PoBoyNation

10 posts
PoBoyNation lives in New Orleans, as if you didn't know.

A New(ish) Mardi Gras Party Mix

I wrote this post up last year during Mardi Gras craziness and forgot to put it in Pending. So, this isn’t brand new, but it’s still a fresh twist on the traditional party mix we hear this time of year.

Gypsyphonic Disko, a collaboration between Galactic’s Ben Ellman and DJ Quickie Mart, has put out a new mix combining New Orleans bounce music and favorite Carnival standards. You can listen to it at Soundcloud or visit gypsyphonic.com to download it and other mixes.

For 2012’s celebration of classic Mardi Gras tunes, go here.

Valentine’s Day Candy Review: Russell Stover Heart-Shaped Assortment

Perhaps there are Valentine’s Day candies that are more predictably tasty: for example, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Heart, whose pliant chocolate and dense, salty interior excite your taste buds just as pleasurably as they did at Christmas, when they came in the shape of a tree; at Halloween, as a pumpkin; and Easter, an egg.

There are V-Day candies that are perhaps more unidentifiable with any other day: candy conversation hearts, for example. But those marry the flavors and mouthfeel of an Edwardian spinster’s tooth powder collection with the kind of creepy suggestions you’d find in a collection of crazy and creative ways to ask someone to prom.

But the very best Valentine’s Day candy is an assortment of chocolates, each morsel an adventure, just like romantic love. And to me, the quintessential V-Day assortment is Russell Stover’s Assorted Fine Chocolates, you know, the one in the red heart-shaped box with the cellophane. Nothing says “I cherish you” like waxy American chocolate crammed with corn syrup. Continue reading →

The Sounds of Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras! In New Orleans and other Carnival-celebrating cities, today is a daylong party. By the time this posts, I’ll already be walking the avenue — my group and I are hitting the street (and the bottle) at 7:30 in the morning.

But for everyone who’s having just another Tuesday, I put together a primer on some of the omnipresent songs of Carnival in New Orleans. They never get old, and I hope they bring the Carnival spirit to wherever you are. Continue reading →

Four Female Role Models in Country Music

Country music traffics, at times, in some pretty tired stories about men and women, but it is crammed to the gills with talented women who have led fascinating lives.  Here is a list of four women, whose careers cover the span of country recording, whose examples I would be proud to emulate.  And with the exception of the first, they continue to write and perform today. Continue reading →

Confessions of an Androgyne

I was a tomboy from the jump.  While I played with boys and with girls, and had a female best friend, I detested “girls’ games” and girls’ things and hated going along with them.  For example, I refused to play House unless I could be “the dad,” refused to play Office unless I could be “the [male] boss,” and preferred to play-act a Wild West shoot-’em-up, Holmesian detective drama, or high seas swashbuckling adventure rather than dress dolls.  This is not an original story.  A lot of girls are tomboys growing up.  Many of them change their gender expression as they get older.  Some don’t.  Some people born with girls’ bodies and boys’ habits gradually discover that they will not be able to live authentically unless they change their bodies to be more visibly masculine.  Some don’t.  Continue reading →

NFL Week 5 Open Discussion

What matchups are you watching this week?  I’m curious for the Saints to get their first look at Cam Newton.  Curious, too, to see whether the Jets’ defense will be effective against the Pats’ offensive machine.  And the Packers-Falcons game should be really good:  the Falcons haven’t been close to champs material this season, but at home, they’ve got a good shot at handing the Packers their first loss.  Meanwhile, into the meat of the season, we’ve hit the first week of byes for some teams.  Did you take that into account, Crasstalk FFers?  Let’s get down to brass tacks and talk some smack.

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It Was 5 Years Ago that the Saints Came Back to the Superdome

The New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a series this past week commemorating the 2006 reopening of the Superdome for the New Orleans Saints’ home opener a little over a year after Hurricane Katrina, and a lot of people are remembering the spectacle of U2 and Green Day arena-rocking the Dome as the kickoff for the Monday Night Football telecast.  For me, though, the musicians who made that night special were Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas. Continue reading →

Five Reasons to Watch The Good Wife


Season Three of The Good Wife premieres tonight, Sunday, September 25, at 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central, on CBS.  The show stars Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, Chris Noth as her husband Peter Florrick, Josh Charles as her boss Will Gardner, Christine Baranski as her other boss Diane Lockhart, Archie Panjabi as her co-worker and friend Kalinda Sharma, and Alan Cumming as Peter’s campaign manager Eli Gold.  Continue reading →