Introducing The New Bob Dylan

Many years ago, when I was in sixth grade, our class was going through the process of having students choose elective courses for seventh grade, our first year of junior high school.  One of these electives was band.  The idea of learning to play music really appealed to me so I decided that that’s what I would pursue.

One day in late spring the junior high band director came to our school to administer a test to those who were interested in signing up for band.  The test mainly consisted of the student identifying tones and then comparing them to determine which note was higher, which was lower, and so on.  When BowlingJoe’s results were calculated, the band teacher called me aside personally and suggested that I might want to take Spanish as my elective.  So that’s what I ended up doing, and my discouraged self never really revisited music again.  This was too bad because I’ve always thought that the ability to play music would be far more satisfying than learning how to ask where the library is in Spanish.

BowlingJoe:  The Next Folk Music Sensation?

A few weeks ago, armed with some newly found free time and a hand-me-down guitar, I started to take guitar lessons from one of the instructors at Bigfoot Music, the establishment that Muffinheadedboy works at.  My teacher, a veteran local musician named Jim Peso, has claimed that he can teach anyone to play the guitar.  Jim, we’ll see if you can still say that after spending a few months with me.

As musically illiterate adult, I will say that after three lessons this journey will not be an easy one.  Even the most basic things such as holding the strings down on the neck accurately and with the proper finger pressure is an elusive operation for me.  And to get both hands to work in unison with one another is unthinkable now.  “Patience and repetition”, as Jim tells me.  That’s the key.  And since I won’t be quitting my day job anytime soon and touring the country as the newest sensation in acoustic guitar performance I might as well just take a deep breath, keep practicing, and enjoy whatever small gains happen to be waiting for me.

But for now, should anyone have the misfortune of being within earshot of me and my attempts to execute a perfect D-minor chord, they have my deepest sympathy.

The New Place

BowlingWidow and I have been living in our remodeled North Everett condo since late April, but I haven’t actually mentioned anything about it here or posted any pictures yet.  With that in mind, I can say that it’s working out really well so far.  The neighborhood is kept up nicely enough, is in a relatively quiet part of town, and seems to have very little crime.  But if you do want to introduce yourself to the Everett vice squad you won’t have to look far, just a mere 5 blocks away on Broadway.
 

Our Nice, Modest Kitchen

Sold and gone is the Marysville wooded half-acre whose trees which loomed close to where we slept, scared the living bejeezus out of us during windstorms on many a fall and winter night.  Say goodbye to two hours of lawn mowing per week when the sun is out later than 6:00pm.  Vacuuming?  Maybe twice a week instead of twice a day due to all of the dirt that was tracked in.

From One Corner of the Living Room (Complete with Lazy Cat)

So what to do with the free time gained from a shorter work commute and less maintenance?  Well, there’s lots to do aside from the usual answer of catching up on books and movies that seemingly everyone but me has read and seen over the last twenty years.  For one thing, being close to downtown gives us the opportunity to walk to a lot of places, thus providing exercise and a reduced carbon footprint.

Then there are my guitar lessons.  BowlingJoe is a well known musical illiterate and the notion of teaching an old dog new tricks will be put to a real test.  My music teacher claims he can teach anyone how to get to know his or her way around a guitar.  I’ll do my part by practicing a few hours a week and we shall see about that in time.  Meanwhile, I told my friend and professional musician Dave Nachmanoff that he shouldn’t spend a minute thinking that I might take his job.

From Another Corner of the Living Room

And what about bowling, prominently featured in the name of this blog?  The truth is that I really don’t bowl as often as most bowling fanatics.  But now, instead of spending Saturday’s cleaning out downspouts, maybe there will be a tournament or two in my future.

Yeah, there are really lots of things to do in this world that aren’t classified under the four-letter word called “work” (at least by my definition).  Cooking, volunteering, hanging out at microbrew festivals….it’s all good stuff.  And Muffinheadedboy, I, and a couple of friends will be joining 10,000 of our closest friends in riding our bicycles from Seattle to Portland over two days in July.  203 miles.  You’d better believe we’ve been using some of that free time to train for it, too.

Deck Off of the Dining Area

So far the move has been a lot like being in college again.  Except that now I’m 51 years old and go to bed by 9:00pm every night.  Maybe I’ll live until 90.  It would be kind of nice to be in the top of the sixth inning of life.  With plenty of baseball yet to play.

Louisiana Part Four: The Food

It’s no secret that I like food, and whenever BowlingWidow and I are visiting a place we make it a point to sample the local cuisine.  And while Louisiana may have its rough edges, they really seem to have gotten this culinary thing down pat in the last few hundred years.

We’re talking Cajun and Creole cooking here.  There tends to be a bit of overlap in making the distinction between the two styles, but in general, Cajun originated from French Provincial peasantry (they tended to use whatever local ingredients were available such as game meats, rice, peppers, celery and okra).  The Creoles cooked with a more sophisticated classic “melting pot” European style, used more varieties of seafood (and food in general), and are responsible for jambalaya and gumbo.

But who really cares?  It’s all tasty and fattening.  Thank goodness we don’t eat this stuff every day.  Here’s a small photo collection of some of what was happily consumed: 

The Appetizer:  Alligator - The Other Other White Meat

Enjoying Shrimp and Catfish Po' Boy Sandwiches in Baton Rouge

Ahh Yes...A Muffuletta Sandwich from Central Grocery in the Quarter

Crawfish Etouffee Anyone?

Red Beans & Rice with Andouille Sausage:  My Personal Fave

The Best of New Orleans in One Convenient Package

The Hurricane:  A Required Drink in The French Quarter

For Dessert (or Breakfast): Beignets at Cafe Du Monde

The End

Louisiana Part Three: New Orleans

We entered the New Orleans city limits from the north, driving past the Superdome on our left and toward the Convention Center where we would drop off our rental car.  We chose to bring it back to Hertz with an empty tank and we may have been running on fumes when we arrived.  A taxi cab was called and we traveled at breakneck speed to our bed and breakfast.  We stayed at a quaint little place called The Chimes, on Constantinople (Not Istanbul) Street in the heart of the equally quaint Garden District of the city.  There’s even a literary connection here, as the main character of the definitive New Orleans novel Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius J. Reilly, lived on Constantinople Street.

BowlingWidow at The Chimes Bed & Breakfast:  Great Place to Stay

The Garden District is a great (and very safe) place to walk, with all of its big deciduous trees and classic old homes.  Some of the more famous residents of the area include actor John Goodman (what was he thinking when he made King Ralph?) and ex-NFL quarterback Archie Manning, now more well known for being Peyton and Eli’s dad.  There are a couple of Garden District activities we really felt were worth doing.  First, take a tour of Lafayette Cemetery#1.  A guided tour if possible so you can take in the historical notes and learn how these cemeteries were constructed and operate to this day.  Then, walk the length of Magazine Street with its stores, shops, and interesting restaurants and bars.

A Typical Garden District Home

On a daily basis during the four days we were in New Orleans, we took the streetcars into the French Quarter that run along St.Charles Street.  While they weren’t exactly as fast a speeding bullet train they were a reliable and inexpensive way to get around.  The tremendously popular (and free!) French Quarter Music Festival was going on which had those streetcars busting at the seams with humanity.

Beads From Parades and Parties Gone By Cover the Lines and Cables Along St. Charles Street

Over the four-day run, the FQ Music Festival attracted around 500,000 people.  There was music for everyone’s taste there, unless you are a fan of chamber music or death metal.  Jazz, Blues, Funk, Zydeco, Brass, Traditional, Modern….it was all there on 20 stages (and some street corners) for 10 hours a day.  We couldn’t have possibly seen much more than a fraction of the hundreds of acts but some that made an impression on us under sunny 83-degree skies included Bruce Daigrepont, Rebirth Brass Band (absolutely blew us away), Papa Grows Funk, The Zydepunks, and Walter “Wolfman” Washington, who got our vote for Best Name for a Living Blues Musician.

Downtown New Orleans from the Mississippi River

A couple of more highlights would include getting in to Preservation Hall (barely), that classic concrete cathedral of traditional jazz, to catch a performance.  So was listening to Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue on the lawn on the last night of the festival.  Actually I think that all 500,000 people were right there with us so we recently got tickets to see them later this year at a smaller venue in Seattle.  All said, the weather more than cooperated, the food that we had (such as crawfish pie) sold at the event was great and even the Abita beer was drinkable for this Northwest beer snob.

The Rebirth Brass Band on Stage

Inside Preservation Hall (Barely) for a Show

Bourbon Street at Dusk

Finally, a few other notes about New Orleans:

·         We didn’t wander too far from the French Quarter and the Garden District into places such as Treme.  It would have been interesting to have set foot in those areas but we were warned not to by many and frankly we don’t run as fast as we used to.

·         There’s the French Quarter and then there’s Bourbon Street, within the FQ.  By and large the Quarter is a lot of fun to check out, drink a Hurricane at, shop and get something to eat.  The exception is Bourbon Street and the half block perimeter around Bourbon Street at which you begin to smell a fragrant combination of sewage and vomit.  We don’t really know exactly what goes on there, but it goes on there 24/7.  And they’re all drunk.

·         We were impressed by the ability of the residents (and visitors) to have a good time no matter what.  Katrina wasn’t a death blow for this place and neither will be the next thing that gets thrown at them.

·         The telephone wires along St. Charles Street were loaded with beads.  I think some of the strands have been there since Mardi Gras 1955.

·         Given the great (and rich) local food offerings, it’s perfectly understandable to me that Louisiana is near the top of the national leaderboard when it comes to obesity.

One Final Photo from New Orleans That Just Seemed to Capture the Moment

And speaking of food, next up is my fourth and final blog post.  I’ll conclude with a bite about the cuisine in Louisiana.