“French Quarter Fest, and other musical highlights”
Oh no, it happened again. I’ve fallen behind on these posts. And now I have a cast on my right hand and struggle to type. So…the next few posts will be short on words.
Our flight attendant friend, Amy, was in town on Tuesday for a layover. We met up for a delicious dinner at Kingfish, and then a cocktail in the lovely Peychaud’s patio.
We experienced a large storm on Wednesday – tornadoes doing a lot of damage in nearby towns. Our only casualty was the jasmine plant on the side wall – blown down by high winds.
The weather improved significantly on Thursday, and we enjoyed French Quarter Festival – a free music and food festival with stages around the Quarter.
We started with Lena Prima at Jackson Square. She’s the daughter of Louis Prima, a famous singer from the 50s and 60s.
Her Tom Jones medley was a crowd pleaser.
We walked over to a river front stage and saw Alex McMurray put on a great show:
That was followed by the Cuban Latin fusion of Los Guiros. Such a great variety of music:
Chris Thomas King’s blues skills were the last offering we caught at that stage:
We moved to the large stage and caught fun sets from Bonerama (4 trombones) and Ivan Neville and friends with a fun Talking Heads cover:
We spent a bit of time at the festival again on Friday, catching the wonderful New Orleans Suspects:
Diana attended our neighbour, Augie’s, 3rd birthday on Friday afternoon.
Kenny and Kara joined us at the Maple Leaf on Friday night for the South Austin Moonlighters. A very talented band from Austin. Their guitars and harmonies were awesome:
What an amazing few days of enjoyable and varied music. One of the big reasons that we live here.
Saturday was a rest day, and then we met the Krewe to celebrate Denny’s birthday and watch the Pelicans basketball.
My book was “The Comedians” by Graham Greene. Here’s an online summary:
“Haiti, under the rule of Papa Doc and his menacing paramilitary, the Tontons Macoute, has long been abandoned by tourists. Now it is home to corrupt capitalists, foreign ambassadors and their lonely wives—and a small group of enterprising strangers rocking into port on the Dutch cargo ship, Medea: a well-meaning pair of Americans claiming to bring vegetarianism to the natives; a former jungle fighter in World War II Burma and current confidence man; and an English hotelier returning home to the Trianon, an unsalable shell of an establishment on the hills above the capital. Each is embroiled in a charade. But when they’re unsuspectingly bound together in this nightmare republic of squalid poverty, torrid love affairs, and impending violence, their masks will be stripped away.”
I really do enjoy some of the descriptions very much:
“Mr. Smith, who wore a shabby raincoat turned up to guard his large innocent hairy ears, was pacing the deck behind us, one lock of white hair standing up like a television aerial in the wind, and a travelling-rug carried over his arm.”
An exchange that reminded me of all the hassle associated with Louisiana and the Napoleonic law structure:
“Then he ought to be brought before a magistrate and put on bail. i will stand bail for any reasonable amount.”
“Bail?” the Minister said. “Bail?” He turned to me with a gesture of appeal from his cigar. “What is bail?”
“A kind of gift to the state if a prisoner should not return for trial. It can be quite a substantial amount.” I added.
“You’ve heard of Habeas Corpus, I suppose,” Mr. Smith said.
“Yes. Yes. Of course. But I have forgotten so much of my Latin. Virgil. Homer. I regret that I no longer have time to study.”
I said to Mr. Smith, “The basis of the law here is supposed to be the Code Napoleon.”
“The Code Napoleon?”
“There are certain differences from the Anglo-Saxon law. Habeas Corpus is one of them.”
“A man has to be charged surely.”
The origin of the title:
“There’s something about him I don’t believe, not altogether. I was reminded, when I talked to him, of a time when I was young and I persuaded a London restaurant to take me on because I could talk French – I said I’d been a waiter at Fouquet’s. I was expecting all the time that someone would call my bluff, but no one did. I made a quick sale of myself, like a reject with the price-label stuck over the flaw. And again, not so long ago, I sold myself just as successfully as an art expert – no one called my bluff then either. I wonder sometimes whether Jones isn’t playing the same game. I remember looking at him one night on the boat from America – it was after the ship’s concert – and wondering, are you and I both comedians?”
The ambassador said, “Come on, cheer up, let us all be comedians together. Take one of my cigars. Help yourself at the bar. My Scotch is good. Perhaps even Papa Doc is a comedian.”
“The ambassador said, “We mustn’t complain too much of being comedians – it’s an honourable profession. If only we could be good ones the world might gain at least a sense of style. We have failed – that’s all. We are bad comedians, we aren’t bad men.”
I always enjoy Greene’s work, and this one is pretty relevant now, given the disaster that is Haiti.
No more music this week.
Coexist peacefully, with patience and compassion for all!
Denny was working on me again to attend the Hogs for a Cause festival on Saturday. This time we held strong and rested up for all the festivals ahead. We did go and watch James Andrews at the Kingpin with Alex, Laura, and a brief appearance by Anne.
I had my teeth cleaned at the new dentist we found through Kelly on Wednesday. I was pleased with the thorough job. Kenny met me for lunch afterwards. We tried Mint on Freret (Vietnamese) and I was very happy with my lemongrass chicken banh mi. The French bread was wonderful. Cooper Manning was having lunch there – making it two sightings of him in a week.
I worked on Friday morning and then we took Colin for the Commanders Palace lunch experience – including the 25 cent martinis. They had a corned beef special for St. Patrick’s day – served on brioche bread with a poached egg on top. Colin wasn’t able to pass that up and really enjoyed it. I had my usual turtle soup, stuffed quail, and bread pudding soufflé.
Some of the silly boys thought they would entertain Diana with hats decorated with silverware – reminding her that they swapped the drawers around on their last visit, and causing a squeak. Kenny appears to have fixed the squeak for now.
I started a collection of Flannery O’Connor short stories this week. The first one is “The Geranium”, a pretty controversial story due to the racist views held by Old Dudley who moves from the South to stay with his daughter in New York. I ready strong articles for and against the story. It was originally published in 1946 and was part of O’ Connors’ Masters thesis.
“In the 1920s, Miami Beach’s first commercial strip, Española Way, became an artists’ colony. Creative types seeking life by the sea moved to the city in droves, including an artist who discovered a unique Tudor home in the South of the Fifth neighborhood. We transformed their eclectic beach cottage, now a landmark, into a House that’s only steps from the ocean, yet far enough away from the noise of South Beach tourists.”
After Happy Hour, Chickie had us booked in for an impossible table at Carbone. Probably one of the best Italian meals that I’ve ever enjoyed. Wonderful, old school service and every single dish an amazing treat.
I convinced Diana to attend the NOLA Gold rugby match on Saturday afternoon. I had made the mistake of having her watch some of the Six Nations series on Netflix. “It’s a very violent sport, not something I’m sure I want to go and watch.”
I started “Come and Get It” by Kiley Reid on the short flights to Miami and back. I loved “Such a Fun Age” and am enjoying this one so far. I haven’t reached the key part of the story yet. Here’s the online summary:
As a thank you, I drove Denny, Anne and Thom over to Hammond for the state soccer final on Thursday night. Jack is an assistant coach for the Willow school – he and Mason won the state championship a few years ago at that school (called Lusher at the time.)
Saturday was a gorgeous day – 74 degrees and no humidity. Perfect for the kickoff of the Kingpin bar Saturday music series. This is a local bar that showcases music out front and encourages folks to bring chairs to set up in the small park out front. This week was the Bessarabia brass band:
For the first time, I got the blue ribbon across the table to indicate “regular patrons.” The roaming jazz band was very good and took a lot of requests. Here’s a video:
A week or two ago, it seemed like a good idea to make a reservation at a local restaurant for Valentine’s dinner. We stuck to it and enjoyed an early meal at Beggar’s Banquet – just down the street on Prytania. The mushroom toast was amazing, and the rest of the offerings were “fine.” That’ll teach me to be an amateur and go out to eat on the actual Valentine’s day.
I walked down to District for breakfast on Saturday morning – they have really excellent breakfast biscuits – not sure if I prefer them to Gracious bakery or not. The ambience is a lot nicer.
Kenny and Kara joined me for brunch at Mister Mao’s on Sunday. Diana thinks the food there is too spicy, and so I decided to give it a try while she was out of town. The food was very good, the San Francisco garlic noodles were my favourite, and nothing was overly spicy this time.
are appropriately decorated. Next week I’ll share a picture of the Mardi Gras flag and decorations that we have on the front of the house. Right when we arrived at Jefferson Ave., about 1.5 miles from home, the heavens opened. I had just a t-shirt and jeans on and got completely drenched very quickly. We ducked under the library porch and waited for the heaviest rain to pass. I was hoping to jump a streetcar back to Washington Ave., but none came. Oh well, let’s make the 1.5 mile trek home in the drizzle and light rain. I did check the forecast and radar minutes before our walk – how can a huge downpour be missed like that?
I was reading some New Orleans history – particularly about some of the great writers who have lived here. Most notably, Tennessee Williams, who wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” while living here and remained until his death. And of course, Anne Rice and her vampire novels, written in a house just around the corner from us. I was taken with an explanation of where the title, “A Confederacy of Dunces” , came from. This is the title of a well known New Orleans based book by John Kennedy Toole. The book’s title comes from
I really didn’t love “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.” I tried, given so many number one best of the year reviews. Way too many insignificant and underdeveloped characters – I almost had to make a chart to keep up with them all. The main characters in a story like this need to be more fully developed. I almost felt like McBride was trying to appeal to every ethnic and religious group. Did any of you really enjoy this book?
I sampled a decent amount of “Let Us Descend” by Jesmyn Ward. Really not my scene at all.
Carnival/Mardi Gras season started on Saturday evening (Twelfth Night.) The first event is the Phunny Phorty Phellows and the Funky Uptown Crew riding streetcars and celebrating. We walked the 100 feet down to St. Charles and enjoyed the revelry. Some neighbors had hired a brass band to celebrate with the Krewes. Here are some videos.
I’m almost finished with “Wellness.” Here are some passages that I enjoyed so far. This is funny because Diana has some different features in each ear: