It will be interesting when Toni’s backstory is revealed, as perhaps that will illuminate some of the reasons she seems so isolated in a city where she was born and grew up, a city where families are in such close touch. Even Davis, for all his ranting about his bigoted and dysfunctional family, is close to his family. Is it possible that Toni grew up in bad old days of the Irish Channel?
I am starting to be in love with Janette this season. She’s such a plain, straight-ahead person, no pretense, no fronting with Janette. But there that buoyancy in her too, such as the fairy costume with cowboy boots on the first Mardi Gras after the Flood — which probably started this crush — everything looks better with cowboy boots — throwing the Sazerac into Richman’s face and, in this episode dancing a cocktail napkin to do her solitary second line in the Blue Note. Then, there is her chef’s passion for great food.
As for Sonny: No dialog, no transition, other than everybody subbing, like they do. Sonny’s moved up from busking to cover band Soul Apostles. Yes, a cover band, but it's not playing on the street. Sonny seems to be admitting his limitations, as maybe Davis is starting to see his. But Sonny hasn’t given up wanting to play, and playing music, despite his self-destructive steps, so easy to make in New Orleans now or any time. He's a foreigner in a city of great musicians, whose musical relationships and relationship with the city go back generations. You gotta respect that.
Why are the so-called critics blathering about the short beats and cuts of these scenes? By their own admission, they don’t have a musical sensibility, so they are missing all the compositional connections between the cuts. Going between the Blue Note in NYC to the poetry slam in New Orleans? Perfect (not to mention its an amigo’s kid who is the first one we see on stage). It's not choppy, jumpy or skittery. It's like a well-rehearsed band: time for this instrument, the horns lay out, but then they come back, everyone cools down for the vocalist to do a solo, and so on. This maybe was my favorite of all the scenes in this episode. But then, I have had many a fine time in the Blue Note. What I want to know though, is: who did Janette know that she could get a seat at the bar? It's always so crowded at the bar I've never gotten to sit there, no matter whose guest list I was on! Yes, I know it’s cheaper at the bar, but still, I never get a seat there.
This was a wonderful episode, written by a woman, who is, it turns out, on da List.
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