NEW ORLEANS--She was a bright attorney from D.C. We were at Port O' Call, a dark tiki bar and restaurant at 838 Esplanade Ave. where the house drink is the suspect Neptune's Monsoon.

I generally stop at the Port O'Call for a beer on my two- mile walk back to the French Quarter from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

I was watching the Bulls blow a fourth quarter lead Friday night against Philadelphia. The D.C. attorney and I were talking about Saturday's jazz fest picks such as Steve Earle and New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas. We were listing all the colorful glories of New Orleans that hang around your soul like Mardi Gras beads.

"You must have a dark side," she said. "If you come to New Orleans alone."

My friend Tom says this is the first line of a great novel.

But is anyone alone in New Orleans who absorbs the joy and bonding of jazz fest?

How could you be alone when Mavis Staples, the unbending spirit of the promise of Chicago, held court before one of the largest crowds I have seen in the Gospel tent. [She scolded security twice who were trying to contain people from dancing in the aisles.].................

Detroit, 1942

AUBURN HILLS, Mi.----The last time Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the Palace of Auburn Hills in 2009 Springsteen made national news with the shout out:
"HELLO OHIO!"

Springsteen returned Thursday night to perform before 16,000 fans in Auburn Hills, a Cadillac of suburbs which is about half way between Flint and Detroit.
It is between a rock and a hard place.

I drove to Detroit from Chicago. I forked over $100 for a nice seat, caught the full tilt 3 1/2 hour no-intermission set where I sat next to Cubs fans from Oak Park, Ill. bought a large cup of Tim Horton's coffee and was home by 4:30 this morning.
It was worth it........

The great Gene Barge in 'Stony Island'.

She has walked like an Egyptian.
But she had never danced the "Twine Time" on Chicago's south side.

Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles was 18 years old when she was cast as a granola-totin' farm girl in Andrew Davis's landmark 1978 film "Stony Island" about a rhythm and blues band coming of age in Chicago's racially kinetic Stony Island neighborhood.

Her mother Tamar Hoffs co-wrote and co-produced "Stony Island" with Davis ("The Fugitive," "Above the Law"). Davis and Hoffs are from Chicago's south side. If you are seeking a better understanding of urban America, see this film. Stony Island" re-premieres 8:15 p.m. April 4 and 5 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State. "Stony Island" has been unavailable for public screening since 1978. Look for a DVD release on April 24.

Susanna Hoffs was a freshman at UC Berkeley when she came to Chicago as a production assistant and actor to work during the 25 day shoot of "Stony Island..........."

NORFOLK, Va.---Several months ago I sauntered into Prince Books in downtown Norfolk. People don't saunter anymore.

The bookstore is on the ground floor of the century old orange brick Towne Bank Building, a block from the Elizabeth River. Prince is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. I always look for local literature, music and WPA guides when I travel.

Instead, I found an old friend from Chicago.

Tucked away in a corner of sports books I saw the 2008 autobiography "You Should Have Seen The Ones I Turned Down (Tales from a Life Spent in Hotels and Locker Rooms With Everyone from Jerry Vale to Leo Durocher)" [$20, admmgt.com] by Blake Cullen.

The book opened the door to my youth.

Blake Cullen was traveling secretary for the Chicago Cubs between 1965 and 1975.

He made travel arrangements, booked hotels for the team, kept statistics, assigned uniform numbers, wrote press releases and handled daily business management. I remembered Cullen's name from the 1969 Cubs team that broke my heart, the team that taught a 14-year-old about life's unexpected disappointments........

MESA, Az.---Let's say you are operating a roadside motel and mineral bath on the dusty outskirts of Mesa, Arizona.
Horace Stoneham finds your Buckhorn Mineral Baths, Motel and Wildlife Museum in 1947 when he owns the New York Giants.

Ted and Alice Sliger are running the operation with the wild west panache of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
Ted likes to wear cowboy hats, fish and hunt. He is an amateur taxidermist. Over time more than 400 animals native to Arizona become preserved for time in the motel's "Trophy Room." Dolly, a rare four-horned sheep hovers over the room's fireplace.

Ted and Alice are homesteaders in the most honest sense. The baths begin as a 1935 trading post and the Sligers live there for seven years before electricity arrives. Stoneham is from New York and knows the best of times. Ted and Alice are from rural Arizona and know the worst of times.

Their paths cross on Highway 60 (The Apache Trail) in East Mesa.......

Charlie Joe & Marie (Sun-Times photos by Brian Jackson)

Charlie Joe Henderson believes that everything will have value someday.
That's not a bad way to look at life.

And this is why the 71-year-old Chicago entrepreneur hasn't culled the inventory at Out of the Past Records, 4407-09 W. Madison St. in the rough n' tumble West Garfield Park/Austin neighborhood. The Kurtis Blow LP? It is certain to be back in vogue.

Out of the Past has nearly 1 million pieces of LPs, '45s, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and VHS tapes. Charlie Joe hasn't even tossed hundreds of pieces of vinyl that were damaged in a recent basement flood. Wait. There's more:
Whitney Houston commemorative posters. Overalls. Tee-shirts. Costume jewelry.

Please enjoy this brilliant "Out of the Past" short film made by Chicago Sun-Times videographer Jon Sall.
And be on the lookout for Shadow the cross-eyed cat, the store's mascot.

The Out of the Past building is about the size of a city block.
It has a bigger heart......