One of the few good things to come out of Katrina's floods

[thatcrazycajun]

This weekend marks the annual return to my home city of the two-weekend bacchanal known as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or as it's called by locals and longtime regulars, Jazz Fest. USA Today has a wonderful article on its resurgence since the Katrina floods of 2005 here. This year's show promises to be the biggest and best ever, as even more A-list national musical acts eager to help the Crescent City come back from the disaster fill its several stages, along with more of the returning local musicians who decamped before and after the storm and flooding that destroyed or damaged their homes. Jazz Fest 2007 features the reunited Rage Against the Machine, Norah Jones, Rod Stewart, Joss Stone and NOLA-based stalwarts Rockin' Dopsie Jr., Mac "Dr. John" Rebennac and Irma Thomas, among many others. Were I not unemployed and money-crunched (and busy assisting my Songbird with time-sensitive relocation tasks), I would so be on the road to N'Awlins today.

Here's a toast (with a tall, frosty Pat O'Brien's Original Hurricane™in the traditional gigundo collectible glass, natch) to record ticket sales, muddy dance floors full of bare feet at the re-sodded Fair Grounds, packed hotels, motels and guest rooms, and lots of music, music, music!