2:10 p.m.

The tracks came to someone else in the office with the track info largely obscured or missing, so while we’re confident identifying the music, we may not have all the titling and performers exactly right.

2:18 p.m.

A source at Treme says that’s not the right song list, so stay tuned.

3:09 p.m.

This entire post was revamped once we got the up-to-date song list.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band is scheduled to perform the show with Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue opening, but the cadre of retired NFL stars slated to walk the red carpet likely tells us who’ll be on the floats—from the Saints, Morten Andersen, Joe Horn, Dalton Hilliard, Willie Roaf, Michael “Beer Man” Lewis and Pat Swilling. Also appearing: Marcus Allen (Raiders), Jerome Bettis (Steelers), Eric Dickerson (Rams), Eddie George (Titans), Floyd Little (Broncos), Thurman Thomas (Bills), Derrick Brooks (Bucs), Tim Brown (Raiders), Richard Dent (Bears), Antonio Freeman (Packers), Orlando Pace (Rams) and John Randle (Vikings).

The party starts at the Skate Center at 10 p.m. An $8 cover includes roller-skate rentals, or you can bring your own skates or blades. If you need liquid courage to get on roller skates again, there’s a pre-party at New Orleans Daiquiris (down the road at 6201 Airline Drive) at 9 p.m.

On her birthday, Soul Sister states, “It’s funny. It seems that the older I get, the sillier I become. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I’m having much too much fun to stop and figure it out. And so, with this birthday, I’m throwing myself the wildest birthday of all—at a roller rink.

“I want my 35th birthday to be one that none of us will ever forget.  And 35 seems like the year to declare that you’re (still) hell on wheels.”

To get in the spirit, we asked the birthday beauty to share some choices for all-time best roller rink funk records, and these were five of her favorite jams (in no particular order):

1. Vaughan Mason & Crew — Bounce Rock Skate Roll

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2. Secret Weapon — Must Be the Music

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3. The Graingers — Shine Your Light

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4. James Brown — Body Heat

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5. Sugarhill Gang — 8th Wonder

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In this video by Leonard Smith III, Kerr shares some of these thoughts on jazz, art and life in an interview with Jinaki Flint, and then gives a solo performance on trumpet.

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The rig is on fire, but according to WWL.com, the well wasn’t active.

4 p.m.

Reuters says that the fire does not represent an oil spill:

“It wasn’t a blowout, it’s not an explosion,” spokesman Patrick Cassidy told Reuters. “The fire appears to have been in or near the living quarters on the upper deck.”

Still, the Wall Street Journal reports:

Petty Officer Matthew Masaschi told MarketWatch that Mariner Energy(ME 22.70, -0.05, -0.22%) reported seeing a sheen roughly 100 feet wide and 1 mile long. The company had initially reported that there was no oil emanating from the stricken rig, which sits roughly 100 miles off the south-central Louisiana coast area of Vermillion Bay.

It is unclear whether the sheen is an indication of a well leak or spilled petroleum from on board the platform. A Mariner Energy spokesman wasn’t available for comment.

According to CNN.com:

The company said an initial flyover of the site indicated “no hydrocarbon spill.”

However, Coast Guard Petty Officer Elizabeth Bordelon said there is a sheen on the water at the site of the platform, measuring about 100 feet wide and stretching for one mile. Jindal said the sheen can’t be confirmed.

The story went on to say:

“Mariner Energy recently told us that they shut in the production platform, I want to stress that neither the state nor the U.S. Coast Guard have verified that information at this time,” said Jindal. “We are working with the Coast Guard to ensure that the platform is indeed shut in and not leaking anything into the water.”

Jindal said that Mariner has told him that all seven wells have been closed off and that what is burning now is from fuel in storage, and not from an active leak.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the fire has already strengthened support for President Obama’s moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, even though the burning oil platform is in only 340 feet of water.

Vinyl fans rejoice! Brand new Bywater music shop Euclid Records opened its doors for their first day of business yesterday, offering up thousands of used and new LPS, 45s, CDs (they still make those?) and other musical goodies. Rumors from the inaugural day (via Facebook) are that guitarist/singer King Louie bought a Billy Preston record and that Times-Picayune music writer Alison Fensterstock was stung by a bee.

The real fun kicks off this weekend though, with a Grand Opening party lasting all day Saturday and Sunday, September 4 and 5 (store hours: 11 a.m.-7, Sat., 6 p.m. Sun.). There are full lineups of live music each day, with Susan Cowsill performing both days along with Brian Henneman, lead singer and guitarist of the St. Louis-based Bottle Rockets. The Cowsill Band shows will be recorded for an upcoming 45 to be released next year on Euclid Records’ label. And although Euclid Records may hail from St. Louis, where their original store is located, they know that a good party in New Orleans needs food, and The Pearl’s kitchen will be serving up barbecue to oblige.

Euclid Records is located at 3401 Chartres Street, at the corner of Desire Street in the former Tavern on the Levee building, now painted James Booker-pink (story goes that Booker used to drink a pink cocktail at the Maple Leaf since it reminded him of pepto bismol—he said it was good for his stomach). Here’s the full lineup for the Grand Opening of Euclid on Saturday and Sunday:

Saturday, September 4

Tom McDermott
Blind Texas Marlin
Happy Talk Band
Meschiya Lake & The Little Big Horns
Susan Cowsill Band featuring Brian Henneman
Guitar Lightnin’ Lee

Sunday, September 5

Susan Cowsill Band featuring Brian Henneman
Kindest Lines
Felix
R. Scully & the Rough Seven
Mountain of Wizard
MC Trachiotomy

She had to point out that, while her parents’ house flooded, they’d lived there for 53 years and never had a flood. My mother lived in her house for 35 years, and it never flooded, but got 10 feet of water as as result of the tidal wave generated by Katrina.

Hell, we might as well move everyone off the coasts and into the interior of the country, right? I suppose they don’t feel that way in Holland, since the Netherlands has managed to control the flooding in their country.

OK, I’m starting rant, so let me get to the point:

It’s not that often that I fall in love with a book, but after reading through New Orleans, What Can’t Be Lost: 88 Stories and Traditions from the Sacred City, I’m raving about it.

I purchased my copy at the event where Sweet Home New Orleans published its report on the state of the music community last week. Christopher Porché West, whose photographs you’ve probably seen in New Orleans (I have one of his in my office), contributed all the photos in the book.  Porché West has been a documentarian of the “Sacred City” for over 30 years now, and his photographs, coupled with short jewel-like written vignettes about what makes New Orleans such a special place, create a book to be treasured for anyone who loves New Orleans.

It’s almost impossible for any media—television show, film, poem, photograph, visual art, essay, book—to capture the essence of New Orleans, but I’d say this book comes pretty damned close.

There are entries from everyone from Poppy Z. Brite (“The defining characteristic of New Orleans is surely a live-and-let-live credo, a near-universal belief that as long as that fat man wearing his pirate costume and pushing the hot dog cart [referring to Ignatius Reilly] isn’t hurting anybody, he’s not crazy, he’s just interesting.”) to Anders Osborne (“The music of New Orleans is as rich as the smoke of fifteen kitchens cooking at the same time on one block; it is as deep as ten thousand years of culture merging on one square; it is as joyous as the birth of a child and can be as mournful as life without any hope or faith.”) to Simonette Berry (“Performance is a part of daily life here. The famous costuming tradition is translated into a different ceremony through the decoration of homes and businesses.”) to Michael Sartisky (“New Orleans was, is and will be—even more so if we perish—the shrine and seedbed of American culture.”).

These are certainly not the most incisive, pithy or profound statements from this book, but it’s so chock-a-block with ideas and realities about what makes New Orleans so special, that’s it’s difficult to quote what’s best.

The photos by Porché West aren’t necessarily tied to the essays within, but they certainly demonstrate what the city is about; its beauty, pathos, fun, decay, music and all the rest.

One of the best things about the books is that its proceeds will benefit Sweet Home New Orleans, an organization that’s done so much to help local musicians and culture standard-bearers recover after Hurricane Katrina.

If you love New Orleans and find that why you love it so is difficult for you to express in words (as I often am), then get this book, read it, and buy one for your friends…

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On Friday, September 3, the festival will hold a kick-off dance at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki at 8 p.m. Performers include Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble, Snuggles and the Zydeco Showstoppers, and Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers; there will also be an accordion-playing competition starting at 9 p.m. Admission is $10.

Saturday starts off early with a free-admission zydeco breakfast in the Opelousas Courthouse Square. The festival’s gates will open at 7 a.m.; admission is $10 at entrance, $3 for children 12 and under. The Zydeco Festival’s stages will feature Grammy award winners Buckwheat Zydeco, as well as the Pine Leaf Boys, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Lil’ Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers, Nathan Williams & the Zydeco Cha-Cha’s, among others. A complete listing of artists, events and times is available at zydeco.org.

That third one’s the most difficult to reconcile, which is why the Krewe of OAK hosts the Mid-Summer Mardi Gras at the end of Summer every year. It might not be the real thing, but it does help ease the year-long wait. This year, Baby Boyz Brass Band led the costumed parade/second line from the Maple Leaf to Snake and Jake’s, Maple Street, and back to the Leaf.

Enjoy the photos of the crowd below, all taken by Kim Welsh.

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