Jazz Fest from a Distance

The 45th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival started last weekend treating hundreds of thousands of guests to artisan booths and demonstrations, fest food and cooking demonstrations, pop-up book and CD stores, interviews with musicians and, of course, over a dozen stages playing up to 8 shows each a day. I think that comes out to somewhere around 400 different concerts over the course of 2 weekends all on the Fair Grounds Race Course. But what if you couldn’t get here? Or what if you’re one of the locals fed up with yet another price hike? (It’s up to $65/day at the door now). You may not be able to eat the food or watch the Mardi Gras Indians parading past, but you can still hear Jazz Fest in a number of ways.

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.

Voodoo Fest, Costumes, Treme, Saints and Sinners

It’s Halloween season and in NOLA, that means costumes and Voodoo Fest. The festival features more rock, metal, rap and experimental music so I haven’t made it to Voodoo yet but I couldn’t miss Los Angles band, Vintage Trouble. The band has only been around a couple of years but they’ve already opened for acts like Bon Jovi and KISS and are set to open for The Who’s upcoming tour. Though I’ve known drummer Richard Danielson for over a decade, this is only the second time I’ve gotten to see the band live (the first being their “Big Dance” NOLA debut last April during the NCAA Final 4).

Krewe of Muses 2012

Too busy parading to write, but I have been taking photo and videos. For more information and history about Krewe of Muses, read last year’s post. This year, the theme was “Muses go Shopping.” Celebrity guests included hometown girl, Patricia Clarkson (known here as Councilwoman, Jackie Clarkson’s daughter) riding in the giant lit stiletto and Theresa Andersson, singing live atop a giant swan followed by our beautiful city made of papier mache hats. We even spotted Ted Danson quietly marching along, taking it all in.