My body is telling me I overdid it during Carnival 2025. The culprit wasn’t food, drink, or weed, it was all the milling about and standing that are part of Carnival.

Repeat after me: It’s the standing, not the walking.

This year’s Carnival season made me wistful. On Thoth Sunday, our neighbors always had a parade route block party at the corner of Magazine and Valence. It’s been fading away for several years because the neighbors who organized it have moved. It didn’t happen in 2025. It’s one of the things I miss the most.

This week’s theme song was written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 2003 for Steel Dan’s final studio album, Everything Must Go. It’s a rare wistful Becker and Fagen song. Like your humble blogger, they specialized in snark.

We have two versions of Things I Miss The Most for your listening pleasure: the studio original and a version from the marvelous 2021 album Northeast Corridor Live. It’s the Steely Dan touring band at its best.

Speaking of things:

We begin our second act with a segment about one of the most glamorous actresses of Hollywood’s golden age.

Merle Oberon was the first South Asian actress to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, for her soulful performance as Cathy in Wuthering Heights. Her racial identity was unknown at the time because the OG Divine Miss M was passing for white.

Have I told you lately how much Odds & Sods love I have for book excerpts? That’s what this piece by Mayuk Sen in The Atlantic is. It comes from his biography of the star: Love Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood’s First South Asian Star.

I’ve been interested in the phenomenon of passing since I wrote a law school paper about Louisiana anti-miscegenation laws. That quite naturally led to an exploration of passing. There are two prominent New Orleanians who passed: the cartoonist George Herriman and the NYT book critic Anatole Broyard. There are likely many more. I’m glad it’s no longer necessary. Unless, that is, there’s a revival caused by MAGA racism.

Oberon’s nickname was Queenie, so the last word of this segment goes to The Rolling Stones:

Gene Hackman, R.I.P. It’s a pity that Gene Hackman’s death at the age of 95 was shrouded in mystery until yesterday. It’s obscured the magnificence of his acting career. Gene Hackman became an unlikely movie star by force of will and sheer talent. More than a movie star, he was a great actor who won two Oscars and was nominated three other times.

There’s a marvelous tribute to Hackman at Vulture by the great Matt Zoller Seitz, Gene Hackman’s Absolute Power. As an older man, Hackman specialized in playing masters of the universe. He certainly was more presidential looking than the Current Occupant. I preferred it when he played cops or crooks but I’m a crime fiction/film noir guy so that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

I’ll have more about Gene Hackman in our third act. The last word of our second act goes to Hoodoo Gurus:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Our tribute to Gene Hackman continues with his breakthrough role as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde. On the left are the real Blanche and Buck Barrow, on the right are the reel couple as played by Estelle Parsons and Gene Hackman.

The Movie List Returns with:

The Gene Hackman Dozen  

1. Night Moves
2. The Royal Tenenbaums
3. The Conversation
4. Bonnie and Clyde
5. The French Connection
6. Unforgiven
7.  Get Shorty
8. Hoosiers
9.  Mississippi Burning
10. No Way Out
11. Absolute Power
12. Superman

I may be the only one who considers Night Moves to be Hackman’s best film. It’s neo-noir at its finest.

Repeat after me: Crime fiction is my jam.

I may also be alone in rating The Royal Tenenbaums this high. Whimsy usually isn’t my thing, but I like Wes Anderson, who is whimsy on two legs. What can I say? I dig being an outlier.

This smash hit Bob Seger song was inspired by a movie, but it was American Graffiti, not Night Moves.

Your Weekly Oscar: This  time, another OP doubleheader. It’s a classic Duke Ellington tune performed by our pianistic hero followed by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

The Best Of Letterman: I don’t usually dig superhero movies but I love Gene Hackman’s performance as Lex Luthor, the supervillain who was sort of a bald Elon Musk.

Superman is a superb superhero. This top ten list mocks what could be called stupor heroes:

My motto as a blogger is: When in doubt post a Kinks song. This one is even relevant:

Saturday Skeet Shot: This week, my re-skeet of a Carnival image by a talented New Orleans photographer.

Love this image: Edward Hopper goes to Carnival. Very Nighthawky.

— Shecky (@adrastosno.bsky.social) 2025-03-03T14:25:22.682Z

Saturday GIF Horse: Hackman mania continues with this GIF from his uncredited performance in Young Frankenstein. I saw the movie at its first showing in San Francisco and was one of the audience members who exclaimed, “That’s Gene Hackman.”

Let’s shut down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: We have an audio only recording of Steely Dan live in London in 1974.

That’s it for this week. The last word goes to the glorious Merle Oberon: