Some quick housekeeping: Someone wrote wondering what the music is behind the trailer for Tremé. It’s called “Ring Shout — Peace of Mind,” and it’s the opening cut from the 2007 album Congo Square, featuring Wynton Marsalis, Yacub Addy, Odadaa! and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. There’s a DVD of the whole performance on Amazon, but for the CD itself you may have to go to the iTunes Music Store (where the individual song can also be downloaded for 99 cents). Also: WWL-TV has the list of St. Joseph’s altars that will be open on Mar. 19, and if you’re new in town and have never experienced a St. Joseph’s altar, feel free to drop in on any of these and get a little bit of history.

Anyway. In this week’s Gambit:

• The Louisiana Public Service Commission and sustainable-energy advocates have been at sixes and sevens over the state’s master plan for setting alternative energy goals — and the LPSC punted on voting on those goals this week. Will we remain behind the rest of the country when it comes to establishing 21st century energy policies? Alex Woodward talks to both sides and spells out the arguments ….

• Clancy DuBos charts the Winnas, the Loozas, and the draws in the most recent round of elections, and analyzes what the results mean in the chutes-and-ladders of New Orleans politics …

• Chris Rose looks at the latest dustup between the NOPD and the Mardi Gras Indians …

• The Idea Village is sponsoring its Entrepreneur Week beginning Mar. 20. Brandon Meginley previews …

• The great documentarian Les Blank comes to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art this week, and Ken Korman talked to the filmmaker in advance of his visit …

• … and Ian McNulty chows down, World War II-style, at John Besh’s American Sector restaurant.

There’s more, of course. Check it out on the newsstand beginning Sunday afternoon, or check back on the main Gambit site Monday afternoon. Later.

That title? Check this story from WWL-TV about the upcoming construction around the Causeway, which looks like it will turn the normal commuting headache into a full-blown traffic migraine. And it’s going to last two years. Pack an extra Thermos of coffee and make sure your iPod is charged.

Anyway … what’s coming up in this week’s Gambit?

• The Anthony Bean Community Theater is turning 10 years old. In our cover story, David Winkler-Schmit profiles the man who built New Orleans’ only African-American community theater, which not only produces original and classic works, but provides a much-needed outlet for teenage drama students …

• “Heil Hitler” salutes and racial and religious slurs in the workplace directed at a Jewish employee? It happened in Jefferson Parish, and the supervisor who admits to overseeing all this was a parish employee. In a Gambit exclusive, Allen Johnson Jr. examines the depositions in a case reminiscent of other official Jeff Parish working environments over the years, including the “noose neckties” worn by Jeff Parish prosecutors in 2001 and the whipping post case investigated by the FBI in 2007 …

• Chris Rose reminisces about Barry Hannah, the Mississippi wild man of letters who died last week …

• Clancy DuBos looks at the mayor-elect’s task force for selecting a new superintendent of police. Can the new chief come from the ranks of the NOPD, or will he or she have to come from elsewhere? …

• Gov. Bobby Jindal is redoubling the state’s effort to crack down on sexual predators. A good thing — or just a way to avoid making some hard decisions about the state’s fiscal crisis? Our man in Baton Rouge, Jeremy Alford, looks at the guv’s priorities in “To Catch a Panderer” …

• Noah Bonaparte Pais previews the upcoming Foburg Music Festival, and Will Coviello gets a sneak peek at the Contemporary Arts Center’s new production of Fantastic Mr. Fox …

… and it’s Election Day in Orleans Parish, at least if you live in City Council Districts A or E. Early indications are exceptionally low voter turnout, so you’ve got a chance to make a big difference. Polls are open till 8 p.m., and we’ll Twitter the results as soon as they come in. Have a great weekend.

The past few weeks have been chaos for Roots of Music. The program moved down the street from its comfortable space at the Cabildo to a one-room auditorium at the U.S. Mint, and instructors had to get more than 100 students ready for six parades. Add the usual headaches — arranging transportation, feeding 100-plus mouths, tutoring — and a grim reality: If program directors can’t scrape together funding within the next few weeks, March looks bleak. In this week’s cover story, I followed Roots of Music as its 2010 class prepared for its Mardi Gras debut, and hopefully not its last.

The free program for at-risk students ages 9 to 14 helps low-income families get their children on the right track. Derrick Tabb (Rebirth Brass Band drummer and CNN Hero) and Allison Reinhardt founded Roots of Music in 2007, and it includes (among other things) free transportation from school (and back home), meals, tutoring (required) and a world-class music education from Tabb and New Orleans musicians like Edward Lee from Soul Rebels Brass Band, as well as Allen Dejan Jr., Shoan Ruffin and Lawrence Rawlins. Oh, and Trombone Shorty and Phil Frazier serve on the board.

Gambit photographer Cheryl Gerber documented the band’s three-step parade prep: rehearsal, dress, and the finale — marching and playing in Carnival 2010. (Hit the jump for the photos.)

Read the rest of this entry »

This week in Gambit:

• The Roots of Music, founded by Rebirth Brass Band drummer Derrick Tabb, is an afterschool music program for at-risk kids. It’s been so successful that the Roots performed in five Mardi Gras parades this year, there’s a waiting list of hundreds, and Tabb himself was nominated for one of CNN’s Heroes of 2009. But the program only has enough money to last through the end of March. Alex Woodward spent time with Tabb and his young charges to see what might be the future of the Roots of Music ….

• Noah Bonaparte Pais interviews Canadian singer/songwriters Tegan and Sara, who wrote much of the material for their new CD, Sainthood, while in New Orleans. They’re coming to Tipitina’s Feb. 24 ….

• How do you reintegrate into society if you’ve spent decades wrongly convicted and imprisoned at Angola — then set free with nothing more than $10, a bus ticket and the clothes you arrived in? David Winkler-Schmit profiles John Thompson, a former death row inmate who was in just that situation and went on to form the group Resurrection After Exoneration ….

• Ian McNulty reviews Adolfo Garcia and Joshua Smith’s Warehouse District restaurant A Mano ….

• Rex Duke™ provides his annual review of Carnival parades ….

• and Gambit’s new columnist, Chris Rose, writes about the death of a friend, National Art & Hobby owner John Ward, who was struck by a car while walking home after a Mardi Gras ball.

See you on the newsstand Sunday afternoon, or online here Monday afternoon.

… the return of Chris Rose.

We could tell you about our parade coverage (complete with pocket maps); about David Winkler-Schmit’s reporting about the Books for Prisoners program; about Clancy DuBos‘ memories of the political gadfly ‘Hippo’ Katz; about Noah Bonaparte Pais covering RJD2, Q&P Maritime Ball, Festival of the Rising Sun, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Screaming Females and the B-52’s; about Ian McNulty’s profile of the Vietnamese bakers putting their own spin on king cakes; or about our monthly health and wellness supplement, H+W.

But we all know what’s consuming us this weekend. “Glory Bound.” Do it, Aaron and Theresa:

Hey, Gambiteers! We’ve got a lot going on in this week’s issue, so let’s waste no time, shall we?

• In our cover story, Noah Bonaparte Pais chronicles how 9th Ward performance geniuses Quintron and Miss Pussycat went from their Spellcaster Lodge on St. Claude Avenue to a major, ambitious new show, “Parallel Universe,” in the rarefied New Orleans Museum of Art. This is going to be like nothing NOMA has ever done, or seen, before, and it opens Jan. 30. Noah’s got all the scoop …

• Freret Street might be the little street that could, coming back from the floods after Hurricane Katrina stronger than ever. David Winkler-Schmit looks at plans for Freret in the next year and wonders: is it the next Magazine Street or Oak Street? …

• Clancy DuBos suggests some measurable barometers for the mayoral and city council candidates …

• Dalt Wonk reviews the comedy Jewtopia at Le Chat Noir …

• Ian McNulty has his gastronomical socks knocked off at Le Foret …

• and it’s our monthly edition of CUE, Gambit’s home and fashion magazine. Editor Missy Wilkinson and contributing writer Kyla Boutte go all in on Carnival in this edition, and Missy will be on Monday’s WWL Eyewitness Morning News to discuss it with Laura Buchtel.

Last: we’re really excited about Gambit’s first-ever music compilation, Ear to the Ground: New Orleans. We did it in conjunction with the Limewire Music Store and it will be available as a download there beginning Tuesday. Free music, handpicked by Gambit’s editors, with selections by Generationals, GIVERS, MyNameisJohnMichael, Theresa Andersson, Rotary Downs, and about 12 more. And it’s totally free to all you Gambiteers as our thanks for being the best readers a newspaper could ever want.

More about that on Tuesday. For now, go Saints!

2009 was the Year of Living Madly. Our elected officials went mad. The public got mad. And everyone was mad about Dem Saints. In this week’s Gambit, we look back at the year in news, politics, art, music, stage and environmentalism. Here’s to 2010.

We could talk about the 6″ of rain that fell today at Gambit World HQ in Mid-City, but why do it when Irma Thomas can sing about it (in a gorgeous version)?

Anyway … coming up in this week’s Gambit:

• Alex Woodward looks back at New Orleans’ seminal 1970s rock club, The Warehouse, which will be celebrating its 40th anniversary next month. It was a center of the ’70s music scene, hosting concerts by everyone from the Allman Brothers to Fleetwood Mac and an ill-fated performance by the Grateful Dead, before Talking Heads played the last waltz there in 1982. A group of filmmakers is making a documentary about the long-demolished Tchoupitoulas Street landmark, and Alex has the scoop in our cover story….

• Clancy DuBos looks at the 11th-hour election maneuvering by Mitch Landrieu and Arnie Fielkow, and reads the tea leaves on the upcoming mayoral and city council elections….

• Zombies in the Vieux Carré? Yes, virtual ones, in “Left 4 Dead 2,” video game that envisions the undead staggering up and down Royal Street. But is it fun? Check our A&E section….

• Noah Bonaparte Pais‘ new column, “On the Record,” previews Harry Shearer and Judith Owen’s annual sing-along holiday concert….

• Earlier this year, chef Frank Brigtsen took over venerable old Charlie’s Seafood. Ian McNulty provides a review….

• …and it’s Gambit’s annual Pet Adopt-a-Thon. If a dog, cat, rabbit or other family pet is on your list, remember: Shelter animals are the best. We have a gallery of dozens of ‘em in the paper.

See you on newsstands Sunday afternoon (if it ever stops raining), or back here online on Monday.