With Mardi Gras rolling fast and hard, it is easy, while living in the heart of New Orleans, to forget what is happening in the rest of the world. However, since I am the wimp of all wimps when it comes to weather, I have yet to venture out to see a parade.

This unwillingness to be cold or wet has given me the opportunity to catch up on my favorite past time. Surprisingly, this obsession of mine is with Awards Shows. Normally, I love them all. I am not a huge fan of the droning on of announcers or the sometimes unbearable acceptance speeches, but instead, I love to see actors dressed in their finest. Nothing is more satisfying to me than to see what beauty is cast upon the red carpets. Read the rest of this entry »

You may or may not have heard of Ninth Ward organist Mr. Quintron’s musical invention the Drum Buddy, but if you’ve ever attended one of his sweaty dance parties you’ve seen the curious machine flashing and whirring front and center. The machine is a combination analog synthesizer/rhythm kit/signal processor whose beeps, tweets and scratches are regulated by light sensors read through differently spaced holes in the spinning can that rotates atop the machine. The principle is half-theremin, half-player piano, and it gives Quintron’s sound its distinctly organic-meets-digital swamp tone.

Because of the cost and effort involved in making the instruments, they’re not often advertised as on sale to the public - however, a recent order from experimental musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson spurred a production frenzy, and a run of ten were sold over the past few months. The last machine in the series - which boasts a unique cabinet carved from rare Louisiana sinker cypress - is now up for auction on eBay, ending Mardi Gras Day.

The profits from the sale are pledged to go to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Click here to bid - and start making some funny noises of your own.

by Sam Winston

Mardi Gras is not just too early for Crawfish, the season is supposed to be particularly bad according to this radio interview.

It’s funny. As the average/clueless consumer, I seem to remember over recent years having no middle ground for crawfish seasons. It was always either “sparse” around Mardi Gras time only to watch consumer prices sink to ridiculous levels by the end of spring as the Crawdads grew in size and quantity, or for the Crawfish to remain small all year with hefty 4 dollar a pound and up prices. Then a friend of the family usually comes in late spring every year from the Lafayette area and destroys our New Orleans impression of the season with steroid size Crawfish that seemed to never have anything to do with the up and down talk of the season.

Regardless, another good friend of mine, whose boiling claim to fame is oranges in addition to lemons, lamented recently that with the Gras so early this year, things just aren’t the same without plentiful Crawfish.

 by Sam Winston

With Barack Obama’s latest victory in South Carolina the theme of what role his race played in his success is getting tossed around once more. That includes what role it will play in Louisiana.

Is it too naive to ask again why he is considered only black when he has a white mother?

While New Orleans and Louisiana often seem stuck in the same types of traditional formations of race, Bobby Jindal did overcome Louisiana’s own reservations about his “brown skin”. It’s true that Jindal’s easy victory stemmed primarily from a lack of a viable opponent rather than some sort racial healing in the state. Still, I think Obama has the ability to do the same in Louisiana (comparisons ending there considering among other things their opposite political stances).

Wondering previously if any of this would matter by the time Louisiana goes to the polls, its seems likelier than ever that it will.

“Still, with each of the top Democrats having won two primaries, it appeared increasingly likely that the party’s presidential nominating fight could extend well beyond Feb. 5, perhaps even to the national convention in late summer.” -IHT.com

Indeed the rumor mill/smear campaign against Obama found its way today into a central Louisiana paper.

Below are some of the highlighted comments (and commentary) on the Obama race issue as things head into Super Tuesday and Louisiana. Read the rest of this entry »