I heard on the Louisiana Gumbo radio show tonight that Monica Spain — one-half of the mural-magicians that will be featured on Treme tonight — say “It’s not a spill!” She was referring to the travesty in the Gulf with BP’s oil disaster. She’s right — it’s not a spill. And as she astutely pointed out, “A spill is something we can clean up …” The effects of this disaster are so far-reaching and as yet unknowable — containment, much less a true “clean-up” is looking less and less like a viable option.

Anyway, I heard her talk a little bit more about the mural — the tromp l’oeil (French for “trick of the eye”) that will appear on tonight’s HBO series, Treme. It’s the background of a scene involving a musician at “Apple Bar” in N.O. It’s of Louis Armstrong (one of my all-time faves).

The mural art that will appear in tonight's episode of Treme (courtesy of www.bellaarte.biz)

Monica said people should “Stay off Bourbon Street” and venture “outside the norm” when visiting N.O. So, I guess I know where I’ll be headed when I visit the Big Easy (do people really call it that anymore or am I just too-big a fan of Dennis Quaid’s N.O. moves on Ellen Barkin back in the day?).

Monica, or as John Osgood, the host of Louisiana Gumbo show referred to her on-air tonight “Crawfish Monica”, (hmmmmm … what’s that moniker all about?), gave out a couple of good websites for folks interested in helping fisherman and others most affected by the totally-not-a-spill-spill:

Check them out at www.gulfaid.org and www.globalgreen.org.