A little musical melancholia...

I heard this song on Harry Shearer's radio program Le Show on NPR last week and promptly bought it on Amazon. I found this youtube clip, sadly without real video. It's "Water" by Judith Owen, who apparently is Mrs. Harry Shearer. He used the song to punctuate a melancholic report about the state of New Orleans -- where they maintain a home -- five years after Hurricane Katrina and the catastrophic failure of the levees. "The water will rise up in our lives."

It's an exquisite song, with piano and strings and Ms. Owen's haunting voice. Funny to listen to this on a day when Hurricane Earl passed us by here in New York City with just a wash of tropic humidity and a few drops of rain.

What will happen?

I took these pictures of Bayou country on a visit to New Orleans in the 1990s. What will happen to this incredibly beautiful natural landscape should a hurricane sweep through the oily Gulf of Mexico on its way to shore?

As of this writing, though slightly reduced by a cap (with vents), the crude oil continues to gush into the Gulf's waters, and the massive quantities of polluted water are starting to reach Florda.

Somewhere I read the best common sense logic: if you can't fix a drilling leak at the bottom of the ocean, you shouldn't be allowed to drill there.