FQF

Uncle Jack is pleased to report that he and Mrs. U.J. have survived another French Quarter Festival and are safely back in Charm City.  He uses the term "survived" advisedly because each year, as this magnificent free extravaganza of music and food grows larger (and they grow older) it has become a little more taxing and a little less enjoyable.  As usual they heard a lot of  music, much of it sublime and entirely too much of it wretched.  And they feasted on a number of culinary delicacies that simply do not exist outside of  New Orleans---mufulettas from the Central Grocery on Decatur Street, oyster po'boys from the Acme Oyster Bar, garlic soup and sweetbreads at Bayona, crayfish crepes from Muriel's on Jackson Square and pralines from Loretta in the French Market, all enhanced by that golden elixir known as Abita Amber beer.  There was much to enjoy----vastly more than they could manage in the heat and crowds.

    French Quarter Festival is one of America's greatest parties along with Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras, the major economic engines of the Big Easy.  It is much more family oriented than the others and probably the only time of the year when baby strollers outnumber Harley Davidsons in the narrow streets of the Vieux Carre. An estimated half-million people attended this year's expanded four-day celebration and it seemed like twice that many to Uncle Jack.  The weather man had predicted four straight days of uninterrupted heat and humidity with no hope of rain and that seemed to swell the crowd to unprecedented size.  Getting from Point A to Point B became such a struggle at times that Point B completely lost its allure.

    With all that they had a wonderful time and they are happy they went but whether they can save up the wherewithal, physical and fiscal, to do it again next year remains to be seen.  They have already made their hotel reservations just in case.

    A festively dressed couple enters Jackson Square, focal point of the FQF.  Those parasols are de rigeur when the sky is cloudless and the temperature reaches 90.  Parasol, after all, means "against the sun". Did you know that?

Part of the crowd listening to the New Orleans All-Stars and Pete Fountain give out with some rousing dixieland on the main stage in Jackson Square.  Pete is 80 this year and has suffered several strokes in addition to losing everything to Hurricane Katrina but he can still play and obviously loves FQF.

A portable police observation tower looms over the crowd in front of St. Louis Cathedral.  It wasn't needed for the very orderly FQF crowd.

One of the not-so-good bands that play on streetcorners all over the Quarter hoping for tips.

As usual the balconies along the Rue Chartres were bedecked with plants and flowers.  They have to be watered several times a day which makes for hazardous walking below.

The mighty Mississippi was nearly at flood stage trying to accommodate all the snow melt from regions as far afield as Montana and North Dakota.  The breeze off the river was almost like air conditioning for overheated festival-goers who flocked to the "Moonwalk", the promenade along the river named for mayor "Moon" Landrieu, father of the present mayor Mitch Landrieu and his sister, senator Mary Landrieu.  Politics seems to run in the family.

 One of the many art works that brighten the old French Market in the Quarter which has undergone major rejuvenation in recent years.

This lovely bas-relief celebrates the Old Market when it was a major source of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and oysters.  Today it more resembles a bazaar in the Middle East with table after table of imported schlock.  

This young woman danced frenetically in the blazing sun in front of the Southern Syncopaters jazz band for nearly two hours.  The Department of Energy should be investigating her as a possible alternative energy source.  Uncle Jack would love to know what was in that gallon jug she sipped from between every number.

Meanwhile, back at the Johns Hopkings library building site, the work goes on.  At this point it is beginning to resemble a modern-day Stonehenge.