By: Conner James - MSTv
Additional info from NOLA.com

The BBQ: simply the primal type of outdoor cooking that all men seem to have written into their DNA.

Hogs for a Cause: the ultimate New Orleans BBQ competition of the hunter/gatherer to win the battle and feed most of the flock.  And most importantly, doing so for the pride of helping families deal with children suffering from pediatric brain cancer.   

In the past five years, the affair has raised almost half a million dollars to help kids and families in crisis.  And like previous years, the call for fearless grill-masters has gone out - a call that has been answered by more than 80 teams.

This weekend you can look forward to filling your bellies and helping the cause as well, because New Orleans City Park will be filled with charcoal, wood, lotsa smoke and more beef, pork and chicken that you thought this possible.

The fierce teams may not want to reveal their BBQ secrets, but all hope to bring great food to the crowds and brighter days to a suffering child and their families.

HOGS FOR THE CAUSE A barbecue competition and festival to raise money for families coping with pediatric brain cancer.

Friday, March 22: A new Friday Night Tailgate Experience will open the City Park Festival Grounds from 4 to 11 p.m. The public will be allowed to mingle with the teams as they cook and hold fundraising parties. Drinks and food will be sold. Also on Friday night, the Fatback Collective, an A-team of star chefs, will cook for the new Southern Asado gala dinner, a meal in the style of Argentine meat feasts.

Saturday, March 23, 11 a.m.: Professional chefs and backyard barbecue enthusiasts vie for bragging rights and pig-topped trophies in the Ben Sarrat Jr. "High on the Hog" Cookoff. Teams sell samples of their dishes to the public. There also will be live music on two stages.
Where: City Park Festival Grounds.

Cost: Friday Night Tailgate Experience tickets are $5; the Southern Asado gala dinner tickets are $300, and general admission for the barbecue festival and cookoff are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. Details: Hogs for the Cause. http://www.hogsforthecause.org/event/.

Reproduced from: NOLA.com

The 21st annual Jazz on the Bayou will be March 23-24 at the Bayou Liberty home of Gardner and Ronnie Kole. This "backyard festival" has raised more than $1 million dollars for the charities it supports.

Every year, Jazz on the Bayou spotlights many of the area's top chefs who bring their featured dish to the event for all to enjoy. Food and wines are but the tip of the iceberg, for Jazz on the Bayou has a lot more to offer its guests.

Events include: live and silent auctions, The Storyville Stompers act as greeters and Bobby Ohler and the Harbor Band serve as the entertainment.  With Kole, of course joining in to perform with the band as well.

The public is invited to attend and enjoy this festival celebration and support its worthy causes. Tickets are $100 per person, and tables of 10 are available at $1,000 each.For additional information or to purchase tickets visit www.jazzonthebayou.com or by email jazzonthebayou@aol.com. For information you may also call 504.524.5716.

Reproduced from: NOLA.com

The Found Footage Festival is finding its way back to New Orleans this week. The newest edition of the traveling comedy roadshow -- built around the unintentional humor of home videos, instructional videos and other salvaged thrift-store films -- will play a two-night stand on Thursday and Friday (March 14-15) at La Nuit Comedy Theater, 5039 Freret Street.

Among the new offerings: "a 1996 ferret care video we found in Louisiana last year," according to Found Footage Festival's Nick Prueher, who founded the event with buddy Joe Pickett.


The Found Footage Festival is a mix of live comedy and regrettable film making, the brainchild of childhood friends Prueher and Pickett. The formula is simple: Preuher and Pickett scour garage sales, thrift stores and Dumpsters, looking for potential comedy gold, then offer their findings and a running comic commentary to eager audiences.

Think '80s-era exercise videos, amateurish how-to tapes and old community-access TV shows. Training videos are also big. In fact, the first video in their constantly growing collection was a training video Preuher stumbled across when he was a high school freshman working at his local McDonald's.

Also new this time, according to festival officials:

• A video featuring a woman whose enthusiasm for craft sponging borders on psychotic
• A new collection of exercise tapes, including one called "The Sexy Treadmill Workout," found in Georgia
• An "opening act" of found classroom films from the '60s and '70s, curated especially for the show by renowned collector Skip Elsheimer of A.V. Geeks

Tickets to the Found Footage Festival are $12 and are available at the door at La Nuit and at the Found Footage Festival website. This latest edition of the show is part of Brooklyn's Brewery Mash festival, bringing Brooklyn art, music, food and cultural events to 12 cities across the country in 2013.

By:  Conner James - MSTv Correspondent

Looks like its "ladies nights" and it feels so right for the beginning of March. The three day women of jazz and dance festival, known as the NOLA Girl Jam, begins on March 1st.

The event has several, free daytime activities and two ticketed night events designed for the ladies to channel the big-band dance fun had by their ancestors and senior loved ones.

But in case you think this party is "ladies only" biased, we fellows are very welcome to attend.  But, don't go in thinking this to be just a visual treat - you'll probably have to dance too.

"Two-stepping" its way into its second year, the NOLA Girl Jam offers women a way to have fun, leave some stresses at the door, network into their own little groups and just dance their cares away.

Girl Jam is dancing is similar to swing dance, with influences from traditional jazz-era dances, inspired by the music and culture of 1920 to 30's New Orleans.

Taking place downtown, at the Old U.S. Mint, Girl Jam expands Sunday night to Frenchmen Street with a jazzy-dancy happy hour and club crawl.

Don't know what activity you want to participate in?  The options are many with dance lessons, walking tours, social dance parties, burlesque acts and music, classic and contemporary galore.

Aurora Nealand and Ben Polcer will lead traditional jazz bands; along with singers the likes of: Sophie Lee, Marla Dixon, Sarah Peterson, The Pfister Sisters, Kristina Morales and many more.

Plus, if you're worn out by all the activities, or just aren't in the mood to dance, you need not worry about that either.  Bring the cash and cards, because the evening parties go consignment store style to feature vintage clothing vendors.

Plus, you can take a old-timey photo (just like Grams in her naughty youth) in a vintage photo booth.  Or,  get a facial and nail polishing with one of several on-site beauticians.

So ladies, its pampering and partying just for you, and at its best this weekend!  So, grab the shoes and make sure to wear the comfortable clothing, because you're gonna dance and sweat till dawn!

But, at least you can get a nice facial afterwards to maintain that glow!  Mmmmm....