Category: Music

Week in Review – July 6th, 2025

“Last Work Day”

Monday was my final work day.  The technicians helped me reimage my laptop and phone to take away most traces of EZCORP.  All of my important personal messages and pictures were carefully saved off to a portable SSD (Solid State Drive).

Tuesday was very much an administrative day.  Figuring out how to sign up for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) took a while.  You would never know what this is from the name or acronym.  It’s the ability for retirees and other folks with employment events to continue their employers sponsored (and much less expensive) healthcare for 18 months after departure.  Getting Windows 11 to work the way I wanted with some applications also took a bit of work.

Later in the day on Tuesday, we met with Paul, our financial advisor, to make sure we really had enough money to retire.  I know – great timing indeed.  The good news is I don’t have to (at least in the near term) look for another job.

Kenny came over on Wednesday morning and helped change out the air conditioning filter – in way too tricky a spot for me to trust myself not to fall on that hutch with all the crystal glasses.  We had intended to replace the can lights going up the stairwell, but our ladder is too wide and hangs over the nifty tool that Diana found for using ladders on stairs.  That will have to wait until we can borrow a regular ladder.

 

A late lunch on Wednesday took us to La Petite Grocery.  They had advertised a rhubarb pavlova (two of my favourites in one) for the summer and we were excited to try it.

You can imagine our disappointment when the waitress told us the pavlova had been replaced.  “But that’s the main reason we came.”  “Let me see what I can do.”  We knew there was no way they were whipping up a pavlova just for us.  Our main dishes were wonderful – I had fusilli pasta with mushrooms and peas, Diana a shrimp yozu sauce thing and an heirloom tomato salad.  Then came a surprise – the manager brought us some limoncello cheesecake ice cream on top of a rhubarb and strawberry jam they had made with the last of the rhubarb.  Apparently it was a very short season this year and the chef wasn’t happy with the most recent product.  No charge for dessert and we were very happy with the extra effort to make us happy.  Such a local gem of a restaurant.

We visited the Broadside on Thursday evening for a performance by Valerie Sassyfrass, followed by a showing of her documentary.  Kenny, Kara, Thom, Denny and Jack joined.  Most all agreed that we’ve maxed out on Valerie for a while.

I suggested to Diana that we celebrate July 4th (my 4th day of independence from the working life) with a burger.  I suggested three options and she chose Toups Meatery.  We hadn’t been there in years and so it seemed like a great idea.  They run a summer program to feed kids that typically rely on school meals for nutrition – another good reason to support the restaurant.

We were very pleased with the burger – the pickles really made it.  A crab salad added something marginally healthy to the mix.

In the evening we joined the rest of the Krewe for swimming and celebration at Greg and Colleen’s home.

Saturday was the 10th anniversary celebration for the Dirty Coast t-shirt company.  I own a number of their shirts and they were donating the proceeds from a silent auction and ticket sales to guess who?  The Toups Family Meal organization.  The first band was a movie and TV themes cover band – very entertaining.

Those folks were followed by Where Y’acht – a “Yacht Rock” band.  Here are a couple of samples.

Do you like McD’s yacht captain hat?

I started but did not finish “Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan this week.

I just got far enough to read the first big bombshell of the book – not going to spoil it for anyone planning to give this book a try.  I recommend doing that – at a minimum you’ll learn a ton about beekeeping.  And hopefully even more about tolerance of differences.

If you do read this book, see if you can figure out which chapters the authors swapped on.  Jodi writes all of Olivia and Jennifer all of Lily, but they swapped for one chapter.

Here’s the online summary:

“Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
 
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start. 
 
And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet she wonders if she can trust him completely.”

Lily is a talented musician.  I smiled at this paragraph – not many people know that the first section of “Money” by Pink Floyd is in 7/4 time:

“I hate this song,” I mutter. He glances at me. “You want me to change the station?” I shake my head. “It’s in seven-four. It’s a weird time signature.” Asher doesn’t say anything right away. “So the time signature is what upset you?” I don’t want to go into it. “You know what else is in seven-four? ‘All You Need Is Love.’ The Beatles. And Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass.’ Soundgarden’s ‘Spoonman.’ ” Asher smiles. “I can’t believe the stuff you remember,” he says.”

An example of the interesting bee information to be found in the “Olivia” chapters:

“One of the bees starts moving in a figure eight, a crazy little rumba meant to tell the others where her food source is. Using the sun as a compass, her moves are a code: the direction of the dance is the route toward the food; the length of the dance is a measure of total distance. Several other bees watch, too, and then fly away, armed with GPS choreography.”

“This waggle dance is also used when a colony swarms. Some foragers will come back and waggle-dance to describe a new location they’ve found. The jazziest dances get the biggest response. If more bees are impressed, they join in the waggling. There may be several factions competing in this dance-off, each advocating for a different home, but once one of those groups has convinced about fifteen bees, democracy wins.”

Revealing the inspiration for the title:

“THERE IS ONE type of honey you should avoid at all costs. Mad honey comes from bees that forage on rhododendrons and mountain laurel, and it’s full of poisonous grayanotoxins. It causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting, convulsions, cardiac disorders, and more. Symptoms last for twenty-four hours, and although rarely, if left untreated, can be fatal.”

How Asher feels after acquittal:

“You cannot ever really go back to normal. You can approximate the axis of what your life used to be like, but as with an asymptote, all you’ll ever really do is get close and never intersect the sweet spot. It is true that the way the legal system works, once you are acquitted you are free to go home, but there’s a cognitive dissonance in the realization that the world has spun away without you. Even innocent, you will still be the boy who was involved in that murder trial. You are blameless, but stained.”

I love this cover of the Elliot Smith classic by Brad  Mehldau – I believe him to be the best pianist working today:

Open in Spotify

Another great cover by the most inventive guitar player I’ve ever seen:

Open in Spotify

And let’s finish with something very mellow and somewhat calming:

Open in Spotify

The guys from Laurel Street music porch concerts posted this great video of the last show we saw:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.

Week in Review – June 29th, 2025

“One Day to Go”

I have one more day of work to go – EVER!  As of July 1st, I will be fully retired.  I was very touched by this company wide note from our CEO.  Diana came down from her office/gym to tell me that farewell notes don’t get much better than this:

From: EZCORP Internal Communications <EZCORPInternalCommunications@ezcorp.com>
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2025 11:36 AM
Subject:  Thank You, Keith – Farewell to a True Original

Imagen, Picture

On June 30, we say a fond farewell to Keith Robertson, who will be leaving the company after nearly seven incredible years of leadership and impact.

Keith joined us in October 2018 as CIO and quickly became the steady hand behind some of our most ambitious and complex digital transformations. From major system upgrades to new tech rollouts, Keith led with vision, pragmatism, and calm confidence.

He built and strengthened an IT organization that today is faster, more resilient, and better aligned to the business than ever before. He championed simplicity, clarity, and teamwork, and brought a refreshing approach that made even the most complex tech discussions engaging.

After stepping into the CIO Emeritus role in January, Keith has continued to guide the transition and support of the team behind the scenes. But now, he’s officially signing off, for real this time.

Keith, thank you for your leadership, your humor, and your lasting contributions to this company. You leave a strong legacy and a grateful team behind.

Wishing you all the best.  May your next chapter be free of escalations, outage bridges, surprise updates, and full of fast Wi-Fi and bottomless cloud storage.

With deep appreciation,
Lachie

I’ll share one other note.  This was from our head of HR, replying to a note that I sent:

Reading your message meant so much…  You’ve made a lasting impact here, not just through your work, but in the deep friendships you’ve built.

The word “legacy” really is the right one. You’ve set a standard that reminds the rest of me what great leadership looks like.

It’s been an absolute privilege to work alongside you. You will be missed!

Wishing you nothing but great things ahead.

I will certainly miss these kind and generous colleagues.

We had a belated anniversary dinner at Gautreaux’s on Wednesday night.  This is a classic New Orleans neighborhood restaurant – tucked in just behind Julia’s house.  The menu is a mix of French and Creole.

We started with scallops (absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked) and foie gras (came with an interesting side that was almost like a desert.

Then Diana had the redfish and I enjoyed the trout with sauce Provençal.  Both dishes were very good.

We decided to have a Happy Hour on Sunday to celebrate the coming last day of work.  Diana chose Chais Delachaise which has wonderful food, wine and Happy Hour special prices.  We had our usual moules frites.  It was nice to see that the road construction around the restaurant was finally finished.

I always enjoy new stories from David Sedaris and thought I’d share this one from the New Yorker magazine:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/your-hip-surgery-my-headache

My book this week was “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams.  Sarah was a high level executive at Facebook during the massive growth of the company in the 2010s.  I sum this book up in one word – horrifying.  If only 10% of what is reported is fully true, and I believe the majority of it, then we should all stop using anything from the Meta/Facebook empire.  Here are some examples:

Discussing a bad review because people could hear her new baby in the background during evening calls:

“The fact that people can hear her in the background on calls—mostly because West Coast time means I’m often taking the calls on the East Coast in the evening, at home, where my baby lives. Travel is more complicated. I’d relocated to New York, and that meant I now had to travel to Washington, DC, regularly. Where I’m from it’s more usual for a baby to be with its mother or family for the first six months of life if not longer. My family is trying to come up with creative ways to make that happen with my mother, grandmother, and sister all traveling to New York to help. A few weeks after the review, Marne and I are at Facebook’s headquarters when Sheryl pulls me aside. “Marne told me about your childcare situation,” she says breezily. I’m mortified this is something that has been discussed with the COO. But I understand this is her way of caring. She’s trying to be nice. She’s saying this because she likes me. “Hire a nanny,” she instructs. “Be smart and hire a Filipina nanny.” She mistakes my look of horror for skepticism. “Sarah, I’m telling you, they’re English speaking, sunny disposition, and service orientated.” Marne echoes this sentiment. Both have at least one Filipina nanny in their retinue of staff.”

“I guess this is the real Lean In. The stuff Sheryl really believes about work and womanhood but doesn’t put in the book.”
Being chastised for telling a story about a traumatic baby incident when her nanny is locked out of the apartment:
“I forget about it, until my next performance review when Marne raises it: “You shouldn’t tell stories like that, about your baby and nanny.” My heart sinks. She wasn’t even in Mexico. “It wasn’t a story. My baby was trapped by herself and the fire department was called. We didn’t know if something terrible had happened.””
“That’s not the point. These are personal issues. I’m trying to help. To give you honest feedback. When you’re with the most senior members on the team, Mark, Elliot, Javi, you need to be professional and focused on them.” Seriously? My baby’s alone in an apartment with emergency services breaking in through the roof and I’m not supposed to mention it because it’s personal? And they all discussed this situation afterward and found me lacking?
Zuckerberg refuses to work before noon, even if that’s the only slot during which he can address the United Nations:
“the next day, Saturday, September 26, Mark addresses the United Nations, hoping to rouse excitement for Internet.org. As always, I try to get him the most high-profile speaking slot possible. At the UN that means the morning. The earlier you are, the more important you are. I manage to book him between the president of Argentina and the prime minister of the UK, and then Mark’s assistant Andrea nixes it. The United Nations isn’t important enough for Mark to do an event before noon. He still doesn’t like getting out of bed early. We compromise with a later slot.”
From the crazy lives of the rich and famous files:
“We live in the same neighborhood in San Francisco and commute to and from the office together. Weirdly, Mark has his San Francisco house not too far from ours. When I ask him why we never see him in the neighborhood, he explains it’s because he can’t get planning permission for a place to park his helicopter so he rarely uses the house. We might live in similar places, but we are living completely different lives.”
And finally, one of many areas I highlighted that discuss Facebook’s role in Trump’s first victory:
“The way I understand it, Trump’s campaign had amassed a database, named Project Alamo, with profiles of over 220 million people in America. It charted all sorts of online and offline behavior, including gun registration, voter registration, credit card and shopping histories, what websites they visit, what car they drive, where they live, and the last time they voted. The campaign used Facebook’s “Custom Audiences from Custom Lists” to match people in that database with their Facebook profiles. Then Facebook’s “Lookalike Audiences” algorithm found people on Facebook with “common qualities” that “look like” those of known Trump supporters. So if Trump supporters liked, for example, a certain kind of pickup truck, the tool would find other people who liked pickup trucks but were not yet committed voters to show the ads to. Then they’d pair their targeting strategy with data from their message testing. People likely to respond to “build a wall” got that sort of message. Moms worried about childcare got ads explaining that Trump wanted “100% Tax Deductible Childcare.” Then there was a whole operation to constantly tweak the copy and the images and the color of the buttons that say “donate,” since slightly different messages resonate.”
I have many more and perhaps increasingly disturbing highlight, but you’ll have to go and borrow the book for those.

 

Mick Ralphs died last week at the age of 81.  Here’s a Wikipedia summary:
“Michael Geoffrey Ralphs was an English guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He was a founding member of English rock bands Mott the Hoople and Bad Company. Despite not being a constant member, he appeared on every studio album released by both bands.”
I have enjoyed both bands a lot over the years:
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.

 

 

Week in Review – June 22, 2025

“Annual Check Ups”

We took off for Dallas on Sunday to attend our all day physicals at the Cooper Clinic.  A few minutes into the flight, the pilot let us know about a big storm in Dallas and Air Traffic Control telling him to fly up through Oklahoma and then loop back down.   Only problem – they told him after he took off and so we didn’t have enough fuel.  No big issue – we’ll land in Corpus Christi and get some more fuel.  That was a very efficient process with us on the ground in Corpus for less than 15 minutes.  I think we were around a couple of hours late getting to Dallas.

We were looking for a quick and healthy place to have dinner before checking into the Cooper Clinic.  I found something called “Flower Child” in Inwood Village.  This was perfect – quick, healthy, and tasty.  It seems to be an expanding chain and I recommend it if you come across one.

Flower Child made me think of my sister in law, Amy.  She was out protesting that we don’t need a king to rule the US:

I had originally considered Casa Rosa for dinner – when I waited tables there in the 80s, it was located right next to Flower Child.  They had a recent reprise closer to Love field airport and are now permanently closed again.

Also right next door is the Inwood movie theater.  Best known as the place where Denny and Anne had their first date.  The movie  – “Reservoir Dogs.”  The offerings were much tamer on Sunday:

After dinner, we checked into our massive suite at the Cooper hotel and relaxed before all the prodding to come on Monday.

I caught up on texts and found some funny things.  Will sent this picture of us a few years ago:

He also sent this caricature of the four of us:

And this silly one of himself – not sure how Christine feels about it:

Will is going to a wedding in Ibiza sometime soon and visiting Paris on his way.  He remembers eating moules frites with curry sauce the last time he was in France – more than 25 years ago.  Diana helped me pull up pictures to show him the best place in Paris – in Montmartre – big portions, well cooked, at a good price and with good service.

Alicia sent a funny Father’s Day meme – we’re not sure why the penguin has a purple eye and I couldn’t capture it at the point where the other penguins join in.

Our Cooper day started at 7:00am with blood draws.  Diana was ahead of me and so I asked the lady how she had done getting blood from her.  “Oh boy, that was hard, took four of us.”  Diana told me they ultimately called in “Queen” from a different department to get her blood.  The lady from the last two years who got her on the first poke wasn’t there anymore.  I feel badly for Diana that there aren’t more superbly qualified phlebotomists out there.

Our days of tests were busy with nothing major found on either of us.  Various vitamins that we need to take, and I had a couple of things frozen off in dermatology – finally getting rid of that thing under my glasses pad on my nose.  This is the last time this very expensive day of tests will be covered by my work – we’ll see what we do going forward.

We left the clinic around 3pm and headed for McKinney to meet up with Finn and Holly.  We checked into the very cool and historic Grand Hotel – above Rick’s Chop House (home of still the best shrimp and grits that I’ve ever had.)

We met Finn and Holly at the Urban grill in downtown McKinney.  Diana and I had eaten a snack at the bar there and remembered it being good.  Everything we had was delicious, with great service.  I dropped a fork at one point and had a new one in my hand a few seconds later.

Our appetizers included calamari (Holly’s favourite), fish and chips (Finn), and ahi tuna tartare (yep – D.)

For dinner Finn went all out for his birthday with the ribeye steak.  Diana and Holly both had the lamb chop lollipops, and I enjoyed a delicious heirloom beet salad.

The kids gave me a belated Father’s Day card and goodie bag.  The card is excellent:

Very clever.  The only one we had to explain was the “Sage” advice.  Is that a generational thing?  I don’t think so.

I received a very thoughtful goodie bag of treats.

Finn had gone to the cigar shop close to our old house and asked the guy for his best cigar recommendation.  The penguin came from “Fair and Square” in downtown Mckinney (where McD got a cutting board gift for them) right before dinner.  Finn remembered that Diana liked Mounds and not Almond Joy – huge brownie points scored.  And then the Chanel goat juice (Elroy Kee term) – we think it smells really good.  What a thoughtful little goodie bag.

We walked the kids back to their car and saw this sign outside Emporium Pies – I’m looking forward to trying the rhubarb pie at La Petite Grocery soon – been way too long.

You may know that June 17th is also our wedding anniversary.  I love the cards that Diana and Mum got me – Diana’s with British pennies on it (do they still have those?) and Mum’s with a pair of dragonflies.

We looked at some pictures and videos from that lovely day in Cozumel.  Finn thinks he would  like to take Holly there for a honeymoon.  That could happen.

We slept late on Tuesday and then made a trip to our old regular – “Filtered”, where we would have our coffee and a quiche.  The place has been remodeled a bit, and for the better, looks great now.  We passed on the quiche with the expectation of lunch at the Blue Goose.  I can’t remember how we did on the puzzles, or if we even did them.  We were sitting at a table of nerds working away on their laptops.  When did going for coffee mean being surrounded by 90% nerds on laptops?  When do you get a break?

We drove over to the local Blue Goose and had a lovely lunch experience – such amazing and positive service.  I loved my sour cream enchilada and got the recipe for the sauce.  Diana had the “off menu” pulled chicken taco salad and was quite happy.

The car returned, we were back inside Love field airport.  We laughed at a guy from Lubbock sitting next to us at the bar who was exclaiming how humid it was.  Diana and I had remarked in the morning that it was so dry and comfortable to move around.  It’s all about what you’re used to – as they say.  This guy was still sweating after having been in the very cool airport for 20 minutes.

The jet bridge wouldn’t align with the plane for our flight home, and so they ultimately moved the plane to a new gate.  We arrived home a bit late, but probably got home around the same time as we missed rush hour traffic.

On Thursday evening we met Jeff and Merry Lee for dinner at Compere Lapin.  This is a restaurant by Nina Compton from the Caribbean – and the dishes are a mix of New Orleans and her homeland.  The place has won many awards.  Diana and I went close to the opening (10 years ago) and I can still remember how amazing the goat curry tasted.  I also remember being amazed by how adventurous Jack and Mason were with the menu, and Denny saying, “they eat what we eat.”

Jeff and I both had the goat curry (ridiculously good with all the flavour and the little gnocchi’s) , and the ladies both had the sea bass.  I think we were all quite happy.  We had some appetizers of fish collars, smoky fish dip, and ahi tuna.  Deserts were I think mango creme brulee and something else that I can’t remember.  I had a port and desserts aren’t really my thing.

Trey had asked us to consider attending his friend, and dog sitter, Nina’s show at the Maple Leaf on Friday night.  Given that his dog, Bear, saved his life before his house burned to the ground recently, we thought we could do him a favour.

On Saturday I again got disappointed in our nation.  First I read this New Yorker article – geez!:

Australia writer deportation – New Yorker

I stupidly followed that with “The Mauritian” movie.  Jodie Foster is an excellent defense attorney and the movie is very well done, albeit a bit plodding.  The message is that the main character spent 14 years in Guantanamo Bay prison, tortured as we have heard about, and never charged with a crime.  I believe there were 778 prisoners there, only 8 were ever charged, and 5 of those were overruled on appeal.  So 770 folks held for many years with no charges?

On returning home shortly before midnight, we saw that LSU had won the first game of the college World Baseball Series 1-0.  We’ll see how they do the next couple of days in the best of 3 series.  Interestingly, Campbell spent the night in the same hotel as LSU when he was in Omaha for a baseball playoff.

On Sunday night, we picked up Jeff and Merry Lee and drove over to the Broadside for the Toup’s Meatery benefit.  These restaurant guys feed kids, who are used to lunch at school, during summer when they have nothing.  We’ve eaten at their restaurant, “Toups Meatery?” a few times after Jazzfest and always had a great meal.  I remember the kitchen giving a round of applause when I had a shot of whiskey down the bone from whence i had just eaten the marrow.  I’m going to this event in hopes that I can find ways to volunteer for their activities.

The Los Bayou Ramblers provided the entertainment:

I spent another week with Richard Russo and “Everybody’s Fool”.  I found the first 60% of this book a bit draggy  and a bit disorganized – the last 40 % gets exciting and it all comes together in the excellent  last 20%.  See if you can skim the first half and pick up what you need to know about the key characters.   Some online bumf:

“Now, ten years later, Doug Raymer has become the chief of police and is tormented by the improbable death of his wife—not to mention his suspicion that he was a failure of a husband. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Sully has come into a small fortune, but is suddenly faced with a VA cardiologist’s estimate that he only has a year or two left to live.

As Sully frantically works to keep the bad news from the important people in his life, we are reunited with his son and grandson . . . with Ruth, the married woman with whom he carried on for years . . . and with the hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren’t still best friends. Filled with humor, heart, and hard-luck characters you can’t help but love, Everybody’s Fool is a crowning achievement from one of the great storytellers of our time.”

I’ve been reading Dylan’s latest book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song”, in small snippets this week.  Not sure how far I”ll make it through before I have to return it.  i did like very much what he has to say about early Elvis Costello.

“Elvis Costello and the Attractions were a better band than any of their contemporaries.  Light years better.

Some supporting material from Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music and something fr0m the queen:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!

 

 

 

 

Week in Review – June 15th, 2025

“Adventures in Cooking”

Kenny was in the neighborhood on Monday morning and stopped in for a coffee and a chat.  Always a good way to kick of the week.

We visited the New Orleans Athletic Club (NOAC) for a workout later in the morning and then worked on a summer salad with watermelon for dinner.  We’ve decided to try and cook at home much more and to focus initially on recipes from the Mediterranean diet – I started researching some ideas for the rest of the week.

A walk down the streetcar tracks to Jefferson avenue kicked off our Tuesday.  It was starting to get pretty hot as we walked home and were facing directly East and into the sun.  Nonetheless we covered close to 4 miles.

Tuesday dinner was our first dive into the Mediterranean stuff and consisted of jambalaya stuffed peppers and bang bang cauliflower.  I chose the jambalaya version as we had some leftovers in the freezer that eliminated most of the preparation steps.  The bang bang sauce for the cauliflower was made with sriracha, sweet chile sauce, mayonnaise and lime juice.  Both dishes were very tasty and we enjoyed making them.

After dinner, I headed over to Dat Dog for trivia with the guys.  It was the usual krewe plus a kid whose name started with an “M” – I can’t remember what it was – geez.  Mitchell, Maxwell, Matthew?  None of those seem right.  Anyway, Mr. M had studied AP English at Jesuit High and came in handy on a couple of questions – one about “Beowulf” and then on a Jane Austen related question about the English ten pound note.  We were in 3rd place going into the final round and then wagered too much on a question we did not know the answer too (always a bad strategy), and dropped to 4th.  Ugh!  Here was the final question:

Put the following in order from largest to smallest:

1  Number of mirrors in the Versailles hall of mirrors (I thought they were very large mirrors and this would be a small number – completely wrong)

2.  Number of steps in the Statue of Liberty

3.  Number of members of the House of Representatives (I did know that one)

4.  Number of doors in the White House – ridiculous, even if you knew the prior 3, nobody knows this

I would challenge you to take a shot at the answer, but just like with Mr. M, I can’t remember the correct order.  I do know that all the answers were between 300 and 400 – one of the more difficult final questions that we’ve experienced.

A NOAC workout kicked off our Wednesday.  On starting the car to drive home, I noticed the low tire pressure warning light – the rear left tire had an issue.  On arrival home, Diana checked the pressure – around 20 lbs versus the 36 recommended.  I finally got the tire repaired on Thursday afternoon.  A real local character who runs the Park Place repair shop on Tchoupitoulas found a piece of sheetrock on the internal wall.  He had it repaired and sent me on my way in a few minutes.

This was the sad day when we learned that Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame had died – more in the music section below.  The Beach Boys always make me think back to a Neil Young Bridge School Benefit concert at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California.  There was a lady police officer in front of us that was growling at anyone trying to go up the wrong set of stairs in a very officious and negative manner.  As soon as the Beach Boys started their set, she turned into a completely different person – dancing with folks walking past – the power of good music!

Dinner on Wednesday was planned to be mango shrimp.  I visited Breaux Mart for mangoes.  Unfortunately I’ve never bought them before and wasn’t exactly sure what to look for – something yellow with an oval shape?  No.  I finally asked and found them.  I was glad that the recipe gave helpful instructions on how to peel and dice a mango – it would have been quite an ordeal otherwise.  This was another tasty and healthy meal.

After dinner we watched an episode of “Swing” with Owen Wilson.  We find this golf related comedy entertaining so far.

And after that, we finished “The Brutalist”.  The last 3o minutes of this movie are very “artsy.”  I’ll leave it at that.  I think I would have been pretty peeved if I’d been at the cinema house and sat through 3 and a half hours to get to those last 30 minutes.

Dinner on Thursday was taco stuffed avocados.  The taco stuffing consisting of ground turkey, black beans and onions.  Poor Diana ultimately visited three grocery stores to get the necessary ingredients.  Whole Foods and Breaux Mart after her physical therapy session.  She did get some delicious avocados at Whole Foods, but reported that the shelves were mostly bare – must be restocking day.  Then she visited Rouses (the big grocery store) in the afternoon to get the last ingredients.  I really enjoyed this meal and will make it again soon, perhaps with a different stuffing.

I read this article by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker on Thursday evening.  A very interesting analysis of what causes violent crime reduction and I’m not sure you would guess correctly:

Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker article on violent crime reduction

It had been a long time since we’d been to the movies and so, with it being so hot outside, we decided to go and see “The Materialists” at the Broad Theater on Friday afternoon.   This was opening day for the film so we didn’t really have much to go on .

Dakota Johnson plays a New York based matchmaker who is caught between a previous relationship with an actor who is broke, and a very successful financier.  It gave us a good bit to talk about after we left.

Here’s what the New Yorker had to say about things:

New Yorker review of the Materialists

We stopped by to visit with Kenny and Nina, and ultimately Kara when she got off work, on the way home from the movie.  They were planning to go to the free Friday concert at Tipitinas and we had talked about going to see the Joe Krown trio at Dos Jefes.

On the way to Dos Jefes, we stopped into Rouses to pick up supplies for our Saturday brunch recipe.  Kenny, his youngest brother Tommy, Kara, and after a while Pepperoni (Michael Azzano), joined us at Dos Jefes for some of Joe Krown and then headed back to Tips for Eric Johanssen.  Krown played as amazingly as ever – hands just dancing across the keys.  We need to make the effort to visit this bar more often.

I watched “Hitchcock” on Netflix to wind down from all of the excitement of the day.  I thought this was really well done with a great performance from Anthony Hopkins as Hitch.  Helen Mirren and Scarlet Johanss0n  also turned in strong performances.  The focus was on the movie “Psycho” and the struggles of making it something that an audience would want to go and see.

Diana joined Julia for a walk in Audubon park to start her Saturday, while I read the newspaper and worked on the blog.  We made tomato and parmesan mini quiches for brunch, using a new muffin tray that we bought at Rouses on Friday night.  Diana had decided not to move hers to New Orleans, having not made muffins in many years.

The petite quiches turned out very well and I’m looking forward to making them with all kinds of fillings.  Using slices of ham as a “crust” was a great idea.

I spent the afternoon reading with various sports on TV in the background – US Open golf and LSU baseball.

I’m about half way through “Everybody’s Fool” by Richard Russo, the second in the North Bath trilogy.    Russo is best known for  the Pulitzer prize winning “Empire Falls”, made into a movie that I enjoyed.

I like what Entertainment Weekly had to say: “A crowning achievement—“like hopping on the last empty barstool surrounded by old friends” —from one of the greatest storytellers of our time.”

Some passages that I enjoyed from my reading so far:

“His heart went out to the kid.  Imagine having her for a mother, your whole life a giant margin for her to ask her impossible questions.”

“A giant margin” – what a great simile.

“Maybe it was time, not love, they’d run out of.  It was pretty to think so.”

Do you think this is a nod to the last sentence of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”, when Jack says to Brett “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

“”You gonna get in?” “I’m still thinking.”  “There’s your problem right there,” Jerome said.  Like his sister, he spent far too much time diagnosing Raymer’s problems.  “Best nip that in the bud, bud.  Man starts thinking this late in life, no previous experience or proper guidance, there’s no telling where it could lead.””

A great example of the typical dialogue between Russo’s characters.

I’m pleased that I have half of this book and another two books in the trilogy to look forward to.

Earlier this week I was playing an Earth Wind and Fire album.  On returning it to the alphabetically filed album collection, I noticed a very old Duke Ellington Album that I hadn’t heard – must have come from McD.

“Mood Indigo” is on this album – such a wonderful piece.

 

I came across a number of entertaining covers:

We lost two massively influential musicians this week – Sly Stone and Brian Wilson.  Here’s my favourite from Sly and the family Stone:

Depending on when you ask about my all time favourite songs, the answer could well be “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys – a Brian Wilson masterpiece of composition, arrangement and production:

I was reading a newspaper article about the local band, Better Than Ezra, and The Kingsway studio was mentioned.  This was Daniel Lanois’ studio at the corner of Charters and Esplanade – 544 Esplanade to be exact.  Nicholas Cage bought the house after Lanois and it is now owned by the Cumming guy who has the boutique hotels.

The albums that Lanois produced in that building are legendary:  “Oh Mercy” by Bob Dylan, “Automatic for the People” by R.E.M., “Achtung Baby” by U2, “Us” by Peter Gabriel, and “Yellow Moon” by the Neville Brothers, to name just a few.  Unbelievably productive and wonderful sounding place.

We’re flying to Dallas tomorrow afternoon and so I’m going to go ahead and publish this post a day early – much better than a month late like the last few.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

 

Week in Review June 8th, 2025

“Good Night and Good Luck”

The girls krewe had Happy Hour at Superior Seafood, typically oysters and frozen French 75s, on Tuesday evening.  This was a get together prior to Anne leaving for Boulder for several weeks on  Wednesday afternoon.  This trio hadn’t had enough fun and walked down to Shaya:

Diana’s Wednesday yoga class was in Audubon park since the studio is busy with kids at various summer camps.  It’s getting pretty hot and humid, even at 10am, so we’ll see how long this lasts.

Diana dropped me off for a haircut on Friday afternoon, and then picked me up for Happy Hour.  We first tried the new Blackbird hotel on Prytania Avenue.  This place looks nice online and has a day use pool setup at a reasonable price.  My barber, Derek, told me that they made great martinis, but the bartender had broken his arm, and they had various less qualified folks filling in.  We arrived a little after 3pm and checked in with the hostess, saying we would like to have a drink and snack at the inside bar.  “Sure, go on in.”  We did, and the bartender lady told us she didn’t open until 4pm.  “All your online things say 3pm.”  “That’s just the pool bar.”  She was just setting up and could easily have taken 5 minutes to make us a drink.  On the way out we told the hostess it didn’t open until 4pm.  “Yes, that’s right, it never opens before 4pm.”  One wonders why the heck she sent us back there, knowing that.

Diana suggested the Garden District Hotel across the street.  That was almost as bad – the bar was lovely and appeared to be open, but there was no bartender.  We waited 20 minutes, and then Diana went up front to ask.  “We’ll call him now.”  She sent us back there and could see there was no bartender to begin with.  He did show up and was quite annoying, but made an okay drink.  In his defense, Diana thought he was “fine.”

I was determined to have a decent experience before we headed home, and suggested we walk down to Beggars Banquet.  Here we encountered a professional and very friendly bartender.  Greeted us with ice waters, had snack menu recommendations, made a very good drink, and was happy to chat on any topic.  Ahh – we did it.

Sorry for the long ramble on something you had to be there to appreciate – I just don’t have a lot of exciting topics for this week.

On Saturday evening, CNN aired a live broadcast of the Broadway play “Good Night, and Good Luck.”  This is the first time a live airing has happened from Broadway.  George Clooney plays Edward R. Murrow, who broadcast on CBS in the 1950s and is widely recognized as being responsible for bringing down senator Joe McCarthy and his communist witch hunts.

Clooney co-wrote and directed the movie of the same name back in 2005.  The parallels to the politics of today were hard to miss.

We started to watched the 4 hour opus that is “The Brutalist” on Saturday night, and got about half way through.  I enjoyed it and am looking forward to finishing the movie.  Adrien Brody won the oscar for his portrayal of a Jewish architect who escapes Hungary and struggles to find his way in America.

I chuckled to see “Emeritus” in the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle:

After the crossword and other puzzles, I caught up on all the delinquent blogs – a month of them.  Can’t let that happen again as it’s too hard to remember what happened and I keep getting the weeks mixed up.

I took a break for lunch at Juan’s Flying Burrito with Diana.  We shared a new appetizer – street corn dip – excellent.  Then McD tried something new, a “Super Bowl”, and really liked it.  I stuck with one of my standards – Chorizo con huevos burrito.

“Good Night, and Good Luck” showed up again on the Sunday evening news show, 60 minutes, with a Clooney interview, and again at the Tony awards on Sunday night.

Diana and I enjoyed watching the Tony’s – I think it’s the first time we’ve done that.  We were able to pick the majority of the winners from the performances that were given at the award show.  I thought Cynthia Erivo did a very good job of hosting.  My favourite performance was from “Maybe Happy Ending.”

My book this week was “The road to tender hearts” by Annie Hartnett.  This reminded me a lot of Kevin Wilson’s “Run for the Hills” – dark humor, big heart, and quirky and creative characters and storyline.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The online synopsis:

“At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also thinks he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter who’s adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a fresh shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it.”

The big in the 90s band, Pulp, released a new album after 30 years.  Here’s a sample, sounding more like David Bowie than ever:

This song is over 10 minutes long – I heard it on the wonderful local radio station, WWOZ, and had to find out what the song was with that great beat and feel:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!

 

Week in Review – June 1st, 2025

“Happy Birthday, Alex – Good Lord!”

Kenny came over and hung his lovely gift for me on Monday – he’s much better on steps and ladders than I am.  I think it sends a great message to everyone entering our home.

Denny shared his freshly caught red snapper with a group of us on Monday evening.  This included a yummy ceviche and fish from the grill.  Chef Denny did his usual wonderful job.

Folks look so serious, but not in this one:

Our streak was broken at trivia on Tuesday – we were winning until failing on the last question and wagering the maximum amount.  Bad strategy.  We did get this question correct – one of the easier ones.

Alex and Laura welcomed a bunch of us to their home on Friday to celebrate Alex’s birthday.  Everyone brought a dish and there was a plethora of great food to enjoy.  Our hummus with lamb ragu from Saba was well received – so good.

It was lovely to see Frank and Alicia.  This might be the first year that I didn’t run into Frank on the track at jazzfest.  Alicia was feeling and looking the best I’ve seen her in years.  We also met Jack E’s girlfriend – very nice young lady.

Diana and I met a bunch of guys, and Jack E’s girlfriend, on Saturday to watch Paris Saint Germain (PSG) play Inter Milan in one of the various European championships.  We started at Tracey’s to give them some business on their last day before closing permanently.  Unfortunately a lot of other folks had the same idea and they had run out of most things.  No issue – we walked across the street to the Bulldog and enjoyed the patio.  The match was very one sided with PSG winning 5-0.

The afternoon got much more exciting as we relocated to a Laurel Street porch concert.  We enjoyed an allstar band of the finest musicians in New Orleans.  Herlin Riley was the band leader on drums, the wonderful Kyle Roussel played keyboards, Shannon Powell was posted up against the house playing some funky bass, Chucky C sang, played saxophone and other instruments, and Erica Falls (previously with Galactic) sang vocals.

That was the band doing a Stevie Wonder classic.  Then a pleasant surprise as Chucky C took over on vocals for “What a Wonderful World.”

We were not familiar with Chucky – some research shows he’s fronted multiple local bands, and has at least one album on Spotify and many good online videos.  We chatted with him as he packed up to leave, and he was a lovely gentleman.

Dave Jordan was playing a concert at the Broadside Pavillion on Sunday early evening – we love a show that starts at 5pm rather than 9pm.  I was not familiar with his music, and some research showed he created music that I might enjoy.  Indeed I did – the band was doing a last show before they hit the road for the summer, and seemed to be having a lot of fun.  The guitar player was a real treat.

A special guest fiddle player joined for a quieter song:

I’m glad we took a risk on someone that we didn’t know well.

My book this week was “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore.  This is a very cleverly constructed mystery, with great characters and pacing – hard to put down and highly recommended.

The online review:

“Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.”

Something interesting from Karl Denson (saxophone player with the Rolling Stones) who regularly plays tiny clubs in New Orleans:

A more laid back and bluesy offering:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!

Week in Review – May 25th, 2025

“Birthday Music Week”

Bryce the piano tuner came on Monday.  He was impressed with how well our piano had survived storage, moving, and settling in to a new home.  As is typical here, he was quite the character, sharing stories about tuning Paul Simon and Harrick Connick’s pianos, and videos of rock concerts that he attended in the 1970s.   Here he is testing out his tuning job, while I stay out of his way in the living room:

Denny and Anne were headed out of town, so took me for an early birthday dinner at Husky.  As a special treat they brought me some meat pies from a butcher in Lafayette.  We followed that with a visit to Dos Jefes to listen to John Fohl – always a treat.

And now we move into the heavy music rotation part of the week.  On Thursday we joined Kenny, Julia and John for a singer songwriter night at the Broadside Pavillion.  The artists performing were Gregg Hill, Mia Borders, Alex McMurray, and Johnny Sansone.  The highlight for me was Alex McMurray’s solo set, with Mia Borders as a close second, particularly the song she did with McMurray.

On Friday we met at Kenny and Kara’s house for a birthday drink and they presented me with this lovely gift from the local artist, Simon.  We could easily walk to his gallery from our home.

The four of us decamped to a restaurant called “Pigeon and Whale.”  This place specializes in seafood and we shared a number of dishes.  They also have a large selection of different negronis.  Kenny and Diana insisted on dessert, and I’m glad they did as the lemon thing was delicious.  Thanks for a lovely dinner with wonderful friends, Diana.

 

After dessert, we met the boys at NOLA brewing.  Alex McMurray, who we saw the previous night, was playing with his band.  It was nice to hang out with the boys for a bit, and we had to call it a relatively early night as I was taking Diana back to the airport at 5am on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, my old Executive Committee team was enjoying dinner at Phil’s place in the Hamptons.  I miss that krewe.

The music continued on Saturday.  This time it was the second annual Bob Dylan birthday tribute at the Broadside.  I thoroughly enjoyed it last year and so was quite excited for the show.  Anne, Mason, Jack E and Peggy all joined.  The show was excellent all around!  Excellent backing band, singers, and venue.  Gal Holiday performed my favourite Dylan song:

I enjoyed the opening song by the organizer of the music, Sam Price:

I drove Anne home after the show and we passed a restaurant called “El Pavo Real.”  I had seen it many times and never been there.  “We’re going there tomorrow,” said Anne.

She picked me up and we enjoyed Sunday brunch.  This is a great Mexican place and wasn’t busy at all.  Excellent chilaquiles and palomas.

Meanwhile, in Redwood City, California, Diana had made it in time to dress up and attend Olivia’s high school graduation celebration.  The pictures would say that they had a great time.

Have I had enough music yet?  No – it’s my birthday week, I want one more night.  Sunday brought “Rock for Aegis,” a benefit for Scott Aiges who was the music journalist for the local paper and is fighting aggressive brain cancer.  The power was out in Uptown New Orleans, apparently part of a necessary rolling brown out due to unforeseen demand.  We had planned on meeting at Fred and Kelly’s home for a drink before the show, but they had no power.  I invited the group to meet at our home, as we still had power, and worst case a generator.

The show was local musicians playing Tom Petty songs.  And for the third night in a row, Alex McMurray was involved.  The highlight for me was Samantha Fish (excellent blues musician) covering “American Girl.”

Meanwhile, in Pacifica, California, Diana was hosting a party for Alicia’s 25th birthday.  She always loves that our birthdays are just a few days apart.  Look at the spread she assembled.  It looks like everyone had a good time.

Interestingly, the “end pieces” of the sourdough loaves were all that remained.  Olivia noticed and realized that Grammie used to eat those first.

A subset of the group enjoyed the sunset on the beach:

Meanwhile, somewhere off the coast of the Florida panhandle, Denny and Jack were catching pleny off red snapper:

My book this week was one that I’d been waiting on for a while, “Run for the Hills,” by Kevin Wilson.  I’ve enjoyed all of his previous books, so uniquely creative and funny.  This one didn’t disappoint.  Here’s the summary:

“Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely, she sometimes admits, and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.”

We’ve had a lot of musical discussion this week and so I’ll leave you with just one sample.  Sansone played this at the singer songwriter show:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!

Week in Review – May 18th, 2025

“A Normal Week”

I’m not sure what a normal week is these days.  But this seemed like one.

On Monday, I visited Tony to get my hearing aids cleaned and adjusted.  As is typical, we spent the first 30 minutes talking about who we had seen performing at jazzfest and veered off into other musical discussions.  The only problem was that my appointment was only for 30 minutes, the poor guy behind me had to wait a while.

I took advantage of being in Metarie (a solid 6 miles away, but seems like a totally different place than New Orleans, and we complain about having to drive that far) to make a Trader Joe’s visit.  Diana was quite impressed with the fullness of the fridge on return.

We followed up our trivia win last Tuesday with 2nd place this week.  We were quite pleased with ourselves.

Diana arrived home at 1:20am on Wednesday morning.  She had delayed flights and had to sprint through DFW airport to catch her flight to New Orleans.  I couldn’t sleep until I knew she was home.  Thankfully I didn’t have any “important” work to do on Wednesday.

Wednesday was health care day.  I had my teeth cleaned – good report of no issues.  Then I drove Diana to an appointment over at the Jefferson hospital complex – less than 5 miles away and less than a 15 minute drive, but again it feels like a long way to us these days.  We routinely drove 30 minutes to do anything at all in Dallas, but things change when you can walk to most everything you need.

Coming back from the store, we ran into this second line parade on Prytania Avenue.  There a lot of weddings in May, and it did seem a bit hot for them to be walking too far in those fancy outfits.

Diana suggested a route around the parade to avoid following it all the way home – good thinking D.

The Prytania movie theater shows a classic movie each week at 10am on Sunday and Wednesday.  This week was “Moonstruck” with Cher and Nicholas Cage.

The talks before the movie starts are a very enjoyable part of this experience.  The detail and background provided on this occasion was very impressive.  I have no idea how the gentleman memorized all that he shared.

My big take away was that I didn’t remember the film being so funny and corny.

After the movie we had lunch at our old standby – Juan’s Flying Burrito.

My book this week was “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy.  This is a murder mystery set on a remote island near Antarctica, but it’s a lot more than that.  I learned about emergency seed banks, and lots of nature, including deep details about penguins.  A very good read.

“A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.

But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.”

I really enjoy this band – always a little bit different:

Something folky and quiet:

And finally, a song from 1976, back when the music could play for over a minute before the vocals start – not suitable for the attention spans of today:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

 

Week in Review – May 11th, 2025

“Bye, With Love”

This was the week that we said “Goodbye” to Clorinda.  “Bye, with Love” is how she finished every phone call.  I joined Diana in Pacifica, CA in time to get dressed for the vigil service on Wednesday evening.  I hadn’t attended a vigil before and wasn’t really sure what to expect.  All of the siblings spoke, including a very nice tribute from Diana.  Several others spoke, including an entertaining and clever speech from Jeff.  However, the highlight for me was Luciano, age 10, with a very touching tribute.  He had nothing prepared and saw his Mom go up to speak and decided he should say something too.  What a great job he did.

Will and Christine made it to the vigil and left this lovely memory card.  Clorinda would laugh every time the silly llama did its Christmas dance with its neck extending up and down.

I need to rewind to Tuesday now and talk about a big win for the Bayou Boyz.  It seemed “trivial” to mention this before talking about the services for Clorinda.  Maybe that gives you a hint about the topic?  Yes – we won first place, and a $50 Dat Dog gift card, in the weekly trivia challenge.  We only missed one of 37 questions.  Now back to more important reporting.

The funeral service took place on Thursday morning and was very well attended.  I wasn’t sure of the protocol for a Catholic service – and was offered no help as we processed in given order into the church and stopped to do something at the urn.  I couldn’t see what anyone was doing and I was last in line, so just nodded at the urn and sat down.  A little help in advance please guys?

Alicia did a great job of “Ave Maria” on her flute – most impressive given she hasn’t played in years (my guess) and had just a short time to prepare.

Here’s a wee treat for you – Clorinda performing “Ave Maria” at Adamo’s wedding:

We held a reception in the multi-purpose hall at the church.  Diana’s guess of 150 attendees seemed spot on.  She had arranged some excellent caterers and I think the event came off very well.  We were “treated” to a performance from the five brothers:

Here’s Diana telling Marco what a wonderful job he did with the eulogy – it truly was amazing.  Marco is a great public speaker but he really outdid himself with this review of his Mom’s life and what was important to her.

After the reception, a smaller group joined us back at Clorinda’s house for leftovers and other offerings.  Felly was one of the caregivers for the last couple of months.  You can tell how much she is loved by the kids, Caroline and everyone who came in contact with her:

We gathered around the mandala that Amy had made with flowers from the hill.

On Friday, we commuted to the cemetery in Santa Clara.  Oh, I should share one tiny example of the “detailed” approach Marco took to these events – as we were pulling away, he had a friend stop us to give instructions on printing out a different picture of his mom to be displayed at the grave site.  “No, sorry, we’re out of time.  He’ll have to choose from the four we already have with us.”

We arrived at the gravesite, and the groundskeeper explained how the burial would work – Clorinda’s urn going in a container above the slab covering Sebastian.  All seemed straight forward, until he asked for the “Authorization for Burial certificate.”  “The what certificate?, we had no idea that was needed.”  Oopsy! ” What do we do if we can’t get one?”  “You can have the service, but nothing can be put in the ground.”  This was not pleasing to anyone.  Time to “solve the problem.”

Diana called the funeral home and couldn’t get anyone to answer.  I asked, “Who can we call to go by and roust them up to get a copy?” Of course, Andy.  Then it occured to me to have Andy go down to Clorinda’s house and see if he could find it among the funeral papers in a folder on the printer.  He found it in a few minutes, I texted it to the cemetery director and we were good to fully proceed.  Whew!

Saturday was a day to chill and try to relax.  We were sorry that we missed Jack’s graduation at the Superdome in New Orleans.  He graduated from Loyola University and starts a short internship with my company in a few weeks.  He’s on the left.

Sunday was a travel day back home for me, with Diana staying another few days to finish things up.

That was a pretty exhausting week in several ways!

Week in Review – May 4th, 2025

“The Days Between”

Monday was a busy day, packed with a variety of activities.  Things kicked off with my colonoscopy in the morning – no findings and so I don’t need to repeat the joy of the preparation for another 10 years.

Since it had been so long since I had eaten, Diana drove me to Juan’s Flying Burrito (excellent comfort food) where we feasted on crawfish queso – yum, followed by a breakfast chorizo burrito for me – even had some leftovers.

Our financial advisor, Paul, came over to the house in the afternoon to pick up a check and to give Diana an overview of the stuff she had missed while in California.  It’s nice to have Paul just around the corner from us – a quick walk.

“Shorty Fest” is an annual fundraiser for the Trombone Shorty Academy, which provides a free music education class for local students, with meals and transportation provided.  The event is held at Tipitinas with a free outdoor street party prior.  We enjoyed the three Academy bands (beginner, intermediate, and advanced.)  Here’s something from the advanced level:

Stanton Moore inducted the local drummer, Shannon Powell, into the Tips walk of fame:

And then my favourite part, the battle of the bands.  Two high school bands face each other and try to outplay each other.  See what you think about them:

What do you think?  In my opinion, both were very good, with the second band having a slight edge, but that may just be due to where I was standing.  I love that there are so many amazing brass bands in New Orleans.

I almost forgot this character.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone put as much oomph into playing the bass drum:

Quite the eventful Monday.

Tuesday began with a couple of laps around Audubon park.  Then it was back over to Tipitinas.  I had seen the annual Zildjian jam advertised between prior Jazzfest weekends and never managed to attend as it’s held in the afternoon.  Semi-retirement to the rescue!  Here’s a little history on the Zildjian company:

The company was founded in Constantinople in 1623 by Avedis Zildjian, an Armenian. Zildjian is now based in Norwell, Massachusetts. Zildjian is the oldest manufacturer of musical instruments in the world as well as one of the oldest continuously operating companies in the world. Zildjian sells cymbals, drumsticks, percussion mallets and other drum accessories under the Zildjian, Vic Firth and Balter Mallet brands.

Very impressive.  Two members of the family were on stage for some short commentary.

The event featured an outstanding house band, including Ivan Neville, Ian Neville, and Tony Hall.  A host of drummers took turns coming out to play a song with the house band.  This was amazing – so much musical variety and different styles of drumming.  Tif Lamson sang and played the drums, she most recently was part of Shania Twain’s band:

Nikki Glaspie is a local, multi-talented musician.  Here she drummed and sang backup:

I really enjoyed the elder statesman of the group, Ricky Sebastian:

And finally, showing off for the drummer audience, Stanton Moore takes it to another level:

What a great way to spend an afternoon.  I enjoyed telling the guys at trivia on Tuesday evening what they had missed.  We came in fourth place, not horrible but we aim for a top three position.  There was a question about what liquor comes in yellow and green versions – this reminded me of my visit to the Chartreuse distillery in France as a youngster.

Diana came across these characters just wandering down St. Charles avenue on  Wednesday morning.  We have no idea where they could have been coming from our going to.

I don’t think that I’ve seen chicks with those spotted markings.

We met Kara and Kenny for a late lunch/early dinner at Peche – wonderful again on our second visit, and then walked to Lafayette Square for the free Wednesday evening concert, featuring Sunpie and Eric Lindell.

Kara seems to be having fun.  Lindell put on a good show, featuring Derek Huston on saxophone – I’m glad they made up.

A third day in a row with good music.

A visit to the New Orleans Athletic Club started our Thursday.  In the evening we made a visit to the Bouligny tavern – Diana was there recently with Kara, and it’s been way too long since I visited.  They play vinyl records, make good drinks, and have great food, sharing a kitchen with Lilette next door.  The bartender was mildly grumpy to start but we quickly got her onside.  Conversation turned to our travels back and forward to Pacifica – “Oh, I know where that is, I used to go to parties at Jim’s house down on Pedro Point.”  We wondered if that was the same Jim that paddleboards with Adamo and Luciano.  Some quick texting revealed that it was indeed the same Jim.  What are the odds?  The odds got even slimmer when the newly arrived second bartender asked, “Pacifica, isn’t that the one with the Taco Bell on the beach?”

We returned to Jazzfest on Friday.  Diana really wanted to see the country star Luke Combs, and she should get to choose every once in a while.  The Deslondes kicked off the action on the main stage with the best song that I heard at the fest, a cover of J.J. Cale’s “Drifting Wife”:

Mark Broussard followed and didn’t quite seem to have his usual powerful voice.  We read the next morning that he had to cut his set short and apparently was suffering from dehydration.  He still did a good job:

We met the boys at Congo Square to see some of B.I.M. (Benin International Musical).  They have an unusual sound – afro beat mixed with some other styles.

From there we wandered over to the Lagniappe stage and saw Kristin Diable (very good) :

Kristin was followed by 007 – a ska band featuring Alex McMurray and friends that were celebrating 25 years:

We popped into the Gospel tent on our way back to the main stage and caught this gem from Irma Thomas (now 83):

And now it was time for the main event (at least in Diana’s eyes) – Luke Combs.  I admit that he pleased the crowd with hit after hit, sounded good, and put on a very professional show.  A lady next to us commented on how much she was enjoyed Diana enjoying the music – indeed she was:

We stayed for about fifty minutes and then caught some of The Wailers featuring Julian Marley at Congo Square, on our way to Gentilly:

A fun filled day ended at Gentilly with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.  Still sounding great and pleasing the crowd with all the hits in her sixties.  I really enjoyed this show, a great way to finish out the 2025 edition of Jazzfest.

I dropped Diana at the airport on Sunday for her flight to San Francisco to prepare for Clorinda’s funeral services.  Meanwhile, at St Columba’s church in Stewarton, Scotland, Hamish was being christened.  I hear he listened intently to the minister (George) and didn’t even flinch when anointed with the holy water.

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!