Matador Playlist 7/30/15

06 Aug Matador Playlist 7/30/15

Posted at 03:00h in Music, Playlist by inkyinkinc

Ah, Gentle Reader(s), I am returned from an enjoyable and productive visitation to my benighted home town—the Snafu by the Bayou, the Migraine by Lake Ponchartrain, the Muddle on the Big Muddy—New Orleans of Louisiana. The forecast temperatures for this excursion were intimidating—in the mid-90s for the most part—but the humidity was relatively moderate so that life outside of the air conditioned unreality was rather less unbearable than might otherwise have been the case. A bicycle has been recently added to the inventory of the New Orleans digs and it got well used each and every day. I have not had a bicycle at my disposal in New Orleans since I departed the city with extreme prejudice back in 1979 so it has somewhat revelatory to return to the two wheels. It remains my considered opinion that a) the bicycle is the finest mode of transport ever to be invented (the train being in second place), and b) there is no better way in which to get to know a place than from aboard a bicycle.

New Orleans, being rather flatter than your average pancake, can be a pretty low intensity ride for a biker were it not for the condition of the streets and the traffic (not to mention the crime). There have been some horrendous fatal vehicle/bicycle encounters in the city as of late and I have decided that the most efficacious and prudent approach to the situation is to avoid the more heavily trafficked thoroughfares altogether. The main atertial streets, if they are not in the process of being totally torn apart (as many are), tend to be in a much better state of repair than the side streets. The average state of a side street in the city is that of a heavily pitted, potholed, rutted, patched, and repatched hodgepodge which largely precludes any sort of aggressive biking.

A typical Uptown New Orleans side street, in relatively good repair.

It is simply not possible to go very fast on these streets with any reasonable degree of respect for life and limb and, after all, what’s the big goddam hurry anyways? There’s a stop sign every second or third cross street and woe unto those who proceed on the faith that that crossing traffic will, in fact, stop at intersections where the bicyclist has the theoretical right of way. My favored venues for the ride up to Audubon Park and back are Camp Street and Chestnut Street—hardly any traffic, lots of shade, and, as everywhere in the city, beautiful and idiosyncratic architecture in abundance. A bonus on Chestnut Street: What is probably the coolest (temperature wise, at least) street in the city: The block between Octavia and Joseph where a dense canopy of oak trees keeps the entire block in deep shade all day long.

Whilst out on my morning ride this past Monday I happened to come across the city pothole ‘repair’ crew plying their dubious trade on Camp Street near Napoleon. The process, though hardly unique I’m sure, is worth of note. A heavy truck trundles slowly along with a load of hot asphalt in the bed, two guys with shovels at the ready hanging onto the back.

A New Orleans patch job.

When a cavity of a certain gravity appears one shoveler tosses a shovelful of asphalt in the general vicinity of the offending void. The other shoveler rearranges the tossed asphalt to more or less cover the desired location. The truck then moves on and the sparse traffic is left to complete the job of compressing the loose aggregate into place. In theory, at least. For bicyclists the result is yet another category of obstacle to navigate in addition to the unaddressed potholes, broken glass, miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam and the occasional flattened possum or other unidentifiable poor lil critter in the road. It keeps things interesting. Regardless of the destination the journey is always of interest. My destination is typically Audubon Park where one can make a few circuits on a surface that is reliably free of potholes and completely devoid of vehicular traffic other than baby strollers and other bicyclists.

The asphalt crew on Camp Street.

Other items of note espied upon the streets of the City That Forgot To Care include the wild Spanish Baroque mansion recently acquired by Jay Z and Beyoncé on Harmony Street between Prytania and St. Charles. This is a fascinating structure with an interesting history . I considered going up and ringing the doorbell to welcome the tre fab couple to the neighborhood but I demurred lest Solange should come out and stomp me into the nearest un-repaired Harmony Street pothole. Not one to tempt fate without good reason I let discretion be the better part of valor and rolled along.

Jay Z & Beyoncé's Spanish Baroque mansion on Harmony Street.

Jay Z & Beyoncé’s Spanish Baroque manse on Harmony Street.

On a ride down to the French Quarter on Sunday afternoon to check Satchmo Summerfest I rode up to the Moonwalk along the river just as a strange apparition hove into view on the water. What initially seemed to be a luxury apartment building floating by (something not out of the realm of possibility in this city) was in fact the Carnival Dream cruise ship heading downriver for a seven-day sojourn in the Caribbean. Cruise ships have been docking in New Orleans for a while now but it is a sight that I am still not used to seeing. Giant tankers, rusty trawlers, hulking container ships and the occasional paddle wheeler are all customary but seeing one of these frosted confections plying the muddy waters of the Mississippi still seems incongruous.

A Carnival cruise ship heading down the Big Muddy.

You may (or may not) notice that this week’s playlist is somewhat abbreviated. As Your Humble Narrator had yet another painfully early plane to catch on Friday AM a departure from the Matador at the stroke of midnight was decided upon as the best course of action to both appease the rabid DJ Inky fans (??) and to allow YHN a brief nap before hitting the road once again. This course of action seemed to perform reasonably well and a similar strategy may well be employed when travel beckons yet again next week.

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski

Weightless – Chris Whitley

Achilles Last Stand – Led Zeppelin

Simmer Down – Bob Marley

Haunted – Shane McGowan & the Popes

Wooden Men – Los Hermanos de Gein

Hang It Up – the Ting Tings

No Time to Be 21 – the Adverts

Turn It Out – Death From Above 1979

Diamond Dogs – David Bowie

Walken’s Syndrome – Fugazi

Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners