Robin Rosemond/Turnagain Times
Red beans and rice is a cheap staple dish for New Orleans inspired southern cuisine.
By Robin Rosemond
Turnagain Times Correspondent
Spring is in the air and the dogs are racing. Get out there and go see a show, or a band, a boxing match, or game. Walk into a gallery, or a never tried before restaurant and explore new ways to be entertained.
Jesus Christ Superstar runs March 8-17 in the Sydney Laurence Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. The Theatre Artists United (TAU) spring production will be Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s eternal Jesus Christ Superstar. This is the rock opera classic. Check it out! For more information call: 263-ARTS.
Join the Anchorage Concert Chorus and the pops orchestra as they celebrate Singin’ In The 70’s March 9 at 8 p.m. at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Enjoy the music of “Saturday Night Fever,” Queen, Barry Manilow, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA and some of the artists who made the ‘70s musically magical. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, 621 W Sixth Avenue. For more information call: 263-2787.
The renowned mandolinist Avi Avital will perform at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts March 9 at 7:30 p.m. Avi is a Grammy Award nominated musician who’s reinventing a legacy for the mandolin through virtuosic performances and an exciting repertoire. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, 621 W Sixth Avenue. For more information call: 263-2787.
Lamb of God is really coming this time. After the disappointing cancellation of last years concert, they’re set for the William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center March 9 at 7 p.m. Virginia-based Lamb of God features vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Will Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler. Lamb of God came on the scene in 2000 with their acclaimed ‘New American Gospel’ album. The group plays “pure American death metal”. William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center, 555 W Fifth Avenue.
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts presents Ladysmith Black Mambazo March 16. The great South African group assembled in the early 1960s by founder Shabalala who named the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Ladysmith being the name of Shabalala’s rural hometown; Black being a reference to oxen, the strongest of all farm animals; and Mambazo being the Zulu word for axe, a symbol of the group’s ability to “chop down” any singing rival who might challenge them. Their sound and harmonies are so tight that people from across the world find their music pleasing. In the mid-1980s, Paul Simon visited South Africa and incorporated Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s rich tenor/alto/bass harmonies into his Graceland album. The 1986 recording was a smash hit and introduced world music to mainstream audiences. A year later, Simon produced Black Mambazo’s first U.S. release, Shaka Zulu, which won a Grammy Award in 1988. Since then, the group has been awarded two more Grammy Awards and has been nominated a total of fifteen times including a nomination for their most recent CD release, “Songs From A Zulu Farm”. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, 621 W Sixth Avenue. For more information call: 263-2787.
My culinary pick of the week is Red Beans and Rice. This humble staple of the south is traditionally served on Monday and it’s deceptively delicious. In New Orleans, you soon realize the deep, cultural symbolism of this traditional family dish. In the deep past, Sunday night supper usually consisted of Ham which had bones and were saved for leftovers. On Monday, which was “wash day” the women would do the wash and simmer beans all day using the bones of Sunday supper to flavor them. Today you can still smell beans simmering on Monday in many neighborhoods and I appreciate the offerings that accompany this meal. Greens, corn bread, pork chops or biscuit. It can be a comforting and wonderfully appetizing meal. The famous New Orleans trumpeter Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong loved the dish so much he signed autographs with the moniker “Red Beans and Ricely yours.”
Write to me: rosebud61155@mac.com or check out my blog: www.rosemondpost.com.
