“Super Bowl LIX”
It’s been all Super Bowl news all week! Such a big deal for the city, and the eleventh time New Orleans has hosted – tied for the record.
We met Jeff and Merry Lee to watch the light show on the St. Louis cathedral on Thursday night. So impressive!
Here are some pictures that I took of the stills in between the light show:
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We had a drink at Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 afterwards. Great drinks and food (although not available on this visit.)
The boys made a trip down to the Quarter on Friday afternoon. We started on the riverfront by the massive yacht that the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars docked.
The Hot 8 Brass Band were playing.
They transitioned into “Ain’t No Sunshine”, their good cover of Bill Withers:
We rambled around the Quarter from there, with a fun stop at the “Will and the Way” for drinks and food on the patio.
Merry Lee and Jeff scored tickets to the game and all the pre actitivies:
The Crescent City Connection bridge has been upgraded with LED lights at huge cost and driving disruption. It does look good:
The game was very one sided but the pre-game songs were excellent. Trombone Shorty on “America the Beautiful”:
Jon Batiste did an amazing job on the national anthem:
Those were the highlights for me – local musicians on the big stage. The game was disappointingly one sided.
I finished “Surrender” by Bono of U2 this week. Really enjoyed the read.
Lots of history of the forming of the band in High School in Dublin, a lot about Bono’s relationship with this father, a lot about his work to combat hunger and AIDS, and the most poignant passage in the book, for me, is this:
“An hour later in our dressing room Luciano Pavarotti brought the Princess of Wales to say hello, and the first person she met on entering our trailer was Bob Hewson (Bono’s dad). Approaching six feet in her heels and wearing the most beautiful coral-white dress, Diana was something else. The da melted. The shock of a close encounter with the British royal family quickly became a teenage crush.
“How do you do?” she inquired.
“Lovely to meet you,” he said quivering. “I’m very well, thank you for asking.” Eight hundred years of oppression disappearing in eight seconds.
If you’ve ever wondered about the usefulness of royals, I would always point to this incident. Eight hundred years in eight seconds.”
An absolute classic from Ray Charles:
And another classic from Jackie Wilson:
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!