May 28, 2006
Brush back
Sean gets out of the way of a high and too tight pitch during yesterday's game.
May 26, 2006
Happy Birthday
Happy birthday Erin Grace -- and congratulations to Diane and Kevin.
May 21, 2006
Blue Angels
Sean and ME and I made what is now our second annual trip to Andrews to see the air show -- the Blue Angels put on a nice display again this year.
May 20, 2006
Keeping score
Katie gets this close to scoring another goal.
Sean is about to steal home on the next pitch.
May 04, 2006
JazzFest 2006
Update May 7: more pictures added
Ethan and I had a great boys night out (well, long weekend out) in New Orleans to catch the first weekend of the Jazz and Heritage Festival. The company, the music and the food were great. We spent some time with an old friend of Ethan's who was in town on his honeymoon (turns out the friend and I grew up in adjacent towns way back when.) Andy was as droll as I remember him a decade ago, and Jenny was charming and funny, too. And thank you, Andy for introducing me to the Sazerac.
We had our pick of acts to see from a pretty strong lineup.
... Mahogany Brass Band
... Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers (Dwayne is on the right) on Saturday was the first act we saw that really shook up the crowd.
... June Yamagishi (left) and John "Papa" Gros (right), from Papa Grows Funk, who ripped up the stage on Sunday morning.
... The Mighty Chariots of Fire
(more in the extended entry)
Other music highlights included Cowboy Mouth and Ani Difranco, who normally wouldn't get me too interested, but they both put on great shows on Friday. Dwayne Dopsie (son of Rockin) was the first act we saw that really brought it on Saturday, and we were lucky to have front row space for it. Hugh Masekela did a nice job on Saturday, and Juvenile, a New Orleans hip-hop guy, was interesting to listen to for a little while.
Sonny Landreth really got the big-stage crowd going on the strength of his guitar pyrotechnics. For someone with such a low-key stage presence, he got folks jumping in the hot sun. The gospel group The Mighty Chariots of Fire got the crowd up, too, stomping and swaying and clapping in the tent.
We watched some of Springsteen's show, which I liked, but we were about 500 yeards from the stage, and the sound was poor. We decamped and caught The Meters to close out the Festival. All of this music and a lot more is at Louisiana Music Factory.
It was nice to fall into a comfortable rhythm: early coffee at the little neighborhood cafe, a bus to the Festival for the day (softshell crab poor boys, Crawfish Monica, jambalya were hits) then to a little place around the corner from our hotel for a couple of dozen oysters, and crawfish, as an appetizer before changing and heading out... to eat more. I miss it already.
Walking and riding around gave us a sobering view of how much damage there was in the Quarter and midtown -- and we didn't get near the really devestated neighborhoods. Most of the locals we talked with had Katrina stories, and they viewed the Festival, and the crowds, as a sign that New Orleans was working its way back.