Tom Piazza sits in a car waiting for Jimmy Martin to come out of Jimmy Martin’s house. Jimmy Martin, in case you didn’t know—and Jimmy Martin would have been painfully aware that in many cases, people didn’t know—was a bluegrass legend, as memorable for his smash-the-table-against-the-wall temper as for singing and stringing. Jimmy Martin is [...]
Tag Archives: New Orleans
Tom Piazza, Devil Sent the Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America (Harper Perennial)
December 1, 2011 – 12:27 am
Def Leppard + Heart at New Orleans Arena: Photos
September 23, 2011 – 3:52 pm
Classic rock ruled the night Thursday, September 22 at the New Orleans Arena when Def Leppard stopped in town with opening band Heart. The two monster hard rock groups played hits like “Let’s Get Rocked” and “Magic Man” all night. All photos were taken by Aaron Lafont.
Britney’s Crowd and Charisma Make the Show
July 18, 2011 – 9:32 am
Friday night’s Britney Spears show at the New Orleans Arena was weird in the way only famous people can be weird. Someone had the idea that the show should have a “plot”—and though I think scare quotes are used far too often these days, they certainly belong in this case—so the show was framed by [...]
Radiators Rule Second Weekend of Fest
May 4, 2011 – 4:29 pm
I truly enjoyed my first Jazz Fest weekend. The highlights were, of course, the weather being so wonderful throughout. My favorite day was Saturday, though. When I got to the Fest, I was hot and thirsty, so I immediately headed to the WWOZ Mango Freeze booth near the Fais Do Do Stage, picked up my freeze, [...]
Dressing the Part
May 2, 2011 – 3:06 pm
I just had another lovely lunch at Cake Café, just blocks from the office. Allison gave me a few pointers on how she makes her awesome salad dressing. Cake Café calls it ginger-wasabi dressing, but according to Allison, there’s no ginger in it. I call it crack, because it’s addictive and I now get everything [...]
Stairway to Bourbon Street: Led Zeppelin in New Orleans
May 1, 2011 – 12:16 am
It’s May of 1973 and the British Gods of Rock—Led Zeppelin—sweep into New Orleans at the height of their mysterious and epochal powers as arguably the best rock band in the world. They play a strange concert that night in the Municipal Auditorium; after all, it is New Orleans and Zeppelin is on stage playing [...]
The Deal Needs to Be Good for Everyone
April 20, 2011 – 5:45 pm
In the past few days I received an email petition asking the city to reopen Armstrong Park. I signed it, of course, as I’ve been a vocal proponent of the park’s reopening for many years, and we’ve had several features in our blogs about this subject. I understand that there’s also a group of young [...]
Jazz Fest Cubes (Full Stage Schedules) Released
March 30, 2011 – 3:03 pm
We’ve been getting calls and emails for weeks now: “Where can I find the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival stage schedule?” “I see the daily lineup, but where are the daily Jazz Fest cubes?” At long last, here they are: Jazz Fest released the full schedules today, otherwise known as the “cubes”, with times [...]
A Great Mardi Gras
March 9, 2011 – 5:01 pm
Had a great Mardi Gras! I’ve done Frenchmen Street, Bourbon Street, Canal Street, St. Charles Avenue, even Metairie. But I like our house the best. We’re smack-dab in the middle of St. Charles Avenue and Dryades Street, so we get the best of all worlds on Mardi Gras day: Zulu, Rex, the truck parades and [...]
Outrageous Entertainment As Fact–NOT!
February 23, 2011 – 4:22 pm
We’re on another countdown: just about two weeks ‘til Mardi Gras, and the purple, gold and green is everywhere! The January 21 issue of Newsweek that featured a list of the 10 “dying” cities in the US, based on the decrease in population from 2000 to 2009 and a decrease in population under 18. New [...]
