Month: January 2024

“Cigar Box Guitars”

On Tuesday evening, we drove over to visit Merry Lee and Jeff at their condominium in the Warehouse District.  It’s very modern and comes with lots of nice amenities – pool, bike room, gym, game room etc.  The Superdome is just a couple of hundred yards away.

It’s quite the opposite of a Garden District home built in 1860.  It’s nice that we’re just a five minute drive apart.

We had planned to eat at Tito’s on St. Charles, but with the bitter cold, decided on something very close to the condo.  Merry Lee organized Maypop.  This is how they describe their food:

“Our dishes are inspired by the vibrant, diverse culture of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, creating unique flavors and bringing a contemporary, locally-sourced twist to classic Southern-Asian dishes.”

The food was different,  interesting, and very tasty.  We tried the satsuma octopus and tuna appetizers.  I had the spaghetti with crab – absolutely delicious with great broth to sop up with the Roti bread.  Here are the appetizer and dinner menus:

The restaurant was quite modern and almost industrial looking:

It was well below freezing on Tuesday night and so we had all the taps dripping overnight.  No damage so far. Phew!  The New Orleanians never lack for humour – here’s the Mardi Gras beads being utilized as snow chains:

The next couple of days were cold, but not as cold, and so we stayed inside for the most part.  Things warmed up on Thursday and I suggested that we go for an afternoon walk.  We wandered down the street car line on St. Charles – enjoying watching folks setting up their front yard viewing platforms for the parades.  They go to quite a bit of work to make sure they are appropriately decorated.  Next week I’ll share a picture of the Mardi Gras flag and decorations that we have on the front of the house.  Right when we arrived at Jefferson Ave., about 1.5 miles from home, the heavens opened.  I had just a t-shirt and jeans on and got completely drenched very quickly.  We ducked under the library porch and waited for the heaviest rain to pass.  I was hoping to jump a streetcar back to Washington Ave., but none came.  Oh well, let’s make the 1.5 mile trek home in the drizzle and light rain.  I did check the forecast and radar minutes before our walk – how can a huge downpour be missed like that?

Diana met up with Merry Lee on Friday.  They walked from our home down to Magazine for a sushi lunch at Sake Café.  The Chihuly glass sculptures coming down form the ceiling caught McD’s attention.  We did a walking tour of those at the Dallas Arboretum that was really something.

They wandered through several shops after lunch but didn’t purchase too much.  Not knowing the weather for Mardi Gras makes it tough to decide.

We were double booked on Saturday – we had tickets to the New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar festival and the Chewbacchus parade was happening – with Kara, Nina, and Debra all walking as Wonder Women.  I’ll talk about the Cigar Box event first.

This was a three day festival with cigar box guitar nerds from around the world exchanging tunes and tips.  Argentina, France, and all over the United States were represented.  It was nice to observe the close knit community they have developed over the years.  The event ran from 3pm until 6pm, an hour for dinner, and then 7pm until 10pm.  Here’s one of the early set performers – he was working really hard.

We walked a few blocks to Manolito, a tiny Cuban restaurant for dinner.  Here’s what they say about themselves and their name:

Our dinner and drinks were excellent as always from this little, delicious place.  Kenny thinks their banana daiquiri is the best he’s had.  His brother owns several daiquiri shops on Bourbon St. – quite a different drink!

The second cigar box set was excellent – starting out with the New Orleans based Cigar Box Serenaders.  Sounds like something you might here in the Spotted Cat Music Club on Frenchman Street – but precisely executed:

That was a dresser drawer bass and a drum kit of pails and coffee cans.  Very  clever.

After this set, we braved the cold wind to watch a bit of the parade.  No sign of Kara and the Wonder Women amongst the 3,000 walking participants:

Kenny and I returned to the inside and warmth pretty quickly, while Diana did her best to wait for the Wonder Women.  After 45 minutes, she was back inside for this treat:

Memphis Lightning had huge energy and amazing guitar skills, capped off by his demonstration of being able to play guitar with both his right and left hands on this crazy double neck cigar box guitar.

We stayed for a couple of songs of the final act, Erin Coburn.  A pretty lady who took us by surprise with a very heavy and noisy set to finish out the night.  We left after a couple of songs.  What an eclectic and somewhat typical NOLA day.

During the week, Billy (handyman), dropped off some delicious gumbo for us.  Would a handyman in McKinney ever do that – no way.  That’s on top of the fresh crabs and sauce he dropped off last week.  I showed him my diagnosis on one of the faucet leaks – needs a new O-ring here:

We figured out the other leak as well.  Kohler provides lifetime free replacement parts – so this should be with me for installation next week.  We’ll see how I do.  Better than a very expensive replacement faucet if I can make it work reliably.  The service from Kohler was amazing (a total contrast from Thermador) – I would recommend them to anyone that plans to have their products for a few years – free replacement parts and instructions.

I’ve just watched the NFC Divisional game between Detroit and Atlanta – a really competitive game that the Lions won.  Just when I’ve almost put the Cowboys disappointment behind me, another online joke picture comes along:

I was reading some New Orleans history – particularly about some of the great writers who have lived here.  Most notably, Tennessee Williams, who wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” while living here and remained until his death.  And of course, Anne Rice and her vampire novels, written in a house just around the corner from us.  I was taken with an explanation of where the title, “A Confederacy of Dunces” , came from.  This is the title of a well known New Orleans based book by John Kennedy Toole.  The book’s title comes from Jonathan Swift’s essay “Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting”: When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

I really didn’t love “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.”  I tried, given so many number one best of the year reviews.  Way too many insignificant and underdeveloped characters – I almost had to make a chart to keep up with them all.  The main characters in a story like this need to be more fully developed.  I almost felt like McBride was trying to appeal to every ethnic and religious group.  Did any of you really enjoy this book?

I sampled a decent amount of “Let Us Descend” by Jesmyn Ward.  Really not my scene at all.

All the rave reviews:

“OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Instant New York Times Bestseller • Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.

“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” —Inferno, Dante Alighieri
 
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.”

This was just too harsh for me to bear.  I know it’s historically accurate, but not what I need to spend my free time reading about.

This is the first time in a long time that I’ve returned two books to the library unfinished.  I infer that I need to stop following the “best of” reviews.

Let’s start with a fantastic song from the Kinks.

“You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Some that you recognize, some that you’ve hardly even heard of
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain”

To honour the passing of Shane McGowan.  We loved seeing him at Tipitinas last year:

And finally, something from the king of “laid back.”  Found it on a Spotify J.J. Cale radio station:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and compassion for all!

“Carnival Time”

The clean up from our New Year’s Eve party didn’t take too long, and then we were off to Oyster Fest at Denny and Anne’s home.  This is one of my favourite events of the year.  Very casual, with all kinds of friends coming and going on the back patio and enjoying oysters prepared in so many ways.  Denny had promised to simplify the number of offerings this year, but I didn’t see very much evidence of that.  The hardest part is shucking all the oysters to start.  Denny and Greg are experts:

Thom took a turn at charbroiled oysters – all good until he poured on too much sauce and caused some very high flames.

This was the first year that all five of Kelly and Fred’s kids were in attendance.  What a great group:

Thanks for another great year, Denny!

The return to work on Tuesday felt a bit harsh, but I struggled through.

Jack and Mason’s 21st birthdays were celebrated at Commander’s Palace on Thursday.  It’s so nice that this is just 600 feet from our new home.  It’s tradition that we accompany them on this birthday lunch.  The old school service never ceases to make me smile.  All dishes put in front of everyone at the same time – so much coordination needed.  And I’ve never seen the wrong dish in front of the wrong person.

Of course birthdays get balloons on the table and chef toques:

That’s the ridiculous bread pudding soufflé with whiskey sauce in front of Jack.  Mom and Dad look very proud:

The lunch was so leisurely (over 2 hours) that I had to walk back home to take a 2pm meeting.  Poor planning on my part.  I won’t need to worry about that next year.

Alicia arrived on Thursday evening.  Diana took her for a ramble along Magazine street on Friday morning – stopping for an Empanola empanada and then lunch at Tito’s ceviche.  I met them there and shared some of the excellent ceviche and quinoa salad.

It was an early start for Alicia and Diana on Saturday.  They had committed to outdoor yoga in the sculpture garden with Kenny, Kara, and Nina.  It rained on Friday and was pretty cold.  They sucked it up and seemed to enjoy the yoga, and the coffee and beignets afterwards at Café du Monde.

Alicia was getting restless on Saturday afternoon, and so Diana took her for a walk to Superior Seafood.  She tried an oyster and ended up liking them.  Maybe not quite as much as the frozen French 75.

While the girls were out, I took a final stab at fixing the freezer door ice dispenser.  I had called out a high end appliance repair guy on Friday and he was zero help.  Couldn’t even find the parts diagram that I had up on my computer.  I rebuilt the entire mechanism from scratch and made one washer position adjustment.  Success!  That was a lot of work.

Carnival/Mardi Gras season started on Saturday evening (Twelfth Night.)  The first event is the Phunny Phorty Phellows and the Funky Uptown Crew riding streetcars and celebrating.  We walked the 100 feet down to St. Charles and enjoyed the revelry.  Some neighbors had hired a brass band to celebrate with the Krewes.  Here are some videos.

Alicia enjoyed the festivities and meeting our neighbours, Roeland and Jules, and their dog, Lumi.

I’m watching the Saints game as I write this.  They are not off to a great start.  Shortly, I’ll be dropping the girls plus Kara in the French Quarter for lunch, and coming back to watch the final Cowboys game.  They win the division if they win today, besting the Eagles.

If we’re still up for it, there is a good show with Joe Krown and Papa Mali at the Maple Leaf tonight.  We’ll see.

I’m almost finished with “Wellness.”  Here are some passages that I enjoyed so far.  This is funny because Diana has some different features in each ear:

“She insists that one of her earlobes is slightly larger than the other, and he doesn’t believe her at first, not until they get our the ruler and measure.”

An entertaining simile:

“Agatha looks at her with red, wet, puffy eyes and a balled up chin.  “Nooooo,” she says.  “It’s not youuuuuuu.”  Her words are coming out with a kind of musical fall to them, like bagpipes deflating.”

A very good description of what I witness often at gatherings in California:

“The presence of new people in the house seemed to serve as a kind of trigger for children to get aggressively and sometimes violently attention-seeking, and the parents, perhaps on their best behavior and not wanting to discipline their children harshly in the presence of friends, would just let it all kind of happen, and the kids, testing their delicious newfound freedom, would start acting up and shouting and roughhousing, whereby the parents would become even more frustrated, and the whole spiraling thing made Elizabeth feel guilty for being there at all.”

The reason for the title:

“What they did at Wellness was test claims made by specious health-related products to see if the products achieved results any better than a placebo.  Basically they were a watchdog group, a subcontractor to the FCA and FTC, sniffing out bullshit.  In 2008, some of the more well-known products that had come through the lab included:  the SlimSkirt, a miniskirt made of some tight, rubbery, tensile material that felt like a big rubber band around your legs.”

Elizabeth makes a fortune pitching this idea to United Airlines:

“This was the solution!  Make the seats even narrower, the lines even longer, the competition for overhead space even more cutthroat – make it all famously bad and then tell people they can avoid it all and have a more or less normally below-average experience for a modest fee.  Thus, if they knew beforehand that the experience would be dreadful but they didn’t pay the fee to avoid it, they would be less unhappy about the dreadful experience because, ultimately, they chose to have it.  They did it to themselves.

It was her eureka moment, the moment that changed everything, the moment that led to her pitching the idea to United Airlines and collecting their fee, a fee so substantial that she and Jack could finally afford to make a down payment on a home – their forever home, out in the suburbs.”

I have a few more passages that I highlighted, but that’s enough for now.  This is a very unique and enjoyable read.

A very pleasant and laidback track:

And something from the excellent Shuggie Otis album:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!