OK, so last night I went with some of my collegues to a well known bar in Uptown - so well known in fact it has its own entry in Wikepedia : Fat Harry's Last night there was a band playing there called "James River Monument". They were fantastic typical Nawlins style - funk, jazz, lots of brass. There we were happily enjoying the band getting "down with it" and watching the mixed crowd of all ages doing the funky butt and other moves, when the lead singer and sax player took out a set of bagpipes!! I have to admit my heart sank a little dreading what awful sound would be produced and I'd have to stand up for this instrument of my homeland and say 'no in actual fact it can be played very well ...'. This time was different. This guy was a fantastic piper and even better, there was no pretence at Scottish music or Irish jigs - this was full on New Orleans bagpipe playing : FUNKY PIPES!!!
I love this town.....!
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
WWOZ
I am currently listening to the local radio station here in N'awlins that plays all the local music - funk, soul, r&b, jazz and Cajun - yes cajun and they speak half in Cajun French that would never be accepted in France!! The cajun music is a wonderful mish mash cross of blue grass, accordian music, polka all normally accompanying the husky voice of cajun french and sometimes english.
I find it amazing that in this place music that is so profoundly uncool elsewhere is transformed into real gems: brass bands become funky wonders; accordian polkas are fast pulsating feet stompers; the fiddle that would seems on first listening to be playing blue grass, on closer scrutiny has a lot in common with the fiddle music of french cafes.
You can listen online to this hodge podge of New Orleans magical music melting pot:
wwoz
I find it amazing that in this place music that is so profoundly uncool elsewhere is transformed into real gems: brass bands become funky wonders; accordian polkas are fast pulsating feet stompers; the fiddle that would seems on first listening to be playing blue grass, on closer scrutiny has a lot in common with the fiddle music of french cafes.
You can listen online to this hodge podge of New Orleans magical music melting pot:
wwoz
Friday, October 20, 2006
Read These Books!!!!
BUY! BEG! BORROW! THIS BOOK!!
'Why New Orleans Matters' by Tom Piazza
Beg, Borrow, Buy this book!!!! I feel this should be compulsory reading for every 300 millionth American, and for every human being who has soul and heart. This city gave the world more than can ever be repaid.
The jazz that Buddy Bolden helped plant in this city grew beyond its borders into blues, funk, rock and roll. The question could be asked would the Beatles have happened without New Orleans; would the world have mourned Buddy Holly's untimely death without New Orleans; would the King have ever found his crown without New Orleans; would the 60s swing, 70s punk, 80s emo, 90s electronica all have happened without New Orleans? New Orleans gave the world music and also a means of defining the generations.
New Orleans also gave the world some wonderful food. The wonderful seafood created into gumbo, jumbalaya, soft shell crab, barbeque shrimp and much more. The dazzling cajun spices flavouring many dishes and the red beans and rice. And the po' boys - those big sandwiches made with proper french bagettes, that are dressed (with salad in them) or undressed. All this food has developed out of a love for hospitality, for entertaining people, for making everyone feel welcome.
And of course New Orleans defined for the world how Mardi Gras should be celebrated with parades upon parades for a couple of weeks before the actual day when the floats explode on the scene and the Indians come marching in their dazzling finery. Mari Gras is much more than the drunked scenes in Bourbon street in the French Quarter, and if that is your desire than New Orleans will not object to you celebrating in that manner. Mari Gras is a celebration of life.
What New Orleans has given the world is priceless. Tom Piazza writes eloquently about all these wonderful traditions and with every word you will find yourself slowly falling in love with a place and its way of life.
The second half of the book describes what New Orleans has also become famous for - the Hurricane. His view of what happened made me want to shout from the rooftops "come back New Orleans, come back" and drive to Washington and wake up the sonumbulant politicians that have forgotten too soon the people that were thrown out like garbage. This is some of what Tom Piazza says:
These were those people at the superdome (more about that in another post) and the convention center. Those are the people that I have heard many a priviledged (and generally white) person say are probably "better off" in their new situation after the storm. These are the people that make New Orleans what it is. Mayor Nagin must be blind and deaf to suggest that New Orleans be the next Las Vegas - Las Vegas has no heart only money - New Orleans had little money but lots of heart.
BUY! BEG! BORROW! this book!!!
"One Dead in the Attic" by Chris Rose
This is a collection of pieces written of the days and months after Katrina, by Chirs Rose, a columnist for the Times Picayne, the New Orleans local paper. These are great gems of personal insight into the tragedy, from the refrigerator take over of the city, to the despair of a broken city, and the tales of the plucky few who kept the soul of New Orleans alive as the city gasped for breath.
'Why New Orleans Matters' by Tom Piazza
Beg, Borrow, Buy this book!!!! I feel this should be compulsory reading for every 300 millionth American, and for every human being who has soul and heart. This city gave the world more than can ever be repaid.
The jazz that Buddy Bolden helped plant in this city grew beyond its borders into blues, funk, rock and roll. The question could be asked would the Beatles have happened without New Orleans; would the world have mourned Buddy Holly's untimely death without New Orleans; would the King have ever found his crown without New Orleans; would the 60s swing, 70s punk, 80s emo, 90s electronica all have happened without New Orleans? New Orleans gave the world music and also a means of defining the generations.
New Orleans also gave the world some wonderful food. The wonderful seafood created into gumbo, jumbalaya, soft shell crab, barbeque shrimp and much more. The dazzling cajun spices flavouring many dishes and the red beans and rice. And the po' boys - those big sandwiches made with proper french bagettes, that are dressed (with salad in them) or undressed. All this food has developed out of a love for hospitality, for entertaining people, for making everyone feel welcome.
And of course New Orleans defined for the world how Mardi Gras should be celebrated with parades upon parades for a couple of weeks before the actual day when the floats explode on the scene and the Indians come marching in their dazzling finery. Mari Gras is much more than the drunked scenes in Bourbon street in the French Quarter, and if that is your desire than New Orleans will not object to you celebrating in that manner. Mari Gras is a celebration of life.
What New Orleans has given the world is priceless. Tom Piazza writes eloquently about all these wonderful traditions and with every word you will find yourself slowly falling in love with a place and its way of life.
The second half of the book describes what New Orleans has also become famous for - the Hurricane. His view of what happened made me want to shout from the rooftops "come back New Orleans, come back" and drive to Washington and wake up the sonumbulant politicians that have forgotten too soon the people that were thrown out like garbage. This is some of what Tom Piazza says:
The Majority of these people are black, and poor. They are the people, and the descendents and families of people, who gave jazz music to the world, who dance at parades during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, who play in the marching bands. They are the people who drive you in from the airport and make you feel at home instantly, the people who wash out your shower and change your sheets at the quaint hotel you stay at, the ones who clear your table and wash the dishes you eat from at the new favourite restuarant that you tell all your friends about when you get back home, and who gather all the garbage outside all the hotels and restuarants and bars that make up New Orleans for the people who visit it.
They are the ones who figure out a way to buy thier children food and diapers and some kind of small birthday presents out of incomes smaller than many college kids' allowances. they sometimes spend two hours on three different buses in the morning getting to a minimum wage job, and do the same thing in reverse at night, and figure out a way to buy blood pressure medicine and diabetes medicine and God knows what else out of their tiny, tiny slice of the great American pie. And when a parade passes ... they dance behind it, and laugh and take a little drink, because they know better than anyone else that life is short and hard and often bitter but it is at least life.
Those are the people who have been uprooted from the only houses, neighborhoods, customs, landscape, and friendships they have ever know, and they will be experiencing the terrible practical deprivation and spiritual pain of the memories they carry, the age-old pain of exile and homelessness. They and the community they embody have given love and beauty to the world, a precious spiritual resilience in the form of music, cuisine, and spirit that is recognized around the world.
These were those people at the superdome (more about that in another post) and the convention center. Those are the people that I have heard many a priviledged (and generally white) person say are probably "better off" in their new situation after the storm. These are the people that make New Orleans what it is. Mayor Nagin must be blind and deaf to suggest that New Orleans be the next Las Vegas - Las Vegas has no heart only money - New Orleans had little money but lots of heart.
BUY! BEG! BORROW! this book!!!
"One Dead in the Attic" by Chris Rose
This is a collection of pieces written of the days and months after Katrina, by Chirs Rose, a columnist for the Times Picayne, the New Orleans local paper. These are great gems of personal insight into the tragedy, from the refrigerator take over of the city, to the despair of a broken city, and the tales of the plucky few who kept the soul of New Orleans alive as the city gasped for breath.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Arriving in No Man's Land
The drive from Miami to New Orleans is a challenging one. Not physically challenging, although it takes between 12 and 13 hours, but mentally very challenging. This was especially so for me as our car stereo is on the blink and I had to make do with a personal cd player wired up to two very dodgy speakers. It makes me wonder how the pilgrims in their covered wagons ever made it :)
The drive is mentally challenging because once outside Miami's sparkling skyscrapers, Florida is the most boring state to drive through (I feel qualified to say so having driven through a great number myself over the years). Once on the Florida turnpike all you see are endless green overgrowth at the sides of the highway and maybe if you are lucky and Florida "The Sunshine State" is having one of its not so sunny days, you may see some cool cloud formations. And that's it for the whole state!
Upon reaching the Florida and Alabama border things begin to change into topography that Tv and films have taught me to associate with the American Deep South. There is a great sweep of water that you drive across to Mobile Alabama and things become different.
Swamps and trees hanging with moss line the highway. There is the oddity of pine trees which I associate with colder places - I am sure if I did some research I'd likely find them to be a certain variety pertaining to this southern swampy climate.
The drive into to New Orleans itself is symbolic of what happened 15 months ago. There are apartment complexes, shopping malls, buisness buildings and warehouses all sitting vacant, deserted, boarded up. This is not the interesting, funky, cool part of town and so it is an odd feeling I have passing it becuase I have to admit an empty shopping mall is not, to me a tragic sight. However I know that this "No Man's Land" displays all the people who are not here and they need to be. It is very easy to exist in Uptown, with the occasional excursion to the French Quarter, and feel that New Orleans is coming back but much though I don't like the kind of area, it is the shopping malls, apartment complexes, buisness warehouses that need to be reconstructed to show the city truly coming back.
The drive is mentally challenging because once outside Miami's sparkling skyscrapers, Florida is the most boring state to drive through (I feel qualified to say so having driven through a great number myself over the years). Once on the Florida turnpike all you see are endless green overgrowth at the sides of the highway and maybe if you are lucky and Florida "The Sunshine State" is having one of its not so sunny days, you may see some cool cloud formations. And that's it for the whole state!
Upon reaching the Florida and Alabama border things begin to change into topography that Tv and films have taught me to associate with the American Deep South. There is a great sweep of water that you drive across to Mobile Alabama and things become different.
Swamps and trees hanging with moss line the highway. There is the oddity of pine trees which I associate with colder places - I am sure if I did some research I'd likely find them to be a certain variety pertaining to this southern swampy climate.
The drive into to New Orleans itself is symbolic of what happened 15 months ago. There are apartment complexes, shopping malls, buisness buildings and warehouses all sitting vacant, deserted, boarded up. This is not the interesting, funky, cool part of town and so it is an odd feeling I have passing it becuase I have to admit an empty shopping mall is not, to me a tragic sight. However I know that this "No Man's Land" displays all the people who are not here and they need to be. It is very easy to exist in Uptown, with the occasional excursion to the French Quarter, and feel that New Orleans is coming back but much though I don't like the kind of area, it is the shopping malls, apartment complexes, buisness warehouses that need to be reconstructed to show the city truly coming back.
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