Slaps! – Happy Hour – It’s New Orleans
Just when you think New Orleans couldn’t surprise you any more, you meet Luke Hooper.
Luke Hooper is the kind of character a Hollywood screenwriter would dream up. Tall and handsome. A semi-professional iron-man athlete who is also an award-winning inventor. He’s invented a new version of delivering wireless power (yes, that’s right, wireless power), creates futuristic games for children, designs creative solutions for giant companies like Nike, and has defended his patents in the Supreme Court of the US (yes, the Supreme Court) and won. He invented shoes that do themselves up, called Slaps. And he works out of an office downtown, next to the yoga studio he founded. Even the name “Luke Hooper” is from Central Casting superhero.
There’s nobody larger than life than Katrina Brees. Katrina is the founder of The Bearded Oysters Mardi Gras parade troupe, the Kolossos Bike Zoo, a do-it-yourself coffin business, and now she’s sponsoring legislation that is making its way through the Louisiana legislature. Donna’s Law is named for Katrina’s mom, Donna. In 2018 suicidal thoughts got the better of Donna, and she bought her first gun and killed herself with it. Donna’s Law will allow people who feel they are a threat to themselves or others to self-register on a list that denies them the right purchase a gun. Somehow, Katrina is managing to do what literally nobody in America has accomplished – she is shepherding bipartisan gun control into law. While at the same time retaining her sequined, giant-eyelashes, crown-wearing flamboyance.
If you’ve spent any time in New Orleans and you love going out to hear live music, there’s a fair chance you’ve never heard any bluegrass. Well, you have nobody to blame for that but yourself. Any time you feel like hearing some bluegrass you can go check out The Tanglers. Jacob Tanner and Craig Alexander are the core of the band, which is a 6-piece, and they do a duo gig where the two of them call themselves The Tanglers. Yes, that’s confusing but if you never see the full band, the duo version of The Tanglers is awesome, as you’ll hear on this Happy Hour.
Photos at Wayfare by Jill Lafleur.