Duck and Danny

After a late night out yesterday evening I slept in. Andrew woke me at 11 because Dad needed my car keys. He took out the alternator today to have it tested. Removing it wasn’t much trouble. It turned out to be bad and Dad bought a replacement at Pep Boys. Later in the afternoon when he tried to install it he discovered that the connections were oriented the wrong way. In the process of trying to put it back together the right way, he broke the brush housing.This evening I met Amy for dinner at the Maple Street Café. We had arranged to meet yesterday but she had to cancel that afternoon. I was running a bit late having had to deal with the car unexpectedly but I got lucky with the cab and arrived not long after 6:30. Amy arrived just after I did. I had the Duck Jameel, “pan seared boneless pepper crusted duck breast served with a fig sauce.” Earlier in the afternoon my brother Andrew recommended it and it was quite good. Amy had a crawfish pasta dish.Having just met the last week I didn’t know much about her. I asked a bunch of questions about her childhood and growing up in Shanghai. I don’t believe I know anyone else from China so I was curious to hear about it from someone with first hand experience.After dinner we walked to Dixon Hall on campus. Amy came to the restaurant in a small scooter and I pushed it along as we walked, a decent work out for my right arm. There was a recital this evening featuring British pianist Danny Driver. It struck me as a pretty safe bet compared to the last time I took someone to see new live music on a first date.The turnout for the performance looked pretty light in the 1000-seat auditorium. It was taking place during the much hyped Florida/LSU game. Mr. Driver opened with Partita for keyboard No. 1 in B flat major by Bach. Admittedly I’m a novice in the realm of classical music but I was most impressed by his performance. Playing from memory alone was pretty remarkable to me. While technically superb he is also a visibly animated player, which I suppose makes sense when you don’t have any sheet music to look at. You could see him pause and overtly shift his mood between movements depending on the tempo.Following the Bach piece, Mr. Driver addressed the audience and discussed the next piece, Sonata No. 5 by York Bowen, a comparatively unknown British composer. I would be hard-pressed to colorfully describe his performance but I can say it was damn good.An intermission followed. Amy and I relocated from fourth row center to the left side for a different perspective. From our new seats you could see the performer’s fingers work the keys in stellar form. It was a bit mesmerizing. Driver resumed playing with Four Piano Pieces by Brahms and concluded with Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32, a soft ending to a rousing performance that earned a standing ovation.After the performance I walked Amy to the business school where we parted ways for the evening. Before heading home I stopped at the Boot for one drink and to catch the end of the Florida vs. LSU game which was apparently quite anti-climatic. Florida scored the lone touchdown of the game for a final of 13-3. I almost felt sorry for all those people that paid hundreds of dollars to see the dud of a football game. I finished my drink and walked up to The Mushroom to see if there was anything I might like buying. I picked up a copy of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue which the clerk was kind enough to play over the stereo while I continued browsing. I also walked out with a copy of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly It took longer than I would have liked to catch a cab but I did get home before midnight. I wasn’t tired yet so I watched A Fish Called Wanda which was pretty amusing. Krystle called pretty late but I still was not very tired so I talked to her for a while before finally turning in for the night.

Comments Off

Oct092009

Bar Hopping

I was at Fox from 11 to four this afternoon. I might have stayed later but a dinner date I had planned was cancelled so I didn’t have the cause to stay later than I thought I did. Like most Fridays, it was largely uneventful. One of the bigger local stories today was a press conference called by Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price where he announced his resignation.Just before I left for the day at four I ran the teleprompter for a live news tease. The newsroom decided to cover the Eddie Price press conference live at 4:30 and use the regular 30 second weather update at 3:59 to tease the press conference. Claudia took a couple minutes to show me how it’s operated last week so I was able to get by. I had the prompter running a couple minutes before going on air so Nancy Parker was good enough to let me practice a couple times. I did just fine on the actual run through.I got home around 4:30. We had spaghetti for dinner. Later this evening, I met Andrey and a couple of his friends downtown. Just before ten I arrived at the Ohm Lounge on St. Charles downtown. It’s a small, chic place although being adjacent to the lobby of the Royal St. Charles Hotel dents the intended ambiance. Andrey, Amy and his friend Romy who I met for the first time this evening arrived not long after I did. Not long after they showed up we were joined by Patrick and Chelsi who only stayed for a couple rounds before departing. Andrey was fond of the house DJ and the rest of us stayed for a good while longer.Our next stop was Whiskey Blue and the W Hotel. Most of us weren’t dressed for it but it’s so dark in there I doubt anybody noticed. After a mojito there we checked out the adjacent “living room” and explored some other parts of the hotel before heading back to Andrey’s car.He heard about a house party on Maple Street. Apparently it was the birthday party of a classmate he barely knows. I have not been to any great number of this sort of party but it did seem a bit typical, although there was a DJ. There was no furniture in the living areas and the floors were covered in plastic. We got there around one, apparently at the tail end of the frivolities. None of us really knew anyone and whatever decent alcohol there might have been was gone. Whatever was left was rather vile, frankly. We left after about 15 minutes. As we were leaving a TUPD cop walked in and we heard the rather loud music come to an abrupt end.We had planned to go to Andrey’s house for a little while after that but made a short impromptu stop at Phillip’s bar on Maple Street first. They would be closing soon and we only stayed for one round of pool. Following our brief stop there we went to Andrey’s house for a little while. We had a drink there and talked about different stuff including Andrey’s experiences at job fairs and the like. A little while after two, I called for a cab to go home. Amy and Romy came with me to be dropped off at their places nearby. I got home around three and went to bed.

Comments Off

Oct092009

West Coast Swing

I got a haircut at 10 this morning and there was no rush to get to the office afterward so we arrived at work at 12:30 this afternoon. I didn’t have a great deal to do but I took care of what housekeeping tasks I did have. Having eaten more than I should have the day before, I debated skipping lunch and eventually gave in an ordered a toasted club sandwich from Theo’s, which was very good because it was good or because I was starving.Dad took me to Elmwood for class this evening. Everyone in the class now has an internship. After going around doing progress reports, we looked over a couple lingering student’s resumes before watching a short video about cover letters. I got a ride to campus uptown and sat at the Rat for a while before ballroom this evening. This was the first week of west coast swing. And we had a crowd of about 40 show up. Tammy showed up with dance partner of hers, Byron if I remember right, who served as co-instructor for the evening. He changed things up and had the guys rotate around to change partners, a serious disturbance in the force. As for the dance itself, I’ve been in ballroom long enough to try west coast a couple times so the steps jogged my memory although it’s nothing like riding a bike. I did well enough to have fun. When the session ended, Tammy and Byron gave a short and impressive dancing demonstration. I caught a cab from Willow and McAlister to go home.

Comments Off

Oct062009

For All Mankind

I was at WVUE from 11 to six again today. Nancy was back on the assignment desk this morning. I decided to stay at the assignment desk in case I was needed for anything. I never did end up being that busy. Shortly before and during the newscast, I helped Claudia distribute the scripts for the newscast. When we weren’t running around I got to talk to her about this and that. I left for the day right at six.We had roast beef sandwiches for dinner this evening. Later on I watched For All Mankind, an impressive documentary about the Apollo program. Krystle called while I was watching it to make an intermission.

Comments Off

Oct052009

Come Back Next Week

I worked at Fox from 11 to six this afternoon. Chris was still running the newsroom today. This afternoon I went with Donny to interview a doctor at Children’s Hospital about the H1N1 vaccine. We were under the impression that they received their shipment and were there to get sound about the distribution of the vaccine. During the interview we learned that they would not be getting it until next week, so we certainly wouldn’t be getting any B roll of the syringes or people receiving the vaccine. That being the case, there wasn’t really any story. I did happen to ask him what the side effects of the swine flu vaccine would be and his answer is what they used during the five o’clock news.On the way back to the station we stopped at the Pita Pit on Magazine for lunch. I don’t remember doing much of circumstance afterward. At five I went up to the control room to watch the newscast. Apparently some packages were a bit late but everything seemed to run smoothly.I left not long after six. We had red beans for dinner this evening. I don’t recall doing anything of circumstance afterward.

Comments Off

Oct032009

Chicago

The better part of this Saturday was uneventful. I was having issues with the sound on my new toy but I eventually got it working. This evening, I went with Mom and Dad to the Gretna Heritage Festival to see Chicago. I’ve been enjoying their first album a lot lately so I was glad to have a chance to see them live.The Gretna Fest was going on since four this afternoon and we didn’t leave the house until around seven. It took quite some time to find a parking space and it was a good distance from the grounds. After parking and a healthy walk we finally made it to the fest. I’ve never been to this particular festival before and I was shocked at the turnout. It looked like 100,000 people were there. We mostly showed for Chicago’s performance so we waded through the crowds and the booths and eventually made it to the main stage on the riverfront as Allen Toussaint was wrapping up. Mom and Dad found a stop on the levee.Allen Toussaint’s set was over I moved up to the front. I brought my camera with me intent on getting some good pictures. When I worked my up to the front, I was dismayed to find people with chairs set up all in the front up to the barricade. Jazz Fest put an end to the practice of confiscating such prime real estate with chairs years ago. I found a cozy spot on the right side behind the first row of chairs, just a couple feet from the barricade. There was about an hour before Chicago’s set started. As I was just standing around waiting, I was dismayed to witness a group of front row squatters arguing with a man who was standing at the rail beside them because he had a prime spot without camping there all afternoon. Overall, the crowd was incredibly healthy. There must have been some 20,000 people there to see the show.The band started nearly on time just after 10 PM. Three of the four founding members of Chicago were there along with some long time members. I do enjoy their early music but I couldn’t have named any of the members before this evening. The performance was awesome and they sounded quite good live. Luckily, they largely played their older stuff which I and a lot of others find preferable to their newer material… to put it mildly.The stage was reasonably well lit most of the time and I was able to take some decent pictures even though my 70-200mm f/4 zoom lens is slow. After the show I met up with Mom and Dad and we walked back to the car. We got home at about midnight. Rather than go to bed like I should have, I stayed up until three culling the 815 pictures I took and uploaded the keepers to the website.

Comments Off

Oct022009

Cao and Trains

I arrived at Fox for 11 this morning. Both Nancy and Janette were both out of the office today so web editor Chris Finch was running the assignment desk with Jessica. There were enough stories on the board and a live remote complete with a field producer was planned for the Gretna Heritage Festival this afternoon. Wit plenty going on in the newsroom I was content to stay downstairs today.Around one, Chris gave me a press release from Sherrif Gusman about a bank robbery and had me turn it into an article for the Fox8 website. I’ve taken some journalism classes so this wasn’t foreign to me although I’ve never written a news story outside of a class assignment. I did reasonably well but I forgot to attribute the press release which is a pretty big mistake.Shortly after two I went with Avis to shoot a couple events in town. Congressman Joseph Cao was appearing at two railroad related events. The first we went to was an event for the New Orleans Public Belt in which they were basically thanking FEMA and the LRA support.The second was a press conference with Cao in front of the Union Passenger terminal in which Cao called on Governor Jindal to apply for federal funds to build a high speed rail line between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.I left for the day not long after I got back to the stadium around four. I probably should have arranged to stay later as they were still shorthanded this afternoon.Later this evening I spent a lot of time playing my ‘new’ ThinkPad. The LCD screen appeared to have several dead pixels near the bottom of the screen but close examination revealed it to be some sort of dirt under the top layers of the display. Prices for replacement LCDs are not favorable so I elected to take the screen apart and clean it.This was my first attempt dissecting a computer LCD screen. All the layers are rather fragile once you have the metal frame off so I had to be quite careful. The dirt was between the polarized film layers and the plastic backlight plate. The cleanup was quite successful and I’m much happier with my purchase now.

Comments Off

Oct022009

X41

As I am only working my day job two days a week at the moment, I had more than enough work to keep me busy Wednesday even though we were reasonably caught up with the reports. Yesterday evening I watched some TV and The Quiet Man.Today I spent a good deal of time with filing work at the office. We haven’t culled any settled cases from the files in months and I was able to draw out a box full. For lunch I went to the recently opened Theo’s Pizza on Canal Street. I’ve been to their location on Magazine a few times and liked it. Their pizza is good although pricey for lunch. I might try one of their sandwiches next week.During this evening’s practicum class, we went over some more student resumes including a couple revised ones. Following that there was a short lecture on resume and cover letter tips. Dad was waiting to pick me up when class was dismissed around 7:30. On the way to Tulane’s uptown campus I heard from Amy, a friend of Andrey’s who has a Thinkpad to sell. I arranged to meet her at the business school library. It needs work but is functional. She still had a lot of her data on it so I lent her my thumb drive and agreed to return later to pick it up.After a brief stop at the LBC I went to the Reily Center for ballroom this evening. This was the final week of Samba. As is typical with last week sessions, attendance was light. There were only about 15 people in attendance but it was still fun. There was only one new sequence this evening. The rest was review of previous material which I had a reasonably competent grasp of.After ballroom I walked back to the business school to pick up the laptop. In no hurry to go home, I went to Der Rathskeller in the LBC for something to eat before catching a cab home.

Comments Off

October 2009

Recent Posts: