The Hunker Downcast

In this brief outtake from Episode 31, Varg tries to share his review of the S-Town Podcast only to find Jeff and Alli are too busy being Online As Fuck to pay attention. Mayhem ensues.

Happy May The Fourth! (It’s probably like May 11th or later when you listen to this. Sorry.) We are recording this May 4th episode “live” (but not really) from the World Famous Deurty Boys Gallery on Dumaine and Chartres in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter. So soak in the atmosphere with us as we take in the sounds of customers stepping in to browse and friends coming by for cameo bits. Billy Nungesser never shows up for whatever reason. Mitch Landrieu has an open invitation, though.

Segment one (Open - 45:00)

Jeff and Alli and many others witnessed a melee on May Day in front of the Jefferson Davis Monument.  We re-cap those events as well as the mayor’s feud with Frank Stewart and the fact that Pat doesn’t know there are actually two Mackels.  Later we play Marry/Fuck/Kill with the remaining three monuments and look forward to a march on the following Sunday.

Incidental music: Glen David Andrews and TBC Brass band

Segment Two (47:00 - 1:28:00)

Jeff went to an event hosted by The Lens about the effects of coastal loss and climate change on rural Louisiana communities. Varg lays out a shit happens take on climate change.

We remember our friend Deb Cotton who passed away this month. Here is a column by Jarvis Deberry about Deb accepting the Avodah New Orleans Partner In Justice Award. Here is Deb recently writing to the New York Times about the bullying tactics prosecutors use toward victims of and witnesses to crime. Here is a video of Deb accepting the Ashley Morris Award at Rising Tide X.

We spend a few minutes talking about some of the issues that were important to Deb. Leon Cannizzaro is a dick. His dickish tactics were also recently written up in The Guardian, Court Watch NOLA reported on various instances of dickishness  The Lens reported on witnesses being issued “fake subpoenas”  Meanwhile, the state’s DAs are successfully whittling away at criminal justice reform in the legislature. The Times-Picayune found that Second Line clubs pay a lot more in parade fees than, say, the Krewe of Bacchus does. And Clark Brennan is a dick  about it.

Impromptu interview with Jackson Square performer, “Peter”

AHCA passes the House. What now? Punt?

SOSO (1:30:00 to end)

Varg reviews the S-Town Podcast.

Jeff goes to Jazzfest

Alli goes to a bunch of protests and marches and stuff, visits Paradigm Gardens, and checks out the latest “Fake News” at New Movement.

Predictions!

Recipe Minute! (Barbecue Shrimp)

The Jivewire sponsored by We Met In The Air

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

Hello. It is late April. How did your brackets do? Well those college sports are certainly difficult to predict. As is our show this time around when Lance and Alli have no idea what topics they might be asked to discuss. Let’s see what happens!  Oh also, it took extra long to edit and fix some of the audio problems with this episode which means that it’s late. So there are some fun predictions that turn out not to have been so hot. Keep an ear out for those too.  For the record, it turns out that Bill O’Reilly will, in fact, be “fine” with his $25 million buyout.

Segment 1

Lt. Gov Billy Nungesser has been clinging to monuments and antagonizing museum directors. We discuss and then decide to give Billy a call for follow up.

Varg wants to take down the monuments with his pickup truck.

The Legislature is in session. We talk a bit about the major issues as lawmakers try to avoid the “fiscal cliff” and do criminal justice reform. Here’s the Gambit on ways to contact your representatives.  Here also is a story about JP Morrell’s tampon and diapers tax exemption.

Segment 2

This annoying American Way Magazine article about Bywater is annoying. Also annoying, Chewbacchus people and their fake controversies. Also Chewbacchus is doing a thing that appears to rip off ‘tit Rex. Also Varg thinks Chewbacchus won’t last another 10 years.

SOSO

Varg recaps Wrestlemania,  French Quarter Fest in the Square, and creates a freaking huge piece of art out of a door. Then there is an extended rant from our resident found object artist about recycling.

Alli went to see Radiohead. We get a full review of that show plus Radiohead memories from Alli’s younger days.  Also there was a “beer dinner” hosted by Treo and Wayward Owl Brewery.

Jeff and Alli saw Dean’s List’s “Fake News” show at New Movement. Jeff is also anxious about running the Crescent City Classic. (He ended up doing ok)

Alli has gotten involved in organizing a local chapter of Democratic Socialists Of America.

The Jivewire sponsored by We Met In The Air

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

So here is your bonus Freebird for this week. Jeff completes the Phil Collins at Live Aid stunt recording a show with Varg on Thursday night Uptown and then hopping on the Concorde to record Friday night in Mid City with Alli; who, like Varg,  is not his wife although they do order food together.

Speaking of which, Mike Pence is a weird mama jamma.  Alli doesn’t know Mary Poppins, apparently.  Pat participated in the Finn McCool’s St. Baldrick’s fundraiser. He went from looking like Sean Bean to looking like David Koechner in one day.    

The Saints added a Notre Dame guy. But they might add a Stanford guy so.. well...

Alli ranks her college football hate schools. Jeff tries to translate that into a worst case scenario Saints draft. Anyway, the NFL is bad.

SOSO:

Jeff talks about his experience at Square Root. This eventually leads to a quick rundown of “standard” New Orleans restaurants which may be over or underrated.  

Alli toured a replica Dutch clipper ship docked in the city for the week.

Speed Round:

LaToya Cantrell is running for mayor. We talk about the disconnect between issues people care about in New Orleans and issues the candidates seem to think people care about.

The mayor’s plans for Bourbon Street are coming more into focus. They are not encouraging.

And that’s it for this week. If you have tuppence to rub together be sure and invest it wisely.

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

This is the first part of a double feature we’re giving you this week.  We couldn’t all get together on the same day so Jeff recorded sessions with Lance and Alli separately.  This is from the  Thursday night session with Lance. He’s a tough but rewarding interview in much the way Mike Tyson is.

We kick things off with an inspirational  reading from Sidney Torres’s Facebook page. It yielded some good things. Sidney has had an interesting week.

Tom Benson has ripped off the city in a way you may not even have known about. Jason Berry’s latest story at American Zombie takes a look at that.   We discuss that and then catch up on news from the Saints’ offseason. Jeff has bad news about Manti T’eo. But Varg has what may be very good news about Manti T’eo.  Also Varg can’t say Manti T’eo.

Also, too, Varg can’t say meme.

We break down some of the mayoral candidates including Frank Scurlock, JP Morrell, Troy Carter, Leon Cannizzaro, and the possibility of Engineer Pat getting involved some day. The day after we recorded this, LaToya Cantrell made her candidacy official. Jeff and Alli get a chance to comment on this in Part 2.  

Also we learn about Varg’s crush on Stacy Head.

In other news, Varg is pumped for Wrestlemania but also a bit stressed about French Quarter Fest, Jazzfest, Fest Fest, and other sundry fests. We somehow manage to mention the Falcons blowing the Superbowl again.

We make sure to read through Sidney’s beautiful prose one more time before shutting it down.

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

It’s the grand finale of our three part review of Mardi Gras 2017.

We learn about Varg’s Box Of Wine Appreciation Society and Varg learns a little bit what it’s like to be in charge of children who are not his own.  Do you get too drunk on Lundi Gras?  Sometimes it can’t be helped. Jeff and Alli talk about seeing Proteus and Orpheus. Somehow, Varg is, again, in charge of some kids.

Finally we get to Mardi Gras Day when everywhere else except for in certain neighborhoods, it’s just Tuesday.  Varg talks about what it’s like to have”costume commitment” and about what it’s like to "have a ‘97." Also, there was lots of “gattin’ it” at the Deurty Boys gallery.

Alli spends Fat Tuesday with the St. Anthony Ramblers. We learn about life saving hot dog sandwiches, something about the “beautiful expression of public space and collective action” and/or just being tipsy in the Quarter when the music is playing.  Apropos of Bart Everson’s The Heart Of Carnival  column, Jeff talks about what the Carnival pageant reveals about the city. Lance talks about throwing a doctor out of the gallery.

Jeff spends Fat Tuesday uptown with Zulu, Rex, and the Wild Magnolias. Jeff doesn’t costume. Alli wants to go to the Rex ball. We end the show talking a little about the class politics of Carnival. Everyone agrees that this was a good one. Maybe not "a 97" exactly, but what can be?

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

Part Two of the Hunkerdowncast Mardi Gras review.  In this bit we learn about Varg’s foster parenting abilities, the art of parade staging, where to find the best Korean food from some white guy, and where to buy an orange daiquiri that might actually be red.

Also, we ask which parades made the worst jokes? Which parades made the best jokes? Which parades were the most racist?  Why did every parade make a Mike Yenni joke? Is Nyx a Superkrewe yet? Was that really Andrew Ridgely in Muses? And what was the deal with Phil Collins anyway?

Here is a NOLA.com article about planning your parade party.  Alli talks about her very nice Endymion party.  Varg talks about how much he hates the Endymion shit show. Endymion is closely bound up with the Krewe of Chad’s origin myth.  As it happens, a Chad ran over some people at Endymion this year. An Advocate photographer was injured during the ensuing mess

More parade talk: Jeff explains Iris’ “100th” year and tells us that Tucks is underrated generally. Varg explains the Chad Family Tree.

Did you make a costume? Do you still have hot glue burns?  When is the “Peak” day of Carnival season?  Jeff talks about riding in Thoth. We discuss some examples of “divisive” throws. Alli finishes Sunday by watching the Oscars.  And that’s where we leave it until Part 3.  Phil Collins plays us out.

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

Okay here we go with our (now annual) Mardi Gras retrospective.  We got together on a Saturday night at Jeff’s place to drunkenly and exhaustively go through every last minute of it. We recorded over three hours of material.  As a favor to you, the listener, we’ve broken them up into more manageable bites. The plan was to go chronologically through the season. For the most part, we stuck to that.  This first chapter takes us from Krewe Du Vieux through the first weekend of parades.  The final bit here is a discussion of the #KreweOfChad.  Here’s a quick rundown of topics.

• There was a movie called The French Quarter. It starred a young Becky Allen
• A Port-O-Let shot somebody
• Alli’s great time at  KDV failed to grab Trump’s attention
• Femme Fatale is a great parade
• Freret and Alla are not so great parades
• Alli loves Chewbacchus
• Lance hates Chewbacchus
• Barkus is probably a bad idea
• There are too many parades on Sunday
• Alla is garbage
• There is an actual Krewe of Chad parade
• The sociology and politics of Chad

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

That’s right. This is a “Freebird” show. This week, it’s just Jeff and Varg and Varg’s hourglass. We set out on a mission to only talk for one hour this week and… almost… make it work. Turns out there was a lot to cover and we barely got to any of it.  Mostly what we do is look back at the Superbowl (Hey did you hear the Falcons blew a 25 point lead?) and then look forward to Mardi Gras.

Do you feel extra pressure to have a good Mardi Gras this year? Is The Time Of Trump liable to make it less fun? What about the NBA All Star Game? And, of course, there is always the #KreweOfChad problem. Jeff thinks he has some advice. Varg has some slightly different advice. It gets weirdly philosophical. Anyway, here are some items that get referenced along the way.

• Kevin Allman’s review of Krewe Du Vieux for Gambit.
• Maria Hengeveld on the contradictions in Nike’s “Girl Effect” ad campaign.
• Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast

Hello it’s us making our 2017 debut during the final week of January.  Sorry Tim en em. We’ll try not to leave you in the bar by yourself for so long in the future.

Segment One (about 57 minutes)

Dizneylandrieu is back! The mayor unveiled a “security plan” that involves various heresies such as mandatory bar closing times.  What does this mean for the future of nightlife in the Quarter or for the character of the city in general?  What if it pushes more tourists into the neighborhoods? What will the peacocks do?

We live in the Time Of Trump now and people are doing #Resistance in the streets. The results so far are…. decidedly mixed. Jeff went to the Inauguration Day protest at Duncan Plaza. Alli went to the following day’s Women’s March. Varg experienced the aftermath of the Women’s March in the Quarter. We compare notes and talk political strategy. More grass roots organizing. Less David Brock.

SOSO (app 30 minutes)

Varg once harassed Poppy Tooker on the street.  Alli had a steak at Doris Metropolitan, planted some trees, saw Rogue One, and is into a Japanese reality show called Terrace House.  Varg shares a vignette from Molly’s at The Market where the remnants of the Women’s March met collided with the remnants of a friend’s memorial service. Jeff talks about the awkwardness of being at a protest and anticipates the joy of Carnival.

The Jivewire brought to you by We Met In The Air

If you like our show, share it and tell your friends. Thanks for listening.

Hunkerdowncast.com

@hunkerdowncast

Facebook.com/hunkerdowncast