he's gone...

robert left for kentucky at 1PM this afternoon. I don't know when I'll see him again.

loss of a son and the first day of jazz fest...

The delay in this post was caused by the event itself, or should I say the sunburn that I acquired at the fest on Friday. I'm sporting the reverse raccoon. For those that aren't aware of this phenomenon, the "reverse raccoon" is caused when one wears sunglasses for untold hours in the sun causing the area covered by the sunglasses to remain white while the rest of the face, in my case, gathers the bright hue of a freshly boiled crawfish.

Prior to heading to the fest, I met my son Robert at the bus station. He is leaving Louisiana. I believe that he thinks that everything will be different, but I'm not holding up hope that this will be an easy move in any way. He's staying in Baton Rouge for a week with his mother, then off to Kentucky. My hopes and prayers are with him, but I'll withhold my comments until they are warranted.

I arrived at the jazz fest promptly at 11AM on Friday Morning. Ja, C, and R were to meet me there, but I knew they would be late as there of course were two women involved. Needless to say, I did secure a great peice of real estate about 15 yards from the barracade at the Acura Stage to enjoy the music.

As luck would have it, I brought no blanket, so I swiftly removed my shirt and used this to sit on.
Dillard University Jazz Ensemble was the first on, and they were about halfway through their set when I arrived to my spot. Just as I got comfortable, a woman that was none other than the illegitimate offspring of Myrna Minkoff and Ignatius Jacques Reilly. I remember thinking I would have loved to have a camera or camcorder to video her dance antics. It was marvelous.
Since I had no bowl, the result of going to see Wilco the night before with my friend Je and letting him convince me that I needed to tose my bowl before entering the theater, I was quite interested in finding someone with some sort of smoking utensil. There was a group of people next to me with 14:20 on their flag. My inquisitive mind required me to ask one of the inhabitants of that real estate named Bill what "14:20" meant, since I was very aware of what 4:20 was. He informed me that the person that made the flag had infact made a mistake, not knowing the meaning of 4:20. I guess this now meant 4:20 to the 10th power...laf...
Bill pulled a bat out, and we smoked a bit of the ole main stay.
J, C, and R showed up during the Boogie Kings show. They brought chairs, a blanket and towel, and an ice chest. Promptly they headed off to get beer and food. They were only gone for about 30 minutes, and when they returned I requested a bowl from Ja. The biggest problem is that the herbal remedy that I brought was almost too strong to smoke...laf...
We enjoyed the day, the highlights were Black Crowes and Steve Winwood. Both were fabulous. Steve Winwood being a jam band for the most part turning a number of 3 minute songs into 30 minute jam sessions.

It was a wonderful day, but it wasn't over yet...

Je was down from Baton Rouge for the day, and he wasn't ready to head back to his hotel by any means. We decided to head to Checkpoint Charlies, and though I was a bit bleary eyed, I agreed and we walked out and caught the Esplanade bus to Rampart.
We waked to Checkpoints from Rampart, and to our surprise, there was a band playing. Lisa someone...didn't get her last name, but I enjoyed the music, and had the opportunity to speak to her between sets.

It wasn't long before Je left to meet his wifey at Cafe Du Monde, and about 15 mintues later, I succumbed to the wear and tear of the day and began making my way through the Quarter to the Streetcar. Along the way, I ran into Scott and Christi, a couple that I met years ago when I was still quite active in Internet pornographer. I hung with them at the Jimini for about half hour then headed to Canal Street, stopping along the way to pick up some Taco Bell.
I arrived home before 10PM, exhausted and sleepy, I didn't realize until Saturday morning that I was burnt to a crisp.

For now, I'm suffering from sunburn and enjoying the day...

perscriptions, perscriptions...

What a slow day...after setting everything up for my son to go up to Kentucky, I decided that it was such a nice day that I was going for a walk. I walked down to the Quarter to enjoy the weather. Then, while walking down Decatur, I realized that I needed to get a ticket for Jazz Fest for tomorrow, so I headed back over to the Superdome. I didn't want to pay $35 at the gate tomorrow, and I didn't want to pay $31 from TicketNAZIs...so I went to the Box Office at the Superdome. There was still a surcharge, but it was only a couple bucks, so I came in under $28, and now I'm committed to going.
Robert will be here at my office in the morning sometime, and we'll walk over to the bus station and I'll purchase a ticket for him to go to baton rouge, adn then I'll head out to the FairGrounds for Jazz Fest!!

Race day....

On May 3, 1986, about an hour before the Kentucky Derby ran, my son Robert was born. The derby is on May 5th this year, and on that day, my son will be in the city that hosts the Derby. Louisville Kentucky. He's leaving New Orleans today for Baton Rouge to spend a week with his mother before bussing it up to Louisville to stay with his brother Jason. I knew this was coming, but I'm still feeling weird about it. Like I'm losing him, though I don't see him that often anyway. It's all for the best though.

Animal Planet part II

I decided I would see if my cat was intelligent in any way shape or manner yesterday. You see, I have one window in my apartment that has no screen. I'm on the second floor, but below the window is the roof of a shed. I didn't think she would be stupid enough to jump down to the shed, but low and behold, Devochka surprised me again. I there a dull thump and look up to the window where she was sitting and viola, she was gone. Yup, dumbass jumped out the window on top of the shed.

Now, understand that I wasn't going to get up on that shed to get her down, and she was too low to jump back in the window. I ended up bowing down, so I piled some bricks up next to the shed and convinced her to come to where I was and brought her down, in the process freaking her out even more...her tail looked like a bottle cleaner on steroids, and she added to my already extensive bite and scratch marks...

Muff Diving in New Orleans...

Ok, if there is a heaven, it's being trapped between New Orleans and a Muffuletta. For years I've insisted that Central Grocery on Decatur Street made the best Muff, because they made the 1st Muff. Today, I was craving a good muff, but didn't feel like walking the 25 or so blocks to Central Grocery to get one. Plus, I've been by there a couple times in the last week or so and there are so many tourists in town that the line runs out the front door and down the sidewalk. No time for a workin' boy like me to wait around...

Lucky for me, Mike Serios Poboys is only about 5 blocks from here. I've been known to frequent Mikes for their outstanding poboys and rubens, but I had never gone Muff Divng there until today. I have to say that the sandwich is a very strong contender for best of the best.

sometimes you just have to get laid just to see if the sex can live up to the food...

my own private pharmacy....

I haven't written about this, but I've been fighting a bacterial infection for the last month. The first doctor I went to put me on Keflex, which I thought did the job. I took Keflex for about two weeks. I went a week after I finished the Keflex before noticing another problem. It got to the point that on Thursday knew I had to see the doctor again. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the office on Thursday or Friday. After speaking to my co-worker that will go un-named in this blog, I called my primary care physician. He advised me to go to the emergency room for treatment. I went to Baptist Memorial after work. The resident doctor lanced the abscess, and prescribed Flagyl, which I've been taking ever since.

Last night I got a call about 7PM from the hospital. They did a culture and realized that they had prescribed the wrong antibiotic. I've never been called back in a situation like this, so I became somewhat alarmed. She called in two prescriptions for me to the local Walgreens. The one that I've been visiting far too much as of late. She called in Rifampin and Sulfameth/Trimethoprim.

This is some pretty serious shit. It's going to make me sick as hell for the next two weeks. I'll keep you posted.

RTA: Rapidly Transporting Assholes...yeah right, that's the word I was looking for!

Ok, so I don't have a car. I don't need a car, and for the most part NORTA(New Orleans Regional Transit Authority) works for me. I can make it to work in about 20 minutes on the weekdays, but I regress. There are tons of tourists in town during this time of the year, so you would think that some of the, shall we call them diverse locals, would keep their business to themselves.
So, I'm heading home from work yesterday, decided to take the Magazine Bus rather than the streetcar. The streetcar in the afternoon and evening resembles a cattle car on the way to the ovens. Still, there were a few tourists on the bus, and there were two locals that just had to spout their biz like they were sitting in their living room.
The conversation began when a black lady and a baby got on the bus. The lady was obviously *NOT* the mother, but grandmother. A black fellow in his 40's was sitting in the seat across the way, and greeted the woman...they knew each other. He promptly asked where the lady's daughter was. The lady answered that she was in jail...something about principle to murder. Seems her boyfriend had been killed for ripping his heroin connection off. The conversation went on and on, the fellow in the bus commented that he had "given 40 years back."
All the while, the two tourists sitting in the seat across from mine listening and the colour washing from their faces at every sentence.
Personally, I wish I would have had a tape recorder, the conversation, as scary as it was, had a humorous side and would have transfered here much better had I recorded it.

short and sweet...

I would post more, but just sitting in this chair is more than painful. I've had this happen before, and today I'm trapped by my own body. My pinched nerve in my back is so bad that the only position that is even close to comfortable is laying on my side...still, I have a coworker picking me up. Sure hope I don't fall down the stairs getting out of here.

French Quarter Festival...

Well, being a boring Saturday I decided to scoot over to the French Quarter festival. It's amazing how many tourists are in the city right now...sheesh!
So, I leave to go catch the streetcar as that is my normal means of transportation. Not being prone to waiting around, I decided to walk until it caught up to me. I need the exercise, and besides, a friend I was meeting in the Quarter requested I pick up a pack of zig zags for him. I made it down about 15 blocks when the first car got to me. When I tell you that it was packed tighter than a german cattle car on it's way to a concentration camp I'm not exaggerating. What was funny was that the driver stopped and then stepped out of the door and looked back down the track and said, "I see another car coming." There was nothing in sight, so I don't know what she was trying to prove, but never the less, there was no room for another body on that car, and I really don't like standing that close to anyone anyway...I've be pickpocketed on the streetcar in similar circumstances.
So, I continue walking. One stop before the Lee Circle I noticed another car coming down the tracks so I stopped. What a waste of time, cause it was just as bad.
I ended up walking all the way to the Ryan's on Decatur to meet my friend. That's about a 3 mile walk, but I made it no problem, but whilst walking across Canal Street I noticed the Magazine St. Bus, which I could have taken and save butt loads of time...ce la vie.
We ended up walking around to all the stages, my friend being out of his mind for some substance challenged reason, couldn't seem to stop long enough to listen to the music. I finally got him to stop to watch a wonderful saxophonist named Rebecca Barry. Talk about the FUGLIEST thing that's ever wrapped her lips around a reed! Still, she has an amazing sound, and her voice was like heaven. The best thing was the base player though...I would be surprised to find out that she was even legal, yet she belted out riffs like and old pro, and her voice was nothing to bitch about either.
After about an hour, I decided it was time for me to vacate the Quarter for home and caught the magazine Street bus back uptown...

Second Generation????

I found this article today about a band called Second Generation...I have to wonder if this is a joke. Band is supposed to be lead by Francis Bean Cobain, daughter of Cortney Love and the late Kurt Cobain. Other members of the band supposedly consist of the twin daughters of Peter Buck and daughter of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon.

music this spring will be great....

Pigface will be playing April 26th at Howlin' Wolf...this is a "can't miss" show.

I'm sure that Peter Murphy has started announcing his tour dates. Hope I don't have to visit Atlanta to see him, but I will probably use the excuse to visit my sisters as it is going to be on Friday the Thirteenth.

I'm also going to be seeing Wilco at the State Place Theater on April 21st, so its going to be a great spring for music.....

good morning sunshine....

ouch, hair of the dog is my goal this morning, so I did a search for a hair of the dog image. This is what I found...kinda cute eh...

the pope...

I often wonder what awaits us in death. today, according to THIS the pope is on his deathbed. I'm irish, but not a drop of catholic, still I find it distressing that this pope should meet his fate at this time. wouldn't it be nice if the hindi doctorines were true, and he could be reincarnated to provide even more guidence to this lost and foundering world?

Collect This???

I had to find an outlet for people in my industry...Commercial Collections to vent...so I created this: Collect This!

pain in the ass...er....back....

not that anyone would know this, but I've been sick for two weeks, during which my doctor perscribed antibotics and davacet for the pain. I should have known better than to take the fucking darvacet. I've never been a big fan of pain medication, namly because of the pain involved with stopping. So I'm sitting here on a friday afternoon, irritated like cordoroy on a hemmoroid, ready to get out of here...or take more darvacet..what would you suggest?