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From: Jacques R[last name omitted] <[Sender's email omitted]@georgerodrigue.com>

To: [Recipient's email omitted]

Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:28:29 -0600Subject:

Re: Rodrigue Studio You Tube Channel

Ms. [Blue Mojito],

My name is Jacques R[last name omitted] and I work with Rodrigue Studio. I am happy that you became a fan of George's after visiting his exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Thank you for sending us your inquiry. Please allow me to clear up some confusion you may be having.

George Rodrigue is not associated with any political party nor with any of today's politics. We work very hard to ensure that the Blue Dog Democrats do not use any of our images. We do not want George's art to be politicized in any way. George creates art to bring people together. He wants everyone to be able to enjoy his art without having any pre-conceived notions. The works combined with the titles speak for themselves and present a commentary upon the human condition. To associate ourselves with anything political would take away from that artistic mission. George controls his art and it exists as an entity entirely to itself.

Whoopi Goldberg is a good friend of George's and she became a fan of his in the early years of the Blue Dog. Early on, she commissioned him to paint her portrait with the Blue Dog. Then, to help him gain recognition for his art, she graciously agreed to work on the documentary project and to give her unique voice to the Blue Dog. She and George continue to be friends and she is still a collector. She lent her voice as a friend and you should not be offended in any way.

I hope that answers some of your questions. Please don't let politics get in the way of your enjoyment of George's work.

Sincerely,
Jacques R[last name omitted]

Free Exercise Clause

Hello,

I became a fan of your Blue Dog series of paintings when I happened to view them at Rodrigue's Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs, and Beyond Katrina at the New Orleans Museum of Art. After viewing the exhibition, I viewed the 1992 "Rodrigue Studio" videos on Youtube.com featuring an interview of yourself, George Rodrigue, describing the inspiration for the Blue Dog, your late Cocker Spaniel Tiffany. I wanted to know why the Blue Dog is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. I am a black woman and I am intrigued to understand what the Blue Dog means in connection with Harold Ford Jr. fame. This is in respect to Harold Ford Jr. being a Blue Dog Democrat and losing to Tennessee Senator Bob Corker in 2006 during the Tennessee senate race. Senator Bob Corker ran a television ad and a campaign attack jabbing at Harold Ford Jr. for being an overindulgent ladies man running on his sexual appeal and a Caucasian female exclaiming that she met him at a Playboy party. Ford Jr. lost the race to Corker after a heated public debate on the racism behind the television spot. News commentators confirmed the ad to be offensive. Harold Ford Jr. later married a Caucasian woman the next year. For the Blue Dog to come to life through the voice of Whoopi Goldberg, it seems quite offensive to Black women and any woman of African, African-American, Creole, or Spanish Caliphate descent. How does this 1992 depiction of your art fit in with today's politics?

Thanks,
[Blue Mojito]

America the Beautiful

A young woman in Saudi Arabia finally received justice over a teenage boy who blackmailed her for her photographs without her hijab or her abaya. The rise of this modern violation of Islamic conservatism is aided by the use of cellular phone cameras and computer repair shops. Meanwhile, in the United States we have the likes of 96.1 The Beat's most famous air time radio host dancing on Youtube.com with a large erect penis peaking through his swathing black leotard. I did not post the link because I do not want you to flag me for Violent or Repulsive Content. However, I advise you to do so for "Cubby's Dance to Beyonce Single Ladies" 51,159 hits strong on the Cubbyradio channels on Youtube.com. Mostafa Hosni's Cairo Muslim televangelic guru would still not let this Tyra Banks show invitee as a guest on his show with a similar 18-34 demographic. Extremely Reckless! I have to post pictures of similar goings on in my neck of the woods. Watch the tool box vagrant!

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Auntie Loraine has not called to tell me about the three nights at Grand Lido Miss McPherson won from the church raffle in 2005. This is even after still suffering from the after shocks of the treatment I received Memphis. After my old New Jersey church burnt down in 1993, the only prizes that we had available to us were $100 raffle jackpots we all pooled for and complimentary nosebleed tickets for our church youth group to see Grant Hill and the Detroit Pistons play the rest of the New Jersey Nets. And Auntie Loraine still says I have never had it this good.

Keep Driving

The $3.00 Asahi Super Dry won't kill the thought of stale sushi, but a $1.25 deal for raw fish means that you get everything that you deserve. I pulled into Zushi's earlier this evening and had a bite. It was so-so. What made me do it? The Kona Grill's spacious happy hour bar never has a seat open. Of course, there is always the restaurant... One please.

Student Counsel

My great aunt Sylvia loves to send me birthday and Christmas cards in the mail with prayers from The Omaha Home for Boys enclosed. Glad to hear from someone from "home," I usually placed the cards prominently on my desk away in the dormitories in college or on the mantle in my living room apartment in law school. I never took much significance in the enclosed prayers until Sylvia hand wrote a letter dismissing my difficulties experienced since 2005. Here is a spin at two I received here at my parents house last October:

Thinking of You

This morning as I rose from

Bed and saw the sun above

I softy said "Good Morning"

God, bless everyone I love.

And right away I thought of you

And said a loving prayer

That He would bless you specially

And keep you free from care.

I thought of all the happiness

Your day could hold in store;

And wished it all for you,

Because no one deserves it more.

I felt so warm and good inside,

My heart was all aglow -

I know God heard my prayer for you,

He hears them all you know.

I Said a Prayer for You Today

I said a prayer for you today

And know God must have heard

I felt the answer in my heart

Although He spoke no word!

I didn't ask for wealth or fame

(I knew you wouldn't mind)

I asked that He'd be near you

At the start of each new day

To grant you health and blessings

And friends to share your way!

I asked for happiness for you

In all things great and small

But it was for His loving care

I prayed the most of all!

Southern Comfort

I took a dip in the tub this weekend with a few capfuls of Johnson's Soothing Vapor Bath for babies. Sometimes I light prayer candles to the angels and the Holy Saints when I soak away my ails and bad ales. A bout of the common cold in Texas? My family used to live down here for a couple of years before moving back to New Jersey. I never really became sick as a kid down here until I shared the chicken pox with the rest of Miss Cerace's third grade class in 1988. The vapor bath's "rosemary, eucalyptus, and menthol" helped dissipate my runny nose and scratchy sore throat earned from funny bottles of Bud Light and broken dishwashers. Guess, I should have stayed home and waited for another episode of MTv's Cribs err Crates instead: