Monday – 21^st April

Kermit Ruffins – We havin’ a party

“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music. 
And death a note unsaid.” 

It is much quitter around the Quarter this morning. Easter Monday is not a public holiday and a lot of the out of Towner’s are heading home.

Back to Envies’ for breakfast of a bagel, salmon, red onion and cream cheese. Hold the capers. I pretty much can eat anything but capers are not a favourite. What are they anyway, so small but such an overwhelming taste? The guy making the coffee recognized me from last year which was pretty cool. He asked how long I was in town for this time around.

I grabbed a copy of the free Off Beat magazine. The sub-heading reads ‘2014 Jazz Fest Bible’. Oh decisions, decisions it is fast coming to a time when I will have to decide who to see and on which stage. There are always clashes of artists competing for my attention. If only you could be in two places at once. Off Beat is a must read for anyone visiting the town and can be picked up free all over the city. Outside of New Orleans the price is $5.99. There is a cool app you can download for your P.C. or Tablet that links to an on-line version. It is well worth searching for as there are always interesting stories to read.

I took another stroll down the river-front. It is a perfect day for walking. Not to hot and plenty of cloud cover with a nice little breeze hitting your face like a personal mini-fan. I am on a mission as I turned into Canal St. I need to buy some new jocks. I know too much information. I have had a blow out in two pairs of bonds, the elastic bands have perished away. Now I am not blaming the fried chicken I have been eating by the bucket load. It has to be the humidity that is the culprit. Aussie elastic is just not sturdy enough to do the job in these here parts.

I wanted to call back into Ruby’s Slipper for a late lunch but they close at 2P.M. I opted instead for a diner a few doors down the IHop. It had good food at reasonable prices. After a feed of beef pot roast and onion gravy, mashed potato and corn I called into WWOZ to pick up my Jazz Fest Brass Pass. The Pass allows me to take a regular pit-stop at the WWOZ hospitality tent every day of Jazz Fest (7 days in all) where you can avail yourself to as much fresh fruit salad and iced coffee as you can manage. It is also good to be able to sit and cool down between the acts that perform between 11 and 7 each day of the Fest. The Festival starts this coming Friday and continues on Saturday and Sunday. Then the following week is starts on the Thursday through to finish on Sunday at 7P.M.

Check out http://www.nojazzfest.com/ I have dug viewing your posts and comments and get a buzz knowing that you are following my adventures. Let’s get a survey going of who the top 5 artists you would earmark to see at this year’s Jazz Fest. Post the list to my blog. If you match my top five I may bring you back a souvenir!