University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO Wavelength Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies 6-1985 Wavelength (June 1985) Connie Atkinson University of New Orleans Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/wavelength Recommended Citation Wavelength (June 1985) 56 https://scholarworks.uno.edu/wavelength/71 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wavelength by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEW ORLEANS MUSIC MAGAZINE $1.50 ISSUE N0. 56 JUNE 198f5 eBavou UNIVERSI COSSO EARL K LONG LIBRARY UNIV OF N.O. ACQUISITIONS DEPT N. o . , BULK RATE U. S. POST AGE PAID .. GO AHEAD, MAI<E YOUR DAY. Maple Leaf Poets Make Six une is an anniversary month States. Novelists and playwrights Kasten, who performs following J for the practically-legendary have appeared as well. The bar's each reading. Sunday afternoon Maple Leaf Bar first international reader was prom­ Normally the readings are far poetry reading series. At age six, inent Canadian novelist David from dull; there is noise from the the durable if unorthodox series, Adams Richards, who read this adjoining barroom, cats, dogs and which somehow manages to be past March. While many of the children come and go, floats pass both indigenous and cosmopolitan, Leafs readers boast considerable by in the plate-glass window behind is the longest continuously running reputations, the series also wel­ the reader on stage, occasionally reading series in the city. It is also comes talented beginning and there are floods. If newcomers are the only weekly series (readings, unpublished writers. None of the sometimes disconcerted by such scheduled for 2:30, begin around readers are paid: their only compen­ goings-on, regulars know to expect 3:00 on Sunday afternoons) and the sation is exposure to an intelligent the unexpected. only one regularly held in a bar - and high-spirited audience - which Bar-owner John Parsons, giving I usually on stage but sometimes in in turn pays no cover or minimum. special credit to Everette Maddox the Leafs plant-filled patio. During the past year the readings "for keeping it going;• calls the The idea for the readings was have been pleasantly augmented by readings "a wonderful thing for the suggested by Carrollton painter and the piano and vocal stylings of Fred bar:' Happy Birthday. bar-regular Franz Heldner in June r 1979. Nobody remembers the exact THE BEST FOR LEST MACON FRY I aturday night. .. late ... after date, or that of the first reading, by S midnight we get to St. There­ Everette Maddox and the late sa's ... a church? ... a school? ... Robert Stock. maybe. Mohawks, girls dressed up Early organizers of the like prom night 1948. Cool, man, readings were Maddox, Stock, cool. Is this '76 or '86? After sitting Maxine Cassin and Yorke Corbin. through the opening acts we notice, Maple Leaf Rag: An Anthology of no it can't be, Alex Chilton, tuning New Orleans Poetry, based on the a guitar on stage. Are the Cramps first season of readings and edited going to perform??? No. There is a by Cassin, Corbin and Maddox, projection of a panther in back of was published by the New Orleans him. The Panther Burns, led by the Poetry Journal Press in 1980, and legendary Tav Falco. Haven't seen remains the only comprehensive them for years. What to expect??? anthology of contemporary New They sound better than ever. Rock Orleans poetry. meets rockabilly in Memphis at a The Maple Leaf has since hosted street corner car crash. not only New Orleans poets but -Carlos Boll poets from throughout the United DIANA ROSENBERG Down Honte Food With Blues On The Side lberta's Restaurant is situated close to the heart and soul of New Orleans. A Sister Alberta Lewis cooks in the front room of her shotgun home at Third and Danneel streets while her husband, Joe, sits in the adjacent dining room and holds forth amicably on his days as a blues singer, his future a~ a gospel singer, and how the fishing has been recently. The food at Alberta's defines "down home:· ranging from veal stew to pigs' feet, fried or barbecued chicken, and rabbit. The menu often features greens from the Lewis' garden (which \'vOn a blue ribbon in the Uptown Garden Club competition) and what­ ever fish Joe has been able to land. It's impossible to describe a typical combination plate from Alberta's because she always makes sure that everyone has enough of everything they want. On a recent visit I ordered barbecued chicken and got cornbread, red beans, and potato salad with it. Before the chicken was gone, Alberta was insisting that we try some of her sweet potato bread. The nat rate for such a spread is an unvary­ ing$3.25! ...J ...J A~ good as the food is, it's Alberta and Joe who give this restaurant its soul. g Alberta is from Magnolia, Mississippi, and owes her high cheekbones to her mother, who was half American Indian. Joe, also from Mississippi, grew up 9a: picking and hauling cotton on plantations around the delta and singing with ~ several blues bands.·Today the Lewises are the nucleus of The King's Brothers and Sisters, a gospel group that performs in churches and shows across the So, Step~ South and has several records on the Booker label. Say It Ain't The walls of Alberta's are decorated with the ubiquitous icons of soul: por­ fter years out of circulation, music-wise that is, Stephie has returned, traits of Jesus, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy and the Saints (not the foot­ A this time replacing her Whitesox with her new band, the Blacksox. ball team). 1n the corner there's a jukebox surrounded by pictures of gospel ...J Stephie, joined by John Swanka, Joie Messina, Jerry Negrotto, and Chuck groups. Drop in a quarter and play Sister Alberta's "Mean Old Jews Who Cru­ ...J Jonau, performs original music in a rather dark and heavy vein and cites cified My Lord;" drop in another quarter and let Joe select some old blues num­ g en influences as diverse as Dead Boys and lggy Pop to Blondie. bers. What better way to enjoy "the best for lest?" 9 -Carlos Boll -Macon Fry a: ~ 4 WAVELENGTH! JUNE 1985 PUBLICATIONS .... VANITY FAIR HAS GONE THROUGH SOME CHANGES since reappearing a few years ago. No one involved seems to quite know what the magazine should stand for or be about. At this point in time, it's hard to get through an issue without welling up some anger or at least repulsion. Remember when the phrase Bad Attitude was popular? Well, Bad Attitude still fits Vanity Fair. If you are, like me, stuck with a subscription and don't really get off on Jerri Hall's memoirs and VFs recent push toward snide uppa crustisms, I have a suggestion. Cut out the photographs, which are generally the best thing in the mag, and can the rest. This malignant, misan­ thropic mess is chock full of myopic, mendacious malapropisms - the pages are wet with desire for instant fame and lust for A list living. Thke this one to the outhouse, quick. So this is what happened to the Soho News. Don't bother with a new subscription- this turkey won't make it to Thanksgiving . ....AN GAEL IS SUBTITLED IRISH TRADITION CULTURE Alive in America Today. Published out of the Irish Arts Center in New York City, AG features Irish poems, fiction, book reviews, cartoons and music articles written in Gaelige as well as English. For info write to An Gael, 553 W. 51st St., NYC, NY 10019 . ....PUBLISHED IN THE HEART OF BROOKLYN'S Caribbean commu­ nity, AFRICAPOP is distributed free around New York, reaching many people who otherwise wouldn't know anything about the subject. The Brooklyn Caribbean community is very influential on the rest of New York's many music scenes and Africapop helps. The trial of Fela Anikulaapo-Kuti, not a big issue in most places, was covered extensively by Africapop. If you are a nouveau African music fan, Africapop might give you some ideas on what reggae, highlife, steel orchestras and other sub-genres to listen to. Lords There are ads for records and record stores supplying African records. Afri­ capop's own ads want us to "Take the Mumbo Jumbo Out of African at Leisure Music~' Yeah you rite. And ... for all you guilty white liberals out there, you can read Ajricapop without feeling bad that your parents' parents' parents were born in Europe - Africapop doesn't have a members-only feel to it. he Lords of the New Church You can subscribe by sending a check or money order to Africapop Newspa­ T were all over New Orleans per, 1194 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11225 ... oh yeah, $7 gets you 12 during their mid-May visit. First to monthly issues. Leisure Landing, where (right) Stiv Bators remembered "great times .... PENNIE STASIK AND MARK EDWARDS provide the service of distrib­ with Madonna in Detroit" and uting promo records from independent labels to indie-oriented radio. An with other band members (above) outgrowth of their service is their publication POLLUTION CON· reminisced with his old pal New TROL. Within the pages of PC you'll find airplay lists, opinions and Orleans' own Danny Reid, for­ exchanges, networking and info on other publications as well as record merly of Syl Sylvan.