Jazz Fest!
Jazz Fest starts next Friday with hundreds of performances at the Fairgrounds during the day and several big concerts each night, Friday thru Sunday next week and Thursday thru Sunday the following week. In addition to that, every music club and some of the record and book stores have live music every day. It's an incredible two weeks for music! Some of the big name rock type acts appearing at the festival this year are Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge and Lenny Kravitz. (My sister and her lover will be here, so we will probably see our lez sister Melissa for sure...) The range of music is amazing; traditional Jazz, Blues and Cajun, wild Zydeco, big band, folk and gospel. Over half of the groups are from Louisiana and many from New Orleans; there's an incredible amount of local talent here. The Gospel Tent is a unique experience; while you would probably be able to see most of the local groups at one club or another during the year, you rarely see any of the gospel groups outside of a church. The tent really rocks! If you are thinking of that mush that gets played popularly every once and a while, well there's some of that, but a lot of the groups are hard driving, full out mesmerizing; there are arms waving, people yelling and shaking, there's some old woman next to you in a Sunday dress just stomping her feet and wailing, you can't help but get caught up in it. It's wonderful and a bit scary... I've found myself in tears there; I'm no fan of religion, but there is certainly a powerful force in play.
I usually pay no attention to the schedule, or maybe just pick one act that I really want to see and then just wander around and let it happen to me. I've never been disappointed with the time spent there and I've often been stunned, like the time I saw Sun Ra, (which was probably the most amazing musical performance I've ever seen.)
The full schedule can be seen at the Official Jazz Fest site, here. This is one of the things you should put on your list if you love music; it's a fabulous time!
The Yard.
O.K. So it ain't beautiful yet... A couple of weeks ago I cut down most of the huge (20 ft +) banana trees because they needed it and did some other trimming. I got exhausted and kind of just left everything. Yesterday, I started cleaning up by the back door and this morning I got this huge surge of energy and got out there with a saw and pruning shears a pitch fork and a rake. I moved a half a ton of debris into a corner spot behind some of the banana trees where most of it will rot away by the end of the summer and cut back a lot of the most active vines. (I say active; some of these vines grow a foot a day!) I had dreaded doing this so much, but once I got started, it went fairly quickly. After a hour of hard labor I could see some results and another hour of work should get the rest of the detritus out of the way. (I have to just stuff it in corners this year, can't afford to have someone haul it away and the city trash pick up will only take a lil bag or two a week. Like I said, most of it will rot in the frist two months.)
By mid summer, it'll be gorgeous! hehe.
Jazz Fest starts next Friday with hundreds of performances at the Fairgrounds during the day and several big concerts each night, Friday thru Sunday next week and Thursday thru Sunday the following week. In addition to that, every music club and some of the record and book stores have live music every day. It's an incredible two weeks for music! Some of the big name rock type acts appearing at the festival this year are Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge and Lenny Kravitz. (My sister and her lover will be here, so we will probably see our lez sister Melissa for sure...) The range of music is amazing; traditional Jazz, Blues and Cajun, wild Zydeco, big band, folk and gospel. Over half of the groups are from Louisiana and many from New Orleans; there's an incredible amount of local talent here. The Gospel Tent is a unique experience; while you would probably be able to see most of the local groups at one club or another during the year, you rarely see any of the gospel groups outside of a church. The tent really rocks! If you are thinking of that mush that gets played popularly every once and a while, well there's some of that, but a lot of the groups are hard driving, full out mesmerizing; there are arms waving, people yelling and shaking, there's some old woman next to you in a Sunday dress just stomping her feet and wailing, you can't help but get caught up in it. It's wonderful and a bit scary... I've found myself in tears there; I'm no fan of religion, but there is certainly a powerful force in play.
I usually pay no attention to the schedule, or maybe just pick one act that I really want to see and then just wander around and let it happen to me. I've never been disappointed with the time spent there and I've often been stunned, like the time I saw Sun Ra, (which was probably the most amazing musical performance I've ever seen.)
The full schedule can be seen at the Official Jazz Fest site, here. This is one of the things you should put on your list if you love music; it's a fabulous time!
The Yard.
O.K. So it ain't beautiful yet... A couple of weeks ago I cut down most of the huge (20 ft +) banana trees because they needed it and did some other trimming. I got exhausted and kind of just left everything. Yesterday, I started cleaning up by the back door and this morning I got this huge surge of energy and got out there with a saw and pruning shears a pitch fork and a rake. I moved a half a ton of debris into a corner spot behind some of the banana trees where most of it will rot away by the end of the summer and cut back a lot of the most active vines. (I say active; some of these vines grow a foot a day!) I had dreaded doing this so much, but once I got started, it went fairly quickly. After a hour of hard labor I could see some results and another hour of work should get the rest of the detritus out of the way. (I have to just stuff it in corners this year, can't afford to have someone haul it away and the city trash pick up will only take a lil bag or two a week. Like I said, most of it will rot in the frist two months.)
By mid summer, it'll be gorgeous! hehe.
posted by durlx at 4/19/2002 06:03:00 PM
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