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08/25/10
The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is the focus this week for so many documentaries, retrospectives, art exhibits, performances, readings and seminars, all alternately seeking to commemorate the tragedy or express the ways in which that titanic event changed our lives. Tonight and Saturday, local singer/songwriter/guitarist Michael Millet puts his own spin on the experience –– and his own twang, too.
A physical therapist by day, Millet is part of the city’s small but growing folk and bluegrass scene. He’s been playing for years, and the band he helped form in 2008, the Ramblin’ Letters, has been building its name lately with gigs held seemingly everywhere and anywhere. They might play in the sunshine at a Northshore park one day and...
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08/11/10
When friends or relatives visit from out of town and want to “see New Orleans,” I always urge them to take a look at the city from the river via a short trip on the Canal Street ferry. Tonight, there’s an extra-special reason to make the trip: Jon Cleary will be performing a free, open-air show by the ferry’s West Bank landing in Old Algiers Point from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
I always find the ferry trip fun in its own right. The vessel makes the quick jog across the river in just a few minutes, and along the way its open decks provide a blast of free air conditioning from the reliable river breezes and a unique view of the city from the waterline. There’s also the pleasure of the destination: the dense, historic, beautiful Old Algiers Point...
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07/28/10
One thing I love about walking through an old New Orleans house for the first time is seeing the place unfold room by room and space by space, revealing all that is so often hidden from the street view.
There was plenty of that discovery experience the first time I walked through the old New Orleans house that is now operated as Bayou Beer Garden –– much more, in fact, than I had expected.
Found near the abrupt end of Bayou St. John and set back just a bit behind the dark canopy of oaks lining Jefferson Davis Parkway, Bayou Beer Garden looks just like the other double shotguns lining the block. But pass the small paved front yard and the narrow front porch, pull open the door, and the cool, dimly lit...
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07/14/10
It's one thing to appreciate New Orleans jazz history. It's quite another to have lived through much of that history and still have the chops to burn up the stage every weekend. Those bragging rights belong to trumpeter Lionel Ferbos.
Born in 1911, he's been playing professionally in New Orleans since the 1930s. He still graces the stage of the Palm Court Jazz Café in the French Quarter, and that’s where he will celebrate his 99th birthday this Saturday, July 17, with a gig and party open to all.
Mr. Ferbos is widely recognized as the oldest active jazz musician in New Orleans, and in my mind, he’s a national treasure. It isn’t just his...
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06/30/10
Louisiana fishermen do more than earn a living through their work: They fuel a vital part of our state’s culinary heritage, and they contribute to the cultural landscape that has made Louisiana such a rewarding place to live.
It’s been heart-wrenching to see so many fishing families idled by the BP oil disaster during these long months, and those who want to lend a hand have an interesting and easy opportunity to do so this week.
Tipitina’s has assembled an incredible array of musicians for a night of distinctive New Orleans sounds this Thursday, July 1. Revenues from ticket sales will be used to help fishermen and their families along the Gulf and to support wildlife protection and wetlands...
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06/16/10
I remember driving down Banks Street in Mid-City one morning four years ago and coming upon a scene I thought must be a political rally. There was a crowd of Hispanic men in matching T-shirts on the street corner, some waving banners, some pumping their fists in the air, some chanting words I didn’t understand.
Maybe there was an important election happening that day in their home country, I remember thinking, but if so, their choice for a rally spot seemed odd. They were standing outside of Finn McCool’s Irish Pub.
Only after stopping to check things out did I finally put the pieces together. Of course, it was World Cup 2006, and this crowd was showing its support for the Mexican national team, then about to take the field against Iran. The World...
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06/02/10
With the amount of film shooting around New Orleans these days, it’s not hard to imagine some people walking into Chickie Wah Wah and thinking perhaps they’d wandered onto a set. The Canal Street establishment looks typecast to play the funky New Orleans bar and music hall, yet it seems so out-of-the-box fresh, as if the set builders just finished sweeping up the last of their sawdust before the doors opened for the evening.
That impression is partly a tribute to the tight ship that owner Dale Triguero runs here, one that stands in gleaming contrast to the dank, fermented ambiance so common in New Orleans spaces where liquor gets splashed around and daylight only meagerly penetrates. It’s also a byproduct of a...
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05/19/10
The mark in the grass by the side of Bayou St. John is so faint now it’s hard to notice even as you walk over it. But if you know it’s there, it can still be powerfully evocative.
It’s a gouge, mostly grown over now, caused by the rotor blades of a helicopter that crashed beside the bayou in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina (see then-and-now pictures here). With so much around it flooded, the dry ridge of natural high ground beside the bayou had served as a rally point for people being evacuated by helicopter, but this flight didn’t make it out. I remember hearing at the time that everyone walked away from the crash, but the wrecked machine lay there for months....
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05/05/10
The pop trends that seem to come from nowhere are usually the ones that disappear the fastest –– see widespread facial piercing; baby pacifiers as adult fashion accessories; and the public demand for Zima, the sweet malt beverage that fueled so many poor decisions during its brief reign.
Other trends are more like revivals of some style, pursuit or pleasure that once had much greater followings, like a forgotten room in the corner of American life that is suddenly flooded with people. In these cases, once the hoopla dies down and the trend-followers flake off for the next hot thing, the original devotees have the room to themselves again, where they can stretch out and reminisce on the time when the world came to visit.
This is what happened to...
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04/21/10
By now you probably know which days you’ll be hitting Jazz Fest, and the more organized out there might even have schedule “cubes” already circled for can’t-miss acts. But that’s only half the battle when it comes to planning our leisure time for the coming extended week. The town is about to explode with music and great musical happenings, and the official Jazz Fest schedule is only the beginning.
With so many far-flung New Orleans music fans in town and so many locals ready to party, the nights after Jazz Fest and the days in between Jazz Fest weekends are now jammed with shows and happenings.
The one I make sure to never miss is Chaz Fest, a homemade music festival held in the Bywater...
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A transplant from his native Rhode Island, Ian McNulty quickly discovered how easy it is to strike up conversations with New Orleans people simply by asking about their favorite clubs and neighborhood joints.
