CELEBRATING CARNIVAL

I’m sitting here on my couch, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, wanting so badly to be celebrating Carnival in New Orleans. I can’t thank your magazine enough for keeping me in touch with your amazing city. Born and raised in New England and loving music, food and culture, the only place I’d rather be then here is in New Orleans. In five years I’ll be spending my winters there and summers in Plymouth. You probably think by that statement I’m going to retire then, but I’ll be 40 and my kids will be in college.

Enjoy your Carnival season. And thank you for making the Creole in me alive in the cold winter months.

—Carolyn Paradis, Plymouth, Massachusetts

 

OH, CRAP

I awoke one morning over the holiday stretch and looked out of our home’s front window to view the interior of my automobile in complete disarray. Bracing myself for the inevitable loss of a nice camera, and a sentimentally valued pair of sunglasses, I steadied my nerves with a strong cup of coffee, ventured outside and began to take inventory of what was left in my burglarized vehicle. To my astonishment, both the camera and sunglasses were left behind. The lone item that was pilfered? Yep—my disc of Debbie Davis and Matt Perrine’s Oh Crap, It’s Christmas. The album that’s so good, it’s worth risking a night in OPP.

—Paul McMahon and Marj Brown, New Orleans, Louisiana

 

TWO WAY POCKY WAY

Wanted to share an odd rumination. Over the course of reading OffBeat each month I have noted in the interviews with various Mardi Gras Indians discussions of the pronunciations and understandings of the words to the various traditional chants—all very interesting and no doubt authentic of their respective traditions.

But these always bring me back to these lines from the Mister Jelly Roll book—an oral history assembled from transcriptions of recordings made to acetate discs in the 1940s: “And they’d [the Mardi Gras Indians] sing on:

T’ouwais bas q’ouwais,

Ou tendais

T’ouwais bas q’ouwais

Ou tendais”

Which seems to indicate the origin of the phrase, “Two way pocky way…”

—Howard Wuelfing, Morrisville, Pennsylvania

 

CORRECTION

Thanks to you and your staff for the Lifetime Achievement Award. I appreciate the recognition and also the thoroughness of Geraldine Wyckoff’s writing. However, I wish to reword a sentence toward to end of the article regarding my involvement at the Center (EMCM). I am afraid I gave the wrong impression regarding my participation.

I am not on the teaching faculty, but I work closely with the director Michele Jeanpierre on programing, curriculum and promotion of local artists at the Center.

As a musician, I appreciate the support OffBeat gives to all Louisiana musicians. As a music consultant at the Center, I look forward to future endeavors with OffBeat and the budding young students from the Center who will surely benefit from the continuous support of OffBeat.

—Ellis L. Marsalis, Jr.

 

MAX COWAN

I am thrilled to see the review of my band’s album [Atta Kid, East Basics] in the December issue of OffBeat. It is a long-awaited moment in my musical life.

I was somewhat disappointed, however, to see that my name had been misspelled as “Mark Cowan” rather than “Max Cowan.”

Thank you for considering this correction, and for continuing to be the go-to magazine for New Orleans music.

—Max Cowan, Oakland, California

 

We regret this error and have corrected our web version.—Ed.

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