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May252009
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25 |
This year I was committed to writing entries for every day of Jazz Fest 2009. As my limited time management skills are practically non-existent during the summer, it took three weeks to get around to it. Consequently, what little time I spend on this log was spent on the Fest. Now three weeks behind on the log I need to catch up. Unfortunately I don’t have photographs, notes and a festival schedule to help we remember things between Jazz Fest and today. The remainder of this entry will likely be a smattering of memories of the last three weeks.
On May 4th, the Monday following the festival, Krystle and I had lunch at Mandina’s before she left for home. I wanted to take her to a place on Cleveland Avenue called the Ruby Slipper but they were closed on Mondays. Since Krystle isn’t here much I like to take her to new places but if you have to repeat a restaurant, Mandina’s certainly isn’t a bad choice.
Later that week on Thursday the 7th, Dad, Andrew and I went to see the new Star Trek movie. I was not happy with the premise of the film as I find it imprudent to “reboot” the franchise and recast the original series cast. However, preceding the film’s release was a wave of critical adulation which made me cautiously optimistic about the movie. However, I left the theater feeling ill. The franchise I have enjoyed for years has been reduced to generic summer blockbuster garbage with lots of explosions and a minimum of story. The main villain was just a plot device for a script that made no real sense. I could go on for a while. Let it suffice to say that I am hard pressed to think of much anything I liked about the movie. I know my opinion isn’t widely shared as much of the press and the public enjoyed Trek’s accommodation of the lowest common denominator.
The following week, the lamp in the radio dial of my Panasonic RC-6551 alarm clock died after 40-something years. Luckily they still make fuse lamps which is what I needed. Replacing it was as close as I care to get to making a ship in a bottle. The following day I brought another flip clock of mine home from the office to clean.
On Friday the 15th, I got a call from Andrey during work inviting me to join him and some family and friends for the Wave Goodbye party at Tulane. The event is put on by the university president and is held in the Gibson Quad. Andrey picked me up from the office at about five this afternoon. His father who is visiting from Russia and his younger brother were with him. We went to Andrey’s house for a little while and then walked to campus, meeting up with David along the way. At the party we also saw Patrick, Jason and Andrey’s mother. It was a rather large gathering that spanned the quad from Gibson Hall to the environmental science building. There was plenty of food including grilled oysters and Bonerama was performing. We were there until about eight o’clock.
Later that evening Andrey, David and I went to Patrick’s place in River Ridge for his sister Taylor’s graduation party. We were “early” but several others arrived in due course, many of which were Taylor’s relatives in friends I was not acquainted with. It was a nice little affair with pizza and beverages. I think we were there until sometime after 10.
On Sunday the 17th after an uneventful afternoon, Andrey invited me to join him and a few others at D.B.A. Washboard Chaz was playing that evening. It took quite a while to get a cab to my house to everyone was there when I finally arrived after 10. Andrey, Patrick, David, Andrey’s father, Veronica and Ella were there. The girls are usually gone by this time of the year but they were still in town because they are traveling to Spain for a summer semester with Tulane.
The next day, my 25th birthday, I saw the same crowd at a barbecue at Andrey’s house. That got off to a gradual start as some of them had been strolling downtown that afternoon and Veronica lost her phone on the way home.
I can’t remember what day it was but Jeff returned for a brief stay around this time. On Thursday the 21st, Jeff and I went to the Westbank Palace to see Terminator Salvation. There were lots of ‘splosions but the plot left a lot to be desired… in that there wasn’t one.
Yesterday, the 24th, I went to Patrick’s place in River Ridge with David again for a little barbecue at his place with Andrey, Veronica, Ella and Liz. Again, I caught a cab uptown and rode with David the rest of the way. It was a pleasant gathering although it did rain that evening. After enjoying our hamburgers we settled down and ended up watching Superbad. Later after David dropped me off in front of the Boot I decided to browse the Mushroom record store. I ended up walking out with a copy of The Dark Knight on blu-ray.