The Information Super-Frog

Yeah, Tuesday was Mardi Gras! After spending the last two Fat Tuesdays Uptown, I again had did Mardi Gras Downtown.


I started off the day with Mimosas and King Cake at a friend's house in lower Marigny. Then walked up (through various groups of costumers and revelry) to meet with some musician friends in the Marigny Triangle neighborhood; we were playing for a friend's wedding. The couple were wheeled in home made floats for a short parade to the R Bar, and they were married on the porch across the street. Next on over to Frenchmen Street, for the presentation of the new court of the Krewe of Kosmic Debris, then the parade into the French Quarter. Then back down to Frenchmen Street, and walk back to my starting point, passing thru continued fun. Another fine Mardi Gras Day.

( Photo! Video! Links! )

Unusual fun band with "Steam Punk" theme, COG The Confabulation of Gentry SteamCOG

We had our shakedown performance at Gallier Hall (New Orleans old City Hall) Sat night.



YouTube video of part of one tune

Hollie and I went down to the Marigny just after 5pm, got a good parking place, and enjoyed a meal at Tomatillos. Then over to the ARRR Barr for the "Pyrate Parade". There were 2 bands. I was playing in the Pirate Band brass band mostly recruited from the Pair-O-Dice Tumblers and BEAR/MOMs Band. The other was The Noisician Coalition with wacky noise making "instruments". There were lots of folks dressed as pirates, of course, in addition to bead cannons and wacky decorated vehicles.

Photo set on Flickr

We had a good time. Some fellow bandmembers were surprised the parade didn't stop when we passed Laffitte's Blacksmith Shop to have drinks and toast the city's historic favorite local pirate. No bar break? The Tumblers can teach the Pirates something about parading around the French Quarter.

This evening we're going to a krewe party.

mshollie and I enjoyed our weekend. Saturday afternoon we had a late lunch at Juan's Flying Burrito; I had the jerk chicken burrito and Hollie a quesadila. Ms. Hollie had been craving a mojito-- as we knew Juan makes better burritos than mojitos, we went over to St. Joe's Bar on Magazine Street afterwards-- but apparently they aren't open in the day time anymore. We then tried Superior Grill on St. Charles, which more than satisfied our mojito craving. Then to Palmer Park for a free pops concert by the Louisiana Philharmonic. Sno-balls at Plum Street before heading home left us content as can be.

Today we went to NOLA Beans in Lakeview, just to do an "eat & geek" (meal with our laptops) at someplace different. They were out of croissants for breakfast sandwiches (gasp!) so instead I had a cup of French onion soup (ok) and half a Reuben sandwich (quite good). Hollie said her baked potato was good. Later, down to Frenchmen Street for more free music-- "The Joint Chiefs of Jazz" at Ray's Boom Boom Room. After the first set we went upstairs which was better acoustically. (The downstairs would have been fine except for the sound system set to amplify the rhythm section louder than the front line. This type of band in that size venue really needs minimal amplification if any.) It balance sounded good and natural from up in the balcony. Tom Fischer's clarinet playing again had some real delights. It was an excellent band all around.

I gave a presentation at the New Orleans Music Colloquium (topic was Storyville this year). As is often the case, I also did a radio show dealing with some of the same material in a more casual manner.

A complimentary email from a listener to the radio show included the claim it was
"like getting a post-graduate education in some of the greatest music on the planet!"

While after my presentation at the Colloquium, one of the city's senior music researches told me:
"Good talk. It was very amusing".

Sunday was the first ever "Po-Boy Fest" on Oak Street here in the Carrollton section of New Orleans.

Three blocks of Oak Street were blocked off, with music stages at both ends, food and drink tents between, along with children's games (including "FEMA Bucket Toss" and "Shopping at K&B") and arts & crafts.

It was quite a success-- more so than the organizers expected, with substantial crowds and places running out of things. They plan to do it again next year spread in a larger area.

My favorite New Orleans moment in the Festival:

( Short description with 5 more pix (also posted at nola_photos) )

Froggy out and about: Oktoberfest, Jazz, Halloween, and Opera

I'm frequently aware of all the events around town I'd like to get to but don't. I therefore tend to think of myself as not going to music and special events nearly as much as I should, but as the photo post earlier today shows, I am getting out some. Perhaps a good amount.

The Oktoberfest at Deutches Haus was way way crowded-- not too bad when I got there early, but folks kept streaming in until it got sardined, so I left. However I had a chance for some good beer and filling German food, and heard the Ooom-pah band playing including 2 renditions of the apparently obligitory Chicken Dance (which seems to be the Oktoberfest equivilent of "The Saints" on Bourbon Street). Possibly some of the crowd was due to the uncertainty of Deutches Haus in the future. Local volunteers restored Deutches Haus well after the levees disaster with the motto "Fixing Up the German Chocolate Part of the City", but much of the rest of the neighborhood is not back, and there is talk about the whole area being expropriated for a big hospital complex.

I didn't get to any of the bigger Halloween stuff on lower Decatur or Frenchmen Street this year. I did enjoy playing for the tumble parade starting in the upper Quarter and going to a party in the old Warehouse District the Saturday before Halloween. Halloween Day I played with a band for a party at the Dixie Brewery in Mid City! It was a combination Halloween party and 100th anniversary celebration for Dixie beer. Since the disaster the brand has been brewed for hire by another brewery out of state. Much of Mid-City is back and thriving, but the area around the Dixie Brewery is not such a neighborhood. After the flood was drained, the copper pipes, brewing equipment and such was looted. Dixie says they plan to come back to town, but in some ways they might as well start from scratch. The building is a fairly nice example of industrial architecture of a century ago.


Photo from a year and a half ago. Note line from long standing level of flood muck.

If they don't return to brewing there, perhaps the building can be redone as apartments or something similar to the old American Can Factory.

The abandoned brewery setting was appropriately Halloween-y, but fortunately without such inconveniences as rats or mold which a friend feared might be there. A band of old white guys playing 1950s NO R&B was the main band-- they were quite good, actually. "Midnight Streetcar". Ray put together the informal brass band as the intermission band and to second line around. Good time, with beer, a good spread of food, and cake.



I had a good time Saturday at the Freret Street Farmers Market. Two years ago the location was a Red Cross relief station; now local food and products were sold with live music by Sunpie Barnes. Then I got over to Magazine Street, which was also holding a festival, and I enjoyed hearing The Last Straws playing. With a couple of fine events Uptown, I decided not to be hard on myself for not making it down to the Mirliton Festival in Bywater.

Sunday Ms. H. decided to come hear music with me. At Cafe Brasil the Doc Cheatham Memorial Band played good mainstream trad. Most of the band was the same as on the late Doc Cheatham's "Swinging Down in New Orleans" cd; the trumpet spot was filled by Jon-Eric Kellso, back in town from New York for this. He's one of the few musicians I've heard who can play jazz ranging from archaic to avante-garde with conviction and virtuosity. Afterwards we went to Snug Harbor for burgers (catching some of Butch Thompson's solo set over the sound system) before heading over to the Palm Court to hear Kellso again with the band there. Kellso and reedman Tom Fischer seemed to be inspiring each other-- very good stuff playing some interesting not frequently heard tunes.

New Orleans is a place where, unfortunately for non-nightowls, even on a weeknight lots of music doesn't start til 10pm. Wednesday there was a nice early event I treated myself to: "Opera on Tap". Casual opera excerpts and draft beer at a bar is a concept, I'm told, that started in New York, but it seems naturally at home in New Orleans. The venue was "The Rusty Nail", at the detached lower tail of the Lower Garden District at the edge of the warehouse district. This location was formerly the Mermaid Lounge, back in the long long ago of the first half of this decade. They've redone the place looking better than it ever was before the Storm. I was concerned that it might be unpleasantly smoke filled, but no smoking during Opera on Tap. Yay! I was favorably impressed with the high level of the performers. Repertory ranged from obscure to the Anvil Chorus, in Italian, French, German, and English. A bit of Gilbert and Sullivan had some modified lyrics with passing references to bad levees and a congressman with cash in his freezer. Good times.

Bastille Day Tumble in the French Quarter last Saturday night

( 7 photos (also posted to nola_photos )