DAVILLA 666 IN RICHMOND, VA?!?!

As you may already know, I am loco en la cabeza for young Peurto Rican punks, Davila 666!

They are going to be playing in RVA  on April 25th at Strange Matter!!!! These guys are so full of piss and vinegar and pure rock n roll joy, you won't know what hit you. I saw them in 2009 in Brooklyn and have been waiting for the chance to see how they are coming along, I guess they have a new record and I will be buying it at the show, for sure. I heard it's darker and more psych influenced than the wild garage pop they have become known for. These kids know how to party and if you can't appreciate their energy than you may just hate fun, maybe your a dick, I don't know, but you owe it to yourself if you like music AT ALL, to go see what they are selling.
Look, they even cover The Nerves!!! WTF!?


Here is their dreamy Jesus and Mary Chain influenced track  "Tu" (and it's sexy, creepy wild vid)

Richmond, I am telling you -Don't SLEEP!

JUST CALL ME SNOW WHITE

Cos' look at all this nature in my backyard! Wood Pecker! Squirrel Butt! And just moments before there were 3 robins in this photo, perched on the edge of the roof. But they took off.

FAREWELL, MAGGIE THE CAT

My parents, in their youth in NYC, were sort of "show people". My Dad was in the soap opera circuit, my Mom sang in nightclubs. We kids were raised on musical scores like Man Of la Mancha and Oklahoma.
Just picture a 4 yr old belting out The Impossible Dream as opposed to a Barney anthem (which luckily I escaped, having been born in the 70s)- that was me. So needless to point out, we were well taught when it came to the performers of the day. My parents instilled in us at that tender age, who was worthy of the utmost respect on the stage and screen. Orson Wells, Lawrence Olivier, Natalie Wood, Paul Newman, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Redford, DeNiro- were all people spoken of with regularity at the dinner table. However, none more so than Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. My parents adored them.
I remember they often told a story of going to see the legends on stage (Private Lives, maybe) and how marvelously blue Richard Burton's eyes were from the stage, how the chemistry between the two of them was nothing short of electric. It was for sure, a MOMENT in my parents lives.

So, with an enormous appreciation of Liz Taylor from a wee age, I was taken aback when her death was announced on NPR the other morning. I immediately checked my phone and even though it was barely 7 am in Los Angeles where my Mom now resides, there was indeed a text from her: "Elizabeth Taylor passed away this morning". She had been my Mom's idol since National Velvet. We did not talk about it but I know my Mom was deeply saddened.

I know this seems overly dramatic, but I felt like I'd lost someone in my extended family, a fabled Great Aunt perhaps. I was dismayed that the media did not make more noise about her passing. More sound bites are given in today's Hollywood to total lunatics.
Barely talented, self absorbed, downright miscreants are featured for weeks on end on television and the passing of a true legend, a samaratin of the highest order, though not without her faults (perhaps I'd appreciate Brad Pitt more for his good work if he was not such an untouchable Saint) gets a few moments and a lot of ex husband talk. Sigh.
I have really missed having cable this week, as I am sure TCM and the others are having tributes. I plan on revisiting Taming of The Shrew, Suddenly Last Summer and some other of her films that I have not seen as many times as Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Giant or Cleopatra.

I read that as per her instruction, she delayed the start of her own funeral by 15 minutes than as scheduled so that she may have her last grand entrance. That is so old Hollywood to me, real glamour and class.

A few years ago, someone gave me a 4ft by 4ft foam backed, cardboard blowup photo of Taylor from Cleopatra. I imagine it was on the wall of a Tower Music and Video or maybe an office at whomever handles 20th Century Fox DVD distro. So, I have lugged it around with me usually hanging it in the bedroom, so as not to shock people, as it's a bit over the top to have a giant picture of Liz Taylor in your home. At our new apt there is a spot in the kitchen, a large square just over the dimensions of the picture. It is there that you will find my tribute to her, over the top or not.

TRISH KEENAN

I am so upset to hear today of Trish Keenan's passing.
She was a gifted and enormously talented person. I was lucky, so lucky, honored in fact to have been able to tour with Broadcast one week, while in Tralala. She was so warm and enthusiastic and just mesmerizing to watch. She was and will remain a huge inspiration. I ripped off my own onstage "bangs in front of my eyes" look from her, (which I owned up to and to my relief, she approved of). We are all very lucky to have her voice and songcraft for always.
Music now has a gaping hole without her.

BTW, REAL G'S MOVE IN SILENCE LIKE LASAGNA

This song is really making me feel better.
I love Lil Wayne!! Seriously how hard is this?!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Most likely the few of you who read this are growing weary of my NYC to Richmond, VA comparisons, as I am myself. Perhaps you should skip this entry as it teeters on the edge (much like myself, again) of a dark and cavernous pity hole. So last night I am sleeping and let me set the stage for you: socks, thermals, double layers of t-shirt and sweat shirt and a roaring space heater are needed to make sure this is a HALF comfortable experience- and even then I can feel the cold air on my nose and I have to keep under the covers to maintain body temp. Ok, so sleeping yes and all of a sudden, BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. My instinct is to bolt upright and scream and Marty's is to jump up and shriek at my scream. We simultaneously realize it's someone at the door, it's 2AM, so I am inclined to call the cops and Marty just runs down to see who it could possibly be, while I follow him yelling BE CAREFUL! over the banister. Of course, there is no one there.
As my heart is racing I run to the windows to spy, what? hooligans? A severely confused person who meant to pound desperately at our neighbors door at 2AM? Who?
Instead I find nothing. I would have rather it be drunken weirdos then nothing becasue now I cannot fall back to sleep and while I listen to Marty begin to lightly snore I think to myself. As I have said countless times since arriving down here: "This never happened in New York City".

Call me a "Negative Nancy" but this is starting to really grate on me. Since the robbery, I am inclined to believe that horrible things are bound to occur at every turn. We are facing hardships here that  honestly, in my naive little coddled NYC mind (The irony!), I could never have imagined.  Maybe it's just delayed transitional ennui and homesickness but I really feel like RVA is testing my patience and that I may have been wrong about....well about a lot of stuff.

IN MY MIND I'M GOING TO CAROLINA...... FOR LESS THAN 24 HRS

This past Saturday afternoon we drove all the way to the tippity end of the North Carolina coast and stayed overnight while on the way to a record buy Sunday. The "Crystal Coast" was mostly deserted but it was still interesting to visit in the cold of winter. For instance, it's not MINDNUMBINGLY hot, which is nice and it's not crawling with people and kids and trash and noise.

One of my favorite things to do in life is drive (let's be honest, Marty's driving- I'm in the passenger seat) into a town or city and just scour it. Marty has this great knack for finding historic main streets, (perhaps from having grown up in one, Danville, VA) and we love to explore them. You do not want to go on long trips with us if getting from point A to point B in record time is your aim however. We like to make lots of stops off the highways and take lots of business and rural routes whenever we can. That and our constant stopping to either get coffee or uhhh.... release coffee make us less than effective on "making great time" on the road. This trip was really quick but we were able to get in 4 towns, a couple of meals and an aquarium visit!

This little fella is an albino baby sea turtle !

Birthplace of Pepsi Cola in New Bern, NC

a very old cemetery and a beach cat

jellies at the aquarium

Washington, NC has a thing for crabs..

CONFUSION!

So a bunch of super crappy stuff happened. See below.
Richmond is weird. It's great and then confusing and then random and positive and then terrifying..what gives? We have definitely felt the sting of being too optimistic for the realities of our surroundings, but with tougher skin and a bruised but determined focus we press on.


So some other weird stuff that went down, in the non terrifying and awful department is a cake of mine was featured in Richmond Magazine. It's weird to not have lived here a year and be in the town's magazine. I'm a poseur (I put the U in for affect, as in an affected French accent, you like it?). I am maybe going to be making that same cake for a larger audience but I guess we'll wait and see if that happens or not.

Right now, I am freezing my hiney in my apartment because the windows in this piece are all kind of post civil war era and they rattle like crazy and they keep heat in like Tiny Tim lives here or something. I want to go get a burger at this place down the block and then go see this art opening by this fella I work with (his stuff is great check it out), but it's too cold to ride my bike and walking is OUT OF THE QUESTION. Isn't that so weird? I walked everywhere I needed to go for 16 years! Now I won't walk 20 minutes in the cold dark night without a posse of some kind.
Like I said....Richmond is weird. Confusion!

AN OPEN LETTER TO RICHMOND, VA

My husband is a swell guy. He is from Danville, VA originally. He went to school in the 90's at VCU, which was sort of perilous at that time I gather. I know he felt like he was escaping when he moved to NYC in 2004. At that time NYC was in it's "hunky dory" post Giuliani phase. That did not stop him from getting jumped in the Bed Stuy projects, but after Richmond, he felt- no big whoop. We met that year and I visited RVA for the first time in 2005. I loved it immediately. It was quaint, historic, beautiful etc. What I loved most though, were the people I met here. Consistently, the folks I met here were of a high caliber. Creative, caring, enthusiastic, unpretentious..they did not live in Williamsburg Brooklyn, which was of course a major plus..
Jokes aside, I mean it when I say I fell for this town and it's inhabitants, hard. Fast forward 5 years.
We have now lived here 6 months. Marty's store that he runs with his partner Drew has been open exactly two months and three days. Things have been going well, except for today when two twenty somethings came in and robbed the store and Marty's personal belongings at gunpoint, at 630pm in the evening. People walked by the shop as it was happening. A busy gallery opening across the street was underway. The bus stop out front was as active as ever and yet two kids thought that this record shop with one clerk, a half hour before closing, before Broad St. gets sleepy and dark- was easy pickings for a hold up. They walked in and had him on the ground took all the money from the register and they were out in minutes. They took his cell phone and the store phone so he could not call for help. If it was not for a neighbor walking her dog, who noticed he was not behind the counter as usual and came in to investigate, he would not have been able to call the cops right away.

Here is the thing, yay to the neighbor for her instincts, but is it up to her to be on alert here?
Where is the interest in Broad St that I have seen every Friday of a new month? You would not even know it was the same strip when you compare it to a non First Friday evening. Why is it that when I meet Marty to pick him up from work during the week that area is totally desolate? Today it was busy, thank heavens for that as the the gunmen were speedy in getting the heck out of Dodge. But why should Broad not get the fine tooth comb on any day of the week as it gets on a Friday night when the streets are thick with college kids and West Enders? What about your everyday people? Running your businesses? Why did these kids think they could (AND DID) get away with this?
I have not been here long, but in my time here I am quickly learning how the city responds to the people who invest in it, despite all its negatives. They don't.
I want to believe in Richmond. I have believed in it.
I have tons of friends perplexed at us for leaving NYC for RVA and now for the first time, I feel like they may have a point. I knew we may end up facing this day down here, but I had no idea it could be this soon.
Heartbroken,
Nicole Lang Key

TREASURE HUNTING

Yesterday we went hunting for a new table so we can have a proper Friendsgiving and we lucked out with this beauty!!!

I coveted that ceramic tree something fierce. The red lights are little birds! My grandmother had a green one with multi-colored lights but I had never seen a white one before, nevermind one covered in tiny cardinals. Virginia's nooks and crannies are filled with treasures!!

OUCH! MY NECK, MY BACK.

So, Halloween is over. It was jam packed with friends and music which is how I like it. I am getting old though, man! I need to do the yogas or something.

We played two shows, one with TV Casualty in Phila, where they completely melted faces, as you can see above, and one in RVA which ended up in broken glasses and a mosh pit, which means IT RULED.
The day after I could barely move my body, but it was so very worth it. A nice gentleman photographed some of it! (Scroll down past the dudes shredding to see)

Then we had us a Halloween costume party where I was Jaws and Marty was Quint, but of course no photo exists of us together.

On Halloween proper, JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD rolled into Steady Sounds for an intimate (read: everyone was busy getting their costumes ready/giving out candy and no one knows about the record store yet god damn it) in store! But who cares it was awesome for the 15 folks that came!
Jamin had on this great beard! Jake was a bit under the weather but they still blew minds.
Those two dudes are epic and you need to go see them play and buy their records. I took some video with my flip but I can't find that bloody thing right now.

5 days of much frivolity. I can finally move my head and neck without experiencing pain! Tonight is Mercy! at Cous Cous however, so I am sure something will be achey tomorrow.
Happy Fall Y'all!

BROWN LEAF VERTIGO, WHERE SKELETAL LIFE IS KNOWN

Look at this weirdo.
I made him last night. It's full frontal Halloween mode over here at Key Manor. Lots of black construction paper and mod podge all over the place. Count Violence is finally back from tour and the next two weeks are gonna be banana pants! Shows! Parties! Out of town guests! We are throwing a Halloween extravaganza so be sure to check FoodPunk in November for all the foody details.
In fact, we are even going hit up NYC! It will be my first time back since June! I know the first place I'm going too. SAHADI'S! and then the second place I am going is South Brooklyn Pizza, which we have been DREAMING about. If there is time, then I have to also try to get to Fishs Eddy (where these rad cat pitchers come from) while Marty hoofs it down to his true love, Uniqlo.

I have to admit I am actually a little nervous about going back, even though it's for one night. The Fall (and the holidays following) in NYC have always been a treasured time for my pals and I. One pal in particular. I have a suspicion that as soon as we get to Brooklyn, I am going to smell the air and see the places and just start b-a-w-l-i-n-g. Atlantic avenue can do that to a girl.
It will be a whirlwind visit though, punctuated with two rock shows and one giant shindig and I DO love a shindig!!
So do these guys!

BACK IN BLACK (FOR HALLOWEEN, OF COURSE)

Hiiiiii, it's me the phantom blogger who used to hang out here all the time. Good news! IT'S OCTOBER. So many rad things happen in October.
This year it's these things

The Return of the King (...of our house, Marty!)

DIRECT FROM HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY are playing two shows!!

We are having a Halloween Bash

I say bash because I am going all out. I even Halloweenified the bathroom, check it out:

You can do that down here because Target actually has stuff for sale unlike the Target at Atlantic Shopping Center on Flatbush which just had aisles of attitude.
Anyway, I am pricing digital cameras so look out all ten of you who read (past tense) this blog. I'm bahhhaahaaahaaaahack.

MONDAY NIGHT IN RICHMOND VA

I did not take any pics from the Screaming Females/Two Funerals/Body Cop/Little Masters show last night at Gallery 5, but you can take my word for it, faces were rocked. We missed Little Masters which was disappointing but Body Cop very quickly made it impossible to think about anything but the rage they let loose on the crowd. For more on their abrasive, semi-industrial noise attack look here. Two Funerals were great, super tight and lots of fun. I love seeing a band who look stoked to be playing. The Screamales who are straight up darlings, redefined mindblowing for me. The skill with which they play and the level of craft in their songs is startling in such young punks. Oh! I do have one picture of some art Marissa made us for our bare walls here at our new apt.

I'm back! Having some pimento cheese and a drinkypoo on the porch. It was 104 outside when I took this photo. Getting used to that has been, well, let's say I am not getting used to it. I have burst into air conditioned spaces with a crazed look on my face and flushed cheeks to be greeted by the proprietors as such: "You're not from around here are you?"
Nope.
In fairness, I have heard NYC is not far off from such unheard of temperatures.
I recall all too well the furnace that is the MTA Subway platform (I'm looking at YOU, W4 St).

The heat makes me feel SO lethargic. Once it cools, as evening begins I start to feel more like a human again. I am considering devising a mist sprinkler system for my porch, like they do in the real South. On Sunday, despite it being the last day of Shark Week, we ventured out to the shore in celebration of our 2nd year of marriage.




This fella was there!
VA Beach was much the same as I remembered it being, still trashy but now with more Starbucks, a shopping mall and strange easy listening piped through a PA system on the main drag. There, we bought some shark mugs and I tried to buy a shirt that read:
"Relax Gringo, I'm legal" but they only had an XL left.
I enjoyed it, even though we skipped going into the water or even walking the beach.

Come to think of it, our anniversary was more of a celebration of beer and fried food than anything else.

Which is fine with us.

MOLLY IS VISITING

I still don't have a camera and stupid Blogger makes you upload pics from Picasa now, which I sort of don't get as all my pics are in iphoto AND I only take pics with my phone now and email them to my gmail account, which should be linked to Picasa anyway, no?
FRUSTRATING.
Anyway, it's fun times with Molly Schnick over here and damn it all I want to recount them here on Tentacles and revive this poor lifeliss blizzog!

Someone help me find a cheap digital camera. Here is a picture from a few years ago of us messing around with some cake. We did that very same thing JUST YESTERDAY but of course I cannot show you due to the aforementioned Blogger shenanigans. This is what I get for standing by Blogger when everyone else ran to Wordpress.
Richmond is all 100 degrees, lots of beer and tomato sandwiches. I love it.

FUNKY VIRGINIA

WELL, IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED.
We live in Virginia.
So far it's been 28 days of real good friends, dance parties, many cold showers, getting the lay of the land and slowing down the pace.
In NYC, the hectic pace of life sometimes lasts weeks on end. Here, for me thus far anyway, it can get hectic but it's more of an hourly thing. Not to worry though, I can still get my spazz on. It just wears off much faster.
It's so beautiful here. I have been taking twilight walks around my new hood,  admiring the gorgeous porches and cobble alleys.
There are so many bugs! I thought that would irritate me but so far I'm ok with it, they just land on you and then go off to do their bidding.
The people here have been so great welcoming us! I find I am going out a bunch too, as there is always something happening and it's never too far to get to.
I still have no camera so the blogging has been slow but I will be back eventually and there will be lots to discuss as we find our way in our new city.

VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN DREAMIN'

Check out this fantastic list and description of state parks in the Virginia Mountains! Thanks to Virginia Mountnain Dreams. I see some serious road tripping in the future!

THIS IS THE LAMEST

I cannot abide how long it's been between my posts. This is just super lame. My only excuse is the image above. That bunch on the right side goes 4 rows deep ! I still have no camera. I am eating things like frozen dumplings made in the microwave. It's Brutes McGutes over here! I have been a one woman packing whirling dervish- packing, looking for jobs, packing, packing, packing and cleaning.  I kind of gave up looking for a job...
I do have lots of ideas brewing though! So hang in there........ if you are still out there.
I will be back.

SPRING AND BOXES

It has been almost one month exactly since I last posted, something which does not happen too often over here. The loss of my digital camera has a little to do with it, but truth be told, I have been busy (and sick and sick again) and planning (and sick) and saving and now- after years of pining, we appear to be at the precipice.

It's quite possible that the next time I post, it will be from below the Mason Dixon line.
I changed my header image a few weeks back to a shot of The James River from the Nickel Bridge for my own motivational purposes. Though we have talked (especially me, ahem) of leaving NYC for a long while now, it is finally happening. A couple months ago, I thought maybe I would have a countdown on the blog, and visit a bunch of NYC institutions and eat a bunch of places- one last time- etc. There was no time, though. Even less now, as I am packing boxes and trying to somehow take the last 16 years of my life and figure out how to haul them down to Virginia with me. The next couple months will be a blur of boxes, like you see above.
There is so much I will miss.
My darling friends.
My Grandmother.
The food is going to be really hard.
The luxury of almost anything I want available within mere blocks of my apt. In fact, Marty expects me to go into some sort of culture shock. I doubt there will be much shock, most likely I will find myself having to stifle my impatience. I do hope to slow down, and grow less uptight. Maybe I am being naive and a little too much of a... I don't know.. cutesy idealist?



We were originally going to put off moving until the late fall or early winter, but I think Spring is the greatest time for such a giant change. All the flowers and buds are exploding in the front yard, forcing their way out into the world, into the sunshine to make the best of it that they can.
Which is just what I plan on doing.

LAMB OF GOD AWFUL CUTENESS

I worship my friends. I really do. I know some of the most fabulous people.
Maybe it's being in a big city like NYC, or being involved with music ( kinda not so much anymore..) but whatever it is, I am ever grateful for my peeps. Speaking of peeps, one of my best pals and I have an Easter bond. I have never addressed it as such, but that is the holiday that spawned our almost ten year old friendship. Every year we spend Easter together. She has been all over Tentacles as she is a bestie, but I am usually heralding her musical talents more often than her crafty ways. She is so uber talented.
Look what she did!! , over at The Purl Bee! I mean COME ON. You know that is the cutest thing you ever did see. Do not even try to tell me you can resist!
Anyway, shouts out to Molly. I love her.

CHILDREN BY THE MILLIONS SCREAM FOR ALEX CHILTON

Heard the news last night that we lost yet another one of the best. Here is Alex Chilton on 120 minutes from 1985.


and here is Big Star doing a Chris Bell song

So many nights listening to Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers!!! This was music to keep you company and keep you thrilled.
I hope you have some Box Tops or Big Star to listen to today.

DINNER WITHOUT YOU #31 OR I DID A BAD, BAD THING

Sometimes when you are away, I do bad things. Like last night's dinner. It started out okay. One Red Oval, followed by braised kale and onion slathered in garlic and oil with a fluffy halo of grated pecorino. Then things took a turn for the crazypants when I remembered the homemade vanilla bean ice cream in the fridge. I did make a discovery. Marmalade is quite fantastic on a banana split. In an effort to off set my gluttony, I whipped the cream by hand.

MARCH INCREDIMADNESS

Since this month started I have been busy! busy! busy! and my camera broke. Broken cameras are the enemy of blogging. SO here are some rad links to Ted Leo and The Pharmacists activities, some of which I was very happy to be privy to.
The dudes were on Jimmy Fallon!
Check out the dudes playing Tears for Fears, EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD in Chi town for The Onion A.V. Club. How cute are they?!?!
Check out a medley from the Karaoke record release party for their new album, The Brutalist Bricks, wherein my ex band mate the great Dave Grant (see us above) and I get to do We're Desperate by X, which was TOTES RADICAL. (Though I am not visible, you can hear me screeching, but Dave is right there! All the folks who participated really brought it and Brendan Canty played drums on Merchandise which was like ...beyond!) The picture is from the good people at Brooklyn Vegan, who covered the event. The guys are on their way to Montana, Marty just called me from the van. They are headed to the Pacific Northwest, with Spokane up next I believe so go see them if you can.
All in all, GOOD TIMES.

DINNER WITHOUT YOU #30

I busted my camera at the record release party so at first I thought no DWOY this time! Then I remembered my blackberry can take an ok pic in a pinch. At least it's good enough so that you can see I continue to feed myself in your absence.
Although, to be honest, I did not eat this until 10:15 last night. Note to self and others, late night beans = not the best night's rest. That is all I will say on that matter.
They were good though! Just some lil' ole black beans cooked with garlic and scallions. I seared some mushrooms and grape tomatoes with some chili powder and mexican oregano. Added the canned black olives which are my guilty pleasure right now and then a dollop of yogurt with that TJs hot sauce I am addicted to. You really would have been into this little dinner, it reminded me of the hippie meals we used to eat when we first were dating.

TODAY IS JOHNNY"S BIRTHDAY

Johnny Cash would have been 78 years old today. He is one of my all time faves so I think I am going to make him a cake as I did not get a ticket for the Southpaw annual Johnny Cash bash.

We're Desperate

Me and Dave are gonna do this for TLRx karaoke record release I think.

SLICE HARVESTER, TOTAL BRO?

Have you heard of Slice Harvester?
I don't know who he is aside from being my hero. Please check out his blog and zine if you, like me, have a love for pizza that is deeper than the largest bin of shredded mozzarella you have ever seen.
He goes all around the pizza, I mean city, eating and writing about pizza! He does so in a disarmingly intelligent and hilarious manner. You will laugh, or at least squeak, out loud while reading. He seems like a total bro.
As I read his personal accounts of all this NYC pizza eating, I am reminded that while I am committed to leaving the city, a GINORMOUS MONDOCOLLOSUS drawback of that is: no good pizza.

SOUTHERN FOOD MIGRATION

Last night my friend Molly and I attended a lecture and discussion at The Museum of The City of New York on The Great Migration and Southern Cooking in NYC. John T. Edge moderated and Ted Lee and Jessica Harris were on the panel. It was a fantastic event with lively discussion. Many people came out to learn more about and celebrate these African American foodways.

The best part was getting to meet two people who attended the event, Gloria, 78 and Calvin, 80 (who was born and raised in Harlem). They told us stories about growing up in the city in the 30s and 40s and about the Rent Parties that were held so folks could make their high rents in Harlem that were the result of it being a beacon for African Americans at the time.
Though they did not know each other, and were from different neighborhoods, it turned out Calvin's sister went to the same middle school as Gloria and he had recognized her face!

I missed my big chance to talk to The Lee Bros. about my planned Pimento Cheese documentary but there is always tomorrow! It was wonderful hearing Jessica harris read from Invisible man and we got to snack on little bites from Blue Smoke!

JAY ELECTRONICA

Have you heard him? I like him.

He is from Magnolia projects in New Orleans like Juvenile(!) and raps about stuff like trying to find the meaning of life in a bottle of beer and Kurt Vonnegut.
Also, his use of film imagery and excerpts in his songs is refreshing (not the usual machismo fare) and dare I say it he appears lyrically unmatched right now on Hip Hop radio.

IT'S NOT RANDOM FANDOM

If you know me, you know about my fascination with The South. It started in 1995 when, while looking for a place to honeymoon ( my starter marriage) it struck me that the most exciting city in this country ( as I was already living in NYC) had to be New Orleans. I was drawn in by the rich and legendary traditions of food and music, the culture of merry making, and the simultaneously freewheeling and cynical City That Care Forgot moniker.

In the many years since then I may not have scoured this country's cities and towns like my touring musician husband (2nd and last, ahem.) has, but I have yet to, in my travels find a place that rivals the specialness of New Orleans.

If you know me, you know that I am not a sports fan.
Now, I have seen my own mother transform into a semi-crazed, rabid fan creature right before my eyes while watching Sugar Ray Leonard and I swear I can sometimes hear her shouting for the Lakers all the way from Los Feliz .
Somehow, these traits skipped over me.

Of course, I have been caught up in the hoopla bandwagoning of "big games" before, those sports events that cross the threshold into my little world of mostly food and music.
(The Pistons and Rasheed Wallace defeating the Lakers in 2004 comes to mind.) This weekend however, I am joining the New Dat nation.
This weekend, it's sort of a collision of my little world and sports because New Orleans is in the Superbowl.


In an oddly dramatic coincidence, this past year I have immersed myself in Katrina. Starting with Cheryl Wagner's brilliant Plenty Enough Suck to Go Around, I have devoured anything and everything I have found to try and help me to understand what the hell happened down there. What they are still, 5 years later, battling.
Now this tragic town and it's people that have kept me up late at night, eyes wide, taking in the horrors and triumphs they endured, now they are united in an unprecedented event, once again.

Before you write me hate mail concerning my linking this weekends Saints game to the Katrina survivors you may want to check out 1 Dead In Attic by Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose, Page 309. Entitled: Eternal Dome Nation. he will explain it for you, better than I can.
And yeah, I know it's just sports.
But really, it's not. It's what everyone is calling it. A symbol. It's the "Hopes of City", just like it says in that Tabasco ad up there.
If it's American Football, that brings it- so be it. They need this.

If you don't subscribe to the hero worship/commercialism/corporate sponsored hoo-wha, I totally get it. Poo Poo it if you are so inclined.

I myself will be Woo Wooin' it, cooking up a ferocious gumbo with massive amounts of hot sauce, sipping on Sazeracs, (be)rating the commercials and way out in Los Feliz,CA my Mom is gonna be able to hear me yelling at the top of my Mom given lungs: "WHO DAT!"

Ross McElwee

Last night I attended a screening and Q and A with my most favorite documentary filmmaker, Ross McElwee. The films were Charleen and Backyard. These two films were made while he was in graduate school and he mentioned he considered them a bit crude, but they are really perfect examples of the intense, if quiet drama that unfolds in the daily lives of regular people as seen through and his tender and comic lens.
I could not find any usable clips of either film, so here is an excerpt from Sherman's March, his most recognized film, about his quest to document Sherman's bloody swath through the South that instead becomes a path of female distraction and humorous self introspection.

If you are not familiar, Netflix has most of his films available to watch at home or stream.


It was part of IFC's Stranger Than Fiction series, which I also highly recommend. It great to see him speak about these early films and hear that voice, so recognizable from his film's narrations, in person.

DIN DIN

Marty came home last night with two LPs for me! One I recognized right off the bat, of course. The other, though I had never seen or heard of before, but I knew right away what it was. In the case you have never heard of Mardi Gras, which I highly doubt, a Krewe is an organization, sometimes a social club, most often containing musicians, that walks the parade routes of Mardi Gras every year during carnival season down in New Orleans. Some of them are over a hundred years old and some are brand spankin'. When I saw "Krewe" across the cover I knew it meant a brass brand and upon putting needle to wax I was treated to a field recording of big brass, parading, playing and noise making through the streets. Krewe of Eris seem to be made up of rag tag group of young creatives, hippies, gutter punks, riff raff, you know the kind of people I envy while I sit in my office, trapped behind this computer wondering why I ever thought it would be a good idea to quit the Mom and Pops and join the 9 to 5 brigade. Ahem.
The album, which has a lovely silk screened cover and is reminiscent of a Folkways release is put out on Domino Sound, which I believe is a most beloved record store down in New Orleans.
NOLA is a magical city... check out another of it's lively inhabitants, Mr. Okra:

SNOWY MORNING

We woke up to snow this morning. Unexpected but welcome. The sun is shining now so all of this is gone to slush.