The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

The second article in my series on BarCamp New Orleans is up on the Shopify Technology Blog. This one’s topic: The Schedule Grid, the heart of every BarCamp.

After leading a Bastille Day parade with the accordion down the less cheesy parts of the French Quarter’s narrow streets (photos and story later), Edward and I took our new local friends Amanda and Emily out for drinks and then to Cafe du Monde. On the way to the cafe, we passed by Jackson Square and came across this gentleman with a decent-sized telescope offering views of the moon in exchange for donations. We took him up on his offer, and were treated to some spectacular views of the lunar surface.

And then…beignets!

Hey, Hipster Boy! Get off your phone, enjoy the beignets and make some conversation with our gracious hosts!

I had a great time taking an airboat tour of the swamp and seeing ‘gators, except for this incident.

(Actually, once people saw me pose like this with the alligator statue, everyone started posing like me. People know a good idea when they see one.)

While walking down Canal Street and making our way to the French Quarter, Edward and I heard a live brass band playing and decided to investigate. It turned out to be the Free Spirit Brass Band, playing away at the corner of Bourbon Street. Two birds with one stone: we’d found Bourbon Street without really trying, and some live music to boot!

They were drawing a crowd:

Here are a couple of quick videos (each about a minute in length) of the band in action:

After their performance, the band were happy to pose with people for shots.

The tuba player said “Accordion! Oh, I gotta get in on this!“

The trombone guy asked if I could break out with something “suitably funky” on the squeezebox. The trumpet player had already been doing a hip-hoppy line in B flat, the key to which many brass instruments are tuned. It’s a key I’m a little weak at playing in — I’ve gotten terribly used to the “piano-friendly” keys of C, D, F and G and the “guitar-friendly” keys of E, A, B and C# — but I needed the practice.

Luckily, I’ve been listening to a fair bit of Trombone Shortly lately and started playing an improvised line based on his stuff. The band seemed to like what I was doing:

…and it turned into an impromptu jam session!

A pretty good start to this trip, if I say so.

Sound advice from Ira Glass, whether your creative medium is words, paint and canvas, code, concrete and steel, whatever! (Found via Slava Sakhnenko who in turn found it at My Modern Metropolis.)

Satchmo greets all who arrive at the airport bearing his name.

The Joey deVilla North America Tour continues! This time, it’s a trip to New Orleans commencing today at noon and concluding sometime just past dinner on Monday. As always, the trip will begin with a review of the flight safety card located in the seat pocket in front of you:

The North American Tour so far:

• mid-late February: Seattle, WA for Microsoft’s TechReady 12 conference and sausage fest
• late February/early March: Seattle WA again (a week after the previous trip) for the Microsoft MVP Summit
• early March: Ottawa, ON for a job interview with Shopify (a same-day round trip)
• mid-March: Austin, TX for the South by Southwest Interactive conference
• mid-April: Boston, MA for BarCamp Boston
• mid-April (immediately after Boston): Las Vegas, NV for Microsoft’s MIX conference
• May 1: Moved from Toronto to Ottawa for the summer
• early May: Minneapolis, MN for MinneBar (BarCamp Minnesota)
• late May: Portland, OR for BarCamp Portland, followed by a quick jaunt to Seattle by train, then flying home
• mid-June: Seattle, WA (4th time this year!) for BarCamp Seattle
• and now, mid-July: New Orleans, LA for BarCamp NOLA

It’s been wild, it’s been crazy, it’s been fun and it’s never been boring.