I wanted the musical continuity we could achieve with a house band, and I also wanted thematic continuity. I didn't want songs about flooding; I didn't want songs about rain. I wanted to celebrate the musicality and the spirituality of the old neighborhood because I didn't know if there would even be an old neighborhood to return to. So I wanted the spirit of the neighborhood bar.

I knew as soon as you got New Orleans cats together you were going to have the spirit and sound of the city. We could address all the emotions of the moment.

I was sitting in my new home in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, horrified like everyone else. I knew which neighborhoods were being hardest hit because I've spent over 25 years going down there, first as a reporter covering Jazz Fest for Billboard and then developing friendships there. As those waters rose, a lot of people knew I had close relationships in New Orleans and started e-mailing me about what was happening there. I couldn't believe it.

Yom HaShoah is a vital day in the Jewish calendar, providing us with a focal point for our remembrance. We cannot bring the dead back to life, but we can bring their memory back to life and ensure they are not forgotten. We can undertake in our lives to do what they were so cruelly prevented from doing in theirs.

If you want a free society, teach your children what oppression tastes like. Tell them how many miracles it takes to get from here to there. Above all, encourage them to ask questions. Teach them to think for themselves.

Technology gives us power, but it does not and cannot tell us how to use that power. Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.