FEST 2001 - EARLY DAZE


DAY ONE – TUESDAY 4/24
After checking in at the Marriott and registering for the conference, I gave JuJu a call and found she was stuck at work for awhile. It was overcast and slightly drizzling off and on, but still warm. I walked down to the river and caught the trolley along the moonwalk down to the French Market. Did a little shopping in the flea market and in some of the funky shops in the lower quarter.

I had a huge shrimp Po-boy at Fiorelli's - one of my favorite places for lunch. It made me a little sad not to have Joe here to eat the other half for me, so I had to wolf it down myself while sitting at the counter chatting with the counter guy. Then I strolled back to the hotel along Decatur and Charters, enjoying the smells and sights and sounds of my home-away-from-home. Popped in to the Café-Au-Lait on Charters for a large iced cappuccino to wake me up for a night with JuJu.

Jujuvoo & Neen at Vacqueros

The lovely Ms. Voo zipped me away from the hotel in her sexy car around 5pm, and we went to tour her new place. It is so lovely - a sweet shotgun style home with a wonderful back patio. After admiring the painting and decorating work she'd done, we hung out under the big leafy tree on the patio, savoring the fine drizzle that found its way through the leaves onto us, partying and catching up and exchanging birthday gifts. Hours later we dragged our asses out to dinner at Vacqueros - the perfect place for a pair of munched-out kitties. We ordered off the appetizer menu for a dinner of "mexican tapas". The highlight was the crawfish & black bean empanadas. We also had chile con queso, a goat cheese and apple salad, and a five-salsa sampler tray. Juju educated me in the ways of having a "flight" of tequila, although I stuck to vodka. Tequila is NOT my friend.

I really enjoyed arriving in NOLA a few days early, with time to slowly ease into the swing of things. Thanks JuJu for being my chauffeur and host and gift-giver and friend. It was a wonderful first day.


DAY TWO – WEDNESDAY 4/25
Up for a 7:30am breakfast meeting than speeches, workshops and classes all day. They fed us a pretty good lunch though - crawfish penne pasta, cajun beef tips, etc. I found myself sitting at the back of a seminar room with my copy of Gambit's Count's picks and my fest grids, marking which acts I wanted to see, so the day was not wasted.

Finally went up to my room to start my own personal happy hour before walking five blocks to the Lafayette Square Park for a free Wednesday concert with the Iguanas. I found JuJu and a couple of her friends (or so I thought). I've met lots of her sluts/Dupree friends over the last couple of years, and these two people waving at me, I figured were two that I had met and forgotten. We greeted and I asked their names, then died of embarrassment when I realized I hadn't really LOOKED at them - it was Heavy D and Little J! It was so great to see some of my original Kat buddies after missing them at last year's fest. And the one and only Blukat and his son Jonathan were there too, along with Queen Voo.

Soon a pretty kitty came up to Blukat and said, "You must be Blukat, right?" It was FriedaFrost, meeting up with her first Kats. And Mike/Albq and Bethesda Boy joined us too. We had a great time, hanging out in the park for hours, grooving to the Iguanas, dancing a little, drinking a lot, even taking special trips to the port-a-lets (those handicapped ones are so ROOMY for a private party ).


At Cooter Browns - JuJu giving Little J
her first taste of Barbencourt Rhum		 Juju was such a dear and saved me from the awful rum drinks they were selling, by pulling out her flask of Barbencourt and keeping me nicely lubed. After much exchange of buttons and hugs and kisses and photos, the music was over and we were forced to make some plans for the night. Blukat was kidnapped away by a gorgeous lady who picked him up in the park, Mike/Albq wandered down to Michaud's for the street parade, and the rest of us (Voo, Little J, Heavy D, Bethesda Boy, Frieda Frost and me) piled into a couple of cars and drove down to the Riverbend for my first Cooter Brown's experience.

It was a heavenly evening, no humidity, cool and soft. I could have just driven around in that sexy little convertible all night with Voo. We made it to the bar and spent the rest of the night gabbing and drinking copious amounts of beers. Juju bought 2 dozen oysters for the table, which disappeared almost immediately. We all ordered food - most got Oyster Po-Boys, I opted for a burger, and Juju had some Andygators for dinner (*G*).

I loved the place - we sat in the back room and had it all to ourselves, so we spread out and made lots of noise. I spent some time admiring all of the clever carved personalities holding beer cans that line the walls. And I even met Jumpin' Judy of Radiators song fame. It was a great choice of places to go.

Heavy D and Little J peeled off to head home to their kids, and the four of us remaining Kats headed out to the levee to admire the evening and have a little party. We all decided to make it an early night, since Voo and I had to work the next morning, and Bboy was heading back to his room to await the late arrival of his sweetie. We sent Voo home and the three of us cabbed back to the quarter.

I must have been more toasted than I thought, because I was reviewing the day's pix on my new digital camera. When I went to erase one shot I didn't need, I accidentally erased ALL of the great photos except two. Damn. They were good ones too! Guess I'll just have to take lots more over the weekend.


Thursday dinner at Jacquimos
Maggie, Sha, Juju, Ricky/NJ, Roxanne, Wendy


DAY THREE – THURSDAY 4/26
Up early again for a 7:30 am breakfast with my co-workers, followed by workshops all day. At least they fed us a good New Orleans Italian lunch. Finally it was over and I grabbed a cab to head uptown to Jacquimo's for our 7:00 pm dinner reservation. I lucked out with a really sweet cab driver, who spent the whole trip playing his Haitian music tapes for me, giving me an education. It was definitely a NOLA cab experience.

And the restaurant followed suit. It appeared that they had originally opened in one building, and then expanded to another building. So the whole time I was standing outside with a cocktail, waiting for the rest of the kats to show up, I was entertained watching waiters scurry down the metal outside stairs from one building, cross an alley and enter the other building to deliver food to the customers there. Only in New Orleans! And it sure was crowded outside the restaurant.

I was so glad that Whirlwind Wendy had made reservations. I overheard one cell phone conversation in the crowd, where a woman was telling the other party that they should just come to straight to Jacquimo's since the wait would be hours long. Then realizing that she was talking to someone in DALLAS!

Eventually the other kats arrived – Jujuvoo, Sha, Wendy, Maggie & her sister Roxanne, and Juls/NJ's friend Ricky. My dinner was grouper with tomatilla & shrimp sauce, plus I got a few appetizers for the table – crabmeat & cornbread cakes, fried green tomatos, and the waiter gave us a crab cheesecake. We presented Maggie with her PDKK wedding gift - WWOZ brass passes - along with the hilarious card that MamaRoux had made. She took a wedding ad out of a magazine and pasted Maggie & Eric's faces on it. JuJu made buttons with the same picture on it, and gave one to each of us to wear. We all wished MamaRoux, the instigator for the gift, could have been there with us.
Roxanne, Wendy & Maggie



Ricky & Jujuvoo
Maggie & Neen


After dinner, we strolled down to the Maple Leaf and partied in the courtyard for a while, before Juju, Wendy and I peeled off to head to the Howlin Wolf. The rest were staying at the Leaf for Dirty Dozen & Bonearama. The Wolf was not at all crowded when we got there, and I had a chance to meet lots of Juju's fellow radiator-head friends, as well as many of the Monkey Krewe. Purple Trish showed up and soon the Radiators came out. They played half a set without Earl King - very jazzy, emotional tunes. I never realized that the Rads played this kind of music, I'd always think of them as party-music band. Then Earl King came out and all of the Rads were beaming, happy to be backing him up again. Earl's voice was amazing, but unfortunately his poor old fingers couldn't quite cut it on the guitar on some of the songs. You could hear flashes of brilliance, but I felt for the band trying to hold the songs together when Earl would occasionally lose the beat.

During the break, we headed across the street to party and then sat outside at a table, looking at a really great scrapbook of pix from the first Monkey Ball. I kept an eye out for Pete, but he never showed. He was driving in from Atlanta that night, and said he'd try to meet us. We stayed for a few songs in the second set, then headed home. It was late, and I still had to get everything packed up for my hotel shuffle in the morning.


Earl King
Dave Malone(?) & Earl King



Ed Volker on keys
Wendy, Juju & Trish looking at the Monkey scrapbook

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