Frolic: jazz, books, food

Jazz, Books, Food, and the Writing Life

Blogging from New Orleans, La

31 July 2005

I know some great bingo players. At Kingpin’s bingo night this week, my table of friends won nearly every game played. I walked away with a prize bag full of hurricane supplies.

Were we just more sober than the competition? Unlikely. Perhaps we had better eyesight, allowing us to read the number in the bar’s dim light? Possibly.

To be fair, we often tied with other players. We showed our real edge during the sudden-death trivia matches that settled each tied game.

Posted by Todd at 2:10 pm | No Comments

29 July 2005

Sid-Mar’s in Bucktown has a handy chart for when to eat each type of local seafood. I’m reminded that I have eaten enough crabs this summer.

Posted by Todd at 11:11 am | Comments (1)

27 July 2005

Over at Slate, Henry Blodget combs through Judge John G. Roberts’ investments to discover how the man thinks. Does it really tell us anything about Roberts’ future rulings? Probably not, but it’s interesting reading.

Posted by Todd at 11:30 am | No Comments

26 July 2005

At Zara’s, my neighborhood grocery store, I heard a mother tell her son, “Baby, mommy only knows how to cook McDonald’s.”

Posted by Todd at 6:28 pm | No Comments

25 July 2005

Buckwheat, you’ve been gone too long! The zydeco accordionist and singer Buckwheat Zydeco released his last studio album eight years ago. Jackpot! (Tomorrow Records), his new album, explodes with nearly a decade of bottled up energy. The album captures the potent mixture of zydeco, R&B and blues that makes every Buckwheat performance electrifying. If Prince were born on the bayou, if James Brown were a Cajun, they might sound like Buckwheat Zydeco. There is no heartbreak and sadness in Buckwheat’s world. In the song “Jackpot!” he declares, “You know I’ve always been luck / But I really hit the jackpot with you.” Even when his luck turns sour and he loses his lover on “Come Back Home Baby,” Buckwheat’s high spirits never falter. In the revved up tune, he seems to be enticing his wandering lover home with the sounds of good times. Buckwheat began his career playing organ with the legendary zydeco musician Clifton Chenier. Jackpot! ends with the “Organic Buckwheat,” a three song encore with Buckwheat on Hammond B-3. These tracks are more soulful and jazzy than Buckwheat’s regular playing. It’s like hearing a musician stretch-out in the backroom of a club after a show. Let’s hope Buckwheat doesn’t wait another eight years to record his next album.

Also posted at Blogcritics.org.

Posted by Todd at 5:14 pm | Comments (2)

24 July 2005

Fortified with a bag of McKenzie drops and a big cup of coffee, I got up at 3:45 a.m. this week and hit a few twenty-four hour bars. I’m not very good at staying up late, so this was my first chance to see early morning drinking in New Orleans. Contrary to my expectations, it was a wholesome scene. When the streets are empty, a room with music, lights, drinks, and food feels damn welcoming.

I’m writing an article about my trek for the Gambit. When it’s published, I’ll post the link.

Posted by Todd at 5:58 pm | No Comments

20 July 2005

Housekeeping Note: A filter designed to block spam comments appears to have been blocking all comments. Just noticed that several people left notes about my Chronicle piece. For some reason, the filter stripped the email addresses from all messages.

If you would like to send me an email, click the email link on the right.

Posted by Todd at 6:07 pm | No Comments

19 July 2005

If you came here after reading my column in the Chronicle of Higher Education, thanks for visiting. Feel free to leave any comments below.

If you haven’t seen the article, be sure to check it out. It explains my unlikely transformation from graduate student to restaurant critic.

Posted by Todd at 4:49 am | Comments (8)

18 July 2005

Years ago, Jacques-Imo’s was a funky little restaurant known only to locals. Today, it’s one of the most popular restaurants in New Orleans. After the departure of legendary chef Austin Leslie and an expansion into New York City, is Jacques-Imo’s still the same restaurant?

What happened to Jacques-Imo’s? The restaurant was a brilliant concept. Create the atmosphere of a funky New Orleans bar, hire a famous Creole chef and serve food with flavors bold enough to catch the attention of someone who has already downed a few rounds of Abita. Owner Jack Leonardi has expanded the brand name, as they say in business school, by licensing the concept to a New York City restaurateur. The franchise now has two outlets: a restaurant on the Upper West Side and a take-out stand called Jacques-Imo’s To Geaux in Grand Central Terminal.
Locals still flock to the original location on Oak Street as much for the atmosphere as for the food. They want to go to that place where you can eat in a truck and do shots with the chef — often bringing out-of-town guests along for the ride. (Tourists also have something to do with those sometimes two-hour waits.) In the past, I’ve eaten several great dinners there myself. The wacky Godzilla vs. Fried Green Tomato — half a stuffed softshell crab perched with its claws in the air above a fried green tomato — shows Jacques-Imo’s at its best: the dish is heavy, rich and midway between witty and a gimmick. At each of the four meals that I’ve had at Jacques-Imo’s since February, however, something always went terribly wrong.

As always, you can read the full review at the Gambit Weekly’s website.

Posted by Todd at 3:43 am | Comments (1)

16 July 2005

The numbers were scrawled in chalk–1752, 1756, 1762–under the overpass. The wall was full of figures with the each number crossed off as the count rose higher. I’m in Tulsa, OK, this weekend visiting my parents. I assumed the numbers had some local meaning.

Only later, when I saw the same numbers on the side of a building next to the words “Peace in Iraq” did I realize that it was tally of the U.S fatalities in the war. It was both a tribute and a protest.

Posted by Todd at 12:30 pm | Comments (1)

12 July 2005

I may have forgotten how to swim. Yesterday, we joined the Jewish Community Center, which houses the only lap pool I know of in Uptown New Orleans. To kick off our new exercise regime, I tried some basic strokes. Without fail, I kept veering to the left and hitting the lane divider. From the lifeguard stand, I probably looked more like a drowning man than a skilled athlete.

I remember several terrifying summers of swimming lessons when the instructors would push into the water any kid who hesitated at the edge. Often, I was the one forced into the water.

Today I swam a few more laps and veered off course a little less. If I don’t improve, the Jewish Community Center has plenty of exercise machines indoors. No coordination required.

As a goy member of the Jewish Community Center, I’m most pleased with the fact that I can exercise on Christmas day.

Posted by Todd at 4:06 pm | Comments (2)

9 July 2005

Grayson Capps is a natural. The country-tinged tales on his national debut If You Knew My Mind are sung by a young man who’s seen more hardships than his age would indicate. When Capps sings “They’re trying to drag me down / I’m going to get back up again” on the opening track, it’s not an anthem but a weary man dusting himself off and climbing to his feet. Disaster is always around the corner in Capps’ world. On “Slidell,” Capps recounts a wreck where “five people were murdered by a woman talking on her cell phone.” Capps’s doesn’t create an overwrought, gothic South, just the average tragedies that happen when people are drunk and careless.

Capps ranges easily from folk to bluesy rock. On the haunting “A Love Song for BobbyLong” he accompanies himself simply on acoustic guitar. The menacing “Graveyard,” about a man killing his lover, has a rollicking band and a growling chorus of male singers.

Capps performs regularly at bars around New Orleans. When John Travolta starred in “A Love Song for Bobby Long,” based on a novel by Capps’ father, it looked like the songwriter’s work on the soundtrack would make him a star. The movie, however, was never shown in more than a handful of theaters. If You Knew My Mind will hopefully be Capps’ well-deserved ticket to a wider audience.

Also posted at Blogcritics.org.

Posted by Todd at 1:00 pm | No Comments

7 July 2005

Tropical storm Cindy knocked off our power for 12 hours and scattered the streets with green branches, but everyone seems to have survived. One friend still has no electricity, but last I heard he was checking into a posh hotel. I think he’ll be fine.

Except for a few isolated blocks, almost all of Uptown New Orleans had no power yesterday. If that isolated block had a coffee shop, the line was guaranteed to stretch out the door. I finally got a caffeine fix all the way across town at the Rue de la Course on Oak. The coffee shop soon became the Gambit in exile. Sara Roahen, the former restaurant critic, was there. Soon, the music editor Alex Rawls took a seat at the table behind me. It was actually nice having people around to ask questions. Sometimes I wish that I worked at an office instead of at home.

Now we’re watching the next storm approach. Nothing against Florida, but I hope the storm turns east.

Posted by Todd at 1:03 pm | Comments (1)

5 July 2005

Ristorante del Porto serves rustic Italian food. It’s well worth the drive across the lake.

White beans spilled across the plate like rubble from a rockslide. The arrangement looked almost casual. A small detail, but it reflected the sense of ease that pervades the food, the service and the atmosphere at Ristorante del Porto in Covington. I suspect, though, that nothing here is left to chance. Even something as minor as the plating of white beans under a fillet of salmon is carefully considered and executed. Ristorante del Porto embodies the Italian ideal of sprezzatura — the art of making effort look effortless.

You can find the full review at the Gambit Weekly’s website.

Posted by Todd at 12:47 am | No Comments

4 July 2005

We tried to get a walk in this morning before the heat became unbearable. No such luck. By 8:30 a.m., it was too hot for us to walk more than a mile. The streets were absolutely deserted. A few people waiting for the bus. A few drunks waiting for the bartender to unlock the door at Sharon’s bar.

This weekend marks our first year in New Orleans. After moving in last July, the town was so empty that we could barely find food. We ended up at Rocky’s pizza, where we ordered an extra pizza to-go to make sure we didn’t starve.

Today I’m throwing a barbecue for 15 friends. It’s a small crowd, because most of the New Orleans residents wisely left the city. There are many reasons we are staying in New Orleans, but the friends we’ve met are high on that list. After a year in Washington, I’m not sure that I’d even met 15 new people.

Posted by Todd at 3:50 pm | No Comments

2 July 2005

Housekeeping note: Frolic will be undergoing a major upgrade this weekend. Don’t be surprised if odd things appear at this address.