One Night of Queen

Last night the boyfriend and I hopped on the 7:30 pm ferry and went across the river to see a show. At one point, before we moved, I spent some time researching places to go and things to do in New Orleans. That led me to the House of Blues, which led me to their concert calendar for the month of February. Something stood out, on Sunday the 21st, called "An Evening with One Night of Queen." I glanced over it, but decided to look it up anyway. And just as I thought, it was indeed a Queen cover band.

Now, normally I wouldn't even consider seeing a cover band over the real thing. But seeing as how that isn't exactly possible (R.I.P. Freddie Mercury)... I thought, "why not?"

His name is Gary Mullen, and he formed what is called a "Queen tribute band." He had great reviews and his YouTube videos were a lot of fun to watch so I had high expectations. And you know what? I was not disappointed. The man really engaged and entertained the crowd, he has a fantastic voice (with a remarkable resemblance to Freddie Mercury's), and he and his band really did the songs justice! I would highly recommend them to any Queen fan. I appreciated two things: one, that the songs were performed as they were originally. No surprise creative interpretations anywhere. And, they didn't pretend to be Queen, and Gary Mullen didn't pretend to be Freddie Mercury, or anything else equally blasphemous. They introduced themselves as who they are, and simply played Queen songs. Gary Mullen was dressed for the part, but I think everyone appreciated the effect.

My only complaint? They didn't play my favorite song (I Want to Break Free). BOO! Oh well. Here are some photos and videos from the show:




I apologize for the sound quality of these videos, but, what can I say? I don't own professional equipment, you know that. And it was loud as hell in there.

Clip from Bohemian Rhapsody.



Another clip from Bohemian Rhapsody.

After the show ended, the audience of
course demanded an encore.

What do I do with all these beads?

That is the question I couldn't help but wonder. Between Michael and myself, we racked in at least 50 beads, probably well more than that. So that left me wondering... what the hell am I supposed to do with these things? I mean, one can only have so many souvenir beads.

Well, I came up with one idea. I plan to use any beads of a similar shape to decorate my next Christmas tree. I can either put them on the tree itself, hanging them like ornaments, or I can break each one and tie them all together to create a big festive garland.

Great. But what about the beads that are left? That aren't the appropriate shape, size, or color, to fit in with the rest?

Well, that's why we have Mardi Gras trees:

Mardi Gras

Oh, Mardi Gras. What a crazy bitch you are. I have mixed feelings about Mardi Gras. On the one hand, I think it's a crazy party and there's nothing else like it in the world... except, maybe, in Brazil. On the OTHER hand, I think Mardi Gras is a little overrated. Take about a week's worth of Halloween celebrations (with the drinking and dressing like an idiot), and add some parades, add some beads... and there you have Mardi Gras. Maybe the difference is I got to celebrate Mardi Gras like a local. Which you would THINK is awesome, but it does come with a few inconveniences. First of all, Mardi Gras is not a few days, or even a week. The Mardi Gras "season" is from January 6th, until the day before lent (mid-February). And during this time, dozens of parties and parades are thrown. So ever since we got here I've been dealing with traffic, closed roads, road blocks, parade routes, crowds, and getting stuck behind floats on the bridge. After three weeks, you can expect that sort of thing to get old.

Mardi Gras really starts to get crazy the final week, or more specifically, the weekend before Fat Tuesday, and then through Fat Tuesday. So four solid days of partying, that makes it. This is when tourists flood the city and you can see the biggest and best parades. So! What did *I* do, you ask? Well, not all that much. I'm not a huge parade person, so I only caught two of the bigger ones.

Bacchus was on the Sunday before Mardi Gras, and was the first parade we saw. It was SUPER, super lame. My first Mardi Gras parade, which we attended because my cousin was visiting and she desperately wanted to see the king of the Bacchus parade (Drew Brees, the quarter back for the Saints). Usually, a parade is one float or marching band right after the other... and I don't know what was going on with Bacchus this year, but they were retardedly off with their timing. We'd see one float, one band, and then nothing for as much as 20 minutes. In an hour, we saw maybe 5 floats. After an hour of that, we just left. It was dumb. D-U-M-B. Dumb.

One of the things I did like about Bacchus

was that it was at night, so, the floats are
lit up.

King Kong. Notice that, instead of people
throwing things into the crowd, everyone
instead throws beads at Kong.

Every king needs a queen.

Look. At all. The garbage. There
are garbage cans along the street,
and they are empty if you can
believe it.



I always laugh at the officer watching the
little car.



This is the float that was carrying Drew
Brees. You can see him on the top, in the
front, wearing gold and a crown. I think
people screamed the most for this one.
(None of the screams/noises are from me,
I always shut my mouth when the camera
is rolling.) Sorry for the bumpiness, I was
trying to catch some beads!



This was actually taken on our way back from
Bourbon Street. We couldn't take the parade
anymore, and when we left and came back
some time later it was still going on.

On Tuesday, we managed to find time to go see the Rex parade before I had to take my cousin back to the airport. Rex is during the day, so the floats aren't lit up and therefore aren't quite as spectacular... but at least the parade had their shit together:

This is a shot of the area and the crowd

before the parade started. We were at the
very end of the route.

Knights? I guess?

This is a photo of Rex (the king) of this
parade. I know what you're thinking. You're
thinking, "Wow. That is an awesome photo."
I know it is.



A military marching band sprinting toward
the finish line (like I said, we were at the
very end of the parade route).



The king approaching.

So after we watched the parade for a little while, my cousin and I hopped back on the ferry to the other side of the river so I could take her back to the airport. After sitting in 2.5 hours of traffic, because they shut the bridge down to let all the floats get across, I had almost had enough of Mardi Gras. But somehow, I found the energy for one more trip over to Bourbon Street.

I have to say that the first trip to Bourbon Street is a bit of a sight. Seeing everyone hanging out in the streets, drinking openly in public, jazz musicians on every corner, people throwing beads at you from the balcony and occasionally asking to see your boobs. It's a site to behold, that is for sure. But it can only be beheld for so long before you're ready to go home. Seriously.

Crowds begging for beads underneath a
balcony. You see? You don't have to take
your top off to get beads.

Well this is what Bourbon Street looks like.
Just a lot of people, half of them in weird
hats, with their arms in the air trying
to catch beads.

So, what about the boobs? Well, most girls
happily keep their clothes on. But during Mardi
Gras there are a decent amount of sluts out
and about, and if you pay enough attention,
you ought to see boobs. This girl could not
keep her shirt on. And when she flashed
the crowd, guys threw beads up at her.

But! The most exciting part of the evening was walking down Bourbon Street and seeing flames on a balcony. People weren't screaming, so, from a distance the fire looked... I don't know. Contained? It was Mardi Gras! It wasn't unreasonable to assume there was some sort of porch bonfire going on, safe or not. So we get closer, and realize that... omfg, a HOUSE is on fire! A house is on fire, the fire is spreading, and the crowd is barely noticing!

After about 20 mins of staring in awe over a building burning to the ground, the fire department finally showed up. In the meantime, people were taking things into their own hands, acting as crowd control and such. I heard that everybody got out of the house and nobody was hurt, and once the fire hose got going they put the fire out no problem. That was a close call. After that frightening display I think Michael and I were both a little shook up and didn't stick around much longer. I had to collect a few beads, but, after that I was ready to go. On the way out of the French Quarter, we passed by this protest of sorts... it made me laugh, and it is definitely my favorite photo of the night:

So we left Bourbon Street, took the ferry back over the river, and were home before midnight. After all, Michael had to work the next morning. Besides, we'd all had enough of Mardi Gras by that point anyway. Even Darwin:

No Title.

I have been in New Orleans about... three or so weeks, now, and I have to say this city has very much exceeded my expectations. I asked a lot of people who had been here what they thought of the city, and the general feeling was this: "I enjoyed my visit, but I wouldn't choose to live there." So I came here excited, nervous, but with admittedly low expectations.

I heard a LOT of complaints about how dirty and run-down the city was, even before Katrina, with people assuming that it must be worse now. I also heard that New Orleans had a reputation for being really dangerous, and was warned numerous times to never be out alone anywhere, but especially at night...

First of all, the city is NOT that run-down. I've been all up and down this city and I don't think it's any more run-down than any other city I've been to. However, most American cities have a few bad areas that are fairly well isolated. New Orleans is instead a "checkerboard" city, meaning that the bad neighborhoods are well mixed in with the good neighborhoods. You could live in a nice area, but be a few blocks from a bad one (as is the case with our neighborhood). I also noticed that most of the suburbs surrounding the city are sorta junky, which I think is unusual as well. But the city itself, the busier areas, the tourist areas, the heavily populated areas... they're all very well maintained, and perfectly clean.

As for it being dangerous, I guess that might be true. I have been told by locals that if you use your head, it's not hard to avoid any danger. That means don't go wander around bad neighborhoods alone at night. But who does that anyway? I was also told that the violence is often gang related anyway. But more importantly, I have walked around alone at night (in well lit areas, with people around, I'm not an idiot). I've also been to places alone during the day many times, and I have not once seen any sort of foul play. Nobody has tried to bother me at all and in fact I'd say I've been bothered less than when I walk around San Francisco alone.

The point is, so far I've seen that New Orleans is a beautiful place with wonderful people who really have pride in their city and take good care of it as much as they can. Three weeks is enough time to realize that a) this place is WAY WAY better than Los Angeles, b) this place is better than Atlanta, and c) it even gives San Francisco a run for its money. And unlike MOST cities around the US, people from New Orleans are very very welcoming to tourists and out-of-towners in general. Try finding that in many places!

This is the ferry terminal. This is how
we get to the French Quarter, a
half mile across the river.

Having lunch by the ferry at a local cafe.
This was taken during my cousin's visit this
past week (that is not me).

Trying to take a photo of the square
by the French Quarter. I instead got a photo
of a time traveling horse.

Outside the French Quarter.

One of the many beautiful balconies
in the FQ.

Rock star dog.

Eating my first beignet at Cafe

Du Monde. Almost choked to death
on powdered sugar. That stuff should
really come with some sort of warning...

By the end of it, my cousin and I were both
covered in powdered sugar. Glad to see we
weren't the only ones having problems.

Mardi Gras King Cake

Upon learning the news that we were moving to New Orleans, one of the first things I did was research how to celebrate Mardi Gras the right way. That, at some point, led me to the discovery of something called a King Cake.

A King Cake is basically a ring of cake (more of a bread, or danish, depending on the baker) that is decorated with the colors of carnival: purple, gold, and green. The cake is traditionally baked during Mardi Gras season - January 6th (The Twelfth Night) until Ash Wednesday in mid-February. Tradition dictates that a trinket be placed inside the cake before baking. Nowadays, a plastic toy baby is traditional, but I've read stories about old rich plantation owners putting jewels somewhere in the cake. The idea is whoever receives the piece with the baby (or jewel) is crowned the "king" and has to throw the next party or bake the next King Cake. The King Cake tradition is an old one, I believe originating from France, but has been a part of the New Orleans' Mardi Gras history for many years.

Now MOST people in New Orleans will probably go to a bakery to purchase their King Cake. A lot of grocery stores in the South sell them as well. I've never seen them in California, but I did see King Cakes in several grocery stores in Atlanta. But I, of course, would have no part in purchasing a pre-made cake, so I decided to make my own. And that brings me to this:

Mardi Gras King Cake

1/2 c. warm water
2 envelopes active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
4-5 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg (preferably fresh ground)
1 tsp orange zest (freshly grated)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
1/2 c. warm milk
1/2 c. unsalted butter (melted)

For the frosting:

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp water
food coloring

1. In a small bowl, mix the yeast and sugar in with the warm water. Let stand 10 mins.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 4 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, orange zest, and cinnamon. Add the eggs, milk, butter, and yeast (but make sure the milk/butter isn't too hot or the yeast will suffer). Mix together to form a sticky dough, then turn out onto a floured surface.

3.Knead the dough, and incorporate the remaining cup of flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky. You may need all of it, you may not. I think I used about 3/4 cup of the remaining flour. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, roughly 10 mins.

3. Place the dough in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, roughly 1.5-2 hours.

4. When the dough has sufficiently risen, turn the dough back out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle that is about half an inch thick. Roll the dough into a log, creating a very thick "rope" of dough. Next you will form the dough into a ring. I twisted the rope before forming a ring, so a more decorative top would form during baking, but that is entirely optional.

5. Place the ring of dough onto a greased sheet pan. In the center of the ring, you will need to place a round, oven-proof object, so the ring holds its shape in the oven. Really, anything small and round that can go in the oven will do. You can see in the photo that I used a small oven dish to put in the center, and it worked just fine.

6. Now let the ring of dough rest and rise for another 30 mins. Take this time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

7. When the oven has preheated, bake the King Cake for approximately 30 mins or until the top has browned.

8. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting: Mix together all the ingredients in a medium bowl to make the white frosting.

You can use this to make smaller batches of colored frosting, which is what I did. How you decorate the cake is up to you. Lots of people pour white frosting over the cake and use colored sugars or sprinkles to decorate the cake in the appropriate colors. I did not have colored sugars, but I did have food coloring. So I used small amounts of the white frosting to make colored frosting, then decorated the cake that way and added silver dragees (that I also happened to have with me).

Just make sure the cake has cooled before you pour the frosting on it or it will melt too much. After it is decorated, feel free to admire your work, cut yourself a slice, and serve with a cup of black tea and lemon. Enjoy!

Geux Saints!

I am not what you'd consider a football fan, and I really never watch the Super Bowl... I mean sure, I've been in the presence of people who were, plenty of times. But I myself never watch it... because who cares, really? For most people, the team does not represent the city you live in or even the city you are from. And even if it does, then chances are that most (if not all) of the players on the team aren't even FROM the city they represent. So why does it even matter? Well it never has... UNTIL THIS YEAR!

The day before we arrived in New Orleans, the Saints had won the game that earns them the right to play in the Super Bowl in Miami. Now I come from a city where not everybody is dedicated to their city's football team. Don't get me wrong, San Francisco loves their 49ers... but not the same way that New Orleans loves their Saints. I would say that in San Francisco, there is a large group of people who really couldn't care less what the 49ers were up to. That is definitely not the case in New Orleans. This is a city that supports their team perhaps more than any other city in the country, and has great pride in them even when they lose. So, for their sake, and since I was actually here in New Orleans to get caught up in the excitement... I was really hoping for a Saints victory. Really, really hoping. Almost nervously.

Some coworkers of Michael's were kind enough to throw a Super Bowl party, so that is where we watched the game. We decided mid-game that if the Saints didn't win, we would just head home after that (it is Sunday night, after all). But if they did win, we would just have to go to the French Quarter and celebrate with everyone else. We'd just HAVE to. And as soon as they did win, and people were done screaming, everyone grabbed a "to go cup" (plastic cup that you can legally drink alcohol with in public), filled it with beer, and completely abandoned the party within two minutes.

Well we thought the best idea was, since we drove to the party, to just drive as close as we could to the French Quarter and park. After lots of honking, people screaming, and dodging fireworks in the road, I decided I had to start filming from my car window:






Unfortunately, by the time I shot this next video, I had accidentally knocked a dial on my camera which changed the film setting to record in a terrible quality. And by the time we had parked and walked to Canal Street, the area was so flooded with people they had to shut the road down. The cops were celebrating in their own way:




When we finally got to the outskirts of the FQ, the crowds were already piling up:




And by the time we got to Bourbon Street, people were going crazy. This is probably an hour, to an hour and a half after the Saints won... and people were just getting started. They're chanting the same thing people have been chanting for two weeks and continued to chant the rest of the night: "WHO DAT SAYIN' GONNA BEAT THEM SAINTS? WHO DAT?? WHO DAT??" The phrase "who dat" is a New Orleans thing that I'm still unclear about, but, at least I'm familiar with it now...



So, walking around the streets of the French Quarter was difficult not only because of the dense crowds but also because they were slowly parading behind various marching bands such as the one featured in this clip:





Lots of musicians did not form marching bands but contributed to the spirit of the celebration just as well:




It was a lot of fun to be so involved in the post-victory celebration, but, we left after only an hour. The French Quarter is not a very large area and truly could not accommodate all the fans that flooded the streets that night. It was literally a wall of people, a sea of empty plastic cups, and plumes of cigarette smoke amongst blaring brass instruments. It was pretty insane. Fun, but, only for a little while (especially if you were sober like we were). I mean one can only tolerate such dense crowds and noise for so long. But I'm glad we went and it was fun while it lasted. Making the decision to leave was a good one because when we did finally manage to escape the craziness, there were still literally hundreds of people flooding into the FQ. Even though there was NO MORE ROOM on Bourbon Street, they just kept coming and coming. It took us a good 20 minutes to walk three blocks out of that place.

In the French Quarter.

On Bourbon Street.

On Canal Street, outside the French Quarter.

Finally walking home.

I definitely enjoyed myself and was very grateful to have been in New Orleans at that particular time, but, I was also glad to have been in bed before midnight that evening.

A Walk Around the Block

So between the laziness and the rain, I haven't really "gotten around" to taking Darwin for a good long walk around the neighborhood. But today, it peaked into the low 60s and the sun was shining. So, we went for a walk, and I even brought my camera.

Belleville Street, Algiers Point, New Orleans, Louisiana.


Some of the houses are abandoned, and
for some reason have no windows on the
second stories.


Others, are beautiful.


Lots of people decorate their
houses for Mardi Gras.


This was one of my favorites.


You can see the city scape from most
of the neighborhood streets.
A small park next to the levy.


And this is what a view from a levy looks
like. I am standing on top of one in
this photo.


Algiers Point is directly across the river from
"The Crescent City", and is New Orleans'
second oldest neighborhood, founded in 1719.
The French Quarter is the city's oldest
neighborhood, established only a year prior.
The FQ is about a half mile across the
"Mighty Mississippi" and a ferry will take
me there twice an hour, for free.


Walking north along the levy, toward
downtown.


View of downtown New Orleans.


And I believe this is the French Quarter,
off to the East just a bit.

Swedish Meatballs

I noticed I post a lot of recipes with sweets or baked goods. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe because sweet things and baked goods are usually much prettier. Who knows? Well, this is a modification of a Martha Stewart recipe, which wasn't quite good enough in my opinion. So I changed a few things around and made it better (again, in my opinion).

Swedish Meatballs

For the meatballs:
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
3/4 c. onion (chopped)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 lg. egg
3 tbsp bread crumbs (plain, dried)

1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 tbsp oil (canola, vegetable, olive, don't care)

For the sauce:
3 tbsp dry red wine
3 tbsp flour
1 can beef stock
3/4 c. sour cream
fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c. flat-leaf parsley (chopped fine)

1. In a large bowl, mix together the onion, sour cream, egg, bread crumbs, and spices. Add the ground meat and combine thoroughly. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Heat the oil in a large pan over med.-high heat. Form the meat into about 1-in. balls, and place each into the pan. You'll probably have to do this in two batches. Brown the meatballs on at least two sides. These things are delicate little bastards so I do my best. Don't panic if they start to come apart or look a little lopsided. They will be fine.

3. After each meatball is sufficiently browned, place on a greased sheet pan. After all the meatballs have been browned, finish them off in the oven, cooking about 15-20 mins. I suggest breaking one apart to make sure they're cooked through completely before removing from the oven.

4. Now it's time to make the sauce: using the same pan you cooked the meatballs in, drain what's left in the pan except for about 1 tbsp of the drippings. Add the wine, and sprinkle the flour in the pan. Cook for 2 mins. Add the stock, and simmer for 5 mins. Whisk in the sour cream, nutmeg, and salt - cook another 5 mins over low heat. Stir in the chopped parsley.

5. It might be a little white trash of me, but, I like to serve Swedish meatballs the frozen dinner way (seriously): atop a bed of cooked egg noodles, sprinkled with more chopped parsley and maybe a bit of parmesan cheese and cracked pepper. I mean doesn't Marie Callendar know what's best, anyway?


Yields: approximately 4 servings.