New Orleans, LA

Get’em while they’re hot. The party in park. Voodoo Fest tickets are $40/per day. If you aren’t sure which day you want to attend, check out the Voodoo Fest Schedule. For a single day, Saturday looks like a winner.

If you’re really in the mood for some voodoo festing, check out the “How Would You Do Voodoo?“ contest.

• Grand Prize: One winner, chosen by StarCostumes.com from the top 50 entries, wins 2 three day passes, $1000 for travel & lodging, $100 to StarCostumes.com and a feature on their site.
• 2nd Place: One winner, chosen by highest score, will win a $100 credit at StarCostumes.com.
• Most Viral: One winner, who gets the most attention across the internet, will win a $100 credit at StarCostumes.com. About Most Viral.
• Sweepstakes: One registered member of Brickfish that participates in the campaign by entering, voting or reviewing will have a chance to win a $100 credit at StarCostumes.com. See rules for details.

Sweet!

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From the eJazzNews, the #1 source jazz resource on the web, New Orleans Jazz Greats in St. Croix Fest‏; Stephanie Jordan, Donald Harrison.

Sultry sounds from trumpets, trombones, saxophones and pianos will waft through the evening air when the highly anticipated Blue Bay Jazz Fest makes its mark on St. Croix November 15-18, 2007, featuring an impressive lineup of talented local performers and celebrated musicians from the city where jazz was born: New Orleans.

This sounds like an awesome festival. Does it get any better than kicking back on a beach, having a few brews and enjoying some live jazz?

The lineup includes Donald Harrison, Jr., trumpeter Christian Scott, vocalist Stephanie Jordan and the Jordan Family, pianist Henry Butler, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, and The New Orleans Trumpet Summit featuring Kermit Ruffins, James Andrews, Marlon Jordan, Christian Scott and Troy Andrews.

In addition to amazing live shows by jazz masters, the Jazz Fest will feature local foods, arts and crafts, dance troupes, Quelbe musical groups, stilt-dancing mocko jumbies and street entertainers all weekend long, as well as fundraising events, including a “Hugo to Katrina” benefit cocktail party.

A festival sponsor, WWOZ 90.7 FM, New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage radio station, will broadcast live from the multi-day event.

Sounds like good times.

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In an effort to talk about something besides Katrina, I figured I would talk about Voodoo Fest.

That’s right. October 26 - October 28, 2007 in New Orleans City Park. It’s the 2007 Voodoo Music Festival. Come and go weekend passes were $100/head. Those have sold out and now there are only limited $115/head tickets left. You can also get a VIP pass if you want to pay for one. Those are currently $450/head and the price is going to increase as the day gets closer.

The line up is amazing. From The Smashing Pumpkins and Rage Against the Machine to Dr John and Dumpstaphunk. The complete line up: Rage Against the Machine, The Smashing Pumpkins, Wilco , Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Sinead O’Connor, Kings of Leon, Mute Math,

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Kim left this as a comment but I thought it was good enough to post as entry by itself. Alas, I will not be there. I will be in Tampa. Blech.

The second annual Rising Tide conference will be held August 24-26, 2007, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. This is a NOLA blogger-organized and supported conference featuring speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and other dialogs on the future of the city of New Orleans.

This year’s emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. It has become clear to those of us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, as well as take the upper hand in setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach.

The keynote speaker is Dave Zirin, author of Welcome to the Terrordome, published by Haymarket Press, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, a regular contributor to the Nation Magazine, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times. Timothy Ruppert, president of the Louisiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, will give a comprehensive report on the status of our levee protection two years after the failure of the federal levees brought catastrophe to New Orleans. Matt McBride of Fix the Pumps will present via video conference. Panelists will include community activists Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, Bart Everson of B.Rox, and Peter Athas of Adrastos, muckraking blogger Mark Moseley of Your Right Hand Thief, New Orleans political sage Michael Duplantier and author Joshua Clark (Heart Like Water).

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The New York Times recently had a good article about the impact that Katrina has had on local musicians: The Katrina Effect, Measured in Gigs. It’s a good article but pretty sad. For a city known as much for it’s music as it is for its food and good times, the fact that very talented musicians can’t get work pretty much sucks.

Of course, since Katrina, it’s been hard for every one. There’s no reason it wouldn’t be hard for musicians. It’s just a shame that one of New Orleans’ main tourist attractions, and one of the things that improves everyone’s morale, is having such difficulties. The fear is that if the musicians can’t get gigs in New Orleans, will they go where they can?

The Times article has some important figures. They are disturbing, but not unexpected, for anyone living in the area:

Conventions, typically a strong source of music gigs, are running at 70 percent of 2004 levels, but leisure travel remains far below pre-Katrina levels, according to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. Over all, visitors generated $2.9 billion in spending in 2006, down from $4.9 billion in 2004, according to the bureau. About 3.7 million people visited the city in 2006, compared with more than 10 million in 2004.

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If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, I found a greate website that has listings of area events. I just thought I’d share it with you, in case you want to go out and do something this 4th of July weekend. Here’s the website for you: New Orleans City Search.

Have fun this weekend, but BE SAFE!

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