And now the return of a once weekly feature where we pick a great New Orleans video on Google Video, YouTube, Netscape or any other video sharing service and post it with a link to the original here and a short discussion. Be sure to check back here in the future for another NOLAvid.

Today's NOLAvid is a promotional trailer for a new non-profit theater company in New Orleans, the Cripple Creek Players. According to the video, Cripple Creek seeks to produce dramatic works for the public (all shows are ten bucks of less to get in) to provoke social action and help inspire us to continue to rebuild. Currently they are getting ready for their second season with works by Irwin Shaw, Arthur Miller and others. This company helps build on what New Orleans is all about. Deep down we are a strong and dedicated arts community with a great background in theater, TV, movies, studio art, and music.

"Are you entertained by deep despair?" the singer asked, squinting at his music stand.

"You're our prophet!" the crowd shouted.

To the uninitiated, Daniel Johnston does not seem like a prophet. And he really doesn't seem like a indie rock hero. A large man with a belly that pushes his T-shirt out, stretching the neckline, Johnston is a manic depressive recluse. He's also a songwriting genius who's compiled over 20 albums during his bipolar career. His childlike singing wanders off-key at times. As he recites his rhymes, his tongue flicks in and out, and his arms shake with passion, fists clenched. If his lyrics weren't so smart, you might think him a little retarded.

But he's not retarded, just a little crazy and a lot lonely. Obsessed with unrequited love, Johnston hits a place in the heart where few dare to tread. "Hold me like a mother would, like I always knew somebody should," he sings, the melancholy before an upbeat chorus: "This is life/ And everything's all right/ Livin' livin' livin' livin' livin'." And who can dispute that "Love will wash your brain/ Hug you like a ghost/ It really is the most"?

Thanks in part to the 2006 biographical film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, he's gotten enough of a following to play at the House of Blues. After a solo set on both guitar and keyboard, he was then joined by local rockers Big Blue Marble. Before the show, he asked them to make a playlist of their favorite songs of his, and together they played "Casper," "Speeding Motorcycle," and "Love Not Dead." With five strings, including a lapsteel and a violin, along with piano and drums, Big Blue did both the gentle folky thing and the balls-out rocker thing with Johnston.

According to my sources, Johnston looked better than he had in quite some time, smiling occasionally and even coming out for an encore. The meds must be working. "True love will find you in the end," he sang before bidding us farewell.

The whole performance was a little over an hour, but what an hour it was. Afterward, we fans tried to hang out on the dance floor, basking in the post-rock vibe, but the ever-corporate HOB sent its minions to literally sweep us out into the night. And so goes life in America, where even a deep-down genuine weirdo can bust into the corporate music world by singing about Casper, the friendly ghost.

[Recovery Pen is a blog devoted to the addiction that is New Orleans.]

It's the classic New Orleans experience: you greet the day with a throbbing head, a dry throat, and a stranger in your bed. You resolve to quit drinking, today, a resolution which lasts for the four hours until your next-door neighbor invites you over for beer bongs. Although the best cure for post-drinking angst is more drinking, sometimes a good laugh can help. As self-admitted attention addicts, the four men who comprise The Comedy Addiction Tour don't care if you're a drunk, as long as you show up and laugh.

But if you're committed to your alcoholism, you might want to skip this show, which allows all four "friends of Bill" to relate their addiction and recovery experiences with disarming honesty and hilarious detail. Billy Robinson, who grew up in the projects in Ohio, describes an early AA meeting when he confused a reference to "the highest authority" with the Housing Authority. Starting off the evening, Jesse Joyce spoke of his many injuries he suffered from drinking, and how he lied about them, such as blaming a broken ankle on a game of basketball. "But that doesn't work when you forget and lie to the guys who saw you drunk," he explained, saying that his friends who watched him puke on himself and then fall down three flights of stairs didn't buy the basketball story.

All of the men discussed their other addictions: food, sex, women, endorphins. Not only are all of them different manifestations of the same addictive drive, but they're all funny. In regards to his compulsive eating, Mark Lundholm asked the audience if anyone else ever ate food off their own shirt. "Off someone else's shirt?" he added. And although Kurtis Matthews confessed to being addicted to women, he made a point to interject at numerous times that he'd never gone to a hooker. "Although I probably should have," he said, alluding to a marriage gone wrong.

Although drunks and drunkenness make for a rich mine of humor, these guys joked about other topics as well, such as their own aging, romantic relationships, their families, and television. As Matthews said, "when [I] feel really bad about my life, I watch television." And the addict-in-recovery's favorite show? Cops, of course, which opened the door for Matthews to make several standard white-trash jokes. Robinson also took the tried-and-true humor route as well, joking about his ghetto family, like his grandmother with spinning hubcaps on her wheelchair. With Robinson, though, a comedic tension existed between his obvious whiteness and his ghetto speech and mannerisms. Although he played it for effect, with a sly demo of how "all black girls dance the same," he came across as the real deal. Who knew Ohio was producing black people with skin as white as The Man?

I suppose it behooves a comedian to have an odd appearance, as it's just more material for the act. The opening comedian, Jesse Joyce lamented his "squirrelly coke eyes," because they often lead people to pester him for drugs. "I hate going into dance clubs," he confided. And it doesn't help with his other addiction - women - either. "When I see a cute woman, I have to tell myself, 'squirrel down, squirrel down,'" he said, furrowing his brows and scrunching his eyes down to normal proportions. When I asked him for his picture, he let me choose: "squirrel up or squirrel down"? And I shouldn't have been surprised that this woman addict would want me in the picture with him.

The creator of The Comedy Addiction Tour, Mark Lundholm closed the show with his more serious brand of humor. Although undeniably funny - regarding his cigar-smoking habit, he called cigarette smokers "pussies" - he exhibited the poignancy and introspection of someone who's faced down their worst self. After years of homelessness and crime, he tried to kill himself, but when he pulled the trigger on a gun in his mouth, it didn't go off. "And then I thought, 'I am truly unsuccessful,'" he confided. Of the four comedians, Lundholm was the most frank about his pain. From a family of alcoholics, he began drinking his mother's vodka at age seven, thinking it would endear him to her. It didn't.

"The humor muscle develops in response to pain, grief, and shame," he theorized. "Nothing is funny until it hurts." He went on to compare "normal" people to "the rest of us." Using a metaphor of a jigsaw puzzle, he said the real difference between normal - "which just means most" - and the rest of us is that even though we're all putting our puzzles together one piece at a time, normal people have a picture to work from. The rest of us, well, we just muddle through.

The New Orleans connection is hard to miss - by now, we're all strutting around with 6-packs of humor abs, trying to figure out if we're still "normal" after two years of tragedy, or if we ever were. And if we can't drink, or shouldn't drink, at least we can still laugh.

First off, let me say I should have 'turned down my tv and turned on WWL," but I don't have a radio in the same room as my TV so I couldn't listen (though I could have listened to the simulcast online via WWL.com, but you can't do that during the regular season) during tonight's New Orleans Saints game. As soon as the game started I should have known better, Bryant Gumble kept doing this great job with interviews and questions and real commentary that actually had to do with the game, but that moron next to him in the booth would not shut up the entire game. Ugh. Cris Collinsworth has NOTHING to contribute to a game. His commentary was endless and pointless. His interview skills are severely lacking. When Michael Irving was in the booth he would go on a long tangent and then not even ask a question (again, thank goodness Bryant Gumble was there). About halfway through the first quarter his comments turned into a monotonous drone that I tuned out. Of course I couldn't ignore the commentary the whole time because the NFL Network doesn't seem to know how to broadcast a Saints game. They kept ignoring the game and showing the idiot in the booth next to Gumble and replays from old games (which didn't bother me when they had to do with the new hall of famers, but otherwise...). As far as I know, this is the only live game on NFL Network for the Saints for the rest of the year so we won't have to suffer through another. FYI, NFL Network the preseason is more important to see because the fans will get to see what our team may look like.

More thoughts after the break.

But, anyway what about the game, What I saw was our coach trying out the new guys and trying to shuffle the plays. Fife did the best of all of our QBs and Martin the worst. I think everyone needs work and I'm sure all will be better by the time the season starts after all we lost all of last year's preseason games. Should be interesting to see who gets fired this week and who gets promoted up the ranks for next week's home game (that hopefully I will be at, if my dad still lets me come with him. Thanks for the tickets again dad.).

Also, I miss the old style of football. It used to be local announcers for the local games. We would hear commentary that pertains to us rather than to the general public. We would hear stuff that matters rather than pointless dribble from tangential morons like Collinsworth. NFL Network, until you understand that (and the fact that you are not worth being included in basic cable cause we ain't paying to see that year round) you will never be the best football network. ESPN hopefully you'll do better.

And just so you know, I don't think NFL Network slighted us cause we were losing, I think they just don't know what they're doing. I also think they don't care about the smaller market New Orleans area as much as they do the larger Pittsburgh market (both had the game playing on regular TV).

Looks like I was right about local NBC affiliate channel 6 WDSU testing their high definition over the air (HD OTA) feed a month ago. As of August 1, 2007 they are back on the air and broadcasting that wonderfully free HD signal to those of you who (like me) refuse to pay for cable or satellite. NBC has primetime Sunday night games and (last year at least) a number of playoff games, so I'm pretty sure this was pushed so we could see everything in HD that COX Communications is denying its customers. I can't wait to see all my football in high def and all the extras widescreen has to offer.

• Welcome
• via the Chicory, a speech of commitments
• governor's race qualifying is sept 4-6
  
• advertising and fundraising numbers, a Jindal-Rove connection?
• More Jindal questions here
• via Digg, the World War 2 Museum's Baseball conference
• The Big Easy Rollergirls calendar shoot (possibly NSFW)
• Thanks

This podcast is almost a 'betacast' and should be treated as such. We don't have theme music yet, but in the future we hope to have that and interviews with movers and shakers from around our fair city. If you would like to be interviewed on the podcast feel free to contact us via the tips page or the comments below.

SUBSCRIBE to the Blogging New Orleans podcast in iTunes
LISTEN to the podcast now
ADD the Blogging New Orleans podcast feed to your RSS aggregator

• Welcome
• Will the NFL Draft New Orleans?
• Arena Bowl XXI
• ABC26 coverage
• DIYlife
• drywall holes
• GMC hobby combo kit giveaway
• mosquito repellent
• Pou sues Foti
• Blogging Pou support rally
• Vitter on fire
• Thanks

This podcast is almost a 'betacast' and should be treated as such. We don't have theme music yet, but in the future we hope to have that and interviews with movers and shakers from around our fair city. If you would like to be interviewed on the podcast feel free to contact us via the tips page or the comments below.

SUBSCRIBE to the Blogging New Orleans podcast in iTunes
LISTEN to the podcast now
ADD the Blogging New Orleans podcast feed to your RSS aggregator

To add to Kelly's blog about the Francophilian festivities tomorrow, the Faubourg St. John Merchants Association will also be celebrating Bastille Day tomorrow evening. Head over to the 3100 block of Ponce deLeon (between Liuzza's By the Track and Esplanade Avenue) between 5 and 9 pm for this free event which will include gustatory delights, plenty of French wine, kids' activities, and music by Va Va Voom, which I believe is French for "Yee-haw!!"

Rumor has it that people will be playing Petanque, a French lawn game similar to the Italian bocce ball, where one tries to throw a ball at another ball. The sort of sport one enjoys in the summertime, outdoors, with glass of wine in hand.

I've been thinking about France quite a bit after seeing Michael Moore's film Sicko, which does quite a bit of romanticizing about France, including scenes where he speaks to American ex-pats in Paris who literally gush about their new home. He slathers the romance on pretty thick, with a montage scene of lovers cooing to each other in a French park, but does so to combat some of our recent Francophobia best exemplified by the term "Freedom Fries." (Those silly French, so foolish as to believe that war in Iraq was - gasp - a bad idea!)

One point Moore made about the French, who daily suffer through the afflictions of universal health care, a 35-hour work week and cheap wine, is that the government serves the people because of the storming of the Bastille. With that event, the French people proved that the people are a very powerful force, to be feared and respected by their leaders. To this day, the French are fond of protesting and reminding their elected leaders of who's really in charge.

In that spirit, let's remember that Bastille Day is about revolution, and I can't think of a better place for it than right here in the NO. Not only do we have our French heritage to bolster the revolutionary spirit, but frankly, the city is still in need of revolutionary changes. We've already got a Reign of Terror here in the States, why not supplement it with revolution?

Personally, I think we should go with Anne Lamott's plan for revolution, which proposes more kindness and libraries. You can read her ideas at this link. So if you do come on out to Bayou St. John on Saturday, be sure to leave your cellphones at home and bring some fruit to share!

According to an article in the entertainment section (of all places) on nola.com, my source for all things New Orleanian, the owner of Snug Harbor, George Brumat has died. He was a young 63, and died of an apparent heart attack.

Brumat also was one of the former owners of perennial favorite beer joint Port of Call. I never had occasion to visit Port of Call, to my knowledge anyway, but I did get a chance last August to finally hit Snug Harbor. After years of wandering down Frenchman Street looking for interesting things to do outside of the French Quarter and looking in its windows my husband and I decided to finally take the plunge.

We ended up using the bathroom and then leaving after speaking with some very nice hostesses about the standing room only in the small performance area. I was pregnant at the time and not much for standing--or smoking, which is still allowed--so we ended up at The Spotted Cat, where the Jazz Vipers rocked (er, jazzed) my socks off.

Snug Harbor was a nice establishment, though, and hearing of Mr. Brumat's death makes me all the more wish I'd stayed that night to see what was what. Names like Charmaine Neville and various Maraslises always grazed the roster for the month, but never once did I give in to my curiosity and attend what is considered by some to be THE place to see jazz acts in New Orleans.

Mr. Brumat's passing only goes to show that you should just do whatever it is now or forget about it. Like the way things were before the Big K, that time will pass and it will be too late.

Mr. Brumat seemed to have made jazz appreciation--especially modern jazz--his life's work. The man had quite a few tricks up his sleeve to accomplish his goals, too. He made it possible for music students to get in for free so they could observe professionals in an appropriate setting for learning purposes. He reopened Snug Harbor as soon as he was able after Hurricane Katrina and took an economic loss just to give musicians a place to play and locals a place to go where they could forget about the chaos.

To me, that is more than dedication. It is the way of life for many folks in the Crescent City. You just don't find people like that anymore, and you generally don't find them outside of places like Nola.

Thus, Nola has lost another of her champions. As the comments on the article note, Mr. Brumat will be mourned and he will be missed. I hope his legacy--of kindness and care for building the culture and the morale around town--lives on through some other willing participant who will take over duties at Snug Harbor and keep it safe and sound until I get myself back down to New Orleans.

Any takers out there?

New Orleans CW38 is looking to viewers to add content. They want to make their station identification spots unique and part of New Orleans. CW38 is asking the public to submit 10 second video clips that end with the "Free to be..." slogan. All clips will be available for public viewing on the CW38 website and the best will be formatted into station ID commercials on television. They say this is your chance to be "Free to be Famous" with your original ideas. Unfortunately the video submission process isn't very easy, so don't expect to see a lot of submissions. Here are the requirements:

640 X 480, 30 fps, progressive video, no compression, Windows Media Video V8, 100 quality, 3 sec buffer, English with Window Media 9 audio

or

a Quicktime movie either emailed or burned to DVD.

Ugh. Time for the whiny blogger in me to come out. All CW stations are probably running this same contest in their local markets. I don't think it would have been to hard to take an existing video service and just create a "Free to be Famous" Channel on it. Even the military has one on YouTube. Then they would only need viewers to submit videos via YouTube and contact the best submitters to get the original footage. They would expand the audience (since even a 5 year can make a YouTube video) and enlarge the expected talent pool. Plus, then I could grab my favorites from their pool as an embedded video and stick a sample at the bottom of this post (thus giving them better publicity).

Oh well. In the mean time, go ahead and create some content and submit it CW38, maybe you'll be free to be famous. Good Luck

• Welcome
• Essence Fest
• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Seminar
• Senator Barak Obama opens
• NOLA.com on Essence
• WWL on Essence
• Essence Fest blog
• Finis promo
• Thanks

This podcast is almost a 'betacast' and should be treated as such. We don't have theme music yet, but in the future we hope to have that and interviews with movers and shakers from around our fair city. If you would like to be interviewed on the podcast feel free to contact us via the tips page or the comments below.

SUBSCRIBE to the Blogging New Orleans podcast in iTunes
LISTEN to the podcast now
ADD the Blogging New Orleans podcast feed to your RSS aggregator

Blogging New Orleans's big sister Cinematical posted last week about a three city concert and a movie series that Netflix is doing around the country. Around the same time tipster Erik (from Netflix) pinged us about the show. Thursday June 21st at 7:00 pm CST in Riverfront Park at the Spanish Plaza (on the Mississippi River side of the Aquarium) Netflix is presenting the first of three free Summer concerts (the other two are in Baltimore, MD and at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida) as part of their Live! On Location tour. Dennis Quaid and the Sharks will start the night. Then the crowd will watch Quaid starring in 'The Big Easy' with a Southernized cajun accent. Luckily we will see the movie and not that strange USA network TV show. Should be interesting to see if another star of the film (and local resident) John Goodman makes an appearance. The best part about all this... This is a nationally promoted event that shows we are still in the hearts and minds of the rest of the country and even major companies are willing to help relieve some of the city's recovery stress with a night out on the river. Thanks Netflix.

edit: deleted the unneeded end phrase and half thought...

Although it's true that most of us in New Orleans are fairly provincial, you wouldn't have guessed it standing outside Tipitina's Wednesday night. A decidedly international crowd had gathered to see Manu Chao, world music avatar extraordinaire, on a rare visit to the Big Easy. (Although rumor said that it was his first American tour, I also heard that he'd played in Denver last summer.) My friend Tamara, filled with music lust, got there early and reports that all twenty or so diehards at the door were chattering away in Spanish while she, the lone English speaker, looked on.

By the time I got there, more Americans were on the scene, but Spanish phrases floated through the mild evening air. The will-call ticket line snaked halfway around the building, and several music fans clamored for a spare ticket, as the show had sold out 10 am that morning. One guy drove nine hours from Florida to see the show, but without a ticket, he was stuck outside. (When asked why he didn't purchase a ticket before driving for nine hours, he replied, "every time I plan ahead, it bites me in the a@@.")

There's nothing quite like being part of a sold-out crowd at Tip's, pressed together in a sweaty mass under the benevolent face of Professor Longhair. As the opening DJs played, Manu Chao peeked out from backstage, wielding a video camera. The room filled with anticipation, made palpable as a cloud. When backup band Radio Bemba Sound System finally emerged - shirtless! - you could practically feel the air sparking.

After a tantalizing intro, Manu Chao swaggered onto stage, decked out in a workman's shirt and a reggae cap. Not only did he play tunes from his upcoming album, Rainin In Paradise, but he touched on a bunch of hits from his famous Clandestino, a musical collage of beats and languages from the world over, and even a couple of songs from his Manu Negra days. Instead of playing the crowd's favorites straight off the album, he slowed them down, reggae style, then amped the melody with punk-rock guitar. All in Spanish, with the exception of the English lyrics of "Bongo Bong." This track, which had originally hypnotized me into fandom, he played as a punk-rock chant: Mama was queen of the mambo/ Papa was king of the congo/ Deep down in the jungle I start banging off his bongo/ Every monkey like to be/In my place instead of me/Cuz I'm the king of bongo, baby, I'm the king of bongo bong.

I hadn't expected to get caught up in a moshpit, but sure enough, there we were, all of us shoving each other, lifting a few brave souls above our heads. I ran into some of the Zydepunks there, and also caught DJ Davis slamming into his neighbors. Some fun!

In the end, I think the show was just a tease for the 1 am after party at Dragon's Den, which I didn't have the fortune to attend. Drenched, drunk, and happy, I went home instead, to try and acclimate myself back to American life.

The Harry Potter book seven book tour will be in the USA this October. J.K. Rowling has just announced her first return to the states since 2000 will only include four events in three cities. One event in New York City will be open to anyone who wins a ticket. The other three events will be open to selected school children in the three specific cities. One in New York, one in Los Angeles and one downtown at the Morial Convention center in New Orleans. Yes that right, Thursday October 18th Harry Potter's creator will be visiting our fair city to talk about her work with kids from our city. According to her site:

In September, at the beginning of the 2007/2008 school year, Scholastic will select schools in each of the three cities to send students to the events. Each selected school will then be given a Sorting Hat to place in their school where they will have their own random drawing of students and classes to attend the events.

Hopefully (given the size of the convention center) this event will be open to all public school students in New Orleans (in grade K-6, I'm sure). this is definitely a special honor and shows that New Orleans is still in the hearts and minds of those around the world. Thank you J. K. and Scholastic for agreeing to do this event here. More info on this as I here it.

• Welcome
• Music request: email me more songs
• Thanks to Varg at the Chicory for his suggestion and hook up
• Romy Kaye and Craig Cortello of SONOMA sent over a great one for this week
• Chris Rose Returns after being missed for a month
  
• a future interview promise
• Nagin wastes a $100K to get some PR for himself and ignores the existence of the New Orleans Convention and Visitor's Bureau
• Road Home ends July 31!
• "New Orleans is the One I Love" by SONOMA
• Thanks

This podcast is almost a 'betacast' and should be treated as such. We don't have theme music yet, but in the future we hope to have that and interviews with movers and shakers from around our fair city. If you would like to be interviewed on the podcast feel free to contact us via the tips page or the comments below.

SUBSCRIBE to the Blogging New Orleans podcast in iTunes
LISTEN to the podcast now
ADD the Blogging New Orleans podcast feed to your RSS aggregator

During a sudden stroke of genius a couple of months ago, I announced to The Husband that for my birthday I wanted to see a taping of Crescent City. Crescent City is a four year old radio show played on WWNO and produced by Fred Kasten. Tuesday night not only marked its fortieth show but also Kasten's retirement from WWNO so it was a great night to head down to Le Chat Noir and view the production.

Crescent City features Ronnie Virgets as host, house band Astral Project , and the Live Nude Radio Players. There are often local musical acts thrown into the mix as well. The highlight for me was to finally see the Live Nude Radio players, a three person troop acting out timely skits with pointed criticism and laud for all things New Orleans. The biggest personality there is Becky Allen and I loved seeing her live for a second time. I could listen to her laugh all night.

Crescent City starts up again in the fall for another successful season. I look forward to many more evenings with the local show pouring out of my radio. I hope to see them live again as well. Tuesday's show will air on WWNO May 27th at 8:00 pm. This should be required listening for all New Orleanians.

[Terra Nola documents the long-distance love affair between a New Yorker and New Orleans.]

Yes, you read that correctly--the famous Neville Brothers will be performing live June 14th, the opening night of summer fest at Prospect Park's Bandshell, located in my home borough of Brooklyn, New York. The concert marks the start of the annual Celebrate Brooklyn series of events.

Perhaps this is coincidence and nothing more, but to me it's a simple twist of fate--or perhaps karma--that while I missed out on all the fun at this year's Jazz Fest due to the arrival of my bouncing baby boy, I now have the opportunity to see what may be one of the top acts to ever come out of New Orleans. Sweet!

Oh--did I mention it's FREE???

Ok, ok. I know many folks have a bee in their proverbial bonnets over the ongoing 'thing' between the Neville Brothers not performing at Jazz Fest since Hurricane Katrina, but I am still excited to see this act in my hometown. (According to my sources, the Neville Brothers didn't play last year due to Aaron's asthma and this year because, as Art Neville said, "...it's got to be right.")

Seriously, though--it's the Neville Brothers. In Brooklyn. Like, less than a hundred yards from my house. Literally--like a hundred yards!!!

In fact, if the baby is not in the mood to be out and about, I can probably open my windows and hear Aaron Neville's sweet, unmatchable voice wafting through the breeze. The only thing I'd be missing is some iced rose mint tea. And, best of all--no waiting in line for the port-o-potties!

I may have mentioned at one point during my completely obvious jealous rage at my colleagues getting to sweat it out among the happy masses at the fair grounds that I intended to create a Jazz Fest-like experience in my own home. Well, now I may get to put my money where my mouth is. I'll have the music and the crowds--I can assure you that anyone who is worth his/her salt in Brooklyn is gonna hightail it to this performance.

I'll even be able to experience the food of Jazz Fest if I can make it to my local New Orleans-style restaurant (take your pick: Two Boots Brooklyn or the new-ish Cafe NoNo). Wait--actually, I forgot! The bandshell performances are extra cool in that one can purchase food from Two Boots at the refreshment tents! Hah! Fried okra here I come! I know there won't be any crawfish Monica on hand to authenticate the experience, but I don't eat crawfish anyway. Betcha they're serving up Abita along with the Yuengling though.

Ok, so what else does that leave? Well, I won't be able to purchase any chatchkas or a Jazz Fest t-shirt--you know, to like, prove that I was there--but I did finally get my 2007 Jazz Fest commemorative poster yesterday. I selected the Congo Square version--those offerings from year to year seem to be just a tad cooler for some reason. This particular poster, titled "ReBirth" was signed by the artist, Terrance Osborne, but not by its subject, Philip Frazier, a founding member of the Rebirth Brass Band. It ran me, along with tax, shipping and handling, over $250, which was still cheaper than a trip to New Orleans and entry to the actual Fest, and thereby a bargain.

The only thing left for me to figure out is who's going with me, as it won't be the baby. My guess is he won't like the loud noises. He should be partial to the Neville Brothers, among others, however, as I fed him a steady diet of New Orleans-style music and jazz in utero.

Well, truthfully, the only OTHER thing left to consider is whether the Neville Brothers will return to New Orleans and to Jazz Fest to occupy their traditional (rightful?) spot as the closing act of the festival. Somehow things just haven't been the same without them. Or, perhaps, it was time for a change anyway. Far be it from me to decide. All I know is that I have the luxurious opportunity to check them out and I'm going to do it, one way or another--even if it's from 100 yards afar.

Although it pains me to admit it, the music scene in New York really isn't that great. It pales so far in comparison to New Orleans it might as well be transparent. Sure, there are jazz clubs here and there but they're tiny and expensive, not to mention the acoustics in most settings are less than desirable. All shows at the Bandshell are outdoors, so other than the occasional bus going by the sound is near-perfect.

I'll do my best to get some pics from the show and report back to all ya'll who were unable to see the Neville Brothers. I just hope the show lives up to my expectations. Unfortunately, I've already started building this event up in my mind as the be-all, end-all outdoor summer experience. Either way, I'll let you know how it goes!

Photo courtesy of Diane Ham