Friend of no notes Alex Rawls has a great piece about Allen Toussaint in the current Offbeat, check out the whole thing here.
I will of course just share you with the “SJI” moment:
He hadn’t performed any of the songs before including “St. James Infirmary,” despite the song’s status as a standard in New Orleans. “I [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
“An easy song to remember … You just try not to ruin it”
Posted in Uncategorized on May 30, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Tremé doc on PBS in February
Posted in Uncategorized on January 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Friend of no notes Cynthia J. passes along news of this documentary airing on PBS stations next month.
Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans newspaperman, takes us on a tour of the city – his city – in what becomes a reflection on the relevance of history folded into a love letter to the storied New [...]
A place in Reno
Posted in Uncategorized on December 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Interesting to discover that there is a bar called St. James Infirmary … in Reno, Nevada. BrooWaha describes it as a “bit of New Orleans in Reno,” and suggests that sazeracs are among the drink selections. (On the other hand, a rundown of what’s on the jukebox mentions no New Orleans musicians … or versions [...]
Coastlines and culture
Posted in Uncategorized on September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Wow, so I’ve let a lot of time go by between posts. I have several things to share in the next couple of days, not sure where to start so I’ll go with this one.
Facing South notes another bit of cultural fallout from hurricanes and the failure to do anything about coastal erosion:
Hurricanes, flooding, and [...]
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Posted in Uncategorized on September 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Sad news from the NOLA-focused corner of the blogosphere
Posted in Uncategorized on April 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In the comments to one of the posts below, AnimaMundi brings the sad news that the very popular New Orleans blogger Ashley Morris has passed away.
Those of you in New Orleans may want to know that the funeral is this Friday. (“Attire is either formal or SAINTS (or combination).” Further details here.
Also: An open thread [...]
Still burning
Posted in New Orleans, Uncategorized on January 14, 2007 | Comments Off
We used to live a walkable distance from the big Orleans neutral ground where they pile up xmas trees and burn them every New Year’s. And yet, we never went. That was stupid. Check out this YouTube video of this year’s event.
Out. Of. Control.
The really is no other place even remotely like New Orleans…
Nine Times
Posted in New Orleans, Uncategorized on January 11, 2007 | Comments Off
A recent Gambit article recaps the Neighborhood Story Project, which I’ve mentioned here before and which has gotten a decent amount of attention in the past. About halfway down, there’s something I hadn’t known, which is the existence of a newer post-Katrina volume in the series, titled Coming Out the Door for the Ninth Ward, [...]
More on the Lee doc…
Posted in New Orleans, Uncategorized on August 20, 2006 | Comments Off
Another note or two regarding the Spike Lee documentary:
Our friend Cynthia Joyce has a nice piece in Salon about attending the New Orleans premiere:
People had been talking for weeks about how the New Orleans premiere of Spike Lee’s much anticipated Hurricane Katrina documentary, “When the Levees Broke,” was sold out, so it was a little [...]
“St. James Infirmary”
[Or: The Point of this Site]
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a third version.And now, this site: A place to collect some of the links, leads, thoughts, and suggestions relating to the song that readers (from Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, England, Sweden, Canada, and all over the U.S.) have sent me. This may lead to a fourth and significantly expanded version of the essay, some day. Also on this site: Plenty of tangents.
Never heard "St. James Infirmary"? Start here.
The Essay
The most recent version of my "St. James Infirmary" essay is now a few years old. But it's still a fairly decent overview of what I know about the song, and why I'm interested in it. You can read it either in the book Letters from New Orleans (see below), or in the archives of The Gambit, the New Orleans weekly that published the piece as a book excerpt when LfNO came out.
Podcast!
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The Book
This site is a partial spinoff of the book Letters from New Orleans, published by the unstoppable Garrett County Press. My interest in "St. James Infirmary" is the subject of one essay in the book. All author proceeds from the book still go to post-Katrina relief efforts, so I think it's okay for me to say: You ought to buy it.
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