Live from NO: Friday Second Line

Sister at start of Friday Secondline for Uncle Lionel ..

Meet me at the secondline

A couple photos from this past Sunday's Uptown Swingers secondline in New Orleans. Thanks goes out to my sister's friend Sylvia for the pix.

From NO to your door

Not sure what took me so long to figure this out but a couple years ago realized I could mail NO food items home to myself vs trying to transport via suitcase or backpack on flight home. Think disappointment- and embarrassment- of having several bottles of NO hot sauce very publicly confiscated by the TSA folks at Armstrong airport in NO a couple years back got me thinking differently. At this point anytime I'm in NO I make sure to make groceries (as they used to say) at Rouse's market gathering up my favorite Louisiana-centric non- perishables. I pack em in a box and mail it to my home back East Where i can enjoy a little bit of Louisiana eatin from a distance. As you can see in photo below, I tend to favor canned goods and condiments along w Zapp's chips . This last shipment included a whole line of Zapp's items. In addition to some chips also grabbed up their spicy bean dip (excellent) and a couple of items I hadn't tried before: jars of Cajun Picante and a Smoky Salsa which I think will become regular items in future shipments. Also included are the requisite red beans (dried and canned) and NO local favorite Blue Plate mayo. I had in the past tried on more than one occasion mailing home one of my favorite NO treats - Hubig's pies- but discovered they do not fair well when shipped via mail so now I bring those home via my carry on bag - they are Homeland security safe! Yeah you right.

Jazzfest 2012 First Friday

Thought I would come back to Jazzfest  2012 and put up pics from that first Friday. As I've written previously I like to move around from stage to stage throughout the day. These pictures are from the Gospel Tent, Blues Tent, Jazz Tent, Fais Do Do Stage , Congo Square Stage and the Jazz and Heritage Stage as well as some random shots from around the festival grounds. Perfomers on Friday included the Young Pinstripe Brass Band, Geno Delafose, Leah Chase, James Andrews, Seun Kuti, BeauSoleil, the Texas Tornadoes featuring Flaco Jimenez and the Real Untouchables Brass Band. Stay tuned for future posts of pics taken on Saturday and Sunday that first weekend.

NJ Crawfish Fest 2012

Boiled crawfish, Curley Taylor, Dr. John, Jon Cleary, Terrance Simien, Glen David Andrews and Bonerama..not a bad way to spend June afternoon in New Jersey.

If it's Monday..

..that means red beans and rice. I recently purchased a case of Blue Runner red beans (via Amazon.com of all places) and now can very easily whip up red beans and rice pretty much any Monday . Today, opened up a can of beans, added some smoked sausage and using some leftover Chinese takeout rice was able to create an East Coast version of this NO classic. Yeah you right!

Cajun Zydeco Festival Live

Despite a rain delay and some initial broadcast feed issues I am now sitting and listening to DL Menard and the Jambalaya Cajun Band live on WWOZ from the Cajun Zydeco Festival down in NO. DL Menard is a Cajun Music treasure and it is always a treat to see or hear him perform. I went back in my vast Jazzfest picture library and found a couple shots of Mr Menard taken in 2006 most likely at the Fais Do Do stage. Etois.