Marking a milestone: 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina inspires new pop culture multimedia novel of unquenchable spirit, cast in accents, attitudes of New Orleans

An "Elegy for the Lost City," written by a career musician about New Orleans, can't help but be jazzed up, jived, and funkified by the diverse assemblage of world-class players, homey hipsters, and denizens of the Deep South in this “down river Lake Woebegone,” so described in this pre-book release review by Pulitzer Prize-Nominated Playwright and Peabody Award Winner Willy Holtzman.
(PR NewsChannel) / July 29, 2015 / NEW ORLEANS 
"An Elegy for the Lost City," Katrina’s New Orleans, by Johnny Goldstein. Published by Margaret Media, Inc.. Coming: Fall 2015.

“An Elegy for the Lost City,” Katrina’s New Orleans, by Johnny Goldstein. Published by Margaret Media, Inc.. Coming: Fall 2015.

It’s sweltering and sticky, hotter than a Frenchman’s firecracker in New Orleans. An impish six-year old boy, barely a beginning trumpeter, miraculously starts playing like a lifelong master on the day after Louis Armstrong dies in 1971. It is the dawning of the “end of times,” as told in “An Elegy for the Lost City,” the debut novel of Faulkner Society Award Finalist Johnny Goldstein, to be published this Fall by Margaret Media, Inc.

“Elegy” is cast in the accents and attitudes of New AW-lins, where elongated vowels can take on a life of their own and real life characters like Dr. John and Harry Connick Jr. pop up amid the fictitious inhabitants of this deeply-rooted, dialect-rich place.

A pop culture countdown to the apocalypse with Hurricane Katrina as an allegory for what awaits us all, Goldstein’s “Ficto-Reality” novel is filled with tragic untimely losses mirroring the Storm’s holocaust. Edited by Michael Lydon, founding editor of Rolling Stone and dean of American rock journalists, “Elegy is set among the music and restaurant worlds of New Orleans and spans the centuries in time-tripping style with the Crescent City as its epicenter. Lydon was enthralled by Goldstein’s “free-flowing prose, peppered with stinging humor,” describing it as “A book to be savored like a spicy crawfish bisque – read it, but be warned of this risk: you may soon feel an overwhelming urge to experience ‘N’awlins,’ not just through Goldstein’s eyes and ears, but by spending a few weeks there yourself.”

“An Elegy for the Lost City” brings a post-modern interpretation to the calamitous events of Hurricane Katrina, where every neighborhood bears the scars of “dat’s not dere no more” and every corner turns on the memory at those who were taken, or still unable to return. Encompassing 300 years of history from D’Iberville to modern day DuFossats, “Elegy enters a diverse world of jazz, jambalaya and funk–Jesus, Jews and Buddhism. It’s hushpuppies, crawfish and kreplach, spirits in mystic visions, shape-shifting guides, imaginary friends, and past-life revelation; a spicy world where mystery abounds. In New Orleans’ first satellite outpost of St. Louis, the disparate families of “Elegy,” under the spell of cosmic confluence all share attendance at the most famous and unique event in baseball’s epic storied history, 1961’s “Miracle of the Foul Balls,” featuring Roberto Clemente’s World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates against the Cardinals.

This classic historic artifact, in the common Sporting News style of the day, is a cartoonist Rick London production, created by noted illustrator Tom Kerr.

This classic historic artifact, in the common Sporting News style of the day, is a cartoonist Rick London production, created by noted illustrator Tom Kerr.

Author Johnny Goldstein is a Woodstock generation native of St. Louis. He is an award-winning songwriter/composer, guitarist, teacher and music producer. “An Elegy for the Lost City” is based on three characters from Goldstein’s original songs.

Like the musical child prodigy at the center of “Elegy,” Goldstein grew up listening to Satchmo and Louie Prima; later he attended Tulane University in New Orleans. The author formed a visceral, spiritual connection to the city in much the same way another character in his novel responds: “I felt as if I was more completely alive than I had ever been before; a resonance that I was meant to be in New Orleans.”

The Father of Gospel Music, Thomas A. Dorsey, bows in respect at the tomb of New Orleans-born Mahalia Jackson, widely considered the world’s greatest gospel singer. During a career that spanned nearly 40 years, the late Photographer Michael P. Smith chronicled the street culture and folk community of New Orleans. His work has been shown at galleries, embassies and museums throughout the world. A long-time friend of "Elegy" Author Johnny Goldstein, Smith’s photographs of the people and places that define the cultural landscape of New Orleans appear throughout the book.

The Father of Gospel Music, Thomas A. Dorsey, bows in respect at the tomb of New Orleans-born Mahalia Jackson, widely considered the world’s greatest gospel singer. During a career that spanned nearly 40 years, the late Photographer Michael P. Smith chronicled the street culture and folk community of New Orleans. His work has been shown at galleries, embassies and museums throughout the world. A long-time friend of “Elegy” Author Johnny Goldstein, Smith’s photographs of the people and places that define the cultural landscape of New Orleans appear throughout the book. Copyright Michael P. Smith, THNOC

Illustrating pre and post-Katrina New Orleans richly and thoroughly throughout “Elegy” is the featured photography of Roy Guste and the late Michael P. Smith, two of New Orleans’ best known visual chroniclers of the Big Easy street culture. Smith is best known for his pictures of Jazz Fest and his evocative photography capturing the Spiritual Church, Mardi Gras Indians and funereal second line cultures. Lensman Roy Guste is also an award-winning author, historian and writer of cookbooks. In addition to his moody, techno-magic treatment of classic New Orleans scenes, he’s chief chronicler of the Crescent City’s colorful, still steamy southern decadence world of burlesque.

Johnny at the Square

Musician and “Elegy” Author, Johnny Goldstein in New Orleans

Goldstein’s career as a musician, composer and producer inspired him to create the “World’s First Audio Book in Radio Form” for his debut novel. Transformed as an ornately-produced Radio Play read and dramatized by the author, “Elegy” as an audio book is overflowing with the music that defines New Orleans as well as the panorama of rock ‘n roll legends influenced by the city’s iconic musicians. The Beatles as well as Satchmo and Kermit Ruffins plus dozens of other musical artists set the backdrop for this old-school radio drama heightened by the lush, ambient sounds of everyday New Orleans. Goldstein’s original compositions which form the basis of the “Elegy” plot are also featured and underscored by the author/narrator as the soulful pied-piper of this musical storytelling narrative. Daniel Menaker, retired Random House executive editor-in-chief, and former fiction editor of the New Yorker described sections of the audio book as sardonic, sad, with a mordant humor, haunting music.”

Margaret Media, Inc. Publisher Wyndham Payne noted that he and Goldstein both share the vision of a “Multimedia Experience of Fiction,” expanding the boundaries of traditional publishing with new applications for technology.

“An Elegy for the Lost City,” coming this Fall, is the first volume of a multimedia series of books and audio books by Johnny Goldstein.

For more information about the book or to pre-order “An Elegy for the Lost City” online, visit: www.anelegyforthelostcity.com

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Contact Information and Media Inquiries:
Anne O’Brien
Bourbon Media
504-408-1535

Direct link:  https://prnewschannel.com/2015/07/29/marking-a-milestone-10th-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina-inspires-a-new-pop-culture-multimedia-novel-of-unquenchable-spirit-cast-in-accents-attitudes-of-new-orleans/

SOURCE:  Margaret Media, Inc.


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