Saturday, December 18, 2010. Two Hundred Miles. Radio Party At The Court Of Two Sisters. Only two items are on my agenda today, but they require two hundred miles of driving. The odyssey began at one, as I struck out for Gulfport and the final pre-Christmas book signing.
The Marys were indisposed to having breakfast, so I allowed myself a secret indulgence in junk food for lunch: three Krystal hamburgers at the location in Slidell. I am forced to do this by a virus I picked up in high school. It's usually dormant, but I get occasional flare-ups. The Krystal is one restaurant that I'm glad is less than exacting in its service. If the extra pickles and mustard I asked for had come, I would have liked them even more, and that would make me come back sooner than I otherwise might.
I was a shade late getting to Barnes & Noble in Gulfport. Enough to get the store manager on the phone to ask my whereabouts. There were people in line to get my autographed books. I do very well every time I show up on the Gulf Coast. In the two hours I stayed at it, we sold most of the stack of each book--some $1400 worth.
A man who said that he had been in New Orleans radio before becoming a TV anchorman carried on a long conversation with me about people we both knew but had lost track of. One of these was Dave Ralston, who was a disk jockey on WWL Radio when that station still played music in midday. Dave wound up on WGSO, where in the late 1970s I did short recorded restaurant reviews and recipes for years. One day in 1978 Ralston called in sick, and future weatherman Dan Milham--who was the program director of WGSO then--buzzed to ask if I would come in and do Ralston's show. I didn't tell him that I'd never hosted a live show in my life, or that all my life I'd wanted to. My heart was pounding when I opened the mike and said, "I can't be Dave Ralston, but I can play his music." Which I did, starting with "You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore," with both Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand. One of the FM producers edited their separate versions together and everybody liked the result. Seems corny now.
This fellow at the bookstore (I didn't catch his name) asked if I knew that Rob Aubert had died. Rob was the morning anchorman on WWL when my station was bought by WWL. His was a classic radio voice, and I stole one particular tonal gambit he used. (Hard to explain; ask me when you see me in person.) He was given early retirement so Bob Del Giorno could take over that slot in 1993.
I drove to the sunset on the next leg of my journey, to the Court of Two Sisters in the French Quarter. Our radio station group was having its Christmas party there. I was one of the first to arrive, beat only by news director Dave Cohen and his wife. The party had not officially started, but I didn't want to wait for my first Sazerac. Even though Floria Woodward died a few months ago, her Sazerac recipe is still the best in town. The restaurant makes it in batches, not one at a time--but this seems to take nothing away from its goodness.
Just before going upstairs, Joe Fein came by. He's the owner, as well as a classmate of mine at Jesuit High School. We will meet again in two weeks, when the Class of 1968 holds its annual lunch here. Joe has had to work through the loss of his wife earlier this year. He said it's been lonely, and he's thinking of selling their house. This must be very hard.
Every time I attend the radio party--which I do most years--I realize again how big an organization I work for. Lots of the salespeople and FM jocks are perfect strangers to me--largely because I work such a short shift, beyond the end of the normal work day. And then I am reassured by seeing some of the lifers.
The food was good, as such party food goes. The kitchen rotated the buffet, so return visits weren't to the same things you saw the first pass. Escargots in mushrooms, small beef Wellingtons, shrimp remoulade (whose great sauce was also delicious with the deviled eggs), carved beef tenderloin, pork and bacon brochettes, and crab claws.
One of the other attendees asked me why a waiter stood in back of the buffet doing nothing while all the guests helped themselves to the food. I ruled out bad service. The staff was quick to take used dishes from the guests and bringing new food out. Maybe having someone looking over the food you take puts a brake on greediness.
Scott Paisant--radio name "Scoot"--showed up. I learned last week that he's not only back in town, but back on WWL, as a fill-in host. He told me that he's been on the air consistently in a string of cities, and that he has returned here to his hometown for unfortunate reasons. He said he was glad to be back, anyway.
Mary Ann showed up after awhile. She left when she noted that the people she wanted to socialize with weren't here. MA mildly disapproves of these parties. Feeling that vibe even though she wasn't there, I left soon after she did. The disk jockey was so loud that you could hardly talk anyway. I'll bet that if we took a vote, most people at this and similar parties would want the disk jockey to just beat it. It'd be a lot more fun, anyway.
Court of Two Sisters. French Quarter: 613 Royal. 504-522-7273.
