By Jennifer Kilbourne

Brian Rea is coauthor of The Modern Bartender’s Guide, creator of thebarkeeper.com, and former curator of what he says is the world’s largest collection of books about cocktails. On Saturday, July 24, he’ll host the seminar, “Bartending in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (The Dark Ages)” (10:30 a.m., Royal Sonesta Hotel, tickets $40 in advance; $45 at the door) at Tales of the Cocktail. The self-described “Curmudgeon Loungasauraus,” spoke to Gambit about his life in bars past and present.

Gambit: How did you begin bartending?

Rea: I was married to a lady whose father sold bars and grills. The father of my first wife, I should say.

Gambit: How many wives have you had?

Rea: Three. I would’ve had more but I was working nights.

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By Jennifer Kilbourne

After long days filled with seminars, tastings and events, Tales of the Cocktail attendees and the public can retire to late-night sessions at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse (Royal Sonesta, 300 Bourbon St., 553-2270). Called Tales after Dark, the series unites jazz styles with appropriate drinks each night. Liquor sponsors will set up special bars offering the evening’s featured drinks. The soirees last from midnight until 2 a.m.

Wednesday is “Havana Nights” featuring Nueva Tierra playing Cuban jazz and Bacardi rum cocktails.

Thursday is “Keeping it Rio,” with Chegadao playing Brazilian samba-funk with special guests David Pulphus, Paul Thibodeaux and Alexey Marti. Caipirinhas (cachaca sugarcane liquor mixed with sugar and lime) and batidas (frozen drinks of cachaca mixed with sugar and fruit juice) will be served.

Friday brings the “Sounds of Storyville” with Burlesque Ballroom starring Trixie Minx performing to the music of Jayna Morgan and the Sazerac Sunrise Band. Sidecars (cognac, orange liqueur and lemon juice) and French 75’s (cognac, champagne, lemon juice and sugar) are featured.

Saturday is “Shake Your Brass.” Irvin Mayfield leads the Hot 8 Brass Band as they celebrate contemporary local with Benchmark Bourbon and beer.

By Jennifer Kilbourne

Talk about taking the show on the road. Facing sky-high rents in New York City, actor Leon Pease, 23, decided to take his theater group to the streets and stay there. Last year, the group put on Bertolt Brecht’s The Elephant Calf in the back of a friend’s parents’ SUV. The show was a hit on the streets of Manhattan, filling all (both) available seats for every performance.

The troupe purchased a shortbus, renamed itself Theatre in a Van, and set off on a coast-to-coast tour, which stops in New Orleans on Saturday, July 17.

Interested passersby can pay $5 to see one of three original plays. The back of the van serves as a stage, and the bus can seat between 10 and 12 audience members per performance. Each show runs between 15 and 20 minutes.

In the timely musical The Big Spill, two musicians come up with a crackpot idea to save the Gulf. Musical accompaniment is provided by a guitar, tambourine, toy piano and melodophone. In a Choose Your Own Adventure twist, the audience gets to decide how the play ends.

Lint, which Pease describes as the most standard play in the lineup, is an “adult fairytale” about a dust bunny tired of the constant upheaval in the air duct where she lives. Coming of age, she ventures into the world outside the ventilation system she knows.

The dark comedy A Funeral Song for Duchess D follows two young concertgoers who confront sinister, abstinence-promoting sex symbols of the Disney star variety. Puppets also comprise part of its cast.

Though they haven’t nailed down exactly where they’ll park, Theatre in a Van targets high foot traffic areas. Pease is hoping to find the French Quarter parking.

The troupe’s long-term goal is to modify the bus’s engine to run on vegetable oil. For now, it’s outfitted with a solar panel which helps keep the battery charged and powers the cast’s cooking equipment. (Yes, they’re also living in the van.)

New Orleans trombone player Glen David Andrews led a protest second line around Jackson Square this afternoon to protest the city’s apparent decision to suddenly start enforcing a city ordinance that prohibits playing music in the streets after 8 pm.

Andrews told reporters — two TV crews and an assortment of print and online journalists — that he was arrested in the square 15 years ago, and said that musicians like him are the reason people come to Jackson Square. He then led an impromptu second line of his 15 musicians and about 100 tourists on the route. “We’re going to second line around Jackson Square,” he said. “Cos they say that’s illegal, but today in the spirit of all the musicians we’re going to second line because we’re going to prove a point.”

“If you’ve got a problem with the Andrews next generation, all the next generation musicians coming up in New Orleans, then why don’t you just give ‘em guns and crack and send them in the neighborhoods?” asked Andrews. “Cause that’s what you’re basically doing.

“We don’t want to hear this about public safety. That’s why you’ve got a new police chief. Make him do his job,” added Andrews, who is one of the city’s many brass-band musicians who has played himself in the HBO series Treme.

“We have a new mayor, we think he’s a good mayor, but it’s time that he comes to the table with us,” he added.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu released a statement last night saying he would “work with the City Council and the New Orleans Police Department to review the quality of life ordinances to ensure that they best serve the needs of our community.” (The statement was sent out again today with the co-signature of District C councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer, whose district includes the French Quarter.)

“I’m part of the fabric of what you call New Orleans,” said Andrews, gesturing to the crowd of gathered tourists. “Did you all come to see me?”

The crowd cheered.

“We’re not going to have another musician getting arrested,” said Andrews. “We’re not going to have another musician getting a ticket, and if we get word, if I get word of any other musicians being harassed, we’re going to get Trombone Shorty, Lenny Kravitz, the Andrews [Brass Band], Rebirth [Brass Band], Dr. John, and we’re going to march on City Hall.”

—Matt Davis

Area business and political leaders joined together at the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau on St. Charles Avenue this afternoon to announce what they are hoping will be a four-pronged call-to action — a unified message on their favored strategy to deal with the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The four strategies include this morning’s request made by Mayor Mitch Landrieu for $75 million in tourism marketing dollars from BP.

The other three strategies are: firstly, to expedite decision making in the cleanup process by streamlining the coastguard’s command structure; secondly, to “mitigate the impact” of the six-month deep water drilling moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama by allowing oil companies to continue operations right up to the “pay zone,” but not actually extract any oil; and lastly, to accelerate the royalties paid to Louisiana from oil extraction, so that they are delivered now, and not in 2017, to pay for coastal restoration.

The “Move Forward Now” strategy was announced by Greg Rusovich, chairman of the Business Council of Greater New Orleans and the River Region; Steve Perry of the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau; and regional business and political leaders.

“It’s quite clear that the decision making has been slow, overly bureaucratic, and has not moved with the type of speed and urgency that we believe a spill of this magnitude requires,” Rusovich says of the recommendation to improve the cleanup command structure. “We’re urging that the command structure be vastly improved, and to shorten the timeframe when requests are put forward. We’re urging that all national and international assets be immediately deployed and tested in the field, not in the conference room.

“What we’re finding is that there’s a lot of good ideas out there but there’s a bureaucratic process when the coastguards review those resources,” Rusovich continues. “They go through their process of assessing and studying and checking, and then BP has to study the same process. What we’re saying is, look, credible resources are being offered, let’s test them in the field, and if they work, BP’s gotta pay for them.

“On the moratorium, we’re saying mitigate the impact of the moratorium,” Rusovich says. “What we’re proposing on deep water drilling is that the drillers be allowed to drill up until the pay zone — where the oil is, but extract any of the oil until the moratorium is over. We’re also saying take the shallow water safety issues, there are six requirements in place currently, called the NLP 2010 safety regulations, and move those into deep water. We’re also saying to place Federal inspectors on each of the rigs that would have the authority to shut down those rigs. We think those ideas give the safety that’s required.”

“These companies will move to Brazil and Nigeria where the contracts are,” says Rusovich — of the downside risk of Obama’s moratorium. “They won’t stay here, so this will let them continue their operation and will keep them here.”

Update, 3:15pm
The coalition presented statistics gathered from “multiple private and public sources” this afternoon, estimating the total economic impact of President Obama’s drilling moratorium at between $171 million and $782 million — depending on whether the moratorium’s impact lasts 18 months (considered the “best case scenario”) or 48 months, at worst.

“This coalition is frustrated. I think it’s fair to say we’re frustrated, and we’re angry, and we’re joining together as one unified voice across this region to urge action by BP and congress,” said Rusovich this afternoon, characterizing the situation facing Louisiana as a “war which must be won.”

He also had some words for people around the country.

“Louisiana provides 30 percent of our nation’s oil and gas needs, so next time a New Yorker is turning on their heat, I think they ought to thank Louisiana,” Rusovich continued. “And next time a Californian is getting in their car, to go pick up their kid from school or get to their job, I think they ought to take a moment to thank Louisiana. And by the way our fishermen supply 30 percent of the nation’s fish, so next time our political leaders in DC are feasting on our crabs, feasting on our shrimp, our oysters, our red fish, thank Louisiana.”

—Matt Davis