Frolic: jazz, books, food

Jazz, Books, Food, and the Writing Life

Blogging from New Orleans, La

31 March 2005

We arrived home from dinner last night to find an SUV flipped over in front of our apartment. It had sideswiped a Volvo, ripping the back wheel off the car, and landed upside down in the street. The Volvo’s owner said that the SUV driver was neither spending nor intoxicated. She also had no insurance. Once again I’m glad we have off-street parking.

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Laura at Apt. 11D asks, “Has blogging jumped the shark?” I share her fatigue with blogs. Maybe it’s because I’m writing more these days. I know how long it can take to get a sentence right. I’d rather read a book or magazine article by a writer who slaved over the copy than a overly long post dashed out on the spur of the moment.

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29 March 2005

I spent last week visiting my parents in Tulsa, OK. Every time I visit, the town looks more run down. Every year the downtown, largely empty even on a week day, has more vacant lots. Buildings are pulled down and not replaced by anything at all. It’s as if the city is slowing returning to the empty plains that surround it. Bit by bit, lot by lot, a city is destroying itself.

Posted by Todd at 9:00 am | Comments (1)

25 March 2005

Easter is only a few days away, so any heathens or atheists in the audience might want to consult The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jesus.

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24 March 2005

It’s all about pizza this week, when I check out Theo’s pies with their super thin crust:

Theo’s crust sets its pizzas apart. The thin, unleavened dough is crisp as a saltine cracker. A crimped edge creates a rim that can hold an ample amount of toppings. Even when loaded down, the crust keeps its crunch. Baking the thin crust takes time, and the menu warns diners to expect a 25-minute wait. If your boss only allows half an hour for lunch, be sure to call ahead.

For the full review, check the Gambit Weekly’s website.

Posted by Todd at 3:18 pm | No Comments

After extensive research, I can report that the 1980s were as silly as you might imagine. In just one month’s worth of local papers, I discovered all kinds of culture tidbits about the years of my youth.

A fashion article examined the latest trend of leg warmers and interviewed a few ballerinas to see where it all began. Reputedly John De Lorean had connections to the IRA. Time magazine named the computer “Man of the Year.” Letters to the editor debated the value of the preppy look, which one angry voice called high-priced conformity. “Maneater” by Hall and Oats continued hold the top spot on the pop charts. In a column, Ellen Goodman defended her son’s interest in baking a quiche. She promises that they wouldn’t be drinking Perrier with the unmanly pie. On Days of Our Lives, a robot actor who never forgets his lines debuted. I bet he also worked for scale.

Posted by Todd at 2:47 pm | Comments (1)

23 March 2005

Tom Waits, in the Observer, offers up a weird and wonderful list of his favorite albums. The inclusion of an CD by frequent Wait’s guitarist Marc Ribot, though, probably says more about the value of friends than the quality of that record.

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I live in New Orleans, which is largely free of chains. This week, I’m visiting my parents in Tulsa, OK, where the mass market is pretty much all you’ve got. Everywhere I turn, I’m constantly surprised by innovations that are no doubt old hat to the rest of the county. Who knew that Starbucks now offers drive-through service?

Posted by Todd at 4:44 am | Comments (2)

22 March 2005

Mel Gibson took a break from eating oysters at Drago’s in New Orleasn to fax his support for maintaining Terri Shiavo’s vegetative state. If you don’t believe me, just click the image and examine the stamp at the top of the page.

I agree with the Right on this one–actors should stay out of politics. [Thanks Talent Show]

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17 March 2005

It’s mid-afternoon, so down at Parasol’s St. Patrick’s Day block party people are probably already passed out in the streets. My friend Jason poured 1,000 jello shots last night to help out Parasol’s owners. I can only guess how many green jello shots they had on hand when the crowds rolled in at noon.

At Parasol’s weekend block party Saturday, I got a sense of what it must be like today. Too many drunk people in too small a space for me. I’ll skip the festivities that run from all day until 7 a.m. tomorrow.

I hosted the Investment Management Committee of the Telluride Association last weekend. We met most of the day in a formal room at the Hotel Pontchartrain. The enormous table set with a white tablecloth made us look like we were brokering a peace accord instead of evaluating investment managers.

Many of the nine member committee had never visited New Orleans, so I felt duty bound to show them a hell of a good time. I think I succeeded, since by Sunday night one committee member was actually talking about moving here.

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15 March 2005

This week I review Bank Café, a hip new location in the Marigny neighborhood. As I found, the room and the food don’t completely go together:

Stepping into Bank Cafe for a drink, I felt like I’d stumbled upon a rare animal outside of its natural habitat. Bars this sleek are normally found off the streets of San Francisco or Amsterdam. Hip Faubourg Marigny neighbors crowded the art deco bar, a relic of straight lines and glowing orange columns. The staff wears only black. The building, a former bank, has an air of decadence — we drink where responsible people once saved for their retirement. Yet after eating dinner at Bank Cafe, I left feeling that although the high-energy bar and the high-end kitchen share one space, they sometimes seem unsure of what to make of each other.

You can read the rest of the review at Gambit Weekly’s website.

Posted by Todd at 2:03 pm | No Comments

A friend just landed a faculty appointment at the Harvard Business School, where they will ask him to teach 10 weeks a year. He also told me that Ph.D. candidates at Harvard are hired by the b-school as scribes. At first, I imagined a room full of doctoral students being paid pennies to scribble notes for the corporate leaders of tomorrow. Turns out that the professors hire the grad student scribes. That’s still pretty funny.

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10 March 2005

Jason invited us over last night to watch a little premium cable. The South Park premier was the main event of the evening. I haven’t seen the show for several years, but I can happily report that the creators have found new ways to offend. There were moments when we turned away in disgust. Keep up the good work, boys.

Posted by Todd at 8:59 am | No Comments

9 March 2005

Willie Mae Seaton, now in her late nineties, has been frying chicken for most of her life. Business has slowed down at Willie Mae’s Scotch House, but she still serves lunch six days a week:

I think you’re going to like this, young man,” says Charles Seaton, who must be in his early 70s, as he hands me a smothered veal chop cooked by his mother, Willie Mae Seaton. The chop, served on a plate with a dam of gravy-covered rice to keep the red beans from flooding the veal, dissolves in my mouth. In a matter of minutes, nothing remains but a few bones and a pool of gravy, which I mop up with slices of toasted white bread dripping with butter.
For me, having grown up on the edge of the South with a grandmother from Georgia, simple Southern fare is reminiscent of home. But my grandmother (and I hope she never reads this) couldn’t match what comes out of Willie Mae Seaton’s kitchen. Seaton, in her late 80s, cooks without flash or pretension the kind of food, like fried chicken and pork chops, that she grew up eating in Mississippi. Over the 50 years that she’s owned her Sixth Ward bar and restaurant, Seaton has become a master craftswoman of Southern cooking.

You can read the rest of the review at the Gambit Weekly. Didn’t Cheryl Gerber take a great photo of Wille Mae and her great granddaughter Kerry?

Posted by Todd at 8:57 am | No Comments

7 March 2005

Mike Davidson gives us the inside dope on how expiring domains are scooped up by auction houses. Pool.com, mentioned in the article, are the sleazy bastards who stole the previous domain of this blog.

Posted by Todd at 7:06 pm | No Comments

6 March 2005

I heard that resident movie star John Goodman bought Trent Reznor’s old house in the Garden District. That’s not too far from our apartment, so maybe we’ll see Goodman out walking in the neighborhood. He looks like the kind of guy who walks a lot, doesn’t he?

Posted by Todd at 10:22 am | Comments (2)