April and early May make up festival season here it New Orleans. It’s been great so far and Jazz Fest starts in a couple days. This year’s French Quarter Festival was possibly the biggest ever. The music and food were awesome as always, and the weather was very agreeable this year. Unlike previous years, I didn’t find myself following a specific schedule to catch certain bands. I was content to wander around, so I didn’t get the volume of photographs I normally shoot for.

NOLA Navy Week followed French Quarter Fest… filling a typical two week lull before Jazz Fest. I only got to partially take advantage of the events but I did tour the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Wasp. It’s an impressive vessel, about the size of a cruise ship, but it would still be dwarfed by an aircraft carrier. The ship’s crew was aboard to entertain questions from the public. Everyone I interacted with was exceptionally cordial and accommodating. Like most people, I’m in awe of those who volunteer to serve in our armed forces.

As I conclude this excuse for an entry, Jazz Fest is just two days away. I hope to summarize that experience with another entry.

Bianca was anxious to attend a small charity event at the Mercury Café restaurant.  They held a live and silent auction for a battered women’s shelter and dinner was available.  Having partaken in some mediocre “organic” food, we drove down to our hotel and retired for the evening.

At the time of my last post I mentioned a change in my work situation with my little promotion at FOX 8.  Shortly thereafter I took a second job as a computer technician at a surveillance systems wholesaler.  I am building, repairing and providing tech support for their DVR servers.  It’s pleasant work that pays well but it is not stimulating like my job in live television.  In any case, the extra money should significantly alter my circumstances in the coming months.  It did force me to start driving regularly.  I’ve had a license for a few years now but have not made much use of it.  With just one job, taking cabs back and forth made some financial sense compared to owning a car, but three trips a day including one to Harahan and back… not so much.

There are two other things worth mentioning before I wrap this up.  First, my aunt Lauren has moved back to New Orleans after a few years residing in Florida post-Katrina.  The family and I helped unload her moving truck this past weekend.

Next weekend, I am going to Denver for a few days with my friend Bianca.  She is planning to move there in the future and wanted to check the place out and do some apartment hunting.  Bianca told me about the trip a few months back and I offered to tag along if she could not find another travel companion.  She came to visit a couple weeks ago and said she had not found anyone else so I bought plane tickets.  I have not been to Colorado since my family moved away in 1997.  It should be fun to see how things have changed and spend some quality time with my friend.  I’m sure I will muster at least one post about the trip… maybe even one for each day.

Recently, I earned a small promotion at work.  I am now working as the news writer / production assistant for Fox 8’s brand new noon newscast.  There is not a great deal of writing involved and I am still have PA duties but the hours are so much better.  I come in at nine in the morning and am done at three.  It’s taking time to adjust to getting up like normal people but I hope it will promote a healthier lifestyle.  If nothing else I should save money, not having to eat out for dinner.

I was somewhat surprised to get the position, partially because I don’t think highly of my writing ability.  A week into the new job, I think it’s going well overall.  I’m already familiar with all my duties although I’ve had to run graphics for the first couple weeks… the one thing I didn’t know how to do.  I am hoping my writing skills will improve rapidly in the coming months.  I’ll have ample opportunity to practice.

I took a three day weekend last week.  My friend Krystle was in town for a few days.  She’s had a rough month and needed a break.  I spent a lot of time walking around the French Quarter, shopping and eating out.  I didn’t have much luck taking her mind off her troubles so it wasn’t as pleasant a visit as it could have been.

The Wednesday after Krystle went home, I started a month of jury service at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.  I was summoned back in March for a term in either April or May.  That’s festival season so I asked for it to be deferred until June.  Jury service at criminal court requires ten days of service, two days each week for a month.  I am in “Group A” which reports to the jury pool Monday and Wednesday mornings.  You need a pretty good reason to get out of it, which I don’t have as an able-bodied person with no dependents.

On the first day, I was among the first group picked for the first trial in need of jurors.   I quickly learned that it’s best to be in the first of two groups questioned during voir dire, in which the attorneys pose questions and try to select the most ‘impartial’ jurors.   The case apparently involved an OPP inmate who was involved with a fight involving some sort of weapon, probably a shiv.  He was charged with possession of a weapon while in prison.  The prosecution spent a lot of their time establishing what possession means and questioning the potential jurors about various legal angles that would be involved in the case.  It didn’t take very long compared to defense council.  He questioned the first group for about two hours.

I didn’t have any desire to sit on a jury so I was hoping for a question I could answer to effectively disqualify myself.  It came during the questioning by the defense when he asked if anyone would be impacted by the defendant not taking the stand in his own defense.  I said it wouldn’t be the deciding factor, but it would create doubt as I know I would be dying to testify were I wrongly accused of a crime.  Shortly after the defense attorney finished his questions, both attorneys and the judge went to chambers while they made their selections.  I didn’t get picked.  Those of us who weren’t selected were sent back to the lounge where we were excused for the day.  I considered myself lucky, but that would run out next week.

I arrived at the convention center at 11 o’clock this morning. It looked like thousands of people were already there. After getting in, I perused the show floor for a couple hours. There were scores of comic book artists and dealers as well as throngs of interesting people to look at, many in costume. On the right end of the hall was a large “gaming area” set up for Magic card and RPG players. There was a lot of interesting artwork to look at, but I have never been a fan of comic books so I did not have much appreciation for the happenings on the show floor. I did see some familiar faces over the course of the day. A Tulane professor I took a couple classes with was there. Kevin Fontenot was manning a booth his brother was running for an upcoming con in Lake Charles. I saw my Friend Nicole who first told me about show. She was working as a staff member and she told me she was the one who got Battlestar Galactica actor Aaron Douglas to attend. I also saw some other Tulane alums there.

After a while I went up to check out the question and answer panels. The only one going on at the time was with James Marsters of Buffy fame. The panel was half over when I got there I have never seen the shows he has been in. James was very engaging though and it was a lot of fun hearing him talk about his experiences working with Joss Wheadon.

I stuck around after the Marsters panel for the next one with Billy Dee Williams, best known for his role as Lando in the original Star Wars films. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan either but I figured it would be nice to hear him talk about his work as his career which spans several decades. Unfortunately Billy was just not very interesting. He seemed far more concerned about being diplomatic than giving straight answers to questions. On top of that, his delivery was a bit too soft, even with the microphone.

Following the Billy Dee Q&A I decided to leave for a while and get some lunch. I thought I might walk to Mother’s restaurant on Poydras but I stopped and walked into Mulate’s. The place is known more for their live Zydeco music than the food which seems to be considered uninspired. It’s hard to fault the restaurant for that since they are adjacent to the convention center and largely cater to a tourist crowd. I had a cup of etoufee which wasn’t bad and a BBQ shrimp appetizer which was quite decent but the sauce was a bit too salty.

I walked back to the convention center after lunch and wandered the hall for a little while and then went upstairs to get in line for the Adam West panel. The line was enormous. At the front of it was Jessie, an acquaintance from ballroom. She let me cut in line with her and a group of friends with her. I was able to get a front row seat. Sadly the host of the panel asked that no pictures be taken… The main reason I wanted to be up close. As the room filled, a Loyola law professor we occasionally interview for the news sat next to me. I don’t know Peter personally but we spoke briefly about our work and why we were there to see Adam West and Burt Ward.

I must confess I have not seen the original Batman film and TV series but I have seen him in several other things as well as his voice over work in a few animated series. Both Adam and Burt were very entertaining and very gracious to the fans they took questions from. For the most part, the questions related to the original Batman series.

The Aaron Douglas panel followed the Batman Q&A. I got a seat in the front row, right in front of Nicole, who I saw earlier. Compared to the last panel, the crowd for this one was a bit more intimate. There were probably about 80 people in the room. Put simply, Aaron was awesome. He was engaging, quite funny and genuine. Douglas is not really known for his work outside of Battlestar Galactica so the Q&A session almost entirely involved talk about that series. In addition to answering direct questions, he also told a few stories about his time on the show including one about his son visiting the set. Near the end of the session, a friend of his presenting him with a belated birthday present, a one-of-a-kind Chief Tyrol frozen in corbomite figure. Aaron seemed quite elated by the gesture.

At the conclusion of the panel, I left the convention center and caught a cab to the station for work that evening. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to hang around for the costume contests. Later after work I looked at the pictures I took over the course of the day. I was sorry I wasn’t more sociable in asking many of the colorful patrons for photos. I also had trouble dealing with the unremarkable lighting. I took a lot of blurry shots. Overall, though, it was a lot of fun and I will be back next year.

So, 2010. It was an interesting year… different if nothing else. Shortly before 2010 began I started a new job at WVUE-TV as a newsroom production assistant. Over the course of the year I learned a great deal and now I do a little bit of writing for the newscasts. I still have a lot to learn about doing it well. Another job I held for several years came to an end late last year with the doctor’s office closing down. My current job is not sufficient in and of itself so I will have to make a move on that front in the coming months.

April and May were busy months with the French Quarter Festival, Jazz Fest, college graduation and a vacation all in the space of a few weeks. Halfway through May I graduated from Tulane University with a media arts degree. I doubt I will ever find my degree to be particularly useful but graduation did mark the end of a five year undertaking. Unlike a lot of other people, I don’t have the burden of student debt since I worked during those years and went to night school.

Immediately after graduation I flew to Phoenix to visit my friend Ami. We had not seen each other in several years and I had never been west of Colorado. While I was there we took a road trip to Las Vegas which was a lot of fun. The last time I started writing this log entry I tried to think of something a little more profound about the trip but nothing has really come to mind. It was just a very enjoyable week.

I am hard pressed to think of any singular events of note that happened after that. I just hope 2011 will have it’s own steps forward.

I worked my regular shift at Fox today although I would have liked to have had the day off, free to watch the returns come in at home. Our five o’clock news was in large part a preview of our election coverage… featuring several live shots from various campaign headquarters. Later in the evening around seven, I went with a co-worker out to a couple of polling placed in New Orleans East to collect some vote totals for the show. We collected numbers for three races although when we phoned in they only needed the second congressional district race. I guess the winners of the lieutenant governor and senate races were apparent early on.

We finally made it back to the station after nine when the show was already underway. Luckily it was largely a live affair so it was no great loss to be without someone to run the prompter. Overall I think out coverage went pretty well. There were no big surprises locally. The races elsewhere in the country proved to be quite entertaining though. I’m sure the news coverage over the next few days will be similarly enjoyable.

I was at the station until midnight and this was one of the few nights where I still had some company at the end of my shift. After I got home shortly before one, I watched some TV including some election coverage before finally going to bed around three.

My boss arranged for another PA to come in this evening allowing me to fill in writing, something I’ve only done on Thursdays these past few weeks. I thought I did good work for the most part this evening and nearly all of it made air. I wouldn’t have expected that after the nine o’clock show started and the producer started killing several stories to make room for live hits from Chile. I stopped writing around 8:30. Rather than have Travis hang around another two hours while I did very little, I relieved him and prompted the newscasts.

A lot of the actual action happened during our ten o’clock show in which quite a few stories were cut to accommodate the miner’s story, even a package on the second congressional district race we teased in the superopen. Unfortunately, we missed the first “big” moment. We went to commercial right before the first miner to be rescued, Florencio Avalos, reached the surface. Other than that, I thought we put on some good TV.

Even though I was in to write today was still working my regular schedule and had to stick around until midnight. Fortunately there was no additional “news” over the scanners before I was free to go home. Unlike yesterday I didn’t come home with a headache so I watched a little TV before bed.

It’s been a while since I have devoted any of what free time I have to video games. On the suggestion of a friend who hasn’t even seen the show, I have started watching The Shield, a police drama series that aired on FX. I never paid any attention to it when it was on TV but it’s certainly good enough to warrant a look-see. I’m currently about halfway through the show’s seven seasons.

The next thing that will be consuming my free time is a police scanner I won on eBay today. I’ve had my eye on Uniden’s BCD396T handheld scanner for a while. I got lucky and won a unit for a great price. I don’t have a particularly intense interest in the practice so I have not been willing to pay anything close to the price today’s digital scanners retail for. Working on the assignment desk at Fox8 has generated a certain curiosity, however. The radios we use there for scanning are quite elaborate but poorly programmed.

I’ve already done a good deal of research on the subject and I am hoping I won’t have too much trouble programming my scanner. I installed a programming application called FreeScan and purchased a premium subscription to RadioReference.com which should enable the easy transfer of the frequencies I want to the radio.

This time around I am not having difficulty building a profitable city but I am as yet unable to build a thriving metropolis complete with abundant skyscrapers. Even with hundreds of thousands of people there seems to be a glass ceiling for buildings.

As the game is now rather mature, there is an abundance of user-created additions and mods for the game. I am starting slowly with this as I just want to play the game largely as it was intended to be played with some enhancements. I have installed the Network Addon Mod (NAM) which adds several new options and tiles for transportation. I am now building ground light rail in avenues, which embeds elevated rail into Rush Hour’s included four lane roads. I am also using a global police headquarters that eliminates the necessity of building dozens of police stations in a single city and high-tech waste to energy plants. It doesn’t feel too much like cheating since the future comes quick in SimCity. After I’ve exhausted my interest in playing the game as-is I may try some more fundamentally significant mods such as CAM.

This Friday, I went out by myself for the evening… not something I usually do. On the advice of a friend I took my camera with me just because and shot some pictures. I saw Leon Brown at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse on Bourbon Street and saw a movie at the newly renovated Theaters at Canal Place. I saw The American, the new George Clooney movie. The pacing was slow and deliberate for Hollywood fare but I thought it was interesting enough. Good scenery if nothing else.

My frustrations were compounded later by separate troubles with my computer.  One of the primary motivations for buying an XBOX was for an easy way to play content from my computer on the TV.  I’ve been using TVersity to stream stuff to a PS3 with reasonable success but that stopped working.  Internet connection sharing wouldn’t start so I was unable to connect the Xbox directly to my computer and Windows Media Center would not communicate with the Xbox when I finally got Wi-Fi working.  I finally surrendered early in the morning with very little working.

On Thursday I formatted my computer to solve all the problems on that end.  I got Windows Media Center to work partially but it would not be recognized again after restarting the Xbox or my computer.  TVersity is working so I decided to stick with that.  I also upgraded my Live account sooner than I would have liked and tried out Netflix.  It works quite well and seems to look a lot better than its PS3 counterpart.

An entirely separate computer problem presented itself on Wednesday.  One of my new Dell 2209WA monitors died.  A dark and distorted picture accompanied a persistent high pitched whining sound when it is on.  Since I bought my new screens on eBay I wasn’t sure I would have any luck invoking the warranty.  I was content to pay for a repair but apparently they don’t actually fix things… At least that’s what I gathered from a seemingly confused Indian woman I was speaking with.  Eventually I located an order number on the shipping label of the box and from there I was able to get a warranty replacement ordered.

Among other things, I installed Crysis to see how my system would handle it.  With all the settings maxed, it still got choked up during a firefight and gave about 20 FPS otherwise.  With the settings set to “High” instead of “Very High,” it’s perfectly playable.

I had to work on Friday to cover a shift for Monica.  I was not thrilled about working but it was a good evening as far as work days go.  I wrote a story about Al Qaida that made air as I wrote it following some suggestions from John.   The newscast itself was somewhat eventful in that it occurred during  a thunderstorm.  I don’t think the station actually lost power but there was plenty of lightning and flickering of lights and monitors.  It knocked out one of the recievers for a weather clicker and apparently we were off the air for about 15 minutes starting late in the 10 o’clock broadcast.  Luckily we were back on after a few minutes as the inundation of calls would have continued until my shift ended at midnight.

I used a Dremel with a cut-off wheel to do the bulk of the work and then smoothed the edges with a couple different bits.  I covered the metal edges with u-channel rubber to protect the wiring that would be running through the cutouts.  Later after thoroughly cleaning the case of dust and metal filings, UPS arrived with my new parts from NewEgg.  Assembling everything was easy enough although doing it neatly is time consuming.

Since my old Scythe Ninja heatsink is not compatible with LGA1156, I had to replace it.  I picked the Scythe Mugen 2 which has a hard bolt mount.  It takes some work to get everything aligned right but it works so much better than a spring mount which requiring stressing the components to get it installed.  I spent the better part of the evening getting the rest of the parts and wiring just right.

With all the components installed, I plugged it in and turned it on.  I was quite pleased to see it boot up successfully on the first try.  Windows even loaded without complaint.  I figured I would also have to reinstall the OS with all the hardware changes.  It took a couple reboots before drivers were installed for all the hardware.  Eventually I had to reactivate Windows over the phone.

I was up well into the early morning cleaning up the mess I made.  I had a couple boxes of spare parts sprawled out over the floor that needed to be repacked and the parts I removed from the case earlier in the day had to be stowed.  I finally got to bed at about five in the morning.

Saturday afternoon, I shot pictures of my newly rebuilt rig before closing up the case and moving it back to its corner.  We had leftover red beans and rice for dinner before I headed to work this evening.  I am usually the lone PA on Saturdays but Danielle was working tonight because I had to run graphics for the show.  Tonight was basically my first time doing that.  For graphics display we use Avid Deko.  Running the playback controller basically consists of tabbing through a list on onscreen graphics and calling up the appropriate ones in each of the four channels in which they can appear.  I was nervous having never done it before but it’s not difficult and I did alright.  Running graphics for the 10 PM news was a nearly duplicate experience since both shows are so similar.

August made its presence known as I was waiting outside for a cab after work.  Even though it was 10:30 at night, it was still a sweltering 95 degrees outside and there’s no reason to expect the weather to get any better in the coming weeks.

With the website done, I turned my attention elsewhere to fill time.  I did some shopping and bought a new motherboard, CPU and RAM to upgrade my desktop PC which hasn’t had a major makeover in about three years.  I will be upgrading from an Athlon 64 system to an Intel Core i5 Lynnfield on a P55 motherboard.    I am keeping  my Antec P180 case, Seasonic PSU and hard drives.  In addition to the hardware upgrades, I will be making some small modifications to the inside of the case so I can route wires behind the motherboard.

This afternoon, I had lunch with Ireal, a friend from ballroom I haven’t seen in several months.  We ate an Mandina’s, one of the better places near the office.   I wasn’t expecting it to be a very long lunch but we apparently had more than enough to talk about.  We arrived for one o’clock and the lunch crowd was long gone by the time we left.  In the course of our conversation, Angelo Brocato came up so we went over there for some ice cream.  Like Mandina’s, Ireal had never been here before either.  At quarter past four, I parted ways with Ireal and finally went back to the office.

This evening, I practiced the case modification I will be performing this weekend on a spare case.  For the most part, I didn’t have any problems although it was good to have the prior experience which should minimize the likelihood of any mistakes.

Last Tuesday, I took the evening off to have dinner with Andrey and several friends. He moved to Dallas last week for a new job. We had dinner at Vizard’s restaurant, Patrick’s dad’s place. It’s a pricey restaurant but the food was excellent. While we were there, Andrey presented each of us a parting gift, model cars he’s collected over the years. After we finished eating and the kitchen closed. We all sat at the bar for a while and chatted with Patrick’s dad Kevin. We all left for the evening sometime after 11. Andrey had to be early the next two days so we didn’t go anywhere after dinner. David offered me a ride home.

Designing a new iteration of Mr. B’s Domain has occupied most of my free time these last couple weeks. I saw a blog a couple weeks ago with a bold black and white layout I wanted to emulate. I soon decided at least a little color was necessary. I have chosen purple as the accent color this time. Blue was too easy.

At present, much of the work is done. I have installed WordPress which will most likely be used for “The Log” in the future. The content pages are nearly ready but I have not yet started work on upgrading the photo gallery which will be a pretty big job. I am hoping to have the new site online by August 1st.

As for what I’ve been doing with myself over the last couple weeks, there are only a couple highlights outside of the usual work stuff. I saw a couple movies at the theater with Andrey, David and others recently including Get Him to the Greek, The Karate Kid and Knight and Day. On both occasions, David picked me up at the station after work and gave me a ride home after.

The Saturday before last, David and I went over to Andrey’s mom’s apartment in Metairie to help them move into a new house they bought. It was a small second floor apartment with no elevator so it wasn’t an ideal situation for carrying furniture but we managed fine. I got off a bit easy with the furniture lifting but the afternoon was easily the biggest workout I had in a while. Andrey didn’t get the biggest truck so several trips were involved. We’d only made two runs I think before I had to go to work at the station.

Work that evening was only slightly unusual. I am usually the lone PA on Saturdays because there isn’t enough work for two. For some reason, Greg scheduled Danielle to work so she prompted the show. I ended up rolling clips in George’s place. After work I was to meet back up with Andrey and David at some bar. They had one more truck load and Danielle was headed to Metairie and she agreed to give me a ride.

It didn’t take too long to unload the truck. With the day’s work out of the way, Andrey took us to a bar in Metairie owned by one of his mom’s neighbors. Drinking in Metairie was a first for me. The place located in a strip mall was featuring live music this evening. If anything, it was a different sort of place than what we usually see.

After work yesterday, David picked me up from the station and we went to the Elmwood theater to meet Andrey, Patrick and Haydar to see The A-Team. David and I arrived well before 10. The show didn’t start until 10:30 and our other friends arrived later than us. As for the movie itself, it had some laughs but it was hardly a good film and very forgettable. After the show, David was kind enough to give me a ride home which made the whole evening a lot cheaper than it otherwise would have been.

I didn’t exactly hurry out of bed this morning after being up late last night. I wasted most of the afternoon in front of the computer and watching a movie, In Bruges. Mom made smothered pork chops for dinner. I left for work immediately after eating. There were no recent murders tonight and the evening passed quietly. Sean was flying solo for the Final Play show after the news. His interview guest canceled yesterday but he still managed to fill the show. I went home after prompting morning sports.

Last week I sat with Danielle while she ran the teleprompter for the first time during a live broadcast.Today I had the chance to learn something new myself. Following a “rough” broadcast a few days ago, Jannette wanted all the editors to be able to work on video during the show rather than have one in the control room rolling clips. Instead, she thinks a PA should do it when interns are in the newsroom to print scripts. After I arrived today, I started teaching the three interns we had this afternoon how we go about putting anchor reads in the scripts and printing the show. I was able to stick around until five minutes to air time when I made my way to the control room. Rico was up there to show me how to play clips for the newscast. As most of the video was already in he was free to do the job himself and I was in no hurry to jump in before I fully grasped the job. We use Avid iNews Command to roll clips during the show. Rico showed me the ropes through most of the show. I ran slips during the sports block without incident. It’s almost entirely a matter of pressing the play A, B, C or D button as told by the director. He has four channels of clips to draw upon at any given time.

Later I ran clips for the entirety of the nine and ten o’clock shows while Danielle ran prompter and an intern printed the scripts. The printing part was a little rough with a newbie doing that. I know there were some pages that never made it out to anyone. Rico was free to sit behind me for the better part of both broadcasts but luckily there were no major issues during with show so I did fine. The rest of this evening passed without incident and I went home at 12:30.

I took Thursday off to unpack, rest and do laundry. I had plenty of TV watching to catch up on. That evening, I met the usual suspects and Haydar for dinner and a movie. I got picked up and we went to a Vietnamese restaurant on Manhattan and then went to the Palace for a movie. We saw Macgruber which was quite bad, exactly what I was expecting from a stupid SNL bit dragged out for 90 minutes. I walked out of Shindler’s List feeling better than I did after this movie. We didn’t go anywhere after the movie and I got a ride home.

I was also off Friday. Dad has started to close the office on Friday’s which makes sense as our patient flow that day has historically been dismal. I got an invite to go out late that night but elected to stay home and go to bed at a marginally respectable hour.

After lunch, Ami and I wandered around for a while. Our last stop was Barnes and Noble. I bought a magazine to possibly read on the plane. After that she drove me out to the airport. I got there with plenty of time before my flight… even more than I first thought. After I got in the terminal I saw on the departure screens that my flight was delayed an hour. I now had about three hours to kill in the airport. I sat around for a little bit and then broke out my laptop. I talked to Ami online for a little while and checked my e-mail and that sort of thing. I haven’t made much use of the web in the last several days although Ami had access at her condo so I can’t say I was deprived or anything. Later I got a little something to eat and drink and one of the sit down restaurants in the terminal. I waited a good while for my food. Silly me thought I had to hurry up a bit and eat to be in line to board the plane.

After I finished I found the flight was delayed a further half hour. I bought a few keychains at a gift shop and spent the rest of my wait loitering around and snapping a few pictures. Boarding finally started around eight and wheels up was at about 8:15. The flight itself was fine but since we left so late there wasn’t much to see out the window. I spent a good portion of the flight typing up log entries for the last week. Like the trip to Phoenix, my new headphones made the flight much more bearable. We finally landed sometime after midnight. After picking up my checked bag I took a cab home and went to bed.

We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. The food was pretty decent. I had their version of a meat lover’s pizza. I wasn’t able to quite finish it. I believe Ami had the Hawaiian BBQ pizza which was also quite good. After lunch we wandered around, stopping in a few places. Ami eventually found a place with a large purse she liked and bought a hat as well.

Not long after that, we went to the movie theater there and saw Iron Man 2. A showing began right after we arrived at 4:30. The film itself was a passable action flick but I found it quite inferior to it’s predecessor. The storyline had the typical laziness of a cash-in that I personally find rather distracting. During the car race scene, I had to wonder nobody seemed to have a gun to shoot the shirtless bad guy standing in the middle of the race track causing all kinds of havoc. That said, it was still kind of fun to watch. I won’t be going out of my way to see it again, though.

As we were leaving the mall we saw a band, Traveler, was playing at a stage in a plaza area. We stuck around for a couple numbers before heading back to Ami’s place. We stuck around there for a couple hours before going over to Melissa’s apartment. While we waited I put a movie on, Lost in Translation. Shortly after nine, we drove out there. Melissa’s husband Jerry didn’t show up until a while after we got there. We watched The Hangover, a movie that I’d heard referenced more than once in the last few days. Most people I’ve heard mention it speak fondly. I wouldn’t call it cinematic genius but it was quite funny. I also finally got the jab about that “satchel” I heard about earlier.

Before we left, we were offered cheesecake and beer… quite a pairing. On the way home, we stopped by the Lone Butte Casino where Ami waits tables at the 24/7 café. She needed to fill out a vacation request for next week. It was nice to see where she works and I got to meet several of her coworkers including one the managers, Patty, whom Ami speaks fondly of. We ordered some food to take home as well.

When we got back, Ami put another movie on, Zomebieland… another comedy I apparently needed to see. Again, it had its moments. Before turning in I had a look at Ami’s yearbook. I had forgotten the letter I wrote in it years ago before mailing it to Payson, where she moved after we graduated. We finally went to bed around four.

Later in the evening, we drove out to the Chandler Fashion Center to meet a few people for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Initially, we were to see a few of Ami’s friends there but that fell through. In addition to us were Ami’s mom Lucy, her boyfriend Jim, Ami’s sister Melissa and her husband Jerry as well as Jerry’s friend Max. Ami and I arrived first and every one else showed up not long after eight.

I think all of us had wings of one sort or another. Dinner passed quickly enough and Melissa Jerry and Max left. We had planned to see a movie or something with them but apparently Melissa had to work in the morning. Ami and I sat with Lucy and Jim and talked for quite a while before we all finally departed sometime after 10. Since we didn’t have anyone left in the group to do anything, Ami decided to show me Mill Avenue in Phoenix. There is a strip of bars and restaurants down this street near ASU. It’s a wide street which isn’t incredibly conducive for a pedestrian thoroughfare in my opinion but I guess they make it work. At the end of the line as it were are the Tempe river bridges. The monorail bridge is lit with changing multicolor lights which I did my best to photograph the Tempe Town Lake Light Rail Bridge. As we walked back down the other side of the street we stopped at Mojo frozen yogurt, apparently one of Ami’s favorite places. The elaborately decorated place has soft serve machines lined up where you fill a bowl with yogurt and toppings and pay by the ounce. We say for a while and then left. As we continued on our way we were approached by cordial gentleman collecting signatures to get someone on the ballot in a local election. He had to follow us a bit before Ami signed the petition. We spoke with the gentleman for a few minutes before continuing down the street. After we got back to the condo, Ami looked over all the pictures I have taken in the last few days and picked out the ones she wanted to keep and put on her computer. I put a movie on while she did that. I think we made it to bed before four this morning.

Fortunately I didn’t have any real trouble driving out of the city and down the interstate in spite of a lack of any significant driving experience. It was rather fun driving through the desert with my friend… even if she was asleep half the time. The traffic was light and the scenery was nice. The checkpoint at the Hoover Dam was no trouble. We stopped at one of the parking areas to have a look but it was on the reservoir side so it was not the best photo op. If I pass that way again I would like to stop to take the tour.

My only real mistake in driving was missing the turn on I-40 to US-93 which is a direct route to Phoenix. By the time I realized the mistake it was really too late to bother turning around. Instead we continued to Flagstaff and then turned on to I-17 down to Phoenix. That particular error probably added an hour on to our trip. We changed drivers outside of Flagstaff in Williams as the sun was starting to set. I think we finally made it into the city of Phoenix around ten. We picked up a little something to eat and then went to Ami’s Mom’s place to pick up Aly, Ami’s dog. We ended up staying for a few hours watching TV and talking with Jim, Lucy and Jim’s daughter Katie. It must have been at least two in the morning before we left there and headed back to the condo and finally bed.

It was nice and hot outside and Ami quickly felt overdressed so she bought one of those stretchy one size fits all dresses and chanced into that. I picked up a couple t-shirts in the same store. After that we got something to eat at a food court off the strip at a Wendy’s.

We spent most of the afternoon at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. I don’t recall either of us buying anything there but we did look at quite a bit of stuff. There was a gallery featuring the works on Vladimir Kush which was rather interesting. I think the Club Tattoo store was Ami’s favorite. We spent a lot of time in the Urban Outfitters store looking at all the knick-knacks and books there.

Since we weren’t terribly hungry around dinner time having eaten lunch late, we deferred dinner until later in the evening. We took the monorail back to our hotel to change and freshen up for the show we went to see this evening.

With more formal attire on, we took a cab from our hotel to Treasure Island. Cirque du Soleil’s “Mystere” was playing there and I bought some tickets last night. A long line had formed to enter but it evaporated while I waited at will call to pickup our tickets. This was my first Cirque Du Soleil show so I didn’t really go in with any expectations, even though the entertainment company has been around as long as me. I hardly feel qualified to describe the show in much detail. The show combines acrobatics and other feats of athleticism, street comedy and “worldbeat” music. Before the show starts, what could only be describes as a clown in a tux mingles through the audience with popcorn, spilling it on and around the audience. He’s also featured during the show as a nuisance to the performers and audience. At one point he put a man in a cage and proceeds to attempt to woo his girl.

Among an array of impressive acrobatics was a “hand to hand” performance by the Alexis Brothers in a particularly impressive display of strength at they balance themselves on each other. I was thoroughly impressed, although I wasn’t exactly drooling like Ami was. In any event, I’m sure one of the many reviews written about Mystere do a better job of articulating the experience than I could. One thing I was expecting that I didn’t really see that I was expecting was a coherent plot of some kind. If there was a deeper meaning, I did not get it.

Following the show, we stopped at the gift shop and picked up a couple little things. I wanted to have dinner at Delmonico’s Steakhouse that night but it closed at 10 like many restaurants on the strip so we took a cab to Smith and Wollensky which is next door to the MGM Grand where we were staying. I had the sirloin almost out of obligation and Ami had a turkey BLT. I was not especially hungry though and couldn’t quite finish it. After dinner we stopped at the hotel room to drop off the souvenirs we bought earlier and Ami’s leftovers.

Around one in the morning we went back out to walk around and get some drinks. Our first stop was the Centrifuge Bar in the MGM Grand. After a couple rounds there we walked up the strip and stopped at the casino bar at Bill’s for a shot and one of their 99 cent margaritas. Following that we spent a good deal of time at the Carnaval Court Bar at Harrah’s. As far as we could tell it was one of the few places open into the wee hours of the morning. We were there for a good while. Ami had me drinking a bit more heavily that I otherwise would have been. The big camera slung around my shoulder attracted a bit of attention. A couple handfuls of people had me takes pictures of them. One guy tugged on my camera strap and asked if I was carrying a satchel, much to Ami’s amusement. I didn’t yet get the joke.

Sometime time around four, things were wrapping up at that venue. The DJ was done for the night and we heard last call. Lastly we went to the Rockhouse Bar on the strip. I walked back to the hotel around five and went to bed.

Before heading out of town, we stopped to visit Ami’s sister Melissa briefly. She had some birthday presents for Ami to give her before we left town. We were only there for about 15 minutes.

Ami did the driving for the duration of the trip up. I offered to drive but she was fine doing the whole thing. While we were heading out of the city but still in Phoenix, we exited I-10 too early and ultimate ended up on US-60 rather early. 60 runs up to US-93 which is a highway that runs directly to Las Vegas but while still in the city it’s just another road with lots of traffic and stoplights. It took almost an hour just to clear the greater Phoenix area.

At Wickenburg where US-60 meets 93, we neglected to turn and started heading due west. About 20 minutes went by before I realized the error and we turned around. Ultimately that little mistake cost us another 45 minutes. The bulk of the ride was uneventful, we were driving through the middle of the desert after all. We did pull over at the “ruins” of Nothing, Arizona, which was an unincorporated community that had a gas station and shop. It’s abandoned now but I saw it on a map and Wikipedia weeks ago and wanted to have a look when we drove past.

The sun set long before we hit the Hoover Dam. Traffic is slowed considerably on the approach to the dam but the security checkpoint flowed smoothly. I couldn’t see very much at night but the enormity of the dam was still pretty clear.

A little later we approached the city of Las Vegas. Seeing it for the first time at night was quite striking. After driving through the pitch dark desert for hours, we drove over one of many hills and suddenly a sea of lights become visible. Once we got down into the city it looked much like any other until you approach and turn on to Las Vegas Boulevard, the strip. Before heading to the hotel we drove up and down the strip to take in the sights. I’ve never seen anything so awesome and unnecessary in my life.

After our bit of sightseeing we pulled into the self park garage at the MGM Grand where we had a reservation and checked into the hotel sometime after 10 that night. We had one of the “grand tower” rooms which was quite nice for the price but there was no real view to speak of where we were on the 4th floor.

After we got settled, we walked up the strip, got a drink and generally just looked around. I had my camera with me and took lots of pictures. I thought we would get a look at the Bellagio fountains. We saw a show going on as we drove the strip but it was about one in the morning when we walked by. Apparently they shut them off at midnight… shame. I was hoping to eat at one of the Bellagio’s restaurants but they were closed too, understandably so. We walked into the casino where we were greeted by one of the security folks. He escorted us to Café Bellagio which has much more generous hours. It’s adjacent to the botanical gardens, a rather impressive and colorful display to say the least. The food at the restaurant was quite decent for a 24-hour restaurant. I was not very hungry so I just had the shrimp cocktail and some wine. Ami had grilled salmon. For dessert I had the carrot cake which looked nothing like what I was expecting. It made for a nice photo-op.

After what I suppose could be called dinner, we walked around for a couple more hours, mostly along the strip and maybe stopping in a couple casinos. We walked as far as the Venetian before we started heading back the other way. Even though we were out rather late, I was surprised hoe dead the strip was. There were only a few people still walking around and only a couple places still open. We tried to find a monorail stop and we got pretty close to one before we were told by someone cleaning floors at Harrah’s that they stopped at 2 AM. One last thing Ami wanted to was take a picture in front of an electronic sign at Denny’s that cycled the date which now reflected the 19th, her 25th birthday. After hours of stumbling around and goofing off, we finally made it back to the hotel room at about five. By the time we finally went to bed, the sun was coming up. I don’t think I’ve had cause to see a sunrise since the day my family got up early to evacuate for Katrina.

Today was the day I flew to Phoenix for my weeklong visit with Ami, an old friend from high school I haven’t seen in five years. We talked about a possible visit for the last few months with the likelihood of going to Las Vegas. As of this morning, that part of the plan was unsettled since Ami just signed the lease on a new apartment and was a bit pressed for money.

Having done nearly all the packing in the past couple days, I was ready to leave the house at a decent hour this morning. Dad and I went to the office just after 11 where we remained until about 12:30. I got a little bit of work done in an effort to clear my desk before departing for a week. I got a ride to the airport in plenty of time. I didn’t have any trouble getting through airport security although this being my first time flying with camera gear had me nervous.

I had about an hour to kill in the terminal before boarding. I bought a smoothie and took a bunch of pictures out the window. I was in boarding group B but I still got a decent window seat. The flight was full and departed on time. It was largely smooth all the way to Phoenix. For this and my return flight, I bought some new earphones to block the airplane noise which is rather severe. Last week I got a pair of Etymotic HF5 in-ear monitors and some Comply foam tips. Just having them in your ears blocks most of the noise and the engines are basically inaudible when music is playing so that made the flight much more pleasant than previous flights I’ve been on where I endured crying babies and the like. I brought a bunch of stuff to do on the three hour ride but I spent most of my time looking out the window and taking pictures. I haven’t been on a plane in a few years so there was some novelty to an airplane ride for me. Flying over Phoenix was certainly interesting. Obviously we flew over a lot of desert, but there was also a striking amount of civilization to fly over before reaching the airport.

After landing in Phoenix, Ami told me she was waiting at the gate. I looked intently after disembarking but I never did see her so we met in baggage claim. I had not seen her in five years but she looked just as I remembered… shorter hair perhaps. Having chatted briefly and collected my checked bag we made our way to the parking garage. She remembered what level she was on but we did take the scenic route to where she parked.

While riding away from the airport she suggested we get something to eat. Aside from the peanuts and cheese nips on the plane I hadn’t eaten anything myself and was game for a meal. We went to one of the many malls in greater Phoenix, Arizona Mills, and went to the restaurant in the upper level of Gameworks, a sizable arcade. We had the spinach and artichoke appetizer which was nice. I don’t remember what I ordered after that but I know I felt full fast. I forgot about the smoothie I had before leaving New Orleans. During what could best be described as dinner, we discussed driving to Las Vegas. She was fine either way but wanted to be in Phoenix on Friday for dinner with her mom and some friends who were going to be in town. We decided on renting a car the following morning and driving to Vegas, staying through Ami’s birthday and leaving on the 20th.

Following our meal we walked around the mall for a while. I bought a couple t-shirts at Old Navy and I think Ami got some makeup from Claire’s or a store like it. After we left the mall she drove me to her new apartment that she just rented. She has not quite moved in yet. She was doing some painting and still a lot of things to move there. Following our short tour we went to the condo that she has been living at for quite some time now. I must have dropped my bags off there. I don’t remember how long we stayed.

There was still a lot of time to kill that evening so we went to IKEA. I’ve never been to an IKEA store so it was a new experience for me. It was interesting to walk through the carefully designed showroom… a nice little maze. The café portion was closed, however, which was a little disappointing.

After our little tour we drove out to visit Ami’s mom who is living with her boyfriend Jim and his daughter Katie. I only met Ami’s mother Lucy once back in the summer of 2003 after we graduated from high school. She didn’t look much different. We visited for a while, talking and watching TV. I think we watched a movie this evening too, The Unborn… I’ve seen better.

Later this evening, maybe around one or two, we went back to her condo. Before bed I booked a hotel in Vegas and got some show tickets.

After we parked in the dome garage, Bianca entered at gate G. I had to walk around the dome to gate C where the graduate entrance was. From there I went to one of the “robing rooms” where students gathered to get their gowns on and form the lines that would enter the floor in front of the stage. The room I was in was for continuing studies, liberal arts and public health and tropical medicine students. I recognized quite a few people there but most were just passing acquaintances. Roy and Ash from my Practicum class last year were there. I sat next to them during the ceremony.

We were led out on to the floor of the dome back stage where we had to remain for a good bit before we filed out to our seats on the floor as Dr. White’s Jazz band played. I didn’t hear Sir Edward Elgar once. The unified ceremony was an elaborate and impressive affair. There was good music and not an excessive number of speakers. Anderson Cooper of CNN delivered the keynote address. I was initially disappointed when I learned he would be the speaker but I was pleasantly surprised. He delivered a funny and sufficiently substantive address. I’ve heard more than a couple self centered graduation speeches and this was not one of them.

The unified commencement ended with Wanda Rouzan and Dr. Michael White performing a rendition of “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans.” Then university president Scott Cowon declaring “Let’s have some fun” and thousands of little green and white beach balls rapidly descended from above. I think a disproportionate number of them landed on me and those immediately around me.

There was a 15 minute intermission before the undergraduate diploma ceremony. Those receiving graduate degrees had later events elsewhere and departed. During the intermission I got to find Bianca, Ed and my immediate family in the audience. Bianca walked down to the front row to talk and take some souvenirs off my hands.

The diploma ceremony proceeded just like any other. Names are read and the students walk across the stage to receive their diploma (covers). Those in the school of public health and tropical medicine went first. Second was my school, continuing studies. My walk was not really different than anyone else. I did half wave at the for the jumbotron camera because I knew I was some distance from my folks. After we walked off stage we posed for two separate photographers. As I was walking back to my seat, a professor I had a math class with walked up to congratulate me. I thanked him and said I wish I did better in his math class.

The diploma ceremony concluded at about 12:45. Immediately after that, all the students walked back stage to receive an envelope containing their actual diplomas. I was quick to get there and beat the long lines that quickly formed. With my diploma in hand, I went out to meet Bianca outside who was waiting for me. Everyone else departed a bit earlier to make a 1:15 reservation at the cheesecake bistro on St. Charles. I went there with my family the evening of my high school graduation and thought it would be cool to visit again.

It was raining a bit when I walked out. After I met up with Bianca and made it to her car, the rain picked up a bit. It took a few minutes to clear the parking garage but the traffic wasn’t too bad. My folks already had a table and drinks when we arrived. I felt like drinking champagne so we ordered a bottle. I wanted to save room for cheesecake and dinner later so I only ordered an appetizer. A few of us including myself had the banana’s foster cheesecake which of course was excellent. After our lunch and conversation with my folks and Ed which wrapped up around four, Bianca and I parted company with them and went out to the mall. She expressed an interest in going shopping while here and I figured I could probably use a couple things for my trip next week.

It was still rainy but we got covered parking outside Macy’s. In addition to other stores with visited, we went through a few looking to get a sport coat for me. I was hoping to find something not terribly formal. A gentleman at Dillard’s was very helpful but I didn’t find anything I liked under $300. I was hoping to spend $200 or less. Ultimately I bought a navy blue coat at Banana Republic. We spent about 20 minutes in Sephora and Bianca bought some makeup.

After we left the mall we headed to the quarter for dinner. Bianca insisted on treating me to dinner and she took me to Mr. B’s Bistro. I’ve mentioned the place in passing several times since it shares my nickname. It was going to be a surprise but there was an issue with her reservation. We walked in around eight and were seated at about 8:30. She had the filet mignon and I had grilled fish, both of which were quite good.

Later we met up with Andrey and David at Pat O’Brien’s. I think there were supposed to be more people with them. We got to hang out for a couple hours and stopped in a few different places, none of which I think Bianca enjoyed. She wanted to dance to pop music and that’s not exactly our thing. We walked to Frenchman Street, wandered a bit and then went to BMC on Decatur Street. I’m not sure who the band was but it looked like a high school brass band… not exceptional musically but entertaining. After that we walked across Esplanade to the Dragon’s Den. It was quiet but eventually a rap act got started which I thought was interesting if nothing else. Bianca was rather tired by this point though, midnight maybe, and both of us eventually left early. We took a cab back to the garage near her restaurant where she parked her car. I offered to drive but she was okay to drive. I think we made it back home before one.

We met up with Dad after I arrived and a surprise visitor, my godfather Ed Wernsing. He flew down from Illinois for my graduation tomorrow. We’ve only spoken a handful of times in the last decade and I haven’t seen him since I was 12 so it was especially kind of him to come. The party was a bit loud but we had the chance to talk about various goings-on in the last several years. My friend Bianca drove down from Mississippi this evening. She met us at the party later on. I also saw Andrey, David and Amy there.

Unlike last year, the party seemed to pass by rather quickly. At around eight, I left with Bianca. We never got around to getting anything to eat. All the lines were rather long. We went over to Camellia Grill, one of many fine New Orleans institutions she had not been to before. I can’t remember why but I wasn’t terribly hungry so I “only” got a couple scrambled eggs, bacon and fries. Bianca had one of their huge omelets.

After dinner, as it could best be described, we met up with Andrey, David and Romi at the Cure on Freret Street. We had a few drinks and sat around talking until about 11:30. At Bianca’s behest, her and I went home for the evening. It was just as well since I had to be up early in the morning.

This past Thursday I took the last exam of the last class in my last semester at Tulane. It was just three questions and I didn’t have much if an answer for one of them. I didn’t do especially well on my other two exams either and I finished the class with a C… not exactly what I was hoping for when I started.

On Friday I went with dad to a school play at Ecole Classique. My nephew Brandon was playing a role in the school’s production of Grease. It was an ambitious production for a high school with some 40 kids in the cast… pretty funny too.

This being the first weekend at home in several weeks I was able to get a lot of housekeeping done. I had quite a bit of laundry piled up and my bedroom was not its usual pristine self.

Immediately following the French Quarter Festival, I spent most of my spare time studying for my third and final exam in military history class. Professor Lagvanec finished his lecture series early and the students including myself were more than happy to take the exam early on April 22nd. It allowed me to be done with school before Jazz Fest, the worst possible time of year for me to be studying in. We all showed up that Thursday but the professor was almost two hours late and he only showed up to tell us we could not take the exam that evening. He had a scheduling conflict. The exam was rescheduled for May 6, the Thursday after Jazz Fest.

As a whole, Jazz Fest was pretty awesome this year. It started and ended with rain and was largely overcast in between but the crowds were still quite healthy and the music and food was as good as ever. I had a brass pass and I rented one lens this year, Canon’s new 70-200mm F/2.8 L IS II. It’s an amazing piece of glass although it still needs to be in the hands of a pro to get the best results. Even so I would love to own one.

For me, the highlights this year were the Treme Brass Band, which is an annual spectacle in Economy Hall. Irvin Mayfield’s NOJO put on an awesome set. I now own their CD. Lionel Richie was dependably excellent. It was raining the Friday he played. He had the diehard audience eating out of his hand. The second Friday and Saturday, Dad came with me to the fairgrounds. I saw him intermittently during both days. At the end of the second Friday we saw the Gipsy Kings. I’ve heard their music on couple occasions in my life but this was the first time hearing a whole set of their music an certainly the first time live. I already like Latin music and I was thoroughly impressed.

The second Saturday was a pretty good day. Rain was forecast but the fairgrounds were spared. New Leviathan and Pete Fountain played in Economy Hall. John Goodman joined Pete briefly on stage, quite a hoot. On the last Sunday it did rain which made the tents popular and I spent most of the day between the Jazz and Blues tents. The Marsalis family played in the blues tent and BB King closed out the festival in the blues tent. Unfortunately, space in the blues tent came at a substantial premium. Such a popular act should have been on a big stage. I managed to get into the tent but I was off to the side and couldn’t see anything. I was only able to shoot a few pictures as I was leaving.

Unlike Jazz Fests in the past, I had to work nights on the weekends. Jazz Fest is always exhausting, especially going every day. It took longer to “recover” and catch up on my sleep without the benefit of going straight home after each day at the fairgrounds. The time I might have spent writing about each day at the fest was spent culling the day’s pictures. I averaged about 1,500 a day this year… about as much as my memory card collection allows.

Below is a list of each band I saw at this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Friday, April 23:
Jesse McBride presents The Next Generation
Baaba Maal
The Revealers
Deacon John
Leah Chase
Lionel Richie

Saturday, April 24:
N.O.C.C.A. Jazz Ensemble
Treme Brass Band
Greater Antioch Full Gospel Baptist Church Mass Choir
Patrice Fisher & Arpa and the Honduran Connection
HBO’s Treme Interview
Simon and Garfunkle
Tab Benoit

Sunday, April 24:
University of New Orleans Jazz Ensemble
Miss Sophoe Lee
Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band
Jeremy Davenport
Tribute to Juanita Brooks with Betty Shirley, Leah Chase and Germaine Bazzle
Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
The Allman Brothers Band

Thursday, April 29:
Lafayette Rhythm Devils
Hot Club of New Orleans
Chief Iron Horse & the Black Seminoles Mardi Gras Indians
Coco Robicheaux and the Swamp Monsters
Tulane University Jazz Ensemble
Mario Abney Sextet
Derek Miller
Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys
Lyle Henderson & Emmanuel
Shannon Powell’s Organ Combo
Paul Sanchez & the Rolling Road Show
Average White Band

Friday, April 30:
Juilliard Jazz Ensemble
Kent Jordan
Astral Project
John Boutte
Allen Toussaint
Gipsy Kings

Saturday, May 1:
Xavier University Jazz Ensmeble
New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra
Jamil Sharif
Pinstripe Brass Band
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet
Pete Fountain
Jeff beck

Sunday, May 2:
Ronnie Kole Trio
Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra
Ellis Marsalis
Jonno and Bayou Deville
Luther Kent
B.B. King

The driver dropped me off on Esplanade near the US Mint. The PorcheVide Playboys, a zydeco band, were playing. I stuck around for a few minutes before leaving to walk to the French Market where Linnzi Zaorski and Delta Royale were about to get started. I’ve only seen her a couple times in the past but it’s a pretty good act. She’s an indie jazz singer with this “1940’s” sound. A nice crowd was present including a good number of dancers.

I stayed for about an hour until the band took a break. I walked down Decatur Street towards Jackson Square. The acrobats that frequently perform were wrapping up a show in front of an enormous crowd. I took the opportunity to get some shots of Jackson Square, the cathedral and the crowd.

Following my stop on Decatur I walked down the riverfront to the pavilion stage where John Boutte had a set starting at 2:15. Paul Sanchez was supposed to perform with but apparently he was ill today. I’ve seen Boutte perform a few times in the past at Jazz Fest and he always puts on a lively show and today was no different, even though the drummer was absent. Sooner or later I am going to have to get down to Frenchman Street early enough to catch him at d.b.a. Incidentially, Boutte is the vocalist on the opening title theme for the new HBO series Treme. About half way throguh the set, John’s sister Lillian came on stage to sing a few numbers.

I left before the end of the set to catch the last act of the Fest at the stage in the Le Petit Theater. The US Army Brass Quintet was the closing act there. They played some traditional chamber music, some Gershwin and some oddball crowd pleasers. The band leader, Sgt. Major Dennis Edelbrock, addressed the audience sporatically about the work they do and various historic events they played at. The other trumpet player, Sgt. Major Woodrow English played “Taps” at Reagan’s funeral.

After the Army Quintet finished their set, I walked over to the “Esplnade in the Shade” stage at the US Mint where Astral Project would be playing. Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue was still playing when I arrived. I got something to eat and found a place to sit and enjoy the shrimp pasta and cake I bought.

I had plenty of time to scope out the stage before Astral Project started their set. Microphone stands are still the bane of my existance. The music was awesome as usual but I don’t think I got any great pictures. I saw Andrew and his friend not long after the set started.

I was able to stay until about 6:30 when I had to leave and catch a cab to work. I was able to snag one on the corner of Esplanade and Decatur. I worked from about 7-10 at Fox this evening, largely without incident as I recall. After I got home this evening I watched the first episode of the new HBO show Treme. It looks quite promsising. It’s certainly the most faithful depiction of New Orleans I have ever seen in film or television. They didn’t get everything right but they came much closer than anything else I have ever seen. With David Simon at the helm, I did have high expectations. I also watched the latest installment of The Pacific and culled the day’s Fest photos before bed.

I walked down Royal Street after leaving there and stopped to watch a street performer, Bobby Maverick, who had drawn a sizable crowd to his escape act. Eventually I made my way to Dutch Alley where the Doc Houlind International Jazz Band was about to get started.

I listened to them for a few numbers and eventually made my way to the pavilion stage on the riverfront where Otra, one of my favorite local bands, was playing this afternoon at 3:30. I arrived before the set started and snagged a spot right up front. Taking decent pictures was a challenge because of my distance from the stage and the musicians being in the shade in front of a bright blue sky. The music was awesome, though. I stayed for the whole set.

Following Otra I stopped at a nearby ATM and headed to Jackson Square where Irvin Mayfield and the NOJO All Stars were playing. The music was good although the set did have the feel of a commercial for all the acts at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse of Bourbon Street. I couldn’t easily get close to the stage so I contented myself listening from a distance. Around 6:30 I left to go find a cab and get to work. I had to be at the station this evening from seven until ten… more or less.

It didn’t take long to get a cab and to the WVUE. When I arrived I changed into more suitable attire. I left some clothes there yesterday afternoon so I wouldn’t be walking around the newsroom looking like a bum. After I arrived I learned we wouldn’t be going on the air at nine as usual. A NASCAR race, the Subway Fresh Fit 600, preempted our broadcast and we didn’t go on air with our half hour newscast until about 10:30. I was finally free to go home sometime after 11. Jennifer, who anchored the news was looking for a ride home and I was going in her direction so I volunteered to share a cab.

Later that evening, I sorted through and uploaded the pictures I took earlier today although I didn’t actually get them on the website.

My first stop of the afternoon was Jackson Square. Banu Gibson was playing but my primary concern was getting something to eat. For a Friday, the crowd was pretty thick and didn’t feel like wading through it very long to pick something to eat. I decided on the crawfish louisa from the Court of Two Sisters restaurant booth. It was a mix of crawfish and assorted vegetables. I enjoyed it, high praise from someone who doesn’t like squash.

When I finished eating I strolled over towards the french market and the international stage in Dutch Alley. The Maryland Jazz Band of Germany was playing when I arrived. Don Vappie, one of the most recognized banjo players in New Orleans, performed with them. I stuck around after them for the Young Jazz Cats of Germany. Mr. Vappie performed with them as well.

After a few numbers, I walked out to the French Market and the traditional jazz stage where Miss Sophie Lee was playing. It’s a rather small stage with a dance floor in front and quite a crowd was gathered around. I couldn’t get very close for pictures. I only remained there for a few minutes before wandering down Bourbon Street to the Royal Sonesta Hotel.

Steve Mazakowski of Astral Project performed alongside his daughter, Sasha at Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse. Sasha is a vocalist with a pretty decent voice. Steve accompanied her on seven string guitar. I remained there until about three when I started heading to Jackson Square.

At 3:30 this afternoon, Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band performed. At 99 years old, Mr. Ferbos is the oldest working musician in New Orleans. He sings and plays trumpet. I’ve never been to the Palm Court Café but I do see Mr. Ferbos every chance I get. The man’s still got it.

I stuck around for most of the set and then walked over to Preservation Hall where the Treme Brass Band was to perform at 4:30. Unfortunately a rather lengthy line was formed outside waiting for a chance to begin. I got in line briefly and then decided it wasn’t worth risking not getting in, especially since I plan to see them at Jazz Fest in a couple weeks. Instead I walked back to Dutch Alley and saw the Liberty Hall Stompers of England.

By five o’clock I was a bit tired and ready to head home even though the fest continued until sundown. I also heard from Andrey earlier who wanted to go out tonight after 10 and I figured a couple hours at home first would suit me well. I called Dad who was still at the office. He told to catch a streetcar up Canal Street and meet him at the office for a ride home.

The crowds on Canal Street waiting for the Streetcar were substantial. I waited for a good while as one car was just a block away with dozens of people boarding. It took quite a while for it to finally reach us and then make the other stops along side the French Quarter. Once we were past Claiborne Avenue the pace normalized. I finally made it to Canal and Carrollton shortly after six. Dad was meeting with someone when I arrived and I waited around for about a half hour before we headed home.

Later this evening, I took a cab out to the Hi Ho Lounge on St. Claude Avenue. Elliot, a familiar face, was the driver. I’ve never been there before and I was mildly surprised at the… less than stellar neighborhood I sent myself too. There wasn’t much of a crowd when I got there but that changed soon enough. Debauche, a Russian band as I can best describe it, got started around 10:30. Andrey, Patrick and David showed up not long after that. The band has a loud folk music sort of sound and sing in Russian so I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Andrey, a native Russian speaker, remarked that there was ample profanity. In keeping with the theme, free vodka shots were offered.

After their set, we stepped outside with most of the other bar patrons for some air. Patrick bought a hot tamale from a woman selling them from the back of her bike. With no loud music we were able to have an actual conversation. About 20 minutes later we went back in after the next band, the Zydepunks. The name gives you a decent idea of what they’re about. They served as a nice follow up to the previous act. I think the last time I saw them was last year’s French Quarter Festival. I can’t remember if we stayed for their whole set but we did hang around for a while.

Later after we left I suggested we go to IHOP… just because. Patrick was driving and didn’t want to bother trying to find a parking spot near Canal Street so we drove all the way to the Metairie location. None of us had enough free vodka to really warrant a trip there but it was good for the sake of variety. I ordered a couple pancakes and everyone else got different stuff. After we ate Andrey felt fine to drive so rather than take him back to his place in Metairie we all rode back uptown so he could get his car. Before calling it a night we went to the LBC but the one available pool table was missing vital components so we just decided to leave and eventually call it a night around three AM. I took a cab home from the Boot.

I had a little bit of work to do today but I was able to finish all of it and clear my desk by 1:30. I walked to Mandina’s for lunch this afternoon. I had the fried shrimp and catfish. The meal kept me full throughout the day.

The five o’clock news passed quietly for me. There wasn’t any drama with the scripts. Everything was done reasonably early. I didn’t see any appealing rest of stories to write. The nine and ten o’clock broadcasts seem to go smoothly.

Immediately following the ten, we were all able to catch the final seconds of the NCAA championship game. Baylor was inches away from a Hollywood ending with a final half court shot that bounced off the rim. Duke won what must have been a great game 61-59. That action delayed the morning sports taping a bit but it didn’t matter to me since I had a couple hours left in my shift.

Late this evening, my long streak of “quiet” nights came to an end. A cab driver was murdered off Gen. De Gaulle Drive in Algiers. This was the first time in exactly four months I have had to dispatch a photographer to a crime scene.

After I got home I watch the two hours of 24 that aired earlier this evening. Consequently I got to bed pretty late.

Work almost entirely defined the last seven days. I haven’t done much else. I didn’t do anything special with my one free evening on Thursday. For the most part my shifts at the station passed without incident. A ‘rest of’ story I wrote for the nine o’clock show on Friday aired exactly as I wrote it.

Yesterday afternoon, Mom took Andrew and myself for a portrait session to have graduation pictures taken. I am graduating from Tulane in May and Andrew will be graduating from high school. Having us both take pictures at the same time economical and time saving. Our pictures were taken by an Algiers resident named Rusty Cowart who has a very small studio in his home. I was there back in 2003 to have my high school portrait taken. The session wasn’t too bad but the air conditioner in his house wasn’t working which made the place somewhat uncomfortable, especially while wearing a cap and gown.

Before work on Sunday, I went for a walk with Mom on the river levee. I took my camera and a lens case I bought recently to try out. I bought the case for the French Quarter Festival next weekend and this gave me a chance to find the most comfortable way to wear it. I bought a Lowepro model for the “slip lock” fastener that allows me to mount it on my belt. I tried a few different placements but didn’t find anything comfortable. I will probably end up wearing the case with a big camera strap.

A while after we got home from our walk, the family had a nice dinner. Jeff was in Baton Rouge over the weekend, however. We cooked a ham and had some side dishes usually seen only on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Later this evening, Dad gave me a ride to Fox 8 for seven. Like yesterday, I wasn’t around long enough to do a great deal before it was time to handle the broadcast. The news went smoothly enough. There wasn’t a great deal going on today. We led with a follow up to an abandoned hotel fire in Mid City yesterday night. NOFD needed the power cut off and the large area disconnected included the Mahalia Jackson Theater where a play was going on. The Final Play was fine until the last block. The show was mostly packages which should have made timing the show pretty easy. Somehow we were short at the start of the last block and one of the VO pages didn’t have a MOS slug and could not be played… a bit of an issue since they were baseball highlights.

After the show it took a good while to get the morning sports taping ready. I was finally able to leave at about 10:30. After I got home I talked to Krystle for a while before turning in for the night.

Dad took me to campus for around noon. I was hoping to meet with Ms. Otte before noon but I didn’t get to campus early enough. With about an hour to spare I decided to check out Grad Fest but it made me sick looking at all the stuff there while thinking I would not be finished in May.

At one I met with Ms. Otte in the history building and the day got even worse. She had a problem with the form I turned in, but more importantly, she was no longer satisfied that the class I was taking and the accompanying research paper would satisfy the credits of a 400 level class, essentially changing her mind about the agreement we made in January. Now she wanted me to finish the class, a 15 page research paper as well as an independent study in which I would read six or so books and meet with the professor privately every other week. As it is already late March and I am working about 60 hours a week, that plan wasn’t realistic, even if the professor did agree to take on this extra work.

We spoke for about 40 minutes but ultimately didn’t agree to keep her original terms and expressed no particular understanding of the situation or regret for backing out of our agreement. I could express my feelings in substantially more colorful terms, but let’s just say it was a dick move… and I’m sorry I didn’t get our initial arrangement in writing.

With an additional disaster looming, I went to Gibson Hall for my meeting with Greenberg. Like me, he was appalled at the situation but not entirely surprised. Apparently the history department is the source of a lot of trouble for people in other university departments. I’ll leave it at that. As departments enjoy a certain level of autonomy, there was nothing anyone at the School of Continuing Studies could do about it. Paul suggested I might meet with department head Randy Sparks, but there was no expectation he would be accommodating. I suspect Ms. Otte may have spoken to him earlier in the day when she left the room briefly during our meeting. This late in the game, I am willing to overlook formally completing my minor as long as I can graduate. I did have better luck with that, the larger issue.

As Paul briefly explained to me on the phone earlier in the morning, I was missing 3 credit hours in the sciences category, which requires 12 hours (three classes), only one of which can be a computer science. I already had one computer science class in there as well as a weather and climate course and introductory psychology. I have met the total hours requirement and I had several electives pooling at the bottom of my transcript but none of them qualified.

I was not remotely happy with the prospect of walking at Graduation only to go back to school for six more weeks. I know lots of people do just that because there is only one ceremony a year but I wouldn’t want to do it. I was to attend my graduation with the full knowledge I have completed something in full. Paul implored me to take more time to consider that decision.

Before giving up on finishing in May, Paul arranged to have me meet with associate dean Terrence Fitzmorris. If anyone could pull some strings and fix my problem it was him. Mr. Greenberg had partially explained my dilemma to Mr. Fitzmorris when I sat down with him so I only needed to elaborate on my situation. He was very sympathetic to my situation and explained the circumstances related to a rule change a couple years ago which restricted the science category to only one computer science class to force CS students to take a more diverse selection of classes. I’ve taken quite a wide variety of classes myself and Fitzmorris appreciated that I have largely followed the spirit of the rule. I don’t recall the exact exception but Terrence stepped out the room briefly to check on an elective class I had taken to see if it was some sort of core requirement or something. Ultimately, Mr. Fitzmorris filled in a CPST class I took a couple years ago, “Technology and Ethics” to stand in as my fourth science requirement, clearing me to graduate in May.

I can’t immediate remember a time in which a bad day was immediately made so much better so quickly. It was an incredible relief to be able to finish on time. The prospect of participating in the graduation ceremony and dragging friends here from out of town for what I would have considered a false premise was unthinkable. My brother Jeff walked across the stage before he was finished and it seemed completely absurd to me, especially since my parents and brother Andrew flew all the way to Ann Arbor from New Orleans to see it. I still got screwed out of my minor but compared to not graduating it seemed like a small thing.

After I left Gibson Hall I walked back to the LBC to visit Grad Fest in the upstairs ballroom to pick up my cap and gown. I also ordered a handful of graduation announcements to send out to people. I don’t have a great number of people coming to my graduation but I have some family and friends I want to send these to. The bookstore was managing things there and my old boss Larry Jones and Frank were there. I got to speak with both of them briefly about finishing up at Tulane.

After I left with my cap and gown I eventually met Dad who drove down from the office to pick me up. As it was a Wednesday we went back to the office until about six this evening. I don’t recall much in particular from that evening.

I worked on Wednesday. At present there is more than enough work to keep me busy at the doctor’s office. We will be auto discharging a stack of charts in the coming weeks.

I spent a lot of time fooling with my new phone this week, a T-Mobile branded HTC Touch Pro 2. It’s a Windows Mobile 6 phone and unlike the Blackberry it will work over Wi-Fi without any trouble like I had last week. This is my first extended experience with Windows Mobile, however, so I have a lot yet to learn. I’ve spent a lot of time learning and I reflashed the phone a few times and have started installing apps on it.

After work on Thursday I went to campus for class this evening. Today’s lectures wrapped up World War II and covered the Korean War. Class was dismissed at about 7:45 which left plenty of time before ballroom tonight. I had something to eat at the Rat before heading to the Reily Center. Turnout was a bit light this evening. I think there were about 16 to 20 people total. This was the second week of Jive and I don’t feel I’m getting any better at it.

I took the day off on Friday and got a few things done but not as much as I would have liked. Before going to work on Saturday, I pulled up a tree in our little patio/courtyard in front of the house. I thought my work was done with it out of the ground but Mom wanted help chopping it up too. I was much too lazy to go after it with a hand saw so I brought out the only power saw in the house, a circular saw and cut it up that way. I wouldn’t call it the right tool for the job but the job got done.

The evening at WVUE wasn’t too bad. There was plenty of news. We had a city council runoff election to cover. Ed Chervenak was in studio to provide commentary. We led with the story of a missing executive from Houston who went missing Friday. We don’t usually lead with missing persons but the man in question is a millionaire CEO of an energy company which makes it national news. We also had a couple murders to deal with.

I left for the evening at 9:45 and met Andrey and Romy at the Attiki Bar & Grill on Decatur. It’s a nice Mediterranean themed place. This was my first time there and I was pretty impressed. My friends had been there since nine. I had a couple drinks there with them and we moved on to the Davenport Lounge at the Ritz, formerly known and referred to here as Melange. It took a while to score good seats but Andrey finally landed a sofa in front of the stage. We stayed there to listen to the music until about 12:30 when Andrey wanted to head home. I took a cab that was parked in front of the hotel. Later in the evening I talked to Krystle on the phone before bed.