Among a wide variety of other pursuits, Dr. MarkAlain Dery is an HIV doctor. Amid the staggeringly bad news about the rate of HIV infection in New Orleans second in the nation behind Miami is the good news that if you have to contract a serious illness say, diabetes, cancer, or HIV HIV is the one to pick. According to MarkAlain, you can get a simple and free HIV test called an "instie" and if you test positive for HIV your life expectancy is the same as a regular person who does not have HIV, if you regularly take one pill. And you re not going to infect anyone else, even your sex partners. Just for the record, MarkAlain also, runs a radio station called WHIV, plays bass in a number of bands, and hosts a podcast about social justice. John Paul Carmody and Jackson Purvis are two thirds of the New Orleans rock trio, South Jones. The third member of the band is any one of a number of rotating bass players. John Paul is from Omaha Nebraska and Jackson is from South Mississippi. They met via a Craig s List post and soon discovered their musical similarities and fondness for the same drugs, in that descending order. If all goes well, their soon to be released record, Breathing Room, is possibly going to be a game changer. If you take a listen to the song they play on this Happy Hour you ll no doubt agree. These guys are not just on something, they re onto something. Andrew Duhon says he has a bunch of songs that just aren t good enough to make it onto a record. He plays one here. The general consensus is that for anyone else this would be their standout best song they d ever written. Photos at Wayfare by Jill Lafleur.

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