Turtle Soup...

Last time I was in New Orleans I went to see a band at Chickie Wah-Wah on Canal St. A few blocks away was one of my favorite restaurants in the Crescent City, Mandina's. As things go sometimes, the best laid plans and all, I did not make it over there. The next day, we were camped across one of the longest bridges in the world in Mandeville at the State Park there I was delighted to learn that there was a Mandina's near by. Maybe not as cool as the old Mandina's uptown in New Orleans that had it's origins as a grocery store making sandwiches for working class Italian immigrants in 1898 but I was still able to satisfy a Jones for their famous turtle soup. 

Don't worry, since we did not have a shot of sherry to serve on the side like they do in Mandina's, it comes out in a shot glass on the side of the plate and you dump in in the soup yourself for flavor we did not make soup out of this turtle. Cathy claims she has cleaned and cooked a turtle before although it's probably been about 40 years ago since she did such so if we had had sherry...

Not an appetizer although I did dream last night that I was fishing at the beach and someone cooked stuffed crabs that were so good that I ate shell, legs and all.     

 

The Uptown Mandina's opened as the restaurant we know today in 1932 in the same building the Mandina family opened the original grocery store and the family still runs it. There's a lot of history there to go with the food. The old days and all that. They are important, especially when eating turtle soup. 

 

I'm Going to Circulate These Records...

Back in April we visited Cathy's old high school friends Danny and Karen on a trip we made to Austin. I was straightening out the record room the other day and I thought about another trip to Austin where I bought a $5 box of used records and it jogged my memory to something Danny said on our visit.   

Our friends Karen and Danny don't exactly fish in the old mainstream. She's an artist. Danny has worked for ZZ Top, driven a taxi, you may have seen him as an extra in a couple of movies and until slowed by Parkinson's has been a junk picker reselling found treasures. He says, "some may say a hoarder but I really just recirculate stuff." 

Cleaning out my record room there was a stack of records from that $5 box leaned up in a little nook where they were hard to browse. I bet most of them had not been played as they have been culled through once with a pile going to the thrift store and yesterday I culled again keeping maybe a dozen and earmarking about 45 records to the give away pile. I'm not hoarding. I'm recirculating.   

Someone that finds these, I need to give them to a store I don't frequent so I don't buy any of them again, will think an Italian crooner fan died and his kids gave away his collection. I'm ok giving as I don't find myself in the Italian crooner mood often but don't underestimate Al Martino there on top. He's no candy ass. Wounded in the invasion of Iwo Jima he often cracked the Billboard Top 100 with his tunes. In life most people don't get that opportunity to really do their best. 

Out of that 100 record box bought in 2011 I might estimate I kept 25 or so records, Glenn Campbell, Charlie Rich, Dean Martin/Rat Pack stuff, big band pop renderings, movie themes and one by guitar wizard Roy Smeck.  

Circulate. It keeps it fresh. And if you are an Italian crooner fan you can probably hit me up for a few of these before I make it to town for a thrift store drop off.  

 

 

Camping, Fishing and Where Did the Gas in My Boat Go?

This was the third weekend in a row for camping. Maybe I should keep a count of how often it rains on us. We are running at two out of three on this run. That hasn't stopped us, or our family and friends from joining us as we spent three nights at Hanks Creek. Hanks is only 15 miles from the house but it's where our fishing spots are. In this photo you can see my mother in law Geneva's truck camper, our Rpod and the boat tied up ready to go.    

Our old friend Darwin, who we saw at our recent campout in the Austin area for HonkTx! was passing through and stopped just long enough to catch big fish of the day. He reminded me he caught the biggest last time we fished. This cat came from the same stretch of bank we were fishing about 35 years ago with his late wife Debbie and the late Gary strong catching loads of bass on Tiny Torpedo topwater lures. All kinds of fish in this area and the Torpedo would still be a good choice.   

Cathy, Ezra and Luca reel one in. I think final total for three days fishing was 45 cats. Not bad considering half of it was done while someone held Milo Back from eating catfish bait. 

Luca scored big fish this day and I think it scared him a bit. Actually I hooked it and handed him the pole and Ezra netted it. These guys are great boat hands. 

I guess I'm slipping in my old age as I did not get a photo of Milo with a fish. He did catch on quick as to what a boat steering wheel is for.  

Morgan, Ali, Parker and Cullen joined us in their boat for the day. It was a good thing because as me, Ezra and Luca returned from a morning of fishing we ran out of gas and require a tow. I have a 40hp outboard on my boat and it has been very economical. I'm not running all over the lake and often make a tube riding trip and a couple of fishing trips on the same tank of gas. I checked the gas a couple of days before leaving and while not full it seemed enough for fishing the Hanks area. The gas ran out after four runs from Hanks to the Canyon area of the lake maybe 15 minutes and not all the time at full speed. After the tow I drove to town and filled up a five gallon can. I check the oil injection tank and it seemed to have not used enough oil to match gas consumption which made me wonder if someone had come by water and siphoned my gas at camp during the night or even at home before I left on the trip. Guess we won't know but I'll keep a closer look.    

Morgan's boat at work landing a fat cat. Ali lays out on the front and the back is for fishing. Note on the right there is an orange marker buoy marking the fish location and on the left you can see Cathy's cork. We probably caught 20 fish between the boats in water about 4 feet deep.   

I'm a little tired of cleaning fish but in a couple of days I might be persuaded to fish again. 

 

It rained again on Saturday nigh before we checked out Monday so all out camping gear is good and washed. It will be a few weeks before the next trip which will be boondocking with our new generator on the beach. 

La Perla at Festival International...

It came to me once when sharing some music I liked with other people that not everyone likes music sung in a foreign language. In fact it makes some down right uncomfortable to not know what the singer is saying. I guess after 20 plus years playing bilingual music at church I am long past that barrier and often listen to what for lack of a better term might be called world music. It is music from around the world. If I go to a festival I can usually be found at a stage featuring music from the Balkans, Cuba, Haiti or in this case It was La Perla from Bogota, Columbia.   

La Perla is a trio of women, often called the drum witches who bring an urban punk attitude and a rock hip hop influence to traditional music forms using drums, vocals and the Columbian gaitas or flute. One of the elements I especially enjoyed was the use of some type of vocoder or sub octave pitch shift on the vocals. It's a unique effect that could be over done but it was put to use sparingly and I can always use more of something that sounds weird. 

This drum looks like a djembe

Between Honktx and now the International Festival I have probably lost track of the number of groups I've seen with some kind of bass drum/percussion/cymbal set up. I like it and I want one. 

Here's the gaitas in action. They applied just the right touch of reverb though the sound system to make it huge. 

The players freely switched between instruments and vocals.

We saw this group on Thursday night of the festival. They were also scheduled to play Friday. I had my day blocked in with my focus on seeing Slavic Soul Party and as I set my lawn chair up near that stage a couple a few years older that us walked up. They had been to a nice restaurant and their snappy causal dress suited that scene but looked festival enough for the night time events. They said, "we've never been, what's the deal? We are here to see La Perla." I directed them to the correct stage and the grandkids fetched them a festival map from the info booth. I told them they have a great show but I should have asked how the band crossed their radar. Maybe more people like world music than I think. Maybe it's just the locals around here.  

One thing to remember is that Festival International is free. I'm retired. Follow here for more info on free and low cost entertainment. 

Check out La Perla. 

 

Slavic Soul Party at Festival International....

People tell me, "I like old music." It was about 20 years ago we got our hands on a Slavic Soul Party CD so I guess this could fall under the old category. They have been on our list to see live ever since. We finally got the chance last week when they played Festival International in Lafayette, La. 

Slavic Soul Party is an American band based in New York City. They play in a Balkan style that synthesizes Roma, funk, jazz, klezmer and more into a lively blend. They open for some big rock bands on occasioanl, play festivals like this but most often they can be seen on Tuesday nights at Barbes in Brooklyn. This summer they will celebrate 1000 Tuesday gigs there. I've been to Barbes and it's an intimate venue about the size of the this festival stage.   

I'm always up for some drum and tuba. I think this gentleman was a sub. They thanked him for sitting in, he was the only player with a cheat sheet on a stand and I have forgotten his name. 

Fantastic triple tonguing by the trombones and trumpets. Really virtuoso players. Checking out the bands tour schedule I would imagine some of these guys have days jobs and though they might be music related such as teaching or working in a music store or such it shows how hard it is for great players to make it in the business.  

Matt Moran is the energetic band leader. I love the bass drum cymbal set up. Lot of bands using it at HonkTx and we also saw a drum group from Columbia called La Perla at this festival.  

Cathy took this great cell phone photo of the accordion player. She stretched out over the rail and it seemed he posed just for her but I think he was actually looking down her shirt when she leaned forward. Accordion players will do that. I think I had a photo of Mary and Miguel with accordion  conjunto great Flaco Jiménez and Flaco seems to be looking down Mary's shirt.   

Great to accomplish a goal of seeing a favorite band. I have a hatful of their CDs.  Check out old music. There are some bands out there making it sound new. 

 

As We Age...

 When I'm scrolling Netflix and I see a movie blurb that says something like, "a heart warming coming of age story" I just keep on clicking right past that. Maybe that's cause I have lived all that kind of stuff and it was with my old friend Kenny Baker whose funeral I attended today.

 From about eighth grade band on up to graduation from high school we were inseparable friends. He played trombone and I played tuba. In addition to the social activity of band we went to the same church and grew up close learning to play music, drive old 1960s beater cars, listening to music, going to concerts, hunting and fishing like our dads taught us and engaging in as many teen age hijinks as our imaginations could come up with. Yeah, coming of age is a good way to put it. Certainty Kenny, as he aged became the man his family and the world will remember him as and maybe one day I will too. 

Here's an old band hall photo from about 1972. Left to right back row is Ernie Murry (I'll play a concert with him tomorrow) Kenny, and Ivor Little. Bottom row is Mike May (RIP), Bob Pennington (Bob's a nurse, I have worked with him and he's taken care of family) and me. 

After high school though we went to the same college our paths in life diverged and we would only meet and play in an occasional community band or band alumni concert. 

Recently someone came up and introduced themselves as Kenny's co worker. Kenny knew I was connected to the person and they told me, "He talks about you all the time." If that's not some cosmic reach out, I'm soon be gone but I'll be watching out for you moment I don't know what it is. If I felt that vibe from Kenny I can only imagine what his family and really close friends feel from his presence in Heaven.  

I saw many old friends from those high school band days at the funeral today. As we age it will just be a matter of time till we feel the call. Hopefully we will be able to reach out and touch the ones we love, our families and each other just like Kenny touched me.   

Here's an old clipping of the jazz band, 1972. Kenny is the trombone on the right. He's been playing that same horn as in the photo all these years.   

       

8th and 9th grade band about 1971. I'm the tuba on the left. Kenny is the tall guy next to the white sousaphone. 

Trombones, baritones and tubas, yearbook photo probably 1973. Can you pick all us coming of agers  out? 

Band alumni concert 2009. Me and Kenny in the back, probably causing trouble.  

We Have Merch...

Since I made a million buck on the Drum and Tuba Christmas thing money is not an issue here. All that was a DIY thing but now staff artist Miguel Aamora is on payroll designing these new Tuba Man Eclipse stickers.

If you would like one, these 3" x 3" peel off stickers are perfect for posting on city light poles, trash cans, in public restrooms or wherever hipsters hang out, message me your address cewallac@consolidated.net and venmo me what it's worth to you. If demand is high the cost of postage could set me back more than the cost of stickers not to mention the artist commission.

Unfortunately this sticker drop may get overshadowed by the new Taylor Swift Album and my gig on Sunday April 28th at 2:30pm in Temple Theater with the Angelina Civic Band (it's swing music) has to compete with the Rolling Stones Houston Concert so as indie artist we really appreciate your support.