It is hard to avoid bringing up the BP Oil Disaster is any conversation, even one that is ostensibly highlighting the finer points of one of New Orleans’ hallowed music venues.  In my most recent GoNola.com piece, I would have been remiss if I didn’t mention the effect that the geyser of crude in the middle of the Gulf is having on one of the city’s best traditions:

One of the greatest draws of Le Bon Temps Roule, however, is surely going to be one of the worst casualties of the BP oil disaster once all the dust settles.  On Friday evenings, they host what is easily the greatest happy hour in the city, if not the country or world: the legendary Joe Krown mans the piano while oysters on the half shell are served up free of charge.  If the tradition is not extinct by the time this goes to print, it certainly will be before too long.  But if I’ve learned one thing about New Orleans, it is that the show must go on.  Yes, the Gulf’s salty, luxurious (and all too endangered) bivalves are without rival, but the real draw on Friday nights – as it is every night, and always will be – is the music.  And that is one thing that corporate malfeasance or governmental neglect simply can’t touch.  They can take our oysters, but they can’t take our culture, a culture that is alive and well at Le Bon Temps Roule.

While sucking down free oysters as some dude plays the piano may seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, the absence of this weekly institution speaks volumes about the true reach of this environmental catastrophe.