AUGUST 2026
I read recently that Miami has the worst drivers in the country. New Orleans, wake up! We are number one in many incredible things, such as worst state for education, poverty, bicycle accidents. Where is our Pride?
I’ve been thinking about this, and I believe the solution is our potholes. I bet Miami doesn’t deal with potholes like we do. Here, when a pothole is so deep that you barely see the tip of a 3 foot cone, people will make a huge cone 6 feet tall and then start a Mardi Gras “Crew of Cone Heads”. Or go swimming in one. Yep, already done. Take that Miami.
As Paul Soniat wrote, we could make them a tourist attraction. We can place bets on how long it takes to get a big one filled, and how long it takes a car to get stuck in one after a rainstorm makes them invisible. At New Orleans speed of fixing things, we can even turn this into a lottery ticket.
Or we could set up some ladders, and have a bead tossing contest and see how many beads it takes to fill it up (and a use for those boxes of beads under your bed). We can set up a tent and chairs, charge a dime for every throw, sell drinks, add a food truck, and help this town reach it’s full potential. And if we want to stretch it out more, let’s make the S&WB in charge of filling them; the mind boggles at the opportunities that adds..
This is truly our unique specialty.
Let’s get those potholes working FOR us and do what we do best: slow down and relax…
Here’s a national news article about a leader in this concept:
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
Talk about making lemonade. Javier Yat, a 23-year-old mechanic in Brooklyn, New York, is lining his pockets with cash after setting up a tire station next to a huge pothole, the New York Post reported on March 17. Yat works out of his van and typically runs out of replacement tires each night. "I have to pay a runner to go back and forth to the shop for me and pick up what I need," Yat said. "I think the pothole is approximately 60 square inches and 12 inches deep," he said. He arrives in the area around 12:30 a.m. and stays until 10 a.m., changing 15 to 20 tires each night and charging between $150 and $300 per tire. "One man's misfortune is another man's blessing," Yat said...
June 2026
Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.! My dad’s birthday was June 17, so I only had to give him one gift. My father was a big man, a football player, boxer, civil engineer, and big band singer before WWII. During the war, he was in the army and taught recruits how to use heavy mechanical equipment. His back was broken when one of them released the bulldozer blade on my dad. He worked relentlessly to learn to walk again, went back to school and was inspired by his mentor at UNC to get his PhD in colonial American history. That’s what eventually brought us to New Orleans when I was nine. We moved here in August, and lived in some WWII navy barracks on the Tulane campus with no AC. I didn’t like New Orleans until I hit puberty, at which time it became an incredible playground of experiences.
My dad was a John Wayne like figure to me, strong, stoic, and a man of few words. He only ever gave me two pieces of advice, and they have been helpful to me to this day. He said if I believed in something, he would always stand behind me; that made me search for my values in life. The other thing he told me was to never go to bed mad at your wife. If you don’t do this already, it’s worth trying; it’s magical how petty differences dissolve.
Two things I regret: when I was eight we lived in Colonial Williamsburg, and I traded a cigar box full of arrowheads dad had found for some bubblegum cards. When he found out, he threw the cards away, but never told me to retrieve the arrowheads or spoke of it again.
The other thing was about the same time: it was an anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, and on a hot Saturday afternoon, I informed him that I had volunteered him to make a model of one of the 1607 ships for my school class on Monday. He stopped what he was doing and worked for two days to make a ship model for me. I still have it as a reminder of what my dad would do for me, without complaining or saying a word.
Thanks, Dad. I will always try to live up to your role model.
JR
Well here it is, almost the start of the season that should not be named. Of course I’m talking about Father’s Day. No, actually we’re talking about the season that starts June 1 and ends November 31, and keeps all New Orleanians checking their stored water, canned goods, and batteries. It’s the price we pay for living in this city, or should I say big small town, that is good to almost everyone here.
And there’s a lot of things we can do to prepare. The first thing is drink, and New Orleanians are really good at that. I’ve cut back my drinking, but I like to have a beer or two when I play at Deuches Haus, because it’s the best!
OK, the next thing I like to do is to start worrying. Now. I realize that doesn’t help a lot, but somehow I feel like I’m doing my part. It didn’t help to have that national article come out talking about the scary future of our fabulous town.
And doesn’t help that our governor doesn’t seem to like us either. He thinks of us as a liberal party island that doesn’t belong in the state, and maybe he’s right. After all, we are sometimes referred to as the northern most island in the Caribbean, and Randy Newman said that we are his favorite city of the U.S, if in fact, we are in the U.S. The truth is, we are proud of being different, and the outside world has less effect on us than probably anywhere else in this country; we like what we have already, and we’re suspicious of changing it.
LONG LIVE NEW ORLEANS!
DECEMBER 2025
“ It’s about time”. How often have we heard that and not thought what it meant? TIME, as we all know, is an abbreviation for Temporal Indicator Measurement Equivalent. Well, maybe we don’t all know that, possibly because I just made it up, but it sounds good to me.
Time is relative, and our perception of time varies greatly. My friend Janna says that a metronome proves Einstein‘s theory of relativity. Anyone who’s ever practiced music with a metronome knows that those things seem to speed up and slow down all the time…
I recently heard a saying I liked: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift (that’s why we call it the present). Or has Snoopy said in Peanuts, “learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.“
We only exist in the here and now, and if we actually exist at all is an existential and rhetorical question. Skip the depression about the past or anxiety for the future, because that won’t help. I’m staying in the present as much I can.
And now, it’s finally time to end this, and you’ll probably agree, it IS about time…
AUGUST 2025
We are coming up on the 20th anniversary, and if you don’t know what I mean, you’re not from here. Sunday there was a front page article on Chris Rose, who brilliantly expressed the things that we were feeling back then, but couldn’t verbalize. It cost him a lot – his family, his job, his sanity, and his sobriety, but he saved us.
We were in Nashville for our “Katrinacation” until late December, and his essays in the Times Picayune brought our community together, no matter where we were. His writing was profoundly authentic and moving. If you don’t remember, go back and read some of his “One Dead In Attic”.
No one here goes through a summer and fall without worrying that this might be the year of another big one, and the truth is, it could happen tomorrow, but Chris gave us our identity and sense of self, reminding us of why we are in the least boring city in the United States. As Randy Newman once said, if in fact, we are in the United States.
As the bumper sticker says: New Orleans, proud to swim home.
Thanks, Chris.
JULY 2024
You know who the best dog in the world is?
Your dog. No matter what you do, they love ya. All of those little “accidents” and begging don’t matter in the long run. They’re ALWAYS happy to see you.
Jackson Dog Rankin, AKA Prince Rupert, is still living the good life at 16. I never had a small dog before, but that 14 pound Jack Russell is still very active and playful. When he’s awake. He does sleep a lot more, aided by his deafness to door bells, whistles, and howling dogs.
Little dogs are very willful, and they will insist we see it their way. It’s called personality. Don’t worry, we have him right where he wants us…
I still wonder about a few things. If he’s such a good friend, why did I get him fixed? Could I learn to wag my tail? Does he really think I’m smart and kind, or is it just about food and protection?
He has a heart murmur, epileptic fits, a stomach tumor larger than a lemon (inoperable), but he is unconcerned. His preferred words are treat, walk, sit, stay, okay, and I love you, and like all dogs, he believes he taught those us tricks. With joy, all the time, and purpose. That’s the attitude I admire.
Long Live Jack!
APRIL 2023
Well. it appears that I forgot the website for some time. My apologies. I'm still adjusting to the new abnormal.
High Season is in gear, and it’s time to get sunscreen, disposable raincoats, and Birkenstocks ready for our version of the Rites of Spring. It’s that lovely time of the year between freezing in a cold leaky house and sweating in a hot leaky house. When you can open your windows, and hear the birds and the sirens instead of the air conditioners humming. It’s when you are through with Mardi Gras but not quite over it. When the Mardi Gras Indians come out again to remind us how lucky we are to live in a rich culture like this. And a time of looking ahead to several months of rain without names.
And crawfish. New Orleans has absorbed Cajun culture in the last decade or so. I asked a guy cooking a big pot of them what he did to prepare them, and he said ‘nothing, we just tell them they’re goin’ to die”. Gotta love it…
AUGUST 2021
Big news! The New Abnormal is becoming the New Normal. Well, maybe not. But there is a brand new CD, DREAM PALACE, from THE NOLA STRING KINGS, with John Rankin. Matt Rhody, and Don Vappie. It was recorded right before the shutdown, and I hope it was worth the wait, because I’ve been itching like a dog with fleas to get this thing out. That’s because I feel so good about the music, the sound, and the feeling that I get from listening to it, that I’ve wanted you to hear it too.
Half are originals, and the rest are great New Orleans repertoire. All three of us contributed songs, arrangements, vocals, love, and money, in equal portions. Now you, the listener, represent the completion of our project.
Don has created a new label to release it on, and you can get your copy here: https://www.donvappie.com/store.php#!/c/0/offset=9. If prefer to get them from me, you can as well; contact me at https://johnrankin.net/contact, and I can mail you a copy, autographed or not, for $20 (sent to VENMO@John-Rankin-NOLA).
In other news, The New Orleans Guitar Masters will be at JazzFest on the first Saturday October 8, first weekend. I will have a solo show as well on the same day. Stay tuned!
JULY 2021
JULY is here, and for a change, New Orleans is cooler than most of the country. We’ve had more rain than many states as well; The grass stills looks as green as when spring started. I wish we could ship most of that extra water out west.
THE COLUMNS on Mondays has been a treat for me! However, we will not be there in July and August, or possibly longer. The music was great, the audience was lovely, but it’s tough with the current furniture arrangements, employee shortages, reservation operations and policies, and so on. You might remember the former owners shut down the music in the summer as well. Hopefully it will evolve into a successful music venue in the fall.
That being said, I had a great time seeing so many long time friends and new listeners. I especially want to thank the musicians—Clarence Johnson III, Washboard Chaz, Harry Hardin, Ed Wise, Dallas Vietty, David Torkanowsky, and Matt Rhody—every evening was a true delight. I tried to broadcast the first sets on Facebook, but with limited technological success, what I would call “a great learning experience”.
Yours in analog and digital worlds,
John
MAY 2021
I am returning to play at the Columns! The new time is EVERY MONDAY starting 5/24, and now 6 to 9, two hours earlier.
I will be playing in the ballroom, but we might try the front porch when the weather is tempting. So far Mondays are the only night with music. I think that’s because my friends have kept calling the hotel for the last year, so it’s all your doing — and thank you very much.
The Columns has benefited from its new owners! It still feels like the old place but it’s more sophisticated. New restrooms, beautiful lighting, bar, modern electronics, and more seating areas everywhere. The front porch seating has been extended to cover the entire front yard, so you can always find a seat outside on the avenue, and a service bar speeds up your order. More sophisticated, still a great historic place.
There is a new menu, under chef Michael Stoltzfus from Coquette, and the kitchen is open until 9 p.m. and open on Mondays, so now you have a place to eat out on Blue Mondays! Here’s a look: http://thecolumns.com/thecolumns/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Columns_Menu_01.pdf
I’m excited to begin again with the new Columns Hotel, and I hope you get a chance to come by. Especially on Mondays from 6 to 9!
I will broadcast the first set live on Mondays on Facebook from 6 to 7 CST (John Rankin Music, https://www.facebook.com/johnrankinguitar).
Here's our schedule for now:
5/31 - John Rankin and Washboard Chaz Leary
6/7 - John Rankin and Tom Fischer (clarinet and sax)
6/14 - John Rankin and Ed Wise (bass)
6/21 - John Rankin and David Torkanowsky
6/28 - John Rankin and Matt Rhody
March 2021
It’s been more than a minute since you’ve heard from me, since before the holidays. The world has been acting crazy, but we have been going along at a lazy pace, mostly at home enjoying our leisurely lifestyle.
I have been reading a lot more lately. I have been learning so many things I had never guessed or thought about. For instance, there are more than 42,000 playable guitar chords. And chicken produce more eggs when listening to top 40 or easy listening; I never thought they were very smart anyway.
Then there’s the English language with its strange spelling, and expressions that are even stranger. Why is abbreviation such a long word? And why is it so hard to spell mnemonic? Why do babies wake up every 90 minutes but adults want to “sleep like a baby”?
And it turns out musical instruments can be very unhealthy, with diseases like bagpiper’s fungus, tuba lips, and guitarist’s nipple, none of which have affected me. Speaking of bagpipes, how do you know when to tune them? And you may not realize this, but the reason bagpipers usually are walking when they play is to get away from the noise.
I had sinus surgery last month because of multiple infections, and now I sound like Willie Nelson, at least to myself. I can breathe better as well. I didn’t know most people were getting this much oxygen, although I have been accused of being long winded…
Oops, that’s my signal to sign off. Stay healthy and patient. Thanks for listening!