it's been 5 cities since my last post. I find myself using cities to measure time with. ex: "remember that yard with the nice grass, ya know that really clean one? i think it was like 2 or 3 cities ago." For the record, that yard was in Pensacola, FL. Usually the yards are a bit somber - lots of rocks and some graffited freight trains as neighbors, but that one in Pensacola was like an upscale hotel in comparison. This here are some shots of the train yard in Houston. That's a concrete making building of some sort. Glamorous, I know!
This is what I see in the morning - way off in the distance is our bus that takes us to and from the arena. It's just a repainted school bus, and it does the job. that creek you see there got pretty wide when it rained. And it's been raining ALL through Texas!
We were in New Orleans, Austin, and San Antonio, Houston, and Corpus Christi. Now, I'm from San Antonio, and Texas being one big happy family and all meant that I spent a lot of my free time visiting family and friends and what not. (hence the lack of postings)
New Orleans was New Orleans! What I mean by that is there was good food, little sleep, and lots of money spending! Here's a tip: Don't use Bourbon Street ATM machines - I paid a $10 service fee at one, I think the lowest was about $7. Now, for the most part "What happens in New Orleans stays in Orleans." But, I will say that there was good music, dancing and fun had by all.
The high points were the Tower of Power concert and the Habitat for Humanity day.
Now, if you you haven't seen or heard of Tower of Power - they're a soul/funk band most famous for their tight horn section. They played at the House of Blues down in the Quarter on Decatur, and luckily Eli(head sound guy) and Jonathon (guitar player) got to catch them after a show one night.
That place was PACKED! House of Blues venues are usually pretty good for shows. They got great atmosphere and good sound systems. This was my first TOP show and I loved it. These guys were amazing. The vocalist was a powerful tenor and the band was indeed tight and made you dance! I couldn't stop moving the whole night!
Their funk songs were kickin' and their ballads were powerful - it's tough to get a crowd that big wailing on a ballad, usually that's bathroom break time, but they sold it. these guys have been around for awhile and they showed they know what they're doing. Tower of Power - big thumbs up, great live show.
Ringling Bros. did a Habitat work day before we opened in N.O. There was a sign up sheet 2 weeks before the New Orleans dates, and I was surprised how many people signed up. I think about 70-80 people went from the show. It had been raining the night before so it was pretty muddy when we arrived far earlier than any of us were accustomed to being awake! We arrived still yawning, but ready to work. They handed out Habitat t-shirts and the work chief gave us instructions.
Now, our work site was in this neighborhood called Musician's Village, it's a project started by Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, both NOLA natives, to provide housing for displaced residents affected by the Storm. Now, it's mainly intended for displaced musicians, but it's not limited to that, but most of the residents are, indeed, players from N.O.
We were set to work on the foundation for this bass player's house, and that involved a lot of wood carrying and stacking and some hammering here and there. It wasn't extravagant, but it was what needed to be done. Only problem was there was no wood . . . The delivery hadn't gotten there yet that morning, so we ended up just clearing the work site for about 2 or 3 hours until it did. Like I said, there was an army of us so all this moving stuff from here to there didn't take long - we were like ANTS! 
a lot of the time we spent just sitting waiting for the wood to get there.
Not too glamorous, or productive...
then the wood got there! and we got to it. Now, by this time it was noon and our bus was scheduled to pick us up at 3:00pm so we only had a few more hours left of work, but we made good use of it. Ants, I tell you - like ANTS!!
At the end of the day we were muddy, tired, hot, a little sunburned, and hungry, having constructed at least the begginnings of a foundation, but we were satisfied that we had done at least some good.
