“New Friends and Joe Krown”
We had the typical Monday early start for the 8am pickling session. Shortly after that Daniel, our appliance repair guy, and his son showed up to look at our dishwasher, washer and dryer. The dishwasher was deemed not worth messing with – too old and too difficult and costly to fix. It’s fine – we use it rarely anyway and I’m going to try one more full reboot before giving up. The washer needs a part that has been ordered and we need a chimney sweep for the dryer vent. Such joy!
I got to sleep in on Tuesday as the pickling didn’t commence until 11am. That was followed by lunch at Porgy’s on the way to run some errands in Metairie. This was Diana’s first visit and she really enjoyed the food, service and vibe of the place. We had ceviche, a Thai style gulf fish ceviche tostada, and a special shrimp burger – all delicious. Even the rose prosecco was pleasing to McD. I think she’ll be looking to return soon.
Well sated with incredibly fresh seafood, we headed over to Metairie to make some returns at Target and for me to shop for a couple of shirts for upcoming travels.
We were home in time for me to rehearse for trivia with an episode of Jeopardy. The news of Dolly Parton’s passing broke and so I did a little trivia preparation for questions about her. We didn’t get any but Tom, quiz master, told a story about his first day as a radio DJ and the first song he ever introduced – 9 to 5 by Dolly. Here’s a cartoon from the paper of Dolly’s note at half mast.
Our friend, Debra, is in the Krewe of Dolly and we’re waiting to hear when they’ll have a second line celebration.
My Jeopardy prep paid off – there was a question about which movie poster contained the three words, “Why so serious?” That was on the episode I watched and so I was able to state confidently that the answer was 100% surely “The Dark Knight.” I knew a lot more of the answers than usual – just the luck of the draw. I was most proud of “Which Shakespeare play has the phrase – something wicked this way comes?” Obviously “Macbeth.”
The Enid – the Shakespeare clue brought them back to me. A wonderful concert at the tiny theater above the Playhouse when I was at university in Edinburgh.
Apologies for that diversion. Would you like to hear about the final trivia question? I thought you most likely would. It was one of those add up the numbers and come within 5 of the total. The four numbers were:
Procida is a new restaurant that opened a week ago on Wednesday. We read the review in the paper and decided it was perfect for Diana. What do you think?
Here’s the review from the paper:
We drove over to the Marigny and found the lovely new restaurant. Open exactly a week total. The green haired hostess did not give a good first impression – surly and pecking away on her iPad like an airline ticket agent. Thankfully everything after her was much better. It wasn’t just us – I watched her repeat the performance for every group that came in – maybe not the ideal job match? Here’s the menu – so many good choices – what would you have gone with?
We opted to start with the Sicilian arancina and the smoked swordfish carpaccio. Both great and the swordfish was just delicious. Off to a great start.
Diana had the bucatini and I chose the anolini. Again, both were delicious and very different. The bucatini aglio e olio was finished with pangrattato, the tiny breadcrumbs fried in olive oil that make a crunchy contrast to the crab and the noodle. I thought it was a great dish. The anolini had fried zucchini, smoked scamorza cheese and lemon. I had not heard of scamorza cheese – apparently the smoky, denser cousin of mozarella. I just had some leftovers and the lemon flavour really came through.
Dessert time? Diana had mentioned tiramisu for a few days and was ready to jump in.
This was a very traditional tiramisu and I loved it. Procida will do very well after they get rid of the green haired hostess – the food, space and vibe are all very good.
I rewatched a few episodes of “Shrinking” on Wednesday evening. Just as good the second time around. I saw some framed record albums in Jimmy’s house and wondered what two of them were – I knew the Lou Reed one. The beauty of AI – a 10 second search and I had the answer. I’m a pretty big Pink Floyd album and have never seen that Syd Barret album.
Thursday was two pickling sessions for Diana and reading, music and admin for me.
We met a couple of Diana’s pickling girlfriends and husbands on Friday evening – Sandi, Nic, Shanie and Bill. We started off at the Rusty Nail, migrated across the street to Plates for s dinner of Spanish tapas, and then retired to Bill and Shanie’s flat for stories. I had a great time and enjoyed the new friends very much.
We had planned on sitting outside at the Kingpin to listen to this music on Saturday afternoon:
We ventured out to Martin to get a bottle of wine for our neighbor, Tony’s, birthday and decided that it was way too humid to sit outside. Those that braved the heat reported that this was a great show.
Kenny and Kara joined us on the porch after dinner for a while and we had an enjoyable visit as Tony’s birthday party would down next door.
Denny and Anne stayed in NYC for an extra night and Kenny had a tennis match, so we invited the new pickling friends to join us to listen to Joe Krown at the Old Point in Algiers on Sunday afternoon. Diana and I enjoyed brunch at Maya’s before picking up Sandi and Nic for the drive across the Mississippi.
I really enjoyed the scene at the Old Point – a good crowd with us for once finding ourselves on the younger end of the gene pool. Joe Krown played as effortlessly as ever.
Kenny joined us on the porch to close out a very pleasant day.
I haven’t completely finished “Villa Coco” by Andrew Sean Greer yet. It certainly doesn’t move at the pace of the wonderful “Less.” Hopefully it will pick up in the later sections. 
I was glad to see Cyril Neville awarded a “Guardian of the Groove” from our wonderful local radio station, WWOZ.
It’s a small list of honorees – Marcia Ball has one. How about this song from Cyril and Joe:
I haven’t heard anything that good in a long time.
The excellent and underappreciated band, the Jayhawks, have a new album out – always a treat:
Herlin Riley is New Orleans musical royalty. His resume is very long and very impressive, having helped Wynton Marsalis establish the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra, and playing with Ahmad Jamal for many years.
Riley interviewed the pianist, Lawrence Cotton (right), who was quick to let everyone know that he would be 100 in 6 months. Wow.
My quest for an enjoyable read that I could sink my teeth into continued this week. “Mothers and Sons” by Adam Haslet showed moments of promise but became too much of what I call “kitchen sinky” – each situation needs to have one of every type of person suffering from all the usual current traumas and challenges. That became too much and I stopped after 100 pages. Here’s an online summary:
I braved the heat on Thursday morning for a walk to French Truck Coffee to read the paper. After that I completed the three mile circuit down Magazine to Napoleon, up to Prytania and back home. I was quite sweaty on arrival back. This sight distressed me on my walk. I keep seeing this ridiculous Tesla truck around town – and parked in front of a wonderful local tapas place (Baru) it just looks completely ridiculous.
Diana returned from pickleball to report that she and Laurie got first place in the open play tournament. She was quick to point out that there were only four teams – still worth celebrating, I think.
I’ve almost finished “The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong. I did not love this book but kept with it, having rejected quite a few after a few chapters recently. Oprah raved about this and I usually enjoy her recommendations. This one is too plodding, mundane, and depressing. Here’s the online summary:
Wednesday started with a walk/run in the park for both of us, then Diana had yoga and I splintered off to Tartine for coffee and the newspaper. They had a stuffed baguette advertised that I couldn’t resist. Stuffed with ham, bacon, onion, mushrooms, fontina and some spicy peppers. Ridiculously yummy. It doesn’t look exciting in the photo but I wanted to add it so that I remember to try it again. This is certainly my favourite breakfast spot.
When I returned to pick up yoga D, this is the sight that greeted me – a bunch of bottoms up in the air. Apparently that was their final stretch.
Diana hit the river trail early on Friday morning and then we shared a breakfast sandwich before making our way to Blair and Lisa’s compound for a “lite lunch.”
What’s up with Blair’s vintage Earl Campbell Oilers jersey, you ask? Well…he saw several videos where Christopher Cross was wearing the same shirt, and was hoping to attract his attention. Our seats were third row, center with perfect views – that’s how Blair rolls. Christopher Cross sounds great and broke out his biggest hit early in the set:
Sami, having proven himself very reliable on Saturday night, transported us in style back to the Austin airport for our flight home. I chuckled at this album display in the airport from local artists – that’s Christopher Cross at the top left and that album has both hit songs that I shared earlier.
Jon Cleary, wonderful English born piano player who has resided in New Orleans for 40 years and is an expert on all things funky NOLA style piano, has an album coming soon. This was recorded from a solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Hard to believe he sold that out and plays in small venues in his adopted home town.
Jeff was the only person in the building that knew the answer to one of the questions. He had gone off to get a beer and none of us knew which coach won basketball championships at both the college and NBA level. I said that I thought Jeff might know. Returning to the table, he said “I know this one – Larry Brown.” Oh yeah – we should have remembered that.
I finished up “Truth & Beauty: A Friendship” by Ann Patchett this week. A bit depressing, but a very good read.