A Day in the (Lockdown) Life

NOLA personalities talk cuisine, art & music in a socially distant world

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As posited by Pilar, the gun-toting, part-Gypsy she-rebel of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, “I suppose if a man has something once, always something of it remains.” Luckily, we’re not currently caught in the combative crosshairs of the Spanish Civil War (although it may feel that way at times), and the current crisis, although decked in uncertainty, has yet to draw from us the white flag of surrender, leaving us still with our most valuable possession: our creativity. In fact, our state’s finest artists, chefs, and musicians continue to march to the beat of their own drums—and when the rhythm shifts, then to the brand new beat of a world on the brink of transformation. With that groove in mind, we checked in with three New Orleans icons about their daily life during coronavirus lockdown, and how they’re navigating this unexpected journey—selfies included. 

Dickie Brennan

Founder/Partner of Dickie Brennan & Company Restaurant Group 

“When this all started, we began trying to offer as much takeout service as we could, but we’re located in the French Quarter, and the French Quarter has become a ghost town. So we decided to circle the wagons. We have been wanting to develop The Commissary Market & Eatery for years—it’s the newest addition to Dickie Brennan & Company, a restaurant and market designed to supply all our restaurants with products straight from farmers and fishermen, and to allow the public to purchase those items, too. My dad in the 1980s was a pioneer proponent of the farm-to-table concept. Now, instead of meat and produce and the like hitting the back doors of our individual group of restaurants, we want to bring these speciality products into one facility in order to do our batch cooking under one roof, and to offer local fresh seasonal specialty products to local shoppers. That’s our kids’ project, although I shouldn’t really call them kids, anymore. I’m really interested in seeing them lay out their plans and create a new experience. 

"I'm making lemonade out of lemons. I'm proud that our instinct isn't to bury ourselves and give up, but to just keep going, to leave things better than we found them." 

But I think the only reason I haven’t gone crazy is that I bought a house right before all this went down. I’m constantly working on different projects: painting rooms, hanging pictures. My front porch looks out at the levee, and my back deck looks out at the Mississippi River. I’ve been sitting there every day to watch the sun go down, and it’s been my saving grace.

There’s a silver lining to everything. Sure, I feel like it’s Groundhog Day and I’m ready to wake up and move on. But I’m making lemonade out of lemons. I’m proud that our instinct isn’t to bury ourselves and give up, but to just keep going, and leave things better than we found them. Everyone in my family is healthy, so that’s what we’re grateful for. We’re survivors and we’re surviving.” 

James Michalopoulos 

Painter and Sculptor

“Many people don’t know this, but I’m also co-owner of Celebration Distillation on Frenchman Street, and once things started getting serious, we started making hand sanitizer. That was a big shift for us, going from making Gingeroo and New Orleans Rum to high-proof hand sanitizer. We’ve been doing that full-out, with double shifts, trying to keep up with the market. Of course everything else around us has slowed down, but for us in that arena, it’s quadrupled. 

I’m lucky, too; I can go from work at the distillery during the day, and back home to work in the evening. My studio sits at the edge of the French Quarter, which is a desert now, like nothing you’ve ever seen. I find that it’s challenging me in terms of the kinds of things I paint, too, and the way that I paint them. For example, the generalized orientation of my work is toward a kind of celebration of New Orleans and our culture, and I feel called to that again, but in slightly different form—in the sense that I feel like I’m living in gratitude for the beauty that we have. In some ways there’s an aspect of sadness around the loss of the ability to share it with people and to be in it, but it makes me poignantly aware of the presence of the culture and the built environment and the people that animate it, and everything that’s been so instantly taken away by this plague. 

"The generalized orientation of my work is toward a kind of celebration of New Orleans and our culture, and I feel called to that again, but in a slightly different form—in the sense that I feel like I'm living in gratitude for the beauty we have." 

One thing that’s been coming up for me again and again is the need to look and see how we can build a sustainable way of living that is generative and contributory. There’s a lot of tradition in Louisiana that speaks to quality and richness and celebration, and I feel like no matter what happens in the world, we’ll sustain ourselves with our appreciation for those things and our expression of cultural beauty and truth and excellence. Whether that’s music, or food, or art. Even architecture. Just moving forward with the richness of our cultural heritage.” 

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews

Musician, Producer, Actor, and Philanthropist

“I’m isolating with my mom, sister, and brother. A day in the life is waking up, getting a workout in, and then having lunch and spending time with the family. I might talk to my team or the director of my Foundation to see what's going on. Then I head to the studio for a few hours and back home for dinner. Before this current situation, I was never home—what with being on tour all around the year. So this time is actually allowing me to experience family time again! 

But besides working on mixes for my new album, I’m not working on anything in particular.  I’ve been playing my instruments mostly everyday to stay sharp and in shape, because in fifteen years I haven’t had this amount of time off. I don’t think my music has been affected by the current situation, and I know how hard this is for people everywhere, but mentally it has been a bit challenging for me not being able to perform for people around the world and be with my band. 

"I'm looking forward to being able to continue spreading the joy of music around the world." 

I would say that in the first two weeks of quarantine I wasn’t focusing on music because my mind was trying to process the COVID-19 situation and to understand what’s going on. It hasn’t necessarily impacted me creatively because I hear music all day in my head, and so if I get an idea I just hum it in to my phone or pull out my laptop and put it down, no matter the circumstances. And then I can head to the studio to work it out more. Sometimes on tour I don't have the space to be able to follow through on ideas to that extent, so that is different.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to hearing that all of our frontline workers are being taken care of and also that more people have recovered, and I'm looking forward to being able to continue spreading the joy of music around the world. Music unites people, and so I hope to continue doing that as soon as it is safe.”