- On the recommendation of some lady in the hotel fitness center, I headed to Frenchman's Street as an alternative to Bourbon Street to catch some good music. I highly recommend this area for music and chill bars and good beer. I went to D.B.A.'s, which was by no means fancy, but very chill with a huge beer selection and great live music. This is where I met Corey Henry and the Young Fellas, an amazing brass funk band! Dancing the night away, I met Rashon, who was in New Orleans for the weekend and whom I want to be my best friend. He was the happiest person I've ever met and so in love with the music. He was there to play a couple gigs in New Orleans and to support his friend, Clarence, the 19-year-old saxophonist prodigy with Corey Henry. Clarence and Rashon knew each other from Ohio, where they both grew up. Rashon is finishing his jazz composition degree at University of Cincinnati and Clarence had just moved down to New Orleans to pursue his music. After sweating it out on the dance floor for a few hours, Kate and I cabbed it back to our hotel to pass out in our glorious hotel room.
- Friday night, Rashon invited us to check out his show at Sweet Lorraine's. He was playing with his old Ohio band, including Clarence. Kate and I took a cab out to Sweet Lorraine's and were a tid bit freaked out when we were dropped off. Sweet Lorraine's is in a pretty sketch looking neighborhood and was almost completely barred off. We found our way inside and were pleasantly surprised by the swanky interior. It was a serious jazz club. After ordering some adult beverages, we found a table in front of the stage and prepared for the show. Again, it was amazing. Rashon is a jazz pianist and SO talented. Clarence, obviously, did his thing again, only this time instead of funk it was more traditional jazz. Their friend from Ohio was playing the upright bass and though their drummer was missing, they had replaced him with a drummer who had played with Herbie Hancock, so he wasn't too shabby. It was definitely a different vibe than D.B.A.'s - all the boys were wearing suits and there was no dancing, just chilling out. Such a good time, though, and such a cool place. I love finding places like that!! After the show, we said goodbye to Rashon and Clarence (I'm definitely hanging out with Rashon when I head to Cincinnati this fall!) and called a cab to come get us since it was not a neighborhood where cabs regularly come through. We were waiting outside when Lance Ellis approached us. He seemed like a nice dude and he offered us a ride back to our hotel, and while it may not have been the smartest idea, we accepted. He was also a jazz musician, but seemed a little jaded about the music scene in New Orleans. He no longer performed on the music scene, but continued to record music in his home studio. He dropped us off at the hotel, safe and sound, and left us with a copy of his CD entitled Thinking of You. It's really good, if anyone's interested. That was a good night...
- Saturday morning the whole conference loaded on to 12 old school buses to go do some work in the lower 9th ward. We split into teams and worked on a couple different vacant lots and rebuilt homes. It was pretty intense to see the state of the neighborhood we were in, especially considering how long it's been since the hurricane hit. I was working to clear an old lot that once had a house on it - we could tell where the kitchen and bathroom were once located because there were tiles in those rooms, but the rest of the rooms were just overgrown with brush and trash. The houses that were still standing were vacant for the most part, with the "X" marking, showing the day it was checked and how many people had been found in the house. Many of the houses still had messages and cell phone numbers spray painted on the front of them. We only worked for about 4 hours, mostly because the it was reaching a dangerous temperature for us to be out there working, but even so, we made some significant progress in the clean up effort on that block. It was pretty remarkable how much work a group of 600 motivated people can get done in a short amount of time.
- This morning, before I peaced out for the airport, Robert, one of the GK Board Members from Boeing who I hung out with all weekend, took me to Cafe du Monde, which is like the tourist's breakfast spot. They only have 2 thing on the menu - coffee and beignets. My new favorite food is doughy powdered sugar beignets. Mmm....
TRENTON IN T MINUS 10 HOURS!
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