Thursday, March 16, 2017.
Dress Rehearsal. I Refuse To Wear A Dress.
I Won't Dance, Either.
MA is on the other side of the lake all day. My only meal is solo, taken at New Orleans Food & Spirits. I have on my mind the excellent blackened redfish with pecans there. I am not a big fan of things blackened, but this is exceptional. The fish is cooked just right--not a hint of dryness or scorching. It comes with chopped pecans toasted in brown butter. The standard serving is a small fillet of the fish with a couple of sides, of which the fried sweet potatoes are most interesting.
[caption id="attachment_51021" align="alignnone" width="480"]
New Orleans Food & Spirits fried pecan catfish, lunch portion.[/caption]
I've had the dish enough times here to ask the server whether a dinner-size portion were available. No, she says. When I finish the fish, I like it so much that I call her over and put in an order for another one of these modest fillets, with none of the sides. It incurs a $6 surcharge. The whole plate is $13. It's hard to say that anything here is less than a great deal. And maybe it made me look like a chow hound to get the extra fish, but this is the only meal I will have today. I try not to eat before singing.
And I am singing tonight.
The NPAS concerts are this weekend, along a loose theme to the effect that dancing is a good thing to do if you want to be happy. It's surprising, however, how few songs with any kind of musical merit exist. The first one that came to my mind when I auditioned is "I Won't Dance." It seemed ironic. Carol E., an excellent soprano, agreed to make it a duet. It's a funny song, and we had a lot of fun with it.
Tonight is the dress rehearsal. That's a misnomer. Our getups are simple: black dresses for the women, tuxedos for the fellers. But we don't go black tie for dress rehearsal. So why do they call it that? Only two of the girls were in stage attire, and they had feather boas they needed to train draped over their shoulders. One thing stands out in this NPAS program: we are funnier than usual.
Now that I get off the air live at five, it's easier to make it to the hall on time. I always before needed special permission from the conductor to show up late. Carol and I run our song for the fifty-second time, with no significant problems. More irony, that. When we are up there for real on Friday and Sunday, I will blow the lyrics in a funny but far from correct way. But as of tonight, I feel ready to warble.
New Orleans Food & Spirits. Covington: 208 Lee Lane. 985-875-0432.
