Shandy Pockets | An online travel magazine
  • Front
  • Features
    • Travel Features
    • Interviews
    • Photo Features
    • Travel Archives
  • Reviews
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Eat & Drink Reviews
    • Attraction Reviews
    • Product Reviews
  • About
    • Media Kit

A king among men

21/5/2015

0 Comments

 
BB King
I'm lucky enough to have had the honour of briefly meeting the late BB King. 

It was 2008 and I was on assignment in the US, covering the opening of the BB King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi. The museum is one of the few in the world to be dedicated to a single musician, and this only miles from where BB King was born into poverty, his parents being sharecroppers, picking cotton under that unforgiving Mississippi sun. 

The whole town turned out, and the great man was emotional throughout. He held a press conference, and I’ll always remember his words: “They say heaven is beautiful, and if it’s half as beautiful as this, then I’m ready to go today.” 

The conference finished and as the room disbanded, people milled around and I found myself standing next to the man himself. We made eye contact and I blurted out the only thing I could think of to say…”Mr King, how do you feel today?” 

He looked at me and I could feel the enormous weight of his achievements, of a life lead to the fullest fulfilment of musical potential, of someone who clawed their way from humble beginnings and succeeded, but didn’t lose that humility. I was there, exposed in the glare of his stature, a nobody, and him, a legend. 

But he looked at me with these kind eyes, two people just sharing a human moment as chaos whirled around us, and as he leaned in, he whispered to me and I’ll never forget what he said before his managers and publicists whisked him away. “Son,” he said quietly, “Which newspaper do you work for exactly?”

0 Comments

Free and easy in New Orleans

6/5/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
There are cities – yes, you might look shame-faced, New York and London – where it seems like just existing in that geographic space equals financial haemophilia. Money just flows out of you as you stand gawping at the big shapes and shiny colours.  

I’ve lived in London and visited New York enough times to know that these places just effortlessly relieve you of cash. They’re like a wily, sleight-of-hand pickpocket. “Oops! Look at that monument! And I’ll just slip this five pound/dollar note out of your wallet…WHAT? It’s a breathing tax!” 

I think it’s to do with pace and scale – the size of those cities and the speed at which things happen mean that if you’re going to participate in any kind of social life there, on-the-fly decisions constantly have to be made. Cabs suddenly need to be caught, that exhibition looks like a good idea, meals need to be eaten and what am I going to do – NOT order wine, like a CHUMP?  

New Orleans, though – with its manageable size and lolling pace of life – is the perfect breeding ground for free stuff. 

Our main currency is, of course, music. Post-Jazz Fest, those local bands return to their free gigs on Frenchmen Street, and chances are you can buy that upright bass player a beer instead of squinting at them from the depths of the khaki sea. 

The scale of free music is astonishing, from the sweaty dance crevices of BJs Lounge as you haul Monday night ass to King James and the Special Men, to the refined air of the Davenport Lounge as you sip a Martini with an ear cocked to Jeremy Davenport’s beguiling trumpet. Or just walk down Royal Street, where even picking up detergent at Rouses has a street-provided soundtrack. 

Eating is the other constant backdrop to life here, and plates regularly spill over with free food, from the Friday crawfish boils at R Bar to game day buffets at pretty much every neighbourhood pub, locals scooping up the kind of comfort food that the stress of following the Saints usually requires. 

New Orleans isn’t even satisfied with trumping the world’s free parties with Mardi Gras (hush now, Rio, it goes on for weeks here). Festivals push out into the streets every week, celebrating everything from the French Quarter to gumbo, ‘bull’ running to zydeco. Jazz in the Park. Wednesdays at the Square. Every night a dozen places. 

Don’t have money to impress a date? Whisk them around the sculpture park and picnic in the shadow of a Henry Moore, or have Chris Hannah mix you something dynamite at the French 75 Bar (yes, the drinks cost money) and then wander up to the secret Germaine Cazanave Wells Museum. You’re welcome. 

How many free gigs do you think Louis CK – arguably the world’s best comedian– played last year? I suspect that all of them happened in New Orleans over a four-week flurry of excitement that energised the city’s comedy scene. Local comics tear it up for free every single night of the week.  

Parks, mass work-outs, erotic fiction, dance lessons, poetry, yoga, karaoke, swimming, battle re-enactments, brewery tours, social bike rides, horse racing, art, libraries and solid advice from any local you care to ask. You can find it all for free in New Orleans. Save your breathing tax money for a cocktail. They’re usually worth paying for here.
Picture

The newly-updated, second edition of New Orleans For Free - with hundreds of free activities to do in New Orleans - is out now in paperback and on Kindle via Amazon.  
0 Comments

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Air Travel
    Americas
    Asia
    Books
    Celebrities
    Cities
    Competitions
    Eco Travel
    Europe
    Food/Drink
    Gadgets
    Guides
    Hacks
    Hotel Guests
    Hotels
    Humour
    Infographic
    Interviews
    Luxury
    Magazine Content
    Maps
    New Orleans
    News
    Passengers
    Photos
    Podcast
    Products
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Surveys
    Technology
    Trains
    Travel Writing
    Trivia
    UK
    USA
    Video
    Weird

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Shandypockets and the individual authors, 2013, 2014 and 2015. All rights reserved. Online travel magazine, travel features, travel reviews, travel interviews, travel funnies, hotel reviews, product reviews, travel photos


In the course of writing features, we will sometimes be hosted. Where appropriate, we will indicate this within the article. For all queries regarding Shandy Pockets, see the CONTACT page, above.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ewan-M, Chrissy Olson, Powershift2012, Mr Thinktank, jennicatpink, nafra cendrers, eastmidtown, ST33VO, PYONKO, shaman2477, Upupa4me, Infrogmation, jikatu, Janitors, Robert S. Donovan, JD Hancock, beltz6, beggs, brownpau, sierragoddess, badgreeb RECORDS, mikedarnell1974, °Simo°, Daquella manera, Alex Schwab, ST33VO, MMartin Photography, Numinosity (Gary J Wood), Coco Mault, dying regime, DonkeyHotey, LoFish23, Aero Icarus, Bob Jagendorf, Matt @ PEK, travel.executive