The Numbers For 2017

Year #5 without a drink. Thanks to all the friends, family, and strangers who helped along the way.

I went on 4 vacations(Harrisburg, NYC, Denver, New Orleans).

I did 48 shows with Deep Schwa.

I did 45 shows with Sight Unseen.

The Night Shift did 1 show.

I co-wrote and performed 1 sketch show 5 times.

I conceived and shot 20 interviews for a documentary tentatively titled Chiaroscuro.

I wrote 62 poems, 1 essay, and did 6 readings.

I watched 78 movies in the theater.

I read 68 books my favorite of which was The Antagonist by Lynn Coady.

I went to 1 concert(Willie Nelson).

I saw 1 of my heroes in the flesh(Chris Rock).

I went to 2 plays(Linda Vista, Doll's House Part 2).

I went to 2 weddings.

I went to 0 funerals.

I went to 2 Michelin starred restaurants.

I moved once.

I babysat my niece for the first time.

I learned and cooked 6 crock pot recipes.

I rode my motorcycle for 7 months. I changed the battery once.

Nicole and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary.

I'm grateful for it all.

The Age of Trees

These trees have seen a lot
I do not envy their longevity
I hope the joy I feel in this moment
does something to soothe the pain
of yesterday.

New Orleans IS Weird

There is drinking and a striking lack
of inhabitations from the children to the
elderly. Shops and food and face paint and
masks and music and fortune tellers and pralines
sellers and haunted houses and hanging gardens
and gutter punks and vagabonds and on and on.

But there is no pretentous and bleating
refrain to keep New Orleans weird because it is.
Unaffected, perhaps enhanced, by the parade
of tourists pounding the cobble stones
in search of release and pleasure and a little risk.

If you need to constantly call for the mainteince of weird
it's already long ago and far away.

City Park

Took the streetcar up to City Park this morning, there are tons of tourists out and about and its amazing how patient not only the RTA employees are but the locals too. The laid back reputation of the New Orleans citizens is not unearned.

There's a mini railroad that runs through the park, presumably some kind of ride but it wasn't in operation today.

We went through the botanical gardens which were gorgeous and extensive. The first section is a sculpture garden from artist Enrique Alférez.

The rest of the gardens were immaculate, we got there right when it opened so it was relatively deserted.

Next to the gardens is StoryLand this incredibly bizarre kids park with huge fiberglass fairytale characters and playground equipment.

On our way out of the park we walked through the art musuems sculpture garden. Also very striking.

I was surprised about how much stuff was out in the open air throughout the park, shouldn't be a surprise really given how temperate the climate down here is. It's our last night in New Orleans tonight and before we leave tomorrow were going to Dooky Chase's.

Uptown

Nicole and I are on vacation this week, three days in New Orleans and three days in a cabin on the other side of the lake. Today we took a streetcar uptown to see the city.

Lot of old mansions along St. Charles.

Lot of huge old trees too.

Per my parents suggestion we had a late breakfast at The Camellia Grill a famous diner which had incredible memorizing food.

After we walked around the Tulane quad a little bit.

Then through Audubon Park on the way to the zoo.

It was a great walk and the zoo was immaculate, clearly extensively renovated in the past couple years but the heat here is no joke. Whew!

Where My Parents Met

Forty years ago two Tulane Law students met
and amongst the numerous ramifications, falling action, and results
my sister and I were two
for the first time I visit the spots
of my familial genisis
eating where they ate
walking where they walked
riding the famed streetcars as they used to,
presumably with much less agility.
It is pleasant but eerie
ghosts of my parents long-haired hippie youth,
joyful, on the periphary.
I must imagine what they're life was like
because they never spoke about it much.
I assume because the decadence and inhabitation
of the Big Easy isn't something you freely share
with your progeny.