New Orleans' Friendly Bar > Comments > "Review of New Orleans' Friendly Bar"
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Commenter Profile
- John Biewen
- Username: jbiewen
- Location: Durham, North Carolina
- Joined PRX: Dec 21, 2005
Piece Information
- "New Orleans' Friendly Bar"
- Summary: A visit to a local New Orleans bar reveals stories of Katrina's lingering effects.
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Review of New Orleans' Friendly Bar
John Biewen
Posted on July 03, 2007 at 10:54 AM
It's a challenging task at this point to say something new about New Orleanians and their efforts to rebuild their city and their lives. The idea of focusing on one neighborhood bar seems like a promising approach. Maybe we'll meet an interesting character or two, or hear one unpredictable story, or zero in on a telling detail that reveals something poignant or upbeat. Or maybe we'll get a documentary approach that lets us listen in and feel what it's like to hang out in Friendly Bar. Unfortunately, this piece offers none of the above. It contains a factual surprise or two (housing prices have gone up in some parts of the city), but the reporter uses the prism of the bar mainly to tell us what we already know: that every person in New Orleans and every aspect of life there remains changed by Katrina, that everybody has a Katrina story, that people face tough decisions about their future. The writing and production are fine, but it feels like an opportunity missed.