The Hot 8 Brass Band

On the street, on a wet, humid night with a tropical storm moving in..... in Richmond, Virginia

It turns out Richmond has rock 'n' roll after all

Tonight, a WEDNESDAY NIGHT, I WALKED to a CORNER BAR in a RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD, where for NO COVER CHARGE I heard a pretty darn good band from Australia called the Red Hot Poker Dots. I'm not saying they were the best band ever, but the experience laid to rest my fear that I had left the rock n roll lifestyle behind me forever in New Orleans. Also, at no point in my 8-block walk home did I feel any apprehension about getting shot, nor did I become soaked with sweat.

Johnny J

If he was in a slump, it's done with. He just put out this great album, produced by Dale Hawkins. (Get it at CD Baby). He's a great, great guitar player. And there's nothing sexier than skills. I'm definitely going there.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am now a Doctor of the Law

I am studying for the bar and getting ready to move out of New Orleans in five weeks. After all the tortured indecision, the emotions have died down and I’m ready to get on with it. I’m really sick of almost everything about New Orleans, I’m tired of the hassle and ineptitude, the filth and the crime and the weather, I’m grateful I’ll never have to go on another hurricane evacuation.

Graduation weekend I was in the French Quarter with my parents and Aunt Susie. We were gawking at St. Louis Cathedral when I heard someone call “Hey Heather!” It was Torres in a seersucker suit, smiling at me. He represents what was probably my quintessential New Orleans romantic experience: weeks of flirting; one insanely fun alcohol-fueled date on which an elderly retired gynecologist bought us drinks and asked us if we were going to get married because we made a great couple; underwhelming alcohol-impaired sex; an ambiguous goodbye with perhaps misread signals; nothing nothing nothing; a year and an hurricane goes by and I see him again and he’s all flirty but nothing comes of it; I send him an email that he doesn’t answer and I don’t know if he received; I see him again and he’s all flirty but even thinking about him seems a pointless exercise in frustration.

In the end, there’s only one thing I’m really, really going to miss about New Orleans, and I’ll miss it a lot: the music and the nightlife that goes with it. In the last month I’ve seen:

Pine Leaf Boys
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
Happy Talk
Morning 40
Savoy Family Band
Valpairaso Men’s Chorus
Amy LaVere
The Bad Off
The Roots
CC Adcock
Tin Men
The Plowboys
Michael Hurtt and the Haunted Hearts
Johnny J

And that’s just an average month. Memphis was an above-par music town, but I never had a month like that when I lived there. And I don’t think Richmond is going to come close to even Memphis’ music scene. I kind of wish I could conduct my night life in New Orleans while I live the rest of it elsewhere. But as much as I love the music scene, for me it doesn’t quite make up for all the rest

Anyway, I know that Richmond has a weekly swing-dancing party and a couple of clubs that bring it good touring bands. I think that will be enough, and I expect the rest of my life will be much better there.

Almost nine years here and I have no one to go on a send-off spree with except Darcy, who is a newcomer to my life. I might have lunch with my old co-workers. Otherwise, the people I used to know are gone or estranged.