Jim Stahr has a Different Year

Whoa! School grabbed up all my time. I'm planning a cross-country trip soon and hope to document it here. More on that later. I should finish writing my trip to NOLA.  I was disappointed by the French Quarter. Buskers were disorganized. The dreaded "what song should we do now?" lull was heard more than music and singing. There was a bar with parrot-heads. A Lynyrd-Tucker-Brothers Band playing Stairbird to Freeway. A very long line for Preservation Hall. Zombies were flocking to these places.  This Wednesday I went to an open mic at Bella's Martini Bar  where I heard Dylan, Paul Simon, Alvin Lee, Lennon, Lewis Carroll and local poet Cloby. Performed by superb musicians. This Thursday I saw Esperanza Spalding at Jorgensen . I expected much, and saw much more that I expected. Walking around the French Quarter we found  LC Smoove  playing at  635 Bourbon Street. He got the crowd dancing, and was the musical high point of my New Orleans trip. My disappointme

Walking around Magazine Street in New Orleans I noticed Thomas Mann's Gallery I/O . He is a metal working artist and  jeweler that I have admired for many years. I believe I may have heard of him while I lived in Pennsylvania and he was just starting in Allentown. He created the Techno.Romantic (TM)  style, which looks great in steam punk themed outfits. This was, in my mind a great find to stumble on. I don't actively follow him, but the art and name together triggered some dream-like memory. This would have been good enough for me, but the sales lady overheard me explaining to my companions that I was a fan and offered a tour of the shop. Yes please! This is the stairway lamp. She leads us through the shipping area, a narrow area with a counter and shipping materials that must be crossed to get to the stairway. Our guide is charged with all shipping duties. Upstairs is where the art and jewelery is created. It is the organized clutter of an artist'

So I quit Lizzard Squint. Don't worry I'm not giving up on music. Just a different direction. Perhaps NOLA gave me a little spark. Perhaps I just want to concentrate on photography. Perhaps I just want to make a different kind of noise. Here is some of a jam session I went to Monday. Fun stuff, but really just some random musicians getting together. Bb blues tribute to Sonny Rollins . No this is not Rollins playing - that would be awesome, but this cat gets it done with style. https://soundcloud.com/jim-stahr/rollins-jam-4-9-13

Sea of Green Apparently New Orleans and I have differing opinions about parades. New Orleans seems to think they're something good and to be had at every opportunity.  Luckily I was in town for the St. Patty's Day parade. That's ok, I get all my jazz from a Boston station. Look ma, no hands! Parades don't start very different here. The nearby school sends it best children to show off. The Riverdance classes are next, thanks to the Irish theme. Then the folks running for re-election. Then folks drinking beer. What? Guess he forgot about the cozy. That's right, they had lanyards around their necks to keep the beer cozies in reach. Did I mention the float that was selling Daiquiris to the crowd? I was too busy ogling the serving wench to notice the price list. Supporting cast. And the crowd. People in the crowd make the parade an event. Dressing up is a norm, beer in hand requisite. I was fortunate enough to be invited to

click to enlarge any pic Sometimes I lament the picture I did not take. Such was the case when we journeyed out of New Orleans for a swamp stomp. This realization did not happen until  I had been home for about a week. To avoid being eaten by gators, a tour by Pearl River Eco Tours  was agreed upon. We had enough people going to fill two cars, me following my father in law. We had discussed the directions and took off for a forty five minute trip. Things went awry when my father in law took a very early exit onto route 90, which was mostly bypassed by the directions given. I followed, thinking his GPS might be giving him better directions. They weren't. As my passengers started to stress about the time it was taking, my eyes began to wander. Some hawks, kites, falcons, and buzzards wanted the camera to come out. But we were on a schedule. Arriving at the site, it was decided that I would ride in the other car to take the long way back for photos. That didn't ha