Friday Music

After years of attempts to lure the California Honeydrops to the Door Community Auditorium; last Saturday this group knocked the ball out of the park with two incredible sets and a lengthy encore featuring their hand-clapping, hip-shaking brand of jazz, funk and retro-soul in a high-energy celebration of performance art.  Just like a New Orleans club without having to take the trip.

From humble beginnings in the Oakland subway the group was founded by frontman Lech Wierzynski and drummer Benjamin Malament.  The band's name was inspired by the 1930s jug band, The Tennessee Chocolate Drops.

The band doesn't follow a set list; rather taking improvisational inspiration from requests shouted from the audience letting the music lead them on a one-of-a-kind experience for each performance.  The band now features an octet of talented musicians  that really put a performance together on the fly without skipping a beat.

This was singularly one of the best concerts we've enjoyed at the cozy and intimate venue of Gibraltar High School.

One word - FUN!

LCVP

The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or Higgins Boat was a landing craft that saw considerable and meritorious service during the Second World War.  Some have said that it singularly changed amphibious operations inasmuch as the capture of a port facility was no longer required to necessitate the transportation of troops and material from ship to shore.

36 feet in length, this shallow-draft, barge-like craft was largely constructed of plywood (saving wartime steel and cost) and could ferry a platoon-sized complement of combat-equipped infantrymen or eight tons of cargo to a beachhead at 9-12 knots.  Disembarkation was facilitated by means of dropping the steel bow ramp.

My pop clambered down a cargo net hung over-side a troopship to board a Higgins craft for a ride to Utah Beach in June of 1944. 

US Army

The craft did not offer much in the way of protection from enemy fire and performance in choppy seas resulted in sea sickness.  Nevertheless, this boat could disgorge its contents on a beach, reverse backwards into the surf and return to a ship to reload for a return trip. 

It was a New Orleans businessman and designer, Andrew Higgins, who designed similar flat bottom boats for use in the Mississippi bayous.  The Navy had struggled over the design and construction of a landing craft until Higgins pitched his design to the Navy and Marine Corps in 1938.  Higgins' original design was adopted yet was bedeviled by the loading and unloading process.  Troops and cargo had to disembark or be off-loaded over the sides of the boat needlessly adding time, aggravation and potentially longer exposure to enemy fire.  Borrowing from a Japanese design; beginning in 1941 a drop ramp in the bow solved this dilemma.  

US Army

Over the course of the war more than 23,000 boats were built by Higgins Industries and its licensees.  Only a few have survived to modern times.  The boat pictured (top) is on display at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.  It is a replica constructed faithfully from the original Higgins design specifications.

Notably, Andrew Higgins sold boats to the US Coast Guard to interdict gulf coast liquor smuggling during prohibition.  Local legend suggests that he sold faster boats to the rum runners.

Fact or fiction?  

If only the dead could talk....

What To See In New Orleans

Our recent marathon road trip to the Gulf Coast brought us to New Orleans for four days of terrific food, adult beverages, jazz music and history.

We spent the better part of an entire day to visit The National WWII Museum.

I've been to a large number of museums in my life - some devoted exclusively to military history and events.  As far as military museums go this was a stellar attraction.

It relates the story of the American experience in a war that changed the world - why it was fought, how it was won and how it defined the world following its conclusion.

Differentiated from most museums this venue makes extensive use of personal accounts,  multimedia technology to provide a visitor with an immersive experience of the war and every theater it was fought.

If you're gonna visit NOLA for any reason this is a must-see.

You can learn more here.

Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Veteran of D-Day (Serial Number 42-93096)

 

Happy New Year!

I have a feeling that 2023 is going to be a break-out year.

To my vast following of readers I bid you good health and prosperity in the coming year.

The MAISON IS THE #1 VENUE ON FRENCHMEN STREET FOR LIVE MUSIC, DINNER, DANCING, PRIVATE EVENTS, DRAG AND BURLESQUE SHOWS AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!