Jon's Rationalization for Being Here!
-or-
The BourbonStreet Manifesto
At first glance, you may wonder why I'm sitting in the BourbonStreet section of
the GeoCity community.
After all, this page has nothing directly to do with Cajun food,
jazz, or even Southern Hospitality-- I've never even been to New Orleans.
I could tell you that my ancestors, the LaBrees, were members of the Acadian clans,
who populated Canada. They were driven out, and many of them went to the region
now associated with Cajun food (with accents and stuff, Acadian became Cajun).
From what I've heard, though, the LaBrees I come from went from Canada to the Seattle
area. I suppose they traded blackened fish for black coffee, and zydeco stylings on
the accordion to grunge stylings on the guitar. I suppose that would be a reach.
I have been to the South, though. Houston, TX, and surrounding areas, to be more
specific. It's not quite Cajun, of course. But among the TexMex (or Tejano)
stuff, there's a little bit of Cajun in Southeast Texas.
They have bayous, big bugs, and
crawfish festivals there, after all. I was lucky enough to be there during the crawfish festival
time. They boil crawfish with a teabag full of spices, then shovel them into a big cooler where
they mix 'em with more spices, and then serve it with a corn cobette and a red potato.
And, you can get blackened opelousas with dirty rice much more easily than out here in
SoCal. There was a place in Santa Monica that supposedly had Cajun-type food, and
they had a $20 crawfish plate or something, but we were turned off by the valet parking
(in an attached, and mostly empty, parking lot), so we ate at Versailles on Venice Blvd. instead
(that's Cuban food, really good, you should go!).
Anyway, the Santa Monica place didn't look as good as Pappadeaux,
at least price-wise. I recommend Pappadeaux, too, if you're ever in that part of the world.
The one we went to was across the loop from the Astrodome. So much for free plugs...
So, regarding Cajun food, at least I can say I've had some and I like it.
And to quell any doubts, I've seen a real live (but dead and floating) alligator gar.
To address the issue of jazz music, I'm not going to lie and say I'm an expert. I
do listen to KLON 88.1 FM from time to time, though, which is a nationally satellite broadcast
station that runs out of Cal State Long Beach,
where I am currently enrolled. They just play jazz on that station,
though my favorite part is the 'Nothin but the Blues' segment
now running from 2-6 on the weekends.
And, by the way, I was in a blues/rock band for a couple of years. We didn't play
on Bourbon Street in New Orleans but on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach,
but who's counting?
Which brings me to the Southern Hospitality subject.
I haven't noticed that people in the South are any more hospitable than people
out here in California. I guess it depends on the people you hang around with.
Accent and dialect has something to do with it too, I'm sure. Take these two phrases:
'Y'awl come back now, y'hear?'
'See ya later, man.'
I suppose you could say the first one (the Southern style) sounds like an invitation,
though really, they both just mean 'Bye.'
Another thing, I think Southern Hospitality might only apply to people who are white.
My wife and I went to a Denny's in Klute, TX, back when they had the free birthday
meal deal. We got some weird stares from the waitresses. Oh yeah, I should mention that
my wife's Chinese. She's also 5'11, so that might have had something to do with it,
but really, staring isn't good manners either way.
Then again, you can't really expect super hospitality from Denny's, at
least in my experience (and everyone else's). But the only time I got weirder stares
was the time I wore my San Diego Charger shirt in Raider country, back when I was 12 or so.
If that's not enough to convince you that southerners aren't always hospitable, consider
another story. This guy, I'll call him Joe (cuz that's his name) spent some of his younger
years in Louisiana. He said he'd walk down the road, and white guys would drive around
in their pickup trucks, carrying shotguns, and playing 'Let's see how fast the nigger can
run up the hill.' And no, Joe isn't 85, he's 30. So if you've seen 'A Time To Kill,' the whole
premise of the evil white guys isn't just some far-fetched Hollywood-liberal-media-make-whitey-
look-bad idea, this stuff still happens.
Southern Hospitality my size 15 foot. Of course, I can't say that everyone there is like
that, and I can't say that there aren't people out here like that either. So go figger.
Anyway, enough of all this. Really, though, I could say that if you eat a lot of Cajun
food, or at least spend a lot of time in the hot and humid South, then you'll probably need
a fair share of Super Big Gulps, so you could point yourself to the 7-Eleven
area of my page to get familiar with such things.
Oh yeah! And, in keeping with the spirit of bourbon, sometimes I make chocolate bourbon balls!