I’ve been wanting to do something on Hornets reserve guard Jannero Pargo since I got to know him last week filming a piece for ESPN the Magazine. That piece featured Pargo competing against center Tyson Chandler’s wife to see who knew Chandler better. Pargo was funny and engaging and, without revealing too much, held his own against Mrs. Chandler. He definitely seemed blog-worthy, but I couldn’t figure out an angle.So I started asking around, starting with Chandler. He started with basketball talk, calling Pargo a “spark plug” and that he brings “lots of energy to the floor.

“No, no, I said. What’s Pargo like off the court?

“He’s always on the move,” Chandler said. “He can never sit still.” All the while, Pargo was just a couple feet away warming up before Wednesday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. Then, while Chandler and I were talking about Pargo’s card-playing skills, the Spark Plug did this: Read the rest of this entry »

This press release is from NOMA:

On Wednesday, March 5, 2008, the New Orleans Museum of Art initiates new evening hours one day a week. The Museum will be open every Wednesday from Noon until 8:00 pm. The adjacent Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden will be open from 10:00 am until 8:00 pm on Wednesdays as well. The Museum and Garden also are open Thursday through Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The purpose of the extended hours is not only to make the Museum available in the evening for students and those who work during the day but to help to promote the many fine restaurants, both old and new, in the Mid-City area. So after touring the Museum, visitors are encouraged to have dinner at an area restaurant. A list of Mid-City participating restaurants will be available at the Museum. Read the rest of this entry »

For my recent column on China Rose and its authentic Chinese menu, I sampled many more dishes than I could fit in our column space. The menu is fascinating, but offers very little in the manner of descriptions to guide the neophyte. The staff was always eager to help once we showed an interest in their traditional cooking, but their own tableside descriptions were often ambiguous as well. Imagine if you’ve never heard of gumbo before, much less tasted it, and you’re presented with a menu listing simply “seafood gumbo.” So I wanted to use this blog entry to describe more of the dishes we tried that just didn’t make into the printed column.

One dish I really enjoyed but that didn’t make the cut is the appetizer of steamed pork buns (pictured at right), or noodle dough filled with pork sausage. In appearance and composition, these resemble dumplings (a platonic dish at China Rose when – and only when – they are ordered from the Chinese menu). Yet the taste is quite different. The buns are steamed for something like a half hour, during which time the mound of pork within releases a surfeit of its juices. When you finally take a bite, the bun bursts open with this flavorful shot of pork soup. Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Anderson, A.K.A. the Birdman, was officially re-instated to the Hornets organization this morning in a press conference before shoot-around. Nothing truly out of the ordinary happened but there were some highlights:

• Owner George Shinn called it a “special day” and talked about how when Anderson was first on the team he became the most popular player in New Orleans and “in that other state we were playing in.”
• Anderson went out of his way to talk about how he doesn’t intend to “step on anybody’s toes” and that what the team has “accomplished is tremendous.” He also mentioned how he loves coach “B. Scott.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Public relations may be an art to some people, but its materials don’t often end up in museums or thick coffeetable books.

Here’s a remarkable exception.

In one of the first publicly funded municipal promotional efforts, the city of New Orleans commissioned photographer Theodore Lilienthal to survey the city and send the prints to the Paris World Exhibition in 1867. He took pictures of buildings, sites of commerce, paddlewheel boats on the docks, neighborhoods, etc. The collection of 150 large-sized prints presented an excellent portrait of New Orleans. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston

That’s sure what it seems like if he can stroll into a restaurant unnoticed by journalists that were at one time chasing him around the capital as he bobbed and weaved into side doors and idling cars to avoid them.

Anne Schroeder Mullins has the scoop.