The Tasso Triangle

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The Tasso Triangle - shaped not unlike the panties in your purse.

Saturday was enormous. 



Scenes from the LSU vs. McNeese tailgate: 1) the first kind of marinated pork; 2) the embarrassment of riches; 3) fajita meat from the Colombian butcher; 4) Guatemalan cross-cut ribs, mid-alchemy; 5) the other kind of marinated pork; 6) Maya and her buds hanging out on top of the van. 7) The start of the morning, before the tortillas were broken out.

Somewhere between that and what follows, I read Mark Leyner's short pieces collection Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog. I read it back when Leyner was all the rage in the 90's, when David Foster Wallace was following on his coattails (Leyner wrote a wonderful remembrance of DFW in the Observer). TIOACD has aged well. The long bit about the endless sub-basements of Bergdorf Goodman is Catskills hack sci-fi at its best. Man, in 1990 or so I though Mark Leyner was the man. I wore out a book on tape copy of Et Tu, Brute, who my buddy Frank concurs is one of the funniest books ever. I like this one part where he removes his sweat-soaked thong at some outdoor event and the magnificence of his body is such that causes the birds to stop chirping and a torrent of shit rains from the trees. Of course, Leyner said it better. I requested that the library get it, per the suggestion of a librarian reader. Did you know you could do that? You can.  Libraries are magic!


Donnie & the Pooldoos, doing a rockabilly/Cajun thing to the barring and grilling masses at Beau's Garage in Opelousas. These guys are much better than the band name and gig implies.



(Above) A bride-to-be, at least I think a bride-to-be: she had a veil but also a sash so it might have been a birthday or she'd just been made Queen of some rural Louisiana agricultural product - doing a tequila shot as (below) Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie, the hardest working band in Acadiana, tore it up at Nick's in Eunice.


(Above) The mighty Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band embracing the disco side of zydeco at the Hot Spot in Church Point. Keith Frank has been a great resource to m: he's a big name that plays the most obscure little places and as he zeroes in on retirement, he lets the evolution of his zydeco roll unfettered. Just after letting the band tear through the staple "I Got Loaded" he re-took the stage (below) for a thump bass number featuring a pre-recorded auto-tune rap that got push-buttoned in at the break and took over the dancefloor. Strobe lights and lasers vs. disco zydeco (zydisco) in a near pitch dark country bar where you are the sole honky trying to not let your worst ignorant fears overtake you is a liminal part of your self-awareness.


I should also give a shout out to the Google Maps iPhone app. Directions and signage and the following thereof gets dicey out there between Church Point and Sunset when it's just you  and 1AM and the dashboard lights.

I kinda forget what I was listening to on this trip through the Tasso Triangle, but today, I'm southern Rocking it, ~1975 style. OK, Dixie Dregs are more progressive than they are Southern, but roll with me. Hold my beer while I do this shit.

Elvin Bishop, Juke Joint Jump 
Wet Willie, The Wetter the Better
The Dixie Dregs, Free Fall

Speaking of liminal, this Dixie Dregs number caught in the spider web separating pop and chamber music, "Northern Lights," is just lovely.