Hello readers,
The Bayou is a strangely eerie place. I first caught wind of our collaborator Guidry Black from an experience my parents had riding on his tour boat through the swamps when they were in Louisiana helping rebuild homes after Katrina hit.
Upon entering the area where Black's boat is docked, we meet the owner of the business who receives a call while we are there on his old wooden deck that his brother in law has shot himself. He then reveals that if he can survive his son's death of a couple years prior, he's able to take anything.
Guidry arrives a few minutes afterwards in his Honda Element, though the Honda logo is covered by a Kia cutout sign. See, Guidry is kind of an actor also and was in a couple of Kia spots. Perhaps he feels obliged to camouflage the logo. I couldn't really tell. Probably old time Cajun humor seeping in.
His boat is called The Cajun Man. Talking to him, you get the feeling that he's the last of the line, an old gossamer carrying the final spirit of these nova scotia transplants beneath his broad rimmed hat. He's probably right. The swamp is a lonely, bug ridden place with it's own brand of quiet beauty.
It is hard to tell whether the Guidry experiment worked. There were a couple of ideas strummed and hummed while Black's boat engine pushed us out into the wild, with Guidry's pat swamp guide routine coming in and out of the headphones. Eventually, after seeing a few alligators and such, we come to rest in a descent area to make music. We only brought a few guitars and a recorder. Guidry tries to jump in on the song, but there's probably too many chords as Black is a country rock man at heart. His instruments are an old Guild and a cajun accordion which is brilliantly composed of a number of disparate objects.
After kind of moving on to hear Black's own songs, we are startled every time he sings with his enormous swampy yelp. Fun stuff for sure. Guidry's has old stories about the bayou many contain people and old dogs that we randomly, awkwardly find out are dead.
Toby and Jason have been writing a comic masterpiece on the bus so today on Guidry's boat, we are all dressed in medical scrubs and goggles. Of course, we manage to coerce Black into acting in a few scenes on the boat. He is more than happy to oblige for showman is clearly in his blood.
Later that night, we spend the creepy evening literally on the swamp in a makeshift zoo Black recommends.
I find them nice folk and a little sad as well. The woman's prior husband (you guessed it) died no long ago. Her newer cajun beau gives us a mosquito filled tour the following morning showing us their enormous pet gator Troy along with a bevy of penned indigenous creatures. I needn't go much further on my views of this as it only furthers my sullen mood on Louisiana vs the animal kingdom. We barely escape the menagerie alive as the mosquitos have been known to devour californians from time to time.
Nathan
