Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Big Easy Meetup
After Rob Long bought drinks for a few new members Friday night in New Orleans, about 30 Ricochet faithful gathered for a convivial podcast with Rob, Charles C.W. Cooke, and Ricochet Meetup organizer Randy Weivoda to chat about our community. It was a great night, with about 30 people in attendance, and everyone had a chance to join the conversation live. If you’re reading about this at home, you missed something extraordinary, but there’s always next time!
I should mention that the podcast recording wouldn’t have happened without Melissa. Originally @davecarter was going to bring his portable recording equipment and record a podcast with Rob. Then Charles decided to come, so we’d be able to have all three of them together. Yay! But then Dave’s work situation kept him from being able to come. Since Melissa used to be the producer for the Whiskey Politics podcast, she had the equipment and know-how to make this happen, so three cheers for Melissa for saving the podcast session!
In case you hadn’t seen the Ricochet Meetup Passport sticker on the announcement post, here it is.
Oh, and @drbastiat, I can’t speak for the others but I did have a couple hurricanes the night we went to Katie’s.
Featuring the delightful Katie Koppelman at the Louisiana Maritime Museum in Madisonvilla, LA
I thought you’d never ask… @roblong @charlescwcooke
More pictures from the main event:
Melissa hard at work (when is she not?) configuring the audio
Charles examines his gift
Rob holds up his new shirt – will he be joining the three martini lunch?
From the walking tour:
PainterJean, Randy & Sara Weivoda, and Katie Koppleman in front of a mansion on the walking tour
Garden District Walking Tour Guide
Gates of Lafayette Cemetary, home of many tombs
Yeah . . . let me try again . . .
Here:
https://ricochet.com/329073/charleston-meetup/
For some reason, the dinner picture didn’t show in the link, so here it is:
From a War Between the States reenactment, the Battle of Aiken:
You should see a row of these bad boys when they fire a volley. The sound is deafening and the ground shakes. And these are privately owned and capable of firing cannonballs . . .
Joe Biden says “No way! C’mon man!”
Randy beat you to it, in #27.
But he didn’t have additional photos!
Randy beats me to everything, he’s that good! He even finished his crepes before I did . . .
Maybe he didn’t want you to finish his crepes.
OK, so let me tell you about going to Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza the first night of the meetup. As far as we knew, Stad, Neutral Observer, my wife and myself were the first ones there. Later on I realized that JimGoneWild was already there, so eventually we figured that out and he and his cousin joined us. But the four of us wanted to get a table for however many people we were expecting. Stad is standing there and an attractive middle-age woman comes up to him and exclaims how much she just loves his t-shirt. It says “Engineers aren’t boring people, we just get excited over boring things.” Stad thanks her and says we need a table for ten (or whatever the number was). She tells him that she doesn’t work there, she just loves his t-shirt. Stad doesn’t get it and again says we need a table for ten and she repeats herself, and just can’t stop gushing over the t-shirt. Finally an actual employee comes by and takes us back to to a table. Enter Omega Paladin and Katie Koppelman a little bit later. Omega is also wearing a t-shirt that the mystery lady just flips over.
A while after Omega and Katie have come to our table the lady (who — just speculating here — may have consumed an alcoholic beverage or two) came back to the table because she wanted to get her photo taken with the t-shirt wearers. I will point out that I was wearing a rare black polo shirt with an embroidered Ricochet logo on it. Does she remark on this at all? Hell no. Sigh. Anyway, after that little photo session she wants her photo taken with the whole group and this goes on and on and on. Eventually she tells E. Kent Golding to stop taking so many pictures because she will run out of space or battery power. She claimed that she put her phone down the top of her dress and took a picture of her cleavage, but I didn’t see this with my own eyes. This went on so long I thought maybe Rob Long had hired a local actress friend to play this part.
Thursday night at the New Orleans Ricochet Meetup
That’s Stad, the mystery woman, Omega Paladin (who wishes to maintain his secret identity) , and JimeGoneWild’s cousin, Sam.
So, the mystery woman didn’t turn out to be a Ricochet member who just didn’t remember to mention it?
She was definitely lit. I swear I thought she was the hostess . . .
Get your New Orleans Meetup podcast here!
It took a while for me to put this together but I have made a slideshow from pictures of the New Orleans Meetup. Thank you to @painterjean, @katiekoppelman, @stad, @6foot2inhighheels, and @darlenem for sharing pictures.
Excellent! The music went well with the slideshow. Who were the artists?
The first song, “Sweet Honey” is by Amanda Shaw, who is a Louisiana native. She actually played at French Quarter Fest, but her time slot was right before the Friday night banquet, so I couldn’t see her. She is a fiddler and does a mix of country, zydeco, and rock music. Since you’re a rock and roller, Stad, you might like her cover of a song by The Clash.
The second song, “One Foot in the Bayou” is by Tab Benoit, also a Louisianan. He generally does delta blues. I picked that song with @roblong in mind, because he loves New Orleans and currently lives in New York City.
The last song I picked simply because I needed a song that was a minute and 37 seconds long, give or take a few seconds. That one is called “Seven Signs” and is from a company called Music 2 Hues that makes royalty free instrumental music. I bought a bunch of their discs many years ago when I had a very large project to do.
Fantastic job, Randy!
Thanks!
BTW, I like her version of the song by The Clash better . . .