It’s been a relatively uneventful week here in New Orleans. There were some developments in the monuments removal mishigas, but I’ll deal with that separately some other time. Another big local story involves the abandonment of a development on the riverfront at Audubon Park. The powers that be were trying to put a soccer field on a well-used and much-loved green space called the Fly. As far as I know it has nothing to do with either the 1958 or 1986 movies of that title. It’s a pity that no local news outlet used my suggested headline: FLY SWATTED. It’s direct, punchy, and to the point. It’s nice that developers lost one but their batting average is pretty damn high so I’m not planning to spike the ball or make like former Saint Joe Horn; not that I have a flip phone:

April is when the Festival season in the Crescent City kicks into high gear. There’s a string of festivals on the horizon; some free, others quite pricey. Since I’m cheaper than Jack Benny on his old teevee show, I like the free ones best myself. They’ve all gotten too big for my taste so we’ll be picking and choosing. Speaking of taste, the good news is that all NOLA festivals have tasty food. It’s mandatory.

This week’s theme song comes from the XTC album Oranges and Lemons, which was featured on Album Cover Art Wednesday in 2014. I chose Cynical Days because it was written by bassist Colin Moulding in order to balance out a discussion of a new book about Andy Partridge’s tunes after the break. I’ve also been known to be a cynical bastard. I guess you’ve noticed that:

Before making plans for the break, here’s another Moulding tune from the band’s third album Drums and Wires:

I don’t know about you but I haven’t cared for the Nigels I’ve met over the years. It’s apparently one of those names that’s disappearing because it’s too upper class twitty like, say, Nigel (Incubator) Jones.  Enough with the name jokes, it’s time to make like Graham Parker and Break Them Down after the, uh, break:

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: Cynical Days”