The highlight of JazzFest on Thursday was Regina Carter, the interview and performance (with a kora player) of her new African influenced CD Reverse Thread. It was good to share that experience with Yvonne L whom I had met only once before but follow on facebook.
We had to have a plan for doing fest on Friday with heat near 90 degrees; the plan involved tents, the grandstand, and lots of water. Starting out at the Lagniappe stage, we heard a good gypsy jazz band (Zazou City), most of Ingrid Lucia's set with trumpeter Marc Breaux, the interview with Ani Difranco in the air conditioned grandstand (she moved to New Orleans about 10 years ago and I love that she works "Orleans Parish" into her version of Pete Seeger's "Which Side Are You On"), caught some Doreen in Economy Hall, Injuns at the Heritage stage, a little gospel, and Rodrigo & Gabriella at the end. I have a new resolution about crowds down front of a big stage: don't go there. Drunks, smokers, athatoid/ataxic dancers, jerks. Just not worth it. Pot smoking is fine; covering it up with billowing incense is obnoxious. Large mega-amplified venues are not worth it.
An improvement this year is that they filled all the tents with chairs right to the back instead of allowing people to create bag chair cities at the back. As a result, there was much more room for sitting in tents this year.
A fun dinner at Marie's house last night with friends we've known for 30+ years. We stepped into the driveway for a viewing of the special full moon and a discussion on whether there is such a thing as Heat Lightning. Today was a stop at Jeanne and Luc's brunch, lunch with Dave and Ana at Mona's on Banks, and The Hunger Games movie with David and Colleen.
Monday we checked out Jinx's new project on Toulouse Street (house # 57) and had coffee with the girlfriends.
Late afternoon glass of wine with Ida and Bob, and now it's time to pack it in and fly home tomorrow.