Wednesday April 6, 2005

Candles for Joe

I pulled this picture out of the vault, a picture of candles burning down into the Treme street where Joe Williams was shot down, with his hands stretched in front of him to surrender, as he was getting out of a truck he supposedly stole to drive to a Hot 8 gig. Violence is a way of life here, and the reality is if you run from the police you might get shot. This may seem incomprehensible elsewhere, but this is New Orleans and different reality.

Joe Williams was a talented musician, from the Lastie family, and we burned candles for him for weeks, but in the end it was a wasted life, ended in a hail of bullets on a hot summer day in the Big Easy. Whether drugs were involved or not is irrelevant. He was getting ready to surrender and he was killed.

A few days later a young police woman would be shot dead trying to commit a troubled man who happened to be armed to the teeth. There was a benefit for her, and I attended, and we raised our spirits and some money for he family. Two deaths, two wasted lives, one shot over a truck, another trying to help a deranged man, one a cop the other a talented musician, both much loved, both missed.

It rained today, and it is cool, but summer is marching towards us, and the heat and the desperation will rise, with the tempers of those who maybe can't afford ac, or even a fan. The days are getting longer; the killing season is coming.