ListenGood

So that smiling guy I keep running into at my new morning coffee hang, Cafe Rose Nicaud (the name has historical resonance) is Chuck Perkins, a poet and the MC/host of local variety shows at Donna's and Bacchanal and elsewhere. So yesterday morning, he lays this one on me, recited from memory: "This is for my melody makers" This is for my artist of virtuosity Who kept the music … [Read more...] about coffee with verse, not chicory.

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. I lured you in with a promise of regular dispatches yet then turned away. Well, I was on my way back down to New Orleans to start a three-month (mostly) stay. I'd just heard Mos Def at Brooklyn Academy of Music, kicking off the "Brooklyn Next Festival" (which runs through 2/24), for which he led a well-honed big-band including not just a … [Read more...] about blame it on jetblue.

Speaking of fundamentalists, maybe my headlines today owe too much to representatives of the Christian evangelical organization "No Greater Love" who stood in Jackson Square, amidst the French Quarter's developing decadence as Mardi Gras Day approached, holding huge scroll-like signs: "Forsake Your Sins And Find Jesus Now." One guy (and they were all men) clutched two housing … [Read more...] about blame it on the mardi gras.

I've trudged less than gracefully, kicking and screaming in fact, into this blog, as I have into most of online experience -- hell, I still turn pages when I read newspapers. (For a more lucid and well-adjusted example of such a struggle to adapt, see Scott McLemee's inaugural address on his "Quick Study" blog.) But Doug McLennan's invitation (not to mention his patience as … [Read more...] about Um, this thing on?