August 24, when Pompeii was buried in volcanic ash due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (79…today or October 24, scholars can’t decide), when Calcutta was founded (1690), when Edison patented the motion picture camera (1891), when NATO was formed (1949), when Gorbachev resigned from the Soviet Communist Party (1991), when when Microsfot released it’s Windows 95 operating system (1995, duh); it’s when Yasser Arafat (1929) and Dave Chappelle (1973) were born, and when NOLA’s own Louis Prima died (1978).  

This week in the Speakeasy, we get the brass tacks about a bluesman, perspective on Port au Prince and a Green take on the Gulf. Click through to view this week's free speeches.

July 21, when Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West (1873), when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon (1969), when the world’s lowest recorded temperature dropped to -89.2 degrees Celsius (-128.6 degrees F) in Antarctica (1983), and when The final Harry Potter (and the Deathly Hallows) volume went on sale (2007); it’s Ernest Hemingway (1899), John Gardner (1933), Cat Stevens (1948), Robin Williams (1951), Jon Lovitz (1957), and Damian Marley’s (1978) birthdays, and Racial Harmony Day in Singapore.

April 21, when Henry VIII ascended England’s throne (1509), when Noah Webster published the first American dictionary (1828), when the first Polaroid camera was sold in the U.S., when the Beatles met The Stones (1963), when ‘Annie’ premiered on Broadway (1977), when Howard Stern went on air (1980), the protests at Tiananmen Square (1989), Iggy Pop (1947) and Tony Danza’s (1951) date of births, and Mark Twain (1910) and Nina Simone’s (1910) deaths. Lots to take in, and lots to do:

Reusing old materials is a way to go green. Going green is fashionable. Fashion is hip. It's hip to be below the Quarter. For, recycling-minded enterprises of th,e Greater Bywater-Marigny-7th Ward area, the answer to the above logic train comes Saturday with ReFest. Workshops, film screenings, Jon Cleary, and a pub crawl, highlight Saturday's all-day kickoff for the loosely-linked alliance of businesses known as the Reuse District. The Green Project has the full details. Did we mention there's a pub crawl?