Archive for the ‘French Quarter’ Tag

Corner of Bourbon & Orleans   1 comment

New Orleans Bourbon Street Art V Johnny White's  blog-Johnny White’s Bar & Grill at the Corner of Bourbon & Orleans — Computer Art by kenne

“Light and music pour from doorways into the street,
here the carnival and there the quiet of candlelight.
A celebration of flesh, and an acknowledgement of the spirit.”

Fat Tuesday   3 comments

New Orleans (1 of 1)-3_art blog

New Orleans (1 of 1)-2_Art blogStreet Music In The French Quarter — Computer Art by kenne

Street celebrating

Party all day through the night

Fat Tuesday closure.

— kenne

Doors are for Opening   Leave a comment

New Orleans Door (1 of 1) Art blogDoors are for Opening (A Door In The French Quarter) — Photo on Canvas by kenne

My serious apprehension of being

Is freed by acts of becoming — 

Through the task of opening doors,

Where I learn from the past,

Laugh at today’s mistakes, and

Dream about tomorrow.

— kenne

New Orleans, Jackson Square   1 comment

(CLICK ON ANY OF THE TILED IMAGES TO SEE LARGER VIEW IN A SLIDE SHOW FORMAT.)

Jackson Square, New Orleans (December 28, 2015) — Image by kenne

After hours joints have closed
The music has faded away,
Even the horn player
In front of the cathedral.

A new world takes over,
The night people lost in the fog
As if hiding from the light
And the people of the dawn.

In Jackson Square, the show goes on
With the new day, a new act
Enters from stage left and right,
Carrying their daily wares.

This ritual, old as the city,
Played out as people walk by,
Only briefly noticing a passing soul,
Neither greeting the other.

Protected by the levee
On the edge of the big muddy
Visitors a wait the man with the key
To open the Place d’Armes gates.

Entering the historical Jackson park
Gazing on “Old Hickory,”
Leading the 1815 charge
In the Battle of New Orleans.

For many morning walkers
Passing through the square,
Is only a route to Café Dumonde
For chicory coffee and beignets.

— kenne

Showers over night   4 comments

Morning French Quarter (1 of 1) Art blogMorning In The New Orleans French Quarter — Computer Art by kenne

Showers over night

Reducing the body count —

Street casualties.

— kenne

 

Bourbon Street Before The New Year’s Crowd   1 comment

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO SEE LARGER VIEW IN A SLIDESHOW FORMAT.)

Bourbon Street Before The New Year’s Crowd — Image by kenne

New Orleans

Dancing
underneath city lights,
jazz bands
reverberating, breathing in
voodoo shop
musk.

Soul
pulsates beneath
cobblestone,
wide eyes
peering up at
beaded balconies on
Frenchman Street.

Freedom is
coffee and baguettes from
Cafe Du Monde at
midnight,
surrounded by strangers.

Find me under strings of
flickering bulbs,
trading trails with
travelers.

Candlelit doorways illuminate the drifters, the curious, the backpackers,the Kerouacs,
the way to the gypsies past
Bourbon.

But not home.

— MC Hammered

Zydeco Washboard (Frottoir) Player   5 comments

New Orleans Trip_2014 12 27_0411_blog

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Zydeco Washboard (frottoir) Player, James (French Quarter, December 27, 2014) — Images by kenne

Boudreaux had a flat tire,
pulled off on the side of the road,

and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers
in front of the car and one behind it. 

Then he got back in the car to wait.
A passerby studied the scene as he drove by,
and was so curious he turned around and went back. 
He asked the fellow what the problem was.

The man replied, “I got a flat tahr.”
The passerby asked, “But what’s with the flowers?”
The man responded,
“When you break down they tell you to put flares in the front and flares in the back.

I never did understand it neither.”

 

Shoot Em Up, Texan   5 comments

New Orleans Trip_2014 12 27_0415_blogShoot em Up, Texan! (French Quarter, December 27, 2014) — Image by kenne

It is scientifically proven that the sight of red makes you hungrier than any other color. For me, the sight of orange makes me want to drink more than any other color — and run in the other direction.

kenne

Coltrane — “A Love Supreme”   2 comments

Kenne & Coltrane (2 of 2) SQ blog“Desert Coltrane” — Image by Joy

Some years ago on one of our trips to New Orleans, Joy and I were walking in the French Quarter and decided to go in a resale store. That’s when I saw the John Coltrane t-shirt I’m wearing in above photo by Joy.  The t-shirt has faded over the years, but I still wear it often to live music events, also just when I feel like it. Okay, so I set it up for this posting, which I had planned on in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Coltrane’s, “A Love Supreme.”  

In my teen years and early twenties I often would go to sleep listening to jazz on late-night Chicago radio. I still listen to a lot of radio, especially NPR where you can still find good jazz music. About ten days ago, I listened to and NPR story, 50 Years Of John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’. (A Love Supreme was recorded December 9, 1964.)

“I call it a sacred day for music fans, not just jazz fans. For people across musical boundaries and cultures — for Carlos Santana, Bono, Joni Mitchell, Steve Reich, Bootsy Collins, Gil Scott-Heron — hearing A Love Supreme was a revelation.” — Arun Rath

Many generations have and will continue to be influenced by the music of John Coltrane. If you let your soul listen you can hear his bluesy sound in the words and music of poets, singer-song writers and musicians:

Flirt with me don’t keep hurtin’ me
Don’t cause me pain
Be my lover don’t play no game
Just play me John Coltrane

 — from Righteously by Lucinda Williams

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So, catch the blues train,
ride the drum beat’s edge,
see tomorrow’s vision,

somewhere,
somewhere around the bend.

Locomotion,
a blues riff ,
Coltrane changes,

somewhere,
somewhere around the bend.

— from somewhere around the bend by kenne

“People had channeled emotions into music before. But no one had ever played the blues like this.

It’s the same message we get from the blues: Even in struggle and suffering, we sing, because life is a blessing. As much as Coltrane made his saxophone cry — for his suffering, and the world’s — in A Love Supreme he’s telling us that the most important voice to raise is one of gratitude to the creator for the gift of life.” — Arun Rath