(Image credit:Loki at Humid City)
There is so much sadness in the NOLA blogosphere today yet so many have found words to pay tribute toAshley Morris who passed yesterday. If you were to go to any blog listed in our NOLA blogroll in our right hand sidebar you will likely find such a tribute. And that would only be a beginning. We wanted to highlight some of what is being expressed today from our friends in the NOLA blogoshpere. We have all lost a powerful and unique voice in the blogosphere and they have lost one of their family. Our hearts go out to them and to Ashley’s wife and children. So in tribute:
We have lost ourexcitable boy.
His unrelenting passion for our city and his community will be missed
as much as his unflinching and cuss-ridden dissections of the federal,
state and local incompetence that has brought our city to its present
state.
Ashley was fire. Ashley was the furnace where the rage was forged,
where the steam pressure built, where raw anger began its conversion to
power and motion.
Ashley was a remarkable human being with an awe-inspiring wealth of
experience, an amazing sense of humor, and the kind of anger that is
only born of a deep deep sense of humanity.
I can’t begin to tell you the amazement
I felt whenever you recounted your exploits in life. I would need a few
lifetimes to do some of the things that you did in your brief life. You
lived, Professor. “Better to die a devil in the fire, than an angel in
the wings.” Ah man, amen, you were never in the wings. You were always
on the frontline. You made me laugh a lot. I thank you for that and
salute your soul. I’ll be in that second line to send you off.
It is needless to say that Ashley’s death is a huge blow to the New
Orleans blogger community, but this is also where our community can be
at its best. By helping its own. What Ashley would want is that we are
there for his wife and three small children. Let us be at their service.
He detested all things snooty or uppity. He conducted a boisterous
love of local peoples and cultures. He had the intelligence and
repertoire to engage even the most critical thinkers. He possessed a
vibrantjoie de vivre. He was a pirate, a trickster, a
madman. He was profound and profane; he was an intellectual and a
fanatic. He was a bull in a china shop and if shit was going down, you
wanted him on your side.
Much at Dangerblond but the title says it all of he who gave “Sinn Fein” to the NOLA blogosphere —“Ourselves, a little more alone”
New Orleans Patriot,
professor, musician, cigar aficionado, blogger, husband, father, Saints
fan, techie, polymath… truly a generous, original, vital soul…and jesus napoleon bonaparte christ he could make you laugh.
Oyster gives us that laugh from Ashley withthis short recording of him
Adrastoshas wonderful pictures
Toulouse Street has a poem in remembrance
I miss you, old man. More than you can ever know.
Ashley loved The Wire and had many great posts atThe New Package blog. Nancy Nall, who also writes at that blog, hasa wonderfully written tribute at her site. And today the creator of The Wire, David Simon, leftthis comment at the New Package blog and with that I cried…
Just heard.
I never met Ashley, but communicated with him only recently about
his effort to have me speak at the DePaul commencement. As it happens,
I was to be in the UK that weekend editing Generation Kill, and so sent
regrets, but I feel for some weird reason that it is important for me
to do the last thing that this fellow asked me to do.Ashley understood the dynamics of addiction exactly and there wasn’t
a subtext to any of Bubbles or Gary McCullough that eluded him. His
voice was honest and blunt and full-throated. And rooted as he was in
New Orleans, I felt that there was a possibility I was going to get to
know him a lot better.This is all very sad and sudden and upsetting.
I’m gonna call DePaul today and say that if they still want me to do
it and they have not moved on to another speaker, I’m going to fly
black and forth from London to do it. Might be too late, but Ashley
worked hard to get them to extend the invite when they were of course
wondering what the hell The Wire is, so…Damn, damn, damn…
Ashley Morris –1963-2008– beloved in the NOLA blogosphere and beyond…
UPDATE:Ray in New Orleans has the transcript of a speech, which honored the life and passing of Ashley, given by New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura at today’s New Orleans city council meeting.
Ashley and I met a only couple of times at the Rising Tide conference, and the gatherings afterwards, but I knew that he was a force. He was larger than life in so many ways.
At the conference, I picture him at the sound system, adjusting a wire, working with a plug, tweaking a knob, moving, moving, moving. What a shock to learn of his sudden passing.
My prayers and sympathy go to his family and to all who loved him – and they are many. Rest in peace, Ashley. Much love to Hana and the children.
Scout, Nancy Nall also has a wonderful tribute up. She and Ashley went way back.
nancynall.com » Blog Archive » Excitable boy.
virgo…I just finished reading it and added it above. Just a wonderfully written tribute from Nancy
Look, I am very sorry to hear about the death of impressive individual, but instead of saying “he passed,” could you please just say that the man died? The man didn’t “pass,” he has died.
scout, I don’t know if I had the privilege of meeting Ashley last year during the Krewe trip to NOLA, but I certainly wish I had. I’m so sorry to hear of his death.
I mentnioned this at dangerblond’s place, too, but I understand Ashley died while visiting south Florida, so since I live in south Florida, if I can be of any assistance to the family from here in terms of logistics or whatever, I’m glad to help. Please pass that along as appropriate. Thanks.
My condolences to Ashley’s family – his spouse and children, of course, but also his NOLA blog-family.
I remember when I carpetblogged into NOLA for the Karen Carter election at the end of 2006. A lot of you all gave me a pretty hard time before the plane even touched down!
But, eventually, you gave me a shot, and no one more so than Oyster, Ashley, Peter and Maitri who took me out to lunch at Liuzza’s (and wouldn’t let me pay!), explained to me the lay of the land in the district and took me on the “misery tour.”
Here’s Ashley’s post, accompanied by some video from the road.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8BrxaZS9Sw&hl=en%5D
Fwiw, I will carry the memory of that day with me forever. It was terribly special and really endeared me to the city in a way I never would have thought was possible before arriving.
So welcoming, so nice, so smart. Ashley, you’ll be missed in this corner of the world,
Tim Tagaris
Link for the video. — Tim
I gotta admit, that David Simon thing is impressive.
Since we don’t get HBO, I haven’t seenThe Wire (thoughHomicide rocked, of course), but that’s the sort of thing that any dedicated capital-F Fan could appreciate.
I hereby request a brief moratorium on good people dying too young.
Roger, down here we pass. It’s not just euphemism. It is also the remnants of the French and Creole languages. (Creole being, fairly, a dialect of French). Some old folks down here still pass the vacuum and make groceries.
Ashley would probably not say pass. He would be like the crotchety old woman on the Night Court show I remember from long time ago: “A drunken circus bear on a unicycle is physically challenged. I’m blind*!”.
For those interested in supporting Ashley’s family, Cumberland Cigar Co. is offering up a raffle with 100% of the proceeds going to his family. (Carrie, the shop owner has been friends with Ashley and his family forever now. Their kids have grown up together and right now she is in NOLA doing everything she can to support Hanna.)
Here’s the link:
http://www.essence-eternal.com/cigar/ashleymorris/