...that I still haven't recovered :)
The trip was actually a birthday gift for my Dad from his three sons, and we all had a great time. We stayed at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, which is smack dab in the middle of Bourbon Street. My room had a balcony overlooking the street, which was a great place to hang out and watch the freaks go by (until we joined them, of course). Apparently the Mardi Gras atmosphere stays alive all year on Bourbon Street - the number of sober people rapidly declined as the night wore on, and the number of bead-tossers rapidly increased. I was honored to have a young lady toss me some beads and ask me to strip in return, but given that I'm a married man I wasn't about to shed any clothes (now, if she would've tossed me an iPod instead of beads...).
Apart from the wild night life, other highlights included a trip to the Voodoo Museum, a tour of the Honey Island Swamp (complete with a 14ft alligator that was coaxed out of hiding with a few marshmallows), and a Louis Armstrong parade that was part of the Satchmo SummerFest. The parade may have been my favorite - watching the entire street dance to the sound of the marching New Orleans jazz band was quite a treat. Rock-n-roll may have its share of party music, but it's nothing compared to live New Orleans jazz.
Of course, the downside of having a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street is that the noise from the crowd keeps going until daybreak, so I've hardly slept since Friday. Recuperating from three late nights in a row is making me feel my age!
Jazz?, nah, Blues. Blues is the root of Jazz, rock-n-roll, r&b, etc ... and by far is the music style that nearly each true musician try to master or at least "play with it" ;)
Posted by: jack | Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 12:54 PM
Yeah, but a blues party isn't as energetic as a jazz party, IMO :)
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 12:59 PM
I haven't been down to 'nawlins' for a couple years, and now reading your post has made me miss the whole atmosphere, especially the food. Hopefully you ate well on your visit!
Posted by: Josh | Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 01:56 PM
Josh, I can't believe I forgot to mention the food! Almost every meal we ate was at a restaurant we found by chance, and without exception, each meal was great.
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 02:02 PM
Whilst in N.O. you should see if you can listen to Galactic (after my last band recommendation[http://nick.typepad.com/blog/2004/05/banana_phone.html] I hope I didn't spoil my musical reputation ;)). Galactic[http://www.galacticfunk.com/] is a super funky band with more soul than a certain James Brown [http://media.ebaumsworld.com/index.php?e=jamesbrown.wmv].
Posted by: Randy Peterman | Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 04:47 PM