Month: February 2025

“Movie Week”

Kenny and Denny joined me at the Prytania theater on Monday afternoon to watch the Oscar nominated live action shorts.  These were five short films with quite varied subject matter and styles.

I did get in trouble for talking during one of the films.  We had dinner at La Cocinita to share our thoughts.  No clear agreement.  I thought “I am not a robot” from the Netherlands was the most entertaining.  I think Denny and Kenny preferred “The Last Ranger” about rhino horn poaching in South Africa, but maybe Kenny liked “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” from Croatia – that’s the one the critics think will win and was my least favourite.

We did not do well at trivia on Tuesday night.  I believe we were between eighth and tenth.  Things started to go badly when Denny insisted on answering “Is chemical energy an example of potential or kinetic energy?” with kinetic, even after I gave the example of a battery which is stored up or potential energy.  And they got worse from there.  A bad night for the Bayou Boyz.

I talked Kenny into attending the Wednesday morning movie matinee with  me at the Prytania.  The offering this week was “The Conversation”, starring Gene Hackman and directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1974.

We agreed that this film was pretty slow, with a confusing and convoluted plot line.  Coppola apparently was very committed to writing and directing this movie and only agreed to direct “The Godfather II” after the studio agreed to “The Conversation.”

Kara joined us for lunch at Martin after the movie.

It was a cold and early start for me on Thursday morning – 30 degrees when I left home at 6:30am for my flight to San Francisco.  Diana picked me up at the airport and we resumed the routine of helping Clorinda.

Today was a busy day – visits from cousin Joelle and Jerry, Adam, and Victor and Jennifer – all three at slightly different times.  We made a new recipe – orzo Mediterranean salad – and thankfully had enough for everyone.  This was a good recipe from the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper.

Diana has fallen way down the rabbit hole of bracelet fabrication.  Look at this whole enterprise and the tools involved:

This all started with a desire to make a “few” Mardi Gras bracelets.

Andy and Jude came down on Friday night.  They are always such great company.  Andy had to make a quick trip home when his new replica of Prince’s Telecaster was delivered.

Jeff and Merry Lee sent some pictures of penguins that they took in Antarctica:

I finished up “Rabbit is Rich” – an enjoyable read but not really my thing, and started “James” by Percival Everret.  This is described as:

“#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER• NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.”

I’m not far into the book but am enjoying it a lot already.

Here’s an old classic that I heard on the local radio station, WWOZ:

And a couple from a band that’s been around for a long time that  I just heard this week:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

“More of the same”

This week was quite similar to last week – helping to make Clorinda as comfortable as possible as she regains her strength.  The good news is she has a very good appetite and is always so alert and responsiveness when her grandchildren show up:

We did manage to escape for lunch at Puerto 27, a very good local Peruvian restaurant, while Clorinda was at dialysis.  Diana went for comfort food and was very happy with her burger, while I chose an avocado and crab sandwich.

I passed some of the time with the new documentary series about Saturday Night Live on Peacock.  The episode on “More Cowbell” was hilarious and well researched, the episode on the musical guests, a pleasant walk down memory lane.

We flew home to New Orleans on Saturday and were surprised to see the airport so quiet on our arrival before 8pm.  TSA closed, all stores and restaurants closed, so clearly no departing flights.  Seemed unusual.  It will not be like that next week when the Super Bowl comes to town.

We were getting parade updates for Chewbacchus, a walking parade that we’ve enjoyed in previous years.  It has a science fiction geeky theme, and certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously.  We were much too tired to venture into the fray and so missed Kara and Debra in their Wonder Women krewe.  I think McD should join them next year – what are your thoughts?  She just needs a little encouragement and some help with her outfit.

It’s always hard to wind down after a day of travel.  We watched a very good movie, “The Peanut Butter Falcon”, to try and relax and it did the trick.  Great acting and a nicely understated and calm storyline.

The weather today was the best of the year so far – 70 degrees, blue skies, and, most importantly, no humidity.  We celebrated with a couple of laps around Audubon park – always a treat.

I started “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story” by Bono this week.  I’m about half way through just now, and am really enjoying the read.  The writing is honest and lacks any of the bombast that you might expect, given his public persona.  I’ll share some of my favourite passages next week.  Here’s some of the online chatter:

“NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Bono—artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2—has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he’s lived, the challenges he’s faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him. • A VOGUE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“A brilliant, very funny, very revealing autobiography-through-music. Maybe the best book ever written about being a rockstar.” —Caitlin Moran, award-winning journalist
 
“When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I’d previously only sketched in songs. The people, places, and possibilities in my life. Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept. A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist. Surrender is the story of one pilgrim’s lack of progress … With a fair amount of fun along the way.” —Bono
 
 As one of the music world’s most iconic artists and the cofounder of the organizations ONE and (RED), Bono’s career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it’s Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candor, self-reflection, and humor, Bono opens the aperture on his life—and the family, friends, and faith that have sustained, challenged, and shaped him.
 
Surrender’s subtitle, 40 Songs, One Story, is a nod to the book’s forty chapters, which are each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created forty original drawings for Surrender, which appear throughout the book.”

I didn’t save off any new songs this week – that’s a first.  Not sure why.  Here’s a classic that was in the soundtrack to a movie I was watching, can’t remember which one:

The wonderful guitarist, Julian Lage, has a new album out with a lot of very varied content:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!