Seeking the Strength of Quiet in Chaotic Tumult

Saturday, February 8, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana

We’ve been here for two weeks and will be here until the beginning of March, when Nicole and I will drive back north visiting family and friends along the way in Washington D.C., Durham, NC, Egypt, NC, Memphis,TN and maybe a few other places. So far here in New Orleans, we’ve managed to see some cousins like Thom and Sallie Benjamin last night for dinner at Pigeon & Whale, and last weekend with our college pal, Lindsey Sutman Colombo at Clancy’s and Antoine’s. We spent my birthday with my niece and nephew Emma and Jace and Emma’s boyfriend Rob at Cochon, a favorite. I had dinner with friends Kevin McCaffery and his wife Jan Gilbert, (filmmaker and artist repectively) at Cafe Degas on Esplanade for great oysters. It was there we met Rusty Gaude, a friend of Kevin’s who works with SEA GRANT as a biologist working to re-introduce a rare clam. He knew Skid Rheault who we might see at the Connecticut College reunion in May.

We did see cousin Billy Sizeler after leaving Clancy’s as he had stepped out of his doorstep to mail a letter and I happened to see him. DO love the food at Clancy’s. (the best) As a culinary trip it has been reliably great. Bothe Nicole, and First Lindsey got what we have determined was the norovirus, with vomitous and diarrheic debilitating them for both three days.

But as Nicole has largely recovered, and with SUPERBOWL taking over New Orleans tomorrow, we are satisfied laying low, except for a walk (me) to access a pool for a swim at the SPIRE center which has been a nice respite. On Thursday I met with Kenneth Hoffman about pursuing the idea of CAJUN LOVE SONG, a title I borrowed from the late, great Leon Russell, from his iconic concept album “CARNEY” to depict through animation the life of Jacob Lemann as he travels from Darmstadt or Hechtsheim to New Orleans in 1836.

Kenneth and I talked about historical reckoning, context and preservation. As a historian he is most interested in “getting the history as verifiably correct as possible”. Basically like my cousin Nicholas Lemann, a journalist, there is very little room for historical fiction. It is a daunting task to learn what it would mean to come here and restart your life from rural Germany to rural Southern Louisiana.

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