“This is the school for fools in love. Did I mention? Pay attention!” —Bootsy Collins, Worth My While (feat. Kali Ulchis)

Last May, I mentioned wanting to get back to New Orleans by the end of this year. Our anniversary had just passed, Robert E. Lee’s statue had been removed from Lee Circle, and I was feeling a lot of wistful love for my second favorite city in the nation.

In August, my mom stated that she wanted to take a family trip this year. We were actively considering Puerto Rico, but then there was Maria and my mother’s broken leg (now healed), and so contiguous options seemed the best choice. Tiffany and I had visited NOLA over the holidays before and enjoyed what had, at the time, been a relatively sleepy week in the city.

Sleepy is not the way I would describe Crescent City this time. There was Christmas Fest and the Sugar Bowl. The Pelicans and Xscape. And a more substantial international tourist body than in 2009. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. First, we went to Greensboro, North Carolina to visit with and my mother-in-law.

Greensboro has a very fancy Whole Foods with an excellent hot bar. We went there the first night. A couple of days later, I made biscuits from scratch to my MIL’s delight. Mostly, though, I sat in her sunroom and caught up on my media consumption. Hulu has all the non-Netflix Marvel shows so I binged Legion and caught up on Runaways and continued to sample The Gifted. I feel a kind of way about Bryan Singer‘s attachment to two of the three but Legion, in particular, was worth the time.

Also, Steven Universe. Mrs. Winners. Greensboro’s changing demographics.

I read Goldie Vance, Volume 1 (very fun!) and A Wrinkle in Time. I stopped reading Wrinkle just before the final action occurs. I didn’t love it. Many elements feel very of the 50s, and I’m curious to see how Ava Duvernay will translate them in her film. I like the bones of the story, though, and think it will likely make a much better movie.

I went through the best end-of-year music lists I could find to see what I was missing. Complex. NPR. NY Times. Pitchfork. KCRW.

KCRW’s DJ lists were the plug in this excursion. Jeremy Sole had the most similar chart to my best-of, and several of the albums from his list fit right in with my sensibilities.

Albums I Missed in 2017

• Amine – Good for You
• Vic Mensa – The Autobiography
• Chicano Batman – Freedom is Free
• Niia – I
• Kelela – Take Me Apart
• The Como Mamas – Move Upstairs
• H.E.R. – H.E.R.
• The Frightnrs – More to Say Versions
• Björk – Utopia

We did leave the house to take in a G-League basketball game. The game was mostly trash until late in the fourth quarter, as were the concessions, but we had great seats.

Then, on Christmas Day, we got on a plane and headed to N’awlins, baby.

To be continued…