New Orleans and Corona Virus

I miss New Orleans. I walk St. Charles and miss parades. The St. Patrick’s parade was cancelled well before the stay-at-home came. Then my favorite day of the year was cancelled, Super Sunday when the Mardi Gras Indians parade Central City in elaborately beaded and feathered suits they spent a year (and thousands) sewing. As the virus spread across the country and ravaged our state, in the city we retreated to our homes and looked for tips on finding toilet paper.

#StayHome Movie Recommendations – Classic Comedies

New Orleans is silent. There’s not one horn blowing in the French Quarter. Like most of the country, we’re staying home to help prevent the spread of the corona virus. Since there are no festivals happening, no free concerts or Pelicans games, etc., I have no events to blog about. Like many, we hunkered down for a weekend of “Netflix and chill.”

My industry is shut down. There’s no traffic in L.A. But our movies will help get the world through this. I decided to share a list of some of the movies that have shaped me as an actor/filmmaker and as a person – starting with comedies. I’m starting here because these movies were always there for me when I needed a laugh and some relief from my worries.

‘tit Rex Parade & WGNO’s Post-Oscar Show

The ‘tit Rex parade is a miniature-float satirical spectacle of big creativity in tiny form. I would be appearing on WGNO’s post-Oscar News With A Twist so we needed to head to the pre-parade lineup and skip the glacially-paced dragging of the delicate floats with frequent stops to pose for photos and closer looks. A reaction to super Krewe parades, ‘tit Rex was inspired by the local tradition of kids decorating shoeboxes and parading them through school, so the creations are nostalgic for many.

A crowd of Barbie and her crawfish-eating, Hand-Grenade-drinking friends in waited for the floats – their arms outstretched over NOPD barriers, their kids sitting atop ladder chairs.

Krewe Boheme Parade

Carnival is kicking into gear with a 4-parade weekend starting with Krewe Boheme. Now in its second year, the Bywater/Marigny/French Quarter walking parade is more romantic and beautiful than most. Established by artists, the krewe’s symbol is a green fairy – the nickname for absinthe, a super-intoxicating liqueur. My favorite of the marching clubs was the Merry Antoinettes with their towering, ringleted wigs and elaborate French 18th century, corseted gowns. Tank of the Grammy-nominated Tank and the Bangas served as Queen.

Looking forward to a weekend of festivity ending with my post-Oscar appearance on WGNO’s News With A Twist where we’ll be reacting to the results.

Living in New Orleans – the first 10 years

My family is from Louisiana for generations on both sides but I didn’t move to New Orleans until late 2009. I’d lived in Maryland, Japan, Washington D.C., Alabama, New York, and almost 18 years in Los Angeles before finally following my heart home. Looking through photos for this blog post, I saw the story of a New Dat becoming a Saints season-ticket-holding Who Dat, a parade-goer becoming a Pussyfooters parade dancer, strangers becoming friends, and a blogger becoming an author. I saw the evolution of my love story with this city, and with the man I met my first year here.

I’d just produced Hell Ride with Quentin Tarantino when I decided to leave Los Angeles.

New Orleans Mystery Books

When I started this blog, I was working on a novel, Lemonade Farm. Ten years later, I’ve finished that novel, an acting book,  Know Small Parts: An Actor’s Guide to Turning Minutes into Moments and Moments ints a Career with foreword by Richard Dreyfuss and endorsements from Kevin Costner, Lou Diamond Phillips and many more – and with the release of The Family Secret: A Charlotte Reade Mystery – I’ve just completed a 5-book series.

The first book of the mysteries-not-murders series begins as the Saints are marching toward their Super Bowl victory during Mardi Gras in 2009-10. As actor/producer Charlotte aids in the search for a birth mother, she comes across a haunted chandelier, and a mystery in her own family’s past.

Reading, Writing and Gift Ideas

Whenever I go too long between writing posts for this blog, you can rest assured I’m still writing. When I started this blog in 2009, I wrote all the time – at least a couple posts a week. Then I took a job writing for a local paper and it cut into my blogging time a bit. In 2012, I published my first book, Know Small Parts: An Actor’s Guide to Turning Minutes into Moments and Moments ints a Career with foreword by Richard Dreyfuss and endorsements from Kevin Costner and a dozen other industry luminaries. Next came Lemonade Farm, my first novel. Award winning and New York Times bestselling author Tom Franklin

The Who Dat Nation Wins

Sure, the Saints lost the playoff game against the Vikings last Sunday, but winning rarely teaches us about the character of a person, a team or a place. Most of us don’t really know who or what we are until we’re faced with failure. As an actor, my life has been nearly defined by rejection. My life credo has long been “Dare To Fail.” Maybe that’s why being a Saints fan has come so easy to me. So, the Saints lost in the last millisecond of the game and, of course, we’re all disappointed. But Saints fans can turn any loss into a win.

Though I have roots reaching back centuries in this city, I didn’t move here until 2009 as the Saints were heading to their amazing Super Bowl victory. That made me more of a “New Dat” than a Who Dat. But I watched every game in bars throughout the city,

Scares That Care! Weekend

I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Williamsburg, VA as a “celebrity” at a signing convention. Fighting the “REAL MONSTERS” of childhood illness, breast cancer and more, Scares That Care! selects 3 families a year with financial burdens brought on by these issues. For the price of admission, participants are offered everything from classes and workshops to a Kids Zone with movies, books, board games, coloring books, costumes, crafts and a selfie station. The staff of the DoubleTree were all in the spirit, wearing costumes of favorite horror characters. As we all arrived, there was a screening of Piranha at the inviting indoor/outdoor pool and “Scaryoke” started up in the bar. 

Random Acts of Kindness and 3 Birthday Meals

My birthday celebrating started early this year with a dinner at John Besh’s Domenica with old friend Richard Dreyfuss and his lovely and amazing wife, Svetlana. Over the 25 years we’ve known each other, Richard and I have worked on 3 movies together, collaborated on a Katrina relief project and he even wrote the foreword to my book, Know Small Parts: An Actor’s Guide to Turning Minutes into Moments and Moments into a Career. The menu from Executive Chef Alon Shaya, 2015’s  James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: South award winner, provided a delicious take on some traditional Italian dishes as well as offering show-stoppers like the Squid Ink Tagliolini with blue crab & herbs. We finished the meal with 3 beautiful and decadent desserts selected by our charming server, Cristina. Each dessert was decorated with a chocolate birthday banner. We were there for hours enjoying fabulous food and great company with perfect service. I’m definitely going back for that squid ink pasta dish.