Palin Bingo. Fun for the whole family!

 The countdown to the tenth annual Voodoo Music Experience has begun, and to rev up the excitement, they’ve opened up the vaults that contain a decade’s worth of performance footage. Selections from the creme de la creme of the over 700 acts that Voodoo has hosted over the years are available for viewing here. So relive your favorite show from last year (like the fan movie of Rage Against The Machine above - not an official Voodoo video), revisit the cathartic post-Katrina fest of ‘05 (footage of C. Ray riling up the crowd is available), or go waaay back and check out performances you probably completely forgot about, like a pre-diet Missy Elliott in ‘01 or Dr. John’s haunting rendition of “Indian Red,” from ‘99. Really, like you don’t already spend a bunch of time watching Internet videos at work.

Does anyone else think it’s a bad idea for Sarah Palin to be seen publicly dissing witches so close to Halloween? 

Or would that be mARRRk your calendARRRs? Here’s another early heads-up for Halloween fun: the Pirates vs. Ninjas flash mob event that will occur - briefly - in Jackson Square late in the afternoon of Friday, October 31. (That even leaves time to switch costumes before you head out for the night.) The deal is such: one gang will dress as scurvy sea dogs, the other like silent Asian assassins. They’ll assemble (see map) at prescribed points adjacent to the Square at 4:50 p.m. At 5 p.m., they’ll rumble like the Jets and the Sharks for exactly two minutes - then, at 5:02 p.m., an air horn will sound and all combatants will disperse. Of course, the whole thing will be immortalized on Youtube. Check for details here and here. 

Did you know that over 30% of tourists visiting New Orleans annually are hoping for some sort of paranormal experience? Those are the statistics quoted by the spook scholars of the New Orleans Paraplex - a 14,000-square-foot, “actively haunted” Mid-City mansion that will serve as a round-the-clock paranormal observatory, laboratory and museum when it opens for business in early 2009, according to its website.

In the meantime, the Paraplex is offering a sneak peek at future services, based out of their French Quarter annex at 718 Orleans St., which opened this month. Offerings include abbreviated exhibits which will be expanded once the flagship space opens, plust a host of tours: including a vampire tour created by Anne Rice, an interactive parapsychology tour that lets amateur ghostologists work with real haunt-hunting field equipment, and a nighttime UFO and ghost-hunters’ swamp expedition.

Just in time for Halloween, the Paraplex is also offering a round of Psychic Boot Camp, an intensive daily training session for those seeking to develop their psychic abilities. The camp is conducted by “well-qualified, professional clairvoyants who excel in a minimum of at least three well-defined psychic abilities.” Careful, though - read the fine print in the press release. “The Paraplex instructor reserves the right to refuse admission for participation in a PSYCHIC BOOT CAMP based upon initial clairvoyant
impressions.”

Earl Palmer, the drummer so legendary in New Orleans that one of his old kits is in the possession of the Louisiana State Museum, died Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, after a long illness. Palmer’s hammering backbeat was the key ingredient in dozens, if not hundreds of early R&B and rock n’roll tracks that emerged from Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studios in the 1950’s, influencing the evolution of almost all rock, soul and funk to come. Palmer also later recorded for Motown and at Phil Spector’s Gold Star Studio in Los Angeles. He played with Shirley & Lee, Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew, Little Richard and a laundry list of greats too extensive to name. It’s Palmer thumping out the rhythm on classic rock n’roll tracks that include Ike and tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” Smiley Lewis’ “I Hear You Knockin’,” Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” 

The recent weather business having backed up my mail a bit,  I only today made a dent in the pile of September magazines that arrived slightly late due to Gustav. Upon finishing the issue of the New Yorker dated Sept. 1, I was incredibly pleased to discover that the winner of that issue’s cartoon caption contest was a New Orleanian. Cheers to Jason Melancon for his caption to the above whimsical sketch (the title of this blog entry) - and extra kudos for being the first Louisiana resident, if this website speaks the truth, to take the honors. And after seeing this week’s challenge (below), I say: who but a Louisiana resident could adequately tackle (no fishing pun intended) this?  

Ninth Ward organist Mr. Quintron appeared Wednesday night on A.J. “The Boudin Man” Rodrigue’s WWOZ radio show to preview some tracks from the upcoming Quintron and Miss Pussycat album Too Thirsty 4 Love, due out October 14 from the Memphis indie label Goner Records.

“It’s a leak,” he told listeners, pointing out that the last New Orleans artist to leak songs from an upcoming release wound up with the best-selling album in recent history. The album is more of the same swirling space gospel and sweaty, danceable organ-rock Q-and-P fans know and love, with more songwriting from Miss P this time around - the puppeteer penned a techno-beat commentary on anti-graffitti vigilante Fred Radtke, called “Gray Ghost.”

Too Thirsty 4 Love hits the streets for real on October 14, with a major wingding of a release party planned for Halloween night at One Eyed Jacks. Fans can get a sneak live preview this coming Monday night, though, at Spellcaster Lodge on St. Claude Avenue, during Quintron’s birthday show. P and Q play at 1 a.m. following a lineup of local rock and metal oddities Peppermint Pony and Tire Fire, plus the Oakland punk-tronica act Hawnay Troof.

This time around, New Yorkers get a chance to be a winnah. The musical miscreants of the New Orleans Bingo! Show packed up their steamer trunks full of costumes and gadgets for a run of three shows at the famed Spiegeltent, which ends tonight; the opulent traveling tents, constructed from teak, mirrors and stained glass and draped in brocade, should fit the cabaret of bohemian troupers perfectly.

Shows are tonight at 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets available here.

Driving downtown through the gales that started up during rush-hour traffic yesterday, I saw this freshly painted storm statement. Frankly, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones for now with Gustav. Ike - and the freshly restored power in my ‘hood going out again - is in my bad books now.