Big Leather Couch

Sunday evening the storms moved in. Lightening and thunder and general fugliness. And it has not stopped since then.

Heavy rains, thunderboomers, tornado sirens...we have lived them all since Sunday here in the mid-south.

And to think that two short weeks ago while spending the weekend in New Orleans with friends the sun shined brightly, the temperatures ere in the low 80's and there was not even a speck of humidity.

And that caused us to have a stellar weekend...

Wanna see?

OK, here ya go...Remember clickie for biggie.

There are MANY cemeteries in NOLA	I liked the way the sun made a halo on this mausoleum.	The homes in the Garden District are stunning
White Ghost Shivers - They are from Austin, but were playing the streets of NOLA this weekend. A mix of jazz, swing and ragtime with a little vaudeville thrown in for good measure.	Tanya & Dorise, these two young ladies are extremely talented. Tanya on violin seemed to me to be the inspiration of the character "Annie" (played by Lucia Micarelli) on the HBO show Treme.	This is a cajun-zydeco band we fell in love with. The T'Canaille Cajun Band. We saw them twice, they had extra washboards that hung on your shoulders so the audience got involved too!
the remains of a Muffaletta I devoured on Saturday	Blackened Redfish with Jambalaya - was soooo good!	This made me laugh. Jesus and Moses "Action Figures"!!!
Andy messing with a tree that had these bumps all over it.	Immigration Statue down along the Mississippi.	St. Louis Cathedral in all its splendor.
The infamous Cafe Du Monde. The beignets were incredible!	Cool old signage. Did not eat here though.	If you love unique architecture, NOLA is for you.
Every balcony had a personality. Some more so than others.	You can dance with strangers - even silver ones - all you want!	The ironwork is incredible complex indeed.
My best gal and best bud! Nancy loved them and they her!	Another balcony with personality!	Janice and Nancy just strolling along
Preservation Hall - Preserving the Jazz legacy for future generations.	Inside Preservation Hall. No flash, no video, no audio allowed. Fun...ALLOWED!

Back from NOLA and a wonderful weekend with Andy, Janice and Nancy.

We walked all over the city in two days - Garden District, French Quarter, Marigny Bywater area...

We ate some grand food. Had beignets at Cafe DuMond while watching the end of the Ochsner Triathlon - which became a bi-athelon since the water was too rough to do the swim.

A great dinner was had at Praline Connection on Frenchman Street.

We also enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Gumbo Shop.

Saw some great music. We did go to Preservation hall and got to see Jazz there with the Tommy Sancton New Orleans Jazz Band.

On Bourbon Street we hung at the Tropical Isle - Bayou Club because T'Canaille were a great Cajun/Zydeco band.

Unfortunately, the one act we wanted to see, John Boutte canceled right before show time.

All in all a fantastic weekend. It was sad to see it end.

And we had the most spectacular weather - both days 80 degrees and zero humidity.

Will have pictures in the next few days. Nancy had to stay behind for work, so I drove home by myself yesterday.

Hopefully she comes home tomorrow.


Will be deleting a bunch of links in my friend area in the next few days also. Some are no longer blogging and some just don't come by any longer, so there is no need for the links - JAY. your link is staying dude!

Check out the other participants by clicking on his link to the left...and join in!

You can register for free at playlist.com and type in a band name and BAM the song will be there to assist in building your playlist.

Travis lays out some guidelines for this meme and they go like this:

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.

2. Go to Playlist.com to make your play list of five songs. Choose a particular theme to share with us. You can simply post the play list, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.

3. I don't know how to make a specific linky, so be sure to leave me a comment to let me know that you participated.

4. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday.

So, Nancy and I are in NOLA when you get to read this. Meeting our friends later today and then we will hit the French Quarter. We are going to check out a gentleman named John Boutte Saturday night, a suggestion from our friend JOHNH of "Voices To Hear" and maybe we might even get to meet him at the gig!

Probably go down to the Bayou and take an AirBoat tour...and eat eat eat!

Enjoy the sounds of some of NOLAs finest musicians.

If you do not know these artists, you can find out more about them at their sites:

DR. JOHN
JOSH CHARLES (not the actor)
AARON NEVILLE
FATS DOMINO
MARCIA BALL


and

Laissez les bons temps rouler

which is Cajun for "Let The Good Times Roll"!

and we will!

The blogosphere is changing once again and NOT for the better.

JAY of "Everyday Jay", which used to be called "Cynical Ba**ard", has decided to leave his place here in the blogosphere.

Of course he will still be Tweeting (@Jayman3768) and co-hosting "I'm With Stupid" with Matt, now on Saturday's at noon, and he kind of has a Facebook page. I think he does some other social media platforms that I probably should know about, but I don't so...ask him!

But personally, I am going to miss his long form that the blog afforded.

On the other hand, coincidentally, yesterday the thought of closing down The Couch went through my brain. I think if that happened, I would spend more time on Music On The Couch and Tuneage Tutelage and maybe even Mangia Y'all.

But I do like it here...so you are stuck with me a while longer

Now, I really know why Jay made this decision...you see, just last week he announced that he had learned how to code his template to allow links to open in a new window. He had learned everything he needed to make his blog more efficient.

Women around the blogosphere are in tears tonight as the word spread like wildfire...




He may be gone from blogging but not gone from our lives...


If you have never read Jay, I would suggest you go over and check out the archives and see what you missed. Except if you read it, you really will not have missed it now, would you?

Off to NOLA tonight. Meeting best friend and his wife there. Should be a great 4 days. Will recount to y'all next week.

I will have a set for Travis' Five on Friday...hummmm wonder what the theme will be?

Hope your weekend was the enjoyable break from the hectic workweek...well, that is IF you have a hectic workweek and IF you work. I know there are a number of people out in the blogosphere who, for whatever reason do not work or work from home. Now I could deal with working from home.

Had to complete two album reviews this weekend. All I can say before they are published is that one was a struggle to deal with and one was a pleasure, though difficult to write about.
Both were instrumental guitar albums. One with multiple guitar tracks and synthetic backing instruments. The other was fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Unless you go all educational and technical on technique - which I am not qualified to do - how do you describe each song? With a band or even a solo artist who has vocal, you can comment and dissect the songs.

Well, I did it and one artist is not going to be happy and one will be pleased.

Headin' to NOLA this Thursday evening to meet up with best bud Andy and his bride Janice. Have know them for almost 40 years. Due to circumstances beyond their control they could not make the wedding, so they have never met Nancy.

We will be staying at the Dauphine Orleans Hotel and seeing music on Friday and Saturday evening. Sunday might bring on an airboat tour so we can see some gators and snakes and hear banjo music no, that was Georgia. Will be their first time there and mine also! I have been in the city the night before the cruise, but did not get a chance to do anything after our family dinner. Should be a blast!

MUSIC ON THE COUCH

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011
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JOHN-ALEX MASON
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THE SUGAR PROPHETS
SIT ON
THE COUCH


 
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