-
Moving to Twitter!
Well, occasional and faithful readers (I think there may be about 20 of you out there, but who knows?), I have made the decision to go to Twitter instead of trying (and failing) to maintain this blog.
I will be posting at random but much more regularly, on topics ranging from Unitarian Universalism to New Orleans to whatever of current interest strikes my fancy. My Twitter handle is RevMelanieNOLA -- please follow me!
Posting on this blog has been sometimes fun and sometimes a chore. It has been good to read the occasional comments, and to hear in person from someone that they read the blog. But I think the brevity and immediacy of Twitter is more current, easier to do, and more likely to keep me posting.
For those with religious interests, my sermons will still be posted on the First Church website: firstuuno.org.
Thanks...
-
Hamp Fest at St. Aug
NOTE: I read recently that the most frequent post in a blog is the apology, "I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while" -- so I'm NOT going to say that! Life happens, is all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was such an honor to be at the St. Augustine fundraiser, the Hamp Fest (appropriately named for the late great St. Aug Music Director Mr. Edwin Hampton), a 2-day festival of food & music held on the St. Augustine campus in the 7th Ward.
Big Man was booked to play in one of the bands opening for Morris Day & the Time on the second day of the festival, which just happened to be...
-
Jazz Fest 2012 Second Weekend
Well, another Jazz Fest has come and gone, and we're a little sun-struck, a little over-fed, a little tired from a lot of walking -- but we are well-satisfied in every way.
We made the sensible but still difficult decision to give up on the traditional biggest-attendance day, the second Saturday, both to avoid the crush and to give our niece from Pennsylvania a one-day tour of the city, which we had never done before. (Poor thing! On all her previous visits, she barely got to see anything other than what you can see on the route from our house to the Fest!) So that means our highlights of this final weekend will not include any of the acts on Saturday, May 5 -- and believe me, one of the hardest things in the world for me was to make the choice NOT to see Allen Toussaint!
Here's...
-
Delayed post (sorry, misfiled it!): French Quarter Festival
The weather could not have been better -- sunshine, cool river breezes (even gusty at times), reasonable temperatures (getting kind of cool in the shade).
The festival crowds were in a festival mood: enthusiastic and friendly, and decked out in bright, colorful, imaginative festival clothes! We saw some very cute and creative outfits, along with the bizarre and the hot season normal (hat, bandanna, T-shirt and shorts). I wonder what folks wear at festivals in other places? Couldn't be as inspired as our folks!
Both of Big Man's festival gigs went well. On Friday he was part of the Renard Poche Big Band on the Abita Stage, which had a gigantic appreciative crowd of dancing fans. Big Man played very well, despite the wind gusts trying to steal the music sheets off the music stands.
On Saturday Big Man performed with the affable John Lisi and his...
-
First Weekend of Jazz Fest 2012
First of all, a shout-out to the Gods of Weather. Temperatures were slightly below normal, there were blessed clouds all three days (we want clouds, because they mitigate the sun beating down on us), and there was a brisk breeze, like natural air conditioning, felt especially in some of the tents.
Some of our favorite highlights:
Women's Day on Friday, April 27. We started in the Jazz Tent with our friend, the delightful Cindy Scott and segued into Leah Chase (yes, Ms. Leah of Dooky Chase Restaurant's daughter), who also had Cindy Scott come back up to duet with her. Cindy was fabulous, her scatting so smooth and natural, you'd think she spoke in scat! She called Shamarr Allen up at one point to guest with her and he knocked the crowd out, trading riffs with Cindy. And Leah's powerful voice and presence really puts a tune across power. Later...
|
