2014 status updates

In reverse chronological order

Dec 19, 2014, 4:15 PM

For my NOLA peeps: did you realize the Gay businesses we lost this year:

• Second Skin (mags and toys)
• Voodoo
• Ninth Circle
• The Club New Orleans (bathhouse)
• (and it’s still there but the Country Club is no longer clothing optional)
• and tomorrow, Le Roundup closes.

Signs of the times, my friends.

Aug 19, 2014, 1:53 AM

Upcoming TV show “NCIS: New Orleans” was in the piano lounge this afternoon, shooting footage for the opening credits of the show. We played high energy stuff for the crowd of extras to dance to.

Filming took about three hours, and I guess I might appear as a blip or a pair of hands when (probably) three seconds of footage makes it into the final product. Showbiz!

Aug 16, 2014, 10:05 PM

“Don’t ever think you know what’s right for the other person. He might start thinking he knows what’s right for you.”

• from a book called “Das Energi” by Paul Williams

Jun 29, 2014, 4:23 AM

Shooting on Bourbon street at 2:45 am. On st ann st, outside of the Pub/Oz according to a bartender at Cafe Lafitte’s. Pat O’s doorman says he heard 7 shots and then the crowd ran towards canal st. Possibly one dead.

Seconds after the shooting #nola pic.twitter.com/Dpx47a6FFh

— Dave Minsky (@daveminsky) June 29, 2014

Jun 13, 2014, 10:13 PM

In the past 80 years the United States has had 13 presidents, yet Obama is only the third sitting president to come into Indian Country in that time. (The other two were Bill Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt)

May 29, 2014 at 1:17pm CDT

It seems I have developed Sciatica, affecting my right leg. I’m self-diagnosing, but my symptoms match up exactly. Does anyone else have experience with this, and do you have some stretches to recommend that helped you lessen the pain?

April 16, 2014 at 8:13pm CDT

Fantastic supper at Sylvain in the Quarter. Two rounds of Sazeracs have us feeling real mellow.

March 17, 2014 at 3:56pm CDT

I am honored to have been interviewed by “The Colonel,” the alumni magazine of Nicholls State University, for their Spring 2014 issue. “We’re All In The Mood For A Melody: Computer science graduate finds second career as a piano man”

February 20, 2014 at 12:29pm CST

If I were to kill a spider in my Reeses Pieces, I would say, “Rest in Pieces, Pest in Reeses.”

February 9, 2014 at 3:57pm CST

In Britain in late 1963, Beatlemania was in full swing. Their fifth single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” had advance orders of one million copies, placing it instantly at Number One.

However, America regarded them as it regarded every British pop performer - an inferior substitute for American rock and roll.

Despite this atmosphere, Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager is determined to break them in the States. He flew to America and persuaded Capitol Records to release “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in January 1964. On the same trip he met with Ed Sullivan and worked out the deal to have the Beatles receive top billing for three shows in February 1964.

Sullivan thought it was “ridiculous” to give them top billing because an English group hadn’t had success in the U.S. in a long time. But their fee was low- the Sullivan show’s producer admits, “Even for an unknown act, that was about the least we could pay.”

Then “I Want To Hold Your Hand” enters the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 18, 1964 at number forty-five - and launches the British invasion of the American music industry. By February 1, it held the number one spot — for seven weeks — before being replaced by “She Loves You.”

(Starting at the song’s final week at #1 on the American charts, the Beatles had a record of seven #1 songs in one year. In order, these were “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “She Loves You”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Love Me Do”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “I Feel Fine”, and “Eight Days a Week”.)

And fifty years ago tonight, the Beatles stepped onto the Ed Sullivan stage and into history.

January 29, 2014 at 12:19pm CST

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” ― Calvin Coolidge

January 23, 2014 at 1:33pm CST

The richest 85 people in the world own more wealth than the bottom half of the entire global population (3 billion people). Yes, that equation works out to: 85 > 3,000,000,000.

###