New Orleans Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Evelyns

I left Minneapolis on a bus onaccounta the train was 7 hours late due to blizzards in the Northwest Seattle region. We got a five dollar coupon for Burger King as compensation at the Dells. I bought 5 one dollar meal items. In Chicago, I had a three hour lay over and ended up spending it at the Marguette Inn, an old diner like place a couple a blocks away from Union Station on Adams Avenue. I had chicken noodle soup and the waitress was kind enough to inform me of all the free food available for happy hour. I ate fried zuchini, fried cauliflower, chicken and sausage and washed it down with a Trummer Pils and a Dry Brandy Manhattan with olives while watching the evening news and Wheel of Fortune.

On the train in the middle of the night while heading to New Orleans, a man a few row behind me had a grand mal seizure. A nurses attendant was on it, helping through it and recover. Stay on your side, tell me your name baby, stay awake, don't fall asleep on me. You had a seizure, honey, tell me your name. Darren. Is that it...

It's Wednesday, January 8th, 2009. I took the Amtrak from Minneapolis to New Orleans and arrived yesterday. This morning, I went to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art at 925 Camp St. www.ogdenmuseum.org. Artists I saw there: Margaret Evengeline's show Silver Bullets and Holy Water, paintings on aluminum, gunshots into aluminum, David Butler (1898 to 1997), Airplane (Whirligig)1969; Clementine Hunter (1886 -1988) Panorama of Baptism on Cane River, 1945, oil on window shade; Thornton Dial Sr. (1928- ), Man Got It Made Sitting in the Shade, 1991; Ray Ferdinand, 1959-2004, William Woodward (1859-1939), like Vuillard; Lisa Silvestri (1960- )Platinum Paladium Prints, Sepias of New Orleans Residents. James Surls sculpture "Me, Knife, Diamond and Flower"; George Henry clemens (1885-1935) New Orleans Bayou Scene with Schooner, 1879; Alexander J. Drysdale (1870-1934)Stand of Trees at Bayou's Edge, 1912; Kathleen Blackshear (1897-1988) Portrait of Robert Gould, 1932; Will Henry Stevens (1881-1949), like Kandinsky, Klee, influenced by Japanese artists; Kendall Shaw, Sunship (For John Coltrane), 1982; george Andrews: The Dot Man (1911-1996) Lived in Georgia towns of Plainview and Madison painted biplanes on barns, rocks covered with dots, shoes and purses of friends, "natural artist", son Benny, a trained artist. Benny Andrews: America (1930- ) Paternal grandmother, Jessie Rose Lee Wildcat Tennessee, Queens College Art Faculty, Cool still lifes, lots of white, Hockney like, figures Larry Rivers like assemblage. William Christenberry, Ghost Farm 1994 Photos like my Minn River Series of abandoned farms.

After The Ogden Museum, I walked to the French Quarter and stopped in at Evelyn's Place on Chartres Ave. The cigarette machine read, "Evelyn's Place, Where the Old Bitch Holds Court". I ordered Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and got a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, their only draft beer. Frank was the old man, owner probably who kept putting songs in the jukebox. "Walkin' my baby back home..." A couple started dancing in front of me around 1pm, both inebriated and said they hoped they weren't ruining my meal. I said "no". "There's a weeepy old willow. He really knows how to cry. That's how I'll cry in my pillow, if you say farewell and goodbye.", "Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer", The old man brought me a complimentary dish or red beans. Nice and spicy, Gumbo excellent as well. PBR in paper cup, 2 bucks. "My sugar is so refined..." Johnny Mercer, says Frank. Frank Sinatra singing "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown..." "Come on to my house, to my house, come on. I'm going to give you candy" Kay Starr. What's your name, I'm the Ol' bastard. "Here's the story of Minnie the Moocher..." A boy found a dream upon a distant shore... Ray Everly. Theme song for Zorba the Greek.