Variety

It's sort of antithetical to the entire idea of blogging to collapse more than a week's worth of topics into one post. But time's been tight, my friends.

*Make It Funky! isn't a very good name for a very good film about New Orleans music. I spent a worthwhile hour and a half with this one at the Roxie Cinema last week. A lot of good writing has been done over the past two months regarding the music and culture that may have been lost forever when the waters rose upon the Crescent City -- the current ND mag is one place -- but seeing a street parade through the Tremé neighborhood really fills in the picture. And, as someone who dirties his fingers in the dollar bin once a week, I felt a different kind of sorrow when I saw the shots of the inside of that record store. Nobody grabs a stack of Ernie K-Doe 45s when he's evacuating, does he?

The concert performance in the film, a spring 2004 celebration event, is pretty darn cool (and, apparently, well-edited too!). High-flying trumpet battles and halfway-to-hip-hop tuba beats, the stylish Lloyd Price still singing "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" at age 71, a couple of singers whose diction is virtually incomprehensible to these Yankee ears, and the incomparable Allen Toussaint working the piano voodoo as Bonnie Raitt sings "What Is Success?" Toussaint's remarks on writing "Southern Nights" are truly beautiful too.

I don't know how frequently the film will be screened, but this is worth queuing in Netflix, if you do that sort of thing.

*I'm not really into the handgun ban or the anti-military-recruiting resolution passed by San Francisco voters this week, but for the most part Election Day was almost completely a success. There were victories around the country -- knocking out Schwarzenegger's hotly contested props and dismissing the Dover, Pa., school board, to name two. I hope this signals that the tide is beginning to turn in most of the country, but the un-intelligent Kansas ballot may simply be a sign that our two Americas are continuing to grow farther apart. I do hope that the Dems gain ground -- or at least don't lose ground -- at midterms next year, though.

*The highlight of my week was jumping onstage with The Oranges Band late last night. I didn't see it coming, and forgot how my heart can pound onstage. "Hey, it looks like Roman is opening up the piano lid in the middle of 'OK Apartment.' Hey, now he's motioning that I should get up there and take a solo for the last section of the song. Hey, I can do that." They're very likely at the peak of their powers as a live band, and their whole set was enjoyable. I forgot how much fun it is to watch Dave play drums too. What an inventive, creative player. Well-rehearsed, too. A pro.

*Doubleheader tomorrow in GG Park. Is that really seven hours of baseball? (And: Oh no, is that my cleat damage?!?)


FMFM: Robert Parker's fabulous "Barefootin'," and the rest of my new New Orleans mix