It’d been another weird week in New Orleans. We expect it to be hot in August, but it hit 100 degrees in the middle of the week. In a word: ridiculous. It’s been hard on the kitties, they have fur coats, after all. Perry Mason has restricted his zooming to the morning. When it’s under 90, the zoomies can strike at any moment.

Adding to the weirdness is the garbage war between Mayor Teedy and the City Council. That’s right, I said garbage war, they’re fighting over who collects the trash in the French Quarter. This trashy conflict pits former mayoral candidate and Wendell Pierce pal Troy Henry against the Trashanova DBA Sidney Torres. The mayor is backing Henry and her enemies on the council, Torres. It’s been a bonanza for lawyers and a trashy mess for everyone else. Oy, just oy.

As we slouch towards the 20th Katrinaversary, I have wind on my mind. It’s summer so I thought I’d bring the two subjects together with this week’s theme songs.

Some of you surely recall the SNL characters Hans and Franz. Our first theme song was written in 1965 by Hans and Hans; Meier and Bradtke. The original lyrics were in German. Johnny Mercer wrote some English language lyrics, and an American hit was born.

Our second gust of Summer Wind was written in 1988 by Steve Hill and Chris Hillman. 

That concludes our theme song doubleheader. How about some more wind songs before we wind our first act up?

Consider our first act wound up. Our second act consists of brief reviews of two detective shows, one American, the other British.

Ballard is the latest series based on books by LA crime fiction writer Michael Connelly. It’s a spin-off of the Bosch series and the title character appeared in Bosch Legacy. Harry returns the favor by appearing in Ballard.

Connelly’s work often focuses on honest cops going after dirty cops. Ballard is no exception.

The plot of this ten-episode series is elaborate, and I don’t do spoilers. Suffice it to say that the cast led by Maggie Q excels and the story had me on the edge of my seat for the entire series. Who can ask for anything more?

Here’s the trailer:

Grading Time: I give Ballard 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+. I eagerly await season two. LA neo-noir doesn’t get any better than this. Ballard is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Patience is an English series based on a Dutch show. Patience is a young woman who works as an archivist for the York police department. She’s autistic and observant. She picks up on details that mere mortals miss. A detective played by Laura Fraser spots her talent, becomes her mentor, and they get busy solving crimes.

Patience makes Adrian Monk look like a normie but she has mad detective skills.

The six-episode first season could also be called Patience’s Progress. Her people skills improve and she’s gradually accepted by the other members of Fraser’s team.

The acting in Patience is excellent, especially Ella Maisy Purvis in the title role. One could even call her performance a-maisy-ing. Holy bad pun, Batman.

All aboard the trailer to Yorkshire:

Grading Time: I give Patience 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+. It’s a Masterpiece Mystery show so it can be found on your local PBS station and PBS passport.

The last word of the second act goes to my late countryman, George Michael:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth: Poker Face just concluded its second season. In several episodes, Natasha Lyonne wears shades and resembles Mott The Hoople frontman, Ian Hunter.

I’ll let Ian sing us out of this segment:

Your Weekly Oscar: Our windy theme continues with this OP composition featuring some nifty guitar work from Joe Pass. Don’t pass it by.

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

The Best Of SNL: Are you ready to be pumped up by Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, and Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Saturday GIF Horse: I made a silent movie reference earlier this week. Let’s do it again with Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson in The Wind.

It’s time for some wind by association; make that Windy by The Association.

Political Toon Time: My countryman Theo Moudakis nails the Trump-Epstein mishigas. Like Victor Frankenstein, the Kaiser of Chaos created this monster and now it’s knocking on his door.

Please enjoy my cartoon in today's Toronto Star

— Theo Moudakis (@theomoudakis.bsky.social) 2025-07-18T12:07:25.753Z

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

Saturday Closer: I think of Doug Sahm as the musical daddy of two of my favorite Texas artists, Rodney Crowell and Lyle Lovett. Nobody did the Texas two-step as well as Sir Doug.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to the cast of Patience as they work a case.