Firstcoastnews.com Shannon Ogden Blog

Peacock Republic & Gumbo Ya Ya's

sogden — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:27:00 GMT

I am neither a food nor soap critic. But I shower and eat often so I know about that which I write.

FOOD
Jacksonville now has a spot-on New Orleans-style restaurant. More specifically, a restaurant with spot-on New Orleans-style food that is located in a strip mall at San Pablo and Beach.
It's called Gumbo Ya Ya's. Gumbo Ya Ya's is also the name of a gift shop on Bourbon Street. I need to ask the owner if that's where he got the name.
I had the Jambalaya. Delicious. And it properly burned way down deep like it should. The white beans and rice were equally great, maybe even a little greater. Not familiar with White Beans and rice? Just Red Beans and rice? Well, the difference can be found largely in the color of the bean.
The rest of the menu is PoBoys, Muffuleta and gumbos. They also serve Cafe du Monde coffee and have several NO beers including Abita, Turbo Dog and Purple Haze.

SOAP
There is a wonderful Jacksonville company I came across last week in Five Points called Peacock Republic. http://www.peacockrepublic.com/
It's not located in Five Points but at least one of the stores there carries the products.
The soaps are of the high-quality fancy variety and their clothes seem nice (I only sampled the soap things. Check out the clothes for yourself on the website) but more importantly, I think, is that the company tries to do some good. For every bar of soap sold Peacock Republic donates one to a domestic violence shelter. Likewise, for every garmet sold one is donated to a child in need. And the wrappers the soaps come in are biodegradable paper with embedded wild flower seeds so you can just plant the wrapper.

What a admirable thing. Nicely done Erin.

This is starting to read like an Oprah's Favorite Things show. AND NOW LOOK UNDER YOUR SEATS....!

I get no compensation from either of these fine companies. I just thought I'd spread the word.

Hurricane Season MMIX

sogden — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:51:00 GMT

Hurricane Season '09. So far, so good.
I just checked all the radar and satellite thingys and not a single hurricane-type situation anywhere in the Atlantic. It may be a tad premature to say we're home free but it looks good so far.

I'm not a big fan of hurricanes. Note the proof in this picture from Pat O'Brien's in the French Quarter.

Here is a list of the '09 Atlantic Season storm names. Once again, Shannon is not on the list.
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

I Will Stay In School

sogden — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:09:00 GMT

On Saturday I got the chance to talk to a group of 6-13-year-olds at UNF. The event, as I understand it, was to expose these kids to college and get them heading in that direction. I promised them that if they took the "I Will Stay in School" pledge I would put them on TV. They did, so I did.

One young man raised his hand and said he wanted to be a TV news anchor. Shameless suck-up, and he was immediately my favorite.

My wife and dog were with me because we were on our way and of town right after the speech. This marks the first time I've given a speech my dog attended. I kind of liked it. I may start insisting on that from now on.

The kid in the Jags jersey is the future TV news anchor.

Some St. Patrick's Music for You. Enjoy.

sogden — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:26:00 GMT

Give yourself a treat. Skip over Danny Boy and most of Van Morrison and all the Irish music you hear all the time and check out some great Irish music you might not know. Don't get me wrong I love U2 and Hothouse Flowers and Sinead and The Cranberries but we get enough of them all year. Here's a brief list of bands I recommend you seek out:

1. The Pogues. Either Rum, Sodomy and the Lash or If I Should Fall From Grace with God. Yes Shane MacGowan drinks way too much and has unfortunate teeth but there's no greater musical poet alive.

2. Flogging Molly. Good fightin music.

3. Dropkick Murphys. Even better fightin music. And the unofficial band of the Boston Red Sox.

4. Black 47. Political, serious.

5. The Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat. All of theirs are worthy. But Irish Heartbeat includes some of their finest moments. Van Morrison sings lead on most songs on this traditional album. Two or three years ago I was invited to an after-party with Matt Molloy, flute player for The Chieftains. To bend an elbow with this man was one of the great nights of the last few years. The stories he has. Wow. And they all seem to have a recurring line, "...so I said to myself, There's no way he can go on stage in that condition..."

6. Solas. Light, friendly, fluffy, approachable but Irish through and through.

Who is that man on the horse?

sogden — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:41:00 GMT

I was outside with my new friend Phillip, who is 3 I think, and I asked him if he knew who the horseman is on City of Jacksonville manhole covers. He thought about it and said, "George Washington?" No but good guess, I told him. "George Bush?" for his second guess. I laughed and said no. He said, "Don't laugh. He was a president, too." He is right.

His last guess was Barack Obama or specifically "Barack Bobama."

It's Andrew Jackson, by the way.

Sprent

sogden — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:33:00 GMT

As if I weren't disoriented enough with the Springing Forward this weekend I have also been without my cell phone for three days.

My family and I were out to eat at Barbara Jeans. I went to the men's room and dropped my cell phone in the sink. Well, it was like the sink. Long story short, cell phone is dead as a mackerel.

I went to the local retail location of my carrier, which I will call Sprent. I told them my phone was DOA and asked what they could do for me. My contract isn't up until this summer so what they could do for me was charge me ridiculous amonts of money for a new phone. Have you ever actually paid full retail price for a cell phone? Ever? Me either. And I wasn't about to start now. The cheapest one was like $300. I only need this phone to make and receive calls. This is my no-frills, old-timey phone. I won't be doing $300 worth of anything on this phone.

I told them that if they would like for me, a long-time customer, to remain a customer when my current contract expires they should try much harder to make me happy. No one cared.

I called Sprent and asked if someone could help me at HQ. Fifteen minutes I spent getting the same runaround as I got in the store. Fifteen minutes. Then the lady says, "There's nothing I can do for you. Do you just want me to call Tech Support and for $35 they can send you a replacement phone just like the one you lost?" Excuse me? YES I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO CALL TECH SUPPORT AND GET ME ANOTHER PHONE FOR $35! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?

Anyway, I don't know why it was so hard but I got my phone. However, I enjoyed not having it. It forced me to edit my comments and save up the ones I really wanted to say rather than call whomever to tell them what was on my mind at any given moment.

My poor wife. Three blissful days without a call from me saying, "Hey, I just saw a dog that looked exactly like Bolt." "Hey, the change I just got back at Target had two coins from the year I was born." "Hey, I hit all green lights going home." "Hey, remember that set of Cross pens I told you I got for a high school graduation present? Have you seen them?" "Hey, did I tell you they are making an Anchorman sequel? Oh, you told me that? Ok."

An hour

sogden — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:46:00 GMT

I awoke Sunday with the sense I was robbed of an hour. I knew it was the Spring Ahead weekend but it didn't matter. First of all, where did that hour go? Second and more importantly can I get it back? Is there someone I can talk to? A manager or something?

------

Inspired by the springlike weather I spent a solid four hours working in the yard today. I mowed my dirt and pine cones and cut down all the dead junk that has accumulated this winter. I wanted to really get in there and clean it all out before the snakes figured it was warm enough to come back out. Too late.

another picture

sogden — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:59:00 GMT

Look how nice and new his shoes are. Do they carry him from place to place?

Conan photos and U2's new CD

sogden — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:30:00 GMT

NPR is falling by the wayside this week. I can't seem to take U2's new CD out of player in the car. I have to spend some quality time alone with it before passing judgement. But so far it seems pretty good.

Conan was here last Friday.

Here's me giving Conan broadcasting lessons. He's giving me height lessons.

And here is Donna and me with Conan either shooting or rehearsing a promo. It will be on the air soon. Look at my acting moves. Impressive.

VIDEO BLOG - Ollie Goes to the Vet

sogden — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:22:00 GMT