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    NEW ON NOLA RADIO
    Irma Thomas releases Simply Grand
    Irma Thomas releases Simply Grand
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  • Listen to Codrescu, Boutte, Ivan Neville and the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars read from "Jealous Witness: Poems"
  • Bobby Lounge releases Somethin's Wrong
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  • Keith Spera interviews Bobby Lounge
  • GALLERIES
    Musicians around New Orleans live out their rock-star dreams at Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp
    Musicians around New Orleans live out their rock-star dreams at Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp
    The Palmetto Bug Stompers perform at d.b.a.
    The Palmetto Bug Stompers perform at d.b.a.
    White Linen Night returns to Julia Street
    White Linen Night returns to Julia Street
    TP ENT VIDEOS
  • El Mundo Borroco de Fernando Botero
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    This weekend: Free, cheap fun in the Crescent City

    by Ann Maloney, A&E editor, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 4:27 PM

    Editor's note: Due to Tropical Storm Gustav, many events scheduled for this weekend may have been canceled or postponed. Please be sure to call ahead.

    Sunday is the last day get in the swing of things at the National World War II Museum.

    Whenever I have friends come to visit, they are always astounded by the many free and inexpensive things to do in New Orleans. This weekend, we decided to comb our calendars for fun, free or low-cost ways to enjoy the last gasp of summer.

    Continue reading "This weekend: Free, cheap fun in the Crescent City" »


    Music highlights in New Orleans for Aug. 28

    by Keith Spera, Music writer, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 5:00 AM

    Tipitina's hosts a hip-hop-heavy benefit with Mos Def, Sunni Patterson, Truth Universal, Sess 4-5, Gabrilla Ballard and Elegguae. See guitarist Jonathan Freilich's avant-jazz Naked on the Floor at Snug Harbor. L.C. Ulmer is featured at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Otra visits d.b.a. Go "Round and Round" with '80s pop-metal band Ratt at the House of Blues. It's Zydeco Night with Keith Frank at the Mid-City Lanes.


    See more in Hot Picks

    Manuel Hernandez and family made local culinary history

    by Judy Walker, Food editor, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 4:55 AM

    "He was good," Frances Schneider said of her father, Manuel Hernandez, the founder of Manuel's Hot Tamales. "He knew all the people of the city. (Mayor) Chet Morrisey used to go and eat tamales. He had so many friends. He did anything for anybody if he could."

    Frances Schneider says she and her father, Manuel Hernandez, the founder of Manuel's Hot Tamales, liked the same things.

    "We both loved plants. He liked fruits and all. He used to take me to Ruta's, a nursery on Carrollton, when I was small, to get plants to fix my garden. Mama used to say, 'Why did you take her to do all that?' And he would say, 'Oh, Chiqui, we like it.'"

    Her father grew up hard in Mexico, Schneider said, in a family of nine girls and two boys. He "was a little bit wild, and he used to go over to the bullpen and ride the dangerous bulls. His sisters put him in school with the Jesuits."

    Continue reading "Manuel Hernandez and family made local culinary history" »

    See more in Judy's Extras

    The NOLA Project wants someone who means 'Business'

    by David Cuthbert, Theater writer, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 4:05 AM

    A.J. Allegra of The NOLA Project.

    The NOLA Project, that intrepid young theater company born of the desire to bring original and offbeat drama to New Orleans after the storm, is looking for administrative staff. First and foremost is their need for a business manager for the small, but high-profile, nonprofit theater.

    Continue reading "The NOLA Project wants someone who means 'Business'" »

    See more in Hither and Yon

    Events surrounding 'Southern Decadence' in New Orleans

    by Rachel Funel, NOLA.com
    Monday August 25, 2008, 1:32 PM

    The Southern Decadence Festival represents one big party right here in New Orleans. The festival has events ranging from dances, street partiees, talent shows, costume contests and a large parade with Grand Marshal's during Labor Day weekend.

    Festivities are scattered about New Orleans local gay bars and nightclubs to attract everyone anytime, anywhere. Festival Weekend Passes and tickets are now available for purchase.

    Continue reading "Events surrounding 'Southern Decadence' in New Orleans" »


    'Babylon A.D.' director trashes his own film

    by Mike Scott, Movie writer, The Times-Picayune
    Wednesday August 27, 2008, 1:49 PM

    Vin Diesel in 'Babylon A.D.'

    Well, now we know why 20th Century Fox didn't screen the Vin Diesel actioner "Babylon A.D." for local critics: It stinks.

    At least, that's Matieu Kassovitz says, and he should know -- he directed the thing.

    With "Babylon" hitting theaters on Friday (Aug. 29), Kassovitz has opened up to a number of media outlets and bloggers, describing the film in the most unflattering of terms.

    Here's a snark-filled sampling, collected from various online sources, followed by the movie's trailer:

    Continue reading "'Babylon A.D.' director trashes his own film" »

    See more in Short Subjects

    This week in Food: Find out what happened to Manuel's Hot Tamales

    by Judy Walker, Food editor, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 10:24 AM

    In this week's Food pages, find out what happened to the Manuel's Hot Tamales family.

    Three years after Katrina, Manuel's Hot Tamales is a legendary business still stuck in post-storm limbo. The history of it's founder and the company are online exclusively at NOLA.com.

    Marcelle Bienvenu shares cooking tips, recipes and memories of the late Eula Mae Dore, who lived on Avery Island and cooked there all her life.

    In Exchange Alley, readers provide and receive recipes for red gravy -- also known as tomato gravy or tomato sauce -- a nice cool cucumber and mint soup, and a perfect take-along dessert, Blueberry carry cake.



    New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne announced as musical performer on 'Saturday Night Live' season-opener

    by Dave Walker, TV columnist, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 8:55 AM

    Check out Lil Wayne on SNL on Saturday, August 30.

    NBC's "Saturday Night Live" announced Wednesday (August 27) that chart-topping New Orleans hip-hop superstar Lil Wayne will be the musical guest on the show's 34th season premiere Sept. 13.

    Olympian Michael Phelps will host.

    Continue reading "New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne announced as musical performer on 'Saturday Night Live' season-opener" »


    'Disaster Movie' a case of disastrous timing

    by Mike Scott, Movie writer, The Times-Picayune
    Thursday August 28, 2008, 8:37 AM

    Crista Flanagan riffs on 'Juno' in 'Disaster Movie,' opening Friday (Aug. 29) -- which also happens to be the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

    Around these Katrina-scarred parts, Aug. 29 is still -- and will be for some time -- a black-armband kind of day.

    For Lionsgate studios, however, Aug. 29 isn't quite as sacred. For them, the third anniversary of the day the levees were breached and New Orleans slipped under is something on the order of perfect timing: a ripped-from-the-headlines release date for the big-screen, low-concept spoof "Disaster Movie."

    Continue reading "'Disaster Movie' a case of disastrous timing" »


    'Hittin' the Town' for Thursday, August 21, 2008

    by Keith Marszalek, NOLA.com
    Wednesday August 27, 2008, 11:50 PM

    Mos Def plays Tipitina's Thursday, August 28, 2008.

    Mos Def headlines "Black for August" and another Ponderosa Stomp veteran sits in at the Ogden.

    Continue reading "'Hittin' the Town' for Thursday, August 21, 2008" »


    'Faubourg Treme' documentary comes back home

    by Mike Scott, Movie writer, The Times-Picayune
    Wednesday August 27, 2008, 11:18 AM

    Paul, Henry and Peter Broyard pose for a photo two laborers outside a Treme building, approx late 1880/early 1890's, in a photo from the documentary 'Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans.'

    The last time local viewers got a chance to see the documentary "Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans," it had just finished playing at the 2007 New Orleans Film Festival.

    Now, several months later -- and after screening at the Tribeca Film Festival and collecting awards at a few other film festivals -- "Faubourg Treme" is coming back to where it all started, for three free local screenings commemorating the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

    "Treme" will air on PBS in February, but you can't catch it at the local multiplex. Here's where you can catch it:

    Continue reading "'Faubourg Treme' documentary comes back home" »


    Here comes Gustav and don't forget the beer

    by Keith I. Marszalek, NOLA.com
    Wednesday August 27, 2008, 9:59 AM

    With Hurricane Gustav days away from smiting some poor harbor along the Gulf Coast, preparations have begun around the Big Easy and plans have been placed in motion:

    Continue reading "Here comes Gustav and don't forget the beer" »


    Three years later, poems are still putting the impact of Hurricane Katrina into words

    by Susan Larson, Book editor, The Times-Picayune
    Wednesday August 27, 2008, 8:04 AM


    From the 2006 benefit anthology "Hurricane Blues," edited by Philip C. Kolin and Susan Swartwout

    Listen to Codrescu, Boutte, Ivan Neville and the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars read from "Jealous Witness: Poems" »

    Poetry lends itself to all occasions, happy and sad, everyday and rare. It offers a multitude of forms -- the exquisite slenderness of a haiku, the sprawling pages of an epic, the rigor of a sonnet, the bouncing rhyme, the grace of free verse -- but every word is the result of a careful choice.

    Poets writing in response to Hurricane Katrina and the flood in New Orleans have risen to that terrible muse in virtually every way imaginable -- some with humor, most with deep seriousness, all with a sense of responsibility. From the 2006 benefit anthology "Hurricane Blues," edited by Philip C. Kolin and Susan Swartwout, to impassioned small-press efforts such as "Katrina-Ku," published by the New Orleans Haiku Society in 2006, to Dave Brinks' "Caveat Onus," an intricate, three-part epic published over several months in 2006, the waves of poetry are still hitting this shore.

    Continue reading "Three years later, poems are still putting the impact of Hurricane Katrina into words" »


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  • FORUMS
    Bourbon Street

    HURRICANE.... by c4u2c31 08/27/2008 2:38 p.m. CT

    Brits and Americans -... by JCG 08/24/2008 3:40 p.m. CT

    Mardi Gras

    Thank you for the... by wackykat 08/28/2008 5:20 p.m. CT

    Forum malfunction by DesertChick 08/28/2008 3:58 p.m. CT

    Dining

    Impastato's by redhot123 08/28/2008 12:49 p.m. CT

    Our eating frenzy by emin9 08/27/2008 9:13 p.m. CT

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  • AP ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
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    Lindsay Lohan lashes out at father on blog 8/28/2008, 4:53 p.m. CDT

    Valentino walks red carpet for his documentary 8/28/2008, 4:52 p.m. CDT