Attention commenters: This is how you leave a comment. Regarding our poll question — "Do you support the plan to change the curfew for minors in the French Quarter to 8 p.m. on weeknights?" — reader Annti unleashes this righteous rant:

What about curfews for 50-60-year-old geezers wearing brand-new baggy pants, one leg rolled-up, sideways caps (and of every color of the rainbow, I might add!), trying to pass themselves off as "thirty-ish" to girls who may not even be old enough to drink, but their skanty clothing gets them into every other bar in the Quarter? OOOH!!! Even better!!! A ***PERMANENT*** CURFEW on the statutory-rapist types on Decatur, pushing SIXTY, looking like death on a cracker, and telling 16-year-old goth girls that they're "Wandering" FOUR-HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD VAMPIRES who only keep those cop-repellant dogs with them (cops HATE waiting for the SPCA to show up & pick-up gutter-punk dogs) because they are their "familiars" (mixed mythology, anyone?) and that the inch-thick pancake makeup is to protect their "vampire" skin (and cavern-deep wrinkles) from "too much incandescent & neon light." Can we get THOSE mofos off the streets, PERMANENTLY??!?! They pose a greater hazard to the health & welfare of youngsters in this city than a stupid-assed CURFEW could fix.

If you don't know where your kids are or what they're doing after dark, IT'S ***YOUR*** FAULT. ...

There's more. Quite a lot more. Go under the jump, and if you're inspired by Annti, submit your own comment here.

The annual Rising Tide conference is underway at Xavier University. At 11:40, Gambit's Alex Woodward will be moderating a discussion about the BP oil disaster, and our second line correspondent Big Red Cotton takes the mic at 4:35 pm to lead a discussion about brass band culture with panelists including Gambit's Alejandro de los Rios, who is completing Brass Roots, a documentary about the city's brass bands. (Details of both panels below.)

For those who can't make it, here's the webcast.

11:40 a.m. — 12:50 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Re-capping the well

The aftermath of the Macondo oil disaster and the future of the Gulf Coast. A discussion about how what's just happened over the past year will affect the land and the people for years to come.

Moderator: Alex Woodward - staff writer, Gambit, covering the environment, arts and culture of south Louisiana.

Anne Rolfes - Founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Anne began her organizing career in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo. It was there that she first witnessed the destruction of oil production. After six years of working on Nigerian issues, Anne returned to Louisiana in 1999 to protect her home state from petrochemical pollution. Anne was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana where many people made their fortunes from the oil industry. She has seen the wealth and the poverty created by oil production and seeks to make the industry more equitable. In October 2007 Anne was recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a Community Health Leader.

David Hammer - An award-winning reporter for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. He led the paper's investigation of what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon rig and broke several stories about key engineering decisions that contributed to the BP well blowout. His beats since the oil spill also include the drilling moratorium and Kenneth Feinberg's administration of spill claims. Hammer is a seventh-generation New Orleanian and a graduate of Harvard University. He worked five years for newspapers in New England and four years with The Associated Press.

Dr. Len Bahr - The former director of the Governor's Applied Coastal Science Program who currently publishes the La Coast Post website.

Drake Toulouse- A BP and Gulf Coast Claims Facility critic who writes at Disenfranchised Citizen.

Bob Marshall - Marshall is The Times-Picayune's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has spent much of his career chronicling the people, stories and issues of Louisiana's wetlands culture. Although best known as outdoors editor of the newspaper, Marshall's 35-year career includes extensive work as a reporter and columnist covering professional, college and Olympics sports, feature writing, op-ed columns, and special projects specializing in environmental issues.

4:35 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
Panel Discusion: Brass. New Orleans. Music.

Moderator: "Big Red Cotton" Deborah Cotton

Lawrence Rawlins - Band director of Roots of Music

Alejandro de los Rios - Producer of the Brass Roots documentary

Edward “Juicy” Jackson - Trombonist TBC Brass Band

Joe Maize - Trombonist TBC Brass Band

Sean Michael Roberts - Trumpeter TBC Brass Band

This panel will be followed by a performance by the TBC Brass Band.