This is St. John’s Day and I’d like to have been in Recife seeing the quadrilles and dancing forró, or at a bonfire far enough north to see the northern lights. Next year I should actually go to a beach on St. John’s Eve and have the Danish celebration. I am glad Clarissa reminded me … More San Juan
Tout le temps en temps it is time to listen to Tu le ton son ton. Here it is as played in 2010 by Leon Sam. This weekend it would be possible to see André Thierry and Corey Ledet in Loreauville. Allons danser. The radio says there will be a special Creole music event in … More Tu Le Ton Son Ton
Summer solstice in New Orleans is today at 12:16 PM, so this post should come up at that exact moment. Now summer begins in earnest, and it begins yet more earnestly on July 4th. Sleeping the other night next to a canoe I dreamed, quite improbably, that I had ascended a large mountain and my … More Summer Solstice
J’ai parti dedans la porte d’en arrière is how you say it, and this video of D.L. Ménard singing his famous song shows it. I like Louisiana French, with its strange grammars and borrowings. I feel foreign because unlike the other people in Spanish, my main department, and English, my other one, I study a … More D. L. Ménard, Alice Fulton
My main accomplishment this weekend was driving a Ford F-150. They threw the keys to me and said, “Take the truck!” My honor did not permit me to say I was terrified to drive this enormous, automatic transmission vehicle, the location of whose hand brake and gear shift were not immediately evident. I succeeded at … More Exotic
This exhibit took place in New York in 2008. It was a rare event and I would have liked to go. Axé.
as if it were a scene made-up by the mind, that is not mine, but is a made place, that is mine, it is so near to the heart, an eternal pasture folded in all thought so that there is a hall therein that is a made place, created by light wherefrom the shadows that … More Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow
“‘Wait for better times.’ That’s what the slaves always hear. ‘This is only temporary….‘” Part of the problem does seem to be that Gloria Steinem and others got as moderate as they needed to to still be seen as “reasonable,” and ended up saying nothing. “Wait for better times” is also precisely what my most … More A Good Point
It has been a beautiful day here in Maringouin, heat index 104, not as hot as yesterday and I am starting to feel better than I did. In radio news, Historiann‘s software has a glitch which prevents me from posting, so I want to say here that I totally agree with this post. * “In … More Natalie Zemon Davis
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 