Category: Weekly Updates

“Bayou Boys for the Win!”

Diana had the MRI of her back on Tuesday evening.   I followed that by joining the guys for trivia night at Dat Dog.  What do you know?  We won!

I contributed on a few questions – the very first one was, “Where was curling invented?”, easy – Scotland.  The guys were leaning towards Canada – geez!  We completely failed on this halftime question, lucking into one of the four opportunities:

We needed a Swiftie on our team.  She takes over New Orleans for three nights in late October.

The final question was worth up to twenty points – you have to decide how much to gamble based on the competition – we were only a few points ahead and so went all in with twenty.  The answer was a single number, made up by adding the number of major tournaments that Jack Nicklaus won, to the number of the king to whom Marie Antoinette was married, to the number of Oscars won by the original Wizard of Oz.  We came within one of the correct answer for the overall win!  Having a few different age groups represented on our team certainly helps.  I need to make the effort to attend more often as I always have a great time.

Ian McNulty, our local food writer, got my attention with his review of a brand new local restaurant, Aguasanta:

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/eat-drink/aquasanta-opens-in-new-orleans-with-elevated-mexican-food/article_1e1f6bd4-6fc2-11ef-ae20-23f0cd916917.html

I made a reservation for Friday and invited Denny and Anne to join us.  We started with a visit to the Old Alker distillery, right next door to the restaurant.

The restaurant is very modern and welcoming.  Service was good and the food was nicely different and creative.

The stand out dish was the birria style lamb shank, perfectly cooked:

My second favourite was the suckling pig terrine – different flavour and a great sauce:

And then the crab rice arancini.  What a yummy meal – and very well done by a brand new place.

Diana noticed that the Saturday afternoon concert series at the Kingpin started up again this week, after taking a break for the height of summer.  Jon Papa Gros kicked things off with a really enjoyable set.  Kenny and Kara joined for part of it – celebrating Kara’s birthday.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor afternoon free concert.  Typical of what we love about this city.

Diana invited Kara to brunch on Sunday to celebrate her birthday weekend.

I had suggested Café Amelie in the French Quarter and Diana liked the idea.  I provided a Kuber (Keith Uber) to and from the restaurant and took advantage of the close proximity of the New Orleans Athletic Club to hang out and get some exercise between drop-off and pickup.  The restaurant had moved a couple of doors down from what I remembered – the girls thought the smaller patio was actually better and had a very tasty meal.

Kara adores the band the Old 97s and we may join her and several others to watch them tonight at Tipitina’s – just depends on how sleepy we are at show time.  I’ll report out next week.

Finn and Holly just sent some pictures from their lunch at Shiawase in Allen – this is a sushi place that Finn and I used to enjoy.  Look at the Romeo and Juliet roll:

He also shared this “melon monster” from employee appreciation day:

I took a break from “The Patron Saint of Liars” by Anne Patchett, which I don’t love yet but plan to return to soon.

I switched over to “Tell me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout, which I love.  It features all the regular characters from her previous novels, and I really enjoy the way it takes time to revisit the characters with nothing crazy happening.   I’m not quite a third of the way through and things are starting to get interesting.  I highly recommend all of her books.

Let’s start off with something from local hero, Anders Osborne:

Alex introduced me to this band and I love them:

I have a feeling many more of their tracks will make it into these posts.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

“She Said Yes!”

Finn and Holly got engaged on the beach in Galveston, TX on Monday.  They look so happy and had a great meal to celebrate their engagement and Holly’s birthday.

I’m so happy these two found each other.

I was tracking Hurricane Francine and hoping it wasn’t going to disrupt their plans.  They were fortunate as it changed paths to come directly over New Orleans.  Our new generator was online and ready to respond to any power outages – we were much luckier than most and didn’t have any issues.

The winds and flooding weren’t too bad at all in our area.  Thankfully a mild first hurricane experience.

We hosted an expanded Krewe for the Cowboys and Saints game on Sunday.  Everyone brought delicious snacks and had a good time.  Jeff and Merry Lee brought their “babies”, Jazz and Cali.

My lucky Cowboys jacket did not serve a good purpose, with the game quickly turning into a blowout for the Saints.  You can imagine how much fun it is to be the only Cowboys fan in a house full of Saints fans with a huge lead.

All I could do was spend some time with the only non rabid Saints fan – she wouldn’t declare as a Cowboys fan either (a problem!)

I really did enjoy having a house full of good friends – that didn’t happen in McKinney.

An engagement, a hurricane and a football party at the house – that’s quite a week!

My book this week, “My Last Innocent Year” by Daisy Alpert Florin, was a recommendation from Fred.  It is beautifully written, and has some big themes, just not what I expected from Fred – he just keeps us guessing.  Here’s the online summary:

“It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder but now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place―until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling.

Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented: the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse. As the lives of the adults around her slowly come apart, Isabel discovers that the line between youth and adulthood is less defined than she thought.

A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Daisy Alpert Florin’s My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from.”

Here’s something interesting and different from Ikebe Shakedown:

Here’s what Discogs says about the band:

David Gilmour has a new album out that sounds really good:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

“Football’s back!”

We joined the New Orleans Athletic Club on Monday.  We toured a few weeks ago and finally took the plunge (pun intended.)  This club is located downtown on the edge of the French Quarter and began in 1872.  You can read all about the interesting history here:

https://neworleansathleticclub.com/about/history

The character and the lovely pool were big selling points for me.  As well as the reading library and bar.  I’m looking forward to becoming a regular.  Here are some pictures inside:

The club has a lot of classes each week and I think we’re going to really enjoy it.

The US Open tournament provided some very good entertainment this week – some of the highest quality tennis that I’ve seen in a while.  I was pleased to see Steve Gleason in attendance:

We watched the kickoff to the football season at Dos Jefes cigar and jazz bar.  It was so nice to listen to the Mark Coleman band, with the very talented John Fohl sitting in, while watching the Kansas City Chiefs eke out a win over Baltimore.

I treated McD to Happy Hour at the Bower on Friday afternoon.  They really have great snacks on the special menu.  Here Diana is demonstrating how to eat spaghetti for Steve – he cut his up with a knife and fork on our San Diego trip:

We went for our visit to the NOAC on Saturday morning.  I enjoyed a swim (before being ousted by the water aerobics ladies – got to pay attention to the schedule).  I treated Diana to brunch at Elizabeth’s in the Bywater area after our visit.  This is an excellent brunch restaurant – we loved our “pig candy” (praline bacon) and Florentine benedict with fried oysters.

After brunch, we met the boys at Cooter Brown’s for a little bit of college football watching.

Both the Cowboys and Saints had convincing wins to kickoff their campaigns – making for a pleasant Sunday all around.

I’m skipping the book and music sections for this post as I try to get caught up again.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

“Backup power online”

Our new generator was installed on Tuesday and it was an all day activity.  We are awaiting the final new “higher bore” gas meter to be installed before we’ll be all tested and live.

The power was off to the house for a few hours in the afternoon as the install was completed.  We took advantage to head out for Happy Hour.  First up, 4141 St Charles, a new cocktail bar in what was/is New Orleans Seafood and Hamburger Company.  The drinks and oysters were good but the atmosphere needs some work – too bright and basic.

I had intended to visit the Library before heading home – that’s the cocktail bar version and not the one that is temporarily closed due to an “abundance of caution” (personally hated phrase) about a mold issue – but it didn’t open until 5pm.  The Bouligny Tavern came to the rescue.  This was Diana’s first visit and she enjoyed it quite a bit – another place that’s walkable from home when the weather is reasonable.  The bartender was spinning vintage jazz vinyl and we had a good chat about that.  The mushroom and brie dish we ordered was excellent – a wonderful red win reduction sauce and perfectly executed.  The Bouligny shares a kitchen with Lillete, a well known fine dining restaurant.

Around the same time, Anne was celebrating her real birthday with her Mom and girlfriends in Florida.  You can tell Carolyn is really enjoying hosting.

We both noticed a gas smell after the generator installation.  A technician came out and I showed him the spots on the patio where it was most prevalent – “You mean right here next to the gas lamps that are turned on and not lit?”  Ah geez – what a couple of clowns.   In our defense, we believe turning off the lamps before install and relighting when complete, should be part of the generator basic install process.

I dropped Diana off at the airport for her visit to Pacifica on Wednesday.  We both have sore backs and so I was worried about her trip.  She seemed to soldier through it okay.

I didn’t do much until a special event at the Prytania theater on Sunday afternoon.  This is a neighbourhood movie theater with just one screen and a ton of old school character.  Bruce Spizer is a local Beatles historian who has published several books about their albums and movies.  This talk was about “A Hard Day’s Night.”  Spizer delivered a multimedia talk for about an hour and then we watched the movie.  What a fund way to pass a few hours on a hot afternoon.

You can read more about the Spizer album series of books here:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/359154-album-series

Meanwhile, Kenny and Kara were enjoying the Adirondacks and Lake Placid at her brother’s place.

And the Redwood City Campagna kids were back to school.  Both at St. Francis with their dad for one overlap year:

My book this week was “The Uptown Local – Joy, Death and Joan Didion” – by Cory Leadbetter.

This book started out well and quickly became a bit tedious.  Fortunately, it was a short read.  The paragraphs jumped around way too much for me, without any obvious linkage in time or theme.  Here’s an online summary:

“As an aspiring novelist in his early twenties, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential. Since the tumultuous days of childhood, Cory had sought refuge from the rougher parts of life in the pages of books. Suddenly, he found himself the personal assistant to a titan of literature: Joan Didion.

In the nine years that followed, Cory shared Joan’s rarefied world, transformed not only by her blazing intellect but by her generous friendship and mentorship. Together they recited poetry in the mornings, dined with Supreme Court justices, attended art openings, smoked a single cigarette before bed.

But secretly, Cory was spiraling. He reeled from the death of a close friend. He spent his weekends at a federal prison, visiting his father as he served time for fraud. He struggled day after day to write the novel that would validate him as a real writer. And meanwhile, the forces of addiction and depression loomed large.

In hypnotic prose that pulses with life and longing, The Uptown Local explores the fault lines of class, family, loss, and creativity. It is a love letter to a cultural icon—and a moving testament to the relationships that sustain us in the eternal pursuit of a life worth living.”

Here’s another completely mellow Larry Carlton driven Crusader’s song:

And something from my recent favourite saxophonist:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

“Anne’s Pre-Birthday Week”

Diana and Anne had a pool day planned at Merry Lee’s place on Monday.  They invited me to join them for lunch at Tacos del Cartel beforehand.  This was a wonderful meal in a very pretty restaurant.  We started with a delicious ceviche and then I had the birria tacos on the clothesline, while Anne had soft shell crab tacos and Diana some yummy mushroom tacos.  All three were fantastic.

The jaguar seemed to have a role to play in the restaurant – Diana’s drink and a topiary in the outside area:

It’s nice when a “pretty” restaurant (what the kids call “Instagram worthy”) also delivers good food.

After lunch, I was on my own to get home.  I thought I’d try the streetcar but couldn’t figure out where the stop was.  I did chuckle as the stop was somewhere near Herbsaint restaurant – apparently quite the power lunch spot as there were dueling Ferraris outside.

McD was talked into a quick jazz outing to Dos Jefes on Thursday night.  The Mark Coleman band was playing – Mark is our friend Chris Henry’s (tennis coach) piano teacher.  John Fohl sat in on guitar.

I was quite entertained when Fohl walked in about 15 minutes into the set, plugged in his guitar, and immediately started jamming.  So much for the 30 minute setups that most musicians indulge in.

I absolutely love that we can leave the house at 8pm, listen to an hour and 15 minutes of world class music, and be in bed by 10pm.  Exactly why we moved here.

A guy came to the door on Friday to tell me that Entergy (local energy company) was going to be trimming trees away from the electric lines and did I know who the parked cars belonged to.  I had no idea.  Turns out a raft of trucks from all over were involved in this operation, with no clear leader.  We saw trucks from Texas and other locations – quite disorganized.  Would have been good to have some advance warning before we went out shopping and then couldn’t get back into the street.  I watched the tree chipper burn up and then we waited on the replacement to roll in.  All was cleared up before Denny picked us up for Anne’s birthday dinner.  We had a card and gift for Anne to open before everything got busy:

And what a wonderful birthday dinner Denny had organized.  Acamaya (Spanish for crawfish) was excellent.  Ana Castro has previously had excellent Mexican restaurants in New Orleans – Lingua Madre was her high end tasting menu at what is now Wild South.

The food was amazing.  The arroz negro with squid ink in the rice and topped with squid and mussels was a complete stand out.  One of the best things I’ve tasted in a long time.

Diana doesn’t like sweet potatoes, but whatever they did to this one made her really enjoy it.

All of the dishes we had were amazing.  Great call Denny!

Here’s the local food critics write up:

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/eat-drink/acamaya-serves-upscale-mexican-seafood-in-nola-bywater/article_8b75dac4-5384-11ef-b85a-eb2649c0c4d2.html

We followed dinner with a visit to Markey’s and then BJ’s lounge.  Here we are at Markey’s (next to the Country Club restaurant).

The Happy Talk Band was playing at BJ’s lounge.  I enjoyed watching Alex McMurray ramble in (he played Kenny’s retirement party with the Tin Men).

Sixtieth birthdays are a big deal, and Diana had arranged a ladies brunch for Anne on Sunday (in addition to the various other celebrations.)  La Petite Grocery was the destination and they made sure the decorations and cake were staged before everyone arrived.  Reports are of a very successful event.

Meanwhile, Campbell was enjoying the wide open spaces of Wyoming:

Doesn’t that look amazingly relaxing?

My book this week was “The Women” by Kristin Hannah.  This was a quick and easy read.  The reaction to Vietnam heroes returning from war took me by surprise.  Can Americans be so callous?  Here’s the online synopsis:

“When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.”

Something interesting from the always controversial Gil Scott Heron:

Maybe the best piano music ever:

I was listening to some “Classic Rock” from the London Symphony Orchestra that reminded me of  Nigel Boddice and his trumpet work on the Rolling Stones classics.  I looked him up and was sad to see his passing in 2022.  It reminded me of train rides with him from Edinburgh to Glasgow and our reviews of music scores and mountain climbing magazines.  Such a giant of trumpet and conducting.  A good friend who had a big impact on my musical career.

Coexist peacefully, with patience and compassion for all!

“Entertaining Anne”

We loved the Nori Guys food tent at French Quarter Fest back in April, and so were excited to see them doing a pop-up at the wonderful Broadside theater on Tuesday evening.  I love their crab and tuna wonton nachos.  Looks messy but the very fresh seafood and the sauces are yummy together.  And nicely washed down with a hibiscus margarita from their new indoor bar.

The Nori guys were excited to tell me that they just got the keys to a brick and mortar store at Broad and Bank streets.  We’re looking forward to that.

We accompanied Kenny to a talk on Social Security strategies at the Metarie library on Wednesday evening.  I’m not sure we learned very much that we didn’t already know, but we did stop for a delicious snack at the Hog Alley Lounge in Metarie – a new place to us and so named because it used to be a field area where pigs were reared.

Diana had two options for Happy Hour on Friday – The Bower or The Library, both new places for us.  She opted for The Bower.  Kenny joined us initially with Anne and then Kara joining later.  We enjoyed the drinks and Happy Hour snacks very much, and had a great private seating area in the front window.

The Bower was followed with a quick stop into Pete’s bar (just down the street).  They always have some fun games to entertain us – this time a basketball thing that took some skill.

I did refer Kenny to the sign as his volume started to increase.

On Saturday we made a visit to the Alker distillery on Oak street.  It was the grand opening event and the distiller is the son of Peggy’s college roommate.  We picked up Anne and met Peg there.  The girls reported that their cosmopolitans were the best they have had.  It will be interesting to see how this place does.

Laura and Anne met us for an early dinner at Café Degas on Sunday.  We had a very nice meal (one of our favourite New Orleans restaurants) – Laura is always entertaining.  I loved our meat and pate platter and my quail salad was excellent.

Where was Denny during all of this?  Fishing with the boys:

I did enjoy the Olympics very much this week.  Katy Ledecky continues to deliver amazing performances:

I finally finished the massive, 950 page book that is “Southern Man” this week.

There is almost too much going on in this book – antebellum slave history, family medical challenges, presidential candidates, small town politics, fires, shootings and on and on.  I was impressed by how current the presidential political drama seemed.

Here’s Bobby White, presidential candidate in 2027, explaining his vision of apocalyptic events occurring every 82 years:

“”The critical battles of our major wars.  The existential turning points.  Seventeen eighty-one, the Battle of Yorktown.  Eighteen sixty-three, Gettysburg and Vicksburg – decided on the same day.  And of course 1945: Hiroshima.”

The certainty in his voice is chilling.  “Sooo…next comes 2027?  What’s the political situation then?  The crisis, whatever?

Bobby waves his hand.  “I don’t have time to get into the weeds on that.  Suffice it to say it’s a three-body problem.”

“Humor me.”

Bobby takes a sip of his Mountain Dew.  “Well, as I said, it’s potentially apocalyptic.  The venue is the Holy Land, of course.  And this is a three-body problem in three different ways: political, religious, and radical.”

“What are the countries?”

“Israel, Iran, China.  THe religions, obviosly Judaism, Islam, and godlessness.  And the races: Semitic, Persian, and Asian.”

“Sounds like a pretty complicated war you have brewing there.”

Bobby nods.  “We’re well on our way toward it now, though we don’t seem to know it.”

“How so?”

“Simple.  Israel under Netanyahu is leaning ever further to the right, almost to fascism in some ways.  They’re supposedly the most vigilant nation in the world.  But I’m not so sure.  It’s easy to get complacent.  Iran is pouring resources into Hamas and Hezbollah, and they mean business.  Israel, of course, possesses more than four hundred nuclear weapons as of today.  And China has announced its intention to double its nuclear arsenal, as well as to modernize it.””

I always enjoy the saxophone sounds on James Hunter songs:

Something sweet from the Bryan Ferry Orchestra:

And finally, some Philip Glass:

Coexist peacefully with kindness and patience for all!