If I could I would sing and possibly, even though I always wanted to sing like Jessye Norman, I might want to sing a song like Li Saumet from Bomba Estereo because Fuego has that right sort of beat, impatience, and youthful energy that lordy I wish I still had. But last night we went to see a different sort of music and that is instrumental and honestly, I have to sing the praises of…
Yesterday was my 51st revolution around the sun and I pinned a dollar bill on my chest as is the custom here. I only received one more dollar unlike last year when, chi ching, I racked up (so to speak). But this year, the money was actually pinned on the ErgoBaby, on a flap so no one would poke Tin, and everybody (from out of town of course) kept stopping to tell me my money…
We closed out Jazz Fest in the Blues Tent listening to B.B. King. Need I say more? Well, okay I will. When Jazz Fest starts, the police pull up a mobile unit on the bayou at the foot of Grand Route St. John, and for some reason that symbolizes the beginning of Jazz Fest. This year, I took Tin every day and it certainly changed the way I experience the Fest but all in all…
There is a myth here in New Orleans that adoption is taboo. I hear the African American community disdains the notion of adoption because it signifies a breakdown in the safety net. Generally, someone in the family will care for the child is the thinking and if not, then what does that say about your family. Try to shove that into the country’s notion of the African American family unit. Recall the woman sitting with…
Facebook has been very annoying to me for a long time because people I never hear from always want to Facebook me, but never call or just simply email. So I have to log onto Facebook to respond. Plus I keep a blog, so I don’t want to update Facebook with anything of import because I spend my free time keeping my blog updated with stuff of import. A friend told me that her identity…
Some colleagues were telling me that they are watching Treme and although they had maybe some of the same, albeit for them minor criticisms thus far, they had both been devotees of the Wire and were going to stick with it because the Wire had taken a while to come together. However, one of them said New Orleans is perhaps the most unique city in the world. And on that there is no doubt.
We spent the entire day at Jazz Fest and let me speak highly here of the Ergobaby – with its head flap, Tin was able to take two long naps as the flap provides a magic blanket environment and takes the stimuli away. We saw Kent Jordan in the Jazz Tent, then Big Al Carson in the Blues Tent, then we went to hear Astral Project and although I was prepared to sit for the…
The Gulf was what made New Orleans important to the people of the United States who didn’t think New Orleans matters – forget culture, music, food, lifestyle – having a port the size of New Orleans kept it spinning. And yet, hurricanes, oil spills, and eroding wetlands are also our lot. Here is an article in ProPublica stating BP should have known better. In the NYT this morning it was that the federal government should…