All That Jazz, Volunteer of the Week, and More!

I know that it has been a long time since I’ve posted a blog, but honestly, not too much has been going on lately. Since Matt and Matt visited, and we did so much over that weekend, I’ve been feeling like I’ve experienced most of what New Orleans has to offer. Whether that’s true or not depends on perception. I’m kind of just New Orleans’d out right now. Because of that, I haven’t felt like writing a post. But today I woke up and told myself that I had to write one. I have to keep giving the people what they want. Ha.

The big thing going on over the past few weeks in New Orleans was the Jazz and Heritage Festival. It took place at the Fair Grounds Race Course (the horse track) on April 24-26 and April 30-May 3. There were a lot of local acts that performed not only at the festival, but at local venues around town over the course of the 10 days of the festival. Tickets were kind of expensive for the festival and the local shows. But I won a free ticket from work and decided to use it on April 30. I almost bought a ticket to see Dave Matthews on the 26th, but haven’t really been listening to him anymore and didn’t want to spend the $50 to see him. So I used my free ticket on the 30th. The festival started everyday at 11 a.m. and went till 7 p.m.. I got there around 12:30 p.m. and it was a beautiful day. It was nice and sunny and pretty hot, but not too hot. When I got there, I met up with my friend Sean and Jordan and also ran into a couple of other people from work near the main stage. I got there in time to catch the end of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes who are a local band that also often perform around town. They were pretty decent and a good way to start off the day. After their set, we walked around the grounds for awhile. It was a pretty small festival compared to the ones I’ve been to before. We ended up at the Congo Square stage and watched some band from Africa for a little bit. It was interesting, but not really any of our types of music. Sean had been raving about Anders Osborne, who was performing on the main stage about a half an hour after Johnny Sketch. So we went back over there and watched his performance. I had never heard of Anders Osborne before but really enjoyed his show. He’s another artist that is from New Orleans but he tours all over the world. He’s a combination of jazz, funk , and a little pop. Overall, he put on a good show. After his set came The Meters, who are a funk band that originated in New Orleans in the late 1960s/early 1970s. A lot of people in the area really love them. I thought they were just alright and was really just waiting for the last performance of the day, Ben Harper and Relentless 7. Since we pretty much just hung out at the main stage all day, we ended up in the second row and right in the middle by the time Ben Harper came on. I’ve seen Ben Harper a few times, but this was the first time with his new band. I was hoping they’d play a few older songs. They played two old songs, one cover, and all the songs from their new album. It was definitely a different Ben Harper than I’m used to but still very good. He plays a lot of slide guitar on this album, which is really cool since he’s so talented. It turned out to be a great first day at Jazz Fest. I wasn’t sure if I’d go again but was happy after that day.

I decided to go again Saturday, mainly to see Kings of Leon, because I have never seen them before and have been listening to them a lot over the past few months. I went with Pat and his girlfriend Megan around 2 p.m., which was a little late, but thought we’d be able to get in pretty easily, based on Thursday. But parking near the Fair Grounds was really rough and we had to wait a good 20 minutes to get tickets. When we got in, the place was just packed with people. There were honestly too many people. We went to the Blues tent and sat in the last row for awhile and listened to whatever band was on stage. It was alright, but we were so far that I couldn’t really get into it. After that set, we walked around a little bit, or at least tried to since there were so many people. We got some food and headed to the main stage to see Dr John, another local artist who has a huge following in the south. We tried to walk to the back of the crowd, but there were so many people, we ended up just kind of getting stuck in the middle somewhere and watching for a bit. We figured we’d walk over to the stage where Kings of Leon would be performing so we could get a good spot. On the way, we stopped to watch a folk band for a little while which was alright. About 20 minutes before K.O.L. went on, we got our spot. After their first couple of songs, we snuck our way through the crowd and ended up getting pretty close. K.O.L. put on a great show. They played a lot of songs off of their new album, as well as some older songs. The y pretty much just play their songs and don’t really do too much jamming out, but it was still a great show. The lead singer has a unique voice and the lead guitarist is really solid. They played for an hour and a half. I wish they would have kept going but the festival was over the day. While the second day I went was much more crowded and the music wasn’t as good compared to the first, I’m still happy I went because K.O.L. made it worth it. After it was over, I went to a bar with some friends to watch Game 7 of the Bulls-Celtics series. I knew the whole time they were going to lose but was still pretty into it. It was a long weekend, but a lot of fun. My first, and probably only, Jazz Fest experience was solid. I’m happy to be able to have experienced it.

At work, I’ve pretty much just been riding around with the Construction Manager I mentioned in my last posting. We’ve been doing more Technical Evaluations of prospective homeowners as well as performing minor repairs on houses we are about to close. The seven of us on the national grant are going up to Lake Charles, LA for a service week. It’s pretty similar to what I did back in January. I’m really not looking forward to going up there and sleeping on a cot and in a room with 40 people, but it will be nice to get back to doing some normal work. I’ve enjoyed my time with the CM and have learned a lot about how our program works, but am ready to get back to working on houses. I just wish I could do it in New Orleans, instead of driving four hours and staying at a church all week. I also have some issues with how the national office treats the seven of us from New Orleans, but I don’t really feel like getting that right now. Not that they shouldn’t, but I feel like they are trying to squeeze everything they can out of the AmeriCorps. What we are doing just never seems to be enough. They keep asking more of us and to fulfill more requirements. It’s pretty annoying. If you really care, you can ask me more about this.

Before I go, I have one last thing I wanted to mention. In my last posting, I talked about Volunteer Nation and how they came down to film in New Orleans for their trailer back in November and how I ended up in their trailer. Well right after they released the trailer, one of the guys called me to tell me I was going to be in it and we ended up talking for awhile. I mentioned how I put a link for the trailer in my blog. He asked me to email him the link to my blog, so I did. A few weeks later, I received another call from them telling me how much they liked my blog and how they were going to be starting this new concept on their website, called “Volunteer of the Week” and that I was going to be their first one. This past week, I was Volunteer Nation’s first ever “Volunteer of the Week” and nobody can take that away from me. They wrote a little bit about me, put some quotes in from my blog, and added my picture on the link. I don’t know where they got that I was an amateur musician. It must have been because I mentioned in my blog that I bought a $5 harmonica. Otherwise, I have no idea how they thought I was a musician because anyone who knows me knows that I have absolutely no musical talent whatsoever. Anyways, I thought the whole thing was pretty cool. I don’t really know what I did to deserve it, but I’m happy with it. I’ve attached the link at the bottom of this blog, so get check it out.

That’s about it. I’m getting ready to go play in a softball tournament, and then I get to go up to Lake Charles for the week. So exciting. Talk to y’all later.

http://volunteernation.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/volunteer-of-the-week-adam-weingarten/

P.S. I just wanted to wish my Mom a Happy Mother’s Day. Love you Mom.