It's New Orleans: Happy Hour

Hugo Montero is the impressario behind the art space, hip Mexican restaurant and sophisto tequila bar Casa Borrerga on OCH in Central City New Orleans. The reason the place is a joyful and riotous success on many levels is a direct reflection of Hugo s larger than life personality and intellect. Hugo started out as an intellectual and academic, spent time as a street artist, and has been a part of the New Orleans cultural scene since the early 90 s. Even pre dating the arrival of Titty Bingo, as he relates in this series of tales that include interesting observations of our steretypes about Mexicans and Mexican restaurants that you may not realize you harbor till you hear it laid out. Hugo s reference to the Titty Bingo days of yore spring from the experiences of Darcy Malone and The Tangle. No strangers to music individually Darcy has sung since childhood with her dad Dave Malone of Radiators fame this is the first go round for the band as a collective. With their new record, Still Life, out any minute the b

An award winning Happy Hour ... Guy Tem is an award winning opera singer and vocal professor who came to New Orleans from Turkey in 2007 to sing in an opera and never left. Guy teaches the table how to tell a man s singing voice by looking at his neck...then "swings low" with a stirring a cappella rendition of the spiritual that nearly blows out the mics. David Lee Simmons is an award winning journalist and communications professional. As communications specialist for the Foundation for Louisiana, David Lee wants us to know about the Foundation s LEAD program, a seven week leadership workshop accepting registration for its next cycle through Friday, Feb. 10. David Lee also came to New Orleans as a visitor and never left...except for the Atlanta years, which he says gives him a unique empathy for the Falcons. Outlaw Nation is a soon to be award winning New Orleans band whose founder Christian Simeon claims most of the best music ever came out of New Orleans. Christian and co guitarist Sebastian Weston serve up

What do you call a jam cruise that doesn t have a jam band, but does have a funny poignant singer songwriter, a 5 string bass player bandleader, a solo act, and an artist In other words, the three musicians and an artist who walked in to Wayfare for this week s Happy Hour. While the panel never quite comes to an answer, they do make the case that no matter what form their work takes, New Orleans artists have a lot in common. Anastasia Pelias is a visual artist whose most recent exhibition, Sisters, paid tribute to great female singers. Her favorite critique came from the cable guy, who talked for 20 minutes about her work. And don t mess with her daughters Anastasia is of Greek heritage and warns the New Orleans Greek community is "a powerful association." Musician Davis Rogan knows a fair bit about New Orleans Greeks he s married to one. Davis says he got his start in entertainment reading PSAs about VD on WTUL at the age of 10, and decided to become a musician when he "wrote some funny words and then picked

Colby Fox had the benefit of growing up in paradise Destin, Florida. But when he flunked out of community college and joined the Navy, his ex military Army dad wasn t terribly supportive. He told Colby, he d rather have a daughter in a cathouse than a son in the Navy. Colby nonetheless persevered and won the old man over with his skills as a helicopter mechanic in the Arabian Gulf. When the war was over Destin wasn t much fun. So Colby decided he had to move, to some place he could get on one tank of gas. Tallahassee or New Orleans. Colby " I didn t know much about day to day life in either of those places but I was learning lots of surprising things from all the podcasts I was finding on the Stitcher app on my phone. I couldn t find many local flavor podcasts about Tallahassee but the It s New Orleans series was available then and I immersed myself in all the episodes. Happy Hour became my favorite because I really liked the premise. On nights when I couldn t sleep which were many back then I would charge up

Apparently women find men who allegedly shoot people, up to three times more attractive than peace loving guys. As a defense attorney Nandi Campbell finds herself representing these guys. Sometimes they don t have the resources to pay a first class defense attorney like Nandi and so the wife, the girlfriend and the other girlfriend come into Nandi s office to sort it out. Nandi is no stranger to the multiple partner world, having grown up with two sisters mere months apart, thanks to her dad and his two girlfriends. All three women and three sisters grew up together and still get along just fine. Brian Levy, who by the way is a black belt professional Aikido practitioner and trainer, had a related but dissimilar experience. In the process of dating two very different women Brian got to learn two languages. That s because one of the girlfriends was Swedish and the other Romanian. If you can t even believe such a thing is possible, take a listen to Brian speaking fluent Romanian and Swedish and explaining the S

Getting strep throat when someone you know gives a third person oral sex sounds like a magic trick. Unfortunately, for Eric Hollerbach, it wasn t. Part of Eric s stand up comedy livelihood is his popular and revealing podcast Highway Diary. You can check out episode 160 where he and his ex ex girlfriend reminisce over the many issues that drove them apart. Until you have a moment to do that, you can catch up on the decidedly non magic pathology of passing diseases around the world of New Orleans entertainment. Rev Goat Carson is a whole other kind of entertainer. Claiming to have Alzheimer s, he manages to pull off a dazzling rap that he performed with Dr. John when he was writing songs with him which earned him a Grammy. Goat also recounts his adventures with a panoply of luminaries from Bob Dylan to Kinky Friedman, and recounts his run for President with Joe Walsh from The Eagles as his running mate. In a range of amazing tales, nothing is quite as stupendous as the movie Goat wrote and directed in the 80 s

Morgan Molthrop fell in love with Greek history at Newman high school and has parlayed that love into a model for his and your life. Morgan s hero, Alexander the Great who is actually a Greek superhero who died in 323 BC at the age of 33 not a Russian Tsar is the inspiration for just about everything in Morgan s current life. He s written a book about him, painted paintings, and has a 13 step plan for successful living for you to follow so you too can be Alex great. Boyanna Trayanova went to Ben Franklin. She didn t fall in love with any Greek gods but she did fall in love with the seminal New Orleans drummer Johnny Vidacovich. Boyanna is a fearsome drummer and leader of One Love Brass Band, a New Orleans brass band take on ska and reggae. Renee Blanchard started out after college working to bring democracy to Burma, and to get toxic chemicals out of cell phones. Having succeeded at both of those goals she came back to New Orleans. And opened Church Alley Coffee Bar on Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Now she s movi

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According to acupuncturist and dispenser of love based medicine Noell Eanes, at one point we were all running around with three eyes. Evolution dealt us a sad blow, removing our third eye which allowed us to see emotions. Now Noell keeps her third eye open, her chakras tuned up and her Qi flowing with a number of techniques and the aid of a ring made of Shattucktite. Noell can even perform acupuncture without needles, known as Shakuju, and hangs out with witches. On paper this all might seem eccentric and weird, but the way Noell tells it, it all sounds perfectly, well, lovely. Blaze Edwards is a photographer, but that s the one thing nobody talks about in this conversation. Blaze has plenty else to talk about though, including the birth of Kemetic Yoga. Kemet is apparently the original name for Africa, and if you re wondering how Yoga, normally associated with India, came to be African, well Blaze can tell you. Since we last met her on Happy Hour, Kathryn Rose Wood has transformed from the front person in a

Singer songwriter Justin Edward had dated and lived with Jen for 6 years before the night he came home to find she d totally trashed his apartment. The upside to his new existence is he has a whole bunch of what Andrew Duhon calls "Sad bastard heartbreak songs," but the downside is getting back on the dating scene. Justin s been everywhere from home alone to the swingers scene. Katy Dupre has the good sense to date a chef from no less a restaurant than Cochon. Katy spends her days analyzing data about the city of New Orleans and is an expert on political research. She explains why Donald Trump ended up being our President and 6 months from now she s coming back on Happy Hour to explain how she s changing the city to get us out of this predicament. And she s not kidding. If you like to go out, you need to know Michael Underwood. And if you don t know him personally, download his app, Scenehound. It tells you where to go to find what you re looking for on any given evening from a quiet place to get a drink to a

Austin Alward aka Aus T the Franco rap star, has a plan to save the country and the world from rampant Trumpism. It involves the inernet, a Cuban cigar store owner, and a bunch of New Orleans actors and musicians. It might be just crazy enough to work. Jazz great Mitchel Forman, and singer songwriters Sam Doores from The Deslondes and Andrew Duhon have their own plan. It involves a searing rendition of I Shall Be Released, a tribute to both Leonard Cohen and the nation. Actress Teri Wyble made it out of dance school in Lafayette to become a critically acclaimed actress, a go go dancer at Harrah s Casino, and an international body painting sensation. This is one of the greatest Happy Hours in the history of the show. If you were thinking of leaving New Orlenas this will make you stay. If you are thinking of moving here, call U Haul, this will tip you over the edge. Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Although the country voted for Donald Trump for President, New Orleans went 80 for Hillary. To try and drown our sorrows we assembled 3 of the most upbeat New Orleanians we could convince to come have free drinks with Grant at Happy Hour. Stasia Cymes is the 1 clutter clearing queen of New Orleans, crowned by no less an authority than Angie s List. Stasia cried all morning about the state of the nation but after 3 hours of clearing clutter and two stiff drinks she s back on top. Vocka Redu is a super star little known in his own back yard. Blending styles from P funk to Southern bounce, Vocka entertains across the country and around the world. Today he lets loose at the table, freestyling an introduction to himself. He also tells the tale of dealing with the untimely death of his mom who was run down by a car, crossing the street, just a couple of weeks ago. His new album, Mama s Boy, is due out any day. Stokley Gray gave up a life working with developmentally challenged adults, with Downs Syndrome, to open a

Judge Laurie White is the Chief Judge at New Orleans Criminal District Court. Because that s an elected position, Judge White refers to herself as a "politician" but nobody else in the bar is buying that. The common wisdom of a bunch of drinkers seems to be that if you are elected to a position that is involved in an activity other than politics you re not strictly a politician. Look at it this way Rob Steinberg is an actor who can t be sure if he s been in court as an actual witness or just thinks he has because he s played a D.A. and a number of lawyers on TV. So that doesn t make Rob a lawyer any more than having people vote for Laurie makes her a politician, but neither does owning a rental property make Rob actually a community destroying owner of an Air B n B property because the way you can look at it is he s actually doing his neighbors a favor by freeing up parking spaces. Also, along the same lines, it s probably better not to ask what Bruce Willis is really like. Terry McDermott has a number one so

Kim Carson, the Queen of New Orleans Honky Tonk, describes the difference between New Orleans Hony Tonk and the rest as, "New Orleans is Honky Tonkier." Kim ought to know. She plays her NOLA H Tonk all around the world. Spending more than half of the year out of the country takes its toll on other parts of Kim s life, as it does with other musicians, but apparently fewer of them are screwing groupies than you think. Dan Fox corroborates that. For some years he was the tour manager for Hooray For The Riff Raff and he s an on and off member of the Lovey Dovies. In his real life Dan is the publisher and editor of NOLA underground music and lit must read, Anti Gravity Magazine. Oh, and he s getting married in a couple of weeks. You want to know how that s going Does the sentence, "It can go die in a fire" give you a clue Joaquin Emiliano escaped a life in adult novelty retail with a wonderful education in lubricants. If you get through half of this show there s a good chance you ll come out knowing a lot more abo

If you see someone you think is attractive on social media and you d like to get to know them, the one sure fire way to get shut down is to say "Hi." The best way to meet someone is to say nothing about how attractive they are. This is dating advice by social media dating icon, Karen iKandy Tep, aka datingiKandy. "Dating Guru" barely scratches the surface of Karen s multi talents that stretch from sex s;ave warrior to author to nurse to bare handed fisher woman of the bayou. Cole Williams is loved and in love but by whom and with whom remains an open question. Jumping out of the gentrified frying pan of Brooklyn in the gentri fire of New Orleans, Cole has an interesting perspective on what s happening to the Crescent City. Oh, and she s also the Punk Empress of African Rock. Lowry Curley is the smartest guy ever to drive across Lake Pontchartrain. Raised on the North Shore, Lowry is creating human life in a lab Uptown, but not the old fashioned way that starts with an Instagram photo. Lowry is the founder of

This is the story of how Happy Hour came to endorse Kaitlin Marone for Senate. Normally we describe this show as random conversation with people who have nothing in common. Today our guests do have something in common. They are running for the United States Senate. The election is November 8th, the same day as the presidential election. Although we can t promise you the same level of dramatic fireworks as a presidential debate, our plan was to offer the unique possibility of the participants in this forum getting drunk. That s because we re having a Senate candidates forum in a bar, namely Wayfare, on Freret Street in Uptown New Orleans. Our Producer Graham DaPonte invited 7 candidates for the Louisiana Senate race to join Grant and Andrew for a debate over cocktails. Graham chose those 7 candidates from a the larger field because all 7 live in the New Orleans area. Of the 7, four accepted our invitation. Charles Marsala, Kaitlin Marone, Vinny Mendoza, and Caroline Fayard. Caroline Fayard canceled a few days

The day Megan Braden Perry woke up and decided her husband smelled too bad and liked loud noise too much to stay married to him, she started mentioning it on Twitter. Her husband, some days or maybe weeks later, decided to check Twitter out for himself after his mom told him she d been reading some pretty weird stuff about him. What transpired next led Megan to get a divorce and be happily dating a bunch of guys number unknown including "a little dude down the street" from Wayfare. Rachel Vette, the singer in the band The Vettes, reluctantly admits she s married though she lost the wedding ring she never really had. Yes, it s a weird story but Rachel doesn t like peer or societal pressure and most of her life is pretty non conforming including marrying a guy whose name is a secret and ditching her ring under bizarre and half remembered circumstances. Nick Napolitano is a comedian at The New Movement Theater and the producer of New Orleans ever growing comedy festival, Hell Yes Fest. Nick almost became a tax p

Sara Johnson has an app on her phone to convert kilograms to pounds and ounces so she knows exactly how much heroin she s talking about. Sara looks sweet enough, right But she s the person you want in your corner when you ve been busted with god knows how many Oz Kg of heroin and you re not guilty of anything. Swear to God. Sara shares the inside scoop on how she s going to get you off. Greg Tilton knows some stuff about substances too. And pregnancy. And a bunch of other topics that make him the best conversationalist in the city. Greg is the producer of The Rumor Flies Podcast, which is a bit like Snopes meets Myth Busters. Sunny Duval lives on the other side of what he s worried is going to be a real wall after President Trump takes over. Sunny is French Canadian. The name of today s show, Bananana, is the title of one of Sunny s quirky Summer sounding beach songs off of his 4th and latest album. We call Happy Hour "a random conversation with folks who have nothing in common," and that description is never

Cheron Brylski has been a political consultant for years. She has gotten more women elected to what she calls "non traditional" political office than you can shake a stick at. So when she talks politics at Happy Hour, we listen. Cheron says without taking a breath to ponder the answer to the question, "Yes, President Trump." It could very well happen. Cheron has some professional advice for how Hillary could pull out a win. Take a listen and see if you think it s likely Hillary could pull it off. Bryan Batt is the biggest Broadway and TV star in town, and one of the most down to earth and nicest guys you could run into in a New Orleans bar. Bryan hasn t exactly traded in the glitz and glam of Hollywood and Broadway for NOLA but he s from here and folks who go to Hazelnut, his store on Magazine Street, expect to see him so that s where you ll often find him. In this conversation Bryan leaves the theatrical persona behind and the guy you get to talk with here on Happy Hour is the same guy you d find if you popp

When you had a vasectomy at age 30 via a doctor who apparently decided it wasn t a moment too soon to remove you from the gene pool , then fall in love with a woman who s determined to have a baby, the solution is obvious a sperm donation from your gay best friend and shared parenthood with donor dad and his partner. Andy Overslaugh tells Happy Hour about son WIlder s three dads, Wilder s mom Lori and her Leap Day proposal, and their surprisingly unsurprising, unconventional family. Although he says he s best known as Lori Tipton s fianc , Andy is what Happy Hour guest host Rich Collins calls a "five in one" threat. What else do you call a 20 year bartender whose incarnations include indie professional wrestler, Katrina race car driver, standup bass smashing leader of a 90s rockabilly band, and one of Wilder s dads Don t miss his tip for men who want to hang out at Victoria s Secret without creeping out the clientele. Andy s most vivid stories describe the wild world of professional wrestling, complete with h