Jazz Fest 2006

As usual, Jazz Fest in New Orleans does not disappoint!

What a weekend. Even though the music and food was off the charts as usual, this year was a lot different. Andre and his family have moved from their home in Nola to Gonzales which is just outside of Baton Rouge. Drove over Friday mid day and stayed with them on Friday night which was perfect. I don't get a chance to spend a lot of time with him and his family so I had time to hang with them and catch up. As always, his daughter Morgane is beyond charming and cute. That little lady is my buddy for sure and she is a pure joy to be around. Seeing his son AJ now at 2 years old is something else. This kid finds trouble to get into from the moment he wakes up. If he can throw it, toss it, break it, tear it or get it dirty you can bet he will find a way.

Of course the trip would not be complete without some drama. Friday night between having AJ spill some beer on the phone and one two many text messages my phone craps out. Great. Took care of that one first thing Saturday.

So after getting a pre paid phone for the weekend, I head over to Nola Saturday morning where I meet Lisa and Katie who are also in from Houston. We had a ton of fun doing all the things that you do at Jazz Fest. Met up with Donnie and Sabine as well as a few other Houston peeps and continued the madness with them. Plenty of the usual favorite food vendors were available but some were missing. No crawfish sacks this year......sucks! But, I was able to down some crawfish bread and the obligatory crawfish Monica.

Dave Matthews and the Band were the highlight of the day for me without a doubt. They opened with One Sweet World and also threw in Pig and Recently both of which I have never heard Live. Pig was a treat for sure. One of the highlights of the show was Edge from U2 coming out to joining the boys on Jimi Thing. That was really special and only reminded me how much I need to make a U2 show. As if that was not enough, the boys closed with JTR which has not been played for maybe 3 or 4 years. Wow. Did I say wow? It was windy and threatened rain all day long but the weather held off until the end. We got a little rain during JTR which had to be a bit appropriate.

I opted out of going back on Sunday because the city got a ton of rain Saturday night and it would have been muddy (and a VERY late night checking out Anders Osborne at dba did not help either). Instead I drove back to the neighborhood where Andre's house was and I was not prepared for what I saw. I began taking pictures of the area and his house but I deleted them all because they simply cannot capture what I saw. It looks like a hurricane hit last week not last year and this is not an exaggeration. Imagine tens of thousands of houses needing to be destroyed. Leveled. The homes still have the reminders of the spray painted "X" on them with the body counts and the date inspected. Water lines on the houses 8 feet high and higher. No power. No stop lights only stop signs. No gas. No banks. No grocery. No stores. No nothing. Block after block after block simply abandoned with all the house hold goods still in them. I should mention this is Lake View which is a middle class area, not even the 9th ward that you hear so much about. Going in Andre's house was so sad because of all the memories that I have from that house. This city is in need of a major cultural, economic, and financial overhall because the problems that they have from this one storm will last the next ten to fifteen years.

Here's to the Big Easy. I surely "Know what it Means......to Miss New Orleans"

All the pics and goodness here.