UBM goes to Metairie

This morning, for the first time since coming to Louisiana, I drove through Metairie (the nearest suburb to New Orleans). Needed to pick up my new jacket after alterations, and had time to kill.

Hey, remember that Smith & Wesson cologne I mentioned? The haberdasher hit me off with a few free samples. I’ll try it out tonight at the charity event I’m going to.

I’ll be like, “Ask me about my scent.” (And people’ll be like, “Yeah, dude... we been meaning to talk to you about your ‘scent.’ ”)

Anyhoo... New Orleans may look like no other city in America, but Metairie looks like every other suburb. Veterans Boulevard gots nothing going on except for convenient shopping. And I decided to make a few quick stops.

Passed by a pet store. On a window were painted the words “African and South American Cichlids.” I was like, “Ohhh shit! They got cichlids?”

Then I was like, “What the fuck is a cichlid?” (Turns out it’s a family of fish.)

I ducked into a CVS drug store. Made an impulse purchase of CVS-brand cookies. The dark-chocolate-topped butter cookies.

Know what I like to do with those bad boys? Y’all should try this. Get you some chocolate-topped butter cookies... and spread peanut butter on ’em.

Mmmm... yums. I’m doing it right now, bitches!!

Before/after

Meet Kayotic, a New Orleans rapper. I don’t know this cat or his music. Just stumbled on him on YouTube.

But we filmed part of an episode in this housing project, known as the Calliope (pronounced “Calio”). Master P was raised here. And as kids in the 1940s, the Neville Brothers lived in the Calliope for a while.

The last white mayor of New Orleans

It’s election day in New Orleans. Even though the city is caught up in Super Bowl fever... plus, of course, being smack in the middle of Mardi Gras season... today’s mayoral primary is a pretty big deal.

Chances are, New Orleans will have its first white mayor since 1978. Mitch Landrieu has been polling far ahead of his competitors.

Interesting thing is, Landrieu ran four years ago against incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin, who by then was a national joke for his handling of Hurricane Katrina.

The way the story is told, Mitch Landrieu lost in 2006 because old-line white New Orleanians simply loathe the name “Landrieu.”

Why?

Because Mitch’s father, Moon Landrieu – the last white mayor of New Orleans – did so much to empower black people. The “progressive” Mayor Landrieu appointed many blacks to public office.

On the flip side, while many black New Orleanians respect the Landrieu name, they were reluctant in 2006 to return the keys of City Hall to a white man. Black voters went four-to-one for Nagin in the runoff.

Times change. If Mitch Landrieu wins today’s election, it’ll be because of black support. As this campaign ad illustrates.

I’m finding that New Orleans has a fascinating political history. Would you like to hear a little of it from the mouth of Moon Landrieu himself?

I’m streaming a 3-minute excerpt of a 1974 Moon Landrieu interview on my Vox blog. Click here to listen. (Certified kosher for Black History Month.)

Random blackness

Not so random, actually.

This 12-minute movie from the early ’60s – produced by the U.S. government for foreign audiences – will give you a taste of why I’m in New Orleans right now, working on “Treme.”

The decayed condition of the film print only adds to its dream-like quality. Fabulous jazz-funeral footage at the end.

And I didn’t even know who Kid Sheik Cola was.

Tuesday 10-inch Flashback: ‘Oh, Didn’t He Ramble’

Random wrongness...

... New Orleans style.

Who dat? Who dat?

Who dat sayin’ they gonna beat dem Saints?

Toto, we’re not in L.A. anymore.

You know when you really know you’re in a different place? When you turn on a local talk-radio station... and you hear a caller who talks like this.

That’s a “John Osterlind Show” clip from early last week... when the news was all about a backwoods Louisiana justice of the peace who wouldn’t marry interracial couples.

Interesting show, actually. A black woman named Jalinda called and lumped Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in with the redneck justice of the peace... because “they’re reversing racism on people!”

Click here and listen to Jalinda for a few minutes. She uses one turn of phrase that’s so tasty, I’m gonna steal it and put it in a “Treme” script. Can you guess which phrase I mean?