Welcome to Florida. You look great!

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One of the great things about New Orleans is that you can set up a card table and sell booze in the street. This is what it sounds like.

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My friend Keaton was having some trouble working on a tandem bicycle at the bike shop he works at when a customer recommended a solution he found on the internet.

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Film maker Karim El Hakim told this story at a live storytelling event at the True/False Film Festival.

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This cover was performed by Walt McClement on banjo and Mary Go Round (the one time holder of the world record for spinning the most hoola hoops at once: 76 if my memory serves me correctly) on accordion and vocals. The song All the Pretty Horses is about the and the Army Corps of Engineers decision to dynamite the levee at Caernarvon, Louisiana to save New Orleans. The breach caused a flood that displaced thousands and was later deemed unnecessary. Check out the book  

I recorded this late one evening in the upstairs of Mimi’s in the Marigny in New Orleans.

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I was walking my dog the other night when I came across Larry Boutan sitting on a concrete wall drinking a beer. I bought some beers and joined him. This is the story of Larry’s very first beer.

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is the band director at O Perry Walker High school in New Orleans. He runs one of the best marching bands in the state along with a concert band and a Jazz ensemble. Rawlins doesn’t just teach kids to play an instrument though, he provides discipline for a lot of kids who live in a chaotic environment. He teaches them about commitment and the benefits of hard work and education. He puts in a tremendous amount of work at O Perry Walker. When you ask him what the reward is for the countless hours he puts into teaching he says it’s a single moment that lasts for one maybe two seconds.

This is an excerpt form a story I did a few years ago which you can listen to Wilburt Rawlins Jr. is also featured in the book

Photo by: Susan Poag / The Times-Picayune

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The Sound of Suffocation.

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