Bonerama & Bucktown All-Stars at Wednesday at the Square

After being cancelled for weather last week, YLC’s Wednesday at the Square was back with Bonerama and Bucktown All-Stars. Organized by the Young Leadership Council (YLC), proceeds from food and beverage sales go back into the non-profit to benefit the community. Bucktown All-Stars is a party band specializing in covers of 60’s R&B, 70’s funk and New Orleans’ standards. Formed in 1992, the band includes honorary member, Joyce La Nasa, an 85 year old woman who began playing percussion in 2005. Her daughters were fans and brought her to a show. She kept coming – playing tambourine beside the stage at the bands’ gigs until they finally invited her onstage. 

Our New Orleans Wedding and Second Line

If you’ve read this blog’s ABOUT page, then you know that one reason I moved to New Orleans after 18 years in Los Angeles was to find my mate. “I followed my heart here. My gut told me that everything I was looking for, denying myself while I furthered my career, was right here where I always wanted to be.” I met Andy at the Lost Love Lounge (yes, really) 8 months after moving here and we’ve been slowly walking toward the altar ever since. A few weeks ago, we finally tied the knot – New Orleans-style with everything from DancingMan504 and The Roots of Music to the Pussyfooters and “The Dude” (okay, he’s not New Orleans, but he abides everywhere).

Favorite Things in NOLA 2013

The categories are: Food & Beverage, Music & Entertainment, Culture, Shopping and Giving & More. Anything named previously in my Favorite Things in NOLA 2012 is marked with an Asterix*. Most items have links to their site, but if you’d like to know more, use the search window on the right to find photos, videos, history and stories.

This year, I’ve added a gallery of photos. The first photos are of items listed and the last half are of stuff I love in New Orleans from Creole tomatoes to Ashley the Traffic Tranny.

I’m also revealing Your Favorite Posts of 2013.

3 – Saints Soundtrack Vol. 2

2 – Street Musicians – Tanya and Dorise

1 – Endymion Extravaganza – My First Ball! – which is also your favorite post of all time.

Pussyfooters Blush Ball

The Pussyfooters, a spectacular gathering of impressive women over 30, is best known for dancing in parades dressed in burlesque-ish pink and orange figure-enhancing confections. The organization also holds an annual Blush Ball to raise money for various causes benefitting women, children and the community. This year’s “Party with a Purpose” raised $30,000 for the Metropolitan Center for Women & Children (Metro). 

Saints and Treme Finish Strong

The Saints ended their regular season with a Superdome victory over Tampa sending our boys to the playoffs. It’s been a rougher ride than many of us hoped for but we’re going to the show again and that’s all that matters. Bless you boys!

Then HBO’s Treme finished their season strong as well. Sadly, it’s also the end of the road for the series.

Treme Overlaps Life

The Saints lost today – bad. All the more reason to sit back and watch HBO’s Treme and remember all the ways this city overcomes. This week’s episode covered the week following Christmas 2008 into New Year’s 2009. I happened to be in Louisiana that week in real life. I was visiting family for the holidays when I had an epiphany. I’d always meant to retire here, but I remember walking toward my cousins at their docked boat as the sun set over the Tchefuncte River and thinking, “What am I waiting for?” By December 2009, I was here.

BlackKoldMadina, Thanksgiving and HBO’s Treme

Wednesday, the super-cold day before Thanksgiving, the French Quarter was quiet. Even the eternal party on Bourbon Street was poorly attended. On our way to BlackKoldMadina‘s CD release party, we stopped into the Lost Love Lounge in the Marigny. The bar was promoting Hot Toddies and an American Horror Story-watching  party, though it was a re-airing. Lost Love started as a neighborhood bar but has quickly become a destination club with a Vietnamese kitchen, karaoke and comedy nights, TV watching parties for HBO’s Treme, NOLA-shot American Horror Story, Walking Dead and, of course, Saints games.

TV in New Orleans

There’s a lot of talk about all the movies filming in New Orleans but Louisiana is also home to many television shows from A&E’s Duck Dynasty to the CW’s Star-Crossed. This Sunday, HBO’s Treme returns for its 4th and final season. I have been blogging about the show since its inception in April 2010 when I first watched it playing on a bed sheet in a back yard in the Treme. We all squealed when we saw the very house we were sitting behind fly across the “screen” in an early scene. It was clear from the opening credits that this show would be for and about New Orleanians and their amazing resilience and unendurable trials after Katrina.

New Orleans Living Magazine

A number of blogs host “guest bloggers.” I haven’t tried it yet and honestly thought I’d rather be someone’s guest than turn my reigns over to someone else to post on my blog. That said, I just read an article and interview by Christine Fontana for New Orleans Living Magazine that nearly perfectly expresses my love for this city. As such, I’m reprinting the article with clickable links to some of the places and organizations I mention.

Street Musicians – Tanya and Dorise

One of the best things about New Orleans is the omnipresent live music. In the French Quarter, it would be impossible to go a whole day without seeing live music. Between the music clubs, the parades and second lines, the Louisiana Music Factory CD store, the festivals and the buskers, the city is always pulsating and singing it’s song. The roots of soul, R&B, gospel, jazz, blues, rock, funk, zydeco and even some country start on this dirt, giving voice to its soil’s story. Quite simply – New Orleans is music. And the truth is, most of it starts in the streets with the people who perform behind a pail, an upturned hat or an open guitar case hoping for some financial gratitude.