Thursday, January 31, 2008

Niacin Rush and Damien Dempsey

As the storm arrives this Thursday afternoon, as Damien Dempsey belts out his Irish songs, the niacin kicks in, setting my skin on fire. Nonetheless, the trip to San Miguel has taken shape, as Starr and I made plans for

Casa Sally

Ojo De Agua
Newly Redecorated and Furnished

Garden

And now I want to share the man whose song I've been singing since I heard his voice on Sinead O'Connor's Collaborations, and whom I met in Atlanta when he and Sinead performed together:



And to hear his amazing voice:



Then, there's this gem. Wish I'd been there.




Keep Singing
Jack

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Florida

Make no mistake, 200 delegates or no delegates, Hillary Clinton got nearly a million votes in Florida, far more than McCain-- who gets all the Republican delegates-- and almost twice as many as Obama. This sets the stage for next Tuesday, Super Tuesday.

Read what Salon has to say:

Reuters/Brian Snyder

Did Hillary Clinton really win in Florida?

She trounced Obama by 17 points -- but in an outlaw primary whose delegates won't count. Or will they? It all depends on Feb. 5 -- and Democratic Party rules

Above: Hillary Clinton cheers on supporters at a campaign rally in Davie, Fla., after the polls closed Tuesday in the Florida primary election.


With a Hillary v. McCain election in November, the electorate will have a clear choice to make. My hope is that Obama will join with Hillary as V.P. or as an ardent supporter. His Vision and her Know-How are a dream combination.

Happy Days will be here again.

Hippie Hooray.

Jack

Monday, January 28, 2008

The State of Confusion


Bush's State of the Union address-- thankfully, his last-- offered warmed over platitudes and a silver platter of goodies for the rich. But just to let the rest of us know he cares, he's willing to sign away $600. to each of us little people, the electorate, to save the economy. The war? Oh, going just fine, thanks to the surge. Health care, global warming, science? Why it's all taken care of-- Don't you worry.

Bush-- Can he hear us?


Meanwhile, the networks, television news, and media hype have managed to open up a rift among the Democrats. They have parted the Blue Sea of support for "change" to reveal a race war between the first black president (as he was known by clever black authors) Bill Clinton and , yes, the Kennedys, or at least three of them. It's Bill vs. Obama (or Black on Black violence as the Dailey show put it).
Will the Jackass snatch defeat from the jaws of Victory? Or will the white elephants storm troop through Florida to mayhem on the 5th of Feb.? Stay tuned. It's worse than you think. Honestly? Obama sounds just fine-- and so does Hillary. Despite all their attempts to undermine, the media falls flat and the winds of change, trite and meaningless though they may be, blow hard and unstoppable.

Rep. Barney Frank said the president's remarks were

Rep. Barney Frank, the powerful and out gay chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the president's remarks were "setting a bad precedent."

Oh yes, my favorite image of the night? George W. Bush hugging Barney Frank, putting his hand on his neck and talking away, as Frank tried frankly to squirm away from the embrace. I wish I had a photo of my t.v. screen.

Jack

The Parthenon




Secrets of the Parthenon

A Glorious Temple

We can only imagine how glorious the Parthenon must have appeared in the middle of the fifth century B.C., with worshippers gathered in its towering central sanctuary paying tribute to a 40-foot, gold-and-ivory statue of the goddess Athena. But classical scholar Jeffrey Hurwit, a professor of art history at the University of Oregon and expert on the architecture of the Acropolis, can at least help fuel our visions. In the following interview, he also dispels some long-held notions about ancient Greece's most legendary building.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/parthenon/hurwit.html (click)

Soon to be added: the Smithsonian Magazine's cover story on the Parthenon.

Don't miss it.

Jack





SAG Award Dedicated

Accepting the SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) award for best actor in Let There Be

Blood, Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny in My Beautiful Laundrette, star of Room With a View, My Left Foot, Last of the Mohicans, The Age of Innocence, The Crucible, and Gangs of New York, paid tribute to Heath Ledger and mentioned the final scene in Brokeback Mountain.



Here's the story:

Daniel Day-Lewis Dedicates Award to Heath Ledger

Originally posted 01/27/2008 10:45PM


While accepting his award as outstanding male actor in a leading role – for There Will Be Blood – Daniel Day-Lewis gave a moving tribute to Heath Ledger, who was also honored in the annual "In Memoriam" montage.

Recalling several of Ledger's most iconic roles, Day-Lewis called the late actor an inspiration and "unique," before dedicating the trophy to Ledger.

"Of course, in Brokeback Mountain he was unique," Day-Lewis said. "He was perfect. And that scene in the trailer at the end of the film is as moving as anything I have ever seen."

Asked backstage why he'd decided to dedicate the award to Ledger, he said, "I suppose that's all I've been thinking about for the last few days. I never met him. I thought he was beautiful. I just have a very strong feeling that I would have liked him very much as a man. ...I admired him very much."
Brian Orloff and Marla Lehner



Saturday, January 26, 2008

Media Amok or Primaries Gone Wild

Iowa. New Hampshire. One picks Huckabee; the other McCain. One picks Obama; the other Hillary. This is Democracy? A few odd states eliminate the choices all the rest of us can make?

Had the U. S. electorate a shred of intelligence, no one would care what delegates these curious states select. But the news media in their frenzy whip up the populace and the politicians with polls and predictions, with spin, with "analysis" to the point of no return. And now we have Florida, punished by the parties for voting too early (though much later than other states) by having half the delegates in the Republican Convention and none in the Democratic Convention. This makes sense? This is Democracy? But South Carolina with its two different primaries on two different dates ahead of Florida and Super Tuesday deserves the attention and reverence of all the rest of us. Yea, Right! That's the way it should be. Uh Huh.

The electoral college (click for a great overview)
has been a mistake from the beginning. The leader of our country should be elected by the people of the nation, not by an absurd count of state chosen electors. And the candidates for each political party should be elected in a nation wide primary. It is that simple.


History is proof, if reason and logic don't suffice. Look at the oddities of elections past when the electoral college defied the electorate. U. S. News and World Report has a nice summary of the poor record:

U.S. News has selected some of the presidential campaign moments that have made a difference in shaping history.

http://www.usnews.com/features/news/politics/greatmoments.html


As America cries out for change, I say let's change the way we choose our President!


Jack


Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Coin of the Realm

Better than Gold:



And Don't miss:

The Weepy Witch & the Secret Muslim

Katha Pollitt

Eat Your Beats


As the world economy tanks, as war rages on, as hip politicians pose as caring, loving gurus, what better time to remember

The Beat Generation?



Allen Ginsberg
Tulane Campus
New Orleans, 1971

Photo by Jack












Lawrence Ferlinghetti:
City Lights Publisher
San Francisco, 1980
Photo
by Jack



Writers, Artists, Musicians...
Dharma Bums, Dope Smokers...
Acid Droppers, Sexual Deviates...
Left Wing Rads...
Non-Conforming Hippies...
and Journeyers to faraway lands,
They created a counter-culture with a morality and life affirmation to confront the Eisenhower blahs, and more importantly, the Nixon hysteria and war-mongering, the Imperialist doctrine of conquest and exploitation,
and the mindless inertia of the American middle-class.
With America crying out for change, Lets produce a climate where
The times-- they are a changin'.... Back to the Beats, back to the 70s. Only better, so much better...

Jack's encounters with AG (click)

Revisiting Howl (NPR) (Click)

To be continued...


Allen Ginsberg
Songs of Innocence
Olivier House
New Orleans
1971




Monday, January 21, 2008

MLK/ Bayard Rustin


As politicians and celebrities gather to honor Dr. Martin Luther King here in Atlanta, we should also remember the life of Bayard Rustin. (click)

A good source of information about the gay civil rights activist who organized the March on Washington where Dr. King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech is Brother Outsider, a PBS special (click) on Rustin's contribution to the Civil Rights movement.

We have a black person and a woman leading in the race for President of the U.S. Yet it may be a long time before we have an openly gay candidate leading in this contest. The Civil Rights movement still has far to go before achieving Dr. King's dream.

Read the SOVO article:
Remembering Rustin

spacer Top: Bayard Rustin (right) with Martin Luther King Jr. (center) and Ralph Abernathy in 1956. Bottom: Bayard Rustin in 1969. (Photos by AP)
spacer
Remembering Rustin
Surviving partner returns to ATL to honor King's gay advisor



Fight for Civil Rights and equality.

Jack

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Artists


Art shapes our understanding and our perception of being, reality, and the world in general. These are some of the artists who have provided me windows into reality, and given me the best view...


Botticelli

Alleged self-portrait of Botticelli, in his Adoration of the Magi. Uffizi, Florence.

Hiroshige (see below)
El Greco
Vermeer
Rembrandt
Hals
Turner
David
Corot
Monet
Bonnard
Cezanne
Gaugin
Van Gogh
Matisse
Picasso
Henry Moore
Juan Gris
Egon Schiele
Sargent
Georgia O'Keefe
Rufino Tamayo
Frida Kahlo
Man Ray
Larry Connatser

El Greco
View of Toledo






Watermelon Head
Rufino Tamayo





Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Old Man Winter


Sages get ready--



Tomorrow, Winter will bring days of cold rain, wind, ice, and

snow!






Hiroshige


Here is another view:






Hiroshige: nuit de neige

(Night of Snow)








Wonderful site of Hiroshige woodcuts (click)







Sparkling,


Jack


Sunday, January 13, 2008

Another Week


Time for a movie: the latest Daniel Day-Lewis incarnation:



There Will Be Blood.

Great reviews, especially that of the New Yorker are here:



Metacritic on Blood.



As the new week begins, SNOW is in the forecast. Hmm. That'll be nICE.


And next weekend we climb (snowy?) Lookout Mountain for a long MLK Weekend.

At my brother's urging I set up a facebook profile. Why? I don't know.

Happy Sunday.

Jack

Friday, January 11, 2008

Rain

After last night's pouring, with thunder and lightning, I was struck by Robert Creeley's poem, The Rain:

The Rain

by Robert Creeley

All night the sound had
come back again,
and again falls
this quiet, persistent rain.

What am I to myself
that must be remembered,
insisted upon
so often? Is it

that never the ease,
even the hardness,
of rain falling
will have for me

something other than this,
something not so insistent—
am I to be locked in this
final uneasiness.

Love, if you love me,
lie next to me.
Be for me, like rain,
the getting out

of the tiredness, the fatuousness, the semi-
lust of intentional indifference.
Be wet

Don't Cry for Hillary, America

Two ed.s caught my attention today: The one that parroted my essay of a few days ago about authenticity and Hillary from The Nation and Today's AJC Editorial on whether a tear brought victory for Hill-- Here they are:

Obama and Clinton

Authenticity Counts

Patricia J. Williams | At this historic moment, don't let pundits and political spinmeisters reduce our first serious black and female presidential candidates to false narratives and stereotypes.



http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/williams

Diary of a Mad Law Professor by Patricia J. Williams

American Pie

[from the January 28, 2008 issue of the Nation]


and:

Thanks, Hillary


Clinton a far cry from weak


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/11/08

Did Hillary Clinton cry, tear up or just get something in her eye during a meet-and-greet with voters in a New Hampshire cafe?

There's been more discussion this week about whether Clinton cried than about her health care plan or her strategy for Iraq. According to the post-mortems of her unexpected New Hampshire victory, Clinton's misty eyes humanized her and caused hundreds of women in New Hampshire to cast their vote for her rather than Barack Obama.

Debate still rages over whether a teardrop actually fell. But if a tear had fallen, does that mean Clinton is unfit for the White House? Given the looming recession, the collapse of the real estate market and the war in Iraq, it's a wonder more Americans aren't weeping.

In writing off Clinton and then crediting her resurgence to tears, pundits underestimated the candidate as well as the voters. It's ridiculous to proclaim that legions of female voters could be swayed by that hint of a tear. After all, Mitt Romney has choked up during the campaign — to no avail.

Perhaps the New Hampshire women who were forecast as Obama voters switched to Clinton after watching her debate the other candidates or answer questions at campaign events. Pundits drubbed most of Clinton's public appearances in New Hampshire, saying she was wonkish and bogged down in detail, while Obama was inspirational.

But many women appreciate the details. It's helpful to recall another smart, driven politician whose public crying also sparked questions about her electability. Twenty years ago, the tears that accompanied Rep. Pat Schroeder's decision not to run for president led to national debate on whether women were "tough" enough for the job.

"In the best of all possible worlds, I did not intend to cry," said Schroeder a week later while visiting Georgia. "But the bottom line is that if you don't have tears, you don't have a heart, and I don't think you want people in government who don't have hearts."

Or who, as the women of New Hampshire indicated, don't relish the details.

Maureen Downey, for the editorial board




Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Stay tuned for Dynasty

Yes, we all seem to be headed in the U. S. of A. for Dynasty. No, not the Bush v. Clinton Dynasties (though that may be a given); but rather the Dynasty of the good, clean soap days:

Cast: Hillary as Krystal Carrington,
Nancy Pelosi as Alexis
and Bill Clinton as Blake Carrington, himself.

And maybe Chelsea as the gay offspring?

Dynasty
"Catfights and Caviar"

What a show!

Jack

Eyes Wet Open

Just to show I'm not above enjoying a dig at Hill's expense,
Here is Maureen Dowd's clever assessment of the Hillary phenom:

January 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?

DERRY, N.H.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Maureen Dowd

When I walked into the office Monday, people were clustering around a computer to watch what they thought they would never see: Hillary Clinton with the unmistakable look of tears in her eyes.

A woman gazing at the screen was grimacing, saying it was bad. Three guys watched it over and over, drawn to the “humanized” Hillary. One reporter who covers security issues cringed. “We are at war,” he said. “Is this how she’ll talk to Kim Jong-il?”

Another reporter joked: “That crying really seemed genuine. I’ll bet she spent hours thinking about it beforehand.” He added dryly: “Crying doesn’t usually work in campaigns. Only in relationships.”

Bill Clinton was known for biting his lip, but here was Hillary doing the Muskie. Certainly it was impressive that she could choke up and stay on message.

She won her Senate seat after being embarrassed by a man. She pulled out New Hampshire and saved her presidential campaign after being embarrassed by another man. She was seen as so controlling when she ran for the Senate that she had to be seen as losing control, as she did during the Monica scandal, before she seemed soft enough to attract many New York voters.

Getting brushed back by Barack Obama in Iowa, her emotional moment here in a cafe and her chagrin at a debate question suggesting she was not likable served the same purpose, making her more appealing, especially to women, particularly to women over 45.

The Obama campaign calculated that they had the women’s vote over the weekend but watched it slip away in the track of her tears.

At the Portsmouth cafe on Monday, talking to a group of mostly women, she blinked back her misty dread of where Obama’s “false hopes” will lead us — “I just don’t want to see us fall backwards,” she said tremulously — in time to smack her rival: “But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of us are not.”

There was a poignancy about the moment, seeing Hillary crack with exhaustion from decades of yearning to be the principal rather than the plus-one. But there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us. But it was grimly typical of her that what finally made her break down was the prospect of losing.

As Spencer Tracy said to Katharine Hepburn in “Adam’s Rib,” “Here we go again, the old juice. Guaranteed heart melter. A few female tears, stronger than any acid.”

The Clintons once more wriggled out of a tight spot at the last minute. Bill churlishly dismissed the Obama phenom as “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen,” but for the last few days, it was Hillary who seemed in danger of being Cinderella. She became emotional because she feared that she had reached her political midnight, when she would suddenly revert to the school girl with geeky glasses and frizzy hair, smart but not the favorite. All those years in the shadow of one Natural, only to face the prospect of being eclipsed by another Natural?

How humiliating to have a moderator of the New Hampshire debate ask her to explain why she was not as popular as the handsome young prince from Chicago. How demeaning to have Obama rather ungraciously chime in: “You’re likable enough.” And how exasperating to be pushed into an angry rebuttal when John Edwards played wingman, attacking her on Obama’s behalf.

“I actually have emotions,” she told CNN’s John Roberts on a damage-control tour. “I know that there are some people who doubt that.” She went on “Access Hollywood” to talk about, as the show put it, “the double standards that a woman running for president faces.” “If you get too emotional, that undercuts you,” Hillary said. “A man can cry; we know that. Lots of our leaders have cried. But a woman, it’s a different kind of dynamic.”

It was a peculiar tactic. Here she was attacking Obama for spreading gauzy emotion by spreading gauzy emotion. When Hillary hecklers yelled “Iron my shirt!” at her in Salem on Monday, it stirred sisterhood.

At Hillary’s victory party in Manchester, Carolyn Marwick, 65, said Hillary showed she was human at the cafe. “I think she’s really tired. She’s been under a lot more scrutiny than the other candidates — how she dresses, how she laughs.”

Her son, David, 35, an actor, said he also “got choked up” when he saw Hillary get choked up. He echoed Hillary’s talking points on the likability issue. “It’s not ‘American Idol.’ You have to vote smart.”

Olivia Cooper, 41, of Concord said, “When you think you’re not going to make it, it’s heart-wrenching when you want something so much.”

Gloria Steinem wrote in The Times yesterday that one of the reasons she is supporting Hillary is that she had “no masculinity to prove.” But Hillary did feel she needed to prove her masculinity. That was why she voted to enable W. to invade Iraq without even reading the National Intelligence Estimate and backed the White House’s bellicosity on Iran.

Yet, in the end, she had to fend off calamity by playing the female victim, both of Obama and of the press. Hillary has barely talked to the press throughout her race even though the Clintons this week whined mightily that the press prefers Obama.

Bill Clinton, campaigning in Henniker on Monday, also played the poor-little-woman card in a less-than-flattering way. “I can’t make her younger, taller or change her gender,” he said. He was so low-energy at events that it sometimes seemed he was distancing himself from her. Now that she is done with New Hampshire, she may distance herself from him, realizing that seeing Bill so often reminds voters that they don’t want to go back to that whole megillah again.

Hillary sounded silly trying to paint Obama as a poetic dreamer and herself as a prodigious doer. “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” she said. Did any living Democrat ever imagine that any other living Democrat would try to win a presidential primary in New Hampshire by comparing herself to L.B.J.? (Who was driven out of politics by Gene McCarthy in New Hampshire.)

Her argument against Obama now boils down to an argument against idealism, which is probably the lowest and most unlikely point to which any Clinton could sink. The people from Hope are arguing against hope.

At her victory party, Hillary was like the heroine of a Lifetime movie, a woman in peril who manages to triumph. Saying that her heart was full, she sounded the feminist anthem: “I found my own voice.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Top of the Hill for Hillary

How gratified I am that the people heeded my blog, rethought their vote, and gave Hillary Clinton the victory she deserves.

Thank you, New Hampshire, newest home of the Civil Union.

Happy Days Are Here Again...





Here is the note I just now got from her:


Dear Jack,

You and I surprised a lot of people tonight!

In the days after Iowa, I turned to you and asked you to stand with me. When I needed you most, you came through with flying colors.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

All the best,

Hillary

Uphill for Hillary

Gloria Steinem's editorial in today's NY Times makes a great point about why Obama is beating Hillary Clinton. It seems especially odd to me that it is truer of women than of men. I have yet to meet a woman who is solidly for Hillary. I think the sex scandal of Bill Clinton remains a factor. Yet I also met a woman in a gay bar who said to me she didn't want a woman president.



Frankly, I am for Hillary Clinton because I believe in her team. Wesley Clark, for instance, would make a great Secretary of Defense or State. Have we all completely forgotten the success of the Bill Clinton years, the good economy, the wisely conducted and multi-lateral war in Kosovo, the appointment of excellent Supreme Court judges?

Yes, the media has turned against Hillary. Yes, they are correct that Hillary would raise the ire of the far right Republicans. This is bad? Who imagines that any former Republicans, besides Andrew Sullivan, would vote for Barack Obama?

Like Steinem, I'll support Obama if he wins the primaries. Yet I feel that once again, as we did with Al Gore, we would be losing the opportunity to elect a brilliant, skillful, and socially conscious leader by abandoning Hillary Clinton.

Here is the well thought out editorial:

January 8, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor

Women Are Never Front-Runners

THE woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

Be honest: Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there, do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?

If you answered no to either question, you’re not alone. Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.

That’s why the Iowa primary was following our historical pattern of making change. Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family members in the latter).

If the lawyer described above had been just as charismatic but named, say, Achola Obama instead of Barack Obama, her goose would have been cooked long ago. Indeed, neither she nor Hillary Clinton could have used Mr. Obama’s public style — or Bill Clinton’s either — without being considered too emotional by Washington pundits.

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what.

I’m not advocating a competition for who has it toughest. The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together. That’s why Senators Clinton and Obama have to be careful not to let a healthy debate turn into the kind of hostility that the news media love. Both will need a coalition of outsiders to win a general election. The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that.

I’m supporting Senator Clinton because like Senator Obama she has community organizing experience, but she also has more years in the Senate, an unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House, no masculinity to prove, the potential to tap a huge reservoir of this country’s talent by her example, and now even the courage to break the no-tears rule. I’m not opposing Mr. Obama; if he’s the nominee, I’ll volunteer. Indeed, if you look at votes during their two-year overlap in the Senate, they were the same more than 90 percent of the time. Besides, to clean up the mess left by President Bush, we may need two terms of President Clinton and two of President Obama.

But what worries me is that he is seen as unifying by his race while she is seen as divisive by her sex.

What worries me is that she is accused of “playing the gender card” when citing the old boys’ club, while he is seen as unifying by citing civil rights confrontations.

What worries me is that male Iowa voters were seen as gender-free when supporting their own, while female voters were seen as biased if they did and disloyal if they didn’t.

What worries me is that reporters ignore Mr. Obama’s dependence on the old — for instance, the frequent campaign comparisons to John F. Kennedy, though Senator Edward Kennedy is supporting Senator Clinton — while not challenging the slander that her progressive policies are part of the Washington status quo.

What worries me is that some women, perhaps especially younger ones, hope to deny or escape the sexual caste system; thus Iowa women over 50 and 60, who disproportionately supported Senator Clinton, proved once again that women are the one group that grows more radical with age.

This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees. It’s time to take equal pride in breaking all the barriers. We have to be able to say: “I’m supporting her because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a woman.”

Gloria Steinem is a co-founder of the Women’s Media Center.

Friday, January 04, 2008

New Orleans (The Big Real) 2

Nine days in New Orleans have provided new perspectives and primed us for 2008.

Yes, we had the sensual delights of music, balmy weather, and food:

Cafe Atchafalaya (great veggies and seafood)

Galatoire's (fish and beef and waiter Peter C. guiding us)
Clover Grill (burgers, eggs and green bean)
Felix's Restaurant & Oyster Bar (Oysters Rock and delish po-boys)
Liuzza's by the Track (what gumbo, and oysters with garlic, and bbq shrimp)
Gumbo Shop (great crawfish, creole, whisky bread pudding and a law student waiter)


To name a clickable few. Yet, it was also a time for reflection and thought about values and what life is all about. KT, Dan, their friends, Starr, Dar and I had many a lively conversation as we enjoyed those epicurean meals, and visited such local hangouts as Chris Owen's club, The Corner Pocket, Café Lafitte in Exile, Club 300 Jazz Bistro , and the Napoleon House Bar & Cafe. Other experiences are listed below in previous entries.

And here are some of our



Photos (click)