Friendly Chat

As I had mentioned before, it seems like Rudi has some stresses...but then again, don't we all! A worldwide pandemic that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, social distancing the likes of which we have never experienced before, economic devastation, and widespread civil unrest...there haven't been many bright spots in the news the first half of this year. I am just thankful I could isolate with my husband...it would have been much harder to be alone during that period. I know Rudi has been very focused on his health and has taken some impressive positive steps with good results (running every day, no alcohol etc). I don't think he would do anything to compromise what he has worked so hard to achieve. I'm sure he is yearning for normalcy as are the rest of us. Since I can't do the "big" normal things I typically do during the summer (vacation, county fair, concerts, local events) I have to rely on the "small" normal things to be satisfied (scary movie night with my husband, swimming in the lake, walks, reading on the porch) Of course, it is good to have things to look forward to...like books about our favorite singer!

Ammids, yes, lost Queen Channel yesterday, but these things are always temporary. Before, channel 26 did a month long of Led Zeppelin. Whenever these channels do this, it’s never permanent. But they could have left it on longer.

katydyd, you mentioned you used to live in Louisiana. I’ve lived there 3 separate times. Do you mind telling where?

Lsgp, we lived in Louisiana for almost exactly a year and what an experience it was! I did bring back a love of good Cajun food. : ) Still wish I could find boudin around here and I've been known to serve turducken for Thanksgiving! We lived in Sulphur, just outside of Lake Charles. It was like living in an exotic foreign country. I'll never forget the first time driving down to the Gulf. There were ditches alongside the road and I could not believe what I was seeing. I told my husband there were alligators in the ditches and he told me I was crazy. Yeah, well either there are alligators in the ditches or there are a lot of floating nostrils and eyeballs just above the water!! We got to New Orleans several times and I loved that city! Where did you live??

Katydyd, is Cajun food spicy or does it depend on what part of Louisiana.

Katydyd...What did you do while in New Orleans? I have been there a couple of times, once while on a road trip with a friend in the mid 80's. We stayed at a youth hostel in the middle of the city...had a great time. We did the typical touristy things...walked down Bourbon Street, ate beignets at Cafe Du Monde, listened to some jazz music at Preservation Hall, and visited the grave of the Voodoo Queen.

Just saw on the Queen site that Brian will be one of the guest guitarists at a "concert" hosted by Nuno Bettencourt which will be shown on AXS TV on August 3. Unfortunately, we do not have that cable channel. Darn! If you want to watch some insanely fast guitar playing, check out Nuno playing "Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrKGEiuec4Q

OMG! Katydyd, I lived in Lake Charles! I developed the absolute WORST respiratory allergies from the air those Sulphuric plants emitted from across the lake. Since I was not born nor reared there, my body was not accustomed to all that coming from the other side of the lake. I then moved to Ruston where I attended LA Tech, then New Orleans. The happiest adult years of my life were in Louisiana. The FOOD! It’s not the same since post Katrina. Completely different now. Me and my old college roommate agreed to fly there about 4 years ago for a long weekend just to eat. No where do they prepare food in the USA like there. We stayed in the quarter but I don’t think I would go back. Not the same. My early Queen years were in LC. I missed the Queen concert in New Orleans! I really miss that time. New Orleans was a great place to live during that time.

Meant to be more specific.....missed the Queen concert in NOLA, 1978

Everyone check your emails you have updated info you guys know what I mean have a nice weekend.

Lspg, I can't believe you lived in Lake Charles! Small world! I don't remember smelling the sulphur plants but maybe the memory has faded. I'm really sorry to hear that you feel the food has changed since Katrina. I suspect we will be saying the same thing about food and restaurants after the pandemic. Sad. I brought back some good local cookbooks and can still make a great shrimp etouffee. Shrimp trucks used to come into the neighborhood with their fresh haul from the Gulf. Shrimp was only $1.00 a pound, and I'm talking BIG shrimp. I can de-head and clean shrimp with the best of them. I'm not good with years so I didn't realize Queen were in NO in 1978. We would have been there then! That makes three concerts now that occurred near me that I missed. NO, Philadelphia and my current city. I'm still kicking myself and asking what I could have been thinking.

Rainbow, Sulphur is on the western side of LA so the drive to NO took a while. We went a couple of times, usually to take people who had come down to visit. We did the usual tourist things. I don't really care for jazz but we did go to a bar to listen to some. While in an oyster bar I bit down on a partially formed pearl! I just recently threw it away. It looked kind of like partially chewed gum. Nothing you'd want to have set in jewelry. I did love the cemeteries. Really beautiful and gothic. Easy to imagine ghosts there!

I don't think we have AXS, but I will have to check.

Rainbow, forgot to thank you for the link. I don't think my fingers were ever that nimble!

Katydy, that 1978 concert was the one they always referred to as that party with “drawfs walking around with bowls of cocaine on their heads” etc....that was the year and place.

I must have miscommunicated about post Katrina.....I wasn’t referring to the food changed.....it was the city itself changed....the ambiance....the people.

This was from that party at the the 1978 concert in New Orleans. Its the “cleanest “ photo available from that party