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.

Happy Thanksgiving, Darlin’

Just after Thanksgiving two years ago this week, I moved from Los Angeles, my city of nearly 18 years, and came to New Orleans. I spent last year’s Thanksgiving in L.A. with the same friends I was lucky enough to see again a week ago. So, this year I opted to share supper with my family across the lake. I started the day watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade doesn’t normally make my to-do list but I wasn’t about to miss the “Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Moves” of the 610 Stompers, New Orleans first all male dance troupe.

Memorial Cap on the BP Well (and other underwater lunacy)

The final cap was placed on the Macondo Well today, the well that gushed over 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico due to BP’s incompetency and greed (sure, there’s plenty of blame to go around – MMS, Transocean, etc., but let’s keep it simple). The well has been capped with a memorial featuring an 11 point star to represent the 11 dead men working on the rig at the time of the explosion April 20th.

I’m trying to wrap my head around the point of an underwater memorial.