I have to admit to becoming a bit verklempt while researching this series, off and on, and unexpectedly. As people do when someone they love dies, things will hit me sideways and I puddle up. We once called it homesickness, when we had homes. I miss the taste of the air of New Orleans, the smells, the humid softness. And the comfort of hearing that accent – or, more accurately, those accents – infused by so many languages that we couldn’t identify the ingredients, a linguistic gumbo unlike anywhere else, certainly in the USA.

The series Treme seems to capture a bit of that atmosphere, though I haven’t watched enough to judge, really. I suppose seeing the street signs, the shotgun houses and the local extras makes it real for me. I like this scene. It captures the wild tensions of the streets of New Orleans, which, as we know, can be the settings of true life-and-death scenes. It’s been that way since sailers, ported in the French Quarter, Shanghaied drunks to work their ships. There has always been a little Old-World menace mixed into the shades of the Crescent City party.

And, of course, Professor Longhair. Step back and look at that act. That name. On that man. With that talent. He is the whistling embodiment of a distinct New Orleans neighbourhood, wafting through the soft air like a pine warbler. Where y’at Big Chief!

Rome : Monti, Piazza Venezia, Centro, Porta Portese. December 22 – January 2023