Each New Year’s Eve, National Public Radio’s annual “Toast of the Nation” program follows the incoming year from coast to coast, broadcasting from a live gig in each time zone as the midnight hour approaches and passes. As 2009 bears down on the Crescent City, the Danza Quartet (Evan Christopher on clarinet, Tom McDermott on piano, Matt Perrine on bass and sousaphone, and Shannon Powell on drums) will be representing live from Donna’s Bar & Grill at 800 N. Rampart St. The broadcast will be live from 11:15 pm Central until 12:30am on WWNO 89.9 FM, and the gig itself will swing into the wee hours. And for those who wish to experience the New Year vicariously (with no random gunfire, parking, jacked-up drink prices or people) the broadcast starts in Boston at 7 pm Central with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara, and finishes up in San Francisco with the ukulele virtuoso (yes, ukelele virtuoso) Jake Shimabukuro, at 2:15 am CST. The Los Angeles segment, which airs directly following Danza, is of special interest - it features the legendary jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott, whose vintage hipster lingo and unearthly high-pitched warble is a wonder of the music world.

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Photo by Jonathan Bachman

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Who would’ve thought that tonight’s Hornets’ game against the lowly Washington Wizards would have provided so many storylines? First off, there’s the obvious storyline of Antonio Daniels and Mike James playing against their old teams for the first time since their trade 20 days ago. Though James (16 points, 7 assists) out-preformed Daniels (5 points, 2 assists), it was the Hornets that came out on top 97–85.

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But James wasn’t the only ex-Hornets guard in the building tonight. Who else noticed Jannero Pargo enjoying the game on the baseline next to Chris Paul’s brother, C.J. I got a chance to catch up with Pargo after the game and he was as cool as ever (though not, “Ceiling Fan Repairman” cool). In between answering passing fans’ questions about whether he would be back, Pargo said that he’s enjoying himself in Russiaand is even picking up the language. Apparently, his Russian team Dynamo Moscow is on break, though I still thought it strange that Pargo was in the town where people so desperately miss him. Wasn’t his Russian team worried about him coming back?

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“I’m a grown man,” he said. “I don’t need their permission to go anywhere.”

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Indeed.

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Now’s your chance to get on the right foot with those New Year’s resolutions.

Run for One Planet co-founders Matt Hill and Stephanie Tait will make a pit stop on their 11,000 mile run across the U.S. and Canada to inject a little green into your New Year.

The duo plans to raise $1 million to fund eco-friendly projects and collect one million green commitments from folks along the way — like those resolutions you keep telling yourself you’ll get around to, like recycling or using your own water bottle.

From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow, Whole Foods Arabella Station will welcome the runners with activities for the kids, a cooking demonstration and a chance to check out Hill and Tait’s biodiesel-fueled eco-R.V. (seen above), a 2005 “Regal Diesel” built by Triple E and fitted with a super-sweet solar-powered design package. 

One of the restaurant returns we were happy to see in 2008 didn’t quite make it to the end of the year.

The historic French Quarter restaurant Café Sbisa, reopened in October by a new owner for the first time since Katrina, has closed again.

A spokeswoman for chef Glen Hogh, who reopened Sbisa, says he was sub-leasing the property from other owners, and that these owners recently decided they were no longer interested in running the restaurant.

“Glen is currently talking with the building owner, and his hope is that they will be able to work things out so that the restaurant will once again operate,” says spokeswoman Cheryl Lemoine.

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Tonight is opening night for a new restaurant in Metairie, which also signals the return of a chef with a long history in the area.

The “Mike” of the new Mike’s American Grill (4300 Veterans Memorial Blvd., 885-5566) is Michael Uddo, who was chef/owner at G&E Courtyard Grill in the French Quarter. G&E was open in the Decatur Street space now doing business as the lounge Pravda from 1990 until 1999, the year Uddo says the lease skyrocketed and became unfeasible. People who frequented G&E still rave about the cooking, especially the roasted rack of lamb and dishes from the restaurant’s rotisserie.
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