Saturday April 2, 2005

The VIP SA&PC

Saturday was the Freret Street Festival uptown. It was a beautiful day in New Orleans, cool, with just enough sun to make you feel nice and warm. The street was lined with stands selling all kinds of crawfish dishes, barbeque chicken, tacos and all kinds of other good things. In the crowd I spotted Monk Boudreax, Geetchie from the Wild Magnolia, and James "Smoke that Fiya" Andrews. The music was on too, as Kermit Ruffins, Rebirth, The Batiste Brothers and Walter Wolfman Washington took turns getting on their the groove from stages that faced each other on opposite ends of Freret. The Batiste Brothers rendition of Purple Rain had the crowd swaying to the chorus, under a darkening Louisiana sky. If God loves music, and I am sure he or she does, God must have looked down and smiled at tiny Freret street, in the middle of the 'hood, cause the music was celestial.

The ladies must have been looking too, at the same fashion magazine though, as everywhere I looked was another pretty lady dressed in pink and green, or some shade of the two. It was a running joke between me and my running partner Trey, second liner and movie man, as we puffed away by the stage. The trend was set by the VIP Social Aid and Pleasure club two weeks ago when they paraded uptown in fluorescent magenta and green outfits.

Also in force is the New York look so popular in New Orleans. Maybe its the new-yawkish accent of the folks from Araby, or just that that Brooklyn and New Orleans people are entirely hip, whether they be Irish, Italian or African-American but rarely do I see an Lakers cap round these parts, not in Mid-City or in the Ninth, (although I guess that Tupac T might be a west coast thing.) Peace out.