Mmmm... Butch

.

Five Good Things To Come Out Of Hurricane Katrina

Author: cindy.casares

At the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, let's take a look at the silver linings, few as they were.

Butch Anderson Cooper

There's no question Hurricane Katrina was Anderson Cooper's big coming out. Not THAT coming out, but his coming out as a big, butch man. The government's mishandling of the situation got Anderson pissed. He rolled up the sleeves on his tight t-shirt, pulled on the waders, and demanded to know, "Why isn't help arriving?!!!" America was in love. Now no one cares if he's gay. He's our hero.

Tremé!

Tremé is a fantastic show from the producers of The Wire, another great show, that would never have come to be if it weren't for the plight of the historic musical neighborhood in the Lower 9th Ward. With incredible American music out the ying yang and guest spots from legends like Steve Earle and Kermit Ruffins, it's truly a feast for fans of low culture. And without Tremé, we'd never have learned how there came to be black Indian chiefs at Mardi Gras.

Kanye

The success of Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" speech during a live, televised Katrina relief telethon, directly lead to West thinking he was untouchable enough to spit out his very raw opinion of Taylor Swift in the middle of her acceptance speech for Best Female Video during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. And the rest, as you know, is pop culture history.

That BP oil spill thing might have seemed really bad.

Let's face it, as horrible as the Deepwater Horizon oilspill is, the full ramifications of it are not even hitting you because you're still reeling from those images of people sitting in their own feces in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. In reality, the damages from the oilspill will be far more long lasting. Good thing you can't tell!

Taco Trucks

Probably the best thing to hit New Orleans as a result of the hurricane, though they don't know it. The immigrants who've moved in to help rebuild the city, bringing their cuisine with them. Just imagine, spicy crawfish tortas. Mmmm.