Frolic: jazz, books, food

Jazz, Books, Food, and the Writing Life

Blogging from New Orleans, La

23 June 2004

We packed everything we own into a trailer, drove from D.C. to Oklahoma, and dropped our belongings off at my parents house. Tomorrow, we fly to Mexico. Andrea and I will be having fruity drinks on beach in Puerto Vallarta for the next week. After that, it’s back on the road with the trailer holding all our possessions. We’re relocating to New Orleans, you see.

I’ve got lots of things to say, but no time to post. You’ll hear from me again the first week of July.

Posted by Todd at 11:28 pm | Comments (2)

17 June 2004

Today I picked up my first copy of the Washington Times, the conservative daily owned by the man some U.S. lawmakers consider the Messiah. In the year I’ve lived in Washington, I’ve never once bought the paper, but I needed to pack some wine glasses and the Times is 10¢ cheaper than the Washington Post.

Posted by Todd at 2:40 pm | Comments (1)

16 June 2004

Happy Bloomsday! In 1996 I volunteered to recite the Ithaca chapter of Ulysses at the 24-hour reading William H. Gass used to sponsor in St. Louis. The chapter, composed like a catechism with a long series of questions, captures an essential quality of the entire novel–how it is a very human story wrapped in a distant, sophisticated narration.

On the morning of Bloomsday, I was traveling from upstate New York to St. Louis on a flight that would arrive in plenty of time for me to fulfill my reading duties. A few minutes after takeoff, however, the small plane lost an engine and we had to make an emergency landing. Perhaps appropriately, I found myself stuck in Ithaca, New York, for the evening, unable to return to St. Louis and read the Ithaca chapter of Ulysses.

Posted by Todd at 9:36 am | No Comments

14 June 2004

With the priesthood a little thin in the West, the Catholic Church now outsources prayers to India. The Rev. Paul Thelakkat assures the New York Times that “the prayer is heartfelt, and every prayer is treated as the same whether it is paid for in dollars, euros or in rupees.” [Thanks Boing Boing]

Posted by Todd at 8:02 pm | No Comments

13 June 2004

Over at Fafblog, Giblets aptly sums up our week of national mourning: “If I flip superfast I can see caskets on five networks at once!”

For something even more brilliant, read Fafnir’s explanation of how the Fafblog house got a motorcycle. Just read it. Trust me.

Posted by Todd at 5:09 pm | No Comments

11 June 2004

I ended my temp job and turned in my last timecard. The office threw me a party, complete with cake and gifts. I feel like the most loved temp ever.

There were a lot of good people in that office. I hope I keep in contact with them.

Posted by Todd at 9:29 pm | No Comments

I was in New Orleans last weekend to find an apartment. A few weeks from now, we’ll be leaving Washington and relocating to the Big Easy. With only two days in an unfamiliar city, I unrealistically hoped that I could find an apartment my first morning and then have plenty of time to drink bottles of Abita Amber.

I soon learned that nothing moves quickly in New Orleans. When I called a leasing agent to schedule an appointment, he asked if I wanted to meet before noon. I said sure, so he suggested that I drop by his office at eleven. From what I could tell, not much happens in that city before ten.

After crisscrossing New Orleans and putting 90 miles on my rental car, I finally found a nice place. Two bedrooms with a pool in a building just off St. Charles Avenue. When I got home, I discovered that the building was also the boyhood home of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Posted by Todd at 9:23 pm | Comments (1)

9 June 2004

Before I could read this week’s New Yorker, I had to removed five subscription offers, a book of platitudes from an insurance company, four cardboard iPod minis, and a milk carton. I was unable to tear out the Target catalog and a bumper sticker.

Posted by Todd at 5:30 pm | No Comments

7 June 2004

I drove into New Orleans at night, exiting the highway onto Elysian Fields and heading towards the Mississippi river. The homes and shops along the street show a density rarely seen in American cities. If Washington is like a glossy photo, New Orleans is like an oil thick with layers of paint.

I stayed in the Faubourg Marginy, a neighborhood off the French Quarter that has been on the rise recently. My host, Suyash, guided me the few blocks from his home, down Frenchman Street with its bars and live bands, and over to Coop’s Place in the French Quarter for beer and jambalaya. Since New Orleans is a city of excess, I ordered the supreme jambalaya, which included an extra variety of both sausage and crustaceans.

George Porter, Jr., the bassist for the Meters, was playing with Ivan Neville on organ at Titpitina’s, a club on the other side of town. We stopped by Suyash’s apartment to pick up his car, and he gave me a beer to drink on the way over. In Louisiana, passengers can have open containers of alcohol, so why not take one for the road?

On the trees outside of Tipitina’s, hundreds of beads hung from the branches like icicles.

Posted by Todd at 10:46 pm | Comments (1)

2 June 2004

I deposited my check from the Chronicle of Higher Education for the column I wrote. Assuming it clears, this will be my first time to get paid for writing.

Posted by Todd at 8:21 pm | Comments (3)