It was a few months after Katrina, I passed the late great R&B singer Ernie K-Doe’s Mother In Law Lounge. His pink Cadillac was still parked along the side. I still think of K-Doe as a flamboyant mad genius shaman who loved to indulge in a drink or three while doing his radio show on WWOZ New Orleans. He would play the best damn music and talk over it, mostly bragging about being the greatest singer and DJ in the world. As the show progressed, he became increasingly drunk, at times calling out old girlfriends who stabbed him in the heart. The whole broadcast was like some wonderful hour of performance art. At the very end of one show he said something I will never forget. With the clarity of a Zen monk, Ernie K-Doe spoke these words, “People say understanding is the greatest thing in the world, but you know what the greatest thing in the world is? … PAYING ATTENTION.”