Jazz fest has begun in my hometown of New Orleans!I thought I'd post on here about it since I think some of you who don't live here may be interested, but it's fine if your not. Well, right now I'm excited because BILLY JOEL IS GOING TO BE THERE!!!!!!!!!!! Billy joel is my second favorite artist next to Elton John. If you don't know who he is here is one of his most famous songs Piano Man:
Okay back to Jazz fest, I'm not sure if I'm gonna be going, even though it's tomorrow that I wanna go. But I'm hoping and I'll tell you if I do. Here is a 30 second video covering some of the headliners that will be there:
And also here is the website for Jazz fest and it also can tell you a little about N.O. culture and food plus you can look up the rest of the performers that will be there: http://www.nojazzfest.com/
By the way, no jazz fest in the link means New Orleans jazz fest. I found that funny when I saw that it says no jazz fest.
-------------------- When people say giving is better than receiving they are talking about me. Giving someone one of my exploding presents is WAY better than receiving one. ;) Posts: 2871 | From: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Registered: Nov 2011
Jokie Smurf
Jokie Smurf22 / Chloette / Elton John Smurf / My dog Padfoot
Member # 4119
posted 04-26-201301:06 PM
As you can tell, I'm a bit proud to be from New Orleans. Also the NOLA in the title means New Orleans Louisiana for anyone confused.
And also Jazz fest isn't just about music. It's also very much about our delicious food here. Most of it is good old New Orleans seafood. What they do is restaurants will set up stands and put out their very best food so it's also great for tourists to get a taste of what this city is all about. (no pun intended. )
-------------------- When people say giving is better than receiving they are talking about me. Giving someone one of my exploding presents is WAY better than receiving one. ;) Posts: 2871 | From: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Registered: Nov 2011
Okay, I wasn't able to go when Billy was there, but there is a chance I'll be able to go on Friday (or to some of you it'll be Saturday) which is alright since Maroon 5 will be there.
But I heard that Billy's show was awesome. It's funny because I heard the last time he was here was in 2008 and everyone who bothered to stay was waist deep in water from the rain that was pouring down and someone had to keep on coming out to sponge off Billy's piano. This time though, the weather was WAY different. I heard his face was tomato red from the heat, but you know what they say around here (or if you don't you'll learn) If you don't like the weather in New Orleans, wait a while and it'll change. The weather here in the spring is either super rainy or very hot. Here is a picture from the concert:
Billy Joel Preforming at Jazz Fest Saturday, April 27th
Here is some of what NOLA.com had to say about his concert:
"Billy Joel ran through a catalog of hits at Jazz Fest on Saturday, starting (nearly 10 minutes early) with "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song") and checking off "New York State of Mind," "My Life," "Only the Good Die Young," "It's Still Rock n'Roll to Me," "The River Of Dreams," "You May Be Right," and pretty much everything else you wanted to hear. Twenty, 30, and even 40 years down the line, the songs still sound like creative triumphs - almost as close as you can get to pop perfection.
... In a pre-Fest interview, Joel mentioned that he planned to pay tribute to the city's heritage. Joel made good on his promise, once with the speedy ragtime number "Root Beer Rag," from his 1974 album "Streetlife Serenade," and again with a verse from the Johnny Horton tune "The Battle of New Orleans." And he included several numbers with, as he predicted in the interview, "jazzy overtones" - such as "Zanzibar," whose bop-style trumpet solo was originally laid down by Freddie Hubbard, and "Big Man on Mulberry Street," with its big, brassy, Broadway horns. But the most local flavor in a set from Long Island's favorite son was the during the classic "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." As the singer uttered the lyrics "drop a dime in the box, play a song about New Orleans," the Preservation Hall Jazz Band horns, plus the bass drum, strutted onstage."[i] Full article: NOLA.com
And here is some of what Rolling Stone magazine had to say:
[i]"For just shy of two hours yesterday afternoon, Billy Joel held tens of thousands of visitors to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the palm of his hand. ... Before launching into his second song, "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway)," Joel told the crowd, "we know how you felt" since last year’s Hurricane Sandy, referring to Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. "We’re trying to rebuild. We’re taking inspiration from you guys." From that song on, even though opener "Movin' Out" started off strong, the crowd was totally captivated by Joel and his energetic band.
Joel was visibly tired about an hour and a half into the set, but it only put his hard work on display. From getting red in the face belting "New York State of Mind" early on to twirling and tossing the mic stand during "It’s Still Rock & Roll To Me," pure joy coursed through the 20-song set. His band, especially, was totally fired up throughout. Fans should rest assured, from any viewpoint at yesterday’s performance – crowd, band, or Joel himself – it’s hard to imagine he didn’t like the way things went." Full Article: RollingStone.com
Oh, and also I am very proud of myself right now. Why? Well I told my mom when she was showing me pictures that people tweeted from the concert that I'd bet a lot of money that he'd play his song Scenes From An Italian Restaurant while he was there and he did! I knew he would since he said he'd do Jazz based songs here and that song has some jazz in it. Also because there is a line in the song "Drop a dime in the box play a song about New Orleans." And I was right.
Also if you've never heard the song Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, then you've been missing out on a lot. Here is the song for those unfortunate people who haven't heard it before or a treat for the people that do know the song :
Also I'll tell you if I'm able to go to Jazz Fest on Friday.
And if you have any questions about New Orleans just ask. I am very proud to be from here and love answering those type of questions.
-------------------- When people say giving is better than receiving they are talking about me. Giving someone one of my exploding presents is WAY better than receiving one. ;) Posts: 2871 | From: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Registered: Nov 2011
Jokie Smurf
Jokie Smurf22 / Chloette / Elton John Smurf / My dog Padfoot
Member # 4119
posted 04-29-201304:07 PMHere is a New Orleans History Lesson
I really love talking about New Orleans and it's history, so I thought that on here I'd start writing some posts on New Orleans history for any of you who are interested in my city's culture.
So first off, here is a lesson on one of the worst things to ever happen to New Orleans: Hurricane Katrina (By the way, it was a Category 5 Hurricane, which is the worst a hurricane can be)
This is something that frustrates me a lot. For any of you people from the East Coast who say that Sandy was just as bad as Katrina. You are WRONG!!! For example, when Katrina came most people didn't think that it was going to be that bad since most of the calls like that before then weren't very bad. But when it hit, it was worse than we'd expected. Some people died from drowning in their houses, the people who refused to leave. While others, had to go evacuate (My family was one of the families that evacuated) and the first day everyone went to sleep thinking everything was fine but woke up and seeing pictures of our city underwater on the news and everyone was praying that their house was okay. Lucky for me, I'm still living in the same house I was before Katrina, but most people weren't so fortunate. Also the people who were evacuated weren't allowed to get back in the city to check on their homes for a WHOLE MONTH!! Compared to Sandy where most of the people were just out of power for like a week. And nothing on tv showed where we live, so my parents couldn't know if when we got back in the city if we'd even have a house.
And this is all what I've heard from my parents, because all this happened in 2005 and I was only like 6 years old so I just thought of it as a vacation for a month. But now I understand and I'm not mad at Billy or any other celebrities for mentioning Sandy and Katrina, but I just want to get that out there that Sandy is no where near being like Katrina.
I understand that New York, New Jersey and every other place that was damaged by Sandy wasn't prepared and had never really dealt with something like this before and I understand that. But I just want to say for the people who don't understand just how bad Katrina was, here you have it straight from someone who experienced it but was luckier than most people here. And if your wondering if it at all effected our house, it did. Our back door blew open during it and water came in the house and to this day you can see that the floor is messed up around the door.
Like I've said before, I didn't experience the worst of Katrina because what protects N.O. from floods (since our city is below sea level) are levies (Big mounds of dirt that block the water from flooding) and I actually live near a levie where you can look at the Mississippi River. So some of the levies on the East Bank and in other parts of New Orleans broke and the water flooded and those places went through the worst of Katrina, but the one near my house stayed so my house didn't get too badly damaged luckily.
So there is a little New Orleans history for you. I'm probably going to post more of my city's history on here later since I love writing about it. I just love history in general.
-------------------- When people say giving is better than receiving they are talking about me. Giving someone one of my exploding presents is WAY better than receiving one. ;) Posts: 2871 | From: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Registered: Nov 2011
Jokie Smurf
Jokie Smurf22 / Chloette / Elton John Smurf / My dog Padfoot
Member # 4119
One of New Orleans's specialties is out dish called Gumbo. Now some of you who don't live here may think you've tried gumbo, but gumbo in places other than here is just vegetable soup. Now gumbo is a soup that starts with what's called a roux (pronounced Rue but not called that because here a rue is what they sometimes call a street. That's also why nobody here is named Rue after the hunger games character). The way to eat gumbo is to put it over rice and eat it. And there are different types of gumbo, the two basic types are chicken and sausage gumbo and seafood gumbo. Those are pretty self-explanatory, chicken and sausage gumbo has chicken and sausage in it and seafood gumbo has seafood like crab, shrimp and crawfish in it. My top two favorite types of seafood are crawfish and Crab.
Crawfish
You've probably heard me talk about this before, but crawfish is one of the main foods of New Orleans. Most of you know it as crayfish, but here we call it crawfish. I think the story behind the name crawfish is that they were originally called crayfish, but when a Cajun said it with their accent it sounded like crawfish so that name stuck. I'm not completely sure about that, but that's what I think I've heard. How you eat a crawfish is you boil it, and then you twist off the tail and you eat the meat in the tail. Then afterwards you suck the head to get the juice from that. It may sound gross to people whom have not tried it before, but it is delicious.
-------------------- When people say giving is better than receiving they are talking about me. Giving someone one of my exploding presents is WAY better than receiving one. ;) Posts: 2871 | From: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Registered: Nov 2011
Jokie Smurf
Jokie Smurf22 / Chloette / Elton John Smurf / My dog Padfoot
Member # 4119
posted 05-01-201309:38 AM
By the way, those are all just random pictures I found from the internet. Those are not my pictures.
-------------------- When people say giving is better than receiving they are talking about me. Giving someone one of my exploding presents is WAY better than receiving one. ;) Posts: 2871 | From: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Registered: Nov 2011
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