June 4, 2024 – Keith Robertson

“Bachelor Week”

My continued bachelor existence started on Monday (Memorial Day holiday) with a walk and jog in the park. I took a break to watch this entertaining guy trying to position himself for maximum sun exposure.

After the exercise, I joined Kenny on his porch for some lovely Amaretto iced coffee – very refreshing.

Going a bit stir crazy in the empty house on Tuesday, I decided to try Plume in Algiers for lunch. This is a very creative Indian place that got a good write up in the paper. The restaurant is very understated – a house in a residential area just out from under the main bridge over the Mississippi from New Orleans.

I started with the Mushroom Kothu Roti – stir-fried mushrooms and chopped roti bread, goat cheese raita, and tarragon. It didn’t look like a lot of food and so I ordered the beet fritters as well. I was pretty full about half way through the mushrooms and only sampled a little of the beet fritter – great leftovers.

I love Plume – will be back soon. Delicious, creative, great service and a very casual environment.

I was watching the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA playoff game on Tuesday evening, and decided I could nip out and catch an hour of Tom Hook at Dos Jefes and be back in time to watch the conclusion of the game. Tom Hook is a human jukebox – such a massive repertoire. Here he is doing Tom Waits and then Ray Charles:

As I entered Dos Jefes, Chris Henry, tennis coach and buddy of all the tennis boys was sitting right at the front table. He’s a big piano player, and so I joined him and we had a good chat in between the music. What a pleasant surprise.

Wednesday was sort of a repeat of Tuesday. I drove over to 1000 figs Mediterranean restaurant by the Fairgrounds (Jazz Fest location) and loved the falafel platter and hibiscus tea that I ordered. Best I’ve had in New Orleans so far. The downside is the place is very small and seems to attract the loud sorority college girls. Maybe better for take out orders.

In the evening, I experimented with the Joe Ashlar Happy Organ Hour at the Maple Leaf Bar. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Stanton Moore was on drums, the show began at 6pm, so it had at least two big positives. As McD said after I shared a video clip with her, “Right up K alley.” And it was, I really enjoyed the show. Three excellent musicians playing completely in sync.

I stayed in on Thursday and watched the Mavericks punch their ticket to the NBA Finals. A very impressive accomplishment given where they were earlier in the season. Jason Kidd has done an amazing coaching job, and Boston awaits in the finals – that will be a lot of work.

Denny invited me to watch the new Mad Max movie, “Furiosa”, on Friday afternoon at the Broad Theater. The boys and Alex joined as well.

I enjoyed the first couple of Mad Max movies so many years ago, and this one was just kind of silly and quite a bit too long. Oh well, I was out of the house and enjoying the company.

We retired to Midway pizza after the movie and Kenny joined us. Always a good time there.

I did some cleaning, laundry, and shopping on Saturday, prior to picking up Diana at the airport in the evening. Her flight was delayed a bit, but nothing like the trip out.

Denny and Anne dropped off a gift from St. John on Sunday – a bracelet that comes with a code to download an app and track your sponsored penguin.

We really enjoyed the movie “On the Basis of Sex” – a biography of the early days of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. What a well done movie – highly recommended. We sorely miss her presence on the Supreme Court.

I was up late on Sunday and enjoyed “The Boys in the Boat” – a film about the 1936 USA rowing team. They were the junior team from Washington University, and a huge underdog to even represent the USA – never mind winning the Olympic gold medal. This was the same gathering where Jesse Owens made such a massive impact. A bit slow and predictable, but George Clooney did a good job directing.