A Night with Professor Arturo

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  Stamford, Connecticut, United States
Sunday, July 2, 2006

(Nieuwmarkt, October 14, 2006)-We had to get back to Manhattan by Sunday at noon to catch the train to Baltimore, so we drove down Saturday evening from East Nassau to Arturo's apartment in Stamford, CT and spend the night there in unaccustomed splendor. The Professor had to flee New Orleans after the Flood and somehow landed in Stamford, where he has a couple of musical collaborators of long standing. Using his finely honed hustling and survival skills Arturo managed to land on his feet, with a spacious modern apartment, a car and enough income to get by on while he rebuilds his life.

In the morning Arturo took Dorothy and me to his favorite little Greek diner in Stamford, where the owner's sister is a city councilwoman and actually seats patrons and waits tables on Sunday mornings. This was a great way to start the next leg of our journey, which began when Arturo delivered us to the train station in Stamford and we boarded the Amtrak train headed for points south.

Here's the rest of Part 1 from Arturo's epic poem "My Name Is New Orleans," continued from Entry #5:

My name is New Orleans

I am Big Daddy's spirit and Big Momma's creole tomato-red polka dot dress

I am underpaid attorneys and over-rated trumpet players

(no matter how many Grammys they got)

I am "carfare" insteada "busfare"

I am "donuts and rolls" insteada "beignets and croissants"

I am "earl" insteada "oil"

I am "berl" insteada "boil"

I am "sperl" insteada "spoil"

I am "pernt" insteada "point"

I am "jernt" insteada "joint"

I am "strimp" insteada "shrimp"

I am "rinch" insteada "rinse"

I am "scurlin'" insteada "scalding"

I am "around the cornder" insteada "around the corner" cuz the rain on

Dumaine falls mainly on the banquette

(By Zulu! I've gawt it!)


I am Marie Laveau and Satchmo

I am UNO, SUNO, HANO, and PANO


I am dirty rice and dirty politics

I am crabs in a barrel

I am Gentilly Woods, Smallwoods, Amazing Technicolored Mayors and a project named Desire

I am modernity

I am treeless strips of Claiborne Avenue in the name of progress (making the city safe for tourism)

-que pasa, senorita?


I'm a handsucker and a headsucker

I am cowain and alligator pear

I am "lovin' that chicken from Popeye's"

(I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam)

I'm a anklewhipper-wearin' pompadoo zigaboo

I'm a Uptown stud

"Sharpen my shank

Gimme my wine

I'm from the mighty 'Nine'

And I don't mind dyin'"

("Shut up and eat yo redbeans, boy!")Hey bay -I'm The Willie Cole Trio!

I am file gumbo, crawfish etouffe and 'chitterlings'

I am bowing boys and curtsying debutantes


I am Coon-Can, Battle, Pitty Pat, Spades and Whist

(What's yo' bid?)


I am a truck parade runnin' into the neutral ground

I am a dirty washrag in the backa the barroom

I am brickwork and grillwork and crumbling tombstones

I am a cemetery fern dancing at the foot of a chineyball tree

I am picklemeat and peckerwoods

I am "Yeah-Ya-Right" and "Where Y'at bruh?"

I am "Who Dat?"


Look!

I am up in the sky!

I am a bird!

I am a plane!

I am--------------- SUPER-D-O-O-OME!!!


My name is New Orleans...

I'm on the wild!

I'm cra-zyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Sometimes I feel like a nut

(Sometimes I don't)


1 am the center of the world in the Gay 1990s

1 am High John the Conqueror and the bottom of the Mississippi

I am hoo-doo voo-doo with you-know-who in the backa Big Mary's #2

I am panne meat, nananns and paranns

My name is New Orleans

I'm the veggitibble man:

"I got ba-na-nas, watermell-on, sweet patoo-oo-oo-ty!

I got ba-na-nas, watermell-on rade to dee rind!

--so goo-oo-oo-ood it keep the ba-a-aby from cryin'!"


My name is New Orleans.....


I am big fat mommas and lil poppa stoppas

St. Peter Claver, Bertha Baptist and The One Way Church of Truth

I am the city that care never thought of

I am soft-shelled crabs and hardcore unemployment

I am having to know somebody to get a job

I am Clarence (The Frogman) and Understandin' Henry

I am the ghost of the Claver Building and the flames of the Cabildo

I am a cool breeze from the river through the screen door

I am prom night at the lakefront by the Mardi Gras Fountain

I am a Bulldog in a Yellow Jacket feasting on a Purple Knight

In the middle of a Green Hornet's nest

I am Miss Mildred, Miss Pie and Miss Marguerite

I am Shorteyes and Professor Longhair

I am Dr. Haydel and Dr. John

I'm yo' momma's name

-My name is Flo (Yo momma name' NOPSI)

I am a softdrink truck blocking a City Park bus on a one-way street

I am Uptown, Downtown, Backatown, Frontatown, 'Crosstown,

In town, Gert Town, Bucktown, Boscoville, and Pilette Land...


You can hear this at My Name Is New Orleans by Prof. Arturo

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