Month: March 2022

“Residency Week 8 -Francais Semaine”

Week 8 started with a very pleasant run/walk in Audubon park on Monday.

We planned dinner at the Franklin on Tuesday evening, but canceled when we saw very heavy rain and winds forecast.  Instead we walked down to La Petite Grocery and enjoyed a lovely dinner at the bar.  The turtle Bolognese had changed to alligator, so I had to try that – even better than the turtle version.  Diana had their amazing burger.

We made a good choice in not venturing far from home as the storm was very severe, including significant tornado damage a few miles away in St Bernard parish.  Thanks to all of you who texted to check on us after the storm.

Diana went to an exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) on Wednesday afternoon.  Anne, Kenny and Kara accompanied her.  Queen Nefertari’s Egypt was the name of the show, and all seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.  Here’s the description from the NOMA website:

“Queen Nefertari’s Egypt brings to life the role of Nefertari and other powerful women in ancient Egypt through 230 exceptional objects, including statues, jewelry, vases, papyrus, steles, wooden coffins, and stone sarcophagi, as well as tools and various items of daily life from the artisan village of Deir-el-Medina, home to those who created the royal tombs.”

Stela of Nakhi, “Servant in the Place of Truth”, Offering to Osiris and Anubis.  New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty (c. 1300 BCE)

 

 

 

 

The group stopped at Café Degas for a nice French snack before returning Diana and Anne to the condo.  Then Denny picked us up for dinner at N7 in the Bywater area.  This wonderful French restaurant is hidden away behind a fence with just a small stencil to indicate the location (as seen in this Denny does Hitchcock picture.)  We had chosen to sit in the covered patio area rather than the garden or inside – great choice – the setting was beautiful.  I think this was my favourite meal in New Orleans so far.  The tarte flambee with caramelized onions and lardons was a wonderful appetizer, and the steak au poivre was so perfect and flavourful.  Bon Appetit magazine calls this the most romantic French restaurant in the world.

Almost forgot dessert – I’m always wary of pavlova – expecting it to be nowhere near as good as the ones that Mum and Diana make.  The N7 version was yummy.

 

 

 

 

Kara suggested the Booker Sessions at the Maple Leaf Bar for our Thursday evening entertainment.  A nice early show at 6pm featuring John Paxson playing piano in the back bar in the style of James Booker.  I was able to sit close enough to watch his fingers fly across the keyboard – a real treat.  That’s a Frenchy painting of Booker atop the piano.

We enjoyed a slice of alligator cheesecake and a drink at Jacque-imo’s before the show.  I love that cheesecake!  And as a special langiappe, the wristbands for the Booker show were penguins.

 

 

 

We collected Alicia at the airport on Friday and made our way to meet the krewe for Happy Hour at Monkey Hill.  Alicia had asked for as much live music as possible – and it started with Johnny Sansone playing outside Monkey Hill.

The group was getting hungry and we ultimately decided on Cooter Brown’s for a casual dinner and March Madness basketball watching.   Sadly, the meat pies are no longer on the menu.  They do have fresh oysters though.

I almost forgot – Diana got a love letter when she parked the car in the neighborhood on Friday morning.  She’s making friends with the locals.  It was written on the back of a fax confirmation sheet – so at least one person still uses a fax machine.

 

 

I was impressed when Diana and Alicia were up and ready to go to yoga with Kara and Kenny at 7:30 on Saturday morning.  They attended a class in the sculpture garden in City Park – what a lovely setting.  Then they enjoyed iced coffee and beignets at the City Park outpost of Café du Monde – even saved one for me.

The French school down the street, Ecole Bilingue de Nouvelle Orleans, hosted Fete Francaise on Saturday afternoon.  They had food tents from a number of French and other local restaurants – including N7.  Some really wonderful food and drink options to choose from.  Live music was also available all afternoon – adding to Alicia’s requested intake.  I really enjoyed the whole afternoon – and so close and easy.

New Orleanians never miss a chance to dress up:

The music started with the Young Fellaz Brass Band – music that always makes me smile.  That was followed by Sunpie, Preservation Brass, and Sweet Crude.

The Preservation Brass were excellent, featuring Grammy award winning Craig Klein on trombone.  Sweet Crude were a Creole rock band – very energetic and creative and a favourite of Greg and Colleen.

 

 

I enjoyed watching the dancer that was part of the band:

Alicia seemed to enjoy all the music as well.

As if we hadn’t had enough excellent music already, we decided to make the walk to the Kingpin where Derek Huston and friends were performing outside.  We stayed until folks started feeling chilly, then ordered Theo’s pizza to pick up on the walk back.  What a full day of music.

 

Diana and Alicia walked to the Chloe for Sunday brunch, and enjoyed even more live music – this time from Andrew Duhon.  I think he has a really good voice – reminds me of Anderson East.

 

 

Greg and Colleen hosted a crawfish boil on Sunday afternoon.  I had never peeled a crawfish before, but do love the taste.  I had a lesson and gave it a shot.  It was great to see a few folks I hadn’t run into in a few years – Chris Pete and Randy Bush – along with the rest of the krewe.  Greg did a great job remodeling (pretty much completely rebuilding) their new house on State street.

 

I enjoyed watching the guys pour out the entire feast on to the long table.

I read another one of Diana’s books this week – “The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley.  This was not the light, airy tour around Paris that I was expecting, rather a very dark mystery where every member of a bad family had a different and dark secret.  It passed the time, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it unless you enjoy dark mysteries.

Lots of music already this week, so stay safe and kind to everyone!

 

 

“Residency Week 6 – Live Music Week”

Monday started with Anne going with Diana over to Metairie (where the big box stores are nearest to New Orleans) to shop for a new oven for her Mom’s house.  Everything was on a long back order and so she didn’t have a successful trip.  But she did learn where all the huge stores like Best Buy and Home Depot are located – they don’t have them within the normal New Orleans city limits – which I think is a nice feature.

We walked to Dos Jefes for the regular Monday night Jon Fohl show, and were pleasantly surprised to find Papa Mali subbing for him.  Mali had a nicely varied set, playing a number of songs he had written with Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead lyricist), and telling some great stories.  Here he is playing “Deal.”

I also enjoyed his version of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”

We had a nice chat with Papa during his break.  Diana asked him about the song below that he had written about his wife (married for 40 years with 6 kids and 2 grandkids).  The struggling musician actually offered to buy us drinks – silly man – but such a sweet guy.  He noticed a friend at the bar – Dale Spalding, harmonica player for Canned Heat, and went off to coax him into playing in the second set.

Here’s the song for his wife, “Not so hard to understand.”

And then a real treat, Dale Spalding playing the Boz Scaggs classic, “Lend me a Dime.”

An excellent start to “Live Music Week.”

Diana met Debra and Anne for a ladies lunch at Shaya on Tuesday.  They did bring me some leftovers and hung out at the condo for a while after lunch.

“Pogeutry” provided our music on Wednesday at Tipitinas.  This is a band made up of the Lost Bayou Ramblers with Spider Stacy and Cait O’Riordan of the original Pogues from the 1980s.  I loved this show – so much energy and a good lead in to St. Patrick’s celebrations.  Here’s “Dirty Old Town.”  Kenny and Kara were able to join us and both enjoyed the show very much.

 

Spider Stacy is quite the tin whistle expert:

We enjoyed Happy Hour on the Columns porch again on Friday afternoon.  The beet salad may be the best that I’ve ever had – the food has really come a long way under the new ownership.  We laughed at Tim’s patron saint on our walk home:

And the number of beads still in the trees:

It was back to Tipitinas (thankfully a 5 minute walk around the corner) on Friday for a free show by the Soul Brass Band.  Another excellent evening, that ended with McD getting a big hug from the surly bouncer that she befriended over the course of the evening.  Here’s the band performing the Rolling Stones “All Over Now”:

Saturday brought…another parade!  This time the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s parade.  Not nearly as crowded as the Mardi Gras parades, but just as much fun.  I wasn’t expecting cabbages, leeks, and carrots to be typical throws from the floats – you really needed to pay attention.  We all had fun collecting “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” stuff for Anne’s dad, Grandpa Jack.

The krewe came back to the condo to relax after all the fun of the parade.  We ordered Theo’s pizza and the boys enjoyed a cigar on the front balcony.

And then…Diana convinced me to walk around to another free show at Tipitinas – this time Papa Mali, the guy we enjoyed so much at Dos Jefes on Monday night.  Unfortunately, this one was not our favourite – too much noodling around on the guitar and keyboards and not enough song structure.  Oh well – we had an amazing week of music overall.

Sunday was a mostly lazy day and then we joined Denny and Anne for dinner at Jamila’s.  This is a Tunisian restaurant with excellent lamb tagine.  I had been talking to my mum about the place, and she encouraged me to get the tagine and report back about it.  It was thoroughly delicious – so tender and so much flavour.  The place is run by a husband and wife – he manages the front and she runs the kitchen.  So welcoming and funny – we will be back for sure.

We had a drink at Chaise Delachaise before Jamilas.  I didn’t recognize the name, but realized on arrival that we had enjoyed a lovely New Year’s Eve dinner there a few years ago.  So many great places close by in this town.

Enough music already, so I’ll dive right into the book section.

My first book this week was “The Violin Conspiracy” by Brendan Slocumb.  The plot revolves around a Stradivarius violin that is stolen from a black violinist.  It turns out it was given to his great great grandfather by his slave owner.  The story of the violin theft is interesting, but less so than the story of Ray and his journey through racism to become runner up at the Tchaikovsky competition.  I found the first 70 or 80 pages a bit superficial, but really got sucked in when the story flipped back in time to Ray initially being obsessed with playing.

Slocumb holds a degree in music education (with concentrations in violin and viola) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  For more than twenty years he has been a public and private school music teacher and has performed with many orchestras in the region.  All of this makes for some detailed descriptions of violin technique and repertoire that I enjoyed a lot.  I learned what double and triple stops are all about.

I recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in classical music.

Having run out of books on hand – time for a visit to Octavia books down the street – I read one of Diana’s stack.  “One Italian Summer” was a very quick and easy read.  Pretty girly but set in Positano with pleasant descriptions of the food and the area.

Here’s the Amazon summary:

“When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers, and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. 

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life. “

I liked the way that Katy discovers her mom as a real person in Positano.  The construct of time travel seems a bit hokey, but actually works out well in the end.

Stay safe and kind to everyone!

 

 

 

 

“Residency Week 5 – Lundi Gras King and Queen”

I learned this year that Lundi Gras (the Monday before Mardi Gras) brunch at Commander’s Palace restaurant is a big deal with the New Orleans locals.  Anne was able to get us all a reservation and strongly encouraged us to dress up in fun Mardi Gras outfits.  She lent Campbell and Molly some fun duds:

Denny and Anne were also very sparkly – Anne with her band hat and tasseled boots:

And then D with her complete flapper girl outfit:

The food at Commanders is always excellent, with great service and good fun all around.  I met my work friend, Fred, who recently retired.  His family all had matching crazy suits:

A small band toured the restaurant taking requests.  I asked them to play “What a Wonderful World” – and the trumpet player had a great deep, raspy voice:

Here we all are in our corner table after a lovely meal:

And then….as we were about to leave, the lady in charge of the room asked us to wait a minute because she had something for us.  Oh boy, what she had was not anything that I expected.  She quietened the room and then announced that she had chosen Diana and me as Lundi Gras brunch King and Queen.  We were awarded decorated spatulas and then paraded around the restaurant behind the band waving them to all the diners.  Who knew that was a thing?  Apparently the locals did because Debra asked Diana the next day if they had crowned the King and Queen.  Diana had a good story to reply with.

What to do after all that excitement?  How about….another parade?  Yes – this was going to be the last one for us.  Orpheus was quite different with the floats beautifully decorated and lit up – a real feast for the eyes.  I always enjoy checking out the bands warming up in the park on the corner – and St Augustine’s is one of the best in the city:

Here are some pictures from the parade watching:

Yes – even the penguins made it out for this parade.

I had been told that Mardi Gras day begins very early, and there was a rumour that Mardi Gras Indians and bands would be gathering at Tipitinas shortly after 6am.  Vince and I made our way there to check it out.  Galactic was just finishing their overnight show when we arrived.  It was funny to watch the concert goers emerge into the daylight.  The Professor Longhair statue at the entrance was all beaded up:

Kenny and Kara joined us and we waited for a long time – but no Indians or bands.  Calling it a bust, we went back to the condo to get ready for our bike ride down to the French Quarter and the Marigny to checkout all the crazy outfits.

 

The group assembled and then we were on our bikes and off.

After a couple of stops we arrived in the Quarter and stopped to admire all the outfits.

We ultimately arrived at Anna’s in the Marigny and Diana and Debra enjoyed some champagne together.

That was maybe the most fun day of people watching that I’ve ever had.  We were exhausted after the day, but the kids headed off on the bikes to meet up with the rest of the krewe at The Kingpin.  Oh to be in your twenties.

Debra manages Jacques-Imo’s restaurant (first meal Diana and I had together in New Orleans was there) and had secured reservations for us on Wednesday night – a last meal for Campbell and Molly.  Denny, Anne and Jack joined us for an excellent meal.  Debra had arranged a lovely bottle of French champagne for Diana, and loaded the table up with complementary appetizers.  She is so sweet and kind.  This place was quite the opposite of Commander’s Palace – very casual and loud.  The southern food was amazing and the portions so generous that we were eating left overs for two days.  Molly was talking about her fried chicken on the flight home.

Honey was happy to have her parents back home on Thursday, and quickly destroyed her treat from the parades.  How could you be angry with that face?

Campbell texted me, “We had so much fun and will have stories forever.”  Mission accomplished!

 

 

We walked over to the Columns Hotel for drinks and snacks on Friday afternoon.  New ownership has really upped the cocktail and food game there.  It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed passing an hour or two on the porch.

We passed this nicely decorated house on our walk down Marengo to The Columns.

Saturday started with a pleasant run in Audubon Park and a trip to Octavia Books where D stocked up on reading material for her sun-bathing sessions on the back terrace.

In the evening, we picked up Denny and Anne and drove to Faubourg Brewing in East New Orleans.  It used to be called Dixie Brewing, but has changed like so many other businesses as the Dixie statues and monuments have been removed.  Sun Pie and Gal Holiday were both performing outside on the expansive lawn.  Gal sat down at the table with us and rapidly consumed a bunch of crawfish before her set – she had some great peeling and eating skills.

There were several games available on the lawn and I was very impressed that Denny was able to outplay the Connect 4 champion McD.  You could tell he was really concentrating.

We enjoyed some chargrilled oysters and boudin egg-rolls and called it a reasonably early night.

Sunday’s run was in the Riverside part of Audubon – an experiment that we won’t likely repeat – the pavement is just too rough and unpredictable for a leisurely run.

In the afternoon we attended another porch concert.  This was hosted by one of Anne’s tennis ladies who was celebrating her birthday.  These started as a way for musicians to make money during early COVID and I hope they continue.  Just a great way to pass a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

The band was The Walrus and they played all Beatles music – and played it very well.  A nice selection from all the albums.

There was an interesting moment when one of the guitar players amplifier broke down.  No worries – the man of the house quickly nipped inside and emerged with a replacement.  “The beauty of playing at a musician’s house”, said the singer.  I did chuckle at the guys in their “Laissez Boy” recliners, fresh from the parades.

Kenny and Kara joined us for pizza at Theo’s.  It was nice to sit outside, enjoy the yummy pizza and tell stories.

I finally finished “The Great Wide Open” by Douglas Kennedy.  Almost 600 pages long and pretty dense, but a really good read.

Here’s the summary from Amazon:

“Alice Burns – a young book editor – is deep into a manuscript about the morass of family life. The observations within resonate, perhaps, because she has just watched her own family implode.

As she reads she wonders: When did the sadness start? And could it be that unhappiness is a choice?

Thus begins a great American epic which follows Alice as she navigates high school, first love and sexism at an elite college, a spell in 1970s Ireland, and a tragedy that sends her stateside as the US embraces a cowboy actor named Reagan.

But it is also the tale of her endlessly complex parents and brothers – how their destinies are written by the lies they tell themselves and others.”

The book started out very well but veered into a bit of unbelievable territory in the middle sections.  There’s only so much that can realistically happen to one family, and I felt that Kennedy was trying to cram in too many historical references and events.  That being said, I still recommend this read if you have the patience for such a long book.

This Tom Petty song was in my head each time I picked up my book:

Here’s one from the late keyboard player, Chuck Leavell that I’ve had on pretty heavy rotation this week:

Stay safe and be kind to everyone!