It's New Orleans: Happy Hour

Arthur Meek is a New Zealander who sounds like stepped out of Flight of the Conchords but actually he stepped out of his car mere minutes after driving into New Orleans from visiting Graceland and blowing the head off of a guy at point blank range in Mississippi and joined us on Happy Hour. Arthur has been in the United States trying to drum up support for his campaign to have sex with Hillary Clinton. He makes a pretty convincing argument on this show. If Hillary is the Democratic candidate for President in 2016, screwing Arthur could conceivably make more sense than screwing over whomever else she s up against. Alex Beard has a whole other way of figuring out what the hell s going on in the universe. It s called the Divine Proportion. If you re thinking that s maybe the name of the pie at Camellia Grill,it s actually 1.618. Entirely without the aid of pot, Alex is able to explain the relationship between the world s only known unicellular organism and your eye looking at a Jackson Pollack painting. This who

Morgan Molthrop grew up in a New Orleans caste society which ultimately drove him to New York, Italy, Greece, crimes of fashion, and finally back to New Orleans and into Triple A. Not the roadside car repair people, Agnostic Alcoholics Anonymous. Morgan has some of the greatest stories ever told in a New Orleans bar. And that s saying something. Judy Bolton s life has taken her on a similar trajectory to Morgan s. Sort of. Judy started out in medicine in Washington State before moving to New Orleans and opening the 90 s iconic Pussycat Caverns and later today s equally iconic Bacchanal. Somewhere in the middle of all that Judy found herself spending 3 years in Bourbon Street strip clubs where she discovered that once in a while a girl just gets lucky. And then she goes on vacation. AndSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is what we are not allowed to know about Emma Iris DiAnna where she works or what she does for a living.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mac Alsfeld was Jesus personal assistant. Every day Jesus would scream at him, throw stuff, and get naked. Not the actual Jesus in the New Testament he s reportedly still dead this is the guy who played Jesus in the movies, Jim Caviezel. You think you d realize if you were a Hollywood star that if you treat people like crap they re eventually going to go on a podcast that involves drinking and tell the world all about you. Mac assists other actors working in movies in New Orleans, including Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, and Kevin Costner. We get the lowdown on all of them on this Happy Hour. Even more exciting is a look at Mac s own film career as a screenwriter and director. His movie Father Like Son, about a guy who s mom re marries a guy only 4 months older than him, is headed for certain Hollywood success. Remember, you heard it here first. Rosemary Kimble doesn t have many secrets either. There s not much you can hide after you ve shaved your whole body and gotten painted. Rosemary is an extraordinary body p

Nikki Still came to New Orleans to do yoga. Four or five hours a day. And got paid to do it. Nikki was the vanguard of Lululemon in New Orleans, doing yoga then schmoozing with the mostly women and getting them to try Lululemon for their next vasana.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you can swallow a sword, breathe fire, or create some similar kind of special moment there s a special place for you in New Orleans. It s called the Buku Music Art Project. Addie Olsen is the Director of Buku. She s sold out the event for this year 14,000 tickets a day and figured out how to stop people across the river on the Westbank from hearing the 5 simultaneous stages of music, so she s feeling relaxed enough to have a couple of cocktails and talk about Max, graffiti, and India. When Addie was younger she had an unnerving experience in India within hours of landing at the airport. Last week, Andrew Duhon had a similar automotive altercation in Sri Lanka. Back in the Happy Hour saddle, Andrew has tales from his travels and a song about a special moment. Andre Waguespack loves cars, makes music and combines those inclinations in his professional name, Klutch. Klutch has a massive international following on Soundcloud where he reaches an audience who he has ample reason to believe are disaffected kids w

If you re ever looking for someone to back you up in a bar fight in Slovakia, may we recommend Alicia Cooke Alicia might look sweet and innocent but she can mix it up with gypsies at night and be teaching kids about the spirit of Christmas next morning. Yes, that really happened. And it s just the tip of the proverbial Slovakian iceberg. Alicia s other surprising exploits include having 8 friends in prison, one on death row and the others likely to be behind bars not the sort Alicia hangs out in for the remainder of this lifetime. At the mention of death row, Happy Hour producer Graham daPonte makes a rare appearance and joins the conversation. When she s not producing a frivolous podcast Graham is in court defending people accused of capital crimes. A F The Naysayer, a good friend of Happy Hour over many appearances, drops in to introduce us to his new EP, The Autodidact Instrumentals Vol.1. This record was made with electronic instruments that are for the most part the contents of a backpack. AF has a whole

Funk is many things to many people but apparently to the new breed of New Orleans hipsters the one thing it s not is hip. That s the report from both sides of the front line. Eric Bernstein is the quintessential hipster. A downtown resident who lived in Brooklyn, moved to Austin, then Detroit where he still spends the Summer he has an entrepreneurial startup in New Orleans called Werkly, a revolutionary approach to getting stuff done not a vocation that New Orleans is typically known for. And Eric is not ashamed to tell you straight out, he doesn t like funk. Jermaine Quiz says that s just how it is with the new breed of New Orleans hipsters. And he ought to know. Jermaine makes funk. And hip hop. Blending live New Orleans funk musicians and rap rhyme, Jermaine has created a unique and increasingly popular sound with his band Jealous Monk, recent winners of OffBeat Magazine s Best of the Beat award for New Orleans best rap hip hop artist. Jealous Monk has a third album on the way as well as a new web series,

At the end of this show Andrew Duhon declares that these are the best guests in the history of Happy Hour. If you re a Happy Hour listener or familiar with Andrew s songs you ll know that he s not prone to effusiveness. Quite simply, this is indeed a fascinating collection of New Orelanians. Meet Donny Markowitz and Boyfriend. Donny and Boyfriend had never met each other before they sat down together for Happy Hour. They couldn t be more different they re from different generations, Donny is from New York, Boyfriend is from Nashville, Donny is Jewish, Boyfriend grew up in a severely fundamentalist Christian home. And yet they have more in common than you could ever guess. They are both superbly talented songwriters. Donny is famous for writing one of the pop love song classics of all time, "I ve Had The Time of My Life" from the movie Dirty Dancing. Boyfriend is about to be famous for sex driven rap songs like "Attention" and "Triangle." You can hear both those songs in this show. Remember where you were when

Remember phone books Jessie Haynes has a couple of cocktails and next thing you know she s transported back to the 1950 s. Jessie escaped the clutches of practicing law because it wasn t as much fun as Perry Mason even though Perry Mason whatever his real name is had long since quit acting at being a lawyer before Jessie quit art history to misguidedly go to law school. Christian Turner and Christian Thompson met in school in 2012. In high school art class. This is their very first media interview on the cusp of what might be their big break a gig at Buku Fest. The Christians have an electronic music project by which they are known collectively as Chris Cross. Although they re 19 and 20 respectively they also have solo music careers. And, by the way the come from Geismar, Louisiana. Remember you heard it here first. Gant Laborde s father was a nominal psychic. That is to say he was a predictor of names. He reportedly foresaw the runaway popularity of the name "Heather" and thought he was onto the next trend w

One of these people is not who they say they are. Is it Mason James Cole from Marrero Nic Lefebvre from Connecticut Nina Camacho from Gretna Or Danielle Ryce from Slidell Here are your clues. Who do you believe Mason James Cole changed his name to write two novels including Buster Voodoo, has been compared to and published alongside Stephen King, and plans to come out with his third novel which will ostensibly be his first novel as he ll be writing it under his real name. Nic Lefebvre came to New Orleans from Connecticut and met a woman on a Tinder style website dedicated to musicians only, specifically those devoted to Jungle music. Nina Camacho grew up in Gretna, moved to California where she met a novelist whose novel had been pirated and then moved back to New Orleans Nina, not the novelist and worked hustling herbs for Paul Proudhomme before selling rice and now is instrumental in opening an Italian NYC style food market in Central City called Jack and Jake s. Danielle Ryce grew up in Slidell as part of

The Caucasian Bee has the longest tongue in the bee world. Claire Bangser traveled the Caucasus shooting the bees for National Geographic and now she travels the streets of New Orleans shooting New Orleanians for the hell of it. Claire has discoverd that nine out of ten New Orleanians will willingly stop and pose for her NOLA Beings project, but it s only the rare Caucasian that can get you high enough to die. Lee Crum is an internationally renowned photographer whose work has appeared on the cover of most major magazines from Sports Illustrated to GQ to Rolling Stone. Lee and Claire compare the advent of the iPhone and Instagram in the world of photography to Spotify and Pandora in the world of music it s increasingly impossible to get paid and for artists to rise above the onslaught of amateur Instagram images. If you want to see what they re talking about, take a look at Lee s Instagram and Claire s. Andrew Duhon s answer to the complaints about disappearing financial opportunity in the music business is,

Call it crazy coincidence or straight up serendipity New Orleans newest band sits down for a drink on Happy Hour and who sits next to them Two of the city s biggest deal music business heavyweights. Andrew deBuys and Sophia Preston are So Long Storyland note the absence of a comma after "long" . Stephen Klein is an artists manager with a string of successes dating back to Deadeye Dick and Cowboy Mouth. He s currently managing Flowtribe. Kim Stephens is just a regular guy at home in New Orleans but in the worldwide record business he s a bigshot having discovered and signed numerous bands from Matchbox 20 to Edwin McCain among many other household names. Today Kim s putting his money on Nashville and Jesus, and that s not the most surprising of his inside music tales and prognostications on this show. Danielle Paciera s connection to the music business is mostly through Pandora. She doesn t own it or work there, she listens to it. Danielle is a dietitian and nutritionist with a holistic approach to food and ea

Maria Levitsky has a dragon tattooed over most of her body Maria used to play the flute, she lived in Spain when she was 11, and she rides a horse she bought from a charismatic preacher called Bootise. Actually the horse is called Bootise, not the preacher. And that s just the tip of the iceberg of the fascinating stuff you ll find out about Maria on this free wheeling episode of Happy Hour. Tore Wallin is an artist masquerading as a musician masquerading as an architect and a Norwegian masquerading as a New Orleanian who ended up here as the result of a hurricane and the smell of mildew. The most talented Nolawegian on earth, Tore has played in NOLA bands for 30 years, has a painting in the New Orleans Museum of Art and designed a Jazz Fest poster. Naughty Professor are an assembly of some of New Orleans truly finest young musicians, and that s saying something in this town. Naughty P are taking NOLA funk into a whole new stratosphere of slick playing, clever arrangements and hook laden songs. Their first al

Joaquin Emiliano moved to New Orleans with the plan of killing himself on his 35th birthday as a publicity stunt for the publication of his novel, Suicide Notes From A Wedding. Discovering that, like everything else he s attempted in his life, he d failed again, Joaquin finds himself not only living dammit but living near Tulane University in a neighborhood surrounded by "obnoxious students" in a city that has been seriously over hyped and in which he can see little mystery or magic. It s hard to tell what s real and what s merely an extremely funny and beguiling persona with Joaquin, but falling anyplace on the continuum between Woody Allen and a lounge lizard makes for an awesome Happy Hour guest. Danielle Burrell is either the Joaquin antidote, a piece of clever complementary guest booking by producer Graham daPonte, or proof that God and Satan are fighting it out for control of the city. Danielle is the founder of Treux North Fitness, a Zumba dance exponent, a mom, and a bride to be. Danielle tells an awe

Sasha Masakowski doesn t look all that fierce. But she doesn t look like she hangs out in strip clubs either. Looks can be deceiving. Sasha s middle name is Hildegard, German for Battle Maiden, which is not coincidentally the name of her newest music venture, Hildegarde. And if you go to Deja Vu strip club on Bourbon Street on Tuesday nights and tell em you re with the Masakowski party Sasha can hook you up with 2 drinks all night. She s a VIP. All cause of Chip Forstall. Do you have any idea where the oil in the notorious Keystone Pipeline is going to come from Canada, okay, but do you know where exactly in Canada Karen Duncan comes form North of the border and fills us in on the details plus some other fascinating facts about Canada about which all of us at least the people at our table are totally ignorant of. Karen also has some awesome inside insight into the secret shopper system at local restaurants. If you want to be a barroom or restaurant snitch, eat free, drink free and rat out employees, Karen can

If we ever get to Mars, man s journey will begin in New Orleans East. Cindy Manto s fascinating new book, imaginatively titled Michoud Assembly Facility, tells the story of the piece of dirt off of the I 10 that started off as a land grant from Louis XV of France. In the 1940 s Michoud was the site of the world s largest factory, building planes, then tanks, then in the 70 s they started building a whole different kind of tank the external tank for NASA s space shuttle and today the Michoud Assembly Facility is building the MPCV Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle that will take us to Mars. Is there Mozarella on Mars If Chef Kevin White goes up in Cindy s MPCV there will be Chef Kevin makes his own every day at Wayfare, and drizzles home made blood orange oil over it. Like Cindy, Michael Harold is writing about whole other worlds. Having recently turned his back on 23 years of wrestling Mesolthelioma victims as an asbestos attorney, Michael is, among other pursuits, a columnist for recently launched Inside New Orleans

8 years in the making, the worldwide exclusive broadcast premier of the hit single Crackhead Fred by Sarah Reagor happens right here. Andrew Duhon was at the bar at Wayfare before this edition of Happy Hour and met Sarah Reagor. Little did he know with whom he was striking up a conversation. Sarah wrote her hit single in 8th grade and has barely played it since. In this rendition Sarah gets most of the way through it before stopping in deference to Anne Churchill s tears. Anne Churchill knows a thing or two about guitar music. Anne was the tour chef for many years for the Dave Matthews Band, as well as Melissa Etheridge and Zack Brown. Off the road and back home in New Orleans, Anne has settled in at Bhava, a vegan restaurant she s opened above Feelings Cafe in the Marigny. Brian "Bruiser" Broussard was also hanging out at the Wayfare bar before today s show, trying to sell the owners on his Covington Brewhouse beer. Bruiser hooks us up with a taste test and the Happy Hour crew gives him an honest focus group

Que Hefner, his trio NOLA Fam Que, Mani, and J Smoke and their wider collective, NOLA Familia, are some of the freshest voices to come out of hip hop New Orleans since the heady days of Ca h Money and Master P. From High Times NOLA Fam s infectious romp about smoking pot to the moody, politically and musically subversive Sex Religion, these guys know how to have fun and how to get serious without having to go anywhere near jail for credibilty. Que talks about women, weed, and gentrification, but, unlike a lot of rappers, not in that order. Jose Calderon has made the list of New Orleans Magazine s Top Doctors. And he s also on our list of the best looking. Actually, he s at the top of that list. Jose is a noted psychiatrist in the field of Mind Body medicine, which includes women and weed but not gentrification . Jose works South of the border, dealing with the stress caused by living in the anarchic Mexican drug ruled killing fields, to the comparatively calm streets of New Orleans and the hallowed halls of L

New Orleans is a small city. People refer jokingly to "one degree of separation." But what happens on this Happy Hour is beyond any coincidence you could imagine. If this was in a movie you d dismiss it as being insanely implausible. Without ruining the revelation of the conversation, here s what you need to know. Sarah Arcenaux and Beau Ross have never met each other before sitting down across the table this evening on Happy Hour. Sarah is a bartender at Ralph s On The Park in Mid City. She s moving soon to be a bartender at the newly renovated Brennan s on Royal Street in the Quarter. Sarah didn t start out to have a career in the service industry, though she discovered she s a natural at it and now she loves it. Sarah set out to be a writer. She still dabbles in writing. Beau is co owner and wine afficianado at Bacchanal in the Bywater. Beau didn t set out to have a career in the service industry, though he discovered he s a natural at it and now he loves it. Beau set out to be a writer. He still dabbles i