" Dynamics!" "Dynamics!" "You don't have to bang it out full blast every time." "Robert, attaboy." "Good breath support." "Cherise, look at your feet." "Look." "Keep moving, keep moving." "All right, that's enough." "We're out of time." "Go put up your horns." " You okay, Cherise?" " A sense of urgency, please." "You don't seem like yourself today." "I'm not getting much sleep." " Yeah?" " Yeah." "You're a night owl like me, huh?" "It's getting cold." "What, your heat's busted?" "Somebody forget to pay the Entergy bill?" "We got blankets." "I'm sorry, Mr. Batiste." "I'll do better tomorrow." "I can't put that in the parade." "We're still two months off." "Every week counts." "Every day counts." "That's great, Markell." "" " Get your ass home." "All right." "Mike, hold up." "You didn't have to do this with me, Davis." "It was my turn on laundry." "Are you kidding?" " This is like the best part of my day." "From here, I gotta roll around picking up guitar amps, drum kits." "By the time I get done with all of that, you will already be on the road." "I'm just saying, I miss you." "Me, too." "But I gotta do this Austin showcase." "It's a big ticket." "What's up with our crews?" "I'm over at St. Roch." "There's nothing going on, no trucks, no nada." "Can't find enough hands." " Running out of Mexicans." " I'm from Texas, son." "It's physically impossible to run out of Mexicans." " It can't be done." " As if anybody even care when it get done, or if it get done." "All we're doing with these houses is making the mess look prettier." "I'm almost ashamed to take what little money there is on this shit." "We need some real titty, something with some real milk in it." "Call from HQ." "Hey, baby." "All right." "Yeah, we'll take care of it." "You'd better handle this one." "482 France Street." " Oh, Davis." " Hmm." "Colors and whites together?" "No separate, but equal, in my laundry." "But the colors run." "On the contrary, it's my experience that it's the whites that always run first." " Where's the other one?" " Hmm." "How in the hell?" "Sock gremlins." "It's gotta be here somewhere." "I mean, either that" "or we left it at home." " Shh." " Davis, what..." "it's like a religious sacrifice." "You are offering up a sock in the very temple where Guitar Slim recorded "The Things That I Used to Do."" "The music gods are fierce and cruel and must always be appeased." "Hey" "Who even told you that you can do anything on my house?" " Quéi 'Finally!" " Are you in charge here?" " Nelson Hidalgo." "What's the problem?" "The problem is your men here are in my fucking house." "I'm on the Northshore now." "I didn't even know until an old neighbor called me." "I drive straight here, nobody speaks English." "Nobody says who gave them my address." "Okay, okay, slow down." "What's your name, sir?" "It's Al." "Al Jennings." "Mr. Jennings, sir, the city is moving to clean up all this mess after Katrina." "Houses are getting torn down left and right." "But thanks to me and my friends at NOAH, instead of getting bulldozed, your home is being remediated on the city's dime." " Whoa, remediated?" " Cleaned up." "Boards on the open windows, some paint, some basic repairs, grass cut down." " Yeah, but why my house?" " You're on the list." " What list?" " The one that NOAH has." "They have a list of properties." "They tell us to remediate these houses." "Would you rather they just tore down the whole damn thing?" "I still got title." "I'm waiting on the Road Home money to rebuild." "They wouldn't tear it down without telling me?" "They cleaned it up without telling you, right?" "This is outrageous." "It's outrageous." "All right, look, who do I call about this program?" "I want your name again, and the name of your company." "I wanna know exactly who I'm dealing with." "God damn it, you can't treat people this way." "I want answers." "Is that Paul Chambers?" " On bass?" " Mmm." "It's Percy Heath, I think." "He and Miles did this before the Quintet." "Feels good to have you here, son." "I like it." "The rhythm, it's peaceful." "I'm thinking about doing something different this year." "Something new with the crown." " You serious, Pop?" " Why not?" "Why not do something you never done before?" " I'm masking Indians." "You did that when you was a kid." "I mean something really different." "Skydiving or some shit." "Skydiving?" "Could be nice." "Quiet." "You gonna change up again?" "I swear I thought you was gonna be on time for once." "Oh, I'll make it." "My last patch." "You're gonna throw the other one out?" "Plow the same acre twice?" "I don't know, Pop." "Here we are, a couple of months away, you're going backwards." "L QOt lymphoma." "I'm telling you, but not your sisters." " I don't know." "Now that I'm here, it's a bad idea to be talking." "I understand your fears." "But our threshold for going forward with any complaint against Officer Wilson will be very high." "Yeah, but I don't want my name out there, not for Wilson to see." "It won't just be you." "It won't just be two or three people making the allegations." "And let's face it, you're here talking to me, because you want what happened to you addressed." "So how many people do you have?" "We're talking to a whole bunch of people." "Believe me, you are not the only person that responded to that ad." "Talk is cheap." "Come on, don't back down on this." "Lady, I live around this way." "I don't live uptown." "I mean, he can come back on me and mine." "He counts on that fear." "He's gotten as far as he has on that fear." "He broke a man's jaw outside of the Candlelight, for no good reason." "A street full of people." "No one said a word." "Just like no one's talking now." "That ain't gonna change." "You're here talking to me, 'cause you don't believe that." "Yeah, I did see that ad of yours." "You got his picture and all that." "You don't play, huh?" "Neither do you, Bernard." "When push came to shove, you gave us everything you could on that murder." "The thing is, I don't know that we'll ever be able to make a case, or the other one in the projects." "But Wilson has left a trail of fire." "You said it yourself." "Wilson's been doing dirt around here for years." "And right now, we need all the dirt we can get." "That's some ballsy shit right there." "Like a declaration of war." "Toni hit a wall with the Abreu case." "Can't get the police file, can't find an eye witness to the shooting." "So she just kicks the hornet's nest then, huh?" "Like I said, that's ballsy." "How are you doing on the vigilante thing?" "I got a few people talking to me in Algiers." "But, actually, I tripped over something else, something that involves police." " What's that?" " The victim's name is Henry Glover." "The guy gets shot a few days after the storm, two other guys pull up, put him in the back of the car, drive him to the police, looking for help, they end up getting their asses kicked, while Glover bleeds to death." "Cops finish beating on these two guys, they confiscate the car with Glover dying in the backseat, and a month later, look at this..." "A month later, the car's owner finds it all burnt up on the other side of the Westbank levee." " They burned it?" " Mmm-hmm." "Glover, too, it looks like." "Autopsy has his remains as burned beyond recognition." "Gave him back to the family in plastic bags." "And you say you haven't gone to NOPD with any of this?" "Mmm-mmm." "I want my ducks in a row when I make that call." "I don't wanna tip them yet." " Watch your ass." " Watch my ass?" "Told Toni to watch her ass, too." "" " Well, all right" "Well, all right" "Girl, you are my sunshine" "My only sunshine" "Girl, you make me happy" "When skies are gray" "Girl, you'll never know, dear" "How much I really love you" "I don't want you to take my sunshine away" "Boo boo boo boo" "Oh" "Hello, Mr. Ray, how are you today?" "I wish you was here" " Yeah, all right!" "Yeah!" "Wow!" "Thank you all very much." "I'm Shannon Powell." "Thank you for supporting jazz, and the birthplace of jazz." "But don't go nowhere." "We'll be right back!" "" " Wow!" "BARTENDER'." "Bud, fight'?" "Beautiful set." "World-class." " Appreciate it." " Will Branson." "How do you play like that, man?" "So fluid." "I would choke out after three notes." "I mean, I flunked band, so..." "Well, I flunked shop and summer construction with my father, so..." "Look, I'm working on a really interesting music project, something for the city, something big." "Let me buy you lunch tomorrow." "You think I'm full of shit, you'll still get a good meal." "And don't worry, you won't have to lift a hammer." "Hey, Mr. Reporter, the name is Andrew Parker." "I might have something for you." "Call me back at 504-337-6468." " Hello?" " Mr. Parker?" " Yes, sir." " Hi." "This is L.P. Everett." "Are you the one interested in that burned body?" "Yeah." "We should get together face-to-face." " I got something." " Right." "Where should we meet?" "God." "That was so much fun." "Fredy moves me." "Another memo'?" "Dos memos." "Oh, this town, man, it gets to you." "I'm gonna be sorry to go." "Go?" "You're gonna leave?" "The money ain't flowing the way it was a year ago." "The people I was working with, they're going a different way now, thinking I'm a spare part." "You have work you're doing, though, right?" "You're doing work..." "It's chump change, short money." "The big boys are planning what to build next." "And me?" "I'm still just cleaning up the mess." "Here's the thing, darling, this ain't the only disaster to be had." " Thanks." " Sure." "The world's chock-full of disasters." "A new one every week." "People down here, they wanna keep me at arm's length." "Act like if my grandmother didn't know the right people uptown 100 years ago, I can't be part of the club." "The trouble is I'm quicker than they are and hungrier." "For every door they slam, I open two just like it." "It might be here, it might be wherever the money goes next." " Can't keep a good man down, huh?" "Well, I'm here now." "So let's dance." "It's the fuckin' Keystone Kops, but worse." "Oh, and I asked the deputy to limit detail hours, and I never heard back from him, not a fucking word." "And where the fuck are you, my friend?" "I gave you those files months ago." "Where are you and your Federale posse?" "We can't reach around the state on Danziger." "And Abreu, Seals, Robair?" "What about the rest of those cases?" "We can't do shit." "Seriously?" "Look, the Bush people have this shit so politicized that even with Alberto gone, no US Attorney wants to send Washington a case." "Christ, Jimmy." "That's pathetic." "Do I look happy about it?" "Oh, you never look happy." "It gets me more girls." "They like that brooding, wounded look." "They do, huh?" "So you hear any chatter about a reporter from out of town?" "From out of town?" "No." "Just the usual suspects." "How you doing?" " I figured you'd be older." "How'd you know where I was staying?" "You ain't the Invisible Man." "First, what am I?" "You mean for the story?" "Just a law enforcement source." "Come on, man, I'm not even gonna give up what agency you're with," "I'm just gonna say law enforcement source." "A source close to the case." "What case?" "There is no case." "Just a source, okay?" "You won't be identified as anything more than a source of information." "These ain't vacation photos." "Whoa." "Wait, the autopsy report said fourth-degree burns on the bone fragments." "It didn't say anything about a skull." "So you took these?" "These came from 4th District." "NOPD?" "They took photos?" "The family said the police had nothing on Glover." "Treated it like a missing person case." "Can't say they knew who it was, but 4th District definitely knew someone was at that levee." "You think they set the fire." "That's the chatter." "So NOPD killed him, then." "Slow down." "Have you ever smelled what the Louisiana sun does to dead flesh?" "Maybe they just couldn't stand the stink." "Remember, there were no morgue facilities after the storm, no way to get bodies off the street." "Besides, there's much better ways to get rid of a body and hide the fact, especially that close to a river, right?" "Yeah." "Be careful." "Everybody keeps saying that." "Thank you." " 34, Melendez." " Okay." "Thank you." "Hi, Jose." "617 North Cortez." "Blue house right there." "On this block?" "What the hell is your real estate agent thinking?" "So you got out of culinary a year ago and no job experience yet?" "I would have." "I had some back problems." "Ah." "How you feeling now?" "Pretty good." "Okay." "You tell the agent we need to move right in?" "I took every listing in five zip codes, LaDonna." "We are not being particular, remember?" "Any restaurant experience?" "Not yet, but I'll show up on time." "I'll do anything you want." "Work my ass off, give you 110%." "Nine bedrooms, separate office suite on the first floor." "But it all needs some work, which is why it's within our price range." "What are we gonna do with the other five bedrooms?" "Entergy bills alone will kill us." "You can move your bar on the third floor, send all your regulars upstairs and then toss them out on Freret Street when you close." " Hey, Chef." " Oh, Johnny Almost." "I've got a girlfriend now." " Where you been working?" " Here and there." "August for a while." "What are they gonna say about you over at August?" "I had some problems." "But you and me, it's different." "You were a good cook." "So you've worked for Emeril." "Three years at NOLA." "First dessert, then pantry, then hot apps, then saute." "So I call up Emeril, he gonna say good things about you?" "For me, the boss man was Michael Ruoss." "Paw Paw." "He saw my work." "He'll say good things about me." "So Why'd you leave?" "I didn't yet, but I Will." "I wanna work with you, Chef." "City, state." "It's a goddamn mess." "Pam, the lady I was telling you about?" "She says there's a corps of engineers tearing stuff down, the city cleaning stuff up." "But only so much." "That's the NOAH thing with the signs all over the place." "So what this Pam say to do?" "Put a big sign in your yard," ""Do not demolish," and hope it don't blow over, I guess." "How about, "Do not demolish, motherfuckers"?" "Looks like someone came past and cleaned up a bit." "I tore the sign down, but they got a new one up, I see." "Yeah, well, might as well give credit where credit's due." "I'm saying maybe it's a good thing." "City people are down here looking after the property, keeping an eye on things." "Duck, cashew butter and pepper-jelly sandwich." "Damn, who knew?" "I knew a girl years ago who was addicted to PBJ sandwiches." "I didn't get it." "But you add this duck?" "All makes sense." "Bayona is always a great meal." "You know, down here, we use lunch to talk about what we're gonna have for dinner." "Tonight, I'm gonna just have some onion soup and call it a night." "it's just too damn decadent." "So this thing of yours." "Let me ask you a question first." "Why is jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City?" "Because New York City's in New York City." "But jazz is New Orleans." " Tell that to the NBA." "Seriously." "There's no reason this city shouldn't have a world-renowned jazz performance center." "A tourist hub that properly monetizes the city's culture." "People been talking like that forever." "My father told me all about the Tivoli Gardens nonsense." "No, no, no, that was half-baked." "Look, it's harder to do something big in a city where people are fighting over real estate." "Who's in on the deal, who's not in on the deal?" "But here?" "Now?" "After the storm?" "I mean, there's so much that needs to be rebuilt anyway." "Why you coming at me?" "What better represents this city's culture?" "Old and new, traditional and contemporary, all within a single family." " We do look correct." "I'll give you that." "We need more than just an image." "We need your insight, your sense of culture, what to include, what to avoid." "Look, I'm a developer." "My partners are developers." "We can do this." "But we're smart enough to know what we don't know." "Your father's a Guardian of the Fire, right?" "Guardians of the Flame." "Flame." "That's right." "Megan." "Terry, he)'" "When are you coming back to the 8th?" " We miss you around here." " Yeah?" "And here I was, thinking that you only like men in uniform." "So my kids are coming for a visit and I was hoping to book a room, because apparently I live in a carcinogenic science project." "My FEMA trailer." "At least let me upgrade you from a standard room to a suite." "For the kids." "It'll give them more room." "I swear, Terry, you are about the only cop I know who doesn't take advantage of the perks." "Yeah." "And with child support to boot." "Peter, will you check the availability of the king suite, please?" "For?" "So how many folks you think you'll bring?" "No charge at the door, if that's what you're thinking." "I know enough not to charge for an Indian practice." "My money's at the bar." "You get the bar, sure, but I'm gonna need you to clear some tables out, so my gang can do what they do." "I lose tables, I lose drinkers." "People wanna sit, put their cup down, settle in." "The tables stay." "In back." "I'll clear the front for y'all." "And my people who used to run the barbecue truck up at Poke's, they're gonna wanna park outside and do business." "Oh, hell, no." "What burns is mine." "You do know that I'm the reason people are gonna be packing this place on Sunday night." "So you don't just mask Indian, you mask businessman, too, huh?" "Your barbecue guy, he gonna kick 25% back to the bar." "So you are coming to the play, right?" "It doesn't sound like me." "It's great." "Trust me." "Tell you what." "Why don't you pick me up after and we'll go catch Aurora at the Saturn Bar?" "Suit yourself." "In my home over there" "I know I would never bow" "In my home over there" "All my friends and lovers will be there" "Waiting for me" "I want to see Jesus..." "Hey, I'm not taking any royalties on this CD and neither is my aunt." "Okay." "Dude, I've got Kidd Jordan working my horn charts." "I'm on a sacred mission here." "This is epic." "Take the sacred mission, we'll go in the office, have Sean hook you up with a tax rebate." "Thank you, my man." "You got it." "Hey, who's that in there with Davell?" "That's his grandfather." "That's "Sugar Boy"?" "That's "Sugar Boy" Crawford?" ""Sugar Boy" Crawford in the flesh." "Second line, dance for me" "In my home over there" "When I die they'll bury me" "In my home over there" "Second line, dance for me" "In my home over there" "You know why I pulled you over?" "No, not really." "You been drinking?" "Let me see your license, registration and proof of insurance." "Step out of the vehicle, miss." "When I die, they'll bury me" "O Lord, where?" "In my home over there" "Second line, dance for me" "In my home over there" " Perfect." " That's all right." "You all sound like angels." "Thank you very much." "Absolutely unbelievable." "Davell, your shading of the melodic lines, where your grandfather's singing, are you kidding?" "You saw the angels, didn't you?" "Mr. Crawford, that was amazing." "Thank you very much." "And, truly, words cannot express, although, if you don't mind my saying, you've been away from the secular too long." "I remember the first time that I heard you do "Jock-A-Mo"..." "That was yesterday." "Now it's today." "Now I sing only for the Lord." "He's brought me from such a mighty long ways." "I know, I know." "I know that's where you're at, but I'm working on this project, where I'm bringing back all the old-school RB heroes and..." "I'm sorry, not me, not today." "I wish you well in all your endeavors." "Now I wanna say hello to Kidd Jordan." "I haven't seen him in a long time." "Thank you." "Wasted breath, man." "Wasted breath." "He won't sing RB anymore?" "No, not since the cops nearly beat him to death." "He won't." "Just won't do it." "That was years ago." "Yeah, long before I was born." "He ain't sung nothing but gospel since." "Davell, I'm just trying to honor your grandfather, man." "I mean, he gave us all those great sides." "Yeah, well, the police beat all that out of him." "Now he's doing something sacred, singing for the Lord." "That's sad, man." "It's New Orleans." "Yeah, well, right." "Where do you go" "When you can't go home?" "All right!" "Annie T., y'all." "Annie T. Don't you love her?" "And you can see her again with her band..." "Bayou Cadillac." "We are on the bill at the Continental Club tomorrow night, backing up Robert Earl Keen, so come on out if you can." "All right." "Thank you." "Thank you, Marcia." "Thank you." "Annie T." "She's here to bring some New Orleans feel to our town and we wanna do one now for our friends down there." "Party started at 4 o'clock" "Went till the midnight hour" "Everybody got so high" "They couldn't get much higher" "The landlord come at six and ten" "Said "Last time I told you" ""Twelve o'clock, I'm callin' the cops" ""And this party better be over..."" "That was great." "That was great." "Great stuff." "Listen, I talked to Robert Keen's people and gave them your demo tape." "If you want, he's gonna call you up on stage, play fiddle on "Road Goes on Forever."" "You'd trade licks with his man." "Who's his man?" "Bryan Duckworth." "You aren't ready, he'll cut you." "I'm ready." "Here we go." "Sweetie, I have to go into the office for a meeting." "Oh, it's good to see you eating." "I'm thinking of taking Oberlin off my list." "Why?" "I thought you liked Oberlin." "It's in Ohio." "Do you remember what Dad used to say about the state of Ohio?" "Anyway, that still leaves Yale, Amherst," "Bowdoin, Johns Hopkins, Tulane as my backup." "Wow, that's a lot of paperwork." "Thank God for the Common App." "What's this?" "I got it leaving work last night." "Forgot to do my seat belt." "I mean, you're driving in the Marigny and a 1st District officer writes you up?" "Mom, he was totally goofy." ""Seat belts save lives." Besides, it's the law." "Yeah." "He's not wrong." "Buckle up, kiddo." "So what'd the doctor say?" "Sent me to an oncologist, who gave me an appointment." "I ain't got no insurance, so it's nine weeks from now." "There's places that could help." "Tipitina's, Sweet Home, Musicians' Clinic, maybe." "I wish Charity Hospital was still open." "That place, I knew." "I'm making some calls, Pop." "We ain't even arguing." "We ain't, huh?" "Mark that one." "You notice something?" "The not-so-pretty ones, they go." "The ones that look like that, they stay." "Look, the five over there." "Fuck, look at him." "So it's Tabitha." "Yeah." "I know, ridiculous, right?" "No, no." "It's very nice." "So you're applying for what?" "I thought hostess." "Meet people at the door, take reservations." "Restaurant experience, not a lot." "Well, I've done cocktailing, hostessing in Miami." "So you know what you're doing?" "You're comfortable out there?" "Oh, yeah, very." "And how long have you been in New Orleans?" "Okay, so the source who gave me these, he said that they might have burned the body, just to prevent it from going ripe." "But why hide the car in the bushes, behind the levee?" "And you're quite sure you matched up that with this autopsy report?" "What is it?" "Glover, Henry?" "Mmm-hmm." "Those are the only burned remains." "And it lines up geographically and by approximate date, yeah." " Wow." " Mmm-hmm." "Quite a few violent deaths, huh?" "If you want copies of any of those, it's no problem." " Your case is..." " Joseph Abreu." "But I have all the paperwork." "I brought the father down and used him to pry the last of the pages out of the good doctor." "Yeah, but you know, I wouldn't mind making copies of the rest of these." "Who knows when I'll run into one of these cases down the road, right?" "Right." "So I saw your ad in the Louisiana Weekly." "The name of that one cop, he's the one you think killed Abreu, huh?" "Maybe." "I know he's involved in a hell of a lot more than that." "Yeah, but putting an ad like that in a newspaper, letting the NOPD know what you're after?" "Well..." "Everyone keeps telling me I should be careful." "Careful of what?" "People like you and me, lawyers, reporters..." "The police are usually more bark than bite, but if we were black or brown or working-class white people, you know, just folks living around the way, unable to write it up or make it stick," "now, then, I would worry." "Mmm-hmm." "Right." "So I take it from the number of files here, you're gonna be down with us for a while, huh?" "Yeah." "And you're eating in all of our finest establishments?" " Uh..." " Rally's?" "I like Rally's." "How about a home-cooked meal?" "Yeah." "I'd have given you notice sooner, but I just found out this afternoon." "My sons dumped me for teenage girls." "You taught them well." "Terry, it's not like we're gonna unload that suite at this point." "I mean, just because your boys aren't coming doesn't mean that you can't relax." "Enjoy a nice room for once." "Where's your chief?" "Here's my chief" "Where's your chief?" "I got a big chief." "Where's your chief?" "Here's my chief" "Welcome, welcome." "You still writing?" "Writing my ass off." "And?" "Some of it is good." "Some of it is shit." "You know how it goes." ""This City"?" "You played that one again tonight." "It's great, isn't it?" "Always sounds to me like some of you in there." "I threw in a line or two, but it's mostly the late, great Harley Watt." "You keep at it." "You can't go near a recording studio till we got nine or 10 originals we can live with." "Yeah." "Here, you try this." "Now, I know it ain't New Orleans, but here." "Huh?" "That's Texas style." "It's good." " Come on." "It's good." " It's good." "It's good." "You're a philistine, girl." "Did you try her hotel?" "She's got the gig." "Hangin' with the band." "On tour." "It was good to see Creole Wild West." "Yeah." "Chief Howard is a good man." "Yeah." "You be tired?" "I'm all right." "I'm all right." "That was a good practice." "This is the living area." " Yeah." "Mmm." " Nice." "Oh, yeah." "That shit was wild." "Two big chiefs facing off." "Indian!" "Uh!" "Made your hair stand up." "Can't imagine all them people in that tiny-ass bar." "They figured it out." "Say, uh, where the Entergy bill at?" "It ain't due till next week." "I'm gonna take care of it tomorrow on my way to school." "I know you got a lot on your mind, so I got this one." "You're a prince." "$116." "I'll take $120." "Antoine, what the hell has gotten into you?" "Me?" "I'm a school teacher now, right?" "Cash-my-check, pay-my-bills motherfucker." "Ooh." "Do you have a yellow card?" "Never heard of it." "Well, when you go to University Hospital, bring your tax return or a notarized letter stating your income, and then you can get your yellow card, which will get you free treatment." "We'll also be applying to Medicaid." "Mr. Lambreaux, I'm going to get you an appointment with an oncologist as soon as possible." "Thank you, ma'am." "It's not a charity, Pop." "It's a program to help musicians and culture bearers." "Now I'm bearing culture, huh?" "You a bear and a half, Pop." "I'm in a situation, ma'am." "You know, I just subbed for Tab Benoit, but his regular guy got healthy and Tab cut me loose, so now I'm a little short." "Normally, you'd need to make an appointment first." "But I'm sure we can help." "Any other urgent needs besides the Entergy bill?" "Hmm." "Well, no, that's it." " We can handle everything else for now." " Okay." "We need to fill out some paperwork and ask some questions." "Let's go to a more private room, Mr..." " Batiste, Antoine." " Mr. Batiste, follow me." "How long is this gonna take?" " Depends on you." " Oh, shit." "Hey, Tony, I figured it out." "It's actually funny." "Make it look neat." "I feel giddy." "I've never spent so much money on equipment." "Big time." "So I'm thinking about reintier de cochon." " Backbone stew?" " Yup." "If we can make it beautiful." "And if I can get Ossabaw hogs." "Fat little fuckers." "Serve it in the copper oval tableside." "May be a challenge with Victoria's Secret working for you out there." "What, are they too pretty to get it right?" "For reintier de cochon, you'll need real waiters." "Oh, I've got to talk to Tim." "I've really got to talk to Tim." "This here, "accel," what do you think this means?" " Cherise?" " Sounds like an accelerator in a car." "Yes, that's right." "It means to get faster, increase the tempo." "This here, "rit," it means to slow down gradually." "Why say "mt"?" "It's Italian." "Short for "ritardando."" "So you want us to play retarded?" "You always play retarded." "Guys, come on. lt just means slow." " Like Mr. Batiste getting to school." "Yeah, Mr. Batiste, you got retarded on your way here?" "Well, if you hear something, anything, about a car burning over on the levee, you got my number, right?" " Yeah, I do." " Okay." "Thank you, man." "He's got that good detail." "$24 an hour or so." " Yeah." "What about you, man?" "You on a good detail?" " Is this your ride?" " Yeah." "Sorry, brah." "Don't worry, I didn't scratch her." "She's a rental." "So, anyway, I mean, if I put in for it..." "That's the ritardando right there." "All right?" "Cherise, just take this, all right?" "Pay the electric bill and don't tell anybody." "And Jennifer?" " Watch those tempo changes." " Okay, Mr. Batiste." "So one already signed an affidavit and I think I have a second ready and willing." "How that gets me to Abreu, I'm still not sure." "Right." "Mom, can we talk about something other than work for once?" "All right, young lady." "What would you like to talk about?" "I don't know." "Music?" "What do you like?" "What have you heard since you came down here?" "I like metal." "Metal?" "Metal, grind, thrash." "Well, in New Orleans..." "You got a pretty good scene, yeah." "Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore." "Goatwhore?" "Seriously?" "Yeah, I caught them two weeks ago in Fat City." "And they're actually playing a late show tonight at the Circle Bar." "Goatwhore." "Wow." "That's where I'm going tonight, anyway." "In fact, I've got to get a cab." "I left my rental at the motel." "Tonight, I'm decidedly not the designated driver." "Well, I could ride you to the Circle Bar, if you don't mind going by the London Avenue Canal for something first." " What's up?" " These guys are doing a Beckett play." ""Waiting for Godot." Acting it out where the canal was breached." "Last week they did it in the 9th Ward and people say it was incredible." "A play?" "Sure, I guess." "I'll get you there in plenty of time for all the Goatwhoring fun." "Okay." "You coming to the play, Mama?" "Me?" "I thought you said that..." "Oh, I get it." "The boyfriend bagged on you, so now it's all right for Mama to tag along?" "Sounds like fun." "Jacques." "The walk-in." "Frog more stew." " What?" "Frog more stew." "That's as old-school, Gullah, ugly-ass, fucking delicious low-country as it gets." "Can we make it beautiful?" "Huh?" "Can we?" "Can we take it out of the shell, pretty her up, and take her for a New South walk?" "Yes, we can." "We must." "It's a very good idea." "It ain't right not telling my sisters." "They got a right to know." "They'll want to be here." "To do what?" "Just think on it, Pop." "Gogo, don't go on like that." "Tomorrow everything will be better." "How do you make that out?" " Did you not hear what the child said?" " No." "He said that Godot would sure come tomorrow." "What do you say to that?" "Then all we have to do is wait on here." "Are you mad?" "Let's find shelter." "Come on." "Good night, Chef." "Good night, Jacques." "I can't go on like this." "That's what you think." "If we parted, that might be better for us." "Then we'll hang ourselves tomorrow." "Unless Godot comes." "And if he comes?" "We'll be saved." "Motherfucker ain't coming." "Excuse me?" "The man, he ain't coming." "ESTRAGONI Well, shall we go?" "Pull on your trousers." "What?" "Pull on your trousers." "You want me to pull off my trousers?" " Pull on your trousers." " True." "Shall we go?" "Yes." "Let's go." "When I read "Godot" in school, I never imagined it like that." "Out there, where the water came through, everything wrecked." "You should have come." "It's not my thing, really." "So who you going to see?" " Goatwhore." " Goatwhore?" "You listen to much metal?" "Most of what I listen to gets played on 78 RPM." "If it's younger than 1937, it's suspect." "How old are you, anyway?" "27." " Hmm." "Yeah, but, like, I thought he was only like 24, and he thought I was 21, so we're only three years apart, really." "Turn up here." " Turn here." " Here?" "Take a left up here." "All right, just pull over at this gas station up here." "Right under that light."