Swine Flu : 1976

Jazz Fest: Part 2

After my third eventful day volunteering for New Orleans Jazz Fest, I opted to see the one band I have never actually seen Live - Better Than Ezra. My catering crew was nice enough to even let me deliver their food/drinks, so I got to first see them in person. We even got to deliver Dave Matthew's stuff (since they were the following act on the same stage), but I not a big fan of them and wasn't nearly as excited as I was for Better Than Ezra. Since I'm only a volunteer and not part of the staff like my fellow catering members, the Director of the Jazz Fest Catering Team gave me her credentials AND an All Stage Guest Pass to get backstage access as well as front row. The band was awesome! I was so happy I got to see them!

They played lots of their classic songs with some really good new ones.

The two front guys were hilarious and the hour performance flew by.

My pass got me in front of the barriers, but you can see the standing crowd behind us.

Kevin Griffin and Tom Drummond

The helicopter kept flying over to tape the massive crowd in front of the Acura stage.

VIDEOS

THE BEST! (Berry White Version)

Better Than Ezra - Music

A Reminder of their Greatest Hits...

Jazz Fest: Part 1

I just finished my second full day of volunteering at New Orleans Jazz Fest. I have already worked over 15 hours (in just two days) and here are some images of the Volunteer T-Shirt given out this year. I love the work (so far!). My official Volunteer title: Music Catering Assistant

This was also a volunteer gift. It's a big red soft covered cooler. Volunteer 2009 - yayy!

So, basically my job revolves around the musicians and all those lovely (sometimes odd) food requests they make. Yup, this is the wacky stuff like only green M&Ms or strickly organic coffee, etc!

In the mornings I bring in sandwich trays from some of the best restaurants in town and then we make lists of all the things each musician wants. Anything and everything from fresh whole limes to Altoids to $300 liquors - we put it together in a nice decorated basket (all pretty like). You should see the pantry they stock everything in - you can get pretty much ANYTHING at Jazz Fest if your playing on stage.

We also put all their drink requests from beer to wine to you-name-it in the coolers to personally deliver to their trailers upon their arrivals!

Some of my handy work with Wilco's fruit basket to Eryka Badu's flowers! I make cute labels and put ribbons on everything, tough work - I know.

When we get a call from the stage manager that the musicians have arrived, we pile up the food/drinks on golf carts and ride out. We get back stage entrances to personally delivery the food wherever the musician requests it.

Some musicians so far that I personally delivered to have been Marc Broussard, who I spoke with for about 3 minutes explaining his food basket I made that morning! Nice guy!

Today we got James Taylor and he asked me to make him a cup of coffee (which I was nervous as hell about) We were also in his trailer when the Jazz Fest president came in to welcome him for playing and they started taking pictures with the press, while we awkwardly but unsuccessfully tried to hide in the background.

We meet Pete Seeger, who celebrated his 90th Birthday while playing at Jazz Fest.

Besides delivering to the Drive-By Tuckers and Chris Ownes (who you'll remember from my Easter Blog Post), I was all over Jazz Fest these last two days. They are 12 stages in all and I know about 8 of the Stage Managers by name now. My volunteer job kicks ass!

Sunday (tomorrow) will be the biggest day this weekend with Dave Matthew's Band playing. Next Saturday will be even crazier with Bon Jovi. If you're free, come on out. The weather is beautiful!

http://www.nojazzfest.com/

Forty Years of Celebration!

Save the date!

On Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3 catch the LIVE webcast from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell!

Tune in for two days of content both live from the festival as well as from previous 2009 Jazz Fest performances featuring some of your favorite artists.

Hausu

It remains a mystery on how I had missed this classic while I was in Japan! I ended up catching it on the IFC channel this past Sunday. First-time feature director, Nobuhiko Obayashi, could have made this 1977 movie quite plain: maybe a youth summer adventure film or maybe a coming-of-age romance story, or even horror. The fact that he chose "all of the above" resulted in House.

This satirical murder mystery pits a woman who is the epitome of glamor (played by Haruko Wanibuchi) against a clever murderer during a holiday stay at a strange ghostly mansion. It is up to the heroine -- whose every screen appearance is heralded by special lighting, gentle breezes, and a soft camera focus -- to find out what is going on. This movie is interestingly bizarre! Even their character names are "hip", pointing to the character type they play: Oshare (which means "fancy" in Japanese) is the fashionable one, Kung-Fu is the athletic one, Mac (for stomach) is the glutton who's always eating and so on. The premise is fairly simple: six female classmates, on their summer break, decide to spend some time at Oshare's aunt's old house in the country. As everyone knows, though, old houses have secrets and this one wants to literally consume them. There is an abundance of bizarre story elements; for example, when one man literally goes bananas because he doesn't like watermelons. Genre boundaries are frequently crossed from teen film to horror to romance to action to comedy, you really can't guess what the film is going to spit out at you next. Interesting Fact about this film: the executive producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, was the creator of Godzilla!

10 minutes into the movie: It's quite slow and quite stupid. 20 minutes in: Holy crap is this music ever awful. 30 minutes in: Definitely not a horror, but wait...is it? 40 minutes in: Yep, the goofy horror has begun… 50 minutes in: Movie gets tiring after a while. Also, a piano just ate someone. 60 minutes in: There was some nice piano music earlier but now it’s back to the ol’ spastic theme song. 70 minutes in: Should we be seeing nude high school girls? Is that okay? 80 minutes in: I think the movie just ended, but there’s another 15 minutes on the file. Oh good, it ends with a music video. Just Perfect!

At the end of the movie...believe me...you'll be thinking...what was that?

It's not a film for everyone and it will reward as much as it frustrates but it's a recommended watch, even if only just once.

Check it out here!

Voted the Best New Orleans Festival in 2008!

(It even outvoted Mardi Gras) It has been called “The World’s Largest Block Party” and, so far, no one has come forward to dispute the claim. Like a true block party, the annual French Quarter Festival, from April 17-19, is free and open to everyone. From kids to adults, there is something for everyone to enjoy. I volunteered today at the Hermann-Grima/Gallier Historic House booth. We made Victorian fans around all the other kids tents. It was fun!

We were right on the river and had a nice if not amazingly strong wind keeping us cool all day. Good spot.

View of the crowds and one of the many music stages.

26th Annual Collector's Edition Poster

Native New Orleanian, Soren Vandegaard, captures all things French Quarter this year with his print including Joan of Arc, 'The Maid of Orleans', a parade of revelers, the late Ruthie 'The Duck Lady', a bullish sanitation worker, and an infamous hot dog vendor all next to the Jackson Square with the peaks of the St. Louis Cathedral and the paddle wheel of the Steamboat Natchez in the background!

My lunch!

Yum. It had cabbage and some spicy sauce with it as well.

French Quarter Fest welcomes special guest: THE SUN. It came out despite all of the thunderstorm weather warnings! You can even see blue skies in the background - nice day, but I think I have a sunburn now.

Events scattered all throughout the FQ.

I opted to stay out of the massive crowds and walked around more to the left bottom corner of the map.

More Stage Music.

To give you an idea of how big this festival is, here are some numbers: 250 hours of free entertainment, 150 musical performances, 450 musicians, 18 separate stages, and 60 food and beverage booths!

At any given time during the festival you’re likely to hear salsa, gospel, R&B, blues, Cajun, funk, rap/hip hop, classical, rock, cabaret, bossa nova, country/western and, of course, jazz. All genres of jazz. From brass marching bands to traditional (Dixieland) to modern styles. After all, jazz is what New Orleans is best known for and, if that’s what you’ve come to hear, you will not be disappointed.