A Frolic of My Own

Jazz, Books, Food, and the Writing Life

Blogging from New Orleans, La

8 February 2010

Other people’s prose:

The city descended on Bourbon Street. New Orleanians, as a general rule, do not like to go there. It is a tourist trap, too crowded and cheap. But on Sunday night it was a beating, living, pulsating mass of people, like a capital city of some country after a dictator has been overthrown.

Beer-stained, bead-scattered Bourbon Street was black and gold wall to wall — the bars on either side were half empty, playing either “Stand Up and Get Crunk,” the Saints’ current theme song, or the old standby, “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

From the balconies, in lieu of confetti, they threw cocktail napkins. In lieu of expensive Champagne, people raised the cheap stuff.

A middle-aged woman stood in a doorway wiping tears from her eyes. In the middle of the street someone was holding up a banner: “HELL FREEZES OVER”

“We won the Super Bowl, brother,” said a man in a tuxedo, leaning on his friend who was wearing a Saints jersey. “Can you imagine that after 40 years?”

Campbell Robertson in the New York Times.

Posted by Todd at 10:07 am | No Comments

16 January 2010

Satan is a little ticked off at Pat Robertson. He sent this letter to the Star Tribune:

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll. You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

Hat tip to Lily Coyle for serving as a messager for the Lord of Darkness.

Posted by Todd at 2:18 pm | No Comments

3 January 2010

Other people’s prose:

Sax can express sexiness like no other instrument; during a striptease, drums snap and pop on the bumps, but the long bleat of the sax is the soundtrack of the grind. Drums are the punctuation; the sax is the sentence.

Alison Fensterstock reviewing a burlesque show in the Times Picayune.

Posted by Todd at 1:13 pm | No Comments

9 December 2009

Quote of the day:

Three years ago, the city did away with handwritten parking tickets. Except for a few exceptions, all tickets are now issued using electronic machines that may account for rumors they were preprinted for people expecting handwritten notices, Mendoza said.

“Each ticket includes the license number, vehicle make, model and color of every car in violation. If we had that type of (psychic) ability to predict all of that for every car, we’d use that ability for something else, not writing tickets.”


From New Orleans City Business.

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10 November 2009

It’s damn dusty around here. Does anyone remember what this knob does?

Posted by Todd at 9:11 pm | Comments (1)

Other people’s prose:

Customers enter the room, a brightly colored rectangle, near Lexington and 52nd, and it spreads south and west before them. Not very good paintings of Venetian scenes adorn the walls in that peculiar French manner that combines bad taste with deep sophistication. Banquettes line the place, with pockets of bistro tables set tightly between them, everything slightly smaller than it would be in a restaurant owned by Americans.

Sam Sifton reviewing Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte in the New York Times.

Posted by Todd at 9:10 pm | Comments (1)

11 February 2009

In the Times-Picayune, book editor Susan Larson has a wonderful interview with Dan Baum about his book Nine Lives:

“Living in New Orleans, taught me a lot about the paucity of life outside New Orleans,” he said. “It’s different out here. We’re richer out here. We have more stuff, and we drive newer cars. It sounds corny, but life means something in New Orleans. Day-to-day living in New Orleans matters in a way it doesn’t out here, and you pay a price for that. It’s scary and stressful to live in New Orleans, but I don’t have to tell you that. Now we talk about coming back, and we’re trying to figure out how we can spend part of each year there.”

…

“I’d never really been to New Orleans before the flood,” he said. But he’s ready to accept the role of spokesman and defender of the city. “There’s still a lot of good will about New Orleans. And, of course, I’m counting on it in a mercenary way. But everybody in the U.S. understands that New Orleans got screwed. This beautiful, benighted poor little city is really like the cute cousin of the family who isn’t all that serious but everybody just loves. And everybody understands that she got beaten up and left for dead.”

I can’t wait to read this book.

Posted by Todd at 1:54 pm | No Comments

The fine writer Dan Baum, formerly of the New Yorker and the author of Nine Lives, has a blog that’s required reading for freelancers. He talks shop with advice on everything from paying the bills to making people speak:

Here’s the little secret they taught me at The Wall Street Journal: Whenever someone offers to tell you something “off the record,” they really want to tell you. So if you decline their conditions — can’t attribute it, can’t use it — they’re going to end up telling you anyway. They can’t resist. So it’s best to refuse the conditions and just be patient for a few minutes.

After reading a few posts, I already feel like a better writer.

Posted by Todd at 10:36 am | Comments (1)

10 February 2009

The always interesting Roy Clark presents a list of “25 Non-Random Things About Writing Short.” Here are a random items from his non-random list:


  • Keep a journal where you practice short writing.
  • Obey Strunk & White: “Omit needless words.”
  • Beware: The infinite space on the Internet creates aerated prose.
  • Obey Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: “Murder your darlings.”
  • That said, every short passage should contain one gold coin, a reward for the reader.
  • Obey Donald Murray: “Brevity comes from selection, not compression.”
  • The more powerful the message, the shorter the sentence: “Jesus wept.”
  • The best place for an important word in a short passage is at the END.
  • Begin the story as close to the end as possible.
  • Treat all short forms of journalism –- headline, caption, blurb, blog post –- as literary genres.

Blogs have shown that anyone can write 1,500 words. A lot of people can do it well. Saying something smart in 500 words, though, seems to be rare skill.

Posted by Todd at 2:15 pm | No Comments

My friend Alex Rawls has a gripe about the Grammy’s:

… and seriously - is the only way New Orleans musicians can get on the Grammys is as Katrina victims? Lil Wayne had the top selling album of the year and won Grammys for “Lollipop” and “A Milli,” but instead he performs the middling, Katrina-themed “Tie My Hands” as part of a medley with Allen Toussaint and the Dirty Dozen with Terence Blanchard. As it went on, the backdrop showed pictures of flooding, as if the waters just receded and we’re still just drying out. We’re not Jerry’s Kids, and the implication that we’re only of interest as the survivors of a catastrophe is really insulting. And if they’re going to treat us as poor, wounded souls, show our actual damage as it exists today.

He’s right. Our food, our music, our culture is strong. It doesn’t need pity.

Last week I turned in a piece that didn’t once mention Katrina. Not so long ago, I couldn’t imagine a story that wouldn’t touch on the storm. That’s progress. Small progress, but progress.

Posted by Todd at 2:04 pm | No Comments

21 January 2009

I must get better at self-promotion. Last Friday, I had a story in the Times-Picayune testing the theories of Steven Shaw. In his book Asian Dining Rules, Shaw offers tips and strategies for getting a great meal at any Asian restaurant–including the humble buffet:

“Remember, ” Shaw writes, “a buffet is a system in which the participants exercise a tremendous amount of self-determination. The most facile person at the buffet is going to get the best meal. That person should be you.”

Yes, I would be that person. Today, the Panda King would bow to me.

This piece played poorly with the peanut gallery in the comments section. I was called a rambling writer, a wasteful diner, and a women. Are there women named “Todd”?

Posted by Todd at 6:17 pm | Comments (2)

I thought croup only afflicted characters in 19th century novels. Turns out it’s real. The boy taught me that. He’s had that distinctive barking cough (other parents will know it instantly) and raspy breath since Saturday. He’s also given up food, preferring to survive on milk and Graham crackers alone. This is not normal. My boy enjoys his food.

This morning, after Andrea and I worked out an elaborate plan that would allow me to teach at least one class today, he threw up twice. That meant I was staying home all day to watch him. I guess parents and undergrads are both destined to live in houses that always have a whiff of vomit.

Not being able to keep down milk seemed like a bad development, but our ever helpful pediatrician returned my call and assured me it was a good sign. He’s on the mend, the doctor said. And it’s true. His cough is gone.

At the moment, he’s happily tearing apart the pantry. By tomorrow he will probably be eating again.

Posted by Todd at 5:41 pm | Comments (1)

11 December 2008

Just to update you on the blizzard down here: we’re all safe, although I slipped slightly on the sidewalk, so be careful out there. There is also a trio of snowmen on the lawn in front of Newcomb Hall.

Posted by Todd at 12:02 pm | Comments (1)

It’s snowing in New Orleans. The ground is getting white and everyone is snapping cell phone photos of it falling. Is this a sign that it’s time to get in the Christmas spirit?

Posted by Todd at 9:12 am | Comments (1)

6 December 2008

Snap Judgment: Sex and the City (2008) directed by Michale Patrick King

In the four years since the HBO series ended, the ladies forgot how to act and the writers lost their wits. I enjoyed the series for the snappy patter. Each episode was a like a 1950s sitcom unrestrained by the Hays Code. But I came away from this cinematic disaster with a urge to see Ishtar and Gigli, so that I can figure out what really is the worst movie of all time.

Remarkably, a sequel is in the works. Just shows what I know.

Posted by Todd at 2:41 pm | Comments (1)

For all those interested in Southern art, you can stay up with latest behind the scenes news from the Ogden Museum of Southern Art at Verso, their new blog.

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