happy easter

Here's Easter, New Orleans style, circa 1975 ...

My cousins, my brother and me -- notice the confetti on our heads

That's me!

Not sure why he's making that sign -- maybe because he has only one egg and I have a few dozen?!!?


Last year, I blogged about our traditional Easter celebrations cracking confetti eggs over our family members' heads. I just thought this is what everyone did, but I soon found out that not only did no one else seem to celebrate with cascarones, they thought I was a bit crazy for it. Here are some photos of the way I remember Easter at my Grandma's house with my family. This is probably 1979.









Happy Easter, everyone!

new travis video

A little pre-Coachella goodness ...

sushi dreams

I ordered gifts from PerpetualKid.com for Christmas last year, but I haven't been back to the site in a while. There's always some cool stuff on there ... and some really odd items, too. I mean, sushi cologne???

Upon closer review, the description of the cologne seems a bit more interesting. According to the site, "Demeter creates scents that are drawn from memories to transport a person back to a special place or time." Here are some of the other memorable scents...
Glue

Cosmopolitan ... A little Peacock Room, anyone?

Dirt

Whiskey Tobacco

Play-Doh

Other must-haves ...
Pro Thumb Wrestling

License Plate Flash Frame

Taterpots

Dual Voltage Shocking Roulette

Coughing Screaming Ashtray

happiness, according to Wayne Coyne

my new favorite quote ...

"Happiness is not a situation to be longed for or a convergence of lucky happenstance. Through the power of our own minds, we can help ourselves."
-Wayne Coyne

The quote is from Wayne's "This I Believe" contribution on NPR, titled "Creating Our Own Happiness." It's worth a listen. It's very obvious to me where much of the Flaming Lips goodness comes from.

for #1 only

Courtesy of Activate, here's an odd photo that caught my eye ...


A man uses a controversial outdoor toilet in southwest China's Chongqing municipality on February 24, 2007. (Reuters/China Daily China Daily Information Corp.)

trent reznor opening for culture club?

Everyone starts somewhere ...

bright eyes tour

Bright Eyes has announced tour dates in support of Cassadaga, and if you want to see the show in the venue closest to the album's namesake, then you'll spend the evening of May 17 at Hard Rock Live in Orlando. I'm thrilled that Conor and Mike and the always-bored-looking keyboard player and all the rest. Check out Pitchforkmedia.com for the full tour.

There's also a stop at the Tampa Theatre on May 16. That venue is absolutely gorgeous. I caught the band there for the I'm Wide Awake It's Morning tour with Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter and Neva Dinova. The theatre opened in 1926, and the city of Tampa took it over in the '70s and restored the venue. It's definitely worth the trip just to see the theatre. And then there's the music. :)

conor's back ... i think

Bright Eyes has a new CD coming out soon, and the new song "Four Winds" is the beautiful, poetic, alt-country anthem you hoped it would be. The video, which you can watch on ifilm.com, is unlike anything they've done before. It's a black-and-white performance video, and the whole band's in it, including Maria Taylor on drums.

But you may not notice any of that, because if you are like me, you're going to be dumbfounded by Conor's appearance and pre-occupied with trying to figure out who he's reminding you of. His long straggly hair is longer than ever, and when he first appeared on my little screen, I thought it was the lead singer of the Arcade Fire. He looks like a completely different person.

The fact that I am even mentioning his hair -- much less focusing on it -- is not something I am proud of. But at least you're not spending these few moments hearing about Anna Nicole Smith.

The new album Cassadaga, by the way, will be out on April 10. The lyrics in one song refers to communing with the dead in Cassadaga. Could it be? My favorite little psychic community??? There's a cool town just north of Orlando that's known for shaking its cosmic thing. I wonder if they traveled through after a show and stopped for a palm reading??? And what's with all these question marks???

I just purchased the Four Winds EP, which includes the first single from Cassadaga and five songs billed as "exclusive B-sides." There are all kinds of amazing guests on the album, including Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney, Rachael Yamagata, Ben Kweller, M Ward and a few Saddle Creek folks, as you'd expect. I can't wait to hear the full album.

Oh, look, I found more photos of Conor on Pitchfork, and here's what they said ... "Conor's sporting some terrible hair these days, long and greasy like a bass player in a grunge band circa 1992."

Yikes, tell us how you really feel.

Remember when Michael Hutchence cut his hair so that people would "focus" on his music and not his sexy looks? I think that might be the same rationale Matt Lauer used when he went nearly bald. Doesn't Conor know that his lyrics are just as much of a turn-on as his sad eyes? Whatever. As the new music proves, he's still amazing, and as the pictures below show, he's still hot, and I still want to run my fingers through his hair and French braid it.

i am not a nugget

I just spent more than half an hour on peta’s very cool Web site. There are lots of fun downloads with vintage-looking artwork and fun slogans, like “Cut class, not frogs,” “I am not a nugget,” (I LOVE that one!) and “Love me, don’t wear me.” You can print them as stickers, magnets and iron-on transfers. I included some of my favorites below. There’s also some kickin’ musicians, like Le Tigre, Peaches and Mates of State making their own cruelty-free statements.

Let’s be honest here, I am not a vegetarian. I wish I could be because, as an animal lover, it just makes sense. I eat very little red meat, but way too much chicken and seafood. I started eating a lot more vegetarian dishes a few years ago when I started getting healthy. I loved it. I felt better physically and mentally.



My mom is Catholic, and she never eats meat on Fridays during Lent. That’s why all the seafood restaurants in New Orleans are especially crowded on Fridays at this time of year. That’s about as close as my family got to vegetarianism when I was growing up.

Be sure to check out peta2.com You can even sign up to get a package of stickers, vegetarian recipes and a DVD with footage of Death Cab for Cutie, Le Tigre and some other bands that support the cause.

this american life

Hello DVR, and thank you for the increasingly and ridiculously important role you play in my life. I am so excited about the announcement that the “This American Life” show I listen to on NPR is becoming a Showtime series. Below is the description from sho.com.

And who knew Ira Glass was so adorable???

"Compelling stories are explored every day on "This American Life," the nearly 15-year-old, award-winning Chicago Public Radio show that boasts a devoted weekly listening audience of 1.7 million, and is heard on more than 500 stations nationally. The series, created in 1995 by host and executive producer Ira Glass, pioneered a unique way of telling stories on the radio. Its first-person telling of these revealing stories makes the radio series a great fit for television.

"In the same spirit of the radio show, the televised version of THIS AMERICAN LIFE, premiering Thursday, March 22nd at 10:30 p.m. PT/ET, takes 30-minute looks at stories culled from all over the country. Glass and a small team of radio producers and filmmakers spent six months on the road: traveling to Iowa pig farms, following a first-time filmmaker in California, photographing a raucous night at an Illinois hot dog stand. The result is true stories that are dramatic, emotional, and often funny."

the flaming lips are headed to o-town

After picking up a couple of Grammy Awards last night, Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips announced a brief tour this spring, and they are coming to House of Blues on April 12. Now, you know, that one is going to sell out quickly! I've never seen them live, so the idea that I can see them in such an intimate setting is a great way to end a Monday.

The Arcade Fire are headed out on tour this spring, too, but they are only going as far south as Atlanta.

oh baby!

It was an amazing coincidence. My best friend learned she was pregnant, and just a few days later, my brother and his wife called me to tell me they were expecting, too. The next nine months were full of onesies, sonograms, baby showers and butt paste.

Then January came around. I was consumed in SAINTS "Who dat?" mania and the excitement of two little ladies who were about to enter the world. Still, I wasn’t ready for it. I had no idea how it would hit me.

I am so in love with these two – Ashley and Lily – and I feel like I have something to look forward to for the rest of my life.

First, there was Lily. I took a picture of her in the first hour of her life. I had never seen a baby so new to the world, and I was a bit overwhelmed by my own feelings. I went to the hospital at about 3 p.m. The petocin was flowing, but the flowers weren’t blooming –if you know what I mean. Christy was, as usual, headstrong and brave, and beautiful, too.

At 9:35 p.m., Lily was born by Cesarean section.

I tried to capture as many moments as I could. See some of them online with my new iWeb account.

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But the fun wasn’t over yet. Two days later, Mandie and Stephen checked in to a Houston hospital and gave birth to Ashley, my red-headed niece and godchild. I am living off the photos Stephen, my parents and Mandie’s parents send to me. Here are some of my favorites.




To tell you the truth, I cry when I look at these photos. I want to meet Ashley, hug her and hold her because, although I have never met her, I love her more than I can express. I can’t wait to go to Houston with my camera and take an annoying amount of photos!

i soooooo needed this today ...

Today was a super crappy day until I saw this. Unbelievable! As my eyes scroll through the list, my voice gets higher and higher with excitement.

we looked totally nuts

I finally sent in my "What the SAINTS' season means to me" submission to the Times-Picayune newspaper in the New Orleans. Hopefully, it will be posted on NOLA.com soon.

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One of my favorite memories of my childhood is going to the airport after Morten Andersen kicked a winning field goal in the last seconds of a game against the Falcons. It was probably 1983 or ’84. My whole family went, and I can remember my cousin Jennifer and I making signs with two paper plates, some tape and a couple of badminton racquets.

We watched ourselves on the local news the next day, and I remember thinking we looked totally nuts. People were chanting “Superbowl SAINTS,” and yet we still had a losing record. But that’s what made it fun and what makes the SAINTS so special to this city.

No matter how badly the 49ers could kick our butts, there was always excitement, hope and sincere love and admiration for the team. I truly loved watching people like Archie, Morten, George Rogers, Hokie Gajan, Dalton Hilliard, Ruben Mayes, Dave Waymer, Brian Hansen, John Fourcade and, of course, that amazing defensive line of the late ’80s and early '90s.

I like to think that the high we experienced that evening at the airport is what made my parents decide to start buying season tickets for the family. We had them for about 10 years, and I couldn’t think of a better way to bond with my family. It was like our Sunday religious experience. We yelled, danced, did the wave, prayed and cried – all as a family in Section 621. We listened to Jim Henderson and Buddy Diliberto on the ride back to Metairie, honking and waving our fists out the windows when we won, and listening in miserable silence to the interviews and replays when we lost.

It’s definitely more than just a game. It’s:

• Grabbing a pre-game lunch at the food court at the New Orleans Centre
• Muting the game on TV and turning up Jim & Archie on the radio
• Waiting for the jazz band to make it over to our section in the third quarter
• Reciting the omnipresent Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse ads on the jumbo screen
• Listening to my mom giggling like someone my own age about her time spent sitting next to Morten at Champion’s restaurant
• Watching fan after fan trip on the staircase on their way to the very top of the Superdome
• Seth Green performing enthusiastic “Cha Chings” on the field back in the heyday of those Rally’s commercials
• Watching strangers high-five and hug each other in the excitement of a great play
• Seeing my dad’s proud face when I spouted off football stats and my teen-age expert opinion

It’s New Orleans, and it’s everything I love about calling it my hometown.

the saints are coming ...

we did it!!!!!

SAINTS 27 - - - Eagles 24


DEUUUUUUUCCCCCE!!!

After 40 years of being the underdogs, the SAINTS are headed to the NFC championship game, and I don't think it has hit me yet.

The games this year have such a different feel, (I guess it's called consistency!) and yet, when the camera tonight panned through the Superdome audience in the final minutes of the game, everyone looked like I did. Hands in prayer position, butterflies in tummy, shirt collar in mouth, we couldn't celebrate like fans of other teams. If there's even a second left on the clock, we know our fortune can still change. It's not until you see the double zero that you can exhale, let your shoulders fall from your ears and relax your butt muscles.

Good God, how am I even going to make it until next weekend!!?? For now, I'm going to enjoy the win, remember how much fun I had growing up in Section 621, Row 8, and feeling thankful that these wins couldn't have come at a better time. BLESS YOU BOYS!

How is Drew Brees the best QB in the NFL? The dude has four arms!