EASY

Hat's off to Mr. Weiner for the snazzy show graphic!

Be on the lookout for a new web series written and directed by Chris Sheard called Easy. It follows a young musician who moves to New Orleans to 'make it' in the 'Big Easy'. He get's caught up in the 24-hour party scene and hilarity ensues. The show features some great local musical and comedic performances. The pilot was shot and edited by yours truly. More on this later...

Freshen Up

courtesy of the bloodyblogger

A friend recently left town and the night before her afternoon going away party I inquired as to what I could bring to the party. After some contemplation she said she wanted 'a good Bloody Mary' before leaving New Orleans. She scoffed when I mentioned that I knew a great mix. So it was on. A challenge to make a tasty from scratch Bloody Mary.

So I did a little research...

The Bloody Mary's true roots seem to be all hearsay at this point. Even the name's origins are muddled. I had thought the Bloody Mary was a New Orleans cocktail. This is not the case. New Orleans played no part in the development of the drink but the Bloody Mary plays right into New Orleans drinking culture and is a hair-of-the-dog staple at any Jazz Brunch.

Further research also showed that a lot of these 'over the counter' mixes not only contain a lot of sodium & preservatives but high fructose corn syrup as well. Zing Zang seemed to be the most 'natural' and it probably is my favorite mix after finding that Whiskey Willies uses high fructose corn syrup. Zing Zang however has 25% of the recommended daily allowance of sodium in just one cocktail.

Anyways I go to the market and picked up fresh veggies for my base. Which I made up of carrot, celery, tomato, garlic, lemon, and lime in the JuiceMaster (retro hand-me-down edition). You could really add any veggie to it, but I wanted to keep the color red. Then I added a little low-sodium V8 to thicken it just a bit. Then I just mixed the individual cocktails from there. Mine include a handful of ice dusted with cayenne pepper, 3-5 jiggers of vodka, a shot of Guinness (same concept as worcestershire but a bit more velvety & it's more booze), fill the rest with the base, crack some salt-n-pepper and Pirates's Bite spice blend, drop in a celery stalk and skewer up a big salad (the more pickled treats the better ie: olives, pepperoncinis, pickled green beans, pickled cocktail onions, pickled caper berries, pickled garlic, pickled okra, pickles). Anyways the fresh Blood Mary's were a hit and I think I completed the task well.

Truth is: the perfect Bloody Mary is probably as hard to find as its true history. But this quest raised the bar for me.

Cheers!

  

Stuffed Italian Meatloaf

courtesy of musicstack.com

I never been have been a fan of the ketchup on meatloaf idea. My mom always made a stuffed italian meatloaf topped with marinara and served it with mashed potatoes. I've taken her recipe and tweaked it a little bit to make it my own. Then tweaked it a bit more to keep from looking like the 'heart-attack-waiting-to-happen' pictured above. Now mine is half ground beef and half ground turkey to cut down on the fat. I simplified the stuffing from several cheeses to a blend of part skim ricotta & shredded parmesan. Also since Lauren is off the refined carbohydrates we substitute cooked lentils for bread crumb & serve ours over puréed cauliflower. It's topped with Lauren's hearty marinara. So good.     

                         

  

                 

Street Art Expansion Pack Part Deux

There are some new photos on the Nola Street Art page; it's several pieces I pass almost every day that I had not photographed yet. The gallery is getting to be a pretty hefty catalogue of New Orleans as a canvas. Check it.

Coco Robicheaux Memorial Mural

"They'd been calling me Coco Robicheaux since I was a little boy--it was the name of the kid who got snatched up by the loup garou, and they would call kids that when they would be doing wrong, to scare you." 
- Coco Robicheaux (1947-2011)

from The Soulful World of Coco Robicheaux

By John Sinclair

In a theater near you.

A film I worked on last year just hit theaters. Beautiful Creatures. Go see it! Looks like it should be a fun ride. I know I had a great time helping make it. 

Also coming soon is The Host.

G.I. Joe : Retaliation

Now You See Me

And if you hadn't seen it yet, go check out Django Unchained.

I also have some independent film and video projects on the horizon. Standby for updates. 

XLVII

Recently there was this big sporting event in New Orleans, you may have heard of it: The Super Bowl. Anyways a friend who I have worked with in the past put my name in the mix to work as a camera utility. This was my first time working in live broadcast. My first time doing live television and it's the biggest show on Earth. A bit of a baptism by fire. Well needless to say I kicked ass at my job and had a total blast meeting amazing individuals and learning the machine that is live broadcast. For the record: I had nothing to do with the blackout.

golden ticket

view from the top

exclusive nap spot 

this guy was blocking my view the whole game

all access

confetti!

confetti angel

So get this. I'm taking my camera operator out to show him and his daughter around. We have an amazing dinner at Irene's. Then I'm all like 'why don't we head down towards my neighborhood and check out the local scene'. "It's a lot more low key than Bourbon" I think I said. So we roll up to the R Bar. It's pretty crowded even for a Saturday. So we go in and it's an epic dance party. Every track the DJ drops was like 'whoa' and there were folks dancin on the pool table, on the bar, and up on chairs. I'm all like 'who is this DJ that's making all these folk get down all crazy like?' Come to find out it was none other than Snoop Dogg. Tru story. So much for that low key evening.

Snoop DJs R Bar courtesy of EATER NOLA

With Love from Pensacola

After Mardi Gras ended, we headed East to meet my mom and sis in Pensacola Beach. Although it never got above 65 degrees, it was a relaxing Mardi Gras decompression trip and much needed rendezvous. We also celebrated our "years together" anniversary (8 and counting). On Valentine's Day C and I went to The Grand Marlin, for lots of raw oysters among other things. We actually went there three times in our brief 4 day visit; the oysters were that good!

Cynthia came to visit on Friday.

Another trip to Joe Patti's:

On Saturday we met up with my cousin, Jillian, and baby Mia in Navarre. 

On the way back to New Orleans, we stopped in Mobile and Christian's mom made us brunch: grillades and grits.