Wednesday, March 17, 2010

3-15-10

WELCOME TO AMERICA'S WETLANDS

ROCKING DOWN THE STREET

BALCONIES

DAMN BATON ROUGE STEALING THE CAPITAL


FOUNTAINS


FROM THE KRISHNA TO THE JESUS

ROLLIN', ROLLIN', ROLLIN' ON A RIVER

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

HELLO LAMP POST, WHATCHA KNOWIN?

HALI AND CHRIS

JAZZ IN THE FRENCH QUARTER

From the Big Apple to the Big Easy. Saturday morning we bade adieu to Krishna life and headed west to meet Hali and Chris in New Orleans. We sure did cross a lot of water to get into New Orleans. Last we heard it is 6 feet below sea level; it will take miraculous ingenuity and engineering to keep this city afloat for another 300 years. Super Bowl fever was still lingering and we enjoyed glorious weather as we explored the city on the weekend.

Jazz, as we all know, is the rhythm of New Orleans and we saw plenty of it. There are loads of good musicians in NYC but the scene isn't quite the same. In New Orleans, roads are often blocked off to car traffic so big bands just set up in the middle of the street and start jamming. Here, street musicians play in their regular sextets, but there also seem to be plenty of impromptu jam sessions featuring a mixture of musicians, some walking right up with instrument in hand and joining in. We went to Preservation Hall Saturday evening to take in some jazz in a historic setting. Preservation Hall was built as a private residence in 1750 and opened it's doors as a jazz club in 1961. "The hall was created as a sanctuary, to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz which had lost much of its popularity to modern jazz and rock n roll." Tommy Sancton's New Orleans Jazz Band performed for a very enthusiastic and appreciative crowd. The band featured Tommy on the clarinet, and a pianist, drummer, saxophonist, trumpeter, guitarist, and an upright bass player. Preservation Hall opens it's doors at 8pm nightly and when we got in line at 7:35pm there were already 60 ahead of us. The venue seats about 30 and the other 50-100 stand crammed in the rear of the small room. Those lucky enough to sit for one set generously offer their seat for the other sets. We stood in the rear for the first set and managed to share a tiny bit of bench for the second set. Although other jazz clubs were also recommended, the history of Preservation Hall appealed to us and we're thrilled we were able to take in some music there. As great as that show was, the street musicians playing for donations are often just as good. If one were inclined, you could easily walk around and hear more than 10 acts playing free music on the street, and you'd never be disappointed.

Something else you can do all day is walk around and drink your face off, especially on Bourbon Street. Everyone is blatantly drinking in public. There are apparently no rules about open alcohol containers in public. Many cities offer street food; New Orleans offers street booze. Alcohol vendors litter the streets, selling to go beers, shots, and cocktail concoctions. Bars here are similar to fast food restaurants in that you can either go in and drink inside, or walk up to the to go alcove and purchase a drink in a plastic cup, which range from standard plastic solo cups to souvenir daiquiri cups shaped like hand grenades. If one were inclined, you could easily walk around and hit up more than 10 bars (per block) and you'd never be disappointed. However, we are not the kind of people who do this. Sure we had a few drinks, but drinking all day with the rambunctious lunatics isn't our cup of tea.

Food is taken seriously in New Orleans; creole and cajun are life. For us veggies, we thought eating in New Orleans would prove quite challenging. But we were thrilled when we managed to find some vegetarian gumbo at the Gumbo shop and vegetarian jumbalaya at the Old Coffee Pot. Both restaurants were really good. The wait staff in both the restaurants where we dined were unusually friendly and very willing to help create some veggie-friendly food we could enjoy. We took advantage of the nightly special and shared a $5 pitcher of local Abita beer with dinner and enjoyed screwdrivers and bloody mary's with brunch. As good as those meals were, they didn't touch Cafe du Monde. Tourist trap it is, but that does not take away from how incredible their two item menu is. Established in 1862, they have simply served coffee with chicory and beignets (french donuts) heavily dusted with confectioner's sugar. The hot beignets were so heavily coated in powered sugar every waiters' black shoes were nearly white. Open 24 hours a day, if you happen to go before 11pm and after 7am, be prepared to wait at least 2 hours. We went for a midnight snack after seeing jazz at Preservation Hall and were lucky enough to grab a table right away. Sitting outside sipping super strong coffee and savoring hot beignets was the perfect way to end a great day.

Sunday's sunshine provided terrific shopping weather. We happily supported local artists, used bookshops, and record stores. We bought a one-of-a-kind piece of art from a street artist in Jackson Square. He painted four brightly colored jazz musicians on a piece of slate that was mined in Pennsylvania that floated down the Mississippi River. Wherever we settle, we will put it on our wall and it'll always remind us of New Orleans. We added to our ever growing collection of books when we bought "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett at a pleasantly dank used bookstore we found. But the best find of the weekend was a Ray Charles Atlantic pressing record featuring the song "Mess Around". We have been earnestly searching flea markets, street vendors, and obscure record stores all over many cities for many, many months looking for this record. Finding it was such a thrill!

2 comments:

  1. It's a hip song, but why did you want that particular record so badly?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love to see the guest appearance by Hali and Chris! Nice beads, Hali.
    Love Jeri

    ReplyDelete