It's New Orleans: Happy Hour

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Synopsis

HAPPY HOUR is a cocktail-fueled 60 minutes of random conversation with folks who have nothing in common, other than being New Orleanians in a bar. Featuring extraordinary New Orleans musicians playing live, host Grant Morris and sidekick deluxe Andrew Du

Episodes

  • Your Language of Love

    09/01/2020 Duration: 01h01min

    All of us have a love language: some way we prefer love to be communicated to us. For some it’s touch, for others it’s receiving gifts. Your ideal partner in life is a person who speaks your language of love. If you’re having trouble finding that perfect lifetime love-talk , Ann Parnes can help you. Ann is a professional matchmaker. Tell her who you’re looking for and she’ll go to a bunch of parties, functions, and dinner parties and troll the crowds so you don’t have to. Big Chief Delco from Creole Osceola Mardi Gras Indian Tribe is in his 54th year of marriage and he can tell you straight out, his love language is not touch. He doesn’t want people touching him. He has, however, touched a lot of people. In his 50-plus years as a Chief he has traveled the world spreading the gospel of the Indian way, he’s adopted schools, influenced countless kids, and been such a leading light advocate of the Indian tradition that the Positive Vibrations Foundation is recognizi

  • The Girl With The Christmas Tree On Her Head

    12/12/2019 Duration: 01h02min

    The girl with the Christmas tree on her head would be eye-catching anywhere. The sparkly glitter on her face and her 8 inch shoes with snow-globes in each perspex heel turns heads even in New Orleans. To find out Jezebel Lobelia lives in Lafayette is astounding. Jezebel makes things like the Christmas tree on her head. They're called fascinators and you can see the full wide range of them at Jezebel's Etsy shop, Jezebel's Fascination. Mark Taliancich doesn't look quite as eye-popping as Jezebel but he's every bit as fascinating. Mark is the Clinical Director of Counseling Solutions at Catholic Charities and he has a Ph.D in marriage counseling. And yet, even knowing everything there is to know about marriage, he went ahead and got married. And here's the fascinating bit: Mark and his wife, Maegen, are opening a rum distillery. The distillery is called Happy Raptor and their first lines of product are called 504Rum. The rums are flavored, like 504BananasFoster and 504 Hibiscus. Andrew Duhon closes out 2019 wit

  • Keto Fat Bomb Explodes the Myth of Celebrity

    05/12/2019 Duration: 01h05min

    Sure it's heresy to eat King Cake before 12th Night but Susan Freeswick brings a load of awesome food to this edition of Happy Hour, including King Cake, and gets a NOLA Heresy Pass because it's all Keto from her bakery Everyday Keto to Go. In the middle of this conversation, Susan's Keto Fat Bomb explodes the myth of celebrity. Strictly, it's writer Thomas Beller who explodes that myth. Tom set out to be a rock star, as the drummer in a New York band. Along the way he stumbled into a different kind of stardom: as a staff writer for The New Yorker, the pinnacle of all writing gigs ever, anywhere. Tom describes the night he hung out recently with another superstar writer, playwright Tom Stoppard - the night neither of them had anything to do after the Rolling Stones canceled their Jazz fest gig - and British Tom imagined that New Yorker Tom "must have felt like a dog with five tails" the year he had the New Yorker gig. If you'd like to know what happened to the rest of the guys in New York Tom's band, check th

  • I Don't Give A Funk

    14/11/2019 Duration: 01h01min

    When Josh Benitez sings " I.D.G.A.F! I don't give a funk" he's got a whole lot not to give a funk about. It's actually a funking miracle he's not a serial killer or hasn't killed himself. You've got to hear Josh tell his story in his own words but the short version is, he was the target of racism that was so bad he didn't leave the house the whole time he was in high school. In fact he didn't even go to high school. He stayed inside so much his skin tone changed and he turned shades lighter. Where did this happen? About a 15 minute drive from where we're talking in Uptown New Orleans, in Belle Chasse on the Westbank. Chris Poche is both an architect and the super-talented screenwriter and director of one of the best movies to come out of New Orleans in years, if not ever. The movie is called The True Don Quixote and is the first ever movie based on the classic tilting-at-windmills saga. It's been about 500 years since the publication of Don Quixote marked the birth of the novel as we know it so how fitting fo

  • How to Get a Free Tattoo (Not On Your Face)

    07/11/2019 Duration: 01h04min

    Dominic Sgro owns a typically New Orleans tattoo shop, complete with an on-staff magician and live music. At Catahoula Tattoo & Gallery Dominic will give you a free tattoo, as long as it's not on your face. And it also has to be the logo of the tattoo shop - which is a catahoula wearing a death mask - but who wouldn't want that inked on their bicep, right? Winston Triolo from the band Motel Radio is going to trade playing a set at Dominic's shop for a tattoo of his truck on his forearm. If you're waiting for a punchline, sorry. Winston's longest relationship is with his truck and before it dies he wants to memorialize it in ink on his arm. He's apparently not worried about what the inevitable new truck might think about the old truck permanently on his arm, but apparently the new truck is just going to have to learn to live Winston's past. Comedian Matt Owens is going straight from Happy Hour to headlining a comedy show at Southern Rep. And today's the day the trailer for Matt's new film comes out. The fi

  • Fear of Commitment and Desire For Intimacy

    16/10/2019 Duration: 01h01min

    The two poles of human interaction are the desire for intimacy but the fear of commitment, right? We all have it. And nobody nails it quite like Cyrille Aimee. French-born, New York seasoned and now new Orleans resident, chanteuse Cyrille Aimee is what she calls "jazz famous." And she is. The New York Times has called Cyrille one of the greatest jazz vocalists of our time so it's a real treat to have her sit at Happy Hour and, with extraordinary accompanist Joshua Starkman, play Sondheim's Marry Me A little and the jazz standard, Duke Ellington's I'm Beginning To See The Light. Gia Hamilton is the person in this conversation who puts her finger on fear and intimacy. By day, Gia is officially the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the New Orleans African American Museum. But Gia has a varied past that includes farmer,  healer, and life coach - pastimes and traits that she has not totally left behind. Gia manages to integrate an amazing number of streams into her current life, including raising 5 sons

  • The New Orleans Ahayuasca Martini

    09/10/2019 Duration: 01h02min

    Recovering architect and brand designer Adam Newman remarks on this show that knowing when to shut up is one of the most valuable life lessons. And he's glad he recently learned it because it has come in handy today, surrounded by three of the coolest women you could pull together at a table anywhere. Let's start with Michelle Welchons. Michelle plays the cajon, is a Spanish translator in the New Orleans court system, leads her own band, Orchidea, traveled to Peru to do Ahayuasca, and is half of the electrifying acoustic duo (the music is acoustic and the result is electrifying) Bom Bon. The other half of Bom Bon is the equally astounding Olivya Lee. Olivya has one of the most sultry and alluring singing voices you can imagine, and she didn't even start taking singing seriously till a couple of years ago 'cause she was concentrating on her classical flute playing. And wait till you hear how she plays guitar. Completing the triumvirate of awesomeness is no less than Melissa Sawyer, the co-founder of YEP,

  • Literally The Best Thing You Can Do With Frequent Flier Miles

    25/09/2019 Duration: 01h01min

    If you have frequent flier miles and you've been wondering "What's the best thing I can do with them?" Seth Stanton has the answer. You can give them to the organization he founded here in New Orleans called Miles 4 Migrants. Seth and his fellow volunteers at Miles 4 Migrants will use your miles to reunite families who have been separated by conflict or persecution. Can you even imagine a more feel-good thing to do than to use the most ultimate luxury non-necessity in your life to help someone who is in the most dire and desperate need of their life? It's a world-wide organization and it started right here in New Orleans and, believe it or not, on Reddit. Ashlye Keaton is no slouch either when it comes to spreading the love around. Ashlye left behind a career as a choreographer  ("not for the New York City Ballet") and became a lawyer so she could help people. Yes, that does sound totally antithetical to the est if the legal profession but Ashlye is pulling it off. Her organization, The ELLA Project, pro

  • Poboys, Drag Queens & Cowboy Mouth: the Most New Orleans Happy Hour Ever

    18/09/2019 Duration: 01h03min

    If you've been a New Orleanian for any length of time, you're going to enjoy this very candid conversation with 3 New Orleans celebrities. Poppy Tooker is New Orleans first lady of food. From her weekly TV appearances on Steppin' Out to to her weekly radio show and podcast, Poppy is the best known foodie in the city. Poppy's latest venture is a collaboration with a large group of drag queens to produce a strong of drag queen brunches around town, culminating in her 6th book, simply called Drag Queen Brunch. You could have found out any of this information in any New Orleans publication. What you won't have heard anywhere but here is the explanation to this sentences Poppy utters by way of her current situation: "I'm not dead and I'm not knocked up." Fred LeBlanc is the larger than life front man of the band Cowboy Mouth. If you've ever been to a Cowboy Mouth show or heard any of Fred's media appearances you have probably thought Fred's life is an open book. Well, there might be a couple of chapters of the boo

  • A Note From The Universe

    11/09/2019 Duration: 01h03min

    Where do you stand on crystals? Do you think they have any power? Or is that all b.s.? Stacy Bogg mines her own crystals and dispenses crystal-power medicine through her business, Karma Rocks. As you might imagine, Stacy comes down solidly on the side of metaphysical power emanating from crystals that vibrate at particular frequencies in ways that have a real effect on us in the physical world.  Daniel Shkolnik, as well as being a poet, is also variously an agnostic or atheist and believes that the only power emanating from a crystal is the psychological power we give it by believing in the hocus pocus of metaphysical vibrations and that in fact a crystal has no greater power than "a lucky rabbit's foot." Rodo, front man for the band Naughty By Choice, strangely enough is wearing a giant amethyst around his neck and has a new record coming out appropriately titled, A Note From The Universe. Rodo's guitarist today, Chris Wilson, is trying to steer the conversation onto ghosts because he's "dead inside." &

  • Good Morning New Orleans

    28/08/2019 Duration: 01h03min

    "Good Morning New Orleans" is the song that Aaron Benjamin told himself he was definitely not going to sing on this Happy Hour. So, what does he end up singing? It's the song he wrote about his two day trip to New Orleans after he had decided definitely not to move here. Are you starting to see a pattern? If you're not familiar with Aaron's music, and especially his voice, you're in for a shock - as was everybody around the table at Wayfare in Uptown New Orleans. Kenny Bellau is a legitimate hero. Google his name and see what comes up: stories about how, single-handed, he rescued over 400 people from the floodwaters of Katrina. Besides his real-life hurricane heroics, Kenny spent 30 years as a world-class competitive cyclist, racing against household names like Lance Armstrong, who Kenny says was a jerk from way back when he was 17. Kenny has an amazing number of extraordinary stories, all of which culminate in his current position - you're not even going to believe this, but he's a movie star! Kenny stars in

  • The Noodles of Instagram

    14/08/2019 Duration: 01h03min

    What if the guy you happen to be sitting next to at Wayfare in Uptown New Orleans happens to be the king of social media, Jeff Januszek? What's the first question you'd ask him? "How do I get more people to follow me on Instagram?" Right? Well, listen up. Jeff's Moscow Mule is the first thing he's eaten all day other than a few blueberries off his 4 year old son's breakfast plate and he's happy to talk about the secrets of making social media work.  Caitlin Carney is the 51% owner of Marjie's Grill, one of the hippest and most popular restaurants in New Orleans. Marjie's Instagram followers love posts about noodles, dumplings, and fried chicken. You're going to be surprised to hear what Caitlin thinks of the restaurant gold standard of social media, Yelp. And you might be even more surprised to hear what Jeff says is going to happen to Yelp. (As a public service, if you don't have time to listen to this podcast, sell your Yelp shares today.) Jeremy Joyce turned his back on a career working in IT for the

  • Yes it's The New Orleans Vegan Cheesemaker Who Was On Jeopardy!

    07/08/2019 Duration: 01h03min

    Caitlion O'Neill's entire trivia and cheerleading life had led up to the moment when she was already drunk at dinner in the Grill Room in the Windsor Court hotel with the Latvian man destined to become her father in law after she marries Mr Hunter and becomes Caitlion (Pronounced "Kate Lion") Hunter. That's when she gets the phone call. The phone call from Jeopardy! to tell her she's on the show. Nothing has ever been quite same since. But it's hard to say whether this episode is even one of the top 5 Most Interesting Things about Caitlion. Matthew Desotell is a big deal in some circles. Matthew wrote and directed a movie, and he made it for 15 years in the entertainment business in Los Angeles before returning recently to New Orleans. But this movie might not even make the list of the 5 Most Interesting Things about Matthew. You might know him for his professional banter. Or his fashion campaigns for the likes of Hudson Jeans. Daria Dzurik is the lead singer and steel pan player in the band Daria & The H

  • Yo Mama's a Heaux

    31/07/2019 Duration: 01h03min

    You might be one of the many people who say, "I like all music. But not country." If that's you, you're about to discover a whole new meaning of "red neck." Meet Hyperphlyy. Three women from Poplarville, Mississippi who moved to New Orleans, look like a million bucks (each) and are re-writing the Book of Expectations. Nothing about Hyperphlyy is what it looks from the outside. On the subject of not judging a book by its cover, there's no way you could tell by looking at Alicia Cooke that she's had more adventures than anyone you've ever sat next to in a bar. Alicia lived for two tears in a part of Niger where she was the only foreigner and everybody else spoke a strange language called Zarma. Zarma isn't a written language and most words are onomatopoeia. In this conversation the folks at the table score 100% on Alicia's Zarma vocab test.  Lecco Morris visited New Orleans a few months ago and within 3 hours and one sazerac decided he was never leaving. Lecco has taken up residence as a street poet and it

  • Mr Peepers and Bisexual Paranoid Insecurity

    24/07/2019 Duration: 01h02min

    DJ Nice Rack has a tattoo on her arm that advertises the fact she's bisexual. But it hasn't turned out to convey the message she was anticipating. Being openly bisexual, it turns out, just doubles the amount of paranoid insecurity that your partner feels. As DJ Nice Rack puts it on this Happy Hour, "Women think you're going to leave them for a guy, guys think you're going to leave them for a woman..." And apparently with good reason given Nice Rack's self-confessed history. But bisexual paranoia is only one of Ms Rack's wonderful tales. Arguably Mr Peepers' adventures in the RV rival it. Don't ask L. Kasimu Harris what the "L" stands for. He selected his middle name Kasimu as a hipper moniker, and it suits him. Kasimu might be one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. A photographer for, among others, The New York Times, with solo photography exhibitions across the country, and a parallel career as a writer, you'll be looking a long time around New Orleans for a more suave, more entertaining, and more genuine

  • You're Not Allowed To Call It Nut Milk

    17/07/2019 Duration: 01h05min

    OK, so here's the thing about nut milk. Apparently Louisiana dairy producers are ticked off and powerful enough to get the legislature to outlaw anyone calling or labeling anything as "milk" that doesn't come from a cow. No bull. That's going to be the law. And that's according to one of the State's most connected journalists, Stephanie Grace. Stephanie Grace was a columnist for the Times Picayune before quitting and moving to The Advocate, only to end up at The Advocate again now that they have bought the Times Picayune and become a brand name with a "|" in it - a vertical line that's been hiding on your keyboard for years and is under-utliized in daily parlance, for good reason. Nonetheless, Stephanie gets paid for calling bullsh!t on Louisiana politicians, a job with enormous security. OK, the paper is officially called The Times Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.  Talking of long life, Paul Tuennerman says an insurance actuarial guy told him he's going to live till he's 92. Paul totally believes this a

  • Corruption, Consent Decree and Other Shocking New Orleans Revelations

    26/06/2019 Duration: 01h02min

    Happy Hour is not the kind of podcast you expect to hear shocking inside breaking news revelations about corruption in the New Orleans justice system, but you never know who you're going to be sitting next to in a bar and what they're going to tell you after a drink or two. Simone Levine is the Executive Director of Court Watch NOLA. It's a watchdog organization that keeps an eye on the courts. You won't even believe the story about Judge Bonin and why he gets defendants who appear in his court to wear an ankle monitor. Kickbacks. From the ankle monitor company. Sometimes the judge orders defendants to wear the monitors for up to a year - and the defendant has to pay $10 a day to the monitoring company. This story is going to be in the NY Times, and we scooped them on Happy Hour! Lila Turner has only been in New Orleans for 6 months but she's probably done more good for the city in that time than most of us do in 6 years. Lila is the Development Director for Son of a Saint, an organization that mentors father

  • The CBD & Cocktails Experiment

    19/06/2019 Duration: 01h04min

    Jonathan Andry shows up to this week's Happy Hour with a bunch of his CBD product, CBD-Tox. It's allegedly a kick-ass hangover cure, with 20mg of high grade CBD in each capsule. So, picture this. You're in a bar in New Orleans - Wayfare to be exact, Uptown - with ace guitar player June Yamagishi, Erica Falls, the vocalist for Galactic, high-net-worth business consultant (for folks over $20m only) Melissa Schutz Lilly, and singer-songwriter Andrew Duhon. And Jonathan's free boxes of CBD capsules. Oh, and everybody's drinking cocktails. So what do you think happens next? Correct. Everybody takes two CBD-Tox capsules. This podcast is the live, real-time experimental record of what happens next. Without spoiling anything, Erica's pain threshold changes fairly substantially over the hour. Andrew believes he can see where the song he's writing can be fixed, and debuts it. Melissa's stomach ailment disappears. And Jonathan defends himself against a lawsuit from the estate of the late Dr.John. Warning: your results w

  • Fame on Acid

    12/06/2019 Duration: 01h02min

    If you're a fan of classic retro-TV you're familiar with Fame, the Glee of the 70's. (Basically a high school where they spend more time singing songs and dancing than doing any actual school work.) If you can imagine that on acid, that apparently was Jo Morris's education.  Today Jo and band-mate Steve Walkup are the nucleus of an awesome, almost retro 90's band called St. Lorelei. If you've never heard of them it's because they apparently never play anywhere, but there's an album due out in the Fall and we're predicting big things. if you like the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil you're going to flip out when you hear this. Buddy Bolden is as retro as you can get. Buddy was the father of all jazz and the biggest deal in New Orleans music of all time who never made a record. He does now, however, have a feature film about him and if Danielle de Sol, her outfit The Preservation Resource Center, and her partner PJ Morton from Maroon 5 has anything to with it, Buddy's original house in New Orleans will s

  • The Actual Real Deal Secret to Human Happiness

    05/06/2019 Duration: 01h05min

    This is not a cute click bait podcast title. Dr John Sawyer (you can call him "Johnny Jr" if you want) is the Co-Director of the Brain Health Program at Ochsner Health System. If you want any other reassuring credentials he's also an ex-seminarian and a married gay man and father of two kids. And he actually, for real, has the keys to human happiness.  You have to listen to almost this entire podcast to get to the secret of human happiness. Although you could skip right to the last 10 minutes. If you did you'd miss Kandy explaining the plight of being a side-chick - a third woman in a two-person relationship - or a side-dick - a third guy in a two person relationship. Kandy also has some insights into human, and her own, sexual behavior, but not quite as radical an insight as Jonathan Freilich, Jonathan is the librettist and composer of a new operetta called Darling, Do Not Be Offended By What I Wrote, which is a faithful operatic telling of the letters James Joyce wrote to his wife, recounting in graphi

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