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I always find this interesting when I muse about it but, in the scheme of things, I suppose it doesn't matter much. It does, however, mean that you can walk to the French Quarter or City Park in the same amount of time. I guess we're in a pretty sweet location, after all.
I knew that anyway, of course, because I love our neighborhood and I find our neighborhood endlessly fascinating. It's as good a part of New Orleans to call home as it is to call it home base. This is our headquarters and it can be yours, too, for a spell.
Contrary to my usual modus operandi, I am not going to post the video that accompanied the release of the 1982 hit, 'Our House,' by the UK ska band, Madness. I've never been particularly fond of the song and we already have a lot of difficult listening to plow through in this installment.
Let's start with Big Freedia, the Queen Diva of New Orleans Bounce. You can watch the first 45 seconds of the following for the serious side of Big Freedia. You don't need to watch more than that. We've got a lot more coming:
You watched the whole thing, didn't you? The scenery is all New Orleans and that, really is why I like to watch these videos. Bounce music is tied to New Orleans, as Wikipedia dryly and dispassionately dissects it in the link provided.
What follows next is a video featuring Big Freedia with the Big Easy Roller Girls. Women's roller derby (the best kind) happens at the UNO (University of New Orleans) Human Performance Center.
If you are wondering what a human performance center is (I was), it's a 1760-seat multi-purpose arena. One of the purposes to which it is put is roller derby matches. Who says you can't get a quality education in Louisiana?
You can watch the 'Dangerous' video in full. Doing research for this post, I've watched a lot of bounce videos. I'm familiar with some of the songs, but this isn't really music I listen to on a regular basis. I know that tidbit surprised you. To me, every song sounds pretty much the same.
I'm not speaking disparagingly about bounce music when I say it all sounds the same to me. I say the same thing about Cajun zydeco. After a while of listening to either, I feel like I'm going insane.
Now, I'm going to take you along for the ride, featuring some of what I think are the best examples of the bounce genre.
While I'm not a fan of the music, nor of the dance moves that usually (always) go along with it, I do like the scenery chosen for the videos. Let's take a look at 5th Ward Weebie's 'Let Me Find Out':
I admit that whole talk show intro is a bit dull, but I love the shots in front of the Manchu Chicken Store. That store is on the corner of Esplanade Avenue and N. Clairborne Ave. You'll see it when you're walking to or from the French Quarter from or to our house. A lot of people tell us you can find the best fried chicken wings in the city at Manchu. They also sell Chinese food, among other things. I got an order of egg rolls there once. They were fine.
That side of Esplanade Avenue is in the 7th Ward. I find it interesting that 5th Ward Weebie chose to shoot his video in the 7th Ward. A lot of bounce videos, and a lot of New Orleans videos, period, really, feature scenery found on N. Claiborne Avenue.
The I-10 overpass runs over the N. Claiborne neutral ground. The acoustics down there are incredible. The N. Claiborne Ave. neutral ground is also a place where everyone goes at one time or another. There is no avoiding it. A lot happens there.
Now, a view of Deslonde Street in the Lower 9th Ward by Flawless:
This is in the neighborhood being rebuilt by Brad Pitt's Make it Right Foundation. You can see some of the foundation's houses in the background of the footage above. A bit farther in the background than the houses in the middle ground.
How about one more? This is 9th Ward Judy's 'Honeybee' in which she encourages the listener to wiggle like a honeybee. It's a much cleaner song than 'Make It Clap,' which I thought was a more interesting video production, but we try to keep things rated the most milquetoast grade of PG here.
So, if you didn't know what bounce music was at the beginning of today's installment, you do now.
There is more than just jazz and brass band music in New Orleans. It a big kaleidoscopic city when you get outside the French Quarter. It's a good city full of a home grown culture that reinvigorates itself in new ways every day. If you are bored in New Orleans, it isn't the city's fault.
À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.
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