It's New Orleans: Happy Hour

Urinating into a video camera at age 3 led film maker Paul Dale to track down the Vanna White of Italy, Ylenia Carrrisi, who went missing in New Orleans in 1994. Paul Dale s unique path from toilet training to film making, involving dressing as "Fat Mama," is just one of the unexpected tales that unfold over this first Happy Hour from Wayfare on Freret Street in Uptown New Orleans. To kick off the Wayfare shows with a musical punch we enlisted Phil deGruy. Guitar Player magazine has described Phil as "One of the finest players ever." Not content with mastering 6 strings, Phil designed his own instrument, The Guitarp, which has 17 strings. You have literally never hear anything like Phil s guitar playing. Andrew Duhon also has a story about a mysterious woman, probably not Italian but certainly enigmatic. She s the subject of his song on today s show. Redell Hearn is an expert on museums she runs them and teaches other folks how to run them. Redell and Andrew are planning to run off together with Andrew s dad

If you get skin cancer in New Orleans there s a good chance your dermatologist will send you to see Dr John fan, Dr Keith LeBlanc. Unllike Dr John, Dr Keith is an actual doctor. He s a dermatologist s dermatologist who specializes in removing skin cancer, which of course is, technically, skin surgery. Can you imagine Dr John calling a record, "Dr John s Record " Dopey, right That s what Grant and the assembled brains trust think when they meet Keith over a pitcher of cocktails and come up with a more enticing name for Keith s skin surgery center than The Skin Surgery Centre even with its exotic r e spelling. We see a lot of impressive artistic skin treatments on Happy Hour but some of the finest adorns the body of exotic beauty and singer Gal Holiday, front person for the eponymous Gal Holiday and the Hony Tonk Revue. We knew going into this that Gal s real name was Vanessa Maccabee Niemann even the Happy Hour crack research team can find that out on Facebook but in typical Happy Hour style we find out plenty

Robin Rosemond started early. She left home at 13 and for her 18th birthday got thrown in jail for fighting a cop. A couple of kids and a long marriage to Herr Hoffmeister later, Robin found herself having an existential crisis at The Nutcracker Ballet in Anchorage Alaska and spending the next few years alone in the never ending Northern night "where the odds are good but the goods are odd." Don t ask Jedd Haas where he went to school. Unless you ve already decided you don t want to be his friend. He s a good guy to be friends with though if you stay off of the education question you ll get to sample some his award winning booze. Jedd is the founder of Atelier Vie distillery, where he makes Absinthe, whisky, and the award winning Euphrosine 9 Gin that he brought with him to this show. We don t like to give anyone free commercials but without a word of exaggeration this is the greatest gin you ve ever tasted. Jedd describes it as "Gin for people who don t like gin" and he s right it s in a class of its own. Wh

Sean Gautreaux is not totally normal, but he s pretty close. An illustrator of children s books and graphic designer of well known video games, he s not a kook but he has spent a great deal of time and money trying to figure out what the UFO s are hovering above his house. The UFO s are hidden in the shadows of the clouds. No matter where you are in the world, look up into the sky. You ll see them. The triangles. They might be angels, aliens, military spacecraft painted to be "cloaked" and invisible, or a couple of other possibilities that Sean does his best to explain. Everyone else sitting around the table is pretty polite and respectful. Except Andrew Duhon who s not buying it for a minute. Andrew is the 2014 Winner of The Big Easy Award for Best Folk or Country Artist. No stranger to accolades, Andrew recounts his past triumphant win the 3 legged race in elementary school. Back in school there probably wasn t a category for Most Likely to Write a Cynical Song About Dating. Andrew previews his new, unfinis

Helen Gillet leads her band, The Wazozo Zorchestra, she s a solo jazz and experimental cello player, is originally from Belgium, grew up in Singapore and Chicago, and lives in New Orleans. What else could you say about anybody that could be more unique and interesting than all of that How about that Helen lived for a time in Madison Wisconsin where she was in an all girl punk band called The Koochies Even better, that she was the drummer. Helen also tells the story of her one and only Match.com blind date. How about this for a coincidence Like Helen Gillet, Angela Catalano and Travis Bird also lived for a time in Wisconsin Milwaukee and, unlike Helen, they re both Vegan. Not only that but they re also opening a new indie cinema in New Orleans Shotgun Cinema and they re dating. Travis also plays guitar and Helen joined him on an improvised treat. Arita Bohanan s first novel, Docket No. 76, has just been published. The novel combines Arita s early experiences as a victim of child sexual abuse and her current ex

New Orleanian Paul Summerlin is not only a super fab musician who tours the world playing keyboards in Seal s band, he s also a neo shaman. If you re not 100 sure what a neo shaman is, Paul describes it as a shaman with an iPhone. And if you re not quite sure what a shaman is, Paul is a seer, feeler and healer. Artist Katherine Klimitis brought her new service dog, Lexie, along to today s Happy hour. Lexie s one mission in life is to pick stuff up. And give it to Katherine. Today is Lexie s first outing to a bar. And her first chance to meet a man with a trombone. The man with the horn is Jeremy Phipps, making his third visit to Happy Hour, this time with his guitar player Elliot and his new album, Cold Cold Wind, from his band Saint Bell. Imagine, from a dog s point of view, what a guy with a trombone might look like. And how that might sound to your service dog trained ear. Lexie sings along with Jeremy and Elliot as they premiere a couple of songs off Cold Cold Wind. Don t be fooled by the wheelchair, not

Renso Amariz spent years as a combat photographer in the US Navy. His photos have appeared on the front pages of every major newspaper in the world, on the cover of most of the known news magazines and he s faced down death literally more times than he can remember. Living in New Orleans Renso has traded his still camera for a movie camera. As a film maker he faces down a thousand different deadly blows, from losing the entire soundtrack to a movie soemwhere in a bar in the Marigny to taking it on the chin from Mexican wrestlers. Film producer Michael Arata took on insane dangers of his own when he bundled up a crew of New Orleans film makers and carted them off to Africa to shoot a TV pilot about saving the elephants. Not all of the elephants got the message like the one that came to visit Michael in his tent and that s just one of the tales from the NOLA safari that s making its way onto the Discovery Channel. New Orleans band Mutemath have played on The Tonight Show, on David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jimm

Although New Orleans film maker Kevin McLin was twenty years younger than the King of Pop, he grew up with Michael Jackson. Kevin s dad was Michael s spokesman from the 90 s all the way through till the end of Michael s life. We let Kevin talk a bit about his first movie, The Station, and his new one Loco Amigos and TV series Dirty Springs, but we all get a crack at asking him about the inside scoop on Michael. Just because Michael s dead doesn t mean we can t talk to him. Psychic Cari Roy gets in touch with Michael, live, and relays a message to Kevin. We see first hand why BBC America named Cari as the best psychic in the USA. What do three women do when they graduate from college and end up in New Orelans If you re Annalisa Kelly, Ruby Ross and Julia Michaels you hang out together and sing Balkan folk songs. Calling themselves Pyeya there s a story behind that too the trio slip on headphones and take them off and make their first recording ever, live on Happy Hour. It s enchanting. s All these photos were

If you kill someone in New Orelans and you d like to avoid the death penalty, Brandi Studer is the person you need to get to know. Brandi works for the Capital Defense Project where she spends her day putting together arguments to convince a jury you d be better off alive, in jail or out, than dead. Eris Walsh will save your life too. Eris is creator of New Moon Apothecary and a self confessed punk. It s the apothecary side of her persona that will save you but you ll live to appreciate Social Distortion and the Misfits. Luke Winslow King might be the handsomest guy in New Orleans. He was certainly the best looking white guy in Orleans Parish Prison the weekend he wound up there. Luke tries out a couple of new songs from his forthcoming yet to be titled album. Andrew Duhon is back from Sri Lanka and India with wonderful tales of his saintly uncle and sitars. Andrew tries out a new song as well. The photos on this page are all taken the fabulous Douglas Engel. Douglas is available for weddings, barmitzvahs and

Just in time for Mardi Gras, the holy trinity Galactic, Sex therapy, and Champ Superstar. How can you go wrong Start counting.... Shannie Goldstein gives a litttle free sex therapy. Robert Mercusrio and Jeff Raines from Galactic funk it up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If loneliness can kill you than we re going to live forever Graham da Ponte is behind the mic this week and brings law clerk and amateur writer Michele Magill Smith, Story Corps Liam Pierce, and our old friends Hazy Ray are the musical guest. Michele tells us why you should get vaccinated while Liam reveals his alter ego as an opera singing gondolier who doesn t mind a little hanky panky in his boat, no matter your age. Hazy Ray brings the show home with premature applause by throwing in a few false endings.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It s the Little Things in life that make you happy, right That s why Shanece Gransam and Katy Channing called themselves The Little Things and you won t find a cuter, happier, ukulele playing, harmonizing couple anywhere. Shanece and Katy met in Florida but couldn t run away quick enough to get to New Orleans where, unlike Florida, people don t come up to you in restaurants and suggest that being a biracial lesbian couple don t cut it. We re angling for an invitaion to Katy and Shanece s "full on Hindu wedding." As you ll hear on the show, the brides are planning on both wearing saris. Kris Gabik knows how to make The Little things household words. Kris s brand storytelling biz, 84 Flash, did it for Irvin Mayfield, Tales of the Cocktail, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel, so how hard could it be to sell two "totally hot" girls Kris is right on it after the next maragarita. Rachel Dangermond is one of Happy Hour s favorite guests. Never short of an opinion or a quick comeback, Rachel is handing on the family trait to

Internationally renowned Psychic Bonni McCliss drops into Happy Hour on her first stop of a New Orleans weekend workshop. Bonni is an "evidentiary clairvoyant" which means not only can she speak to dead people but she can prove it. Her evidence comes in the form of information there is no way she could have known unless your dead friend or family told her. Or in the case of the dead boyfriend and the stolen lip gloss, showed her. By the way, the dead lip gloss thief was wearing a Speedo. Bonni has all kinds of insights into life on the dead side including knowing for sure whether or not there s a God. However, if you want to know whether God wears a Speedo, not sure that anybody thought to ask that on this show. Michael Patrick Welch is one of New Orleans most valuable writers, digging into local politics, culture and their intersection with a fearlessness and informed, opinionated position seldom seen around here. A man of many talents, Michael is the author of novels and of the invaluable book, New Orleans

Once in a while when you re just out to grab a drink and you get talking to the person next to you at the bar you discover that some people are dealing with some serious sh t. This conversation with The Lens journalist Della Hasselle starts out light enough talking about how when she used to tell people in New Orleans as opposed to New York that she was a "dancer" they mostly assumed that was a euphemism for "stripper" but things take a serious turn when Della starts talking about her current work as a journalist, writing about death row. Louisiana apparently has folks they want to kill but they have run out of the drug to kill them with. It s a crazy story as to why the drug is now unavailable in the US and a creepy, bizarre bar room conversation trying to come up with a Constitutionally and chemically sound solution with 3 guys who have had a few cocktails. That s Happy Hour producer Graham daPonte, herself an ex death sentence trial attorney, standing in the background trying to keep some control of the co

Nancylee Myatt and Paige Bernhardt don t play lesbian cops on TV but they do write and produce them. The Emmy winning creators of Nikki and Nora, TV s first lesbian kick ass cop show, Paige and Nancylee write and produce the cult hit in Uptown New Orleans. If their real life is an inspiration for the creation of their characters, look for Nikki and Nora to get married in future episodes. Nancylee and Paige made it legal by getting married in California and are waiting for Louisiana to catch up so they can celebrate by filing a joint tax return. Talking of taxes, how would you like to have your Entergy bill slashed by hundreds a month and see a giant reduction in your property tax All you have to do is elect Drew Ward to the New Orleans City Council. Although we seldom get serious on Happy Hour, it s worth it to hear Drew expose the scam that allows the city of New Orleans to screw every single one of us through price fixing your power bill. And for good measure he explains how he s going to slash your propert

Cecile Monteyne created the comedy improv show You Don t Know the Half of It. Hip hop artist Stefan Henry calls himself an entreprenegro. John Calhoun is host of New Orleans live TV late show inspired The Goodnight Show. Hillary Strobel is New Orleans greatest advocate, describing the city as "The cultural and intellectual vanguard of the world." Collectively today s guests, none of whom knew each other before they sat down for Happy Hour, have formed UNITY United Nola Inspiring Tomorrow s You th . The future of UNITY is dependent on what happens after the Pearl Wine Co cabernet wears off. Photos by Douglas Engel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the perfect woman look like Why would a Mississippi poet break your heart while you re in Spain Does MF Doom ever take off this mask If you know the answer to these questions don t waste your time listening to this show. If, however, you re a woman and you d like to know one non surgical sure fire way to have every guy in the world think you re hot for real , French Quarter Madam Josie Arlington and Artistic Director of Louisiana History Alive Veronica Russell has the answer. For the more cerebral there s the story of the 400 pound man who almost killed his girfriend having sex with her and Jneiro Jarel unleashes the full Viberian Experience. If you re a guy, seriously, wouldn t you be thrilled for this to be your girlfriend Lynn Drury has some seriously mysterious tales of heartbreak and a unique remedy that involves silent recitations of love and sorrow. And she sings a couple of great songs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Heidi Heyns has the sexiest voice in Southeast Louisiana. Chonchol Gupta has a finance company. Oddly, they both hosted radio shows called "Happy Hour". How much happier can it get And who better to invite along to hang out and play a couple of songs than the happiest most positive voice in Southern rock, Fred LeBlanc. It s a Happy Hour classic the Happiest Happy Hour of all Time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two Christmases ago, before the then inexplicably eccentric manager at The Columns Hotel kicked us out because he "Didn t want to brand The Columns as a Happy Hour location," we recorded what has become one of the classic episodes of Happy Hour. Singer songwriter Lynn Drury, Rabbi Yonah Schiller, and New Orleans ultimate renaissance man Andrew Ward sat down with our show s host Grant Morris. Nobody at the table had anything in common, nobody knew each other or had met before the show started. What happened in the next 60 minutes convinced us we had indeed, with the right mix of guests, stumbled onto a magical format for a show. This is the 60 minutes that changed it all. That demonstrated how, with a moderate size bar tab and a small table, we could indeed show the world what New Orelanians are really like.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the unique charms of New Orleans living is the drive thru daiquiri store a sort of Burger King of Booze where a family of four all over 21 of course can, for a modest sum, get tanked up on sweet, frozen cocktails dispensed from what look like washing machines. Can you imagine living in a New Orleans where open liquor containers and drive thru daiquiris were banned, like, god forbid, the rest of the country No way, right Instead of just imagining this hellish future, Jeremy Thompson has taken up arms to fight against it. Jeremy s three year old Daiquiri Festival is the fastest growing fest in South Louisiana and his Defend the Daiquiri campaign is taking on all the hallmarks of a civil rights movement. Elizabeth Bates ain t lying down and taking it no more neither. A full 5 feet tall, Elizabeth got so exasperated at not being able to find clothes that fit, or having to buy them then pay to get them altered, that she started selling them herself. The Petite Shop is the world s first e commerce site selli